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Good morning,

As citizens, we cannot let our excitement from Tuesday's election distract us from the ongoing work of saving the republic. When you set out to drain a swamp, you must be ready to fight the alligators! More on that thought below.

This is the Texas Minute for Friday, Nov. 8, 2024.

– Michael Quinn Sullivan

Exclusive: Illegal Border Crossings Continue Many small groups of illegal border crossers have been observed traversing the Rio Grande [[link removed]] by Texas Scorecard's Will Biagini at various locations around Eagle Pass. Thousands of migrants have been seen moving north through Mexico, heading to the U.S. border. Experts have warned that these caravans will be attempting to illegally enter the country before Donald Trump can assume the presidency in January. Thanks to support [[link removed]] from readers like you, Will Biagini is reporting live from the border as increasingly large groups are crossing illegally into the country. You can follow his real-time video coverage on 𝕏 [[link removed]]. Dan Patrick: 'A Slap In The Face' Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick is not letting up [[link removed]] in his criticism of House Speaker Dade Phelan. He is urging members of the House to reform their chamber regardless of who holds the office.

When the 89th Session convenes in January, there will be 88 Republicans in the 150-seat House. He said it would be a "slap in the face" for the House to be led by a Republican whose power originates with the Democrats.

"If [Phelan] can get 76 of them to vote for him as Speaker, more power to him," wrote Patrick [[link removed]]. "But in light of Tuesday night’s massive rebuke of Democrat policies, if we have a Republican Speaker of the House controlled by Democrats, it would be a slap in the face to the 6.3 million Texans who voted for President Trump and the Make America Great Again agenda."

President-elect Trump endorsed against Phelan in the GOP primary. Texas' New Lawmakers After historic wins on Tuesday, 26 new Republican lawmakers are preparing to serve in the Texas House and two in the Senate. Luca Cacciatore profiles [[link removed]] the new members. Texas A&M Board of Regents End ‘LGBTQ Minor,’ Other ‘Low Performing’ Programs The Board of Regents overseeing the Texas A&M University System pushed back against the “shared governance” with woke faculty members by voting to end 52 low-performing programs, including an LGBTQ minor. Robert Montoya has the details [[link removed]].

The regents' vote was unanimous. They also eliminated certificates in Cultural Competency, Diversity, and Popular Culture.

Notably, the regents took their action despite pushback from the Faculty Senate and A&M President Mark Welsh. Attempting to stonewall the effort, Welsh had recommended “that the current review process be halted and restarted to obtain input from the Faculty Senate.”

A professor of English and Women’s and Gender Studies told regents that the LGBTQ minor had been “created largely due to student demand.” Yet records show only six students had enrolled in the LGBTQ program during the fall and spring semesters of 2023 and the fall semester of 2024 combined.

“Proud to see the reforms we passed in the Texas Senate making a real impact at Texas A&M,” wrote State Sen. Brandon Creighton [[link removed]] (R-Conroe) on social media. “More bold reforms are coming for higher ed in the 89th session.” Texas Border with Oklahoma Moved Texas Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham has announced that the Texas-Oklahoma border along the south side of Lake Texoma has been moved with the assistance of the General Land Office and the Red River Boundary Commission. Addie Hovland reports [[link removed]] that the action was taken to ensure a drinking water pump station on Lake Texoma is located entirely in Texas.

According to Buckingham, the change will secure the availability of 30 percent of the drinking water supply for 2 million people within the region.

When the water pumping station was built in 1989, it resided fully in Texas at the time. But in 2000, the border was shifted under a compact between Texas and Oklahoma, inadvertently placing a majority of the water pumping station in Oklahoma.

Transferring an equal amount of land from Texas to Oklahoma facilitated the move of the station and its 1.34 acres back to the Lone Star State. McKinney Voters Reject Deceptive 'Term Limits' Voters in McKinney rejected a misleading ballot proposition that would have extended city officials’ term limits and allowed the incumbent mayor to seek a third term. Erin Anderson has the story [[link removed]].

The city currently limits the mayor and city council members to two consecutive four-year terms. A change to the city charter asked residents on Tuesday's ballot to adopt "term limits consisting of three (3) consecutive, four (4) year terms"—without mentioning the current limit.

Some McKinney voters said they voted for Prop A, thinking that the choice was between term limits or no term limits, and they would have voted against the measure if the ballot language had been more straightforward.

Still, the proposition failed 49 to 51 percent.

Conservatives Capture Conroe ISD School Board Voters in Conroe Independent School District elected four conservative school board challengers [[link removed]] in Tuesday’s election, putting all seven seats in the hands of "Mama Bears"—a nickname for women fiercely protective of children.

The four newly elected candidates will join Conroe ISD’s three other conservative Mama Bear trustees who were elected in November 2022. Friday Reflection

Now, We Get to Work [[link removed]]

by Michael Quinn Sullivan

The overwhelming majority of voters in Texas and across the United States are feeling really good after Tuesday night’s victories. Now, it’s time for the real work to begin.

Not to dampen anyone’s excitement, but—as citizens—we must avoid a common trap. We cannot allow ourselves to walk away from this victory shackled to low expectations set by those political cronies who, just a week ago, were whispering sweet pablum in our ears.

It’s time for the grassroots to raise our expectations.

We have been conditioned as citizens to treat the politicians as our nation’s leaders. They are not; they are the people’s servants. Politicians are to "leadership" in our nation what the pimple-faced order-taker at a fast-food chain is to sustinance. Only less so, because at least sometimes that order-taker actually does the work of bringing you a soft drink while you wait for your burger and fries.

Of course, way too many politicians spend a great deal of time and energy trying to convince you otherwise. They want you to think that by setting the policy agenda for you, they are doing you a favor. They insist that they have special insider knowledge about what is and is not feasible. Again, not dissimilar to that fast-food clerk who knows what the cook in the back really doesn't want to make that day.

In the case of the fast-food joint, customers settle for what is available or leave if they cannot get what they want.

As the citizen-leaders of our republic, conservatives have done way too much "settling" for the low-bar results tepidly offered by our civic clerks.

Frankly, though, that is because we often treat government the way we treat lunchtime hunger as we drive past a fast-food joint. We enter with a vague notion that we’re hungry, knowing that nothing on the menu is actually that good for us, and then let the clerk direct us to pay for what they want us to have.

We must approach government with steadier resolve. As citizens, we cannot let our republic’s fate be limited by what politicians say they will eventually do. We must set higher standards for them and demand loudly that those priorities be achieved. No more settling.

As an aside, as the sovereign master of our republic, it is no more your responsibility to have a "plan" for implementing your ends than it is for you to know how to work the milkshake machine at the burger shack. The politicians run for office explicitly on the promise of solving the problems and producing the outcomes you desire. Let them do the work they’ve signed up to do, or stand ready to replace them with someone who will.

What you do need to know, and what is absolutely critical, is that you know what you expect. Rally your friends and family behind your cause and communicate those expectations loudly, clearly, and without wavering.

Here’s the good news. We are now about to have in the White House, again, a president who, despite being almost unimaginably wealthy, was willing to work a shift behind the counter at McDonalds. Donald Trump made his children work real jobs in their youth. And, more relevant to what’s coming next, he knows the extent to which the alligators in the swamp will seek to unravel the agenda set by real Americans.

Effective citizenship starts with knowing what you expect and then not letting up in the fight until it is accomplished.

Quote-Unquote

"Politics ought to be the part-time profession of every citizen who would protect the rights and privileges of free people and who would preserve what is good and fruitful in our national heritage."

– Dwight D. Eisenhower

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