<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <rss xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" version="2.0"><channel><title>The Texas Tribune: Abby Livingston</title><link>http://www.texastribune.org/about/staff/abby-livingston/</link><description>The latest news by Abby Livingston</description><atom:link href="http://www.texastribune.org/feeds/staff/abby-livingston/" rel="self"></atom:link><language>en-us</language><lastBuildDate>Thu, 09 Jul 2015 23:04:00 -0500</lastBuildDate><item><title>Abbott Replenishes Campaign War Chest in Nine Days </title><link>http://www.texastribune.org/2015/07/09/abbott-replenishes-campaign-war-chest-nine-days/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20Abby%20Livingston</link><description> &lt;div style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"&gt; &lt;a href="/2015/07/09/abbott-replenishes-campaign-war-chest-nine-days/"&gt; &lt;img src="//s3.amazonaws.com/static.texastribune.org/media/images/2015/05/12/Abbott-Press_jpg_312x1000_q100.jpg" alt="Gov. Greg Abbott speaks to reporters at the Security Operations Center at the Department of Public Safety on May 12, 2015."&gt; &lt;/a&gt; &lt;/div&gt; &lt;p&gt;Gov. &lt;a href="http://www.texastribune.org/directory/greg-abbott/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20Abby%20Livingston"&gt;Greg Abbott&lt;/a&gt; continues to prove himself a master fundraiser.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;His campaign announced on Wednesday that he will report a haul of $8.25 million in the nine-day period between the end of the legislative session&amp;rsquo;s moratorium on fundraising and the cutoff for the July 15 semiannual report.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;That works out to roughly $920,000 raised each day from June 22 through June 30. It also pumps up his campaign war chest to $17.7 million in cash on hand.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;During that period, his campaign said, Abbott received more than 2,000 donations, with more than 80 percent of them coming from online.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;The fundraising haul is also significantly bigger than the $4.8 million raised in the first half of 2013, the last time the Legislature met in regular session.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p style="text-align: center;"&gt;*****&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Senate District 1 candidate &lt;a href="http://www.texastribune.org/directory/david-simpson/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20Abby%20Livingston"&gt;David Simpson&lt;/a&gt; announced that he raised more than $150,000 from more than 120 contributors in the eight days between the end of the legislative session's moratorium on campaign contributions and the cutoff date to report fundraising activity for the July 15 report.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;The Simpson campaign noted the total does not include any candidate loans.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Simpson, a Longview Republican currently representing House District 7, is facing off against fellow House colleague &lt;a href="http://www.texastribune.org/directory/bryan-hughes/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20Abby%20Livingston"&gt;Bryan Hughes&lt;/a&gt;, R-Mineola, in the GOP primary contest for the Senate seat being vacated by &lt;a href="http://www.texastribune.org/directory/kevin-eltife/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20Abby%20Livingston"&gt;Kevin Eltife&lt;/a&gt;, R-Tyler.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p style="text-align: center;"&gt;*****&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;We&amp;rsquo;ve also got some fundraising announcements from the race for Houston mayor.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;State Rep. &lt;a href="http://www.texastribune.org/directory/sylvester-turner/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20Abby%20Livingston"&gt;Sylvester Turner&lt;/a&gt;, who was under the same fundraising moratorium as Abbott, raised $750,000 in those nine days of activity before the June 30 cutoff for the semiannual report.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;That, as the campaign noted, meant that Turner was raising money at a more-than-$80,000-a-day clip.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Businessman Bill King, who wasn&amp;rsquo;t affected by the fundraising moratorium on state officeholders, will report raising $1.25 million by the June 30 deadline, according to an announcement from his campaign.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Of that total, the King campaign said that $750,000 came from about 600 donations. That would suggest the remainder was money that the candidate gave to his campaign.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p style="text-align: center;"&gt;*****&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Jeb Bush will be coming to Austin in mid-August.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;The former Florida governor's presidential campaign put out a save-the-date for a fundraiser on Friday, Aug. 14, at a to-be-determined location.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;The invitation obtained by The Texas Tribune encourages both personal donations and bundling. Individual suggested donations range from $500 to the federal maximum for a primary campaign, $2,700.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.texastribune.org/directory/rick-perry/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20Abby%20Livingston"&gt;Rick Perry&lt;/a&gt; has brought on board Karen Fesler as co-chair of his Iowa campaign.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;She joins Sam Clovis at the top of the Hawkeye State operation for Perry.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p style="text-align: center;"&gt;*****&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Comptroller &lt;a href="http://www.texastribune.org/directory/glenn-hegar/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20Abby%20Livingston"&gt;Glenn Hegar&lt;/a&gt; announced Tuesday that he was happily skipping what has become an annual tradition for his office: issuing some short-term debt to cover costs as the fiscal year closes out.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;The comptroller has issued Texas Tax and Revenue Anticipation Notes (TRAN) every year for nearly three decades, according to Hegar's office. The shortfall emerges in large part because the state is required to provide nearly half of its annual payments to local school districts in the first three months of the fiscal year.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;This year, lawmakers left enough money in the state's general fund as well as in the Economic Stabilization Fund (i.e., the Rainy Day Fund) to cover the shortfall without a TRAN.&lt;/p&gt; </description><dc:creator xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/">John Reynolds, Abby Livingston and Aman Batheja</dc:creator><pubDate>Thu, 09 Jul 2015 23:04:00 -0500</pubDate><guid>http://www.texastribune.org/2015/07/09/abbott-replenishes-campaign-war-chest-nine-days/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20Abby%20Livingston</guid></item><item><title>Congress Explodes Over Confederate Flag </title><link>http://www.texastribune.org/2015/07/09/congress-explodes-over-confederate-flag/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20Abby%20Livingston</link><description> &lt;div style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"&gt; &lt;a href="/2015/07/09/congress-explodes-over-confederate-flag/"&gt; &lt;img src="//s3.amazonaws.com/static.texastribune.org/media/images/Capitol-2_jpg_312x1000_q100.jpg" alt=""&gt; &lt;/a&gt; &lt;/div&gt; &lt;p&gt;WASHINGTON &amp;ndash; Chaos engulfed the U.S. Capitol on Thursday as House Republicans and Democrats clashed over where the Confederate battle flag can and cannot be displayed.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;In a &lt;a href="https://www.texastribune.org/admin/stories/story/add/%20http:/www.rollcall.com/news/republicans_to_vote_on_allowing_display_of_confederate_flag-242722-1.html?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20Abby%20Livingston"&gt;late night maneuver&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;on Wednesday, Republicans aimed to push language into a funding bill that would allow the display and sale of Confederate battle flag imagery at cemeteries on federal land.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;A vote on the matter was scheduled for late Thursday afternoon. However, House Democrats cried foul, and by late morning House Republican leaders pulled the entire funding bill.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Even so, Democrats, led by House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, continued to inject chaos into the day&amp;rsquo;s House floor proceedings. They&amp;nbsp;succeeded in tying up the floor on the issue, scuttling the funding bill and diverting the trajectory of the day's news amid negotiations with Iran and a pending highway bill.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;ldquo;I&amp;rsquo;m glad we&amp;rsquo;re taking the stand that we are. I think it&amp;rsquo;s really important,&amp;rdquo; said U.S. Rep. &lt;a href="http://www.texastribune.org/directory/marc-veasey/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20Abby%20Livingston"&gt;Marc Veasey&lt;/a&gt;, D-Fort Worth &amp;ldquo;I believe that it&amp;rsquo;s long overdue, and I believe it&amp;rsquo;s time we finally move on.&amp;rdquo;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Democrats escalated the issue into the afternoon by revisiting a resolution to ban the display of the Confederate rebel flag at the nation&amp;rsquo;s Capitol. The target of that legislation was likely the Mississippi state flag.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California successfully moved for that resolution to be sent to the House Administration Committee.&amp;nbsp;Democrats howled in reaction &amp;ndash; a rare tone for House decorum. &amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;ldquo;It made people very upset and troubled,&amp;rdquo; Veasey said, adding that the debate&amp;nbsp;was striking in the context that, only hours before, the South Carolina legislature voted to take down the Confederate flag from its state Capitol grounds.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt;U.S. Rep. &lt;a href="http://www.texastribune.org/directory/kenny-marchant/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20Abby%20Livingston"&gt;Kenny Marchant&lt;/a&gt;, R-Coppell, said Thursday evening that while he believed Democrats were "sincere" in their calls for the removal of the flag, he suspected that it was all &lt;/span&gt;a concerted strategy to upend the funding process and give the executive branch more power over how money is spent.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;ldquo;They were very sincere in what they were trying to accomplish, [but] it hadn&amp;rsquo;t been the flag issue. &amp;hellip; They&amp;rsquo;ve been trying to blow the appropriations bills up, every one, as we go along,&amp;rdquo; he said.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;ldquo;When we were in the minority, we did the same thing,&amp;rdquo; Marchant added.&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Democrats also aimed to exact a political price from Republicans on the issue.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;The House Democratic campaign arm blasted U.S. Rep. &lt;a href="http://www.texastribune.org/directory/will-hurd/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20Abby%20Livingston"&gt;Will Hurd&lt;/a&gt;, R-San Antonio, an African-American, for choosing &amp;ldquo;procedural delays and parliamentary games, ensuring the confederate battle flag remains on display.&amp;rdquo;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Hurd declined to comment on the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee&amp;rsquo;s statement, saying he wanted to see it firsthand before commenting.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; </description><dc:creator xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/">Abby Livingston</dc:creator><pubDate>Thu, 09 Jul 2015 18:44:16 -0500</pubDate><guid>http://www.texastribune.org/2015/07/09/congress-explodes-over-confederate-flag/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20Abby%20Livingston</guid></item><item><title>U.S. Rep. Hurd Reports Raising $458,000 in Second Quarter </title><link>http://www.texastribune.org/2015/07/08/will-hurd-raises-458000-second-quarter/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20Abby%20Livingston</link><description> &lt;div style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"&gt; &lt;a href="/2015/07/08/will-hurd-raises-458000-second-quarter/"&gt; &lt;img src="//s3.amazonaws.com/static.texastribune.org/media/images/2014/12/18/TTEvent_WillHurd013_jpg_312x1000_q100.jpg" alt="U.S. Rep. Will Hurd, R-San Antonio, at a Texas Tribune event on Dec. 18, 2014."&gt; &lt;/a&gt; &lt;/div&gt; &lt;p&gt;WASHINGTON &amp;mdash; U.S. Rep. &lt;a href="http://www.texastribune.org/directory/will-hurd/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20Abby%20Livingston"&gt;Will Hurd&lt;/a&gt;, R-San Antonio, had a healthy second-quarter campaign fundraising haul, reporting a total of $458,000 raised from April to June.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;The freshman legislator is also on track to report $685,000 in cash on hand by a July 15 Federal Election Commission deadline, according to his campaign.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;In total, Hurd has raised just $1 million in the first half of this year. Hurd narrowly defeated ex-U.S. Rep. &lt;a href="http://www.texastribune.org/directory/pete-gallego/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20Abby%20Livingston"&gt;Pete Gallego&lt;/a&gt;, D-Alpine, in 2014, and the two men are on track to face off again in 2016.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;The sprawling 23rd Congressional District is the only truly competitive seat on the Texas map. It is in all likelihood going to be at the center of House Republican efforts to protect their largest majority in generations &amp;mdash; and the Democrats' campaign to increase their ranks.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Gallego entered the race at the beginning of April. His campaign did not immediately respond to a request for its fundraising figures.&lt;/p&gt; </description><dc:creator xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/">Abby Livingston</dc:creator><pubDate>Wed, 08 Jul 2015 11:18:48 -0500</pubDate><guid>http://www.texastribune.org/2015/07/08/will-hurd-raises-458000-second-quarter/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20Abby%20Livingston</guid></item><item><title>Amid Low Expectations, Perry Revels in Campaigning </title><link>http://www.texastribune.org/2015/07/05/amid-low-expectations-perry-revels-campaigning/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20Abby%20Livingston</link><description> &lt;div style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"&gt; &lt;a href="/2015/07/05/amid-low-expectations-perry-revels-campaigning/"&gt; &lt;img src="//s3.amazonaws.com/static.texastribune.org/media/images/2015/07/04/Perry_in_Windham_NH_copy_jpg_312x1000_q100.jpg" alt="Former Texas governor and presidential contender gives his stump speech in Windham, New Hampshire on July 4. 2015."&gt; &lt;/a&gt; &lt;/div&gt; &lt;p&gt;MERRIMACK, N.H. &amp;ndash; After years in the political wilderness, some of &lt;a href="http://www.texastribune.org/directory/rick-perry/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20Abby%20Livingston"&gt;Rick Perry&lt;/a&gt;&amp;rsquo;s trademark swagger returned on the Fourth of July weekend&amp;nbsp;in southern New Hampshire.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Ever since his 2011 presidential campaign flameout, Perry's aim&amp;nbsp;has been&amp;nbsp;to project a studious, learned image.&amp;nbsp;But on this Independence Day parade route, the candidate who showed up was an extrovert, a flirt and a fist bumper.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;For all his flaws, Perry can, in the five-second span it takes to greet a potential voter on a parade route, charm almost anyone.&amp;nbsp;And as John McCain showed during his long-shot 2007 New Hampshire campaign, there is a merriment&amp;nbsp;to be had while campaigning amid low expectations.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt;So, for the first time in a long time, Perry seemed to be having fun on the presidential campaign trail.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;The candidate had an almost theatrical, hyperactive zeal as he marched with two dozen or so supporters through the streets of Merrimack. He began the parade pantomiming drumming motions, in time with a local marching band several floats ahead.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;ldquo;Happy birthday, y&amp;rsquo;all,&amp;rdquo; was his refrain along the parade route.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;In Perry-speak, women he&amp;rsquo;s never met before were greeted with a &amp;ldquo;Hey, girl.&amp;rdquo; Men are &amp;ldquo;Hey, man,&amp;rdquo; and any plurality of voters was &amp;ldquo;Hey, gang!"&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;He greeted children with fist bumps and an exclamation of &amp;ldquo;Bam!&amp;rdquo; And&amp;nbsp;Perry, who wrote a book seven years ago on the Boy Scouts, took particular interest in boys he spotted in the organization&amp;rsquo;s uniform.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;And everyone, on the Fourth of July, was wished a &amp;ldquo;Happy birthday.&amp;rdquo;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;T&lt;span style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt;his is the era of the billion-dollar campaign, but on this day, there were no pundits, polls, fundraisers. There was no indictment and no "oops."&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt;This&amp;nbsp;disparity&amp;nbsp;between retail politics in a small early primary state like New Hampshire and the wholesale, big-money politics of super PACs&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt;has scrambled the old ways of understanding whether a candidate like Perry is making progress.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt;&amp;ldquo;Everybody has a shot, other than Donald Trump, right now,&amp;rdquo; said Larry Turke, a truck maintenance worker who met Perry on the parade route.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;ldquo;Showing up for Merrimack,&amp;rdquo; he said&amp;nbsp;when asked&amp;nbsp;how Perry could win his vote.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt;Nearly half&amp;nbsp;of the 20 men and women running for president descended upon the state&amp;nbsp;for Independence Day festivities, in part because its small geographic size allows hitting multiple regions on what is one of the most consequential glad-handing days on the political calendar.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt;Perry was largely an afterthought, as more high-profile candidates were on the scene. But that dynamic seemed to work in his favor.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;He was just enough under the radar to avoid the kinds of&amp;nbsp;heckles hurled at Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, who campaigned just two floats up from Perry.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Bush methodically worked both sides of the route trailed by&amp;nbsp;a larger press contingent, indicating his status on the GOP candidate hierarchy. He &lt;a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/clinton-and-bush-struggle-to-shed-dynasty-labels-in-nh-parades/2015/07/04/93173942-2285-11e5-84d5-eb37ee8eaa61_story.html?tid=hpModule_ba0d4c2a-86a2-11e2-9d71-f0feafdd1394&amp;amp;hpid=z8"&gt;could be heard at times bristling&lt;/a&gt; at adversarial parade watchers.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Two hours north, in Gorham, Clinton&amp;rsquo;s campaign team physically restrained reporters from the candidate with a rope.