WeedVoter

Wes Virdell Republican

Texas House, District 53

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.

Wes VirdellRepublicanIncumbent
42/100 support for legal access — middle band, 34 to 66 strong — six or more records produced this number · 6 of 16 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.

  • 2025-06-01 Texas Compassionate-Use Program HB 46 — voted, counted as +1 at weight 3
  • 2025-05-22 Consumable hemp and hemp-derived cannabinoids SB 3 — voted, counted as -2 at weight 3
  • 2025-05-21 Consumable hemp and hemp-derived cannabinoids SB 3 — voted, counted as -2 at weight 3
  • 2025-05-14 Grant programme for testing suspected THC HB 4879 — voted, counted as -1 at weight 3
  • 2025-05-13 Texas Compassionate-Use Program HB 46 — voted, counted as +1 at weight 3
  • 2025-05-12 Texas Compassionate-Use Program HB 46 — voted, counted as +1 at weight 3

Average on the −2 to +2 scale: -0.333. Full method and the bill table.

  • Vote2025-05-12

    Recorded Yea on Record Vote 2184, passage of CSHB 46 to engrossment as amended, 118-16, House Journal 62nd Day page 4114.

    journals.house.texas.gov

  • Vote2025-05-13

    Recorded Yea on Record Vote 2257, final passage of HB 46 on third reading, 122-21, House Journal 63rd Day page 4252.

    journals.house.texas.gov

  • Vote2025-05-14

    Texas House: recorded Yea on Record Vote 2514, passage to engrossment of CSHB 4879, funding local law enforcement to test substances suspected of containing delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol, which carried 121 Yeas to 15 Nays.

    journals.house.texas.gov, capitol.texas.gov

  • Said2025-05-14

    Filed a statement of vote printed in the House Journal on Record Vote 2495, passage of SB 1833, as amended, to third reading (the bill on use of a social media platform in a controlled-substance delivery offence, as amended to exempt delivery of four ounces of marihuana or less from its enhancement), reading: "When Record No. 2495 was taken, I was in the house but away from my desk. I would have voted yes." The journal prints the signature as "Virdell"; the House member of that name sat for House District 53.

    WeedVoter’s note — shown here, but deliberately left out of the score: The statement concerns a record vote on Senate Bill 1833, which is on this site’s unscored list: it raises the penalty for delivering any controlled substance when a social media platform is used to arrange the delivery, and the only cannabis-specific change the House made to it, Amendment No. 1, exempts delivery of four ounces of marihuana or less from the enhancement. The votes on the bill are shown without moving the score, and so is this statement.

    journals.house.texas.gov

  • Vote2025-05-21

    Recorded Yea on Record Vote 3192, passage of CSSB 3 as amended to third reading, 95-44, House Journal 69th Day page 5568.

    journals.house.texas.gov

  • Said2025-05-21

    Filed a reason for vote printed in the House Journal after Record Vote 3192, passage of the hemp-THC bill to third reading: "I have wrestled back and forth with this bill. I know THC is beneficial for medical issues such as cancer and PTSD. I have friends who have used it to their benefit. I have strong concerns that THC and CBD have been marketed towards kids and many of the products have been packaged to look like candy.

    It is my understanding that the compassionate use program will be expanded. I absolutely want to make sure people have access to products that help them, but it is also important we ensure kids do not have access to these products." He was recorded Yea on that vote.

    WeedVoter’s note — shown here, but deliberately left out of the score: Shown, not scored: this is a reason for vote, which explains the Yea he actually cast on Record Vote 3192 rather than correcting it. That vote is already scored from the bill table, so scoring the explanation beside it would count one decision twice. A statement of vote is different — it says the vote as shown was not the one intended — and those are still scored.

    journals.house.texas.gov

  • Vote2025-05-21

    Texas House: recorded Yea on Record Vote 3188, adoption of Amendment No. 1 to CSSB 3, the consumable-hemp bill, offered by its House sponsor, deferring the licensing requirements the bill adds until January 1, 2027, which carried 136 Yeas to 0 Nays.

    WeedVoter’s note — shown here, but deliberately left out of the score: A floor amendment does not take the direction of the bill it amends. Amendment No. 1 to SB 3 rewrote the possession offence downward while the bill itself restricted consumable hemp, so a Yea on the amendment and a Yea on the bill point opposite ways. This record is shown because the member is named in the journal, and it is kept out of the score because its direction is not ours to assert.

    journals.house.texas.gov

  • Vote2025-05-21

    Texas House: recorded Yea on Record Vote 3189, adoption of Amendment No. 3 to CSSB 3, amending Amendment No. 2, exempting low-THC cannabis regulated under Chapter 487 and hemp research at medical schools, hospitals and institutions of higher education, which carried 102 Yeas to 24 Nays.

