Everything’s bigger in Texas, even the bipartisan support for fixing what you own. Over the weekend, Governor Greg Abbott signed HB 2963, making Texas the first Republican-led state to enact a Right to Repair law, and the seventh state overall to pass legislation ensuring people can fix consumer electronics they own.
The new law gives Texans access to parts, tools, and repair documentation for digital devices like phones, laptops, and tablets.
In securing the right to repair electronics, Texas joins a growing list of states: New York, Minnesota, California, Colorado, Oregon, and Washington. But this one’s different: It’s the first time a red state has taken direct aim at repair monopolies.
And in true Texas style, they jumped in with a landslide vote: the Texas Senate passed the law 31–0 at the beginning of this month, and the House passed it 126–0 in May.
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Everything Texans Need to Fix Their Gadgets
What does the law get you? Pretty much everything you need to fix your stuff.
Manufacturers of digital electronic products sold in Texas will be required to make parts, tools, documentation, and software available to product owners and independent repair shops on fair and reasonable terms. The law applies to products that cost $50 or more and were made available for sale after September 1, 2026.
The law includes the usual exemptions, for medical devices, motor vehicles, farm equipment, video game consoles, and off-road equipment. But for the everyday electronics we all rely on, HB 2963 ensures Texans won’t be locked out of the tools they need to fix their stuff.
Repair Has Never Been a Partisan Issue
The Texas law was backed by a politically diverse coalition including TexPIRG, the Texas Public Policy Foundation, and a broad network of fixers, small businesses, and right-to-repair advocates.
Repair has always been bipartisan. From the very first Right to Repair bill iFixit and The Repair Association supported in 2014, we’ve seen strong bipartisan interest in the issue. And since then, bills have run in every state in the union (all 50 of them!), backed by legislators of all kinds of ideological stripes. Every time we’ve polled people around the country, the majority of people from all political affiliations agree that Right to Repair just makes sense. Everyone wants to be able to fix our stuff.
Texas Public Policy Foundation, a conservative think tank, called repair “a fundamental component of ownership” in their press release announcing the signing:
“When Texans buy a product, they should truly own it, including the right to repair it,” said TPPF’s Greyson Gee, “HB 2963 restores the balance between manufacturer’s intellectual property rights and individual property rights and equips Texans with the tools and parts necessary to repair the property they own.”
Nathan Proctor, PIRG’s Senior Right to Repair Campaign Director, emphasized the way repair protections help consumers and small businesses everywhere:
“When you can’t fix something, you either have to buy a new one or do without. It drives up waste and costs. People are tired of throwing away things they prefer to fix, and clearly this is a message that has gotten through to lawmakers. Congratulations to Rep. Capriglione for his excellent work standing up for the rights of product owners, and the small repair shops all across Texas. This is a Texas-sized win.”
Yeehaw to that!
Texas Tips the Scale
Texas’s leap into the fight marks a pivotal shift and opens the door for other red states to follow. Nationwide, in addition to all the support for repair in statehouses across the country, bipartisan legislators are supporting Right to Repair for automobiles and military equipment.
For too long, manufacturers have made it hard (sometimes impossible) for people to fix their own devices. Now, with support from both sides of the aisle, states are pushing back. And Texas just brought a whole lot of momentum.
Gay Gordon-Byrne, Executive Director of the Repair Association, sees this win as evidence of that momentum:
“Texas has affirmed that Right to Repair is both practical and popular everywhere,” added Gay Gordon-Byrne, Executive Director of Repair.org, the coalition that supports Right to Repair. “We have repair protections in place for roughly a third of the nation — and growing. We won’t stop until everyone, everywhere, can fix all their stuff.”
We applaud Texas lawmakers and the many advocates, small business owners, and everyday repair heroes who helped make this law a reality.
Repair isn’t red or blue. It’s just common sense.
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