The 2002 United States Senate election in Texas was held on November 5, 2002. Incumbent Republican

Republican Party (United States)

The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...

 U.S. Senator Phil Gramm

Phil Gramm

William Philip "Phil" Gramm is an American economist and politician, who has served as a Democratic Congressman , a Republican Congressman and a Republican Senator from Texas...

 decided to retire. Republican John Cornyn

John Cornyn

John Cornyn, III is the junior United States Senator for Texas, serving since 2003. He is a member of the Republican Party. He was elected Chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee for the 111th U.S. Congress....

 won the open seat

Campaign

Despite the fact that Texas is a red state, Kirk ran on a socially progressive platform: supporting abortion rights and opposing Bush judicial nominee Priscilla Owen

Priscilla Owen

Priscilla Richman Owen is a federal judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. She was previously a Justice on the Texas Supreme Court.-Early life:...

. Although, Kirk is a former George W. Bush

George W. Bush

George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....

 supporter. He also supports increases in defense spending, such as Bush's proposed $48 billion increase in military spending, except for the money Bush wants to use for missile defense. Kirk had the support of former Governor Ann Richards

Ann Richards

Dorothy Ann Willis Richards was an American politician from Texas. She first came to national attention as the state treasurer of Texas, when she delivered the keynote address at the 1988 Democratic National Convention. Richards served as the 45th Governor of Texas from 1991 to 1995 and was...

 and former U.S. Senator Lloyd Bentsen

Lloyd Bentsen

Lloyd Millard Bentsen, Jr. was a four-term United States senator from Texas and the Democratic Party nominee for Vice President in 1988 on the Michael Dukakis ticket. He also served in the House of Representatives from 1949 to 1955. In his later political life, he was Chairman of the Senate...

.

Cornyn was criticized for taking campaign money from Enron

Enron

Enron Corporation was an American energy, commodities, and services company based in Houston, Texas. Before its bankruptcy on December 2, 2001, Enron employed approximately 22,000 staff and was one of the world's leading electricity, natural gas, communications, and pulp and paper companies, with...

 and other controversial companies. And although other Democrats have seized on the issue, Kirk is well-entrenched in the Dallas business community, and his wife resigned from two private-sector jobs that created potential conflicts of interest for Kirk while he was mayor.

The race was close, as an October Dallas Morning News poll had Cornyn leading 47% to 37%. A record $18 million was spent in the election.

Results