The Texan Podcast - Daily Rundown - September 11, 2026

Starting point is 00:00:04 Well, howdy folks. Today is Friday, September 11th, and you're listening to the Texans' Daily Rundown. I'm the Texan senior editor Rob Lauchess, and here is the rundown of today's news in Texas politics. First up, President Donald Trump floated the idea on Wednesday of sending American adult citizens $5,000 a piece if they elect Republican majorities this November. Speaking at the Republican National Committee's midterm convention in Dallas on Wednesday, Trump promise to send every adult American citizen a $5,000 check if the November elections yield Republican majorities in the U.S. House and Senate. He compared it to a corporation paying dividends to its shareholders and added that recipients must spend the money in the U.S. There were about 270 million adult Americans as of July 2025, meaning a $5,000 stipend for each one would cost

Starting point is 00:00:59 at least $1.3 trillion. According to the Congressional Budget Office, the federal budget deficit was $2 trillion in the first 11 months of fiscal year 2026. Trump said in November 2025 that he would be sending out payments of, quote, at least $2,000 a person, not including high earners, end quote. Earlier that year, he said his administration would be distributing 20% of federal money saved by the now-ended Department of Government Efficiency to American citizens. In other news, the Supreme Court of Texas has blocked Galveston, County from using election maps in November that commissioners redrew in June, months after voters had

Starting point is 00:01:40 already participated in the 2026 primary elections. In an unsigned opinion issued Friday, Scotix held that a county may not change commissioner or Justice of the Peace precinct lines after a primary has already been held for that election cycle. Attorneys for Galveston County argued that no state law prohibited the post-primary redistricting, but Skodick's justices opined that while the state's constitution allows commissioners to redraw precincts from time to time, under the Texas election code, a primary and the corresponding general election are effectively one election. The court wrote, quote, neither the Texas constitution nor any statute authorizes the county to take the unusual and perhaps unprecedented step of choosing to conduct a general election using

Starting point is 00:02:28 precinct lines that differ from those used in the corresponding primary election, absent an overriding state or federal law obligating it to do so, end quote. The new maps were to align the constable and J.P. precincts with those of the commissioners and expand the boundaries of Commissioner Precinct 3 northward toward League City and Friendswood. But critics accused the county of diluting the voting strength of black and Hispanic residents and argued that voters had already cast ballots for the candidates in the March 26 primary elections. Last but not least, a surrogate mother who gave birth in Texas despite the intended parents demand for an abortion due to the baby's life-threatening heart condition is now asking that the Supreme Court of the United States block another state's

Starting point is 00:03:13 order denying her parental rights. Alaskan nurse McKenna West, who carried and birthed the baby, known as Gabriel, or Rumi, which the intended parents, Omar Ahmed and Nashin Gilcar, named him post-birth, believes that a California judgment granting parental rights to Ahmed and Gilcar will allow for the baby to be removed from his ongoing treatment in Texas and put on hospice care in California. West was requested to abort the baby after he was diagnosed with hypoplastic left heart syndrome shortly after he reached 20 weeks. West left Alaska for Texas in order to secure treatment for the baby and a state with pro-life laws alongside top medical care for such cases, and he was born in mid-August. Just days before the birth, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a brief in the

Starting point is 00:04:01 parentage case filed in Dallas County in support of West, quote, to identify and faithfully present the strongest legally supportable basis for ensuring medically indicated life-saving treatment where the law permits it. Thanks for listening. To support the Texan, please be sure to visit the texan.News to get full access to all of our articles, newsletters, and podcasts. Thank you.

The Texan Podcast - Daily Rundown - September 11, 2026

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