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Texas Republicans say they have a

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Texas Republicans say they have a


Starting January 20th, Republicans will have the trifecta in the nation’s capital. Senator Ted Cruz, who won re-election for a third term, discusses the main priorities lawmakers will tackle first. Congressman-elect Brandon Gill, who will represent the 26th Congressional District in North Texas, talks about how he will help pass President-elect Donald Trump’s agenda. Plus, for the first time since some controversial charter amendments passed in the City of Dallas, Mayor Eric Johnson is speaking out about the results. He also answers the question about whether he’s had conversations about serving in the Trump administration. Jack Fink covers these stories in the latest episode of Eye On Politics. (Original air date: December 8, 2024.) 

Looking Ahead 

On Tuesday, Senator Ted Cruz spoke with political reporter Jack Fink about the most urgent priorities voters expect Republicans to work on in the new session of Congress starting next month. They include border security, deporting violent criminals in the U.S. illegally, reducing prices and boosting the economy.  

“We have a real obligation to deliver on our campaign promises,” said Cruz. “And if you lok at the election, there are a number of things that came out of the election that, I think are a real mandate and a mandate for change.” 

Watch Jack’s full interview with Senator Ted Cruz: 

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Texas Senator Cruz discusses upcoming legislative session expectations for Republicans

18:03

One on One with the youngest Republican in the next Congress

At the age of 30, the youngest Republican to serve in the next Congress will be Brandon Gill. He will represent the 26th Congressional District in North Texas. He was also elected Freshman Class President. 

Gill said he and his fellow Republican freshmen ran on the Trump agenda: securing the border, unleashing American energy and cutting wasteful federal spending to bring inflation down. He told Jack what he hopes to accomplish as the president of the incoming class in the House. 

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“I said I want to do everything I possibly can to make sure we are all in the best position to execute on the Trump agenda,” said Gill. 

Watch Jack’s full interview with Congressman-elect Brandon Gill: 


Congressman-elect Brandon Gill is the youngest Republican headed to Congress

11:00

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Dallas Mayor discusses controversial charter amendments

Jack also spoke with Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson in an exclusive interview Tuesday. 

He discussed the controversial charter election and his recommendation to residents to vote down all the propositions. He called two measures that were part of the Dallas HERO Initiative that passed “workable.” 

“The reality is, I’m not very worried about it,” said Johnson. 

He played down concerns by opponents, including former Mayors, that prop U will negatively impact the city finances and services by requiring the city to hire and maintain 4,000 police officers. It’s a move that city leaders and advocates for the measure estimate will cost between $175 and $185 million dollars. 

“It’s not going to destroy the city of Dallas,” said Johnson. “It’s not going to bring us to our knees financially. It does force us to put our money where our mouth is on public safety and I don’t think that’s a bad thing.” 

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He said Prop S, which allows residents to file suit against the city if it doesn’t comply with the charter, city ordinances, and state law. He did express concern about what he called “enforcement through litigation.”

“We don’t want to be tied up in court constantly of paying lawyers’ legal fees to bring lawsuits against us to do what we’re trying to do anyway. So that’s my concern about prop s – it’s a litigation bonanza potentially.” 

The Mayor said his recommendation to Dallas residents was to vote down all of the charter amendments, not just certain propositions. “If none of them passed, I had a legal opinion from our city attorney that said we’ve got to have an immediate do-over, an immediate do-over. That’s what I wanted. I wanted to be able to come right back and come up with some well-thought out charter amendments that actually would have accomplished what props S, T, U wanted to do but more effectively.”

One of the Mayor’s friends from serving in the Texas Legislature, former Republican Representative Scott Turner, has been nominated by President-elect Donald Trump to serve as HUD Secretary. Jack asked the Mayor if he’s had any conversations about joining the Trump administration. 

“I love my city, I’ve had no greater honor in my life being elected Mayor of this city,” said Johnson. “Whether or not I’d be willing to serve our country, I think that would depend on a lot, but my focus is on being Mayor of Dallas.”  

