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LiberalMind endorses Brandon Gill
Election Day is Tuesday, November 3, 2026, and voting is already underway in Texas. This is the whole race — the records, the claims against each candidate, and what the sources actually show. Read the research, and decide which flaw you can live with.
The setup
Texas's 26th District — Denton County and northern Dallas–Fort Worth — is held by a freshman incumbent. Rep. Brandon Gill (R) was first elected in 2024 and is running for a second term.
No verified new-map baseline for this district was located in the sources consulted, so no lean figure is printed here, and old-map figures are not used. It is a Republican incumbent seat in Denton County.
Three names are on the printed ballot: Brandon Gill (R), Steven Shook (D), and Phil Gray (Libertarian). One number defines the money race: Gill raised $7,293,891 through September 30, 2026 — among the largest totals in the entire Texas file.
Brandon Gill (Republican)
The record: Gill is a Dartmouth graduate and a former investment banker from Flower Mound, first elected in 2024. Per his official House biography, he serves on the Judiciary, Budget, and Oversight committees. He raised $7,293,891 through September 30, 2026.
Pros: Three major committee assignments in a first term — Judiciary, Budget, and Oversight — and fundraising that places him among the strongest campaign operations in the state.
Cons: He is one term in. The file documents biography, committees, and money, not a long voting history to audit; a freshman is still building the record voters will eventually judge him on.
The flaw, plainly: On the file as it stands, there is no documented flaw of the disqualifying kind — no proven in-service failure, no broken signature promise with math that does not close. A short record in a freshman is a fact of the calendar, not a demerit.
Steven Shook (Democratic)
The record: Shook is, per his campaign biography, a nurse practitioner (MSN, RN, AGACNP-BC) who has provided care to critically ill and injured patients since 2009, with degrees from Tarrant County College, Texas Tech, and UT Arlington. No prior elected office is located in the file.
Pros: Seventeen years caring for critically ill and injured patients — front-line medical work in the community he seeks to represent, with an education earned entirely in Texas institutions.
Cons: No elected service record exists in which a break with his party toward our values could be documented — the Manchin test reads service, and there is none here. What he offers is his party's program, carried by a medical biography, against an incumbent who raised over $7.2 million.
The flaw, plainly: Shook asks voters to remove a sitting Republican incumbent in favor of the opposing party's program on the strength of a clinical career. Caregiving is not a governing record.
Phil Gray (Libertarian)
The record: Gray is a property manager, per the occupation on his Texas Secretary of State candidate filing; no campaign website was found as of October 20, 2026, and no further record was located.
OUR CALL
LiberalMind endorses Brandon Gill.
A freshman Republican incumbent with Judiciary, Budget, and Oversight seats and one of the largest war chests in the state file, against a Democratic challenger with no governing record and no documented break toward our values, and a Libertarian nominee with no located campaign presence. The doctrine answers it directly.
This race is one of hundreds in LiberalMind's Election 2026 coverage. For the complete breakdown — every race, claim by claim — go to liberalmindhq.com.
Vote early. Research your candidates. Choose the best moderates, whatever their party — no extremism from either side. And encourage your friends and family to do the same.
Sources
- The Green Papers — Texas 2026 General Election (roster from the Texas Secretary of State; Gill first elected 2024; Gill raised $7,293,891 through Sept. 30)
- The Ballot Brief — Texas Sample Ballot 2026 (Gill biography, summarizing the official House biography; Shook biography, summarizing campaign-site material; Gray occupation per the SOS filing, no campaign website found)
- Wikipedia — "2026 United States House of Representatives elections in Texas"
Winner: Brandon Gill (Republican) — called by the Associated Press. This result was appended on November 4, 2026 (results wave 1); the original article above is unchanged, exactly as published before Election Day.
AI-assisted article — but the sources are human, and the facts are very real.