by Alexa Ura, Jim Malewitz, Chris Essig and Matthew Zhang
The U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments Tuesday in a Texas redistricting case that has flagged two congressional districts and nine Texas House districts. Here's a closer look at one of the districts in question: U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett's curiously shaped 35th Congressional District.
Demonstrators gather at the Texas Capitol to protest a government mandate to wearing face masks during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Eddie Gaspar/The Texas Tribune
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They’re noisy — and powerless. They work with the same machinery used by trolls on social media, who labor in the hope that public shaming of their enemies might give them the leverage to shape the world, or some corner of it.
The Texas trolls want to ignore the governor’s latest restrictions for wearing masks and keeping social distance and closing bars as the measures of the pandemic worsen. Abbott folded when confronted by people protesting business closings in May but this time is ignoring them, and responding to the coronavirus as a big deal — a task worth his government’s time and attention.
And his tone is gaining urgency.
“I knew that it wasn’t going to be popular,” Abbott said Thursday evening during an interview with KTEN-TV in Sherman. “I knew that it was even counter to what even I wanted, but also I knew that it was something that had to be done. The coronavirus is spreading so rapidly across the state of Texas, the last thing that we want to do is shut Texas back down. The only way we can prevent Texas from being shut down is for everybody to adopt this practice of wearing a face mask.”
By noon the next day, in an interview with Lubbock’s KLBK-TV, he was unequivocal.
“Things will get worse, and let me explain why,” Abbott said. “The deaths that we’re seeing announced today and yesterday, which are now over 100, those are people who likely contracted COVID-19 in late May. The worst is yet to come as we work our way through that massive increase in people testing positive.”
He said he didn’t want to order people to wear face masks but added that the next step, if they don’t wear them or the numbers rise, would be a lockdown.
Meanwhile, a handful of county Republican Party organizations have censured Abbott for his restrictions, a group that includes local parties in Denton, Montgomery, Ector, Hood, Harrison and Llano counties.
Give them their due. Self-styled liberty activists successfully shouted Abbott into a corner during what had to be his worst-ever hair day in May. Shelley Luther, owner of a Dallas hair salon closed by the orders Abbott had put in place, opened anyway and was jailed after refusing to abide by a court order telling her to close. After the considerable hubbub that followed, Abbott removed the punishment provisions from his COVID-19 orders, effectively vindicating Luther and others who were ignoring them.
When Luther and others were protesting, the state was coming out of its first round of restrictions. The COVID-19 numbers looked better than some expected, including Abbott, who began loosening his orders after just a month. Luther and others didn’t think he was going fast enough and found the right mix of civil disobedience to speed him up.
But this time, Abbott seems to be holding his ground, even with people from his own party openly defying or ignoring his COVID-19 restrictions. He’s including more counties in his orders now. He’s reinstated, for many places, a ban on elective surgeries that might direct medical staff and resources needed for COVID-19 patients.
The difference is in the numbers. More than 10,400 Texans are hospitalized now. More than that — 9,782 — were diagnosed with COVID-19 on Wednesday. That same day, 105 people died — the first time Texas topped 100 deaths in a day.
Those are lagging indicators, a way of saying many of the people who will die in Texas next week are already sick right now. A governor who has preferred the sunniest outlook available is saying openly that things are going to get worse before they get better.
Who cares what the trolls think? There’s a pandemic out there.
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Police in St. Louis, Mo., searched the mansion of the couple who brandished guns at protesters marching outside their home last month in widely seen videos, local media reported.
Chris Hayes interviews U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz at The Texas Tribune Festival on Saturday, Sept. 28, 2019.
Bob Daemmrich for The Texas Tribune
U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz on Friday said calls for a boycott of Goya Foods because its CEO praised President Donald Trump were an attempt to “silence free speech.” But one year ago, the Texas Republican encouraged people to boycott Nike after the company halted plans to sell shoes featuring the Betsy Ross flag that some say glorifies slavery and racism, according to NPR.
On Thursday, Goya Foods CEO Robert Unanue praised president Donald Trump in a ceremony at The White House. Goya bills itself as America’s largest Hispanic-owned food company.
“We’re all truly blessed at the same time to have a leader like President Trump who is a builder, and that’s what my grandfather did,” said Unanue. “He came to this country to build, to grow, to prosper. And so we have an incredible builder, and we pray for our leadership, our president, and we pray for our country that we will continue to prosper and to grow.”
That sparked an immediate reaction on Twitter, where hashtags like #BoycottGoya, #GoyaFoods and #Goyaway began trending. Hispanic leaders, including former U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development and presidential hopeful Julián Castro, responded with anger, noting that the president has villainized and attacked Latinos "for political gain."
“Free speech works both ways. @Goyafoods CEO is free to support a bigoted president who said an American judge can’t do his job because he’s 'Mexican', who treats Puerto Rico like trash, and who tries to deport Dreamers,” Castro tweeted on Friday. “We’re free to leave his products on the shelves. #Goyaway.”
The League of United Latin American Citizens, the nation's oldest and largest Latino civil rights organization, also defended the boycott.
“GOYA is turning its back on our community to appease a President who attacks and demonizes Latinos daily,” said Domingo Garcia, National President of the League of United Latin American Citizens on a statement on Friday. “I will recommend adoption of a national boycott against GOYA Foods unless Mr. Unanue issues a public apology and formal retraction by 5PM EST Saturday.”
But Cruz criticized the backlash.
“Goya is a staple of Cuban food. My grandparents ate Goya black beans twice a day for nearly 90 years. And now the Left is trying to cancel Hispanic culture and silence free speech,” Cruz tweeted on Friday.
Yet Cruz last yearsaid that he wouldn’t buy any more Nike products, after the brand decided to pull the sneaker designedwith the the 13-star Betsy Ross flag. This decision came after former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick “expressed the concern to the company that the Betsy Ross flag had been co-opted by groups espousing racist ideologies,” according to The New York Times.
“I love America. I stand for the anthem, respect the flag & honor the men & women who fought to defend our Nation,” Senator Cruz tweeted in July 2019. “I respect Free Speech & I’m exerting mine: until @Nike ends its contempt for those values, I WILL NO LONGER PURCHASE NIKE PRODUCTS. #WalkAwayFromNike RT if you agree.”
Cruz's office did not respond to a request for comment late Friday.
In an interview with Fox News on Friday, Unanue said he visited The White House as part as the unveiling of president Trump’s Hispanic Prosperity Initiative, a public-private initiative to promote education and entrepreneurship within the Hispanic community. He called the boycott a "suppression of speech."
Correction: A previous version of this story misstated Julián Castro's experience in public office. He is a former U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development.
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