Posts Tagged ‘Todd Hunter’

Abbott Signs Redistricting Bill

Sunday, August 31st, 2025

The day has arrived: Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed the redistricting bill into law.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has signed into law a Republican plan to make the state’s congressional district map “more red” ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.

“Today, I signed the One Big Beautiful Map into law,” Abbott announced in a Friday afternoon video post on X.

The Republican redistricting plan adds five new GOP-opportunity congressional districts.

Republicans currently hold 25 of the state’s 38 U.S. House seats.

Recent legal decisions cleared the way for Texas Republicans to redraw district boundaries based on partisan political performance and increase the party’s advantage in future elections to reflect voting shifts seen in 2024, when President Donald Trump won support from unprecedented numbers of minority voters.

To explicate those “recent legal decisions” for readers coming into this story tableau rasa: Democrats launched the Petteway v. Galveston County lawsuit trying to save one Galveston County commissioner’s seat, whereupon the Supreme Court ruled that those black/Hispanic coalition minority districts carved out to benefit the Democratic Party were unconstitutional. So Democrats have hoist themselves on their own petard, and nobody should have the slightest bit of sympathy for them.

Abbott said the new map “ensures fairer representation.”

The governor also thanked “all of the legislature who stayed in the Capitol and got this law to my desk.”

Texas lawmakers passed the Republican redistricting plan last week on party-line votes, after House Democrats delayed the inevitable by breaking quorum for two weeks.

Thrice Democrats have used the quorum break tactic in an effort to thwart redistricting, and thrice they have failed. Other than vainglorious virtue signaling, you wonder what they get out of the tactic and why they keep deploying it.

“Texas is now more red in the United States Congress,” said Abbott after signing the measure, known as House Bill 4.

Several Democrat-aligned groups filed legal challenges to the new congressional map before it was signed into law.

Organizations suing include the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF), and the Mexican American Legislative Caucus (MALC). A group of Texas residents is also suing.

Plaintiffs claim the new map is racially gerrymandered to eliminate majority-minority districts required by the Voting Rights Act, unconstitutionally diluting the voting strength of minority voters, and is “intentionally discriminatory.”

The author and sponsor of HB 4, State Rep. Todd Hunter (R–Corpus Christi) and State Sen. Phil King (R–Weatherford), assured lawmakers that the map is “legal under all applicable law” and meets the requirements of “one person, one vote” and compactness.

Both Hunter and King repeatedly emphasized that the new district lines were drawn based on partisan political performance, which the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled permissible, not racial data.

State Sen. Adam Hinojosa (R–Corpus Christi) said the map represents a political shift in the state, including South Texas, which he represents.

“This is not a racial shift. This is a values shift, and no amount of shouting ‘racism’ is going to change that,” argued Hinojosa on the Senate floor.

Despite all the talk of lawsuits, Democrats are already announcing which of the new districts they’ll be running for, and the chances of lawsuits overturning them, the occasional rogue judge notwithstanding, would seem to be extremely slim. Indeed, the Supreme Court seems more likely to sweep away all creaky Voting Rights Act considerations of race as unconstitutional than to toss districts drawn in a colorblind manner aside because they don’t elect enough Democrats.

If Democrats continue to cling to the the same radical social justice politics that got them thumped in 2024, they shouldn’t expect their 2026 to turn out any better, no matter the district lines.

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Posted in Elections, Republicans, Supreme Court, Texas | 2 Comments »

Texas Redistricting Passes Senate, Headed To Abbott’s Desk

Sunday, August 24th, 2025

After passing the Texas House, the redistricting bill has now passed the Texas Senate and is headed to Governor Greg Abbott’s desk to sign.

A Republican plan to redraw Texas congressional districts ahead of the 2026 midterm elections is on its way to the governor’s desk after passing the Senate early Saturday morning, paving the way for a shake-up in the state’s U.S. House delegation.

Senators passed the congressional redistricting plan on a party-line, 18-11 vote, following hours of debate and a threatened filibuster that fizzled.

The new map, drawn to improve Republican political performance, adds five new GOP-opportunity seats.

State Sen. Phil King (R–Weatherford) sponsored the redistricting plan, House Bill 4 by State Rep. Todd Hunter (R–Corpus Christi), which the House passed on Wednesday.

“The area of redistricting law is very robust and gets very complex, very quickly,” King opened Friday morning. “We’re not in a courtroom today.”

