MRT: Runoff Election Day; Fearless Predictions; 8 GOP County Parties Censure Abbott; Biden Airs TX Ads; TX GOP Convention Moves Online
Here's What You Need to Know in Texas Today.
MustReadTexas.com – @MustReadTexas
BY: @MattMackowiak
TUESDAY – 07/14/20
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Please note: It's Runoff election day and the polls are open until 7pm.
TOP NEWS
"Lawyer: El Paso shooting suspect has 'mental disabilities'," AP's Jake Bleiberg -- "Lawyers for a man charged with shooting scores of people in a racist attack at a Texas Walmart say their client has diagnosed mental disabilities that should be a “red flag” for federal prosecutors considering whether to seek the death penalty.
Patrick Crusius “has been diagnosed with severe, lifelong neurological and mental disabilities” and was treated with antipsychotic medication following his arrest moments after the massacre in El Paso, his attorneys wrote in a court filing.
The shooting left dozens wounded and ultimately killed 23 people. Soon after it, Crusius’ lawyers say, jail mental health staff found the 21-year-old to be in a “psychotic state.”
Crusius’ mental health conditions, which have not been previously reported, were revealed in a request by his lawyers for more time to investigate these “mitigating themes” because of the coronavirus pandemic.
The court record also states Crusius was in special education for much of his schooling, but does not elaborate on his mental health. A lawyer for his family, Christopher Ayres, declined to comment.
Crusius was arrested soon after the Aug. 3 shooting. Police later said he confessed to driving to border city from his home near Dallas to target Mexicans. Soon before the attack, he posted a racist screed online that railed against Hispanics coming to the U.S., according to prosecutors.
Crusius pleaded not guilty in a state case where prosecutors are seeking the death penalty but has not entered a plea to the scores of hate crime and gun charges he faces in federal court. A trial date has not been set in either case.
Conviction on the federal charges could also come with a death sentence, and Crusius’ lawyers said in their Saturday court filing that prosecutors said they’ll proceed with a decision about what sentence to seek by July 30." AP
STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT
"Republican committees in 8 Texas counties vote to censure Gov. Abbott over COVID response,"The Houston Chronicle's Jeremy Wallace -- "Republicans in eight different Texas counties have now voted to censure Gov. Greg Abbott for his order requiring Texans to wear face coverings and take other protective measures as COVID-19 spreads throughout the state.
Over the weekend, the Henderson County Republican Party Executive Committee, just west of Tyler, held an emergency meeting to censure Abbott, a Republican, for not calling the Texas Legislature into a special session to help manage the COVID-19 emergency.
Since July 4, seven other county Republican Party Executive Committees around the state have approved censures of Abbott, including in Montgomery County, where they voted 40-0 on the censure.
The Montgomery County Republican Executive Committee’s censure resolution says Abbott has acted with “disregard to the Texas Constitution,” pointing to the mandated mask requirement for people in counties with at least 20 positive cases, limiting gatherings and the closing of bars across the state." Houston Chronicle
2020
"Texas is a swing state in 2020, new polls reveal,"CNN'sHarry Enten -- "New CBS News/YouGov polls show President Donald Trump is in trouble in three states he won in 2016. He's tied with former Vice President Joe Biden in Arizona (46% to 46%), a state he won by four points in 2016. Trump's down 48% to 42% in Florida, a state he took by a point in 2016.
But it's the third state, Texas, where the eye popping result comes from. It's Trump 46% to Biden's 45%, a result well within any margin of error.
It's pretty clear looking at the data that Texas is a swing state in the 2020 election. The 2020 campaign could be the first time Democrats captured the Lone Star State in a presidential election since 1976.
The CBS News/YouGov poll is not an outlier over the last month. There have been eight polls released publicly since the beginning of June. The result is that Biden and Trump are basically tied, with Biden up by a mere 0.3 points in Texas." CNN
"Joe Biden to air first general-election TV ads in Texas as polls show increasingly close race against President Donald Trump," The Texas Tribune's Patrick Svitek -- "Joe Biden is launching his first general-election TV ads in Texas as a growing number of polls show a close presidential race here.
As part of a four-state ad buy that Biden's campaign is announcing Tuesday, the presumptive Democratic nominee is going up with a 60-second spot in Texas that addresses the increasingly dire coronavirus situation here.
"I'm of thinking all of you today across Texas," Biden says in the ad, which opens with a shot of Marfa. "I know the rise in case numbers is causing fear and apprehension."
"The virus is tough, but Texas is tougher," Biden later says, telling Americans to follow guidelines to slow the spread of the virus — and that he wants them to know: "I will not abandon you. We're all in this together."
The buy, which also features digital ads, is across Texas, Arizona, Florida and North Carolina — and it marks the campaign's first TV and digital ad spending in Texas since Biden secured the nomination. A Biden campaign official described the size of the four-state buy as "mid-six figures."