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The Dallas Mayor said that he told Turner that he would like Dallas to be at the front of the line for anything HUD will be doing to help cities. Johnson delivered his State of the City address Thursday. He said he wants the city’s progress reducing violent crime and reducing property taxes to continue. 

Watch Jack’s full interview with Dallas Mayor Eric Johson: 


Mayor Johnson discusses the vote on charter amendments in Dallas, including HERO Initiative

13:34

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North Texas middle school closes after a norovirus outbreak

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North Texas middle school closes after a norovirus outbreak


A middle school in the Eagle Mountain-Saginaw ISD is closed Friday after an outbreak of norovirus.

According to the school district, they closed Creekview Middle School in Fort Worth on Friday to sanitize and clean the building. The district said they plan on reopening the school on Monday.

The district said children started to get sick on Tuesday with what appeared to be a stomach virus and that on Wednesday it spread to a larger group.

EMSISD said they reached out to the Tarrant County Public Health Department and that they recommended disinfecting and cleaning the school on Wednesday night and reopening the next day.

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More cases continued to be reported on Thursday, so the public health department then recommended that they clean again and close the campus on Friday.

Parents were notified of the district’s decision on Thursday afternoon.

The district has not said how many students and staff were sickened in the outbreak.

Officials with Children’s Medical Center said that because norovirus is highly contagious and resistant to many common hand sanitizers, it presents a unique challenge for families.

The hospital says hand sanitizer isn’t enough and recommends thorough hand washing with soap and water. They also recommend parents keep their children home for a full 48 hours after symptoms stop to prevent further outbreaks.

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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says there are approximately 2,500 norovirus outbreaks in the United States each year and that they are most common from November through April. For further tips on preventing the spread of norovirus, visit the CDC.



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Trump heads to Texas, where 3 friends are battling it out in the Senate Republican primary

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Trump heads to Texas, where 3 friends are battling it out in the Senate Republican primary


WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump just can’t seem to choose among friends in the Texas Senate Republican primary.

So when he travels to the state on Friday for his first post- State of the Union trip, where he plans to promote his energy and economic policies, Trump will have all three candidates in the competitive race join him — just days before his party casts ballots in the primary race.

Sen. John Cornyn is battling for his fifth term and is being challenged by state Attorney General Ken Paxton and Rep. Wesley Hunt in a primary fight that has become viciously personal. And all three men, missing the coveted endorsement from Trump, have been trying to highlight their ties to him as they ramp up their campaigning ahead of Tuesday’s vote.

For his part, Trump will be seeking to ride the message of his State of the Union address from Tuesday, where he declared a return to economic prosperity and a more secure America — two centerpiece arguments for Republicans as they campaign to keep their congressional majorities this fall.

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Trump’s hesitation to endorse in the Texas Senate primary speaks to the tricky dynamics of the race.

Cornyn is unpopular with a segment of Texas’ GOP base, in part for his early dismissiveness of Trump’s 2024 comeback campaign and for his role in authoring tougher restrictions on guns after the 2022 school shooting in Uvalde, Texas. But Senate GOP leadership and allied groups see Cornyn as the stronger general election candidate, in light of a series of troubles that have shadowed Paxton.

Paxton beat impeachment on fraud charges in 2023, and has faced allegations of marital infidelity by his wife, state Sen. Angela Paxton.

Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, right, is joined by former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, left, during a campaign stop in Austin, Texas, Tuesday, Feb. 17, 2026. Credit: AP/Eric Gay

Senate Majority Leader John Thune and South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, have urged Trump to endorse Cornyn. They and allied campaign groups argue that the seat would cost the party hundreds of millions more to defend with Paxton as the candidate.

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“It is a strong possibility we cannot hold Texas if John Cornyn is not our nominee,” Scott told Fox News on Wednesday.

Hunt, a second-term Houston-area representative, was a later entry to the race, but claims a kinship with Trump, having endorsed him early in the 2024 race. Hunt campaigned regularly for Trump and earned a prime-time speaking slot at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.

