FEATURED: Longtime State Rep. R.D. “Bobby” Guerra, D-McAllen, seen here with his wife Leslie Yoder-Guerra at the Texas Capitol in Austin, has become the most recent member of the 150-member Texas House of Representatives to announce he will not seek reelection – in his case, to an eighth two-year term that would have begun in January 2027. Guerra said he would complete his current term, which ends on Tuesday, January 12, 2027.
Photograph Courtesy REP. BOBBY GUERRA FACEBOOK
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Rep. Bobby Guerra, D-McAllen, will not seek reelection, but vows to “give it everything I have until the very end” of his term on January 12, 2027
By DAVID A. DÍAZ
[email protected]
Longtime State Rep. R.D. “Bobby” Guerra, D-McAllen, on Thursday, October 2, 2025, became the most recent member of the 150-member Texas House of Representatives to announce he will not seek reelection – in his case, to an eighth two-year term that would have begun in January 2027.
Guerra said he will continue as the House District 41 state lawmaker until Tuesday, January 12, 2027, when his current term is completed. Otherwise, Gov. Greg Abbott would call a special election to fill Guerra’s remaining term.
His successor will be sworn into office on Tuesday, January 12, 2027, when the 140-day regular session begins for the 90th Texas Legislature.
“I am forever grateful to my colleagues, from both sides of the aisle, my staff, and my family for their steadfast support,” Guerra said. “My deepest gratitude, however, goes to the people of House District 41, who have given me this honor to serve and represent them in the Texas Legislature.”
Guerra joins at least three other members of the Texas House of Representatives who say they will not seek reelection in 2026: former Speaker of the House Dade Phelan, R-Beaumont, Rep. Alma Allen, D-Houston, and Rep. Jon Rosenthal, D-Houston.
Whoever qualifies as the nominee for their political party in March 2026, and then goes on to victory in the November 2026 general election, will represent all or portions of Edinburg, Lópezville, McAllen, Mission, Pharr, and Palmhurst.
The Edinburg native, an attorney who is a founding member of Guerra & Sabo, P.L.L.C., offered advice to the candidates who will campaign to succeed him in the House of Representatives.
“The work isn’t for the weary (lacking in strength),” Guerra said. “Too many times the Texas Legislature reminds me of an old Sam Rayburn quote: ‘Any jackass can kick down a barn, but it takes a good carpenter to build one.’ Here’s hoping the carpenters will outnumber the jackasses and we live up to the promise of Texas for generations to come.”
Rayburn, of Texas, was the longest-serving Speaker in the U.S. House of Representatives, holding that office from 1940 to 1947, from 1949 to 1953, and finally from 1955 until his death in 1961.
“There is still work to do, and I plan to give it everything I have until the very end” of his current term, he said.
In addition to continue serving his constituents at the Capitol and in House District 41, Guerra will help shape legislation for action by the 90th Texas Legislature, which will begin its 140-day regular session in January 2027, as the Speaker of the House most likely will ask House committees to participate in producing interim reports.
In the Texas House of Representatives, committee interim reports are documents detailing the research, findings, and recommendations of a standing or special legislative committee during the “Interim” — the period when the legislature is not in a regular session.
Guerra is currently a member of the House Committee on Agriculture and Livestock Committee, the House Committee on Energy Resources, the Select House Committee on Congressional Redistricting, and the House Committee on Redistricting.
In his announcement, Guerra said throughout his legislative career he has promoted health care, agriculture, economic development and educational opportunities.
He comes from a family with strong public affairs and education achievements, including his father, Hidalgo County Judge Ramiro Guerra †, and his mother, Edina B. Guerra †, an educator who was an appointee of Gov. Dolph Briscoe to serve as a member of the Board of Regents of Pan American University.
“I’m the son of a teacher, and a former county judge, and I couldn’t be more proud to have done my part to continue a legacy of service,” Guerra said. “From the establishment of the Tejano Monument on the Capitol grounds, which honors the grit and strength of our forefathers, to funding a medical school which paves the way for the next generation of public servants, I believe now more than ever in the promise of Texas’ future.”
Guerra said he championed the establishment of the Tejano Monument, the 20-foot-long granite and bronze statue on the south grounds of the Texas State Capitol in Austin “to honor the legacy of our state’s Spaniard and Mexican pioneers and settlers.”
