Free Republic

A group of 46 Republican House members and nominees pledged Friday to only back a speaker next session who commits to ending the tradition of appointing Democratic committee chairs — a move that narrows the path to the gavel for House Speaker Dade Phelan, who has vowed to continue the longstanding practice. To be elected speaker, a House member must secure 76 votes, a majority of the 150-seat chamber. Democrats control 64 seats, meaning a speaker hopeful could theoretically win with full Democratic support and around a dozen of the 86 Republicans. To prevent this scenario, Phelan’s rivals have called...

Dollar Tree has saved 170 shops that were set to be shuttered by rival 99 Cents Only after it went bankrupt.It is a boost for budget shoppers in Arizona, California, Nevada, and Texas - who have been mourning the loss of the popular chain.Dollar Tree announced on Wednesday that it had bought rights to the leases for the stores.At the same time, it has paid for the 99 Cents Only's 'intellectual property,' meaning it has the option to keep some stores open under the brand or even open new ones using it.West Coast-based 99 Cents Only had a cult following...

Authorities in Texas are investigating after human remains were found in the jaws of an alligator while officers were searching the area for a missing woman. The gruesome discovery in Houston comes less than a year after the body of a woman was found in the mouth of a gator in Florida. "Patrol officers located the remains of a woman in the jaws of an alligator in the Horsepen Bayou … while searching the area for a woman reported missing," Houston police said in a statement Wednesday. A sergeant shot and killed the alligator "to prevent it from doing more...

Temporary Platform and Resolutions as Amended and Adopted by the 2024 State Convention of the Republican Party of Texas

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) talked about standing up to the FBI and the Department of Justice on Steve Bannon's 'War Room' podcast. STEVE BANNON: You have a lawless FBI. You've been at the tip of the spear since the you were one of our first guests on 20 January 2021. You said, hey. Where the Biden administration is gonna be inside the constitution and work with the we'll work with them. Where they're outside the constitution, we're gonna hammer them, and you've hammered them more than any other state AG. What can be done now when you see...

Pro-Hamas protestors were at it again, this time setting fire to the Israeli embassy in Mexico City, with some reports of injuries, puzzling quite a few observers. According to the Jewish Chronicle:Rioters on Tuesday set fire to the Israeli Embassy in Mexico during a protest ostensibly against the Israeli military operation in the southern Gazan city of Rafah.Masked protesters threw stones at security forces who had created a barricade preventing access to the diplomatic mission in the Mexico City’s Lomas de Chapultepec neighborhood.Around 200 people participated in the “Urgent Action for Rafah” demonstration, dozens of whom attempted to break down...

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton appears with Steve Bannon to discuss the results of last night’s primary election in the lone star state. {Direct Rumble Link Here}. CTH has stated several times that Texas is not as politically solid red as most believe; in part this is driven by the nature of how Texas politics are organized. The open primary in Texas is part of the political construct that permits Democrats to influence Republican races, and as a result controls the outcomes of legislative policy. AG Ken Paxton talks about how the Republican speaker of the house is decided by...

MESQUITE, Texas — In a warehouse off Lyndon B. Johnson Freeway in an industrial area outside Dallas, the future of American military ammunition production is coming online. Here, in the Pentagon’s first new major arms plant built since Russia invaded Ukraine, Turkish workers in orange hard hats are busy unpacking wood crates stenciled with the name Repkon, a defense company based in Istanbul, and assembling computer-controlled robots and lathes. The factory will soon turn out about 30,000 steel shells every month for the 155 mm howitzers that have become crucial to Ukraine’s war effort. Ukraine fired 4,000 to 7,000 such...

Austin, Texas — Republican Rep. Tony Gonzales of Texas narrowly won his primary Tuesday against a gun-rights activist who pushed the border congressman into a bruising runoff that threatened to unseat a U.S. House incumbent. Another prominent Texas Republican, state House Speaker Dade Phelan, also edged out a challenger from the right who was backed by former President Donald Trump. Both won by razor-thin margins, reflecting the anger of hard-line conservatives and a wave of party turbulence in America's biggest red state over votes that bucked party lines and the impeachment of state Attorney General Ken Paxton. Gonzales defeated Brandon...

Phelan will be returning to the Legislature in 2025 with far fewer friends and far more emboldened enemies. Despite the cigar and bravado on display at his victory party Tuesday night, Phelan and his cohort suffered heavy losses to the rightwing. Six of the eight House incumbents mired in runoffs lost. Those losses follow the incumbent bloodbath in the March primaries, in which half a dozen Phelan allies were defeated by challengers backed by Paxton and/or Governor Greg Abbott. One of the main jobs of the speaker is to keep his members in office. The king must protect the kingmakers....