Yet throughout the day, Democrats pressed King on specific redistricting legalities and made clear they intend to challenge the map in court.

King said HB 4 is “legal under all applicable law” and meets the requirements of “one person, one vote” and compactness.

He repeatedly emphasized that the map was drawn based on partisan political performance, which the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled is permissible, not racial data.

“In contrast to the complications that are involved with race-based redistricting, political performance is really a pretty easy map to draw, and it’s absolutely permissible as a basis for drawing electoral districts,” said King.

The map flips five congressional districts from Democrat- to Republican-leaning: CD9 in Houston, CD28 in the Rio Grande Valley, CD32 in Dallas, CD34 in coastal South Texas, and CD35 in San Antonio.

I analyzed the effects of district movement on their incumbents here.

“There’s no question Democrats are not in favor of this map… because it elects more Republicans,” said King. “It was also very clear from testimony that a lot of people want us to create maps that reflect specific percentages of ethnic groups, and that’s illegal. We can’t do that.”

State Sen. Adam Hinojosa (R–Corpus Christi), the first Republican to hold Senate District 27 since Reconstruction, said the new map—which increases majority-minority voting districts—gives South Texas Hispanics “a voice that reflects their values, not outdated assumptions about race or party.”

“This is not a racial shift. This is a values shift, and no amount of shouting racism is going to change that,” said Hinojosa.

For over half a century, Democrats have used the Voting Rights Act as a tool to racially gerrymander themselves legislative majorities. More recently, Republican have flipped the script on them, concentrating minority voters in deep blue urban districts to make other districts more favorable to Republicans while fulfilling the letter of the Voting Rights Act. Then Democrats launched the Petteway v. Galveston County lawsuit trying to save one Galveston County commissioner’s seat, whereupon the Supreme Court ruled that those black/Hispanic coalition minority districts carved out to benefit the Democratic Party were unconstitutional.

Depending on only partisan affiliation date, Texas Republicans have now produced districts that are notably more compact than logical than many Democratic Party racially gerrymandered maps. Texas Republicans have garnered five additional Republican seats and helped America move closer to colorblind society. I count that as a win-win.

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Posted in Austin, Democrats, Elections, Republicans, Supreme Court, Texas | 4 Comments »

Texas Redistricting Finally Passes House

Thursday, August 21st, 2025

After all the unnecessary and futile drama of the Democrat’s quorum break, the Texas House has finally passed the congressional redistricting bill.

After weeks of gridlock, the Texas House has approved a new congressional redistricting plan that Republicans say will strengthen their hold on Washington, adding five GOP-leaning seats across the state.

The issue has been a priority for Gov. Greg Abbott, who placed congressional redistricting on the call during the first special session earlier this summer. But Democrats brought the chamber to a standstill when they broke quorum and fled to Illinois and other states to prevent the map from advancing.

Their walkout effectively killed the first special session, but with Abbott calling lawmakers back for a second 30-day session, Democrats returned on Monday. By Wednesday, Republicans had rushed the proposal out of committee and onto the House calendar, where it passed on a party-line vote.

State Rep. Todd Hunter (R–Corpus Christi), who carried the legislation, defended the process while laying out the plan on the floor.

“This plan originated in the first called special session before the chamber left a quorum,” said Hunter. “In that session, we held three public hearings—we were not required to hold those hearings. At these hearings, we heard testimony from members of Congress and citizens alike. The underlying goal of this plan is straightforward: improve Republican political performance.”

The map, which reshapes districts in Dallas and Houston as well as Central and South Texas, is designed to reflect population growth while giving Republicans an even stronger advantage. Each new district is required to be nearly equal in population, with the ideal congressional size sitting around 766,900 residents.

Democrats blasted the proposal as “illegal and racially discriminatory.”

President Donald Trump, meanwhile, cheered the move on Truth Social, calling it “ONE BIG, BEAUTIFUL CONGRESSIONAL MAP!” He praised Abbott and House Speaker Dustin Burrows for restoring a quorum, writing, “With the Texas House now in Quorum, thanks to GREAT Speaker Dustin Burrows, I call on all of my Republican friends in the Legislature to work as fast as they can to get THIS MAP to Governor Greg Abbott’s desk, ASAP.”

