The Blast - August 13, 2025

Day 10 of the quorum break

87 days until the candidate filing period begins
117 days until the candidate filing deadline

IN TODAY’S BLAST

• A new session, and next steps for Dems

• The Texas GOP makes an overture to members

• Who’s at risk for a Texas GOP censure?

• Could Trump shake up the THC equation?

• Texas redistricting on voters’ radar

A NEW SESSION, AND NEXT STEPS FOR DEMS

The Legislature will head to its second overtime period a few days early as GOP officials up the pressure on House Democrats to come home.

If the House doesn’t have a quorum on Friday, the House and Senate will adjourn sine die and Gov. Greg Abbott will immediately call a new special session. The governor has said everything from his first special session agenda will be on the table for the second round.

“There will be no reprieve for the derelict Democrats who fled the state and abandoned their duty to the people who elected them,” Abbott said in a statement. “I will continue to call special session after special session until we get this Texas first agenda passed.”

House Speaker Dustin Burrows said he will gavel in the second session on Friday and reestablish the call of the House, requiring that members attend. They will be expected to remain through the weekend.

Despite reporting from ABC 13 yesterday that House Democrats finally plan to return home, there is no indication that’s the case. The Democratic caucus doubled down on the quorum break in a statement this morning, the 10th day of their decampment.

“After deliberation among our caucus, we have reached a consensus: Texas House Democrats refuse to give him a quorum to pass his racist maps that silence more than 2 million Black and Latino Texans,” House Democratic Caucus Chair Gene Wu said in a statement.

But there is a potential caveat buried within the statement: “In keeping with our original promise to Texans, the first called special session will never make quorum again, defeating Abbott’s first attempt at passing his racial gerrymander.” So, what about the second special session?

In a follow-up statement, Wu seemed to indicate that Democrats could be coaxed back if Republicans put flood relief ahead of redistricting on the Legislature’s to-do list. The second special could be a “reset moment,” he said.

“We are ready to fight for flood relief, defend our communities, and invest in the safety Texans deserve,” Wu continued. “Will the governor finally work with us for our families in the second special session?”

Democrats’ relationship with House Republicans is strained at best right now, and Republicans know Democrats will have to come back eventually.

Shortly after The Blast published on Monday, the Texas Supreme Court published the timeline surrounding requests from Abbott and Attorney General Ken Paxton to boot truant Democrats from office.

• House Democrats have until tomorrow to respond to Paxton’s writ of quo warranto.

• Abbott and Paxton have until next Wednesday, Aug. 20, to file their briefs.

• House Democrats have until that Friday, Aug. 29, to respond.

• Abbott and Paxton have until the following Thursday, Sept. 4, to reply.

One other thing to keep in mind for when the House finally restores a quorum will be potential punishments. Rep. Richard Hayes, R-Hickory Creek, for example, took to the back mic yesterday to ask about cutting the office budgets of absent vice chairs and House deans. Others have called for those members to be stripped of their vice chairmanships.

The speaker has not yet weighed in on those possibilities.

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THE TEXAS GOP MAKES AN OVERTURE TO MEMBERS

As of 5 p.m. today, the deadline has passed for GOP lawmakers to respond to the State Republican Executive Committee’s review of the 89th regular session, the report card containing the list of censurable offenses that the state party could use to try kicking some members off the March primary ballot.

It’s part of an additional series of steps Texas GOP Chair Abraham George and members of the SREC approved over the weekend, further complicating the censure process that already has people stumped. It was a last-minute decision at the meeting after members realized they’d made several mistakes in the report, including dinging members for not passing bills when the bill language actually passed in other legislation.

Instead of sending the report to the county parties on Monday like the SREC initially planned, they sent it to House members and senators. Those lawmakers had until this afternoon to respond, and the SREC added an additional Zoom meeting this Friday to go through the entire list and decide whether to change anything based on lawmakers’ input. The final final report will go out to county parties and district executive committees on Monday, pushing back most of the censure timetable by a week.

“This also protects us, honestly, in court, because we’ve given the legislators a chance to respond to us,” George told SREC members on Saturday.

Leadership will distribute members’ responses to the SREC tomorrow morning, giving committee members a couple days to “campaign on it,” as George put it.

In his cover letter for the report sent to Republican lawmakers, George expressed his gratitude for getting to meet with Gov. Greg Abbott, House Speaker Dustin Burrows, House Calendars Committee Chair Todd Hunter and Rep. Mitch Little before last weekend’s SREC meeting.

“While we may not agree on every detail, we all agree that we must unite against the Democrats because that is what is best for Texas,” George wrote.

The meeting marked the first time Burrows had met George and the full SREC as speaker, and came about thanks to some backchanneling, like from sympathetic members of party leadership. Both sides hadn’t had direct contact until they met at the Governor’s Mansion.

Although they did not directly discuss censures, it was certainly on the speaker’s mind. His comments touting the House’s conservative achievements this year were designed to show the SREC that the House is more conservative than ever and to celebrate the chamber’s support from President Donald Trump, according to sources familiar with the talks.

