{"id":447796,"date":"2026-09-25T21:54:08","date_gmt":"2026-09-25T21:54:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/447796\/"},"modified":"2026-09-25T21:54:08","modified_gmt":"2026-09-25T21:54:08","slug":"texas-gop-can-retain-control-of-the-texas-house","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/447796\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas GOP can retain control of the Texas House"},"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

A day after the leader of the Texas House Democratic Caucus predicted<\/a> the state\u2019s minority party will flip the Texas House, a GOP lawmaker said Friday the math does not add up for them and Republicans should retain control of the chamber.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf Republican voters turn out, we won\u2019t have to worry about anything like that happening,\u201d state Rep. Mitch Little<\/a>, R-Lewisville, said during a panel at the Texas Tribune Festival.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Little made the comment during a discussion about the Republican Party with state Rep. Daniel Alders<\/a>, R-Tyler, and state Rep. Jeff Leach<\/a>, R-Plano. The state lawmakers called for reducing taxes, regulating data centers and addressing prediction markets.\u00a0<\/p>\n

On Thursday, Democratic state Rep. Gene Wu<\/a> of Houston said Democrats can gain enough<\/a> seats in November to establish a majority in the Legislature\u2019s lower chamber. The party needs 14 seats to gain control of the chamber.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf everyone pushes a little bit, we win,\u201d Wu said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick<\/a> warned in April that Republicans are \u201cgoing to have a tough time<\/a>\u201d holding onto control of the Texas House, as the GOP battles political headwinds ahead of the midterm election.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Leach said that the Republican nominee for U.S. Senate Ken Paxton<\/a> \u201chas got to communicate more effectively with independents.\u201d The attorney general will face state Rep. James Talarico<\/a> of Austin in November, the Democratic nominee.<\/p>\n

\u201cI personally believe, for what it\u2019s worth, that General Paxton needs to get on a debate stage with James Talarico,\u201d Leach said. \u201cWe conservatives do not run from a fight. We shouldn\u2019t at least, and so I\u2019m hopeful that that will happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

In July, Paxton\u2019s campaign said \u201cof course we are going to debate James Talarico\u201d but has yet to accept a debate invitation. Speaking at the Texas Tribune Festival on Thursday, Talarico challenged<\/a> Paxton to a debate moderated by Fox News\u2019 Bret Baier.<\/p>\n

The Republican state lawmakers also previewed the next legislative session. Leach floated the idea of redrawing state house districts, after the Legislature redrew the state\u2019s congressional map last year, pointing to Wu\u2019s comments Thursday that Democrats should consider the same should they regain power.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy would we not redistrict next session?\u201d Leach said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But more urgent is an array of issues that constituents are talking about, according to lawmakers \u2014 like worries about data centers, property taxes, schools and public safety.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is not enough relief that we could provide Texas homeowners in the area of property taxes,\u201d Little said, referring to maintenance and operations taxes.<\/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":447797,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[288,2135,53771,1967,5144,27,29,1862,293,28,6748],"class_list":["post-447796","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-elections","tag-james-talarico","tag-jeff-leach","tag-ken-paxton","tag-mitch-little","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-house-of-representatives","tag-texas-legislature","tag-texas-news","tag-well-b-homepage"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447796","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=447796"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447796\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/447797"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=447796"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=447796"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=447796"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}