Democrats said the walkout inspired a national protest against GOP redistricting. But it also greased the path for other bills they oppose and unified Texas Republicans.

As speaker, Phelan oversaw passage of numerous conservative priorities, but he gave up the gavel under pressure from the far right over the House’s impeachment of Attorney General Ken Paxton.

Lambert overcame a brutal primary last year after drawing the wrath of two of the state’s most powerful GOP leaders.

The governor announced he was expanding his special session agenda shortly after the Texas House passed a congressional map that Democrats had delayed by leaving the state.

The order bars Paxton from prosecuting O’Rourke’s nonprofit or otherwise bringing legal action aimed at revoking Powered by People’s charter.

The Republican-controlled Texas House of Representatives has passed a redrawn congressional map that creates up to five new winnable GOP seats in Congress.

Republican lawmakers are pursuing the unusual mid-decade redistricting plan amid pressure from President Donald Trump to protect the GOP’s slim majority in the U.S. House.

The San Antonio Democrat was first elected to the Legislature in 2019.

After two weeks out of state, Democratic lawmakers returned to Austin, paving the way for Republicans to pass their proposed congressional map.

The Amarillo businessman said he would tap into the $20 million political action committee he launched last year to preserve ballot access for censured Republicans.

The third-term governor appears determined to win any battle — even if it means scorched-earth primary crusades or trying to boot duly elected legislators from office.

Judge Scott Larson ruled that the Texas speaker and attorney general had “failed to present a legal basis for the court” to take up the issue.

In this week’s episode, Matthew and Eleanor ask University of Houston law professor David Froomkin to help them break down the legal cases seeking to remove 13 Democrats from the Texas House.

The leaders of both chambers said they would adjourn for the session Friday if Democrats do not return, while the governor said he might add more items to his agenda.

The governor and attorney general have asked the court to find that Democratic lawmakers abandoned their seats when they left Texas to delay a new congressional map.

The order came at the request of Attorney General Ken Paxton, who O’Rourke accused in a separate lawsuit of going on a “fishing expedition, constitutional rights be damned.”

Efforts escalate to penalize absent lawmakers amid redistricting standoff

Gov. Greg Abbott previously asked the court to expel Rep. Gene Wu, the House Democratic leader. Paxton disputed the governor’s authority to make the request.

The attorney general is calling on the “full faith and credit” clause of the U.S. Constitution, which says states should typically honor each other’s judicial proceedings.

"We cannot allow these rogue legislators to avoid their constitutional responsibilities," U.S. Senator John Cornyn said in a statement.

While the Democrats could technically derail the GOP’s redistricting map, such efforts have been largely symbolic and had limited success blocking past legislation, experts say.

The situation is an opportunity for the speaker to bolster his credibility with the right, but he has limited tools to combat a prolonged Democratic absence.

Only one Democrat taking part in the quorum break was absent from the panel as the group discussed five bills and the chair vowed their work would go on.

Texas Republicans are trying to redraw congressional districts to pick up five additional U.S. House seats. Democrats face financial and political risk in their bid to block the GOP plan.

The warrants apply only within state lines, making them largely symbolic as most of the legislators in question decamped to Illinois, New York and Massachusetts.

The bills would carry a $5,000 fine for a first-time violation and comes as momentum for such restrictions has increased in the state and nationally.

The Southlake Republican will serve the remainder of his seventh term. Keller Mayor Armin Mizani said on Wednesday he would run for the District 98 seat.

Here’s a look at House members, ranked from most conservative to most liberal, based on votes cast during the 2025 regular session.

Our interactive tool allows you to search how state lawmakers voted on the most consequential proposals debated during the session, which ended June 2.

Tinderholt attributed his decision to retire to his confidence in a new conservative generation of lawmakers and a desire to spend more time with his family.

A bill to increase judicial salaries from $140,000 to $175,000 a year stalled amid a disagreement over lawmakers’ own retirement benefits.

Monday morning, the Texas House of Representatives unanimously passed SB 835, known as “Trey’s Law.”

A House vote showed broad support for the measure that would let districts set aside time for prayer or religious study.

