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 legislative session. All 150 seats in the Texas House of Representatives are up for election.
Primary elections were held on March 3, 2026, with runoff primaries scheduled for May 26, 2026 in districts where no primary candidate secured a majority of the vote.
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 over the issue of school vouchers. Republicans flipped two seats in the heavily Hispanic Rio Grande Valley in the general election, increasing their majority to 88 out of 150 seats, with the Democrats holding the other 62.
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.
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. 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. 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. President Donald Trump lent his support to the effort and endorsed all Republican legislators who voted in favor of the bill should they seek reelection.
Other conservative hallmarks related to education included requiring public schools to display the Ten Commandments in classrooms, banning diversity, equity, and inclusion policies from public schools, and restricting free speech on college campuses in the wake of Gaza war protests at universities. Other new laws included the tightening of bail, restricting the rights of transgender people, easing access to vaccine exemption, and cutting property taxes. On a more bipartisan basis, the legislature passed bills to alleviate water supply issues, clarify medical exceptions in the state's abortion ban, and ease the construction of housing in amidst the state's growing housing crisis.
Tort reform legislation backed by the influential Texans for Lawsuit Reform (TLR) failed due to opposition from the hardline wing of the Republican caucus.
Special sessions and redistricting 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. 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. 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. The legislature passed new congressional maps shortly afterwards, and they later passed additional legislation to punish lawmakers who break quorum in the future.
District partisanship
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. Most of the Democratic-held districts won by Trump come from this region. Republicans have fielded candidates in 6 of these districts.
District Trump margin ofvictory in 2024 Incumbent Party Firstelected Incumbent marginof victory in 2024 35th district Democratic 2012 36th district Sergio Muñoz Democratic 2010 39th district Armando Martinez Democratic 2004 40th district Democratic 2012 41st district (retiring) Democratic 2010 42nd district Democratic 19921998 (defeated)2000 74th district Democratic 2020 144th district Democratic 2016
Targeted seats In January 2026, The Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee released the party's target seat list which included five Republican held seats: District 34, which Denise Villalobos, R-Corpus Christi, flipped by 11 points District 37, which Janie Lopez, R-San Benito, won by 10 points District 112, which Angie Chen Button, R-Garland, won by 8 points District 118, an open seat that John Lujan, R-San Antonio, won by 3 points District 121, which Marc LaHood, R-San Antonio, won by 5 points In June 2026, the list was expanded to 15 seats, including three Democratic held seats:
District 41, an open seat that Robert Guerra, D-Mission, won by 7 points District 52, which Caroline Harris Davilla, R-Round Rock, won by 12 points District 61, which Keresa Richardson, R-McKinney, won by 19 points District 67, which Jeff Leach, R-Allen, won by 21 points District 70, which Mihaela Plesa, D-Dallas, won by 4 points District 74. which Eddie Morales, D-Eagle Pass, won by 3 points District 94, an open seat which Tony Tinderholt, R-Arlington, won by 11 points District 108, which Morgan Meyer, R-Dallas, won by 15 points District 133, which Mano DeAyala, R-Houston, was uncontested District 138, which Lacy Hull, R-Houston, won by 14 points
Retirements and resignations Summary
Twelve Republicans and seven Democrats are retiring at the end of their terms. Of these, 7 Republicans and 4 Democrats are running for another office. Two Republicans resigned prior to the end of their terms.
Republicans District 9: Trent Ashby is retiring to run for Texas Senate. District 15: Steve Toth is retiring to run for U.S. Congress 2nd District.Meet Steve Toth, Steve Toth for Congress. Accessed July 11, 2025.2026 Elections, Texas Business Roundtable. District 21: Dade Phelan is retiring. District 71: Stan Lambert is retiring. District 86: John Smithee is retiring. District 94: Tony Tinderholt is retiring to run for Tarrant County Commissioners Court Precinct 2. District 96: David Cook is retiring to run for Texas Senate. District 98: Giovanni Capriglione is retiring. District 118: John Lujan retired to run for U.S. Congress 35th District. District 126: Sam Harless is retiring. District 128: Briscoe Cain retired to run for U.S. Congress 9th District. District 129: Dennis Paul is retiring to run for Texas Senate.
Democrats District 41: Robert Guerra is retiring. District 47: Vikki Goodwin is retiring to run for Lieutenant Governor. District 49: Gina Hinojosa is retiring to run for Governor. District 50: James Talarico is retiring to run for US Senate. District 125: Ray Lopez is retiring. District 131: Alma Allen is retiring. District 135: Jon Rosenthal is retiring to run for Texas Railroad Commissioner.
Resignations
District 1: Gary VanDeaver District 93: Nate Schatzlinehttps://www.texastribune.org/2026/07/02/texas-nate-schatzline-appointed-greg-abbott-governors-office-election-adviser/
Incumbents defeated In primaries Two incumbent Republicans and two incumbent Democrats lost re-nomination to a challenger in their respective primary elections.
Republicans District 3: Cecil Bell Jr. lost renomination to Kristen Plaisance. District 85: Stan Kitzman lost renomination to Dennis Geesaman.
Democrats District 101: Chris Turner lost renomination to Junior Ezeonu. District 149: Hubert Vo lost renomination to Darlene Breaux.
Campaign 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. With bolstered recruiting in several Trump-won districts in the heavily-Hispanic Rio 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.
Very few incumbent legislators lost renomination compared to 2024, despite the substantial financial backing many challengers received. Two Republican challengers backed by billionaire Tim Dunn won, but no challengers backed by TLR or pro-casino groups defeated any incumbents. Former Democratic leader Chris Turner lost renomination in a major upset, while two other Democratic incumbents were forced into runoffs. In the runoff election, Democrat Hubert Vo lost renomination, but no other incumbents were defeated.
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 initially 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. After Republicans nominated embattled attorney general Ken Paxton for U.S. Senate in the May runoff, the DLCC greatly expanded its target list to twelve Republican-held seats, the same number they flipped in the 2018 election, in anticipation of a more favorable electoral environment. The new targets are primarily suburban seats, especially in North Texas, that Donald Trump won by between six and fifteen percentage points in the 2024 presidential election. As the election campaign progressed, many Republicans expressed concern about the party's ability to maintain their large majority in the chamber, in contrast to previous years, where these projections came mostly from Democrats. Despite these concerns, most observers still consider Republicans to be overwhelmingly favored to maintain control.