Good morning –

I’ll be heading to the polls today to early-vote in the constitutional amendment election. At TexasScorecard.com you can find my thoughts about the statewide propositions.

Here is today's Texas Minute.

– Michael Quinn Sullivan 

Thursday, October 21, 2021
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Patrick & Abbott Feud Over 4th Special

• The carefully coiffed relationship between Gov. Greg Abbott and his lieutenant governor, Dan Patrick, appeared a bit disheveled yesterday. Jeramy Kitchen has the details.
   
• It began with Lt. Gov. Patrick expressing his frustration that the Senate has passed numerous conservative priorities, only for them to be blocked by the Texas House – which is helmed by Speaker Dade Phelan. (In the Capitol, it is well understood that Phelan operates almost exclusively at the direction of Gov. Abbott.)
   
• Patrick then called for a fourth special session to be set that would address a major problem created by the Legislature (both chambers) and signed into law by Gov. Abbott: the severe weakening of the state’s voter fraud laws. House Republicans ushered in a Democrat-favored amendment to downgrade ballot-related crimes from felonies to misdemeanors. Everyone in the Legislature tried to look the other way, as evidenced by the Senate passing those weakened provisions, but when a watchdog group exposed it they all had to pretend to care. Speaker Phelan refused to take up the “fix” proposed by the Senate.
     
• Patrick also wants a fourth special session to address President Donald Trump’s call for a full audit of the 2020 election. (After taking Trump’s endorsement this summer – an endorsement Trump made at Patrick’s insistence, reportedly – Abbott has mostly ignored the former president.) The Office of the Secretary of State (despite being vacant) issued a statement on Abbott’s behalf trying to claim a previously scheduled audit would satisfy the MAGA movement. It didn’t. 
     
• After Patrick made his pitch, an Abbott spokesperson responded: “Texans tasked the Legislature with delivering key priorities for the state in the most recent special session, including property tax relief, redistricting, and the nearly $16 billion American Rescue Plan Act funding, and we went above and beyond to deliver on these priorities as well as solve other critical issues for Texas. Because of the Texas House and Senate’s efforts to get these priorities across the finish line, there is no need for another special session at this time.”

Republican Party of Texas Opposes Proposition 2

• The State Republican Executive Committee, which is the governing body overseeing the Republican Party of Texas, voted unanimously this week to oppose the constitutional amendment proposition 2. Griffin White has the story.
   
• The SREC described the proposition as violating free-market principles, increasing local debt, and creating new management districts with the authority to tax—all of which are actions that diverge from Republican Party principles.
   
• FWIW, I oppose Prop 2 also. Same reasons.

Texas House Honors Pro-Abortion & Transgender Activists

• While state lawmakers continue to allow child mutilation operations in Texas, Jacob Asmussen reports the Republican-controlled Texas House of Representatives ended the third special session by celebrating the activists who support those and other barbaric practices.
   
• As the special session ended, the House voted to approve a list of resolutions—a common occurrence in which they congratulate certain Texans for special achievements, memorialize those who’ve passed away, and highlight other noteworthy events. Yet this list was different – it was filled with resolutions applauding individuals who promote abusive sexual behavior, the legalization of baby killing, and disfiguring “gender” procedures on children.
   
• Not a single lawmaker verbally objected to these resolutions.

Hopper Challenges Stucky In HD64

• The co-founder of the Wise County Conservatives has announced his GOP primary challenge to incumbent State Rep. Lynn Stucky (R–Sanger). Robert Montoya has the details.
      
• Hopper, a warrant officer in the Texas State Guard, made waves earlier this year when he exposed a training session of the TSG “to indoctrinate a left-wing political agenda of cultural Marxism, critical race theory, and moral relativism upon” the Texas military force. Unlike the Texas Army National Guard, the TSG answers only to the Texas governor, not any federal authority.
     
•  Stucky’s ratings with conservative groups puts him in the lower end of the GOP caucus, having earned a rating of 51 out of 100 from Texans for Fiscal Responsibility and 65 out of 100 from Young Conservatives of Texas. On the other hand, he rated 100 out of 100 from Texas Right to Life.

Teacher To Students: Hide Books From Parents

• A leftwing propagandist masquerading as an educator is getting a “letter of reprimand” from Tarrant County’s Carroll Independent School District for allegedly telling a student not to show parents what books are in her classroom library without permission.
   
• The book, as one might imagine, is itself a leftwing screed.

Faced With Challenge, Seliger Leaves Senate

• State Sen. Kel Seliger (R–Amarillo) will not be seeking re-election in 2022, reports Thomas Warren, turning the Senate District 31 seat into an open contest for the first time in nearly two decades. 
   
• Seliger, one of the Senate’s most liberal Republicans, was facing an uphill climb for re-election. His chief primary opponent, Midland businessman Kevin Sparks, has already been endorsed by President Trump and a bevy of influential leaders in West Texas. 
   
• “I look forward to the opportunity to meet with and earn the votes of the hardworking families of Senate District 31,” Sparks told Texas Scorecard yesterday. The only other candidate in the GOP race now is Coahoma ISD Trustee Stormy Bradley.

Southwest Airlines Diverts Course On Vax Push

• Texas-based Southwest Airlines is backing away from a plan to fire employees who don’t participate in the COVID “vaccination” treatments. Sydnie Henry reports the change comes amid increasing pressure from employees and concerned citizens.
   
• The airline now says it will allow un-vaxxed employees to continue their work with accommodations, rather than being placed on unpaid leave.

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