What the amendment actually does
It restores two rights Texans do not currently hold at the statewide level: initiative, the ability to propose a law or a constitutional amendment by petition, and referendum, the ability to repeal a law the Legislature has already passed.
Many states already give their voters one or both of those tools. Texas gives them neither. If a bill dies in committee here, or passes over broad public objection, the people it affects have no direct remedy until the next election, and often not even then.
If we trust Texans to work, raise families, and pay taxes here, we can trust them to vote on what affects them directly.
How it works, so nothing here misleads you
- Signature thresholds. A petition requires signatures equal to 5 percent of the vote cast for governor for a statutory measure, or 6 percent for a constitutional one, gathered statewide and within each state senate district. That district requirement is deliberate: it stops a handful of large metros from qualifying a measure the rest of the state never saw.
- Filing fee and review. A $1,000 filing fee, refundable on certification, plus a State Bar advisory review and a Legislative Budget Board fiscal note. These are nonbinding safeguards. They inform voters about what a measure would do and cost. They do not block a petition.
- Disclosure. Any entity spending or receiving more than $1,000 on petition or ballot activity must register with the Texas Ethics Commission, and contributions over $1,000 are publicly disclosed.
- What happens if the Legislature sits on it. If lawmakers do not act on a qualifying petition, it goes to voters at the next general election.
- The ballot date. The underlying constitutional amendment itself is slated for the November 2, 2027 ballot.
Find the two people who vote on this for you
Every Texan is represented by one state House member and one state senator. Those are the two seats that decide whether this amendment reaches the ballot. Enter your address and we will name them.
Who represents you in Austin?
Enter your address on the home page and we name your two seats, show everyone running against them, and write the email for you. One step, no copying addresses.
Your address is used once to find your two districts. We do not store it, and we never see it attached to your name.
Would rather write it yourself? Use the letter template
Look your members up at the Texas Legislature’s own directory, Who Represents Me, then send them this. Copy it as is or put it in your own words. A short note in your own voice carries further than a form letter.
The pledge tracker
Every sitting member of both chambers is on the tracker from day one, defaulted to Undecided. As each one responds to the pledge, their name moves into Yes or No. What you are looking at is a call list.
Undecided
The starting status for every sitting member of the Texas House and Senate. No reply logged yet, or the pledge is still outstanding. This is the list of who to call.
Evidence to post itNone required. It is where everyone begins.
Yes
The legislator has stated, in their own writing or in recorded audio, that they will vote yes on the amendment.
Evidence to post itA direct written or recorded statement on file, dated and linked.
No
The legislator has stated, in their own writing or in recorded audio, that they will vote no on the amendment.
Evidence to post itA direct written or recorded statement on file, dated and linked.
Silence never counts as a no. A legislator who has not responded stays Undecided. Moving anyone into Yes or No takes their own statement, dated and linked, so every entry on this board holds up if someone challenges it.
Scope. The tracker follows a candidate from the primary through the general election under one continuous record rather than resetting, so a pledge made in the primary still counts if that candidate advances. Sitting legislators and challengers are listed as two clearly labeled groups, because only sitting members currently hold a vote.
The live tracker board goes up here once the pledge cycle opens. Until then, this page documents exactly what will and will not be posted.
For legislators and candidates
One line, in writing or on tape, settles it: will you vote yes on the joint resolution restoring initiative and referendum rights in Texas.
Answer either way and we will post it with the date and the link. We are not asking you to concede anything to the other party. We are asking you to be on record before the vote, not after.
The pledge goes out to every incumbent and every challenger. There is no clock on an individual answer: a seat stays Undecided until that person responds, however long that takes. The one date that matters to voters is Tuesday, October 27, 2026, one week before the election, so every answer received by then is posted while people are still voting.
The documents
Nothing on this page asks you to take our summary on faith. The full text is here, along with the packet we send to legislators, so you can check our work or hand it to someone else.
The Trust Texans Constitutional Amendment
The complete joint resolution as written, including the signature thresholds, the fiscal review, and the Ethics Commission disclosure requirement.
Download the PDFWhat we send legislators
The briefing packet for members of the 90th Legislature: a plain language summary, a section by section breakdown, answers to common questions, and the full text.
Download the PDFStudies on data center energy use
Two papers behind our grid and data center line items, summarized plainly, with the open access study posted in full.
Read the researchHow we stay in our lane
A note on how we stay in our lane. Tracking and publishing legislators' positions on a specific bill is ordinary, well established issue advocacy for a 501(c)(4). The line we hold is the framing: this board says here is their position, not vote for or against this person because of it. The first is issue advocacy. The second starts to look like express candidate advocacy, which brings PAC style registration and reporting into play.
Because the 501(c)(4) determination is still pending with the IRS, we operate by that stricter line now rather than waiting for the determination letter to tell us to.