It\u2019s the type of action that could easily be career-ending in the cutthroat Texas Legislature, where lobbyists\u2019 dollars are critical and GOP primaries present a constant threat to those who step out of line.<\/p>\n
\u201cMost people, all they see is the campaign attack ads \u2026. so I think it\u2019s probably a fair thing to say that a lot of people were surprised,\u201d LaHood said in a recent interview with the Report.<\/p>\n
But as the chamber\u2019s conservative wing takes emboldened steps to dismantle any remaining power of the GOP establishment, LaHood, whose 121st Texas House District<\/a> has long preferred more business-centric Republicans<\/a>, is emerging as an unlikely champion of that cause.<\/p>\n The 46-year-old won a Northside state House seat last year with the help of an unusual coalition of GOP backers<\/a>, united by their desire to root out popular incumbent state Rep. Steve Allison<\/a> (R-Alamo Heights) so they could create a school voucher program.<\/p>\n While LaHood indeed went on to help push that long-failed conservative dream into law<\/a>, he also aligned himself with a wing of the GOP<\/a> that has much bigger goals of reshaping the Texas House.<\/p>\n This year LaHood was one of 52 House Republicans<\/a> who backed an unsuccessful conservative House speaker candidate<\/a>, suggesting at the time<\/a> that the chamber\u2019s existing leaders had been an obstacle to Republican policy goals in a state where their party controls every lever of power.<\/p>\n \u201cPower was brokered between people, and the cost of that was some of the Republican priorities, whether it\u2019s border security or school choice,\u201d LaHood told the Report months out from the speaker\u2019s race.<\/p>\n Though that effort failed, the criminal defense attorney has since become the face of a different conservative priority: Dethroning the pro-business group Texans for Lawsuit Reform (TLR), which is among the single biggest spenders<\/a> in state legislative races and backed a number of establishment Republicans who lost last year, including Allison.<\/p>\n LaHood told the San Antonio Report he never imagined the legal reform bills would become such a defining issue.<\/p>\n \u201cI wasn\u2019t really thinking about anything other than the bill, what I believe the bill did, what I believe it didn\u2019t do, and how I believe it would affect Texans,\u201d LaHood said.<\/p>\n But his and other conservatives\u2019 work derailing them has been the talk of the state\u2019s political insiders since TLR\u2019s leaders wrote to major GOP donors<\/a> detailing the dispute after the session ended \u2014 setting the stage for another round of potentially bruising primaries<\/a> between the party\u2019s business-minded and conservative wings in 2026.<\/p>\n \u201cWe feared from the outset that Mr. LaHood was not philosophically aligned with the business community, and we were right,\u201d TLR\u2019s general counsel Lee Parsley wrote<\/a>. \u201d \u2026 we must redouble our efforts to elect strong, ethical, legislators.\u201d<\/p>\n Meanwhile, conservatives who\u2019ve nearly run out of red districts to flip in primaries are already using LaHood\u2019s reelection race a testing ground for messaging their ideas with a broader swath of voters.\u00a0<\/p>\n LaHood responded to TLR\u2019s leaders with his own scathing letter<\/a> framing his actions as a rebuke of powerful business interests that are used to unchecked influence.<\/p>\n \u201cI will not serve TLR\u2019s special interests that are still reaping record profits while Days later, he launched a reelection campaign with a stunning $1.25 million raised in the eight days after the state\u2019s fundraising moratorium was lifted.<\/p>\n Individual contributors won\u2019t be made public until the campaign finance deadline on July 15, but LaHood said the number was early evidence the party\u2019s old power structure is on the decline.<\/p>\n \u201cOur historic fundraising reflects the reality that you can vote as a principled conservative Republican and still be an unapologetic voice for working-class families,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n \u2018I do not run from a fight\u2019<\/p>\n The LaHood name is well-known beyond politics in San Antonio, where Marc LaHood\u2019s name and image appear frequently on billboards advertising his family\u2019s law firm.\u00a0<\/p>\n His brother Nico was the onetime Bexar County District Attorney who lost the position in a Democratic primary in 2018. When Marc LaHood ran to reclaim his brother\u2019s seat in 2022, he did so as a conservative Republican, raising big money and attention, but losing by double digits<\/a>.<\/p>\n Two years later, when Abbott signaled plans to primary<\/a> Republicans who voted against his school voucher plan, LaHood joined the House District 121 race<\/a> before the bill had even made it to the House floor<\/a>.<\/p>\n Many local Republicans were shocked to see him handily defeat Allison<\/a>, a former Alamo Heights ISD Board president who had previously been a close ally of the governor.\u00a0<\/p>\n But perhaps less noticeable in that primary was the intra-party tension simmering<\/a> over the House\u2019s vote to impeach Attorney General Ken Paxton<\/a> that summer \u2014 divisions that would continue to divide Republicans the following session after members of the Texas Senate voted to acquit him<\/a>.<\/p>\n When Paxton asked the House Appropriations Committee to cover his legal expenses in a case brought against him<\/a> by staffers, Allison emerged as a critic of the attorney general. Well-heeled conservative groups that supported Paxton later rallied around LaHood<\/a> to defeat Allison, including West Texas oil billionaires Tim Dunn and Farris Wilks, who\u2019ve been\u00a0instrumental in the rightward shift<\/a>\u00a0of the Texas legislature.