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;In contrast, Perry seemed pleased to have reporters around, including a CNN producer.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;But after all the fist bumps and kisses, he left behind a trail of undecided voters.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Of the dozens of New Hampshire voters&amp;nbsp;along the parade route interviewed on Saturday, not one said he or she had decided to vote for Perry. Granted, they all remain uncommitted to any candidate.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;The interviews affirmed a growing conclusion among New Hampshire political observers: The state's voters are&amp;nbsp;taking longer than ever to make up&amp;nbsp;their minds&amp;nbsp;about the GOP field this cycle.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;One voter,&amp;nbsp;Doris Vachon, got the full&amp;nbsp;Perry treatment&amp;nbsp;at the Merrimack parade. Perry raced up to the 83-year-old registered independent,&amp;nbsp;hugged her and kissed her on the cheek.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;ldquo;Thanks for coming,&amp;rdquo; he said.&amp;nbsp;Then he pulled back, looked her in the eye and said, &amp;ldquo;Happy birthday, America.&amp;rdquo;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Vachon was startled but star-struck.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;ldquo;I was shocked by a politician!&amp;rdquo; she said after the encounter. &amp;rdquo;I got a thrill out of it, at my age.&amp;rdquo;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Will she vote for him?&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;ldquo;Oh, I&amp;rsquo;m undecided right now,&amp;rdquo; she said. &amp;ldquo;Sixteen more months to go? That&amp;rsquo;s a long time for me to decide.&amp;rdquo;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; </description><dc:creator xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/">Abby Livingston</dc:creator><pubDate>Sun, 05 Jul 2015 09:28:52 -0500</pubDate><guid>http://www.texastribune.org/2015/07/05/amid-low-expectations-perry-revels-campaigning/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20Abby%20Livingston</guid></item><item><title>New Hampshire Republicans Not Ruling Perry Out </title><link>http://www.texastribune.org/2015/07/04/new-hampshire-republicans-not-ruling-perry-out/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20Abby%20Livingston</link><description> &lt;div style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"&gt; &lt;a href="/2015/07/04/new-hampshire-republicans-not-ruling-perry-out/"&gt; &lt;img src="//s3.amazonaws.com/static.texastribune.org/media/images/2015/07/03/Perry_NH_July_3_TT_jpg_312x1000_q100.jpg" alt="Rick Perry delivers his stump speech to Republican voters and activists at a lake house near Derry, New Hampshire on July 3, 2015."&gt; &lt;/a&gt; &lt;/div&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt;DERRY, N.H. &amp;mdash;&amp;nbsp;If &lt;a href="http://www.texastribune.org/directory/rick-perry/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20Abby%20Livingston"&gt;Rick Perry&lt;/a&gt; has a base in New Hampshire, it&amp;rsquo;s made up of&amp;nbsp;women and veterans.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;At a Friday night campaign event, an&amp;nbsp;adoring crowd&amp;nbsp;ate up every word from the former Texas governor.&amp;nbsp;Perry playfully referred&amp;nbsp;to each female supporter&amp;nbsp;he met as "girl," no&amp;nbsp;matter her age. And when the party&amp;rsquo;s hostess presented him with a New Hampshire-shaped pin, he said, &amp;ldquo;Pin me.&amp;rdquo;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;And with only two veterans in the GOP nomination hunt, veterans say they have a special affinity for Perry, a former Air Force cargo pilot.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Perry&amp;rsquo;s New Hampshire political team ensured that parallel-parked cars outside snaked down the street for blocks. But attendance isn&amp;rsquo;t commitment among New Hampshire&amp;rsquo;s high-maintenance, fickle electorate.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Even the event&amp;rsquo;s host, retired Air Force fighter pilot Rob Hampton, is still on the fence.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;ldquo;He&amp;rsquo;s on our short list,&amp;rdquo; he said of Perry.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;New Hampshire and Iowa, the other early primary&lt;strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/strong&gt;state, are small enough in population&amp;nbsp;that&amp;nbsp;Perry has enough time as an out-of-office former official to make his&amp;nbsp;case. Candidates like &lt;a href="http://www.texastribune.org/directory/ted-cruz/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20Abby%20Livingston"&gt;Ted Cruz&lt;/a&gt;, meanwhile,&lt;a href="http://www.texastribune.org/2015/05/28/ted-cruzs-missed-senate-votes/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20Abby%20Livingston"&gt;&amp;nbsp;are tied down with official duties&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;a href="http://www.texastribune.org/2015/05/28/ted-cruzs-missed-senate-votes/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20Abby%20Livingston"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Betty Gay, a relocated Texan who now lives in New Hampshire, was at the event and said she liked Perry&amp;rsquo;s economic positions.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;But she worries about Republican candidates taking a hard line on gay marriage and abortion and alienating women and voters with friends and family members who are gay.&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href="http://www.texastribune.org/2015/05/28/ted-cruzs-missed-senate-votes/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20Abby%20Livingston"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;ldquo;That&amp;rsquo;s my concern,&amp;rdquo; the retired Lamar University graduate said.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;New Hampshire is traditionally more economically conservative than&amp;nbsp;Iowa.&amp;nbsp;Perry cautiously answered a question on the U.S. Supreme Court&amp;rsquo;s recent gay marriage ruling.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;ldquo;I agree with those four justices that were on the losing side is who I agree with,&amp;rdquo; Perry said. &amp;ldquo;But the fact is, we&amp;rsquo;re a rule-of-law country, and they make decisions up there that from time to time I don&amp;rsquo;t agree with. But we are a country of rules and laws, and if we get away from that, we&amp;rsquo;ve lost everything that we have.&lt;span&gt;&amp;rdquo;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;He then promised to appoint conservative judges as president.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;ldquo;He finally got to the answer where he said we are a nation of laws, even if we don&amp;rsquo;t like them,&amp;rdquo; Gay said. &amp;ldquo;So I thought that was the answer. But I got the impression he didn&amp;rsquo;t really want to come out and say it&amp;rsquo;s a non-issue &amp;hellip; because he knows some people here are very upset about it.&amp;rdquo;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;In contrast, New Hampshire state Rep. Ken Weyler is all-in for Perry.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Weyler does not want Perry to just do well in New Hampshire &amp;ndash; his aim is for Perry to run the table.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Weyler is part of a conservative initiative called the &amp;ldquo;603 Alliance.&amp;rdquo; 603 is the state&amp;rsquo;s area code, and the group seeks&amp;nbsp;to consolidate conservative support behind a single candidate so that Democratic and registered independent voters cannot cross over and determine the nominee in the state&amp;rsquo;s open Republican&lt;strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/strong&gt;primary.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;But six months out from that election, Perry lags behind his GOP rivals in state polling. A decisive victory over the crowded and talented GOP field is a tall order for Perry.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;ldquo;We have to start emphasizing, we want a resume, not a slogan. We want something real,&amp;rdquo; Weyler said. &amp;ldquo;And we want a record of accomplishment. We want a veteran. &amp;hellip; I&amp;rsquo;m trying to get the veteran vote behind him.&amp;rdquo;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Like a Perry &lt;a href="http://www.texastribune.org/2015/03/14/perry-flies-under-radar-new-hampshire/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20Abby%20Livingston"&gt;campaign swing in March&lt;/a&gt;, the candidate&amp;rsquo;s articulate and wide-ranging stump speech played well in this setting. Voter by voter, Perry is effectively erasing memories of his 2011 debate flop.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;ldquo;For crying out loud!&amp;rdquo; Gay said when asked about Perry&amp;rsquo;s 2011 troubles. &amp;ldquo;If anybody can say they have never been deep into a discussion and all of the sudden their mind switches to a different track &amp;hellip;&amp;rdquo;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;ldquo;Baloney!&amp;rdquo; she exclaimed.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p style="text-align: left;"&gt;Perry&amp;rsquo;s Texas&amp;nbsp;rival for the GOP nomination, Cruz, will spend the Fourth of July doing campaign and book tour events in Greenville, South Carolina.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; </description><dc:creator xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/">Abby Livingston</dc:creator><pubDate>Sat, 04 Jul 2015 09:19:52 -0500</pubDate><guid>http://www.texastribune.org/2015/07/04/new-hampshire-republicans-not-ruling-perry-out/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20Abby%20Livingston</guid></item><item><title>Perry: It's GOP's Duty to Reach Out to Black Voters </title><link>http://www.texastribune.org/2015/07/02/perry-addresses-race-washington-speech/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20Abby%20Livingston</link><description> &lt;div style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"&gt; &lt;a href="/2015/07/02/perry-addresses-race-washington-speech/"&gt; &lt;img src="//s3.amazonaws.com/static.texastribune.org/media/images/2015/07/02/Perry_National_Press_ClubTT_qHC6Fog_jpg_312x1000_q100.jpg" alt="Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry speaking at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. on July 2, 2015."&gt; &lt;/a&gt; &lt;/div&gt; &lt;p&gt;WASHINGTON &amp;ndash; Former Gov. &lt;a href="http://www.texastribune.org/directory/rick-perry/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20Abby%20Livingston"&gt;Rick Perry&lt;/a&gt; took his case for the GOP presidential nomination to the nation&amp;rsquo;s capital Thursday, arguing that it is the Republican Party&amp;rsquo;s moral and historical duty to court black voters.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;ldquo;For too long, we Republicans have been content to lose the black vote because we found we didn&amp;rsquo;t need it to win,&amp;rdquo; he said in an appearance at &lt;span&gt;the National Press Club&lt;/span&gt;. &amp;ldquo;But when we gave up trying to win the support of African-Americans, we lost our moral legitimacy as the party of Lincoln.&amp;rdquo;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;The remarks came in the wake of last month&amp;rsquo;s mass shooting at a historic African-American church in Charleston, which left nine people dead.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;The tone of Perry&amp;rsquo;s speech fit with a concerted, years-long Republican National Committee effort to make the conservative case to black voters after the GOP&amp;rsquo;s 2012 presidential election loss.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Perry, a vociferous advocate for states' rights, conceded that the concept was used in previous eras to discriminate against black Americans.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;ldquo;I know that state governments are more accountable to you than the federal government is,&amp;rdquo; he said. &amp;ldquo;But I am also an ardent believer in the 14th Amendment, which says that no state shall &amp;lsquo;deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.&amp;rsquo;"&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;ldquo;Too often, we Republicans, me included, have emphasized our message on the 10th Amendment but not our message on the 14th, an amendment, it bears reminding, that was one of the first great contributions of the Republican Party to American life, second only to the abolition of slavery,&amp;rdquo; he added.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/132486694?title=0&amp;amp;byline=0&amp;amp;portrait=0" width="500" height="281" frameborder="0" webkitallowfullscreen="" mozallowfullscreen="" allowfullscreen=""&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Video Courtesy:&amp;nbsp;Xiaolan Tang, Medill News Service&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt;Perry&amp;rsquo;s speech, titled &amp;ldquo;Economic Opportunity for All Americans,&amp;rdquo; aimed to explain how broader conservative economic policies benefit black Americans. &amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;He argued that GOP policies would reduce the cost of living, create jobs, reform schools and do &amp;ldquo;more for African-Americans than the last three Democrat administrations combined.&amp;rdquo;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;The setting of the remarks, the National Press Club in downtown Washington, was especially crucial to Perry&amp;rsquo;s effort to gain credibility in the nomination race.&amp;nbsp;National reporters largely exclude him in articles and discussions about the top tier of Republican candidates and contenders.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Perry will head to New Hampshire on Friday for a Fourth of July campaign swing.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;A spokesman for the Democratic National Committee released a pre-emptive statement to Perry&amp;rsquo;s remarks, arguing that Texas policies on voter identification, minimum wage, Medicaid and other issues negated Perry&amp;rsquo;s arguments.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;ldquo;Reminding black voters that Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation isn&amp;rsquo;t going to erase Rick Perry&amp;rsquo;s record,&amp;rdquo; DNC spokesman Michael Tyler said in a statement.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; </description><dc:creator xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/">Abby Livingston</dc:creator><pubDate>Thu, 02 Jul 2015 14:08:31 -0500</pubDate><guid>http://www.texastribune.org/2015/07/02/perry-addresses-race-washington-speech/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20Abby%20Livingston</guid></item><item><title>7 Things We Learned From Cruz's New Book </title><link>http://www.texastribune.org/2015/07/01/x-things-we-learned-ted-cruzs-new-book/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20Abby%20Livingston</link><description> &lt;div style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"&gt; &lt;a href="/2015/07/01/x-things-we-learned-ted-cruzs-new-book/"&gt; &lt;img src="//s3.amazonaws.com/static.texastribune.org/media/images/2015/06/30/CruzBookCover_jpg_312x1000_q100.jpg" alt=""&gt; &lt;/a&gt; &lt;/div&gt; &lt;p&gt;U.S. Sen. &lt;a href="http://www.texastribune.org/directory/ted-cruz/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20Abby%20Livingston"&gt;Ted Cruz&lt;/a&gt; promises to take readers behind the scenes in Washington with&amp;nbsp;his new memoir, &lt;em&gt;A Time for Truth&lt;/em&gt;. And what he writes is not always flattering &amp;ndash; even about himself.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;The book&amp;nbsp;went on sale Tuesday, and Cruz's promotional tour&amp;nbsp;includes&amp;nbsp;signings in Houston, Katy, Arlington and Waxahachie over the next two days.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt;In an interview with The Texas Tribune, &lt;/span&gt;Cruz said&amp;nbsp;&lt;span style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt;he wrote the book during &amp;ldquo;lot of late nights, a lot of weekends, a lot of hours on the road. &amp;hellip; A significant chunk of the last Christmas vacation, while my girls were opening presents under the tree, I was back in the home office pounding away at the keyboard.&amp;rdquo;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt;Here are seven new insights Cruz offers in the book:&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt;The Cruzes and Castro&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Cruz&amp;nbsp;offers&amp;nbsp;the most detail yet about his father&amp;rsquo;s revolutionary roots in Cuba, where Rafael Cruz helmed an insurgency against dictator Fulgencio Batista that landed him&lt;strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/strong&gt;in jail, where he was brutally tortured. When released, he set his sights on joining revolutionary leader Fidel Castro.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;ldquo;My dad asked if he could join Castro in the mountains and keep fighting,&amp;rdquo; Cruz writes. &amp;ldquo;But he was told there was no way to get to the rebels."&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;His father did not know then that Castro was a communist, Cruz emphasizes.&lt;strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/strong&gt;In those days, &amp;ldquo;Castro was seen as a freedom fighter, an inspiring figure to Cuba&amp;rsquo;s restive youth, or, as my Dad puts it today, &amp;lsquo;fourteen-year-old boys who didn&amp;rsquo;t know any better.&amp;rsquo;&amp;rdquo;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Rafael Cruz later&amp;nbsp;renounced Castro, revisiting places in America where he had spoken&amp;nbsp;in support of Castro&amp;rsquo;s revolution and admitting he was wrong. Ted Cruz concludes that his father was &amp;ldquo;fooled by Castro, but only for a time, and only in his youth."&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Losing a Half-Sister&amp;nbsp;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Cruz opens up throughout the book about past vices of family members, but no recollection is as tragic as that concerning&lt;strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/strong&gt;his half-sister Miriam. She &amp;ldquo;refused to change her path&amp;rdquo; in life, Cruz writes, recalling a lifestyle fraught with drug addiction and petty crime.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;At one point, Cruz and his dad tried to intervene, traveling to Philadelphia, where she was staying at a crack house with her young son Joey. &amp;ldquo;It was a fruitless effort,&amp;rdquo; Cruz recalls, but he did try to set Joey on the right path, taking a $20,000 cash advance on his credit card to send the fatherless child to military school.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Miriam died of an accidental drug overdose in 2011, just as she found herself capable of taking care of Joey again.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;ldquo;I loved my sister,&amp;rdquo; Cruz writes, &amp;ldquo;and she spent much of her life trapped by the demons of addiction and anger.&amp;rdquo;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;His Democratic Friend&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Few people in Washington impress Cruz or strike him as having uncomplicated motives &amp;ndash; including members of his own party.&amp;nbsp;But one person who&amp;nbsp;comes&amp;nbsp;off especially well in his book is, of all people, a New York Democrat.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;ldquo;I have always been impressed with people who stand up for principle when it matters and when there&amp;rsquo;s a price to be paid,&amp;rdquo; he said &lt;span&gt;of Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y.,&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;in a&amp;nbsp;Monday&amp;nbsp;interview. &lt;span style="text-decoration: line-through;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Cruz conceded he was initially undecided on the best approach&amp;nbsp;to reforming how sexual assault is handled in the military. But his Senate Armed Services Committee colleague&amp;rsquo;s arguments pulled him to her side.