Overview
- Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton escalated his push on Thursday, saying his office cannot defend Acting Comptroller Kelly Hancock in lawsuits over the state’s voucher program and urging Governor Greg Abbott to appoint GOP nominee Don Huffines.
- Paxton, in a Tuesday social media post, called Hancock an “incompetent loser” and asked Abbott to remove him and install Huffines until the November election.
- Hancock sparked the clash with a letter that urged Paxton to revoke Houston Quran Academy’s corporate charter and to press broader actions against groups he alleges are linked to the Muslim Brotherhood.
- A federal judge earlier this month issued a temporary restraining order that let several Islamic private schools apply to the voucher program and extended the application deadline after lawsuits claimed religious discrimination.
- The dispute sits atop Governor Abbott’s designation last fall of the Muslim Brotherhood and CAIR as terrorist organizations, which CAIR is challenging in court, and it follows Hancock’s long blockade of roughly two dozen Muslim schools and his 2023 vote to convict Paxton during impeachment.