Ambassadors Visit Texas, Candidate Legal Trouble, and Trump Looms in AG Race
Jan 14, 2026
Good morning Daily Bull-ers. After a healthy dousing of bleach, Jonathan’s eyes have recovered from seeing the AI-generated red bikini-clad Ken Paxton from yesterday (which could spark an intra-txlege meme war). Just in time, too, for another dose of bull for our dear readers. On today’s menu: U.S. ambassadors in town, a massive jury verdict against a Texas House candidate, and some preemptive messaging for a statewide candidate.
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Top Lines
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EPCOT in the Mansion: Gov. Greg Abbott hosted U.S. ambassadors to three countries and the United Nations on Tuesday “to discuss strengthening transatlantic security, Texas’ defense manufacturing and innovation sectors, and promoting U.S. industry,” per the governor’s office. The group of ambassadors is touring the state with an eye toward the state’s manufacturing capabilities working in tandem with allied countries.
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Sch-legal Trouble: A jury has awarded more than $550,000 in damages and other fees in a long-running legal dispute between two vaccine choice advocacy groups and activists, with Texans for Medical Freedom’s Jackie Schlegel, a candidate for House District 94, ordered to pay. The dispute started over allegations of an improper transfer of funds involving Texans for Vaccine Choice, of which Schlegel was a co-founder and executive director. Schlegel has maintained her innocence ever since. But now with the jury ruling, she’s on the hook for a pile of payments, lest things bounce her way in an appeal.
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Rabble-Rousing Rep Targets Sharia: Rep. Brian Harrison (R-Midlothian) sent a letter to Texas House Speaker Dustin Burrows (R-Lubbock) demanding that the Texas House hold interim hearings to “combat the threat from Sharia law.” Further, the renegade Republican called for hearings on a host of other issues, such as eliminating property taxes and adjusting legislation passed last session in response to last year’s tragic July 4 floods because allegedly “hundreds of Christian camps will have to close.”
The Breakdown
Roy Gets Out in Front of Trump Negatives
U.S. Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX), the current frontrunner for Texas attorney general per even his opponents’ polling, is one of two candidates on television with campaign advertising.
Roy’s ad, which first went up in October, concludes the 30-second spot, saying: “True to Texas. Pro-Trump conservative. That’s Chip Roy.” That second line in particular is an example of defining oneself before any opponents can. Nearly every time Roy posts on Twitter, his mentions are flooded with dozens of replies, most of which come from bots, accusing him of being anti-Trump six ways to Sunday.
While the congressman’s history of breaks with President Donald Trump is well known, Roy at times has been instrumental in advancing the president’s priorities among the right flank of the GOP caucus, including with the recent — and clumsily named — “One Big Beautiful Bill.”
But Roy has also dug his heels in from time to time. The biggest example of this came when Roy objected to the bubbling strategy of rejecting presidential electors from certain states who’d been accused of electoral malfeasance by the political right. This, along with some critiques lobbed at Trump, have since left Roy vulnerable to the anti-Trump label.
Roy’s last internal poll put him at 40%, with both state Sen. Mayes Middleton, the deep-pocketed Galveston Republican and other candidate in the race already on TV, and state Sen. Joan Huffman (R-Houston) at 13%. Aaron Reitz, former Trump appointee, meanwhile is at 7%, per Roy’s poll. With that number, Roy is clearly in a runoff but a ways off from winning outright. Speak to the other three campaigns and the operative question is not if Roy makes the runoff, but who joins him in it. When that time comes, so too will the negative messaging that inevitably floods the airwaves. The feature of that negative front against Roy, whoever the second candidate is, is sure to be his breaks with Trump.
Reitz is the most prolific in lobbing those attacks on social media — doing so multiple times a week — but so far has not spent any campaign dollars to take those attacks to a broader audience; Thursday’s finance report deadline might illustrate why that is the case.
Meanwhile, Middleton is trying to just make it to the runoff, focusing on personal name ID spots over negatives against Roy. In a runoff though, that would shift, and the senator has plenty of money to dump into the fray.
