Good morning,

Despite a public request from former President Donald Trump, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has not expanded the special session agenda to include a full audit of the 2020 election. In the One Click Survey, we ask for your opinion.

But first, here is today’s Texas Minute.

– Michael Quinn Sullivan 

Tuesday, September 28, 2021
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Vaccine Mandates?

• With COVID-19 vaccine mandates coming down from the federal government, what can citizens do? In a special video presented by Texas Scorecard, Jackie Schlegel of Texans for Vaccine Choice describes the state of the battle for informed consent and medical privacy in the Lone Star State.
      
• Watch the video on the Texas Scorecard’s YouTube channel.

New Congressional Maps Proposed

• Due to Texas’ growing population, the state’s congressional delegation was increased by two under the apportionment calculations of the U.S. Census. The Texas Senate released yesterday a draft of the new congressional lines and Jeramy Kitchen has a first look.
      
• The proposed map makes efforts to shore up historically competitive districts in favor of Republicans and the more moderate of Democrats. Of the two new districts, one is allocated to a portion of Harris County in favor of a Republican while the other is allocated to a portion of Travis County in favor of a Democrat.

Extending Corporate Welfare

• After the Texas Legislature chose not to extend the life of a massive corporate welfare program, State Rep. Dan Huberty (R–Humble) is trying to save it. Brandon Waltens has the details.
   
• Chapter 313 of the Texas Tax Code allows school districts to offer large tax breaks to renewable energy and other businesses. The tax breaks come at no loss to the school districts. Instead, the state supplements the lost revenue to the districts from sales taxes and other state-collected revenues. The program has drawn criticism from the right and left; both the Republican Party of Texas and the Democrat Party of Texas have called for the abolition of Chapter 313 abatements and corporate welfare in their party platforms.
   
• With the program set to expire at the end of 2022, two unsuccessful attempts were made during the regular legislative session this spring to keep it going. 
   
• Any bills passed during a special session must be on the governor’s agenda. So far, Gov. Greg Abbott has not indicated whether he will add extending the corporate welfare scheme to lawmakers’ list of must-pass items.

School Officials’ Mask Hypocrisy

• While parents are fighting school officials forcing masks on their children, many school district administrators and board members from across the state opted to not wear masks at a conference in Dallas last weekend. In fact, Robert Montoya reports that masks were not even required at TxEDCON21.

Senate Race

• State Rep. Phil King (R-Granbury) announced yesterday his intention to join Republican attorney Warren Norred in seeking the 2022 GOP nomination for Texas Senate District 10. The winner will face Democrat incumbent Beverly Powell in the November general election. Erin Anderson has the story.
      
• Within minutes of his announcement, King garnered the support of Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick. This marks the second time this election season Patrick has made an early senatorial endorsement; last week he gave his support to former senator Pete Flores in SD24 – despite former city councilwoman Ellen Troxclair having previously announced for the GOP nod. 
      
• Also… Jeramy Kitchen has set up a handy online spreadsheet keeping track of lawmakers and their re-election bids.

ONE CLICK SURVEY

Former President Donald Trump sent a public letter to Gov. Greg Abbott asking that the special session agenda be expanded to include a full audit of Texas’ 2020 general election. So far, Gov. Abbott has not publicly responded or added the issue to his legislative call.

Should Gov. Abbott demand lawmakers pass legislation requiring a full audit of the 2020 election?
    

     
Once you’ve clicked an answer, reply to this email with any thoughts you’d like to share!

Today In History

On Sept. 28, 1781, the Battle of Yorktown began, pitting 17,000 American and French troops against 9,000 British, in what would be a three-week engagement ending with the surrender of Lord Cornwallis.