The Blast - July 9, 2025

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The Blast | Texas Tribune
July 09, 2025

By Renzo Downey and The Texas Tribune Politics Team

6 days until the TEC and FEC filing deadlines
12 days until the first special session

IN TODAY’S BLAST

  • Abbott issues hefty special session call

  • The DOJ gets involved

  • Rollins lays out “no amnesty” vision for farmer deportations

ABBOTT ISSUES HEFTY SPECIAL SESSION CALL

Gov. Greg Abbott has set 18 items for the special session, including flood response, regulating THC — and congressional redistricting.

The governor’s proclamation, formally issued today, sets a sweeping agenda for the 89(1) session, which begins July 21. There are several bipartisan topics on the call, but from a purely political perspective, putting flood response and redistricting means the chances of a quorum break just dropped.

It’s a tough conversation as the wounds from the holiday weekend floods are still so fresh. More than 100 people are dead across the state, with more still missing.

Before the flood, there were questions about how Abbott could lure enough Democrats back to the capitol to keep quorum for something as politically repugnant to them as trying to draw more GOP congressional seats. Now Democrats will be pressured to show up, lest they be accused of stifling efforts to address the flood recovery.

House Democratic Leader Gene Wu of Houston criticized Abbott for politicizing the special session, which he said should be focused on floods.

“House Democrats welcome the opportunity to pass meaningful flood relief,” Wu said. “But we will not allow this tragedy to be used as political cover for an extreme agenda that does nothing to help families get back on their feet.”

Democrats aren’t just worried about redistricting. The call includes additional abortion crackdowns and banning taxpayer-funded lobbying. Plus, multiple Capitol observers point out that 18 items makes for an ambitious list to complete in 30 days.

But even before the floods, House Democrats were having a hard time corralling enough members to break quorum given the additional penalties for playing hooky added after their 2021 quorum breaks. House rules added in 2023 penalize absent members with a daily fine and cuts to office funding.

It would take 51 of the 62 House Democrats to break quorum. In the Senate, all 11 Democrats would have to stay united.

Democrat lawmakers don’t have a plan yet, but some have privately floated a few possibilities, like having Senate Democrats take the lead or trading off which chamber breaks quorum from special session to special session. In theory, Democrats only need to punt on redistricting until the candidate filing deadline.

But a quorum break might not even be the play this time. U.S. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries is paying attention, as is California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom who is potentially eyeing his own redistricting play.

“I think it’s pathetic that Texas leadership is owned by Donald Trump and will do anything he asks, and I don’t want to hear them say anything about election integrity,” state Sen. Nathan Johnson told The Blast. “This is the biggest single assault on election integrity that Texas has ever seen.”

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THE DOJ GETS INVOLVED

One nugget from the redistricting call is that Abbott wants lawmakers to redraw the lines “in light of constitutional concerns raised by the U.S. Department of Justice.”

In a letter dated Monday, the DOJ flagged TX-9, TX-18, TX-29 and TX-33 as unconstitutional race-based districts. Those would be the districts currently held by Reps. Al Green of Houston, Sylvia Garcia of Houston and Marc Veasey of Fort Worth, plus the vacant seat of Reps. Sheila Jackson Lee and Sylvester Turner of Houston.

In the DOJ’s letter to Gov. Greg Abbott and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, DOJ attorneys in the Civil Rights Division said they could seek legal action against Texas if the state didn’t “correct” its district lines.

That may have given Abbott the OK he needed to act. Before, only a handful of White House officials were privately pushing redistricting, and the prospect of redistricting was unpopular within the Texas delegation. Now, the DOJ is officially involved.

ROLLINS LAYS OUT “NO AMNESTY” VISION FOR FARMERS

President Donald Trump says U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins helped kick off a plan to protect longtime farm workers from immigration raids. But yesterday, Rollins clarified that there will be no amnesty for those who are in the country illegally, even farm workers.

