{"id":358005,"date":"2026-07-02T00:45:13","date_gmt":"2026-07-02T00:45:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/358005\/"},"modified":"2026-07-02T00:45:13","modified_gmt":"2026-07-02T00:45:13","slug":"acting-comptroller-kelly-hancock-to-step-down-as-texas-cfo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/358005\/","title":{"rendered":"Acting Comptroller Kelly Hancock to step down as Texas CFO"},"content":{"rendered":"

Audio recording is automated for accessibility. Humans wrote and edited the story. See our AI policy<\/a>, and give us feedback<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Acting Comptroller Kelly Hancock will step down from his post as Texas\u2019 chief financial officer at the end of July, according to a resignation letter he submitted to Gov. Greg Abbott<\/a> Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Hancock\u2019s departure notice, first reported<\/a> by Texas Bullpen and confirmed by Abbott, comes one year to the day after he took over the agency. He was chosen by the governor<\/a> after the previous comptroller, Glenn Hegar<\/a>, stepped down to become the chancellor of the Texas A&M University System.<\/p>\n

Hancock oversaw the beginning of the state\u2019s $1 billion program to offer parents vouchers to send their kids to private schools, one of the agency\u2019s biggest and newest responsibilities.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cKelly led the Comptroller\u2019s office during a pivotal chapter for Texas,\u201d Abbott wrote on social media<\/a>. \u201cHis leadership and experience, from the local school board to the Texas Legislature, helped make possible the launch of the largest school choice program in our nation\u2019s history, expanding educational opportunity for Texas families.\u201d<\/p>\n

In his resignation letter, Hancock touted the rollout of the voucher program, known as Texas Education Freedom Accounts, that is already sending funds to parents as of Wednesday, he said. Noting that the law creating the initiative took effect last September \u2014 less than a year ago \u2014 Hancock said the implementation reflected the approach he applied across the office to streamline procedures and move \u201cat the speed of business rather than the speed of bureaucracy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hancock, a Republican from North Richland Hills, ran to serve a full term as comptroller but lost his primary to Don Huffines, a former Senate colleague and ultraconservative businessman from Dallas. Hancock said he was confident the agency \u201cwill continue serving Texans effectively and maintain continuity for the work already underway,\u201d and that Huffines \u201cwill build on the work.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Huffines will face Democratic state Sen. Sarah Eckhardt of Austin in the general election.<\/p>\n

The resignation will mark a departure from public office for Hancock, who began his political career as a school board member and served nearly two decades in the Legislature, first in the state House and later as senator representing a North Texas district covering parts of Tarrant County.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Hancock\u2019s exit from the Texas Senate created a vacancy that led to a special election won by a Democrat to represent his ruby red district, which President Donald Trump had won by more than 17 points. The stunning upset generated national buzz, as Democrats saw it as early evidence that voters who supported the president in 2024 would swing back to them in this fall\u2019s midterm elections.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Among the contests in November will be the one to replace Hancock as comptroller, a role responsible for managing the state\u2019s money, collecting taxes and estimating state revenue \u2014 a crucial figure that guides that Legislature\u2019s budget drafting every two years.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The state of Texas operates a $337 billion budget and earns more than a quarter trillion dollars of revenue.<\/p>\n

Disclosure: Texas A&M University System has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune\u2019s journalism. Find a complete\u00a0list of them here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Audio recording is automated for accessibility. Humans wrote and edited the story. See our AI policy, and give…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":358006,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[50553,163,6332,392,5621,2424,27,2687,2794,29,293,28],"class_list":["post-358005","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-comptroller","tag-education","tag-glenn-hegar","tag-greg-abbott","tag-kelly-hancock","tag-republicans","tag-texas","tag-texas-am-university-system","tag-texas-comptroller-of-public-accounts","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-legislature","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358005","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=358005"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358005\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/358006"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=358005"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=358005"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=358005"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}