The statue features Guerra’s mother’s family brand on one of the horses.
Among the hundreds of bills and resolutions carrying his name as author, coauthor, sponsor or cosponsor that became state law during his legislative career, Guerra was a cosponsor of Senate Bill 24, authored by Sen. Juan Hinojosa, D-McAllen, which created the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley and its School of Medicine in 2013.
A bill is a type of legislative measure that requires passage by both chambers of the legislature and action by the governor in order to become effective. A bill is the primary means used to create and change the laws of the state.
Legislation is a proposed or enacted law or group of laws.
An author is the legislator who wrote and introduced a bill or resolution and guides it through the legislative process (also called the primary author).
A sponsor is the legislator guides a bill or resolution through the legislative process after that bill has passed the originating chamber (Senate or House of Representatives).
A coauthor is a legislator authorized by the primary author of a bill or resolution to join in the authorship of the measure.
A cosponsor is a legislator who joins with the primary sponsor to guide a bill or resolution through the legislative process in the opposite chamber.
Senate Bill 24, which combined that assets of its legacy institutions UT Pan American and UT Brownsville to establish one strengthened and unified university across the Valley, also provided UTRGV access to the Permanent University Fund, which has almost $40 billion in state money which is used to fund major construction projects within the University of Texas System and Texas A&M System.
As cosponsor of Senate Bill 24 in 2013, Guerra joined with the primary sponsor (Rep. René Oliveira †, D-Brownsville) to guide that legislation through the House of Representatives.
As sponsor of Senate Bill 24, Oliveira led the efforts in the House of Representatives to approve that measure.
As author, Hinojosa was the lawmaker who wrote Senate Bill 24 and led the efforts in the Senate to approve that measure.
Guerra provided highlights of some of his other legislative accomplishments, including:
• Promoted economic development by securing state funding for UTRGV and its medical school, as well as for highway and infrastructure expansion in House District 41;
• Improved maternal health care, such as cosponsoring legislation to improve access to postpartum depression screening and raising standards for neonatal and maternal care as hospitals;
• Supported pay raise for teachers and increasing the standard of living for retired public school employees, while opposing private school vouchers which he says takes money away from public schools;
• Supported public safety and flood control legislation, including voting for the state constitutional amendment that allocated $800 million towards a newly-created Flood Infrastructure Fund.
Prior to his election to the Texas House of Representatives, Guerra served two terms, beginning in March 2000, as Chairman of the Hidalgo County Democratic Party. He also served on the Board of Directors of the University of Texas-Pan American Alumni Association, and was elected president of the board in 2003.
In addition to his active service on the Easter Seal’s Board of Directors in McAllen, he served as its president in 2013-2014.
Guerra graduated from Pan American University in 1977 with a Bachelor of Science degree and a double-major in Biology and Chemistry.
For several years, he was a television reporters and a news anchor at the ABC affiliate KRGV-TV Channel 5 in Weslaco before he went on to attend law school. In 1985, he graduated with cum laude honors from Texas Southern University Law School in Houston. He was admitted to the bar in 1985 and is licensed to practice in Texas and the United States District Courts for the Northern and Southern Districts of Texas.
During the 89th Regular Session of the Texas Legislature, which was held from January 14, 2025 through June 2, 2025, Guerra played leadership roles in numerous successful measures, of which he was author, sponsor, coauthor or cosponsor, including:
Senate Bill 5
Senate Bill 5 established the Dementia Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (DPRIT). The DPRIT is designed to accelerate research into dementia and related disorders to enhance the potential for medical or scientific breakthroughs, improve the health of Texas residents, and establish Texas as a leader in this field.
It is contingent on voter approval of a constitutional amendment that would establish DPRIT and transfer $3 billion to the Dementia Prevention & Research Fund from state general revenue to provide funding over the next 10 years.
Senate Concurrent Resolution 13
Senate Concurrent Resolution 13 urged the U.S. Department of State and the United States Section of the International Boundary and Water Commission to take appropriate action to ensure that Mexico complies with the 1944 Treaty regarding shared water resources.
