Today begins with sad news of the passing of my friend and colleague, Ross Kecseg [[link removed]]. He was just 36 and is survived by his lovely wife, their young son, and a grieving family.

– Michael Quinn Sullivan

Thursday, September 24, 2020

Modify your email preferences [[link removed]].

Ross Kecseg served as president of Empower Texans, and now Texas Scorecard. He had been valiantly fighting cancer for more than a year, joyfully refusing to acknowledge his own pain as he sought to develop the leadership and skills of our team.

He would be horrified at even this amount of attention. He rejected self-promotion and was adamant that the story should never be about us. The story was never to be about him, but about the grassroots. He never wanted to be the center of things, he wanted the truth to be at the center of things. And the truth is this, our sorrow at his passing is a reminder of how deeply he impacted our lives. And the truth is that his love for Jesus, his desire to serve God, motivated all he did. We rejoice in knowing he will be waiting for us, with a big smile, no doubt eager to show us the details of heaven.

Please join us in praying for his wife, their son, and the entire family.

Because Ross was always about the mission and the work, here is today’s Texas Minute.

A growing number of Republicans are taking issue with Gov. Greg Abbott’s string of unilateral executive orders in response to the Chinese coronavirus. Now his actions are the subject of a lawsuit from the Republican Party of Texas, which is urging the Supreme Court of Texas to overturn Abbott’s executive order extending early voting in the November election. Brandon Waltens has the details [[link removed]].

Though numerous lawsuits have been filed in the last few months in relation to Abbott’s orders, this latest carries some big names beside the party itself – including Republican Party of Texas Chairman Allen West and Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller. The suit was filed by Houston-based attorney Jared Woodfill, and includes Texas Right to Life president Jim Graham, grassroots leaders Julie McCarty, JoAnn Fleming, and Cathie Adams, as well as a number of current and former Republican officeholders.

In a statement to Texas Scorecard, Woodfill had harsh words for Abbott, accusing him of “[forgetting] that the Texas Constitution is not a document that he consults at his convenience.”

“It is an uninterrupted charter of governmental structure that limits Governor Abbott’s ability to act as a king. If the Texas Supreme Court allows this structure to erode, so too does the promise of liberty. Given the extraordinary circumstances Texans have faced over the past seven months, it is shocking that Governor Abbott has continued to unilaterally suspend laws while refusing to convene the Texas Legislature.” – Jared Woodfill

This shouldn’t be surprising. To be honest, Greg Abbott has been governing Texas during the pandemic like a power-grabbing Democrat. In the latest chapter of the ongoing fight to “reimagine” the Alamo, state officials decided overwhelmingly to block the controversial plan to remove a historical memorial from the hallowed Texas battlefield. Jacob Asmussen reports [[link removed]] the Texas Historical Commission voted 12-2 to keep the Alamo Cenotaph, a 60-foot-tall marble structure honoring the Alamo defenders, on the battlefield where the men fought and died in 1836.

This victory came after intense efforts by grassroots activists seeking to protect the Alamo [[link removed]] from leftist historical revision.

The Cenotaph, also called The Spirit of Sacrifice, was built in 1936. It features inscriptions of the Texian and Tejano soldiers known to have fought in the pivotal struggle of the Texas Revolution and carvings of soldiers, including William Barret Travis, the commander of the small band of men who resisted the vast Mexican army’s assault of the Alamo fort. Students in Fort Worth will finally be going back to school, reports Erin Anderson [[link removed]]. The flip-flopping Fort Worth Independent School District board compromised on a plan to offer struggling families a two-week phased-in option for on-campus learning.

In a marathon meeting that started at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday and lasted until 4:00 a.m. Wednesday morning, school board trustees voted 5-4 to seek a TEA waiver extending the district’s back-to-school transition, allowing administrators to stagger students’ return to campuses over a two-week period starting on October 5. Airline pilot and lifelong Texan Craig Dow has penned an open letter to Texas’ lawmakers [[link removed]] urging them “to take action to guarantee that the arbitrary and open-ended infringements upon the rights of the people never again occur.”

Mr. Dow offers practical suggestions [[link removed]] for ending the kind of unilateral executive overreach mentioned above, which has caused the Republican Party of Texas to sue over the actions of a Republican governor. Number of the Day

40

Number of days until the November general election.

[Source: calendar]

Today in History

On Sept. 24, 1789, the Supreme Court of the United States was established with adoption of the Judiciary Act of 1789. President George Washington signed the measure into law and immediately nominated John Jay to serve as the first chief justice, and five others as the court’s first associate judges. (The number of justices was set at nine in 1869.)

Quote-Unquote

“Slaves, though held by the laws of men, are free by the laws of God.”

– John Jay​

Your Federal & State Lawmakers

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PO Box 12862, Odessa TX 79768 Produced by Michael Quinn Sullivan and Brandon Waltens, the Texas Minute is a quick look at the news and info of the day we find interesting, and hope you do as well. It is delivered weekday mornings (though we'll take the occasional break for holidays and whatnot).

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