Good morning,

Will the Texas GOP convention take place after all?

Here is today's Texas Minute.

– Brandon Waltens 

Friday, July 10, 2020
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• The fight over the fate of next week's Republican Party of Texas convention continues, as the Texas GOP has filed suit against Democrat Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner, claiming a breach of contract over the cancellation and attempting to force the city into honoring its agreement.
   
• The lawsuit was filed against Turner, the City of Houston, and Houston First—the local government corporation that operates the George R. Brown Convention Center, where the event was to be held next week.
   
• “It should go without saying that a political viewpoint cannot be the basis for unequal treatment. Mayor Turner publicly stated his intention to interrupt the convention process and disenfranchise Republicans around the state, and yesterday he put his scheme into action.” –RPT Chairman James Dickey
   
• On Wednesday evening, ahead of the lawsuit, Dickey stated that the convention would continue “unimpeded,” using online technology if necessary.
   
• No matter how the convention ends up taking place, delegates will have the opportunity to vote for who will lead the party. Last week, we published answers from the two candidates for chairman—James Dickey and Allen West. This week, we have published completed questionnaires from the two candidates for vice chairman–Alma Perez Jackson and Cat Parks (link corrected from yesterday's Texas Minute!) 

• Efforts by Republican grassroots to formally rebuke Gov. Greg Abbott for his string of unilateral executive orders in response to the Chinese coronavirus are gaining momentum, as the Montgomery County GOP unanimously approved a censure resolution on Wednesday, and several other counties are set to consider similar efforts.
   
• In a 40-0 vote, members of the Montgomery County Republican Party’s executive committee voted to approve a resolution officially censuring Abbott for “creating law via executive order,” citing the $295 million deal to bring contact tracing to Texas, his statewide mask mandate, and executive orders that closed down certain businesses.
   
• On the same evening, Llano County also passed a resolution censuring Abbott. West Texas’ Ector County and East Texas’ Harrison County have already passed similar resolutions. These resolutions will be considered during the upcoming Republican Party of Texas convention next week.

• Grassroots leader JoAnn Fleming, of Tyler's Grassroots America We The People, says Gov. Greg Abbott has an easy way to satisfy what’s becoming a growing number of Republicans ranging from frustrated to enraged with the way he’s been governing the state—calling a special session.
   
•  "This is not hard or difficult to understand. Gov. Abbott should immediately call a special session of the legislature to allow for public hearings and debate about the appropriate, constitutional response to COVID-19."
   

• "Forget calling the Governor’s Office. He did not heed the thousands of calls during the 2019 legislative session, nor those in support of our unity project – The Lone Star Agenda, nor calls about the shutdown, contact tracing contract, etc.  He and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick have ignored the last several Texas Conservative Grassroots Coalition letters as we attempted to lodge our grievances."

• Democrats are declaring war on conservatives at the University of North Texas. Robert Montoya reports the UNT chapter of the Young Conservatives of Texas has been under siege from threats of violence, hexes (yes, hexes), and a petition drive for the taxpayer-funded university to ban them—all led by a coalition of extreme-left Democrat organizations.
   
• The UNT chapter of the Young Conservatives of Texas (YCT at UNT)—a nonpartisan conservative youth organization—has been a target of the extreme-left for some time. Last year, the chapter’s chairman, Kelly Neidert, described resistance her organization has faced from employees of taxpayer-funded UNT.
   
• “Banning people and groups from anywhere due to their political orientation is a fundamental violation to the U.S. Constitution. This is “cancel culture” and discrimination at its best. Campuses are to be an area where free speech flourishes, despite one’s political leanings.” –Denton County GOP Chairman Jayne Howell

• As millions of Texans struggle to make ends meet because of recent government shutdowns, one Democrat congressional candidate in Central Texas is receiving nationwide flak this week after her campaign took tens of thousands of dollars meant for shutdown-crippled small businesses. Jacob Asmussen has the details. 
   
• Dr. Christine Mann, running for Congress in Central Texas’ 31st district, applied for and received a $28,000 loan in May from the “Paycheck Protection Program,” a pool of taxpayer money the federal government set aside to “help businesses keep their workforce employed during the coronavirus.”
   
• Mann took the money for her campaign, then paid it back the following month, raising questions from the public and sparking nationwide attention.

Please join Michael Quinn Sullivan, myself, and the rest of the Empower Texans team in wishing a very happy birthday to Michael’s mother-in-law, Anna Bertheau!

Friday Reflection

by Michael Quinn Sullivan

Fear is powerful. Improperly applied, fear can cause us to make irrational choices without thinking. Yet it can also, in the words of the Book of Proverbs, be the “beginning of wisdom.” 

The difference is what we fear. Sticking with Proverbs 9:10 for a moment, “fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom”. 

Scripture is replete with examples of the foolishness of man. Individuals, prophets, and even disciples often make the mistake of fearing men more than God.

A healthy fear is critical in all facets of life. And, frankly, it is very easy to fear the wrong things.

I have come to believe what underlies many of our problems in American politics is too little fear. That is, too little fear by the politicians of the voters and taxpayers. As evidenced by their performance during the course of the 140–day legislative session, most politicians in the Texas Legislature very clearly fear the retribution of lobbyists and bureaucrats more than the taxpayers. 

(Were this not so, for example, they would have rushed to end the corporate welfare programs opposed by both parties and large majorities of citizens, rather than find new ways to get the taxpayers’ cash to their cronies.)  

The fault rests with us. As citizens, we have failed to inspire sufficient fear in our elected servants. We’ve allowed them to think they, rather than we, are the masters of this republic.

Too many citizens fail to even participate in elections. And even fewer bother to take the steps necessary to hold politicians accountable for their actions and inactions. The downward spiral of cause and effect blur, with the result being lawmakers who don’t sufficiently fear the citizenry.

It’s up to us, as citizens, to inspire in our elected servants greater fear than the lobby and the bureaucracy. Rather than accept table scraps, we as citizens must unwaveringly expect that politicians seek our approval and our approval alone.