Mexico's failure to fulfill its water deliveries to the United States according to the stipulations of a 1944 treaty between the two countries significantly harms the interests of Texas.
House Bill 20
House Bill 20 changed the Education Code to require the commissioner of education to establish and administer the Applied Sciences Pathway program.
Among other provisions, the bill provided for program partnerships between public school districts or open?enrollment charter schools and public institutions of higher education to provide courses of study for students in grade level 11 or 12 that lead to a high school diploma and completion of a certificate program with a successful job placement rate in high?wage, high?growth jobs in one of the industries specified by the bill.
Senate Bill 31
Senate Bill 31 changed various statutes relating to exceptions to the prohibition of abortions based on a physician’s exercise of reasonable medical judgment in certain circumstances.
The bill established related provisions on medical treatment and medical liability, and provides for legal and medical continuing education requirements related to abortion regulations and pregnancy-related medical emergencies.
House Bill 39
House Bill 39 changed the Health and Safety Code to require the Department of State Health Services (DSHS), when a qualifying veteran’s death certificate is filed with the vital statistics unit in DSHS, to submit to the Texas Veterans Commission deidentified information on the veteran's manner of death, only if the death was by suicide or homicide, age, race, sex, and occupation.
“Deidentified” means that personally identifiable information has been removed or obscured from a dataset so that the remaining information – such as names, addresses, and phone numbers – cannot be used to identify an individual. This process is done to protect privacy and alls data to be used for secondary purposes like research and policy-making, though it requires safeguards to prevent re-identification.
The bill provided for an annual report regarding the deidentified information to the governor, lieutenant governor, speaker of the house of representatives, and standing committees of the legislature with primary jurisdiction over veterans affairs.
House Bill 43
House Bill 43 changed the Agriculture Code to revise provisions of the Texas Agricultural Finance Act. Among other provisions, the bill revised the composition of the board of directors of the Texas Agricultural Finance Authority (TAFA). The bill revised the eligible agricultural businesses under the act and removed the cap on the maximum aggregate amount of TAFA loans for a single eligible agricultural business.
The bill required the board to adopt rules to allow a TAFA loan or grant recipient to use a portion of the loan or grant to apply for other forms of financial assistance and to use the loan or grant in conjunction with financial assistance provided through another state or federal program.
House Bill 49
House Bill 49 changed the Natural Resources Code to revise provisions relating to tort responsibility, and the rulemaking authority of the Railroad Commission of Texas, regarding the treatment and recycling for beneficial use of fluid oil and gas waste.
The Railroad Commission of Texas has rulemaking authority to create and enforce regulations within its jurisdiction, primarily over oil and gas operations, to prevent waste, protect correlative rights, and prevent pollution. Its authority includes adopting rules as part of the Texas Administrative Act, conducting informal and formal rule making proceedings, issuing emergency rules, and overseeing the application of these rules through permitting and reporting.
House Bill 107
House Bill 107 changed the Health and Safety Code to require the Department of State Health Services (DSHS) to establish and maintain a sickle cell disease registry consisting of records of sickle cell disease cases that occur in Texas and any other information concerning such cases that the executive commissioner of the Health and Human Services Commission considers necessary and appropriate to assist with the cure or treatment of the disease.
Sickle cell disease — also called sickle cell anemia — is a group of inherited disorders that affect hemoglobin, the major protein that carries oxygen in red blood cells. Normally, red blood cells are disc-shaped and flexible so they can move easily through the blood vessels. In sickle cell disease, red blood cells are misshaped, typically crescent – or “sickle”-shaped due to a gene mutation that affects the hemoglobin molecule. When red blood cells sickle, they do not bend or move easily and can block blood flow to the rest of the body.
The bill provided for the manner by which DSHS may receive, record, and analyze data from health care facilities concerning sickle cell disease cases and may compile and publish statistical and other studies derived from that data, and the bill further provided for the confidentiality of information obtained for the registry.
House Bill 120
House Bill120 is intended to comprehensively enhance and modernize Texas students’ access to career and technology education opportunities in addition to educational advising in high schools.
The bill also will help expand the state’s future workforce in areas where there are significant skills gaps by providing funding and partnership opportunities for industry to support education.
There is a shortage of workers in many job sectors in the state, such as plumbing, heating, cooling and air conditioning, and others like aviation maintenance.