“The speaker’s trying to protect his members from being kicked off the ballot,” one source put it plainly.

Many in “traditional” Republican circles have long written off the Texas GOP and assumed that George was of the same Empower Texans ilk that has controlled the party in recent years. However, George’s recent praise for Burrows and the House have left some of those questioning whether the party chair is trying to give the SREC an off-ramp from kicking lawmakers off the primary ballot.

But not everyone is convinced. The SREC is still letting the censure process roll forward, after all, even handholding county parties into drafting proper censures.

“I think I see an organization that is rudderless,” Rep. Carl Tepper, R-Lubbock, told The Blast of the Texas GOP. “They’re being motivated by social media hounds.”

WHO’S AT RISK FOR A TEXAS GOP CENSURE?

In combing through the SREC’s report, The Blast counts 36 censurable acts, giving the 108 Republican House members and senators who served this session a combined 209 transgressions.

In order to draft a censure that could lead the Texas GOP to ban someone from the primary ballot, the offending lawmaker must have committed at least three censurable offenses in their most recent term.

As defined by the Texas GOP rules, censurable acts are those contrary to the party’s core principles laid out in the preamble of the platform, or in its list of legislative priorities. This report only dealt with legislative priorities and counted actions like votes directly on a bill, authoring an opposed bill or not scheduling bills for consideration. That puts committee chairs on the hook for a lot more.

On the Senate side, only Sen. Robert Nichols of Jacksonville racked up enough offenses to be targeted, with six. However, Nichols will be retiring.

On the House side, 28 of the chamber’s 88 Republicans had a perfect record — including Burrows, who, as speaker, doesn’t normally cast votes. A total of 41 members picked up three or more offenses. But when you consider that the SREC could consider the election of Burrows as a censurable offense under its core principles, the number jumps to 45, more than half of the caucus.

In particular, two votes deemed censurable acts ensnared a significant portion of the caucus. Both were last-minute additions to the report and featured bills filed by Democrats related to the state power grid.

• House Bill 805, filed by Rep. Philip Cortez, D-Mission, would have called on the Public Utility Commission to study expanding the grid’s connection with Mexico. Thirty-three Republicans voted for that. The bill passed the House but not the Senate.

• House Bill 1359, filed by Rep. Ana Hernandez, D-Houston, would have created an income-based assistance fund to help low-income families pay their electric bills. Thirty-seven Republicans voted for that one, and it also died in the Senate.

Multiple members have filed remarks with the SREC asking them to remove those votes from the report.

Striking those two votes would cut the number of House members with three or more violations against the legislative priorities from 41 to 12. While only 12 could be subject to censure with the report alone, county parties that add the speaker vote to their censures could up the universe to 35 members. (The SREC still gives county parties leeway to argue what is and isn’t a censurable offense. This report is just a guide.)

Still, key members would in theory be spared, like Rep. Trent Ashby of Lufkin, who is running for Nichols’ seat, and Burrows voters like Reps. Stan Gerdes of Smithville and House Administration Committee Chair Charlie Geren of Fort Worth.

The Tarrant County GOP has already tried and failed to censure Geren.

Download the SREC’s draft report below:

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Could Trump shake up the THC equation?

As President Donald Trump contemplates reclassifying marijuana as a less dangerous drug, Texas lawmakers appear to remain in a deadlock about what to do about hemp-derived THC products in the state — an issue that, technically, was the impetus for the current special legislative session.

The president’s decision might shake up the THC debate here, of which the state’s top two elected officials — both Trump loyalists — are at opposite ends Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who presides over the state Senate, wants the Legislature to outright ban THC products. Gov. Greg Abbott already vetoed a ban lawmakers sent him earlier this year and has asked for regulation.

The Trump calculus reached the Capitol during the House Public Health Committee’s hearing this morning on another proposed ban, House Bill 5.

Rep. Katrina Pierson, R-Rockwall, asked Allen Police Chief Steve Dye, who has emerged as a loud pro-ban witness in repeated hearings this year, about the latest Trump news regarding the devil’s lettuce.

“Are you concerned about that at all?” Pierson asked.

“We’re very concerned, and let me just say: I’m a 41-year practitioner. I spent my first 20 years working the streets, I worked a lot of narcotics cases,” Dye responded. “The president and many other people don’t know what they don’t know. If you really understand the product and what it does to our society, you will share my viewpoint. But unfortunately the hemp industry is very well-funded and they’re very powerful.”

Dye said that Trump dismissed marijuana “as maybe not being needed to be classified so highly” but that it’s “really bad stuff” aside from being used for medical purposes.

“What I’m hoping is, like you all, he becomes educated,” Dye said. “This is a defining moment. Are we gonna do what is the political answer potentially or are we gonna do what is best for the health and safety of our communities?”

