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June 18, 2026 3:08 PM
“Yes, Paxton has done bad things.” There’s full acknowledgement that AG Paxton is a flawed candidate and bringing the GOP together will be harder than ever at a time when energy prices are high, hardline immigration enforcement is controversial even among Republicans south of Interstate 10, and President Trump has personally attacked the head of the Catholic Church
HARLINGEN
– In a small building in this city’s dusty downtown, about a hundred
Republicans recently packed the room for what their national party billed as
the launch of a “battle station” for the Rio Grande Valley. With the wind at
the backs of the Democrats and the balance of power in Washington on the line,
the National Republican Congressional Committee said the “battle
station” will “serve as a hub for the grassroots team, focused on mobilizing
voters and building momentum across South Texas.”
The launch
was a gathering of dedicated Republicans, for sure. But even in that room
filled with the party faithful and recently converted, there was acknowledgement
that Republicans still aren’t all on the same page following some of the
nastiest high-profile primaries in Texas history. Conversations with GOP voters
from here in the Rio Grande Valley to three hours away in the Corpus Christi
area reveal the wounds are not healed at all. Who could expect them to be,
really?
On top of
that, President Donald Trump’s hardline crackdown on immigration is divisive
even among Republicans in The Valley. Many voters here who generally support
border security and have family members in the Border Patrol still
describe it as “too much” while Trump’s personal attacks on Pope Leo XIV earlier
this year angered some of his Hispanic voters to the point that some
said, “I’ll never wear that MAGA hat again.”
For a
place celebrated by Republicans in recent years as their new frontier, there is
perhaps no region of this vast state where the message of “party unity” has
more urgency than here in South Texas.
Whether
it’s the reelection bid of GOP Congresswoman Monica De La Cruz against
Tejano music star Bobby Pulido or Republican Eric Flores’
challenge of Rep. Vicente Gonzalez, D-McAllen, the way Hispanic voters
decide to go in these races will dictate not just the fates of those candidates
but legislators on the same ballot will feel the fallout as well.
Flores,
who won a hard-fought primary to take on Rep. Gonzalez, fired up the crowd at
the “battle station” event with a speech that at times sounded more like a
sermon.
The rest of the story, subscribers only
By Scott Braddock
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Copyright June 18, 2026, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
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June 18, 2026 1:10 PM
It can be downloaded in
full right here.
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Copyright June 18, 2026, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
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June 17, 2026 4:12 PM
But the messy fight over the future of the historic building, which has been marked by unprecedented litigation and confusion, is far from over
DALLAS –
Proponents of moving city operations out of Dallas City Hall won
another victory today with a 9-5 vote allowing the city manager to proceed with
scouting for other locations.
The vote, though,
doesn’t spell the end for the historic Brutalist structure designed by famed
architect I.M. Pei.
The
contentious debate to vacate the building comes as downtown Dallas has taken multiple
beatings in the last few months and the leadership faces a $53 million budget
deficit.
The rest of the story, subscribers only
By James Russell
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Copyright June 17, 2026, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
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June 17, 2026 3:47 PM
In this guest column, Glenn Smith argues that with growing water demands of data centers, “2027 is the last session in which new rules can still be written to protect our water. Wait until 2029 and the game is over.”
AI data
centers and their friends in government are meeting public resistance with
surprisingly empty spin. Their public relations efforts don’t seem aimed at
persuading. They’re just patting the heads of concerned citizens while the real
trouble goes on behind the backs of the public.
The
industry realizes it just needs to distract and discombobulate long enough for
the Texas Legislature to come and go in 2027. By that time, it will be well on
the way to securing massive water rights that the state will never be able to
buy back, whatever the consequences for the rest of us from the lost water.
Here is
some of the empty spin. Reacting to local concerns about the data centers’
enormous water demands, Gov. Greg Abbott’s spokesman said
“these facilities are required to bring their own water.” Bring their own
water? From where? From whom? That was the first head pat.
The rest of the story, subscribers only
By Glenn Smith, guest columnist
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Copyright June 17, 2026, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
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June 16, 2026 3:06 PM
Former Sen. Seliger, Tarrant Count Judge Whitley, and other Republicans joined with Ds and independents. Collier said “My strongest supporters were unable to sign my petition unless they gave up their right to vote in important primary contests…I refused to ask Texans to sacrifice one constitutional right in order to exercise another."
Editor’s
note: A copy of the lawsuit is available to subscribers at the bottom of the
article – SB
Former
Democratic candidate for Texas Lieutenant Governor Mike Collier is
leading a bipartisan group of plaintiffs in federal court who claim this state’s
hurdles for independent candidates are unconstitutional.
