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Yup. That’s Carl Lewis, 9-time Olympic gold medalist and University of Houston legend. He’s among the crowd in Austin waiting to hear
@BetoORourke
speak at a rally tonight
I can't believe I'm saying this. But, Uvalde was even worse than we've been told.
We knew about the 376 cops on the scene who did not go into the class for 77 mins.
Assoc Attorney Gen Gupta today said the "pain, failures & missteps" did not end when they finally went in.
BREAKING: Huge surge in COVID-19 cases in Texas today. The state is reporting 1,801 new cases since yesterday - the biggest one day surge we've had to deal with.
They took away my access to the floor and to be able to read amendments to major bills.
They took away my access to electricity to power my laptop.
And they took away my Saturday night with my kids.
But, Texas, I’m still here
Touching moment here by
@WillieNelson
(in spite of my terrible photo)
Seeing family members of Jackie Cazares, one of the 4th graders murdered in Uvalde, he leans over and says “Remember it’s not something you ever get over but it’s something you will get through.”
Several times Beto O'Rourke has been able to weave in answers that make the case that Abbott has had 8 years to fix issues like rising property taxes, yet has not been able to do it.
Two months after endorsing Gov. Greg Abbott for re-election, the Texas Trucking Association is speaking out against his stepped up truck inspections that have halted shipping at key ports of entry in Texas.
Are you kidding me? Beto O’Rourke dropping 7 minute miles during this morning’s Pride Run 5K in Houston. Finished at 21:44 - 6th place for the race. That is waaay fast for a 49 year old man
Whoa. This is the line for early voting in
#Houston
. Literally people camped out last night so they could be among the first to vote. “This is one of the most important elections of our lifetimes,” Cody Pogue tells me
BREAKING: For the 3rd day in a row Texas set a new record for hospitalizations. Texas has now seen hospitalizations increase 42 percent since Memorial Day.
BREAKING: Texas officials report 58 new deaths since yesterday - single largest death toll in one day since this started. We have had 116 deaths over three days. Worst three day total this month.
Beto O’Rourke in Fort Worth just moments after locking up primary turns attention to Abbott
“This guy can’t even keep the lights on in the energy capital of the world,” Beto O’Rourke said
Savage.
The American Trucking Association left ZERO doubt about how they feel about Gov. Greg Abbott's "wholly flawed" border-clogging inspection "scheme."
In one page statement they called it flawed, senseless and misguided.
BREAKING: Texas has never had more people hospitalized for COVID-19 than it is reporting today. We have 1,935 people hospitalized and over the last 7 days are averaging 1,836 patients per day. During the previous 7 days we we averaging 1,681 over 7-day period.
Right now, the Texas Senate is moving to pass legislation that would allow the state to call an entirely new election for a county that runs out of paper for ballots more than one hour.
But it only applies to 1 county.
Guess who?
Gold star if you guessed Harris County
After his speech to the Texas Democratic Convention last night in Dallas,
@BetoORourke
headed a few blocks over to Jaxon Beer Garden to greet supporters.Even after 10:30 pm, hundreds were standing in line to meet him.
How reliable is the electricity grid in Texas? Much of Houston and Austin don’t have power. Two of the nation’s biggest cities. The fossil fuel capital of the nation can’t keep the power on for millions of Texans in freezing temperatures right now
After Abbott says he’s been increasing teacher pay and school funding, O’Rourke counters that Abbott has been governor for 8 years and Texas teachers are being underpaid by $7,500 a year.
Because there was no leader, there was no plan to triage victims.
"Without appropriate precautions, victims who had already passed away were taken to the hospital in ambulances while children with bullet wounds were put on school buses without any medical attention," she said.
NEW: Teacher pay raises are dead.
Property tax cuts in dire trouble.
But you know what House and Senate leaders were able to agree on? A 29% budget increase for their own offices - the biggest increase in more than 20 years.
BREAKING: Texas Gov. Greg Abbott orders all bars to shutdown today and restaurants must reduce capacity to 50% starting Monday as the state has seen spike in COVID-19. Since June 1, cases in Texas have doubled and hospitalizations have nearly tripled.
"In the commotion, one adult victim was placed on a walkway - on the ground - outside to be attended to," Gupta said. "She died there."
And the reunification and notification process was also chaotic. Gupta said families received unclear and often conflicting information.
1 million
That is how many votes are already in here in Texas - and the state isn't even finished tallying the first day of in-person Early Voting.
And it probably goes without saying but, this is a CRAZY high number.
"Hours after the shooting an official incorrectly told families, waiting for their children at the civic center, that an additional bus of survivors was coming. It did not," Gupta said.
Cecile Richards in Austin right now delivering introduction for Beto O’Rourke. Richards reminds crowd that 32 years ago every poll showed her mother Ann Richards losing, but they never gave up and won that race.
