---
type: "Bill"
title: "Relating to political parties."
description: "Relating to political parties."
jurisdiction: "us/states/tx"
legislature: "Texas Legislature"
session: "86"
identifier: "HB 2640"
citation: "Texas HB 2640 (86)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["County Government--Employees/Officers (I0095)", "Elections--Administration (I0277)", "Elections--Candidates (I0280)", "Elections--Early Voting (I0260)", "Elections--General (I0310)", "Elections--Political Parties (I0275)", "Elections--Primaries (I0285)", "INTERNET (S0130)", "SECRETARY OF STATE (V0042)"]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Cortez", "Hughes"]
version_count: 1
action_count: 56
vote_count: 2
first_action: "2019-02-27"
last_action: "2019-06-14"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/3444fa02-3ea3-4a41-9ef3-794f127d1d18"
source_url: "ftp://ftp.legis.state.tx.us/bills/86R/billhistory/house_bills/HB02600_HB02699/HB 2640.xml"
source_hash: "1caa5aaf8f13b1b5f2748703fc2ed07c98eed93b5306cdb6a6755998b0ac2cd5"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-tx"]
---

# Texas HB 2640 (86) — Relating to political parties.

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **Introduced** (filed) — [source](http://www.legis.state.tx.us/tlodocs/86R/billtext/html/HB02640I.HTM)

## Votes

- other — **100–40** (fail) · upper
- passage — **100–40** (pass) · lower

## Sponsors

- Cortez — primary (person)
- Hughes — primary (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2019-02-27** Filed `filing`
- **2019-03-11** Read first time `introduction, reading-1`
- **2019-03-11** Referred to Elections `referral-committee`
- **2019-04-08** Considered in public hearing
- **2019-04-08** Testimony taken/registration(s) recorded in committee
- **2019-04-08** Left pending in committee
- **2019-04-29** Considered in public hearing
- **2019-04-29** Committee substitute considered in committee
- **2019-04-29** Recommended to be sent to Local & Consent `referral-committee`
- **2019-04-29** Reported favorably as substituted `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2019-05-02** Comte report filed with Committee Coordinator
- **2019-05-03** Committee report distributed
- **2019-05-03** Comm. report sent to Local & Consent Calendar
- **2019-05-07** Considered in Local & Consent Calendars
- **2019-05-10** Placed on Local, Consent, and Res. Calendar
- **2019-05-10** Read 2nd time `reading-2`
- **2019-05-10** Passed to engrossment
- **2019-05-10** Nonrecord vote recorded in Journal
- **2019-05-10** Read 3rd time `reading-3`
- **2019-05-10** Passed `passage`
- **2019-05-10** Record vote
- **2019-05-10** Nonrecord vote recorded in Journal
- **2019-05-10** Reported engrossed
- **2019-05-13** Received from the House `introduction`
- **2019-05-14** Read first time `introduction, reading-1`
- **2019-05-14** Referred to State Affairs `referral-committee`
- **2019-05-16** Posting rule suspended
- **2019-05-17** Scheduled for public hearing on . . .
- **2019-05-17** Considered in public hearing
- **2019-05-17** Testimony taken in committee
- **2019-05-19** Reported favorably as substituted `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2019-05-19** Recommended for local & uncontested calendar
- **2019-05-19** Committee report printed and distributed
- **2019-05-22** Placed on local & uncontested calendar
- **2019-05-22** Laid before the Senate
- **2019-05-22** Read 2nd time & passed to 3rd reading
- **2019-05-22** Vote recorded in Journal
- **2019-05-22** Three day rule suspended
- **2019-05-22** Record vote
- **2019-05-22** Read 3rd time `reading-3`
- **2019-05-22** Passed `passage`
- **2019-05-22** Record vote
- **2019-05-23** Senate passage as amended reported
- **2019-05-23** Senate Amendments distributed
- **2019-05-23** Senate Amendments Analysis distributed
- **2019-05-24** House concurs in Senate amendment(s)
- **2019-05-24** Record vote
- **2019-05-24** Statement(s) of vote recorded in Journal
- **2019-05-24** Text of Senate Amendment(s)
- **2019-05-24** House concurs in Senate amendment(s)-reported
- **2019-05-25** Reported enrolled
- **2019-05-26** Signed in the House
- **2019-05-27** Signed in the Senate
- **2019-05-29** Sent to the Governor `executive-receipt`
- **2019-06-14** Signed by the Governor `executive-signature`
- **2019-06-14** Effective on 9/1/19 `became-law`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/3444fa02-3ea3-4a41-9ef3-794f127d1d18`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Texas legislature records).