Good morning,

Seems like the November election should have been better for conservatives, right? I’ll share some thoughts at the end of today’s Texas Minute.

– Michael Quinn Sullivan 
Friday, Dec. 16, 2022

Expiring Title 42 Order Threatens Texans’ Safety

• On December 21, a Trump-era policy authorized by U.S. Code Title 42 will expire, unleashing a flood of illegal border crossings that threaten the security of all Americans, especially those in Texas. Soli Rice has the details.
      
• The policy allows customs officials to send illegal border crossers from “COVID-19 impacted” areas back across the border without having to process them through the federal court system. Last month, a federal judge ruled that the order violated the Administrative Procedure Act, effectively putting an end to Title 42
      
• Illegal immigration is ramping up ahead of the demise of Title 42, with the El Paso sector of the border seeing over 2,000 illegals crossing the border daily, an increase of 255 percent since October 1.
      
• Chris Russo, the President of Texans for Strong Borders, said that number could grow to “as many as 18,000 illegal crossings every day.”
     
• “Title 42 removals were the last effective tool that U.S. CBP had to remove illegal aliens from the country,” said Russo.  “We should listen to what the open borders activists are saying: the most effective wall was Title 42. It is clear that these groups opposed Title 42 because it worked.”

Cornyn Won’t Call It An Invasion

• When asked about the thousands of illegal aliens crossing the border, U.S. Sen. John Cornyn told reporters he won’t call it an invasion. “I would prefer to call it a humanitarian public safety and public health crisis. I think the word 'invasion' brings up some other connotations that I don't think apply here.”
       
• Dallas businessman Don Huffines, who has pushed for a stronger border response, mocked the senator on social media: “Is he looking to get booed again at the next RPT Convention?”
     
• Booed again? More info here.    

Cornyn’s Endorsement…

• Meanwhile, Sen. Cornyn wants fellow U.S. Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina to run for the GOP presidential nomination. Darrell Frost has that story. For what it is worth, the American Conservative Union gives Scott a 89.86 lifetime rating, while Heritage Action scores him at 84 percent and Conservative Review gives him a 77 percent rating.

LEGISLATURE: Election Protection Efforts

• Election integrity is once again a top priority for Republican voters heading into the 88th Texas Legislative Session that begins on January 10, and GOP lawmakers have already begun filing legislation to make elections more secure.
      
• Erin Anderson reviews the measures filed by lawmakers ahead of the Jan. 10, 2023, start of the session.

📺 WATCH: What To Expect In The Legislative Session

• With the countdown continuing until the Texas Legislature returns, today’s edition of The Headline with Brandon Waltens explores what conservatives can expect from their lawmakers. Special guest Luke Macias discusses the issues he sees on the horizon, and what the Texas GOP is doing to demand results. 
      

• Plus, Robert Montoya joins the show to explain Texas Scorecard’s latest investigative series taking a look at the disfunction inside the Texas Military Department. 
     

• You can watch The Headline on our website, on YouTube or at Rumble.

A “School Choice” Explainer

• Heading into the 2023 legislative session, “school choice” has emerged as a potent issue – by those for it and against it.
     
• Gov. Greg Abbott, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, and the Republican Party of Texas have all expressed their desire to implement education reforms under which “funds follow students.”
      
• As Darrell Frost reports, 31 states – as well as Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C. – all have programs to help parents pay for their children’s education. And no two programs are exactly alike… and many are vastly different. 
     
• In whatever form a proposal takes during Texas’ legislative session, “school choice” seems poised to define – either through passage or failure – education legislation in 2023.

Drag Show Targeting Kids Met with Protests

• A Christmas-themed drag show targeting children at a San Antonio venue drew protesters and counter-protesters this week. Soli Rice has the details.
   
• On one side were those organized by the “This is Texas Freedom Force” in opposition to the sexualization of children. On the other was the armed John Brown Gun Club—an Antifa-affiliated organization—that joined with the Travis Park Church and others in favor of the perversion of children.
      
