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TOP NEWS   
“Houston region gets a new solar farm outside the ERCOT system,” Houston Chronicle's Jonathan Diamond — “A large solar farm north of Houston that received about $200 million in financing a year ago has come online.
Recurrent Energy, a subsidiary of Canadian Solar, announced Thursday that Liberty Solar, a 134 megawatt project in Liberty County [ [link removed] ], about 50 miles northeast of Houston, had started operations. The project has contracts to feed electricity to corporate customers including Autodesk, Biogen, an electronics unit of Merck and Wayfair.
The project, which secured $120 million in construction debt, a letter of credit facility and a term facility from Rabobank, Nord LB and U.S. Bank in September 2023, feeds power to the grid operated by the Midcontinent Independent System Operator [ [link removed] ] and will produce enough energy to power approximately 15,000 homes annually, the company said. U.S. Bancorp Impact Finance provided the tax equity financing of $80 million, which came in exchange for a portion of the project’s tax credits.
While the electric grid serving roughly 90% of the state is operated by [ [link removed] ] the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, a small portion in East Texas is served by MISO. El Paso and far West Texas are in the Western Interconnection, and portions of the Panhandle region are in the Eastern Interconnection.
"Projects like Liberty Solar are instrumental to meeting the soaring demand for electricity in Texas,” Mark Stover, executive director of the Texas Solar Power Association, said in a statement from the company. “We commend Recurrent Energy for pushing through the development process and working with corporate buyers to deliver new, predictable, clean power to the MISO region of Texas."
Solar power has been an increasing source of energy on the Texas grid. At noon Monday, more than 25% of the power flowing on the ERCOT grid [ [link removed] ] came from solar, with about half generated by natural gas plants." Houston Chronicle [ [link removed] ] ($)
2024   
“Ted Cruz hits border security in messaging ahead of Election Day,” San Antonio Express-News' Jeremy Wallace — “Border crossing numbers are down to their lowest point in four years, but that isn’t stopping U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz from hammering away at the issue in his closing message to voters as he crisscrosses the state.
While most of his ads have attacked his Democratic rival, U.S. Rep. Colin Allred, over transgender issues, Cruz is making clear he is still betting big on the border driving voters to reelect him to the Senate for another six years.
I’ve spent a lot of time at our southern border,” Cruz told dozens of supporters at a warehouse in Georgetown earlier this week. “If you have not been there recently, I promise you, as bad as you think it is, it’s worse.”
While border crossing numbers are down now, Cruz reminded the crowd that U.S. Customs and Border Protection still reported millions of encounters with migrants since President Joe Biden took office (a single migrant may have multiple encounters with border agents) — and that doesn't factor in migrants who slipped through undetected.
“It’s the worst illegal immigration in our nation’s history,” Cruz said during an earlier stop this month in Waco.
To fire up his crowds, he’s focused heavily on crimes allegedly committed by migrants. Most notably Cruz has featured the murder of 12-year-old Jocelyn Nungaray of Houston in ads and has talked about her death at nearly every stop of his 50-city bus tour of Texas in October. Two men, both of them Venezuelan nationals, have been arrested and are awaiting trial for capital murder in connection to Jocelyn's death in June.
Studies have repeatedly shown that immigrants commit crimes at a lower rate than U.S.-born citizens, and the latest federal statistics show crime is declining overall.
Cruz said if he’s sent back to the Senate he will again support building the border wall in South Texas, which he insists Allred is against despite the Democrat's campaign statements.
Allred has said he supports using “physical barriers” as part of the strategy for securing the border. While other Democrats nationally have largely avoided talking about border issues, Allred has tried to be more on offense on the issue. In a new 30-second ad hitting this weekend, Allred’s campaign blasts the incumbent for opposing a bipartisan border [ [link removed] ] bill in the U.S. Senate earlier this year that would have freed up money to hire more border agents and immigration judges to handle asylum cases faster.
“We're tired of the talk,” Culberson County Sheriff Oscar Carrillo says in Allred’s ad. “We need action on border security.”
Earlier this year, Allred praised the Biden administration for restarting construction of about 20 miles of border wall, mostly around Starr County east of Laredo, even as Biden himself said he was only doing it because Republicans forced his hand.
