The Texan Podcast - Daily Rundown - April 20, 2026

Starting point is 00:00:04 Howdy folks, today is Monday, April 20th, and you're listening to The Texans Daily Rundown. I'm the Texans Managing Editor Rob Lauchess, and here is the rundown of today's news in Texas politics. First up, many Texas public school districts will hold school board of trustees elections on May 2nd, with early voting from April 20th to 28th. Polling locations are closed on April 21st due to San Jacinto Day. When a school board seat is vacated before the term ends, a special election must be held on a uniform election date. Trustees typically serve three or four-year terms, with most districts staggering terms for board stability. School boards hire and evaluate the district superintendent.

Starting point is 00:00:48 Other board responsibilities include adopting a budget, setting a tax rate, and communicating with the community. Texas school boards can be elected through at-large elections where trustees are elected district-wide, single-member elections, where trustees are elected by voters in specific geographical areas, and hybrid systems that combine single-member districts and at-large positions. School board elections in Texas are nonpartisan. Visit the texan.News for more information on larger school districts holding board elections on May 2nd, including all the candidates. In other news, early voting kicks off Monday for the May 2nd special election in Texas Senate

Starting point is 00:01:26 District 4 to determine who will represent the Southeast Texas area for the next nine months. SD4 was left open after former state senator Brandon Creighton was selected to serve as the Texas Tech University System's chancellor in September 2025, leaving the district with an unexpired term lasting until January 27. The two candidates vying for the short term, Republican Brett Lygon and Democrat Ron Angeletti are also both running in the November general election. Angeletti ran unopposed in the March Democratic primary, while Ligon successfully fended off his opponent, U.S. Air Force veteran and businessman Charlie Miller, who received 25% of the vote to Ligons 75%. Angeletti was listed in February among the newest partners of the Texas Democratic Party's Texas Together campaign,

Starting point is 00:02:17 representing, quote, the most well-funded and earliest launching coordinated campaign in Texas Democratic history, with a combined $30 million investment, end quote, from various sources. Ligon entered into the voting period with endorsements from Creighton, U.S. Representative Morgan Latrell, Texas Land Commissioner Don Buckingham, six Republican Texas House representatives, Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, and Governor Greg Abbott. Last but not least, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit against the Democratic political fundraising platform Act Blue over its donation processes that alleged quote, allow fraudulent and foreign donations. According to the New York Times, Act Blue has processed

Starting point is 00:03:00 nearly $19 billion in contributions since its 2004 inception. The organization reported $1.8 billion in 2025 alone, a 41% increase compared to 2021. Last year, Act Blue saw 1.35 million new donors add to its over 52 million contributions received. The Office of the Attorney General said, in an April 20th press release, quote, the radical left has relied on Act Blue as a way to funnel foreign donations and dark money into their political campaigns to subvert our laws and compromise the integrity of our elections. Paxton alleged the organization has lied to Congress and, quote, blatantly ignored state law that prohibits deceptive practices.

Starting point is 00:03:46 The press release stated that in 2023, Paxton opened an investigation into whether Act Blue was violating state law. He said later in 2024 that Act Blue cooperated with the investigation and changed its requirements to now include CVV codes for donations. In October 24, Paxton sent a petition for rulemaking to the FEC, quote, detailing how suspicious actors had appeared to be continuing to use Act Blue's political fundraising platform to make a large number of straw political donations. He also made a criminal referral to the U.S. Department of Justice that same month. Thanks for listening. To support the Texan, please be sure to visit the texan. News and subscribe to get full access to all of our articles, newsletters, and podcasts.

The Texan Podcast - Daily Rundown - April 20, 2026

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.