Texas is big, proud, and rich. But on the everyday things that actually decide whether a family gets by — health coverage, food on the table, safe streets, a steady paycheck — the numbers tell a harder story.
When we add up the measures we track across all 50 states — health, crime, food insecurity, education, and more — Texas ranks 40th out of 50. That's the ground Texans are standing on before Washington does anything. The problem is what Washington just did on top of it.
Here's the thing to keep straight: that ranking measures where the state already is. It doesn't prove any one politician put it there. But the votes below aren't a ranking — they're a record. Texas's Republicans in Congress voted for a budget that takes an already-strained state and makes the very things Texans struggle with worse. Here's what that costs, and here's who voted for it.
1.7 million Texans could lose their health coverage
Start with the biggest one. Under Trump's budget bill, an estimated 1.7 million Texans will lose their health coverage — and Texas hospitals stand to lose $39 billion in Medicaid funding over the next decade.
Texas already has the highest uninsured rate in the country. Now think about what $39 billion pulled out of Texas hospitals means — especially in rural counties, where the local hospital is often the only one for an hour in any direction. When those hospitals cut services or close their doors, it isn't only the uninsured who lose. Everybody in that county drives farther for the ER, waits longer for a bed, and pays more.
Every Texas Republican listed at the bottom of this post voted for the bill that does this.
1 in 4 Texas kids goes hungry — and they cut food aid anyway
Here in Texas, 1 in 4 kids faces hunger every day. About 3.47 million Texans — roughly 11% of the state — receive SNAP benefits every single month to help put groceries on the table.
SNAP is how a lot of those hungry kids eat. So when Congress votes to cut it and shift costs onto states, the question isn't abstract. It's whether a mom in Lubbock or Laredo can still cover the week's groceries. The same budget bill that guts Medicaid also squeezes food assistance — the two lifelines Texans lean on most, cut in the same stroke.
DOGE torched Texas jobs and Texas air
Texas has more than 249,000 federal employees — 8% of the entire federal workforce, more than almost any other state. That makes Texans especially exposed when Washington starts firing people to score a headline.
That's exactly what DOGE did. It terminated more than $118 million in EPA environmental grants that had already been awarded to Texas organizations — money meant to clean the air Texas kids breathe. This lands in a state that already saw 1.68 million layoffs in 2025. Texas's Republicans didn't slow any of it down. They cheered it on.
4,390 Texans killed by guns in a single year
In 2024, 4,390 Texans died from gun-related injuries — more than a dozen every single day. Texas has buried more than its share of children in classrooms and shoppers in stores, and Texans of every stripe are exhausted by it.
Yet the delegation below has stood against even the most modest, widely popular steps — universal background checks, red-flag laws — that most Texans, including most Texas gun owners, say they want. On the one issue where "thoughts and prayers" has worn thinnest, these members keep voting for nothing.
The members who voted for this
These are Texas's Republican incumbents in Congress — the people who actually cast the federal votes behind the numbers above:
- August Pfluger
- Beth Van Duyne
- Brandon Gill
- Brian Babin
- Craig Goldman
- Jake Ellzey
- John Carter
- Keith Self
- Lance Gooden
- Michael Cloud
- Monica De La Cruz
- Nathaniel Moran
- Pat Fallon
- Pete Sessions
- Randy Weber
- Roger Williams
- Ronny Jackson
What happens next is up to Texas
None of this is fixed in stone. Texas ranks 40th today, but rankings move — and votes move them. Medicaid can be protected or gutted. Food aid can be defended or slashed. Federal jobs can be steadied or torched for a press release. Every one of those is a choice, and in 2026 it's Texas's choice to make.
The men and women above have already told you how they'll choose. They've been telling you with every vote. The only question left is whether Texans keep sending them back to cast the next one.
