Good morning, 

Today marks the 47th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Roe v Wade decision, which has resulted in the murder of more than 61 million babies. We must not remain silent when morality demands we protest this national sin.

Here is today's Texas Minute.

– Michael Quinn Sullivan 

Wednesday, January 22, 2020
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• A West Texas congressional candidate recently told an audience that an overseas work trip prevented him from voting in the crucial 2018 general election. However, official records do not appear to corroborate Brandon Batch’s story. As Matt Stringer reports, Batch claimed he didn’t vote in 2018 because he was to “go and meet with foreign dignitaries abroad” on behalf of his employer, U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas). Yet records not only show no foreign travel for Batch on McCaul’s behalf, congressional records also show he stopped working for McCaul months before the November election.
       
• When confronted with the contradiction, Batch said he was confusing the 2018 election with 2016 – when he also didn’t vote. Yet that story doesn’t work, either. Congressional records do not appear to show any privately or taxpayer-funded trips for him on behalf of the congressman during the November 2016 General Election. Batch’s only congressional travel in 2016 was a trip he took in February of that year to meet with Colombian officials.
      
• Perhaps Batch will try a third time to tell the truth?
      
• The Arlington Chamber of Commerce recently sent a letter to its members in support of policies allowing it and local governments to continue using tax dollars to lobby state lawmakers. Ross Kecseg reports the Arlington chamber’s attempt to defend the immoral practice provided the correct arguments for banning it.
        
• “Those who oppose taxpayer-funded lobbying describe it as greedy bureaucrats spending taxpayer money to get more power to raise the taxes of those same taxpayers.” – Statement from the Arlington Chamber of Commerce
       
• Of course, that’s exactly what’s done. The Texas Municipal League, a lobby organization funded by taxpayer dollars, recently described increasing taxes as “shake the money tree” in a confidential presentation to city officials.

• Recognizing the clear choice voters will have on the March primary ballot between a proven grassroots conservative and a Washington swamp creature,  Texans for Fiscal Responsibility has endorsed its first candidate against an incumbent U.S. representative.
      
• Cary Cheshire announced TFR’s endorsement of Chris Putnam in Texas’ Congressional District 12 against incumbent Rep. Kay Granger in the Republican Primary. 
      
• “Chris Putnam is a conservative activist who ran for public office on a reform agenda, accomplished it, and went back to being a private citizen... Chris Putnam has shown what credentialed conservative reformers can do in public office, and we are proud to endorse him in his campaign.” – Ross Kecseg
       
• “A 23-year incumbent lawmaker, Granger is the epitome of the swamp, with a record of being one of the most liberal Republicans in Washington. But Granger’s problems don’t stop with her voting record; her son J.D. Granger is directly profiting as the head of a tax-funded economic development boondoggle that would make Hunter Biden blush.” – Cary Cheshire

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