Help us improve in just 2 minutes—share your thoughts in our reader survey.

2025 Texas legislative session

From Ballotpedia
Jump to: navigation, search
← 2024
2026 →


2025 Texas legislative session
Seal of Texas.svg.png
General information
Scheduled session start:    January 14, 2025

Scheduled session end:    June 2, 2025

Leadership
Senate President
Dan Patrick (R)

House Speaker
Dustin Burrows (R)
Majority Leader
Senate: N/A
House: N/A
Minority Leader
Senate: N/A
House: N/A

Elections
Next Election:    November 3, 2026

Last Election:    November 5, 2024

Previous legislative sessions
2024 • 2023 • 2022 • 2021 • 2020 • 2019 • 2018
Other 2025 legislative sessions


In 2025, the Texas State Legislature was scheduled to convene on January 14 and adjourn on June 2.

The legislators serving in this session took office following the 2024 elections. Republicans won a 20-11 majority in the Senate and an 88-62 majority in the House. The party also controlled the governorship, creating a Republican state government trifecta. At the start of the 2025 session, Texas was one of 23 state legislatures where neither party had a veto-proof supermajority in both chambers.

At the beginning of the 2025 legislative session:
  • Republicans held a majority in the Texas state House and state Senate.
  • Texas was one of 23 Republican state government trifectas.
  • Texas' governor was Republican Greg Abbott.

    • Leadership in 2025

    See also: Leadership positions in state legislatures

    Texas State Senate

    • Senate president: Dan Patrick (R)
    • Majority leader: N/A
    • Minority leader: N/A

    Texas House of Representatives

    • Speaker of the House: Dustin Burrows (R)
    • Majority leader: N/A
    • Minority leader: N/A

    2025 House speaker election

    See also :Election for speaker of the Texas House of Representatives, 2025

    On January 14, 2025, the members of the Texas House of Representatives elected Dustin Burrows (R) to serve as speaker through 2026. Burrows defeated David Cook (R) on the second round of voting 85-55, supported by 49 Democrats and 36 Republicans. Incumbent Dade Phelan (R), first elected to the speakership in 2021, did not run for a third term.[1]

    In addition to Burrows and Cook, Rep. Ana-Maria Ramos (D) ran for speaker and received 23 votes in the first round of voting. With none of the candidates receiving a majority, voting moved to a runoff between Burrows and Cook. Republicans controlled 88 of the legislature's 150 seats as a result of the 2024 elections, with 76 votes needed to win the speakership.[1]

    In an interview with FOX 4 News, Southern Methodist University professor Matthew Wilson described the election for speaker as reflecting "the ongoing division among Republicans in the Texas House between a conservative faction and a more establishment moderate faction, and that is a battle that has been going on among Texas Republicans for more than a decade now over House leadership," with the conservative faction supporting Cook and the establishment faction supporting Burrows. Wilson said the election would determine "whether the the House is going to operate more or less the way the Senate does and whether it's going to have a decidedly conservative flavor to it, as we've seen in the Texas Senate."[2]

    In his review of the 2023 legislative session, Rice University professor Mark Jones rated 11 House Republicans as less conservative than Burrows and 72 as more conservative. Jones rated 47 House Republicans as less conservative than Cook and 36 as more conservative.[3]

    Local political observers also described the March 5 Republican primaries for Texas House in 2024 as a battle between a more moderate and a more conservative wing of the state Republican Party. The primaries took place following two votes in 2023 that divided the House Republican caucus—one in which the House voted against introducing a school voucher program over Gov. Greg Abbott's (R) objections and one in which the House voted to impeach Attorney General Ken Paxton (R). Both Cook and Burrows voted in support of Abbott's voucher proposal and in favor of impeaching Paxton.

    Partisan control in 2025

    See also: State government trifectas

    Texas was one of 23 Republican state government trifectas at the start of 2025 legislative sessions. A state government trifecta occurs when one political party holds the governor's office, a majority in the state Senate, and a majority in the state House. For more information about state government trifectas, click here.

