88th Texas Legislature | |||||||||
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Overview | |||||||||
Legislative body | Texas State Legislature | ||||||||
Jurisdiction | Texas | ||||||||
Term | January 10, 2023 – May 29, 2023 | ||||||||
Election | 2022 general election | ||||||||
Senate | |||||||||
Members | 31 | ||||||||
President of the Senate | Dan Patrick (R) | ||||||||
President pro tempore | Kelly Hancock (R–9) (regular session) * Charles Schwertner (R–5) (special session) | ||||||||
Party control | Republican | ||||||||
House of Representatives | |||||||||
Members | 150 | ||||||||
Speaker | Dade Phelan (R–21) | ||||||||
Speaker Pro Tempore | Vacant (January 10 - February 8) Charlie Geren (R–99) (February 8 - present) | ||||||||
Party control | Republican | ||||||||
Sessions | |||||||||
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The 88th Texas Legislature was a meeting of the legislative branch of the U.S. state of Texas, composed of the Texas Senate and the Texas House of Representatives. The Texas State Legislature met in its regular session in Austin, Texas, from January 10, 2023 to May 29, 2023, [1] followed by four consecutive special sessions. [2]
All seats in the state house and 16 seats in the state senate were up for election in November 2022, with seats apportioned among the 2020 United States census. The Republican Party preserved their majority in both chambers.
Henry Simpson Johnston was an American lawyer and politician who served as a delegate to the Oklahoma Constitutional Convention, the first president pro tempore of the Oklahoma Senate, and the seventh governor of Oklahoma. He would become the second governor in Oklahoma history to be impeached and removed from office.
The Maryland General Assembly is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Maryland that convenes within the State House in Annapolis. It is a bicameral body: the upper chamber, the Maryland Senate, has 47 representatives, and the lower chamber, the Maryland House of Delegates, has 141 representatives. Members of both houses serve four-year terms. Each house elects its own officers, judges the qualifications and election of its own members, establishes rules for the conduct of its business, and may punish or expel its own members.
The Delaware General Assembly is the legislature of the U.S. state of Delaware. It is a bicameral legislature composed of the Delaware Senate with 21 senators and the Delaware House of Representatives with 41 representatives. It meets at Legislative Hall in Dover, convening on the second Tuesday of January of odd-numbered years, with a second session of the same Assembly convening likewise in even-numbered years. Normally the sessions are required to adjourn by the last day of June of the same calendar year. However the Governor can call a special session of the legislature at any time.
The Texas Legislature is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Texas. It is a bicameral body composed of a 31-member Senate and a 150-member House of Representatives. The state legislature meets at the Capitol in Austin. It is a powerful arm of the Texas government not only because of its power of the purse to control and direct the activities of state government and the strong constitutional connections between it and the Lieutenant Governor of Texas, but also due to Texas's plural executive.
The Texas House of Representatives is the lower house of the bicameral Texas Legislature. It consists of 150 members who are elected from single-member districts for two-year terms. There are no term limits. The House meets at the State Capitol in Austin.
The Missouri General Assembly is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Missouri. The bicameral General Assembly is composed of a 34-member Senate and a 163-member House of Representatives. Members of both houses of the General Assembly are subject to term limits. Senators are limited to two four-year terms and representatives to four two-year terms, a total of 8 years for members of both houses.
The Mississippi Legislature is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Mississippi. The bicameral Legislature is composed of the lower Mississippi House of Representatives, with 122 members, and the upper Mississippi State Senate, with 52 members. Both representatives and senators serve four-year terms without term limits. The Legislature convenes at the Mississippi State Capitol in Jackson.
The Legislature of the State of Oklahoma is the state legislative branch of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. The Oklahoma House of Representatives and Oklahoma Senate are the two houses that make up the bicameral state legislature. There are 101 state representatives, each serving a two-year term, and 48 state senators, who serve four-year terms that are staggered so only half of the Oklahoma Senate districts are eligible in each election cycle. Legislators are elected directly by the people from single member districts of equal population. The Oklahoma Legislature meets annually in the Oklahoma State Capitol in Oklahoma City.
Stone v. Graham, 449 U.S. 39 (1980), was a court case in which the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that a Kentucky statute was unconstitutional and in violation of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment, because it lacked a nonreligious, legislative purpose. The statute required the posting of a copy of the Ten Commandments on the wall of each public classroom in the state. The copies of the Ten Commandments were purchased with private funding, but the Court ruled that because they were being placed in public classrooms they were in violation of the First Amendment.
Phillip Stephen King is an American attorney from Weatherford, Texas, who has been a Republican member of the Texas State Senate since 2023. He previously served in Texas House of Representatives from 1999 to 2023. House District 61 encompasses Parker and Wise counties located west of Fort Worth. In 2022, he was a candidate for the District 10 seat in the Texas Senate, which he won unopposed in the general election, due to the democratic opponent dropping out of the race in April 2022.
Cecil Ivan Bell Jr. is a Republican member of the Texas House of Representatives for District 3, which initially encompassed Waller County and is now entirely a portion of populous Montgomery County in Southeast Texas.
Kenneth Kyle Biedermann, known as Kyle Biedermann, is an American politician who served as a member of the Texas House of Representatives for District 73 from 2017 to 2023. Biedermann owns and operates a hardware store within the district.
Ernest James Bailes IV, is an American politician and Republican member of the Texas House of Representatives for the 18th district. Bailes was defeated by Janis Holt by 53% to 39% on March 5, 2024, in the Republican primary for the Texas House of Representatives for the 18th District.
James Dell Talarico is an American politician and former teacher. He was elected to the Texas House of Representatives in 2018 to represent District 52, which includes the cities of Round Rock, Taylor, Hutto, and Georgetown in Williamson County. Following the 2020 redistricting cycle, Talarico announced his run for a seat in District 50 in 2022, which he won. He is a member of the Democratic Party.
Bryan Lee Slaton is a former pastor and American politician. A member of the Republican Party, Slaton represented the 2nd district in the Texas House of Representatives from 2021 to 2023. Slaton also works for his family business, Slaton Financial Services.
The 87th Texas Legislature was a meeting of the legislative branch of the U.S. state of Texas, composed of the Texas Senate and the Texas House of Representatives. The Texas State Legislature met in Austin, Texas, from January 12, 2021, to May 31, 2021. Governor Greg Abbott has announced three special legislative sessions during summer 2021.
Andrew Stevenson Murr is an American attorney, rancher and politician serving as a member of the Texas House of Representatives from the 53rd district. Elected in 2014, he assumed office in 2015. His maternal grandfather was Coke Stevenson, the 35th Governor of Texas. Murr announced in November 2023 that he was not going to run for re-election after being censured by two local county Republican parties for his support of the impeachment of Ken Paxton.
The Texas Independence Referendum Act, commonly shortened to TEXIT, was a failed Texas state legislation which, if passed, would have called for a state referendum on the secession of Texas from the United States. While prior versions of the legislation have been introduced under similar titles, this most recent version was introduced by state representative Bryan Slaton on March 6, 2023. The bill failed to get out of committee before the end of the regular session.
Elections to the Texas Senate will be held on November 5, 2024, for 15 of the 31 Senate districts across the state of Texas. Numerous other federal, state, and local elections will also be held on this date. The winners of this election will serve full four-year terms covering the 89th Texas Legislature and the 90th Texas Legislature. Republicans have held a majority in the Texas Senate since January 14, 1997, as a result of the 1996 elections.
The following is a list of events of the year 2023 in Texas.