Still got that Latinx vote post on the way; maybe after Thanksgiving. Meanwhile: time, the presidential transition, special elections, and bills for the 87th legislative session march on.
Early voting is underway in various local jurisdictions holding December 8 runoff elections including Arlington, Coppell, Denton, Duncanville, Frisco, Haltom City, Irving, Keller, Mansfield, Odessa and Palmview. Early voting begins on Wednesday in local jurisdictions holding their runoff elections on December 12 including El Paso, Baytown and The Woodlands. Early voting for jurisdictions holding December 15 runoff elections generally begins on December 3. Early voting for the December 19 special runoff election for open SD30 begins December 9. As of (Sunday, Nov. 22), just over 400 voters had returned absentee ballots.
🧵Planned Parenthood Texas Votes PAC recognizes the crucial role of local races. We are proud to endorse the following candidates in Austin and Houston who have demonstrated a commitment to protect and expand access to reproductive health care.
— Planned Parenthood Texas Votes (@PPTXVotes) November 20, 2020
In a nine-count Twitter thread from last week, the NYT broke down the presidential vote by county across the nation; embedded below is the 4th Tweet in that string with the widely-reported development regarding Tarrant County.
Biden’s biggest group of additional voters came from large urban and suburban counties that are mostly white, and big cities in the South and West.
— The New York Times (@nytimes) November 17, 2020
In Republican Fort Worth, for example, Biden got 121,000 more votes than Clinton had; Trump got 62,000 more than in 2016. pic.twitter.com/vBnoHXWypq
Kuff also examined recent presidential results in the Houston and Dallas/Fort Worth area.
The 2020 Presidential Election by Texas Congressional District. Overall, Biden held Beto's 2018 margins in suburban districts, but lost ground with Hispanics in the RGV.
— OryxMaps (@OryxMaps) November 20, 2020
This includes provisional ballots and is more up-to-date than any previous map.
#txlege #ElectionTwitter pic.twitter.com/4Y2Bick8ZN
As @mattmxhn found, if Texas had a state-level Electoral College, we'd have Sen. O'Rourke rn. https://t.co/REgoCpgSik
— J. Miles Coleman (@JMilesColeman) November 19, 2020
Once again, rural Texans voted en masse for President Donald Trump in 2020, especially in the oil patch. Local leaders say it’s a sign that Biden’s messaging on environmental issues didn’t work here—and that Trump’s did. https://t.co/XbCIkLNrI8
— Texas Observer (@TexasObserver) November 23, 2020
As long promised, there will be more to come.
COVID-19 has everyone's attention.
A Public Service Announcement: #Thanksgiving #Thanksgiving2020 #COVID19 #coronavirus pic.twitter.com/FRaNcIIkcY
— Nick_Anderson_ (@Nick_Anderson_) November 20, 2020
One death every minute: COVID-19 hospitalizations rising in Texas as Thanksgiving week begins https://t.co/GtLG5QDfQh
— KHOU 11 News Houston (@KHOU) November 23, 2020
Really feeling for Texans, and so many other folks across the country right now, whose leadership would rather treat this like some some sort of principled defense of personal freedoms, and not a serious matter of public health with dire consequences.https://t.co/mo74hhXU6Y https://t.co/EggXO85wRi pic.twitter.com/Gcq08soE8r
— i would prefer not to (@mikerugnetta) November 23, 2020
Maybe this was a legitimate offer from our junior senator to feed some of the 25,000 suddenly-struggling Texans in Dallas, or the National Guardsman called to El Paso to handle the surplus of cadavers in that city ...
Who am I kidding? Leadership from our Twitter trolls in the US Senate? WTF does that look like?
"I guarantee you..." pic.twitter.com/HRjKjtrziV
— Bad COVID-19 Takes (@BadCOVID19Takes) November 23, 2020
Not so. But since you started the conversation, how about those Biden noms? https://t.co/o9DbDnn10v
— Senator John Cornyn (@JohnCornyn) November 23, 2020
I'll skip Greg Abbott this week if it's okay with you. Ken Paxton, on the other hand, is not worthy of a hall pass, much less any other kind.
So just to recap, the Texas Attorney General is:
— Pamela Colloff (@pamelacolloff) November 18, 2020
--under indictment on fraud charges
--under investigation by the FBI regarding whether he illegally used the power of his office to benefit a political donor
--the subject of a whistleblower lawsuithttps://t.co/LQX8VQONML
This is unfortunately a longer-than-it-should-be segment of "Texas Republicans Behaving Badly."
