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October 17, 2025      2:30 PM

Chair Geren tells QR that Julie Straus has been found safe

He says she was being evaluated by EMS after she was missing for several hours in Terrell Hills. The Straus family is thankful to everuone for their prayers and support

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October 17, 2025      1:53 PM

People on the Move

Texas Tech news, association moves, lobby hires, appointments, and more

“What’s the deadline for People on the Move?”

The question comes often, and the answer is really that there’s no deadline because you can send career news – on behalf of yourself or someone else – at any time for inclusion in the pages of Quorum Report.

If you have something that’s time sensitive, however, the answer is that if you send it before 10am on a Friday, the news should make its way into that week’s edition. I usually sit down to go through the list of submissions over coffee on Friday mornings to hopefully make sure I don’t miss anything. There are, as you may have figured, Fridays when we haven’t received enough submissions for it to make sense to publish POTM that week. But if there’s something you’d like people to read about ASAP, just let me know.

Feel free to email the news with the subject line “POTM” and follow up with a call or text to make sure I’ve got it. You can never be too sure. And there’s lots to get to this week, so here’s the latest edition.

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By Scott Braddock

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October 17, 2025      10:48 AM

Wife of former Speaker Straus reported missing in Terrell Hills

KSAT 12 TV in San Antonio reports: "A Silver Alert has been issued for a missing 64-year-old Terrell Hills woman, the wife of former Texas House Speaker Joe Straus. The city’s police chief confirmed the connection in a phone call to KSAT on Friday morning."

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October 17, 2025      9:06 AM

Abbott sets special election next May for the Texas Senate seat vacated by Tech Chancellor Creighton

Filing deadling for the seat is Tuesday, March 3, 2026. Early voting will begin on Monday, April 20, 2026

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October 16, 2025      4:20 PM

In a North Texas rematch, former Rep. Frederick Frazier will challenge Rep. Keresa Richardson in the GOP primary

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October 15, 2025      5:51 PM

Paxton raised $1 million in bid for US Senate

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October 15, 2025      5:37 PM

Hunt enters US Senate race with financial backing of younger conservative donors

Congressman Hunt enters Senate race with $1 million.

Some of the biggest contributors to Congressman Wesley Hunt’s Senate bid come from a younger crop of conservative donors, mostly working in the energy sector, and include some prominent names.

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October 14, 2025      4:00 PM

In an extraordinary circumstance, the Texas GOP lawsuit over closed primaries pits Secretary of State Nelson against AG Paxton in federal court

RPT Chair George says the suit is the party’s number one priority; Secretary Nelson's hired a heavyweight law firm to handle the case while fair elections advocates worry about practical implications of it all

It’s unclear what’s perhaps more unprecedented: The Republican Party of Texas’ lawsuit challenging state law allowing people to vote in a primary regardless of party affiliation or that Attorney General Ken Paxton declined to represent Secretary of State Jane Nelson in defending state law and joining with the RPT in the suit instead.

It sets up the Attorney General’s office to face off with the Secretary of State in federal court in Amarillo. After Paxton announced his office had signed onto the RPT suit, Secretary Nelson later notified the court that her office remains opposed to it and would be filing a response.

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By James Russell

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October 14, 2025      1:53 PM

Video: Kronberg says the White House intervened in Texas GOP censure and punishment process to protect Trump, not necessarily lawmakers

On Spectrum News' Capital Tonight, Quorum Report Publisher Harvey Kronberg and host James Barragan discussed the Texas GOP's rejection of kicking certain lawmakers off the ballot. They also got into the fact that Rep. Jasmine Crockett leads in polls for the US Senate Democratic primary even though she's not in the race.

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October 13, 2025      4:00 PM

Burrows and Patrick appoint members to House and Senate General Investigating Committees on the July 2025 Flooding Events

House members are Representatives Morgan Meyer as Chair alongside Moody, Darby, Dyson, and Gamez. Senators are Chair Flores with Perry, Hughes, Koklhorst, and Menendez

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October 13, 2025      12:02 PM

Josh Reyna, chief of staff to Sen. Blanco, says he will run for the Texas House seat that would be vacated if Rep. Hinojosa runs for governor

"We'll be rooting for her if she's in it!" Hinojosa plans a "special announcement" in Brownsville on Wednesday

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October 13, 2025      9:58 AM

Video: Kronberg on the past and future of the Quorum Report

"In this episode of the Changing Austin podcast, Stacy Armijo sits down with Kronberg for a candid conversation about how Austin has evolved over the decades from its laid-back 'slacker' reputation in the 1970s to its transformation into a booming tech and policy hub, Kronberg shares firsthand stories from the frontlines of Texas journalism and politics."

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October 13, 2025      9:46 AM

Some Texas National Guard deployed to Illinois are rejected as Secretary Hegseth says they are too fat

“Standards are back at the Department of War,” Hegseth said

After reports this morning that you may have read in QR’s news clips about some Texas National Guard being replaced in Illinois, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said simply “standards are back at the Department of War.” Some of the Texans arriving for the deployment were mocked online after ABC News posted pictures of them arriving in Illinois days ago while Governors Abbott and Pritzker exchanged insults and talked about Chicago hot dogs in competing media appearances.

It’s being treated with such seriousness while state sovereignty is violated and troops are away from their families.

In case you missed it, Task & Purpose reported:

The Texas Military Department has removed an unspecified number of National Guard troops deployed to Chicago for not being “in compliance” with its validation process.

A spokesperson for the Texas Military Department confirmed to Task & Purpose that “a small group” of the 200 National Guard members sent to Illinois this past week have been replaced after they were found to not meet certain standards. The move came amid criticism on social media over pictures that showed some of the Guard members appearing to be overweight, and as an appeals court temporarily blocked the deployment of the Texan troops into Illinois.

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October 11, 2025      4:45 PM

Updated: After a personal plea from Speaker Burrows and the White House, the SREC backs off from plan to kick some House Republicans off the ballot

Burrows was more conciliatory than he was in a letter this week arguing censures and potential denial of ballot access would be unconstitutional; meantime Current Revolt reports the White House political director told SREC members in executive session they would tarnish President Trump's legacy if members he endorsed were barred from ballot access

Less than 24 hours after what many attendees described as a "low energy and low attendance" day of legislative fundraisers in Dallas during Texas-OU weekend, Speaker Dustin Burrows on Saturday morning was back at work, appearing before members of the State Republican Executive Committee pleading with them to reject an effort to censure him and other GOP Texas House lawmakers.

At the opening of their public discussion at the Capitol, Republican Party of Texas Chairman Abraham George said a friend had described this as the “Super Bowl” of SREC meetings.

“I prayed about this meeting more than I prepared for this meeting,” he said before kicking off their deliberations on whether to censure some Texas House lawmakers and potentially try to kick them off primary ballots in March.

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By Scott Braddock

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