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AUSTIN (AP) — A supercharged U.S. Senate GOP primary in Texas between Sen. John Cornyn and state Attorney General Ken Paxton is kicking off with personal attacks and expectations of a high-spending race in a year when Senate Republicans will be defending key seats and targeting others in 2026.

“We’re going to end up spending hundreds of millions of dollars potentially on this race in Texas because we can’t lose the seat in Texas, and that is money that can’t be used in places like Michigan, New Hampshire and Georgia,” Cornyn told reporters Wednesday.

He went on to call Paxton a “conman and a fraud” in remarks that set the stage for a bitter campaign in the months ahead. The feud is not new: Cornyn, who lost a bid for Senate majority leader last year, is among the few prominent Republicans who has criticized Paxton over legal troubles that once threatened the career of Texas’ top law enforcement official.

Paxton, a close ally of President Donald Trump who was first elected to the Texas statehouse in 2002, is starting his campaign by framing himself an outsider and telling voters on his website that he will take on “career politicians” in Washington. Among Paxton’s recurring criticisms of Cornyn — who has served in Congress since 2002 — was the senator’s support of a bipartisan gun control bill after the 2022 elementary school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, in which a teenage gunman killed 19 students and two teachers.

Looming over the race is if Trump will make an endorsement. Paxton said Wednesday he doesn’t expect the president to weigh in until closer to election day.

“I would certainly love to have President Trump’s endorsement. I think I would be the death knell to John Cornyn,” he said in an interview on The Mark Davis Show.

Paxton has built a loyal following within the Texas GOP’s hard right that supported him during a historic Republican-led impeachment in 2023 over accusations of corruption and bribery. Trump at the time slammed the proceedings and Paxton was later acquitted in the Texas Senate.

Statewide campaigns in Texas are already among the most expensive in the country. Last year, Republicans spent $87 million helping defend Republican Sen. Ted Cruz in his race against Democrat Colin Allred, including $75 million from a super PAC supporting Cruz, according to Federal Elections Commission filings.

Allred, who lost by more than 8 percentage points, has not ruled out another Senate run after Democrats spent more than $130 million last year trying to elect him. Among Cornyn allies, there is concern that Paxton would be vulnerable and require millions more dollars in advertising that GOP donors otherwise could apply to those other races, instead of to defend a seat in a Republican-leaning state like Texas.

Nationally, Republicans see an opportunity next year to expand their 53-47 majority in the Senate. They see pickup opportunities in three swing states where Democrats have announced retirements: New Hampshire Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, Michigan Sen. Gary Peters and Minnesota Sen. Tina Smith. The GOP is also optimistic about the party’s chances in Georgia, where Democrat Sen. Jon Ossoff is up for reelection.

No Democrat has yet entered the Senate race in Texas.

Paxton’s entry into the race underscores his political resiliency after being shadowed by his impeachment, an FBI corruption investigation and securities fraud charges in recent years. He reached a deal to end the securities fraud case last year and the Biden administration declined to prosecute Paxton.

During Paxton’s last campaign run for attorney general in 2022, George P. Bush, the son of former presidential candidate Jeb Bush, also drew attention to Paxton’s legal troubles. Paxton wound up defeating Bush by nearly 40 points in a runoff.

PALACIOS, Texas (AP) — While American consumers and markets wonder and worry about President Donald Trump’s on-again, off-again tariffs, there’s one group cheering him as they hope he’ll prop up their sinking business: Gulf coast shrimpers.

American shrimpers have been hammered in recent years by cheap imports flooding the U.S. market and restaurants, driving down prices to the point that profits are razor thin or shrimpers are losing money and struggling to stay afloat.

Tariffs, they hope, could level the playing field and help their businesses not just survive but thrive.

“It’s been tough the last several years that we’ve tried to fight through this,” said Reed Bowers, owner of Bowers Shrimp Farm in Palacios, Texas. Tough times meant difficult choices for many. “Cutting people off, laying people off, or reduce hours or reduce wages … whatever we can do to survive.”

Since 2021, the price of imported shrimp has dropped by more than $1.5 billion, according to the Southern Shrimpers Alliance trade association, causing the U.S. shrimp industry to lose nearly 50% of its market value.

The shrimpers alliance complains that the overseas industry has benefitted from billions of dollars invested in shrimp aquaculture, cheap or even forced labor, use of antibiotics banned in the U.S., and few or no environment regulations.

More than 90% of shrimp consumed in the U.S. is imported, according to the alliance.

“I’m not a believer in free trade. I’m a believer fair trade,” Bowers said. “So if you’re gonna sell into the United States, I think it’s very important to get the same rules and regulations that I have to have as a farmer here in the United States.”