The suit
was filed in federal court in Austin with Republicans, Democrats, and independents
signed onto it, including:
The rest of the story, subscribers only
By Scott Braddock
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Copyright June 16, 2026, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
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June 16, 2026 8:59 AM
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Copyright June 16, 2026, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
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June 14, 2026 11:25 AM
With the theatrics of the convention in the rear view, what's consequential now is that senior Texas Republicans continue to feud following nasty primaries while party leadership calls for unity ahead of the general election
HOUSTON – After
Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick shocked the world with his leather vest, vintage Ford
Mustang, and a wrinkle-free AI version of himself – you could easily see all of
it as a midlife crisis at 76 years old – Sen. John Cornyn took him to
task for sounding desperate ahead of the November election.
In a fiery
speech that included an accusation that Rep. James Talarico will “go to
hell” for his religious beliefs, Patrick also correctly noted that Republican
incumbents who lost their party’s nominating contests aren’t helping the ticket
at all now.
Cursing at
the Democrat in the race is the natural evolution of the outrage machine that
Patrick helped build as a radio talk show host going back to the late 80s. But
keep your eye on the ball, y’all: What may matter more now is that senior Republicans
are still fighting with each other after the primaries have concluded.
First, Patrick
had to do some cleanup on aisle 6 after singling out Texas
Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller.
The rest of the story, subscribers only
By Scott Braddock
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Copyright June 14, 2026, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
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June 12, 2026 10:13 AM
After losing in multple SDs this morning, Abraham George said "While this race has come to an end, our mission continues. Now is the time to come together, unite behind our Republican nominees, support the entire Republican ticket in November, advance our legislative priorities in the next session, and continue standing firmly for the conservative principles outlined in our platform."
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Copyright June 12, 2026, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
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June 11, 2026 4:20 PM
With the promise of likely Democratic gains in the next election, Burrows will probably have to promise the GOP delegates he’ll further marginalize those who helped elect him in the first place
Aside from
the usual antics and internal backstabbing at any state political party
convention, the Republican Party of Texas gathering unfolding now
in Houston includes another moment of drama and potential insight for Texas
political professionals and addicts.
Speaker
Dustin
Burrows will address
the convention on Friday. Now, it is not a given that statewide officers speak to
the party’s most ardent activists. After passing the post-Uvalde gun bill, Sen.
John Cornyn was man enough to show up and get booed for 25 of the 30
minutes he was on stage but Gov. Greg Abbott’s last appearance inside
the convention hall was in 2018 for fear he’d be blasted as insufficiently “MAGA.”
Burrows
speaking is of particular interest considering it is virtually assured that Republicans
will lose seats in the Texas House this cycle. The only question
is how many.
Conventional
wisdom has it that next session we’ll see somewhere around 78 Republicans to 72
Democrats which would radically change how the House can operate. But more
about that later.
Democratic
Speakers rarely spoke to the convention. They would traditionally appear on
stage with the Democratic state representatives for a brief introduction and a
round of applause and then blend into the background. The first Republican
speaker, Tom Craddick, did speak to the convention. If memory serves, it
was a relatively uneventful celebration of the GOP finally gaining the majority
in the 2002 elections. Since then, GOP Speakers Joe Straus, Dennis Bonnen,
and Dade Phelan either kept a low profile at the convention or did not
appear at all.
But there
is a great deal more drama surrounding this convention, this upcoming election,
and this speaker.
The rest of the story, subscribers only
By Harvey Kronberg
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Copyright June 11, 2026, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
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June 11, 2026 4:14 PM
"He’s going to have the most miserable two years of his life in the last two years of his term, I think, because I think November is going to be a disaster," Cornyn said
From the
New York Times:
Mr. Cornyn
believes that impact will reach far beyond his race. He is the epitome of a
reliable conservative with what he listed as his “99.3 percent” voting record
in line with the president. Unlike Mr. Cassidy of Louisiana, he did not vote to
remove Mr. Trump from office after the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the Capitol by
Trump supporters. Still, he said, the president threw him under the bus. “If he would do that to me, he would do that to anybody,”
Mr. Cornyn said. “There’s never going to be good enough for him, other than 100
percent, you know, slavish adherence to whatever he wants. But obviously that’s
not what the senator’s role is supposed to be, especially in terms of checks
and balances.”
Also:
Mr. Cornyn
stood by his attacks on Mr. Paxton and said that while he supported the party
ticket, he would not campaign or raise money for his primary opponent — a loss
for Mr. Paxton since Mr. Cornyn was a prolific fund-raiser. But he fears
Republicans are in for a rough midterm and Mr. Trump for a difficult final two
years, in part because of self-inflicted wounds such the president’s
endorsement of Mr. Paxton putting the Texas seat at risk.
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Copyright June 11, 2026, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
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June 11, 2026 3:58 PM
Judge says Paxton acted in retaliation for (and in an attempt to suppress) ActBlue funding for James Talarico’s Senate campaign
The ruling
is here.
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Copyright June 11, 2026, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved
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