    WeedVoter’s note — shown here, but deliberately left out of the score: A floor amendment does not take the direction of the bill it amends. Amendment No. 1 to SB 3 rewrote the possession offence downward while the bill itself restricted consumable hemp, so a Yea on the amendment and a Yea on the bill point opposite ways. This record is shown because the member is named in the journal, and it is kept out of the score because its direction is not ours to assert.

    journals.house.texas.gov

  • Vote2025-05-21

    Texas House: recorded Yea on Record Vote 3190, adoption of Amendment No. 4 to CSSB 3, amending Amendment No. 2, rewriting the possession offence and its deferred-disposition and prior-conviction provisions, which carried 126 Yeas to 10 Nays.

    WeedVoter’s note — shown here, but deliberately left out of the score: A floor amendment does not take the direction of the bill it amends. Amendment No. 1 to SB 3 rewrote the possession offence downward while the bill itself restricted consumable hemp, so a Yea on the amendment and a Yea on the bill point opposite ways. This record is shown because the member is named in the journal, and it is kept out of the score because its direction is not ours to assert.

    journals.house.texas.gov

  • Vote2025-05-21

    Texas House: recorded Yea on Record Vote 3191, adoption of Amendment No. 2, as amended, to CSSB 3 — a complete substitute for everything below the enacting clause, and from that point the text of the bill, which carried 86 Yeas to 53 Nays.

    WeedVoter’s note — shown here, but deliberately left out of the score: A floor amendment does not take the direction of the bill it amends. Amendment No. 1 to SB 3 rewrote the possession offence downward while the bill itself restricted consumable hemp, so a Yea on the amendment and a Yea on the bill point opposite ways. This record is shown because the member is named in the journal, and it is kept out of the score because its direction is not ours to assert.

    journals.house.texas.gov

  • Vote2025-05-22

    Recorded Yea on Record Vote 3303, adoption of Amendment No. 1 by Moody to SB 3 on third reading, 108-30, House Journal 70th Day page 5700.

    WeedVoter’s note — shown here, but deliberately left out of the score: A floor amendment does not take the direction of the bill it amends. Amendment No. 1 to SB 3 rewrote the possession offence downward while the bill itself restricted consumable hemp, so a Yea on the amendment and a Yea on the bill point opposite ways. This record is shown because the member is named in the journal, and it is kept out of the score because its direction is not ours to assert.

    journals.house.texas.gov

  • Vote2025-05-22

    Recorded Yea on Record Vote 3304, final passage of SB 3 as amended, 87-54, House Journal 70th Day page 5701.

    journals.house.texas.gov

  • Vote2025-06-01

    Recorded Yea on Record Vote 4163, adoption of the conference committee report on HB 46, 138-1, House Journal 80th Day page 7902.

    journals.house.texas.gov

  • Vote2025-06-01

    Texas House: recorded Yea on Record Vote 4162, adoption of HR 1523, suspending House Rule 13, Section 9(a)(4) so that the HB 46 conference committee could add text providing that a physician may prescribe more than one package of low-THC cannabis in a 90-day period, which carried 128 Yeas to 12 Nays.

    WeedVoter’s note — shown here, but deliberately left out of the score: A vote to suspend a House rule so that a conference committee may consider particular text is a vote about procedure, not a recorded position on the text. Shown, not scored.

    journals.house.texas.gov

  • Vote2025-06-01

    Texas House: recorded Yea on Record Vote 4164, adoption of SCR 56, the first of the two enrolling corrections to HB 46, which instructed the enrolling clerk of the house of representatives to make corrections in the enrolled text of HB 46, the Compassionate-Use Program expansion. The resolution was adopted 137 Yeas to 0 Nays with 1 present not voting, and the House Journal for the 80th Day names this member in the printed Yeas list.

    WeedVoter’s note — shown here, but not counted in the score: This site deliberately does not score SCR 56 (89th Legislature), so a record on it moves no number.

    Why SCR 56 is not scored

    A concurrent resolution, not a bill, and the second of two enrolling-clerk corrections to HB 46 — the sibling of HCR 171, ruled the same way and for the same reason. SCR 56 instructed the enrolling clerk of the house of representatives to make a correction in the enrolled text of HB 46, the Compassionate-Use Program expansion. Adopted in the Senate 2025-06-01, Yeas 31 Nays 0, and in the House the same day by Record Vote 4164, 137 Yeas to 0 Nays with 1 present not voting, House Journal 80th Day page 7902 (journals.house.texas.gov/hjrnl/89r/html/89RDAY80FINAL.HTM).

    What it said. The House journal prints only the recital, "Instructing the enrolling clerk of the house of representatives to make corrections in HB 46", so the operative text was read in the Senate Journal for 2025-06-01 (journals.senate.texas.gov/sjrnl/89r/html/89RSJ06-01-F.htm), which prints the resolution in full: "RESOLVED by the 89th Legislature of the State of Texas, That the enrolling clerk of the house of representatives be instructed to make the following corrections to the enrolled version of House Bill No. 46: In SECTION 15 of the bill, in amended Section 169.003(a)(3)(A), Occupations Code (page 10, between lines 8 and 9), immediately following added subparagraph (xi), insert the following appropriately numbered subparagraph and renumber subsequent subparagraphs of that paragraph accordingly: (__) Crohn’s disease or other inflammatory bowel disease;".

