Senate, House Agriculture Leadership Returns

November 8, 2000

As a hard-fought presidential election of historic proportions continued to unfold early Wednesday, one thing was certain: the chairmanships of the Senate and House Agriculture Committees were intact.

Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Richard Lugar (R-IN) retained his seat in Tuesday's balloting in Indiana with a strong showing, and in Texas, both House Agriculture Committee Chairman Larry Combest (R) and Rep. Charles Stenholm (D), the committee's ranking Democrat, won by large margins.

Republicans appeared to have retained control of both the Senate and House early Wednesday but by smaller margins than existed in the 106th Congress. In the Senate, the worst case scenario for the Republicans appeared to be a possible 50-50 split between the Republicans and Democrats. In the House, the Republican majority also appeared to shrink, with several races still undecided, but the GOP retained control.

In Texas, Stenholm captured 119,351 votes or 59% of the total in District 17, with 99% of the votes counted. His Republican opponent, Darrell Clements, won 71,873 votes or 36% of the total. In District 19, with 100% of the votes counted, Combest won 172,031, or 92%, to 15,741, or 8%, for his opponent John Turnbow.

Lugar's vote total was 1,380,845, or 67%, to Democrat David Johnson's 659,056 votes or 32% and Liberal Party candidate Paul Hager's 32,550 or 2%.

He was one of three committee chairmen to handily win re-election: Health and Education Committee Chairman James Jeffords of Vermont and Judiciary Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch of Utah were the others.

A Senate Democrat prominent in agricultural issues is Kent Conrad (ND) who also won re-election, as Republican Conrad Burns (R-MT) also appeared to do.