Hinojosa Plans a Day-One ‘Emergency’ to Freeze Texas Power Rates. Republicans Have 10 Weeks to Stop It.

Gina Hinojosa hasn’t taken the oath yet, but she’s already told Texans what she’ll do with the first hour of her governorship: declare an emergency.

“Within an hour of taking the oath of office, I will declare a high-cost emergency in the state of Texas and issue an emergency executive order to: one, suspend the gas and diesel tax; and two, freeze electricity rates,” the Democrat said in a campaign statement quoted by The Texas Tribune five days before she beat Gov. Greg Abbott.

State Rep. Brian Harrison, a Midlothian Republican, says that promise is exactly why Republicans can’t sit on their hands for the next ten weeks. The day after the election he called on Abbott to “IMMEDIATELY convene a special session to REIN IN EXECUTIVE EMERGENCY POWERS… before Gina Hinojosa is sworn in.” All week he has made the case on Newsmax, NewsNation and Bannon’s War Room, pushing a petition he says is nearing 10,000 signatures. Abbott hasn’t publicly committed to calling a session.

What Harrison is warning about

Harrison’s argument is simple: the law that lets a Texas governor run the state by emergency order doesn’t care which party holds the pen. “Without action, Governor Hinojosa will inherit the powers of a DICTATOR,” he wrote. “Gov. Hinojosa will literally have the power to modify laws, ignore laws, or create and enforce laws – including criminal laws – on a whim!”

That isn’t just rhetoric. The Texas Disaster Act of 1975, now Chapter 418 of the Government Code, says a governor’s disaster orders “have the force and effect of law.” Section 418.016 lets the governor suspend “any regulatory statute prescribing the procedures for conduct of state business,” or any state agency rule, if following it would “hinder, or delay necessary action in coping with a disaster.” And the definition of “disaster” is broad enough to include “other public calamity requiring emergency action.”

There’s a 30-day limit on paper. In practice, the statute lets the governor renew a disaster declaration again and again, with no cap. The Legislature can end one “by law,” but a law needs the governor’s signature, and a Texas veto takes two-thirds of both chambers to override. Lawmakers haven’t overridden a governor since 1979.

Put plainly: once Hinojosa declares her emergency, the only people who can easily end it are Hinojosa and a judge.

The fix Harrison has been pushing since 2022

Harrison isn’t inventing this the week Republicans lost. He filed House Bill 911 on Dec. 8, 2022, a month after Abbott won his third term. Legislative records show it was referred to the House State Affairs Committee on March 2, 2023, and never moved again. His bill would:

1. Bar the governor from suspending or changing statutes. 2. Kill any emergency order after 30 days unless the Legislature ratifies it. 3. Stop a governor from reissuing an order that expired or that lawmakers rejected. 4. Require orders to be narrowly tailored. 5. Give courts fast-track review of emergency orders.

“Never ending emergency powers are antithetical to representative government and render people powerless,” he said back then. His point now: Democrats and the media didn’t care when the target was Abbott. “I filed the same legislation 4 years ago… right after ABBOTT was re-elected!!” he posted Thursday.

Can she really freeze your power bill?

Here’s the hole most coverage skips. Most Texans in the ERCOT market don’t buy power at a rate the state sets. They pick a retail electric provider, and the price is in their contract. The Gulf Coast Power Association, a Texas power-industry group, notes that the state doesn’t set most of those prices, “so the mechanics of a freeze are an open question.”

Section 418.016 also lets a governor suspend procedural rules for “state business.” Whether that stretches to ordering private companies to hold their prices would almost certainly end up in court. But the precedent for using a disaster declaration over prices already exists: in September, Abbott himself declared a statewide disaster over high fuel prices so he could waive limits on red-dyed diesel. Hinojosa would be walking through a door that’s already open, and pushing it a lot further.

A freeze is a price control, plain and simple. When a government holds a price below what it costs to deliver something, suppliers stop investing in it. In a state that still remembers the February 2021 blackouts, that’s not a small risk.

The clock

Under the Texas Constitution, only the governor can call a special session, it can run no more than 30 days, and lawmakers can take up only the subjects the governor puts on the call. That means Harrison can’t force anything. It’s Abbott’s call, and no one else’s.

The window is real but closing. Hinojosa is sworn in Jan. 19, 2027. After that, any bill to rein in her powers would need her signature, and Democrats will also run the Texas House. Right now, Republicans still hold the governor’s office, the House and the Senate.

“We have TEN WEEKS LEFT to protect Texas from near total Democrat rule,” Harrison wrote. Whether Abbott agrees is the one question that matters, and so far he hasn’t said.