How we track this
A claim you can check.
Our accountability pages make one checkable claim: whether each Texas officeholder or candidate has a Texas First Pledge signature on record. Here is exactly how we determine it, where the data comes from, and how to correct it.
What we track
Current officeholders: the 229 who hold statewide executive, Texas legislative, or Texas congressional office. 2026 candidates: the general-election nominees for the U.S. Senate seat and the seven statewide executive offices.
How we count the 1.6 million
In the March 3, 2026 Texas Republican primary, an estimated 1.6 million Texans, roughly three in four Republican primary voters, cast a ballot for at least one Texas First Pledge signer. That is unique voters, not a sum of raw votes. A single voter could back several signers across different races, so the totals cannot simply be added. The hard floor is the 1,174,599 votes for Don Huffines, who won the Comptroller nomination outright. Everything is compiled from official county and Texas Secretary of State returns.
Where the data comes from
- Texas Legislature (150 House and 31 Senate seats): the OpenStates / Plural current roster.
- U.S. House and Senate from Texas: the unitedstates/congress-legislators dataset.
- Statewide executives (Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Attorney General, Comptroller, Land Commissioner, Agriculture Commissioner, and the three Railroad Commissioners): maintained by hand and re-verified against the Texas Secretary of State and each office, because no authoritative machine-readable roster exists. Official rosters lag vacancies, so we record the date this was last checked (currently 2026-06-05).
- 2026 nominees: verified against official primary and runoff results and reporting from the Texas Tribune, Ballotpedia, and major outlets after each contest (last verified 2026-06-07).
- Signatures: our published roster of Texas First Pledge signers.
How we match a signature
We match an officeholder or candidate to a signer by name, and for districted officeholders by chamber, district, and last name. We do not credit a signature across two clearly different people who happen to share a surname and a first initial. For candidates we require an exact name match, because a wrong match would hang a signature on the wrong person.
What “no signature on record” means
It is a statement about our records. It is not an accusation, and not a claim that anyone refused to sign. If you have signed and the page shows you as not having signed, tell us and we will fix it.
How often it updates
The roster and its matches refresh automatically. The officeholder lists are refreshed after each election, and the curated statewide and candidate data is re-verified after each primary, runoff, and general election.
What signing means
The pledge is four sentences. Signing is permanent and public: a signature is a public record, and it is never removed. Inclusion on the roster is not an endorsement, and it is not a statement for or against anyone’s election. The pledge is a program of the Texas Nationalist Movement (a 501(c)(4)), not a political action committee, and any candidate or officeholder of any party may sign.
Found something wrong?
Tell us. For a correction or a question, contact us, and we will check it against the record.
The Texas First Pledge is a project of the Texas Nationalist Movement (TNM Inc.), a 501(c)(4) social welfare organization, not a political action committee. Signing is open to any candidate or officeholder of any party. Inclusion is not an endorsement, and not a statement of support for or opposition to any candidate's election.