Briscoe Cain

Briscoe Cain (born December 9, 1984) is an American attorney and Republican member of the Texas House of Representatives for District 128.

Briscoe grew up in Deer Park, Texas, a suburb of Houston located in Harris County.

At Deer Park High School, he was on the varsity cheerleading squad.

He earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Houston-Downtown and a J.D. from South Texas College of Law.

In December 2015, Cain successfully defended the religious rights of Beaumont police officers when the city banned them from having Bible study during lunch breaks.

In 2016, Cain obtained via a FOIA request invoices sent by a California bioscience company to four Texas medical schools.

From these invoices he claimed the Texas schools were using tax dollars to purchase aborted fetal tissue, since Planned Parenthood was known to give fetuses to the California company.

In a statement, Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center El Paso said that it strictly followed federal and state guidelines.

Cain is the Texas legal counsel to Operation Rescue.

In the 2016 Republican runoff election, Cain defeated seven-term incumbent Wayne Smith by 23 votes.

In the 2016 general election, Cain defeated Libertarian candidate Ken Lowder.

Since being elected in 2016, Cain has consistently ranked as one of the most conservative members of the Texas House.

On July 5, 2017, Terry Sain of Baytown, Texas announced that he would be running against Cain in the 2018 Republican primary.

However, just before the December 11, 2017, deadline to file for a place on the primary ballot, Sain announced that he was no longer going to challenge Cain.

Citing the difficulties of running a campaign as a reason he dropped out of the race, Sain told The Baytown Sun that running in the campaign "wasn't quite as easy of a road as I thought it was going to be."

The annual analysis of Texas legislators' voting records by Rice University's James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy found Cain to be the most conservative member of the Texas House in 2017, and 2019, and the second-most conservative in 2023 (after Jared Patterson).

Cain was named one of "The Worst Legislators of 2017" by Texas Monthly, describing him as "uninformed and ignorant" and stating "When we asked Capitol insiders for Worst list suggestions, [Briscoe Cain], almost universally, was the first one mentioned".

Cain was named Recipient of Operation Rescue's 2021 Pro-Life Person of the Year Malachi Award for his work on the Texas Heartbeat Act.

Cain supports a ban on Democrats being given committee chairmanships as long as the Republicans hold the majority of seats.

Cain is ardently anti-abortion and authored an early version of Texas's six-week abortion ban, also known as the Texas Heartbeat Act.

Cain has also targeted abortion funds in Texas and threatened them with criminal prosecution for their violations of Texas's pre–Roe v. Wade abortion statutes.

On March 18, 2022, Cain sent cease-and-desist letters to every abortion fund in Texas, demanding that they immediately stop paying for abortions performed in Texas or face criminal prosecution.

Abortion funds in Texas have refused to halt their activities in response to Cain's letter, and Cain has promised to introduce legislation that will ensure that Texas abortion funds and their donors are prosecuted for each abortion that they have assisted or paid for in the state of Texas.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Cain defied Governor Greg Abbott's closure of businesses by getting a haircut.

Cain is an outspoken supporter of the enforcement of immigration laws (particularly in relation to the U.S-Mexico border).

His campaign website states that he believes "that increased border security is critical for increasing job opportunities for Americans and decreasing crime and taxes on Texas families".

Briscoe, a non-denominational Christian, cited his faith as his biggest source of inspiration in life as part of a 2017 interview with UHD News.

Cain has additionally gone on record to state, "Yes I mix religion and politics."

Cain ran unopposed in the Republican primary election held on March 6, 2018.

In the November 6, 2018, general election Cain ran unopposed.

On November 18, 2019, Robert Hoskins of Baytown, Texas announced he would be running against Cain in the 2020 Republican primary.

Hoskins, considered a moderate Republican, is a member of the Baytown City Council and a former member of the Goose Creek Consolidated Independent School District board of trustees.

The race between Cain and Hoskins was considered to be one of the more high-profile primary contests during the 2020 Texas Republican primary.

On March 3, 2020, Cain defeated Hoskins in the Republican primary election, when Cain received 11,752 votes (79.32 percent) to Hoskins' 3,064 votes (20.68 percent).

Cain defeated Democrat Mary Williams in the 2020 general election for District 128 representative.

He has pledged as part of his 2020 campaign platform to protect the "guarantee of religious liberty", as well as "ensure that traditional Christian values are restored and strengthened."

Briscoe Cain assisted President Trump's attempts to overturn the election results of 2020 United States presidential election following his re-election loss by using baseless claims of voter fraud.

In February 2021, Republican Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan appointed Cain as the chair of the Texas House Elections Committee.

The following bills that Cain co-sponsored were accused by Democrats and Voting and Civil Rights groups as restricting voting access.

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