Rep. Brian Harrison Delivers 15,000 Petitions Demanding Abbott Call a Special Session on Emergency Powers

A North Texas lawmaker is trying to get one more legislative fight in before the government changes hands. State Rep. Brian Harrison, R-Midlothian, said he and a coalition of conservative organizations across Texas and America delivered 15,000 petitions to Gov. Greg Abbott's office on Thursday morning demanding that Abbott call a special session.

The demand is not new this week: Harrison sent Abbott a formal letter on November 4 asking him to convene lawmakers to consider restrictions on executive emergency powers. His target is Chapter 418 of the Texas Government Code — the Texas Disaster Act, the statute that governs the governor's emergency authority. Harrison carried the same fight in the last regular cycle, filing House Bill 911 in December 2022 for the 2023 session; that proposal did not become law.

The clock is the argument. Gov.-elect Gina Hinojosa, who defeated Abbott on Nov. 3, takes office on January 19, 2027, and Harrison wants the restrictions passed before the transition. Abbott alone has the constitutional authority to call a special session and to specify its agenda — and any bill meant to take effect immediately, ahead of the handover, would generally need a two-thirds vote in each chamber.

The desk notes the limit of what is verified: Harrison's campaign frames the push around fears about what the incoming administration might do, but there is no verified announcement that Hinojosa intends the policies he warns against, and no response from Abbott's office to Thursday's delivery was reported in the sources read this cycle. Whether Abbott calls the session is his decision alone, and it has not been announced.