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Just a reminder that our state's money whiz, Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar, will be on our Call to Action tomorrow to discuss, among other things, the constitutional amendments Texans are voting on. Comptroller Hegar is going to be lending us his expertise to educate us all on the budget implications of these amendments in addition to his perspective on the state of the State and our nation!
Senator Bryan Hughes and Representative Jacey Jetton will be joining us as well. Sen. Hughes is going to discuss the Senate's version of school choice and the progress of school choice and finance in this special session. Rep. Jetton, fresh from a trip to the border, is going to be discussing his border wall legislation which just passed out of the House Appropriations Committee. HB 6 would provide $1.5 billion for the construction of barriers along the border, which we know is functionally lawless thanks to the Biden Administration. You can learn more about Jetton's bill here and be sure to join us tomorrow for another insider update.
Finally I want to offer a hearty congratulations to Speaker Mike Johnson from Louisiana who officially took over as Speaker of the US House this week. If you haven't seen Johnson's inaugural address as Speaker I encourage you to spare a few moments for a listen. It's been a trying few weeks in the US House but I join all of you in being hopeful that the House can quickly return to delivering conservative wins for the American people!
See you tomorrow!
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Call To Action
Friday, October 27th
7:00 a.m. CST
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Congratulations to our new Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mike Johnson! | |
During his first speech as speaker, he laid out a powerful vision for the House of Representatives and a clear agenda for helping the American people. We were particularly struck by his seven core principles that made this country the greatest on Earth – the principles that should serve as the shining light for every government official. |  | |
These should be bipartisan principles, but too often are abandoned by Democrats in Washington, D.C., who fuel inflation, refuse to secure the border, enact crushing mandates and regulations, and allow billions of dollars to flow to terrorist-funding regimes.
For more on why today is a bad day for corrupt Democrats, swampy lobbyists, and overpaid bureaucrats, check out this piece from Rapid Response Director Jake Schneider.
Here’s the point: Americans want a government guided by these principles, and since the Republicans retook control of the House, we are getting back to them. In 2024, the American people will send reinforcements by electing a Republican to the White House and Republican majority in the Senate.
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The Republican National Committee (RNC), National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), and National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) filed an amicus brief with the Minnesota Supreme Court on Friday in an effort to prevent a Democrat-aligned group from obstructing former President Donald Trump from the state’s 2024 presidential ballot, documents exclusively obtained by Breitbart News show.
“The 2024 Republican presidential candidate will be decided by Republican voters, not courts or government officials,” RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said in a statement. “Disqualifying candidates from the ballot based on crimes they haven’t been charged with would set a destructive precedent for future elections and is purely political. Republicans are united in pushing back against this dangerous overreach.”
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The effort to allow GOP voters the opportunity to elect a presidential nominee comes after the Minnesota Supreme Court turned down the Trump campaign’s attempt on October 13 to intervene in a ballot petition filed by a radical left group named “Free Speech For People.” The group argued Trump disqualified himself from appearing on the presidential 2024 ballot, citing the “insurrection clause” of the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
The Republican Committees’ brief argues, in part:
The Reconstruction Congress did not grant state officials sweeping authority to undermine the federal government. But Petitioners resurrected and reimagined Section Three of the Fourteenth Amendment to do just that.
Their proposed relief would interfere with political-party primaries, which violates Republicans’ First Amendment rights. Republicans argue Free Speech For People misread the text and history to apply Section Three to former Presidents and future Presidents, even though the text references the Article VI oath of office that no President has ever taken. And last, Free Speech For People defy Congress’s choice to end Section Three enforcement long ago.
The brief quotes the Supreme Court as explaining in 1995, “The people are the best judges [of] who ought to represent them. To dictate and control them, to tell them whom they shall not elect, is to abridge their natural rights.”
Minnesota is the first state where a Democrat-aligned group took action to block Trump from the ballot due to a state law that permits voters to petition the Minnesota Supreme Court to disqualify a candidate. Democrats are working to disqualify Trump in many states, such as Arizona, Michigan, California, and New Hampshire.
“We reject any attempts by outside actors to bar the clear frontrunner for the Republican nomination from participating in our party’s primary,” NRSC Chairman Steve Daines said in a statement. “Throughout our history, these decisions have been made at the ballot box, and this blatant attempt to rob Republican primary voters of their right to select the Republican presidential nominee would do lasting damage to our elections for years to come.”