The House approved the ban after previously considering proposals to preserve the industry by tightening regulations.

Some measures that made it through before midnight dealt with jail bonds, an unconstitutional ban on gay sex, and the liability of vaccine manufacturers.

If it becomes law, the bill would define sex based on reproductive organs and require state documents and policies to comply with that framework.

The bill would bar those under 18 from checking out books with sexually explicit material without parental permission.

State lawmakers in the Texas Senate just gave the latest green light to H.B. 2000 - better known as ‘Audrii’s Law.'

Dozens of people who signed up to speak were ready at 4 a.m. to debate whether public school classrooms should have to display the Ten Commandments.

The bill faced fierce opposition from hardline conservatives who say it is policing speech and could allow the state to jail people over silly political memes.

A House bill would require school districts to hold an election before breaking into smaller entities.

Uvalde’s former mayor, now in the Legislature, wrote the bill so that law-enforcement agencies would have better coordination and leadership as they respond to a mass shooting.

After Republicans and Democrats fight over the budget and constitutional amendments, GOP members stake out a new battlefield.

Voting rights advocates worry that legislation approved by House and Senate committees could make it harder to get more people on the rolls.

The Texas Senate passed Senate Bill 2010, authored by Sen. Paul Bettencourt, to prevent local governments from using public funds for universal basic income programs like Harris County's "Uplift Harris."

Texas Republican lawmakers in regions known for support of public schools defended voting for vouchers, saying they gained leverage to seek concessions.

Anti-voucher Republicans said they voted for the bill so they could fight to improve it, and also to fend off political retribution.

Normally, memorial resolutions to honor Texans who have died are passed without controversy. But the resolution for Richards, a former president of Planned Parenthood who died this year, sparked a cascade of outrage from conservatives.

The House approved historic legislation that would implement school vouchers in Texas. Here’s how each representative voted.

The bill would let families use taxpayer dollars for their children’s private schooling. Lawmakers also signed off on a sweeping $7.7 billion package to boost public school funding.

The lower chamber overwhelmingly voted in favor of House Bill 2, a sweeping $8 billion piece of legislation that would also limit schools’ reliance on teachers without formal classroom training.

The Texas House also approved more money for schools in a bipartisan vote.

The vote instructs lawmakers who are negotiating a budget with the Senate to advocate for awarding Paxton the salary he missed while impeached over corruption allegations.

The lower chamber’s plan largely aligns with the Senate’s proposal and puts billions toward teacher pay, border security and property tax cuts.

Among the hundreds of amendments were ones that focused on school vouchers, the attorney general’s office and the Texas Lottery.

State lawmakers are poised to devote billions to save the state’s water supply. These are some of the ways the state could spend the money.

The family of Audrii Cunningham, the slain 11-year-old Livingston girl, will testify in front of Texas state lawmakers as they push to change sex offender registry laws.

In a post on Facebook, State Rep. Pat Curry said the bill he filed, HB 4938, was done so as a mechanism to bring TPWD to the table to discuss proposed regulations on the deer breeding industry in Texas.

The new finding is about 20% higher than previous estimates of the known cost of the effort to remove Paxton from office.

The ads praise 14 Texas Republicans, including House Speaker Dustin Burrows, for their support of education savings accounts.

Lawmakers, who are preempting locals on lot sizes in new subdivisions, have been eyeing ways to allow more homes to be built as the state faces a shortage.

Turner, who spent nearly three decades in the Texas House and died last week, was remembered as a passionate Democrat committed to working across the aisle.

Don McLaughlin isn’t shy about speaking his mind and has disagreed with victims’ families and fellow Republicans. Now he brings his direct style to the Capitol.

Mo Jenkins is one of only a few openly transgender staffers working in the Capitol as lawmakers are making headway in restricting rights for LGBTQ+ Texans.

Representatives voted unanimously Thursday morning to have Congressman and former Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner lie in state at the Texas House of Representatives' Halls.

House Bill 239, which echoes a bathroom bill that failed in 2017, includes new provisions for shelters and prisons.