The detailed county-by-county breakdown maps of the new districts can be found here. On a personal note, I am thankfully being moved out of Democrat Lloyd Doggett’s District 37 and into Republican August Pfluger’s District 11.

Here’s a snapshot of the new districts from The Texan.

“The final vote was 88 ayes — all Republicans including House Speaker Dustin Burrows (R-Lubbock), who normally doesn’t vote on legislation — to 52 nays.”

Republicans drew this new map at the behest of President Donald Trump and with his 2024 election performance top of mind, ensuring that each of the projected five GOP pickups were areas the president won last year by at least 10 points.

Those five seats are the 9th, 28th, 32nd, 34th, and 35th congressional districts; two are in South Texas, one in Dallas, one in Houston, and one on the outskirts of San Antonio.

The Democrats currently representing those districts are Al Green of Houston (9th), the currently indicted Henry Cuellar of Larado (28th), Julie Johnson of Farmers Branch (32nd), Vicente Gonzalez of McAllen (34th), and infamous commie twerp Greg Casar of Austin (35th).

My guess is that Cuellar and Gonzalez are simply gone, since the Rio Grande Valley was already trending Republican and there are no friendly districts anywhere nearby for them to run in. Green could quite conceivably run in the now-vacant 18th congressional district, previously represented by the deceased Sylvester Turner, and before that by the daughter of the also-deceased Sheila Jackson Lee, and before that by Lee. While Johnson could theoretically run in neighboring Marc Veasey’s 33rd congressional district, that’s a Hispanic and black majority district (and I suspect it’s getting even more so in the current redistricting), which is a tough hill to climb for any white candidate, much less a gay white girl in a suburban district, so I suspect she’s toast as well. The redistricting sets up a Thunderdome showdown between Doggett and Casar for the Austin-based 37th, unless Doggett (who is 79) retires.

Now on to the Texas Senate, where which passed its own redistricting bill handily in the first special session and will likely pass this one in quick order.

I have been (and will continue to be) quite critical of House Speaker Dustin Burrows’ membership in the Straus-Bonnen-Phelan cabal that stays in power thanks to Democrat votes and special interest/gambling money, but in this instance he has delivered on a very important Republican priority.

Remember: All this was set in motion by Petteway v. Galveston County, a lawsuit Democrats filed in order to save one Galveston County commissioner’s seat, whereupon the Supreme Court ruled that “black/brown” coalition minority districts carved out to benefit the Democratic Party were unconstitutional. So instead of saving one county commissioner’s seat, they’re going to lose five U.S. Congressional seats.

Democrats did this to themselves, and have no one else to blame…

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Posted in Austin, Democrats, Elections, Republicans, Supreme Court, Texas | 13 Comments »

Abbott Gets His Slush Fund Back

Saturday, June 10th, 2023

Remember the old Chapter 313 program Texas used to dole out incentives to favored companies to relocate to Texas? It’s back under a new name.

House Bill 5, which author State Rep. Todd Hunter (R–Corpus Christi) calls the “Texas Jobs, Energy, Technology, and Innovation Act,” would create a new statewide economic incentive program to replace the state’s controversial Chapter 313 program, which ended after lawmakers declined to renew it during the 2021 legislative session.

Although both the Republican Party of Texas and the Democrat Party of Texas oppose corporate handouts in their platforms, State Sen. Charles Schwertner (R–Georgetown), has said “the majority of the Legislature does see value in a job-creating, economy-growing incentive program.”

HB 5 was a priority of House Speaker Dade Phelan (R–Beaumont) and approved by a vote of 120-24 in the House and 27-4 in the Senate.

However, Jeramy Kitchen, executive director of Texans for Fiscal Responsibility told Texas Scorecard the new law is a “contradiction and nothing more.”

“On one hand, he is telling Texans that he wants to see historic property tax relief and the elimination of the property tax, or more specifically the school M&O portion of the property tax,” explained Kitchen. “Both of those are things that TFR supports and encourages the legislature to take action on.”

“His signing of House Bill 5 however, points to a contradiction, as it ultimately will do nothing more than burden those same individual property taxpayers he purports to provide historic relief to, as large qualifying corporations receive a property tax abatement under the guise of economic development,” said Kitchen.

Like Chapter 313, HB 5 allows businesses to apply for a 10-year abatement—or reduction—of school district property taxes, which the state pays instead. To receive an abatement, the business would have to show it plans to hire a certain number of employees earning above-average wages for its particular industry.

