Redrawing the state’s congressional maps, though being challenged in court, has drawn 114 Republican candidates in the state’s 38 districts with nearly two months left until the filing deadline, the Houston Chronicle reported.
The Texas Legislature redrew the maps at the request of President Donald Trump in hopes of gaining five additional GOP seats. As a result, there are winnable seats for Republicans in Houston, San Antonio and Dallas that have drawn 19 GOP candidates to date.
Two Republican members of Congress are seeking statewide office instead of trying to hold on to their current seats. Chip Roy, who represents a Central Texas district, is running for Texas attorney general, while Houston Republican Wesley Hunt recently jumped into the U.S. Senate race.
In addition, Michael McCaul, R-Austin, and Morgan Luttrell, R-Houston, are not seeking reelection. Those four open seats have drawn 25 GOP candidates.
Company tapped to run school voucher program
A New York tech company has been picked to administer the state’s new school choice program, the Texas Standard reported. The billion-dollar program passed in the regular legislative session will help parents use taxpayer money to pay for private school tuition, homeschooling expenses, and other educational expenses.
Odyssey, the company, manages education funding in several other states. It will be responsible for both processing applications and ranking families to determine who gets access to funding.
Anyone can apply as long as they have a child eligible to go to public school in K-12 as well as 4-year-olds who are eligible for pre-kindergarten.
Odyssey can receive up to 5% of the total school choice appropriation of $1 billion, meaning it could earn up to $50 million for administering the voucher program.
Roberson’s execution date paused by Texas court
Just a week before his scheduled execution date, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals stayed the execution of Robert Roberson in the death of his two-year-old daughter in 2002. Roberson was convicted of capital murder the following year for shaken baby syndrome, a diagnosis since discredited by most scientists. His case has drawn widespread attention and calls for his exoneration.
The Austin American-Statesman reported that the state’s highest criminal court decided to send the case back to trial in Anderson County, where he was convicted. The court cited the case of Andrew Wayne Roark, a North Texas man who was exonerated in a similar “shaken baby syndrome” case.
One of the judges wrote a concurring opinion: “As identified in Roark, our scientific understanding of what has become known as Shaken Baby Syndrome has significantly advanced. Because of this deeper understanding, certain assumptions and conclusions that were once thought to be true may not be.”
Roberson, now 58, claims his daughter fell out of the bed in the middle of the night in 2002. He soothed her to sleep, and upon checking on her later that night, found that she was not breathing. She was pronounced dead at an emergency room the next day, and Roberson was eventually charged and convicted of capital murder.
Agency raising awareness of screwworm threat
The Texas Department of State Health Services is calling for increased awareness among health professionals and the public about the New World screwworm. This parasitic fly can threaten the health of both animals and humans.
The screwworm was previously eradicated in the United States in the 1960s but remained endemic in most of Central and South America. Cases were detected in Mexico in November 2024, raising concerns that it would make its way back across the border.
Cattle have been barred from coming into the United States from Mexico since then, meaning more than a million head of cattle that normally would have headed to Texas feed lots remained south of the border. The number of cattle arriving at Texas feed lots is down 18% from a year ago.
An infected cow was reported less than 100 miles from the Texas border in September, according to the San Antonio Express-News.
The supply squeeze is raising the price of beef to record levels. Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller has called for the use of pesticide bait to deal with the problem.’
“This isn’t just a livestock issue, it’s about protecting Texas jobs, rural communities, and our agricultural lifeblood,” Miller said.
Cornyn, Paxton neck-and-neck, poll finds
A poll published last week shows incumbent U.S. Sen. John Cornyn and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton essentially tied, with new entrant U.S. Rep. Wesley Hunt not far behind, according to the Express-News. His entry suggests that no candidate is on track to win an outright majority, making a runoff likely—at least at this point.
The poll by the University of Houston and Texas Southern University, conducted the last two weeks of September, found 34% of respondents favored Paxton to 33% for Cornyn. Hunt picked up 22% of poll respondents with 11% of likely GOP voters polled still undecided.
Trump has yet to weigh in on the race, with all three candidates eager to receive his endorsement, if one is forthcoming. The poll found that half the respondents would vote for any candidate Trump endorsed.
Abbott directs DPS to increase hemp enforcement
Gov. Greg Abbott has directed the Texas Department of Public Safety to toughen enforcement against vape and smoke shops that don’t comply with new state regulations that prohibit selling hemp-derived products to minors.
Abbott issued an executive order to keep shops from selling hemp-derived products to minors after attempts to either ban such products outright or impose new laws regulating sales failed in the last two special sessions.
“Texas will protect children from dangerous hemp products,” Abbott said.
DPS will conduct targeted operations to identify vape and smoke shops that could be selling to minors. The effort will include conducting undercover investigations.
Gary Borders is a veteran award-winning Texas journalist. He published a number of community newspapers in Texas during a 30-year span, including in Longview, Fort Stockton, Nacogdoches, Lufkin and Cedar Park. Email: gborders@texaspress.com.
