Top issues in Texas, Independent Ballot Access, Data Centers and a real Town Hall aka open government

Mike Collier on WFAA TV about his lawsuit to open up Texas ballot access for independent candidates. Join us on Monday night to meet him: RSVP here

We were there on the filing deadline yesterday, June 25, when Mike Collier filed petitions to get on the ballot as an independent for Lt. Governor to run against Dan Patrick.

On Monday night, we're also going to make the connection between Mike's legal challenge to Texas' draconian petition rules and data centers. This will explain how issues become top issues in. Texas.

You can still help Mike by going to the bottom of this page, to sign his Petition to Expand Voter Choice.

We're also thrilled to announce that :Liz "Sumter" Gadjos has been certified for the ballot to run as an Independent for Hays County Judge! We have known Liz for well over a decade as one of us dedicated to water, land and open government. She's already making waves, pun intended. See Liz2026.com and Liz in the San Marcos Record.

Data Center Update!

The Tuesday, June 23 hearing of the Texas House Natural Resource Committee has already made the rush for data centers a top concern in the midterm election in November.

Watch the committee members whale on the data center developers at Tuesday's hearing. Did they show the same concerns over the last two sessions? Now, we need to ask every member of the House and Senate where they stand on urging the Governor to call a special session. If they won't do that, that tells us how really concerned they are.

Texas has legislative sessions every other odd year. This "data center dance" cannot wait until the next regular session in 2027.

Only the Governor can call a special sess

ion. We need one to get everyone on record about reining in an industry galloping across Texas without regulatory controls to protect our grid, our water and our wallets. Abatements for data centers (not to mention Elon Musk's SpaceX) are all kind of Texas wrong! Special note to Bastropians: We are working to ensure a town hall that our local Bastrop Commissioners Court failed last week to do with three-in-a-row meetings (dog and pony shows) held by data center developer, EdgeConneX.

If you attended one of the three EdgeConneX sessions, please use the form posted on our RSVP page for this meeting to share your experience. If you learned something, we want to know!

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