First House Candidate Emerges After Texas Redistricting

In a move that could send another strong conservative to Washington, Texas state Rep. Briscoe Cain is running for the newly redrawn 9th Congressional District seat.

“I want to run for Congress because CD-9 is MAGA country—home to a tremendous amount of hardworking, humble, and amazing conservative people. President Donald Trump’s people deserve a fighter who isn’t afraid of the Left or Cancel Culture, and will stand up for them in the United States Congress … I am up for the task,” Cain said in a statement announcing his candidacy.

Cain’s candidacy comes as the House could lose another conservative Texan, as Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, announced his candidacy for Texas state attorney general. 

Cain, a Republican, has served in the Texas House of Representatives since 2017. The newly drawn 9th Congressional District would encompass parts of his present Texas House district and areas he previously represented before the 2021 redistricting in Texas.

Cain previously served as chairman of the Texas House committees on Agriculture & Livestock and Elections. An attorney by profession, Cain is also a graduate of South Texas College of Law Houston. He also has front-line experience dealing with a natural disaster, having served at a food and water distribution center as a member of the Texas State Guard following Hurricane Harvey’s devastation of Texas in 2017.

Cain supported Trump in 2020 as an at-large elector for the president in Texas. He has already received a flurry of endorsements, including from two congressmen: Reps. Lance Gooden, R-Texas, and Pete Sessions, R-Texas. Other conservatives who have come out to support Cain’s bid include Tim Lambert, the president of Texas Home School Coalition; Kelly Shackelford, the president of the First Liberty Institute; and Chris McNutt, the president of Texas Gun Rights.

Cain received notoriety in recent weeks by sponsoring House Bill 64, which would change the law so that a “member of the legislature vacates the member’s office if the member is absent from all proceedings of the house of the legislature of which the person is a member, without a leave of absence granted by that house, for seven consecutive days on which that house meets.” Cain’s bill was recently announced to be a part of Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s expanded list of items to be considered during a special legislative session. 

“President Trump is turning our nation back from the abyss and to continue to advance his agenda, he needs unapologetic fighters like me who have his back in Congress,” Cain explained. “I’ve been a strong ally to the President and his agenda as a state legislator and I have proven that I am the most America First Republican in this race.”