Good morning!

Some believe the primaries in Texas should be closed to only those voters who identify themselves with the party ahead of election day. What do you think? That’s the subject of today’s One Click Survey.

Here is the Texas Minute for Monday, May 10, 2022.

– Michael Quinn Sullivan 

Life Matters

• Hearing all the yelling from the left the last few days, I wonder why Democrats are afraid of abortion laws being decided by voters and their elected representatives? Why is judicial fiat superior to laws created in public debate?

In Their Words: Vaccine Mandates

• With 34 Republican candidates in the May runoff elections for the state Legislature, Texas Scorecard asked about their stance on vaccine mandates.
       
• The answers – or, in some cases, unwillingness to answer – are informative.
     
• The primary runoff is May 24. Early voting runs from May 16 to May 20.

Runoff Preview: Gurski and Leo-Wilson In House District 23

• Patrick Gurski and Terri Leo-Wilson are competing to represent southeast Texas in the state House, covering Chambers and part of Galveston County. The district is currently represented by Mayes Middleton, who was promoted to the Texas Senate by GOP voters in March. Sydnie Henry has the details.
      
• Gurski is a veteran, criminal law attorney, and former legislative staffer. He has raised just under $60,000 in his campaign and has been endorsed by Gov. Greg Abbott.
      
• Leo-Wilson is a former State Board of Education Member and State Republican Executive Committee member who has been active in Republican politics for more than 40 years. Her campaign is mostly self-funded. She has been endorsed by every member of the Texas House Freedom Caucus, including the incumbent Middleton, and numerous conservative grassroots organizations.
        
• Check out the article to see where the candidates stand on various issues – though Gurski declined to answer several questions. 

Voters Approve State Property Tax Propositions

• In Saturday’s special election, more than 80 percent of Texas voters approved two ballot propositions focused on lowering property tax rates. Katy Drollinger has the wrap-up.

Parents Fight Back… And Win

• School media has been dominated in recent months by reports of school district employees in Texas pushing radical leftist agendas in classrooms and libraries. On Saturday, parents fought back in elections around the state.
        
• Conservative-backed candidates rocked the education establishment in Saturday’s local elections in the DFW Metroplex. Erin Anderson reports liberal incumbents and candidates backed by bureaucracy insiders were rejected by voters in multiple high-profile races across the region.
     
• “This is a national movement of parents all over the country who are tired of the liberal agenda in our schools and the fiscal irresponsibility that Texas taxpayers have had to pay for,” said Kathy May, a Keller mom and grassroots activist for parental rights in education.
       
• The former president of the left-leaning Texas Association of School Boards, Jim Rice, lost his seat on the Fort Bend ISD board of trustees. TASB is the local affiliate of the National School Boards Association, which referred to parents as “domestic terrorists” last year. So far, TASB has refused to resign from the NSBA despite repeated calls from Texas elected officials and the resignations of multiple other state boards, including California, from the NSBA.
      
• In Canyon ISD, outside Amarillo, voters defeated an incumbent school board candidate – replacing her with a pro-parent businessman. Paul Blake won with 62 percent of the vote, vocally supporting the importance of parents having a greater role in their children’s education.
       
• It’s almost like parents are sending their kids to school with the expectation they will be educated, not indoctrinated…
      
• Meanwhile, a package of four proposed bond items for Amarillo Independent School District was rejected by voters on Saturday night. As Thomas Warren reports, this is the first time Amarillo voters have defeated a school bond proposal.

School District Pushed Employees To Support Billion-Dollar Bond

• More than 100 local districts placed a combined $16 billion in property tax-backed debt on the May 7 ballot. In one San Antonio-area school district, employees were pressured – some even characterized it as having been “intimidated” – into supporting a massive $992 million bond. Brandon Waltens has the details.
       

• National school reform champion Corey DeAngelis was sent copies of internal emails showing the district’s efforts to shame employees into voting for the measures.
     
• It is a violation of the Texas Education Code for school districts to use taxpayer resources to distribute messages to their staff and the public advocating for or against political candidates and measures.
   
• Gov. Greg Abbott responded to the negative national publicity. He said that if a crime occurred, he would work with the Attorney General’s Office on investigating the matter.

One Click Survey

Under current law, Texans do not declare a party at the time they register to vote. Any Texan can vote in either (though only one) party primary, and anyone who hasn’t voted in any primary is eligible to vote in the runoffs of any party.

Some have suggested “closing” the party primaries – that is, requiring voters to declare which primary they will participate in during the voter registration period leading up to the party primaries.

Should Texas’ party primaries be “closed”?

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

Today In History

On May 10, 1869, the Transcontinental Railroad was officially completed in Promontory, Utah.