Hinojosa Ousts Abbott: What Texas Election Results Mean for Hemp THC

Texas voters on Tuesday ousted Gov. Greg Abbott and elected Democrat James Talarico to the U.S. Senate, giving the state a governor-elect who voted against the 2025 hemp THC ban each time it came to a decisive House vote. The Associated Press called the governor’s race for Gina Hinojosa at 10:17 p.m. Central, KUT reported. The AP also called the Senate race for Talarico over Attorney General Ken Paxton.

By Saturday, the result was broader than the election-night picture. The AP had called Democratic control of the Texas House, and Democrats had won every statewide executive office on the ballot. Sarah Eckhardt won the comptroller race, Clayton Tucker won agriculture commissioner, Democrats won all four Texas Supreme Court seats on the ballot and they swept the three seats on the Fifteenth Court of Appeals. Official state totals remain unofficial until the canvass.

Election-night hemp race snapshot

The tables below preserve the AP vote snapshot published by the Texas Tribune on the morning of Nov. 4. For the latest unofficial totals, use the Texas Secretary of State’s results page. Hemp records come from the House and Senate Journals as compiled in our archived 2026 voter guide.

The governor’s race changes the veto math

In 2025 the Senate gave SB 3 final approval 25-6 and the House passed it 87-54. The bill banned any consumable hemp product containing a cannabinoid other than CBD or CBG. Abbott vetoed it in June 2025, arguing it would not survive court challenges, then issued Executive Order GA-56. That order directed the Department of State Health Services to count THCA in its testing standard, the change that took most THCA flower off legal shelves this spring. Our explainer Is THCA Still Legal in Texas? walks through that formula.

Overriding a veto in Texas takes two-thirds of the members present in each chamber: 100 House votes and 21 Senate votes with full attendance. The 2025 House vote for SB 3 fell 13 short of that threshold. The election changed the House majority, but Republicans retained the Senate. Many vetoes also come after the session ends, when no override vote is possible. Abbott’s SB 3 veto came that way.

Hinojosa’s record points one direction. She voted no on the amendment that turned the House bill into a ban (Record 3191), on second reading (Record 3192) and on final passage (Record 3304). The Texas Hemp Business Council’s 2026 voter guide lists her as supporting “a regulated hemp marketplace and freedom of choice.” She has also called for letting Texans vote on THC policy. Texas has no statewide citizen initiative, so that would take legislative action. In the sources we reviewed, she has not made a formal pledge to veto a ban.

A governor also shapes enforcement. GA-56 is an executive order, and a new governor can rescind or replace one. The health department rules adopted under it went through formal rulemaking, though. They stay in force unless the agency adopts new rules, a court blocks them or lawmakers change the law. The governor appoints the Health and Human Services executive commissioner, whose office approved those rules, KUT reported.

Lieutenant governor: the ban’s chief champion loses

The lieutenant governor presides over the Texas Senate, appoints its committees and largely decides which bills reach the floor. Every hemp ban that has passed the Senate since 2025 was a Patrick priority. After Abbott’s veto, Patrick told reporters that if voters wanted to remove him over it, “so be it,” and in a later interview with WFAA he said he still wanted “these smoke shops closed,” KUT reported. In that same report, hemp retailers described registering voters and campaigning against him.

Goodwin voted against the ban amendment and on second reading. She missed the final-passage roll call and filed a journal statement that she would have voted no. She has called for rules similar to alcohol’s, with age limits and packaging and marketing standards. The Texas Tribune reported that she also proposed taxing hemp products to help pay for health coverage for low-income Texans. Goodwin declared victory Tuesday night, and the AP called the race for her early Wednesday. Patrick conceded in a statement, saying he accepted “the majority will of the voters,” KERA reported.

Winning does not hand Goodwin the full power Patrick has used. Most of the office’s authority comes from rules the senators adopt at the start of each session, and the Tribune noted that the continuing Republican majority could curtail it. Republicans retained control of the chamber after winning the closely watched District 2 and District 11 races.

Texas Senate: the ban’s authors win

SB 3’s Senate author, Charles Perry, and coauthors Charles Schwertner and Kevin Sparks won reelection. Republicans Bob Hall and Dennis Paul also won Districts 2 and 11, according to the Texas Secretary of State’s unofficial results.

Even if a sixth version of the ban clears the Senate in 2027, it would still need the House and the governor’s signature, or enough votes to override a veto.

Texas House: control changed parties

The House is where SB 3 became a ban in 2025. Lawmakers replaced their own licensing-and-tax version with the Senate’s ban 86-53, then passed it 87-54. The AP has now called Democratic control of the 150-seat chamber, ending the Republican majority that began after the 2002 election. Republicans retain the Texas Senate, so either chamber can still stop a cannabis or hemp bill.

