It’s time to look at the week that was in Texas politics with Alex Samuels, political reporter for The Texas Tribune.
Samuels says Democratic presidential candidate from Texas, Julián Castro, announced in a tweet that he reached the necessary poll numbers required to participate in September’s third Democratic debate in Houston.
“You had to reach 130,000 unique donors, and he surpassed that threshold in July. And then get 2% support in four polls,” Samuels says.
The other candidate from Texas, Beto O’Rourke, had already fulfilled those requirements.
In state politics, state Rep. Dustin Burrows is dealing with the fallout of an alleged scandal reported by conservative activist Michael Quinn Sullivan. Sullivan claims he caught House Speaker Dennis Bonnen and Burrows conspiring to target certain Texas House Republican incumbents in 2020, in an audio recording.
“Burrows resigned as chair of the House GOP caucus last week,” Samuels says.
She says Burrows initially wouldn’t speak publicly on the matter. But then on a Thursday appearance on Chad Hasty’s radio show, he asked for Sullivan to release the full recording of the conversation to prove he’s innocent of any illegal activity.
Samuels says Burrows still plans to run for reelection, and Gov. Greg Abbott just endorsed him Thursday.
Written by Caroline Covington.
