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Good morning,

"Accountability" has become a dirty word, but as a quick review of the political landscape reveals, it is more necessary than ever. I end the week reflecting on the need for an accountability mindset.

This is the Texas Minute for Friday, January 10, 2025.

– Michael Quinn Sullivan 

UPFRONT
A typo in yesterday's Texas Minute wrongly identified the district number of State Rep. Dustin Burrows (R-Lubbock); he is in HD83. I apologize for the confusion.

Republican House Member Wants Texas GOP Chairman Prosecuted... for Supporting GOP Speaker Nominee

• State Rep. Cody Harris (R-Palestine) has filed a complaint with the Texas Ethics Commission, urging the notoriously rogue agency to take action against the chairman of the Republican Party of Texas, Abraham George. Brandon Waltens has the story.
       
• Harris alleges that George has committed a felony by publicly backing the Texas House Republican Caucus nominee for speaker, David Cook of Mansfield. Harris is one of 30 Republicans backing a Democrat-led coalition trying to install Lubbock Republican Dustin Burrows instead. Harris is upset that the Texas GOP is sending mail into lawmakers' districts on the issue.
          
• The Texas GOP labeled Harris’ actions as baseless and an attack on grassroots conservatives.
        
• In an interview with metroplex-area radio show host Mark Davis on Thursday, Harris defended his decision to support Burrows despite the caucus nomination going to Cook. "If we want to get into the weeds on the caucus rules, the caucus rules say the member ‘should’ support the Republican nominee. It does not say ‘shall.’"
       
• In the same interview, Harris said he "absolutely" supports eliminating the Texas House Republican Caucus.
      
• Did I mention that Cody Harris is a "Republican"?

REAL TEXANS Debuts This Sunday, Featuring Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick

• Our new weekly interview series is launching on Sunday morning. The first guest is Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick.

Cruz Proposes Congressional Term Limits

• U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz is proposing a constitutional amendment to impose term limits for members of Congress. As Ian Camacho reports, under Cruz' proposal senators would be limited to two six-year terms. Members of the U.S. House would be limited to three two-year terms.
       
• Before it can take effect, the amendment must pass both chambers of Congress and then be ratified by three-fourths of the states—or 38 of 50.
       
• A companion measure was filed in the House by a South Carolina Republican. In the Senate, Cruz has 14 co-sponsors; notably absent is Texas' other senator, John Cornyn.

Texas Sues TikTok for Peddling Explicit Content to Minors

• Attorney General Ken Paxton has filed a lawsuit against TikTok and its parent company, ByteDance, accusing the Chinese-owned social media platform of endangering minors and deceiving parents about the safety of its content.
    
• The lawsuit alleges that TikTok misrepresented the prevalence of inappropriate and explicit material on its platform while targeting young users with addictive features. An investigation by the attorney general’s office revealed that minors frequently encounter an endless stream of harmful and explicit material.
        
• The lawsuit also accuses TikTok of knowingly designing its platform to exploit children’s vulnerabilities, keeping them engaged for extended periods with addictive features like infinite scrolling and algorithm-driven content recommendations.

Related News

• Paxton’s office contends that Pfizer violated the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act by misrepresenting its vaccine as possessing a 95 percent efficacy rate. This metric was reportedly based on misleading “relative risk reduction” statistics for vaccinated individuals generated by the company’s initial clinical trials.
      
• "When consumers questioned the effectiveness and safety of the vaccine, Pfizer sought to silence them—prioritizing profits over the truth," said Paxton. "I will not stop until Pfizer is held accountable for deceptively pushing its COVID-19 vaccine on consumers."

Teacher Faces Investigation After Allegedly Assaulting 9-Year-Old Autistic Student

• After a 9-year-old autistic student was assaulted by a Katy ISD teacher last year, new concerns are being raised about the state’s oversight of educator misconduct. As Michael Wilson reports, the teacher—Fady Hanna—is no longer employed by the school district.
    
• The incident was caught on video. It shows Hanna, then a teacher at Woodcreek Elementary School, attempting to strike a 9-year-old autistic student in the face before grabbing him by the collar and pulling him onto a table. Mr. Hanna was charged with the Class C Misdemeanor "assault by contact."
       
