The Texas Weekly Hotlist, General Election 2014

For our list of the most competitive legislative and congressional seats in the state, we lifted the color scheme from the inventors of the federal terror watch, ranking districts by the threat to each incumbent, to the incumbent party, or just by the level of interest in and heat generated by a particular race, then assigning each group a nice loud color.

Yellow means there's trouble on the sidewalk. Orange is trouble on the front porch. Red is trouble walking in the door.

Incumbents' names are in bold. Open seats are rated by the apparent margin between top candidates (closer is hotter) and the threat to the incumbent party's hold on the district. Inside each color, the races are listed by district — not by heat.

No changes this week. Campaign finance reports from the campaigns are due on Oct. 6, and should offer some insight about how the candidates are prepared for the final month of the general election cycle. Early voting starts in less than three weeks. 

Enlarge Ross Ramsey

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