Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas:
Texas Republican electeds are uniformly silent at Donald Trump's shocking self-comparison to Jesus Christ over the weekend - however, as of yesterday, the Texas Democratic Party hasn't said much either: https://www.chron.com/news/article/trump-jesus-pope-texas-22203753.php
West Texas Congressman Tony Gonzales has announced he's stepping down over multiple sexual harassment accusations - Democratic Congressman Eric Swalwell of California is out in similar circumstances, leading to speculation on special elections in both states: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/13/us/texas-representative-tony-gonzales-resigns.html
...Both of the current nominees for that seat would be expected to join a special election for CD 23: https://www.texastribune.org/2026/04/13/texas-tony-gonzales-resigning-congress-sexual-misconduct-affair-staffer-eric-swalwell/
...Let's flash back to 2018, when Governor Abbott called a special election to replace Blake Farenthold less than three months after he quit: https://x.com/jaspscherer/status/2043834809588346897?s=20
Dallas Congresswoman Julie Johnson has introduced legislation designed to prevent a replay of voter confusion that played out during the March primary: https://www.keranews.org/news/2026-04-14/roughly-30-000-redirected-dallas-county-voters-in-election-mess-leads-to-congressional-talk-on-voter-suppression-julie-johnson
Governor Abbott is threatening to yank back $110 million in first-responder funding from Houston over that city's ordinance limiting police cooperation with ICE: https://www.chron.com/politics/article/houston-mayor-ice-funding-abbott-22204794.php
...Houston City Council Member Abby Kamin notes that in making this move, Governor Abbott is effectively "defunding the police": https://www.houstonchronicle.com/politics/houston/article/whitmire-abbott-ice-policy-22204589.php
The Texas Tribune has published a search tool to find out who will be on your primary runoff ballot: https://apps.texastribune.org/features/2026/texas-may-2026-primary-runoff-ballot/
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