April 13, 2026      9:00 PM

Sen. West faces off with Paxton's office in lawsuit over Hancock's unilateral sweeping changes to Historically Underutilized Businesses program

Trial set to start Nov 9th after State District Court Judge Meachum partially blocked Hancock from moving forward; the bench ruling is limited to the 6 plaintiffs

It was a bit of a spectacle in a Travis County courtroom Monday morning as Sen. Royce West jousted with a lawyer from the Office of the Attorney General over Acting Comptroller Kelly Hancock’s unilateral decision late last year to kick minorities and women out of the Historically Underutilized Business program.

The Texas Senate Democratic Caucus and plaintiffs including business owners who have described “having the rug pulled out from under us” were successful today in partially blocking Hancock from moving forward after the judge in the case issued a temporary injunction and set a trial for this fall. November 9 is the trial date. The injunction is limited to the 6 plaintiffs.

By Scott Braddock

Copyright April 13, 2026, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved