CD 18 Runoff
We got a runoff date for the CD 18 Special Election runoff. January 31, 2026. Early voting will be January 21-27, 2026. Here is from the Chron:
In the end, Gov. Greg Abbott will have bought President Donald Trump at least an extra 332 days of advantage in a tightly held Congress.
On Monday, Abbott finally set the runoff election for Jan. 31 to fill the seat left vacant by the late Sylvester Turner. Once those results are certified, typically the next week, either Democrat Amanda Edwards or Christian Menefee will head to Congress to give downtown Houston a vote in the U.S. House for the first time since March 5.
Abbott’s delay in filling the seat has paid huge dividends for Trump. With one less Democrat in the House, it allowed Trump to get his big spending and tax cut plan passed in the U.S. House by one vote back in the summer. And it left the vote on releasing more Jeffrey Epstein files one vote short — that is until Arizona filled its own vacant congressional seat this month.
Abbott never said he was delaying because of Trump. Instead, he said Harris County needed the extra time to conduct the election — something county officials have denied.
Two other members of Congress, from Arizona and Virginia, died in office after Turner’s death in March, yet both of those seats have already been filled through special elections. And in Tennessee, U.S. Rep. Mark Green, a Republican, resigned in July, but that seat will be filled in an election on Dec. 2 — just over 130 days after it was left vacant.
Since 2002, there have been more than 100 vacancies in the U.S. House. On average it has taken 136 days to fill them.
Here is the entire read: How Greg Abbott gave Donald Trump a 332-day advantage in Congress.
I get that the partisan thing to do is to blame Abbott for the delay. You know how I feel about how this played out to start with. We should never have been in this position. I can say this because I live in CD 18.
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I used to not spend much time commenting about college athletics. That was because the colleges and coaches made a ton of dough while the athletes were shut out. The NIL thing has kind of spread the wealth around. So, now I can contribute my two cents on stuff.
The College Football Playoffs are now getting the buzz. Texas A&M and Texas Tech are looking pretty good. The UT Longhorns are on the outs because of their 7-3 record. I found this sports section column today by the Chron’s Kirk Bohls humorous. See how it starts:
AUSTIN — Steve Sarkisian was on the defensive Monday.
At least, somebody in the burnt orange is playing defense, especially after his Longhorns played dead in the fourth quarter against Georgia, burned for 21 points for the second straight game.
The Texas head football coach had his feelings ruffled when I asked him why his 7-3 team had underachieved this season.
“According to who?” Sarkisian snipped.
Uh, everyone.
Actually it’s whom, but fans are more interested these days in grit than grammar.
I mentioned the fact that the Longhorns were the consensus preseason No. 1 team in all of college football in August but has fallen out of the SEC race and maybe — probably? — the College Football Playoff chase with a home game against dangerous Arkansas looming.
To which, Sarkisian said, “I guess that’s for the people who voted us No. 1.”
Guess I should have rephrased the question and said 53 writers, broadcasters and coaches — yes, his peers — in the Associated Press Top 25 and the coaches poll thought enough to vote his Texas team No. 1.
Here is the entire column: Texas Longhorns underachieving, no matter what Steve Sarkisian says.
Sarkisian gets paid millions to coach the Longhorns. He needs to use some of that dough to get thicker skin.
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Nothing new from Daikin Park this morning.