• Local police remained in front of the doors to the theater, allowing children into the building but keeping the opposing groups of protestors separated.

Teacher Arrested for ‘Improper’ Relationship with Student

• Grand Prairie ISD’s Kendrick Burns is the latest in a series of Texas school employees and officials accused this year of sexual misconduct. The 28-year-old teacher and coach was arrested this week on a second-degree felony charge.
      
• Erin Anderson reports the district notified Grand Prairie Police that Burns had been accused of having an “intimate relationship” with an 18-year-old female student.

Friday Reflection
Better Candidates, Better Voters

There is a lot of finger-pointing nationally about the outcome of the 2022 general election, and rightly so. The economy is in shambles, we’ve dumped a $100 billion this year on a war in eastern Europe without any clear objectives, and parents are horrified to learn what leftists have been pushing on kids in schools. 

Seems like Republicans should have done better. Seems like, but didn’t.

Everyone wants to blame someone. It was Mitch McConnell’s fault! It was Donald Trump’s fault! It was Kevin McCarthy, Rona McDaniel, the Freedom Caucus… Yes, sure. Blame all of them.

Except, maybe, we’re misdirecting where the lionshare of the blame should fall. I would humbly suggest the problem is less with those people I’ve just named as it is with the candidates and, excuse me, but the voters.

And I can say this with some confidence, because in Texas for conservatives the November races all went pretty well. Could have been better, but there were few glaringly horrendous outcomes. Statewide, Republicans earned double-digit victories, whether you are talking about our cautiously establishmentarian governor or our rabble-rousing, Biden-suing attorney general. 

Texas voters grew the lead of Republicans in the congressional delegation as well as in the state house. The Texas Senate could have seen a pick up, but only in a swing seat where the narrow margin almost makes it an elusive moral victory if nothing else.

That was most definitely not the case elsewhere in the union.

I am going to set aside, for this discussion only, the very real problem of election shenanigans that took place in places like Arizona. The corruption, or even just the appearance of corruption, is a different beast that must be addressed separately. 

In too many other races nationally, races were plagued by big-spending candidates picked by outside forces who overwhelmed the better judgment of an often-lazy voting public.

It is not without reason that D.C. used to be called Hollywood for ugly people. We are a celebrity-obsessed culture, and politicians lean heavily into that and trade off it. In our quest for “interesting” candidates, we end up with sub-par – if high-profile – losers as a result. (For what it is worth, the Democrats also have this problem; see Robert “Beto” O’Rourke and Stacey Abrams, for example.)

What gets traded, more often than not, are the citizens’ rights and liberties.

The worst candidates are those whose true loyalties reside away from the people whom they seek to serve. 

The best candidates should be those intent on upsetting the crony culture, not becoming a cog within it. Instead of courting lobbyists, we need intelligent candidates who put individual liberty ahead of political convenience.

Good candidates are those with whom voters identify. It’s not so much about what they say, but how they make voters feel; candidates who make the election about the voters, rather than themselves, are more likely to govern that way. Voters deserve to be heard, and not talked past. Voters don’t need candidates who use them as props, but candidate who will fight to disrupt the status quo.

Rather than seek to serve themselves and pad their own political pockets, we need candidates with a record of serving God and their neighbors. We should be less interested in being friends with candidates, than knowing how familiar they are with the issues of the day. We should promote men and women willing to disrupt the plans of establishmentarians and self-serving cronies.

We must stop asking ourselves if we’d want to have dinner or a beer with a candidate, and ask instead if we believe they are committed to constitutional principles. If voters are going to pick better candidates, we must better understand our own expectations. Rather than meekly accept the policy pablum we’re offered, voters must choose candidates willing to fight for the citizens’ priorities.

For Republicans and conservatives, the problem is less “RINO” or “MAGA” than it is cults of personality and the worship of power. As citizens, we must stop voting as if we’re judges in a talent show. Instead, we must view ourselves as the hiring officers on the committee to save the republic.

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