Tarrant County Republican won't seek reelection to TX House; mayor bids for seat
Capriglione was first elected to House District 98 in 2012. The district falls within Tarrant County and includes Colleyville, Grapevine, Westlake and parts of Euless, Flower Mound, Southlake and Trophy Club.
'This has not been an easy decision,' Capriglione said in the post. 'Serving you in the Texas Legislature has been one of the great honors of my life. When I first ran, I had a clear purpose: go down to Austin, work hard, and fight for the principles and values that make Texas strong. Over the years, I've done exactly that. And while I've given this work everything I have, I also feel in my heart that I've accomplished what I set out to do. It's time for a new chapter.'
Capriglione said he'll finish out the remainder of his term, which ends in January. He serves as chair of the Delivery of Government Efficiency (DOGE) committee, on the Ways and Means Committee and on the House Subcommittee on Property Tax Appraisals.
He chairs the House Innovation and Technology Caucus, and is the owner and president of Texas Adventure Capital LLC.
'This has been a journey of faith, service, and relentless effort,' Capriglione said in the post. 'I don't yet know what the future holds, but I trust that God is still writing my story. For now, I look forward to spending more time with my family, returning to life back home, and continuing to serve in whatever way I can, just not in this same role.'
Soon after his announcement, Keller Mayor Armin Mizani announced he was running for House District 98. He had previously announced a bid for Senate District 9, but is no longer running for the seat in a coming special election, his campaign confirmed.
His announcement came with a slew of endorsements from Tarrant County area elected officials.
'We've received a groundswell of support and encouragement to run for this seat,' Mizani said. 'And while we may be pursuing a different office to serve our communities, our purpose remains the same: to ensure our communities have an unapologetic conservative champion representing us in Austin — someone focused on keeping Texas the best place to live, work, and raise a family.'
A Nov. 4 special election is being held for the Senate seat that was vacated by Sen. Kelly Hancock, who's now the acting Texas Comptroller.
Republicans Leigh Wambsganss and John Huffman, the former mayor of Southlake, as well as Democrat Taylor Rehmet are seeking the Senate seat, which covers much of Northeast Tarrant County including North Richland Hills, Keller and White Settlement.
In addition to Hancock and Capriglione's exits, Rep. Tony Tinderholt, an Arlington Republican, has said he won't seek reelection, instead running for Tarrant County Commissioner, precinct 2.
Sen. Brian Birdwell, a Granbury Republican, isn't seeking reelection to Senate District 22, and Rep. David Cook, a Mansfield Republican, is seeking his Senate seat.
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Yahoo
28 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Darren Walker's new book is still hopeful despite growing inequality as he leaves Ford Foundation
NEW YORK (AP) — Darren Walker needed to be convinced of his new book's relevance. The outgoing Ford Foundation president feared that 'The Idea of America," set to publish in September just before he leaves the nonprofit, risked feeling disjointed. In more than eight dozen selected texts dating back to 2013, he reflects on everything from his path as a Black, gay child from rural Texas into the halls of premiere American philanthropies to his solutions for reversing the deepening inequality of our 'new Gilded Age." 'To be clear, not everything I said and wrote over the last 12 years is worthy of publication," Walker said. A point of great regret, he said, is that he finds American democracy weaker now than when he started. Younger generations lack access to the same 'mobility escalator' that he rode from poverty. And he described President Donald Trump's administration's first six months as 'disorienting' for a sector he successfully pushed to adopt more ambitious and just funding practices. Despite that bleak picture, Walker embraces the characterization of his upcoming collection as patriotic. 'My own journey in America leaves me no option but to be hopeful because I have lived in a country that believed in me,' he said. Walker recently discussed his tenure and the book's call for shared values with the Associated Press inside his Ford Foundation office — where an enlarged picture of a Black child taken by Malian portrait photographer Seydou Keïta still hangs, one of many underrepresented artists' works that populated the headquarters under his leadership. This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity. Q: Upon becoming Ford Foundation's president, you suggested that 'our most important job is to work ourselves out of a job' — a 2013 statement you include in the book. How would you grade your efforts? A: The past 12 years have been both exhilarating and exhausting. Exhilarating because there's never been a more exciting time to be in philanthropy. And exhausting because the political, socioeconomic dynamics of the last 12 years are very worrisome for our future. Philanthropy can play a role in helping to strengthen our democracy. But philanthropy can't save America. I would probably give myself a B or a B-. I don't think where we are as a nation after 12 years is where any country would want to be that had its eye on the future and the strength of our democracy. Q: Is there anything you would do differently? A: In 2013 and those early speeches, I identified growing