Burrows Gets $125K from TLR in Move
that May Defuse Primary Targeting Push

Texas Senate Fundraising - Texas House & Senate Races Rankings

Capitol Inside
January 18, 2026

The Texans for Lawsuit Reform PAC could be pulling the rug out from under a cadre of primary challengers it recruited to run against Texas House Republicans after giving Speaker Dustin Burrows a pass along with a six-digit infusion of campaign cash in the closing months of 2025.

After blaming the first-term Republican speaker for putting GOP colleagues in positions to kill priority bills in the regular session last year, TLR contributed $50,000 to Burrows in October before donating $75,000 to his campaign account in December.

The lawsuit reform group's about-face on the Lubbock lawmaker who claimed the gavel a year ago may have had the effect of defusing a push to eliminate House Republicans in the primary as the price of their defiance on an issue on which they'd marched in lockstep until now. Based on unsubstantiated social media reports during the weekend, TLR's new chief executive officer Ryan Patrick has been telling some of the legislators who it had targeted that the group will no longer bankroll opponents trying to unseat them in the primary election on March 3.

The TLR recruits who'd be left in the lurch if that's true begins with David McArthur - a San Antonio Republican who received $350,000 from the group during the final four months last year for a race against freshman State Rep. Marc LaHood in House District 121 in Bexar County. LaHood ousted a Republican who Governor Greg Abbott had targeted in the primary election in 2024.

The HD 121 race has been the most expensive on the Texas House battlefield by far so far in 2026. LaHood raised more than $1.4 million last year with trial lawyers who TLR views as enemies as his most generous givers. But McArthur rode TLR's support to a huge fundraising haul himself with almost $600,000 in 2025.

The TLR challenger cast included Krum Republican Lisa McEntire, who scored $50,000 from the anti-lawsuit organization last year for a race against State Rep. Andy Hopper of Decatur. Another San Antonio Republican - Willie NG - took $50,000 from TLR along with $13,000 worth of in-kind services.

NG rounded up more than $80,000 from contributors to go with a $20,000 loan for a bid in House District 122 where second-term State Rep. Mark Dorazio is seeking a new term. McEntire capped off a $12,000 start-up loan with nearly $100,000 in donations from supporters and TLR at the top of the pack. The fundraising numbers for 2025 were revealed in reports that the Texas Ethics Commission made public on Friday.

The proxy fight between TLR and trial lawyers in HD 121 has crowned the pinnacle of Capitol Inside's Texas Races to Watch for the state House in round one since its inception last fall. But the primary fights that feature Dorazio and Hopper on the defensive in HD 122 and HD 64 soared into the top 10 on the list of hottest House contests with incumbents after the new numbers were revealed.

The second-ranked contest on the House watch list is the only other race with a price tag that's already topped $1 million with the primary election just six weeks away. Kathaleen Wall, who run for Congress in Houston in recent years, loaned her campaign for the House District 13 seat $900,000 last year when the incumbent she's trying to unseat - GOP State Rep. Angelia Orr of Itasca - raised more than $474,000 from supporters in a bid for a third term.

Republican challenger Nathan Watkins of Baytown reported contributions of almost $445,000 to the state in a quest for the seat that State Rep. Terri Leo-Wilson of Galveston is seeking again in House District 23. Watkins lives in a tiny slice of Baytown in Chambers County. Some of Watkins' biggest-giving donors are from Baytown as well. Leo-Wilson raised nearly $189,000 in 2025 for the race.

Both of the challengers who State Rep. Brian Harrison of Midlothian is facing in the first round in 2026 had six-digit fundraising hauls last year in campaigns for the seat he's attempting to defend in House District 10, which has vaulted to 4th on the list of races to watch for the west wing in Austin.

GOP State Rep. Stan Kitzman of Pattison and primary rival Dennis "Goose" Geesaman of Flatonia are dueling in the March primary for the nomination in House District 85 - which jumped to the 5th spot on the list of hottest round-one contests with incumbents for the majority party on the defensive.

Several Republicans who appeared to have potentially tough primary foes - State Reps. Janie Lopez of San Benito, Jeff Leach of Allen, Jerry Patterson of Frisco and Cody Harris of Palestine - appear to be relatively safe at this point in districts that have dropped out of the top 10 with challengers who've failed to raise enough money to be competitive against incumbents who are heavily armed.

Liberal Marc LaHood is on the ropes. Taking over $1 million from trial lawyers and groups connected to George Soros. They are paying for his new campaign ads filled with lies.

He's now lying repeatedly about conservative David McArthur, desperately citing lawsuits David has had pic.twitter.com/FlSK2ssVtp

— David McArthur for Texas House (@DavidMcArthurTX) January 17, 2026