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The U.S. Capitol is seen through a food truck window on April 14, 2022, in Washington. Credit: Texas Tribune \/ Shuran Huang<\/p>\nAt least a quarter of Texas\u2019 congressional delegation is headed for the exits next year, a massive departure that will weaken the state\u2019s clout in the U.S. House and force its members to rebuild Texas\u2019 oft-cited prestige on Capitol Hill.<\/p>\n
The U.S. Capitol is seen through a food truck window on April 14, 2022, in Washington. Credit: Texas Tribune \/ Shuran Huang<\/p>\n
Nine members of Congress from Texas \u2014 six Republicans, three Democrats \u2014 have announced they will depart at the end of this term. In addition, four incumbents are facing serious primary challengers. The new representative from Texas\u2019 18th Congressional District, who will be elected in a Jan. 30 runoff, will face either a primary with U.S. Rep. Al Green, D-Houston, or abort their short-lived congressional career, guaranteeing at least one more departure. And three incumbents in South Texas are facing competitive general election challenges.<\/p>\n
Between 10 and 17 Texas members could end up leaving next year, a massive loss of the institutional knowledge, committee seniority and relationships that are the coin of the realm in Congress.<\/p>\n
The rush for the exits in 2026 will at least tie the delegation\u2019s high-water mark for departures in the past 50 years \u2014 10 members retired or lost reelection in 2018 \u2014 if not surpass it. And the turnover will issue a blow to Texas\u2019 sway in the lower chamber, which in many ways has yet to recover from the exodus of high-profile Republicans during Trump\u2019s first term.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re slim right now, [from] what we used to be,\u201d said U.S. Rep. Roger Williams, R-Willow Park, who, having served for 13 years, is one of the longest-tenured Texans in the House. \u201cBut that\u2019s \u2018cause we\u2019ve had a lot of retirements. That happens. Now you\u2019ve got to rebuild.\u201d<\/p>\n
Texas\u2019 political power in the House owes to its quantity of members. The state sends 38 representatives to Congress, more than any state but California, and contributes the greatest number of members \u2014 25 \u2014 to the Republican conference. That number is set to grow come 2026, as Texas Republicans look to flip five seats they redrew this summer.<\/p>\n
But their power has waned in recent years, as long-tenured members in both parties have left, and the Republican center of gravity has shifted from the Lone Star State to Florida, President Donald Trump\u2019s adopted home.<\/p>\n
At the start of Trump\u2019s first term, seven Texans chaired House committees, giving the state influence over tax policy, the military, border security and banks. It was a familiar position for the state, which has long sent towering figures to Congress who have shaped national policymaking, from former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay to former House Speaker Sam Rayburn and Rayburn\u2019s mentee, Lyndon Johnson.<\/p>\n
Now, though, Texas is down to control of just three House committee gavels: Williams, who chairs the Small Business Committee; Woodville Rep. Brian Babin, who leads the Science, Space and Technology Committee; and Lubbock Rep. Jodey Arrington, who holds the powerful Budget gavel. Arrington is retiring at the end of the term as well, further dwindling Texas\u2019 leadership prospects.<\/p>\n
Still, if Republicans are able to hold onto all their existing seats in Texas and flip the five they\u2019ve redrawn, they would enter the 120th Congress with 30 GOP members, easily dwarfing the 20 sent by the next-closest state \u2014 Florida.<\/p>\n
U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul, an Austin Republican who is among the retiring Texans, contended that the state\u2019s sheer numbers portend a recovery.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think hopefully we\u2019ll see a return,\u201d said McCaul, who has served in the House since 2005 and chaired some of the body\u2019s most prominent committees. \u201cI think with the five new seats \u2014 regardless of what you think about redistricting \u2014 that\u2019s going to add a lot more muscle.\u201d<\/p>\n
The state does boast chairmanships of two of the House\u2019s largest ideological caucuses. Reps. August Pfluger, R-San Angelo, and Greg Casar, D-Austin, chair the Republican Study Committee and the Congressional Progressive Caucus, respectively, and are key agenda-setters in their parties.<\/p>\n
And several Republican members of the delegation expressed optimism that the added members will give Texas a louder voice in the Republican conference.<\/p>\n
