The Texas legislature’s special session seemingly is being held to provide more opportunities for Gov. Greg Abbott to round up primary support from an extremist, right-wing base with continued attacks on Texans. Abbott’s agenda is a shameful continuation of the springtime attacks on Texans, from abortion rights and the Critical Race Theory to voting rights and unsubstantiated election fraud to the health and safety of trans kids. There will be information about the Democrats who left the session and went to Washington DC. What was that all about?
Conspicuously missing from Abbott’s agenda is one of the most significant issues in Texas: fixing the grid. After Abbott’s refusal to do his job left 700 Texans dead in February’s power outage crisis, Abbott has continued to fail to do anything meaningful to fix Texas’ disaster-prone and catastrophically unregulated power grid — turning instead to scapegoating renewable energy for the grid’s cataclysmic failure.
From urging grid reform to defending voting rights, Texas Democrats fought tooth and nail to protect Texans’ rights during the spring legislative session — and are gearing up to do the same for the next 30 days. Texas Democratic Party Chair Gilberto Hinojosa issued the following statement:
“It’s been almost six months since Texas families struggled through a week of power outages, water shortages, and massive scale food insecurity. And with summer heat driving up electricity demand, we’ve already seen power outages across the state and ERCOT urging Texans to conserve energy. Yet right now, we’re somehow starting a special legislative session with fixing the grid nowhere on the agenda.
“Greg Abbott failed to keep Texans safe in February, he failed to take meaningful action to fix the grid this spring, and he is failing us again now.
“For the next 30 days, Texas Democrats will fight against the hateful attacks that Abbott put on the special session agenda — from defending voting rights to fighting for our kids and families. Abbott has shown again and again that he does not care about Texans, and the only way to protect our state and our future is to kick Abbott out of office. From now until the 2022 elections, we [Democrats] will work every day to do just that.”
The Freestone County Democratic Party Forum will meet on Thursday, July 29th, at Sam’s Restaurant to discuss how these issues can be addressed in Freestone County. The meeting will start at 6:30 p.m. with a meal from Sam’s Buffet, or you may order from the menu. There will be two speakers making brief presentations at the meeting.
Thom Hansen, Hill County Democratic Party County Chairman, will speak on how to run a campaign and the urgent need to get more Democrats on the Ballot. In addition, Maurice Washington, Committee Representative, SD5, will talk about the initiative to get more people registered and the new thoughts on that. Campaign
Everyone is invited to join us on July 29th at 6:30 pm at Sam’s Restaurant. Whether you are a Democrat or someone just looking for the talking points about complex issues, be with us on the 29th to hear what is happening in Freestone County. For more information, you may contact the Forum at democrats@freestonecodemocrat.com. See you on the 29th.
