Good morning, 

Democrats want to take over Texas, and conservative activists say Republican leaders don't have a plan... so those grassroots leaders are proposing one.

Here is today's Texas Minute.

– Michael Quinn Sullivan 

Tuesday, July 23, 2019
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• A conservative stalwart congressman will be challenged in 2020 by the former darling of the political left. While her comeback bid to politics was first discussed months ago, abortion-advocate Wendy Davis on Monday made official her challenge to Texas Republican U.S. Rep. Chip Roy. Get the details from Brandon Waltens.
   
• Roy represents Congressional District 21, which touches both the Austin and San Antonio metropolitan areas. It was listed among the Democrat Congressional Campaign Committee’s top six targets for Democrats to flip in 2020, after they took the seats of former Reps. Pete Sessions of Dallas and John Culberson of Houston in 2018.
     
• Brandon Waltens also filed a report on the growing field of Democrats vying to challenge Republican John Cornyn for the U.S. Senate seat he has held since  the election of 2002. Democrat State Sen. Royce West of Dallas is the latest to announce his candidacy.
   
• Since the end of May, activists and donors have been arguing Gov. Greg Abbott, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, House Speaker Dennis Bonnen and other Republican leaders’ failure to deliver on conservative policy priorities is jeopardizing Republicans’ ability to win the state in 2020. A conservative donor and businessman, Don Dyer, announced on Monday the Lone Star Agenda, a plan developed by more than “150 grassroots leaders and nearly every conservative organization in Texas” to unify the state’s Republican leaders and voters. Cary Cheshire has the details. 
     
• “Texas is now a Purple State. To turn it Royal Blue, Democrats plan to inspire, excite and ignite Democratic voters. What’s our plan? It’s evident Republican leaders don’t have one that inspires confidence in their grassroots supporters.” – Don Dyer, a member of the Lone Star Agenda Coalition
   
• Erin Anderson reports on a clear-cut conservative win from the legislative session: lawmakers and grassroots activists succeeded in extending property rights protection to all Texans. House Bill 347 by State Rep. Phil King (R–Weatherford) enacted a statewide ban preventing Texas cities from annexing property without the owners’ consent.

• In what was an all-too-familiar pattern, the Texas Senate passed conservative legislation that was fumbled by the Texas House – killing the issue. In his latest autopsy report on the legislative session, Cary Cheshire looks at the effort to protect Texas’ historic monuments from destruction by radical progressives.  
      
• Senate Bill 1663 by Conroe Republican State Sen. Brandon Creighton providing specific protections for historical monuments passed the upper chamber in April but was never given a hearing in the House.
      
• “Just like the Taliban, the radical Left is bent on destroying religious monuments and statues all across America. These monuments range from military veterans’ memorials to the founding spiritual figures and murals in Ivy League colleges. The Left’s appetite for censorship and groupthink has also expanded into secular historical representations of Christopher Columbus and Confederate statues and monuments.” – Texas Conservative Grassroots Coalition letter of March 11, 2019