Redistricting Attracts a Spate of GOP Candidates

C APITAL Highlights 

Redrawing the state’s congressional maps, though being challenged in court, has drawn 114 Republican candidates in the state’s 38 districts with nearly two months left until the filing deadline, the Houston Chronicle reported.

The Texas Legislature redrew the maps at the request of President Donald Trump in hopes of gaining five additional GOP seats. As a result, there are winnable seats for Republicans in Houston, SanAntonio and Dallas that have drawn 19 GOP candidates to date.

Two Republican members of Congress are seeking statewide office instead of trying to hold on to their current seats. Chip Roy, who represents a Central Texas district, is running for Texas attorney general, while Houston Republican Wesley Hunt recently jumped into the U.S. Senate race.

In addition, Michael McCaul, R-Austin, and Morgan Luttrell, R-Houston, are not seeking reelection. Those four open seats have drawn 25 GOP candidates.

Company Tapped to Run School Voucher Program A New York tech company has been picked to administer the state’s new school choice program, the Texas Standard reported. The billiondollar program passed in the regular legislative session will help parents use taxpayer money to pay for private school tuition, homeschooling expenses, and other educational expenses.

Odyssey, the company, manages education funding in several other states. It will be responsible for both processing applications and ranking families to determine who gets access to funding.

Anyone can apply as long as they have a child eligible to go to public school in K-12 as well as 4-year-olds who are eligible for pre-kindergarten.

Odyssey can receive up to 5% of the total school choice appropriation of $1 billion, meaning it could earn up to $50 million for administering the voucher program.

Roberson’s Execution Date Paused By Texas Court 

Just a week before his scheduled execution date, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals stayed the execution of Robert Roberson in the death of his two-year-old daughter in 2002. Roberson was convicted of capital murder the following year for shaken baby syndrome, a diagnosis since discredited by most scientists. His case has drawn widespread attention and calls for his exoneration.

The Austin American-Statesman reported that the state’s highest criminal court decided to send the case back to trial in Anderson County, where he was convicted. The court cited the case of Andrew Wayne Roark, a North Texas man who was exonerated in a similar “shaken baby syndrome” case.

One of the judges wrote a concurring opinion: “As identified in Roark, our scientific understanding of what has become known as Shaken Baby Syndrome has significantly advanced. Because of this deeper understanding, certain assumptions and conclusions that were once thought to be true may not be.”

Roberson, now 58, claims his daughter fell out of the bed in the middle of the night in 2002. He soothed her to sleep, and upon checking on her later that night, found that she was not breathing. She was pronounced dead at an emergency room the next day, and Roberson was eventually charged and convicted of capital murder.