There have been a series of polls in recent weeks finding a tight contest between Biden and President Donald Trump in historically red Texas. One poll released Sunday found Biden leading Trump by 5 percentage points among likely voters, while another survey that came out the same day gave Trump a 1-point lead among likely voters, well within the margin of error." Texas Tribune
"Texas heads to polls for Senate runoff as virus rages,"AP's Paul J. Weber -- "As Texas struggles to contain a raging coronavirus outbreak, voters on Tuesday were set to head out to polls for runoff elections that include choosing a Democratic nominee in a U.S. Senate race that offers the party another chance to break through in America’s biggest red state.
Texas has become one of the world’s virus hot zones and is in far worse shape now than when the runoff was postponed in March. Last week was the deadliest of the pandemic for Texas, and Republican Gov. Greg Abbott has warned that the infection numbers will likely get even worse.
Abbott did not include polling places in his recent statewide mask order, and unlike many states, Texas has fought efforts to expand mail-in balloting during the pandemic. More than 1 million ballots were cast in early voting — higher than most primary runoffs in recent years — but only a fraction of the state’s 16 million registered voters.
The election will settle primary battles that include President Donald Trump’s former doctor, Ronny Jackson, trying to win the Republican nomination for a rural congressional seat. But the biggest race is who Democrats will pick as their Senate nominee to face Republican incumbent John Cornyn — who isn’t as threatened as several GOP senators in battleground states, but is confronting new signs of vulnerability in rapidly changing Texas.
The Senate runoff is between Air Force veteran MJ Hegar, who narrowly lost a race for a House seat in 2018, and state Sen. Royce West, who if he wins would become Texas’ first Black U.S. senator. That leaves for Democrats a choice over whether their best bet for an upset is the top vote-getter in the March primary who is backed by Senate Democrats’ campaign arm, or a historic nominee in West, who has racked up endorsements from his former rivals in the race and Texas lawmakers.
For now, both remain underdogs against Cornyn, a three-term Senate veteran who has a hefty stockpile of campaign dollars. But the race is still the biggest re-election test of his career as President Donald Trump’s sagging poll numbers stir GOP anxiety, two years after Republican Sen. Ted Cruz only narrowly held onto to his own seat in Texas.
Also on the ballot Tuesday is former Republican congressman Pete Sessions, who was ousted from his longtime Dallas district in 2018. He is trying to return to Washington by running for a rural seat in Waco. His challenger, Renee Swann, has the backing of the retiring incumbent Rep. Bill Flores, who has criticized his former colleague in Congress for abruptly switching to a more GOP-friendly district to run.
The runoff was originally scheduled for May. But like many governors, Abbott in March pushed back the date as the virus began to take hold across the country, saying at the time that sticking to the original date “would threaten the health and safety of many.”
But the public health crisis in Texas is now much more dire. Hospitalizations are now doubling every two weeks and infection rates have soared in the aftermath of Abbott embarking on what had been one of the most aggressive reopenings in America." AP
"Texas GOP votes to move convention online after court losses,"AP's Nomaan Merchant and Paul J. Weber -- "The Republican Party of Texas changed course Monday night and accepted a virtual convention after courts refused to force Houston, hard hit by the coronavirus pandemic, to let the party stick to its original plans of a massive indoor gathering.
The decision came after the state GOP was left with few options. Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner, a Democrat, said last week he directed city lawyers to terminate the convention contract because he believed the three-day event could not be held safely. The party sued, alleging breach of contract, but lost an appeal at the Texas Supreme Court on Monday.
The convention typically draws thousands of attendees and was scheduled to begin this week. Following the losses in court, the party’s executive committee voted overwhelmingly Monday night to move the event online.
“The Party argues it has constitutional rights to hold a convention and engage in electoral activities, and that is unquestionably true,” the Supreme Court wrote in its opinion. “But those rights do not allow it to simply commandeer use of the Center.”
Turner denied that the convention was canceled due to political differences and cited the potential risk to service workers and first responders if the virus spread through Houston’s downtown convention center.
State District Judge Daryl L. Moore on Monday afternoon denied another party request for an injunction forcing Houston to allow the convention.
Texas has set daily records in recent days for the number of COVID-19 deaths and confirmed cases. Top officials in Houston have called for the city to lock back down as area hospitals strain to accommodate an onslaught of patients.
State District Judge Larry Weimanlast week sided with Turner, citing Houston statistics that show major hospitals exceeding their base intensive-care capacity due to an influx of COVID-19 patients.
The Texas Medical Association withdrew its sponsorship of the state GOP convention and asked organizers to cancel in-person gatherings. As the virus has surged throughout the state in June and July, Gov. Greg Abbott, the state’s top Republican, has reversed some business reopenings and broadly required the use of face masks.
