Good morning,

Whenever I visit the archeological site of Gamla, I am reminded that our call is to fight faithfully, regardless of the odds. More on that below.

This is the Texas Minute for Friday, October 31, 2025.

– Michael Quinn Sullivan 

REMINDER 1: This is the last day of early voting ahead of Tuesday's General Election. You can find out what various conservative groups say about the 17 proposed constitutional amendments in our pre-election roundup. 

REMINDER 2: Sunday morning marks the start of Daylight Saving Time, so don't forget to turn back your clock an hour.

Comptroller Halts HUB Certifications Pending Review of Constitutionality

• Acting Comptroller Kelly Hancock has announced an immediate freeze on all new and renewed certifications for the state’s Historically Underutilized Business program, pending a legal review to ensure the program complies with constitutional requirements and recent executive orders. Sydnie Henry has the details.
    
• Hancock's move comes amid heightened scrutiny of programs that use race and sex-based criteria in awarding government contracts. The comptroller’s office will conduct a detailed review of the HUB program’s administrative procedures, focusing on the effects of recent court rulings related to the constitutionality of diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives in government.
     
• "Texans deserve a level playing field where government contracts are earned by performance and best value—nothing more, nothing less." – Kelly Hancock

SCOTX: Judges Can Refuse to Officiate Same-Sex Weddings

• According to the Texas Supreme Court, judges are not required to perform same-sex weddings. As Travis Morgan reports, this issue has been working its way through the courts.
    
• The order was not an explicit response to any specific litigation, but instead added as a comment to a section of the Texas Code of Judicial Conduct known as Canon 4. Some lower courts had interpreted the canon to require judges to perform same-sex weddings if they were also performing heterosexual weddings.
      
• This update is expected to significantly impact cases working through the legal system brought against judges who have refused to perform same-sex unions. 

A&M's VP of Research Finalists Push DEI

• Robert Montoya reports that at least three of the finalists for Texas A&M’s vice president for research have worked to advance the leftwing DEI ideology. This might be because “inclusion” is on the list of qualifications that Texas A&M says “ideal candidates” will have a proven commitment to advancing.
    
• Notably, lawmakers banned the left-wing DEI ideology in the administration of higher education. The Texas A&M University System has faced intense scrutiny for failing to root out DEI in its institutions. Most recently, the regents appointed a DEI award winner and advocate as the president of Texas A&M Victoria.
      
• The finalists for the VP research position include Cynthia Carnes, Angela Wilson, Lara Ferry, and Mark Van Dyke. For example, Ferry led the DEI at Arizona State University, while Wilson has a section of her personal webpage dedicated to her commitment to the ideology.

Experts Criticize Unauthorized State Energy Project

• Originally intended as a regional grid strengthening plan, experts say the new statewide transmission line project will burden Texas’ energy prices for years to come, without legislative or public consent. Paige Feild has the story. 
    
• Lawmakers authorized a plan to strengthen grid reliability in the Permian Basin, but the Electric Reliability Council of Texas and the Public Utility Commission have morphed it into a statewide program. The Texas Public Policy Foundation is urging regulators to halt a big portion of its Strategic Transmission Expansion Plan.
      
• "Never has a transmission buildout of this size and cost been undertaken without explicit approval from both the Commission and the Legislature," wrote the organization in a briefing to the PUC.
      
• According to TPPF, the cost will be socialized onto all Texans rather than borne by the large-load consumers who will benefit.

Charter School Teacher Under Investigation for Sexual Misconduct

• A Houston charter school teacher is under investigation after allegedly touching a 13-year-old female student and sending her lewd social media messages. 
    
• According to a search warrant reviewed by ABC 13, the 28-year-old teacher—whose name has been withheld since he has not been criminally charged—previously worked at IDEA Hardy, part of the IDEA Public Schools charter network. School officials report the teacher’s employment ended in June for reasons unrelated to the current allegations.
     
• The teacher’s predatory behavior allegedly began in December 2024 and continued through May 2025. The student disclosed the abuse to a family member in August.
      
• This is the third IDEA Public Schools employee accused of sex crimes involving a student this year. 

UPDATE: Abbott Investigates Elgin Over Financial Mismanagement

• Updating a story from earlier this week... Gov. Greg Abbott announced that the Texas Rangers will open an investigation into the City of Elgin for potential violations of state law.
    
• Last week, City Councilmember Tiffany St. Pierre accused Democrat Mayor Theresa McShan of not wanting a forensic audit to examine the mismanagement of funds during the 2023 and 2024 fiscal years. 

This Sunday on REAL TEXANS

Friday Reflection

To Go Down Fighting, Faithfully

Almost by definition, the stories of great battles are the stories of soldiers specifically trained to carry out the art and science of war. With the balm of time and physical distance, the horror of a battle is sanitized by telling ourselves that—even when the soldiers were conscripted—the participants knew what they were doing.

Sometimes that’s true, maybe even often. But it isn’t always. Take, for example, the story of the ancient city of Gamla. This Judean town was the site of a ferocious siege involving thousands of people lasting more than a year.

Gamla had long been apathetically loyal to Rome, which meant they simply stayed out of everyone’s way. But as the Great Revolt led by independence-minded Jews gained steam in the 60s A.D., and the Roman military machine began committing horrendous atrocities to clamp it down, Gamla’s apathy turned into a resolve for independence.

Unlike the more famous Masada in southern Israel near the Dead Sea, Gamla was simply a town. Where Masada was purpose-built as a military fortress, Gamla was a collection of homes, shops, and a synagogue built on a steep hill. Even today, the prominent outcropping resembles a camel's hump. Hence the name Gamla, which is the Aramaic word for that beast of burden.

Gamla was out of the way, overlooking from a distance the Sea of Galilee. But as its loyalties shifted, it became an object of Roman ire. Some 60,000 Roman soldiers laid siege to the town, which typically had a population of less than 3,000—though by some reports the “population” might have doubled that number in refugees from other parts of the Galilee just before the Romans arrived.

Yes, Gamla eventually fell. But, again, unlike Masada, where the entrenched defenders chose suicide over death or capture, the people of Gamla fought to the bitter end. This town—again, not a fortress, not a military outpost—held off the greatest military force the world had ever seen for more than a year. These simple people made a mockery of the Romans.

The people of Gamla fought with the righteous fervor of people who have no choice but to fight. As the Roman historian Josephus described it, “The effect on the Romans was devastating.”

The reason why is the most obvious: they simply refused to give up. The people of Gamla were not occupying an antiseptic position chosen by military tacticians. They were defending their homes. These real people fought not because they were conscripted, or even for the sake of esoteric principles in an ill-defined cause. No, they fought because they and their very real families were threatened.

A town that should have been casually wiped from the face of the earth instead drained the Romans of time and energy. People who should have withered at the sight of the advancing legions instead stood firm. 

With defeat inevitable, the people of Gamla simply decided to go down fighting. They remained faithful to their families, their neighbors, and, yes, even to the cause to which they were reluctant combatants. 

We’re not always going to find success in our fights, but we, like the people of Gamla, should strive always to be faithful. Even to the end.

Quote-Unquote

"Peace if possible, truth at all costs." – Martin Luther

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