Monthly border crossings have steadily declined since March, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection data. In September, the agency reported that just 26,000 migrants had been encountered in the five Texas sectors of the border with Mexico. That is lower than the final months of the Trump presidency, when they were encountering 44,000 people per month in Texas.
Public polling shows why Cruz is returning to the issue of border security to turn out voters. Even as numbers have come down, voters continue to say it is a top issues driving them to get to the polls. A Texas Politics Project poll from the University of Texas at Austin in October asked 1,200 likely voters to identify the most important problem facing Texas. Nearly a third said immigration or the border, more than double that of any other issue.
At the same time, Cruz has tried to walk a fine line on former President Donald Trump's vow to support a mass deportation plan if he wins back the White House.
“Immediately after taking the oath of office, I will launch the largest mass deportation program in American history," Trump said at a rally in Austin.
Speaking to reporters in Georgetown, Cruz said the overwhelming majority of Americans agree with deporting undocumented people in the country.
“You obviously prioritize and you start with violent criminals,” Cruz said, avoiding talking about whether those mass deportations should include people who haven’t committed violent crimes." SAEN [ [link removed] ] ($)
“Colin Allred-Ted Cruz: How this race is different than Beto O'Rourke's,” Houston Chronicle's Matt Zdun and Leila Darwiche — “Current polling shows U.S. Rep. Colin Allred of Dallas within striking distance of U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz. There’s a gulf of only a few points [ [link removed] ] between the candidates heading into Election Day.
Like O’Rourke, Allred finds himself locked in a competitive battle with the state’s junior senator [ [link removed] ]. However, the ways that Allred has run his campaign this year and O’Rourke ran his campaign six years ago — including where the two Democrats visited, who gave money to their campaigns and how they spent campaign contributions — are quite different, an analysis by the Houston Chronicle and the San Antonio Express-News found.
O'Rourke visited every Texas county. Allred just 34.
O’Rourke’s campaign in 2018 was largely a ground game, with the former congressman crisscrossing the state and visiting counties large and small. By early summer 2018, O’Rourke had already visited all 254 counties in Texas [ [link removed] ].
At the time, he acknowledged that his visits to solid red counties in the far reaches of the state likely weren’t going to win over many Republicans and said that his campaign was “the least sophisticated campaign you will ever see,” according to Chronicle reporting.
Even so, he also told Chronicle reporters that it was “important for all of us to be listening to one another.”
Allred, on the other hand, has focused on targeted visits to key counties: ones with large cities and suburban areas, according to Olivia Julianna, a digital advisor to the Allred campaign.
“Anyone who knows Beto knows that he loved to have these big huge rallies, everywhere and anywhere, and that’s just not this campaign,” Julianna said. “This campaign is much more strategic. It’s much more detail-oriented and targeted in the people that it’s bringing in.”
As of the end of October, Allred’s county tally totaled 34. He has not yet visited a few counties in West Texas — Reeves, Brewster and Val Verde — that together have nearly 70,000 people and were considered competitive in 2018 in the race between O’Rourke and Cruz. O’Rourke carried these counties, but not overwhelmingly so.
“He needs to be in Houston, San Antonio, Austin, Dallas and in the ‘burbs. That’s where the votes are,” said Jon Taylor, a political science professor at the University of Texas at San Antonio.
Cruz has ramped up his campaign stops in the month leading up to Election Day, launching his statewide bus tour, similar to his bus tour during the 2018 cycle. He visited slightly more counties than Allred: 37, by our tally. The campaign confirmed this total but did not respond to requests for an interview about the strategy behind which counties Cruz visited.
Both Allred and Cruz heavily hit counties belonging to the so-called “Blue Spine [ [link removed] ],” the column of counties that snake north to south along the I-35 corridor that have been growing more Democratic over time. Cruz visited counties in the Texas Panhandle that Allred didn’t.
Both Allred and O’Rourke raised over $60 million but had different strategies.
“O’Rourke changed the game in terms of how much money needed to be raised and spent to win Texas,” said Brandon Rottinghaus, a political science professor at the University of Houston.
Data shows that Allred followed suit, outraising Cruz in every quarter since he announced his candidacy [ [link removed] ] last June. Allred actually raised more than O’Rourke leading up to the primaries but is now neck-in-neck with O’Rourke during this final stretch of the race." Houston Chronicle [ [link removed] ] ($)
STATE GOVERNMENT   
“Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sues Biden administration over listing freshwater mussels as endangered,” Texas Tribune's Alejandra Martinez— “Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced Tuesday that his office is suing [ [link removed] ] the U.S. Department of the Interior, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Biden administration officials for declaring six freshwater mussel species endangered [ [link removed] ] and another threatened earlier this year.
