State Rep. Terry Canales

In 2025, Rep. Canales was appointed by Texas Speaker of the House Dustin Burrows to serve as Chair of the Subcommittee on Transportation Funding, a subcommittee of the House Committee on Transportation.

From 2019 to January 2025, Rep. Canales served as Chairman of the House Transportation Committee, becoming the first Latino to hold this position. In 2025 Speaker Burrows reappointed him to serve as a member of the House Transportation Committee, marking his third consecutive session on the committee. In 2023, he was one of the twelve House impeachment managers in the impeachment trial of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in the Texas Senate.

During his tenure, Rep. Canales has worked on legislation related to government transparency, public participation in local government meetings, public education funding, criminal justice reform, and debtor’s prison reform.

Rep. Canales earned his Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science from the University of the Incarnate Word and his Juris Doctor from St. Mary’s University School of Law at the age of 24. His father Terry A. Canales was a former State District Judge and the first Hispanic State Representative to represent Jim Wells County (1973–1977), and his uncle is Arnulfo Gonzalez Jr. He is the sixth member of his extended family to serve in the Texas House of Representatives — his great-uncle Jose Tomás Canales was a founding member of LULAC and served five terms between 1905 and 1921. Rep. Canales is married to Erica E. Canales. They have five children: Juliana, Terry Andres, Caleb Ezra, Trígo, and Catalina. They live in Edinburg.