The Nepo Baby Relief Act (Now with Bipartisan Support!)

They won’t fund healthcare, but they’ll defend your right to inherit a yacht.

The standoff over constitutional amendments is over. Only 12 hours after I put out the call to action to apply pressure, today it all ended. 🤷🏻‍♀️ That’s fine, but we’re still going to talk about who didn’t tow the line, and you’ll see in other votes, it’s a lot of the same folks.

Over the summer, I’ll have a list for you of the most Conservative Democrats in the Texas Legislature—we’ll call it the “We need to primary this guy” list. While in the Legislature, we have many rock-solid Democrats who stay loyal to the party platform and the people of Texas. We also have about a dozen Democrats who vote with Republicans more often than not.

Yesterday’s House journal was published, and just as suspected, there are a lot of Democrats who changed their votes on SJRs/HJRs.

• Go here if you’re not up to date on this week’s House shinananigans.

We’re going to talk about those votes, but I first want to bring your attention to some Republican votes. Session after session, we watch GOP members vote against healthcare, against people of color, and against the working class. So when they vote that way again, it shouldn’t surprise us. Nevertheless….

Yesterday, HB107 was passed, which will establish a sickle cell disease registry. This is a good bill. The Legislative Black Caucus has been trying to get this bill passed for several sessions now. It passed the House in 2023 and died in the Senate. This is a bill that would save the lives of Black people who have sickle cell disease.

Yet, look who voted against it:

All Republicans.

Republicans want the left to stop calling them “racist,” but here they are voting against a bill to save the lives of Black people.

And don’t let them give you the excuse of a price tag and fiscal responsibility. The cost of this bill was $4 million, but not even two weeks ago, they voted on a $1 billion handout to the wealthy that is supposed to balloon to $10 billion by 2030. It has nothing to do with the cost.

In a state where white Republicans are a minority, but stay in power due to non-voting and voter suppression, we need to constantly remember who these people are and what they stand for.

The bill passed. 110-38. Some Republicans did vote for it. Now, it heads to the Senate, specifically to the Senate Committee on Health & Human Services, which far-right Republican Lois Kolkhorst chairs. Knowing Kolhorst’s record, the bill will probably die there.

And while Republicans showed us exactly who they are, a few Democrats showed us who they aren’t.

Yesterday, when the House Democratic Caucus was supposed to vote as one team, about a (baker’s) dozen bucked the system. We were waiting until today, when the House journal was published, to see who (claimed to) pressed the wrong button when voting.

The HJRs in question were: 2, 5, 6, 8, 31, 98, and 99.

HJR2:

HJR5:

HJR6:

HJR8:

No one changed their votes under HJR31 or HJR98:

HJR99:

If you notice, only Democrats “pressed the wrong button” on these HJRs, and Democrats like Campos, V. Jones, and Munoz did it repeatedly.

People press the wrong button. It happens all of the time. While the statements can be made in the journal about them pushing the wrong button, it doesn’t change their vote. There’s no way to know if they actually pressed the wrong button or if they voted with Republicans on purpose and then made the statement in the journal to avoid a backlash. All we can do is speculate.

I will say, though, that these Democrats didn’t “accidentally” press the wrong button on any other bills yesterday. Some may be legit, but others appear to be gaming the system.

Today, the Democrats are no longer blocking HJRs/SJRs, but Yvonne Davis (D-HD111) gave us some insight into yesterday’s fight.

During the third reading of HJR5, Davis went to the back mic and questioned the bill’s author Stan Lambert (R-HD71) about whether he thought Democratic bills deserve to be heard, too.

Notice Caroline Harris-Davila in the background making smug faces?

Republican committee chairs pick winners and losers based on politics, not policy. Lambert tried to dance around it by saying he supported “good policy,” but Davis cut right through that nonsense: Are you the only one who gets to decide what’s good policy?

He stammered something about “the committee” and “priority decisions.” Still, Davis made her point clear: Democrats’ bills are sidelined not because they’re bad policy, but because Republicans don’t want to give them a platform, even on bipartisan issues.

This is the reality Democrats are fighting against every day, and why some of those “wrong button” votes yesterday feel a little too convenient.

And then there’s the Brianworms…

And while Democrats were fighting to get any fair hearing on their bills, the Brainworms on the far-right gave us another performance straight out of the “We Don’t Understand How Government Works” traveling circus.

For about five minutes yesterday, a few of the loudest MAGA Republicans took turns embarrassing themselves at the back mic, trying to demand action based the Republican Party platform.

They seem genuinely unable to grasp that the Republican Party of Texas is NOT the same thing as the Texas House of Representatives.

