With few other options, Texas Democrats need Beto O’Rourke to challenge GOP Gov. Greg Abbott in 2022
The rising stars of the Democratic Party aren’t ready to mount major statewide campaigns.
Democrat Beto O’Rourke is considering running for governor against two-time Republican incumbent Greg Abbott. O’Rourke, a former congressman from El Paso, was a 2020 presidential candidate and in 2018 he lost a Senate race to incumbent Republican Ted Cruz by 2.6 percentage points. (Photos by Lynda M. Gonzalez, left, and Rose Baca, right)
With few other viable options, Texas Democrats are hoping that next year former Rep. Beto O’Rourke challenges Republican incumbent Greg Abbott for governor.
Analysis: Dan Patrick’s interrogation about a freeze warms speculation about 2022
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Lieutenant governors almost never interrogate witnesses at public hearings. It’s not that it’s illegal, just that that sort of showboating is not done. That’s the business of senators and representatives. A lieutenant governor grabbing the mic is the legislative equivalent of a parent taking over a student’s science fair project.
But there was Dan Patrick late Thursday afternoon, taking a chair and a mic to question the state’s last remaining Public Utility Commissioner about the PUC’s failure to do what Patrick and 28 state senators had demanded in a letter the day before.
Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick has knocked down rumors of a gubernatorial race several times, and has also said he wants to run for another term as lieutenant governor. Credit: Miguel Gutierrez Jr./The Texas Tribune
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Lieutenant governors almost never interrogate witnesses at public hearings. Itâs not that itâs illegal, just that that sort of showboating is not done. Thatâs the business of senators and representatives. A lieutenant governor grabbing the mic is the legislative equivalent of a parent taking over a studentâs science fair project.
Gov. Greg Abbott visited Houston on Monday to tout new legislation proposed by his Republican allies that he claimed would protect the integrity of Texas elections. But his Democratic rival Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo contends that the slate of electoral reforms state conservatives are clamoring about is nothing more than good old fashioned voter suppression, inspired by former President Donald Trump’s ongoing, evidence-free insistence that voter fraud cost him his reelection.
Speaking alongside Republicans state Rep. Briscoe Cain of Deer Park and state Sen. Paul Bettencourt of Houston, Abbott swore that all the GOP wants to do is protect elections from voter fraud. “Our objective is very simple, and that is to ensure that every eligible voter gets to vote. It’s also to ensure that only eligible votes are the ones that count at the ballot box,” Abbott said.
Suit seeks to stop $7B expansion of Houston area interstate Follow Us
Question of the Day By JUAN A. LOZANO - Associated Press - Thursday, March 11, 2021
HOUSTON (AP) - A federal lawsuit was filed Thursday to stop a massive $7 billion highway widening project in Houston that local officials and community advocates say won’t improve the area’s traffic congestion and will disproportionately impact minority residents who would be displaced by the proposed construction.
The lawsuit by Harris County, where Houston is located, comes as the Federal Highway Administration earlier this week asked the Texas Department of Transportation to put the project on hold so the federal agency could review civil rights and environmental justice concerns that have been raised about the proposal.