State GOP chair James Dickey had insisted that organizers could hold the event safely. Prior to Turner’s move to cancel the convention, Dickey said the party had planned to institute daily temperature scans, provide masks, and install hand sanitizer stations.
State Democrats held an all-online convention in June. Nationally, the Republican Party is moving forward with plans for an in-person convention in August to be held in Jacksonville, Florida, though some GOP elected officials have said they won’t attend for health concerns." AP
"Trump campaign blasts ‘deceptive’ mailer from Texas GOP candidate for Congress Raul Reyes,"The San Antonio Express-News' Benjamin Wermund -- "President Donald Trump’s re-election campaign has had enough of a San Antonio-area Republican’s “deceptive” campaign mailers, which the Trump team says make it seem like the president has backed him and not his opponent.
The Trump campaign sent a cease and desist letter to Raul Reyes Jr., a retired Air Force officer based in Castroville, saying a mailer — with an altered photo purporting to show Reyes and Trump standing together, giving the thumbs-up sign — is “misusing the president’s name, image or likeness.”
It’s the latest volley from the Trump campaign, which previously referred to Reyes’ mailers as “misleading, and possibly unethical.” The president has since endorsed former Navy cryptologist Tony Gonzales in the race for the Republican nomination to replace retiring U.S. Rep. Will Hurd (who has also endorsed Gonzales).
“Your campaign mailer is misleading,” the cease and desist letter, sent on Monday, says. “In it, you repeatedly reference President Trump by name, refer to yourself as ‘the pro-Trump conservative’ in the race, and even include a photograph designed to appear as if the president is approvingly pointing in your direction.”" San Antonio Express-News
FEARLESS ELECTION PREDICTIONS
My predictions for election night:
> U.S. Senate (D): Hegar beats West 53-47.
> Railroad Commissioner (D): Castaneda wins 55-45.
> CD-10 (D): Gandhi wins 54-46.
> CD-13 (R): Jackson wins 55-45.
> CD-17 (R): Sessions wins 54-46.
> CD-22 (R): Nehls wins 56-44.
> CD-23 (R): Gonzales wins 53-47.
> CD-24 (D): Olson wins 52-48.
> SD-19 (D): Gutierrez wins 54-46.
> SD-27 (D): Lucio, wins 53-47.
> SD-14 special: Eckhardt finishes 1st with 41%, Rodriguez earns 2nd.
> HD-2: Flynn wins 55-45.
> HD-26: Jetton wins 58-42.
> HD-45: Isaac wins 55-45.
> HD-59: Sheffield wins 51-49.
> HD-60: Rogers wins 52-48.
> HD-142: Dutton wins 59-41.
I will publish my win/loss record tomorrow.
REMAINDERS
HOUSTON ROCKETS: "Rockets' Westbrook has virus, as NBA bubble faces first test"AP
HOUSTON DYNAMO: "LAFC rallies with pair in 2nd half for 3-3 draw with Houston" AP
TEXAS LONGHORNS: "Texas keeps 'The Eyes of Texas' despite athlete demands" AP
'MACK ON POLITICS' PODCAST
LATEST "MACK ON POLITICS" PODCAST: The war in Afghanistan is the subject of our 195th episode.
In this conversation, we talk to Rod Lurie, director of the #1 film in America, “The Outpost”, which profiles the Battle of Kamdesh in 2009.
We explore how he came to direct the film, what techniques he tried to use, why the story was important to him, how, where and when the film was shot, how it was released, and what the response has been.
Available on iTunes, Google Play, Spotify, Stitcher and on the web at http://www.MackOnPoliticsPodcast.com.
BOOK MATT MACKOWIAK AS A SPEAKER
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"I am not always up to date on current news. I know I can count on Matt to give me the 'cliff notes' version of the most important news of the day. I rely on Matt to keep me informed with news that is important to me. He is my news source, and should be yours." - Debra Coffey, TFRW Patron's Co-Chair, former First TFRW VP
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“Wanting a candid and thorough assessment of the statewide primary ballot, I arranged for Matt to speak to members from across the state during a board meeting. For more than an hour, he provided insights into the campaign environment and looked ahead to the 2015 legislative session in ways that our members found valuable, useful and clearly helpful. This portion of the board meeting was a big hit for our members, and have been talking about it for months. Matt has the contacts, experience and balanced insight to give a behind the scenes perspective that provides value.” - Jerry Valdez, Executive Director, Career Colleges & Schools of Texas
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RECENT SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS:
June 10 - Boys State (Austin, TX)
Jan. 13 - Lago Vista GOP club (Lago Vista, TX)
Dec. 16 - Monthly Conservative Luncheon (Dallas, TX)
Oct. 7 - Texas Hotel & Lodging Association board meeting (Dallas, TX)
Sept. 26 - World Press Institute (Austin, TX)
Sept. 3 - Pflugerville Republican Club (Pflugerville, TX)