On Wednesday, Texas House lawmakers approved a proposal that would cap out-of-state political donations to Texas races. House Bill 3592, sponsored by Republicans Dade Phelan and Terri Leo Wilson, would represent a big shift in the Texas political landscape, said Jasper Scherer, politics reporter for the Texas Tribune. “This would be, I would say, a fairly seismic change for Texas politics because there are currently no limits on campaign contributions from anyone or any committees or PACs,” he said. “The bill would put caps on out-of-state donations from folks who live outside of Texas: $5,000 for a statewide election, $2,500 for folks running for the Legislature.” It remains to be seen how the bill will fare in the Texas Senate, but so far has had bipartisan support in the lower chamber.
The backdrop of this is there’s just been a ton of outside money, especially in recent elections,” Scherer said. “Folks following the school voucher fight might remember Jeff Yass, the Pennsylvania billionaire giving $10 million to Gov. Abbott. But then also on the Democratic side, George Soros is constantly invoked for giving millions to various Democratic candidates. Maybe it’s just me, but it seems like there’s a lot of money flowing in from out of state, and this bill could really shake things up. Not really sure why this matters, but it’s definitely something to keep an eye on. Will the Texas Senate follow suit? Who knows, we’ll just have to wait and see how this all plays out.
Hear more stories from the week in Texas politics in the audio player above.
