ROYCE WEST

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott isn’t saying whether he will posthumously pardon George Floyd for a 2004 drug arrest.

Democratic Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson of Texas says she won’t seek reelection next year after spending 30 years in Congress.

But Democrats and various grassroots organizations are doing their best Malcolm X imitation to stop them – by any means necessary. Sen. West represents the 23rd senatorial district – Dallas County. “What we are trying to accomplish frankly is trying to push a boulder up a hill,” Sen. West explained. “I hope that businesses will pull out because that’s part of the coalition we need,” Sen. West stated. This is a voting rights issue for all Texans, and it’s not a Black and white issue.

George Floyd’s killing last year and the protests that followed led to a wave of police reforms in dozens of states.

AUSTIN, Texas President Donald Trumps former White House physician and onetime pick to head the Department of Veterans Affairs won the Republican nomination for a U.S. House seat in Texas in an election that unfolded amid an alarming spread of the coronavirus. Ronny Jackson, a retired Navy rear admiral, defeated agriculture advocate Josh Winegarner in a primary runoff Tuesday in the deeply red Texas Panhandle. Jackson will face Gus Trujillo, who won Tuesday's Democratic nomination for the 13th congressional district in Texas, in the November general election. He returned to the White House medical office, retired from the Navy in 2019 and launched his bid for Congress. He earned a marine biology degree from Texas A&M before graduating from the University of Texas Medical Branch in 1995.

Texas has become one of the world's virus hot zones and is in far worse shape now than when the runoff was postponed in March. Last week was the deadliest of the pandemic for Texas, and Republican Gov. Abbott did not include polling places in his recent statewide mask order, and unlike many states, Texas has fought efforts to expand mail-in balloting during the pandemic. The Senate runoff is between Air Force veteran MJ Hegar, who narrowly lost a race for a House seat in 2018, and state Sen. Royce West, who if he wins would become Texas' first Black U.S. senator. For now, both remain underdogs against Cornyn, a three-term Senate veteran who has a hefty stockpile of campaign dollars.