Sessions was considered to be a vulnerable candidate for a number of reasons. 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. Also, while Sessions improved on his margin from his hotly contested 2004 race against Democrat Martin Frost, who was displaced from his previous district as a result of the controversial 2003 redistricting engineered by former House Majority Leader and Abramoff ally, Tom DeLay, it was only by a 2% margin (from 54% in 2004 to 56% in 2006). Contrarily, George W. Bush carried 59% of the vote in the district to 41% of the vote for John Kerry in 2004. Finally, in 2006, Democrats made unexpected gains in Dallas County, winning the District Attorney office and all contested state district judgeships in the county, along with a number of countywide offices on the basis of corruption within the local Republican establishment as well as momentum gained from Democratic Dallas County Sheriff Lupe Valdez's unexpected 2004 victory.