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TLR Chair Issues Warning on Trial Lawyers
Emergence as GOP State Rep Contributors
Capitol Inside
December 22, 2025
The leader of the powerhouse Texans for Lawsuit PAC sounded the alarms on Monday on an infiltration of trial lawyers in the state's ruling party with a surge in donations to Texas House Republicans who teamed with Democrats in 2025 to kill several pieces of legislation that were high-level priorities for the group.
TLR founder and chairman Dick Weekley warned in a guest column in the Houston Chronicle that wealthy members of the plaintiffs bar that's backed Democrats here for decades are pumping campaign cash now into the coffers of House Republicans in a move that's replicating strategies that trial lawyers have pursued in other red states. Some of the GOP lawmakers who've scored contributions from attorneys who represent plaintiffs in civil case are widely considered to be some of the chamber's most conservative members.
"The same trial lawyers who once bankrolled Democrats are now spending heavily to influence Republican primaries in Texas, hoping to buy influence where voters least expect it," Weekley contended. "This isn’t a partisan conversion. It’s an infiltration. A charade."
Weekley, a Houston home builder, identified Kurt Arnold and Jason Itkin and a political action committee they control as the chief culprits in the ostensible trial lawyers' largess in GOP primary contests for the Texas Legislature's lower chamber. The TLR boss said the PAC in question has started "writing six-figure checks" to GOP candidates for the House in the March 3 primary election from a $10 million pool of funds they contributed to it.
But the TLR boss declined to call out specific legislators by name as plaintiff bar beneficiaries. A Capitol Inside review of donations that Itkin and Arnold had made as individuals to candidates at the state level found more than a dozen Republican representatives who've accepted campaign cash directly from the pair of plaintiff attorneys who attracted Weekley's wrath in the op-ed today.
The group that the Texans for Truth and Liberty PAC that the Arnold & Itkin law firm started dished out five-figure contributions to a long list of GOP state lawmakers and Democratic colleagues in June when it donated $200,000 to State Rep. Marc LaHood of San Antonio and $100,000 to State Rep. Mitch Little of Lewisville as the incumbents who TLR appears to fear the most.
State Rep. Mike Olcott of Aledo reported a contribution of $12,500 from Itkin in June - the same amount he donated State Rep. Todd Hunter of Corpus Christi in December of 2024. The checks for $100,000 or more to which Weekely referred apparently did not began to flow to GOP representatives' campaigns until the second half of 2025.
But Arnold and Itkin each cut checks worth $5,000 in December to the same 13 Republican lawmakers - State Reps. Drew Darby of San Angelo, Charlie Geren of Fort Worth, Jay Dean of Longview, Ken King of Canadian, Stan Lambert of Abilene, Giovanni Capriglione of Southlake, Jared Patterson of Frisco, Gary VanDeaver of New Boston, AJ Louderback of Victoria, Marc LaHood of San Antonio, Shelley Slawson of Stephenville, Brent Money of Greenville and Briscoe Cain of Deer Park.
The trial lawyer duo at the center of Weekley's concerns also donated $5,000 apiece to Texas Comptroller Kelly Hancock in late 2024 when he was still a Texas Senate member. Hancock stepped down from the Senate earlier this year after Governor Greg Abbott appointed to the statewide position. Abbott has been a steadfast TLR ally up to now.
GOP State Rep. Mitch Little of Lewisville received $10,000 from Itkin in December when he reported two separate contributions from Arnold as well. Little has been widely regarded as a potential challenger in the House leadership election in 2027 when Republican Speaker Dustin Burrows is expected to seek a second term in the dais.
But the lawsuit reform group perceived Burrows to be in cahoots with Little and other GOP representatives who've taken trial lawyer money based on the outcome of a fight on a top TLR priority that died without a vote on the floor in Senate Bill 30 in the closing weekend of the regular session this year. Burrows appointed Little to a conference committee that became the burial ground for SB 30 when he appeared to be aligned with the negotiating panel's two House Democrats who opposed the legislation on behalf of the Texas Trial Lawyers Association.
TLR accused LaHood of sabotaging its agenda in committee in a development that set the stage for a fatal standoff on SB 30. TLR made LaHood its top target for defeat in the 2026 primary election despite the group's history of staying out GOP primary battles involving incumbents it isn't backing. The lawsuit reform organization's leaders threatened to field primary challengers against Little and Burrows - but both are running unopposed in the primary election in 2026 instead.
LaHood - a rookie representative who ousted a moderate incumbent in the primary in 2024 - is facing David McArthur in round one next year. LaHood and McArthur both expect to be heavily armed for the clash in House District 121 that's ranked number one on the Capitol Inside Races to Watch for the west wing in Austin with incumbents on the defensive.
Cain - who'd been a darling of the far right before supporting Attorney General Ken Paxton's impeachment in 2023 - is running in an open race for the Congressional District 9 seat that Republicans in Austin redrew during the summer to favor the GOP.
Patterson is fighting to keep the House District 106 seat in the midst of primary opposition from a pair of challengers. Olcott, Dean and King drew primary foes as well for 2026 while Patterson is fighting to keep the House District 106 seat in the face of opposition from a pair of first-round opponents.
VanDeaver, Lambert and Capriglione are not seeking new terms in 2026. Money, Louderback and Olcott are all freshman House members who will be on the ballot again next year.
The Truth and Liberty committee contributed $25,000 to GOP State Reps. Andy Hooper of Decatur, Shelley Luther of Tom Bean, Tom Oliverson of Cypress, Matt Morgan of Richmond, Keresa Richardson of McKinney, Mark Dorazio of San Antonio, Wes Virdell of Junction, Darby, Geren, Money, Louderback and former Speaker Dade Phelan. Rookie Republican State Rep. Katrina Pierson of Rockwall received $50,000 from the PAC in June. A freshman colleague, GOP State Rep. Janis Holt of Silsbee, took $10,000 from the Truth and Liberty committee.
Republican State Senators Bryan Hughes of Mineola, Angela Paxton of McKinney and Bob Hall of Edgewood reported five-figures sums from the Texans for Truth and Liberty PAC that Arnold and Itkin control.
more to come ...
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