Greetings Citizen Advocates:

What an exciting week at the Capitol!  I'm just thrilled about the possibilities and potential of this session.  In spite of the fact that we lost our first 2 battles of the session (election of the Speaker and Banning Dem Chairs), we saw some allies come out during the debate and the votes, and we now know who is on our side and who is not.

The week started with opening day swearing in and vote on the Speaker of the House.  Tony Tinderholt challenged Dade Phelan for the position, and we send big thanks yous and kudos to Tony for doing this.  It took courage, and we appreciate him for accepting the challenge.  Only 3 members voted for Tony - Slaton, Schatzline, and Tinderholt.  Tuesday morning, our TTP Citizen Advocates were all over the building, praying with legislators and each other.  In the afternoon, we gathered in the conference room for legislative briefings from TFVC, and Jill Glover.  Additional briefings happened on Wednesday with TURF and TX Right to Life.

We had thousands of patriots planning to go to the Capitol on Thursday for the vote on the Rules package, including the amendment to ban Democrat chairs in committees.  And, as some of us suspected he would, Speaker Phelan gave us all a slap in the face, and scheduled the Rules vote for Wednesday.  There were still quite a few folks there on Wednesday, cheering on our hero, Bryan Slaton, but it was disappointing that most of us missed it.

But do we back down?  No we do not!!!  The faithful grassroots folks showed up on Thursday anyway and we sent a HUGE message to the establishment.  We're not going away, and we deserve to be heard.  The gallery was full of red shirts on all 4 sides!  When Tony Tinderholt and Bryan Slaton came into the gallery to talk with us and shake hands, the people broke out in cheers and applause (much to the chagrin of the Sergeant At Arms who kept insisting that we sit down and be quiet.)  Early that morning, our TTP Patriots picked up TTP Leg Priority sheets to deliver to legislators.

In the afternoon, Jill Glover and the RPT held a press conference on the north lawn, to let everyone know that we are not backing down and we are not going away.  Our people completely covered the area with red shirts! 

My favorite quote from Jill, "Speaker Phelan just rolled over and played dead." Perfect description of what happened! If you'd like to view the press conference, you can see it here on YouTube. 

WHAT'S NEXT?

Lots of things going on for January.  Here's a summary:

Jan 17 - Inauguration Day. 

• 11:00 am North Steps:  Governor and Lt Governor take the oath of office.  Public is welcome but unless you have tickets, it's standing room only.
• 12:15 pm South Lawn:  Taste of Texas Lunch (multiple Austin Vendors, kid friendly)  Requires a ticket for $10 per person which you can buy here. 
• Attend whichever events you wish on this day.  Meet in the Rotunda at 2:00 pm for Citizen Advocate assignments for the afternoon.  We'll finish up by 4:00

Jan. 24 - Two All Day Activities

• 10:00 am to 5:00 pm, Committee Rm E1.016:  Texas First (with Sen. Hall) Legislative Briefing on making Texas elections Accurate, Safe and Transparent.  We'd like as many people as possible to attend this event to show support.  Sen. Hall will be filing several bills to improve election security (including ditching the machines and going to paper ballots).  Please attend if you can. There will be tons of information for you to use with legislators when it's time to convince them to vote for the bills. (I will not be there as I've committed to the other event that day)
• 8:00 am to 5:00 pm, Bullock Museum:  the Texan.News 88th Session kickoff briefing.  This event is a paid event and needs a ticket.  You can purchase a ticket here.

Jan. 25

• 10:30 am Rotunda:  Meet up with me and Matt Long (Fredericksburg Tea Party).  We'll have a plan of action for you to do some legislative visits.
• 1:00 to 3:00 pm South Steps:  Texans for Vaccine Choice will hold their Freedom Fight event with amazing speakers including Del Bigtree.  Wear your TFVC shirts if you have one or a red shirt if you don't have one.  Please come out and support our friends Rebecca Hardy, Christine Wellborn, and Michelle Evans as they work to preserve medical freedoms.

Jan. 31

10:30 am in the Rotunda:  Anyone who wants to work, gather with me and Matt Long (Fredericksburg Tea Party) in the Rotunda, and we'll have assignments for you.  I'm working on setting up a short training session for this day.  More information to follow.

Thanks to everyone who came out this week. I was so proud to see so many TTP at the Capitol, working the system and making their voices heard. Special thanks to Kathy Ponce for setting up the legislative briefings with the organizations.  We have much work to do in the coming weeks.  Please consider joining us whenever possible.  I know you won't regret going, you'll learn some things, and you'll have the satisfaction of knowing that you showed up, stood up, and spoke up.

For Texas,

Fran Rhodes, President