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March 6, 2026 3:10 PM

People on the Move

Lobby moves, associations’ news, big corporate gigs, and more

The Texas primary is in the books. Now onto a $100 million GOP runoff.

Or not.

Sen. John Cornyn and AG Ken Paxton spent most of their week wondering which of them will get an endorsement from President Trump. He not only promised to endorse one of them but also said he plans to demand the other drop out of the race. On the latest Quorum Report Radio podcast, dropping later this evening, we went in-depth on all that plus the way national Republicans are already working to portray Democratic US Senate Nominee James Talarico as a “far left” Austin liberal. Shouldn’t be too hard – they’re using his own words to prove it. The links to listen on Apple and Spotify are on the Quorum Report homepage. If you’re following Quorum Report Radio on your favorite podcast app, it’ll just show up automatically on your phone later.

Speaking of the show: Thanks to Mike McGuff for featuring the podcast. Mike, who covers media trends in Texas, was an avid listener of “the old show” and had some questions about the new one. You can check it out here. Depending on your browser, you might have to right click that link and open it in a new tab.

Meantime, it’s back to basics with People on the Move. There wasn’t as much career news crossing my desk during the final weeks of the primary, but now it’s picking up again. For the uninitiated, POTM is the premier way to let the Texas Capitol community know about your gig, venture, or whatever career news you want to share. Send it anytime to ksbraddock@gmail.com and use POTM in the subject line for the quickest service. I’m always happy to get texts from y’all but for this stuff, email is better so I can keep it all straight.

Here’s the latest edition.

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By Scott Braddock

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March 6, 2026 2:22 PM

Kronberg with a personal plea to help our friend Davey Joe Montgomery

The initial fundraiser reached its goals but of course the true expense of sustained health care after an accident is much more

I am happy to report that we exceeded our initial goals in raising money to help veteran Davey Joe Montgomery cover his hospital bills. However, as anyone who has dealt with long term hospital and rehab care knows, our initial goal did not begin to cover the true expense.

So, I thought I might tell one of the many untold stories about Davey Joe’s career and see if we can rustle up some more dollars to meet new goals. You can donate here.

Although Davey Joe was stationed for seven years in the Soviet Union, I suspect this untold story of speaker politics ranks right up there.

Republicans gained the Texas House majority in 2003 and elected Tom Craddick as Speaker. By 2007, his chairmen were frustrated at his micromanagement and engineered an insurrection to try and take him out of the chair. That ultimately failed.

But the stage was set for a 2009 speaker’s race.

Amazingly, Barack Obama had enormous coattails and in 2008, Texans elected 76 Republicans and 74 Democrats to the Texas House – a virtual tie.

Then-Democratic Caucus chair Jim Dunnam said, “you guys won, you have the majority, you get to pick the Speaker. All I can say is as long as it’s anybody but Craddick, I can deliver at least 50-55 votes.”

And the hunt was on.

Then referred to as the Cardinals, mostly Republican chairman picked Joe Straus.

It was a heated race until…

Back then, the pressroom was alive and robust, and Craigslist had not yet destroyed newspaper classifieds, so it was a hotbed of energy and yelling and just good times. But you could always hear Davey Joe’s accent over the din.

If memory serves, he was working for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram at the time and just as a routine speaker’s race story he contacted one of Craddick’s captains, a state representative named Warren Chisum from Pampa Texas.

Not particularly expecting an answer, Davey Joe who was in the next to me me asked Chisum, “so how many pledges do you have?”

Chisum did not know how to lie or mislead so he just candidly said “well, 56”.

Completely measured and without showing any emotion, Davey Joe simply said, “let me make sure I got that right and repeat it back to you, you have 56 pledges, right?”

The room went silent. Everyone knew that Davey Joe just got the scoop of the speaker’s race and no one, including Quorum Report was going to steal that scoop from him.

Representative Chisum did not realize until later that he had just ended the speaker’s race. An incumbent speaker with only 56 pledges days before session started was toast.

They Startlegram (as it was known) published his story and within a matter of days if not hours Joe Straus had all the votes he needed to coast to victory.

It’s that kind of reporting over many decades that’s shed so much light on developing situations at the Texas Capitol.

Since Davey Joe has always helped all of us understand what’s happening in Texas government, we hope you’ll join us in helping him and his wife now.

