The state has requested a stay of federal proceedings in the consolidated redistricting cases in part because the districts being challenged will only be in effect this election cycle.

“A stay of these proceedings ensures that the Court will be reviewing the legislation actually used in the next election,” the state argues, citing Article III, Section 28 of the Texas Constitution, which requires the Legislature to redraw districts in the first regular session after the publication of Census data, which occurred after the regular session in 2021. “The statutes the Plaintiffs currently challenge will be defunct before this Court can order effective relief.”

The state also argues that a stay would give the district court “the benefit of the Supreme Court’s forthcoming” ruling on voting rights cases before it. Those cases are scheduled for oral arguments in September.

Suffice it to say, plaintiffs will disagree with the state’s request.

Realtor Endorsements: The Texas Assoc. of Realtors TREPAC issued endorsements for the May 24 runoff:

• SD27 – Morgan LaMantia (D)
• HD17 – Stan Gerdes (R)
• HD63 – Ben Bumgarner (R)
• HD76 – Suleman Lalani (D)
• HD84 – Carl Tepper (R)
• HD122 – Elisa Chan (R)

Another 14 candidates in runoffs were already endorsed by the PAC, which saw 98% of its endorsed candidates win contested primaries outright or advance to a runoff.

HD52 open (Lean R): Former Gov. Rick Perry (R) endorsed Caroline Harris (R) in the runoff over Pat McGuinness.

CD30 open (Safe D): Recently filed campaign finance reports reveal the donors behind more than $2M of independent expenditures in support of Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Dallas), who advanced to a runoff against Jane Hope Hamilton. The pair of cryptocurrency traders’ PACs – WEB3 Forward and Protect Our Future PAC – were so new that their donors did not have to be disclosed before the March primary election.

A single donor accounted for much of that spending: Nassau, Bahamas-based Samuel Bankman-Fried, founder and CEO of the cryptocurrency exchange FTX. He contributed $13M out of the $14.1M reported by Protect Our Future during the first quarter of 2022. Another FTX executive, Nishad Singh, contributed another $1M.

WEB3 Forward received all $2M of its funding from GMI PAC. Bankman-Fried contributed $2M to GMI PAC in January, which represented 72% of the PAC’s total contributions for that month. GMI PAC has reported a total of $5.9M since its inception last year, of which Bankman-Fried represents 34%.

Harris Co.: Conservative activist Steven Hotze was indicted by a Harris Co. grand jury on charges of unlawful restraint and assault with a deadly weapon arising from a private voter fraud “investigation” he funded, according to various outlets’ reporting of comments an attorney for Hotze. A former police officer hired by Hotze was charged with assaulting an air conditioning repair person whose truck was thought to contain illegal ballots (It did not.).

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