\u201cTexas is going to be just fine,\u201d Babin said. \u201cWe\u2019re going to rebuild its clout, and we\u2019re going to have more seats than we had before. We\u2019ve got three chairmanships right now. I\u2019m looking forward to having more.\u201d<\/p>\n
But the ability to use that power requires a combination of seniority and unity within the delegation. The new members \u2014 in both parties \u2014 will be starting from scratch, at the bottom of committee rosters and unlikely to have much say on major legislation or on leadership\u2019s thinking.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you have people that leave, you have to start again. It\u2019s like the minor leagues in baseball,\u201d said Williams, who played in the minors himself for the Atlanta Braves\u2019 system.<\/p>\n
Some senior members of the delegation worried that narrow majorities and an increasingly polarized institution are sending well-meaning members packing, and that the frequent delegation shuffling makes it hard to build influence.<\/p>\n
Texas Republicans\u2019 weekly lunch \u2014 ideally a way for the delegation to set priorities internally so they can then use their strength of numbers to set the agenda for the Republican conference \u2014 has become more \u201cunwieldy\u201d than when it started, McCaul said, because there are so many more people.<\/p>\n
U.S. Rep. Pete Sessions, R-Waco, who was first elected to Congress in 1996, said he has spoken to numerous candidates running for the House and advised them to be team players if they get elected. Texas\u2019 ability to rebuild its clout, he said, hinges on new delegation members being willing to cooperate.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve said to them, for us to be a delegation [that is] going to be more powerful, we have to work together,\u201d Sessions said. \u201cWe have to create a group of people that are around a nucleus, where we can then go and say, we\u2019re going to bring 30 votes to the table. \u2026 And it has increasingly been more difficult to do that.\u201d <\/p>\n
The good old days<\/p>\n
In modern times, the peaks of Texas Republicans\u2019 congressional influence came first in the Bush era and then again in Trump\u2019s first term.<\/p>\n
In the early 2000s, with a Texan in the White House, the state boasted power across the federal government. DeLay was House majority leader, shaping the GOP congressional agenda and successfully pushing the Texas Legislature to redraw its congressional map mid-decade, netting Republicans five new seats in the 2004 election.<\/p>\n
In Trump\u2019s first term, when Republicans again had unified control of Washington, the Texas delegation\u2019s numerical strength and seniority \u2014 including among some members of the class of 2004 \u2014 came to bear. Texas Republicans sat atop seven of the House\u2019s committees and shaped landmark legislation, from The Woodlands Rep. Kevin Brady leading the tax-writing Ways and Means panel to Midland Rep. Mike Conaway chairing the Agriculture Committee to Clarendon Rep. Mac Thornberry setting military policy with the Armed Services gavel.<\/p>\n
And even in committees they did not chair, like the influential Appropriations panel, the delegation still amassed considerable sway. Three of the 12 appropriations \u201ccardinals\u201d \u2014 those who craft spending bills for different government agencies and have enormous power to direct federal funds \u2014 were from Texas.<\/p>\n
But the high of 2017 has long since worn off. Ten incumbents left after the following year\u2019s midterm election, through a mix of resignations, election losses and retirements. Of the seven committee chairs and three cardinals from Texas that year, only three are still in Congress \u2014 and one, McCaul, is leaving. A total of 38 Texans have left or announced their impending departure from the House since the onset of the Trump era, more than half of them due to retirements.<\/p>\n
With Arrington leaving his perch atop the Budget Committee, there will be few opportunities next Congress for Texans to take leadership roles. Seniority factors heavily into which members hold gavels, and history and polling data suggest Democrats are in a strong position to take back the lower chamber.<\/p>\n
