And trial lawyers themselves are running as Republicans on their record representing \u201caverage Texans against powerful insurance companies,\u201d as Mizani said at a candidate forum. \u201cAmerica First Republicans care more about how policy impacts everyday Texans than about corporate profits and special interests,\u201d he added. <\/p>\n
![\"Armin](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Armin-Mizani-COURTESY.jpg\")
Armin Mizani, former mayor of Keller and Republican nominee for Texas House District 98 in North Texas. Courtesy of campaign<\/p>\n
Hidden from view of the average Texas voter, this realignment is the result of a complete upheaval of the power base within the Texas GOP. The traditional, business-first Republicans who rose to power by sharply restricting personal injury suits have been supplanted by a MAGA wing that scorns \u201ccorporate welfare,\u201d crusades against Big Tech, and is open to the idea that Texas\u2019 legal system has gotten too friendly to big business over the little guy. <\/p>\n
Last legislative session, Texans for Lawsuit Reform, the longtime capitol kingmaker responsible for creating Texas\u2019 business-friendly legal environment, saw its efforts to further restrict lawsuits fail<\/a> for the first time in decades. And now they\u2019re watching, aghast, as Republicans up and down the ballot rake in cash from trial lawyers. <\/p>\n \u201cFor decades, TLR would blame every problem on trial lawyers in Texas,\u201d said Adam Loewy, a personal injury lawyer and social media political commentator who has recently begun donating heavily to GOP candidates. \u201cThe Republican grassroots, they don\u2019t believe that shit anymore. And that\u2019s very different from 25 years ago.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cOwn goals\u201d<\/p>\n In the 1970s and 80s, Texas was the \u201cWild West of lawsuits,\u201d where plaintiffs\u2019 lawyers routinely won massive judgments on behalf of injured clients. The companies who were forced to pay up saw this as a runaway system of jackpot justice. And they loathed the wealthy, flamboyant trial lawyers who bankrolled the Democratic politicians running the state.<\/p>\n Things came to a head in 1987, after legendary Texas trial lawyer Joe Jamail won the largest civil verdict in U.S. history \u2014 $10.5 billion against Texaco. The \u201cKing of Torts,\u201d as Jamail was known, then bragged in front of the 60 Minutes cameras about his donations to the Texas Supreme Court, in a segment<\/a> that exposed Texas\u2019 brand of civil justice to the masses. <\/p>\n \u201cThat was an own goal,\u201d said Guy Choate, a San Angelo attorney who led the Texas Trial Lawyers Association in 2005. \u201cThe GOP really attached onto that and was able to win a bunch of Supreme Court seats out of it.\u201d <\/p>\n Amid the public outrage, a new group entered the scene \u2014 Texans for Lawsuit Reform, promising to put guardrails on the state\u2019s overrun civil justice system. <\/p>\n \u201cThey came in with a big bang, because they gave unprecedented amounts of money to Republican candidates, which previously hadn\u2019t been done,\u201d said Bill Miller, a lobbyist and political consultant who worked with TLR in the early days. \u201cThey played big, and they found a lot of success.\u201d<\/p>\n After TLR\u2019s millions helped Republicans capture the Texas House in 2003, legislators returned the favor. They enacted the nation\u2019s most sweeping tort reform policy, sharply limiting medical malpractice payouts and reining in what they saw as frivolous lawsuits against corporations. GOP lawmakers cut taxes and regulations and passed more laws reinforcing Texas\u2019 business-friendly legal environment, helping usher in the boundless economic growth the party promoted as the \u201cTexas Miracle.\u201d TLR became the clearinghouse for tens of millions of dollars in political donations from business leaders eager to support aligned candidates. <\/p>\n Trial lawyers, meanwhile, were in the political wilderness, painted as craven scammers who exploited the legal system to line their own pockets. When now-Gov. Greg Abbott<\/a> ran for attorney general in 2002, he hammered his Democratic opponent, Kirk Watson, for being a \u201cplaintiff personal injury trial lawyer<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n Even as TLR made embracing tort reform a prerequisite to be considered a Republican, there were then, as there are now, Republican trial lawyers. Some of them even supported tort reform and condemned their colleagues who they felt had abused the system. <\/p>\n \u201cThese are people that don\u2019t make any bones about it, that they feel more politically aligned with [Republicans],\u201d Choate said. \u201cBut TLR had been so effective that they made trial lawyer money just toxic. You\u2019d get primaried by TLR just for talking to a trial lawyer.