In a major victory for the GOP, notorious RINO Senator Robert Nichols, a state lawmaker from Texas, has announced that he will not be seeking reelection in the 2026 midterms, with the senator being best known for his divisive stances that have put him at odds with other Senate Republicans.
For background, on June 24, 2025, State Senator Robert Nichols (R-TX-Jacksonville) announced that he would not be running for reelection in the 2026 midterms. Just a few months prior, Sen. Nichols had been the only Republican in the Senate to vote against private school vouchers, and also was reportedly one of the only Texas Republicans to support changes to the state’s strict anti-abortion laws.
Announcing his retirement in a statement, the senator said that his goal throughout his tenure had been “to make things better, to stop bad things, to do it in a way I thought was right, never forgetting who I represented and to work at it long enough, but not too long,” adding, “It has been one of the greatest honors of my life to have represented the people of East Texas in the Texas Senate.”
Responding to Sen. Nichols’ announcement, State Rep. Cody Harris (R-TX-Palestine) showed his support on X, writing, “You are a true statesman and have represented East Texas with honor and steadfast resolve to do what is in the best interest of your district,” adding, “Texas is better because of you. You will be greatly missed, my friend.”
On other other hand,, when the senator announced his retirement, conservative commentator Luke Macias of Texas Scorecard called him out for his frequent opposition to conservative policies, noting that Sen. Nichols had led a push to “significantly weaken the ban on taxpayer-funded lobbying last session,” adding that he “reminded everybody how consistently he works against conservative policy.”
Importantly, the ban mentioned by Macias was a divisive piece of legislation that ended up including an amendment pushed for by Sen. Nichols, which the Republican Party of Texas officially condemned in a statement published on March 25, 2025. The party stated that the amendment “authored by Senator Robert Nichols and supported by seven Republican senators” had “effectively [gutted] the bill by inserting loopholes that allow organizations…to continue lobbying if they employ lobbyists directly rather than contracting them.”
Moreover, the party’s statement formally condemned “the amendment to SB 19 that gutted its original intent and condemns the Republican senators who voted in favor of the amendment in violation of the clearly stated Legislative Priorities of the Republican Party of Texas,” adding a call for Republican voters to “hold accountable any elected officials who undermine the Legistlative Priorities of the Republican grassroots.”
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In addition, the statement from the party noted that the seven senators who supported Sen. Nichols’ amendment were Donna Campbell, Kelly Hancock, Joan Huffman, Lois Kolkhorst, Robert Nichols, Charles Perry, and Charles Schwertner, who were supported by eight Democrats in their efforts to remove language that “addressed the use of taxpayer funds in non-profit lobbying activities.”
Featured image credit: Sen. Robert Nichols via X