• Now, eight months after the police investigation, the Texas Education Agency is still performing an investigation into Hanna.
       
• A recent report by Education 911 found that the TEA did not open an investigation into 61 percent of the more than 11,000 reports of teacher misconduct—6,888 were physical and sexual offenses allegedly committed by school employees.

Texas A&M Bachelor’s Degree #1 in the State for Return on Investment

• Valerie Muñoz reports on an analysis of the state's public universities that finds Texas A&M offers the highest return on investment for a bachelor’s degree.
    
• According to calculations made by the Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity, Texas A&M students earn an annual average of $51,963 one year after graduating with a bachelor’s degree, compared to the state average of $47,340.
        
• After ten years, A&M graduates with bachelor’s degrees earn an average of $85,685 annually, compared to $76,875 for other Texas universities. Graduates with degrees in high-demand STEM fields are the highest earners. 

Friday Reflection
Accountability Starts Now

No one likes to talk about “accountability.” It’s become kind of a dirty word.

We like being given credit, and we can stomach “friendly criticism.” Most people, though, rebel against accountability—personally, professionally… You know where this is going.

And, yes, I do know the last election is long over. And, yes, I know the new sessions of the legislature and Congress are just kicking off. And that it is nearly 14 months until the 2026 Texas primaries. Some might be wondering why I would be writing about accountability now.

That is because the need for accountability never ends. Frankly, the lack of political accountability has allowed cronyism and corruption to undermine our republic.

In part, it is because we treat the art of governing like a game. Most of us focus on the major leagues, the Elephants versus the Donkeys. A few people enjoy the minors, with less sexy names like “Greens” and “Libertarians.”

In the gamification of politics, none of us want to be seen as criticizing our own team. We vehemently condemn “the others,” even when it is our team that is stabbing us in the back.

First, we need to back off from the political teams and sides and remember that, as citizens, we are the masters and guardians of this republic and our rights. Not the politicians, not the bureaucrats, not their cronies.

Second, we must stop treating politicians like celebrities; they are our servants. If, at lunch, a waiter spills coffee on your colleague’s lap and laughs about it, you’re unlikely to leave a tip or even visit that restaurant again. It’s not personal; you don’t want to take the risk of wearing coffee. Yet, in politics, we let our servants run roughshod over us, and then we thank them for doing so. Insane!

Third, it’s easier to blame someone else. It’s easier to assign fault to politicians from somewhere else than to admit we might have made a bad choice in a previous election. If the incumbent on our ballot was a disappointment, doesn’t that mean we failed?

Yet, in defiance of rationality, we re-elect our incumbents while wanting everyone else to ditch theirs. We want political accountability to be what other voters do to their incumbents. On the other hand, we want to preserve our names on the incumbents’ Christmas card lists and be in the local establishments' good graces.

We should treat electing politicians like hiring employees in our businesses. When an employee doesn’t work out, the business owner or hiring manager doesn’t take it personally; those things happen. The resume and interview were great, but the employee failed to perform. Move on to someone who will.

The results of an “accountability” mindset might end on election day... but it should start when the governing season begins. For the Texas Legislature, that starts in earnest on Tuesday, January 14, 2025.

Ethically, we can only hold people to standards we tell them we’re using. This means we must constantly communicate with our elected servants and our fellow citizens. We must continually remind the politicians of our expectations. We must encourage our neighbors and friends to do likewise.

Then, we must be committed to tracking the servants’ performance, or lack thereof, and ensure they know that we know what they are doing.

An entire industry in our state and national capitals is devoted to shielding politicians from accountability. But those deceitful efforts only work when we aren’t paying attention and actively engaged.

In this self-governing republic, accountability must be our civic watchword. We must give credit where it is due, assign blame for failure, and always do so by putting the ideals of liberty—the ideals of America—first.

That accountability begins now.

Quote-Unquote

"We've been blessed with the opportunity to stand for something—for liberty and freedom and fairness. And these are things worth fighting for, worth devoting our lives to."

– Ronald Reagan