The Blast - August 15, 2025

Day 12 of the quorum break

29 days until sine die
85 days until the candidate filing period begins
115 days until the candidate filing deadline

IN TODAY’S BLAST

• Abortion pill bill, bathroom bill, property tax breaks

• A Fairly big wrench

• The new calendar for the SREC censure process

ABORTION PILL BILL, BATHROOM BILL, PROPERTY TAX BREAKS

A resolution to the Texas House quorum break is within sight.

The Legislature has adjourned the first special session sine die and reconvened for another one.

Texas House Democrats have two conditions for their return, and neither ask much of Texas Republicans. Both conditions were already the current plan.

1. The Legislature adjourning sine die today (check)

2. The unveiling of California’s proposed retaliatory maps

California Gov. Gavin Newsom says the Golden State will unveil the plan for its maps on Monday, suggesting that’s the day the Democrats will return. That was the word within today’s Texas House Republican Caucus meeting, too.

With California picking up the redistricting fight, Texas Democrats can hand off the baton and return to Texas, where they say they will help create a legal record for when the maps are inevitably challenged in court. Politically, House Democrats’ conditions are a face-saving offramp from a quorum break that may not have survived a second special session.

When calling the new session to order today, House Speaker Dustin Burrows tried to frame it as a blessing in disguise. By starting a new special session, the Legislature now has 30 more days to pass its bills instead of by Monday, the original sine die date.

“When the new session begins, we will be able to move immediately to pass a strong pro-life bill, to protect women’s spaces and more property tax protections without the threat of procedural gamesmanship getting in the way,” Burrows said. “That’s a win for the unborn, women and all of Texas.”

It was the first time Burrows has publicly said the House intends to take up the abortion pill bill and the bathroom bill. For those clamoring to punish Democrats, that could be the potential retribution for breaking quorum.

In recent days, Gov. Greg Abbott had suggested that Texas could push its congressional maps to 10 new GOP seats if California and Democratic states try to counter Texas’ redistricting. But during a press conference today, the governor suggested that might be unnecessary.

“According to Politico, two-thirds of the state disagree with him on that, and for him to go to get anything passed is have two-thirds of the state agree with him on it,” Abbott said of Newsom. “It’s a joke. He’s posturing for the presidency and doing nothing more than that. He’s all talk and no action.”

Abbott is referencing this poll, conducted July 28 to Aug. 12, which asked registered California voters whether they would prefer keeping the independent redistricting commission or returning authority to the Legislature. The pollsters did not add the context that Newsom likes to add, that California’s retaliatory redistricting would be a temporary measure.

However, the threshold to pass the referendum statewide may not be two-thirds like Abbott said. Constitutional amendments traditionally need only a simple majority to pass the California ballot.

Still, some Texas House Republicans say the Texas Legislature should be more aggressive.

“I believe very strongly that what we proposed already is moderate, balanced, conservative,” Texas House Republican Caucus Chair Tom Oliverson told The Blast. “But if the response that we’re going to get from blue states is they want to be hyper aggressive and hyper partisan, we can do that too.”

Rep. Jeff Leach, a Plano Republican and a Burrows ally, called for the Legislature to pass a map with nine or 10 new GOP seats — and to take up state House and Senate redistricting.

On Saturday, Texas GOP Chair Abraham George relayed a relevant tidbit from the State Republican Executive Committee’s meeting with Abbott and House leadership at the Governor’s Mansion, suggesting legislative redistricting had been on Abbott’s mind.

“My understanding is there are about 20-plus coalition districts in the Texas House today,” George told SREC members. “It doesn’t have to be, like the governor said this morning. We want to start messaging that that needs to be redrawn to political districts, not coalition districts. We are absolutely against DEI in the Texas Republican Party, so we just don’t need DEI districts either.”

Ken Paxton adviser Michelle Smith posted 22 majority-minority state legislative districts.

Asked about state legislative redistricting at today’s press conference, Abbott left the option on the table.

“Every strategy is at play and depends on when and whether the Democrats show up,” Abbott said. “They talk as though they’re going to show up today or tomorrow, but we’ll wait and see. We hold a lot more bullets in our belt that we’ll be ready to use if we need to.

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A FAIRLY BIG WRENCH

Emerging GOP megadonor Alex Fairly has thrown a wrench into the Texas GOP’s potential plans to bar some elected Republicans from the 2026 primary ballot by promising to fund a legal challenge to the tune of $20 million.

The State Republican Executive Committee will meet at 6 p.m. tonight to vote up or down on each line from its Legislative Task Force report on the 2025 session. The report includes a list of transgressions that could form the basis for the party trying to remove GOP lawmakers from the 2026 primary ballot — a new, legally untested “accountability” measure the Texas GOP is implementing this election cycle.

The big things to watch from the meeting is how the SREC will react to Fairly’s announcement and whether they’ll neuter the report as preliminarily adopted.

Several state representatives wrote to the SREC on Wednesday asking the panel of party leaders to strike votes for two Democrat-authored grid bills — House Bill 805 and House Bill 1359 — from the list of censurable offenses.

House members also hoped the committee would give a pass to those who took a procedural vote early in the session to silence debate and amendments to the House rules. Some argued it was unfair to penalize members for that vote when they were already docked for the censurable offense of voting for the rules package itself.

If the SREC votes to remove all three transgressions from the report, then only House Affairs Committee Chair Ken King of Canadian and former House Speaker Dade Phelan of Beaumont will be on the hook for a censure. The number could increase from two to 11 if the SREC later decides to consider the election of House Speaker Dustin Burrows a censurable offense.

