1869 Texas Senate election

The 1869 Texas Senate elections took place in tandem with the 1869 Texas gubernatorial election and the election for the ratification of a new state constitution as a part of Texas's readmission to the United States following the Civil War. Texas voters elected state senators in all 30 State Senate districts. The winners of this election served in the 12th Texas Legislature, holding staggered six-year terms. This was the first time the Republican Party had ever won a majority in the Texas Senate, and it would be the only time they would do so until 1996.

Texas underwent military occupation as a part of Reconstruction following the defeat of the Confederate States of America in the Civil War. The state adopted a new constitution in 1866 and held legislative elections, which were won primarily by conservative White Democrats. The legislature refused to adopt the Thirteenth Amendment and instead passed laws establishing "black codes" to attempt to maintain a system of white supremacy. This legislature was declared provisional after the passage of the First Reconstruction Act by Congress in 1867 as the state government underwent a full military takeover. Any elected official who had failed to take a "Test Oath" had been removed by April 1869.

A new constitutional convention was called in June 1868, but it did not adjourn until February 1869. A new election was initially planned for the Spring, but it was not held until the end of the year. Elections for governor and the legislature were held concurrently with the election to ratify the state's new constitution.^[1]

Republicans won a majority of seats, securing nineteen while Democrats won nine.^[1] Two conservative independents also won seats.^[2] Two African Americans, George Ruby and Matthew Gaines, were among the Republicans elected, the first to do so in the state's history.^[3][4] Every elected Republican was considered a Radical Republican except for Andrew Evans, who was unseated in an election contest shortly after taking office and replaced by Radical Republican S.W. Ford.^[5]

Candidates are not listed with political parties in the results. The parties of all victorious candidates are known, and the parties of others may be assumed by the presence of candidates running in the concurrent House election in the same district.^[6]