Good morning,

On social media and elsewhere, some conservatives are expressing frustrations with the federal government’s premier law enforcement agency, the Federal Bureau of Investigation. This week’s One Click Survey wants to know if you trust the FBI.

Here is the Texas Minute for Tuesday, August 16, 2022.

– Michael Quinn Sullivan 

POLL: Texas Republicans Have Unfavorable View Of FBI

• A statewide poll of Texas Republican primary voters finds 73 percent have an unfavorable view of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
      
• The poll, commissioned by the Defend Texas Liberty PAC, was conducted in the days immediately following the agency’s raid on Donald Trump’s Mar-A-Lago home.

GOP Chairman: FBI Is ‘Corrupt To The Core’

• There is no mistaking how Texas GOP Chairman Matt Rinaldi feels about the FBI: “The FBI is an organization that is completely unhinged, it is a threat to the rule of law in our country, and it needs to be stopped.” Katy Drollinger has the report.
       
• He told Brandon Waltens on The Headline that Americans “shouldn’t be surprised at the lows to which the Biden administration sinks, but this was a crossing of the Rubicon as it comes to the rule of law in America.”
     

• Rinaldi implored Texans to pay attention to upcoming elections, stressing their importance for the country’s future. “We’ve got to fight because we’re in a war right now—a political war for our country. Biden made that clear.”

Record Shift Of Hispanics To GOP

• A new statewide poll of Hispanic voters finds that across all regions of the state, Republicans have overtaken Democrats by two points in party identification and hold a two-point advantage for Congress among the working class. The poll was commissioned by Texas Latino Conservatives. Emily Wilkerson has the details.
     
• The poll found 61 percent of Hispanic voters are bothered by the Democrats’ focusing too much on race and gender, supporting government welfare handouts for people who don’t work, and supporting socialism.
     
• Only 11 percent of Hispanics surveyed said they are satisfied with President Biden’s presidency, and only 40 percent say they approve of his job performance. Fifty-seven percent of survey participants said they disapprove of Biden’s job performance, and 53 percent blame him for the recent inflation and high gas prices.
      
• Among other findings, 57 percent of Hispanics are in favor of increasing border security to stop illegal immigration; in South Texas specifically, the number rose to 60 percent.

True Texas Project Puts Heat On Paxton

• Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is feeling heat from some of his biggest political supporters over a lawsuit. Brandon Waltens has the details. 
   
• Shortly following the constitutional amendment election last November, Texans Uniting for Reform and Freedom, Grassroots America – We The People, and True Texas Project filed a lawsuit challenging what the plaintiffs described as misleading ballot wording on Proposition 2.
     
• The lawsuit alleges that the ballot language that was put before voters—and passed—failed to comply with common law requirements and was substantially misleading due to an omission of the phrase “ad valorem tax increases.” In 2011, virtually the same ballot proposition – including the tax language – was defeated by Texas voters.
      
• After the 2021 lawsuit was filed, TTP leader Julie McCarty says the Office of the Attorney General indicated that they agreed with the lawsuit and would not defend the proposition in court. Now, she says, the A.G. is rapidly changing course.
      
• In an email to her supporters, McCarty wrote: “Initially Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office indicated they agreed with us, but after pressure from Abbott and the DEMOCRAT who drafted the deceptive language, Paxton has now turned against taxpayers in the suit. In fact, he is now rushing to oppose our lawsuit before he has to answer questions from the author of the amendment, a Democrat committee chair and criminal lawyer from the RGV.”
      
• That Democrat is State Rep. Terry Canales of Edinburg, who chairs the House Transportation Committee.
     
• Late Monday afternoon, Paxton’s office disputed the claims. “Our friends at the True Texas Project are unfortunately mistaken.” The office’s statement added, “Any pre-litigation openness to some of the positions TTP was taking on this issue cannot be construed to mean AG Paxton would wholesale decline to represent the SOS.”

Bureaucrats Get Slap On Wrist

• Tarrant County taxpayers hoping to see their local government hold bureaucrats accountable for harassing a private citizen were disappointed. Erin Anderson reports the Tarrant County Appraisal District gave two bureaucrats “slaps on the wrist” for their role in targeting local realtor and tax consultant Chandler Crouch with misleading complaints that have since been dismissed.
   
• Crouch is well known for helping Tarrant County homeowners lower their tax bills by protesting their property appraisals, free of charge.
     
• Of the six members of the board, Rich DeOtte was the lone “no” vote against suspension; he wanted the board to take a stronger action.

Hopper: Winning The Future

• With everyone’s political eyes focused on Washington, D.C., Andy Hopper writes in a new commentary that Texans must reassess the outsized role the federal government plays in our lives.
   
• Rather than who runs the federal leviathan, Hopper says “winning” in the future should instead be judged by whether conservatives “put the federal government back in its box or render it irrelevant.”
     
• “Only with a resolute and bold Texas can America be saved, God willing.” – Andy Hopper

Mayor Pleads Guilty In Public School Corruption Case

• Rodrigo Lopez of Peñitas has pleaded guilty to a federal theft charge after being indicted on June 1 on two counts of fraud. What makes this unique? Lopez has been the town’s mayor. David Vasquez has the story.
     
• Lopez is the latest Hidalgo County public official to be convicted on corruption charges. He admitted to aiding and abetting a La Joya Independent School District employee in defrauding the school district.
     
• Lopez bribed a La Joya Independent School District employee for the approval of more than $70,000 worth of purchases from Xizaka, LLC, a company he owned, from March 2018 through August 2018.

Today In History

On August 16, 1828, the Mexican government authorized the formation of an Irish colony in Texas, along the Nueces River. By 1831, the colonists had laid out a town known as San Patricio de Hibernia. 

ONE CLICK SURVEY

Given recent events, do you trust the Federal Bureau of Investigation?
    

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