Latest news with #KellyHancock
Yahoo
12 hours ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Gov. Abbott announces special election for Texas Senate
The Brief Gov. Greg Abbott announced a special election for Texas Senate District 9 set for Nov. 4, 2025. The seat was vacated earlier this month when Kelly Hancock took a position in the Texas Comptroller's Office. On Friday, political activist Leigh Wambganss announced she would seek election. AUSTIN, Texas - Gov. Greg Abbott on Friday announced a special election to fill the Texas Senate seat left open by outgoing Sen. Kelly Hancock. A special election for Senate District 9 will be held on Nov. 4, 2025. The district covers around half of Tarrant County, including North Richland Hills and more than half of Fort Worth. The North Richland Hills Republican resigned from the Senate earlier this month to become chief clerk of the Texas Comptroller's Office. He will assume temporary leadership of the office Tuesday. Hancock announced his campaign for comptroller, who serves as the state's chief financial officer, on June 19. On Friday, political activist Leigh Wambsganss announced her candidacy for the open seat. "I have spent my entire adult life as a volunteer public servant, not for a title, but out of conviction," she said in a statement. "From leading grassroots campaigns to serving on the front lines of the Second Amendment and pro-life movements, my mission has always been clear: to defend conservative Christian family values, safeguard our freedoms, and ensure Texas remains a stronghold for faith, family, and freedom." In the wake of Hancock's announcement, Rep. Nate Schatzline said he would be looking to take the vacant seat, but pulled his candidacy on Friday announcing he would instead seek re-election in the House. Schatzline put his support behind Wambsganss. "My #1 goal was for SD9 to be represented by a true conservative, & with Leigh Wambsganss, that's exactly what you'll get. She has my full support," he said on X. Wambsganss also won the support of Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick. "She has been a leader of the conservative movement in Tarrant County and all of Texas," Patrick said. "She will be a great addition to our conservative Texas Senate." The Source Information on the November special election comes from Gov. Greg Abbott's office. Comments from Leigh Wambsganss, Nate Schatzline and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick come from their respective X accounts.
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
State Rep. Nate Schatzline launches bid for newly vacant Texas Senate seat
Rep. Nate Schatzline, a hardline Fort Worth Republican, announced his bid Tuesday to fill the state Senate seat vacated by Kelly Hancock, who left the Legislature last week to become Texas' acting comptroller. 'It's clear that our state will only be as conservative to the extent we are willing to fight for it,' Schatzline said in his announcement. 'As a senator, I will continue to show up to battle for Texans, standing firmly by the principles and promises I have made and kept.' Gov. Greg Abbott has not yet called a special election to fill the North Texas seat, which covers about half of Fort Worth and much of Tarrant County's northern suburbs. Hancock, a North Richland Hills Republican, resigned from the Senate last week to take a senior position in the comptroller's office, paving the way for him to become the agency's interim head July 1, when Comptroller Glenn Hegar will step down to become chancellor of the Texas A&M University System. Shortly after vacating his Senate seat, Hancock launched his campaign to win a full term as comptroller in 2026. Schatzline, who was elected to the Texas House in 2022, is one of the body's most conservative members and a frequent participant in partisan battles over religion and social issues. He is a member of the Corrections and Human Services committees. His campaign announcement highlighted his work during this year's legislative session championing school vouchers, requiring public schools to display the Ten Commandments in classrooms and banning land sales to people tied to the Chinese, North Korean, Russian and Iranian governments. Schatzline rolled out his campaign with endorsements from dozens of fellow House Republicans and local elected officials, including Tarrant County leaders and Fort Worth and North Richland Hills city officials. A former pastor, Schatzline, 33, founded For Liberty & Justice, an organization 'dedicated to mobilizing the local church to see reformation in government,' according to his campaign website. He also serves as the director of operations for The Justice Reform, a Fort Worth nonprofit focused on combating human trafficking. Disclosure: Texas A&M University and Texas A&M University System have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here. Big news: 20 more speakers join the TribFest lineup! New additions include Margaret Spellings, former U.S. secretary of education and CEO of the Bipartisan Policy Center; Michael Curry, former presiding bishop and primate of The Episcopal Church; Beto O'Rourke, former U.S. Representative, D-El Paso; Joe Lonsdale, entrepreneur, founder and managing partner at 8VC; and Katie Phang, journalist and trial lawyer. Get tickets. TribFest 2025 is presented by JPMorganChase.