In June, federal regulators [ [link removed] ] added the Guadalupe fatmucket, Texas fatmucket, Guadalupe orb, Texas pimpleback, Balcones spike, and false spike to the endangered listing, meaning the species is in danger of extinction. The Texas fawnsfoot also received a threatened listing, which means it is likely to become endangered in the future.
In a press release, Paxton said the Biden administration is “once again, weaponizing environmental law to target the State of Texas … We are suing to block their latest attempt to undermine the Texas economy and unlawfully interfere with State-led efforts to protect our wildlife and natural resources.”
Freshwater mussels, often referred to by experts as “the liver of the river,” filter harmful substances like algae and other bacteria from bodies of water, which helps clean water systems.
According to the Wildlife Service, a single freshwater mussel can pump and filter between eight and 15 gallons [ [link removed] ] of water per day, making them some of the most powerful filters in watersheds. But the once-abundant species have declined in recent years as development destroys habitat. They’ve also been heavily impacted by drought, which increases water temperatures when rivers are low.
Experts said the endangered designation will result in cleaner rivers, streams and creeks.
The listing ruled that 1,577 miles of rivers and creeks in the Colorado, Guadalupe, Brazos and Trinity river basins as critical habitat [ [link removed] ] or an area important to the species’ conservation and recovery. Critical habitat designations prevent government agencies from issuing permits or funding for activities that would harm the mussels or their habitat in those areas.
The state’s lawsuit claims that the Fish and Wildlife Service's listing requirements are "nearly impossible for the public to understand" and give vague guidelines on what developers and landowners can do with their own land in the critical habitat.
Paxton’s statement said the federal government failed to follow the specific procedures and committed several errors in its final endangered species listing determination. He added that the designations force restrictive regulations on Texas that limit and impact economic development." Texas Tribune [ [link removed] ]
Editorial: “Ken Paxton hits new low in Roberson death penalty case,” via Dallas Morning News — “Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton last week released a lengthy public statement [ [link removed] ] to “set the record straight” and “correct falsehoods” that question the conviction of death row inmate Robert Roberson III.
But not only did his statement fail to do that, it once again gives us reason to doubt Paxton’s fidelity to the law. It also reveals just how low our attorney general will go to take a jab at his political opponents, two of whom have led the effort to win a new trial for the East Texas man.
In the most troubling example of this, Paxton’s release claimed that Roberson told a former cellmate that he repeatedly sexually assaulted his daughter Nikki, whose death led to Roberson’s capital murder conviction. Paxton quoted a police report that described the alleged abuse.
The next day, Roberson’s attorneys issued a detailed rebuttal to each of Paxton’s claims, including a personal statement from the former lead detective in the case about the so-called jailhouse confession.
Former detective Brian Wharton said the snitch, a stranger to Roberson, was known by police to be “unreliable” and wanted to have time shaved off his sentences in exchange for his information. The informant’s claims were unsubstantiated by any physical evidence, not taken seriously by police or prosecutors, and never presented at trial. Wharton has since said he believes Roberson was wrongly convicted in a rush to judgment.
“That such information has been irresponsibly highlighted and is being treated as truthful information saddens me deeply,” Wharton wrote.
So if this snitch’s allegations about Roberson’s guilt were dismissed as ridiculous by law enforcement two decades ago, why did they turn up in Paxton’s press release last week?
Perhaps a clue lies in the lengthy headline on Paxton’s press release: “Office of the Attorney General Sets the Record Straight About Nikki Curtis’s Death, Rebutting Jeff Leach’s and Joe Moody’s Lies About Convicted Child Murderer.”
He’s talking, of course, about Rep. Joe Moody, D-El Paso, and Rep. Jeff Leach, R-Plano, who are leading a legislative effort to win a new trial for Roberson now that the “shaken baby” diagnosis Nikki received has been widely scrutinized as unreliable. State law allows a pathway for relief to anyone convicted with so-called “junk science.”
Moody chairs and Leach is a member of the House Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence, which is looking into Roberson’s case. The two are among the many who believe Nikki died of accidental and natural causes. Notably, the two also voted to impeach Paxton in 2023.
