AUSTIN, Texas — Texas Secretary of State Jane Nelson announced Tuesday that she will resign effective July 17, ending a three-and-a-half-year tenure as the state’s chief elections officer and leaving Gov. Greg Abbott responsible for appointing a successor.
Nelson announced her resignation in a statement but did not provide a reason for her departure.
“It has been my goal to ensure that voting in Texas is secure, accessible and fair,” Nelson said. “We have worked extensively to ensure accurate voter rolls and to educate voters about what they need to know to vote with confidence.”
The Secretary of State’s Office did not immediately respond to requests for additional comment.
Under Texas law, Abbott must nominate a replacement without delay. His office did not immediately comment on potential candidates but praised Nelson’s service.
“Secretary Jane Nelson has been a true champion for the people of Texas and an extraordinary Secretary of State,” Abbott said in a statement. “I am deeply grateful for her long and loyal service and outstanding leadership.”
Nelson, a Republican, served in the Texas Senate for 30 years before Abbott appointed her secretary of state in 2023. She was the longest-serving Republican woman in Senate history and the first woman to chair the Senate Finance Committee.
Nelson also became the first Texas secretary of state to receive Senate confirmation since 2017. Her three immediate predecessors left office without receiving confirmation by the full Senate.
According to the Secretary of State’s Office, Nelson oversaw seven statewide elections involving a combined 27 million ballots and administered grant funding to local counties.
During her tenure, the office provided the U.S. Department of Justice access to Texas’ statewide voter registration database. The data included personal information of registered voters, such as dates of birth, driver’s license numbers and the last four digits of Social Security numbers. Election security experts and voting rights organizations criticized the disclosure, citing voter privacy concerns.
Nelson’s office also began using the federal Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements database, known as SAVE, to review the citizenship status of registered voters. State officials said the review identified 2,724 potential noncitizens on the voter rolls.
County election officials later determined that some of the flagged voters were U.S. citizens. Officials also found that hundreds of those voters had registered through the Texas Department of Public Safety, which requires proof of citizenship and maintains related records.
Voting rights groups subsequently filed lawsuits challenging the use of the SAVE database, arguing that inaccuracies in the system could affect eligible voters and that the state should have checked Department of Public Safety records before referring names to county election officials. The cases remain pending in federal court.
Last month, Nelson’s office asked the Department of Public Safety to compare the entire list of potential noncitizens against its driver’s license records.
Nelson’s office also faced criticism from county election administrators following the rollout of the state’s election management and voter registration system, known as TEAM. Election officials have reported operational issues with the system and have requested improvements since its launch last year.
Nelson’s resignation will take effect on July 17.
