Garnet Coleman, longtime Democratic Texas House member, dies at 65 - The Texas Tribune

Coleman first won his seat in 1991 and held it until 2022, making him one of the longer-serving members in the chamber's recent history. He was open throughout his career about living with diabetes and bipolar disorder, and he used that platform to push mental health issues into the legislative spotlight. His signature achievement, the Sandra Bland Act, forces county jails across Texas, including Lubbock County's, to divert people with mental health issues toward treatment instead of incarceration and requires independent law enforcement agencies to investigate jail deaths. He also spent years advocating for funding at Texas Southern University, Prairie View A&M and the University of Houston.

The Lubbock connection here runs through the Speaker's chair. Texas House Speaker Dustin Burrows, who represents Lubbock in Austin, said he remembers Coleman as a colleague whose work left a mark on the House. Burrows now sits at the top of the chamber Coleman spent three decades in, giving West Texas a direct line to how his legacy gets discussed in the Capitol going forward.