Any time that I see a Crenshaw post I think of this pic.twitter.com/zUnFF0QQVG
— Michael Leone🧢🧦🔮🔰🗽🌾 (@MichaelFromIL) November 21, 2020
This didn't age well 😬 https://t.co/hp1rGqnnGR
— Cecilia (@cecikahlo) November 23, 2020
#Texas Trump supporters say they’re ready to take up arms the minute the president gives the order https://t.co/E1DRYMuUVS #TXLege
— Forever in debt to your priceless advice. (@PDiddie) November 20, 2020
If you need to wash your hands or use some hand sanitizer or pour bleach in your eyes to get past all of that, take a minute and go ahead.
Okay then.
Weed may have some chance of seeing daylight in the forthcoming Lege.
amid budget shortfall and with growing bipartisan support, marijuana reform may get a boost in texas : https://t.co/sb5hwraBOK #txlege
— quorumreport (@quorumreport) November 23, 2020
Time has come for Texas to legalize marijuana, and decriminalize much more https://t.co/UELgujPohC
— Houston Chronicle (@HoustonChron) November 23, 2020
Casino gambling, too. ("Toomey", mentioned in the Tweet underneath, is Mike Toomey, the head -- or perhaps former head; his status is not clear at this time -- of Abbott's "Strike Force to Re-Open Texas". He has re-registered as a lobbyist for the coming session.)
Notably, Toomey is the latest high-powered lobbyist to be hired by Sheldon Adelson's Las Vegas Sands Corp, to lobby on gambling issues in Texas. #txlegehttps://t.co/ECEjFPJbbL
— Justin Miller (@by_jmiller) November 23, 2020
Then again, cannabis and slots may have the same odds as Matthew McConaughey has of being elected governor in 2022.
Read the article. He was talking to Hugh Hewitt. His views are Libertarian/Republican/individualism. Every four years we get this recycled BS. I'm so old I remember when TXDems were simping Tommy Lee Jones and Lance Armstrong. #TX2022 https://t.co/Iq48QDumPX
— Forever in debt to your priceless advice. (@PDiddie) November 18, 2020
Texas public education faces the same old intractable problems: lack of money and the state's Puritanical culture.
NEW: Starting in 2022, 7th and 8th grade Texas students will learn about non-abstinence birth control, but not about consent, gender identity or sexual orientation.
— Texas Tribune (@TexasTribune) November 19, 2020
The Texas State Board of Education votes Friday to finalize the sex ed curriculum. https://t.co/CPILLHjse8 #txed
Today’s final votes on new health and science curriculum standards for Texas public schools prove that strong, ongoing activism can lead to progress. But they also make clear that a majority of the @TXSBOE remains trapped in the culture war arguments of the past. #TeachTheTruth pic.twitter.com/B7QFyTcuOQ
— Texas Freedom Network (@TFN) November 20, 2020
Raise Your Hand Texas prepares for the next fight over school finance at the Legislature.
With a couple of environmental takes, Socratic Gadfly wonders if a new Norwegian-British study shows the James Kunstler types might be right? And it appears we now have the measurement tools to implement a carbon tax plus a carbon tariff, which must be a part of climate change control.
Texas will host the largest solar project in the US https://t.co/qN1FdfuHjT #TXLege
— Forever in debt to your priceless advice. (@PDiddie) November 21, 2020
Progrexas brings word of the growing concerns of Texas communities about the pollution associated with concrete plants.
Wrapping up today with these items.
Pentagon puts San Antonio on short list in race for Space Command headquarters https://t.co/fwvLqz7EiG via @saddamscribe & @GregJeffersonSA
— Jasper Scherer (@jaspscherer) November 19, 2020
Dos Centavos writes about one of his favorite performers, Max Baca, of the Grammy-winning Los Texmaniacs, who has been in a fight against COVID-19.
Struggling with COVID in the ICU, musician Max Baca faces an increasingly desperate future. https://t.co/Ec67Cx9EiM
— San Antonio Report (@SAReport) November 22, 2020
The popular Lone Star State export topped the Session Beer class in the 2020 European Beer Star competition in Nuremberg, Germany. https://t.co/ki7H1q7jMY
— San Antonio Current (@SAcurrent) November 18, 2020
Roger Winter was once one of the most prominent artists in the state, best known for pastoral scenes of rural Texas and realistic depictions of "the good life" in Dallas.
— Texas Monthly (@TexasMonthly) November 23, 2020
A new exhibition and book show there's much more to the painter's oeuvre. https://t.co/KYimNUY9Yt
LBJ and JFK campaigning together in Austin, 1960. pic.twitter.com/jLSFf0rnvg
— Traces of Texas (@TracesofTexas) November 21, 2020