All Hat No Cattle Newsletter Sept 20th

Paxton Acquitted on All Counts

The Paxton trial wrapped up this past weekend, and, as expected, Paxton was acquitted. I know a lot of Democrats are frustrated by this and many don’t understand how the Texas Senate could have reached this decision despite all the evidence. The short answer is the entire impeachment process and subsequent trial was nothing more than political theater between GOP rivals. The Speaker of the House, Dade Phelan, and the Lt. Governor, Dan Patrick, do not like each other. Patrick, on the other hand, does like Paxton and both are ardent MAGA supporters. The Paxton trial really was about the future of the Texas GOP and whether moderates or MAGA extremism would prevail. Post-trial Patrick has called for an investigation into how much money was spent on the entire impeachment process and criticized the House for rushing the impeachment behind closed doors. Several GOP County parties are censuring Phelan and pushing for it to be done at the state level. I expect things will get worse for Texas politics for the foreseeable future. This is a key reason we need more Democrats in the Texas Legislature to prevent this feud from consuming the Capitol and further derailing our politics into the gutter.

Infamous SB1 Voter Suppression Law in Court

SB1, the notorious voting integrity bill that passed during the 2021 Texas legislative session is in court in San Antonio. If you recall, this is the bill that forced Democrats in the House to leave the state and go to Washington DC in an attempt to delay the bill from moving forward.

 This bill did the following things:

  • Voters mailing in ballots must provide a driver's license number or social security number with their mail-in ballot, or it will be rejected. It is estimated that 13% of all mail-in ballots were rejected in the 2022 primaries because of this law. )This part of the law has been struck down for violating the Civil Rights Act.)
  • State officials who proactively mail out mail-in ballots to voters now face a felony
  • 24-hour voting is banned
  • Drive-thru voting is banned
  • Partisan poll watchers can roam polling places and potentially intimidate voters
  • Anyone assisting a voter with filling out a ballot must sign a form stating they did not coerce the voter to choose them to help.
  • Voter roll reviews and purges are now required monthly

The Texas legislature is heading back to Austin soon for a special session to approve school vouchers, something that will continue to erode our public schools. We will keep you updated.

If we are going to have an input in Texas politics as Democrats, we have to focus on the Texas House. It is the most likely to flip in the next decade. We only need to pick up 12 seats to make that a reality. Our focus is on the top 5 districts this session.

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All Hat No Cattle’s mission

We believe Democrats have a once-in-a-decade opportunity to make real gains in the Texas House and Senate as Texas continues to trend Democratic. But we must focus on turnout in House and Senate Districts within the state. We must engage and inspire voters to go to the polls more than just every four years. Voters must learn to vote for every Democrat on the ballot and we have to give them a real reason to do it. Please consider donating to help us achieve this goal.

About the Author: Joel Montfort is an eighth-generation Texan, a political scientist, and a democratic activist. He has been actively involved in Texas politics for more than 8 years. He founded Richardson Area Democrats in 2017, was elected to the Texas Democratic Party's Executive Committee, served as president of Plano Area Democrats, and is currently a precinct chair in Collin County. He also owns a Democratic political consulting business. 

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