State Rep. Gary VanDeaver not seeking reelection

NEW BOSTON – East Texas State Rep. Gary VanDeaver of New Boston said on Monday that he won’t be running for reelection in Texas House District 1 in 2026. This announcement comes less than two months after the Republican Party of Texas officially penalized him for making votes and taking actions against party platform policies.

Our news partner KETK News spoke with VanDeaver on Monday. He said he’s been working up to this announcement for the past couple of months and those penalties had nothing to do with it.

“This is a decision I’ve been working on trying to make for at least two months. Really a little longer than that. I just believe the time is right,” VanDeaver said. “I believe that these representative positions were never intended to make careers and never intended to be full time jobs. Our forefathers they set up a system where we serve temporarily and then we go home and we live under the laws we make and so at the end of this term, I will have served for 12 years, and I just believe that’s really long enough.”
Photo courtesy of Gary VanDeaver.

VanDeaver’s last term will end in Jan. 2027 and several candidates have already announced campaigns to replace him as State Representative for House District 1. Sean Huffman is running unopposed so far in the Democratic Primary, while Josh Bray and Chris Spencer have both announced their running in the Republican Primary.

When asked whether he’ll endorse a candidate in the race to be his successor, VanDeaver said he’ll back someone who can stand up for East Texas.

“I’m looking for a candidate who will not bend the knee, who will not allow themselves to give in to outside pressures, whether it be from the party or from other elected officials or from big-dollar donors,” VanDeaver said. “I will look at the candidates and make my endorsement on who I think has strong character, whose word means something. That’s the kind of person that I’ve tried to be as a State Rep, and that’s the kind of person that I will try to help get elected.”

VanDeaver looked back at his tenure and said that helping to fund community colleges and rural healthcare is what he wants to be remembered for.

“We’ve done some good things. I look back on some of the legislation we passed. The community college funding bill continues to be something that I hope, people will remember for a long time and that my legacy can be can be something like that. This last session we passed the Rural Health Care Act to try to stabilize rural health care and help prevent rural hospitals from closing,” VanDeaver said. “Those kinds of things that are not necessarily politically inviting that the political parties don’t necessarily make part of their platform but it’s so important to our district and really to the state of Texas. And so when I look back on my tenure, those are the things I look at.”

One issue VanDeaver was known for taking a stance against was school vouchers. VanDeaver said this stance led to an effort to defeat him in his last reelection bid but that pro-school voucher politicians, like Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, didn’t influence his decision not to run again.

“It’s no secret that there was a real effort to defeat me in the last election because of my stance on school vouchers but I don’t feel that that really came into play on this decision,” VanDeaver said. “Certainly, I voted against school vouchers again this last session. The governor was not coming after me, has not threatened me. I actually worked closely with the governor on several issues during the session and during the special sessions. I did significant work on THC with the governor and so the governor and I had a good relationship and I don’t feel that the voucher issue really played into this decision at all. It’s just a piece of the history of my service in the Texas house. I stand by my position on vouchers. I’m proud to have been able to vote the way I voted. I still think that was the best vote for my district and that’s the reason I took the same vote again this session, even though the voucher bill passed, I still voted against it, because that’s just my personal beliefs and what I believe is best for my district.”

VanDeaver ended his interview with KETK News by thanking the people of House District 1 for electing him to office for the past 12 years.

“To the people of House District 1, I will forever be grateful for the opportunity that they have afforded me over the last 12 years and it’s been one of the great honors of my life to serve and I have my memories that I will carry the rest of my life,” VanDeaver said.