Another Democrat jumps into the U.S. Senate race
The former executive director of Jolt, a statewide organization working to increase Latino turnout in elections, announced her campaign for Senate this morning. Under Cristina Tzintzún Ramirez’s leadership, Jolt made its initial mark on Texas politics when it unexpectedly endorsed businessman Andrew White over his Democratic gubernatorial rival Lupe Valdez in 2018. We’re working on a story about Ramirez’s campaign, but in the meantime, here’s her campaign launch video.
Republican committee begins investigating secret Republican meeting
The General Investigating Committee in the Texas House, chaired by a Dallas Republican, is holding a hearing today to review what happened in a June meeting between Republican House Speaker Dennis Bonnen and raging conservative activist Michael Quinn Sullivan. Sullivan alleges Bonnen offered him a quid pro quo, which Bonnen denies. Release of the secret audio recording of the meeting would clear all of this up. The Signal is covering the 10 a.m. hearing.
The esteemed Texas writer, Christopher Hooks, described the political drama in Texas Monthly:
Have you ever seen slow-motion footage of an atomic bomb test? There’s a bright flash of light and an explosion that starts small, and you could be forgiven for thinking, Is that it? Then the mushroom cloud starts building to the size of a mountain, and the shockwave starts to radiate out, and it becomes clear that a lot of things in the immediate vicinity are probably not going to be okay. That’s what it’s been like to watch the developments in the widening scandal that centers on accusations made on July 25 by conservative activist Michael Quinn Sullivan who, like most assassins, goes by all three of his names.
Gun-hungry Republican group in Houston has an optics problem
It was bad enough the Houston Young Republicans posted a gun-toting meme, with a rah-rah chant to go with it, less than a week after the El Paso terrorist who used an assault rifle to kill 22 people. In July, HYR re-posted a TIME magazine story titled “America Owns 46% of the World’s 1 Billion Guns” and commented, “These are rookie numbers. Gotta pump those numbers up.” We scoured the groups social media content in our weekend story.