In his closing:
"Look, I don't think that Greg Abbott wakes up wanting to see children shot in their schools or for the grid to fail, but it's clear he is incapable or unwilling to make the changes necessary to prioritize the lives of our fellow Texans."
Why does Beto O'Rourke have a shot in November?
Independents have completely turned on Gov. Greg Abbott, according to the latest
@TxPolProject
results.
55% of independents disapprove of how Abbott is doing
In 2018, that number was 39%
Texas Democratic Party chair Gilberto Hinojosa tells Texas Democrats at a breakfast Zoom call that of the 20 Texas House seats Ds have targeted this cycle, internal polling shows they are leading in 18 of them. Texas Democrats need 9 seats in order to retake the majority.
17.7 million!
That's how many voters we have now registered in Texas for this election. That blows me away.
We have almost 1.9 more registered voters going into this November than we did 4 years ago and 3.6M more since 2014.
I knew Harlan Crow was a big donor in Texas politics before the Clarence Thomas stuff broke.
But wow, I was surprised to see how much until I dug through state and fed donations this weekend. via
@houstonchron
And hello Sunday. We are now officially less than 48 hours from the 2021 Texas Legislative session ending.
And we still do not have a finished bill to fix the electricity grid that killed at least 200 Texans and left millions without power during frigid temperatures
It’s after 10:40 pm on a holiday weekend. I am one of the only non-government employee in the room as the Texas Senate debates a bill that will change voting laws for every Texan.
BREAKING: Kamala Harris is coming to Houston again.
For the first time since 1988 we have a Democratic Vice Presidential candidate campaigning in Texas down stretch
US Sen John Cornyn gets viciously booed during much of his speech here at the Republican Party of Texas Convention. Here’s his closing remarks and the cascade of boos.
Although they could have waited until tomorrow to take this up so more Texans could watch in daylight, the Republicans in the Texas Senate made an unexpected decision to to disregard their own rules to force a debate and vote tonight. This could go well past midnight
Check out how many humans are in the Senate chamber as debate begins at 10:39 pm. But check out how much security. There are 16 officers in gallery to keep 10 people in the gallery in check.
“It only seems impossible until it’s done,”
@Lin_Manuel
tells crowd in Houston at
@BetoORourke
rally. He says O’Rourke has been “showing up for us again and again and again for us and we’re going to make him the next governor of Texas.”
Sure this is the best Texas governors race in decades, but you know what we could use?
A beat.
No worries,
@Lin_Manuel
is heading to Houston for a rally on Tuesday where he is not throwing away his shot to help
@BetoORourke
.
"I'll keep your lights on, I'll make sure to keep your kids safe, reduce property taxes and we'll prioritize the lives of each and every single Texan in this state."
This just keeps getting better. During parliamentary inquiry. Lt Gov just called Senators up to front of chamber to huddle and talk away from microphones and far enough where I cannot hear a word.
Check out the turnout in Abilene on a Tuesday afternoon in August for Democrat Beto O'Rourke. This is in a county where Democrat Lupe Valdez won 22% of the vote against Greg Abbott in 2018.
Suddenly 2,400 Texas who thought they were registered to vote in Nov, might in fact not be. If you are a voter in Texas who used to register you MUST read this story:
“These jokers can’t even keep the lights on, or the heat on, or the water on when the temperature drops in Texas, now they want to take over our elections?” .
@BetoORourke
tells hundreds at a rally at the Texas Capitol on Saturday.
NEW RECORD: Texas has set a new record for hospitalizations for COVID-19 in Texas. The state just reported 2,793 lab-confirmed hospitalizations - that is an 11% increase from yesterday's record and now an 85% increase since Memorial Day.
Whoa.
Texas added almost 300,000 more voters in 2 weeks just before the registration deadline. We're up 16.9 million voters.
That is 1.8 million more voters than 2016 in Texas
In Spearman, TX (almost Oklahoma) Beto O’Rourke invites protesters into the park pavilion in 100 degree temps to get them out of the sun and gives them water. Now he’s taking a slew of questions from his supporters and the protesters.
“Governor Abbott is directly responsible for applying these new senseless inspections on our industry as well as the adverse impact they are having on the economy and hardworking Americans, including truckers," said American Trucking Associations President and CEO Chris Spear
More than 40% of our population in Texas is Hispanic. Want to take a guess at what percentage of professors at UT and A&M are Hispanic?
10% at UT
5% at A&M
At the risk of connecting really obvious dots, want to guess why colleges have tried to use DEI to find more diversity?
State Sen Royce West drawing attention to Republicans taking aim at souls to the polls in Texas. Senate has provision in elections bill that won’t allow early voting on Sunday until after 1 pm.
