Good morning, 

Here is the Texas Minute for Thursday, September 21, 2023.

– Brandon Waltens 

INTERVIEW: Paxton Attacks Bush Machine & TLR for Impeachment

• Attorney General Ken Paxton has returned to work following more than three months of leave after being impeached by the Texas House.
   
• In an interview with Texas Scorecard, Paxton says he’s excited to continue serving Texans.
   
• “It's been hard to sit on the sidelines for four months and watch things happen and not have the ability to go impact them. That's what I ran for.” –Ken Paxton
   

• Paxton also discussed the role played in the impeachment by the Bush family machine, Karl Rove, Texans for Lawsuit Reform, and House Speaker Dade Phelan.
   

• The full conversation is available right now on the Texas Scorecard channel on YouTube, as well as our app for iOS, Android, Roku, and Apple TV devices.

More Counties Voice Support for Censuring Dade Phelan

• Two more counties have joined in support of the Orange County GOP’s censure of Republican House Speaker Dade Phelan of Beaumont.
   
• Sydnie Henry reports the Travis County GOP and Smith County GOP have now passed resolutions condemning Phelan.
   
• Orange County censured Phelan in July for appointing Democrats to committee chairs in the House, despite the Texas GOP specifically urging against the practice in their legislative priorities. They also condemned Phelan for his role in killing border security legislation, as well as his work against passing school choice.
   
• The Travis County resolution notes Phelan’s role in leading the impeachment against Attorney General Ken Paxton in addition to the concerns raised by the Orange County GOP.
   

• Phelan has also been censured by the Republican executive committees in Ellis County and Liberty County GOP. The Tarrant County, Harris County, and Dallas County Republican leaders have passed resolutions in support of the Orange County censure.
   

• If the Republican Party of Texas agrees with the censure, it would then under party rules be allowed to spend money educating voters on the reasons for the censure.

Harris County Commissioners Pass 'Book Sanctuary' Resolution

• After it was reported that Texas leads the nation in challenging explicit books, the Harris County Commissioners Court approved a resolution to turn the Harris County Public Libraries system into a “Book Sanctuary.” Emily Medeiros has the details. 

• According to the resolution, becoming a ‘Book Sanctuary’ is meant to combat censorship, foster a “​discussion about challenged and diverse books to promote understanding and mutual respect,” and “defend the freedom to speak, think, and read.”

• “Let’s be clear, the books in question are vile and are designed to corrupt, confuse and ultimately destroy the minds of children,” said Brady Gray, president of Texas Family Project. “That is what Harris County intends to protect.”

• Legislation passed this year by the Texas Legislature prohibits school libraries from housing sexually explicit, vulgar, or educationally unsuitable material. The law was set to go into effect September 1, but has been held up in federal court.

Texas Church to Fund Travel for Child Gender Mutilation

• Galileo Church in Fort Worth, Texas has launched a nonprofit organization to pay for families and children to travel out of state to receive gender mutilative surgeries, cross-sex hormones, and puberty blockers.
   

• Soli Rice reports the North Texas Transportation Network allows individuals from the 19 counties within the Dallas Fort Worth Metroplex to apply.
   

• Applicants, families, donors, and steering committee members are also not required to have any sort of “religious participation or belief.”
   

• The "church" says they see child gender mutilative procedures as “healthcare” and believes, “Health care is a human right, and withholding necessary care for trans kids is state-sponsored cruelty.”
   

• Earlier this summer, Gov. Greg Abbott signed Senate Bill 14—which bans child gender mutilation procedures—into law. However, because the law does not define child gender mutilation as child abuse, Galileo Church’s  program does not explicitly violate the law.

Gillespie GOP Replaces Chairman Who Quit After Hand-Count Vote

• A vote by Republican grassroots activists in Gillespie County to hand-count ballots during the next primary election prompted a change in the Central Texas county’s GOP leadership. Erin Anderson has the details. 
   

• Tuesday night, Bruce Campbell was elected chairman of the Gillespie County Republican Party during a special meeting of the party’s executive committee, composed of locally elected precinct chairs.
   

• Former Chairman Mo Saiidi resigned after the executive committee passed a resolution last month to use hand-marked, hand-counted paper ballots and paper poll lists in their March 2024 primary. The resolution passed 7-6.
   

• After the vote, Saiidi reportedly walked out of the meeting and later announced he was quitting.
   

• The Fredericksburg Tea Party, one of the oldest and largest grassroots organizations in the state, also supports the hand count and called Saiidi “out of touch” with regular citizens’ concerns and “disrespectful” to his own party and volunteers.

Commissioner Sounds the Alarm Over Weaponization of the FEC

• A current commissioner and former chairman of the Federal Election Commission is sounding the alarm to Congress: his agency is being hijacked to attack the free speech rights of citizens.
   

• Speaking before the U.S. House Committee on Administration, which has oversight of the FEC, Commissioner Trey Trainor warned Congress of a “disturbing situation.”
   

• “The Federal Election Commission has become a weapon,” Trainor told the committee.
   

• He cited the adoption of new procedures by the FEC allowing the agency, which operates under civil law procedures, to share information about its investigations with the Department of Justice. This allows the bureaucrats to facilitate secret criminal prosecutions against those accused of tripping over the agency’s regulations regarding citizen speech, without notifying them they are at severe risk.

John Perez Challenges Incumbent State Rep for Houston Seat

• Spring Branch Independent School District Trustee John Perez has announced his challenge to incumbent Republican State Rep. Mano DeAyala of Houston for the House District 133 seat.
   
• Sydnie Henry reports Perez honed in on DeAyala’s vote to impeach Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton as a “stark contradiction” to DeAyala’s portrayal of himself as conservative.
   
• Perez has highlighted DeAyala’s acceptance of campaign contributions from Speaker Dade Phelan as well as Texans for Lawsuit Reform—an opponent of Paxton.
   
• DeAyala did not respond to Texas Scorecard’s request for comment before publication.

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