The Progress Texas Daily Dispatch is delivered every weekday by Progress Texas Communications Director Chris Mosser. Rapid response on the breaking news stories Texas progressives need to know—all in less than 10 minutes!

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Along with the excitement about the massive opportunity that’s just been handed to Texas by its voters comes the realization of the wide scope of that opportunity: how best to make real improvements in the lives of Texans—how best to demonstrate what life can be like in Texas, when government prioritizes the people over corporate oligarchs, tech bros, and oil billionaires. The first glimpse of what’s to come in the 2027 session came yesterday, as opening day for bill prefiling saw 1,262 bills unveiled, covering a wide range of policy areas but definitely different in the fundamental way many of them would bring about concrete, day-to-day improvements for millions of Texans.

Right up top here is House Bill 101—and I do believe these get numbers as they arrive, so this was the first bill filed in this historic blue session of 2027—Austin State Rep. John Bucy wants to expand Medicaid in Texas to cover all individuals who qualify under federal funding provisions from the Affordable Care Act, actionable upon voter approval of a related constitutional amendment—basic stuff that has been resisted by the Republican majority ruling Texas for decades, for no solid reason other than its relation to Obamacare.

Bucy’s out swinging here: he’s also filed HB 164, which would repeal the private school voucher scam that Governor Greg Abbott was paid so handsomely to force through the Legislature last year, over the steadfast objections of many of his party’s own rural representatives. Then there is HB 180, also from John Bucy, greatly expanding voting access in Texas by permitting no-excuse mail-in voting, online voter registration, automatic registration through state agencies, and same-day registration at polling places. It expands early voting hours, allows 17-year-olds turning 18 by the general election to vote in primaries, and, very notably, creates an independent citizen redistricting commission—that means bye-bye to partisan gerrymandering.

There’s also HB 110: State Rep. Ana-Maria Rodriguez-Ramos is looking to raise the minimum wage, stuck in Texas at $7.25 per hour since 2009—an amount that’s lost about 30% of its purchasing power since then—to a minimum of $15 per hour, or to a match of any federal minimum wage that might be higher.

Over in the Senate, Rep. Bucy’s Medicaid expansion has a companion in Senate Bill 31, filed by Senator Judith Zaffirini, and there’s also SB 229 on Medicaid expansion, a joint venture by Senators Carol Alvarado, Molly Cook, Roland Gutierrez, and Taylor Rehmet, alongside SB 230 from the same gang of senators to mirror Rep. Bucy’s voting access bill.

Some of y’all are wondering what’s gonna happen with legal weed: well, Senator Alvarado has SB 237 for us to mull. It would legalize and regulate recreational cannabis for adults aged 21 and older in Texas, allowing possession for personal use of up to 2.5 ounces, allowing home cultivation of up to 12 plants, establishing a state licensing framework for commercial cannabis businesses, and imposing criminal penalties for selling cannabis products to minors. A companion bill for legalized cannabis for grownups over in the House comes, once again, from Rep. John Bucy in HB 362, plus one from El Paso Rep. Joe Moody, HB 369, along the same lane.

Reproductive freedom is on the agenda as well. No surprise to see Austin State Rep. Donna Howard file HB 126, which would expand protections for doctors who find they must use abortion procedures to protect the health of their patients, as well as a broader repealing or replacing of Texas’ wide-ranging restrictions on that same medical care.

The rubber is beginning to hit the road here. The win we’ve been celebrating for a full week now is about these things—making life better, safer, fairer, and more affordable in Texas.