TPPF's D.C. expansion + Open Texas Congressional seats = Unprecedented Opportunity

"A good man leaves an inheritance to his children’s children,
But the wealth of the sinner is stored up for the righteous."
Proverbs 13:22

This is huge:

The Texas Public Policy Foundation, which has more than 75 employees in Texas, will open a new office D.C. in January. Its leaders plan to increase its D.C. staff from five to as many as 15 employees in 2018, to seek rollbacks and changes to environmental and health care issues, and work on criminal justice reform.

TPPF’s president and CEO, Fort Worth resident Brooke Rollins, says limited-government advocates have an ally in President Trump – who campaigned on taking power back from Washington – and they’re gearing up to drive policy back the other direction.

“This White House represents the opportunity to completely reinvigorate the idea that the states should be running themselves,” Rollins said in a Star-Telegram interview at the conservative Heritage Foundation in D.C. last month.

....

A powerful lobbying influence in Austin, TPPF opened a state’s rights division in Texas in 2010 to fight the Obama Administration’s implementation of the Affordable Care Act, and later the consideration of the Clean Power Plan. In both cases, it argued the White House had usurped Texas’s power to set its own policies.

TPPF’s Washington goals include rolling back regulations created by the Obama administration, such as the Environmental Protection Agency’s endangerment rule, which mandates that greenhouse gasses be regulated under the Clean Air Act. That 2009 finding laid the groundwork for a of host climate regulations that conservatives have railed against since.

It also plans to continue work on health care, as Republicans revisit plans to repeal and replace Obamacare in 2018.

“We should be in control of our Medicaid and health care, we should be in control of education, and, for the most part, of our environmental regulations,” said Rollins. “This is our time as a state… to stand up and say, ‘give it back.’”

To begin, anything that expands TPPF's influence is good.  They're one of the most effective conservative organizations in existence.  There's a reason why the Straus people HATE them.

But where this gets really interesting is when you combine the TPPF expansion with the number of open Congressional seats in Texas this cycle.  There are currently 8 open seat races in the Texas Delegation.  Of those 8, 6 are Republican.  Of those 6 Republican open seats, 5 are in districts that are essentially safe and the sixth is a likely hold.

Thus, between TPPF growing it's influence in the policy area and sending a bunch of new solid conservatives to DC, Texas' grassroots could see its influence in DC skyrocket over the next few years.

But the task at hand, for now, is the upcoming primary (at both the state and federal level).

Bottom Line: If you're playing the long game, life just got a little more interesting....