Good morning, 

Here is today's Texas Minute.

– Michael Quinn Sullivan 

Tuesday, August 25, 2020
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• Even though there is not a vacancy in Senate District 30, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott took the unprecedented step of calling a special election there for Sept. 29. While state law says a special election can only occur when a seat is vacant, Gov. Abbott has declared that because of the coronavirus pandemic and the emergency powers he has given himself, he can call an election anyway. Brandon Waltens has the full story.
   
• Background: Incumbent SD 30’s State Sen. Pat Fallon (R-Prosper) won a special election earlier this month to be the GOP nominee for a very safe Republican seat in the U.S. House of Representatives this November. He wrote a letter last weekend announcing he would not resign his Senate seat until January 2021, when he would take office in Washington. Hence, the seat is not open.
   
• Gov. Abbott himself has said he would only call special elections when a seat has actually been vacated.
   
• Yet Austin insiders say Abbott made the move to help advance the political career of an ally. State Rep. Drew Springer (R-Muenster), who has worked against bans on taxpayer-funded lobbying and other conservative reforms, is a creature of the Austin establishment and a friend of the governor.
   
• Hair salon owner-turned-activist Shelley Luther – who was jailed by Dallas County Democrats for her refusal to follow Gov. Abbott’s closure of businesses – announced her candidacy for the seat on Saturday.
   
• Did I mention Gov. Abbott said he was calling the election – despite the seat not being vacant – because of the coronavirus pandemic?

• Republican State Rep. Kyle Biedermann of Fredericksburg announced yesterday he’ll be championing one of the Republican Party of Texas' legislative priorities: constitutional carry. This would allow law-abiding Texans to carry firearms without a state permit.
   
• Rachel Malone, Texas director for Gun Owners of America, notes more than 30 states currently allow open carry of firearms without a permit.

• Thanks to schools being closed down, parents can listen in on exactly what their kids are being taught by public schools... and it has public school advocates absolutely terrified. That’s why a school in Tennessee wanted parents to sign agreements not to listen in.
     

• Lest anyone think this isn’t a problem in Texas, consider what Erin Anderson uncovered in the Dallas suburb of Wylie. At least one Wylie ISD junior high school teacher assigned students the task of looking at a cartoon depicting police officers being compared to slave owners and members of the KKK, and describe what the cartoon is “saying about U.S. history and the death of George Floyd.”
     

• This leftist propaganda assignment – in a small, conservative community – was discovered in real-time because it was given during “virtual” school and parents caught it.
     

• NOTE: The school district has not disclosed which teacher(s) made the assignment,  or which department heads approved it. Wylie ISD issued an apology on their Facebook page, but later deleted it.
    
• “Still comfortable sending your child through the public school system? For every incident such as this that gets publicized, there are tens of thousands that don’t.” – conservative activist James Ashby

• More than 20 candidates have filed to run for the five Austin City Council seats on the November ballot. Jacob Asmussen reports every incumbent is being challenged, signaling the widespread dissatisfaction Austinites feel as the council has taken a hard turn to the left. 
      
• “Mismanagement by our current City Council is so flagrant that it’s impossible to ignore it any longer.” – Austin City Council candidate Jennifer Virde

• In a new commentary, Col. Tom Magness – a former commander in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers – writes that environmentalists are opposing an important pipeline development project but are not offering a viable alternative.