On Friday, the Wall Street Journal reported on Trump’s openness to changing marijuana to a Schedule III drug, which would loosen restrictions and open up some medical marijuana research possibilities. Trump is being encouraged by pot industry leaders, some of whom have poured millions into Trump-aligned political groups.

Speaking to reporters at the White House on Monday, Trump said he expects to make a decision in the coming weeks. The Legislature appears poised to enter a second legislative session as soon as Friday, which would restart the 30-day clock to address the issue — behind flood relief and congressional redistricting.

For what it’s worth: Polls have shown that a majority of Republican Texans oppose an outright ban on THC.

— Alejandro Serrano

TEXAS REDISTRICTING ON VOTERS’ RADAR

New national polling indicates that voters are both aware of and concerned about Texas’ redistricting plan, setting the new maps up as a potential midterm issue.

Navigator Research, which polled over 1,000 Americans between Aug. 7 and 11, found that 61% of respondents had heard of Texas Republicans’ effort to redraw the state’s congressional map. 

For comparison, 69% had heard about the controversy over the Epstein files and 66% had heard about Republican cuts to Medicaid — both issues that Democrats have spent months talking about. Fifty-six percent of respondents expressed concern about Texas redistricting and 50% they said opposed it.

When told that mid-decade redistricting is rare and that Republicans were pursuing it to pad their slim House majority, independents’ opposition rose from 44% to 52% 

A poll from Z to A Strategies of nearly 2,000 likely voters in Texas had similar findings. Sixty-two percent of voters opposed the redistricting effort when it was framed as “politicians pick[ing] their voters.”

But does a niche issue like gerrymandering matter in midterm elections? Like any issue, the messaging matters. Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Austin, said concerns about democracy are not always top of mind for voters. He is trying to discuss redistricting as a matter of political stakes in Congress.

“I’m saying what this means is five more votes against doing anything about the infringement on reproductive health,” he said. “That this is five more votes to deny a correction of what will be a 75% increase in premiums for those who get their insurance through the Affordable Care Act. That it means higher energy prices — trying to bring it back to a point that people understand.”

— Gabby Birenbaum

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The House will briefly convene at 11 a.m. tomorrow and return at 10 a.m. Friday.
The Senate will convene at 10 a.m. on Friday.

Expect the House and Senate to adjourn sine die on Friday and for Gov. Greg Abbott to immediately call them back into a new special session.

• Sen. Donna Campbell, R-Bulverde, broke her kneecap, so she was rolled onto the Senate floor on Tuesday for the redistricting vote. “While organizing my garage, I tripped over a box and unfortunately broke my kneecap, which has me in a wheelchair for now,” she posted on social media. “I’m deeply grateful for the outpouring of well wishes and prayers, and I look forward to a full and speedy recovery.”

• TX-SEN: Former U.S. Rep. Colin Allred, D-Dallas, will take his “Unrig Texas” tour to San Antonio, McAllen and Houston this weekend, beginning Friday evening. Allred kicked off the first stop of the tour in Denton last night.

• HD-9: Angelina County Commissioner Rocky Thigpen announced that he has already raised $100,000 since launching his campaign seven weeks ago on June 25. He will hold a fundraiser Sept. 9 in Austin featuring the incumbent, state Rep. Trent Ashby, who is running for the state Senate.

• Harris County: After county commissioners voted to censure Judge Lina Hidalgo over her outbursts in a recent meeting, Hidalgo told KPRC 2 that she isn’t ready to comment on whether she’ll run for reelection. But she also goaded her critics, including GOP Commissioner Tom Ramsey, saying, “Election season’s ramping up and I invite them to run against me.”

• Nine Senate Democrats walked off the floor yesterday when the chamber took up the proposed congressional maps. The Senate passed the maps without them, 19-2. The two Rio Grande Valley Democrats, Sens. Chuy Hinojosa of McAllen and Judith Zaffirini of Laredo, stayed to speak and vote against the bill. Those who left said the redistricting effort is waking up the Democratic base across the country.

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“In redistricting clash, Texas GOP flexes power to shut down Democrats’ last tool of resistance” by Eleanor Klibanoff of The Texas Tribune

“Texas Republicans and Democrats, locked in redistricting battle, weaponize flood response” by Kayla Guo and Emily Foxhall of The Texas Tribune

“Texas could lose political clout under Trump’s call for a new census that excludes undocumented immigrants” by Owen Dahlkamp of The Texas Tribune

“Taylor Sheridan deal creates in Fort Worth the largest TV, film studio in Texas” by Brayden Garcia of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram

Do you or someone in your office have a birthday you’d like mentioned? Email us.

(Aug. 13) State Rep. Ann Johnson, D-Houston
(Aug. 13) State Rep. Tony Tinderholt, R-Arlington
(Aug. 13) State Rep. Cody Vasut, R-Angleton
(Aug. 13) Houston Mayor John Whitmire

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Chad Cantella is a political insider specializing in education, healthcare, criminal justice and workforce. Learn more about his work.