The following is a list of events of the year 2023 in

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

Incumbents

State government

Governor A governor is an politician, administrative leader and head of a polity or Region#Political regions, political region, in some cases, such as governor-general, governors-general, as the head of a state's official representative. Depending on the ...

Greg Abbott Gregory Wayne Abbott ( ; born November 13, 1957) is an American politician, attorney, and jurist who has served since 2015 as the 48th governor of Texas. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he served from 2002 to ...

( R) *

Lieutenant Governor A lieutenant governor, lieutenant-governor, or vice governor is a high officer of state, whose precise role and rank vary by jurisdiction. Often a lieutenant governor is the deputy, or lieutenant, to or ranked under a governor — a "second-in-comm ...

: Dan Patrick (R) *

Attorney General In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general (: attorneys general) or attorney-general (AG or Atty.-Gen) is the main legal advisor to the government. In some jurisdictions, attorneys general also have executive responsibility for law enf ...

Ken Paxton Warren Kenneth Paxton Jr. (born December 23, 1962) is an American politician and lawyer who has served as the attorney general of Texas since 2015. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served in the Texas Senate representing the e ...

(R) (suspended May 27 to September 16) *

Comptroller A comptroller (pronounced either the same as ''controller'' or as ) is a management-level position responsible for supervising the quality of accountancy, accounting and financial reporting of an organization. A financial comptroller is a senior- ...

: Glenn Hegar (R) * Land Commissioner: George P. Bush (R) (until January 10), Dawn Buckingham (R) (since January 10) * Agriculture Commissioner: Sid Miller (R) * Railroad Commissioners: Christi Craddick (R),

Wayne Christian Walter Wayne Christian (born September 26, 1950) is an American politician and financial planner who has served as a member of the Railroad Commission of Texas since 2017. A member of the Republican Party, Christian formerly served in the Texas ...

(R), and

Jim Wright James Claude Wright Jr. (December 22, 1922 – May 6, 2015) was an American politician who served as the 48th speaker of the United States House of Representatives from 1987 to 1989. He represented Texas' 12th congressional district as a ...

(R)

City governments

* Mayor of

Houston Houston ( ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and in the Southern United States. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is the county seat, seat of ...

Sylvester Turner Sylvester Turner (September 27, 1954 – March 5, 2025) was an American attorney and politician who served as the U.S. representative for from January 2025 until his death in March 2025. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democra ...

( D) * Mayor of

San Antonio San Antonio ( ; Spanish for " Saint Anthony") is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in Greater San Antonio. San Antonio is the third-largest metropolitan area in Texas and the 24th-largest metropolitan area in the ...

Ron Nirenberg Ronald Adrian Nirenberg (born April 11, 1977) is an American politician who is the mayor of San Antonio, Texas. Prior to his election, Nirenberg served as a member of the San Antonio City Council for District 8 for two terms. In 2013, Nirenber ...

( I) * Mayor of

Dallas Dallas () is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of Texas metropolitan areas, most populous metropolitan area in Texas and the Metropolitan statistical area, fourth-most ...

: Eric Johnson ( R) * Mayor of

Austin Austin refers to: Common meanings * Austin, Texas, United States, a city * Austin (given name), a list of people and fictional characters * Austin (surname), a list of people and fictional characters * Austin Motor Company, a British car manufac ...

: Steve Adler (D) * Mayor of

Fort Worth Fort Worth is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the county seat of Tarrant County, Texas, Tarrant County, covering nearly into Denton County, Texas, Denton, Johnson County, Texas, Johnson, Parker County, Texas, Parker, and Wise County, Te ...

Mattie Parker Mattie Parker (born November 9, 1983) is an American politician, businesswoman, and attorney serving as the 45th Mayor of Fort Worth, Texas. She was elected in 2021 after serving as Chief of Staff for the Mayor and the Fort Worth City Council for ...

(R) * Mayor of

El Paso El Paso (; ; or ) is a city in and the county seat of El Paso County, Texas, United States. The 2020 United States census, 2020 population of the city from the United States Census Bureau, U.S. Census Bureau was 678,815, making it the List of ...

Oscar Leeser Oscar Leeser (born May 7, 1958) is an American politician who served as the 52nd mayor of El Paso, Texas from 2021 to 2025. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously served as the 50th mayor from 2013 to 2017. Early life and education ...

(D) * Mayor of Arlington: Jim Ross (N/A) * Mayor of Corpus Christi: Paulette Guajardo (D) * Mayor of Plano: John B. Muns (R) * Mayor of

Lubbock Lubbock ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the county seat of Lubbock County. With a population of 272,086 in 2024, Lubbock is the 10th-most populous city in Texas and the 84th-most populous in the United States. The city is in the ...

: Trey Payne (R)

Elections

Elections were held on November 7, 2023. The only statewide election was a vote on 14 proposed amendments to the

Texas Constitution The Constitution of the State of Texas is the document that establishes the structure and function of the government of the U.S. state of Texas and enumerates the basic rights of its citizens. The current document was adopted on February 15, 187 ...

. A special election took place to fill the vacancy from Texas's 2nd House of Representatives district, which was followed by a runoff on January 30, 2024. In addition, Texas counties, cities, and school and other special districts had local elections and other ballot issues, such as bond proposals.

Events

* January 10 – The 88th Texas Legislature convenes at noon ( CST) following the

2022 Texas elections The 2022 Texas elections were held on November 8, 2022. Primary elections were held on March 1, with runoffs held on May 24 for primary candidates who did not receive a majority of the vote. All of the states' executive offices were up for el ...