“This is an obvious partisan attempt to try to usurp the will of the voters through the courts that will set a bad precedent with ramifications beyond this case. Republicans are united in allowing the will of the voters to prevail,” NRCC Chairman Richard Hudson said.
Many legal experts doubt the legal viability of keeping Trump off state ballots. Harvard Law Professor Emeritus Laurence Tribe and J. Michael Luttig, a former federal judge, argued in the Atlantic that the unproven legal argument to keep Trump off the GOP ballot is valid:
As students of the United States Constitution for many decades—one of us as a U.S. Court of Appeals judge, the other as a professor of constitutional law, and both as constitutional advocates, scholars, and practitioners—we long ago came to the conclusion that the Fourteenth Amendment, the amendment ratified in 1868 that represents our nation’s second founding and a new birth of freedom, contains within it a protection against the dissolution of the republic by a treasonous president.
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday did not take a case about whether those who oppose Trump can disqualify the former president from the 2024 election under the “insurrection clause” of the Fourteenth Amendment.
The case is Joan Growe v. Minnesota Secretary of State, No. A23-1354 in the Minnesota Supreme Court.
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RNC expands battleground infrastructure and beefs up staff in 15 states during off year
Washington Examiner
Julia Johnson
October 12, 2023 – 2:36 PM
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/campaigns/rnc-battleground-infrastructure-15-states-off-year
The Republican National Committee announced it is expanding its staff significantly in battleground states across the country and will have finished the hiring process in 2023, before the 2024 election year begins.
By the end of 2023, the RNC will have hired political staff in 15 different states, all home to competitive House and Senate races. The states will also each have an election integrity director in place ahead of the election year.
“The Republican Party is building an infrastructure to not only defeat Joe Biden but deliver key victories up and down the ballot in 2024. With a focus on not just presidential, but House and Senate battlegrounds, our political and election integrity hires are laying the groundwork to ensure we have aggressive voter contact and litigation strategies in place to win elections and hold Democrats accountable for bad laws that make voting less secure,” RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said in a statement.
Some of the states being outfitted with additional infrastructure include traditional battleground arenas, as well as New York, California, and Montana.
The political staff will be focused on outreach, working to register voters and encourage minority voting. Their work will include door-knocking, phone calls, and recruiting volunteers.
The new staffing comes following the RNC's establishment of a full-time Election Integrity Department this year, a permanent fixture for the party. In an effort to maintain the security of elections, the RNC's new department will continue to file lawsuits, place necessary staff in target states, and recruit and train tens of thousands of both poll watchers and poll workers.
Battleground states are expected to be particularly unpredictable as a rematch between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump becomes more likely. Several of the key states were won by Trump in 2016 over Hillary Clinton but ultimately swung for Biden in 2020. Polls in the pivotal states have often shown the two men in a dead heat, frequently within the margins of error.
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Biden's Failed Foreign Policy | |
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The Republican Party will always stand with Israel, our nation’s strongest ally in the Middle East. Our hearts and prayers continue to be with the Israeli people and the men, women, and children who are being held hostage by Hamas terrorists. This week, Joe Biden’s weak leadership was on full display for the world.
What you need to know:
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Biden flew around the globe only to be “snubbed” by several Middle Eastern leaders, who canceled scheduled meetings with Biden amid a massive disinformation campaign perpetuated by Hamas terrorists and fueled by Democrats and the media.
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Biden’s State Department issued a rare “WORLDWIDE CAUTION” alert as the world devolves into chaos — even after Biden took office declaring “America is back” on the international stage.
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Biden downplayed a blast at a Gaza hospital by Palestinian Islamic Jihad, casually referring to them as “the other team” and joking they should “learn how to shoot straight.”
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Biden announced $100 million in “humanitarian assistance” for Gaza and the West Bank, which relies on “an understanding” with Hamas terrorists to stop them from “diverting” it to themselves.
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Biden admitted Iran “is supporting Hamas,” calling into question the $6 billion gift he unlocked for Iran on the anniversary of 9/11 and his pattern of appeasement toward the Iranian regime.
- The $6 billion to Iran – the largest state sponsor of terror - must immediately be revoked.