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
State of Texas: Sen. Kelly Hancock resigns to become acting Comptroller, announces campaign for position
AUSTIN (Nexstar) — Republican State Sen Kelly Hancock resigned from the Texas Senate and was hired to be the Chief Clerk at the Texas Comptroller's office on Thursday. The move puts Hancock in the position to become the acting Comptroller of Public Accounts when Comptroller Glenn Hegar leaves his position to become the next Chancellor of the Texas A&M System on July 1. Hancock announced his campaign for Comptroller later that same day, becoming the third Republican in the race for the state's top tax-collector. Hancock has served in the Senate as a representative from the 9th district — based in Tarrant County — since 2013. He was one of just two Senate Republicans who voted to convict Attorney General Ken Paxton in his 2023 impeachment trial. Speaking about his new job and candidacy, Hancock said he is still the same person he has always been. 'I'm still the guy that shops at Walmart, and I'm small business owner,' Hancock said. 'Sure, I've served as a school board member for 13 years, served in the legislature, but that's not who I am.' Hancock is vying to lead the agency that is tasked with rolling out the state's new education savings account program. That will provide state dollars to families who want to send their child to private school. Hancock said he will draw from his 13 years of experience on his local school board to approach that task. 'My love for kids and making sure that every — you know, every child — gets to achieve their dream. Education is how we do that,' Hancock said. Hancock immediately received an endorsement from Gov. Greg Abbott. Former State Sen. Don Huffines and Railroad Commissioner Christi Craddick announced their campaigns for Comptroller earlier this year. Huffines is among those questioning whether this maneuver is constitutionally legal. Huffines reposted a post from a conservative member of the media on X, pointing out the 'holdover' provision of the Texas Constitution. The provision states that a public official must continue to perform the duties of their office until their successor is named. This would appear to suggest that Hancock could not cease performing his duties as a senator until a special election is held to replace him. That also appears to suggest that Hancock could not become Comptroller right away, because the Texas Constitution bars a public official from holding an office in the legislative and executive branches simultaneously. The move raises questions about his appointment to the position. Asked about the contradiction, Hancock said he was hired to the office just like anyone else. 'There was an opening, I was asked to fill it,' Hancock said. 'Comptroller Hegar and I are good friends. We've known each other for a long time, and so that's the way we wanted to go about it.' Huffines called the move by Hancock a 'gross manipulation.' 'It's a gross manipulation of the process by the establishment Republicans, the political elite, because they're scared of me, and they know that I'm going to win,' Huffines said. Now that Hancock has officially resigned his seat, Abbott has to schedule a special election to replace him. The district is strongly Republican — Hancock won reelection in the 9th district by 20 points in 2022 — but given recent trends in special elections across the country, the seat has the potential to become competitive. The U.S. Supreme Court reversed a ruling by a federal appeals court Thursday, clearing the way for plans to temporarily store nuclear waste at a facility in West Texas. The 6-3 vote came in the case, Nuclear Regulatory Commission v. Texas, where the U.S. Court of Appeals in the Fifth Circuit sided with Texas and Fasken Oil and Ranch in their suit against the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to prevent the temporary waste site from being built. The justices reversed the Fifth Circuit ruling. But the Court did not decide the underlying dispute about whether the NRC has the power to license private storage facilities for nuclear waste. While the Court's decision is not a final ruling in favor of the licenses, it clears a key hurdle for the waste storage plans. Texas argued that federal law requires nuclear waste to be stored on site at reactors in the absence of a permanent storage site. Interim Storage Partners, LLC, the company trying to build the storage site in West Texas, argues that the law cited by the state — the Nuclear Waste Policy Act — does nothing to forbid the creation of a temporary storage site. 'The Fifth Circuit held that the NWPA 'doesn't permit' the ISP license, ISP App. 30a, but cited no statutory provision that says that. Nor do respondents. There is none,' the ISP writes in its response. Currently, high-level nuclear waste generated from nuclear power plants is stored at the reactors themselves to avoid transporting the fuel. High-level nuclear waste is highly radioactive and dangerous fuel, which no longer has a fast enough fission process to be used to generate energy, but still poses a threat. Because no federal waste storage site has been built, the NRC hoped to create a temporary storage site in West Texas. Opponents to the site, including the state, said that it would likely become a permanent site with no existing alternative. According to the NRC's website, high-level waste only becomes harmless after being stored for thousands of years. The concern is not only over storage, but transportation. Transporting spent nuclear fuel requires strict oversight and protection. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, the most radioactive material is transported in casks, which are containers that are designed to withstand collisions, being dropped onto a steel spike, burning in gasoline for 30 minutes and withstanding being submerged in water for eight hours. The state also expressed worries about the site's location near oil fields in West Texas. Gov. Greg Abbott submitted comments in the suit that said the nuclear waste site could inflict significant damage to the oil fields if an act of terrorism or an accident affected the site. Texas has strived to lead the nation in nuclear energy production, with plans for the construction of several new uranium mines in South Texas and power plants purchased by large tech companies, like Google and Amazon. Because nuclear power can produce energy without carbon emissions, it is a popular alternative to fossil fuel-heavy sources like coal. But after nuclear disasters abroad and in the U.S. at power plants, including the Three Mile Island plant in Pennsylvania, creation of new nuclear power plants has slowed significantly in the U.S. Meanwhile, foreign powers, like China and India, are ramping up production. Both the Biden and Trump administrations made efforts to bolster nuclear energy in the U.S. by building new reactors and restarting old ones. Recent executive orders by President Donald Trump take measures, including speeding up the licensing process through the Department of Energy, beginning construction on 10 new reactors by 2030 and creating reactors for artificial intelligence data centers and domestic military bases. This week Gov. Abbott traveled across the state to sign a $10 billion property tax relief package and a historic $20 billion water infrastructure bill. Both were priorities of this past legislative session. Abbott started in Denton County on Monday to unveil the latest property tax legislation that will increase the homestead exemption from $100,000 to $140,000, and increase the exemption for disabled Texans and those 65 and older to $200,000. Senate Bill 4 and 23, both authored by State Sen. Paul Bettencourt, R – Houston, will save 5.7 million Texas homeowners about $484 per year on their tax bill, and $907 per year for 2.08 million seniors, according to Bettencourt's office. Even though both SB 4 and SB 23 passed unanimously in the Texas House of Representatives, the proposals did not pass without some criticism. State Rep. Brian Harrison, R-Midlothian, spoke out against SB 4 on the House floor before voting yes on the measure. He argues the property tax cuts do not go far enough. 'It is entirely conceivable that many or most homeowners and property owners will not see any real savings at all because the appraisals are likely to increase and eat up this new exemption,' Harrison said. Gov. Abbott praised the work by the legislature to pass additional tax breaks for Texas homeowners. Both bills will need to be approved by a majority of Texans in the November election. When asked if the state will be able to keep providing these exemptions in the future, the Governor assured the state is in a good financial spot. 'We have some other reserve money to make sure that we will be able to continue to maintain the property tax relief in the future that we provide today,' Abbott said. Later in the week the governor was in Lubbock to sign Senate Bill 7, aimed at investing $20 billion into the state's water fund. The governor called it 'the largest water law in the history of the great state of Texas.' 'Every day, on average in Texas, there's more than 1,000 more people who go to a faucet and turn that on because of the magnitude of the growth,' Abbott said during the ceremony. 'When they go to the faucet to turn it on, they expect the water to flow.' Under the plan, half of the $20 billion would fund new water supply sources, while the other half would support water infrastructure development and repair existing systems. The funding operates as a revolving loan program, providing $1 billion annually for 20 years with repaid loans reinvested in additional projects. House Speaker Dustin Burrows, R-Lubbock, emphasized the economic implications of the water crisis. 'People want to come here because of our economy, because of our culture, and they are coming here with U-hauls,' Burrows said. 'If they show up and they turn on that spigot, and water doesn't come out, those U-hauls are going to go the absolute opposite direction.' SB 7 tasks the Texas Water Development Board with coordinating large-scale water infrastructure projects across regions, promoting standardized specifications for interoperable systems and minimizing eminent domain use by maximizing existing transportation and utility easements. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, accused the Biden Administration and members of the national press of covering-up the former president's declining health. It is the latest attempt from Congressional Republicans to paint President Joe Biden as unfit to lead. Sen. Cornyn helped lay out the allegations in a U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee hearing. Following the hearing, he called out the Democratic party for the alleged cover-up. 'There's no question they had the ability to raise this issue earlier, when his incapacity became obvious to everybody who was paying attention. So Congress needs to look at whatever what possible remedies that we might be able to legislate,' Cornyn said. Only two Democratic senators on the committee, Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Illinois, and Sen. Peter Welch, D-Vermont, attended the meeting. They called the hearing political theater. Other Democrats on the committee who did not attend the hearing called it a distraction from more pressing issues. The office of former President Biden denies any cover-up. A day after the hearing President Biden was in Galveston, TX to celebrate Juneteenth. Biden was presented a plaque for his role in designating Juneteenth as a national holiday. He spoke to the congregation at the Reedy Chapel-AME church. 'You know on this sacred day it reminds me of another sacred day, that wonderful day four years ago in the East Room of the White House when I had a great honor, of course objections from some, of making Juneteenth a federal holiday,' Biden said. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
CBS News
20-06-2025
- Business
- CBS News
North Texas State Senator resigns to take top spot at Texas Comptroller's Office, join 2026 GOP primary
