WeedVoter

Kevin Sparks Republican

Texas Senate, District 31

About this race: The sitting member's recorded votes on the 2025 hemp-THC ban and the Compassionate Use Program expansion are listed below in date order, with their record-vote numbers, as the official journals print them.

Kevin SparksRepublicanIncumbent
15/100 support for legal access — bottom band, 0 to 33 strong — six or more records produced this number · 11 of 15 records scored
How this score is worked out

Seven kinds of act move this number, and they do not count equally. A recorded vote counts 3, and so does authoring a bill or signing an executive action; signing on to somebody else’s bill counts 2. A statement or a questionnaire answer counts 2 as well, and an organisational endorsement counts 1. A vote takes its direction from the bill, whose effect is set out in advance; the rest take it from our reading of what was said, and each one below shows that reading and the reason for it. Acts shown with no number were examined and deliberately left out of the arithmetic, with a reason given.

  • 2025-08-19 Consumable hemp, second called session SB 6 — voted, counted as -2 at weight 3
  • 2025-08-18 Consumable hemp, second called session SB 6 — voted, counted as -2 at weight 3
  • 2025-08-15 Consumable hemp, second called session SB 6 — signed on, counted as -2 at weight 3
  • 2025-08-01 Consumable hemp, first called session SB 5 — voted, counted as -2 at weight 3
  • 2025-07-30 Consumable hemp, first called session SB 5 — signed on, counted as -2 at weight 2
  • 2025-07-30 Consumable hemp, first called session SB 5 — voted, counted as -2 at weight 3
  • 2025-06-01 Texas Compassionate-Use Program HB 46 — voted, counted as +1 at weight 3
  • 2025-05-27 Texas Compassionate-Use Program HB 46 — voted, counted as +1 at weight 3
  • 2025-05-25 Consumable hemp and hemp-derived cannabinoids SB 3 — voted, counted as -2 at weight 3
  • 2025-03-19 Consumable hemp and hemp-derived cannabinoids SB 3 — signed on, counted as -2 at weight 2
  • 2025-03-19 Consumable hemp and hemp-derived cannabinoids SB 3 — voted, counted as -2 at weight 3

Average on the −2 to +2 scale: -1.419. Full method and the bill table.

  • Coauthored2025-03-19

    Signed on as a coauthor of SB 3, the intoxicating-hemp-THC ban.

    capitol.texas.gov, journals.senate.texas.gov

  • Vote2025-03-19

    Recorded Nay on the amendment to CSSB 3 limiting the new criminal offenses to products over 0.3 percent delta-9 THC, which failed 8 Yeas to 23 Nays.

    WeedVoter’s note — shown here, but not counted in the score: This site does not score floor amendments, because an amendment can point the opposite way to the bill it changes, and its scoring rules read this record as concerning one.

    journals.senate.texas.gov

  • Vote2025-03-19

    Recorded Yea on final passage of CSSB 3 on third reading, which carried 26 Yeas to 5 Nays.

    journals.senate.texas.gov

  • Vote2025-04-22

    Texas Senate: recorded Yea, and named in the printed Yeas roll, on passage to engrossment on second reading of CSSB 1870, which would bar a city or county from placing on the ballot any measure — including a charter amendment — directing that state drug or consumable hemp laws not be fully enforced, and from adopting a non-enforcement policy, with civil penalties of $25,000 for a first violation. The Journal records the vote as 23 Yeas, 8 Nays.

    WeedVoter’s note — shown here, but not counted in the score: This site does not score floor amendments, because an amendment can point the opposite way to the bill it changes, and its scoring rules read this record as concerning one.

    journals.senate.texas.gov, capitol.texas.gov

  • Vote2025-04-23

    Texas Senate: recorded Yea, and named in the printed Yeas roll, on third-reading passage of CSSB 1870, which would bar a city or county from placing on the ballot any measure — including a charter amendment — directing that state drug or consumable hemp laws not be fully enforced, and from adopting a non-enforcement policy, with civil penalties of $25,000 for a first violation. The Journal records the vote as 23 Yeas, 8 Nays.

    WeedVoter’s note — shown here, but not counted in the score: This site does not score floor amendments, because an amendment can point the opposite way to the bill it changes, and its scoring rules read this record as concerning one.

    journals.senate.texas.gov, capitol.texas.gov

  • Vote2025-05-25

    Recorded Yea on the motion to concur in the House amendments to SB 3, which carried 25 Yeas to 6 Nays.

    journals.senate.texas.gov

  • Vote2025-05-27

    The Texas Senate passed CSHB 46, the Compassionate Use Program expansion, on third reading by 31 Yeas to 0 Nays. The journal records the totals only and prints no individual names for this vote, so it is recorded here as a unanimous act of the chamber rather than as a named vote.

    ⚠️The deduction rests on two facts: the Senate has 31 seats, so a tally of 31 Yeas means every seat was filled and every member voted Yea; and this senator is named in other recorded votes printed in the same day’s journal, which establishes they were serving and present that day.

    journals.senate.texas.gov

  • Vote2025-06-01

    The Texas Senate adopted the conference committee report on HB 46, the Compassionate Use Program expansion, by 31 Yeas to 0 Nays. The journal records the totals only and prints no individual names for this vote, so it is recorded here as a unanimous act of the chamber rather than as a named vote.

