The Texan Podcast - Daily Rundown - October 18, 2024

Starting point is 00:00:00 Howdy y'all. Today is Friday, October 18th, and you're listening to the Texans Daily Rundown. I'm the Texans media and marketing manager, Mazlyn Jordan, and here's the rundown of today's news in Texas politics. First up, in the final hours remaining before Robert Robertson was scheduled to be put to death, a group of Texas House members used a unique legal remover to temporarily delay the execution. Roberson was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death in 2003, in connection with the death of his two-year-old daughter, Nikki Curtis, in 2002. Over the course of his time in prison, his attorneys have unsuccessfully appealed his case. Texas House members, with the assistance of the criminal justice reform group,

Starting point is 00:00:44 the Innocence Project, took an increased interest in his case over the past month. After a group of more than 80 Texas legislators signed a letter in support of Roberson, the House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee held a hearing to address the case. Just minutes before the scheduled execution, the Texas Supreme Court granted a temporary restraining order to delay the death of Roberson so that the district court could review the legislature's right to compel his testimony. The subpoena for Roberson to appear in a Texas House Committee hearing to provide testimony on his case is scheduled for next week, and Rep. Jeff Leach has said that Roberson will appear in Austin in person at the Texas Capitol. In other news, Senator Ted Cruz is outperforming former President Donald Trump in the latest poll released by the University of Texas, leading Congressman Colin Allred by seven points. In the survey of over a thousand likely voters, put both Trump

Starting point is 00:01:35 and Cruz at 51% in their respective races. On the Democratic side, Allred registered at 44% support, two points below Vice President Kamala Harris. Three percent of respondents said they'd vote either for Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein or Libertarian Chase Oliver. This is the largest margin Cruz has posted in recent weeks, and the RealClearPolitics polling average has Cruz at plus 4.5%. Nearly 60% of those third-party voters said they prefer Harris to Trump. Libertarian candidate for U.S. Senate Ted Brown registered at 4% support. The net favorable-unfavorable ratings for each of the top four candidates put Trump at minus 1%, Cruz at plus 2%,

Starting point is 00:02:18 Harris at minus 6%, and Allred at plus 1%. Allred's undecideds have been large for most of the race, as voters didn't know enough about him to make a decision. But this poll shows that's now changed. Voters have started to make up their minds on the Democratic challenger, and Cruz's negative ad blitz is working. Last but not least, a new poll indicates that Democratic candidates for key law enforcement positions continue to lead in the state's most populous county, although crime remains one of the top concerns for likely voters. In the University of Houston's Hobby School survey of just under 500 likely voters in Harris County, 53 percent of respondents planned to vote for the incumbent sheriff, Ed Gonzalez,

Starting point is 00:03:00 over Republican challenger Mike Knox, who trails at 37%. Another 10% of voters were undecided. First elected in 2016, Gonzalez maintains an overall favorable rating of 46%, with 28% having an unfavorable view of the sheriff. 52% of respondents did not have enough knowledge about Knox, a former Houston City Council member, to have an opinion. In the race for Harris County District Attorney, respondents favored Democratic nominee Sean Tehr over Republican Dan Simons by 52 to 38 percent, again with 10 percent undecided. The nominees for District Attorney were even less familiar to voters. However, with 42 percent saying that they did not know enough about Tehr and 56 percent

Starting point is 00:03:42 about Simons to form an opinion, just 35% had a favorable opinion of Ter, and 28% had a favorable opinion of Simons. 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. you

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The Texan Podcast - Daily Rundown - October 18, 2024

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