Craig Wallis, owner of W&W Dock & Ice, has been in the business since 1975 and noted that back then shrimpers would run their trawlers 12 months a year.

Not anymore. That’s no longer affordable as Gulf shrimpers compete with cheaper product coming in from South America, China and India.

Wallis says he’s only able to run his shrimp boats about half the year, yet “the bills keep coming every month.”

“We don’t get any subsidies here. We don’t need any help from the government. What we get for our product is what we have to make it on,” he said.

Wallis, who noted he voted for Trump, has watched the back-and-forth on tariffs in recent weeks.

“I don’t know where the tariffs are going to be settled at,” he said, “but it’s definitely going to help.”

But Trump’s tariffs will also force shrimpers to balance the higher costs of equipment, such as trawl cables, webbing, chains and shackles. Some of those items have recently been increasing in price, Wallis said.

“We got be careful that there’s a good balance,” he said.

If the American shrimping industry collapses, Wallis sees a future where foreign trawlers are operating in the Gulf of Mexico, which Trump renamed the “ Gulf of America. ”

“I’m hanging on to have something when I retire,” said Wallis, who is 72. “If it keeps going like it is, it’s taken away from my retirement that I’ve worked for all my life.”

Phan Tran’s family used to be shrimpers but quit the boats around 25 years ago to open Tran’s Family Restaurant, a place they literally built themselves.

“It was just my dad, me and one welder,” Tran said.

Tran said he doesn’t want to serve imported shrimp to his customers. He doesn’t know what shortcuts foreign shrimper firms take.

“The taste, the size, you could tell the texture of the shrimp, everything. … Domestic shrimp versus imported shrimp, you could tell the difference,” Tran said, adding he’ll be buying straight from the day’s catch at the dock, “as long as we have the restaurant business.”

Tariffs will help keep the market fair for local shrimpers, Tran said.

“We used to have a sign on our window here that says, ‘friends don’t let friends eat imported shrimp,’” Tran said. “And a few people got a little offended by it, so we had to take it off. (But) that’s a true statement that we stand by here.”

Bowers, the shrimp farm owner, hopes seafood tariffs have a positive ripple effect across the industry for American producers.

“I think the price of imported seafood is gonna come up,” he said. “And as that price comes up, it’ll make our seafood, our shrimp, more affordable for everybody else.”

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The U.S. House passed a bill Thursday, led by Rep. Chip Roy, R-Austin, to require proof of U.S. citizenship to register to vote in federal elections.

The bill passed 220 to 208, with all voting Republicans and four Democrats – including Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo — supporting the measure. The legislation now heads to the Senate where Majority Leader John Thune, R-South Dakota, has cosponsored the bill.

The Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, known as the SAVE Act, would require voters in federal elections to bring a U.S. passport, military identification card or any ID that is consistent with REAL ID requirements that indicates citizenship status to register to vote. Voters could also use a government-issued identification card along with a birth certificate, hospital record or similar form.

The Texas lawmaker argued that the SAVE Act is necessary because of the Biden administration’s immigration policies and non-citizens have been found on voter rolls.

“It’s a growing and increasing problem,” Roy told The Texas Tribune before the vote. “We just want to get in front of it now.”

Non-citizens are not legally allowed to vote in U.S. elections and there is no evidence to suggest that significant levels of non-citizens vote.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced in August that the state has removed 6,500 noncitizens from the voter rolls, including about 1,930 with a “voter history,” since September 2021. However, an investigation by The Texas Tribune and ProPublica revealed Abbott likely inflated that number and removed people who are U.S. citizens from voter rolls.

Rep. Wesley Hunt, R-Houston, called Roy’s bill “basic housekeeping.”

“Election integrity is everything,” Hunt told the Tribune on Tuesday. “It’s up to us to do the best that we can to make sure that in the future, we have free and fair elections for everyone in this country.”

Democrats argue that the bill places unnecessary hurdles on voting, restricts low-income voters from participating and could cause issues for people who have changed their name — like millions of married women.

“The SAVE Act is a blatant attempt to undermine our election system, weaken American democracy and unfairly suppress millions of eligible citizens from voting,” Rep. Kevin Mullin, D-California, said on the House floor Thursday.

If the SAVE Act became law, voters would also have to present their proof of citizenship in-person when they register to vote or change their registration — such as a name change – including when registering to vote by mail.

Rep. Joseph Morelle, D-New York, said on the House floor that the SAVE Act would cause a “paperwork nightmare,” for voters and “bury voter registration under a mountain of bureaucracy and red tape.”