inequality as a challenge to the strength of our democracy. And a part of that manifestation of growing inequality was a growing sense of disaffection — from our politics, our institutions, our economy. For the first time, a decade or so ago, we had clear evidence that working class white households were increasingly downwardly mobile economically. And the implications for that are deep and profound for our politics and our democracy. We started a program on increasing our investments in rural America, acknowledging some of the challenges, for example, of the trends around the impacts of the opioid epidemic on those communities. I underestimated the depth and the collective sense of being left behind. Even though I think I was correct in diagnosing the problem, I think the strategy to respond was not focused enough on this population. Q: Many people credit you for using Ford Foundation's endowment to increase grantmaking during the pandemic. Is that sort of creativity needed now with the new strains faced by the philanthropic sector? A: One of the disappointments I have with philanthropy is that we don't take enough risk. We don't innovate given the potential to use our capital to provide solutions. I do think that, in the coming years, foundations are going to be challenged to step up and lean in in ways that we haven't since the pandemic. The 5% payout is treated as a ceiling by a lot of foundations and, in fact, it's a floor. During these times when there's so much accumulated wealth sitting in our endowments, the public rightly is asking questions about just how much of that we are using and towards what end. Q: Where do you derive this sense of 'radical hope' at the end of your book? A: As a poor kid in rural Texas, I was given the license to dream. In fact, I was encouraged to dream and to believe that it will be possible for me to overcome the circumstances into which I was born. I've lived on both sides of the line of inequality. And I feel incredibly fortunate. But I'm also sobered by the gap between the privileged and the poor and the working-class people in America. It has widened during my lifetime and that is something I worry a lot about. But I'm hopeful because I think about my ancestors who were Black, enslaved, poor. African Americans, Black people, Black Americans have been hopeful for 400 years and have been patriots in believing in the possibility that this country would realize its aspirations for equality and justice. That has been our North Star. Q: Heather Gerken, the dean of Yale's law school, was recently named as your successor. Why is it important to have a leader with a legal background and an expertise in democracy? A: She is the perfect leader for Ford because she understands that at the center of our work must be a belief in democracy and democratic institutions and processes. She is also a bridge builder. She is a coalition builder. She's bold and courageous. I'm just thrilled about her taking the helm of the Ford Foundation. It is a signal from the Ford Foundation Board of Trustees that we are going to double down on our investment and our commitment to strengthening, protecting and promoting democracy. Q: Youtold AP last year that, when you exited this building for the last time, you'd only be looking forward. What does 'forward' mean to you now? A: I have resolved that I don't want to be a president or a CEO. I don't need to be a president of CEO. I think leaders can become nostalgic and hold onto their own history. Now there's no doubt, I know, that my obituary is going to say, 'Darren Walker, the president of the Ford Foundation." That's the most important job I'll ever have. But hopefully I'll be able to add some more important work to that. ___ Associated Press coverage of philanthropy and nonprofits receives support through the AP's collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content. For all of AP's philanthropy coverage, visit James Pollard, The Associated Press
Associated Press
31 minutes ago
- Associated Press
Darren Walker's new book is still hopeful despite growing inequality as he leaves Ford Foundation
NEW YORK (AP) — Darren Walker needed to be convinced of his new book's relevance. The outgoing Ford Foundation president feared that 'The Idea of America,' set to publish in September just before he leaves the nonprofit, risked feeling disjointed. In more than eight dozen selected texts dating back to 2013, he reflects on everything from his path as a Black, gay child from rural Texas into the halls of premiere American philanthropies to his solutions for reversing the deepening inequality of our 'new Gilded Age.' 'To be clear, not everything I said and wrote over the last 12 years is worthy of publication,' Walker said. A point of great regret, he said, is that he finds American democracy weaker now than when he started. Younger generations lack access to the same 'mobility escalator' that he rode from poverty. And he described President Donald Trump's administration's first six months as 'disorienting' for a sector he successfully pushed to adopt more ambitious and just funding practices. Despite that bleak picture, Walker embraces the characterization of his upcoming collection as patriotic. 