Texas House District 93 includes parts of Fort Worth and Arlington.

Texas House District 47 includes western and part of southern Travis County. 

For the last two years, the most fiercely fought contest in Texas politics has been the Democrats’ effort to take control of the Texas House. Buoyed by flipping 12 seats to their column in 2018 and believing they could ride a demographic wave to increased power, Democrats and their PACs spent tens of millions of dollars in this effort. 

The last campaign finance reports to be filed by Texas state-level candidates before Election Tuesday were due October 26 to the Texas Ethics Commission. With that latest update, all available pre-election campaign finance data for the 2020 election cycle is now included in Transparency USA’s Texas database.

The most closely watched battle in Texas state-level politics is the effort by Democrats to flip the Texas House to blue this November. If Democrats can hold the 12 seats they gained in 2018 and take nine more, they will control the Texas House for the first time in more than two decades. The upcoming redistricting process, set to happen in 2021, redraws the legislative maps for both state and federal legislatures and makes this election even more consequential.

*This report first appeared on Ballotpedia as a part of our ongoing partnership. We are proud to provide campaign finance data to Ballotpedia for state-level elections. Learn more about our partnership here.*

Two weeks ago, Transparency USA reported about Forward Majority, a national political action committee (PAC) targeting the Texas House and several other state legislatures with the intent of flipping control to the Democrats ahead of the 2021 redistricting process.

Battleground 2020: Texas House of Representatives offers clear, easy-to-understand analysis of the 27 races that were decided by less than 10 percentage points in 2018.

Texas candidates just filed their semiannual campaign finance reports, giving voters a behind-the-scenes look into their fundraising as they head into the final stretch before the November elections. 

Election Day for the party primary runoffs in Texas is this upcoming Tuesday, July 14. All eyes are on elections for the Texas Legislature this round, because the results of these runoffs could have an outsized impact in November. Although primary elections were held back on March 3rd, 16 of those elections have proceeded to a runoff because no candidate was able to garner at least 50 percent of the vote. 

In the 2020 election season, redistricting is the biggest prize in Texas politics. The lawmakers elected to office this November will have outsized influence over the all-important redistricting process in the 2021 legislative session. Democrats are working to usher in a “blue wave” of influence in Austin, particularly when it comes to the redrawing of district maps for the next decade. 

Rumors have been swirling in the political world about what’s going on with fundraising — who’s ahead and who’s behind. We decided to pull the data, do the math, and bring you the numbers. We compared 2020 to the 2018 election cycle. What we found was, frankly, shocking. 

Texas House District 2, east of Dallas, includes Hopkins, Hunt, and Van Zandt counties. Republican incumbent House Rep. Dan Flynn’s consistent political shift to the left, combined with his outright opposition to the Republican Party platform position against taxpayer-funded lobbying has earned him two challengers on his right flank. Republican challenger Bryan Slaton is back for a third showdown against Flynn, and Republican activist Dwayne Collins has also thrown his hat into the ring. The winner of this three-way Republican battle will face Democrat contender Bill Brannon in November.  

Although disgraced Speaker of the Texas House Dennis Bonnen announced he would not seek reelection, he has not yet resigned, and he remains in control of more than $3.8 million. According to the most recent campaign finance reports released January 15, Bonnen has $824,334.01 in his campaign account and $2,996,243.90 in Texas Leads, a PAC established by Bonnen.

In 2018 the average spent by politicians who won a seat in the Texas House of Representatives was $354,099. As with any average, it doesn’t tell the whole story. While some candidates won their seats on a shoestring budget, six House Representatives doled out well in excess of one million dollars during their campaign. Occupying the top spot in 2018 — and outspending the second highest person on the list by more than $700,000 — was Republican House Rep. Mayes Middleton (R, HD 23), who spent $2.3 million to win House District 23. 

Embattled Texas Speaker of the House Dennis Bonnen announced Tuesday morning that he will not seek reelection in 2020. Here’s how that announcement and the related scandal is impacting the money in Texas politics:

As Democratic presidential candidates begin to reveal how much money they raised last quarter, it makes sense to examine the policies they promote about raising that money. Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders (and at least eight others) have advocated for expanding or mandating government-funded elections.

Texas House Representative Dustin Burrows, who represents District 83 (Lubbock and a swath of West Texas), resigned his post as Chair of the Republican Caucus in the Texas House, apparently as a result of his role in the scandal currently plaguing Texas Republicans. Although he did not resign from office, he finds himself vulnerable in 2020. 

On Wednesday, the Texas House General Investigating Committee, tasked with investigating internal House affairs, announced it will hold a public hearing on Monday, August 12 to investigate allegations against Speaker of the House Dennis Bonnen. The number one donor this year to House Rep. Morgan Meyer, the Chairman of the investigating committee? None other than Bonnen himself.

These ten Texas PACs have already taken in more than $14 million combined, which they will use to support their favored candidates in the 2020 elections. Some of these PACs are partisan, some are corporate, and some represent the special interests of their industry constituents. Meet the top ten PACs which have collected the most money so far.*

Nearly $70 million has already been pumped into the accounts of Texas candidates and PACs for the 2020 elections. Who’s giving all that money? Lots of everyday Texans. Ninety-seven percent of all contributions so far have been for $1,000 or less. 

“Everything’s bigger in Texas.” This year the famous quip may apply not only to Texas cowboy hats, ranches, and our “taller-than-the-one-in-DC” capitol building, but also to Texas’ outsized impact on American politics. Indeed, U.S. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi recently told a crowd in Houston that Texas is “ground zero” for the 2020 elections. 

The 86th Session of the Texas Legislature ended on May 27, 2019. As politicians begin to jockey for position going into the next election season, what’s the first thing to watch? Money, of course.

“Dark money” is a term used to describe political spending by groups that are not required to disclose their donors. Most often it refers to groups designated by the IRS as 501(c) organizations — businesses, issue advocacy groups, unions, civic and trade organizations (including many nonprofits) which are not allowed to directly contribute to a candidate or campaign, but are allowed to spend money to educate or advocate about issues related to politics or to provide information about where candidates stand on certain issues. (Transparency USA is a 501(c)(3) organization because we provide information and education to the public concerning the money in politics.)

Yesterday Governor Greg Abbott delivered the 2019 State of the State Address. Like the convening of the Texas legislature, the State of the State Address is a bi-annual affair. The governor traditionally delivers the speech near the beginning of the legislative session to laud the accomplishments of his administration, to promote his political and legislative priorities, and perhaps most importantly, to declare certain “emergency items.”