By Harvey Kronberg

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March 5, 2026 10:15 PM

Amid scandal, Congressman Tony Gonzales drops out of the GOP runoff in South Texas

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March 4, 2026 12:38 PM

Presdident Trump says he will endorse either Cornyn or Paxton soon and will ask the odd man out to drop out

Meantime Axios in DC reports that President Trump is expected to endorse Cornyn in the Texas Senate race. That's per a source with knowledge of the talks who spoke to the publication today

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March 4, 2026 11:05 AM

In post primary memo, Cornyn campaign lays out case for why he is well positioned to win runoff

Subscribers can download it.

The rest of the story, subscribers only

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March 4, 2026 7:53 AM

Dallas County DA John Creuzot appears to have narrowly lost to his Democratic challenger Amber Givens 52 to 48

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March 4, 2026 1:40 AM

The Associated Press projects Talarico has defeated Crockett to be the Democratic nominee for US Senate in Texas

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March 3, 2026 11:01 PM

In Democratic Senate primary, Crockett and Talarico wait for results amid a court battle over voter confusion in Dallas County

Dallas is Crockett’s home base and historically home to more than 10% of all ballots cast in Democratic primaries in Texas; the county GOP led by Chair Allen West refused a joint primary with Democrats leading to confusion about where voters could cast their ballot

AUSTIN – It couldn’t just be a clean finish, could it?

Here in Austin, Rep. James Talarico is holding off for now on moving forward with a celebration and Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett up in Dallas told supporters she will not appear before them again this evening because she does not expect final results just yet in the most-watched Democratic US Senate primary in the nation.

The rest of the story, subscribers only

By Scott Braddock

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March 3, 2026 10:50 PM

Rep. Orr defeats Kat Wall in GOP primary in Hillsboro

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March 3, 2026 10:35 PM

Speaker Burrows and Gov. Abbott congratulate Chair Ken King on winning his primary

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March 3, 2026 10:22 PM

The AP projects former Sen. Huffines will win the GOP nomination for Texas Comptroller outright tonight with 58 percent of the vote

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March 3, 2026 9:56 PM

Rep. Toth declares victory over Congressman Crenshaw

Toth leads 57 to 39 with more than 57 percent of the vote in

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March 3, 2026 9:53 PM

Nate Sheets leading Ag Commissioner Miller 55 to 45 in GOP primary

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March 3, 2026 9:48 PM

Short of an election day miracle for him, it appears Rep. Stan Kitzman will lose to challenger Goose Geesaman

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March 3, 2026 9:02 PM

In East Texas, Rep. Trent Ashby leads Rhonda Ward 63 to 36 in early returns for SD 3

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March 3, 2026 8:56 PM

Texas Supreme Court temporarily invalidates Dallas County votes cast after 7pm in the Democratic primary

A judge in Dallas had ordered the polls to stay open until 9pm in the Democratic primary because of confusion at the polls. Those who voted after 7pm would have been given provisional ballots that now may end up in the trash

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March 3, 2026 8:03 PM

Former Sen Huffines leads in early returns with 61 percent of the GOP primary vote for Texas Comptroller

Hancock at 23, Craddick at 12

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March 3, 2026 7:57 PM

Senators Middleton and Johnson lead in early vote in their primaries for Texas AG

On the GOP side, Middleton is at 45, Roy at 27, Reitz at 13, and Huffman at 12. For the Democrats: Sen. Johnson leads Jaworski 47 to 28 percent with Tony Box at 24

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March 3, 2026 7:51 PM

Rep. Orr leads challenger Kat Wall in early vote 61 to 39

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March 3, 2026 7:46 PM

Cornyn leads in early GOP vote while Talarico takes the lead over Crockett in early vote

First early votes in: Cornyn with 44, Paxton at 38, and 13 for Wes Hunt. Rep Crockett now trails Talarico 52 to 47

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March 3, 2026 7:38 PM

Rep. Hubert Vo appears headed to runoff with Democratic challenber Darlene Breaux

Vo leading Breaux in early vote 40 to 37

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March 3, 2026 7:11 PM

Rep. Chris Turner trailing his Democratic challenger Junior Ezeonu in early vote 53 5o 46

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March 3, 2026 6:00 PM

A judge in Dallas County orders Democratic primary voting to stay open until 9:00 p.m.

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