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Texas Gov. Rick Perry this morning endorsed David Dewhurst for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by retiring Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison... In a tweet this morning, Dewhurst (@DavidHDewhurst) declared, “I’m honored that veteran and conservative champion @GovernorPerry is endorsing our campaign for U.S. Senate"... Perry praised Dewhurst’s loyalty and said he was glad to return the favor.

Texas Lt. Governor David Dewhurst, a Republican, went rogue this morning on Houston's KTRH 740 radio. "I'm supporting Rick Perry for president. We agree on so, so many things. But on the case of in-state tuition, where folks are here illegally, I have a real problem," Dewhurst said. Dewhurst is running for the U.S. Senate to replace outgoing Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison. This is a case of Dewhurst wanting to distance himself from the issue that has plagued Texas Governor Rick Perry with the conservative base of the G.O.P. Dewhurst is in a five-way race to win the Senate nomination...

Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst is breaking with Gov. Rick Perry by opposing in-state college tuition rates for illegal immigrants. Dewhurst, running for the GOP nomination for the U.S. Senate seat of retiring Kay Bailey Hutchison, says he understands Perry's arguments but says his stance is all about fairness.

"He (Sen. Ogden) had been considered a possible candidate for lieutenant governor if incumbent David Dewhurst wins his race for the U.S. Senate in 2012. By law, Dewhurst's replacement would be a sitting senator voted on by his colleagues. The chosen person could then immediately be promoted to governor if Gov. Rick Perry is successful in his race for the White House. If that happened, the Senate would choose another of its members to be lieutenant governor. But Ogden said that he doesn't think that he can be that choice now that he isn't running for re-election."

The movement to draft Tommy Lee Jones to run as a Democrat to replace Kay Bailey Hutchison is most likely doomed to failure, but a new poll shows Jones might be a viable candidate. Public Policy Polling released its survey today on the 2012 Senate race, and it shows Jones with the best favorable/unfavorable combo among possible candidates. It also shows he is within range of two Republican candidates, Lt. Governor David Dewhurst and former Dallas mayor Tom Leppert, in head-to-head matchups. Dewhurst beats him 43-39 percent, and Leppert by only 38-37. "A Jones candidacy is probably a pipe dream...

Texas lawmakers may reconsider a bill to outlaw controversial airport pat-downs, the sponsor of legislation that was shelved recently said this week. Texas state Rep. David Simpson (R) said that Texas Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst asked Gov. Rick Perry to include the measure in a special session of the Texas legislature. Dewhurst reported asked lawmakers to withdraw the bill when federal officials threatened to cancel flights to Texas if it passed. But he has since had a change of heart, Simpson told fans on his Facebook page. "The Lt. Gov. sent a letter to Gov. Perry asking him to include...

A boisterous group of protesters angry over the Texas Senate’s failure to vote on the airport groping bill tried to enter the public gallery this afternoon and were blocked by state troopers. Shouting “treason” and “cowards” and carrying signs and placards, and led by radio talk show host Alex Jones, the group of perhaps as many as 100 people entered the State Capitol shortly after 3 p.m. and first went to the House chamber. There, House members quickly informed the shouting group that it was the Senate that had failed to take action late Tuesday on House Bill 1937, which...

A threat from the federal government to shut down Texas airports or cancel flights may have killed legislation by Tea Party conservatives in the Texas Capitol to prohibit federal Transportation Security Agents from conducting "invasive searches." “I don’t cave in to heavy handed threats by the federal government,” said an angry Sen. Dan Patrick, R-Houston, the Senate sponsor of the bill, who ultimately withdrew the bill. House Bill 1937, which was passed by the House earlier this month, would make it a misdemeanor offense for a federal security agent to “intentionally, knowingly, or recklessly [touch] the anus, sexual organ, buttocks,...

Next year’s U.S. Senate primary in Texas offers a wide range of choices. RedState has previously noted our strong preference for either former Texas solicitor general Ted Cruz or former railroad commissioner Michael Williams – both of whom have proven themselves as articulate and reliable champions of conservative principles. On the next tier are former Texas secretary of state Roger Williams and current railroad commissioner Elizabeth Ames Jones, whose commitment to conservative principles may be somewhat shakier but at least are mouthing the right words so far in this campaign. And then there is Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, or as...

South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint (R), whose Senate Conservatives Fund is a major Tea Party fundraising force, chimed in Friday morning on which candidates he may endorse in the open seat Texas Senate race. In an e-mail to supporters less than 24 hours after Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R) announced she won't seek re-election, DeMint poured cold water on the potential candidacy of Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst (R) and touted potential contenders Railroad Commissioner Michael Williams (R) and former solicitor general Ted Cruz (R).

