Good morning,

Michael Quinn Sullivan will be returning on Monday with a special Texas Minute you won't want to miss!

But first, here is today's Texas Minute.

– Brandon Waltens 

Friday, August 7, 2020
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• If you missed it yesterday, Texas Scorecard sat down with Republican Party of Texas Chairman Allen West to discuss his first weeks on the job as chairman of the Texas GOP, the party’s role in keeping elected officials accountable, and how citizens can get involved.
   

• Since taking office last month, Republican Party of Texas Chairman Allen West has been a vocal critic of the string of unilateral executive orders issued by Gov. Greg Abbott in response to the Chinese coronavirus. Now he’s calling for a special session of the Texas Legislature.

• "We are supposed to have taxpayer funds that are apportioned based upon the Legislature and making sure that’s a part of our budget process," West told Texas Scorecard. "So, yes, we should have a special session because that’s what the people expect; and that how’s you govern, not rule."

• "Orders, dictates, mandates, decrees, and things of that nature … that’s not what we’re about in Texas. That’s not what we’re about in America," he added.

• The full interview can be viewed here.

• Tomorrow, Republican Party activists in Texas’ 4th Congressional District will have a very unique opportunity to select their congressional nominee—not by a primary election, but at a convention.
   

• In May, former U.S. Rep. John Ratcliffe was confirmed by the U.S. Senate to serve as Director of National Intelligence under President Donald Trump.

• That left a unique situation to fill his replacement on the November ballot. With the vacancy occurring too close to the November general election to hold a special election and runoff—and after the March primary election in which Republican voters elected to keep him as their nominee—Republican Party precinct chairs and county chairs within the 18-county congressional district will convene a “Congressional District Executive Committee” in Sulphur Springs to choose a candidate to replace the outgoing congressman on the November ballot.

• Effectively, this group of activists will choose the next congressman in the safely red district that cuts from Rockwall through Northeast Texas to the Arkansas border.

• Read about the candidates running here.

• As Austin’s city officials consider cutting a quarter of the local police department’s budget, demolishing their downtown headquarters, and even using the department’s money to instead kill children, several Republican congressmen are now speaking out against the “radical Marxists” in power in Texas’ capital city.
   
• Jacob Asmussen reports Central Texas-area Republican Congressmen John Carter, Roger Williams, and Chip Roy sent a campaign email Monday entitled “Portland Comes to Austin,” where the representatives said, “We’ve watched in horror as Democratic cities have crippled our first responders and allowed violent criminals free rein to prey on the defenseless. Now, that same nightmare is coming to the Heart of Texas.”
   
• "You are seeing what is happening across this country when Democrats are in charge of cities. When we are allowing people to get murdered and businesses to get burned all because of Democrats’ cynical ploy to try to oppose the president of the United States,” he said. “Perfectly happy to let the cities in the United States burn, not do anything about the virus and point fingers at the president." –U.S. Rep. Chip Roy

Programming Note: Look for the Texas Minute to come from a new email address next week: [email protected]

Friday Reflection

by Michael Quinn Sullivan

Not long ago, I was standing in the dry creek bed in an area known as the Valley of Elah. The rumbling of trucks along a nearby Israeli highway made the spot remind me of the land my grandparents owned outside Wichita Falls along a busy farm-to-market road.

Nothing remarkable about either place.

Except, of course, the Valley of Elah is where David killed the Philistine giant Goliath. The rumble of the trucks couldn’t compare with what I imagine was the collective shouts of dismay as a slight, young shepherd took out the warrior giant. The antiseptic story we’re told in Sunday School ends with David using his slingshot to pop Goliath in the head. Not so fast; 1 Samuel 17 goes into far more detail.

You see, David stepped up when King Saul and his soldiers were unwilling to face Goliath. We learn it wasn’t the stone that killed Goliath, but rather David “took hold of the Philistine’s sword and drew it from the sheath. After he killed him, he cut off his head with the sword.” 

But the story doesn’t end there. The Philistine army, shocked by the death of their unconquerable warrior, turned tail and ran. Rather than call it a day, the Israelites pursued and killed the Philistines, leaving their bodies “strewn along the Shaaraim road to Gath and Ekron.” Then the victorious Israelites came back and plundered the Philistine’s encampment.

Standing in that dry creek bed last year, I picked up several smooth rocks and thought of the impossibility of using one to slay a giant. Take out a massive hulk of man who has spent his life training as a warrior... with a small rock?

Yeah, right. It’s impossible. Right up until the moment it is not.

Of course, Goliath wasn’t killed by the stone; he was killed by his own sword wielded by David. And then chasing an army to their death? Hot, sweaty, dirty, bloody.

Very often, the giants we face – in life, in politics, in business – seem impossible to defeat. Yet history is replete with impossible giants being vanquished. We must have faith that the stone in our hand will be guided by the Almighty to the right spot. We must act faithfully, and sometimes even get our hands dirty.

We must be faithfully committed to the work of winning. Too often we accept half-victories that end up as little more than a prelude to our own defeat. The Israelites didn’t walk away after Goliath was vanquished; they pursued their enemies. In the same way, we must be committed to getting the job done and done completely.

Let’s go slay some giants, and pursue our enemies to the Gates of Ekron! We cannot count on kings to do our work for us. It’s up to us, as a self-governing people, to faithfully get the job done.