Limits to Campaign Contributions
Non-judicial candidates are allowed to receive unlimited contributions per individual donor, per election cycle. Judicial candidates are limited to accepting maximum contributions of $5,000 per donor.
Candidates are allowed to receive unlimited contributions per political action committee (PAC), per election cycle.
Candidates may make unlimited contributions to their own campaign from their personal funds.
Candidates may not accept contributions from a super PAC, corporation, or union.
Minimum Reporting Thresholds
Donors who give less than $90 per reporting period do not have to be reported in detail to the Texas Ethics Commission.
Filing deadlines
Candidates are required to file detailed reports of their campaign donations and expenditures. Lobbyists must file reports on their prospective compensation. Transparency USA provides accurate, searchable data within days of its release by the Texas Ethics Commission.
See Texas campaign finance report deadlines here.
*Additional reports may be required by Texas filers. If a report is skipped (often because its deadline is close to another), the data from that report is captured in the next update.
Texas Statewide Office Holders
Texas statewide office holders serve four-year terms and are up for reelection in non-presidential election years.
The Texas State Legislature
The Texas state legislature meets every two years in odd numbered years for a six-month session.
Texas House Representatives serve two-year terms.
Texas State Senators serve four-year terms.
Term Limits
Texas has no limits on the number of terms a politician may serve.
How We Display Texas Campaign Finance Data
Campaign finance is complex, with reporting practices that vary widely from state to state. As a reporting system — and not a balance sheet — contributions and expenditures do not balance the way we’d expect if it were an accounting system. In most cases, this does not mean that the data is incomplete, but rather, that entities are following the unique reporting requirements in Texas.
To help put the numbers in context, we’ve created a state-specific explanation of how we display information reported. Click the link below for a more detailed description of how Texas’ data is displayed on TUSA: