Good morning,

With just 23 days left until the March 5 GOP primary, today's One Click Survey asks your opinion on an endorsement Gov. Greg Abbott has not made...

Here is the Texas Minute for Monday, February 12, 2024.

– Michael Quinn Sullivan 

NOTE FOR DUDES: Valentine's Day is on Wednesday; you have been warned.

Texas GOP Votes to Censure House Speaker Dade Phelan

• The Texas Republican Party’s State Executive Committee approved in a historic 55-4 vote on Saturday a resolution censuring House Speaker Dade Phelan of Beaumont. Luca Cacciatore has the details.
     
• The SREC members highlighted Phelan's role in killing border security legislation and appointing Democrats to chair legislative committees, both in violation of the party's priorities. The censure also condemned Phelan's handling of the Paxton impeachment.
      
• The resolution discourages Phelan from participating in this year’s Republican Party primary, strips GOP financial support from his campaign, and potentially opens the door to the party campaigning against him.
     
• Opposing the censure was Joe Pojman of the Texas Alliance for Life. According to TransparencyUSA, Phelan is the top donor to Pojman's political action committee.
      
• Speaking in favor was SREC committeeman Chris Breaux, whose district encompasses Phelan’s. He told the SREC that voting to censure was the right thing to do because Phelan had been “obstinate in his wrongness.”

Related News

A 2021 Court Ruling is Making Waves in 2024

• The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals doesn’t typically penetrate the consciousness of Texas voters, but as Daniel Greer reports, a December 2021 ruling is doing just that ahead of the March primary. 

       
• In that December 2021 ruling, the Court of Criminal Appeals issued a ruling that the Attorney General of Texas could not prosecute election fraud. Only one justice dissented.
      

• The ruling upended more than seven decades of precedent and has been criticized as activism disguised as originalism. Controversially, the ruling was issued just two days after the filing deadline for running against three members on the ballot, timing that was at the time called overtly political.
     

• Now, three of the justices who stripped the Office of the Attorney General of that prosecutorial power are being challenged in the GOP primary.
       

• According to the University of Houston Hobby School of Public Affairs polling, 60 percent of GOP primary voters are less likely to vote for a judge who supported that 2021 ruling.
       

• That could be bad news for incumbents Michelle Slaughter, Sharon Keller, and Barbara Hervey, who all face primary challengers in March.

Nearly 20,000 Chinese Illegal Border-Crossers in Four Months

• Sources in U.S. Customs and Border Protection have reportedly confirmed that there have been nearly 20,000 encounters with Chinese nationals at the southern border since October 1.  
       
• As Will Biagini notes, there have been more than one million known illegal aliens entering the country since that date, which is the start of the federal fiscal year.
      
• According to a recent study by CBS News, illegal aliens from China are the fastest-growing group attempting to cross into the United States from Mexico. Reportedly, the Chinese-run social media app TikTok provides step-by-step instructions about how to enter the United States illegally.

Related News

Report: Texas’ Abortion Ban Saved Nearly 8K Babies in 2022

• A new study out of the University of Houston found that nearly 8,000 more children were born in Texas in 2022 after a law took effect that restricts abortion once a baby’s heartbeat is detected.
      
• The study examined the impact of the Texas Heartbeat Act, which took effect September 1, 2021.
     
• Researchers found that nearly 1,000 more children were born every month in 2022 compared to 2021, causing the Texas birth rate to jump by 2 percent at year’s end. That is the first time Texas has experienced a birth rate increase since 2014. 
   
• Texas Right to Life, which helped push for the Heartbeat Act, celebrated news of the study’s results. “The Texas Heartbeat Act has saved not only these lives but the generations that will come after them.”

Yet Another Klein Teacher Busted for Child Porn

• Authorities say another Klein Independent School District teacher has been caught with child porn on his computer. As Erin Anderson reports, Sebastian Baraldi is the third Klein ISD teacher in three months arrested for sex crimes involving children.
       
• Reportedly, law enforcement officials found a file on Baraldi’s computer hard drive labeled “School Art Project” that was filled with child sexual abuse material.
     
• Klein ISD confirmed to Texas Scorecard on Friday that Baraldi is no longer an employee of the district.

Today In History

On February 12, 1899, the coldest temperature ever recorded in Texas was first made in Tula (Hale County). The temperature...?

Quote-Unquote

"A political party cannot be all things to all people. It must represent certain fundamental beliefs which must not be compromised to political expediency or simply to swell its numbers."

– Ronald Reagan​

ONE CLICK SURVEY

While Gov. Greg Abbott has endorsed challengers to key lieutenants of House Speaker Dade Phelan, he has not endorsed either of the candidates taking on Phelan himself. Should Abbott do so?

Once you’ve clicked an answer, reply to this email with any thoughts you’d like to share!