Good morning,

Lots of 2022 election news in today’s Texas Minute. Fittingly, the One Click Survey will focus on Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton facing the possibility of four opponents in the Republican primary.

– Michael Quinn Sullivan 

Tuesday, November 16, 2021
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O’Rourke Trying For Governor

• Perennial candidate Robert Francis “Beto” O’Rourke announced his 2022 bid for the Texas governorship yesterday, making him the first Democrat to enter the race. Griffin White has the details.
   
• In an attempt to appeal to moderate voters, O’Rourke accused Gov. Greg Abbott of focusing too heavily on “extremist policies around abortion and permit-less carry” and claimed that Texans care more about expanding Medicaid and legalizing marijuana. O’Rourke also used the February winter blackout as an opportunity to ridicule Abbott and encourage Texans to elect “better” leadership. 

• The three Republican gubernatorial candidates challenging Abbott shared their thoughts regarding O’Rourke’s announcement…
     
• “Beto O’Rourke is a radical Leftist whose views on abortion, gun rights, and just about everything else are outright hostile to the values of everyday Texans.”  – Don Huffines
   
• “Here comes the money from the liberal elites and Hollywood. O’Rourke wants your guns, your freedoms, and advocates for an open border and stricter mandates. Texas is in a crisis already. Having him on the ballot is a nightmare in every way.” – Chad Prather
   
• “It’s gonna be a pleasure debating Robert Francis, not so much for him! Texas doesn’t want, or need, an open borders, green new deal, anti-second amendment far left progressive socialist Governor.” – Allen West

• For the next 12 months, O’Rourke will be grifting out-of-state leftists with the promise he can turn Texas blue… with just a little more of their cash.
   
• SPOILER: O’Rourke will lose to whoever Republicans pick as their gubernatorial candidate.

Biden Vax Mandate Gets A Smackdown

• The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals is keeping the Biden Administration’s COVID jab-mandate on hold, calling it “staggeringly overbroad.” Sydnie Henry has the story.
   
• According to 5th Circuit Judge Kurt Engelhardt’s written opinion, “rather than a delicately handled scalpel, the Mandate is a one-size-fits-all sledgehammer that makes hardly any attempt to account for differences in workplaces (and workers) that have more than a little bearing on workers’ varying degrees of susceptibility to the supposedly ‘grave danger’ the Mandate purports to address.”
     
• The 5th Circuit ruling is a scathing review of the federal government’s attempt at a vaccine mandate through the utilization of OSHA’s Emergency Temporary Standard.

South Texas Democrat Switches Parties

• After almost two decades in the Texas House, State Rep. Ryan Guillen (Rio Grande City) is switching parties – following most of his family, who have long urged him to leave the leftist Democrats.
     
• “After much consideration and prayer with my family, I feel that my fiscally conservative, pro-business, and pro-life values are no longer in-step with the Democrat Party of today, and I am proudly running as a Republican to represent House District 31,” said Guillen.
      
• Guillen was the only Democrat to vote for the recently enacted Texas Heartbeat Act, prohibiting an abortion once a fetal heartbeat is detected, and he was one of only two Democrats to vote in favor of constitutional carry legislation as it finally passed the House.
        
• Texans for Fiscal Responsibility’s Fiscal Responsibility Index lists Guillen as the second-highest of the 62-member Democrat Caucus. A Rice University report pegged him as the most conservative Democrat House lawmaker in their index.
   

• Perhaps among Guillen’s motivations to switch parties is that of self-preservation. One of the more notable outcomes of the new district boundaries as a result of the recently completed decennial redistricting process is the partisan shift of Guillen’s district. The new boundaries takes the district from voting 13 points in favor of Clinton in 2016, to voting 13 points in favor of Donald Trump in 2020.

       
• “Rep. Guillen has been a friend for many years, and I am proud to welcome him to the Republican Party. I am confident Republicans in Austin and his constituents in the Rio Grande Valley will welcome him with open arms.” – Texas GOP Chairman Matt Rinaldi

Luther Launches Bid For Texas House

• Hair salon owner and activist Shelley Luther announced she is making a run for the Texas House of Representatives. Brandon Waltens reports she will challenge State Rep. Reggie Smith (R–Van Alstyne) for the North Texas seat spanning Grayson, Fannin, Delta, and Franklin counties.
   

• Luther made headlines last year for opening her Dallas hair salon in defiance of state and local shutdown orders. As a result, Luther was jailed for two days until the Texas Supreme Court intervened. Since then, she has become a leading figure of the movement against onerous government mandates issued in response to the Chinese coronavirus.

Retirements & Resignations

• For those of you interested in tracking such things, Jeramy Kitchen has put together a Google spreadsheet of all the open seats in the Texas House and Senate.
       
• By the numbers… 20 in House (13 Republicans & seven Democrats), and four in Senate (three Rs and 1 D).

A&M Puts Students On Probation For Refusing COVID Test

• Students who did not get tested for COVID-19 by September 10 are now being placed on “conduct probation” pending further sanctions by the university. As Griffin White reports, some students felt no need to be tested since they exhibited no symptoms or because they had previously been diagnosed with and recovered from COVID-19.
   
• The letter sent to violating students can be viewed on our website.

Swords And Flames 

• At the Conservative Leader Awards dinner, outstanding grassroots activists – nominated by their peers – are honored with engraved cavalry swords. Their stories and efforts will inspire you!
   
• The event is topped off with the presentation of the Torch of Freedom, presented to that person who has stepped boldly forward in the advancement of liberty. Who will receive the Torch this year?
     
• Find out on Dec. 4 in Irving... Get your tickets today!

Quote-Unquote

“Life, liberty, and property do not exist because men have made laws. On the contrary, it was the fact that life, liberty, and property existed beforehand that caused men to make laws in the first place.”

– Frédéric Bastiat​​

One Click Survey

In what could be the most crowded race on the 2022 GOP Primary ballot, four challengers are lining up against the incumbent Attorney General Ken Paxton. If the Republican Primary were held today, who would you support?
 

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

Today In History

On Nov. 16, 1907, Oklahoma became the 46th state in the union.