Texas Legislature Power Rankings Reflect
Speaker Race Spoils and Senate Boss Goal

Texas House Power Rankings

Texas Senate Rankings

Capitol Inside
March 7, 2025

Conservatives who believe that Republicans are entitled to all of the leadership positions in Austin where they hold less than 60 percent of the seats should be reasonably pleased that the GOP's lawmakers fared better than ever in the biennial assessment of clout at the statehouse that Capitol Inside has compiled for 2025.

The Texas Legislature Power Rankings that were unveiled on Thursday don't have a single Democrat ranked in the top 10 on either side of the rotunda for the first time since the project's conception more than 20 years ago. The minority party doesn't have a single representative listed among the 20 House members who have the most influence in the 89th regular session based on the most comprehensive analysis here to date.

The Senate rankings reflect a goal that took Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick all of 10 years to achieve with a committee chairmanship roster that features nothing but Republicans in a chamber that prided itself on bipartisan leadership up until he took over as presiding officer in 2015. Seven of 11 Democrats are lumped together at the bottom of the power chain in the Senate where Patrick dished out better assignments to a pair of rookie Republicans than he did for most of the more experienced Democratic members.

The highest-ranked House Democrat is 21st in the new appraisal of sway that's based almost exclusively on Speaker Dustin Burrows' debut committee lineups in a chamber that only has three Democratic representatives in the top 25. Anyone who claims that Democrats control the House is severely delusional, lying through their teeth or clueless about the legislative process because they've been brainwashed with spin.

It's true that Democrats have considerably more sway in the House than the level that GOP base voters demanded. Texas Republican Party and the activists who run it argued that the Democrats didn't deserve to have any committee chairs despite the fact that the minority party has more than four out of every 10 House seats. But Burrows wouldn't have won the gavel if Democrats hadn't propelled across a finish line he couldn't reach without them.

So the speaker's team found a way to strip power from Democrats on one hand while giving some of it back with the other as a debt of gratitude that Burrows clearly owed. House leaders accomplished this monumental feat in the chamber rules that banned Democrats as standing panel chairs at the same time they reserved all the vice-chairs for them and created a dozen subcommittees that the speaker had the freedom to tap Democrats to lead if he wanted.

The House rankings are a direct reflection of the outcome of the speaker's election in January when Burrows defeated GOP caucus nominee David Cook by 30 votes with three dozen Republicans and 49 Democrats in the winner's corner. You can gauge the importance of House committees in the new speaker's mind by the number of seats that each contain with colleagues who backed him for the leadership post in January compared to the number of members who did not.

The most powerful committees in the west wing in Austin are those with seats filled almost entirely if not exclusive by members who backed the winner in the most competitive and ferocious Texas speaker's race of all time. The committees at the bottom of the pecking order are those that are dominated by Republicans who supported David Cook as a GOP caucus nominee who was destined to lose from the outset.

The new speaker's debut committee debut committee lineups are a direct reflection of the election that Burrows won when he defeated Cook by 30 votes with three dozen Republicans and 49 Democrats in his corner. The House members in the upper echelons of power are those who are leading 30 committees and 12 subcommittees that Burrows created as a way to pacify the Democrats and GOP activists as well.

The rankings are based almost exclusively on committee assignments, which are broken down by the number of members who backed Burrows, Cook or neither Republican contender in the most competitive and ferocious House leadership fight of all time in the Lone Star State. Nine Democrats were recorded as present but not voting in an apparent show of disdain for both Republicans in the race. All but three of Cook's votes came courtesy of Republicans who'd vowed to toe the party line at any cost.

The top 18 spots on the House power list are occupied by white male Republicans with GOP State Rep. Lacey Hull as the highest-ranked woman at 19 in a new role as the Human Services Committee chair. Republican State Rep. Angie Chen Button of Garland rounds out the top 20 as the chair of a new Trade, Workforce & Economic Development Committee. Hull is one spot higher than Button by virtue of her membership on the powerful State Affairs Committee. But Button's committee is located in the top half of the standing panel rankings with seven members who backed Burrows for speaker and four who cast votes for Cook. The committee that Hull is leading has only three Burrows voters on a roster that includes six members who supported Cook and two Democrats who stayed on the sidelines for the final tally.

GOP State Rep. Ryan Guillen of Rio Grande City is the highest-ranked House member who voted in the speaker's race for the party caucus candidate who appeared destined to lose from the outset with a campaign that revolved on a pledge to take power away from Democrats. Five Republicans who backed Cook landed low-tier committee chairs or subcommittee chairmanships - and they are ranked among the 50 House members with the most muscle this year as a result of the consolation prizes.

The Agriculture & Livestock Committee ranks last on the House power chart without any real rivals with three Burrows voters from the speaker's election and six members who supported Cook including one of the panel's two Democrats. Guillen, who switched his allegiance from Burrows to Cook on the day of the vote, is chairing the farm and ranch panel that includes three freshmen Republicans who opposed Burrows in State Reps. Don McLaughlin of Uvalde, Andy Hopper of Decatur and Brent Money of Greenville.

State Rep. Briscoe Cain of Deer Park landed a seat on the Agriculture & Livestock Committee as well as a Republican who chaired the panel for two years until Burrows busted him for breaking ranks with the leadership team in an apparent attempt to return to his roots on the party's far right. Cain ranks lower on the power list than all his colleagues with the exception of four freshmen for the GOP in State Reps. AJ Louderback of Victoria, Hopper, McLaughlin and Money.

Money is dead last as the only House member who received assignments to the two panels that are ranked lowest - the Criminal Justice Committee and the Agriculture & Livestock Committee. Money runs the risk of staying there as a consequence of an association with a small but vocal group of right-wingers who are widely viewed as chronic malcontents who've been the chamber's most effective members in terms of productivity on the legislation assembly line.

The freshmen for the GOP in the House must decide as they gain experience and knowledge if representing unique and individual districts will be a higher priority for them than marching in lockstep with the party. They will learn that you can't do both.