State Rep. Ray Lopez (D-San Antonio) will not seek reelection in 2026, his office confirmed to the San Antonio Report.

The opening in his Westside state House district — considered deeply blue territory — is already drawing interest from at least two candidates for what’s likely to be a crowded Democratic primary.

Lopez, 75, is one of the Texas House Democrats still currently in Illinois as part of a planned quorum break to stop the legislature from approving President Donald Trump’s redistricting plan.

He won a special election to represent Texas House District 125 in 2019, after having represented District 6 on the San Antonio City Council for four terms. He also served on the Northside ISD board of trustees.

“I have spent a large part of my life in public elected service, including nine years on the fourth largest school district in Texas, several years on the Region 20 Education Service Center, eight years on the San Antonio City Council, and completing my 4th term in the Texas Legislature,” Lopez said in a statement provided by his office.

“One of the most important things an elected official can do is to create a succession plan to continue the principles they have defended or advanced,” Lopez said in the statement. “That’s exactly what I am doing as I transition to the next stage of my life.”

Lopez and other Democrats are expected to return from their quorum break as soon as California solidifies a plan to offset potential Democratic losses from Texas’ redistricting effort.

But a second special session has already been called to push ahead with the new Texas maps, a proposed ban on THC products and other conservative priorities.

A rare opening for local Democrats

Texas House District 125 starts near Our Lady of the Lake University and stretches northwest toward Government Canyon, overlapping significantly with the District 6 council seat that drew eight contenders for an open race earlier this year.

Filing for the March primary doesn’t formally open until Nov. 8, but candidates can file a campaign treasurer’s report that allows them to start raising money and campaigning before then.

Lopez’s longtime chief of staff, Donovon Rodriguez, 33, was already campaigning for the seat at a gathering of the Northwest Bexar County Democrats on Saturday. He filed a treasurer’s report several weeks ago naming his boss as his treasurer.

Rodriguez previously worked for former Councilwoman Shirley Gonzales (D5) and state Sen. José Menéndez (D-San Antonio), and briefly considered running for the open City Council District 6 seat this year.

“I consider that to be a good group of people that I learned good policy from … and just like Ray did in this quorum break, I will continue to be that fighter that the district asked for,” Rodriguez told the Report.

Adrian Reyna, executive vice president of San Antonio ISD’s teachers’ union, has also filed a treasurer’s report.

Reyna, 38, is a U.S. history teacher at San Antonio ISD who is currently on special assignment implementing the district’s rightsizing effort. He also represents organized labor on the VIA Metropolitan Transit board and serves on the executive board of San Antonio’s AFL-CIO Central Labor Council.

“As somebody who has dedicated his life to ensuring that there were high-quality neighborhood public schools in our community … seeing this past session, seeing what we’re going through right now as a country, there’s no doubt in my mind that it’s time to step up,” he told the Report.

Reyna has hired Viva Politics, a San Antonio-based political consulting firm run by longtime strategist Laura Barberena, to manage his campaign.

A third Democrat, Jonathon “Chase” Taylor, filed a treasurer’s report before it was clear Lopez wasn’t seeking reelection. The 22-year-old University of Texas at San Antonio student said the party’s losses in the November election were a clear indication the Democratic Party needed to go a different direction.

Serving in the Texas Legislature has become a grueling task in recent years.

Lawmakers are supposed to serve 140 days in Austin for a legislative session that occurs only in odd-numbered years.

In reality, they’ve been spending much more time there, as Gov. Greg Abbott calls repeated special sessions aimed at pushing through GOP priorities that didn’t find support during the regular session.

The job pays $7,200 per year, plus mileage reimbursements and a per diem stipend.