One can’t help but wonder if Paxton is fighting for justice or exercising a political grudge. Roberson’s Oct. 17 execution was averted after the House committee issued a subpoena for him to testify at a hearing. Paxton fought that effort, but ultimately lost when the Texas Supreme Court upheld the subpoena.
And just this week, Paxton complained to the state Supreme Court about Leach, who sent a text message to a judge on the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals regarding Roberson’s case. That was poor judgment by Leach. But it wasn’t egregious enough to distract from the real concern here: A man continues to sit on death row when significant doubt swirls around his conviction." DMN [ [link removed] ] ($)
“State oil regulator requests $100 million to tackle West Texas well blowouts,” Texas Tribune's Carlos Nogueras Ramos— “Unable to keep up with the growing number of leaking and erupting wells in the state’s oil fields, the Texas Railroad Commission, which regulates the state’s oil and gas industry, has asked lawmakers for an additional $100 million in emergency funding — which would be equal to about 44% of the agency’s entire two-year budget.
Danny Sorrell, the agency’s executive director, sent the letter two months after the commission filed its annual budget request in August, according [ [link removed] ] to the Houston Chronicle. He said the agency’s $226 million budget request did not include [ [link removed] ] enough money “to protect the groundwater and the environment” from increasingly common well blowouts.
The agency follows a rating system to determine which wells it needs to plug first, according [ [link removed] ] to Texas law. Priority 1 wells are leaking wells that pose environmental, safety, or economic risks. An uncontrolled flow of water occurring at a well constitutes an emergency, said R.J. DeSilva, a spokesperson for the agency. In an emergency, agency staff “respond immediately to plug it,” he said.
The agency said that it addresses actively leaking wells regardless of whether it has enough money in the designated budget for well remediation, a practice that Sorrell said has become unsustainable and caused the agency to plug fewer non-emergency wells each year.
“These high-priority wells need to be taken care of before they themselves become emergency wells,” he said.
There are approximately 140,000 so-called orphaned wells in the U.S. and more than 9,000 of them are in Texas, according [ [link removed] ] to the Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission. These are abandoned wells that have been inactive for at least 12 months and have no clear ownership.
When left unattended, orphaned wells are prone to blowouts that spew contaminated water onto the surrounding land. Experts said the routine industry practice of injecting fracking wastewater — called produced water — into underground rock formations, contributes to the problem.
At least eight wells have leaked and burst since last October, Sarah Stogner, an oil and gas attorney, told the Texas Tribune earlier this month. Stogner has tracked such wells for years." Texas Tribune [ [link removed] ]
Editorial: “Taxpayers are footing the bill for cleaning up Texas oil wells,” via Dallas Morning News — “The oil and gas industry is a keystone of the “Texas miracle.” But no one can deny the environmental damage drilling has done in our state.
Texas is developing a program that can help address it. Armed with $134.1 million in federal grant funding, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality will help oil and gas owners and operators voluntarily plug wells that produce a lot of pollution but very little oil or gas. Plugging involves using cement to seal off well holes and often includes environmental restoration, such as soil remediation.
Historically, Texas has done a poor job of ensuring that the cleanup gets done after the oil money has been made. The result is a huge number of wells that have long since outlived their usefulness. Despite producing little or no oil or gas, these wells continue to threaten soil, contaminate groundwater and emit noxious gases.
TCEQ’s new program deals with what are called “marginal conventional wells.” The agency defines them as wells producing 15 barrels of oil or 90 thousand cubic feet of gas per day or less over a calendar year.
These underproducing wells accounted for just 7% of U.S. oil and gas production in 2021 but were responsible for about half of oil and gas methane emissions, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. They are more of a drag than a benefit.
Optimistically, this grant funding might cover the cost of plugging about 2,500 wells, said Virginia Palacios, executive director of Commission Shift, an oil and gas watchdog group. It’s hard to say exactly how many of these underperforming wells there are in Texas. But TCEQ confirmed there are tens of thousands, based on information from the Texas Railroad Commission, the agency that oversees the oil and gas industry. In short, this program represents only a drop in the bucket of what Texas must do.
And it’s important to note that this program doesn’t deal with orphaned wells. These abandoned wells are eyesores that produce nothing except pollution and number in the thousands. The Railroad Commission has a program to deal with these, but the problem nevertheless remains largely unaddressed.