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;ldquo;I was persuaded by and inspired by the diligence and discipline and tenacity with which Kirsten has fought this fight," he said.&lt;strong&gt; "&lt;/strong&gt;I&amp;rsquo;ve been proud to work very closely with her to make the case in a bipartisan manner to our colleagues.&amp;rdquo;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Mistakes Were Made&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt;Cruz has consistently come off as cool, calm and confident throughout his battles in Congress.&amp;nbsp;But&amp;nbsp;he&lt;strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/strong&gt;admits coming up short on the messaging behind some of those battles, including his role in the debt-ceiling debate in 2014.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Cruz writes that he could have done a better job explaining his strategy to both supporters and the media, especially those&amp;nbsp;typically sympathetic to Republicans. He specifically laments criticism from the&amp;nbsp;&lt;i&gt;Wall Street Journal&amp;nbsp;&lt;/i&gt;editorial board, which&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052702304434104579379374287357650" target="_blank"&gt;derisively labeled&lt;/a&gt; him "The Minority Maker."&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;"Over and over again, I had to explain myself to people who usually were on our side, especially because the attacks from supposed Republican allies often inverted what was actually happening," Cruz writes.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Another error&lt;strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/strong&gt;Cruz notes came during&lt;strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/strong&gt;his opposition to Chuck Hagel's nomination&amp;nbsp;for secretary of defense. Hagel had refused to specifically identify the source of&amp;nbsp;$200,000 of his recent income. In questioning, Cruz suggested the money could have come from North Korea.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;"In uttering those two words, I allowed the White House and the Democrats to change the subject," Cruz recalls. "Immediately I was accused of a 'new McCarthyism' by somehow asserting that Hagel had received money from North Korea &amp;mdash; an assertion I did not actually make."&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Bush Years&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;As much as Cruz portrays himself as a political outsider, his book shows he was a witness to much of the modern Republican Party&amp;rsquo;s history.&amp;nbsp;He completed a clerkship under the late Chief Justice of the United States William Rehnquist in the mid-1990s, but his first true taste of politics came in Austin, where he worked as a policy aide for George W. Bush&amp;rsquo;s 2000 campaign.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;He knew then-Gov. Bush well enough to earn one of &lt;a href="http://nymag.com/nymetro/news/rnc/9719/"&gt;his famous nicknames&lt;/a&gt;, &amp;ldquo;Theodore,&amp;rdquo; for his &amp;ldquo;super-serious&amp;rdquo; demeanor. And as a lawyer, he was a player in the 2000 Florida recount litigation.&amp;nbsp;But the experience left him devastated when he did not land a senior role in the West Wing.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;ldquo;When that didn&amp;rsquo;t happen, and it became clear it wasn&amp;rsquo;t going to happen, it was a crushing blow,&amp;rdquo; he wrote.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Popularity Contest&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;span&gt;For a teenage Cruz, popularity seemed to be everything at one point.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Cruz writes that he "had enough of being the unpopular nerd" about halfway through middle school, ditching his glasses, taking up sports and changing his first name from "Felito" to "Ted." By the time he got to high school &amp;mdash; where he was&lt;strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/strong&gt;elected class president &amp;mdash; he had achieved his goal but also learned a valuable lesson.&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;"Happiness doesn't come from popularity, but rather from doing something that matters, making a difference, and fulfilling God's plan for your life," Cruz recalls.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Cruz's teenage years still weren't entirely without sin. In one case, he vandalized a rival school with toilet paper and shaving cream, leading to a car chase with janitors who had spotted the mischief. When Cruz was caught, his school's principal threatened to recommend his admission be rescinded at Princeton University.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Cruz's Many Frenemies&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Cruz&amp;rsquo;s most critical literary&amp;nbsp;passages are&lt;strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/strong&gt;often about members of his own party:&lt;/p&gt; &lt;ul&gt; &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt;Karl Rove:&amp;nbsp;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt;Even before the book&amp;rsquo;s release, Cruz made &lt;/span&gt;&lt;a style="line-height: 1.35;" href="http://www.texastribune.org/2015/06/28/cruz-rove-spar-over-bush-endorsement-ags-race/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20Abby%20Livingston"&gt;headlines&lt;/a&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt;&amp;nbsp;recounting an argument with Bush strategist Rove.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;When Rove tried to call off a Cruz endorsement from the elder President Bush, Cruz writes that Rove &amp;ldquo;suggested that the elder Bush was too old to have good judgment anymore.&amp;rdquo;&amp;nbsp;Over the next 24 hours, the two men engaged in a war of words that, given that both worked on the Bush 2000 campaign, was striking in how quickly it escalated.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt;U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.:&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;In a scathing introduction to his book,&amp;nbsp;Cruz charges his party&amp;rsquo;s leaders with&amp;nbsp;surrendering to the Democrats over the debt ceiling, risk aversion, &amp;ldquo;chicanery&amp;rdquo; and caving in to President Obama.&amp;nbsp;He generally avoids naming names, but does call out McConnell specifically.&amp;nbsp;Later in the book, he accuses&amp;nbsp;McConnell of breaking a promise to keep the Senate&amp;rsquo;s political arm from favoring incumbents in primaries.&amp;nbsp;&lt;span style="text-decoration: line-through;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky.:&amp;nbsp;&lt;/strong&gt;Cruz mostly paints a picture of loyal friendship with Kentucky's other senator, who is also running for president. Cruz credits Paul with an early Senate campaign endorsement in 2011 that helped him gain traction and as a reliable ally in his early months as a senator. But, Cruz says, Paul proved &amp;ldquo;notably less helpful" during Cruz's 2013 marathon Senate floor speech over the 2010 health care law. &amp;ldquo;My friend Rand Paul came to the Senate floor to ask questions that seemed deliberately designed to undermine our efforts,&amp;rdquo; he writes.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt; &lt;/ul&gt; &lt;p&gt;The McConnell and Paul passages lead to questions over how Cruz could, as either president or a rank-and-file U.S. senator, have effective relationships on Capitol Hill.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Cruz brushed off the notion in a Monday interview with Tribune, insisting that &amp;ldquo;to the best of my knowledge, I&amp;rsquo;ve never spoken ill of any senator, Democrat or Republican."&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;ldquo;When you don&amp;rsquo;t personalize it and attack people personally, I think that makes it easier to find common ground,&amp;rdquo; he added. &amp;ldquo;You leave an opening to meet in the middle.&amp;rdquo; &amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; </description><dc:creator xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/">Patrick Svitek and Abby Livingston</dc:creator><pubDate>Wed, 01 Jul 2015 06:00:00 -0500</pubDate><guid>http://www.texastribune.org/2015/07/01/x-things-we-learned-ted-cruzs-new-book/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20Abby%20Livingston</guid></item><item><title>Ted Cruz: "I Thought That Popularity Was the Holy Grail" </title><link>http://www.texastribune.org/2015/06/29/ted-cruz-book-interview/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20Abby%20Livingston</link><description> &lt;div style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"&gt; &lt;a href="/2015/06/29/ted-cruz-book-interview/"&gt; &lt;img src="//s3.amazonaws.com/static.texastribune.org/media/images/2015/05/26/Cruz-3_jpg_312x1000_q100.jpg" alt="U.S. Senator Ted Cruz, R-Texas, speaks at Citizens United Freedom Summit in South Carolina on May 9 2015."&gt; &lt;/a&gt; &lt;/div&gt; &lt;p&gt;NEW YORK CITY &amp;ndash; By his own telling, it&amp;rsquo;s been a lifelong&amp;nbsp;struggle for U.S. Sen. &lt;a href="http://www.texastribune.org/directory/ted-cruz/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20Abby%20Livingston"&gt;Ted Cruz&lt;/a&gt; to rein in his&amp;nbsp;self-described &amp;ldquo;cocky&amp;rdquo; nature.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;In adolescence, young adulthood, and now as a junior senator running for the presidency, he has rubbed people the wrong way &amp;ndash; and he is self-aware about it.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;ldquo;When I was in junior high and a geek, I thought that popularity was the Holy Grail,&amp;rdquo; Cruz said in a New York City&amp;nbsp;interview with The Texas Tribune about his new&amp;nbsp;memoir, &lt;em&gt;A Time for Truth&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;span&gt;&amp;ldquo;And in high school, where I achieved some modicum of popularity, I discovered it wasn&amp;rsquo;t all that,&amp;rdquo; he added. &amp;ldquo;That it was far more important to stick to your principles and maintain your integrity.&amp;rdquo;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Cruz's youthful efforts to fit in, according to his memoir, included&lt;span style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt;&amp;nbsp;changing his first name from from&amp;nbsp;&amp;ldquo;Felito&amp;rdquo; to &amp;ldquo;Ted&amp;rdquo; and signing up for sports teams. It also meant downplaying his intellect by tucking his ace grades away from other kids' sight.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt;He had a relatively charmed trajectory through the Ivy Leagues to a U.S. Supreme Court clerkship and onto George W. Bush&amp;rsquo;s 2000 presidential&amp;nbsp;campaign.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;He was high enough in the food chain as a policy aide at the campaign's Congress Avenue headquarters to earn a Bush nickname, &amp;ldquo;Theodore,&amp;rdquo; a term of endearment for his serious nature. And as a litigating attorney, Cruz&amp;nbsp;played&amp;nbsp;an integral role during the 2000 Florida recount.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Cruz came away from the campaign experience with big dreams of serving in a senior role in&amp;nbsp;the second Bush administration, writing in the memoir&amp;nbsp;that he imagined himself as &amp;ldquo;the equivalent of Michael J. Fox&amp;rsquo;s character in The American President &amp;ndash; the young, passionate idealist urging the president, in the heat of battle, to do the right thing.&amp;rdquo;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;He described being devastated when that did not come to pass. In the book, he blamed it on being "far too cocky" on the campaign, and burning "a fair number of bridges" by interjecting his opinions &amp;mdash; to the chagrin of campaign elders.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt;&amp;ldquo;As a result, the first year of the Bush administration was one of the hardest of my life,&amp;rdquo; he added. &amp;ldquo;But it also turned out to be one of the most important because I couldn&amp;rsquo;t blame anyone else for my situation &amp;ndash; if I wanted things to change I had to look inside myself.&amp;rdquo;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt;In many ways, Cruz&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;finds himself&lt;span style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt;&amp;nbsp;in a similarly rocky&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;situation&lt;span style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt; in the &lt;/span&gt;U.S.&amp;nbsp;&lt;span style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt;Senate.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;At least 16 times in his book&amp;rsquo;s first 19 pages, he writes of his party&amp;rsquo;s Senate leadership in less than flattering terms.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Among their perceived&amp;nbsp;transgressions: surrendering to the Democrats, risk aversion, &amp;ldquo;chicanery&amp;rdquo; and caving in to President Obama.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;This isn't just in Cruz's book; in recent weeks, he's added "Washington cartel" terminology to his campaign messaging, and appears to be&amp;nbsp;&lt;span style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt;running as much against his own party as the Democrats.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;In the Monday interview, Cruz described himself more as the recipient of fire from Senate leaders than as the one lobbing the bombs.&amp;nbsp;&lt;span style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt;But &lt;/span&gt;his&lt;span style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt; criticism of &amp;ldquo;GOP leadership&amp;rdquo; hits close to home. The Senate&amp;rsquo;s second-ranking Republican is Cruz&amp;rsquo;s fellow Texas senator, Majority Whip &lt;/span&gt;&lt;a style="line-height: 1.35;" href="http://www.texastribune.org/directory/john-cornyn/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20Abby%20Livingston"&gt;John Cornyn&lt;/a&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt;.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;ldquo;John Cornyn and I are friends,&amp;rdquo; Cruz said Monday&amp;nbsp;when asked if he was calling out his senior senator in the memoir. &amp;ldquo;We have a good working relationship together. We&amp;rsquo;ve worked together for Texas on many issues, and I expect we continue to do so for years to come.&amp;rdquo;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Still, he didn&amp;rsquo;t exactly let Cornyn off the hook.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt;&amp;ldquo;When I speak about GOP leadership, that is deliberately written in the generic, rather than in individuals,&amp;rdquo; he said.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&amp;ldquo;Because it gives any individual senator the opportunity through his or her actions to behave differently. It gives the opportunity for a change of course.&amp;rdquo;&lt;/p&gt; </description><dc:creator xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/">Abby Livingston</dc:creator><pubDate>Mon, 29 Jun 2015 17:51:22 -0500</pubDate><guid>http://www.texastribune.org/2015/06/29/ted-cruz-book-interview/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20Abby%20Livingston</guid></item><item><title>Cruz, Rove Spar Over Bush Endorsement in AG's Race </title><link>http://www.texastribune.org/2015/06/28/cruz-rove-spar-over-bush-endorsement-ags-race/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20Abby%20Livingston</link><description> &lt;div style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"&gt; &lt;a href="/2015/06/28/cruz-rove-spar-over-bush-endorsement-ags-race/"&gt; &lt;img src="//s3.amazonaws.com/static.texastribune.org/media/images/2015/06/28/RoveCruz_jpg_312x1000_q100.jpg" alt=""&gt; &lt;/a&gt; &lt;/div&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;sup&gt;Editor's note: This story has been updated with comment from Karl Rove's chief of staff.&lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;U.S. Sen. &lt;a href="http://www.texastribune.org/directory/ted-cruz/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20Abby%20Livingston"&gt;Ted Cruz&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;is digging in his heels in an increasingly bitter spat with Karl Rove, a longtime adviser to Texas' most famous family in politics &amp;mdash; a family now fielding former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush against Cruz in the 2016 presidential race.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;The war of words, which comes on the eve of a tour to promote Cruz's upcoming book, centers on former President George H.W. Bush's support for Cruz in the state attorney general's race in 2009. Cruz, who was&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp;fresh off of a stint as the solicitor general of Texas,&lt;/span&gt;&amp;nbsp;made a bid for the statewide post but abandoned it when it became clear his boss, then-Attorney General &lt;a href="http://www.texastribune.org/directory/greg-abbott/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20Abby%20Livingston"&gt;Greg Abbott&lt;/a&gt;, was running for re-election.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt;Late Sunday, Cruz's presidential campaign released emails appearing to back up a claim in his book that Rove wanted Cruz to keep quiet about a donation from George H.W. Bush. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt;By Cruz's telling &amp;mdash; which Rove has denied &amp;mdash; that was because Rove was raising money for George W. Bush's presidential library in Dallas, and major donors were backing someone else for attorney general. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt;The other contender was believed to be then-state Rep. &lt;a href="http://www.texastribune.org/directory/dan-branch/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20Abby%20Livingston"&gt;Dan Branch&lt;/a&gt;, a Dallas Republican and Jeb Bush backer who ultimately chose not to run for the office until 2013.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt;&lt;span&gt;"I appreciate your doing what you can to keep this down &amp;mdash; the distress you mention is not mine or 43 &amp;mdash; it is the people raising money for the library who are also Branch fans and will not understand why one part of the Bush family is for not-the-guy while they are raising money big bucks for library," Rove wrote Cruz, according to the emails provided by Cruz's campaign.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt;&lt;span&gt;Rove does not have a record or recollection of that email, according to his office. Kristin Davison, Rove's chief of staff, said Monday that Rove does have a record of another email Cruz released, one in which Cruz asks George H.W. Bush's assistant to withhold any further advertisement of the former president's support, citing concerns from Rove that it would "put President Bush 43 in a difficult position." That email, Davison said, "confirms Karl's account that their phone call in 2009 was about involving President Bush 41 in a primary where the sitting state attorney general had not made a final decision."&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;After Cruz met with George H.W. Bush about an endorsement, Rove was "irate," and asked Cruz to return the donation, which Cruz did not do,&lt;strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/strong&gt;according to an excerpt from Cruz's book, titled &lt;em&gt;A Time for Truth&lt;/em&gt;, that was provided to the conservative news site&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href="http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/06/27/exclusive-cruzs-new-book-rove-thought-bush-41-too-old-to-have-good-judgment/"&gt;Breitbart&lt;/a&gt;. Rove, Cruz wrote in the excerpt, "suggested that the elder Bush was too old to have good judgment anymore." By Cruz's account, Rove implied he would have another former president, George W. Bush, endorse Cruz's opponent in the attorney general's race if Cruz further spread the word about his support from George H.W. Bush. The emails the Cruz campaign released didn't address this aspect of Cruz's book.