Texas Impact is a left-of-center religious membership political advocacy network and the advocacy arm of Texas Impact Education Fund. It is based in Austin, Texas comprised of a variety of Protestant Christian, Jewish, Muslim, and independent religious organizations. It advances numerous policy positions before the Texas legislature, including increasing government school funding, expanding Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act (popularly known as Obamacare), expanding access to abortion and sex-reassignment treatments, and adopting left-of-center election-administration and voter access policies. ¹

Background

Texas Impact was originally established in 1973 by a group of religious leaders and activists as the Texas Interfaith Commission on Human Priorities to lobby the Texas state legislature. In 1976, the organization changed its name to Texas IMPACT when it joined the now-defunct Interfaith IMPACT organization. The following year, in April 1977, the organization was established as a tax-exempt 501(c)(4) political advocacy network in Austin, Texas. ^{2 3}

Policy

Texas Impact supports a variety of left-of-center state-level policy positions. The organization’s 2025 to 2026 Legislative Agenda advocates for increasing per-pupil funding at Texas public schools to the national per-pupil average, opposing private school choice programs, supporting the expansion of Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act (popularly known as Obamacare), eliminating any criminal and civil consequences for doctors who perform abortions that they have determined meet the legal standard, allowing abortions in cases of rape or incest without any confirmation of a crime having occurred, supporting access to in-vitro fertilization services, lifting bans on hormonal therapies for individuals seeking to transition to a different gender, establishing that “travel bans” relating to abortion instituted by local jurisdictions have no state-level legal status, prohibiting the display of the Ten Commandments in public schools, supporting the extension of early voting for a longer duration, supporting online voter registration, and supporting the expansion of voting by mail. ¹

Advocacy

Texas Impact operates a variety of advocacy campaigns and programs, including Texas Interfaith Power and Light, an environmentalist campaign; Texas Faith Votes, a campaign encouraging people to participate in elections; and Courts and Ports, a two-day program where participants interact with immigration policy advocates, law enforcement officials, activists, volunteers, and asylum seekers. ⁴

Members

Member organizations of Texas Impact include religious institutions and independent organizations, such as the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship in Texas; The Disciples of Christ’s Trinity-Brazos, Bluebonnet, and Southwest Region area churches; the Episcopal Church’s Texas and West Texas dioceses; the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America’s Northern Texas-Northern Louisiana, Southwestern Texas, and Texas-Louisiana Gulf Coast synods; the  Jewish Federation of Greater Dallas; the National Council of Jewish Women; the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism-Texas; the Islamic Circle of North America; the Texas Muslim Women’s Foundation; the Presbyterian Church’s Mission, Palo Duro, Tres Rios, Grace, and New Covenant presbyteries; The Society of Friends’s South Central Yearly Meeting; the United Methodist Church’s Horizon, Rio, and general Texas conferences, as well as the Methodist Federation for Social Action; The United Church of Christ’s South Central Conference; The Texas Unitarian Universalist Justice Ministry; United Women in Faith; Church Women United; Interfaith Action of Central Texas; Interfaith Ministries for Greater Houston; CitySquare; Faith Commons; and Faith Forward Dallas. ⁵

Leadership

Bee Moorhead is the executive director of Texas Impact, as well as a registered lobbyist with the State of Texas, adjunct faculty member at Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary, an ordained ruling elder in the Presbyterian Church USA, a serving member on the Session of University Presbyterian Church in Austin, a trustee of her family’s farm, Locust Grove, in Meigs County, and a board member of the United Church of Christ Cornerstone Fund. Previously, she was a senior fiscal policy analyst for the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts. ⁶

Scott Atnip is the engagement director of Texas Impact. Previously, he was the executive director of Huntsville’s Promise, and a board member of the General Board of Global Ministries, CASA of Walker County, and the Walker County Community Development Corporation. ⁷

Becca Edwards is a climate action fellow at Texas Impact. Previously, she was a provisional deacon in the Capital District of the Rio Texas Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church and a visiting assistant professor of physics at Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas. ⁸

Katie Wang is the strategic communications manager of Texas Impact as well as a co-chair of the young professional organization at Interfaith Ministries for Greater Houston, and a board member of Culture of Health: Advancing Together. Previously, she was the associate director of community engagement at Rice University’s Kinder Institute for Urban Research.  ⁹

1. “Texas Impact 2025-2026 Legislative Agenda.” Texas Impact. 2025. Accessed January 30, 2026. https://texasimpact.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/25-26_TXI-Lege-Agenda.pdf
2. “ABOUT TEXAS IMPACT.” Texas Impact. Accessed January 30, 2026. https://texasimpact.org/about-us/
3. “Texas Impact.” ProPublica. Accessed January 30, 2026. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/741902234
4. “Our Campaigns.” Texas Impact. Accessed January 30, 2026. https://texasimpact.org/campaigns/
5. “Our Member Institutions.” Texas Impact. Accessed January 30, 2026. https://texasimpact.org/about-texas-impact/member-institutions/
6. “Bee Moorhead, MPA.” Texas Impact. Accessed January 30, 2026. https://texasimpact.org/about-texas-impact/our-team/bee-moorhead/
7. “Scott Atnip.” Texas Impact. Accessed January 30, 2026. https://texasimpact.org/about-texas-impact/our-team/scott-atnip/
8. “Rev. Dr. Becca Edwards, Ph.D, M.Div.” Texas Impact. Accessed January 30, 2026. https://texasimpact.org/about-texas-impact/our-team/becca-edwards/
9. “Katie Wang, MPA.” Texas Impact. Accessed January 30, 2026. https://texasimpact.org/about-texas-impact/our-team/katie-wang/