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An optimistic Abbott
Does Tuesday's Republican gains mean Gov. Greg Abbott will finally get his school voucher program through the Texas Legislature?
He sure thinks so.
In Tyler today, the Republican governor said there will be a comfortable majority of "true, hardcore school choice proponents" in the Texas House next year to enact his proposal and break a decadeslong logjam of the controversial legislation.
As reporter Edward McKinley points out, the governor has made the issue into perhaps the signature policy push of his decade in office. After a stinging defeat last fall where a group of nearly two dozen Republicans doomed his effort in the 150-member chamber, Abbott donated to 48 separate Texas House candidates this year, spending just over $11.3 million to unseat them.
Abbott's confidence comes from Republicans dominating in Texas House elections across the state on Tuesday, winning key contests in San Antonio and the suburbs of Dallas and Austin where Democrats thought they had their best shot at flipping seats.
While committed to the voucher plan, Abbott is also trying to assure supporters he also planned to "fully fund" public schools, give teacher pay raises, increase funding for a state merit pay raise program and invest in workforce readiness programs for high school students who don't wish to attend college.
Check out more about what Abbott said here in McKinley's latest piece.
 | Jeremy Wallace, Texas politics reporter |
Who's up, who's down
Up: Donald Trump.
While Trump was favored to win Texas, how he expanded his margins in the state was notable. Exit polling indicates that 55% of Latino voters in the state voted for Trump. That is 14 percentage points than he did with those voters in 2020.
Down: Mike Miles.
The Houston ISD superintendent isn't happy about the district's $4.4 billion school bond going up in flames. Miles called the defeat "unfortunate and wrong" and reiterated that the state's largest school district badly needed the bond and that the proposed investments should have been made years ago. Among other things, the funding was expected to go toward rebuilding and renovating 43 schools, upgrading security and improving heating and cooling systems.
What do you think? Hit reply and let me know.
What else is going on in Texas
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Pick of the day
Photo by: Jeremy Wallace
The president-elect was talking about Texas billionaire Elon Musk who helped fund get-out-the-vote operations in battleground states and now has his sites set on progressive district attorneys and judicial candidates across the country.
What else I'm reading
Donald Trump's U.S. presidential election victory on Wednesday will essentially end the criminal cases brought against him, at least for the four years he occupies the White House. Reuters reports The first former U.S. president to face criminal charges, Trump for much of this year faced four simultaneous prosecutions, over allegations ranging from his attempt to cover up a hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels during his 2016 campaign to his attempts to overturn his 2020 election defeat.
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