If no candidate reaches 50% in Tuesday’s primary, the top two finishers will advance to a May 26 runoff.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and Rep. Troy Nehls, R-Texas,...

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and Rep. Troy Nehls, R-Texas, arrive before President Donald Trump delivers the State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress in the House chamber at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2026. Credit: AP/Allison Robbert

Cornyn’s campaign and a half-dozen allied groups have poured more than $63 million into the race since last fall, chiefly trying to slow Paxton but recently attacking Hunt in an effort to keep him from making it to the runoff.

Earlier this month, Trump feinted toward weighing in on the race when he said he was taking “a serious look” at endorsing in the Texas primary. He has since reaffirmed his neutrality.

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Still, you wouldn’t know it from watching TV in Texas. Cornyn has been airing ads since last year touting his support for Trump’s agenda, even though his relationship with the president has been cool at times. Paxton and Hunt both have ads airing now featuring them standing with Trump.

“I like all three of them, actually. Those are the toughest races. They’ve all supported me. They’re all good. You’re supposed to pick one, so we’ll see what happens. But I support all three,” Trump said earlier this month.

The GOP battle comes as Democrats have a contested primary of their own in Texas between state Rep. James Talarico, a self-described policy wonk who regularly quotes the Bible, and progressive favorite U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett.

Trump hasn’t been shy about wading into other contested Republican primaries in the state. Parts of Corpus Christi fall within Texas’ 34th congressional district, where former Rep. Mayra Flores is fighting to reclaim her seat against the Trump-endorsed Eric Flores. (The two are not related.) The winner of the primary will face off against Democratic Rep. Vicente Gonzalez, long a target of the GOP, whose district was redrawn to make it easier for a Republican to win.

Eric Flores will be at the Trump event at the Port of Corpus Christi, which technically is located in a neighboring district.

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Elsewhere in the state, the president has also endorsed Rep. Tony Gonzales, who is fighting calls from his own party to resign from Congress after reports of an alleged affair with a former staffer who later died after she set herself on fire. Gonzales is refusing to step down and has said that there will be “opportunities for all of the details and facts to come out” and that the stories about the situation do not represent “all the facts.”

Gonzales is facing a primary challenge from Brandon Herrera, a gun manufacturer and gun rights influencer who Gonzales defeated by fewer than 400 votes in their 2024 runoff. The White House did not return a request for comment on Thursday on whether Trump stands by his endorsement of Gonzales.



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Man sentenced to 15 years in Texas crash that killed founding member of The Chicks

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Man sentenced to 15 years in Texas crash that killed founding member of The Chicks


EL PASO, Texas (AP) — A man has been sentenced to 15 years in prison after admitting his reckless driving caused a head-on collision in rural West Texas that killed Laura Lynch, a founding member of the country music group now known as The Chicks, prosecutors said.

Domenick Chavez, 33, pleaded guilty to manslaughter in connection with Dec. 22, 2023, crash in Hudspeth County, according to a news release Tuesday from El Paso County District James Montoya, who also oversees nearby Hudspeth County.

The news release said Chavez was driving a truck westbound when he tried to pass four vehicles on a two-way undivided highway and collided head-on with Lynch’s eastbound truck. Lynch, 65, of Dell City, was trapped in her vehicle and died. Prosecutors said Chavez was traveling between 106 mph and 114 mph.

Prosecutors said alcohol wasn’t a factor in the crash but that Chavez was driving on a suspended license, which had been revoked due to his failure to comply with DWI-related surcharges and penalties from convictions in 2014 and 2017.

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Lynch, along with Robin Lynn Macy and sisters Martie Maguire and Emily Strayer, formed The Dixie Chicks in the late 1980s. Lynch and Macy eventually left the band and Natalie Maines joined the sisters. The trio hit commercial fame with their breakthrough album “Wide Open Spaces” in 1998 and have won 13 Grammys. In 2020, the band changed its name to The Chicks.

In a social media post after Lynch’s death, The Chicks said Lynch had “infectious energy and humor” and was “instrumental” in the band’s early success.



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