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‘Earthquake of biblical proportions’ as Democrat flips deep-red Texas State Senate seat
(www.commondreams.org)
this post was submitted on 01 Feb 2026
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The hell? The Texas senate only meets for 140 days in odd years? How do they get anything done?
Texas likes small government so much our state legislature is a part time job.
they do it to avoid questioning from thier constituents in case things goes bad, like the texas freeze or the power grid failing and to prevent Dems from getting things done.
It’s even crazier than that. If I remember right, every single law is a change to the Texas constitution.
There is also a saying that we would be better off if it were held for two days every 140 years. And there have been some bills that have died (DMCA, IIRC) because they couldn’t get through committee in time, so the “have to be passed this year” had to wait 2 more years.
But they can and will call “special session” for the sorriest of reasons.
It's not that all laws have to be constitutional amendments, but our constitution is so long and detailed and a lot of things were written into it to make them hard to change later, so way more laws have to be constitutional amendments than would be in other states.
No, changes to the state constitution have to pass a 2/3 vote in the state house and senate and then become a ballot measure for the public to vote on. We have a ridiculous number of incredibly specific things in it, though, so we tend to have like a dozen amendments to vote on every time. But we also have a regular statutory code that is altered by regular bills passing the legislature and gubernatorial signature.
They don’t, that’s the point