As mayor of Uvalde, he was the public face of the city during the 2022 Robb Elementary shooting, and two years later he was elected to the same state legislature whose gun and school-safety laws he's now trying to change.
McLaughlin co-founded a piping-services company with his father and served about a decade as mayor of Uvalde before winning this House seat in 2024, becoming the first Republican ever to hold it. As mayor he led Uvalde through the aftermath of the Robb Elementary shooting that killed 21 people, and as a state representative he has pushed a bill requiring police departments statewide to have mass-shooting response plans, while opposing raising the age to buy a semi-automatic rifle from 18 to 21. He also co-authored the 2025 private-school voucher bill, though he says he won't support anything that 'guts' his district's public schools.
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McLaughlin’s take on Texas values
He was part of the Texas House Republican majority that passed the mid-decade congressional redistricting map in August 2025 at the urging of President Trump, on a party-line 88-52 vote, to help Republicans win more U.S. House seats. [Texas Tribune; KUT]