Sunday column: Voters in the @TexasGOP runoffs chose corruption and coercion rather than change last week. Republican leaders have put business people on notice to get with the program. Let me explain how in this thread: houstonchronicle.com/business/colum… @HoustonChron #txlege
The Republican primary has been the only statewide election that has counted since 1994, the last time a Democrat won. Tuesday’s run-offs were a chance for Republicans to dump controversial incumbents. They didn’t.
Two-thirds of voters didn’t care that AG Ken Paxton has used every maneuver to avoid resolving his seven-year-old indictments for fraud. As the state’s top law enforcement officer, who claims he’s innocent, you’d think he’d want to prove it in court. houstonchronicle.com/politics/texas…
Conservatives also don’t care that his top deputies reported him to the FBI. If you need a legal opinion to save your business, want law enforcement files to disappear, or could use a lawyer to go after your enemies, GOP voters think the AG should help. houstonchronicle.com/politics/texas…
GOP voters did not mind that Texas Railroad Commission Chairman Wayne Christian accepted a $100K campaign donation from a neighborhood company just weeks after he overruled the commission’s experts to approve the firm’s plans for an oilfield waste dump. houstonchronicle.com/business/colum…
Business leaders will need to get in lockstep with Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick. This dedicated defender of traditional family values no longer bows to the chambers of commerce; he expects fealty as he demonizes LGBT people and refugees along the border.
Patrick is making an example of Disney, opposing what he considers the company’s sexualization of children. He’ll call for a boycott of any other business that fights the “Don’t Say Gay” bill he has planned for next year. houstonchronicle.com/business/colum…
State Rep. Briscoe Cain and 13 other lawmakers plan to expel from Texas any company that skirts an abortion ban. This group passed the anti-abortion vigilante law and want to enable shareholders to sue any corp. that facilitates any abortion anywhere. texastribune.org/2022/05/23/tex…
“The state of Texas will take swift and decisive action if you do not immediately rescind your recently announced policy to pay for the travel expenses of women who abort their unborn children,” Cain and his allies wrote to Lyft CEO Logan Green.
Executives should also remember that Texas’s governmental entities are forbidden from doing business with companies that boycott gun manufacturers, fossil fuel producers or Israel. Enforcing those laws falls on incumbent State Comptroller Glenn Hegar. houstonchronicle.com/business/colum…
Democrats offer an alternative future, of course, but they would have to raise some money and collect more votes. Right now, the odds are on more of the same. This is not the @texasgop I grew up with. This is corruption and coercion. houstonchronicle.com/business/colum…
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
