Dan Patrick Says Texas Needs Law Binding Electors to State’s Popular Vote

Our daily roundup of Texas headlines.

By Becky FogelDecember 8, 2016 12:12 pm

The Standard’s news roundup gives you a quick hit of interesting, sometimes irreverent, and breaking news stories from all over the state.

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick thinks Texas might need a law requiring presidential electors to cast their ballots for whoever won the state’s popular vote. Two of the state’s 38 electors have decided against voting for Donald Trump when they meet on Dec. 19. One of those electors has since resigned. Gov. Greg Abbott also tweeted out his support for this kind of binding law.

According to the nonpartisan election group FairVote – 29 states compel their electors to vote for whoever wins the state’s popular vote.




What started as a Twitter tussle between United States Senators from Texas and Arkansas led to a showdown on Capitol Hill yesterday – but this wasn’t a debate over policy.

It was a taste test pitting Texas queso against so-called cheese dip from Arkansas.

Before 54 Senators voted in the blind taste test, Sen. Ted Cruz waxed poetic about the virtues of queso.

“Queso is made to be scooped up with tortilla chips, dribbling down your chin and onto your shirt,” he said. “One is a visceral, emotional, powerful family bond as you and your kids pour into nachos covered in queso. The other is party favors at an afternoon tea.” 

Sen. John Cornyn also took shots at the delicate palates of his Beltway colleagues. But when the final tally was in – somehow, cheese dip triumphed over Texas Queso.




Hundreds of wild horses from Louisiana are set to find new homes in Texas. The Humane Society of North Texas is working with Fort Polk Army Base to relocate about 400 of the animals, dubbed “Trespass Horses.”

Sandy Shelby is the Executive Director at the Humane Society of North Texas. She says her organization is sent horses in groups, once Fort Polk rounds up about 30 to 50 of them.

 “And no one is chasing them with helicopters and no one is stressing them out,” Shelby says. “They’re simply – horses love to eat – so we’re just going straight to their love of food and we’re encouraging them to come into this round pen and putting food in there. And after they come back a few days in a row then they’re just closing the pen and say we’ve got a good group, we’ve got some bonded bands of horses, and when they give us the call and we have three days to pick them up.”

Shelby says the Humane Society will perform site visits on all of the adoptions.

“These horses are special – and they’re really going to require someone who is experienced because these are not horses that have ever had any handling that we know of,” she says. “You really need to be a person who says, ‘It might take three years before I can ever get on one,’ but they’re really cool, they’re just so beautiful.”

The Humane Society is holding an adoption viewing this weekend.