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;After the excerpt was published Sunday morning, Rove denied&amp;nbsp;&lt;span style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt;each of Cruz&amp;rsquo;s accusations point by point in a blog post.&amp;nbsp;&lt;span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;"I am accustomed to being criticized for others&amp;rsquo; political benefit, but am disappointed in how Senator Cruz decided to raise the name of one of the finest presidents our country has ever known, President George H.W. Bush,&amp;rdquo; Rove wrote.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Rove also used the blog post to fit in a fresh jab at Cruz, while discussing how the ambitious politician continued to rely on Rove's counsel as he campaigned for U.S. Senate in 2012.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;"&lt;span&gt;One piece of advice I offered was that he should stop describing himself as the 'next Marco Rubio,' since he did not have Senator Rubio&amp;rsquo;s outstanding legislative record of accomplishments as speaker of the Florida House of Representatives," Rove wrote.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Late Sunday, Cruz's campaign circulated the emails to reporters along with a statement from Cruz expressing surprise at Rove's response.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;ldquo;I have known Karl Rove for a long time, and have considered him a friend," Cruz said. "I understood that my recounting ... the threats he made in the 2009 Texas Attorney General race &amp;mdash; and the disparaging remarks he made about President George H.W. Bush &amp;mdash; would cause him some discomfort."&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;ldquo;But I never imagined that his response would be a straight-out falsehood," Cruz added. "It&amp;rsquo;s disappointing; this is why people are so cynical about politics, because too many people are willing to lie."&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Cruz's book goes on sale Tuesday, and he is expected to travel across the country promoting it, including to Houston on the release date.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;span&gt;The episode is likely to shine a new light on Cruz&amp;rsquo;s relationship with the Bushes as Cruz positions himself as the most conservative foe of Jeb Bush in the 2016 race. Before becoming solicitor general, Cruz worked on George W. Bush's presidential campaign, then for the Federal Trade Commission and the U.S. Department of Justice while Bush was president.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; </description><dc:creator xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/">Patrick Svitek and Abby Livingston</dc:creator><pubDate>Sun, 28 Jun 2015 23:20:32 -0500</pubDate><guid>http://www.texastribune.org/2015/06/28/cruz-rove-spar-over-bush-endorsement-ags-race/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20Abby%20Livingston</guid></item><item><title>Texans on Campaign Trail, in Washington React to Gay Marriage Ruling </title><link>http://www.texastribune.org/2015/06/26/cruz-perry-react-gay-marriage-ruling/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20Abby%20Livingston</link><description> &lt;div style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"&gt; &lt;a href="/2015/06/26/cruz-perry-react-gay-marriage-ruling/"&gt; &lt;img src="//s3.amazonaws.com/static.texastribune.org/media/images/2015/06/04/_S3R7947fistpump_jpg_312x1000_q100.jpg" alt="Former Gov. Rick Perry announces his intentions to run for president in 2016 on June 4, 2015, at the Addison Airport."&gt; &lt;/a&gt; &lt;/div&gt; &lt;p&gt;WASHINGTON &amp;ndash; Texas politicians on the Potomac and on the presidential trail reacted&amp;nbsp;&lt;span&gt;along anticipated partisan lines to&lt;/span&gt;&amp;nbsp;Friday's U.S. Supreme Court's ruling legalizing gay marriage.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Republicans generally denigrated the &lt;span style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt;court's ruling that &lt;/span&gt;&lt;a style="line-height: 1.35;" href="http://www.texastribune.org/2015/06/26/supreme-court-ruling-gay-marriage/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20Abby%20Livingston"&gt;gay marriage is constitutional&lt;/a&gt;, while Democrats incorporated the word "love" into their official statements.&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;ul style="clear: both;"&gt; &lt;li&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt;Former Texas Gov. &lt;a href="http://www.texastribune.org/directory/rick-perry/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20Abby%20Livingston"&gt;Rick Perry&lt;/a&gt;, a presidential contender,&amp;nbsp;said he was "disappointed" with the ruling and "as president, I would appoint strict constitutional conservatives who will apply the law as written." &amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt;U.S. Sen. &lt;a href="http://www.texastribune.org/directory/ted-cruz/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20Abby%20Livingston"&gt;Ted Cruz&lt;/a&gt;, the first candidate for the GOP nomination for president, said&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt; &lt;p class="p1" style="display: inline !important;"&gt;the gay marriage ruling puts religious liberty "front and center in the target of the federal government." He called it&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;span style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt;the "very definition of lawlessness. It is naked and unadulterated judicial activism."&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt;Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, a Texas native who's also running for the White House, said he believed "in traditional marriage" and that the court "&lt;span&gt;should have allowed the states to make this decision." But, he added, "I also believe that we should love our neighbor and respect others, including those making lifetime commitments."&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt;San Antonio Democratic U.S. Rep. &lt;a href="http://www.texastribune.org/directory/joaquin-castro/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20Abby%20Livingston"&gt;Joaquin Castro&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;said, "Today, love prevailed."&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt;His fellow House Democrat and former state House colleague U.S. Rep. &lt;a href="http://www.texastribune.org/directory/marc-veasey/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20Abby%20Livingston"&gt;Marc Veasey&lt;/a&gt; concurred, stating, "&lt;span&gt;Though the fight for full LGBT equality in this country is far from over, today we celebrate that we are one giant step closer. Because love is love.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt; &lt;/ul&gt; </description><dc:creator xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/">Abby Livingston and Patrick Svitek</dc:creator><pubDate>Fri, 26 Jun 2015 11:19:23 -0500</pubDate><guid>http://www.texastribune.org/2015/06/26/cruz-perry-react-gay-marriage-ruling/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20Abby%20Livingston</guid></item><item><title>Tea Party Not Bagging Texas Congressional Seats </title><link>http://www.texastribune.org/2015/06/26/why-it-so-hard-oust-congressman/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20Abby%20Livingston</link><description> &lt;div style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"&gt; &lt;a href="/2015/06/26/why-it-so-hard-oust-congressman/"&gt; &lt;img src="//s3.amazonaws.com/static.texastribune.org/media/images/100810_ralphhall_jpg_312x1000_q100.jpg" alt="Congressman Ralph Hall waves to the crowd at Frisco 2008 community parade."&gt; &lt;/a&gt; &lt;/div&gt; &lt;p&gt;WASHINGTON &amp;mdash; With 25 Republicans in the U.S. House and a vibrant conservative presence back home, Texas would seem a target-rich setting for the Tea Party to dislodge long-time establishment Republicans from Congress.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;But it hasn't had much luck so far ousting Texas incumbents, a testament, observers and insiders say, to the powers of office and spiraling costs of congressional campaigns.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Former&amp;nbsp;&lt;span style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt;U.S. Rep. Ralph Hall &lt;/span&gt;is the only incumbent to lose&amp;nbsp;&lt;span style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt;his Republican primary since the Tea Party &lt;/span&gt;gathered steam.&lt;span style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt;&amp;nbsp;And while his rival, now-U.S. Rep. &lt;a href="http://www.texastribune.org/directory/john-ratcliffe/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20Abby%20Livingston"&gt;John Ratcliffe&lt;/a&gt;, had &lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt;backing from national Tea Party-aligned groups, most Republicans attribute Hall&amp;rsquo;s loss to a sleepy political operation.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;ldquo;Challengers who can raise hundreds of thousands of dollars and have a case to make against an incumbent can make primaries competitive, but the odds are stacked against them,&amp;rdquo; said&amp;nbsp;Matt&amp;nbsp;Mackowiak, a consultant who was&amp;nbsp;part of the team that defeated Hall.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Even as the Washington label grows more toxic with each election cycle, there remain benefits to incumbency, like franking and name identification.&amp;nbsp;Mostly, though, incumbents are magnets for raising money.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Texas is a seasoned delegation, its members holding prime committee chairmanships and&amp;nbsp;assignments that attract donations. Trade associations or corporate groups that watch committees closely&amp;nbsp;often have&amp;nbsp;policies dictating that they donate only to incumbents.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;ldquo;Because of the multitude of resources available to sitting members, it&amp;rsquo;s extremely difficult to take them out in primaries if they are serious about their campaign,&amp;rdquo; said Chris Perkins, a pollster who works on both state and federal campaigns.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Challengers, on the other hand, often face sticker shock when faced with the multimillion-dollar campaign price tag.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;While Texas has no campaign&amp;nbsp;contribution limits unless the Legislature is in session, federal dollars must be raised in increments no higher than $2,700.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;With expensive media markets, Texas campaigns need money. Tea Party activists make no secret of their hope&amp;nbsp;to oust U.S. Rep. &lt;a href="http://www.texastribune.org/directory/pete-sessions/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20Abby%20Livingston"&gt;Pete Sessions&lt;/a&gt; from his Dallas-based district. But he breezed past his underfunded opponent in 2014, in part because she could not afford to build name recognition with&amp;nbsp;a large-scale television campaign.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Often the Club for Growth, a limited-government advocacy group, will endorse and direct its donors to a conservative challenger.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;But even strong fundraising can&amp;nbsp;present a conundrum. If a challenger pulls together the bankroll needed to take on an incumbent, there is a real danger of setting&amp;nbsp;off alarms in Washington. Political allies and&amp;nbsp;groups like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce might intervene on behalf of a business-friendly incumbent as&amp;nbsp;the local congressional race becomes a front&amp;nbsp;in a national proxy war between the Tea Party and the establishment.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;The short sprint of a Texas primary season, Mackowiak said, also works against challengers.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;"In Texas the filing period ends in mid-December, leaving only 10 weeks for the primary on the first Tuesday in March," Mackowiak said.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;And for some potential candidates, the state Legislature is just flat more appealing. &lt;span style="text-decoration: line-through;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;For one, a Texas state Senate seat actually means more exposure, having&amp;nbsp;about 811,000 constituents compared with about 711,000 in a U.S. House district. &amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;But also,&amp;nbsp;Republican operatives say,&amp;nbsp;the continued gridlock in Washington increasingly makes Austin a place&amp;nbsp;where officeholders feel they can have a greater impact on policy.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;National Republican operatives scratch their heads that there are not more self-funding Texans with big egos running for Congress.&amp;nbsp;&lt;span style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt;A handful of Texans are ranked among the Capitol Hill newspaper &lt;em&gt;Roll Call&lt;/em&gt;&amp;rsquo;s 50 richest members of Congress. Given the size of the state&amp;rsquo;s delegation and Texas&amp;rsquo;s relative wealth, several operatives said it would make sense for more Texas millionaires to be better represented on that list.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;But o&lt;span style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt;ne Washington-based Republican with candidate recruiting experience said that &lt;/span&gt;the detailed financial disclosures federal candidates must file are enough to deter candidates.&amp;nbsp;&lt;span style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;State lawmakers face&amp;nbsp;less stringent disclosure laws, he pointed out, making state campaigns more attractive to wealthy candidates&amp;nbsp;who would&amp;nbsp;rather not&amp;nbsp;reveal too much about their how their fortunes were made or where their money is invested.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;But there is reason to be optimistic about the future, if not this coming cycle, Tea Party sources say.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;The Tea Party bench of freshmen and sophomores in the Legislature is maturing, they argue, and it is just a matter of time before those politicians are ready to run for Congress.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;And Tea Party numbers could also grow as federal incumbents begin to retire, and they can capitalize on open-seat races, like U.S. Sen. &lt;a href="http://www.texastribune.org/directory/ted-cruz/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20Abby%20Livingston"&gt;Ted Cruz&lt;/a&gt;&amp;rsquo;s 2012 win.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Tea Party activists have also set their sights on U.S. Rep. &lt;a href="http://www.texastribune.org/directory/blake-farenthold/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20Abby%20Livingston"&gt;Blake Farenthold&lt;/a&gt;&amp;rsquo;s Corpus Christi-based seat. Farenthold&amp;rsquo;s office is in &lt;a href="http://www.texastribune.org/2015/02/13/farenthold-refutes-ex-staffers-sexual-harassment-c/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20Abby%20Livingston"&gt;the middle of a sexual harassment lawsuit&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;and has stepped up his campaign organization in preparation for challenges.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;In the end, political operatives across&amp;nbsp;the conservative spectrum agree that there is one silver bullet for taking out an incumbent: the element of surprise.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Hall, and former House Majority Leader Eric Cantor of Virginia, lost their re-elections because they were caught napping. But when incumbents &amp;ndash; and their donors and interested allies &amp;ndash; foresee and prepare for a challenger, they usually survive.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; </description><dc:creator xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/">Abby Livingston</dc:creator><pubDate>Fri, 26 Jun 2015 06:00:00 -0500</pubDate><guid>http://www.texastribune.org/2015/06/26/why-it-so-hard-oust-congressman/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20Abby%20Livingston</guid></item><item><title>Trade Clears Senate Hurdle, Despite Cruz Pulling Support </title><link>http://www.texastribune.org/2015/06/23/trade-clears-senate-hurdle-despite-cruz-backing-ou/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20Abby%20Livingston</link><description> &lt;div style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"&gt; &lt;a href="/2015/06/23/trade-clears-senate-hurdle-despite-cruz-backing-ou/"&gt; &lt;img src="//s3.amazonaws.com/static.texastribune.org/media/images/2015/03/23/TT-leadart-cruz-02_png_312x1000_q100.png" alt=""&gt; &lt;/a&gt; &lt;/div&gt; &lt;p&gt;WASHINGTON &amp;ndash; Despite Sen. &lt;a href="http://www.texastribune.org/directory/ted-cruz/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20Abby%20Livingston"&gt;Ted Cruz&lt;/a&gt;&amp;rsquo;s eleventh-hour change of heart on the biggest vote since he became a presidential candidate, the U.S. Senate cleared a major procedural hurdle Tuesday that will likely give President Obama the authority to negotiate the largest trade deal in American history.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;After aligning himself as a chief advocate behind granting the president the power to negotiate a trade deal with 11 other Pacific Rim countries,&amp;nbsp;&lt;span class="message_content"&gt;Cruz abruptly pulled his support. The move created some anxiety Tuesday as to whether the coalition that Obama and Capitol Hill Republican leaders had pulled together to pass the measure would hold. But the coalition met the 60-vote threshold needed to end debate, and a final vote on the legislation is&lt;/span&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;span class="message_content"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;span class="message_content"&gt;likely Wednesday.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;In an op-ed in &lt;a href="http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/06/23/exclusive-ted-cruz-obamatrade-enmeshed-in-corrupt-backroom-dealings/"&gt;Breitbart News&lt;/a&gt;, Cruz charged Republican leadership with selling out on winding down the Export-Import Bank of the United States&amp;nbsp;in order to get a trade deal through the Congress.&amp;nbsp;The charter of the bank &amp;mdash;which uses loan guarantees, direct loans and insurance to help U.S. businesses sell their goods overseas &amp;mdash; expires June 30.&amp;nbsp;Mainstream Republicans and business groups back the bank, but critics&amp;nbsp;call it a symptom of &amp;ldquo;&lt;a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2015/06/09/hensarling-ex-im-bank/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20Abby%20Livingston"&gt;corporate cronyism&lt;/a&gt;&amp;rdquo; that picks economic winners and losers based on political connections.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt;&amp;ldquo;Enough is enough,&amp;rdquo; Cruz wrote. &amp;ldquo;I cannot vote for [Trade Promotion Authority] unless [Senate Majority Leader Mitch] McConnell&amp;nbsp;and [House Speaker John]&amp;nbsp;Boehner both commit publicly to allow the Ex-Im Bank to expire &amp;mdash; and stay expired."&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt;In both chambers, congressional Republicans largely backed giving the president the authority to negotiate the &lt;/span&gt;massive trade deal&lt;span style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt;. But right-wing groups and some House Republicans opposed the plan on the grounds of an unwillingness to give the president any more authority, even on a policy they might otherwise agree with.