The 2026 Texas House of Representatives election will be held on November 3, 2026 alongside elections for the State Senate. The winners of this election will serve in the 90th Texas Legislature. All 150 seats in the Texas House of Representatives are up for election.
Primary elections will be held on March 3, 2026, with runoff primaries taking place, if necessary, on May 26, 2026.[1]
Background
Republicans have controlled the House of Representatives since the 2002 election. The 2024 election marked a considerable shift towards the right among the membership of the House of Representatives. Fifteen Republicans lost their primary elections, with the majority of their challengers backed by governor Greg Abbott for their support of school vouchers. Republicans flipped two seats in the heavily-HispanicRio Grande Valley in the general election, increasing their majority to 88 out of 150 seats, with the Democrats holding the other 62.[2]
2025 regular session
During the regular session, the legislature passed a number of bills to advance a conservative agenda. The session began, however, with the election of Dustin Burrows as Speaker of the House with the support of most Democrats and some Republicans, over more insurgent Republican David Cook.[3]
Long a priority of the most conservative Republicans in the legislature, especially in the Senate, that had historically faced major hurdles in the more moderate House, the passage of school voucher legislation marked the most significant sign of the conservative shift of the chamber in recent years. In 2021, only 29 Republicans had voted in favor of vouchers. Greg Abbott began pushing the issue more strongly in 2022, gaining support from many incumbent Republicans and funding the primary challengers of those who still opposed it.[4] By the time the measure came up for a vote in the 2025 regular session, only two Republicans, Gary VanDeaver and former Speaker Dade Phelan, voted against it, alongside all present Democrats.[5] The bill allocates $1 billion of public funds for children to attend private schools or for their parents to homeschool them, prioritized based on income and disability.[6]
Tort reform legislation backed by the influential Texans for Lawsuit Reform, failed due to opposition from the hardline wing of the Republican caucus.[11]
Greg Abbott had already planned to call a special session to address legislation that did not pass in time during the regular session or that Abbott vetoed, such as a ban on THC products, as well as to address new issues such as deadly flooding in central Texas. At the request of President Donald Trump, Abbott added congressional redistricting to the agenda with the goal of flipping five Democratic-held U.S. House seats to the Republicans in the 2026 elections.[12] In response, most House Democrats left the state on August 3 in order to prevent the establishment of a quorum in the chamber, blocking all legislative activity.[13] The walkout lasted for the entire remaining duration of the first special session, after which Abbott immediately called a second one. Democrats returned to the chamber for the second session.[14] The legislature passed new congressional maps shortly afterwards, and they later passed additional legislation to punish lawmakers who break quorum in the future.[15][16]
District partisanship
2024 Presidential data by House district:
Trump
40–50%
50–60%
60–70%
70–80%
80–90%
Harris
40–50%
50–60%
60–70%
70–80%
In the 2024 presidential election, Republican Donald Trump won 96 districts, while Democrat Kamala Harris won 54 districts. Democrats now hold 8 districts in which Trump won, while Republicans hold no districts won by Harris. Republicans made massive gains across the historically-Democratic Rio Grande Valley region in 2024.[17] Most of the Democratic-held districts won by Trump come from this region. Republicans have fielded candidates in 6 of these districts.
The chair of the Texas House Democratic Campaign Committee, Rep. Christina Morales, on behalf of the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee released their target seat list which included five Republican held seats:[18]
House District 34, which Rep. Denise Villalobos, R-Corpus Christi, flipped by an 11-percentage point margin
House District 37, which Rep. Janie Lopez, R-San Benito, won by 10 points
House District 112, which Rep. Angie Chen Button, R-Garland, won by 8 points
House District 118, an open seat that Rep. John Lujan, R-San Antonio, won by 3 points
House District 121, which Rep. Marc LaHood, R-San Antonio, won by 5 points
Retirements
Summary
14 Republicans and 7 Democrats have announced that they are retiring. 7 Republicans and 4 Democrats have announced they are running for another office.
Ahead of the March primary election, Democrats announced that they had recruited candidates to run in every state and federal race on the ballot, including all 150 House of Representatives districts, a first for either political party in the state's modern history. Governor Greg Abbott pushed to recruit candidates to run in every district in Harris County as well, as part of an attempt to flip the county in his concurrent gubernatorial campaign.[42] With bolstered recruiting in several Trump-won districts in the heavily-HispanicRio Grande Valley as well, Republicans are contesting 133 of the state's 150 districts, the most in their party's modern history as well.
