Here’s a quick recap of what happened over the last week:
Texas House Releases Congressional Maps
On Wednesday, the Texas House released a new map to rewrite the state’s 38 Congressional districts. The new map is intended to help Republicans gain an additional five seats among the delegation and would take effect for the 2026 elections. They currently hold a 25-12 partisan advantage, with one vacancy.
The biggest and most impactful changes are in Houston, Dallas, Austin, and south Texas. Several districts currently held by Democrats are redrawn to favor the election of a Republican. Millions of Texans will now find themselves with new representation in Congress.
In Houston, the district now represented by Congressman Al Green will be drastically redrawn from southern parts of Harris County and Fort Bend County to far eastern parts of the county such as Deer Park, LaPorte, and Baytown, making it a Republican leaning district. A substantial portion of Green’s district will now also be drawn into Congressional District 18, which is vacant. Several candidates are running to replace the late Sylvester Turner in CD 18. Democratic Congresswoman Lizzie Fletcher of Houston is seeing her current district basically eliminated, finding herself paired with Congressman Wesley Hunt, also of Houston. The new district leans Republican and is centered in north and western parts of Harris County.
In the DFW area, the district represented by Democrat Mark Veasey of Fort Worth is eliminated and moved to Republican leaning areas of Dallas County. And in suburban areas of DFW, the district currently held by Democrat Julie Johnson of Carrollton also was redrawn to include Republican areas of Tarrant and Dallas Counties, and stretching into areas east of Dallas, including Rockwall, Garland, and Mineola.
South Texas Democrats Henry Cuellar of Laredo and Vicente Gonzalez of McAllen also had their districts significantly redrawn to include newly leaning Republican areas in south Texas.
The Austin area will also see significant changes. Two of the current Austin area Congressional districts are represented by Democrats Greg Casar and Lloyd Doggett. The new map proposes a district based in western Travis County that stretches into parts of deep east Texas, favoring a Republican. Incumbent Republican Congressman Michael McCaul should have no problem winning in the new district. The other Austin area district favors a Democrat, but pairs Doggett and Casar. Doggett is the dean of the Texas Congressional delegation and has demonstrated tremendous staying power through the years. Casar is a rising star among Congressional progressives. This dynamic sets up an interesting primary battle if both choose to run in 2026.
The number of Republicans in the Texas delegation could easily grow to 30 under the newly proposed maps.
The House Committee on Congressional Redistricting will hold a public hearing on the proposed maps later today in Austin.
The new proposed map can be found here: https://data.capitol.texas.gov/dataset/6c8aed8d-c0e7-4520-b917-b10dcee44f67/resource/8c04739d-8bca-4770-a556-87b5f43826fe/download/planc2308.pdf
Full data including population and demographic info can be found here: https://data.capitol.texas.gov/dataset/planc2308
Notice of today’s public hearing can be found here: https://www.legis.state.tx.us/tlodocs/89R/schedules/html/C0552025080110001.HTM
Joint Legislative Committee Meets in Kerrville
Lost in the news cycle and the controversy over the newly proposed Congressional districts are the devastating floods that occurred over the July 4th weekend. Several items in the call of the current special session seek to address state assistance in the recovery efforts and measures to help the state and local communities better prepare for emergencies and disasters.
Yesterday, a joint committee of House and Senate members met in Kerrville to hear from local officials and residents. The hearing quickly became contentious as state leaders – including Lt. Governor Dan Patrick and House Speaker Dustin Burrows – criticized local Kerr County officials for their lack of preparedness and initial response to the flood warnings. Gov. Patrick focused on Kerr County Judge Rob Kelly who was not in Kerrville when the initial warnings were given and still was not present on July 4th when state officials descended on the area to assess the damage and search for the missing. Under state law, the county judge is responsible for the issuance of evacuation orders in times of emergency.
At one point, Patrick called out Kelly by saying, “I don’t know where you were, you should have been here directing the response …and you were nowhere to be found.” Kelly admitted to being absent, saying he was spending the holiday weekend at his home on Lake Travis near Austin.
Other Kerr County officials – the county sheriff and the city manager – all testified that they were asleep during the warnings and when the flooding began early on the morning of July 4th and added they did not become aware of the devastation until around 5:30AM, which is well after the flood waters had overtaken Camp Mystic. Many of the committee members voiced extreme concern over the lack of preparedness and slow response by city and county officials.
After the criticism and finger pointing, state officials asked the local officials what they needed to avoid future tragedies like the one that just occurred. The county judge and city manager responded by saying the state should invest in infrastructure to create a flood detection and warning system that will better predict future floods. They also asked for better connectivity in rural areas to address dead zones for cell phones.
State leaders responded by assuring all in attendance that the legislature will begin immediately to address all of the area’s needs, and committed to do whatever is necessary to ensure a tragedy like this does not happen again.
The flash floods that started early on the morning of July 4th killed 130 people, including 27 youth campers and counselors in Kerr County.
Senate Passes Several Bills
The Texas Senate addressed three of the major items in the call of the special session earlier this week. First, they once again passed Senate Bill 5, which bans all products that contain intoxicating cannabis or hemp. This is the same legislation that passed both Houses during the regular session that was vetoed by Gov. Abbott. Abbott says he wants to allow the products to be sold in a regulated environment. Lt. Governor Patrick has not and will not back down on his desire to ban all hemp related intoxicating products and has accused Abbott of wanting to basically legalize the sale of marijuana in Texas. A companion bill to fully ban the products has been filed in the House, and they should have committee hearings next week to begin their deliberations on the issue.
