Texas GOP Vote

Citing a violation of Article 1, Section 7 of the U.S. Constitution and other unconstitutional actions, Houston businessman, Dr. Steven Hotze, filed a lawsuit in federal court in Houston on Tuesday against the federal government. The lawsuit addresses previously un-addressed constitutional issues.

Dr. Hotze announced the lawsuit in a heavily covered press conference at the Texas Capitol surrounded by a host of members of the Texas House and Senate along with Texas Lt. Governor David Dewhurst.

Following the press conference, Dr. Hotze spoke with TexasGOPVote in the Reception Room adjacent the office of Texas Governor Rick Perry, where he spoke about the impact of ObamaCare on small businesses and why this law is unconstitutional.   Read more »

Dan Patrick, Republican State Senator and Senate Education Committee Chair, introduced an education reform bill, S.B. 2, in this 83rd session of the Texas State legislature that supports an expansion of the number of charter schools in Texas. Current Texas law limits the number of open-enrollment charter schools to 215, and S.B. 2 would remove that artificial cap.

This is no doubt good news for the over 100,000 children on Texas’ charter school waiting lists. At present, charter schools enroll around 150,000 students, and they have proved popular with parents seeking some alternative to the local public school their children would otherwise attend based on their zip code.

In short, expanding charter schools interjects more competition in the educational arena, and more choice in educational opportunities, all to the benefit of Texas’ children and parents.   Read more »

Senator Dan Patrick (SD7), chair of the powerful Senate Education Committee, has recently introduced legislation that would open up the strangle-hold government-sponsored monopoly that the education establishment enjoys in public education. His reasoning is simple and time-honored—“competition is good.” It doesn’t matter much what the competing items are—widgets, services, commodities, or even education—the very existence of competition improves the quality of all competitors.   Read more »

If you have not heard, a rogue group hidden within one-and-then-more regional service centers (RSC) of the Texas Education Agency (TEA) called CSCOPE (no particular acronym meaning, except that software possibly started from a progressive leaning company with similar initials). It has been hidden from public view due in part to some questionable 501c3 filings that seem to have only one purpose—to keep their operations as secretive as possible.   Read more »

We've been telling you about the push in Austin to bring balance to the Texas education system. Many feel there's too much emphasis on sending every single student to college and not enough recognition that the skilled trades are a great option for many. The Texas Tribune reports on Houston Sen. Dan Patrick's bill to move the state away from the "college for all" model of education.   Read more »

Imagine for a minute that a fierce anti-abortion person would visit a Planned Parenthood clinic and participate in an abortion to see what that experience is like. Would never happen, right? But fierce anti-gun advocate Piers Morgan marched into a Texas gun store and range yesterday and fired off a couple thousand dollars worth of ammunition faster than you can say, "Hands Up!" CNN's Piers Morgan visited Tactical Firearms in Katy, Texas yesterday and participated in firing many kinds of weapons according to owner Jeremy Alcede.     Read more »

Texas Supreme Justice David Medina, TGV bloggers Danielle Chavez and Fernando Trevino, and convention delegate Frankie Trevino

I had the pleasure of meeting Texas Supreme Court Justice David Medina at the state party convention earlier this month. After speaking with him, it is very clear he will receive my vote in the July 31st run-off election.   Read more »

In the past it could be said without doubt that America above all other nations valued human life as sacred and recognized the right to life as the foundation of all liberty. Even though America’s founding documents still reflect this historical ethos, and the 20th century was still a century during which the American consciousness embodied a respect for human life, the decades following the Roe v. Wade decision that declared abortion

Norma Jeter was honored Thursday night at the annual Lincoln-Reagan Dinner of the Harris County Republican Party by receiving the first annual Wilda Lynstrom Award just after Governor Perry spoke and before Senator Dan Patrick of SD7 spoke. In honoring her, Harris County Republican Party Chairman Jared Woodfill said that Norma was:

The following is a press release from Texas Senator Dan Patrick:

AUSTIN, TX – This morning, the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals vacated the injunction on the sonogram bill by District Judge Sam Sparks.

In a strongly worded order, the Fifth Circuit panel makes it clear that they found no constitutional flaws with the legislation and the injunction should be vacated. Even more significantly, the panel states that they will handle any further appeals related to the sonogram bill.

“Appellees failed to demonstrate constitutional flaws in H.B. 15. Accordingly, they cannot prove a substantial likelihood of success on each of their First Amendment