'My own journey in America leaves me no option but to be hopeful because I have lived in a country that believed in me,' he said. Walker recently discussed his tenure and the book's call for shared values with the Associated Press inside his Ford Foundation office — where an enlarged picture of a Black child taken by Malian portrait photographer Seydou Keïta still hangs, one of many underrepresented artists' works that populated the headquarters under his leadership. This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity. Q: Upon becoming Ford Foundation's president, you suggested that 'our most important job is to work ourselves out of a job' — a 2013 statement you include in the book. How would you grade your efforts? A: The past 12 years have been both exhilarating and exhausting. Exhilarating because there's never been a more exciting time to be in philanthropy. And exhausting because the political, socioeconomic dynamics of the last 12 years are very worrisome for our future. Philanthropy can play a role in helping to strengthen our democracy. But philanthropy can't save America. I would probably give myself a B or a B-. I don't think where we are as a nation after 12 years is where any country would want to be that had its eye on the future and the strength of our democracy. Q: Is there anything you would do differently? A: In 2013 and those early speeches, I identified growing inequality as a challenge to the strength of our democracy. And a part of that manifestation of growing inequality was a growing sense of disaffection — from our politics, our institutions, our economy. For the first time, a decade or so ago, we had clear evidence that working class white households were increasingly downwardly mobile economically. And the implications for that are deep and profound for our politics and our democracy. We started a program on increasing our investments in rural America, acknowledging some of the challenges, for example, of the trends around the impacts of the opioid epidemic on those communities. I underestimated the depth and the collective sense of being left behind. Even though I think I was correct in diagnosing the problem, I think the strategy to respond was not focused enough on this population. Q: Many people credit you for using Ford Foundation's endowment to increase grantmaking during the pandemic. Is that sort of creativity needed now with the new strains faced by the philanthropic sector? A: One of the disappointments I have with philanthropy is that we don't take enough risk. We don't innovate given the potential to use our capital to provide solutions. I do think that, in the coming years, foundations are going to be challenged to step up and lean in in ways that we haven't since the pandemic. The 5% payout is treated as a ceiling by a lot of foundations and, in fact, it's a floor. During these times when there's so much accumulated wealth sitting in our endowments, the public rightly is asking questions about just how much of that we are using and towards what end. Q: Where do you derive this sense of 'radical hope' at the end of your book? A: As a poor kid in rural Texas, I was given the license to dream. In fact, I was encouraged to dream and to believe that it will be possible for me to overcome the circumstances into which I was born. I've lived on both sides of the line of inequality. And I feel incredibly fortunate. But I'm also sobered by the gap between the privileged and the poor and the working-class people in America. It has widened during my lifetime and that is something I worry a lot about. But I'm hopeful because I think about my ancestors who were Black, enslaved, poor. African Americans, Black people, Black Americans have been hopeful for 400 years and have been patriots in believing in the possibility that this country would realize its aspirations for equality and justice. That has been our North Star. Q: Heather Gerken, the dean of Yale's law school, was recently named as your successor. Why is it important to have a leader with a legal background and an expertise in democracy? A: She is the perfect leader for Ford because she understands that at the center of our work must be a belief in democracy and democratic institutions and processes. She is also a bridge builder. She is a coalition builder. She's bold and courageous. I'm just thrilled about her taking the helm of the Ford Foundation. It is a signal from the Ford Foundation Board of Trustees that we are going to double down on our investment and our commitment to strengthening, protecting and promoting democracy. Q: Youtold AP last year that, when you exited this building for the last time, you'd only be looking forward. What does 'forward' mean to you now? A: I have resolved that I don't want to be a president or a CEO. I don't need to be a president of CEO. I think leaders can become nostalgic and hold onto their own history. Now there's no doubt, I know, that my obituary is going to say, 'Darren Walker, the president of the Ford Foundation.' That's the most important job I'll ever have. But hopefully I'll be able to add some more important work to that. ___ Associated Press coverage of philanthropy and nonprofits receives support through the AP's collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content. For all of AP's philanthropy coverage, visit
The Verge
an hour ago
- The Verge
How Trump let Boeing off the hook for the 737 MAX crashes