Unlike the previous incentive program, HB 5 requires not just the applicant and school district to agree to the abatement, but also the comptroller, governor, and a seven-member legislative oversight committee composed of lawmakers from the state House and Senate.

This committee would have the final say on approving proposed projects and would provide periodic recommendations to the Legislature regarding which types of projects should be considered.

The problem with the old program was that it let government use taxpayer money to pick winners from the politically connected. Abbott has wanted the restoration of his economic incentive “carrot” ever since it expired. The new law even creates another level of politicos for businesses to suck up to get tax rebate goodies, and I bet competition to get assigned to that new “oversite committee” will be fierce.

The old program probably did incentivize a few edge-case businesses to move to Texas who wouldn’t otherwise, but Texas’ low-tax, low-cost and business-friendly regulatory environment already provides plenty of incentives to move here, as evidenced by the fact that businesses kept relocating here even in their absence.

At least there’s one improvement in the new version: “After Chapter 313 received much criticism for its funding of “renewable energy” projects, which Texas Scorecard previously examined in an extensive investigation, lawmakers also blocked such industries from receiving taxpayer funding through HB 5.”

Taxpayers are better served by keeping their own money than theoretically enjoying the down-the-line economic benefits of government functionaries showering their money on corporate welfare for businesses willing to do the requisite sucking-up to political figures in order to get paid to move here.

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Posted in Budget, Democrats, Republicans, Texas, Welfare State | 2 Comments »

Texas Creating Critical Race Theory Office?

Tuesday, June 29th, 2021

This is thoroughly infuriating news:

The Texas Department of State Health Services is using close to $45 million to create the Office of Health Equity Policy and Performance. Purportedly, the office will work with state and local public health entities to address disparities in health outcomes in various demographics.

“Equity” is the CRTspeak tipoff here, because equality and color-bind policies don’t give the hard left enough opportunities to stick their noses into other people’s business to promote their racist theories.

If this sounds familiar, it is because Democrat State Rep. Garnet Coleman (Houston) authored a bill during the 87th Legislative Session that would have created the Office of Health Equity within the Texas Department of Health and Human Services, which is an entity of the Texas Department of State Health Services.

The bill was included in the healthcare legislative priorities of Republican House Speaker Dade Phelan as a part of his “Healthy Families, Healthy Texas” legislative package announced in early April.

The bill passed the Texas House of Representatives on May 5 by a vote of 77-51 and included 16 Republicans.

Those Republicans were State Reps. Steve Allison (San Antonio), Brad Buckley (Salado), Gary Gates (Rosenberg), Dan Huberty (Humble), Todd Hunter (Corpus Christi), Kyle Kacal (College Station), Ken King (Canadian), Stephanie Klick (Ft. Worth), John Kuempel (Seguin), Stan Lambert (Abilene), Morgan Meyer (Dallas), Geanie Morrison (Victoria), Chris Paddie (Marshall), Four Price (Amarillo), John Raney (Bryan), and Jim Murphy (Houston).

Murphy is also the House Republican Caucus chairman.

When the bill arrived in the Texas Senate, it was never even referred to a committee and granted a hearing, sealing its fate—or so you would have thought.

Snip.

When the news broke that the Texas Department of State Health Services was creating this office of its own accord, former State Rep. Matt Rinaldi, a current candidate for the Republican Party of Texas chairman, took to Twitter to ask, “Why is the Texas executive branch using $45 million of taxpayer money to create an agency that will implement critical race theory in health policy after the Legislature defunded the agency in 2017 and the [S]enate blocked its implementation this year?

When Coleman’s bill was being deliberated in the House of Representatives, State Rep. Jeff Cason (R–Bedford) spoke out against the bill on the House floor and said, “Today, we gather here voting on legislation that assumes our healthcare system is institutionally racist and that certain people are oppressed when receiving health care due to their gender or color of their skin.” He continued, “No one in America is turned away from a hospital. Healthcare has been open to all who seek it.”

Absolutely nothing good can come of catering to radical Critical Race Theory proponents, no matter how much proponents might swear up and down that their version of “Equity” somehow won’t be used to carry water for the radical left. You can’t let the camel’s nose in the tent.

Governor Abbott should put a stop to this nonsense, or explain to Republican voters why he won’t.

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Posted in Social Justice Warriors, Texas | 3 Comments »