    ⚠️The deduction rests on two facts: the Senate has 31 seats, so a tally of 31 Yeas means every seat was filled and every member voted Yea; and this senator is named in other recorded votes printed in the same day’s journal, which establishes they were serving and present that day.

    journals.senate.texas.gov

  • Coauthored2025-07-30

    Signed on as a coauthor of SB 5 of the first called session.

    capitol.texas.gov, journals.senate.texas.gov

  • Vote2025-07-30

    Recorded Yea on passage of SB 5 to engrossment on its second reading in the Texas Senate on 2025-07-30, in the first called session of the 89th Legislature. SB 5 is captioned "Relating to the regulation of certain products derived from hemp, including consumable hemp products and the hemp-derived cannabinoids contained in those products; requiring occupational licenses and registrations; imposing fees; creating criminal offenses; authorizing an administrative penalty."

    The Senate Journal prints the whole roll: "SB 5 as amended was passed to engrossment by the following vote: Yeas 21, Nays 8. Yeas: Bettencourt, Birdwell, Blanco, Campbell, Creighton, Flores, Hall, A. Hinojosa, J. Hinojosa, Huffman, Hughes, King, Kolkhorst, Middleton, Nichols, Parker, Paxton, Perry, Schwertner, Sparks, West. Nays: Alvarado, Cook, Eckhardt, Gutierrez, Johnson, Menéndez, Miles, Zaffirini. Absent-excused: Hagenbuch."

    The printed surname Sparks is resolved against the Texas Senate roster to this member, who holds Senate District 31.

    journals.senate.texas.gov, capitol.texas.gov

  • Vote2025-08-01

    Recorded Yea on final passage of SB 5 of the first called session, which carried 21 Yeas to 8 Nays.

    journals.senate.texas.gov

  • Authored2025-08-15

    Filed as one of the 21 primary authors of SB 6 of the second called session.

    capitol.texas.gov, journals.senate.texas.gov

  • Vote2025-08-18

    Texas Senate: recorded Yea, and named in the printed Yeas roll, on passage to engrossment of SB 6 on second reading, the second called session’s bill regulating consumable hemp products and the hemp-derived cannabinoids in them. The Journal records the vote as 22 Yeas, 8 Nays.

    journals.senate.texas.gov, capitol.texas.gov

  • Vote2025-08-18

    Texas Senate: recorded Yea, and named in the printed Yeas roll, on the motion to suspend the regular order of business to take up SB 6 of the second called session on its second reading, the bill regulating consumable hemp products and the hemp-derived cannabinoids in them. The motion prevailed 22 Yeas to 8 Nays. This is the procedural vote that brought the bill up; the Journal records the passage to engrossment that followed as "Same as previous roll call", and that vote is listed separately.

    WeedVoter’s note — shown here, but not counted in the score: This site does not score procedural motions, such as suspending a rule, postponing, recommitting or reconsidering, because such a motion decides how a bill is handled rather than what it does, and its scoring rules read this record as one.

    journals.senate.texas.gov

  • Vote2025-08-19

    Recorded Yea on final passage of SB 6 of the second called session, which carried 22 Yeas to 8 Nays.

    journals.senate.texas.gov

See the whole Texas Senate, District 31 race, including every opponent →

Who is paying for this campaign

Campaign finance — Texas Ethics Commission

Texas Ethics Commission filer 85798, filed as “Sparks, Kevin D”, treasurer appointment for State Senator, District 31, dated 2021-08-13. The name on the filing is not word-for-word the name on the ballot — both are printed above so you can check the pairing yourself before you rely on it.

Why there are no figures and no industry breakdown here. Texas does not require a candidate to report a contributor’s employer or occupation — the Commission’s own 2026 guide asks for the amount, the contributor’s name and address, and the date, and that is all. So there is nothing in these filings to group into industries, and we have built no such grouping rather than imply one. Separately, the Commission’s bulk filing archive tells automated readers to stay out of it, and we honour that, so we have read no individual Texas contribution record. Treat the itemised question as unchecked by us, not as checked and found empty.

Read this filer’s own reports at the Texas Ethics Commission (ethics.state.tx.us) → — choose Transaction Type “Contributions”, then Search By “Filer ID” and enter 85798. The Commission’s search posts its results, so there is no direct link to one filer’s page; the number above is what makes it one step instead of a hunt.

Any grouping of contributors into an industry is weedvoter’s own classification, applied to employer and committee names exactly as filed. The Commission publishes employers and committees; it never publishes industries. OpenSecrets discontinued its public interface in April 2025, so nothing here is an OpenSecrets classification.

Money received is not a position. Everything on this card is money that changed hands. It is not evidence that any contribution influenced any decision, nothing on it is placed beside a roll call, and we make no claim about anyone’s motive. For what Kevin Sparks has actually done about cannabis, read the record above on this page — the roll calls, the bills that carry their name, and the date of each one, every entry linked to the document it came from. That is the part of this page built to be judged, and it is the part the score is calculated from. No contribution on this card moves that score by a cent.