The political dominoes are falling at the Texas Capitol months before the March 2026 primaries. State Sen. Kelly Hancock, R-North Richland Hills, resigned from his seat Thursday and is going to become Acting Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts on July 1, filling a rare vacancy. On June 30, Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar will leave his statewide seat after ten years and become Chancellor of the Texas A&M University System. On Thursday, Hegar introduced Hancock and swore him in as Chief Clerk in his office. That position creates the path for Hancock to assume the top spot in the agency. The Comptroller serves as the state's chief financial officer, overseeing the state's finances and estimating how much revenue lawmakers can spend on their two-year budget. Shortly after Hancock took the oath of office, he announced he would be running to keep the seat in the March 2026 GOP primary. Abbott, a close ally, quickly endorsed him in the race. GOP primary widens for Comptroller With Hancock's entry, the Republican primary has widened. Railroad Commissioner Christi Craddick is also running and former State Sen. Don Huffines of Dallas, who is being backed by Sen. Ted Cruz. Hancock spoke with CBS News Texas on Thursday in an interview for Eye On Politics. When asked why he believes he's the best candidate for the job, Hancock said, "I'm really the only one who ever put together a budget. I worked on Senate Finance for 10 years and put together a budget. I worked on Article 3, which is education. I've really served in various committees where the budget starts." Hancock and his wife are small business owners, and he is a former school board trustee. Comptroller responsibilities are growing This will be a test for Hancock as the Comptroller's responsibilities are growing. The office must establish the $1 billion education savings accounts program he and other Republican lawmakers approved during the regular session. Students will receive tax dollars to attend private schools. The Comptroller's office has less than a year to set up the program. When asked how important it is to get the program set on time and make it easy for parents to access, Hancock said, "Vitally important. I think we made these moves as soon as we did, so we can get going. It's where I think my educational background is going to be very helpful. I'm excited and thrilled to work with Gov. Abbott, which I know this was a big part of his program. He was very concerned about making sure we get these educational savings accounts out and available to the public, be very transparent and the accountability is there. I'm excited about it." Now that Hancock has stepped away from his Tarrant County senate seat, that will create an opening. Abbott will soon call for a special election. State Rep. Nate Schatzline, R-Fort Worth, told CBS News Texas Thursday that he is considering running for this seat. Watch Eye On Politics at 7:30 Sunday morning on CBS News Texas on air and streaming
Yahoo
19-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Sen. Kelly Hancock to leave Senate, take over as acting Comptroller
AUSTIN (Nexstar) — State Sen. Kelly Hancock will leave the Texas Senate and be hired as the Chief Clerk in the Texas Comptroller's office, Comptroller Glenn Hegar announced Thursday. Hancock will assume the role of Acting Comptroller of Public Accounts when Hegar takes on the role as the next Chancellor of the Texas A&M System on July 1. Hancock has served in the Senate as a representative from the 9th district — based in Tarrant County — since 2013. He was one of just two Senate Republicans who voted to convict Attorney General Ken Paxton in his 2023 impeachment trial. Hancock will join the field of high-profile Republican candidates for the 2026 Comptroller race, including former State Sen. Don Huffines and Railroad Commissioner Christi Craddick. Huffines is among those questioning whether the move by the governor to appoint Hancock is permitted under the state constitution. Huffines reposted a post from a conservative member of the media on X, pointing out the 'holdover' provision of the Texas Constitution. The provision states that a public official must continue to perform the duties of their office until their successor is named. This would appear to suggest that Hancock could not cease performing his duties as a senator until a special election is held to replace him. That also appears to suggest that Hancock could not become Comptroller right away, because the Texas Constitution bars a public official from holding an office in the legislative and executive branches simultaneously. The move raises questions about his appointment to the position. After Hancock officially resigns his seat, Gov. Greg Abbott has to schedule a special election to replace him. The district is strongly Republican — Hancock won reelection in the 9th district by 20 points in 2022 — but given recent trends in special elections across the country, the seat has the potential to become competitive. With the inclusion of Hancock in the 2026 Comptroller race, three high-profile Republicans have announced their desire to control the state's pocketbooks. Craddick has served as Railroad Commissioner since 2012. 'As a mom and a lifelong Texan, I know how hard families work to stretch every dollar. Government should do the same,' Craddick wrote on her campaign website. 'At the Comptroller's Office, I'll bring a conservative approach, auditing everything, upgrading outdated technology, and making sure Texans get their money back faster. Government should work for the people, not the other way around.' Huffines won his first term in the Texas Senate in 2014, before losing his 2018 re-election bid to current State Sen. Nathan Johnson, D-Dallas. Huffines later challenged Abbott in the 2022 Republican gubernatorial primary, finishing third with 12% of the vote. 'As your Texas Comptroller, I will DOGE our government to improve efficiency and root out waste and fraud,' Huffines wrote on his campaign website. 'I'll fight to return the savings to Texas taxpayers.' The Republican primary election is scheduled for March 3, 2026. Ed. Note: A previous version of this headline said Hancock was appointed to the Comptroller's office. Hancock was hired by the office as chief clerk and will assume the acting Comptroller role when Hegar leaves. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
