Good morning, 

Yesterday’s Texas Minute asked who your favorite president was... and we got answers!

Here is today's Texas Minute.

– Michael Quinn Sullivan 

Tuesday, February 18, 2020
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• Early voting begins today around the Lone Star State for the Republican and Democratic Party primaries. Polls open for early voting at 7am at most locations around the state, but check with the elections office in YOUR County to confirm the time and locations. You can also find more voting-related information at the website of the Secretary of State: VoteTexas.gov.
       
• Out-of-state political action committees connected with Democrat presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg and Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos have taken a keen interest in a west Texas congressional district’s open-seat Republican primary. Matt Stringer has those details.
     
• Meanwhile, Cary Cheshire looks specifically at the “With Honor” PAC, which is primarily funded by Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos, a Democrat donor who gave the entity more than $10 million in August 2018. Billing itself as “cross-partisan,” the PAC claims to support veterans running for office, yet it has given to Democrat House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Republican Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy – neither of whom are veterans.
       
• Interestingly, the “With Honor” PAC has donated to Democrats challenging Republican incumbents in Texas, but it has not endorsed any Republican campaigning against an incumbent Democrat – despite veterans running in those races. 
      
• “Cross-partisan.” Yeah, right.
       
• Speaking of congressional races, Erin Anderson reports former Irving Mayor Beth Van Duyne received President Trump’s endorsement in the contested GOP primary for Texas’ 24th Congressional District.
      
• Our friends at Texas Right to Life explain how to be a “pro-life delegate” at the Republican Party of Texas local and state conventions.
       
• In a new commentary, Joel Starnes writes that activist judges in Tarrant County – under pressure from the state’s Child Protective Services, the private Court Appointed Special Advocates group, and Cook Children’s Hospital – are going after a duly elected judge who not only follows the law but does so efficiently and with the safety of all children in mind.
   
• While voters in House District 2 and around the state are at the early voting polls, incumbent State Rep. Dan Flynn (R-Van) will be far from home on Wednesday. Rather than greet voters, Flynn will be hanging out with crony lobbyists at the Austin establishment’s favorite watering hole: the Austin Club. Flynn is trying to rake in all the liberal Austin cash he can because there are two conservatives challenging him in the GOP primary.

Yesterday We Asked... Who Is Your Favorite President?

• Predictably, George Washington is a perennial favorite. As Keith U. wrote, Washington “could have been king” but instead “self-imposed a term limit and returned home to govern himself and his family.”
      
• Calvin Coolidge got a lot of mentions from folks like Mike B. who noted “Silent Cal” was known for “being a small government conservative.” Eliel R. summed up Coolidge’s political philosophy, “Where others did, don't. And if you have to do, do less.”
      
• Support poured in also for Ronald Reagan. Bari T. wrote that Reagan showed “that lower taxes do produce economic gains.” Don G. called him the “most influential president during my life.”
       
• Kevin B. wrote that President Donald Trump has been his favorite “for one simple reason, he has done what he said he’d do.” That sentiment was echoed by Sidney M., who added “he is NOT a politician, AKA, not corrupt!” Dee C. was equally emphatic: “he has delivered!”