Statewide primary election
In contrast to the 2024 primary, which saw millions of dollars poured into dozens of Republican primary races to oust opponents of school vouchers, the 2026 primary has seen a much smaller field dominated by different political forces. Unlike the right-wing donors who fueled the school voucher push, such as Tim Dunn and Farris Wilks, more primary challengers this cycle have the backing of Texans for Lawsuit Reform, a group which was instrumental in the Republican takeover of the state government in the 1990s and 2000s. Seen as a more establishment conservative organization, TLR's influence in the legislature has waned in recent years as the party has become more dominated by hardline conservatives. They are targeting lawmakers who led the defeat of prominent tort reform bills in the previous legislative session.[43]
General election
For the first time in several election cycles, the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee is putting significant funding into Texas House races in anticipation of a possible nationwide wave election. They have targeted five Republican-held seats, focused in the Rio Grande Valley and the state's suburban areas, which Democrats have either lost or narrowed Republican margins in recent years.[44]
Incumbent Republican Gary VanDeaver is retiring.[19] On October 11, 2025, the Texas GOP issued a censure against VanDeaver, but stopped short of implementing newly adopted rules that would have barred VanDeaver from running in the Republican primary.[48]
Incumbent Republican Angelia Orr is running for re-election.[54] On October 11, 2025, the Texas GOP issued a censure against Orr, but stopped short of implementing newly adopted rules that would have barred Orr from running in the Republican primary.[48]
Incumbent Republican Dade Phelan is retiring.[24] On October 11, 2025, the Texas GOP issued a censure against Phelan, but stopped short of implementing newly adopted rules that would have barred Phelan from running in the Republican primary.[48]
Incumbent Republican Denise Villalobos is running for re-election. Villalobos flipped District 34, which is based in Corpus Christi, in 2024. It is one of five Republican-held seats Democrats are most heavily targeting in the general election.[44]
Incumbent Republican Janie Lopez is running for re-election. Lopez flipped District 37, which is located in the Rio Grande Valley, in 2022, is one of five Republican-held seats Democrats are most heavily targeting in the general election.[44]
Incumbent Democrat James Talarico is retiring to run for US Senate.[38] Jeremy Hendricks, a labor organizer, has received the endorsement of several Austin-area Democrats, including U.S. Representative Lloyd Doggett, state senator Sarah Eckhardt, and mayor Kirk Watson.[66]
Incumbent Republican Andy Hopper is running for re-election.[69] Texans for Lawsuit Reform is backing challenger Lisa McEntire over Hopper's role in watering down and eventually killing a major tort reform bill.[43]
Incumbent Republican Stan Lambert is retiring.[25] On October 11, 2025, the Texas GOP issued a censure against Lambert, but stopped short of implementing newly adopted rules that would have barred Lambert from running in the Republican primary.[48]
Incumbent Republican Giovanni Capriglione, who had led a Texas version of the Department of Government Efficiency, initially planned to run for re-election but announced his retirement on July 23, 2025. Armin Mizani, the mayor of Keller who had run for this seat in 2018, switched to this race from a special election for Senate District 9, which he had previously been running for.[30] Zee Wilcox, another Republican candidate had been removed from the ballot over issues with her filing paperwork, but she successfully sued to remain on the ballot.[79][80] Tort reform has become a major issue in the race, with Texans for Lawsuit Reform backing Fred Tate, with more conservative legal groups backing Mizani.[43]
Incumbent Republican Jared Patterson is running for re-election. On October 11, 2025, the Texas GOP issued a censure against Patterson, but stopped short of implementing newly adopted rules that would have barred Patterson from running in the Republican primary.[48]
Incumbent Republican Angie Chen Button is running for re-election.[81] District 112, based in the Far North Dallas suburbs of Richardson and Garland, has become increasingly competitive in recent cycles, although Button has continued to win re-election despite this. It is one of five Republican-held seats Democrats are most heavily targeting in the general election.[44]
Incumbent Democrat Philip Cortez is running for re-election. Cortez, a moderate Democrat who did not participate in the 2025 quorum break over redistricting nor the 2021 quorum break over a Republican bill which tightened voting requirements, has drawn a progressive primary challenger, Robert Miahara.[83]
Incumbent Republican John Lujan is retiring to run for Texas's 35th congressional district.[31] Lujan had initially won the district in a 2021 special election following the resignation of Democrat Leo Pacheco. Pacheco switched parties in 2025 to run for this seat as a Republican,[84] but he later dropped out. Desi Martinez, who had also run in the special election as a Democrat, remained in the race, having also switched parties. Martinez is backed by local Republicans, including Lujan, but she has two other opponents remaining for the nomination.[85][86] District 118, based in southern Bexar County, is one of five Republican-held seats Democrats are most heavily targeting in the general election due to its narrow Republican lean.[44]
Incumbent Republican Marc LaHood is running for re-election.[61] LaHood, who won his seat by ousting moderate Republican Steve Allison in 2024 over Allison's opposition to school vouchers, has drawn his own primary challenger backed by the influential group Texans for Lawsuit Reform. Challenger David McArthur, who worked in the George W. Bush administration, is considered the more moderate, business-centric Republican of the two.[85] District 121, based in the northern suburbs of San Antonio, is one of five Republican-held seats Democrats are most heavily targeting in the general election due to its narrow Republican lean.[44]
Incumbent Republican Mark Dorazio is running for re-election. Texans for Lawsuit Reform is backing challenger Willie Ng over Dorazio's role in watering down and eventually killing a major tort reform bill.[43]
Incumbent Democrat Ray Lopez is retiring. Lopez has endorsed his chief of staff, Donovon Rodriguez to replace him in the crowded Democratic primary.[39] Former Bexar County constable Michelle Barrientes Vela and Adrian Reyna, a San Antonio teacher's union vice president, are also among the Democrats in the race.[88][89] Carlos Antonio Raymond, who has switched parties multiple times, is also running.[85]
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Government