Legislative Update

February 2022

Imperium Public Affairs

ELECTIONS

The 2022 Texas Elections are officially underway. The election season has three important components to be aware of: March 1 Primary Elections, May 24 Primary Runoff Elections and November 8 General Elections. Early voting for the March 1 Primary Elections started on February 14, and lasts until Friday, February 25.

The state legislature completed the redistricting process in 2021, so there are an enourmous number of elections on the ballot this cycle. 150 State Representatives, 38 U.S. Representatives, 31 State Senators, 6 Texas constitutional executive offices, 3 Texas Supreme Court Justices, 3 judges of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals and 1 Texas Railroad Commissioner are up for election in 2022. Despite there being a large number of offices up for election, there is not currently a high likelihood of major changes to the partisan makeup. For example, there are less than 10 state-house seats that a realistic possibility of flipping parties. Because of this, most of the decisions as to who will represent a district or statewide office will happen during the primary and primary runoff elections.

EMPACT

The Emergency Medicine Political Action Committee of Texas (EMPACT) contributes to candidates that support and protect the independent practice of emergency medicine. The EMPACT Board of Trustees has approved contributions to support 21 candidates in advance of the primary elections. The Board will also be considering additional contributions for the primary runoff and general elections. Thank you to everyone who has made financial contributions to EMPACT, your support ensures that we are able to support candidates who value and appreciate the critical services that emergency department physcians provide to Texas patients. If you have not made a contribution to EMPACT, please consider doing so now.

LEGISLATIVE

The legislature is no longer in session, and we are now in the legislative interim. From a public policy perspective, this is a time when legislators review the actions taken during the previous session(s) and study various options for action ahead of the 2023 legislative session. A major component of the interim is the release of interim charges, assignments for members of their respective chambers to hear public and invited testimony, conduct research and submit reports on issues deemed important by the Speaker of the House and Lieutenant Governor. At this time those charges have not been released, and we do not expect to see them until closer to or after the primary election. As always, IPA will continue to monitor the situation and provide relevant updates.