Sources familiar with the deliberations tell The Blast that the SREC planned to soften the report along those lines. However, Fairly’s vow to pick up the legal tab for censured Republicans may goad the SREC into a fight.

“People just hate accountability,” Texas GOP Chair Abraham George posted on social media in response to Fairly’s announcement.

He also reposted the following message from his predecessor, Matt Rinaldi, the one who oversaw the adoption of the bolstered censure rule at the party’s 2024 convention:

“Alex needs better advice. Don’t think there were ‘plans’ to do anything but administratively deal w/ county censures. But in my experience, if you don’t want the GOP grassroots to do something, publicly and dramatically threatening them is the surest way to get them to do it.”

But a détente could still be in order, as evidenced by George’s overtures to House Republicans. The best way to know is to watch what happens tonight.

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THE NEW CALENDAR FOR THE SREC CENSURE PROCESS

The SREC shoehorned tonight’s meeting into its censure process in response to concerns about the factual basis for some purported transgressions committed by state lawmakers during the 89th regular session. The SREC pushed back its report by a week to give Republican members a chance to submit responses to the report, which were due Wednesday.

With the one-week delay, the SREC also approved a new timeline for the censure process. After the SREC publishes its final report on Aug. 18, GOP county and district executive committees must notify lawmakers of a pending censure by Aug. 25.

There are several other steps along the way, but the D-Day for censures remains Oct. 11. During a special meeting that day, the SREC may authorize local party leaders to bar censured officials from the 2026 primary ballot.

Just in: More all-star speakers confirmed for TribFest

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• The Senate State Affairs Committee has been hard at work this afternoon, voting out a list of eight bills from the recently adjourned session. 

Next week:

• The Senate Special Committee on Congressional Redistricting will meet at 4 p.m. Sunday to consider the congressional map proposed in the previous special session. The House has filed one with a slight tweak around El Paso, keeping Fort Bliss intact.

• The Senate Special Committee on Congressional Redistricting will meet again at 1 p.m. Monday.

View the full list of upcoming committee notices here and here.

The House will briefly convene at 10 a.m. tomorrow and return at 12 p.m. Monday.
The Senate will convene at 5 p.m. Monday.

• Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick with a stern message: “To those in the gallery … for those of you who didn’t stand, the next time you come to the gallery, you stand for the invocation. It’s respecting the Senate. If you don’t stand for the invocation, I’ll have you removed. We asked you to stand. I’ve never seen a gallery ever have any members — in my 17 years — of people who refuse to stand for the invocation. It will not be tolerated.”

• TX-SEN: U.S. Sen. John Cornyn is in a dead heat with Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, 30%-29%, according to an Emerson poll of the GOP primary released today. The winner? Undecided, with 37%.

• Attorney general: The Border Patrol Union endorsed Republican Aaron Reitz.

• SD-22: Outgoing state Rep. Tony Tinderholt, R-Arlington, endorsed state Rep. David Cook, R-Mansfield, to succeed state Sen. Brian Birdwell, R-Granbury.

• HD-96: Texans for Lawsuit Reform PAC endorsed Ellen Fleischmann of Mansfield in the race to succeed Cook.

• HD-129: Republican Bob Mitchell endorsed House Speaker Dustin Burrows as he runs to succeed state Rep. Dennis Paul, R-Houston. Paul is running for the state Senate and has endorsed Scott Bowen to succeed him. “While my opponent sides with the establishment and works against President Trump, I stand with the America First movement,” Mitchell said.

• State Rep. Briscoe Cain, R-Deer Park, announced that his wife, Bergundi, had a heart attack three days ago. Wishing her a swift recovery.

• Nacogdoches Republican state Rep. Joanne Shofner’s ivermectin bill has received a low bill number, HB 25, as was discussed in today’s Texas House Republican Caucus meeting.

• Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has asked a Tarrant County court to revoke the charter of Powered by People, former U.S. Rep. Beto O’Rourke’s PAC.

• Former U.S. Rep. Beto O’Rourke and U.S. Reps. Greg Casar and Lloyd Doggett will join a rally at the Texas Capitol tomorrow morning. Casar and Doggett, notably, are signaling that they’ll both run in the redrawn TX-37, if approved.

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• Texas Alliance for Life founder and executive director Joe Pojman announced his retirement, set for Aug. 31. He founded the organization in 1988 and led it for nearly four decades. Amy O’Donnell, director of communications, will serve as acting director.

• E.J. Antoni is President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Antoni comes from the Heritage Foundation, which he joined in March 2022 after a yearlong stint with the Texas Public Policy Foundation.

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“Riding political wins, a once-restrained Gov. Greg Abbott is increasingly steamrolling foes” by Alejandro Serrano of The Texas Tribune

“Federal judge appears ready to dismiss 2 of 14 charges in Henry Cuellar’s bribery case” by Owen Dahlkamp of The Texas Tribune

“Texas school ratings improve, but more campuses inch closer to state sanctions” by Sneha Dey and Rob Reid of The Texas Tribune

“Texas funeral commissioner’s ‘problematic’ texts about Islam raise questions about her leadership” by Dug Begley and Sarah Smith of the Houston Chronicle

“Austin City Council approves $6.3 billion budget and calls for tax rate election” by Luz Moreno-Lozano of KUT

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(Aug. 15) Former Texas Supreme Court Chief Justice Nathan Hecht
(Aug. 16) State Rep. Sheryl Cole, D-Austin
(Aug. 16) State Rep. Cody Harris, R-Palestine
(Aug. 16) Former Lt. Gov. Bill Ratliff
(Aug. 17) State Rep. Jon Rosenthal, D-Houston
(Aug. 17) State Sen. Joan Huffman, R-Houston

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