This article was originally published via a TLPC email distribution on June 29, 2025, and republished on July 1, 2025, with permission from the author. 

The Texas Legislative Progressive Caucus closed out the 89th Legislative Session with strength and pride. Our members fought the Trump regime's corrupt agenda inside the Texas House and Senate with guts and grit. Our lives are under assault by Trump’s hostile takeover of our country. The battles are happening everywhere, including in the Texas Legislature. We may be David to the billionaires’ Goliath, but we relish the fight because there is joy in fighting for our neighbors.

TLPC logo design by Vicko Alvarez.

The wins we are celebrating

• A 67% growth in Progressive Caucus membership from the 88th to the 89th Session, leading to a stronger, more consistent progressive voting bloc.
• Championing policies that would lower the cost of living for Texans: increased wages, access to healthcare, and affordable housing.
• Leading opposition to the state budget, which includes a $1 billion taxpayer-funded handout to wealthy families whose children are already enrolled in private schools.

The caucus also delayed and denied passage of several harmful bills using procedural tools and working with advocates, including:

• HB 32, an egregious tenant eviction bill, killed through delay tactics on the deadline night to pass House bills. Although the Senate version still passed, it was a less harmful version.
• HB 105, a corporate tax giveaway and attack on wages, killed by Representative John Bryant with a point of order on House bill deadline night. A similar bill, SB 2322, was killed with delay tactics on Senate bill deadline night.
• SB 16, one of the most aggressive proof-of-citizenship proposals in the country, died in the Calendars Committee. We extend huge congratulations and gratitude to the voting rights community who led the opposition to this bill.

TLPC original artwork by intern Fernando Alvarez.

The upcoming Special Session is about redistricting. And it's all about the billionaires.

Taken in sum, the 89th Legislative Session was a failure of corruption and greed for working Texans. The Trump regime is doing the bidding of billionaires, and Abbott, Patrick, and Burrows are doing the bidding of Trump. Plain and simple.

Sixty-six billionaires in Texas own more wealth than 70% of Texans combined, and the Trump regime is destroying the lives of anyone who stands in the way of this gross accumulation of wealth. Big tech, AI data centers, high-volume stock brokers, oil and gas, private prisons, educational product vendors... if it’s a leach on public funds, then you can bet it received financial benefit from the Texas Legislature. We also saw efforts from the Project 2025 playbook, including the weakening of state agencies, the elimination of legislative intent, and the expansion of executive power over the courts.

Now, a special session is scheduled for July 21 because Dictator Trump told his MAGA wingman Governor Abbott to do so for mid-decade redistricting to protect the Republican majority in the U.S. House. Even though Abbott hasn’t announced that redistricting is on the agenda for the special, we’re confident that it will be. Under Trump tyranny, cronies like Greg Abbott always comply. We see the bills he has named for the special for what they are: bait for cooperation.

The Texas Legislative Progressive Caucus opposes the calling of a Trump Regime Special Session and calls on all Democrats to stand up together and without hesitation in defense of working families’ freedom to have their voice heard. The only measure of success during the Trump Regime Special Session is to stop Trump and his Texas lieutenants from attacking the power of our vote.