Federal grants to clean up wells are an important resource, but we must remember that it’s the taxpayer footing the bill. That’s why the Railroad Commission must hold oil and gas producers accountable for operating responsibly, so that it’s not taxpayers who are left to clean up their messes." DMN [ [link removed] ] ($)
POTENTIAL TRUMP ADMINISTRATION   
“These Texans could join or influence a second Trump administration,” Texas Tribune's Matthew Choi, Robert Downen, Eleanoff Klibanoff, James Barragan and Jasper Scherer— “When a Republican is elected president, he often brings loads of Texans to Washington with him. That’s because of the state’s size, influence and political leanings.
It’ll likely be no different if Donald Trump wins a second term next week. He has close ties with many Texans. Some of his most prominent donors come from here. Our politicians proudly support him. And judges from the state could be on his list for any openings on the U.S. Supreme Court.
Here’s a look at some of the Texans who might see their influence rise on a national stage with Trump back in the White House.
The donors
Kelcy Warren is Dallas billionaire who founded and runs the pipeline company Energy Transfer. He has donated millions to Republican politicians inside and outside Texas. His giving to Trump has been consistent since Trump was elected president in 2016. In 2020, he hosted a fundraiser for Trump at his home that reportedly raised $10 million. This May, he contributed $5 million to Trump’s campaign. When it comes to politics, he’s particularly interested in energy and climate policy. He has expressed concern about proposals to ban fracking — which Harris supported in 2020 but has said during this year’s campaign that she would oppose — and Democrats’ efforts to promote green energy.
West Texas oil tycoon Tim Dunn has typically used his fortune to reshape state politics. But the hardline conservative megadonor — who just added at least $2 billion more to his net worth with the sale of his company — has emerged as one of Trump’s largest donors this cycle. He’s also further enveloped himself in MAGA world, quietly launching business partnerships with Trump’s former campaign director and joining the board of the America First Policy Institute, which could play a major role in staffing a second Trump administration and guiding its policies. Rather than angling for a position in the new government, Dunn is likely content to continue wielding his power quietly and behind the scenes — maybe pushing the new government to develop social policies that resemble those of the Texas GOP’s right wing. Already, there have been some signs of that influence: The Texas Public Policy Foundation, where Dunn is the longtime vice chair, helped craft Project 2025; and Heritage Foundation leader Kevin Roberts, whose organization took point on the plan, spent five years with Dunn at TPPF before joining the Washington, D.C.-based think tank.
Elon Musk is a relative newcomer to Austin, but is poised to play perhaps the biggest role of any Texan if Trump wins. Already, the world’s richest man has offered crucial help to Trump’s campaign. He’s appeared at rallies. He’s donated at least $75 million to his pro-Trump political action committee. And he has used his ownership of X [ [link removed] ], formerly known as Twitter, to stifle negative stories about Trump while spreading pro-Trump conspiracy theories and pushing the former president’s anti-immigration talking points to his 202 million followers. Trump is reportedly considering Musk to lead a new office that focuses on “government efficiency” — but, given Trump and Musk’s political leanings, it maybe more likely focus on massively downsizing the federal government and the many regulators it includes. “Let’s start from scratch,” Musk said of the federal bureaucracy last month. The proposal has already raised concerns from ethics groups given that Musk, whose companies received billions of dollars in federal subsidies and contracts, could theoretically help decide who does — and doesn’t — get to do business with the U.S. government.
The policy minds
Project 2025, the right-wing agenda to remake the federal government on conservative lines, has been one of the biggest flash points of the 2024 election. Democrats routinely evoke the agenda when criticizing Trump, describing it a policy map for Trump second administration. The Heritage Foundation crafted Project 2025 under the leadership of Kevin Roberts, the group's president. Roberts took the helm of the Heritage Foundation in 2021 after serving as CEO of the Texas Public Policy Foundation, the state’s biggest think tank. Under his leadership, TPPF doubled in size. He has continued focusing on many of the same issues at Heritage on a federal level, including elections, education and the border. He also leads Heritage Action, the sister group to the Heritage Foundation directly involved in elections. A storied institution at the heart of conservative policy making, the Heritage Foundation has taken steps to the right in recent years, including under Roberts. The Trump campaign disavowed Project 2025, saying it was solely a Heritage Foundation project. But over half of its authors served in the Trump administration, campaign or transition team.
