Good morning, 

I kind of suspected readers would have strong opinions about the 2020 election… and y’all do! Find out more at the end of today’s Texas Minute. 

But first… here is what’s leading the news in the Lone Star State for Wednesday, Oct. 26, 2022.

– Michael Quinn Sullivan 

2.7 Million Illegal Border Crossings

• This has been a record-breaking year… for illegal border crossings. Sydnie Henry has the details.
     
• There were 227,547 encounters on the southwest border for the month of September (the highest ever recorded in September), bringing the total number of southwest border encounters to 2,378,944 for federal FY22. This brought the nationwide total to a never-before-seen 2,766,582.
      
• The National Border Patrol Council said this year’s number is only a warning sign of what is coming under the Biden administration.
       
• “If you think the lawlessness at the border and the millions illegally crashing it has been bad during Biden's term so far, wait until the numbers keep rolling in for this FY. Already shattering records again. We said months ago he was just getting started. And he was.” – National Border Patrol Council

Three Dozen Counties Declare Border Invasions

• Nearly three dozen Texas counties have declared invasions of the state and called on Gov. Greg Abbott to secure the southern border. Sydnie Henry reports that the latest county to do so is Navarro County, south of Dallas.
      
• In a unanimous decision by the commissioners court, Navarro County declared, “The ongoing immigration crisis on the Texas border is not acceptable and may constitute an invasion having resulted in security threat[s] and a humanitarian disaster with overwhelming consequences to the residents of Texas.”
      

• However, some Republican-led counties are refusing to declare an invasion, despite prodding from local citizens. In Waller County, one citizen brought the invasion declaration before the commissioners court multiple times. Despite this, the Republican-dominated court has refused to take up the issue. A similar situation occurred in Medina County in August and in Hood County just a few weeks later.
     

• (Find the list of counties that have declared an invasion at the end of the article on our website.)

State Agency Refuses Interview Request From Chris Salcedo

• The Texas Department of State Health Services is avoiding an interview with national conservative journalist and Texas Scorecard podcaster Chris Salcedo, as questions continue to arise around the agency’s handling of COVID requirements for children proposed by a federal bureaucracy. Brandon Waltens has the story.
      
• Salcedo had requested an interview with DSHS interim commissioner Dr. Jennifer Shuford. That was denied because the agency’s spokesman – Chris Van Deusen – doesn’t like Salcedo’s politics.
       
• “After listening to the show, it sounds like you make everything about politics, so we’ll have to pass,” wrote Van Deusen, a Democrat who makes $95,000 per year as the DSHS director of media relations.
      
• Salcedo isn’t pleased. “The idea that conservative ‘political shows’ are denied interviews of Texas officials based on politics is discriminatory, unfair, and lacks recognition that our tax dollars fund these agencies too. Not to put too fine a point on this, but the diseases we all face don’t follow political boundaries; our Texas public health agencies shouldn’t either.”
      
• The agency’s action was decried by the chairman of the Republican Party of Texas, Matt Rinaldi: “There is a lot of rot in TX agencies.”
      
• DSHS is headed by appointees of Gov. Greg Abbott, whose office did not return requests for comment.

Round Rock ISD Board of Trustees Breaks Quorum to Avoid Parent Complaints

• Rather than hear a complaint from citizens, four members of the Round Rock ISD board of trustees abruptly left their own meeting – breaking the necessary quorum for action. Katy Drollinger has the background and details.
   
• “This strengthens our federal lawsuit by once again demonstrating the ongoing trend and premeditated intent of these malfeasant five board members to silence free speech rights of parents who are critical of the board,” said Jeremy Story, an RRISD parent and taxpayer. “They egregiously stopped me from speaking lawfully a year ago, subsequently unlawfully catalyzed my arrest and jailing, and now are trying to keep me from my lawful right to have a hearing before them about their wrongful actions. This belongs in a communist country, not in America.”

That District Has Lots Of Problems…

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Y’All Answered

Earlier this month, the Rasmussen polling firm found 55 percent of all Americans (and 75 percent of Republicans across the country) believe cheating affected the outcome of the 2020 presidential election.

Yesterday, we asked readers what they believed: 90.3 percent feel cheating affected the results of the 2020 election, compared to 9.7 percent who do not.

Here’s a sample from my inbox…

• “There is no doubt that the Democrat Party has been using questionable tactics to win elections for a long, long time.  The real question should be, ‘Has there ever been an election where the Democrats haven't cheated?’” – Patrick Bell
     

• “Yes, there was cheating in the 2020 presidential election. I don’t know how anyone who has seen the documentary ‘2000 Mules’ could believe otherwise.  Was it enough to swing the election? I’m not convinced.” – Kim Brittain
      

• “Though the fraud was facilitated by activist courts, it was the Republican-dominated legislatures of AZ, WI, MI, PA and GA that betrayed their constituents by rolling over and not defending their constitutional prerogatives.” – Jack Boteler
     

• “With all the well-documented irregularities and outright fraud that occurred in the last election, anyone who doesn't believe that cheating affected the outcome of the 2020 election is as brain-dead as the current occupant of the White House.” – Terry Fokas
      

• “I've seen some of the evidence, but when I watched the returns and saw 70,000 votes disappear on live TV, that's all I needed to be convinced.” – Stacey Pauley
     

• “The Democrats have proven time after time that they, like our other enemies, operate on the premise of ‘the ends justify the means.’ The gloves are off and we need to wake up to the fact that we are in a fight, not a disagreement.” – Ken Bintliff
     

• “I believe cheating occurred at the polls.  The overwhelming amount of cheating, though, that changed the course of the election was the press covering up the issues, specifically Hunter Biden’s laptop!” – Sheree Rose
      

• “Fraud, cheating, illegal voting, however you wish to put it, most certainly played a role in the outcome of the 2020 election. … It is painfully evident that there was cheating!” – Roger Taylor
      

• “The party of the morally bankrupt criminal class has always had a history of cheating, they just outdid themselves in 2020.” – Jane Kappes
      

• “There is no doubt that cheating affected the outcome of the 2020 election.” – Dave Clark
      

• “As long as integrity is bypassed for results, cheating will affect the outcome of elections.” – Arthur Potter
     

• “By illegally and unconstitutionally manipulating and changing state and local election laws, rules, and regulations, Progressives/Democrats used mail-in ballots as the means to commit election fraud.” – Michael Wooten
     

• “If at least 50 percent of [the media] was honest, the 55 percent who believe that cheating in 2020 took place would be much higher!” – John R. Makow
      

• “2020 was definitely stolen. No one has been held accountable despite overwhelming evidence. I’m fed up with this two-tiered justice system in America.” – Jack Smith
      

• “Any serious observer of American political elections would conclude that the election was fraudulently decided.” – Don Estes
     

• “If it was a fair election, why can’t we get a full hearing on the data?” – Scott Jones
       

• “Courts have established the fact that illegal voting occurred in critical races. Cheating affects outcomes. The greater outrage is the justice system’s failure to fully investigate and impose meaningful consequences on the lawbreakers.” – Mark Juelg
       

• “As a retired CPA, I think we lacked sufficient internal control over the mail ballot to render an opinion. Oregon, the first all-mail voting state, also had a rule where you needed 50%-plus of the registered voters to pass a bond measure. It took a few years, but the powers that be figured out they needed to clean up the registration rolls if they ever wanted to see another bond passed.” – Mike Tayloe

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.