Screenshot/Texas House
State Rep. Jon Rosenthal (D-Houston)
State Rep. Jon Rosenthal (D-Houston) announced Monday he is running for a seat on the Texas Railroad Commission, meaning he will not seek reelection for his position in the Texas House of Representatives.
Rosenthal, who represents Northwest Houston, Cypress and Jersey Village as part of House District 135, participated in four biennial legislative sessions during his tenure in the House. He said in a statement he felt honored to hear from Texans in the legislative committees on which he served, including congressional redistricting, energy resources and intergovernmental affairs.
“My office was always open to folks who came to their Texas Capitol to protect their communities against the many bills that attacked our most vulnerable,” he said. “I stood alongside these communities in Austin and across Texas, and always offered my office as a second home when folks needed a safe haven in the Capitol when facing down cruel and unjust legislation.”
Republicans hold all three seats on the Texas Railroad Commission. Rosenthal is vying for the Democratic nomination for the November 2026 election, with the hopes of unseating Republican Jim Wright, the railroad commission chair who is running for reelection.
Railroad commissioner is an elected six-year position that oversees the state’s regulatory agency that tracks oil and gas drilling and production in Texas. The railroad commission was established in 1891 in order to regulate state railroads. It has maintained its name even after the Texas Department of Transportation assumed regulatory duties of Texas railroads in 2005.
In a news release Monday, Rosenthal touted his career as an oilfield mechanical engineer with 25 years of experience. He said the failures exposed by the deadly winter storm in 2021, when much of the state dealt with prolonged power outages, continue to weigh heavily on Texas families.
In the state legislature, Rosenthal was one of the more than 50 Texas House Democrats who broke quorum and left the state one day after a bill passed out of a House legislative committee on a party-line vote to redraw Texas’ congressional districts. The quorum break temporarily delayed passage of maps that could help Republicans win five more seats in the U.S. House as requested by President Donald Trump.
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Rosenthal championed a recent bill amending the Texas Education Code by excusing student absences that result from serious or life-threatening illnesses. He also authored a bill this year that would ban child marriage in Texas and void any existing marriages for anyone under the age of 18. The bill passed the House but died in the Senate.
“I am also proud to have stood up for Texan’s most basic rights, resisting voter suppression laws and fighting against the push to redistrict Texas’ congressional districts,” Rosenthal said.