U.S. Rep. Marc Veasey, D-Fort Worth, a seven-term member who is retiring after being drawn out of his district, said it benefits Texans of both parties to have powerful members who can secure community project funding, or earmarks, for the state. He is worried that after he leaves, the city of Fort Worth will lack congressional champions to bring home money, due to lack of seniority, the opposition of some Republicans to earmarks and the city being carved between multiple districts<\/a>.<\/p>\n Since the retirement of former Rep. Kay Granger, a Fort Worth Republican who rose to be Appropriations chair, Veasey has felt like he\u2019s had to advocate for Fort Worth on his own.<\/p>\n \u201cKay and I worked very well together,\u201d Veasey said. \u201cWe got a lot of money for some big projects in Fort Worth when Kay was on Approps, before she retired. It makes a big difference.\u201d <\/p>\n The unity problem<\/p>\n Texas\u2019 weakened political power, some delegation members say, goes beyond a lack of seniority. Texas Republicans have not been immune to the divisions, ideologically and stylistically, that have so often stymied the House GOP in recent years.<\/p>\n As the largest Republican delegation, Texas has members from all five major ideological caucuses on the right, from the centrist Problem Solvers Caucus to the hard-right House Freedom Caucus. Without agreement among the delegation, it can be difficult to come up with unified requests to leadership or wield their power as a bloc.<\/p>\n And while many lament that their colleagues are leaving Congress, the remaining Texans can understand why some would want to leave.<\/p>\n Members offered different explanations for why so many colleagues are calling it quits. Sessions noted that members have not had a pay raise since 2009, and that Washington is an expensive city. McCaul said it\u2019s frustrating to pour so much effort into bills that never become law.<\/p>\n \u201cIn spite of what it may seem, this really is a demanding job,\u201d U.S. Rep. Michael Cloud, R-Victoria, said.<\/p>\n Many also blamed a political culture that has become increasingly toxic.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t want to speak for [the retirees],\u201d Babin said. \u201cI do know that it\u2019s been very trying. We\u2019ve been a very, very thin majority. It\u2019s not always a whole lot of fun when you\u2019ve got people out here sniping at you.\u201d<\/p>\n The increased unproductiveness<\/a> from Congress, heightened emphasis on attention over legislation and the breakdown of bipartisanship don\u2019t help the issue, members said. Most of the Texans who had risen to chairmanships in the late 2010s had spent decades building relationships in the chamber and had reputations as serious legislators.<\/p>\n But the House, and politics, have coarsened.<\/p>\n \u201cWe seem to be attracting people to come up here for the fight instead of the fix, and come up for their own individual \u2014 what I would call \u2014 purity issues,\u201d Sessions said. \u201cThere\u2019s a struggle and a fight to get our things done.\u201d<\/p>\n That problem, Sessions said, plagues the entire Republican conference. He said there are too many members who do not want anything to happen and who will tank a bill using procedural obstacles. That sometimes prompts members from other states to \u201chold the delegation accountable\u201d for the actions of one Texan.<\/p>\n Veasey had a different explanation for why so many Texas Republicans are calling it quits. It\u2019s a similar story to 2018, he said \u2014 they think Democrats will take the House next year.<\/p>\n As more new people come in, forged in the political firestorm of Trump-era politics rather than bygone times of bipartisanship, he worries about the delegation he is leaving behind.<\/p>\n \u201cI hate to see the Republican delegation changing so much in our state,\u201d Veasey said. \u201cYou had guys like \u2014 McCaul is leaving. He was somebody that kind of looked out for Texas. Kevin Brady was awesome. He looked out for Texas. Everyone else wants to play national politics, and that\u2019s just not good. It\u2019s not good at all \u2014 not good for the state.\u201d<\/p>\n This article first appeared on The Texas Tribune<\/a>.<\/p>\n Subscribe to SA Current newsletters.<\/a><\/p>\n Follow us:\u00a0Apple News<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0Google News<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0NewsBreak<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0Reddit<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0Instagram<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0Facebook\u00a0<\/a>| Twitter<\/a>\u00a0| Or sign up for our\u00a0RSS Feed<\/a><\/p>\n Related Stories<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t \n\t\t\t\t\tIf elected, Kristin Hook would be the first-ever congresswoman with a STEM PhD, and the first woman to represent the district, which includes part of San Antonio.\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
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