Cody Thane Vasut (born August 13, 1987)[1] is an American politician. He has represented the 25th District in the Texas House of Representatives since 2021. A member of the Republican Party, Vasut also works as an attorney.[2]
From 2012 to 2022, he worked as an associate attorney for BakerHostetler in Houston.[6] He was a councilmember for the city of Angleton from May 2016 to May 2020. During his time as councilmember, he voted to lower the property tax rate to the city to its lowest in decades, he also brought prayer into the meetings.[2]
Vasut filed in 2019 to run for the Texas House of Representatives District 25 seat held by Dennis Bonnen, who announced in late 2019 that he would not seek re-election for the 87th legislature.[7] Vasut won the 2020 election for the seat against Democrat Patrick Henry with 71% of the vote in November 2020.[8] Governor Greg Abbott had endorsed Vasut prior to the election.[9]
Vasut is among the most conservative members of the Texas House.[10] He is a member of the Texas Freedom Caucus, a faction of hardline conservative legislators.[11] Analysis of voting records by Rice University's James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy analysis of voting records found that Vasut was the fifth-most right-wing member of the Texas House in 2021,[12] and the third-most right-wing member of the Texas House (after Jared Patterson and Briscoe Cain) in 2023.[13]
In 2022, amid a school voucher debate in Texas, Vasut filed a bill for the state to reimburse parents for private school tuition.[14] In 2023, Vasut authored an amendment to the state budget to allocate $80 million in state funds to anti-abortion crisis pregnancy centers; the amendment passed along party lines.[15]
In 2023, Vasut served as one of the twelve House impeachment managers (consisting of seven Republicans and five Democrats) charged with prosecuting Texas Attorney GeneralKen Paxton during his impeachment trial.[10]
Vasut supports a ban on Democrats being given committee chairmanships as long as the Republicans hold the majority of seats in the Texas House.[16]