“If I were governor right now, I would cancel the STAAR test,”
@BetoORourke
says in Austin moments ago. “We don’t need any more high stakes, high pressure on the lives of those kids or those teachers given everything they’ve been through over the course of these last 2 years”
Beto O'Rourke plowing through some seriously red territory this weekend in Texas. He's in Nacogdoches and Marshall today, then Paris and Gainesville tomorrow. Sunday he heads to Greg Abbott's home town of Wichita Falls, where Abbott was just a few days ago.
You know what they didn't teach me in Texas history class in the 7th grade (yes that is a thing here)?
About the day 86 years ago when a natural gas leak blew up a school killing about 300 students and teachers in East Texas.
Oprah endorsing Fetterman over Oz has got most of the attention but in the same event she also said if she lived in Texas she’d vote for Beto O’Rourke.
NEW: Federal disaster teams are now also heading for El Paso this week to deal with the surge in COVID-19 hospitalizations. This comes as Gov. Abbott has announced the state is converting the convention center into expanded hospital space. More here:
BREAKING: Texas has never had more people in the hospital for COVID than it does today. State reported we have 2,242 people in hospitals with lab-confirmed COVID (not suspected cases) - that is:
up by 76 people since yesterday.
Up 420 from one week ago
Up 731 since Memorial Day
"When we win we are legalizing marijuana,"
Beto O'Rourke says to huge roar of crowd in Laredo.
He adds "we will also expunge the arrest record of anyone" arrested for marijuana possession.
Is this a burn?
Federal Judge David A. Ezra, in his decision against the buoy barrier in the Rio Grande, pointed to a March post on X in which Abbott bragged about Operation Lone Star and said. “We aren’t asking for permission.”
Ezra responded in his opinion:
In Edinburg,
@BetoORourke
with Uvalde families, is slamming Gov. Greg Abbott for not doing more and not allowing these families into the debate tonight.
"They are owed justice and accountability," O'Rourke said. "And they are also owed action."
Just wild.
Texas has added 1.9 million more voters since this time four years ago.
How nuts is that? It took 13 years (!) between 2001 and 2014 to add 1.9M in Texas.
What we did in last 4 years is like Texas annexing the entire voter rolls of Maine & New Hampshire combined.
Step one is complete. By 19-12 vote Senators agreed to resolution that allows them to add stuff into the election bill that were never previously discussed in House or Senate versions of SB7
"Unfortunately, this new initiative duplicates existing screening efforts and leads to significant congestion, delaying the products Americans rely on from our largest trading partner, Mexico," TXTA President & CEO John D. Esparza said.
“Unfortunately for Texas, permission is exactly what federal law requires before installing obstructions in the nation’s navigable waters,” Ezra said in his decision ordering the barriers out of the river near Eagle Pass by next Friday.
More here:
Statewide this has been a terrible three days for deaths in Texas. Another 33 people died since yesterday giving us 147 in three days. This is the worst 3 day stretch since this all began. We are averaging 33 deaths per day in May. In April we averaged 25 deaths per day.
Beto O’Rourke scheduled to speak later tonight at the Texas Democrats Convention, but just now making an early appearance to greet folks in line to buy campaign gear.
Just now
@BetoORourke
on the Texas border decrying the “chaotic deployment” of the Texas National Guard. He said instead of weeks and months to plan logistics, 10K troops were rushed without clear mission for a photo op.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announces he’ll hold briefing about COVID-19 with limit press coverage on Monday at 2 pm. The Houston Chronicle and San Antonio Express-News once again not allowed to be there to ask questions despite both cities seeing huge spike in ICUs.
5.5M votes in.
Latest Texas Division of Elections numbers show 700K people early voted on Friday statewide (with a few counties still not fully reporting yesterday’s numbers).
From Willie to Harry in about 5 hours.
That was Beto O’Rourke’s day in Austin. After being with
@WillieNelson
at Moontower Saloon,
@Harry_Styles
Styles was sporting Beto sticker with O’Rourke in the crowd at Moody Center downtown.
“In Texas you see Greg Abbott trying to mimic Donald Trump,” Beto O’Rourke says on The View. “He’s not trying to be governor of the state of Texas. He’s trying to get that pole position in the Republican Presidential Primary.”
Democrat
@BetoORourke
right now in Austin leading press conference about the Supreme Court draft decision on abortion.
“We’re going to fight. When we fight we win,” he says.
As we approach 1:27 am, I have 19 of the 31 Texas Senators plus Lt Gov Dan Patrick who have left the floor. They can still see and hear debate elsewhere, but as I dream of the coffee I’m NOT drinking I’m a tad jealous of the breaks they are getting.
So
@GregAbbott_TX
just ended a press conference with us so he could do a live interview with Fox & Friends with air national guard planes as props behind him.