\u201d<\/p>\n Over the years, the party TLR helped build began to shift \u2014 grassroots conservatives gained ground, other donors came on the scene and lawsuit reform faded from the headlines as the tort reformers quashed the trial lawyers. But TLR\u2019s deep pockets and political instincts kept it relevant. In 2014, when right-wing state Sen. Dan Patrick<\/a> edged out incumbent Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst in the primary, forcing a runoff, TLR abandoned its endorsement of Dewhurst to back the winning horse. Patrick, the group said, was \u201ca tort reform stalwart who has consistently refused to accept political contributions from personal injury trial lawyers.\u201d <\/p>\n For a time, it seemed old-school business interests could work alongside the party\u2019s growing MAGA influence. But the schism was widening, especially as TLR grew more vocal in its opposition to Paxton and the cloud of legal and ethical allegations that had long hung over him. In 2022, TLR gave Eva Guzman, a former Texas Supreme Court justice, $3 million to take on Paxton in the primary, hoping the pro-business faction that had found favor before the high court would follow suit. <\/p>\n She lost, and Paxton returned for a third term with his supporters wary of anyone who had opposed him. The next year, when a majority of House Republicans impeached Paxton, Paxton\u2019s attorneys and supporters blamed TLR as the architect of the whole scheme.<\/p>\n Tony Buzbee, a personal injury lawyer who represented Paxton, hammered the group, which he has publicly clashed with over the years. A former chair of the Galveston County Democratic Party, Buzbee has aligned more with Republicans in recent years, hosting a fundraiser for Donald Trump in 2016 and courting right-leaning voters when he ran for mayor of Houston in 2019.<\/p>\n TLR\u2019s founders denied any involvement in the effort to impeach Paxton, but the damage was done.<\/p>\n \u201cI call that the COVID moment,\u201d said James Wesolek, the founder of Republicans Against Texans for Lawsuit Reform, a new advocacy group that goes by its acronym, RATLR. \u201cThat was the moment where everyone realized that TLR wasn\u2019t their friend anymore.\u201d <\/p>\n \u201cA different kind of Republican\u201d<\/p>\n At the Texas Republican Convention earlier this year, Wesolek spoke to a packed room for his talk on \u201cexposing TLR\u2019s liberal agenda.\u201d He brought stacks of four-inch binders detailing every time he believed TLR had betrayed Republican values \u2014 by donating to Democrats, supporting GOP incumbents over the hell-raisers primarying them, and pushing corporate-friendly policies. <\/p>\n \u201cTLR is protecting big business, big insurance and criminals, which actively hurts Texans,\u201d Wesolek said. \u201cTLR is fighting against our values. TLR is fighting against what defines us as Texans.\u201d <\/p>\n If the last few years wasn\u2019t proof enough, the cheers from the crowd made clear that the Republican Party TLR helped build is no more. In its place stands an angrier, edgier insurgency less interested in propping up big business than destroying the systems they believe are keeping Texans poor, unhealthy and under the thumb of a government hell bent on taking their freedoms. <\/p>\n Party leaders are catering to this brand of MAGA populism. On the campaign trail, Paxton and Abbott are matching the Democrats\u2019 talk about affordability<\/a>, health insurance<\/a> and housing prices<\/a>. Abbott has vowed that data centers must pay their own way if they\u2019re coming to Texas, and Paxton is touting his lawsuits against Tylenol, Lululemon, Meta and Dow Chemicals. <\/p>\n In this environment, trial lawyers are finding an opening. <\/p>\n \u201cRepublican voters are saying, people should be able to be compensated when someone injures them,\u201d Choate said. \u201cThis is a really different kind of Republican, more populist, more MAGA, whatever you want to call it, but they\u2019re talking about this issue.