Good morning!

You know who Democrats don’t want looking at school curriculum? Parents! At least, that’s what the skateboarding grifter they have running for governor said at a recent campaign stop…

Here is the Texas Minute for Thursday, August 4, 2022.

– Michael Quinn Sullivan 

Cruz: Border Will Go Republican

• U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz believes the “absolute disaster” taking place at the southern border has put the state and nation “on the verge of a generational shift.” Katy Drollinger has the story.
    
• Cruz believes the worsening border crisis will push South Texas—an area that is traditionally Democrat—to elect conservatives.
      
• “I sat down at a roundtable with law enforcement, with sheriffs, with elected Democrats, and one after the other, they described the horrific consequences,” said Cruz. “The hospitals are all full. The schools are overflowing. The jails are overflowing. They’re seeing infectious disease spreading. They’re encountering children, thousands upon thousands of children, horribly assaulted by the cartels and the human traffickers.”
   
• Cruz made his remarks in an interview with Chris Salcedo on the popular Salcedo Storm podcast. Salcedo also hosts a daily show on Newsmax.

• NOTE: There is a 100% chance of a STORM coming from Texas Scorecard on August 15… Stay tuned for more details!

Unlike Texas, Arizona On Track To Declare Border Invasion

• Upsetting country club elitists in Arizona and around the country, Kari Lake has won the highly competitive race for the GOP nomination for governor there. As Brandon Waltens reports, Lake has said that on “Day 1” she intends to declare an invasion on the state’s border with Mexico.
     
• Next, Lake has said, “we’re going to blow up the drug tunnels and I don’t care if there’s a Narco-Terrorist in there when we do it.” She will now face Democrat Katie Hobbs in the November general election.
     
• So far, Gov. Greg Abbott has been reluctant to take such an action in the Lone Star State, despite calls for him to do so from the Republican Party of Texas, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, and several Texas border counties.
     
• Arizona shares 370 miles of border with Mexico, compared to Texas’ 1,254-mile stretch. Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich has released an official opinion supporting the legality of the invasion declaration; Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has refused requests to do so.

Slaton Wants To Finish Trump’s Border Wall

• Texas State Rep. Bryan Slaton (R–Royse City) announced his intention to refile legislation requiring the State of Texas to finish the border wall started during Donald Trump’s first term as president. Jake Peterson has the details.
        
• “The Texas border has never been secure, and now that Joe Biden has been president, it’s worse than it has ever been. Hundreds of miles of wall were built under President Donald Trump’s leadership,” said Slaton. “It’s time for Texas to step up and finish the job President Trump started.”
      
• When the bill was first filed in 2021 by Slaton, it was killed by State Affairs Committee chairman, Chris Paddie (R–Marshall), who has since left office.

O’Rourke: ‘We Don’t Need Parents’…

• Robert Francis “Beto” O’Rourke is the gift that keeps giving. The Republican National Committee posted video from a recent O’Rourke campaign stop in which he railed against parental involvement in public education. He said, in part, “We don’t need” parents telling schools they can’t teach critical race theory in the classroom.
     
• Apparently, O’Rourke didn’t pay attention to what happened to Democrats in Virginia when they took this approach…
      
• Republicans can only hope every single Democrat in Texas shouts this losing message between now and November.

Teacher Gets Just 60 Days In Jail For Sexually Abusing Student

• A former teacher in the Tomball Independent School District, Marka Bodine, is getting just 60 days in jail after admitting to having a sexual relationship with a 13-year-old boy… who was one of her sixth-grade students. Juliana Berg has the story.
        
• Prosecutors called for a sentence of 20-40 years in prison. However, Harris County Judge George Glass handed Bodine the greatly reduced sentence this week. She will not serve the two-month sentence immediately because she just had a baby, which police say is not the child of the student. Bodine will be required to register as a sex offender.
      
• Several citizens have expressed outrage at the lenient sentence, with one citizen calling it “a slap on the wrist for a sick individual,” while another argues that “probation shouldn’t be an option for child molesters.”

Lubbock City Council Wants Much Higher Taxes

• Despite record economic growth and higher-than-expected sales tax increases, the city of Lubbock says it needs to raise residents’ property taxes next year in order to collect enough money to fund its spending plans. As Erin Anderson reports, even though the city is proposing a lower “rate,” high property tax appraisals mean property owners will have much higher tax bills.
      
• Local governments that adopt a rate higher than the statutorily defined “No New Revenue Rate” are levying a tax increase even if the “rate” is a lower number. That is because property tax burdens are the rate times the appraised value. 
     
• Other cities across Texas are also in the process of finalizing budgets and setting property tax rates. Citizens are encouraged to contact their local officials and attend those public hearings.

Building The Next Generation

• Our friends at the Texas Home School Coalition are now accepting applications for their Watchmen program at the Texas Capitol. Among other things, the role of a THSC Watchman is to track bills filed in the Texas Legislature and analyze them for content that affects Texas families and homeschoolers. Their application deadline is August 14!
        
• Meanwhile… applications are still being accepted for Texas Scorecard’s Fall 2022 Fellowship program. We are also taking applications for the spring and summer 2023 courses. 

Your Federal & State Lawmakers

The districts displayed here should reflect those recently redrawn by the Legislature. Though the new lines do not take representational effect until 2023, they will appear on the 2022 ballot. Please note that your incumbent legislator and/or district numbers may have changed.