The increased funding provided under the bill for career and technology education programs will help prepare students to succeed and attain credentials in high-demand areas and support those who would prefer to join the workforce out of high school. Additionally, by including JROTC programs in the list of career and technical education programs, the bill would support more students entering military careers.
Senate Bill 879
Senate Bill 879 changed the Injection Well Act, Water Code, to exempt a person who submits a request for authorization or is authorized to use a valid permit by rule issued by the Railroad Commission of Texas (RRC) for a closed?loop geothermal injection well from statutory provisions that require the submission of drilling permit fees to, and the filing of an organization report with, the RRC.
This consolidation provided regulatory certainty, whereas operators previously could have difficulty determining which agency, RRC or the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ), regulated particular types of closed-loop geothermal wells.
However, RRC has identified an issue with the implementation of Senate Bill 786 from the 88th Regular Session two years ago, where RRC-related statute require operators or drillers of a particular set of geothermal wells, the permit by rule wells, to be subjected to regulations and financial assurances that are intended for larger production wells.
The shallow, closed-loop geothermal injection wells that receive permits by rule are more akin to water wells than wells which produce hydrocarbons. In fact, they are typically used to circulate water through pipes to use the earth's heat to assist with air conditioning units and water heaters. Therefore, the requirements imposed on larger production wells are not consistent with the requirements for the permit by rule wells when they were regulated by TCEQ, nor consistent with the legislative intent of the bill from last session.
Senate Bill 1080
Senate Bill 1080 changed the Government Code and Occupations Code to limit the felony convictions for which certain occupational licenses must be revoked on the license holder’s imprisonment to the following offenses:
• An offense that directly relates to the duties and responsibilities of the licensed occupation;
• An offense ineligible for judge-ordered community supervision; or
• A sexually violent offense.
Senate Bill 1967
Senate Bill 1967 changed the Water Code to authorize the water loan assistance fund:
• To be used by the Texas Water Development Board (TWDB) to provide grants to drainage districts for water supply projects;
• To include among the criteria that the TWDB must consider in prioritizing projects for financial assistance from the State Water Implementation Fund for Texas the consideration of whether a project is a water supply project that contains a flood control component; and
• To explicitly include as a flood project eligible for financial assistance from the flood infrastructure fund the construction of multi-purpose flood mitigation and drainage infrastructure projects that control, divert, capture, or impound floodwater, stormwater, agricultural runoff water, or treated wastewater effluent and treat and distribute the water for the purpose of creating an additional source of water supply.
House Bill 3062
House Bill 3062 changed the Education Code to require each public institution of higher education to provide research-based instruction related to fentanyl prevention and drug poisoning awareness to entering undergraduate students as soon as practicable during the students’ first semester or term at the institution. The bill sets out the topics that the instruction must include and authorizes the instruction to be provided online and by specified types of entities
House Bill 3812
House Bill 3812 changed the Insurance Code to revise provisions that establish a process through which a physician or provider can earn an exemption from preauthorization requirements for a particular health care service by attaining at least a 90 percent preauthorization request approval rate for that service in the most recent evaluation period.
Preauthorization exemptions, known as “Gold Cards” in Texas, are a process where health insurance companies grant physicians or providers an exemption (freeing from obligation or liability) from the standard prior authorization requirements for specific health care services. These exemptions aim to reduce the administrative burden on providers for services that are consistently deemed medically necessary. The bill required each HMO and insurer to submit to the Texas Department of Insurance (TDI) an annual written report containing specified data regarding preauthorization exemptions.
House Bill 4370
House Bill 4370 changes the Local Government Code and Water Code to provide for the following special districts to authorize a project related to geothermal water conveyance systems:
• A public improvement district;
• A municipal management district;
• A water control and improvement district;
• A fresh water supply district; and
• A municipal utility district.
Geothermal water conveyance systems in Texas involve circulating fluid through underground pipes or wells to transfer the Earth’s heat to and from buildings for heating and cooling, or to generate electricity.
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Stephanie Chiarello contributed to this article. For more on this and other Texas legislative news stories that affect the Rio Grande Valley metropolitan region, please log on to Titans of the Texas Legislature (TitansoftheTexasLegislature.com).