WASHINGTON – Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst warned this morning that the new federal health care legislation will bust Texas’ budget – saddling state taxpayers with $27 billion in extra costs over the next decade. “That’s an astounding number for us,” Dewhurst told the Texas State Society over breakfast, including a half-dozen members of Congress. “We’re on the hook for all those folks we’ve been trying to get to sign up for Medicaid.” Doubling the state’s Medicaid rolls, he said, will mean that health care claims an ever-bigger share of the state budget. And that segment has already grown from one-quarter...

Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, the Senate's presiding officer since 2003, is hankering for the United States Senate seat Kay Bailey Hutchison has said she'll relinquish late this year to concentrate on her Republican primary challenge to Gov. Rick Perry. But Dewhurst reportedly grew tired of hearing rumors that Republican Atty. Gen. Greg Abbott would file for lieutenant governor regardless, and announced for re-election. Dewhurst apparently wants to have a fallback position if Hutchison hasn't resigned by the Jan. 4 filing deadline. "They don't know what's happening," one close observer said of those watching closely to see what Hutchison does. "My...

A North Carolina-based polling firm says the race to replace Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison in the US Senate will be very close but that Republicans Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst and Attorney General Greg Abbott currently have the best chances of squeaking out a win. The poll from Public Policy Polling polled likely Texas voters on Dewhurst, Abbott, Republican State Sen. Florence Shapiro and two Democratic contenders: Houston Mayor Bill White and former Comptroller John Sharp.

One of the most significant taxpayer lawsuits is about to go to jury-trial in Austin, but Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst has thus far refused to be deposed -- despite being a defendant in the case.

Just paying for promised cuts in local school property tax rates over the next two years would put lawmakers $4 billion or more over a constitutional cap on state spending. So as an option, leaders are looking at tying a legislative vote to exceed the cap to the tax relief. "You offer a bill that reduces property taxes and you tell everybody that the amount of money involved exceeds the spending cap, and let's vote," said Senate Finance Committee Chairman Steve Ogden. "We're exceeding the spending cap so we can cut your property taxes. I think everybody'll vote for that."...

KSEV morning talk-show host and executive director of CLOUT: Citizens Lowering Our Unfair Taxes has announced his intention to file a lawsuit designed to force state government to comply with strict spending limits written into the Texas State Constitution. Article 8, Section II of that fine document was approved by 84% of Texas voters in 1979, and reads as follows: In no biennium shall the rate of growth of appropriations from state tax revenues not dedicated by this constitution exceed the estimated rate of growth of the state’s economy. Here’s the problem– the legislature hasn’t been doing this. Instead, they’ve...

AUSTIN - The state's biennial spending limit is an artificial gauge of the economy that allows unconstitutional and excessive spending on state agencies and programs, according to a lawsuit filed Wednesday by a conservative taxpayer watchdog group. The constitution requires that the state budget not exceed economic growth. The Legislative Budget Board determines that limit before each regular legislative session, based on personal income of all Texans. The limit for the current budget was set at about $56 billion. But the group Citizens Lowering Our Unfair Taxes is arguing that personal income gives an inflated measure of the economy and...

Oil industry greed cited by Dewhurst ASSOCIATED PRESS AUSTIN (AP) - Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst believes the oil and petrochemical industry is being greedy in its opposition to a proposed bill that would reform the way businesses in the state are taxed. Dewhurst, a Republican who presides over the state Senate, said special interest groups including the Texas Oil and Gas Association and the Texas Chemical Council are trying to kill legislation that would close tax loopholes exploited by some corporations in Texas. The legislation is intended to help fix the state's ailing public school finance system. "They're making themselves...

Perry political future may depend on passing education, tax reform ASSOCIATED PRESS AUSTIN (AP) - Republican Gov. Rick Perry wanted badly to change the way Texas schools are funded and reduce homeowners' property taxes. His political future may well depend on it. Despite Perry's desire and coaxing, lawmakers left town without getting the job done. Their 140-day regular session ended Monday with no plan in place, despite some promising last-minute negotiations. Perry called it a "disappointment." He reiterated Tuesday that if House and Senate leaders continue working toward an agreement, he may call a special session. He said he'll keep...

GOP ready for an Alamo City wrangle Thursday, June 3, 2004 The newer, more bare-knuckled Republican Party of Texas that increasingly tends to eat its own opens its biennial convention in San Antonio today. It was here in 1996 that Republican convention delegates almost denied then-Gov. George W. Bush leadership of the Texas delegation to the national convention in San Diego, and a backstage deal had to be worked out to allow U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, who supports abortion rights, to be a delegate at all. But that passed, and both went. And now Bush is president, and Hutchison...