Texas residents have an unmissable date on the calendar, as daylight saving time 2026 is just a few weeks away. The date is marked on Sunday, March 8, 2026: at 2:00 a.m., clocks must be moved forward to 3:00 a.m., officially inaugurating the 2026 Daylight Saving Time in the state.
If you own a smartphone or smartwatch, you probably won’t have to lift a finger. Connected devices handle the switch automatically. But that microwave in the kitchen, the clock on your car dashboard, the analog watch you only wear to weddings — those are on you. The safest move is to take care of them before heading to bed Saturday night, so Sunday morning doesn’t catch you off guard.
Texas Clocks Spring Forward: Will It Be the Last Time?
The biannual clock ritual is older than most people realize. The U.S. first adopted daylight saving time during World War I, largely as an effort to stretch usable daylight hours and cut down on energy use. The modern version — second Sunday of March through first Sunday of November — has been in place since 2007, when the Energy Policy Act of 2005 finally took effect.
Texas is done with spring forward. Washington, not so much. What makes this year’s time change feel different is that Texas has already tried to make it the last one. Governor Greg Abbott signed HB 1393 into law back in June 2025 — a bill that would lock Texas permanently onto daylight saving time and eliminate the back-and-forth entirely. The catch? States can’t make that call on their own. Federal law has to change first, and that’s where things stall.
Texas Is Done Changing Its Clocks Every Year
Congress has been circling this issue for years. The Sunshine Protection Act, which would make daylight saving time permanent nationwide, passed the Senate unanimously in 2022. That was a rare show of bipartisan agreement on anything. But the House never voted on it, and the bill quietly expired. It’s been reintroduced since, without much momentum to show for it.
President Donald Trump has weighed in too, calling the time change an unnecessary hassle that costs the country more than it’s worth. Whether that translates into actual legislative pressure remains to be seen.
Texas isn’t the only state tired of the whole thing. Arizona and Hawaii haven’t observed daylight saving time in decades and have managed just fine. For a growing number of Americans, they’re less of an anomaly and more of a preview of what the rest of the country should do. Daylight saving time will run through November 1, when the cycle reverses and clocks fall back to standard time.
