Good morning,

As it turns out, your fellow readers have some very strong feeling about quorum-busting Democrats being penalized… and about the Republicans who aren’t doing anything to make it happen. 

Get those details at the conclusion of today’s Texas Minute.

– Michael Quinn Sullivan 

Wednesday, October 6, 2021
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Disagree With CRT? You Are A Terrorist

• In a new directive from the Biden Administration, political dissent will be treated like a criminal offense. Specifically, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland has proclaimed anyone who disagrees with the imposition of critical race theory in public schools will be treated as a domestic terrorist.
     
• So I’m a domestic terrorist now? Cool. You might recall that Texas’ John Cornyn was among the Senate Republicans who voted with the Democrats to confirm Garland to the post.

New Camp For Illegal Aliens

• With waves of migrants illegally crossing Texas’ open border, the federal government has opened a new taxpayer-funded facility for more illegal immigrants 167 miles southwest of San Antonio. Robert Montoya has the details and pictures of the facility.
   
• “They’re housing people already, and they’re expecting thousands,” said retired U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Agent Victor Avila. He told Texas Scorecard he thinks the facility was set up to handle the expected mass influx of Haitians approaching the border. “My question is: Why are we building more facilities, costing billions of dollars, when we could just secure the border and not allow them [in] in the first place?”

Trump Endorses Sparks, Opposes ‘RINO’ Seliger

• Former president Donald Trump weighed in yesterday on the race for the GOP nomination in Senate District 30. Trump came out in support of Midland businessman Kevin Sparks, who is challenging incumbent Kel Seliger (R-Amarillo). Jeramy Kitchen has the story.
   
• “Kevin Sparks of the Great State of Texas is running against RINO Texas Senator Kel Seliger, who is not helpful to our great MAGA Movement and, in fact, seems like the Texas version of Mitt Romney (and that is not good!). Kevin is a businessman, loves the people of Midland and West Texas, must WIN in order to protect our Oil and Gas Workers, defend our Southern Border, our Military and our Vets, and fight for our America First policies. Kevin Sparks has my Complete and Total Endorsement!” – Donald Trump
  

Patrick Draws GOP Challenger

• Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick will be challenged in the GOP primary by the former president of Texas Eagle Forum, Trayce Bradford. Brandon Waltens reports that Bradford lists border security and “the ever growing government encroachment into our lives and liberties as citizens” among the reasons motivating her run. 
   
• After leaving Eagle Forum, Bradford became vice president of Christians Engaged. She and her husband have seven children and three grandchildren.
   

• Democrats have two candidates vying for their party’s nomination. Mike Collier, who has made several unsuccessful runs for statewide office, is running against former George W. Bush advisor Matt Dowd.

Parole Board Recommends Posthumous Pardon of George Floyd

• The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles voted 7-0 to posthumously pardon George Floyd of a criminal drug possession charge from 2004, putting the ultimate decision in the hands of Gov. Greg Abbott. Check out Griffin White’s article for the details.
     
• Floyd’s death while being detained by the Minneapolis Police Department in 2020 quickly caused national outrage and rioting by some who promoted the incident as an example of police brutality. Before moving to Minneapolis in 2014, Floyd lived in Houston for most of his life where he had numerous run-ins with police. Floyd’s criminal history, according to the Harris County District Clerk, includes various drug possession charges, petty theft, trespassing, and aggravated robbery with a deadly weapon. 
      
• Abbott must confirm the Parole Board’s decision in order for Floyd to be officially pardoned. The pardon is for only one of Floyd’s criminal convictions, based on new concerns about the police officer who arrested him in 2004 for possession of crack cocaine. That officer has been indicted on a series of misconduct charges after leading a raid in 2019 that resulted in the deaths of two civilians. Now, many of the investigations in which he was involved have been re-opened.
      
• The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles consists of seven gubernatorial appointees. Currently, six of the board’s seven members were originally appointed by Gov. Abbott. The seventh – board chairman, David Gutierrez – was originally appointed by Gov. Rick Perry in 2009 and then reappointed by Abbott in 2015. 

House Map Advances

• The Texas House Redistricting Committee gave approval yesterday to an amended version of the proposed House district boundaries for the next decade. As Jeramy Kitchen reports, the entire chamber will soon debate the measure.
   
• Notably, the committee did not adjust Tarrant County’s House District 92, which is currently represented by Republican Jeff Cason, despite testimony from Cason and numerous constituents decrying the change. The district has been drawn to favor Democrats. It is the only district in the entire proposed map that was drawn in a way that would favor a potential Democrat candidate against a Republican incumbent, while all of the others sought to shore up Republican incumbent-held seats.
   
• Activists believe House leadership is using the proposed district boundaries as a punishment for Cason, who voted against Speaker Dade Phelan at the start of the legislative session.
   
• The committee did alter House District 70 in Collin County. In the original proposed map, the district was – as it currently is – drawn as a Republican-friendly seat. With incumbent Scott Sanford of McKinney having announced his retirement, the committee re-drew the boundaries yesterday to give Democrats an edge there in 2022. If the map is adopted, it could mark the first time Democrats have held a Collin County seat in the Texas House in more than two decades.

George Soros Pumps Half-Million into Austin PAC

• Amid a two-year public safety disaster in Austin, far-left New York billionaire George Soros has again arrived on the scene, this time to block Austinites from restoring law enforcement funding. Jacob Asmussen has the details.
   
• Late last month, Soros poured $500,000 into Equity PAC, a leftist organization trying to stop the upcoming Proposition A on Austin’s November election ballot. The proposition is designed to overturn the Democrat-run city council’s decision to defund the police.

Y’All Answered

Yesterday’s One Click Survey noted that quorum-busting Democrats still have not been penalized by the Republican majority for obstructing Texas’ legislative sessions this summer. We asked: “Republicans could do that during this third special session; should they?” Of the respondents, 97.93% want House Republicans to penalize the Democrats, while 2.07% do not.

Here’s a sampling of the emails that came in…

• “Why is it that there are more RINO Republicans in our state House than Conservatives?” – Gary Hunt

       
• “Any quorum busting Democrat should lose their chairmanship.  I would question why, with our majority, they even have them to begin with.” – Robert Bruce
      
• “Hell, yes the Democrats should be penalized! I'm pretty sure if I and some co-workers took an unauthorized roadtrip from our jobs, causing our employers business to shut down for several weeks, we wouldn't get paid for it. I'm pretty sure the customers wouldn't cheer for us, either. Politics is a clown world even more than usual.” – Curtis Shrum
      
• “Then, once the Democrats have been adequately punished, punish the ‘republicans’ who allowed the criminals to get away with their lawless behavior.” – Charles McCord
      
• “Though the punishment of the Disappearing Dems should have been swift and severe there is no valid reason to simply ignore this behavior… At a minimum they should be stripped of committee chair positions and have to personally return the per diem they collected while away avoiding the work of the state of Texas - the thing they were elected to do.” – Melynda Caudle
      
• “Failure to do your job without consequence is the heartbeat of socialism.” – Jim and Melissa Hughes
      
• “It is unfortunate that most of our politicians are pretty poor examples of real leadership. No quarter for the dems, they need to suffer some consequences.” – Steve Abernathy
      
• “It seems to me the RINOs and Democrats are running/ruining Texas and that includes Greg Abbott.” – Wanda Dietel
       
• “They should absolutely be penalized.  Otherwise, with no consequences,  they'll do it again & again.” – Mary Philio
       
• “Too many Republicans refuse to do the right thing and are more concerned about the democrats than the people they claim to represent.” – Joey Ketchersid

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