2021 Texas Legislative Scorecard

Texas Legislative Scorecard 2021

The Sierra Club is proud to announce its 2021 Texas Legislative Scorecard. This year’s scorecard has several new changes, but the objective of this project remains the same: to give Texans a clear picture of the conservation and environmental justice values of elected officials working on their behalf in the Texas Legislature.

Click here to download the full report pdf. 

Contents

How to Read This Scorecard

Each legislator has an “initial score” and an “adjusted score” (jump to scoring tables). What this means is we chose 14 votes in the House and Senate to create an initial score for each State Representative and State Senator. We weighted each vote based on how high the stakes were and how difficult it was to get the right votes. 

But floor votes don’t tell the whole story. To get a clear picture of each legislator’s values, we decided to add and subtract points for work that lawmakers did (or did not do) on the backend to fight for the success or failure of certain bills. From pushing a committee chair to vote on a good bill to killing a bad bill on a point of order, it is clear that scoring our legislators actions beyond the usual “votes on the floor” can help Texans better understand their legislators’ values and priorities. We call these points “adjustments.”

For more information on the types of bills we chose, the Introduction and Key House Votes and Key Senate Votes will explain why we made certain choices and what the bills were about.

How to Use This Scorecard

Anti-environment lawmakers are counting on you forgetting about 2021. Pro-environment lawmakers need to know their constituents appreciate their hard work and courage to confront powerful special interests. Here are five things you can do:

  1. Share your elected officials’ scores with your neighbors and on social media (use hashtag #txlege).

  2. Write a letter to the editor of your local newspaper. Elected officials pay close attention to public sentiment, and showing your community you haven’t forgotten about the job they did (or didn’t do) last year helps keep the issues you care about in the public narrative.

  3. Consider coming to a local Sierra Club meeting (scroll down to the events calendar). The Lone Star Chapter and Sierra Club regional groups meet throughout the year and welcome more Texans who want to fight for environmental justice.

  4. Join our new network of volunteers working to hold our state elected leaders accountable.

  5. Donate to the Lone Star Chapter so we can continue to organize and educate communities, and advocate for better policies at the state and local level.