Texas · Voters guide · November 3, 2026
Texas assembled one of the country’s largest license-plate surveillance networks — 10,000+ cameras, $30 million of it state money routed through a fee enacted for catalytic-converter theft — and it did so largely without public votes. In August 2026, after an officer was indicted on 100 felony counts for stalking with the system, Gov. Abbott froze state Flock spending. A freeze is a signature; only a statute outlasts one, and Texas has none.
The Legislature that can write that statute — the 90th — is elected November 3 and convenes in January. This page is the record, the ballot, and the addresses.
Every entry links its reporting. Dates matter — this is the record as of August 31, 2026.
DPS orders Flock to stop operating as an unlicensed security contractor in Texas. Per the Texas Observer, the company’s license was suspended, lapsed in 2025, and was not reissued until December 4, 2025 — while cameras kept running.
A Johnson County sheriff’s office runs a nationwide Flock search — reason field: an abortion — for a woman who had self-managed one, reaching cameras in dozens of states. Flock’s public account of the incident was later contradicted by the sheriff’s own affidavit. The episode is chapter one of the evidence file.
Austin lets its Flock contract lapse after sustained public pressure — then police access neighboring agencies’ cameras anyway, the gap advocacy groups now call the access-through-neighbors loophole. Hays County terminates in October; Bandera (pop. 900) drops out too.
The 89th Legislature adjourns without passing any ALPR statute. Bills to require public use policies and audit reporting die without a floor vote. Texas law still says nothing about warrants, retention, or sharing.
DPS installs its own Flock cameras in Austin — the city that had just declined to renew.
The Texas Tribune counts 206 local agencies sharing plate data with DPS — up 69% in five months — over an estimated 10,000+ cameras statewide. DPS holds a $26 million Flock contract tied to Operation Lone Star and declines to say how many cameras it operates.
Texas Rangers arrest a Lufkin officer; a grand jury indicts him on 100 felony counts for using Flock cameras to track 11 people — one ex-girlfriend’s plate searched more than 10,000 times. Lufkin takes its whole network offline. A Katy officer faces stalking charges the same month; at least six Texas agencies open misuse investigations.
Pflugerville’s council votes unanimously to end its 28-camera contract. Hood County orders its three cameras disconnected and covered.
As the Tribune prepares to publish its money trail, Gov. Abbott orders every state agency to stop spending on Flock cameras. The trail: the Motor Vehicle Crime Prevention Authority put at least $30 million — from a $1 fee on every auto policy, enacted for catalytic-converter theft — into 3,200+ cameras since 2023, and DPS runs nearly 1,200 more under a $15.9 million authority contract. Abbott, on air: the cameras “are going to be required to be used responsibly if they’re used at all.”
The same August 2026 figures as the record above, drawn to one scale each.
The 90th Legislature convenes January 2027. It is the only body that can turn August’s funding pause into law — or quietly let the money flow again. On the ballot: every statewide executive, 16 of 31 Senate seats, and all 150 House seats.
| Office | November lineup (as reported Aug 2026) | Why it touches the cameras |
|---|---|---|
| Governor | Greg Abbott (R, incumbent) vs. Gina Hinojosa (D) vs. Jenn Mack Raphoon (I) | Ordered every state agency to stop spending on Flock cameras on August 27–28, 2026. The next governor decides whether that order survives. |
| Lieutenant Governor | Dan Patrick (R, incumbent) vs. Mike Collier (D) | Presides over the Senate and decides which bills get referred and heard. No ALPR bill reaches a Senate vote without this office. |
| Attorney General | Mayes Middleton (R) vs. Nathan Johnson (D) | Both are sitting state senators. The AG's office shapes how surveillance statutes — and abuses — get enforced. |
Senate terms are four years, so the seats filled this November hold their votes through the 2029 session. Three are open. A dash under “November race” never means unopposed — it means as-reported lineups only.