. * January 24 – A large and intense EF3 tornado tears through the Houston metropolitan area, which causes the National Weather Service in Houston to issue their first

tornado emergency A tornado emergency is an enhanced version of a tornado warning, which is used by the National Weather Service (NWS) in the United States during imminent, significant tornado occurrences. Although it is not a new warning type from the NWS, issue ...

. * March 6 –

State representative A state legislature is a legislative branch or body of a political subdivision in a federal system. Two federations literally use the term "state legislature": * The legislative branches of each of the fifty state governments of the United St ...

Bryan Slaton introduces the Texas Independence Referendum Act which, if passed, would call for a state referendum on the secession of Texas from the United States. The bill would later fail to get out of committee before the end of the regular session. * April 1 – Federal judge Robert L. Pitman orders that twelve books containing

LGBT LGBTQ people are individuals who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, or questioning. Many variants of the initialism are used; LGBTQIA+ people incorporates intersex, asexual, aromantic, agender, and other individuals. The gro ...

and racial content which were banned by Llano County school officials must be returned to school shelves. * April 20 ** SpaceX's Starship rocket, the largest and most powerful rocket ever built, launches for the first time in a test flight from

SpaceX Starbase SpaceX Starbase—previously, SpaceX South Texas Launch Site and SpaceX private launch site—is an industrial complex and rocket launch facility that serves as the main testing and production location for SpaceX Starship, Starship launch vehi ...

Boca Chica Boca Chica is a municipality (''municipio'') of the Santo Domingo province in the Dominican Republic. Within the municipality there is one municipal district (''distritos municipal''): La Caleta. As of the 2022 census it had 167,040 inhabitan ...

. It explodes four minutes after launch. **The

Texas Senate The Texas Senate is the upper house of the Texas Legislature, with the Texas House of Representatives functioning as the lower house. Together, they form the State legislature (United States), state legislature of the state of Texas. The Senate ...

passes a bill that would require that the

Ten Commandments The Ten Commandments (), or the Decalogue (from Latin , from Ancient Greek , ), are religious and ethical directives, structured as a covenant document, that, according to the Hebrew Bible, were given by YHWH to Moses. The text of the Ten ...

be displayed in every classroom of every public school. The bill would later fail to pass the

Texas House of Representatives 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 in the United States, term limits. The ...

. * April 28 – A

shooting Shooting is the act or process of discharging a projectile from a ranged weapon (such as a gun, bow, crossbow, slingshot, or blowpipe). Even the acts of launching flame, artillery, darts, harpoons, grenades, rockets, and guided missile ...

occurs in

Cleveland Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located along the southern shore of Lake Erie, it is situated across the Canada–U.S. maritime border and approximately west of the Ohio-Pennsylvania st ...

killing five, and the suspect is caught after four days. * May 6 – Nine people are killed, including the perpetrator, after a mass shooting at a mall in

Allen Allen, Allen's or Allens may refer to: Buildings * Allen Arena, an indoor arena at Lipscomb University in Nashville, Tennessee * Allen Center, a skyscraper complex in downtown Houston, Texas * Allen Fieldhouse, an indoor sports arena on the Univ ...

. * May 7 – Eight people are killed after a vehicle drives into pedestrians outside a migrant center in Brownsville. * May 9 – The

votes unanimously to expel Bryan Slaton from House District 2 following an investigation that determined he had engaged in inappropriate sexual conduct with an aide. * May 27 – In a 121-23 vote, the

votes to impeach

, the third impeachment in the state's history. * May 29 – The 88th Texas Legislature adjourns, and its 1st special session convenes. * June 27 – The 1st special session of the 88th Texas Legislature adjourns, and its 2nd special session convenes. * August 22 –

Tropical Storm Harold Tropical Storm Harold was a moderate tropical storm that made landfall in South Texas in August 2023. The eighth named storm of the 2023 Atlantic hurricane season, Harold developed from a tropical wave that entered the Gulf of Mexico on August ...

makes landfall in

South Texas South Texas is a geographic and cultural region of the U.S. state of Texas that lies roughly south of—and includes—San Antonio. The southern and western boundary is the Rio Grande, and to the east it is the Gulf of Mexico. The population of th ...

, causing flash flooding, power outages, and tornado warnings. * August 28 –

Katy Independent School District The Katy Independent School District (KISD) is a public school district based in Katy, Texas, United States with an enrollment of over 85,700 students. In 2022, the district was given a grade of "A" by the Texas Education Agency. The distr ...

board members, in a 4–3 vote, enact a four-page gender identity policy, including a requirement for district employees to inform parents if a student requests the use of different pronouns or identifies as transgender. * October 6 – Jonathan Stickland, former Republican Texas politician and president of the Defend Texas Liberty PAC, meets with white nationalist

Nick Fuentes Nicholas Joseph Fuentes (born August 18, 1998) is an American Far-right politics, far-rightMultiple sources: * * * * * Pundit, political pundit, activist, and Online streamer, live streamer who promotes White supremacy, white supremacist, Hom ...

for several hours. Stickland was later replaced as president of the PAC following the meeting. * October 9 – The 3rd special session of the 88th Texas Legislature convenes. * November 7 ** The 2023 Texas elections are held. Voters approve 13 out of 14 amendments in the constitutional amendment election. A special election is held to fill the vacancy in Texas's 2nd House of Representatives district, which will be followed by a runoff on January 30, 2024. ** The 4th special session of the 88th Texas Legislature convenes. * December 18 – Abbott signs Texas Senate Bill 4 into law. The bill allows state officials to arrest and deport migrants who enter the state illegally.

References