The Effect of the Texas Legislative Elections on this Issue

[Douva]

It appears that the new makeup of the Texas House of Representatives will be 76 Republicans and 74 Democrats. Fortunately, the issue of gun rights is something of a bipartisan issue in Texas, so that virtually even split doesn't mean as much here as it would in some states.

Compared to the 2007 Texas Legislature, we've lost four Representatives rated "A" by the Texas State Rifle Association. We've picked up one Representative rated "B" and three Representatives who weren't assigned a rating because they didn't return the TSRA candidate questionnaire. That's somewhat disappointing, but don't let it discourage you--As best I can tell, more than two thirds of Texas State Representatives still have ratings of "A" or "A+" from the TSRA. Overall, there will be eighteen new Representatives in the Texas House.

In the Texas State Senate we lost one Senator rated "A" and picked up one Senator rated "F," and there will be a run-off in Texas Senate District 17 (Port Arthur, Galveston, Freeport, Lake Jackson, Missouri City, Sugarland, western parts of Houston) between "A" rated Joan Huffman and "C" rated Chris Bell. Sixteen of the 31 Texas Senate seats were up for re-election, and of those 16, it appears that nine (56%) still have a TSRA rating of "A" or "A+." That number will jump to 10 (63%) if Joan Huffman wins the District 17 run-off. After the run-off, there will be two new Senators in the Texas Senate.

Alice Tripp of the Texas State Rifle Association pointed out to me this morning that the Texas Senate requires a two-thirds majority to bring a bill to the floor for debate, after which the bill can be passed by a simple majority vote. That means that the biggest factor affecting us could be the run-off election between Joan Huffman and Chris Bell. We need Joan Huffman to win, in order to ensure that we'll have enough supportive Senators to bring our bill to the Senate floor for debate. That doesn't mean we can't do it if she loses; it just means it'll be a lot easier if she wins.

During the upcoming Pitch It to the People Week, we need to focus on gently nudging Texas's twenty new legislators that we're on the right side of this issue.