Good morning,

In today’s Texas Minute you’ll learn about the race for Agriculture Commissioner, and then we’d appreciate getting your thoughts on the candidates in the One Click Survey.

– Michael Quinn Sullivan 

Tuesday, November 30, 2021
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But First… It’s Giving Tuesday!

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McConaughey Not Running

• After almost a year of speculation he might run for governor, actor Matthew McConaughey has taken his name off the table. Griffin White has the story.

Agricultural Contest

• Just two weeks out from the candidate filing deadline for the 2022 election cycle, it appears Texas Republicans will find themselves choosing between two well-known conservatives in a head-to-head matchup for the position of Texas agriculture commissioner. Jeramy Kitchen breaks down the race.
   
• The incumbent Republican Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller was first elected to the position in 2014 after having previously served as a lawmaker in the Texas House of Representatives from 2003 to 2013. Miller publicly criticized Gov. Greg Abbott’s handling of the severe winter weather that paralyzed the state in February. 
     
• State Rep. James White (R-Hillister) has served in the Texas House of Representatives for six legislative sessions, after first being elected in the fall of 2010. White is the current chairman of the House Homeland Security and Public Safety Committee, which was instrumental in passing constitutional carry legislation earlier this year.
   
• Also in the GOP race is Carey Counsil, a rancher and U.S. Air Force veteran from Brenham. A political newcomer, Counsil filed for the position on Monday.

Krause: No Reason Why Gov. Abbott & State Officials Won’t Act to Ban Child Mutilation in Texas

• Last week State Rep. Matt Krause (R-Haslett) called out Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton for delaying a legal opinion on whether genital mutilation is child abuse. On the Luke Macias Show episode airing today, Krause said he also cannot explain why Gov. Greg Abbott and House GOP leaders have refused to take legislative action on an issue which finds adults coercing children into gender reassignment procedures.
      
• You can listen to the full episode here.
      
• Meanwhile, Jacob Asmussen covers the interview and provides additional background. At issue are gender mutilation operations: currently in Texas, medical professionals are allowed to cut off children’s healthy body parts as part of gender surgeries or chemically castrate them through sterilizing cross-sex hormones and puberty blocker drugs.

Saving James

• The issue drew an international spotlight to Texas with the child abuse case of James Younger, a 9-year-old Dallas area boy whose mother told him he was a girl and wanted to force him—against his father’s wishes—to take sterilizing drugs and eventually be castrated. Meet James in Texas Scorecard’s short documentary ‘Saving James.’

Harris County Sued For Disenfranchising Republican Voters

• A group of Harris County voters is suing to stop Democrats’ redistricting plan for county commissioners, alleging the new maps unconstitutionally strip them and more than a million of their neighbors of their legal right to vote in next year’s county elections. Check out the report by Erin Anderson.
   
• Plaintiffs include three minority voters who stand to be disenfranchised by new district lines, along with the county’s two Republican commissioners, Tom Ramsey and Jack Cagle. The redistricting scheme proposed by Commissioner Rodney Ellis, one of three Democrats on the Harris County Commissioners Court, is designed to increase Democrats’ control over the county government to a 4-1 majority.
     
• “The Ellis map moves over a million Harris County voters who did not get to vote for commissioner last year to a new precinct where they won’t get to vote for commissioner next year, either. Those voters will have gone six years without the right to vote for a county commissioner, when they’re entitled to vote for commissioner every four years,” explained Alan Vera, a plaintiff in the lawsuit.

Open Senate District 31 Race Expands

• Two new candidates have emerged in the race to replace retiring State Sen. Kel Seliger (R–Amarillo) in West Texas’ Senate District 31. Thomas Warren reports former FBI agent Tim Reid and attorney Jesse Quackenbush join Midland businessman Kevin Sparks and Coahoma ISD Trustee Stormy Bradley in the Republican Primary.

Rice University Requires COVID Vax

• Rice University has updated their campus COVID-19 policy on vaccinations from voluntary to mandatory for all employees, unless exempted, per the Biden administration’s federal contractor vaccine mandate. Sydnie Henry has the details.
   
• Despite being a private institution, Rice University accepts federal contracts and believes they must meet the January 4 deadline of having all full-time and part-time employees – including hourly student workers – vaccinated for COVID-19.
   

• Despite Gov. Greg Abbott’s executive order prohibiting employers from mandating vaccinations, many employers in Texas are choosing to follow the directives of the Biden administration. Currently, 25 Texas legislators, the Republican Party of Texas, and all of Gov. Abbott’s Republican primary challengers—Don Huffines, Chad Prather, and Allen West—are calling for a fourth special session to address the issue of medical freedom.

ONE CLICK SURVEY

The incumbent Commissioner of Agriculture, Sid Miller, is being challenged in the Texas GOP primary by outgoing State Rep. James White of Hillister and political newcomer Carey Counsil. Who do you support?

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

Today In History

Winston Churchill was born Nov. 30, 1874.