On July 18th, a federal judge in Texas scheduled what will likely be the final hearing in the case of United States v. The Boeing Company. After five years of litigation, the end result can only be described as a victory for Boeing — and a permanent setback for those who hoped that the company would be held accountable for a decade of safety violations. Last year, Boeing's prospects looked far bleaker. In 2021, the Department of Justice charged the company with conspiracy to defraud the government about the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS) software on the 737 MAX, which has been linked to the deaths of 346 people in the crashes of Lion Air 610 and Ethiopian Airlines 302. (The Verge first covered this story in 2019.) After years of legal maneuvering, the company agreed to plead guilty to the conspiracy charge in July 2024 in order to avoid a criminal trial. Under the plea bargain's terms, Boeing would pay nearly $2.5 billion to airlines, families of crash victims, and the government, plus accept three years of monitoring from an independent safety consultant. That agreement was thrown out by a federal judge in December, and a trial date was set for June 2025. If convicted, Boeing would not be able to simply pay its way out of trouble. As a corporate felon, the company would have to permanently accept increased government scrutiny over every part of its business — a return to a regulatory model that Congress repealed in 2005, after significant lobbying by the aviation and defense industries. According to one legal think tank, United States v. Boeing had the potential to be one of the most significant corporate compliance judgments in decades. But then Donald Trump returned to the White House. Many of Trump's strongest political allies have benefited from significant changes in policy under the new administration: the crypto industry, industrial polluters, and Elon Musk, to name a few. Boeing has spent a considerable amount of money building a relationship with Trump, too. It donated $1 million to his inauguration fund, and its CEO accompanied Trump on his recent trip to Qatar. Its payout came last May, when the head of the DOJ's Criminal Division, Matthew Galeotti, announced a change of enforcement strategy. Galeotti directed his division to no longer pursue 'overboard and unchecked corporate and white-collar enforcement [that] burdens U.S. businesses and harms U.S. interests.' Instead, he wanted it to focus on a narrower set of crimes, including terrorism, tariff-dodging, drug trafficking, and 'Chinese Money Laundering Organizations.' 'Not all corporate misconduct warrants federal criminal prosecution,' the memo stated. 'It is critical to American prosperity to acknowledge …companies that are willing to learn from their mistakes.' Boeing has spent a considerable amount of money building a relationship with Trump. Two weeks later, the DOJ agreed to drop the charges against Boeing completely. Instead of pleading guilty, Boeing would now just be liable for a reduced monetary penalty of around $1.2 billion: $235 million in new fines, plus $445 million into a fund for the families of the 737 MAX crash victims. It would also have to invest $455 million to enhance its 'compliance and safety programs,' part of which would pay for an 'independent compliance consultant' for two years of oversight. It avoided a felony charge, and more importantly, it was allowed to continue self-auditing its own products. The DOJ's rationale for the change was that it expects companies to be 'willing to learn from [their] mistakes.' This is not a skill that Boeing seems to possess. The company makes plenty of mistakes. Its 737 MAX has been plagued by computer errors that go far beyond MCAS. Its strategy of outsourcing production to third-party suppliers has been a consistent source of manufacturing errors and delays for almost a decade. Its lack of investment in quality control in its factories have caused new airplanes to be delivered with a variety of severe defects: excessive gaps in airplane fuselages, metal debris near critical wiring bundles or inside fuel tanks, and door plugs installed without security bolts. The latter issue led to the explosive decompression of Alaska Airlines 1282 in January 2024, an incident that went viral thanks to the dramatic passenger video taken from inside the cabin. But Boeing does not seem to be able to learn from its mistakes. According to the DOJ, Boeing has known all of this and has still 'fail[ed] to design, implement, and enforce a compliance and ethics program.' Although the company has brought on two new CEOs in the last six years, each of whom promised to clean things up, Boeing's core culture still remains — which is the root cause of all of its technical problems. The DOJ's rationale for the change was that it expects companies to be 'willing to learn from [their] mistakes.' This is not a skill that Boeing seems to possess. As I wrote in my book about the 737 MAX crashes, Boeing is so large and so firmly entrenched as one of the world's two major commercial airplane makers that it is functionally immune from the market's invisible hand. It is so strategically and economically important that it will always get bailed out, even in the face of a global crisis such as the COVID-19 pandemic. And it makes so much money every year that even the multibillion-dollar fines that the DOJ is willing to impose amount to just a small portion of its annual revenues. 'Boeing became too big to fail,' former FTC chair Lina Khan said in a 2024 speech. 'Worse quality is one of the harms that most economists expect from monopolization, because firms that face little competition have limited incentive to improve their products.' If regulators won't step in and force Boeing to change, then it will continue to prioritize profits over safety — the only rational choice in a consequence-free environment. This might be a good bargain for its shareholders, but not for passengers. Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All by Darryl Campbell Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All Aviation Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All Boeing Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. See All Policy Posts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. 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