Horseshoes and Fraud-grenades
State Rep. Gina Hinojosa, the Austin Democrat running to challenge Abbott for governor, is targeting the incumbent over his investigations into fraud and request to participate in federal fraud-prevention programs.
“Taxpayer dollars are being wasted on your corrupt giveaways to donors, not rental assistance programs,” Hinojosa wrote. “When I’m governor we’ll give cash back to renters and stop the private equity takeover of housing — homeownership should be part of the American dream again.”
Interestingly, she echoed President Donald Trump’s recent statement announcing his plan to prohibit major institutional investment firms from buying single family homes.
Hinojosa’s ire had been raised by Abbott’s request to U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Scott Turner that Texas be allowed to participate in a new federal program aimed at eliminating fraud in housing assistance programs.
“Ensuring hardworking taxpayer dollars are not misused is one of the foundational roles of good governance,” Abbott wrote in his letter.
More than 150,000 Texas families receive the federally-funded Housing Choice Voucher, according to data from the National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials. HUD noted in its 2025 financial report that potentially billions of dollars in payments were made in error, including to ineligible non-citizens and deceased people.
“Every time a fraudulent or improper payment is made, Americans eligible for these programs miss out on assistance and the American Taxpayer is cheated,” Abbott said.
The letter marked the second anti-fraud initiative Abbott has announced in 2026. On Jan. 5, he directed the Texas Workforce Commission and the Health and Human Services Commission to investigate possible fraud in state-funded child care programs after widespread fraud in Minnesota programs became a major national issue.
The agencies are scheduled to provide a progress update by Jan. 30, before a final report is due Feb. 27.
Water Cooler
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Texas Republicans Weigh in on SCOTUS Hearing: As previewed in Texas Bullpen, the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments today over a West Virginia law banning biological men from women’s sports. State Sen. Mayes Middleton, a Galveston Republican who was the primary author of Texas’ Save Women’s Sports Act, said, “Men pretending to be women are trying to steal fairness and opportunity from actual women. I will not allow it, Texas will not allow it, and now we fight for the Supreme Court to not allow it.”
- Similarly, Acting Comptroller Kelly Hancock, who supported the Texas law while serving as a state senator, noted, “This case has HUGE ramifications for that law and others around the country.” During the hearing, the majority of Justices seemed to favor upholding the West Virginia law, which would bode well for Texas’s ban to remain standing.
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Huffines Endorsed by Trump Doctor: Former state Sen. Don Huffines (R-Dallas) has been endorsed by U.S. Rep. Ronny Jackson (R-TX) in the race for Texas comptroller. Jackson, the former personal doctor for Trump, said that Huffines was “the only MAGA candidate in this race who has what it takes to stand with President Trump.” The race will be one to watch, as Hancock, the current acting comptroller endorsed by Abbott, and Railroad Commissioner Christi Craddick are also in the race.
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SCOTX Rules on GOP Ballot: The Texas Supreme Court denied attempts by two Republican challengers — David Rogers, running for Place 8 on the court, and Travis Edwards, running for CD-5 — to restore their place on the ballot after the Texas GOP rejected their signature petitions last month. Both Justice Brett Busby and U.S. Rep. Lance Gooden will now be unopposed in their respective primaries.
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Off Come the Earrings: State Rep. Angelia Orr (R-Itasca), who is endorsed by Trump and Abbott thanks to her vote for school choice last year, is on broadcast television with her first attack ad of the cycle against challenger Kat Wall.
- The ad states: “Who is Kat Wall? A multimillionaire who moved into our rural district after losing in Houston twice. Rejected by conservatives after spending $14 million of her big tech money, now she’s trying to buy our House seat.”
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Oh Hi, Reply Guy: The Tim Dunn-funded Texans United for a Conservative Majority is running a new digital ad in House District 91 against Kyle Morris, GOP challenger to freshman state Rep. David Lowe (R-North Richland Hills)
- More on the ad: “Kyle Morris wants you to think that he is a principled conservative, but his history of Trump derangement syndrome and far left rhetoric speaks for itself,” the ad says, adding that Morris and his social media “pav[ed] the way” for Trump’s loss in 2020 to Joe Biden.