Consensus Priorities Project

Introduction

Texas’ Republicans, specifically the party’s conservative wing, had a strong electoral showing in 2024, capped off by a top-of-the-ticket trounce in November, reversing a decade of attriting margins. Following such a showing, and with the backdrop of radical reform in D.C., it would be strange for this legislative session not to deliver.

After all, we live in the “promises made, promises kept” era of the GOP.

With that in mind, Texas Scorecard has identified those common objectives—the legislative priorities—that should be slam dunks.

The Consensus Priorities Project is a framework for evaluating legislative success or failure in 2025 based on the priorities of the state GOP, several conservative organizations, and key Republican stakeholders.

Priorities from those sources have been consolidated to identify common objectives that can serve as benchmarks for legislative progress. Before getting into the guts of the project, please note that this analysis does not suggest what should or shouldn’t succeed or fail during the legislative session. Inclusion doesn’t necessarily mean that a priority has the overwhelming support of the political base (though most do), and the inverse applies to priorities that missed the consensus cut.

This exercise looks at what people have been both talking about and working toward.

This list should not limit what conservatives demand from lawmakers, nor should it suggest items not mentioned aren’t considered worthy of enactment by voters.

What Is the Consensus Priorities Project?

The Consensus Priorities Project is an effort to identify shared priorities among prominent conservative organizations and leaders in Texas. Unlike traditional approaches that attempt to gauge public opinion or shape agendas, this project focuses on identifying areas of agreement.

Texans can use this information to assess whether their expectations of the legislative process are in line with outcomes and provide a roadmap for engagement. There will be more on that toward the end.

Again, this is not a comprehensive list of priorities.

Conservatives are passionate about their issues, and those may enjoy broad public consensus, but if multiple stakeholders have not named them, they won’t appear in this analysis.

Keep in mind, as we get to the legislation that will fill the buckets of priorities, there is a lot of granularity in the legislative process.

For instance, property tax relief is widely shared objective in 2025, but it can be handled in multiple competing ways. Gov. Greg Abbott has called for $10 billion in rate compression, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick has called for $6 billion in expanded homestead exemptions, and the House has proposed $6 billion in rate compression.

Ultimately, determining success on the priority of property tax relief will depend on how these differences are reconciled.

Whose Work Was Considered in Developing the Priorities?

Our analysis of priorities was drawn from a range of conservative groups and the three lawmakers positioned to impose their priorities on the legislative session based on the powers derived from their office.

• Texas GOP (TxGOP)
• The Governor’s Office
• The Lt. Governor’s Office
• The Speaker of the House
• Texans for Fiscal Responsibility (TFR)
• Texans for Vaccine Choice (TFVC)
• Texas Right to Life (TRTL)
• Protecting Texas Children (PTC)
• Texas Family Project (TFP)
• Texas Gun Rights (TxGR)
• True Texas Project (TTP)

Many of these groups have a formal approach to publicizing their priorities and the bills that achieve each priority’s stated end. But that’s not true across the board.

Priorities for the governor and the speaker of the house were compiled based on speeches and public statements made at the onset of the Texas legislative session. As recently as this week, Speaker Dustin Burrows has posted on social media about some of his priority issues, which focus on education and disaster preparedness.

For groups that haven’t published priorities, a comprehensive list of bill exemplars that closely match a priority will be inserted. The Texas Public Policy Foundation (TPPF) was considered as a resource, but they do not have “priorities.” Rather, their current research agenda was used as a weighting factor.

Measuring Success: Legislation as Metrics

As was mentioned previously, assigning completion to each priority will be tricky.

The project emphasizes that individual pieces of legislation are milestones rather than ultimate goals. Success will ultimately be judged by voters, based on a broad range of objectives being met.

While a single bill from either chamber may clear the threshold of achieving a priority, it’s just as likely to require multiple pieces of legislation to pass before a priority can be considered fully completed.

Of course, there will be some legislation that represents movement toward achieving a priority, but most will ultimately require more time, energy, and legislation. These incremental steps can be thought of as demonstrating the real-world balancing act lawmakers allow themselves to walk between accomplishing Texans’ actual desires and appeasing the interests of powerful lobbyists in Austin. 

Where is my priority?

This initiative highlights the importance of collaboration among conservative groups in shaping policy agendas. With clear benchmarks in place, Texans can better assess whether their elected officials are delivering on promises and addressing the issues that matter most.

Again, remember the structure of this exercise; it’s to find commonalities across groups or political figures in a position to impose themselves and their priorities on the legislative process.

It will be a shock if banning taxpayer-funded lobbying in some form doesn’t pass this legislative session because it shows up as a the most frequent priority. Even still, there will be work to be done as key legislation has already been “amended” to remove some of the biggest offenders.

What next? Organize to ensure that your issue is prioritized by the party, which will bring it into the spotlight. That does mean getting and staying involved at the local level.

The Consensus Priorities

After analyzing nearly 100 potential priority items, the project identified key objectives that received widespread support. These priorities are weighted based on how many groups endorsed them and include: