Posts Tagged ‘Railroad Commission’

Texas Runoff Election Roundup

Tuesday, May 26th, 2026

Today is primary runoff day in Texas, so get out and vote if you haven’t already.

Here’s a brief roundup of Texas election-related news.

  • First up, the crazy Democrat in the 35th Congressional District runoff who literally wants to send Jews to camps.

    TX-35 Democratic candidate Maureen Galindo says she will convert ICE detention center in Karnes County into an internment camp for “American Zionists.”

    “It will also be a castration processing center for pedophiles, which will probably be most of the Zionists,” she added.

    If you’re an American and you support Israel, well, it’s the Texas concentration camp for you.

    A much better use of resources than deporting illegal immigrants, for sure.

    Here’s the San Antonio Current:

    ‘She’ll turn Karnes ICE Detention Center into a prison for American Zionists and former ICE officers for human trafficking,’ Galindo wrote in an Instagram post over the weekend, referring to herself in the third person. ‘It will also be a castration processing center for pedophiles, which will probably be most of the Zionists.’

    Johnny Garcia is her primary opponent. The 35th used to be an Austin-San Antonio district, but redistricting changed to stretch from southeast San Antonio all the way down to just short of Goliad.

  • Gambling interests are pouring a lot of money into the Railroad Commission runoff.

    One $500,000 donation by the casino advocacy group funded by the Las Vegas Sands Corp. has made it the single largest donor in the runoff election for the Texas Railroad Commission, the department largely responsible for regulating the oil and gas industry.

    Texas voters heading to the polls in the Republican Primary Runoff Election for the Texas Railroad Commission are getting a fresh look at how big-money players from the gambling world are trying to shape even the most obscure corners of state government.

    Incumbent Commissioner Jim Wright just reported a $500,000 contribution from Texas Sands PAC, the latest in what has become a pattern of heavy spending by casino-backed groups and predatory gambling interests in Texas elections.1

    Right off the bat, the donation looks out of place. The Railroad Commission’s core job is regulating oil and gas production, pipelines, and mining. It has nothing to do with gambling or casino bills and legalization. Yet a PAC funded directly by Las Vegas Sands, the Chinese-centered casino giant, has decided half a million dollars is a smart investment in Wright’s reelection.

    I wonder how Chinese gambling interests think they can benefit from having their man on the Railroad Commission.

    Wright is running against conservative Bo French.

  • In the last week, Chip Roy finally started dropping flyers in his runoff against Mayes Middleton, something Middleton has been doing for months. So behold this tale of two flyers:

    The problem for Roy is that Middleton has already been painting him as the the “non-MAGA” candidate for months. Any low-information voters that could be persuaded by a flyer have probably already been persuaded that Middleton is the MAGA candidate. Roy let himself be outMAGAed early in the race and I don’t see him catching up now.

  • I already voted early for:

  • Texas Senate race: Ken Paxton over John Cornyn
  • Texas Attorney General race: Mayes Middleton over Chip Roy
  • Texas Railroad Commission: Bo French over Jim Wright
  • Court of Criminal Appeals Place 3: Thomas Smith over Alison Fox
  • Go vote if you haven’t already!

    Texas 2026 Republican Primaries: Comptroller and Railroad Commissioner Races

    Tuesday, February 24th, 2026

    As promised, here’s a look a the Republican primary races for Comptroller and Railroad Commissioner.

    The Comptroller race features incumbent Kelly Hancock (who was appointed comptroller by Governor Greg Abbott after Glenn Hegar resigned to become Texas A&M system chairman), plus challengers former state senator Donald Huffines, Railroad Commissioner Christi Craddick, and longshot Michael Berlanga (who, at last count, had raised zero dollars for the race).

    The pick here is easily Don Huffines, who has a long history of conservative activism on a wide variety of issues, from school choice to controlling the border to ending the Flu Manchu lockdowns, and he was always a reliable vote for conservative interests in the state senate. He even challenged Abbott from the right in the 2022 gubernatorial primary, finishing third behind Abbott and Allen West. His endorsement list includes Ted Cruz, Ron Paul, Charlie Kirk, and Vivek Ramaswamy, plus every single conservative group Texas Scorecard polled (True Texas Project, Texas Gun Rights, Texas Family Project, Grassroots America: We The People (GAWTP), Texas Right to Life (TRL), and Texans Uniting for Reform and Freedom (TURF)).

    Hancock, in addition to being selected rather than elected, is too cozy with gambling interests and voted to impeach Ken Paxton. So he’s right out, no matter how much money he’s thrown around to advertise on conservative websites.

    I’ve voted for Craddick for Railroad Commissioner, but she’s always seemed to be slight squishy and trading on her former speaker father’s name. The most famous person endorsing her seems to be H. Ross Perot, Jr., which is not a recommendation.

    Speaking of the Railroad Commissioner, this is theoretically a five way race, but three of the candidates (Katherine Culbert, Hawk Dunlap II and Ty Matlock) are badly-funded longshots. The real race is between incumbent Jim Wright and Tarrant County Republican Party Chairman Bo French. French announced for the race in November, promises an “America first” approach.

    The Texas oil and gas industry needs a strong defender who will never back down to leftist pressure,” said French. “As your next Railroad Commissioner, I will fight to end DEI, radical climate change ideology, and foreign capture of our oil and gas industries. I am the battle-tested conservative in this race, and I will always fight to put America First.”

    Sounds good, and his list of conservative endorsements confirms he’s most conservative candidate in the race. That Texas Scorecard round up shows every conservative org endorsing him ((True Texas Project, Texas Gun Rights, Texas Family Project, Texas Right to Life, and Texans Uniting for Reform and Freedom) except Grassroots America: We The People, who endorsed Wright.

    But the real record-scratch moment on Jim Wright’s endorsements is the presence of state rep Charlie Geren, the Joe Straus loyalist French previously primaried. Geren helped instigate the impeachment proceedings against Paxton and may have had an operative file a false CPS report against French. Having Charlie Geren endorse someone is a pretty good sign you should vote for his opponent.

    The clear Railroad Commission pick is Bo French.

    BattleSwarmBlog Endorses Christi Craddick For Railroad Commissioner

    Tuesday, February 27th, 2024

    I’m not one to vote for a Republican incumbent just because they’re a Republican incumbent. That, and the fact that the operations of the Texas Railroad Commission are seldom reported on and mostly opaque to me, have heretofore kept me from backing Christi Craddick’s reelection bid, especially since she has four challengers this year.

    Nor have her multiple direct mail flyers (with so few competitive races this year, she’s one of the few sending them) saying all the right things, sold me either. Nor did endorsements from the Williamson County Republican Party, or the Texans United for a Conservative Majority PAC, do the trick. (I’m inclined more toward the latter, simply because it agrees with GOA endorsements.)

    So I was still looking for a sign. And lo and behold, one was given unto me.

    The Houston Chronicle endorsed her opponent James Matlock.

    Once upon a time (say 40 odd years ago), the Chronicle, much like the city it was published in, was reliably conservative and Republican. That hasn’t been true for a long time. Today they suffer from the same far left myopia that infects the rest of the MSM, and they seem to have endorsed Matlock for his regurgitation of some well-debunked Gaslands anti-fracking talking points. (Oh, they also endorsed Nikki Haley, because of course they did.)

    The fact that Craddick’s most prominent opponent is far enough off-base to be endorsed by the Houston Chronicle is enough to make me back her…

    Texas Early Voting Starts Today!

    Tuesday, February 18th, 2020

    Early voting in Texas starts today!

    Here are some links for research:

  • The League of Women Voters.
  • Empower Texans endorsements.
  • Governor Greg Abbott’s endorsements.
  • Williamson County early voting locations.
  • Travis County voting locations.
  • A Tale of Two Rockeys.
  • And here are the websites for a few Republican candidates in down-ballot races:

  • Ryan Sitton, who’s running for the Railroad Commission.
  • Gina Parker, running for Texas Criminal Court of Appeals Place 3.
  • Mike Guevara, who’s running to take back Texas State Representative District 136 from John Bucy III.
  • Gary Gates’ Dishonest Campaign Against Wayne Christian

    Friday, May 20th, 2016

    Someone has to talk about Gary Gates’ dishonest direct mailer campaign against Wayne Christian in the Railroad Commissioner runoff, and since I’m a Texas blogger, and since early voting ends today, I guess that someone is me.

    Gates has attempted to paint Christian as some sort of liberal, accusing him of “Obama-style politics” and of wanting to Texas into “Texifornia.” In fact, Christian has a long record as a very conservative state legislator who repeatedly received high marks in conservative rankings and who has racked up an enviable number of conservative endorsements:

    ChristianEndorse

    While Christian garnered endorsements from conservatives like Michael Williams and Donna Campbell, Gates has been endorsed by liberal Republicans like Byron Cook and Charlie Geren. Says radio host Robert Pratt: “He’s endorsed and backed by the worst of Speaker Straus’ top leadership team.”

    Indeed, Gates’ direct mail campaign has been so fundamentally dishonest that I wonder if former David Dewhurst staffers have been behind it.

    I’ve been suspicious of Gary Gates since his “Texas Citizens Coalition” newsletter highlighted Straus-supporting legislators like Giovanni Capriglione, Tan Parker, Drew Springer and Jason Villalba. His dishonest scorched-earth flyer campaign is yet another reason why Texans should vote for Wayne Christian for Railroad Commissioner today or May 24.

    (In other Railroad Commission news, the The Dallas Morning News didn’t endorse anyone in the Republican runoff, but did mange to endorse…Grady Yarbrough.)

    LinkSwarm for March 4, 2016

    Friday, March 4th, 2016

    Enjoy another Friday LinkSwarm!

  • Justice Department grants immunity to former state department staffer who ran Hillary’s email. Hmmm…
  • The four laws Hillary broke in her email scandal. (Hat tip: Director Blue.)
  • Being a Democrat means never having to apologize for statutory rape. (Hat tip: Robert Stacy McCain.)
  • Ace of Spades reviews the latest Republican debate: “John Kasich: Continued playing to his core supporters of artisinal bong craftsmen and elderly public masturbators.” Donald Trump: “Added some substance to his foreign policy platform by declaring that he would force American soldiers to break the law and murder children. On other issues, he was less reassuring.” You’ll just have to go over and read the extended “clowns and burning blind children” metaphor for yourself…
  • Rich Lowry: “Cruz had a terrific night. He was strong and in command in his exchanges with Trump, and drew blood on Trump’s Hillary donations, his participation in the political influence game and the New York Times transcript.”
  • Why the Republican establishment had Trump coming:

    Republicans promised to build a wall along the Mexican border, fix illegal immigration, balance the budget, rein in the IRS, cut waste and fraud, defund Obama’s illegal executive orders. But every time they’re handed the controls of government, they invent some new excuse for not delivering.

    The last budget that Republicans in the House and Senate passed did the opposite of everything the GOP leaders pledged when trying to get these people’s votes. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell seemed to be sending out an email to every Republican voter: Sorry, we lied.

  • Moe Lane takes a look at this Saturday’s closed primaries.
  • Da Tech Guy further notes that Cruz was behind Trump in polling for the closed primaries in Iowa, Oklahoma and Alaska, but won all three. “Of the next 9 contests Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana and Maine (March 5th) Puerto Rico (March 6th), Hawaii, Idaho, Michigan, Mississippi (March 8th), all but Puerto Rico & Mississippi are closed primaries.” (Hat tip: Conservatives 4 Ted Cruz.)
  • “How the P.C. Police Propelled Donald Trump: By assailing sensible conservatives as sexists, racists, and imbeciles, they paved the way for a jackass who embodies their worst fears.” Oh, now you get it? Now, when it’s no longer convenient to ignore the truth for political gain? (Hat tip: Ed Driscoll at Instapundit.
  • “Racial justice is cool mainly when there’s something in it for the white liberal activist.”
  • If you didn’t notice on Tuesday, former senate candidate and International Man of Mystery Grady Yarbrough made the Railroad Commissioner runoff on the Democratic side along with Cody Garrett (who seems to tout how many unions he’s joined as a major achievement), and Wayne Christian and Gary Gates on the Republican side.
  • I see that Spotlight won the Oscar. Consider the source and take this piece with several grains of salt, but it suggests that the movie got the story all wrong and that some innocent priests were swept up in the same moral panic and “repressed memories” junk science that defined the McMartin Preschool case, with an added dollop of greedy trial lawyers on top.
  • My review of Hail, Caesar!
  • Newly discovered Mozart-Salieri Score.
  • Wayne Christian Joins the Railroad Commissioner Race

    Monday, September 9th, 2013

    Former Rep. Wayne Christian has joined the Railroad commissioner race.

    Christian lost his seat to the Joe Straus-backed Chris Paddie in the Republican primary after losing 80% of his district in redistricting. Christian is already generating some grassroots enthusiasm in a crowded Railroad Commissioner field that already includes Malachi Boyuls, who has drawn some heavyweight support himself, and state Rep. Stefani Carter.