The 2024 Texas Republican Convention will get underway Thursday in San Antonio. Houston Public Media’s Andrew Schneider says the convention will include a six-way election contest for state party chair.
Matt Rinaldi announced in March that he would not be a candidate for another term as party chairman. Political scientist Jon Taylor of the University of Texas at San Antonio says whoever succeeds Rinaldi will have a rough job ahead.
“You've got fundraising problems. There have been staff problems within the Republican Party. For a party that has been in charge of the state and has been in charge for so long, they are looking like a party that is that is getting a bit threadbare.”
Taylor says the next chair will also have to work at healing divisions within the ranks, including those that led to the censuring of Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan and Congressman Tony Gonzales. I’m Andrew Schneider in Houston.
Ted Cruz is one of two Senate Republicans who've filed a bill to protect access to in vitro fertilization. As KERA’s Katherine Hobbs reports, it came amid attacks from Democrats who say strong abortion restrictions he supports put I-V-F access at risk. The bill seeks to safeguard IVF at the federal level.
States who enact a ban on the fertility procedure would not receive Medicaid funding. Organizations and individuals could still decline to provide the service. States could implement health and safety measures within clinics that provide IVF. The bill comes after the Alabama Supreme Court ruled frozen embryos are legally children. Proponents of IVF worry that ruling could lead to wrongful death charges if an embryo doesn’t survive the procedure. It also comes after a similar effort among Democrats failed. For KERA News, I’m Katherine Hobbs.