Texas may fancy itself the MAGA mega-state, the indispensable beacon of brash conservatism that provided the fuel and fodder—if not the decisive electoral votes—for Donald Trump to return to power. But that stature will apparently not be reflected in the president’s second administration. Just three Texans have been appointed to his cabinet as of early December, and not among them are the statewide leaders long-rumored as options for the top federal ranks.
Nor will Texans wield any outsized influence within the Republican-controlled Congress. After a wave of retirements, Texas Republicans in the U.S. House collectively possess the least seniority and committee chairmanships in a generation, their ranks now filled with gadflys, sycophants, and back-benchers. The two Texans in the U.S. Senate include a self-righteous striver and an on-the-outs old establishment hand. Sam Rayburn or LBJ, there is not.
But the Texas tycoons who financed and fomented Trump’s reelection will, as ever, reap the spoils and plunder provided by the coming years of a Republican-run Washington. And, much like Trump’s first term, the Lone Star State’s top GOP leaders will stay put at home—leading the policy vanguard from the statehouse, helping build the president’s promised mass-deportation machine, and cheerleading the Trump economy (tariffs and all).
