Sam Russek

Inside the Rift Between Texas Dems and a Soros-Backed PAC The Texas Majority PAC is the latest deep-pocketed initiative meant to turn Texas blue. But have its dollars just brought more discord?

New from @samrussek.bsky.social: While some local Democratic party chapters speak effusively of their partnerships with Texas Majority PAC, others liken it to a bait-and-switch operation that commandeers the grassroots manpower of established county parties & fails to deliver on its lofty promises.

Inside the Rift Between Texas Dems and a Soros-Backed PAC The Texas Majority PAC is the latest deep-pocketed initiative meant to turn Texas blue. But have its dollars just brought more discord?

SCOOP: A Soros-backed PAC in Texas expects a massive budget—$20 million a year, each year, until 2032—but the group has been roiled by territorial disputes and allegations of "data falsification" & "systemic" voter outreach fraud. And here come the midterms. In @texasobserver.org: bit.ly/3IYSfdc

Update: Franklin Pena's defense in the Jocelyn Nungaray case just asked the DA's office to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate Ogg for misuse of official information, and both the DA and defense are planning to file bar complaints against her.

Last, Ogg told Fox she was "very concerned" about Teare's handling of the case here. Clearly, this isn't just a major allegation against Pena, but a chance to stick it to Teare. In court today, Josh Reiss, the DA's general counsel, asked for her law license. Showdown's not over.

The court ruling in Sept. prevented extrajudicial statements from "all attorneys" due to the case's sensitivity & Pena's right to a fair trial. But it didn't clearly say if "all attorneys" meant *current and former,* though one might assume that's implied.

The Fox story, which went live May 29, says Ogg "gathered the evidence they needed to seek the death penalty" in Nungaray's rape & murder case against Franklin Pena. Now out of office, Ogg claims Pena was also accused of rape in Costa Rica, but the allegation was confidential.

Explosive motion just filed in Harris County: DA Sean Teare has asked for the court to revise its rules on extrajudicial statements after his predecessor Kim Ogg went on the local Fox affiliate to leak new info on the Jocelyn Nungaray case. The order doesn't mince words:

The Texas Judge Race That Republicans Are Suddenly Eyeing Why is a little-known GOP candidate getting such big-name support in her effort to unseat Harris County’s Lina Hidalgo? It could be a dry run for the party’s next wave of messaging.

ICYMI: A little-known Republican's entry into the race to replace Lina Hidalgo was unremarkable save for one detail: Her campaign's ties to a '24 SuperPAC that used antisemitic tropes to undercut Harris's appeal with Muslims in Michigan.

In @newrepublic.com: bit.ly/3SiSWzc