Team,

We all want to rebuild our economy and end this pandemic. But the way that Texas Governor Greg Abbott is going about it is shortsighted and dangerous. 

By letting the statewide stay-at-home order expire on May 1st, Gov. Abbott put partisanship before the advice of scientists and public health experts — initiating a reopening of retail stores, restaurants, movie theaters, and malls across our state at 25% capacity without a real plan for increased testing and contact tracing.

As expected, COVID-19 cases and deaths are surging in Texas. And after Gov. Abbott visited Donald Trump at the White House, he announced that he will expand the reopening to daycares, bars, youth sports, and entertainment venues. 

These decisions should not put partisanship before science, and we have to fight back. Add your name to our petition calling on Gov. Abbott to listen to public health experts, not Donald Trump:

SIGN THE PETITION

We should be united in single-purpose — a massive, coordinated, WWII-style federal-state-local mobilization to defeat this virus and rebuild our economy through increased testing, tracing, and economic support for workers and business owners alike.

So far, heroic local leaders in cities and counties across Texas have met the challenge. Gov. Abbott has not. 

Instead, we’re watching a terrible divide deepen in our country as politicians expose their further willingness to politicize science, and as extreme hyper-partisanship undermines everything that the dream of America is supposed to be about. We're letting ignorant extremists define our course of action in Texas, not the overwhelming consensus from scientists, medical professionals, and public health experts.

We can do better. We must do better, and that starts with real data to guide our decisionmaking. Add your name to our petition calling on governors like Greg Abbott to look to expert advice — not partisan politics — in his plan to reopen the economy. Lives are at stake.

Thanks for taking action on this,

Julie