Texas Has Fewer GOP Legislators in 2025
than Party's Totals Three Times in the Past
Capitol Inside
September 2, 2025
Governor Greg Abbott set himself up for quibbling on Monday when he declared that Texas is more Republican than ever as a result of a congressional redistricting plan and and other measures that he's had state lawmakers tackle in the second of two special sessions this summer.
"The new Congressional Map I signed, along with the other Special Session agenda items, have moved the Texas G.O.P. further to the right," Abbott said in a post on X late Sunday night. "Texas is now more Red than ever."
But that isn't true based on the number of Republicans in the Texas Legislature and the combined count of lawmakers in Austin and the state's delegation to Congress. Even if the GOP flips all five of the U.S. House seats that it's targeted on the map that the governor is touting, Texans would still have fewer Republican legislators representing them in 2027 than they've had at times during nearly 23 years of GOP rule here.
The GOP had more lawmakers in Texas when Republican Rick Perry was the governor in 2011 than it's had here at any point in modern history. The Republicans had their only supermajority in the Texas House with 101 seats after picking up 23 in the general election in 2010 and two more with defections by Democrats after the vote.
Republicans flipped three congressional districts here as well with a boost from a monstrous red wave in the first midterm election with Barack Obama as the president. With 19 state Senate seats and 23 U.S. House districts on their side of the ledger, the Texas majority party had 143 GOP lawmakers in the Legislature and congressional delegation combined in 2011. That's still the record today despite Abbott's claim on Texas being more Republican than it's been at any point in history.
The Legislature had more Republicans on its rosters when it met in 2015 and 2017 than the combined state House and Senate count here in 2025.
The Legislature and the state's U.S. House delegation have featured 133 GOP members when added together this year. The total tally would vault to 138 if the Republicans win all five of the districts the party's state legislators targeted for partisan conversions at the polls in 2026.
But the combined count of Republicans in the Legislature and the lower house of Congress in 2027 would still be ranked fourth behind the party's total tally in 2011, 2015 and 2017 if the GOP runs the table on targeted seats on the new congressional map and breaks even in Texas House and Senate seats at the ballot box next year.
The Texas House had 97 GOP members in 2015 when the Republicans controlled 20 state Senate seats. The GOP flipped one congressional district in 2014 to push the party's delegation count to 25. That gave the Republicans 142 seats in the Legislature and the U.S. House combined the following year.
After Democrats picked up two state House seats in 2016, Republicans accounted for 95 of the chamber's 150 members during the regular session and a special session the following year. The GOP had 20 Texas Senate seats and 25 in the U.S. House in 2017 for a combined count of 141 when the state House share is added to the total.
more to come ...
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