The topic was a budget request from a state agency. The exchange grew emotional when a lawmaker pressed for answers about a strategic plan that praises diversity.

The 75 co-sponsors plus the bill’s author would provide enough votes to pass Gov. Abbott’s top priority measure in the 150-seat House.

The proposal, filed Thursday, comes well short of the increase school administrators and education advocates have been asking for.

There were only so many chair positions to go around, with 30 committees for 88 Republicans, making it inevitable that some would miss out on plum appointments.

Republicans chair all committees, as promised, while Democrats will lead half of the newly created subcommittees.

Reported domestic violence incidents have risen 26% since 2019.

A pair of lawsuits filed by allies of West Texas megadonor Tim Dunn shut down laws that banned outside spending in the House leadership race, allowing for more political mudslinging and raising questions about ethics rules.

The Texas Senate has passed Senate Bill 2, a bill that will allow school choice and vouchers in the state.

Gov. Greg Abbott said cutting taxes is a top priority, however, state lawmakers don’t have as much money to plug into tax cuts as they did two years ago.

Conservative activists in the GOP caucus called any power sharing with the minority party a betrayal of Republican voters.

Rep. Cody Harris had accused Abraham George of improperly threatening to send mailers and censure lawmakers who backed Rep. Dustin Burrows as House speaker.

The Democrats’ short list of possible benefits: A leader who learned to keep promises, a chance at chairing committees, and what they see as more chances for a fairer playing field.

The race pitted state Reps. David Cook and Dustin Burrows against each other. Here’s how each representative voted.

From debating school vouchers and improving the state’s water supply to reining in property taxes, the GOP-led body will look to pass its conservative priorities amid fighting within the party.

The Texas House kicked off the 2025 session by electing an establishment Republican to lead the chamber, drawing criticism from within the GOP.

The motion escalates a tense standoff between Paxton and a bipartisan Texas House committee, which had subpoenaed Roberson to testify at the Capitol on Friday.

This is the latest example of the Republican Party of Texas spending its resources attacking its own members.

Some voucher opponents are ready to compromise; others are hoping supporters will fumble over the program's size, eligibility and accountability.

Republicans who vote against party leaders’ preferred candidate could be barred from running in primaries. Lawsuits could follow.

In a Q&A, Burrows said he’s still confident he’ll win. But he says the leadership race is bigger than any one person and his supporters are trying to protect the integrity of the House.

Days after the Texas House GOP caucus backed Cook, Abbott made clear that he expects Republican representatives to do the same.

With Speaker Dade Phelan out of the race, Republican state Reps. David Cook and Dustin Burrows will now face off.

Texas Republicans are poised to pick the statehouse lower chamber’s next leader this weekend.

Wu defeated incumbent Trey Martinez Fischer on Thursday to become the next chair of the Texas House Democratic Caucus.

The two-term Republican caught many Capitol observers off guard when he emerged as the standard-bearer for a coalition that wants to depose Phelan and reshape how the House operates.

Roberson was convicted of killing his 2-year-old daughter in a “shaken baby” case that many say led to an innocent man’s death sentence.

The state’s highest civil court ruled that legislators can’t use subpoenas to block death row inmates’ executions, but suggested there’s still time for Roberson to testify before a Texas House panel.

Texans voted in several races, including for the President, a U.S. Senator, U.S. House members and more.

Texas might not be a swing state, but many of its races will have major consequences to the national political landscape and on the lives of everyday Texans.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is calling for the resignation of State Representative Jeff Leach after his admission to sending text messages to a Texas Court of Criminal Appeals judge last week saying that death row inmate Robert Roberson deserved a new trial.

Leach, one of the driving forces behind the effort to stop Roberson’s execution, later apologized to the judge, who told the lawmaker there were still pending matters before the court.

After the attorney general insisted on the death row inmate’s guilt in a graphic press release, four lawmakers issued a point-by-point rebuttal.

Texas’ junk science statute has remained hamstrung for the last decade. So too have other criminal justice reforms, despite efforts from the Texas House.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott says the House Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence “stepped out of line” by subpoenaing death row inmate Robert Roberson and delaying his execution.