Don McLaughlin

Republican Party

Candidate, Texas House of Representatives District 80

Texas House of Representatives District 80

Tenure

2025 - Present

Term ends

2027

Years in position

1

Predecessor:Tracy King (D)

Compensation

Base salary

$7,200/year

Per diem

$221/day

Elections and appointments

Last election

November 5, 2024

Next election

March 3, 2026

Personal

Profession

Business owner

Contact

Official website

Campaign website

Campaign Facebook

Campaign X

Campaign Instagram

Personal Facebook

Personal Instagram

Don McLaughlin (Republican Party) is a member of theTexas House of Representatives, representingDistrict 80. He assumed office on January 14, 2025. His current term ends on January 12, 2027.

McLaughlin (Republican Party) is running for re-election to theTexas House of Representatives to representDistrict 80. He is on the ballot in the Republican primary onMarch 3, 2026.^[source]

Biography

Don McLaughlin's career experience includes owning a business and serving as mayor ofUvalde, Texas. He has served as a founding member of the Cactus Jack Foundation.^[1]

Sponsored legislation

The following table lists bills this person sponsored as a legislator, according toBillTrack50 and sorted by action history. Bills are sorted by the date of their last action. The following list may not be comprehensive. To see all bills this legislator sponsored, click on the legislator's name in the title of the table.

Elections

2026

See also: Texas House of Representatives elections, 2026

General election

The primary will occur on March 3, 2026. The general election will occur on November 3, 2026. General election candidates will be added here following the primary.

The candidate list in this election may not be complete.

Democratic primary

The candidate list in this election may not be complete.

Democratic primary for Texas House of Representatives District 80

Cecilia Castellano (D) andJulie Hilberg (D) are running in the Democratic primary for Texas House of Representatives District 80 on March 3, 2026.

		Candidate
	Submit photo	Cecilia Castellano
	Submit photo	Julie Hilberg

---

	There are noincumbents in this race.
= candidate completed theBallotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Republican primary

The candidate list in this election may not be complete.

Republican primary for Texas House of Representatives District 80

IncumbentDon McLaughlin (R) is running in the Republican primary for Texas House of Representatives District 80 on March 3, 2026.

		Candidate
		Don McLaughlin

---

	Incumbents arebolded and underlined.
= candidate completed theBallotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Endorsements

2024

See also: Texas House of Representatives elections, 2024

General election

General election for Texas House of Representatives District 80

Don McLaughlin defeatedCecilia Castellano in the general election for Texas House of Representatives District 80 on November 5, 2024.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Don McLaughlin (R)	59.5	31,182
	Submit photo	Cecilia Castellano (D)	40.5	21,231

---

	There were noincumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 52,413
= candidate completed theBallotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Democratic primary runoff election

Democratic primary runoff for Texas House of Representatives District 80

Cecilia Castellano defeatedRosie Cuellar in the Democratic primary runoff for Texas House of Representatives District 80 on May 28, 2024.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔	Submit photo	Cecilia Castellano	57.9	4,347
		Rosie Cuellar	42.1	3,162

---

	There were noincumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 7,509
= candidate completed theBallotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Democratic primary election

Democratic primary for Texas House of Representatives District 80

Cecilia Castellano andRosie Cuellar advanced to a runoff. They defeatedCarlos Lopez,Teresa Johnson-Hernandez, andGraciela Villarreal in the Democratic primary for Texas House of Representatives District 80 on March 5, 2024.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔	Submit photo	Cecilia Castellano	27.1	3,425
✔		Rosie Cuellar	25.5	3,226
		Carlos Lopez	23.2	2,932
		Teresa Johnson-Hernandez	18.1	2,286
	Submit photo	Graciela Villarreal	6.2	787

---

	There were noincumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 12,656
= candidate completed theBallotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you,complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data?Contact our sales team.

Republican primary election

Republican primary for Texas House of Representatives District 80

Don McLaughlin defeatedJR Ramirez andClint Powell in the Republican primary for Texas House of Representatives District 80 on March 5, 2024.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Don McLaughlin	58.0	6,371
	Submit photo	JR Ramirez	25.8	2,837
	Submit photo	Clint Powell	16.2	1,785

---

	There were noincumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 10,993
= candidate completed theBallotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you,complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data?Contact our sales team.

Campaign finance

Endorsements

Campaign themes

2026

Ballotpedia survey responses

See also:Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection

Don McLaughlin has not yet completedBallotpedia's 2026 Candidate Connection survey.Send a message to Don McLaughlin asking him to fill out the survey. If you are Don McLaughlin,click here to fill out Ballotpedia's 2026 Candidate Connection survey.

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You can ask Don McLaughlin to fill out this survey by using the buttons below or emailing mclaughlinfortexas@gmail.com.

2024

Don McLaughlin did not completeBallotpedia's 2024 Candidate Connection survey.

Campaign finance summary

Note: The finance data shown here comes from the disclosures required of candidates and parties. Depending on the election or state, this may represent only a portion of all the funds spent on their behalf.Satellite spending groups may or may not have expended funds related to the candidate or politician on whose page you are reading this disclaimer. Campaign finance data from elections may be incomplete. For elections to federal offices, complete data can be found at theFEC website. Clickhere for more on federal campaign finance law andhere for more on state campaign finance law.

Scorecards

See also:State legislative scorecards andState legislative scorecards in Texas

Ascorecard evaluates a legislator’s voting record. Its purpose is to inform voters about the legislator’s political positions. Because scorecards have varying purposes and methodologies, each report should be considered on its own merits. For example, an advocacy group’s scorecard may assess a legislator’s voting record on one issue while a state newspaper’s scorecard may evaluate the voting record in its entirety.

Ballotpedia is in the process of developing an encyclopedic list of published scorecards. Some states have a limited number of available scorecards or scorecards produced only by select groups. It is Ballotpedia’s goal to incorporate all available scorecards regardless of ideology or number.

Click here for an overview of legislative scorecards in all 50 states. To contribute to the list of Texas scorecards, email suggestions toeditor@ballotpedia.org.

See also

2026 Elections

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External links

Footnotes

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