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Cruz, who declared his candidacy for the White House on March 23,&amp;nbsp;was one of five&amp;nbsp;Republicans to vote against the authority. The others&amp;nbsp;included U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., a fellow candidate for the GOP presidential&amp;nbsp;nod. &amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Cruz was on board for months, going so far as co-writing a &lt;a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/putting-congress-in-charge-on-trade-1429659409"&gt;&lt;em&gt;Wall Street Journal&lt;/em&gt; op-ed&lt;/a&gt; with the deal&amp;rsquo;s lead advocate on the Hill, House Ways and Means Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;But in the weeks since that April op-ed, conservatives grew restive with giving the president the authority, tagging the deal &amp;ldquo;Obamatrade.&amp;rdquo;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;span&gt;Apparently sensing the frustrations, Cruz took to conservative radio for lengthy interviews on his position, emphasizing that he had voted in favor of Trade Promotion Authority, the authority to negotiate, but was undecided on the actual trade deal, which would come back to Congress in the fall.&lt;/span&gt;&amp;nbsp;His campaign circulated a &amp;ldquo;Note to Conservatives&amp;rdquo; that sought to debunk some of the myths surrounding the deal. And Cruz himself hopped on calls with activists to field questions about his stance.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt;The deal had few friends on the Democratic side of the aisle, as labor unions and allied Democratic members &lt;/span&gt;&lt;a style="line-height: 1.35;" href="http://www.texastribune.org/2015/06/12/texas-democrats-vote-kill-obamas-legacy-bill/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20Abby%20Livingston"&gt;threw roadblocks in front&lt;/a&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt; of&amp;nbsp;the trade&amp;nbsp;authority, known on Capitol Hill as &amp;ldquo;fast track.&amp;rdquo;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt;Still, the president and trade advocates on the Hill continued to push a plan through, and Tuesday marked the final major procedural hurdle for the president.&lt;span style="text-decoration: line-through;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;But just hours before that Senate vote, Cruz dropped a bomb that had the potential to upset an already narrow vote&amp;nbsp;count.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;ldquo;After witnessing several senators huddle on the floor the day of the [Trade Promotion Authority]&amp;nbsp;vote, I suspected that to get their votes on [trade authority], Republican Leadership had promised supporters of Ex-Im a vote to reauthorize the bank before it winds down,&amp;rdquo; Cruz wrote.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;He attributed to his change in direction to the fact that the authority "has become enmeshed in corrupt Washington backroom deal-making." He described McConnell&amp;nbsp;as &amp;ldquo;visibly irritated&amp;rdquo; when Cruz confronted him over any sort of deal cut to pass the authority.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Later, on the Senate floor, Republicans and the president held their trade-friendly Democratic allies, and they just barely cleared the 60-vote threshold.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;There was some anger at Cruz from Republicans on the Hill. But overall, GOP sources close to Republican leadership&amp;nbsp; shrugged off Cruz's move, chalking it up to presidential campaign theatrics.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;div id="msg_1435088719_000155" class="message avatar" data-ts="1435088719.000155"&gt;&lt;/div&gt; &lt;p&gt;This vote does not mean a trade deal is inevitable. There remains unresolved legislation tied to aid to workers impacted by the trade deal. But should the authority&lt;strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/strong&gt;clear final passage in the Senate, the president is expected to return to Congress in the late fall with a deal that will be subjected to an up-or-down vote from both chambers.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Cruz will speak on Wednesday at the Heritage Foundation, a group that opposed the authority&amp;nbsp;along the lines that Cruz outlined in his second op-ed. His speech is titled &amp;ldquo;The People vs. the Washington Cartel: Restoring Liberty in the Age of Cronyism.&amp;rdquo;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Patrick Svitek contributed to this report.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt; </description><dc:creator xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/">Abby Livingston</dc:creator><pubDate>Tue, 23 Jun 2015 14:51:15 -0500</pubDate><guid>http://www.texastribune.org/2015/06/23/trade-clears-senate-hurdle-despite-cruz-backing-ou/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20Abby%20Livingston</guid></item><item><title>3 Texas Congressmen Anticipating Tea Party Challengers </title><link>http://www.texastribune.org/2015/06/21/congressman-track-tea-party-challenges/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20Abby%20Livingston</link><description> &lt;div style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"&gt; &lt;a href="/2015/06/21/congressman-track-tea-party-challenges/"&gt; &lt;img src="//s3.amazonaws.com/static.texastribune.org/media/images/2015/06/18/Congress-3-Split_jpg_312x1000_q100.jpg" alt="Reps. Blake Farenthold, Lamar Smith and Pete Sessions"&gt; &lt;/a&gt; &lt;/div&gt; &lt;p&gt;WASHINGTON &amp;ndash; Who is the next &lt;a href="http://www.texastribune.org/directory/ralph-hall/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20Abby%20Livingston"&gt;Ralph Hall&lt;/a&gt;?&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;That's the question many Texas Republicans ask when they look at the state&amp;rsquo;s congressional map.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Hall's loss in&amp;nbsp;May 2014&amp;nbsp;after 17 terms in the U.S. House of Representatives was an emotional blow to the close-knit federal delegation, but a point of victory for Tea Party groups that endorsed now-U.S. Rep. &lt;a href="http://www.texastribune.org/directory/john-ratcliffe/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20Abby%20Livingston"&gt;John Ratcliffe&lt;/a&gt;, R-Heath.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;And so, six months out from the filing deadline, Texas political operatives on the right and the even farther right&amp;nbsp;are analyzing&amp;nbsp;the map in an attempt to identify vulnerable members of the&amp;nbsp;delegation &amp;mdash; either to bolster longtime political allies&amp;nbsp;or look for an opportunity to send a Tea Party firebrand to the U.S. Capitol.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt;According to interviews with more than a dozen state and national operatives, three Texas incumbents are on the minds of Republicans: U.S. Reps. &lt;a href="http://www.texastribune.org/directory/blake-farenthold/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20Abby%20Livingston"&gt;Blake Farenthold&lt;/a&gt; of Corpus Christi, &lt;a href="http://www.texastribune.org/directory/pete-sessions/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20Abby%20Livingston"&gt;Pete Sessions&lt;/a&gt; of Dallas and &lt;a href="http://www.texastribune.org/directory/lamar-smith/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20Abby%20Livingston"&gt;Lamar Smith&lt;/a&gt; of San Antonio.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Here's why:&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;U.S. Rep. Blake Farenthold&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt;Tea Party operatives see a big window of&amp;nbsp;opportunity with Farenthold, thanks to a a former staffer&amp;rsquo;s &lt;a href="http://www.texastribune.org/2015/02/13/farenthold-refutes-ex-staffers-sexual-harassment-c/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20Abby%20Livingston"&gt;sexual harassment accusations&lt;/a&gt; against him. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;a style="line-height: 1.35;" href="http://www.texastribune.org/2015/02/13/farenthold-refutes-ex-staffers-sexual-harassment-c/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20Abby%20Livingston"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;ldquo;If there&amp;rsquo;s going to be an incumbent that goes down in Texas, I think Blake Farenthold would be No. 1,&amp;rdquo; said Drew Ryan, the North Texas-based political director of the Madison Project, a Tea Party group. &amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Republicans anticipate Farenthold will face a crowded primary. The first challenger to surface on the Tea Party radar is ammunitions businessman John Harrington of Shiner. Harrington announced in May, and sources say he has the&amp;nbsp;capacity to self-fund a race.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;The primary politics set up an uncomfortable dynamic for Republicans who work toward incumbents&amp;rsquo; re-elections.&amp;nbsp;Democrats &lt;a href="http://www.texastribune.org/2015/03/27/democrats-aim-blake-farentholds-seat/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20Abby%20Livingston"&gt;are making noise&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;about his seat &amp;mdash; the 27&lt;sup&gt;th&amp;nbsp;&lt;/sup&gt;Congressional District &amp;mdash; but&amp;nbsp;they concede that the heavily Republican district could only be in play for them&amp;nbsp;with Farenthold as the GOP&amp;nbsp;nominee.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Despite the talk of turnover, plenty of Republicans shrug it&amp;nbsp;off, saying Farenthold can bankroll his own re-election campaign&amp;nbsp;and beat back a primary challenge.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;They argue there is no pathway for a Democrat in such a Republican district under any circumstances&amp;nbsp;&amp;ndash; even with a candidate with strong name identification, like former&amp;nbsp;state Rep. Solomon Ortiz Jr.,&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href="http://www.texastribune.org/2015/03/27/ex-congressmans-son-mulls-challenging-farenthold/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20Abby%20Livingston"&gt;who is mulling a run&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;a href="http://www.texastribune.org/2015/03/27/ex-congressmans-son-mulls-challenging-farenthold/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20Abby%20Livingston"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Farenthold spokesman Kurt Bardella brushed off the speculation.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;"There is always a lot of bravado about challenging Congressman Farenthold, and every cycle, the voters have responded by re-electing him &amp;mdash; most recently with 64 percent of the vote," Bardella wrote in an email. "For any primary challengers, the reality they face is there is very little daylight on issues to separate themselves &amp;mdash; Blake has fought aggressively against President Obama's executive amnesty and stood with conservatives on the Oversight Committee investigating the abuses of the Administration."&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt;U.S. Rep. Pete Sessions&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;The question on Sessions isn&amp;rsquo;t whether he is the next Ralph Hall. It's "Will he be the next &lt;a href="http://www.texastribune.org/directory/john-carona/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20Abby%20Livingston"&gt;John Carona&lt;/a&gt;?"&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Sessions&amp;rsquo; U.S. House district shared territory with the former Dallas state senator's&amp;nbsp;until Carona&amp;nbsp;fell in a 2014&amp;nbsp;primary to the Tea Party-backed &lt;a href="http://www.texastribune.org/directory/donald-huffines/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20Abby%20Livingston"&gt;Don Huffines&lt;/a&gt;.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Tea Party activists say that presents&amp;nbsp;an opportunity to challenge an establishment figure. Sessions is of particular interest because he is powerful player on Capitol Hill, with close alliances within Speaker John Boehner's leadership team.&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;The problem with taking on Sessions is two-fold.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;First, he is inoculated because the 32nd Congressional District sits smack in the middle of the Dallas-Fort Worth media market.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;The prohibitive cost of broadcast television advertising makes it difficult for potential&amp;nbsp;challengers to build name recognition.&amp;nbsp;&lt;span style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt;Sessions&amp;rsquo; 2014 GOP rival, Tea Party favorite&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href="http://www.texastribune.org/directory/katrina-pierson/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20Abby%20Livingston"&gt;Katrina Pierson&lt;/a&gt;, lost&amp;nbsp;by a 28-point margin that year.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;It's also&amp;nbsp;hard to imagine Sessions will be rusty or caught asleep at the wheel. He is only three years out from steering the U.S. House Republicans' national campaign arm, and it&amp;rsquo;s unlikely his political instincts will be anything but sharp.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Rumors swirled for weeks that Huffines, the wealthy state senator who unseated Carona, might challenge Sessions.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;His chief of staff, Matt Langston, said that wasn't true.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;"Sen. Huffines&amp;nbsp;is focused on his work as a Texas state senator and the constituents of Senate District 16," he said in a statement. "He is not considering running for Congress at this time."&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;In recent days, the speculation shifted to Huffines&amp;rsquo; twin brother, Phillip, who said he's heard the rumors but also pushed back against them.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;"I've always had an interest in public service, but at this time I'm not running for anything," he wrote in an email.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;U.S. Rep. Lamar Smith&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;The Tea Party-backed&amp;nbsp;Madison Project endorsed businessman &lt;a href="http://www.texastribune.org/directory/matt-mccall/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20Abby%20Livingston"&gt;Matt McCall&lt;/a&gt; last week in his repeat bid against Smith, who has been in office since 1987. In their previous matchup in 2014,&amp;nbsp;Smith dominated McCall by&amp;nbsp;a 60-34 point margin &amp;mdash; but that hasn't stopped Tea Party activists from hoping&amp;nbsp;for a&amp;nbsp;competitive GOP primary in 2016.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Smith's campaign&amp;nbsp;operation is robust and active. Several Texas GOP operatives say he recognized early the trouble Hall was in last cycle; as of his last campaign finance report, Smith had a healthy&amp;nbsp;$750,000 in the bank.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;There were early rumors that state Sen. &lt;a href="http://www.texastribune.org/directory/donna-campbell/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20Abby%20Livingston"&gt;Donna Campbell&lt;/a&gt;, R-New Braunfels, might consider taking on the 15-term incumbent, but she told The Texas Tribune on Wednesday that she was not interested in a run.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;"My focus remains on keeping Texas strong and working on the issues critical to Texas families and businesses through my position in the Texas Senate," she said in a statement.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Who's not on the radar: U.S. Rep. Sam Johnson&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Generationally, Johnson, R-Plano,&amp;nbsp;fits Hall's profile. He&amp;nbsp;is 84 years old, and his home base of Collin County is a bastion of ambitious conservative talent. &lt;span style="text-decoration: line-through;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;But across the board, GOP&amp;nbsp;consultant after GOP&amp;nbsp;consultant predicted&amp;nbsp;that Johnson would get to leave office gracefully &amp;mdash; not be ousted in a primary.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Part of that&amp;nbsp;logic is that Johnson has a better-funded and better-organized operation than Hall did. Johnson sits on over $500,000 in campaign cash and has an active campaign team.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;And while Hall served in World War II, there is some reluctance to politically attack Johnson, a Vietnam War veteran who was tortured as a prisoner of war and spent years at the Hanoi Hilton.&amp;nbsp;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt; </description><dc:creator xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/">Abby Livingston</dc:creator><pubDate>Sun, 21 Jun 2015 06:00:00 -0500</pubDate><guid>http://www.texastribune.org/2015/06/21/congressman-track-tea-party-challenges/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20Abby%20Livingston</guid></item><item><title>Day After "Accident" Remark, Perry Strikes Somber Tone </title><link>http://www.texastribune.org/2015/06/20/perry-calls-south-carolina-shootings-hate-crime/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20Abby%20Livingston</link><description> &lt;div style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"&gt; &lt;a href="/2015/06/20/perry-calls-south-carolina-shootings-hate-crime/"&gt; &lt;img src="//s3.amazonaws.com/static.texastribune.org/media/images/2015/06/04/_S3R7947fistpump_jpg_312x1000_q100.jpg" alt="Former Gov. Rick Perry announces his intentions to run for president in 2016 on June 4, 2015, at the Addison Airport."&gt; &lt;/a&gt; &lt;/div&gt; &lt;p&gt;WASHINGTON &amp;mdash; A day after stirring controversy for referring to the Charleston shootings as an "accident," former Gov. Rick Perry at a social conservative event here on Saturday repeatedly called the massacre a &amp;ldquo;hate crime."&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;ldquo;We must look at this and understand and respect that this was a clear hate crime,&amp;rdquo; he told reporters after a Faith and Freedom Coalition event in the morning.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Perry &amp;mdash; who is said to have &lt;a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2015/06/04/changed-candidate-thinner-margin-error/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20Abby%20Livingston"&gt;little room for error&lt;/a&gt; in his 2016 presidential bid after his gaffe-filled campaign four years ago &amp;mdash; found himself at the center of a firestorm on Friday when he &lt;a href="http://www.texastribune.org/2015/06/19/perrys-accident-incident/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20Abby%20Livingston"&gt;described the shootings&lt;/a&gt; as an accident and speculated prescription drug abuse as a cause.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;The Perry campaign on Friday&amp;nbsp;quickly clarified his statements, saying he intended to say &amp;ldquo;incident.&amp;rdquo; But the flub drew comparisons on social media to Perry&amp;rsquo;s 2011 &amp;ldquo;oops&amp;rdquo; moment, possibly inhibiting his intensive, years-long &lt;a href="http://www.texastribune.org/2015/03/09/rick-perry-republican-sleeper/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20Abby%20Livingston"&gt;image rehabilitation effort&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Overall, the former governor&amp;nbsp;struck a somber tone while addressing Wednesday&amp;rsquo;s shooting, which left nine church worshipers dead.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;ldquo;We&amp;rsquo;re all here today with heavy hearts,&amp;rdquo; he said in his remarks at the event.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;ldquo;Those individuals, those Charleston Christians who were gunned down in an absolutely heinous hate crime inside of their place of worship ... that deranged individual didn&amp;rsquo;t just take the lives of black Americans. He gunned down nine children of God,&amp;rdquo; he added.