“There’s been a lot of noise in the last few days and a lot of questions about where the president stands and his vision for farm labor,” Rollins prefaced her comments. “A the end of the day, the promise to America to ensure that we have a 100% American workforce stands, but we must be strategic in how we are implementing the mass deportations so as not to compromise our food supply.”

Rollins, a native Texan and a former leader of the Texas Public Policy Foundation, had reportedly raised private concerns that mass deportations could shock the agriculture industry, sparking disagreement within the Trump administration. As discussed in Monday’s Blast, Trump seemed to confirm that “radical right people” weren’t happy with his latest plan, and that Rollins had been the one to bring it up.

Rollins’ comments about mass deportations answered a reporter’s question about supposed conservative infighting around the potential for amnesty for farm workers. Although many of them weren’t there at the time of the question, White House personnel and the heads of the Treasury, Defense, Homeland Security and Justice departments had joined Rollins to announce the National Farm Security Action Plan, which involved each of those agencies.

The governors of Arkansas and Tennessee were at the press conference, but leaders from Texas weren’t there. Many are responding to the aftermath of the Central Texas floods. But many facets of the plan follow recent Texas initiatives.

For example, the plan calls on the Department of Agriculture to work with states to take legislative and executive action to prevent nationals from foreign adversaries from purchasing or controlling farmland.

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Next week:

  • The House Natural Resources Committee will meet at 1 p.m. on Tuesday to hear invited testimony about groundwater production in the Neches and Trinity Valleys Groundwater Conservation District.

View the full list of upcoming committee notices here and here.

State Rep. James Talarico, D-Austin, has recorded an interview for The Joe Rogan Experience. Talarico is rumored to be considering a run for U.S. Senate or potentially another state office. Politico Playbook suggested it could air yesterday, but the interview wasn’t featured in yesterday’s or today’s episodes.

  • TX-34: Josh Cortez, a former senior adviser and political director to U.S. Rep. Monica De La Cruz, R-Edinburg, has filed to challenge U.S. Rep. Vicente Gonzalez, D-McAllen. Republicans hope to flip the seat after losing twice with former U.S. Rep. Mayra Flores, R-Los Indios. Before serving De La Cruz, Cortez was a staffer for U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison.

  • SD-9: Keller Mayor Armin Mizani yesterday launched a campaign to succeed acting Comptroller Kelly Hancock, R-North Richland Hills. He is up against Patrick-endorsed Leigh Wambsganss of Patriot Mobile. Former Southlake Mayor John Huffman is also considering a run. Mizani today announced endorsements from several local mayors.

  • Harris County: Houston City Council member Letitia Plummer told the Houston Chronicle she plans to resign to run for Harris County judge and that it’s her understanding that Judge Lina Hidalgo won’t seek reelection. Brief U.S. Rep. Erica Lee Carter, the daughter of U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Houston, also announced plans to run should Hidalgo not run. However, Hidalgo says she never told Plummer she won’t run and that her decision is still in the works.

  • Gov. Greg Abbott has ordered flags to half-staff from today until sunrise on Monday to honor those who died in the Central Texas floods.

  • U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Austin, is requesting answers from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration about how understaffing impacted the response to the recent floods. One of six offices vacant in the NWS Austin/San Antonio office following federal employee cuts this year is the warning and coordination meteorologist, according to the congressman’s office. NOAA has not responded to a different request about understaffing filed by Doggett on May 20.

  • To achieve a “100% American workforce” as part of the federal agriculture security plan, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins noted that there are “34 million able-bodied adults” on Medicaid.

  • Randall County GOP Chair Kelly Giles has been charged with a state election fraud felony.

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  • U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz has hired John Etue as chief of staff, succeeding Texas attorney general candidate Aaron Reitz. Etue had served as chief of staff to U.S. Rep. Roger Williams, R-Willow Park, since 2019, serving in the office since 2013. Before that, he served in the office of U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison from 2001 to 2013.

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“Fence face off: Elon Musk battles neighbors at Austin-area home” by Lauren McGaughy of The Texas Newsroom

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(July 10) State Rep. Paul Dyson, R-Bryan

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