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Greg Abbott, Not for Governor

1. He fought against a rape victim. When a salesman sexually assaulted a woman in her home, she sued the Kirby Vacuum company for failing to do a background check that would have revealed a history of sexual crimes. Greg Abbott fought to defend the company.
    
2. Opposes equal pay for equal work. Texas is one of only 8 states that does not have an equal pay law. Governor Rick Perry vetoed a bipartisan bill passed in the 2013 legislative session, and Abbott has vowed to do the same. Even in his own office, he pays women less for the same work; a recent investigation revealed that women staff attorneys make almost $6,000 less than men in the same position.
    
3. Against restoring $5 billion in Tea Party education cuts. After the Tea Party took over the legislature in 2010, they slashed education funding by $5 billion. A judge has since ruled that funding must be restored in order to meet state education mandates, but Abbott has been actively appealing the ruling.
    
4. Donations from the chemical industry. Even after the disaster in West, TX, he changed a state rule requiring businesses to inform neighboring residents of the location and inventory of nearby hazardous chemical plants. In a comment that was widely panned by the media, he suggested that “you know where they are if you drive around.” Not surprisingly, chemical companies have donated hundreds of thousands to his campaign.
    
5. He’s received millions in injury settlement funds, yet supports tort reforms preventing other victims from doing the same. When he suffered the tragic accident that left him wheelchair bound, he rightly sued and collected millions of dollars from multiple parties. Since then he has consistently voted for tort reforms that eliminate the protections he received. No longer can a plaintiff sue multiple parties, and lifetime damages are now capped at $250,000. The caps are now so low that many victims can’t even find a lawyer to their cases.
    
6. A record of discrimination. Fact: he’s fought against fair redistricting maps, and fought for voter suppression laws that, according to the Supreme Court, “disproportionately impact African-Americans and Hispanics by its interaction with the vestiges of past and current racial discrimination,” and “As such, violates the (Voting Rights Act)...”
    
7. Anti-equality. He proudly touts his opposition to same-sex marriage, and has used his office to halt distribution of benefits to same-sex couples. As a Texas Supreme Court justice, he wrote the opinion allowing the Republican Party to deny booth space to gay conservatives.
    
8. Allowed Cancer Research Funds to go to donors. Taxpayer money intended for cancer research was doled out in the millions to Abbott’s donors, resulting in a mass resignation by scientists on the Fund’s board of directors. Abbott, who sat on the board and was assigned as its watchdog, never even attended an oversight meeting.
    
9. Defended the state’s failure to comply with the American’s with Disabilities Act. Abbott, who is in a wheelchair, argued in court that it was “unconstitutional for the federal government to force states to comply” with the ADA. A district court called bullshit on his argument, leaving Abbott to appeal the decision.
    
10. No healthcare for more than one million impoverished Texans. Federal funds to expand medicaid would keep Texans from suffering from curable illness, but Greg Abbott has vowed to continue refusing these funds, leaving the state to play politics with peoples lives.
     
11. Sat on child sex abuse accusations. His office waited 11 months to investigate sex abuse allegations at the Texas Youth Commission - while 16 more cases of abuse stacked up. He even redirected $1.4 million from a fund created to stop sexual predators into his hunt for an elusive voter fraud unicorn (there have been only two cases of actual voter fraud since 2002).
     
12. Taxpayer money give-aways to donors. It was recently reported that his office did nothing when Rick Perry’s Texas Enterprise Fund gave $222 million to businesses that were not required to create jobs and never even filled out an application. Once the money was spent, some businesses left Texas. Noteworthy: officials with these companies contributed more than $1 million to Abbott’s campaigns.
     
13. Great for businesses and predatory lenders, terrible for consumers. Farmers Insurance and Bank of America both owe Texas consumers $127 million in penalties - but neither have paid. And Abbott, as Attorney General, has yet to make them do so.The companies have both, however, offered handsome contributions to Abbott’s campaign. In addition, Abbott identified a loophole allowing predatory lenders to skirt state laws and charge exorbitant interest rates to borrowers in the state’s poorest communities. Because of his help, the predatory lending industry has poured nearly $270,000 into his campaigns. It’s no wonder the industry has been allowed to scam people virtually without regulation for so long.
     

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Dan Patrick, Not for Lieutenant Governor

1. A “divisive, disruptive and self-aggrandizing…potential demagogue,” according to the Houston Chronicle’s endorsement of his Democratic opponent, Leticia Van de Putte.
    
2. Named a 2013 worst legislator by Texas Monthly and “a snake oil salesman, a narcissist that would say anything to draw attention to himself" by a fellow GOP state senator.
    
3. Doesn’t think equal pay is a problem. Despite the fact that 42 other states have passed equal pay laws and Texas women make 79 cents—and African American women and Hispanic women far less—for every dollar a man makes, Patrick opposes equal pay for equal work legislation.
    
4. Lied about voting to restore $3.4 billion to public education in 2013, after voting for a $5.4 billion cut in 2011. Dan Patrick was one of only four senators to vote against restoring this funding. In a debate, he flippantly remarked, “we cut education and the world didn’t end.”
    
5. Most anti-immigrant Republican running for office. Patrick called immigration from Mexico into Texas an “invasion” and said immigrants bring “third-world diseases.”
    