    Texas was also one of 23 state legislatures where neither party had a veto-proof supermajority in both chambers. Veto overrides occur when a legislature votes to reverse a veto issued by an executive such as a governor or the president. If one party has a majority in a state legislature that is large enough to override a gubernatorial veto without any votes from members of the minority party, it is called a veto-proof majority or, sometimes, a supermajority. To read more about veto-proof supermajorities in state legislatures, click here.

    The following tables show the partisan breakdown of the Texas State Legislature in the 2025 legislative session.

    Texas State Senate

    Party As of January 2025
         Democratic Party 11
         Republican Party 20
    Total 31

    Texas House of Representatives

    Party As of January 2025
         Democratic Party 62
         Republican Party 88
    Total 150

    Regular session

    The list below shows up to 25 pieces of legislation in the 2025 legislative session that most recently passed both chambers of the legislature, were signed by the governor, or were approved by the legislature in a veto override. If no bills are displayed below, no legislation has met these criteria yet in 2025. This information is provided by BillTrack50.

    Legislation trackers

    See also: Legislation Trackers

    Ballotpedia’s legislation trackers are your go-to resource for staying on top of key legislative topics. We capture any bill introduced on the topic across all of the 50 state legislatures, and we track the movement of the bill every step of the way. We provide real-time updates and translate legislative legalese into easily understandable language. As of the 2025 session, Ballotpedia provided tracking on the following topics. Click on the links below to view related bills from the 2025 session:

    Standing legislative committees

    See also: Standing committee and List of committees in Texas state government


    A standing committee of a state legislature is a committee that exists on a more-or-less permanent basis, from legislative session to session, that considers and refines legislative bills that fall under the committee's subject matter.

    At the beginning of the 2025 legislative session, there were 50 standing committees in Texas' state government, including 16 state Senate committees and 34 state House committees.

    Senate committees

    House committees

    Legislatively referred constitutional amendments

    In every state but Delaware, voter approval is required to enact a constitutional amendment. In each state, the legislature has a process for referring constitutional amendments before voters. In 18 states, initiated constitutional amendments can be put on the ballot through a signature petition drive. There are also many other types of statewide measures.

    The methods by which the Texas Constitution can be amended:

    See also: Article 17 of the Texas Constitution and Laws governing ballot measures in Texas

    The Texas Constitution provides one mechanism for amending the state's constitution—legislatively referred constitutional amendments. Texas requires a simple majority vote (50% plus 1) for voters to approve constitutional amendments.

    Legislature

    See also: Legislatively referred constitutional amendment

    According to Article 17, the state Legislature can refer constitutional amendments to the ballot for voters to decide. A two-thirds (66.67%) vote is required during one legislative session for the Texas State Legislature to place a constitutional amendment on the ballot. That amounts to a minimum of 100 votes in the Texas House of Representatives and 21 votes in the Texas State Senate, assuming no vacancies. Amendments do not require the governor's signature to be referred to the ballot.


    Historical partisan control

    The table below depicts the historical trifecta status of Texas.

    Texas Party Control: 1992-2025
    Three years of Democratic trifectas  •  Twenty-three years of Republican trifectas
    Scroll left and right on the table below to view more years.

    Year 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25
    Governor D D D R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R
    Senate D D D D D R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R
    House D D D D D D D D D D D R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R

    Historical Senate control

    Republicans won control of the Texas State Senate in 1996. In 2024, they won a 20-11 majority.

    The table below shows the partisan history of the Texas Senate following every general election from 1992 to 2024. All data from 2006 or earlier comes from Michael Dubin's Party Affiliations in the State Legislatures (McFarland Press, 2007). Data after 2006 was compiled by Ballotpedia staff.