A native of Glen Rose and a graduate of Texas A&M University, Brooke Rollins left her job as CEO of the conservative Texas Public Policy Foundation in 2018 to oversee the Office of American Innovation in the Trump White House. She currently serves as the chief executive of the America First Policy Institute, a think tank that has employed many former Trump administration staffers and has been preparing for a second Trump term. The institute has prepared scores of executive orders Trump could deploy upon taking office and has issued policy proposals like banning federal funding for Planned Parenthood, increasing oil and gas production and eliminating civil-service protections for nonpolitical appointees in the federal workforce. The New York Times has reported that Rollins, who is close to Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, is being considered by Trump as a potential chief of staff [ [link removed] ].
Jonathan Mitchell, the former Texas Solicitor General, is best known for designing Senate Bill 8, the Texas law that allowed private lawsuits against anyone who performed an abortion after about six weeks of pregnancy. Since then, Mitchell has continued waging audacious legal battles on everything from removing books he views as sexually explicit from libraries to limiting the Affordable Care Act and stopping affirmative action. His main target, however, remains abortion: He filed a wrongful death lawsuit against two women who helped a friend terminate her pregnancy, has tried to get information on out-of-state abortions, and is helping towns and counties try to ban people from using their roads to travel to abortion clinics. During the last Trump administration, Mitchell was unsuccessfully nominated to lead a small federal agency. This time around, he will likely be considered for higher power, especially after he successfully convinced the Supreme Court to reject Colorado’s attempt to remove Trump from the ballot.
The judges
Former Texas Solicitor General James Ho currently sits on the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, where he has staked out a position to the right of even this most conservative federal appellate court. On issues from abortion to LGBT rights to environmental regulation, Ho has earned a reputation for brash, sharply worded opinions and eyebrow-raising rulings, at least some of which have been knocked down at the Supreme Court. He has written that abortion is a “moral tragedy” and that judges “apply our written Constitution, not a woke Constitution,” and in speeches, railed against what he sees as censorship of conservative ideas. Ho was appointed to the 5th Circuit by Trump in 2018 and is seen as a Supreme Court contender, possibly to replace his former boss, Clarence Thomas.
Matthew Kacsmaryk, a former religious liberty lawyer born of the anti-abortion movement, has become a key conservative player since Trump appointed him as the only federal judge in Amarillo in 2019. Kacsmaryk has authored opinions that stopped Texas teens from getting confidential birth control, blocked the Biden administration from ending Trump-era immigration policies, and overturned guidance requiring workers be allowed to use a bathroom consistent with their gender identity. In a case later overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court, Kacsmaryk ruled that mifepristone, a common abortion-inducing drug, should be removed from the market. Even without the Biden administration to battle with, Kacsmaryk’s courtroom is expected to remain a popular destination for conservative cases, unless he ascends to a higher role on the 5th Circuit or in the administration.
The elected officials
The polarizing attorney general has long had a close relationship with Trump and the former president said at a rally earlier this year that Ken Paxton would make a good U.S. attorney general [ [link removed] ]. In 2020, Paxton had challenged Trump’s electoral loss in four battleground states and then spoke at a rally before the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol by Trump’s supporters. Trump rewarded that loyalty with an endorsement in 2021 [ [link removed] ] when an embattled Paxton faced a crowded field in the GOP primary for attorney general. Trump came to Paxton’s aid again in 2023, threatening to target any lawmakers [ [link removed] ] who supported the attorney general’s impeachment in the House. He later took credit for Paxton’s acquittal in the Texas Senate. Paxton frequently meets Trump on airport tarmacs during Texas visits and he recently got one of the loudest cheers at a Trump event in Austin during the final days of the 2024 presidential campaign.
You’d be hard-pressed to find a bigger cheerleader for Trump than Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller, who spent much of the summer on a bus touring swing states on the former president’s behalf. The so-called “Gas and Groceries Tour” was Miller’s response to what he claimed was an attempt by Democrats to prevent Trump from campaigning by tying him up in legal battles, and it put him feet from the former president during July’s assassination attempt. Expect Miller to be high on Trump’s list to lead the U.S. Department of Agriculture — a lesser-known but incredibly powerful agency that oversees, among other massive programs, food stamp allocations. Miller thinks it’s possible — he recently told The Texas Tribune that, before Trump’s 2020 loss, he was in early talks with his administration to lead the sprawling agency.
