Karen Brooks Harper

Johnson is virtually assured to have won the seat, because there is no Republican challenger in November.

Gov. Greg Abbott called the results “an unmistakable message.” His allies said the state is “closer than ever” to a voucher program.

In a district composed mostly of communities of color, Neave Criado hopes to topple Johnson with her stances on immigration, domestic violence and women’s issues.

The Senate’s Republican bill would let state leaders grow the program by taking money from other agencies without the Legislature’s approval. The House bill would bar the practice.

A Senate panel on Tuesday advanced such a measure. The debate centered largely around the safety of the vaccine and whether doctors’ offices and health care facilities should be exempt.

Doses aren’t arriving at providers’ offices at uniform, predictable intervals. Shipments are largely dependent on individual providers’ ability to work out the logistics of ordering, stocking, training and paperwork.

Budget proposals would boost state spending for the current budget cycle for projects ranging from mental health hospitals to state pay raises. This would leave $27 billion in surplus for the next two years.

Abbott’s spending proposals also include spending $750 million on school safety and mental health services and expanding postpartum Medicaid to a year.

The Texas Department of Public Safety is instead asking lawmakers for $381.5 million to upgrade its current facilities with better technology, dormitories and cafeteria for trainees from across the state.

Abbott doubles down on his long-standing call to lawmakers to prohibit local governments from enacting mask and vaccine mandates.