    Texas State Senate election results: 1992-2024

    Year '92 '94 '96 '98 '00 '02 '04 '06 '08 '10 '12 '14 '16 '18 '20 '22 '24
    Democrats 18 17 15 15 15 12 12 11 12 12 12 11 11 12 13 12 11
    Republicans 13 14 16 16 16 19 19 20 19 19 19 20 20 19 18 19 20

    Historical House control

    Republicans won control of the Texas House of Representatives in 2002. In 2024, they won an 88-62 majority.

    The table below shows the partisan history of the Texas House following every general election from 1992 to 2024. All data from 2006 or earlier comes from Michael Dubin's Party Affiliations in the State Legislatures (McFarland Press, 2007). Data after 2006 was compiled by Ballotpedia staff.

    Texas House of Representatives election results: 1992-2022

    Year '92 '94 '96 '98 '00 '02 '04 '06 '08 '10 '12 '14 '16 '18 '20 '22 '24
    Democrats 91 89 82 79 78 62 63 69 74 51 55 52 55 67 67 64 62
    Republicans 58 61 68 71 72 88 87 81 76 99 95 98 95 83 83 86 88

    Analysis

    Adopted legislation, 2013-2023

    See also: The State Legislative Decade - Texas

    In 2024, Ballotpedia released analysis of bills enacted in each state in the preceding decade. The charts and table below detail legislation passed each year by party sponsorship.

    See also

    Elections Texas State Government State Legislatures State Politics
    Ballotpedia Elections Badge-VOTE-no shadow-Square.jpg
    Texas State Flag-Close Up.jpg
    State Houses-Tile image.png
    State Courts-Tile image.png

    External links

    Footnotes

    1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 The Texas Tribune, "Rep. Dustin Burrows voted Texas House speaker in blow to insurgent GOP movement," January 14, 2025
    2. ↑ FOX 4 News, "Texas House Speaker race shows state of GOP civil war | Texas: The Issue Is," December 15, 2024
    3. ↑ The Texas Tribune, "We ranked Texas House members along the ideological spectrum based on their 2023 votes," December 15, 2023
    v • e
    State legislatures
    Legislatures
    Alabama (H, S) · Alaska (H, S) · Arizona (H, S) · Arkansas (H, S) · California (A, S) · Colorado (H, S) · Connecticut (H, S) · Delaware (H, S) · Florida (H, S) · Georgia (H, S) · Hawaii (H, S) · Idaho (H, S) · Illinois (H, S) · Indiana (H, S) · Iowa (H, S) · Kansas (H, S) · Kentucky (H, S) · Louisiana (H, S) · Maine (H, S) · Maryland (H, S) · Massachusetts (H, S) · Michigan (H, S) · Minnesota (H, S) · Mississippi (H, S) · Missouri (H, S) · Montana (H, S) · Nebraska · Nevada (A, S) · New Hampshire (H, S) · New Jersey (GA, S) · New Mexico (H, S) · New York (A, S) · North Carolina (H, S) · North Dakota (H, S) · Ohio (H, S) · Oklahoma (H, S) · Oregon (H, S) · Pennsylvania (H, S) · Rhode Island (H, S) · South Carolina (H, S) · South Dakota (H, S) · Tennessee (H, S) · Texas (H, S) · Utah (H, S) · Vermont (H, S) · Virginia (H, S) · Washington (H, S) · West Virginia (H, S) · Wisconsin (A, S) · Wyoming (H, S)
    SLP badge.png
    2025
    2024
    2023
    Historical elections
    2022 •  2021 • 2020 • 2019 • 2018 • 2017 • 2016 • 2015 • 2014 • 2013 • 2012 • 2011 • 2010 • 2009 • 2008 • 2007 • 2006 • 2005 • 2004 • 2003 • 2002 • 2001 • 2000
    Features of
    state legislatures
    State senates
    State houses
    Leadership positions
    Retrieved from "https://ballotpedia.org/wiki/index.php?title=2025_Texas_legislative_session&oldid=10272960"