Good morning,

I find it significant that we celebrate not the day America won its independence, but rather the day our Founding Fathers declared it. At the conclusion of this Independence Day edition of the Texas Minute, I reflect on why I believe it matters. 

– Michael Quinn Sullivan
July 4, 2025 

NOTE... The Texas Minute will take a short break and resume on Tuesday, July 8, 2025.

Wave of Retirements and Campaign Launches Reshaping Texas Senate

• Brandon Waltens examines the future of the Texas Senate, which is on track to see a significant shakeup in 2027, with four senators already announcing they won’t be returning. 
    
• The first domino fell in April, when State Sen. Mayes Middleton (R-Galveston) declared his candidacy for attorney general, leaving his seat open after just one term. Of course, Sen. Joan Huffman (R-Houston) has announced her own bid for the A.G. office. But because her senate seat isn't on the ballot in '26, she gets a free shot at statewide office without losing her place in the chamber.
      
• Next is Kelly Hancock (R-North Richland Hills), who gave up his Senate seat last month to serve as Texas' acting comptroller. A special election to fill his seat will be held in November.
      
• Meanwhile, Robert Nichols (R-Jacksonville), one of the longest-serving members of the Senate, won’t be seeking re-election. And just this week, Brian Birdwell (R-Granbury) became the latest to bow out, announcing he would not seek re-election after more than 15 years in office.
           
• Notably, some candidates have already received the endorsement of Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, including Dennis Paul in the race to succeed Middleton and Leigh Wambsganss in the special election to replace Hancock.

Ex-ICE Officer Arrested for Shielding Criminal Aliens From Deportation

• Federal prosecutors have accused four Houston-area men, including a former U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer, of shielding criminal illegal aliens from deportation. Joseph Trimmer reports on allegations that the scheme enabled individuals in the Harris County Jail to be released on bond, sidestepping federal removal proceedings.
    
• Former ICE deportation officer José Angel Muniz of La Porte was allegedly part of a conspiracy from April 2023 through March 2024 to remove ICE detainers in exchange for bribes.
      
• The case strikes at the heart of Houston’s bail bond system and immigration enforcement infrastructure. Harris County has long been a flashpoint in the debate over local-federal cooperation on immigration. 

Texas Joins Other States in Banning Lab-Grown 'Meat'

• A measure banning the sale of cell-cultured “meats” was passed by lawmakers during the 89th legislative session and has been approved by Gov. Greg Abbott, making Texas the seventh state to institute such a ban. Addie Hovland reports the new law will take effect on Sept. 1. 
    
• “This ban is a massive win for Texas ranchers, producers, and consumers,” said Texas Agricultural Commissioner Sid Miller.
       
• In recent years, there has been a push for the production and research of “sustainable” lab-grown and plant-based protein by liberal billionaires, including Microsoft founder Bill Gates.
     
• The Texas ban is set to expire after two years. If the sale of cell-cultured meat is allowed after that, it must be clearly labeled with the terms “lab-grown,” “cell-cultured,” or something similar.
      
• Personally, I'd label it "GROSS" and then toss it in the trash...

More DEI in San Antonio?

• The recent inauguration of San Antonio’s liberal mayor Gina Ortiz Jones raises continued questions over city officials’ commitment to leftwing principles, even amid a budgetary crisis. Ryan Dy-Liacco has the story.
    
• According to data presented to the San Antonio City Council, the city faces a projected budget deficit of $20.8 million in the 2026 fiscal year and $151.8 million in 2027.
      
• For more than a decade, San Antonio's city government has funded an increasingly radical leftwing agenda—from DEI initiatives to abortion travel funding. And the new mayor emphasized DEI initiatives while serving under the Biden administration as the undersecretary of the Air Force.
      
• Despite looming budget problems, none of the city's leftwing programs appear to be on the chopping block.

School Superintendent Faces Investigation for Failure To Report Alleged Sex Crime

• Authorities are investigating Union Grove Independent School District Superintendent Kelly Kay Moore for failing to report a student’s alleged invasive visual recording of another student while on campus. Erin Anderson has more details.
    
• The Upshur County Sheriff’s Office reportedly received a complaint last month from the alleged victim’s parents and opened a criminal investigation into the student accused of invasive visual recording, which is a state jail felony. During the course of that investigation, authorities discovered information indicating that Moore had failed to report the allegations.
        
• Texas school superintendents are required by law to report suspected sexual abuse of a child, and invasive visual recording is a sexual offense.
     
• Union Grove ISD is a three-school district with less than 800 students.

Texas Business Court Takes Up $95 Million Lottery Rigging Lawsuit

• A case involving a lottery winner who claims his jackpot would have been $95 million higher, except for a rigging scandal, is being heard in the new Texas Business Court, after the court asserted jurisdiction. Travis Morgan has the details.
    
• Jerry Reed won a $7.5 million Lotto Texas jackpot in May 2023, just one month after Rook TX—a New Jersey-based company—claimed a $95 million jackpot. His lawsuit claims Rook TX violated state law, which makes it a crime to “intentionally or knowingly influence or attempt to influence the selection of the winner of a lottery game” or to claim, or aid another in claiming, “a lottery prize or a share of a lottery prize by means of fraud, deceit, or misrepresentation.”
        
• According to Reed’s allegations, Rook TX was created “to hide the identity of the defendant-conspirators who rigged the lottery.”
       
• A hearing on the case is scheduled for July 14, in which Rook TX is trying to have the case dismissed.

PROGRAMMING NOTE

The Texas Minute will resume on Tuesday, July 8, 2025.

This Sunday on REAL TEXANS

Bryan Burrough

Friday Reflection

Making America Great

By all outward appearances, there was no difference between July 3, 1776, and July 5. The American colonies were no more free and no more independent. Practically speaking, the governing structures were not different.

This might seem odd, but I appreciate that as a nation, our republic doesn’t celebrate October 19, 1781—the date the war for American independence ended. There are no parades commemorating September 3, 1783, when the Treaty of Paris formally concluded the war.

Instead, we celebrate July 4th. That is the day in 1776 when our Founding Fathers firmly, finally, and officially committed themselves—their lives, their fortunes, their sacred honor—to the cause of American liberty. 

Now, make no mistake: many of them had done so personally and individually weeks, months, even years earlier. They already had an army, and blood had already been shed.

Yet, the Fourth of July is celebrated because that is when they formally, out loud, with one voice, declared their defiance and announced their independence. They acknowledged to each other and a candid world that they were dissolving the political ties with England in order to form a self-governing republic.

What we celebrate is not the victory they achieved, but their commitment to the fight when it seemed most improbable, if not outright impossible. It is a recognition that, in the most important ways, by choosing to declare their independence, they had already achieved it.

Nearly all of our Founding Fathers were men of faith; they understood that the struggle upon which they were to engage may or may not be successful in the eyes of the world. That didn’t matter; they achieved freedom in their choice, declared on the Fourth of July, and the fight ahead was merely the necessary consequence.

On Independence Day, we celebrate our Founding Fathers’ commitment to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. On Independence Day, we celebrate their willingness to exercise their convictions for themselves and on behalf of the generations to follow.

As it was in 1776, so it is today. The real difference between July 3rd and July 5th is what we commit ourselves to on the Fourth of July.

Quote-Unquote

"And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor."