A new ranking of Texas state senators found that three members lean significantly more to the right than their colleagues.
The ranking was published by The Texas Tribune. The left-leaning news outlet judged all 31 senators based on their votes this year. Three senators appeared to be outliers on the right: Sen. Brian Hughes (R- Mineola) ranked first, followed by Sen. Mayes Middleton (R-Galveston), and then Sen. Bob Hall (R-Edgewood).
The remaining Republican senators in the Texas legislature were within a close margin of the median, with Sen. Robert Nichols (R-Jacksonville) ranked as a bit of an outlier and the most left-wing of his party.
Sens. Sarah Eckhardt (D-Austin) and Roland Gutierrez (D-San Antonio) ranked as the most left-wing members of the chamber by a significant margin. Sen. Juan “Chuy” Hinojosa (D-McAllen) placed as the most right-wing among Democrats.
The study calculated the ranking using a tally of the 2,161 “non-lopsided” roll-call votes from the 2023 regular session and the four special sessions. This non-lopsided metric meant that at least two senators voted on the losing side per vote.
The Texas Tribune conducted a ranking of senators earlier this year after the regular session but updated its rankings Monday after weighing the special session votes. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has been calling special sessions after some of his policy priorities — particularly school choice — failed to advance out of the legislature, as reported by The Dallas Express.
A ranking from the Young Conservatives of Texas this year, which was first reported on by The Dallas Express, found similar results as The Texas Tribune. Hughes was ranked as the most right-wing senator, and Eckhardt the most left-wing. The group also ranked Nichols as the most left-wing Republican.