Roy downplayed this concern about married women who change their names before the vote on the House floor, by listing the women who worked with him on the SAVE Act, including Rep. Mary Miller, R-Illinois.

Miller said the SAVE Act has “robust protections,” for married women who change their name and called Democratic messaging on this issue “scare tactics,” during a March Committee on House Administration hearing.

A similar effort to require proof of citizenship in elections is underway in the Texas state legislature that would put voter ID requirements in place to register to vote in local, state and presidential elections.

Article originally published by The Texas Tribune. To read the originally published article, click here.

GILLESPIE COUNTY – A year after Gillespie County Republicans hand counted thousands of primary ballots, a bill from a Republican Texas lawmaker whose district includes parts of the area could make it easier to verify the accuracy of hand-counted election results.

State Rep. Ellen Troxclair of Lakeway filed House Bill 3113, which would require counties opting for hand counts to use a ballot that is capable of being scanned and tabulated by voting machines using optical scanning technology.

By law, Gillespie County Republicans were allowed to design their own ballots, and they didn’t choose to use ballots that could be scanned. That meant their primary results could only be verified manually.

If passed, the bill would allow for a faster recount or audit of any hand-counted results. Hand counts can take days and involve hundreds of people. Studies have shown the method is time-consuming, costly and less accurate than using machines.

“It will improve accuracy so that we can have greater confidence in the outcome,” Troxclair said.

The bill does not prevent a hand count or require an audit, she said, but simply makes a faster recount of hand-counted ballots an option.

Last year, Republicans in Gillespie County, home to Fredericksburg, west of Austin, hand-counted every ballot cast in their primary. There were about 8,000 ballots, each of which contained choices for more than 30 races, including Troxclair’s. Days later, during the canvass, Votebeat reported that election officials found errors in the results of all but one of the county’s 13 precincts.

Troxclair said Votebeat’s reporting on Gillespie’s hand count helped her understand where the process “could improve to ensure accuracy,” leading her to propose legislation. The bill was discussed during a House Elections Committee hearing Wednesday and is awaiting a committee vote.

Texas requires partial recounts only for ballots that are tabulated electronically. There is no provision in state law to require a recount or audit for the results of a hand count. The Texas secretary of state’s election division does not have the authority to audit the election unless Gillespie is one of the counties the office randomly selects.

Public records showed the effort in Gillespie was costly for taxpayers. It required 350 people, who worked more than 2,300 hours on Election Day at $12 per hour, totaling more than $27,000 in wages. The amount did not include hourly wages for election clerks at each of the county’s 13 precincts on Election Day who checked in voters and performed duties other than counting.

Jim Riley, the Gillespie County elections administrator, testified in favor of the bill Wednesday.

Riley told lawmakers that there’s no way to know exactly how many errors and inaccuracies were made in the primary because the ballots could not be scanned and recounted.

“Unreadable penmanship, simple math errors, transposing numerals, all of those things made a difference in whether or not we were accurate,” Riley told lawmakers.

Those opposing the bill, including members of the Fredericksburg Tea Party who led the hand count in Gillespie, said it would create additional costs for counties who choose to hand-count because voting equipment vendors would have to be paid to program the machines to handle the ballots.

“Why should counties who choose to hand-count like us, or who are considering returning to hand count, be forced to contract with the very machine companies they’re trying to separate from?” said Jeannette Hormuth, a Fredericksburg Tea Party member who helped organize last year’s hand count.

Christina Adkins, elections division director at the Texas Secretary of State’s Office, said that under federal and state law, counties must provide at least one accessible voting machine for voters with disabilities at each polling location, whether counties hand-count or not. That means counties already are required to have the capabilities to format ballots so they can be scanned.

Riley said the bill would not create additional burdens on the county. In fact, last year, his office offered to format the primary ballots so they could be scanned. The decision was up to the county GOP.

“We said they could hand-count the complete election at their leisure after it was over, but that was turned down,” he said.

Article originally published by The Texas Tribune. To read the originally published article, click here.

SAN ANTONIO – The San Antonio Express-News reports for the past three decades, working parents in Texas who make below the state’s median income have been eligible for financial help from the government to pay for daycare. But as the cost of raising children has exploded in recent years and the state has moved to force more people to carry out their pregnancies, demand for the subsidies has far surpassed supply. More than 20,000 families in the San Antonio and Dallas regions alone were waiting to access the program as of late last year, the most recent data available. In the 13-county region that includes Harris County, nearly 30,000 families are in line for assistance, with an average wait time of about 14 months, according to Jennifer Starling, manager of child care and financial aid for the Gulf Coast Workforce Board.

