Republican Ralph Hall of Rockwall, the oldest living member of the House of Representatives at the time, faced Democratic nominee Glenn Melancon.

He won the 2008 primary election, defeating foreign relations expert Joshua Kowert; businessman and NASCAR team owner Gene Christensen; and former Frisco mayor Kathy Seei.

A favorite among fiscal conservatives in Texas, Hensarling is a potential challenger for the U.S. Senate in 2012 should the incumbent Republican, Kay Bailey Hutchison, retire.

Barton won the 2008 primary, and faced Democratic winner Ludwig Otto in the general election.

Incumbent Republican John Culberson faced Democratic businessman Michael Skelly in this Houston area district.

Skelly, a former executive of Horizon Wind Energy, earned an MBA from Harvard after serving in the Peace Corps.

Republican Kevin Brady of The Woodlands represents a strongly GOP district centered on the northern suburbs and exurbs of Houston and Beaumont as well as the Huntsville and Lake Livingston areas, winning two thirds of the vote in 2004 and 2006.

Sophomore Democrat Al Green was not expected to face a serious challenge in 2008 for his heavily Democratic district, which is situated in southwest Houston and includes Houston's Southside, as well as the Mission Bend and Alief areas (which have large Asian-American populations) and several heavily black and Hispanic northeastern neighborhoods of Missouri City.

He was elected by a 3 to 1 margin in 2004 after defeating displaced incumbent Congressman and fellow Democrat Chris Bell in the primary (Bell was moved out of his previous district in the controversial 2003 redistricting engineered by then-House Majority Leader Tom DeLay), and won a second term unopposed in 2006.

This Republican-leaning district stretches from north Austin into Brenham traveling all the way to several far western and northwestern suburbs of Houston.

His slogan, "The Taxpayers' Best Friend", emphasizes his strong — and sometimes controversial — takes on fiscal conservatism, while his social policies, which includes ending the federal War on Drugs and legalizing marijuana, as well as his belief that the federal government should not be involved in wedge issues such as gay marriage, leading to a more negative nickname, "Dr. No", for his votes against much of the legislative agenda of both parties in Congress.

Paul was a Republican candidate in the 2008 presidential election (his second, following his run as Libertarian Party nominee in 1988), and ran un-opposed for re-election.

In 2006, Ron Paul won 60% of the vote against Democratic opponent Shane Sklar, a young rancher and executive director of the Independent Cattlemen's Association of Texas (ICA) who ran on a promise to serve as a fiscally conservative Blue Dog Democrat and received a slightly more favorable rating from the NRA Political Victory Fund,[3] in an attempt to defeat the popular Paul.

Still, the district remains overwhelmingly Democratic due to its large Hispanic population, and Reyes is popular with his constituents.

Democrat Sheila Jackson Lee represents one of the most heavily Democratic areas in the state, covering several largely poor and African-American areas of Houston (including downtown Houston) and whose three previous representatives (Barbara Jordan, Mickey Leland, and Craig Washington) were all African-Americans and took staunch liberal stances.

His district is heavily Republican and stretches from Lubbock to Big Spring and Abilene and was created in the controversial 2003 Texas redistricting, which in 2004 led to the defeat of Neugebauer's challenger, conservative Democrat Charles Stenholm.

Longtime representative Lamar S. Smith was the only Republican to win among the five congressional districts realigned as a result of a Supreme Court ruling that declared the nearby 23rd District unconstitutional as a result of allegations of diluted Hispanic voting power during the controversial 2003 Texas redistricting.

Smith ended up being moved into a district that now encompasses several northern San Antonio suburbs as well as the Texas Hill Country and western parts of Travis County.

The Supreme Court decision restored a large amount of territory that had been shifted to Henry Bonilla's district in 2003.

[4] This race was considered a key race because the seat was previously held by former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, as well as the fact that the seat was represented by a Democrat, Nick Lampson, whose victory was largely attributed to Republicans being forced to run a write-in campaign.

[6][7][8] On October 30, 2008, Larry Sabato predicted in his Crystal Ball newsletter that Olson's congressional race to be a "Republican Pick Up.

Also, a Supreme Court ruled Bonilla's district, which was situated in the Hill Country suburbs of San Antonio, unconstitutional over claims that Hispanic voting rights were diluted in the redistricting.

Other areas represented in the district include the border towns of Del Rio and Eagle Pass, as well as Big Bend National Park and eastern El Paso County.

Marchant is heavily favored to win re-election to this district, which is located in the middle of the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex and includes the suburbs of Duncanville and Cedar Hill in the south, Grand Prairie and part of Irving in the central area of the district, and Colleyville, Grapevine and the Carrollton–Farmers Branch area in the north, as well as Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport.

His district, which was created as a result of the 2000 census, stretches across a large segment of Central Texas from the northern Williamson County suburbs of Austin to the gigantic Fort Hood military base, all the way north to Stephenville.

This description of the district would make it an opportunity for the Fighting Dems, a faction of military veterans who are members of the Democratic Party.

Six-term incumbent and conservative Republican Pete Sessions faced Democrat Eric Roberson in this Dallas district.

First, he is known to have close ties to disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff, an issue that is likely to become the focus of his Democratic challenger's campaign in 2008.

Roberson won against Steve Love in the April 8 party runoff election to determine the Democratic nominee.