Every office on your ballot, laid out like a deck of cards.
Texas splits power across dozens of separately elected offices instead of one chain of command. Flip a card to see what an office actually controls, dig deeper for the details, then scroll down to see how it all connects.
Click any office title to flip it over and see what the job actually does.
Tap "Learn more" on the back of a card for term length, who they answer to, and what they oversee.
Scroll to the bottom for a family-tree diagram of how every office relates to the others.
The big idea: most people assume Texas government works like a pyramid with the Governor on top. It doesn't. Texas has a "plural executive" — most statewide offices are elected completely independently of the Governor and of each other. No one here is anyone else's boss.
The offices that sound biggest — U.S. Senator, President — usually have the least direct say over your daily life. A state legislator or county commissioner decides things you feel every week: your school's funding, your road repairs, your property tax rate. And power doesn't always follow the title you'd expect, even close to home: in most Texas cities, the elected mayor actually has less day-to-day authority than the city manager — a professional administrator hired, and fireable, by the city council, not elected by voters at all.
Texas government isn't a pyramid. It's more like several family trees standing side by side.
Each branch below answers to voters directly — not to the branch next to it. The dotted lines are the exceptions worth knowing.
presided over by the Lt. Governor
presided over by the Speaker, elected by fellow House members
appeals flow upward ↑
Not on the ballot — but each one is chosen by whoever you elect Governor, so a Governor's race is also an indirect vote on who fills these six jobs.
County Judge + 4 Commissioners — sets the budget, but doesn't supervise the offices to the right
independently elected — each answers to voters, not to each other