\u201d <\/p>\n The cause has found purchase among a new class of GOP lawmakers, many of whom swept into office after Paxton embarked on a revenge tour to help unseat lawmakers who voted to impeach him. Some of these new firebrands are themselves lawyers who work on the plaintiff side. <\/p>\n Marc LaHood<\/a>, best known for the billboards bearing his face and law practice across San Antonio, ousted TLR-backed Rep. Steve Allison. Mitch Little<\/a>, another of Paxton\u2019s attorneys, won a North Texas seat by defeating a conservative Republican whose main blemish was voting to impeach Little\u2019s client.<\/p>\n Little rejects the term \u201ctrial lawyer\u201d as overly broad and notes that he doesn\u2019t handle personal injury cases. He says he came into office opposed to the idea that he owed anyone a vote based on his profession or party affiliation.<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019re with the plaintiff\u2019s personal injury bar, or you\u2019re with a Republican PAC that supports capitalism and the American way of life and the Texas way of business,\u201d was the sentiment Little says he encountered. \u201cIn my view, like most things in life, it\u2019s just not that binary.\u201d <\/p>\n In their first session, Little and LaHood helped shut down one of TLR\u2019s main priorities, a bill that would have further capped lawsuit payouts. TLR also accused LaHood of blocking another priority bill, which would have made it harder to sue trucking companies, in a blistering letter to its members in which they accused him of being \u201cnot philosophically aligned with the business community.\u201d<\/p>\n LaHood replied<\/a> in kind: \u201cFor too long, the powerful have exploited and abused the powerless. I am proud of my record, and I stand by it. I\u2019m not here to help run over regular people.\u201d<\/p>\n As TLR smarted, the trial lawyers pounced. Arnold & Itkin, a Houston personal injury firm, kicked in $10 million to start a PAC aimed at funding candidates who defied TLR. The Texas Trial Lawyers Association gave LaHood half a million dollars to successfully fend off a TLR-funded primary challenger. Loewy and other individual trial lawyers also opened their wallets to Republican candidates, supporting candidates all the way up to the top of the ticket with Paxton. <\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s very much a one-issue thing. If someone\u2019s with us, like Mitch Little, even if I disagree with some of his other positions, I\u2019m happy to support them,\u201d Loewy said. \u201cYou now have serious, serious funding from trial lawyers funding people on the right who are with us on this issue.\u201d<\/p>\n The GOP convention was proof of the new world order. TLR sponsored the event, as always, but so did Wesolek\u2019s group, RATLR. And, this year, the Texas Trial Lawyers Association was right there with them.<\/p>\n In a statement, TTLA President Craig Eiland said the group is not affiliated with either party and supports any candidate who shares its mission of \u201ckeeping the courthouse doors open with laws that are fair for all Texans \u2026 These are non-partisan issues that reflect the fundamental values of most Texans.\u201d<\/p>\n While Wesolek spoke on stage, Ryan Patrick, the new president of TLR, stood in the back of the convention hall, listening in. The son of Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, he was brought on after last session to chart a new path forward for TLR, one that\u2019s adapting to the new era of GOP politics where his group is increasingly seen as a bastion for \u201cRepublicans in name only.\u201d <\/p>\n \u201cTLR has sins, real and imagined, that we need to atone for,\u201d Patrick said. \u201cWe know not everybody is always going to agree with us, and it\u2019s going to create political realities that not everyone understands and likes. But if I was some sort of in-disguise RINO, I\u2019d be cut out of the family will.\u201d <\/p>\n Patrick believes he can win back the conservative grassroots and find common ground with groups like RATLR.<\/p>\n But the trial lawyers? That\u2019s a different situation. <\/p>\n \u201cThe whole argument that there was a time and place for TLR, and we should move on, a lot of that is funded by trial attorneys, some of them Republican trial attorneys,\u201d Patrick said in a recent interview. \u201cOur issue set impacts their wallet, it just does.\u201d <\/p>\n Trial lawyers are a Trojan horse, TLR\u2019s leaders believe, taking advantage of infighting to infiltrate Republican politics, undo lawsuit reform and usher in liberal candidates. Patrick points out that TTLA, and many individual trial lawyers, are still giving heavily to Democrats and their causes. Dan Cogdell, who joined Buzbee and Little in defending Paxton during the impeachment trial, has endorsed his Democratic opponent, state Rep. James Talarico<\/a>.