More than 800 new laws took effect in Texas last week, the result of a busy legislative session in the Republican-controlled state. While much of the new legislation was aimed at addressing the traditional nuts and bolts of government and the quid pro quo of transactional politics, some of the most sweeping bills followed a pattern: Texas Republicans enacted laws to concentrate power in the executive branch, regulate thought in public schools and universities, and ignore the opinion of the majority of voters.

Texas has now matched Florida in creating a template for using the levers of state government to institutionalize the norms of authoritarian rule — the consolidation of political power through suppressing speech, reducing civil liberties and undermining checks and balances.

This tilt towards Texas authoritarianism is not new. But the boldness with which Republican lawmakers have chosen to ignore their voters in service of the MAGA minority is notable.

Consider: Texas will now require the visible display of the Ten Commandments in public school classrooms, affecting 5.5 million Texas students. This isn’t just about elevating Christianity or devotion to a higher power — although it is sold to supporters that way. It is also a subtle discrediting of the separation of church and state. A poll by the University of Texas’ Texas Politics Project found that only 46% of the public supports the measure.

Another new Texas law bars schools from offering instruction, programs or guidance that focus on sexual orientation or gender identity. It also requires school boards to give parents more control over what students can access in public school libraries. Florida’s infamous “Don’t Say Gay” law was the first to inject this kind of thought control into the classroom. If Texas has gotten less attention for it, that’s because such intrusions have become the new normal.

Texas has also given the governor more power to police thought at public universities by allowing him to investigate universities for failures to comply with state laws (such as prohibitions on DEI or diversity, equity and inclusion) and by granting his appointees to university boards more control over the hiring of administrators. Another set of new laws discriminates against transgender residents by removing opportunities for them to receive health care and maintain their identities in state records. And the state renewed its “bounty hunting” approach to punishing anyone who helps a pregnant woman get an abortion, a policy opposed by 54% of Texans.

There is a reason Republicans have seized on culture wars to consolidate power. The way President Trump and his state-level imitators use them, battles over religious symbols, gender identity and cultural conflict not only motivate voters by appealing to values, but also sow distrust in democratic institutions (where compromise is necessary and process matters) and lay the groundwork for authoritarian rule — because the chief executive “alone can fix it.”

Governor Greg Abbott called the 2025 legislative session “one of the most consequential in Texas history.” He has reason to be pleased with himself. After a two-year fight, Abbott got the votes to enact the most expensive and expansive school voucher program in the country. That defies the majority sentiment in his state, in which two-thirds of voters oppose expanding school vouchers.

Abbott did it by accepting millions of dollars in campaign cash from out-of-state Republican donors who wanted vouchers. Texas will now give nearly $10,000 per year to every child in the state to spend at private schools. But the policy disenfranchises voters in rural areas whose legislators opposed vouchers because there are few private schools in their communities, and the program will strip resources from their public schools and hurt the quality of instruction for their children. Apparently, listening to rural residents and addressing the nuances needed to adopt a workable education plan wasn’t important to legislators.

It’s also worth noting what did not get done during this blockbuster legislative session. A majority of Texans wanted lawmakers to focus on expanding eligibility for Medicaid for low-income adults and children, stricter gun laws and clearer abortion policies, according to the Texas Politics Project. None of that occurred.

For most conservative-minded Texans, these new laws may sound like harmless attempts to rein in what they perceive as left-leaning overreach on cultural issues. To others, strongman politics may be a welcome means to an end, preferable to the messy debates of a democracy in which competing ideas lead to compromise — frustrating purists on both sides but leading to policy that more of the public can actually get behind.

Unfortunately, Texas Republicans no longer see political value in compromise. That’s because they fear Trump more than they fear the consequences of hurting their own voters, as seen in their decision to revise their congressional maps at Trump’s behest.

Together, Texas and Florida account for 16% of the US population. Both are using the tools of democracy to achieve antidemocratic ends. And they are not alone — other states, such as North Carolina, are also on this path.

But by allowing legislators to ignore the popular will to fortify their political power, voters of these states have opened the door to a regime that is free to ignore them. Will voters let it continue? Or will more states follow suit?

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This column reflects the personal views of the author and does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.

Mary Ellen Klas is a politics and policy columnist for Bloomberg Opinion. A former capital bureau chief for the Miami Herald, she has covered politics and government for more than three decades.

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