The Texan Podcast - Daily Rundown - September 23, 2026

Episode Date: September 23, 2026

The Texan’s Daily Rundown brings you a quick recap of the latest stories in Texas politics so you can stay informed with news you can trust.Want more resources? Visit The Texan for complete access to our in-depth articles, newsletters, videos, podcasts, and more.Enjoy what you hear? Be sure to follow us and leave a review!

Well, howdy, folks. Today is Wednesday, September 23rd, 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, new polling shows State Representative James Tala Rico, touting a narrow one-point lead over Attorney General Ken Paxton in the race for Texas Open U.S. Senate seat. While Beau French still holds a small lead over State Representative John Rosenthal in the race for the Railroad Commission, the Republican has lost ground since his controversial comments about a group of University of Texas at Austin students at a football game, suggesting the university prioritized foreigners over Texans. In the poll conducted by the Barbara Jordan Public Policy Research and Survey Center at Texas Southern University, which surveyed 1,800 likely voters between September 11th and September 18th,

Tala Rico led with 47%, followed by Paxton at 46%, while Libertarian candidate Ted Brown held 3% and 4% were undecided. The poll has a margin of error of 2.3%. While 99% of Democrats said they planned to vote for Tala Rico, just 84% of Republicans said they would vote for Paxton. Of the other Republicans, 7% said they would vote for Tala Rico and 4% for Brown, and 5% were still undecided. Next, just a little over 40 days out from the general election, U.S. Senator Ted Cruz joined his potential future colleague, Attorney General Ken Paxton, on the campaign trail in the Houston area. The Texas on the Front Line rally, hosted at Glorious Way Church in Cyprus, featured several local Republican candidates and leaned heavily on critical.

of Paxton's Democratic opponent, Tala Rico, for his socially liberal record. Cruz attributed Tala Rico's apparent lead in polling to the amount of money in attack ads that the Democrats have run against Paxton. He said, quote, the polling in this race has it in a dead heat, and there's a reason for that. He continued, quote, turns out when you face $200 million of attack ads, it's going to leave a mark. The same day Cruz stood on stage with Paxton in Cyprus, U.S. Senator John Cornyn reportedly held a fundraiser alongside former President George W. Bush a few hours north in Dallas for GOP Senate candidates in battleground races, excluding Paxton. In other news, the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals struck down a major law regulating the purchase of firearms on Friday, September 16th. The two-to-one decision in Elite Precision Customs LLC versus Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives

reversed a lower court ruling from the Northern District of Texas and found the ban on interstate gun sales violated the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The lawsuit challenged several provisions of the Gun Control Act of 1968. These included several sections of the U.S. Code that, taken together, forbid the sale of firearms to persons in another state. This has meant that gun sales made across state lines need to be done via a transfer. Typically, firearms are shipped to an in-state dealer who charges a transfer fee, often between $30 and $50, before handing them off to the purchaser, including elite precision customs which sought to sell handguns directly to out-of-state customers, two individuals who reside outside of Texas and sought to purchase handguns directly,

and the Firearms Policy Coalition. Last but not least, a petition to remove Tarrant County Judge Tim O'Hare from office has been dismissed by a state district court judge. Former State Representative Lon Burnham filed the petition on September 9th, asking the court to remove O'Hare from his position as the county's chief political executive for alleged official misconduct. Burnham was arrested in August and faces criminal charges for allegedly disrupting the commissioner's court meeting on August 4th. Judge James Johnson of the 431st Judicial District Court dismissed Burnham's petition and denied the request for citation, which notifies the defendant of the lawsuit and demands that they file an answer. The judge determined that the petition did not allege facts that would constitute official misconduct or incompetency as required under the Texas Local Government Code for removal.

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