Party control changes committee chairs, the House calendar and which bills receive floor votes. It does not guarantee an outcome. Seven House Democrats were recorded voting for SB 3 on final passage, while Republicans Brian Harrison and Briscoe Cain voted against it. Use the voter guide’s House table to review the 2025 roll calls, then use the Action Center to contact the lawmakers who represent you now.

Attorney general and the courts

The attorney general defends the state’s THCA rules in the hemp industry’s lawsuit. Paxton remains attorney general until his term ends in January, and the court has since canceled the Dec. 8 oral argument in the state’s appeal, which will be reset. Nathan Johnson declared victory over Mayes Middleton Tuesday night, and the AP has since called the race for him. He will be the first Democratic attorney general since 1999, Houston Public Media reported. Johnson will set the state’s position in the case in 2027, when it could reach the Texas Supreme Court.

The court hearing that appeal was on the ballot too. Democrats Jerry Zimmerer, Tom Baker and Marc Meyer won the three Fifteenth Court of Appeals seats, replacing Chief Justice Scott Brister and Justices Scott Field and April Farris. The court has since canceled the Dec. 8 oral argument. Who participates in a later ruling depends on when the court issues it and when the newly elected judges take office.

Democrats also won all four Texas Supreme Court seats on the ballot, leaving Republicans with a 5-4 majority. That court ruled in May that the state may treat manufactured delta-8 THC as a controlled substance, clearing the way for the July 31 delta-8 scheduling change.

In Houston, voters approved Proposition A with more than 70% of the vote in unofficial Harris and Fort Bend County results Wednesday morning, Houston Public Media reported. The charter amendment makes misdemeanor marijuana possession the police department’s lowest enforcement priority and bans no-knock warrants. Possession remains illegal under state law. Paxton’s office challenged similar measures in San Marcos and Dallas. Whether to challenge Houston’s will be up to Johnson once he takes office. Our Prop A explainer covers what the measure does.

Agriculture commissioner and comptroller

The Texas Department of Agriculture licenses hemp growers and runs pre-harvest testing. Clayton Tucker, who led Nate Sheets, says on his campaign platform that he supports every farmer’s right to grow hemp and adults’ right to consume it. Sheets, who unseated Sid Miller in the March primary, has said his concern is synthetic products such as delta-8. We covered the race in our agriculture commissioner report.

The comptroller would collect any hemp tax the Legislature creates. Sarah Eckhardt won that office after offering the 2025 Senate amendment to replace the ban with a 0.3% delta-9 standard, labeling and child-resistant packaging. It failed 8-23. Clayton Tucker won agriculture commissioner after campaigning in support of hemp farming and adult access. Neither official takes office until January.

Washington: Talarico and the Dec. 11 deadline

Talarico voted against SB 3, called the ban “a gift to the cartels” during the House debate and filed HB 5307 in 2025 to legalize, regulate and tax cannabis. The AP reported that Democrats won control of the U.S. Senate on Tuesday.

That does not move the federal calendar. Talarico takes office in January, after the federal redefinition of hemp takes effect on Dec. 11. That law counts THCA toward the federal limit and sets a per-container THC cap, as explained in our Dec. 11 deadline guide. Changing it would take new legislation in the next Congress.

What did not change on election night

• State hemp rules: The health department rules that count THCA toward the 0.3% limit and set $5,000 retail registration fees remain in effect.
• Who holds office: Abbott remains governor and Patrick remains lieutenant governor until their successors are sworn in in January.
• The court case: Oral argument in the industry’s appeal, once set for Dec. 8, was canceled and will be reset.
• Federal law: The Dec. 11 federal hemp deadline is unaffected by the Texas results.
• Delta-8 and marijuana: Manufactured delta-8 THC remains on the state’s controlled-substance schedule, and marijuana possession remains illegal statewide, including in Houston.

What to watch next

• Canvass and certification. County and state canvasses turn unofficial returns into the official record. Close district totals can still move, but the AP calls that determine statewide winners and House control are in.
• Bill filing. Lawmakers can begin prefiling bills for the 2027 session the Monday after the election. Watch for new ban, regulation and tax bills.
• Senate rules. The 90th Legislature convenes Jan. 12, 2027. The rules senators adopt then will set how much power Goodwin has over hemp bills.
• The governor-elect’s agenda. Watch whether Hinojosa addresses GA-56, the THCA testing rule or the fee levels before or after she takes office.