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;To reporters after his speech, he cautioned&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp;against the left using the shootings as a &amp;ldquo;knee-jerk&amp;rdquo; opportunity to take away guns from the public.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;At the event, Perry also escalated his criticism of President Obama, attacking him on foreign policy and several other fronts.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;ldquo;The truth is, we are at the end of an era of failed leadership,&amp;rdquo; he said. &amp;ldquo;We&amp;rsquo;ve been led by a divider who has sliced and diced the electorate, pitting American against American for political purposes.&amp;rdquo;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;And he aimed to differentiate himself from the 2016 GOP field on the issue of abortion, citing &lt;a href="http://www.texastribune.org/2011/08/31/perrys-anti-abortion-stance-has-grown-louder-vehem/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20Abby%20Livingston"&gt;his record&lt;/a&gt; on parental notification and consent and sonograms.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;ldquo;A lot of candidates say the right things about protecting life,&amp;rdquo; he said. &amp;ldquo;But no candidate has done more to protect unborn life.&amp;rdquo;&lt;/p&gt; </description><dc:creator xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/">Abby Livingston</dc:creator><pubDate>Sat, 20 Jun 2015 11:21:09 -0500</pubDate><guid>http://www.texastribune.org/2015/06/20/perry-calls-south-carolina-shootings-hate-crime/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20Abby%20Livingston</guid></item><item><title>Cruz: Pray That Supreme Court Doesn't Legalize Gay Marriage </title><link>http://www.texastribune.org/2015/06/18/cruz-courts-evangelical-voters/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20Abby%20Livingston</link><description> &lt;div style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"&gt; &lt;a href="/2015/06/18/cruz-courts-evangelical-voters/"&gt; &lt;img src="//s3.amazonaws.com/static.texastribune.org/media/images/2015/05/26/Cruz-2_jpg_312x1000_q100.jpg" alt="U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz at the First in the Nation Republican Leadership Summit in Nashua, N.H., on April 18, 2015."&gt; &lt;/a&gt; &lt;/div&gt; &lt;p&gt;WASHINGTON &amp;ndash; U.S. Sen. &lt;a href="http://www.texastribune.org/directory/ted-cruz/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20Abby%20Livingston"&gt;Ted Cruz&lt;/a&gt; used the imminent Supreme Court ruling on gay marriage to make his case to a socially conservative group on Thursday.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Gay marriage, according to Cruz&amp;rsquo;s remarks to the Faith and Freedom Coalition, is one of many ways Democrats, the media and at times his Republican rivals persecute evangelical Christians.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;ldquo;Religious liberty is under assault,&amp;rdquo; he said.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;ldquo;I would encourage everyone here to be lifting up in prayer the court that they not engage in an act of naked and lawless judicial activism, tearing down the marriage laws adopted pursuant to the Constitution,&amp;rdquo; he added.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Texas&amp;rsquo; junior senator touched on recent controversies about gay marriage in Indiana and Arkansas.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;ldquo;Today&amp;rsquo;s Democratic Party, aided by their friends in the media, and aided even more by big business that decided it was good business to throw Christians overboard and abandon religious liberty, pounded upon leaderships there,&amp;rdquo; he said.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;ldquo;I&amp;rsquo;ll tell you what was saddest: just how many Republicans ran for the hills,&amp;rdquo; he said. &amp;ldquo;More than a few Republicans, sadly even more than a few Republicans running for president in 2016, chose that moment somehow to go and rearrange their sock drawer.&amp;rdquo;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Over and over in his sermon-like remarks, Cruz said &amp;ldquo;Morning is coming,&amp;rdquo; in reference to the moment President Obama will leave office.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;It is a line from the Old Testament, but it also recalled President Ronald Reagan&amp;rsquo;s &amp;ldquo;Morning in America&amp;rdquo; campaign theme. Cruz often quotes the late president in his speeches and frequently says he is the best candidate to run from the Reagan playbook in a general election.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;While he's polarizing to Democrats and independents, Cruz argues he has the potential to boost the evangelical voting base.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;At this gathering, he made that case to the audience.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;ldquo;You have a circle of influence: friends, family, pastors," he said. "...There are right now about 90 million evangelicals in America. Fifty million evangelicals are staying home. Fifty million.&amp;rdquo; &amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;ldquo;It&amp;rsquo;s a real simple formula," he added. "If people of faith show up, if we stand for our faith and our liberty and the Constitution, we will win and turn the country around.&amp;rdquo;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Former Gov. &lt;a href="http://www.texastribune.org/directory/rick-perry/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20Abby%20Livingston"&gt;Rick Perry&lt;/a&gt;, also a presidential contender, will address the group on Saturday morning.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; </description><dc:creator xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/">Abby Livingston</dc:creator><pubDate>Thu, 18 Jun 2015 14:01:15 -0500</pubDate><guid>http://www.texastribune.org/2015/06/18/cruz-courts-evangelical-voters/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20Abby%20Livingston</guid></item><item><title>Why Are So Few Texas Women in Congress? </title><link>http://www.texastribune.org/2015/06/13/why-are-so-few-texas-women-congress/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20Abby%20Livingston</link><description> &lt;div style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"&gt; &lt;a href="/2015/06/13/why-are-so-few-texas-women-congress/"&gt; &lt;img src="//s3.amazonaws.com/static.texastribune.org/media/images/2015/06/12/JohnsonGrangerJackson_jpg_312x1000_q100.jpg" alt="Of 38 members, only three women — U.S. Reps. Sheila Jackson Lee, Eddie Bernice Johnson and Kay Granger — represent Texas in Congress."&gt; &lt;/a&gt; &lt;/div&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt;WASHINGTON &amp;ndash; Week after week at the U.S. Capitol, the Republican congressional delegation from Texas&lt;strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/strong&gt;gathers for a ritual Thursday lunch. And year after year, U.S. Rep. &lt;a href="http://www.texastribune.org/directory/kay-granger/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20Abby%20Livingston"&gt;Kay Granger&lt;/a&gt; of Fort Worth has been the lone woman sitting at the table.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;"I keep 'em under control most of the time, but not all the time.&amp;nbsp;I do my best," Granger said with a laugh of her 24 male GOP colleagues.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;"It just is puzzling," she added about the disparity. "And I talk to young women all the time and say their&amp;nbsp;voices need to be heard."&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;The Democratic side of the state's congressional roster&amp;nbsp;is little better, with&amp;nbsp;two women, Reps. &lt;a href="http://www.texastribune.org/directory/eddie-bernice-johnson/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20Abby%20Livingston"&gt;Eddie Bernice Johnson&lt;/a&gt; of Dallas and &lt;span&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.texastribune.org/directory/sheila-jackson-lee/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20Abby%20Livingston"&gt;Sheila Jackson Lee&lt;/a&gt; of Houston,&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;among 11. In total, that means Texas has three women serving in a 36-member House delegation, plus two male senators.&lt;strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;span style="text-decoration: line-through;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;And its been nearly 20 years since the last new woman from Texas &amp;mdash; Granger &amp;mdash; entered Congress, if you set aside&amp;nbsp;ex-Rep. Shelley Sekula-Gibbs&amp;rsquo; largely ceremonial&amp;nbsp;two-month stint in late 2006. &lt;span style="text-decoration: line-through;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt;Republicans and Democrats&amp;nbsp;tend to agree that&amp;nbsp;electing women is good for party, country and Congress, and there is tangible evidence that both parties invest in trying to elect more of them. But actually doing so, particularly in Texas, has proved easier said than done.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt;About one-fifth of Congress is female, with 84 women serving in the U.S. House of Representatives and 20 in the Senate. The partisan breakdown leans heavily in the Democratic column. As&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt;a dominant state in national politics, Texas'&amp;nbsp;dearth of females is a top concern for those who want to see women advance.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;ldquo;Texas fits the profile that we have been so concerned about: the stagnation of women in the legislature, which is leading to the fact that we&amp;rsquo;re not seeing a growth in the number of women at the federal level in states as significant as Texas,&amp;rdquo; said Debbie Walsh, director of&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href="http://www.cawp.rutgers.edu/"&gt;Rutgers University's Center for American Women and Politics.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;In total, seven Texas women have walked the halls of the U.S. Capitol as members of Congress. Two served nominal terms that lasted less than a year. Proportionately, the Texas Legislature is better &amp;ndash; but still ranks 37&lt;sup&gt;th&lt;/sup&gt; in the country in female representation, according to &lt;a href="http://www.cawp.rutgers.edu/fast_facts/resources/state_fact_sheets/TX.php"&gt;Walsh's data&lt;/a&gt;. Thirty-six women serve in the Texas House and Senate, about 20 percent of the Legislature.&amp;nbsp;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;California, the only comparable state in population, has 21 females in Congress, including its two U.S. senators and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi. Arizona, which observers say mirrors Texas ideologically, has three females in its 11-person federal delegation.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;While most states are moving in the direction of electing more females to office, Texas, home to legendary figures like Barbara Jordan, Ann Richards and Annette Strauss, is regressing.&amp;nbsp;In just the last three years, Republican U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison retired and Democratic gubernatorial nominee Wendy Davis flamed out.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;ldquo;Texas used to have this culture of political women who were really notable,&amp;rdquo; said Walsh. &amp;ldquo;We used to talk about &amp;lsquo;What&amp;rsquo;s in the water in Texas?&amp;rsquo;&amp;rdquo;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;So why is there is such a drought now?&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The Map&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Nearly every state and national political operative interviewed for this story pointed to one major culprit: the congressional map.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;The Republican-dominated Texas Legislature re-drew the state's congressional districts after the 2010 census&amp;nbsp;aiming&amp;nbsp;to secure&amp;nbsp;as many Republican seats as possible. But the new districts also&amp;nbsp;protected incumbents.&amp;nbsp;With little turnover&amp;nbsp;comes fewer opportunities.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt;"There are members of Congress in the delegation, I'm sure, that have a very strong base in their district ... and their constituents are happy with them," Jackson Lee said. "But [female representation] is something that we have to put on the minds of Texans."&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Other Democrats are more blunt, arguing that any incumbent protection is going to favor men.&amp;nbsp;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;But there have been open-seat races in recent years, thanks in most part to Texas picking up four seats in the last census. And it&amp;rsquo;s not that women are getting beat. They aren&amp;rsquo;t even running.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Since the new lines were drawn, there have been at least a half-dozen open primary races where women either did not run or ran disorganized and underfunded campaigns.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;In contrast, the mid-1990s marked the high point for women in Texas politics.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Johnson won her Dallas-based House seat in 1992. Hutchison followed up with her 1993 special election win and became the first female Texas senator. 1994 brought Jackson Lee to Congress, followed by Granger in 1996.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;It was a national trend, partially spurred by the controversial 1991 Clarence Thomas U.S. Supreme Court hearings.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Democrats are quick to blame the Republican political culture for the dearth of Texas women in Congress. Texas, after all, has 24 safe Republican House seats, 11 safe Democratic seats and a single toss-up in the southwest part of the state.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;When Republicans create a hostile environment on issues like birth control and abortion, Democrats&amp;nbsp;argue, it makes sense that few women in a state as conservative as Texas would want to run.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;"There&amp;rsquo;s no room for a Kay Bailey Hutchison in today&amp;rsquo;s Republican party,&amp;rdquo; said Jess McIntosh, a spokeswoman for EMILY&amp;rsquo;s List, an organization that backs Democratic women who support abortion rights.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;But socially conservative women are winning races elsewhere in the country.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;"It's not true. Look at the state Legislature," Granger said of the Democratic argument. "[Women] are in huge numbers, but also in very important positions, so that's not the situation."&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt;But&amp;nbsp;nearly every one of the dozen or so Texas and national female operatives of both parties&lt;strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/strong&gt;who watch and work on congressional campaigns&amp;nbsp;interviewed for this story blamed, at least in part, a basic chauvinism on the part of voters either in Texas or more generally in the South.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;ldquo;I think there are cultural differences &amp;hellip; especially in a traditional society like Texas,&amp;rdquo; said a female national Republican operative who&amp;rsquo;s recruited female candidates.&amp;nbsp;&amp;ldquo;We&amp;rsquo;re still overcoming old societal roles in a lot of ways.&amp;rdquo;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;And it&amp;rsquo;s not just a Republican problem. Democrats voice similar concerns about the voters rejecting females in some of their own Texas congressional districts.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;A National Problem: Getting Women to Run &amp;nbsp;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt;The rare female who serves in Congress while raising young children typically has a child-care option handy &amp;mdash; usually&amp;nbsp;grandparents living nearby. The simple distance to Washington discourages women from running if they have children.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;"I really believe it has to do with being physically away," Granger said. "Where, if I'm serving in Austin, I can get in the car and if traffic's not too bad,&amp;nbsp;I can be home in two hours.&amp;nbsp;This is a different situation."&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt;The Washington commute is the biggest concern female candidates raise when approached by party recruiters.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;One GOP consultant said there is actually an imaginary line from Illinois down to Texas to the DFW airport past which&amp;nbsp;female recruitment becomes even more difficult.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Texas is close enough to Washington, with enough direct flights, that constituents expect their members to return home every weekend &amp;ndash; meaning relocating one&amp;rsquo;s family to Washington is not an option.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;But Texas is far enough that a mother could not race home within a few hours for a family emergency, unlike members who can drive or take the train or shuttle home.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Other operatives say that the statehouse, specifically the opportunity to have a greater impact in the Texas Senate, is another deterrent to would-be federal candidates. The Texas legislative session only lasts several months, and education, often a top issue for females, can be more directly addressed at the state level,&amp;nbsp;&lt;span&gt;said a GOP consultant&lt;/span&gt;.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Texas GOP communications director Aaron Whitehead agreed.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;ldquo;From the party perspective, you see some of our most talented and effective elected officials are at the statehouse,&amp;rdquo; he said.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;ldquo;Obviously, I can&amp;rsquo;t speak to each individual&amp;rsquo;s motivation on which office they run for,&amp;rdquo; he added. &amp;ldquo;If you look at Sen. [Jane] Nelson as an example, perhaps staying in Texas is where they can make the most benefit for their community.&amp;rdquo;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;And operatives also point to the high-profile mayors in the state.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;But more than anything, Jackson Lee blames the pressure that increasingly expensive campaigns put on working mothers who would otherwise have political ambitions.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;ldquo;The '90s &amp;hellip; was a moment of sanity where people could run with signs and certainly a reasonable amount of money,&amp;rdquo; she said in an interview near the House floor, decrying the pressure that a $1 million to $3 million campaign price tag places on candidates.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;ldquo;In Texas, there&amp;rsquo;s a huge media market,&amp;rdquo; she added. &amp;ldquo;It makes it very challenging.&amp;rdquo;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Consultants across the board agree that women enter politics from less-moneyed professions and have a smaller fundraising network than the average male candidate.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;span&gt;Granger dismissed money as issue, noting that she was a top fundraiser in her freshman class. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;span&gt;Walsh said that women keep up, but it is a harder haul. &amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&amp;ldquo;They raise comparable amounts of money to each other,&amp;rdquo; she said. &amp;ldquo;It just takes women longer. &amp;ldquo; &amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Money is the crux of the EMILY&amp;rsquo;s List strategy to elect women. The group&amp;rsquo;s acronym is &amp;ldquo;Early Money Is Like Yeast,&amp;rdquo; and it aims to support female candidates early in Democratic primaries. F&lt;span&gt;or years, Republicans have silently wished for a GOP equivalent.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;But even EMILY&amp;rsquo;s List has not played in any of the Texas Democratic open seats in recent years.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt;Congress is the problem, according to Jason Stanford, a Democratic consultant. The operative, who worked for Ann Richards, pointed to the increasing paralysis at the U.S. Capitol as the culprit.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;ldquo;I don&amp;rsquo;t know a lot of women who like to sit around and hear themselves talk,&amp;rdquo; he said. &amp;ldquo;I know a hell of a lot of men who do.&amp;rdquo;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;ldquo;It&amp;rsquo;s really, really hard to get elected,&amp;rdquo; he added. &amp;ldquo;And then &amp;hellip; you don&amp;rsquo;t get much done, so what&amp;rsquo;s the point?&amp;rdquo;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; </description><dc:creator xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/">Abby Livingston</dc:creator><pubDate>Sat, 13 Jun 2015 06:00:00 -0500</pubDate><guid>http://www.texastribune.org/2015/06/13/why-are-so-few-texas-women-congress/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20Abby%20Livingston</guid></item><item><title>Democrats Help Defeat Obama's Legacy Bill </title><link>http://www.texastribune.org/2015/06/12/texas-democrats-vote-kill-obamas-legacy-bill/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20Abby%20Livingston</link><description> &lt;div style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"&gt; &lt;a href="/2015/06/12/texas-democrats-vote-kill-obamas-legacy-bill/"&gt; &lt;img src="//s3.amazonaws.com/static.texastribune.org/media/images/2015/02/19/TTEvents_JoaquinCastro156_jpg_312x1000_q100.jpg" alt="U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro talks about the national 2016 political landscape during a TTEvents conversation with Evan Smith on Feb. 19, 2015."&gt; &lt;/a&gt; &lt;/div&gt; &lt;p&gt;WASHINGTON &amp;ndash; The U.S. House of Representatives on Friday shot down&amp;nbsp;President Obama's bid to negotiate the largest trade deal in American history. But unlike recent chapters in divided government, the people taking the knives to his agenda were members of his own party, including most of Texas' Democratic delegation. &amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt;The House nixed a measure to give assistance to American workers hurt by a would-be trade deal with 11 other Pacific Rim countries called the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Only minutes later, the House then gave the president authority to negotiate that deal. Unless the two measures&amp;nbsp;are passed together, a trade authorization deal is unlikely to pass the U.S. Senate.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Only three Texas Democrats cast votes with the president: U.S. Reps. &lt;a href="http://www.texastribune.org/directory/henry-cuellar/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20Abby%20Livingston"&gt;Henry Cuellar&lt;/a&gt; of Laredo, &lt;a href="http://www.texastribune.org/directory/eddie-bernice-johnson/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20Abby%20Livingston"&gt;Eddie Bernice Johnson&lt;/a&gt; of Dallas and &lt;a href="http://www.texastribune.org/directory/beto-orourke/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20Abby%20Livingston"&gt;Beto O'Rourke&lt;/a&gt; of El Paso.&amp;nbsp;The eight other Democrats, including U.S. Rep. &lt;a href="http://www.texastribune.org/directory/joaquin-castro/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20Abby%20Livingston"&gt;Joaquin Castro&lt;/a&gt; &amp;mdash;&amp;nbsp;the center of a big&amp;nbsp;lobbying effort &amp;mdash; voted against at least one of the measures.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;"Giving the administration fast track authority would have undermined any chance for Congress to have any meaningful say on the largest trade deals America has ever negotiated,&amp;rdquo;&amp;nbsp;U.S. Rep. &lt;a href="http://www.texastribune.org/directory/gene-green/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20Abby%20Livingston"&gt;Gene Green&lt;/a&gt; of Houston, who voted against both measures, said in a statement.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;The Senate failed to pass Obama's initial bid to the chamber back in May, only to see it revived in that chamber&amp;nbsp;days later. In the immediate aftermath of Friday's House vote, a White House spokesman seemed to &lt;a href="https://twitter.com/Schultz44/status/609427401307783168"&gt;hint on social media&lt;/a&gt; that history could repeat itself.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;The House vote &amp;mdash; and the lobbying that accompanied it &amp;mdash; exposed&amp;nbsp;deep and slumbering rifts between the Obama administration and House Democrats. Democrats as a whole voted overwhelmingly against the president.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;"We're going to continue to make an aggressive case to all of the House Democrats, including [House Minority]&amp;nbsp;Leader Pelosi, about why it's important for them to support Trade Adjustment Assistance," White House spokesman Josh Earnest said immediately after the vote.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt;For Democrats, the vote was a choice between antagonizing labor, which was vehemently against the measure, and gutting&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt;&amp;nbsp;the president's economic legacy.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt;It was one of the most anxious whip counts of his presidency and, for many House Democrats, the most difficult vote of their careers.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;The party was so divided on Friday that even Texas' Castro twins were split on the issue: Joaquin Castro joined with most of his caucus to oppose authorization for Obama; his brother, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Juli&amp;aacute;n Castro, favored it, saying at a Houston speaking engagement on Friday that it was "fantastically important."&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Instead, the president's support came mostly from Republicans, including many from Texas.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;This was not a vote for an actual trade deal. It was a measure to empower the president to negotiate with foreign leaders and then return to Congress, likely in the fall, for an up-or-down approval vote.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt;Labor reviled the concept, arguing that a trade deal would translate into lost jobs and depressed wages. Unions are a dominant constituent in Democratic money politics. Democratic incumbents found themselves in an &lt;/span&gt;&lt;a style="line-height: 1.35;" href="http://www.texastribune.org/2015/06/05/trade-deal-squeezes-texas-democrats/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20Abby%20Livingston"&gt;increasingly tight squeeze&lt;/a&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt;&amp;nbsp;in recent weeks between the president and labor groups. &amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt;The threats to House Democrats were implicit and explicit: Defy the unions, and they will come after you in primaries.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;span&gt;To counter the labor push, the president was more engaged on Capitol Hill than at any other point in his tenure since the 2010 health care overhaul, and the effort consumed the nation's capital in the push's final hours.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;On Thursday evening, Obama made a surprise appearance at Nationals Park for the Republicans-vs.-Democrats Congressional Baseball Game. Several thousand Capitol Hill staffers were in attendance to watch members, including Texas Reps. &lt;a href="http://www.texastribune.org/directory/joe-barton/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20Abby%20Livingston"&gt;Joe Barton&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href="http://www.texastribune.org/directory/kevin-brady/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20Abby%20Livingston"&gt;Kevin Brady&lt;/a&gt;, &lt;a href="http://www.texastribune.org/directory/mike-conaway/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20Abby%20Livingston"&gt;Mike Conaway&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href="http://www.texastribune.org/directory/roger-williams/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20Abby%20Livingston"&gt;Roger Williams&lt;/a&gt;, who participated in the game.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Upon seeing the president on the field, the Republican side of the stadium broke out in cheers of "T.P.A.! T.P.A! T.P.A!," the acronym for the deal. The president glad-handed both dugouts. Barton, the Republicans' team manager, took a photo with the president.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;The appearance delighted some Democratic members and staffers in attendance.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;But other Democrats found the president to be engaging in a transparent gambit. Seven years into his presidency, this was the first time Obama&amp;nbsp;attended the baseball game as commander in chief. Some Democrats in the crowd perceived the charm offensive as "too little, too late."&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;The president then traveled to Capitol Hill for a Friday closed-door meeting with the Democratic caucus to make his final plea.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;There were many conservative Republicans who supported the policy on its face, but loathed giving the president any executive power. All in all, Texas Republicans voted for the&amp;nbsp;trade deal, but not the assistance measure.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt;Capitol Hill Republican staffers credit House Ways and Means Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis., with shepherding the legislation through the House, albeit unsuccessfully for now. But Texans helped with the effort: U.S. Sen. &lt;a href="http://www.texastribune.org/directory/ted-cruz/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20Abby%20Livingston"&gt;Ted Cruz&lt;/a&gt; co-wrote a &lt;/span&gt;&lt;a style="line-height: 1.35;" href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/putting-congress-in-charge-on-trade-1429659409"&gt;&lt;em&gt;Wall Street Journal&lt;/em&gt; op-ed&lt;/a&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt; with Ryan in April, and U.S. Rep. &lt;a href="http://www.texastribune.org/directory/jeb-hensarling/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20Abby%20Livingston"&gt;Jeb Hensarling&lt;/a&gt;, the House Financial Services Committee chairman, wrote his own &lt;/span&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;a style="line-height: 1.35;" href="http://www.nationalreview.com/article/419409/trade-promotion-authority-conservative-case-jeb-hensarling"&gt;National Review&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt; opinion piece supporting the president's authorization.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt;Patrick Svitek contributed to this story.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt; </description><dc:creator xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/">Abby Livingston</dc:creator><pubDate>Fri, 12 Jun 2015 14:42:16 -0500</pubDate><guid>http://www.texastribune.org/2015/06/12/texas-democrats-vote-kill-obamas-legacy-bill/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20Abby%20Livingston</guid></item><item><title>Hensarling Leads Bid to Kill Export-Import Bank </title><link>http://www.texastribune.org/2015/06/09/hensarling-ex-im-bank/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20Abby%20Livingston</link><description> &lt;div style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"&gt; &lt;a href="/2015/06/09/hensarling-ex-im-bank/"&gt; &lt;img src="//s3.amazonaws.com/static.texastribune.org/media/images/JebHensarling_jpg_312x1000_q100.jpg" alt="U.S. Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-Dallas."&gt; &lt;/a&gt; &lt;/div&gt; &lt;p&gt;WASHINGTON &amp;ndash; About two years ago, U.S. Rep. &lt;a href="http://www.texastribune.org/directory/jeb-hensarling/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20Abby%20Livingston"&gt;Jeb Hensarling&lt;/a&gt; &amp;mdash; a Dallas Republican and Phil Gramm &lt;span&gt;prot&amp;eacute;g&amp;eacute;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;pegged by some as an ascending GOP star &amp;mdash; set his sights on a relatively obscure federal agency that is beloved by national business leaders and is important to Texas' economy.&lt;span style="text-decoration: line-through;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;The Export-Import Bank of the United States should die, Hensarling says. And since becoming&amp;nbsp;&lt;span&gt;chairman of the House Financial Services Committee in 2013, Hensarling has been in a position to try to make that happen. The bank's charter expires June 30, and unless Congress reauthorizes it, the institution created by former President Franklin Roosevelt 81 years ago will be on track for a phase-out.&lt;strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;While few Americans give it much thought, the Export-Import Bank's very existence is the newest proxy in a familiar GOP fight: the Tea Party against the business establishment.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Mainstream Republicans and business groups back the bank, which uses loan guarantees, direct loans, insurance and other support to help U.S. businesses sell their goods overseas. In fiscal year 2014, the bank boasts that it supported $27.4 billion worth of U.S. exports and &amp;mdash; since it makes money on interest and fees &amp;mdash; paid $674 million into the federal treasury.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;About $4 billion in credit insurance and loan guarantees went to Texas companies, including 332 small businesses, the bank says.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Critics dispute &lt;a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/fact-checker/wp/2015/04/09/does-the-export-import-bank-cost-taxpayers-0/"&gt;that accounting&lt;/a&gt;. And to Hensarling and his allies, shutting down the bank isn't just a question of performance &amp;mdash; it's a moral issue.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;ldquo;I just don&amp;rsquo;t think, ultimately, you can ever deal with the social welfare state unless you first deal with the corporate welfare state,&amp;rdquo; he said.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;span&gt;Critics call the bank a symptom of &amp;ldquo;corporate cronyism&amp;rdquo; that picks economic winners and losers based on political connections.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&amp;ldquo;On a macro-economic level, the bank is of little consequence,&amp;rdquo; Hensarling said in an interview. &amp;ldquo;But what is important is what direction we take as a nation.&amp;rdquo;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Hensarling characterizes the debate as a battle between the politically connected and the average taxpayer, peppering his analysis with terms like &amp;ldquo;working man,&amp;rdquo; &amp;ldquo;common man,&amp;rdquo; &amp;ldquo;Main Street&amp;rdquo; and &amp;ldquo;corporate welfare.&amp;rdquo;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt;Over the last year, a succession of Republican politicians reversed course to join Hensarling in calling for the bank's demise. But not everyone is happy with him. Multiple sources &amp;ndash; including Republicans &amp;ndash; who work in financial services issues say Hensarling's committee is deeply divided, and some members are furious that he has yet to allow a vote on the bank's future.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Hensarling argued that a vote is moot, because Democrats and Republicans who disagree with him do not agree with one another on a specific plan.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;"So far, there is not a majority of the House Financial Services Committee, much less the majority of the House, that is supporting any particular bill dealing with the Export-Import bank," he said.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;The fight is particularly applicable to Texas, the nation&amp;rsquo;s largest exporter and one of the bank&amp;rsquo;s largest aid recipients. But Texas also harbors some of the bank&amp;rsquo;s fiercest and most powerful critics.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;U.S. Sen. &lt;a href="http://www.texastribune.org/directory/ted-cruz/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20Abby%20Livingston"&gt;Ted Cruz&lt;/a&gt; established his opposition early.&amp;nbsp;Former Gov. Rick Perry, now running for president, once backed the bank but &lt;a href="http://www.texastribune.org/2015/05/05/perry-changes-position-export-import-bank/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20Abby%20Livingston"&gt;dramatically reversed positions&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;in early May.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;The move won him praise from Freedom Partners, an organization within the libertarian-minded Koch brothers political network. The Koch groups &lt;a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/koch-backed-network-aims-to-spend-nearly-1-billion-on-2016-elections/2015/01/26/77a44654-a513-11e4-a06b-9df2002b86a0_story.html"&gt;promised&lt;/a&gt; earlier this year to raise nearly $1 billion in the 2016 presidential campaign cycle. &lt;a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/koch-backed-network-aims-to-spend-nearly-1-billion-on-2016-elections/2015/01/26/77a44654-a513-11e4-a06b-9df2002b86a0_story.html"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;And then there is U.S. Rep. &lt;a href="http://www.texastribune.org/directory/bill-flores/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20Abby%20Livingston"&gt;Bill Flores&lt;/a&gt; of Bryan. Flores leads the Republican Study Committee, a powerful voting bloc within the House GOP conference.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;In late April, the Club for Growth, a limited government political organization, &lt;a href="https://twitter.com/club4growth/status/591287398790639616"&gt;lobbied&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;Flores on television and in social media to oppose the bank.&amp;nbsp;&lt;span style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt;The club,&amp;nbsp;more than any other group in that world, has a proven ability to raise money for candidates it likes and to take out Republicans in their own primaries.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;When it threatens Republicans in conservative districts, incumbents tend to pay attention.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;A month after the club's push, Flores announced his opposition to the bank. Soon after, while in Austin in late May, &lt;a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2015/05/27/austin-flores-doesnt-mince-words-ex-im-bank/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20Abby%20Livingston"&gt;he said&lt;/a&gt;, &amp;ldquo;Ex-Im must die in its current form.&amp;rdquo;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;The bank, however, does have powerful allies trying to keep it alive.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;House Democrats are generally in lockstep in supporting the bank, and a reauthorization brought to the Senate floor would likely easily pass and advance to the House side. &amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Ex-Im also has the support of business interests like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Boeing, General Electric and the National Association of Manufacturers.