“I’ve been in child care for 20-plus years, and I haven’t seen it this long in a very long time,” she said. “It’s hard. I just want to take them all.” The growing wait times have made it difficult for new parents to return to the workforce and further stretched families’ limited budgets, providers say. Texas has done little to help. The state contributes the minimum match amount required to access the federal grant dollars, even as other GOP-led states like Florida and Alabama have ratcheted up their financial support. A report by the First Five Years Fund, a D.C.-based nonprofit, found that the Texas program reaches just 13% of all eligible families. “Without additional state money, we’re only going to see the waitlist continue to grow,” said Cody Summerville, CEO of the Texas Association for the Education of Young Children. The Texas House is considering a proposal this year to add $100 million into the program, enough to cover several thousand new families. The push is being led by state Rep. Armando Walle, a Houston Democrat who tried unsuccessfully in 2023 to get lawmakers on board with a $2 billion boost in funding for child care providers.

SOUTH TEXAS – The San Antonio Express-News reports vandals have damaged the giant Elon Musk bust near SpaceX’s Starbase facility in South Texas amid growing backlash against the billionaire. The bronze-colored statue of the tech mogul-turned-Trump adviser was damaged sometime before Saturday morning, according to its owners. The vandalism follows a series of attacks on Tesla dealerships across the globe in protest of Musk and his federal cost cutting agency, the Department of Government Efficiency. “Some cowards who hate Elon Musk tried to damage the statue,” said the French tech entrepreneur behind the installation who prefers to be identified only as “Louis.”

The attackers gouged out chunks under Musk’s eye and chin and tore off strips of the statue’s plastic exterior. Constructed of foam with a hard plastic shell, the 8-foot-tall bust stands atop a 4-foot concrete base. It sits in an open field along Texas 4 and raised questions last year when its creators towed it across South Texas behind a Tesla Cybertruck. “They cut it and took four or five pieces, part of the eyes, so they destroyed it,” said Eleazar Villafranca, owner of the land where the bust sits. “I put a tarp to cover it so it doesn’t look too bad, but now a lot of people are coming to take pictures of the tarp — lots of people.” A neighboring landowner notified the Cameron County sheriff, he said. As for repairing Musk’s broken face, Villafranca said they’re getting estimates from the Utah-based makers of the statue. It’s the second incident of Musk-related vandalism in the Rio Grande Valley since someone graffitied a Brownsville mural of the billionaire, painting an anarchy symbol and the words “Deny, Defend, Depose” on his face in February. Insurance CEO Brian Thompson was killed with ammo that had those words written on it.

AUSTIN – The San Antonio Express-News reports there are about 20 bills that impact pets making their way through the Texas legislature this session, according to the Texas Humane Legislative Network. Here’s a look at the top concerns. The Ethical Pet Sales Act (Senate Bill 1652/state Sen. Judith Pappas Zaffirini/House Bill 3458/state Rep. Jared Patterson) is a top priority for many animal advocates this session, and for good reason. In 2023, a state law was passed preventing cities from enacting their own bans on retail pet store sales, overriding more than a dozen local ordinances already in place. Since then, nearly 10 new stores have opened, with 40 retail pet stores in Texas selling puppies from out-of-state puppy mills.

“These pet stores are not only linked to inhumane breeding conditions, but also to sick animals, genetic defects, and predatory lending practices,” said Cara Gustafson, a THLN representative. “Consumers are routinely misled, paying thousands of dollars upfront for a pet, only to be saddled with vet bills and heartbreaking situations. One woman I spoke with recently paid $5,000 for a puppy that’s been sick since day one, and the store offered no help. Her story isn’t rare.” The Ethical Pet Sales Act would prohibit the sale of puppies and kittens in retail pet stores and instead encourage adoption through partnerships with rescues and shelters. Texans could still get a purebred dog, but from licensed breeders, not pet stores with questionable sourcing. Texas is facing a veterinarian shortage, which is alarming in a state with millions of pets. The Expanding Access to Care through Veterinary Telemedicine bill (Senate Bill 1442/state Sen. Nathan Johnson /House Bill 3364 by state Rep. Janie Lopez) would allow veterinarians to establish a virtual-client-patient relationship through telemedicine, just like humans do with doctors and nurses. This means pet owners could consult with a veterinarian over video, which is especially helpful in rural areas or after hours, to determine if a pet needs emergency care or if there’s something they can do at home. The bill doesn’t mandate telemedicine but allows vet care to be more accessible to Texas, which ranks 36 out of 100 in vet care accessibility, according to THLN.