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Biden officials doxed U.S. special forces by posting a photo on social media and failing to obscure the identities of special operators in Israel.
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Biden failed to condemn disgusting antisemitism displayed by members of his own party.
- After 3 years of weak leadership from Joe Biden, America and our allies around the world are less safe.
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In the Middle East - Biden’s policies of appeasement have enriched the rogue Iranian regime to the tune of tens of billions of dollars.
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Biden has failed to vigorously enforce congressionally enacted sanctions while opening up new lines of cash for Iran to fund terror. Now, Israel is under attack from Iran-backed terrorist proxies.
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In Europe - Biden lifted sanctions on Putin’s Nord Stream 2 pipeline, a move that he was warned was a “calamitous foreign policy disaster.”
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Not only that, he undermined American energy production, weakening our influence and empowering malign producers of energy like Russia.
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In Afghanistan – The chaotic troop withdrawal left Americans dead, the Afghan government to collapse, and stranded tens of thousands of Afghan allies.
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In Asia – Biden continues to ignore a growing number of aggressive provocations from the Chinese Communist Party.
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He gave the CCP a pass on their COVID obstruction, let their spy balloon gather intelligence from sensitive military sites, promoted the use of the CCP spyware app TikTok, and is standing idly by as China reportedly sets up a spy base in Cuba.
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In North America – Cartels are exploiting Biden’s open borders agenda to poison tens of thousands of Americans with deadly fentanyl, while experts warn of the ever-growing terror threat as 1.6 million “gotaways” have escaped into the country on Biden’s watch.
The bottom line:
Americans and our allies around the world are looking for strong leadership from our Commander-in-Chief. Sadly, Joe Biden’s record of weak leadership and appeasement has emboldened our enemies and left our country more vulnerable to attack.
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With more and more Americans losing faith in Biden, Republican leaders are proving how our commonsense, pro-jobs agenda works for the American people.
What you need to know:
- Republican governors and state legislatures lead the way over Democrats in job creation and economic recovery.
- In spite of Bidenomics, Republican-led states are providing economic relief to families who are burdened by Bidenomics’ falling real wages, out-of-control spending, and skyrocketing costs.
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The latest state jobs report shows that 8 of the top 10 states for jobs recovered since the coronavirus pandemic began are led by Republican governors, and all 10 states have Republican-controlled legislatures.
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Out of the top 25 states with the lowest unemployment rates, 17 are led by Republican governors.
The bottom line:
Republicans across the country are delivering for the American people, following through on their commitment to deliver economic relief.
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Joe Biden's border crisis undermines our national security.
What you need to know:
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There have been over 1.6 million known “gotaways” – people who have illegally crossed the border and escaped into the country – since Joe Biden took office.
- That number is larger than the population of Philadelphia, and we have no idea who they are nor their intentions, only that they purposefully evaded law enforcement.
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We know terror suspects are attempting to cross the border at alarming rates.
- So far, 151 suspects on the FBI’s terror watchlist have been arrested at the southern border.
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As put by former Border Patrol Chief Rodney Scott: “We have nation-state threats, we have terrorist threats … to think that there’s not just as bad or worse people in those getting away would be naïve.”
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We know the number of illegal immigrants from “special interest countries” – countries with environments that potentially pose a national security threat – has skyrocketed.
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Border Patrol warns there is limited to no vetting for people from these countries because the ability to vet them simply does not exist.
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We know cartels have operational control over much of the border.
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According to Border Patrol Chief Jason Owens, cartels are exploiting the crisis to smuggle people and deadly drugs into the United States.
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We know mass releases of illegal immigrants are occurring in cities around the country.
- This problem is only going to get worse.
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There have already been 18,000 known gotaways in just the last 16 days.
The bottom line:
Biden's failure to address the situation at the border, or even recognize it as a crisis, is a complete dereliction of duty.
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Thank you for allowing me to continue to serve you as your Texas Representative to the RNC! As always, feel free to reach out to me with any questions you might have at tad@toniannedashiell.com, or follow me on Facebook or Twitter at the links below. Thank you for being a strong Texas Republican, and together, let us work to Keep Texas RED!
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Paid for by Toni Anne Dashiell RNC National Committeewoman for Texas
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