6. Scarily big government when it comes to regulating women’s bodies. Patrick authored bill requiring doctors to perform forced, transvaginal ultrasound on women seeking abortion, wants to ban safe and legal abortion in Texas, and thinks that closing every Planned Parenthood “would be a great goal.”
    
7. Calling the issue a “non-starter,” Patrick won’t even talk about changing Texas marijuana policy.
    
8. Authored discriminatory voter suppression law and testified in favor of it in court. A federal judge has since ruled the law was a poll tax designed by politicians to intentionally discriminate against African-Americans and Hispanics.
    
9. Compared same-sex marriage to polygamy, incest and pedophilia. Patrick is one of 63 extremist Republican politicians who are fighting against marriage equality in Texas.
    
10. Wants 734,000 Texans to lose—and 2 million Texans to be denied—health insurance. Patrick is still fighting to defund the Affordable Care Act and continues to oppose Medicaid expansion.
     

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Glenn Hegar, Not for Comptroller

1. Killed appraisal reform that would have lowered property taxes. In one of the most startling examples of pay-to-play politics this election cycle, Hegar used his role as chairmanship of a Senate Finance subcommittee to kill appraisal reform on behalf of his donors.
    
2. Defends $11 billion budget error. Seriously. In 2011, Republican Comptroller Susan Combs incorrectly projected how much money the state had to spend by $11 billion, leading to devastating budget cuts that our state is still trying to recover from. Hegar stands by Combs' disastrous work, making us wonder if he even cares enough to do any better.
    
3. Declared he was proud of $5 billion in Tea Party education cuts. It was a rare yet unsettling moment of honesty from the Tea Party about how little they care about kids and classrooms.
    
4. Endorsed the corrupt management of the Texas Enterprise Fund by voting against legislation designed to prevent fraud and abuse of hundreds of millions in taxpayer dollars.
    
5. Equal pay isn't important to Hegar, who voted against Texas' Equal Pay Act in 2013.
    
6. Primary sponsor of anti-abortion bill HB2. An ardent opponent of a woman's right to choose, Hegar sponsored House Bill 2 in 2013, the law that could potentially shut down all but 8 abortion clinics across Texas. He spoke in defense of the law throughout Senator Davis' filibuster.
    
7. Doesn't care about 734,000 Texans. That's how many have health insurance under the ACA, and how many would lose their health insurance if Hegar got his wish of de-funding the Affordable Care Act.
    
8. Against marriage equality. Hegar co-authored the 2005 Texas constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage, and signed on to a letter saying that pedophilia, polygamy, and incest are all possible consequences of legalizing same-sex marriage.
    
9. Accused of using his office as a stepping stone by the Houston Chronicle. The paper wrote that Hegar would be learning on the job and biding his time while he waited his turn to run for higher office. Throughout 2014, he suggested the reason he should be the state's comptroller is because he's pro-life and supports gun rights. Glenn Hegar's fundamental misunderstanding of the duties of his office is just one reason he's unfit for the job. 
    
10. Opposes performance reviews. One of the basic jobs of the Comptroller is to make sure money is spent right. Performance reviews allow the Comptroller to audit state agencies and determine if taxpayer dollars are being wasted. Hegar voted to move the performance reviews out of the Comptroller's office.
     

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Ken Paxton, Not for Attorney General

1. He's a felon. Paxton admitted to a third-degree felony, acknowledging that he violated Texas securities laws in 2004, 2005 and 2012 by soliciting investors without registering with the proper enforcement authorities.
    
2. Paxton voted for the laws he broke. The first time to establish the law in 2003, and the second time to make the law he broke punishable by a felony in 2011. There's a strong possibility he could receive a felony inditment if elected.
    
3. Sued by his own clients. The very people who hired him have accused Paxton of taking kickbacks on their investments.
    
4. Paxton's hometown police department un-endorsed him. True story - they withdrew their endorsement when they learned of his criminal violations.
    
5. Equal pay isn't important to Paxton. He voted against Texas' Equal Pay Act in 2013.
    
6. Voted against reversing $5 billion in Tea Party education cuts in 2013. Paxton was one of only four members of the Texas Senate to vote against the state budget.
    
7. Doesn't care about 734,000 Texans. That's how many have health insurance under the ACA, and how many would lose their health insurance if Paxton got his wish of de-funding the Affordable Care Act.
    
8. Against marriage equality. Pedophilia, polygamy, and incest are all possible consequences of legalizing same-sex marriage, according to Ken Paxton.
    
9. Fought for legalized discrimination. Filed legislation, that thankfully didn't pass, that would have created constitutional protection for a person to discriminate against any other person, so long as it was for religious beliefs.
    
10. Funded by predatory lenders. Paxton received at least $25,000 in contributions from the owner of the Cash Store predatory lender store.
     
11. Opponent of women's rights. He co-authored or co-sponsored the 2003 parental consent law, the 2011 sonogram law, and the 2013 law that could potentially shut down all but 8 abortion clinics across Texas.
     
12. Speaks out against the Dream Act. Our next Attorney General, like our current one, doesn't want to keep the Texas law that provides in-state tuition to children who are undocumented.
     
13. Fellow Republican Senators say they won't vote for him. That's how little he is trusted, even by other State Senators that have known and worked with him for years.