GOP Legislators Aiming For School Choice Legislation This Session

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After decades of rejections, state Rep. Mayes Middleton, R-Wallisville, believes this upcoming legislative session is the one where Texas will finally pass a school choice program.

Supporters believe they will finally cross the finish line with backing from families displeased with public schools in the last two years over pandemic response rules and about how race and history are taught. Gov. Greg Abbott, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and the Texas GOP have already listed school choice as a legislative priority for next year.

(Full story HERE.)
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Texas Democrats Had High Hopes, But Again Face Time Of Introspection

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The odds were more stacked than usual against Texas Democrats this election cycle, with an unpopular president from their party going against them. Yet there was still hope and cautious optimism within the party that if anyone could pull off the upset, it would be Beto O’Rourke.

At a minimum, he could give a repeat performance of his 2018 matchup against U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, where he came close enough to defeating the Republican — less than 3 percentage points — that Democrats could convincingly make the case that Texas is a battleground state worthy of national attention and investment.

Instead, O'Rourke, the most promising Texas Democrat in recent history, got walloped by Gov. Greg Abbott by 11 percentage points, and every other statewide candidate lost by double digits.

(Full story HERE.)
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State's High Court Allows Harris County Extended Vote Count

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The Texas Supreme Court ruled yesterday that Harris County election officials can include over 2,000 votes cast during an extended voting period on Election Day in certified results, but must give the number of late-cast votes in each individual race.

In their two-page order, the nine Republican justices on the state's highest civil appeals court rejected the request from Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton to outright nullify the votes cast after polls traditionally close. However, the court did not dismiss Paxton's petition to have late-cast votes thrown out in future elections.

(Full story HERE.)
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US Supreme Court Refuses Review Of GOP Redistricting

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The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday turned away an appeal by Black and Hispanic voters accusing the Republican-led Texas legislature of intentionally redrawing a state Senate district to diminish their political clout, part of broader challenge to congressional and state legislative maps in the state.

(Full story HERE.)
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U S. Sen. Ted Cruz To Seek Third Term In 2024

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Ted Cruz said over the weekend that he will seek a third term in the U.S. Senate in 2024, though he also did not rule out running for president.

“I'm running for reelection in the Senate, I’m focused on the battles in the United States Senate,” Cruz told reporters after addressing the Republican Jewish Coalition’s annual leadership meeting in Las Vegas. He said

(Full story HERE.)
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Beto Leaves Door Open To Future Runs For Office After Latest Loss

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Beto O’Rourke has fallen short twice while running for statewide office in Texas.

The Democrat has galvanized voters but he couldn’t topple the red wall of rural Texas.

What’s lining up to be a double-digit loss to Gov. Greg Abbott isn’t pushing O’Rourke to the side just yet. He's leaving the door open to be involved in Texas politics in one way or the other.

Although, the next steps for O’Rourke after losing are unclear.

“I don’t know my role or yours... going forward but I’m in this fight for life. I’m in this with you,” O’Rourke said.

Three things are certain, Beto is the Democrats ' best known statewide candidate, and he enjoys the limelight and running for public office.

(Full story HERE.)
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Texas House To Double Number Of Republican Women Legislators

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Last week's election didn't change much about the Texas Legislature’s partisan structure — Republicans just slightly expanded their majorities.

But the Legislature also saw some turnover, with more than two dozen lawmakers retiring or running for higher office. Texans sent more conservative Republicans to the state Capitol, especially in the Senate. They also significantly diversified the House, doubling the number of GOP women in the chamber, expanding the LGBTQ caucus and electing the first two Muslim state lawmakers.

(Full story HERE.) (Paywalled)
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GOP Legislator Wants To Dissolve City Of Austin

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As state lawmakers gear up for the legislative session in January, one North Texas Republican is making a longshot push to dissolve the city of Austin.

State Rep. Jared Patterson, R-Frisco, filed House Bill 714 and House Joint Resolution 50 on Tuesday, proposing a new “District of Austin” that would replace Texas’ capital city as of Jan. 1, 2024.

(Full story HERE.)
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McCarthy Wins House Speaker Nomination, Some Texan Legislators Oppose

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House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy won his party's nomination for House Speaker, and will be House Majority Leader if he can't get the votes in January but he won with some pushback from Texas conservatives.

During the House Republican Conference meeting Tuesday to pick its leadership for the next Congress, Rep. Chip Roy, R-Austin, nominated Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Arizona, as an alternative candidate for speaker in a direct challenge to McCarthy, according to a source familiar with the secret ballot voting process. U.S. Rep. Michael Cloud, R-Victoria, seconded the nomination. Both members belong to the right-wing House Freedom Caucus, which has long challenged the status quo among the Republican conference.

McCarthy must still win 218 votes in the full House of Representatives on January 3rd to become Speaker.

(Full story HERE.)
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Survey Of Texas GOP Voters Shows DeSantis Beating Trump In Primary

Republican voters in Texas support Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis as the Republican nominee for the 2024 presidential election over former President Donald Trump by more than 10 percentage points, according to a new poll commissioned by the Republican Party of Texas.

The survey asked voters who are likely to participate in the 2024 Texas Republican primary election who they would vote for out of six Republican candidates including DeSantis and Trump. DeSantis was the top choice, with 43% of respondents saying they would vote for him if the primary election were held today. 

Trump came in second place with 32%. DeSantis’ support among the surveyed voters surged to 66% when they were asked about a situation in which Trump would decline to run in 2024.

(Full story HERE.)
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Gov. Abbott Wants Election In Harris County Investigated

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Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) has called for an investigation into “widespread problems” in Houston-area elections during the midterms. 