Few Texas politicians are more closely tied to Trump than the ultra-conservative lieutenant governor. Dan Patrick has served as Trump’s Texas state chairman in every presidential cycle since 2016 and seems to have a direct line to the former president. The support appears to be a two-way street with Trump occasionally attacking Patrick enemies, like House Speaker Dade Phelan, and endorsing relatively obscure politicians supported by Patrick who a national politician would not know. He frequently sits front row at Trump’s Texas appearances. But with Patrick holding such a strong grip on Texas politics, it’s unclear why he’d want to leave for a national job or what potential administration job he’d want to fill.
There has been all kinds of chatter about where Gov. Greg Abbott might fit into a future Trump cabinet, speculation that was thrown into overdrive earlier this year when Trump said he might tap the governor as his vice presidential running mate. Though Abbott never emerged as a serious contender, his name has been connected with cabinet posts like attorney general, the position he held in Texas before his elevation to governor. Whoever occupies that job would be a leading player in advancing and defending Trump's immigration policies — an area where Abbott has made his name under the Biden administration, dramatically expanding Texas' border presence and at times emerging as the main foil to Biden on border issues. Another possible landing spot for Abbott could be secretary of state, a position that would mesh with his experience making overseas economic development trips during his time as governor. It may also be one of the few offices with a high enough profile to lure Abbott away from the governor's office at a time when he is arguably at the height of his political power, having shored up his right flank after a 2022 primary challenge and sent a clear message in the primaries by ousting a host of Republican lawmakers who defied him on private school vouchers. Abbott quickly shot down the vice presidential speculation earlier this year, so it’s uncertain whether he’d even be interested in a spot on Trump’s team.
U.S. Rep. Ronny Jackson is one of Trump’s biggest supporters in Congress — a loyalty born from his years serving him as White House physician. Jackson has used his medical experience to defend Trump’s physical and mental acumen and to accuse President Joe Biden of cognitive decline. After Trump was shot in the ear during an assassination attempt this year, Jackson traveled with Trump and treated his injury. Trump appointed Jackson to be secretary of veterans affairs in 2018 but withdrew the appointment amid allegations of improper and hostile conduct as White House physician. Jackson accused Democrats, particularly Senate Veterans Affairs Committee Chair Jon Tester, and then-White House Chief of Staff John Kelly of undermining him with a smear campaign. Jackson ran for Congress in 2020, winning his ruby-red Amarillo-based district. He often uses his perch to spread conspiracy theories about Biden and call for Biden’s impeachment.
Once Trump’s biggest adversary in the 2016 presidential primaries, Ted Cruz was one of Trump’s biggest allies in the Senate during his presidency. Cruz supported Trump’s federal court appointments from his perch on the Senate Judiciary Committee and tapped into his constitutional expertise to lead an effort to overturn the 2020 presidential race. Cruz and Trump shared a bitter relationship during the 2016 primary, with Trump repeatedly calling Cruz a liar and ridiculing his wife and father. Cruz in turn called Trump a “sniveling coward” and refused to endorse him at the 2016 Republican National Convention. But Cruz changed his tune, recognizing the political necessity of backing Trump in the modern Republican Party. Assuming he wins his competitive reelection race, Cruz would likely continue being an ally for Trump in the Senate, particularly on the Judiciary and Commerce Committee, where he currently serves as ranking member." Texas Tribune [ [link removed] ]
NEWS FROM AROUND THE STATE   