| District | Around | November race |
|---|---|---|
| SD 1 | East Texas — Tyler, Longview, Texarkana | Bryan Hughes (R, incumbent) vs. Laticia Ambroz (D) Chairs Senate State Affairs, the committee where surveillance bills usually land. |
| SD 2 | Northeast of Dallas — Rockwall, Greenville | Bob Hall (R, incumbent) vs. Keenen Colbert (D) |
| SD 3 | Deep East Texas — Jacksonville, Lufkin, Nacogdoches | Robert Nichols (R) is retiring. Trent Ashby (R) vs. Bobby Tillman (D) — open seat Lufkin, where one officer drew 100 felony counts for misusing Flock cameras, is in this district. |
| SD 4 | Montgomery County, Beaumont | Brett Ligon (R) — won the May 2, 2026 special election after Brandon Creighton resigned; on the ballot for a full term |
| SD 5 | Georgetown, Bryan–College Station | Charles Schwertner (R, incumbent) vs. Paul Thomasson (D) |
| SD 9 | Northeast Tarrant County — Fort Worth suburbs | Taylor Rehmet (D, incumbent — won the January 2026 special runoff) vs. Leigh Wambsganss (R) |
| SD 11 | Galveston, Brazoria, southeast Houston | Mayes Middleton (R) is leaving to run for Attorney General. Dennis Paul (R) vs. Shannon Dicely (D) — open seat |
| SD 13 | Houston — south and central | Borris Miles (D, incumbent) — unopposed as reported |
| SD 18 | Brenham, Victoria, the mid-coast | Lois Kolkhorst (R, incumbent) vs. Erica Gillum (D) |
| SD 19 | San Antonio west, Uvalde, the border | Roland Gutierrez (D, incumbent) vs. Marcus Cardenas (R) |
| SD 21 | Laredo to south San Antonio | Judith Zaffirini (D, incumbent) — unopposed as reported |
| SD 22 | Waco, Granbury, Mansfield | Brian Birdwell (R) resigned in May 2026 for a Pentagon post; the seat is vacant. David Cook (R) vs. Amy Martinez-Salas (D) — plus a same-day special election for the unexpired term |
| SD 24 | Hill Country — Kerrville, Pleasanton | Pete Flores (R, incumbent) vs. Joe Herrera (D) |
| SD 26 | San Antonio — central | José Menéndez (D, incumbent) vs. Julián Villarreal (Green) |
| SD 28 | Lubbock and West Texas | Charles Perry (R, incumbent) vs. Riley Rodriquez (D) Senate President pro tempore. |
| SD 31 | Panhandle and Permian Basin — Amarillo, Midland | Kevin Sparks (R, incumbent) vs. John Betancourt (D) |
All 150 Texas House seats are also up — two-year terms. Full ballots by county: VoteTexas.gov.
A senator hears from a handful of constituents on most issues; a dozen letters is a groundswell. Pick your districts — Who Represents Me finds them from your address in ten seconds — and the message is drafted. Edit it before sending; a letter in your own words outweighs ten of anyone else’s.
His August 2026 order froze state Flock spending. A pause can be lifted; ask him to back a statute. The office takes messages by web form and opinion line, not email.
Controls the Senate's agenda. Ask that ALPR limits get a committee hearing and a floor vote in the 90th session.
Controls the House's agenda, and is on the November ballot himself in House District 83.
The board — six members appointed by the governor, plus the DPS director — whose grants put at least $30 million into Flock cameras since 2023, funded by a $1 fee on every auto insurance policy.
Messages open in your own mail app and are sent by you, from your address — this site sends nothing and records nothing about who you write. Addresses are from the Legislature’s public directories.
This guide reports lineups; it does not invent positions. Most candidates have no public record on ALPRs yet — which means the record gets written when constituents ask. At a forum, by email, at the door:
| Register to vote by | Monday, October 5, 2026 — check or register at VoteTexas.gov |
| Early voting | October 19–30, 2026 |
| Vote by mail | Friday, October 23, 2026 (application received by); Texas requires a qualifying reason (65+, disability, out of county, or confinement) |
| Election day | Tuesday, November 3, 2026 |
This project’s position is that a searchable, retrospective record of everyone’s movements is a general warrant in software. Honesty requires saying that nearly every court to consider it has so far held that an ALPR query is not a Fourth Amendment search — the strongest authority the other way concerns persistent aerial and location tracking, and the one trial court to suppress on this theory pointed lawmakers, not judges, to the fix. Which is the point of this page: in Texas, the guardrails will be written by the Legislature elected November 3 or they will not be written. The full argument, sources and counter-arguments are here.
Lineups, counts and dollar figures are as reported August 2026 and each carries its source above; candidates withdraw, and numbers age. Legislator addresses come from the Legislature’s public directories via Open States — if one bounces, the member’s website has a contact form. Districts are approximate in the “around” column; Who Represents Me is exact. This page urges no vote for any candidate; it urges the question. See also the ACLU’s Get The Flock Out toolkit, the DeFlock camera map, and our in-browser demonstration of how this technology sees a street.