Republican governor of Texas who uses a wheelchair. In February 2025 Abbott retweeted a post from a right-wing influencer opposing a planned Muslim housing subdivision near Dallas called "EPIC City", writing: "Sharia law is not allowed in Texas. Nor are sharia cities." At least six investigations were subsequently opened into the subdivision's plans, including by the Texas Rangers, though no evidence of any intent to impose sharia law was produced. Senator John Cornyn also called for a federal investigation.
On July 4th 2025 flash floods in Texas's hill country killed 109 people, with 173 still missing. More than two dozen of the dead were children and counsellors from Camp Mystic, a Christian summer camp on the bank of the Guadalupe River. Kerr County, where most deaths occurred, had twice been denied state funds to upgrade its water gauges, sensors and online alert system. The Texas Division of Emergency Management rejected the county's $1m requests despite having been tasked with allocating $100m in federal disaster-preparation funds after floods killed 20 Texans in 2016. The state's water board recommended $54bn for flood control over a year before the disaster, but lawmakers allocated only $669m. That spring the Texas senate blocked a bill that would have paid for warning sirens in the most flood-prone areas. One in six Texans lives or works in a flood hazard area.
If you are going to walk on thin ice, you may as well dance.