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;ldquo;Ex-Im does not skew the playing field. It levels it for U.S. exporters facing head-to-head competition with foreign firms,&amp;rdquo; U.S. Chamber of Commerce Vice President for International Policy John Murphy said in Senate testimony last week.&amp;nbsp;&amp;ldquo;Ex-Im doesn&amp;rsquo;t pick winners and&amp;nbsp;losers, but refusing to reauthorize Ex-Im is picking foreign companies as winners and U.S. exporters as losers.&amp;rdquo;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;A small group of House Republicans &amp;ndash; none from Texas &amp;ndash; held a news conference hosted by the National Association of Manufacturers last week defending the bank.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt;Bank supporters&lt;/span&gt;&amp;nbsp;resent the &amp;ldquo;corporate cronyism&amp;rdquo; label, saying bank programs keep a significant number of small businesses afloat.&amp;nbsp;And they argue that the Tea Party, long blocked on larger issues like raising the debt ceiling, is using this obscure bank as an example of political progress.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;ldquo;Why are we here?&amp;rdquo; said U.S. Rep.&amp;nbsp;Billy Long, a Missouri Republican, at that news conference. &amp;ldquo;We have enough problems in this country that we should be dealing with here in Washington, D.C., to come up with this contrived, flavor-of-the-week thing to be against."&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;"It&amp;rsquo;s a dreamed-up problem that has spun out of control,"&lt;span style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt;&amp;nbsp;he added. "&lt;/span&gt;I don&amp;rsquo;t think we&amp;rsquo;re in the minority of our party. I think there&amp;rsquo;s a lot of them are on our side that are afraid to say anything, afraid to come out."&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;With the deadline approaching, hopes are dimming that the bank will be reauthorized by the end of June. The growing consensus is that if it survives, the reauthorization will be attached to a larger, more comprehensive piece of legislation that members will find difficult to vote against.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Or the Senate could &lt;a href="http://blogs.rollcall.com/wgdb/democrats-push-mcconnell-on-ex-im-highway-bill-extensions/"&gt;pass a reauthorization&lt;/a&gt; that will come to the House floor outside of Hensarling&amp;rsquo;s committee jurisdiction. &lt;a href="http://blogs.rollcall.com/wgdb/democrats-push-mcconnell-on-ex-im-highway-bill-extensions/"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;If that happens, Hensarling promises to continue voicing his opposition. But he acknowledges there are limits, even for someone in a position of his power. &amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;ldquo;I&amp;rsquo;ll listen to my colleagues carefully,&amp;rdquo; Hensarling said. &amp;ldquo;Even though I&amp;rsquo;m a chairman, I don&amp;rsquo;t always get my way.&amp;rdquo;&lt;/p&gt; </description><dc:creator xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/">Abby Livingston</dc:creator><pubDate>Tue, 09 Jun 2015 06:00:00 -0500</pubDate><guid>http://www.texastribune.org/2015/06/09/hensarling-ex-im-bank/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20Abby%20Livingston</guid></item><item><title>Perry Fires Back at Clinton on Voter ID </title><link>http://www.texastribune.org/2015/06/07/perry-fires-back-clinton-voter-id/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20Abby%20Livingston</link><description> &lt;div style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"&gt; &lt;a href="/2015/06/07/perry-fires-back-clinton-voter-id/"&gt; &lt;img src="//s3.amazonaws.com/static.texastribune.org/media/images/2015/06/04/_S3R7947fistpump_jpg_312x1000_q100.jpg" alt="Former Gov. Rick Perry announces his intentions to run for president in 2016 on June 4, 2015, at the Addison Airport."&gt; &lt;/a&gt; &lt;/div&gt; &lt;p&gt;Rick Perry sharply fired back at former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's criticism of his voter access policies as governor.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;"I don&amp;rsquo;t know who she&amp;rsquo;s playing to, but she&amp;rsquo;s not playing to the people of Texas and I don&amp;rsquo;t think she&amp;rsquo;s playing to Americans that believe that the sanctity of the vote is really important and you need to have a photo ID to go vote," he said in an interview that aired on CNN Sunday.&amp;nbsp;"It&amp;rsquo;s that simple."&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;On Thursday, Clinton accused Perry and other Republican governors of "a crusade against voting rights."&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;"Republicans are systematically and deliberately trying to stop millions of American citizens from voting. What part of democracy are they afraid of?&amp;rdquo; she &lt;a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2015/06/04/clinton-caps-two-days-texas-houston-speech/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20Abby%20Livingston"&gt;said in Houston&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;In response, Perry postured her comments as an affront to all Texans.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;"I think we make it pretty easy in the state of Texas for people to vote," he said. "I don&amp;rsquo;t know what her beef is with the people of the state of Texas about voter ID, but I think she&amp;rsquo;s on the wrong side of the issue."&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;The 2013 Texas voter ID law, considered the toughest in the nation, was signed by Perry.&amp;nbsp;&lt;span&gt;It requires most citizens (some, like people with disabilities, can be exempt) to show one of a handful of allowable photo identifications before their votes can be counted.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;To help cut down on long lines and generally make it easier to cast a ballot, Clinton proposed requiring at least 20 days of in-person early voting in every state, including on weekends and evenings. She also called for universal automatic voter registration of U.S. citizens when they turn 18.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;In Texas, state law now allows in-person early voting for two weeks, and weekend voting is not always guaranteed, depending on the size of the county and other factors.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Perry on Sunday also alluded to Clinton's transient geographic base, saying she ought to address the matter first in "whichever state Hillary Clinton considers to be her home state."&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt;It's an edgier tone for Perry, who in speech in April barely &lt;a href="http://www.texastribune.org/2015/04/17/rick-perry-new-hampshire/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20Abby%20Livingston"&gt;mentioned Clinton by name&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt;He made the comments while in Iowa for a presidential candidate forum. It's a place he is prioritizing politically.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;"We&amp;rsquo;ll be here a lot," he said. "In 2011, the first time I even came to Iowa was &amp;hellip; right after the straw poll. Being in the state, introducing yourself in a very personal way. I don&amp;rsquo;t care whether it&amp;rsquo;s two people or 2,000 people, if I get invited to come to Iowa, I&amp;rsquo;m going to be here.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;"There may be somebody comes to Iowa more than I do, but if they do they better pack their lunch," he added.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Perry placed fifth in Iowa during his disastrous 2012 presidential. But he is working the retail politics circuit hard to re-introduce himself and&lt;a href="http://www.texastribune.org/2015/03/09/rick-perry-republican-sleeper/%20?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20Abby%20Livingston"&gt; capitalize on his interpersonal skills&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;a href="http://www.texastribune.org/2015/03/09/rick-perry-republican-sleeper/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20Abby%20Livingston"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;"We&amp;rsquo;re putting eggs in New Hampshire&amp;rsquo;s basket and South Carolina&amp;rsquo;s basket as well," he said. "But we intend to do very well here."&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; </description><dc:creator xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/">Abby Livingston</dc:creator><pubDate>Sun, 07 Jun 2015 09:45:25 -0500</pubDate><guid>http://www.texastribune.org/2015/06/07/perry-fires-back-clinton-voter-id/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20Abby%20Livingston</guid></item><item><title>Trade Deal Squeezes Congressional Democrats </title><link>http://www.texastribune.org/2015/06/05/trade-deal-squeezes-texas-democrats/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20Abby%20Livingston</link><description> &lt;div style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"&gt; &lt;a href="/2015/06/05/trade-deal-squeezes-texas-democrats/"&gt; &lt;img src="//s3.amazonaws.com/static.texastribune.org/media/images/2015/02/19/TTEvents_JoaquinCastro082_JPG_312x1000_q100.JPG" alt="U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro of Texas&amp;#39; 10th District talks about recent immigration issues at TTEvents on Feb. 19, 2015."&gt; &lt;/a&gt; &lt;/div&gt; &lt;p&gt;WASHINGTON &amp;ndash; It took a fight between the president of the United States and the nation's&lt;strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/strong&gt;labor unions to put beleaguered U.S. House Democrats in a position of power on Capitol Hill. But it&amp;rsquo;s a fight hardly anyone, including a handful of Texans, want any part of.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Over&amp;nbsp;the next six months, President Obama will attempt&amp;nbsp;to push through Congress the largest trade deal in American history. The far-reaching Trans-Pacific Partnership would knit together the U.S. and 11 Pacific Rim countries in an economic pact dwarfing other trade alliances.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Labor unions, fearing further wage and job losses for American workers,&amp;nbsp;are vehemently against it, viewing this battle against a Democratic president as the fight of a generation.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;And so House Democrats face an agonizing choice: oppose&amp;nbsp;the measure and deep-six Obama&amp;rsquo;s economic legacy, or support it&amp;nbsp;and&amp;nbsp;antagonize&amp;nbsp;labor, one of the largest financial constituents in the party.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Democratic staffers call the situation a "nightmare," and there is palpable fear&amp;nbsp;that crossing the unions will mean facing labor-backed primary challengers in the future.&amp;nbsp;The anxiety is so rampant that House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi had to reassure caucus members that she was addressing labor&amp;rsquo;s tactics, according to the Capitol Hill newspaper&amp;nbsp;&lt;em&gt;&lt;a href="http://atr.rollcall.com/democrats-afl-cio-fast-track-freeze/?dcz="&gt;Roll Call&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&amp;ldquo;I can understand why they are feeling pressure,&amp;rdquo; said Jason Stanford, the spokesman for a coalition of labor, consumer and environmental groups that oppose the deal. A&amp;nbsp;Democratic consultant from Texas, Stanford&amp;nbsp;insists&amp;nbsp;the discussion between traditional allies should remain positive. "What is intended is a loving and firm embrace from concerned friends.&amp;rdquo;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;But from the Capitol halls to the members&amp;rsquo; home districts,&amp;nbsp;arms are&amp;nbsp;being&amp;nbsp;twisted, phone lines are burning and ads are airing.&amp;nbsp;Behind closed doors at the Capitol, the fight is roiling the Democratic Party &amp;ndash; and the Texas delegation.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Late next week, the U.S. House will vote on giving Obama power to negotiate the 12-nation agreement.&amp;nbsp;If Obama wins that authority and strikes a deal, he will return to Congress in the fall for an up-or-down approval of the agreement.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Many Republicans back the deal, but he will need around 25 Democratic votes to give him the authority, called "fast track," to negotiate. &amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 1.35;"&gt;Texans either firmly or likely against giving the president that power include U.S. Reps. &lt;a href="http://www.texastribune.org/directory/lloyd-doggett/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20Abby%20Livingston"&gt;Lloyd Doggett&lt;/a&gt; of Austin, &lt;a href="http://www.texastribune.org/directory/gene-green/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20Abby%20Livingston"&gt;Gene Green&lt;/a&gt; of Houston and &lt;a href="http://www.texastribune.org/directory/filemon-vela/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20Abby%20Livingston"&gt;Filemon Vela&lt;/a&gt; of Brownsville.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;U.S. Reps. &lt;a href="http://www.texastribune.org/directory/henry-cuellar/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20Abby%20Livingston"&gt;Henry Cuellar&lt;/a&gt; of Laredo and &lt;a href="http://www.texastribune.org/directory/eddie-bernice-johnson/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20Abby%20Livingston"&gt;Eddie Bernice Johnson&lt;/a&gt; of Dallas back the president.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;span&gt;"This fight has become more about politics than policy, and it&amp;rsquo;s really a shame because the policy is good," Cuellar said in an email to The Texas Tribune. "TPP will open new markets for businesses, create jobs, and bring more money into the U.S. economy &amp;mdash;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;particularly in states like Texas that are leaders in exports."&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;The&amp;nbsp;rest&amp;nbsp;of the&amp;nbsp;Texas&amp;nbsp;delegation is officially undecided,&amp;nbsp;though&amp;nbsp;many&amp;nbsp;may&amp;nbsp;have made decisions&amp;nbsp;they aren't announcing.&amp;nbsp;&lt;span style="text-decoration: line-through;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Across the board on Capitol Hill, staffers and members say the president, his Cabinet and senior staff are fully engaged in pressing his case.&amp;nbsp;Staffers say that some Democrats are receiving their first-ever calls from the president.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;U.S. Rep. &lt;a href="http://www.texastribune.org/directory/marc-veasey/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20Abby%20Livingston"&gt;Marc Veasey&lt;/a&gt;, D-Fort Worth, recently received an invitation to the White House to discuss trade, but was unable to accept due to the House voting schedule. And Obama did a series of television station&amp;nbsp;affiliate interviews on Wednesday with&amp;nbsp;local reporters from regions represented by members who either support him or are undecided.&amp;nbsp;&lt;span style="text-decoration: line-through;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Despite the presidential offensive, Veasey telegraphed on Tuesday that he is no fan of the deal.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;"I have not weighed [in]&amp;nbsp;publicly yet. It's going to be really tough for a lot of members," he said, adding criticism about price, wage and environmental issues involved in trading with countries like Vietnam.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;That Obama&amp;nbsp;is working the Hill&amp;nbsp;astonishes some&amp;nbsp;Democratic staffers and members accustomed to minimal interaction with the president.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Possibly the most painful spot right now for a House Democrat is in the undecided column, and&amp;nbsp;two Texas&amp;nbsp;Democrats are&amp;nbsp;particularly&amp;nbsp;feeling the squeeze: U.S. Reps. &lt;a href="http://www.texastribune.org/directory/beto-orourke/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20Abby%20Livingston"&gt;Beto O&amp;rsquo;Rourke&lt;/a&gt; of El Paso and &lt;a href="http://www.texastribune.org/directory/joaquin-castro/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20Abby%20Livingston"&gt;Joaquin Castro&lt;/a&gt; of San Antonio, who finds himself&amp;nbsp;in an especially ticklish position.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Obama has a unique negotiating weapon in his arsenal: Castro&amp;rsquo;s twin brother, Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Juli&amp;aacute;n Castro.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;There is no discernible evidence that the Castros have discussed trade, but it&amp;rsquo;s widely known on Capitol Hill that the two speak multiple times a day.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;But labor is pushing Joaquin Castro hard from the other side.&amp;nbsp;The implicit threat is that crossing labor on an issue this important&amp;nbsp;could complicate his &lt;a href="http://www.texastribune.org/2015/03/19/castro-moves-democratic-ranks/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20Abby%20Livingston"&gt;accelerating rise in House leadership&lt;/a&gt; or any national ambitions (although his brother's name comes up more often on that front).&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Congressional&amp;nbsp;Republicans from Texas&amp;nbsp;are &lt;a href="http://www.texastribune.org/2015/04/25/trade-deal-splinters-house-delegation/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20Abby%20Livingston"&gt;just as scrambled&lt;/a&gt;, but it&amp;rsquo;s a far less divisive debate, turning mainly on a&amp;nbsp;reluctance to give president any more power, even on an issue they support.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;span style="line-height: 1.35; color: #000000;"&gt;A House GOP leadership-aligned group that backs a trade deal called the American Action Network is pushing $1 million worth of television, digital and radio advertising campaign across the country. The group is spending $200,000 on &lt;a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AmjhsWNOpxY&amp;amp;feature=youtu.be"&gt;digital ads&amp;nbsp;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;in 65 districts, including those of seven Texas Republicans: Reps. &lt;a href="http://www.texastribune.org/directory/ted-poe/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20Abby%20Livingston"&gt;Ted Poe&lt;/a&gt; of Humble, &lt;a href="http://www.texastribune.org/directory/joe-barton/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20Abby%20Livingston"&gt;Joe Barton&lt;/a&gt; of Ennis, &lt;a href="http://www.texastribune.org/directory/john-culberson/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20Abby%20Livingston"&gt;John Culberson&lt;/a&gt; of Houston, &lt;a href="http://www.texastribune.org/directory/kay-granger/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20Abby%20Livingston"&gt;Kay Granger&lt;/a&gt; of Fort Worth, &lt;a href="http://www.texastribune.org/directory/bill-flores/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20Abby%20Livingston"&gt;Bill Flores&lt;/a&gt; of Bryan, &lt;a href="http://www.texastribune.org/directory/pete-olson/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20Abby%20Livingston"&gt;Pete Olson&lt;/a&gt; of Sugar Land and &lt;a href="http://www.texastribune.org/directory/michael-burgess/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20Abby%20Livingston"&gt;Michael Burgess&lt;/a&gt; of Lewisville.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Burgess told the Tribune in April that he was against the deal&amp;nbsp;because&amp;nbsp;he did not want to give the president any more authority.&lt;/p&gt; </description><dc:creator xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/">Abby Livingston</dc:creator><pubDate>Fri, 05 Jun 2015 06:00:00 -0500</pubDate><guid>http://www.texastribune.org/2015/06/05/trade-deal-squeezes-texas-democrats/?utm_source=texastribune.org&amp;utm_medium=rss&amp;utm_campaign=Tribune%20Feed:%20Abby%20Livingston</guid></item></channel></rss>