The Texan Podcast - Daily Rundown - July 15, 2025

Episode Date: July 15, 2025

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Howdy folks, today is Tuesday, July 15th and you're listening to the Texans Daily Rundown. I'm the Texans Assistant Editor Rob Lauschus and here is the rundown of today's news in Texas politics. First up, State Senator Nathan Johnson is throwing his hat in the ring for Texas Attorney General, highlighting his six-year tenure in the ring for Texas Attorney General, highlighting his six-year tenure in the Texas Legislature and experience as a litigator and mediator in his campaign launch. In a press release on Tuesday morning, Johnson highlighted his role in increasing the state's

Medicaid coverage, stabilizing the power grid after the 2021 winter storm, and protecting taxpayers from large businesses while serving Senate District 16 for the past six years. Johnson said, quote, Attorney General Ken Paxton has abused his office for his own personal and political interests and, following orders, to light destructive partisan fires. Under his control, the office has been corrupted and abused and debased while its powers to do good have been wasted." Johnson was one of the state senators who voted to convict Paxton during his 2023 impeachment trial. Long seen as one of Texas Democrats' best potential statewide candidates, he joins an attorney general race already crowded by multiple prominent names, candidates, he joins an attorney general race already crowded by multiple prominent names, some of which are his colleagues in the Senate, the most recent bidder being State Senator

Joan Huffman. Other candidates seeking to fill the space due to Paxton's bid for U.S. Senate include State Senator Mays Middleton and Aaron Reitz, a former Department of Justice employee under President Donald Trump and former staffer for Paxton and Senator Ted Cruz. In other news, concerns over the New World Screwworm have prompted the federal government to take another step in preventing it from entering the country, as the U.S. Department of Agriculture has again closed the border to livestock imports.

U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins and the USDA stated that a New World screwworm case being reported in Mexico, quote, raises significant concern about the previously reported information shared by Mexican officials, end quote, which has halted initial plans to reopen the ports along the southern border that were scheduled for a date in mid-July. Criticism from Mexican President Claudia Scheinbaum followed the halt on the phased reopening of livestock imports across the southern border, after nearly three months of suspended imports. She called the closure, quote, completely exaggerated. Rollins announced in June that the USDA would begin a sweeping five-pronged plan to combat the growing issue. Part of the plan included the release of hundreds of millions of sterile flies from facilities so that these sterilized males mate with female screwworms and produce no offspring, which would lead

to an eradication of the threat. The New World screwworm can wreak havoc upon livestock, causing infection and even death of animals. The flies are present throughout the Americas but are centralized in Central American countries. The U.S. previously conducted elimination efforts in the 1950s and successfully eradicated it in 1966. Last but not least, Senator Ted Cruz is introducing legislation to label certain branches of a Sunni Islamist group as terrorist organizations. According to a fact sheet and copy of the bill obtained by the Washington Free Beacon, Cruz is authoring the Muslim Brotherhood Terrorist as terrorist organizations. According to a fact sheet and copy of the bill obtained

by the Washington Free Beacon, Cruz is authoring the Muslim Brotherhood Terrorist Designation Act of 2025. The bill will adopt a quote, new modernized strategy for designating the Muslim Brotherhood as a foreign terrorist organization. Cruz has filed similar legislation on four different occasions in the past.

The Muslim Brotherhood was founded in Egypt in the 1920s and spread throughout the Arab world over the following decades. The Palestinian Islamist organization Hamas is an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood, founded in the 1980s. Thanks for listening. To support The Texan, please be sure to visit thetexan.news and subscribe to get full access to all of our articles, newsletters, and podcasts.