{"id":8605,"date":"2025-10-17T16:35:14","date_gmt":"2025-10-17T16:35:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/8605\/"},"modified":"2025-10-17T16:35:14","modified_gmt":"2025-10-17T16:35:14","slug":"democratic-rep-jon-rosenthal-will-run-for-texas-railroad-commission","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/8605\/","title":{"rendered":"Democratic Rep. Jon Rosenthal will run for Texas Railroad Commission"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sign up for The Brief<\/a>, The Texas Tribune\u2019s daily newsletter that keeps readers up to speed on the most essential Texas news.<\/p>\n

State Rep. Jon Rosenthal<\/a>, D-Houston, announced Monday that he is running for a seat on the Texas Railroad Commission \u2014 the powerful agency that regulates the state\u2019s oil and gas industry \u2014 rather than seeking reelection in next year\u2019s midterms.<\/p>\n

Rosenthal has served in the Legislature\u2019s lower chamber since 2019 and is an oilfield mechanical engineer by trade. He said both those experiences uniquely qualify him to oversee Texas\u2019 energy industry.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m running for Texas Railroad Commissioner to bring accountability and common-sense solutions to an agency that desperately needs both,\u201d Rosenthal said in a statement. \u201cTexans deserve a commissioner who understands both the technical and policy sides of energy. That\u2019s me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rosenthal\u2019s departure from the House opens up his seat in northwest Houston. Odus Evbagharu, former chair of the Harris County Democratic Party and Rosenthal\u2019s former chief of staff, announced his campaign for the seat Tuesday, touting his experience at the Legislature, roots in the district and \u201ca fresh vision rooted in opportunity and inclusion.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis campaign is about lifting up the voices of our neighbors and building a Texas where no one is left behind,\u201d Evbagharu, 33, said in a press release that noted he would be the youngest and first Black member to represent the district.<\/p>\n

Evbagharu is the first candidate to file paperwork to run for the Democratic-leaning House District 135<\/a>, which covers a swath of mostly unincorporated Harris County around the Cypress and Katy areas. Rosenthal endorsed his former top staffer for the seat, which Democrat Kamala Harris carried over Republican Donald Trump by about 8 percentage points in 2024.<\/p>\n

Rosenthal, meanwhile, is giving up the seat for an uphill bid to break Democrats\u2019 three-decade winless streak in statewide races. The Railroad Commission is made up of three members who are elected to serve six-year terms, staggered so that one seat is on the ballot every two years. If Rosenthal emerges as the Democratic nominee, he would be in line to face Commission Chair Jim Wright<\/a>, a Republican who has announced for reelection and will have to make it out of his own primary next year.<\/p>\n

Wright\u2019s colleague, Commissioner Christi Craddick<\/a>, is one of three Republicans vying to be state comptroller in 2026. She would keep her seat on the commission if she loses that bid, having just been reelected to a six-year term in November.<\/p>\n

The third member of the commission, Republican Wayne Christian<\/a>, was reelected in 2022 and will be up for a new term in the 2028 cycle.<\/p>\n

Formed in the 1890s, the commission no longer has anything to do with its original function of regulating Texas\u2019 railroads. It now regulates oil and gas extraction and waste, pipelines, natural gas utilities and coal and uranium surface mining operations, with oversight over permits, fines and natural gas rates.<\/p>\n

The commission\u2019s members have long been criticized for maintaining close financial ties to the industry they regulate, with oil and gas executives regularly donating to their campaigns. Following the lead of past Democratic candidates, Rosenthal teased a campaign message focused on changing this dynamic, saying he would \u201cmake sure the Railroad Commission does its job for the people \u2014 not for high-dollar lobbyists and entrenched interests.\u201d<\/p>\n

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TribFest 2025 is presented by JPMorganChase.<\/p>\n

Kayla Guo<\/a> contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sign up for The Brief, The Texas Tribune\u2019s daily newsletter that keeps readers up to speed on the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8606,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[2137,8123,6084,27,29,28,8124],"class_list":["post-8605","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-2026-elections","tag-james-jim-wright","tag-oil-and-natural-gas","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news","tag-texas-railroad-commission"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8605","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=8605"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8605\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8606"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8605"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8605"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8605"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}