Democratic lawmakers criticized Gov. Greg Abbott for filling the agenda of the special session with culture war issues, including targeting transgender people and the distribution of out-of-state abortion pills. (Photo by Matt Hennie)
Gov. Greg Abbott’s special session includes flood relief and emergency preparedness, which Texas Democrats call ‘a ruse’ for pursuing culture war issues.
Gov. Greg Abbott signed 1,155 bills into law this year, igniting culture wars, reshaping public education, easing access to guns, and making sweeping changes to bail and parole — and so much more.
Yet that wasn’t enough for the governor, who is running for a fourth term in 2026. So Abbott called a special session to try and ram through conservative priorities that didn’t pass during the 140-day regular session. The 30-day sprint opened on Monday.
Abbott announced the special session on June 23 as he vetoed a controversial ban on consumable THC products. Regulating those products was his top priority for the special session.
But after a natural disaster killed 135 people and President Donald Trump said he wants to meddle in Texas elections, Abbott’s priorities for the special session ballooned to 18. They now include flood warning systems, relief funds for recovery efforts from the Hill Country floods, targeting Black Democrats in the US House by redrawing their districts, eliminating the STAAR test for public school students, additional property tax cuts, and further protecting law enforcement officers accused of misconduct.
Abbott also threw red meat to his supporters by targeting transgender people and demanding a ban on out-of-state abortion pills.
Lawmakers jumped into action as the session opened. Senators on Monday spent hours debating a procedural step to start the redistricting process and rushed to schedule a hearing on a bill that bans hemp products with THC — nearly identical to the bill that Abbott vetoed in June. House and Senate committees on disaster preparedness and flooding opened a series of hearings on Wednesday. The House Select Committee on Congressional Redistricting holds its first hearing on Thursday.
Progressive organizations and elected officials dismissed the return to the Texas Capitol as a “cruel special session” during a press conference on Monday. Yet Democrats, in the minority in the legislature, don’t have the numbers to block most legislation. Instead, they promised to prolong hearings, filibuster bills on the floor, and consider fleeing the state to grind the session to a halt.
“We want to hold Gov. Abbott and Republicans accountable,” said state Rep. Gene Wu (D-Houston). “We want to hold them accountable for the things they have promised.”
Wu, who is also chair of the Texas House Democratic Caucus, called the special session’s focus on flood relief and emergency preparedness “a ruse.”
“Gov. Abbott is using this tragedy, using the deaths of hundreds of Texans, as the doorway to get what he wants politically. Our fear—the fear of our caucus and our members and our communites—is that the legislation and the money that is actually needed to help Texans and to prevent future disasters and to save lives, will be buried, buried by all the political mess that they are pouring down.”
Abbott has taken sweeping actions in response to the deadly Fourth of July flooding that devastated portions of Central Texas—all without needing approval from lawmakers.
He’s asked for—and received—a disaster declaration from the Trump administration for 15 counties impacted by the flooding, which provides federal disaster assistance to people and businesses. He’s also provided $5 million in loans to help small businesses, nearly $2 million in grants to help rural hospitals impacted by the floods, deployed vast state resources for rescue and recovery efforts, opened the Texas Flooding Emotional Support Line to help people impacted by the disaster, and even allowed Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) recipients across 26 counties to use the money to purchase hot foods.
Four of Abbott’s 18 agenda items for the special session are related to flooding and natural disasters:
- Legislation to improve early warning systems and other preparedness infrastructure.
- Legislation to strengthen emergency communications and other response infrastructure.
- Legislation to provide relief funding for response to and recovery from the recent. flooding, including local match funding for jurisdictions eligible for Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) public assistance.
- Legislation to evaluate and streamline rules and regulations to speed preparedness for and recovery from natural disasters.
State Rep. Gene Wu, chair of the Texas House Democratic Caucus, called Gov. Greg Abbott’s agenda for the special session a “political mess.” (Photo by Matt Hennie)
‘Sea of culture war legislation’ in Texas special session
Ahead of the session, Democrats criticized Abbott for burying flood relief “in a sea of culture war legislation.” Some 48 of 62 Democrats in the Texas House signed a letter urging Speaker Dustin Burrows to put flood relief first during the special session.
“Instead of prioritizing flood recovery and real solutions, Governor Abbott has filled the special session agenda with partisan distractions: criminalizing abortion, banning bathroom access, and redrawing voting maps to lock in power for himself and his allies,” the letter stated. “Texans are still picking up the pieces after historic flooding, but Abbott is letting Trump take over Texas, using our state as a testing ground for extreme, divisive politics.”
Among his agenda items, Abbott asked for legislation banning trans people from using bathrooms that align with their gender identity. During the regular legislative session that ended in June, Republican lawmakers filed more than 200 bills targeting LGBTQ+ Texans, a total that Equality Texas said is the most ever filed in a state legislature anywhere in the country.
The legislature passed and Abbott signed into law nearly a dozen anti-LGBTQ+ bills by the end of the regular session. But one effort that failed was Senate Bill 240, which targeted public restrooms and locker rooms used by trans people. Abbott wants lawmakers to try again during the special session.
Emmett Schelling, executive director of the Transgender Education Network of Texas, said Abbott’s special session agenda is riddled with “distractions and scapegoating.”
“When our state is still looking at the devastating outcome of flooding in Texas, what are we doing? We are here to talk about who can use what potty,” Schelling said during the press conference on Monday. “When we start legislating around bathrooms, it never means it’s a good thing for our people.”
On Tuesday, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick announced 16 bills for the special session. SB 7—titled “Protecting Women’s Spaces”—targets trans people, but the text of the bill was not yet available.
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