<\/p>\n Now LaHood is considered a rising star in the conservative movement, taking on fights its leaders want to see happen at potentially big personal expense.<\/p>\n Compared to the deep-red districts held by other conservatives, his Texas House District 121<\/a> includes wealthy, college-educated suburbs that have been trending away from Republicans at the federal level, but still often embrace more centrist Republicans in state and local races.<\/p>\n After a host of brutal GOP primaries across the state LaHood was one of the few winners to face an expensive general election<\/a> as well \u2014 making his approach at the legislature somewhat surprising. <\/p>\n By the legal reform group\u2019s telling, LaHood was a freshman poised to cast critical votes on whether a trio of bills the business community wanted could advance to the House floor from the House Committee on Judiciary and Civil Jurisprudence he served on.<\/p>\n LaHood was talked into supporting SB 30, aimed at reining in how much lawsuits cover for medical bills, which ultimately failed due to maneuvering by other conservatives, the group\u2019s leaders said.\u00a0<\/p>\n But on two other bills, SB 39, related to trucking lawsuits, and SB 779, related to public nuisance lawsuits, TLR said LaHood was the deciding vote and walked out of a meeting to kill them without taking public positions that could upset business interests.<\/p>\n \u201cHe quickly left the committee room, knowing that the committee chairman intended to call for votes on our other two bills,\u201d the group wrote in the now widely circulated donor letter<\/a>. \u201cThis would have forced Mr. LaHood to put his opposition on the record. Instead of doing that, Mr. LaHood fled.\u201d<\/p>\n LaHood contests that assessment, saying he\u2019d previously raised concern with the group\u2019s leaders about elements of the bills that were never addressed.<\/p>\n \u201cThe way I interpret the bills, [they would have] had monumental effects on everyday Texans,\u201d LaHood said in an interview. \u201cIt affected patient-provider privilege, relationships and privacy, rules of evidence. It was a lot bigger than what they were saying.\u201d<\/p>\n LaHood is hardly alone in believing<\/a> Texas\u2019 decades-long legal reform effort is approaching its natural limits.<\/p>\n Two years ago it even got lawmakers to create a new business court<\/a> to hear cases involving high-dollar commercial disputes, which was expanded this year to include lower-dollar cases as well.<\/p>\n But after the TLR letter came out, LaHood leveled some unprecedented public criticism at one of the biggest spenders for GOP causes.<\/p>\n \u201cSimply stated, TLR lies \u2026 I do not run from a fight,\u201d LaHood wrote a stunning 1,170-word response<\/a> that circulated quickly on social media. \u201cAs I dug into the contents [of the bills], I was appalled at the breadth of what TLR was trying to codify into law under the guise of \u2018addressing bad actors.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n A redefined right<\/p>\n Among local Republicans, the dispute has sparked some renewed conversation about whether business-centric candidates\u00a0will continue to have the same\u00a0stake in the GOP\u2019s future\u00a0as they have in the past.<\/p>\n San Antonio was once a beacon of the party\u2019s moderate wing, sending former Texas Speaker Joe Straus to the legislature, among many others centrists.<\/p>\n Now nearly every elected Republican here faces a primary challenge, and the party has struggled to put up a fight<\/a> against its many elected Democrats.\u00a0<\/p>\n So far no high-profile candidates have raised their hands to take on LaHood \u2014 who remains in good standing with Abbott and picked up an endorsement by President Donald Trump<\/a>\u00a0on Friday.<\/p>\n \u201cHis conservative bona fides are well-defined,\u201d said Elliott Griffin, an Austin-based political consultant who works for LaHood and other House conservatives. \u201cThere\u2019s not a credible challenge from Marc\u2019s right at all.\u201d<\/p>\n But after Allison\u2019s race charted new territory on how issues are framed to voters, some Republicans see room to try.<\/p>\n![\"Marc](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Scott-Ball_2-abbott-angry-elephant-lahood-rally-election-vote-campaign-republican-gop-10-30-2024_8.j.jpeg\")
Marc LaHood, a candidate for Texas House of Representatives (R-121) appeals to voters along with Governor Greg Abbott at the Angry Elephant. Credit: Scott Ball \/ San Antonio Report<\/p>\n
financing this lobby effort to strip people of their constitutional rights,\u201d he wrote. \u201cNor will I be bullied into submission.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"Marc](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/scott-ball_2-steve-allison-marc-lahood-d121-texas-house-hd-121-hd121-debate-primary-2-12-2024021324_.jpeg\")
Marc Lahood, a Republican challenger for Texas House District 121 debates with incumbent Steve Allison during a San Antonio Report event before the 2024 GOP primary. Credit: Scott Ball \/ San Antonio Report<\/p>\n![\"Marc](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Scott-Ball_abbott-angry-elephant-lahood-rally-election-vote-campaign-republican-gop-10-30-2024_1.jpg\")
Marc LaHood, then a candidate for Texas House of Representatives (R-121) appeals to voters along with Governor Greg Abbott at the Angry Elephant on Wednesday. Credit: Scott Ball \/ San Antonio Report<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Brenda-Bazan-young-republicans-panel-blanco-bbq-18.jpg\")
Local Republicans Lina Prado, Clayton Perry, Bexar County Commissioner Grant Moody (Pct. 3) and Councilman Marc Whyte (D10) are shown at a San Antonio Young Republicans panel at Blanco BBQ. Credit: Brenda Baz\u00e1n \/ San Antonio Report<\/p>\n