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The Blast - July 23, 2025 [1]
['The Texas Tribune']
Date: 2025-07
CAPRIGLIONE ANNOUNCES RETIREMENT
State Rep. Giovanni Capriglione, a rising star within House Speaker Dustin Burrows’ leadership team, announced last night that he won’t run for reelection, reversing his reelection campaign announcement from just five weeks ago.
Capriglione, a seventh-term Republican from Southlake, is perhaps the most prominent member thus far to announce his departure from the lower chamber, where he has led several key committees, carried major legislation and found himself at the center of the Texas GOP’s internal power struggle over his support for Burrows and past speakers. With Capriglione’s retirement, Burrows is losing a productive ally, and hardline conservatives — who were expected to censure Capriglione in a bid to keep him off the 2026 primary ballot — will be able to train their fire elsewhere.
“While I’ve given this work everything I have, I also feel in my heart that I’ve accomplished what I set out to do,” Capriglione posted on Facebook. “It’s time for a new chapter.”
Capriglione passed 34 bills during the regular session, tied for the second-most among all 150 House members, according to The Blast’s post-session analysis. He was also the “most improved” member, passing 19 more bills than he did in 2023.
As chair of the Delivery of Government Efficiency Committee, “Gio” became the go-to member on tech bills, filing and passing four House priority-designated measures through that chamber, three of them into law. One was an emergency item of Gov. Greg Abbott, establishing the Texas Cyber Command. He also carried three of Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick’s priority bills.
Caprigione was the House’s top DOGE. But he wasn’t always on that trajectory.
Before being tapped as DOGE chair and his 2019 stint atop the Appropriations Committee, he hadn’t climbed many rungs, having come in with the tea party movement and spending his initial years on the periphery.
Capriglione was a client of Luke Macias and backed by Empower Texans when he ousted GOP Rep. Vicki Truitt in 2012 and was still in league with that faction when he won reelection in 2014. However, he voted for Joe Straus for speaker the following year and aligned himself with House leadership. He never looked back.
Under the speakership of Burrows predecessor Dade Phelan, R-Beaumont, Capriglione chaired the Article II appropriations panel, overseeing the state’s sprawling health and human services budget, along with the House Pensions, Investments, and Financial Services Committee.
Armin Mizani took on Capriglione as the Macias-Empower Texans candidate in 2018, capturing 37% of the vote in an unsuccessful challenge.
With Capriglione out, Mizani, now the mayor of Keller, announced today that he would drop his bid for Senate District 9 — the seat vacated by now-Acting Comptroller Kelly Hancock — and instead run for Capriglione’s seat. Another potential candidate is Jill Tate of the Texas Federation of Republican Women.
Mizani raised a substantial $263,700 in his 2018 challenge to Capriglione, over half of which came from Empower Texans. Capriglione outraised him by over half a million dollars.
The last 24 hours completely change the dynamics in the race for Capriglione’s House District 98. Had he sought reelection, Capriglione would have been a well-funded, business-friendly candidate. Leaders in the Tarrant County GOP, like Chair Bo French, were attempting to censure him and potentially remove him from the ballot under the Texas GOP’s untested Rule 44.
Capriglione had previously announced his reelection campaign on June 18, and Abbott later endorsed him, according to a since-deleted social media post from the governor’s campaign account posted around July 3. The Southlake Republican held a fundraiser as recently as June 25. His retirement comes off as a last-minute decision — like a third reading “Gio” amendment.
With 12.5 years of service time and counting, Capriglione, 52, will be eligible to receive a pension. (Lawmakers with at least 12 years of service time can start collecting pension benefits at age 50.)
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