The incumbent state senator, Jack Hightower, ran instead for the [[United States House of Representatives]] and unseated the [[Republican Party|Republican]] Robert "Bob" Price, who had been first elected to the Panhandle-area district in 1966. The U.S. House district was altered after the 1970 census to include Wichita Falls and [[Amarillo]] and territory in between in the same sprawling district. | The incumbent state senator, Jack Hightower, ran instead for the [[United States House of Representatives]] and unseated the [[Republican Party|Republican]] Robert "Bob" Price, who had been first elected to the Panhandle-area district in 1966. The U.S. House district was altered after the 1970 census to include Wichita Falls and [[Amarillo]] and territory in between in the same sprawling district. |