 > TX MONTHLY: "State Senator Phil King Aided a Utility He Was Doing Business With" TX MONTHLY [ [link removed] ]
 > TX TRIB: "A pregnant teenager died after trying to get care in three visits to Texas emergency rooms" TX TRIB [ [link removed] ]
 > TX TRIB: "Fairgoers join Ken Paxton in suing Texas State Fair for allegedly violating their gun rights" TX TRIB [ [link removed] ]
 > AP: "The struggle for Senate control goes down to the wire as spending shatters records" AP [ [link removed] ]
 > AP: "Texas hospitals must now ask patients whether they’re in the US legally. Here’s how it works" AP [ [link removed] ]
 > FWST: "North Texas teacher caught on video spending night at school with student, police say" FWST [ [link removed] ]
 > HOU CHRON: "Pemex crisis response worried Deer Park officials months before fatal leak" HOU CHRON [ [link removed] ]
 > SAEN: "City plans to declare overdoses a public health crisis in San Antonio" SAEN [ [link removed] ]
 > MY RGV: "McAllen man charged in multimillion dollar ‘pirated electricity’ scheme" MY RGV [ [link removed] ]
 > SAEN: "Patriarch of San Antonio-based human smuggling ring gets 30 years in prison" SAEN [ [link removed] ]
 > THE TEXAN: "Dallas and Tarrant Counties Have Over $300 Million in Bond Proposals for November Election" THE TEXAN [ [link removed] ]
 > THE TEXAN: "Emails Show $50,000 Sponsor for Houston Controller Chris Hollins Conference Won Airport Contract" THE TEXAN [ [link removed] ]
> TX TRIB: "Second Texas doctor sued for providing gender-affirming care to minors" TX TRIB [ [link removed] ]
 > TX TRIB: "Texas buys two ranches near the border, including a huge property next to Big Bend National Park" TX TRIB [ [link removed] ]
 > TX TRIB: "Reading, writing and religion? A Texas curriculum advisory board’s link to faith-based advocacy" TX TRIB [ [link removed] ]
 > AP: "Ted Cruz, Colin Allred make spirited final pitches to Texas voters in Senate race" AP [ [link removed] ]
 > TX MONTHLY: "Can Transphobia Save Ted Cruz’s Political Career?" TX MONTHLY [ [link removed] ]
 > AP: "News groups ask Texas court to order release of state police records of Uvalde shooting" AP [ [link removed] ]
 > HOU CHRON: "Cruz-Allred is the most expensive U.S. Senate race in the country" HOU CHRON [ [link removed] ]
 > TX TRIB: "In Texas, criminal charges and misdemeanor convictions don’t automatically take away people’s voting rights" TX TRIB [ [link removed] ]
 > HOU CHRON: "Data centers use a lot of electricity, and in Texas that's a win for natural gas" HOU CHRON [ [link removed] ]
 > HOU CHRON: "Over 1,600 patients to lose insurance coverage at MD Anderson" HOU CHRON [ [link removed] ]
EXTRA POINTS   
Last night's Texas sports scores:
  > NFL: NY Jets 21, Houston 13
  > NBA: Houston 108, Dallas 102
  > NBA: San Antonio 106, Utah 88
This weekend's Texas sports schedule:
 Fri
  > 1pm: NHL: Florida at Dallas
  > 8pm: NBA: San Antonio at Utah
Sat
  > 10am: NHL: Dallas at Florida
  > 11am: NCAAF: Memphis at UTSA (ESPN2)
  > 2:30pm: NCAAF: Texas Tech at #11 Iowa State (ESPN)
  > 2:30pm: NCAAF: #17 Kansas State at Houston (Fox)
  > 2:30pm: NCAAF: Middle Tennessee State at UTEP (CBS Sports)
  > 6:30pm: NCAAF: #10 Texas A&M at South Carolina (ABC)
  > 7pm: NCAAF: #18 Pittsburgh at #20 SMU (ACC Network)
  > 7pm: NCAAF: TCU at Baylor (ESPN2)
  > 7pm: NBA: Golden State at Houston
  > 7pm: NBA: Minnesota at San Antonio
  > 8:30pm: NWSL: San Francisco at Houston
 Sun
  > 12pm: NFL: Dallas at Atlanta (Fox)
  > 5:30pm: MLS: Houston at Seattle
  > 6:30pm: NBA: Orlando at Dallas
TEXAS A&M FOOTBALL: "Texas A&M looking to avoid a 'buzz saw' on the road against South Carolina in Week 10" AAS [ [link removed] ] ($)
DALLAS COWBOYS: "3 Dallas Cowboys keys to victory over the Atlanta Falcons" DMN ($)
HOUSTON TEXANS: "Houston Texans vs. NY Jets: 5 things to watch and a Week 9 prediction" Houston Chronicle ($)
TEXAS VOLLEYBALL: "Texas volleyball puts loss to Texas A&M in past, returns to SEC play this weekend" AAS [ [link removed] ] ($)
HOUSTON DYNAMO: "Houston Dynamo: Ezequiel Ponce adds offense for MLS playoff push" Houston Chronicle ($)

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