The Senate also passed a measure to give the state Attorney General more authority to prosecute election related offenses at the local level. Under current law, the AG can only enter a jurisdiction to prosecute election crimes if invited to do so by the local district attorney. Under the Senate proposal, the AG can independently prosecute any election related crime in any jurisdiction without the consent of local authorities. The bill passed along partisan lines.
And finally, the Senate passed legislation to prohibit cities, counties, and school districts from hiring lobbyists to represent their interests before the legislature. It is common practice for local entities to not only belong to trade organizations to further their interests in Austin, but to also hire independent lobbyists to advocate on their behalf. The Senate proposal forbids the use of any public funds for lobbying purposes. Local entities argue they must have the ability to hire lobbyists due to the large number of bills introduced every session, and that lobbyists are beneficial to evaluate the legislation and monitor all activities in Austin while the local officials are not able to constantly monitor the activities of the legislature. Republican legislators argue that cities use lobbyist to advocate against conservative policies, including reduction of property taxes. Similar bills have passed the Senate over the past several regular and special sessions only to die in the House.
AG Paxton Claims Multiple Homes for Tax Breaks
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton – in the heat of a race challenging incumbent US Senator John Corny in the 2026 Republican primary – is in hot water again. Previously, Paxton has admitted to violating state securities law for not registering as a security agent for a company he represented, a charge for which he was under indictment for 10 years before admitting guilt and having the charges dismissed. Then there are the widely publicized allegations of bribery, abuse of power, and wrongful termination of agency employees that eventually led to his impeachment by the Texas House and subsequent acquittal by the Texas Senate.
Now, Paxton and his estranged wife – state Senator Angela Paxton – are facing potential fraud charges for listing three different residences as their primary residence – one in the Dallas area and two in the Austin area — thus receiving considerable financial advantages. Each “primary” residence is eligible for a homestead exemption applied to property taxes — Texas residents are allowed by law to claim only one homestead exemption on their primary residence. In addition, interest rates on primary residences are generally lower for those mortgages than mortgages on second homes, which has allowed the Paxtons to save thousands of dollars on loan payments. It is a federal crime to knowingly make false statements on mortgage documents. You can declare only one residence as a “primary” residence to thus received the homestead exemption.
This will become a campaign issue in Paxton’s challenge to Cornyn. Complicating matters for Paxton is the Trump administration’s current investigation into Senator Adam Schiff of California and New York Attorney General Leticia James for alleged violations regarding mortgage fraud. Paxton is not likely to face charges in Texas since the state Attorney General is the chief agency that is charged with investigating mortgage fraud in Texas.
Neither AG Ken Paxton nor Senator Angela Paxton have responded to press inquiries for comment on this matter.
Lawmaker Admits Affairs, Denies Abortion Allegations
Republican state Rep. Gio Capriglione of Southlake abruptly and unexpectedly announced last week that he would not seek reelection to an 8th term in 2026. It caught all in the Capitol community by surprise since Capriglione serves as Chairman of the House Committee on Government Efficiency and is generally well respected among his colleagues.
But when it was revealed that Capriglione had engaged in a years-long extramarital affair with an exotic dancer, the reason for his retirement announcement became clear. The conservative website Current Revolt published an interview on Friday with a woman named Alex Grace, who said she had a 17-year affair with Capriglione that began in 2004 when she was 18 years old working as an exotic dancer. She also claims Capriglione had funded several abortions to ensure the confidentiality of their ongoing affair. The affair ended several years ago according to Grace.
Capriglione had admitted to the affair but denies the allegations relative to his helping Grace obtain and pay for abortions. Capriglione was a joint, lead author on legislation from 2023 that outlawed abortion in Texas in response to the overturning of Roe v. Wade by the US Supreme Court. He also was a co-author of legislation in 2021 that prohibited any abortion after six weeks of pregnancy.
Grace has not commented further except on social media to reiterate the validity of her story. She is also saying the reason for coming forward now is that she feels an ethical responsibility to reveal Capriglione’s hypocrisy. Very few of Capriglione’s colleagues have weighed in to comment with the exception of Republican state Rep. Briscoe Cain of Deer Park who has called on Capriglione to resign.
Political Notes
Expect Republican state Rep. Briscoe Cain of Deer Park to run for the newly created Congressional District 9 in the Houston area if the maps hold as proposed. Almost immediately after the maps were released, Rep. Cain tweeted out his interest in making a run for the seat, and said he was receiving calls of encouragement to do so. Cain, an attorney, is in his 5th term representing the areas of Deer Park and LaPorte near Houston.
Republican state Rep. Jared Patterson of Frisco is facing criticism from his colleagues for allegedly trying to recruit primary challengers to fellow Republican House members. Wise County Sheriff Cary Mellma came forward to confirm that Patterson had approached him about a challenge to freshman state Rep. Andy Hopper of Decatur. Mellma responded by letting Patterson know that Hopper is a friend and political ally and fully supported Hopper. Patterson has previously been critical of other colleagues who have campaigned against incumbent Republican House members. In the 2024 election cycle, Patterson sought to censure Republican colleagues who endorsed challengers to incumbent Republican members.
Incumbent Republican Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller has drawn a primary opponent. McKinney businessman Nate Sheets will take on the three-term Ag Commissioner in next year’s Republican primary. Sheets is the proprietor of Nature Nate’s Honey, which he started with one beehive and now has annual sales of $4 million.
What’s Next??
Both Houses have adjourned until Monday. The House could possibly take up the congressional redistricting proposal on the floor as early as Tuesday.