“The allegations of election improprieties in our state’s largest county may result from anything ranging from malfeasance to blatant criminal conduct. Voters in Harris County deserve to know what happened. Integrity in the election process is essential. To achieve that standard, a thorough investigation is warranted,” Abbott said in a statement.

(Full story HERE.)
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Abbott Unleashes $355 Million In Public Safety Grants

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Governor Greg Abbott has announced that his Public Safety Office (PSO) will administer more than $355 million in grant funding for a variety of public safety programs and services in Texas, including victims services, anti-human trafficking efforts, and law enforcement support. This grant funding is made possible through a combination of federal and state dollars.

(Full story HERE.)
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Republican Wins 15th Congressional Seat For First Time

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For the first time in its history, Texas’ 15th Congressional District will be represented by a Republican.

Monica De La Cruz won her bid to represent the district Tuesday in the traditionally Democratic stronghold of South Texas.

(Full story HERE.)
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"Embattled" AG Paxton Skates To Victory

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Embattled Attorney General Ken Paxton, who has faced securities fraud charges since 2015 and is under FBI investigation for abuse of office, has won reelection for a third term, according to Decision Desk HQ, defeating Democratic civil rights lawyer Rochelle Garza.

It was one of the more competitive races of the 2022 election, and Democrats and Republicans, alike seemed to believe it would be a very difficult race for Paxton to win. 

His primary opponent,George P.  Bush, warned during the primary that if Paxton won the primary, he could not win in the general election. But in the end, Paxton rode the Texas version of the Red Wave to victory, alongside all other statewide office holders.

(Full story HERE.)
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Lt. Gov. Patrick Again Defeats Democrat Collier

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Republican Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick sailed to victory Tuesday night to secure a third term as Texas’ No. 2 statewide official.

Patrick faced Democrat Mike Collier, a Houston-area accountant, at the ballot box for the second time.

This time, both candidates ran far more aggressive campaigns than in the previous contest. Patrick made promises to push through legislation to deal with skyrocketing crime rates, while Collier attacked Patrick, telling him in one TV ad to "fix the damn grid," a reference to last year's ice storm in which millions lost power and over 200 people died as a result.

(Full story HERE.)
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Abbott Easily Wins Reelection As Governor

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Republican Greg Abbott has easily won re-election over his Democrat opponent, Beto O'Rourke, beating him 55% to 44%.  

Abbott made immigration at the southern border a central theme of his 2022 campaign, blaming Pres. Joe Biden for an unprecedented surge of crossings. O’Rourke, during the only debate between the two candidates, said Abbott was treating migrants as “political pawns” by busing them to so-called “sanctuary cities” — liberal strongholds like New York, Washington D.C. and Chicago. 

O'Rourke (along with other Democrats seeking office) also attempted to blame the deaths of over 200 Texans in last year's ice storm on Gov. Abbott, personally, an issue that didn't catch fire with voters. 

Abbott's victory is not a surprise — poll after poll showed the Republican leading O'Rourke by about one to eleven points. He also had the advantage of having more money than O'Rourke. The last Democrat to win a Texas gubernatorial race was Ann Richards in 1990.

(Full story HERE
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Beto O'Rourke Ends Third Campaign In Six Years Hoping For A Longshot Win

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The Washington Post notes that Robert "Beto" O'Rourke has been campaigning for 1,175 of the past 2,048 days — for Senate, then president, now Texas governor. Today ends his third campaign in six year, illustrating, in part, just how shallow the Democrat candidate bench is in Texas, something Democrats will have to address as they move forward, whatever tonight's results.

Incumbent Governor Greg Abbott remains 4 points ahead in latest polling, but O'Rourke and other Democrats are using the overturning of Roe v. Wade by a conservative US Supreme Court to stir up liberal women voters and get them to the polls.

(Full story HERE.)
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Harris County Again Amends Election Law, Keeps Polls Open Two Hours

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Harris county, whose unilateral election law changes in 2020 prompted the state legislature to pass laws creating uniform election law across the state, is again making changes to its local election laws. It is unclear whether they received State sanction to do this.

Yesterday, one of the final days of early voting, Harris County election officials kept the polls open until 10 p.m., two hours after they were scheduled to close. The change was announced on Twitter and other venues by local media. The Harris county election office announced that nearly 75,000 people had voted on the second to last day of early voting.

The Harris County election office is still under investigation for election irregularities in 2020. It's supervisor of elections resigned in 2021 from the scandal-plagued office. The county is the third largest in the entire nation, and is a heavily Democratic enclave.

(Full story HERE
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Texas Democrats Want Federal Monitors During Election

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With Democrats panicking just days before what is expected to be a Republican tsunami at the polls, they’re pulling out every device in their bag of tricks to stave it off.

In Texas, this effort may take the form of direct intervention in the election by the now hyper-weaponized Biden Justice Department in Harris County, America’s third-largest county, which is home to Houston, America’s fourth-largest city. There, the Justice Department has been asked by the local Democratic machine to intervene in the November election by sending federal monitors. 

(Full story HERE.)
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GOP Congressional Candidate Witnesses O'Rourke Violating Election Law At Polling Place

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Republican Candidate For Congress #MonicaDeLaCruz (@monica4congress) Caught @BetoORourke Red-Handed Illegally Electioneering At A Polling Location In #SanJuan #Texas inside the restricted polling markers outside a polling place in front of the San Juan public library. 

A video posted on Twitter showed De La Cruz angrily denouncing O'Rourke's speech inside the restricted zone to an unidentified person on the telephone, and to polling site officials.

(Full story HERE.)
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