A wave of Republican incumbents were swept out of the Texas House in Tuesday's primary runoffs, including a handful who opposed school vouchers last fall, handing Gov. Greg Abbott a tentative majority in the lower chamber on his signature issue. With most ballots counted across the state, six of the eight GOP House members who were forced into overtime appeared to lose their runoffs, continuing a surge of anti-establishment energy that had already led to the ouster of nine House Republicans in the March primary. The runoffs brought mixed results for Texas' hard right: the House gained a pro-voucher majority...

A former Trump campaign official has won a tight primary fight and will now serve as the representative of a deep-red Texas House district. Republican Katrina Pierson, who served as the spokesperson for former President Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign, defeated incumbent state Rep. Justin Holland in Tuesday's primary runoff for Texas' 33rd House District, and is the presumptive winner of November's general election since no Democrat candidate is standing in the race. Pierson had the backing of Republican Texas Gov. Gregg Abott, who sought to oust incumbent Republicans opposed to some of his policy objectives. ...

Republican primary runoff RESULTS ARE COMING IN An estimated 79.4% of votes have been counted, according to the Associated Press. No projected nominee has been called yet. CANDIDATES VOTES PCT. Dade Phelan Incumbent 12,397 52.3% David Covey 11,305 47.7 Note: Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan is facing a runoff election after he failed to secure a majority of votes during the primary, the clearest sign to date of his precarious position within the Republican Party. Read more.

Since SCOTUS ruled this afternoon, and as an edit to this article, Texas’ new immigration law is blocked againHours after the U.S. Supreme Court had allowed Senate Bill 4 to go into effect, a federal appeals court let an earlier injunction stand. SB4 lets Texas police arrest people suspected of illegally crossing the Texas-Mexico border.Texas’ new immigration law is blocked againSo, here below is the article I was preparing to post. Suddenly, the story changed with an edit stating that the SCOTUS decision has been.....overturned???? A new Texas law allowing police to arrest people suspected of illegally crossing the southern...

Is Mike Tyson OK? Eyewitnesses exclusively tell In Touch that the professional boxer had an apparent medical emergency on board a flight from Miami to Los Angeles on Sunday, May 26. “Mike had some kind of medical emergency on the plane and paramedics boarded,” says the eyewitness. “Before the paramedics arrived the flight issued an announcement asking for a doctor — the message even came on everyone’s screens. Once the plane landed at LAX, it was delayed another 25 minutes as the passengers waited to get off the plane while the paramedics dealt with Mike. “Thankfully Mr. Tyson is doing...

Former heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson suffered a medical emergency during a flight from Miami to Los Angeles on Sunday, according to reports. Just thirty minutes before landing, Tyson experienced nausea and dizziness, the Los Angeles Times reported. The 57-year-old boxer’s symptoms were due to an ulcer flare-up. Tryson received prompt assistance from the medical staff on board the flight. He is now reported to be stable and “doing great,” Los Angeles Times reported. “He became nauseous and dizzy due to an ulcer flare-up 30 minutes before landing,” his representatives told The New York Post. “He is appreciative to the...

Will Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan hang onto his seat? And will Gov. Greg Abbott succeed in ousting Republicans who blocked his school choice voucher plan? Those are the big questions on the eve of Tuesday’s primary runoff elections in Texas. In order to keep his speakership, Phelan first has to win his primary runoff race in his home district Tuesday against GOP challenger David Covey. "It is a real knife fight there on the coast," said Scott Braddock, editor of quorumreport.com. Former President Trump has endorsed Covey, and Attorney General Ken Paxton blasted Phelan on social media Monday, exactly...

Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-TX) is warning of possible retribution against some of his GOP colleagues in the House who are actively campaigning against the Texas Republican’s reelection bid. As Gonzales seeks a third term to his seat on Tuesday representing Texas’s 23rd Congressional District, the incumbent is facing a challenge from his right over his voting record to protect same-sex marriage and to implement stricter gun safety measures. Those votes attracted a crowded field of candidates looking to oust the incumbent during the March primary, forcing Gonzales into a runoff with challenger Brandon Herrera after neither candidate secured more than...

If you live in Texas and haven't already voted, go vote tomorrow! Let's hope Speaker Phelan gets the boot!

On May 19, 2024, United States District Judge Matthew J. Kacsmaryk issued a temporary restraining order against the Biden administration, forbidding them from enforcing the parts of the ATF “final rule” having to do with a re-definition of “engaged in the business” as part of federal firearms law. From the order: CONCLUSION Defendants are TEMPORARILY RESTRAINED from enforcing the regulations — “Definition of ‘Engaged in the Business’ as a Dealer in Firearms” — published at 89 Fed. Reg. 28968 (April 19, 2024) (to be codified at 27 C.F.R. pt. 478) against Plaintiffs Texas, Jeffery Tormey, the Gun Owners of America,...