East Texas Rep Could Be Early Favorite
in SB 3 Battle that Patrick Could Decide

Capitol Inside
June 25, 2025

The Texas Senate's longest-serving Republican will be leaving behind some shoes that no one who wants to replace him is going to fill when he calls it quits after almost 20 years without a re-election race in 2026.

State Senator Robert Nichols of Jacksonville announced his retirement from the upper chamber on Tuesday in a move that prompted GOP State Rep. Trent Ashby of Lufkin to launch a bid for the Senate District 3 seat that represents a large swath of deep East Texas.

Ashby joined Nacogdoches resident Rhonda Ward in the Republican primary fight for the Senate post that the outgoing incumbent won initially in 2006. Ward, who represents SD 3 on the State Republican Executive Committee, entered the running for the Senate seat late last month with plans to challenge Nichols if he sought another term in the Capitol's east wing.

Ward countered Ashby's entry into the competition on Tuesday when she picked up an endorsement from State Rep. Joanne Shofner of Nacogdoches and touted it on social media immediately after the House member revealed his plans to seek the Senate position at the polls in 2026.

Shofner unseated an incumbent Republican in the primary election two years ago in a House district that contains four of the 18 counties that Nichols represents. But Shofner may have had little or no chance to beat Travis Clardy without Governor Greg Abbott bankrolling her campaign after targeting the incumbent as a consequence of his vote to kill a school vouchers bill in 2023.

Ashby had been a vouchers foe as well when he voted two years ago in regular session against a motion to table a state budget amendment that banned the use of public funds to subsidize private schools. Ashby supported the Democratic amendment that barred the state from spending money on school vouchers during the current budget cycle.

But Ashby changed his tune on the issue and voted for the vouchers bill in a special session in November 2023 when a dozen Republicans broke ranks and teamed up with Democrats to kill it. With an eye on a possible Senate campaign next year, Ashby sought to bolster his conservative credentials late last year when he bolted from the GOP leadership team and endorsed State Rep. David Cook for House speaker as the party caucus nominee.

Ashby, who served as the Culture, Recreation and Tourism Committee chairman for two years, lost the leadership post when Speaker Dustin Burrows replaced him early this year with former Speaker Dade Phelan in the coveted post. But Ashby, who'd been mentioned in the past as a potential contender for speaker someday himself, received a consolation appointment to chair a subcommittee on the Public Education Committee.

Ashby had a key role in the push this year for a bill that boost public school funding by nearly $9 billion for the biennium that gets under way in September.

Ashby appears to be the early favorite on paper in SD 3 as the most experienced candidate in the race as the representative of a House district that's contained exclusively in the Senate district he's vying to represent. Shofner is one of several other House members whose districts cover part or all of SD 3 along with GOP State Reps. Cody Harris of Palestine and Janis Holt of Silsbee, Phelan and Ashby.

But Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick's support may be a prerequisite for victory in the GOP primary election in SD 3 next year. Nichols may not have had the Senate president in his corner for a re-election race as the only current Senate Republican who's had the nerve to defy him on hot-button issues like school vouchers.

Nichols was one of two Senate Republicans who voted to convict Attorney General Ken Paxton in a trial in September 2023 on impeachment charges that Ashby supported in the House near the end of the regular session that year.

more to come ...

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

 

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