2025 ERS Board of Trustees election (state agencies only): nominations starting soon 

3-minute read

One of the three elected positions on the Employees Retirement System of Texas (ERS) Board of Trustees is up for election this year. You have the opportunity to help fill the Board seat currently held by Brian Barth of the Texas Department of Transportation. His term expires Aug. 31, 2025.

ERS will accept candidate nominations from March 3 through March 31 at 5 p.m. CT.

Who can run

Texas state agency employees who are contributing to the ERS Retirement Trust Fund as of Jan. 31, 2025, and are not employed by the Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC) are eligible to run for the ERS Board.

• Note: An HHSC employee and a retiree currently hold Board seats. Therefore, employees with HHSC and retirees cannot be nominated in this year’s election. This includes return-to-work retirees, even if they’re getting active employee benefits. But, HHSC employees and retirees can nominate candidates from other agencies, sign a nomination petition to support a candidate and vote in the election.

Who can nominate and vote

Texas state agency employees and retirees can sign a nomination petition to support a candidate if they:

• are employed with a state agency and have an ERS account balance as of Jan. 31, 2025, or
• are getting an annuity from ERS.

The process for an eligible voter to electronically sign a nominee’s petition is very similar to online voting. On the candidate’s personalized nominations website, the voter will log in by typing in their individual credentials: their ZIP code, date of birth and portions of their first and last names. Using the known credentials, the website will automatically authenticate the individual’s voting eligibility.

Nomination process

To get on the 2025 ballot, a Texas state agency employee not employed with HHSC must do the following two things:

1. Complete and submit to ERS the Questionnaire for Board of Trustees Position.
2. Submit a nomination petition to ERS with the signatures of at least 300 eligible voters. If a voter signs a nomination petition for more than one candidate, ERS will not count either signature.

In addition to the paper petition forms traditionally used in ERS Board elections, potential candidates have the option to electronically solicit signatures for their petitions, rather than asking supporters to sign paper petitions only. A potential candidate can contact the ERS election coordinator on or after March 3 to request a personalized electronic nomination site platform.

The questionnaire and other nomination materials will be available March 3 on the ERS website.

Signed nomination petition and questionnaires are due to ERS March 31 by 5 p.m. CT. ERS will certify the candidates on April 13.

Why you should consider a run and make sure to vote

The ERS Board of Trustees works to ensure your health and retirement benefits remain cost-effective and reliable. The trustees make important decisions about your benefits such as:

• designing plans for your health care and pharmacy benefits,
• selecting third-party administrators of health insurance and other benefit programs;
• overseeing the ERS Retirement Trust Fund—which invests state, agency and member pension contributions; and
• managing the Texa$aver^SM 401(k) / 457 Program.

More information

News About Your Benefits and the ERS Trustees Election and Appointments webpage will have more information in the coming weeks about the nominations process.