Get to Know Your Candidate: Paul Thomasson — Texas Senate District 5

Paul Thomasson spent more than 40 years standing in pulpits across Texas. Now the retired United Methodist pastor is asking voters in Senate District 5 — an 11-county district that includes all of Milam County — to send him to a very different kind of podium: the Texas Senate.

Who he is

Thomasson's career was ministry. He served United Methodist congregations for more than four decades before retiring onto family land, and his campaign is his first venture into electoral politics — as of early 2026, he told KBTX, he had been involved in politics for less than six months.

Teaching runs in the family alongside preaching. His wife, Dyane, is a retired educator; their daughter teaches in Bryan and their son teaches in Frisco. "There's a lot of teaching tradition in my family," he told KBTX.

His years in ministry also took him well beyond the sanctuary. Over four decades he has worked in hospitals, food pantries, halfway houses and ESL classrooms, and helped build Boys & Girls Clubs and Habitat for Humanity chapters in communities including Wharton, Coldspring and Houston.

Thomasson won the Democratic nomination in March, narrowly defeating Kevin Nelson in the primary.

What he stands for

His campaign lists five goals: protect public schools, no more data centers, conserve land and water, end mass surveillance, and restore women's rights. He frames the race as a fight over whose interests Austin serves, saying the state is "prioritizing the wishes of billionaires over the needs of Texans," and pledges to represent every constituent "whether Democrat, Independent or Republican."

"In this state, the rich are getting richer while the poor are getting poorer," he told KBTX, pointing to economic inequality and affordability as central concerns. He supports raising the minimum wage, opposes school vouchers — "I completely oppose vouchers," he has said — and backs automatic and same-day voter registration, expanded health-care access, and accepting federal health-care dollars to help keep rural hospitals open.

Milam County voters have already had a chance to hear him in person. Thomasson campaigned in the county this fall, telling local Democrats on Oct. 5 about fully funding public schools, protecting women's rights and taking politics out of college campuses. "Don't stop at the top," he told the crowd. "Vote the slate and transform the state."

Senate District 5 voters will decide the race on the Nov. 3 general election ballot. Early voting runs Oct. 19–30.