Abbott Sets Special Session on THC Regulation Amid Trump Redistricting Push
Gov. Greg Abbott is calling lawmakers back to Austin next month to regulate the state’s booming THC industry and make tweaks to a handful of other bills the Texas Republican vetoed.
The special session also comes as the White House is pushing Texas lawmakers to redraw congressional lines ahead of the 2026 midterms.
President Donald Trump's political team wants new maps to help Republicans pick up additional seats next November as the GOP looks to defend its slim U.S. House majority against a potential Democratic surge. Right now, Republicans hold 25 of the state’s 38 seats in Congress.
Abbott has so far been silent on the possibility of adding redistricting to what he said was an “initial agenda” for the session, slated to start on July 21, and declined to comment on Monday. Lawmakers can only consider items the governor directs them to tackle.
“Working with the Texas Legislature, we delivered results that will benefit Texans for generations to come,” Abbott said in a release announcing the special session. “This session has seen monumental success, but there is more we can do.”
On Monday, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick endorsed the idea of redrawing the political maps when state lawmakers return.
"I'll just say that if we can pick up Republican seats in Texas to make Congress stronger, after what the Democrats did to our country in the last four years — and what they're still doing, criticizing the President of the United States, wanting to impeach him for protecting American lives by taking out Iranian nuclear threat to the world — I want more Republican congressmen," Patrick, a Republican who presides over the Texas Senate, said at a press conference.
At the top of Abbott’s special session agenda is regulating the hemp-derived THC products that have flooded Texas and that lawmakers, led by Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, sought to ban outright during the regular session.
Abbott vetoed that full ban and urged lawmakers to regulate THC similarly to alcohol, such as prohibiting sales near schools and playgrounds, restricting access to those who are 21 and older and allowing strict enforcement by the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission.
"To ensure the highest level of safety for minors, as well as for adults, who obtain a product more dangerous than what they expected, Texas must strongly regulate hemp, and it must do so immediately," Abbott wrote in a statement on the veto.
The governor also ordered lawmakers to tweak four other bills he vetoed, but said he would support if they made certain adjustments.
Those include:
He also added to the special session agenda a bill that he let become law without his signature that deals with the operation of a cement kiln and the production of aggregates near a semiconductor wafer manufacturing facility. He didn’t say why he wants lawmakers to revisit that issue.