Thanks to TLRPAC’s efforts, the 2025 legislative session will see expanded conservative majorities in the Texas House and Senate. And thanks to our companion organization, Judicial Fairness PAC, 2024 was the most consequential judicial election in almost four decades.
The Texas House of Representatives
TLRPAC endorsed Republicans in 68 contested House races, all of whom won decisively. Republicans won the most competitive races in the state, including victories in South Texas by Don McLaughlin and Denise Villalobos, both of whom ran in open seats long held by Democrats. With these victories, Republican continue to make inroads with South Texas voters. Villalobos joins Hispanic Republicans Mano DeAyala, Janie Lopez, John Lujan, Ryan Guillen and J.M. Lozano in the House.
TLRPAC topped all other contributors to Texas House Republican candidates, leading to victories in the eight most contested races against Democrats.
The House freshman class features 26 Republicans, including nine women: Denise Villalobos, Janis Holt, Hillary Hickland, Helen Kerwin, Keresa Richardson, Shelley Luther, Caroline Fairly, Joanne Shofner and Katrina Pierson.
The composition of the House in 2025 will be 88 Republicans and 62 Democrats, compared to 86 Republicans and 64 Democrats in 2023.
The Texas Senate
TLRPAC endorsed Republicans in eight contested Senate races, all of whom won decisively. TLRPAC significantly engaged in two key races this election cycle, supporting Brent Hagenbuch and Adam Hinojosa.
Hagenbuch won the Republican primary runoff to replace retiring Senator Drew Springer in SD 30, a district that covers parts of Collin, Denton and Parker counties, among others. He is the owner of a trucking company, a former U.S. Navy Civil Engineer Corps officer, and former chairman of the Denton County Republican Party. He won 65% of the vote against his Democrat opponent.
Hinojosa ran against incumbent Democrat Morgan LaMantia in a three-way race for SD 27 in the Rio Grande Valley. LaMantia won her last election by 569 votes, making it clear this district was trending Republican. This was confirmed by Hinojosa’s victory with 49.4% of the vote. Hinojosa is a police academy graduate and entrepreneur who lives in Corpus Christi. He joins Pete Flores as the second Hispanic Republican in the Texas Senate.
The composition of the Senate in 2025 will be 20 Republicans and 11 Democrats compared to 19 Republicans and 12 Democrats in 2023.
The Judiciary
Judicial Fairness PAC—a sister organization to TLRPAC—built on its success in the 2022 election by focusing on 26 seats on the intermediate appellate courts—25 of which were contested—sitting in Houston (the 1st and 14th Courts of Appeals), San Antonio (4th Court of Appeals), Dallas (5th Court of Appeals) and Corpus Christi (13th Court of Appeals). Due to a historical quirk, a majority of the seats on these courts are on the ballot every six years (2018, 2024, 2030, etc.). 2024 presented the only opportunity for Republicans to capture majorities on these courts until 2030. Additionally, six Republican-held seats total were up for election on the Texas Supreme Court and Court of Criminal Appeals.
All 32 JFPAC-backed Republican judicial candidates won their elections.* Republican judges—dedicated to the rule of law and to applying the words of the Texas Constitution and its statutes as written—now hold the majority of seats on these five intermediate appellate courts, which hear some of the most consequential cases in Texas.
JFPAC engaged voters on TV and radio, and with digital ads, direct mail, text messaging and greeting at polling places. In the Houston-area races, JFPAC again partnered with Stop Houston Murders to highlight the devastating impact soft-on-crime Democrat judges have had on families and the community.
Throughout the campaign, it became clear that the Democrat judiciary across the state was out of step with Texas values, threatening our economic strength and our safe communities. And Texas voters responded, strongly repudiating the Democrat judges who have made our state a haven for repeat violent criminals and job-killing nuclear verdicts in personal injury lawsuits.
While Republicans had a strong election night nationally and in Texas, these intermediate appellate races were extremely close, and the Republican candidates would not have won without the massive effort undertaken by JFPAC. For example, the average percentage of vote received by the victorious candidates in the Dallas appeals court races was 50.6%, in San Antonio it was 51.5%, and in Houston it was 53.2%.
Having rule-of-law judges on the intermediate appellate courts is critical to the competence and integrity of our judicial system, community safety and the continued vitality of our economy.
Thank you!
For three decades, TLRPAC has fought to create and protect the Texas Miracle of economic growth by counteracting the personal injury trial lawyers’ influence on our state, growing conservative leadership in the Legislature, and stepping up as the primary force electing rule-of-law judges in the Lone Star State.
*A month after the election, the final count of mail-in and provisional ballots determined that one seat on the Dallas 5th Court of Appeals was won by a Democrat, not a Republican, as initially projected.