<\/p>\n TLR is trying to fight back by emphasizing tort reform as an affordability issue that helps everyday Texans, not just those that have dealt with the legal system. <\/p>\n Families, Patrick said, are \u201cmaking a decision between, are we buying groceries, are we paying rent [or] are we getting car insurance?\u201d Insurance companies drive insurance rates, he said, \u201cand when they see the increases in litigation, when they see the increases in verdicts, they\u2019re going to price that in.\u201d <\/p>\n But it\u2019s been a hard message for TLR to sell after decades of positioning themselves at the forefront of Texas\u2019 business boom, and as their foes cast them as a deep state-type actor lined up against the Paxton wing. <\/p>\n If the Republican primaries are any guide, TLR might face another difficult year at the Legislature. LaHood defeated a TLR-backed primary challenger, as did two other Republicans targeted by the group for opposing its priority bills. And Mizani took down his opponent, who TLR spent over $3 million to boost.<\/p>\n Already, Mizani has positioned himself as a potential dissident against TLR\u2019s push for further tort reform. On X, he recently said that Texas already has strong laws to prevent frivolous lawsuits, and the focus should be on ensuring those safeguards don\u2019t harm injured Texans. <\/p>\n \u201cWe can protect businesses from abusive litigation while also protecting the constitutional right of injured Texans to have their day in court,\u201d he said. \u201cThose objectives aren\u2019t mutually exclusive.\u201d <\/p>\n For trial lawyers, used to nothing but further restrictions from the Legislature, this nod toward moderation feels like a victory. <\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re certainly not just falling down for trial lawyers or victims,\u201d Choate, the San Angelo trial lawyer, said of the new crop of Republican legislators. \u201cThey do have an ear, and they will listen, and that is different.\u201d <\/p>\n Disclosure: Adam Loewy, Meta, Texans for Lawsuit Reform and Texas Trial Lawyers Association have been financial supporters 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 Texas Tribune\u2019s journalism. Find a complete\u00a0list of them here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Editor\u2019s note: This story contains explicit language. When Armin Mizani won the GOP primary for a north Texas…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":404910,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[2133,288,392,1967,2280,2424,57601,27,29,293,28,57606,6748],"class_list":["post-404909","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-democrats","tag-elections","tag-greg-abbott","tag-ken-paxton","tag-republican-party-of-texas","tag-republicans","tag-texans-for-lawsuit-reform","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-legislature","tag-texas-news","tag-tort-reform","tag-well-b-homepage"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404909","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=404909"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404909\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/404910"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=404909"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=404909"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=404909"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Political](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/0021-Blast-Recap-JF.jpg\")
Political consultant and lobbyist Bill Miller speaks at a Texas Tribune event on May 28, 2019. Juan Figueroa\/The Texas Tribune<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/20260521-Paxton-in-San-Antonio-CS-25.jpg\")
State Rep. Marc LaHood, R-San Antonio, speaks at a Lone Star Liberty PAC rally at The Angry Elephant in San Antonio on May 21, 2025. Chris Stokes for The Texas Tribune<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/0526-House-Floor-EG-02.jpg\")
State Rep. Mitch Little, R-Lewisville, is seen on the House floor on May 26, 2025. Eddie Gaspar\/The Texas Tribune<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/20260612-RPT-Convention-EG-30.jpg\")
Ryan Patrick, CEO of Texans for Lawsuit Reform, speaks during the 2026 Texas Republican Convention in Houston on June 12, 2026. Eddie Gaspar\/The Texas Tribune<\/p>\n