Good morning,

This is the Texas Minute for Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2024.

– Michael Quinn Sullivan 

EXPOSED: Lights Out

• Season 8 of the EXPOSED podcast series has begun. This season—called "Lights Out"—tracks the danger Texas faces of being cut off from the prosperity of our past... as well as the promise of a prosperous future.
        
• Hosted by Daniel Greer and produced by Nick Shepherd, this season of EXPOSED takes listeners through the personal and geopolitical challenges of our unreliable electric grid.
     
• EXPOSED can be found on your favorite podcast app, and a new episode will be available each Monday morning.

Support for Trump Rises with Texas Minorities

• According to polling data released this week, support for Donald Trump among Hispanic and black voters in Texas has grown since 2020. Daniel Greer has the details.
      
• A poll by the Texas Hispanic Policy Foundation found a continued theme of eroding support for Democrat presidential candidates. While Kamala Harris has a six-point lead over Trump with Hispanic voters (49 percent to 43 percent), that is down from a 10-point lead among Hispanics in 2020.
      
• According to the group, Trump received just 6 percent of the black vote in 2020. Now, his support is at 17 percent.
         
• The polling data found that Harris has a 44 percent favorable rating among Texas voters compared to 54 percent unfavorable. In contrast, Trump has 51 percent favorable to 48 percent unfavorable.
       
• Border policies rank high with Hispanic voters. When asked in April about increasing deportations of people who are already in the country illegally, 56 percent of Hispanics supported the idea compared to 34 percent in opposition. Similarly, 60 percent of Hispanics polled support penalizing businesses that hire illegal aliens.

RELATED NEWS

• The case began in October 2020, when a group showing support for Trump’s re-election trailed a Biden-Harris campaign bus as it traveled through Central Texas. In June 2021, the Democrats on the bus alleged the Trump Train participants conspired to intimidate the Democrats from voting for their candidates.
         
• The defendants maintained that they were exercising their First Amendment-protected right to free speech. The defendants will now seek reimbursement for attorneys’ fees and sanctions against attorneys working for the Democrats.

Paxton Files Emergency Motions Against ‘Unlawful’ County Programs

• Attorney General Ken Paxton has filed emergency motions against Travis and Bexar counties to supplement his lawsuits against their “unlawful” voter registration programs. As Ian Camacho reports, both counties have contracted with a Democrat firm to send out unsolicited voter registration forms with tax dollars.
       
• These motions resulted from an unsolicited voter registration form sent by the firm on September 18 to Louise O’Connor, maternal grandmother of former state representative and current Deputy Commissioner of Agriculture Terry Keel. His parents received the mailer for Ms. O’Connor, who died in 1980 and is buried in Austin.
     
• Paxton has argued that counties are not authorized by state law to spend money in this manner and that they "undermine election integrity." His office has explained that such unsolicited registration programs encourage individuals not legally entitled to commit a crime by attempting to register to vote.
       
• Travis County officials recently countersued Paxton and Secretary of State Jane Nelson, claiming Paxton’s initial lawsuit violated the National Voter Registration Act.
       
• "These counties have already sought to avoid judicial review of their blatantly illegal election programs. Now, one of these programs sent a voter registration application to a resident who has been deceased for more than forty years." – Ken Paxton

West Texas A&M University Blocks Online Gambling Sites

• West Texas A&M will block access to online gambling sites on university-supported internet portals, according to its president. Valerie Muñoz reports the university’s president says predatory gambling is exploitative of college students and negatively impacts academic performance. 
     
• Studies have shown six percent of college students have gambling problems—twice the percentage of U.S. adults.
        
• "Predatory gambling occurs when corporate gambling interests, sometimes coupled with government, exploit citizens and their communities," wrote WTAMU President Dr. Walter V. Wendler in his weekly column. 

Fort Worth Creates New LGBT Advisory Committee

• Emily Medeiros reports that Fort Worth officials have created a new committee to advise the city council and the city manager on issues related to the LGBT community.
   
• The committee is a part of the city’s Human Relations Commission, an 11-person council-appointed board that advises the city council and manager on matters “involving racial, religious, or ethnic discrimination.”
      
• Leading the effort will be Jonah Murray, who has been working to create a "pipeline for queer voices to be continually heard by the city of Fort Worth."
       
• "Fort Worth should focus on law and order, trash, and our streets and quit pushing radical social causes." — Tarrant County GOP Chair Bo French

Report: Panama to Cut Off Illegal Migration to the US-Mexico Border

• Panama’s president has reportedly ordered the country’s military to close the Darien Gap pathway connecting Panama to Colombia and the rest of South America. Addie Hovland reports that Panamanian authorities have begun closing down three of the four main paths coming into their country.
        
• According to an assessment by the Center for Immigration Studies, the Darien Gap has become a central pathway for migrants originating from 170 countries traveling to the U.S. in response to the Biden-Harris administration’s open border policies.
      
• While there has been a significant decrease in migration across the Darien Gap since Panama started implementing the current closure plan, experts theorize smugglers have also slowed down the pace of their operations due to other factors in the region—such as the turmoil around Venezuela's national election.

Quote-Unquote

"The people's government, made for the people, made by the people, and answerable to the people."

– Daniel Webster

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