GOP Eager To Exploit Undermining Of Voting Rights Act, And More
Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas
This is the Progress Texas Daily Dispatch, delivered every weekday by Progress Texas Communications Director Chris Mosser. Rapid response on the breaking news stories Texas progressives need to know—all in less than 10 minutes!
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Gerrymandering Is Bad For Texas - And Callais Makes It Worse
The implications of the Louisiana v. Callais case are developing quickly, and it’s striking to note how eager Republican-led states have been to take advantage of an opportunity to squelch the non-white voices in their communities—as though the Voting Rights Act was a fraying leash, scarcely capable of holding them back, and that leash has now snapped.
North Texas State Rep. and Progress Texas pal Mihaela Plesa is out with an op-ed in the Dallas Morning News in which she outlines her Texas House District 70, which stands as an outlier in a state where true political competition has largely vanished. Plesa won the 2024 election by less than five percentage points, and that’s the kind of win that forces a level of accountability that Texas lawmakers in districts drawn for partisan ease simply do not face. Plesa holds that more competitive districts require their elected leaders to, you know, actually do their jobs—to truly listen to and consider the real needs of their entire communities—rather than just the loudest voices they expect to hear in the next primary.
Alas, the Callais call by SCOTUS threatens to make this problem worse all across the South. By striking down maps intended to provide fair representation for minority communities, the Court has signaled to Texas Republicans that they have more room to manipulate district lines in order to keep their now-thirty-year stranglehold on our state. Plesa says balanced legislatures lead to better outcomes - for example, in 2001, when the House and Senate were nearly evenly split, lawmakers were forced to build coalitions to pass meaningful legislation on education, healthcare, infrastructure and more. Today, as Texas families are being squeezed by rising costs and a looming, existential water crisis, the Callais decision will allow the Texas GOP to instead focus on their own political self-preservation. Real reform requires districts that belong to the people—not to the politicians who draw them.
A Hostile Redistricting Takeover Next Door
Just east of Texas, Louisiana itself is another prime example of the damage done by the Callais call - Emily Topping at Current Affairs says a “hostile takeover” of the congressional maps next door is underway via the abrupt suspension of House primaries in order to redraw districts in favor of the GOP, whereby Governor Jeff Landry is now much more free to dilute the Black vote and silence progressive voices of all stripes in the South—including in its few liberal hubs like New Orleans, where there’s a case worth looking into for progressives everywhere: Calvin Duncan is a formerly incarcerated Black man who recently won a landslide victory to become the Clerk of the Orleans Parish Criminal District Court, only to see the powers that be at the state level target that position for total elimination before he could be sworn in—a blatant retaliatory strike against a person deemed unworthy by Louisiana’s Republican regime of even daring to seek political power.
Paxton’s Fortune = Texas GOP’s Misfortune?
Watch the Progress Texas Podcasts feed for follow up talks with several Democrats still locked in runoff competition over the next few days, including Kevin Burge, also running up in North Texas for a shot at Republican Congresswoman Beth Van Duyne - talking to Kevin yesterday, he brought up some very interesting new polling info which I confirmed via Bud Kennedy at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram - Bud says “Republicans risk losing 4 seats in Congress and 10 in the Texas House if Ken Paxton is chosen for a losing Senate campaign, according to John Cornyn’s PAC. US Rep Beth Van Duyne and state Rep John McQueeney’s seats are at risk” if Texas Republicans voting in the runoff end up selecting Paxton, who by the most recent polling leads Cornyn by three points, though that’s almost identical to the margin of error in that polling - now, polls are polls, but you’ll find some quite dense polling data at the link in the show notes - if you like that kinda stuff it’s great.
Paxton Courts Evangelical Runoff Voters By Targeting ISD’s
Sticking with Ken Paxton for a minute here, it’s clear which voters he’s courting for the runoff as the Texas AG’s office is in a full court press making sure your kid has a nice view of the Ten Commandments from their desk at school. KHOU TV in Houston says Paxton is escalating the fight over religious influence in public education, launching a sweeping investigation into several Texas school districts—including major hubs like Houston, Cy-Fair, and Conroe ISDs—to force those districts to comply with Senate Bills 10 and 11, which require the display of the Ten Commandments in every classroom and mandate that districts vote on implementing designated prayer times. All of this happening, let’s recall, while Texas has also now successfully infused Bible stories into public school curricula—the separation of church and state in Texas schools is close to being fully erased, and the notoriously right-wing 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has recently upheld both of those new state laws, but the fight does continue: the ACLU and other groups that have challenged them have said they anticipate appealing the 5th Circuit’s ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court…where the prospects for relief appear dim indeed.
New Camp Safety Rules Meet Rural Reality
As we near the end this Friday, we’ve talked this week about efforts by the owners of Texas summer camps to stay open despite the devastating flood of last July 4, and with the blessing of both Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and House Speaker Dustin Burrows to sidestep a requirement that they install more resilient internet infrastructure in order to prevent communications blackouts, which made last year’s tragedy all the more deadly. Jack Fink at CBS News says the Texas Department of State Health Services has caved on a new camp safety law requiring fiber-optic connections to camp properties, which have proved difficult for many of them to meet - only nine out of roughly 300 camps initially securing licenses for the 2026 season met the requirement, which has become a textbook example of lazily-written “one-size-fits-all” governance, ultimately failing the kids it was meant to protect. Under the new agreement, the fiber optic requirement is suspended until next year, and camps can now utilize alternative high-speed options like satellite or cellular networks to fulfill safety requirements - those solutions, apparently unbeknownst to the bill’s authors, are a lot more practical in these rural situations anyway. Texas needs thoughtful, competent leadership - not “shoot first aim later” haphazard feel-good lawmaking.
Let’s Vote Y’all!
The statewide primary runoff elections are on the horizon on May 26, with early voting beginning on May 18. More at our carefully-crafted voting information website, Govotetexas.org, and there’s a nice online tool from the Texas Tribune that shows you exactly who will be on your runoff ballot based on your address and party.
Come See Us LIVE!
We have not one but two live events on the calendar right now, in both Dallas and Houston. Houston’s first as we gather at the very cool Creekwood Grill for a live podcast taping with new Cy-Fair ISD board members to discuss their plans to reinstate textbook chapters and other learning materials undermined by their MAGA predecessors. We want you there but seating is limited and an RSVP is required to attend. This happens on the evening of Wednesday May 20.
We’re also getting ready for our 16th anniversary celebration in Dallas with drinks, light bites, and a fun review of the highlights of our successes over the last few years! Save the date which is Tuesday June 16 and see the link in the show notes to reserve your spot.
We’re On The Radio In Houston!
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I’m Chris Mosser, thanks for reading, and we’ll see you later.
Thank God the Texas GOP Stupidly Redrew the Maps last summer and as a Result, Not ONLY Put Texas and Full Play, but because they was Well before the Racist Supreme Court’s decision, they CAN’T reverse it or draw another map. Basically, Trump and the Texas GOP Criminal Organization jumped the Gun on Gerrymandering last year, and are about to get SHOT.