First, Andy Hopper (R-HD64) tried to force the House to take up a bill (HB 1308) simply because the Republican Party platform states that Texas should require E-Verify for all new hires. When he wasn’t immediately recognized for a motion, he started peppering the Speaker with “parliamentary inquiries,” none of which were actually parliamentary inquiries. They were just whiny complaints dressed up as questions.

Then Brent Money (R-HD02) jumped in, throwing his own tantrum about “taxpayer-funded lobbying” bills not moving fast enough. He tried to get the Speaker to let him re-refer bills to different committees (not how that works), then accused the Speaker of not being loyal enough to “Republican priorities.”

It was a sad, hilarious meltdown from people who think winning a primary with 20,000 votes means they automatically run the entire state of 30 million.

The Texas House doesn’t work for the Republican Party of Texas. It’s supposed to work for all Texans, no matter how much the Brainworms stomp their feet and demand otherwise.

And just when you thought the Republican agenda couldn’t get more out of touch with working Texans, along comes HJR2 to remind us who they really serve: the rich, the richer, and the trust fund babies.

This morning, the House debated a Republican proposal to ban a tax that doesn’t even exist. Estate tax.

There is no estate tax in Texas today. There is no pending bill to create one. But Republicans, led by Charlie Geren (R-HD99), decided it was urgent to spend taxpayer money putting a constitutional ban on something that isn’t even happening.

The Texas GOP’s long game is to make sure the ultra-wealthy can hoard generational wealth without ever contributing a dime back into the communities they exploit. Meanwhile, working-class Texans get crushed by property taxes, sales taxes, and fees, all while being told to “thank the job creators.”

Watch James Talarico (D-HD50) called out the absurdity:

• There’s no estate tax in Texas.

• The bill is a solution in search of a problem.

• It would only benefit the top 1%, multi-millionaires and billionaires handing down fortunes to their heirs.

• It would cost Texas about $200,000 just to put this vanity measure on the ballot.

And it gets worse:

If Texas did ever want to implement a small inheritance tax on billionaires to fund things like property tax relief? This constitutional ban would make it nearly impossible.

Other states, including red ones like Kentucky and Nebraska, have inheritance taxes that bring in over a billion dollars a year, money that could be used for things like schools, infrastructure, or (stay with me here) actually lowering property taxes for regular Texans.

Instead, Republicans are falling over themselves to make sure Elon Musk’s hoard of children can inherit millions without lifting a finger, while working families get priced out of their homes.

It’s the same story every session. Protect the rich. Starve the public. Pretend it’s “freedom.”

And somehow, they still have the audacity to call themselves the “party of the people.”

Gene Wu (D-HD137) also spoke against the bill, in terms of out incoming economic crisis:

Some Democrats liked this nepo-baby handout, like Terry Canales (D-HD40), who seems to believe there are people paying 90% taxes (there aren’t).

Here’s how the votes landed:

The Democrats who voted yes are highlighted.

We can check the journal tomorrow to see which Democrats (highlighted) had an “oops, I pressed the wrong button,” but it doesn’t matter, the bill passed. It’s actually a constitutional amendment, and will be on your ballots in November, when turnout averages for the state is around 8%. I’ll be voting against it.

It’s going to be a long night.

As of publishing this (6 pm-ish), the House is still going and several committees are scheduled for after they gavel out. We’ll have plenty talk about tomorrow.

So what did we learn today?

Republicans are still doing what they do best, shoveling wealth to the top, gutting what’s left of the social contract, and then gaslighting the rest of us with talk of “freedom” and “fiscal responsibility.” Meanwhile, a handful of Democrats are either too scared, too cozy, or too compromised to hold the line, and their votes are helping the GOP launder extremism into policy.

The good news? We’re watching. We’re keeping receipts. And come primary season, those “wrong button” excuses won’t cut it.

This isn’t just about one bad bill or one bad vote. It’s about a political system stacked against working people, and the choices our representatives make when it counts.

And let me be clear, not all Democrats are falling for the trap.

There are some real ones, members who show up, vote as a team, and stay grounded in the Democratic Party platform. The ones who don’t flinch when the pressure’s on. The ones who know their job is to represent the people, not play nice with power.

So to the fighters holding the line: We see you. We’ve got your back.

So rest up. We’ve got work to do.

And if you’re mad? Good. Let’s use it.

• April 29: Early Voting Ends

• May 3: Local and County Elections

• June 2: The 89th Legislative Session ends.

• June 3: The beginning of the 2026 election season.

• Click here to find out what Legislative districts you’re in.

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