    ⚠️Read alone it looks like adding a qualifying condition to the medical programme, which would be an expansion of access — and that is the trap, running the opposite way to its sibling’s. HCR 171 struck a sentence and looked restrictive; SCR 56 inserts a condition and looks expansive; both are neither, because both conform the enrolled bill to the text the two chambers actually adopted. The test is whether the inserted language was already in what passed, and it was.

    The conference committee report on HB 46, laid before the house and printed in the House Journal 80th Day at page 7900 (journals.house.texas.gov/hjrnl/89r/html/89RDAY80FINAL.HTM), sets out Section 15 amending Section 169.003 and lists the qualifying diagnoses in order: "(xi) traumatic brain injury; (xii) Crohn’s disease or other inflammatory bowel disease; (xiii) a terminal illness or a condition for which a patient is receiving hospice or palliative care".

    The position matches the resolution exactly — SCR 56 asks for the insertion "immediately following added subparagraph (xi)", and the adopted report prints Crohn’s as (xii), immediately following (xi). That report was adopted by the House on 2025-06-01 by Record Vote 4163, 138 Yeas to 1 Nay, and by the Senate the same day, Yeas 31 Nays 0. The subparagraph had therefore already been voted into the bill by both chambers; the enrolled copy had dropped it, and SCR 56 put it back.

    A Yes on an enrolling correction is not a position on which diseases qualify. The enrolled text itself cannot be checked from here: capitol.texas.gov disallows /TLODOCS/ to us. Downstream, measured: 121 verified acts cite this resolution, across 121 distinct candidates (49 Democrats, 72 Republicans), and every one of them already holds a published number. classify() returns "other" for all 121, so no published number moves whichever way this is ruled — the ruling is what lets the acts be printed with a written reason instead of sitting unjudged.

    HB 46 itself is scored, at +1, and that is where a member’s position on the Compassionate-Use expansion is read.

    journals.house.texas.gov

  • Vote2025-06-02

    Texas House: recorded Yea on Record Vote 4167, adoption of HCR 171, the second enrolling correction to HB 46, which instructed the enrolling clerk of the house to strike from the enrolled bill a sentence allowing low-THC cannabis prescribed for pulmonary inhalation to exceed one percent tetrahydrocannabinols by weight in each dosage unit. The resolution was adopted 138 Yeas to 0 Nays with 1 present not voting, and the House Journal for the 81st Day names this member in the printed Yeas list.

    WeedVoter’s note — shown here, but not counted in the score: This site deliberately does not score HCR 171 (89th Legislature), so a record on it moves no number.

    Why HCR 171 is not scored

    A concurrent resolution, not a bill: it instructed the enrolling clerk to strike from the enrolled HB 46, in Section 16, added Section 169.006(b), Occupations Code (page 11, lines 16-20), the sentence “Notwithstanding any other provision of this chapter, low-THC cannabis prescribed under Subsection (a) for pulmonary inhalation may exceed one percent by weight of tetrahydrocannabinols in each dosage unit of the substance to be aerosolized or vaporized.”

    Adopted 2025-06-02 by Record Vote 4167, 138 Yeas to 0 Nays with 1 present not voting, House Journal 81st Day pages 7921-7922.

    ⚠️Read alone it looks like stripping a potency allowance out of the medical programme, and the journals say otherwise. The sentence entered the bill through King's floor Amendment No. 1 on second reading, House Journal 62nd Day, 2025-05-12 (journals.house.texas.gov/hjrnl/89r/html/89RDAY62FINAL.HTM), item (10); item (9) of the same amendment fixed the definition of low-THC cannabis at not more than one percent by weight in each dosage unit, which is the benchmark the sentence excepts itself from.

    The conference committee report laid before the house on 2025-06-01 replaced that cap with not more than 10 milligrams in each dosage unit, and its own text of Section 169.006(b) consists only of the second sentence: the notwithstanding clause does not appear anywhere in the conference report as printed, House Journal 80th Day page 7900. So the struck sentence was not in the text either chamber finally adopted and it pointed at a cap the same report had deleted.

    HCR 171 conformed the enrolled bill to the bill that passed, which is what its own recital says and what 138 to 0 looks like; HB 46 took a second enrolling correction the day before, SCR 56 at Record Vote 4164. A Yes on an enrolling correction is not a position on potency. The enrolled text itself cannot be checked from here: capitol.texas.gov disallows /TLODOCS/ to us.

    journals.house.texas.gov

Who is paying for this campaign

Campaign finance — Texas Ethics Commission

We could not match a Commission filer number to this name. The Commission’s list of candidates who have appointed a campaign treasurer carried no single row matching both the surname and the given name on the ballot for this seat, so none was guessed at. Wes Virdell may have filed under a different form of their name.

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.

Search campaign filings at the Texas Ethics Commission (ethics.state.tx.us) → — choose Transaction Type “Contributions” and search by name.

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 Wes Virdell 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.