Texas Tribune
Dade Phelan’s primary is last stand for Texas GOP old guard
by By Jasper Scherer and Zach Despart, The Texas Tribune – 2024-05-21 05:00:00
SUMMARY: Prominent Republican power brokers gathered at pipeline mogul Kelcy Warren's mansion to support GOP Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan against far-right factions. This group, including figures like Karl Rove and former governor Rick Perry, aims to counter hardline conservatives pulling the party further to the right. Phelan's runoff against David Covey has become costly and pivotal for the party's ideological future. Critics, such as state Rep. Steve Toth, argue Phelan's alliances hinder conservative progress. Opponents also contend Phelan mishandled issues like school vouchers and border security. The primary underscores the GOP's internal struggle between establishment and insurgent factions.
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In mid-April, some of Texas' most prolific Republican donors convened at the palatial and secluded mansion of Dallas pipeline mogul Kelcy Warren.
The RSVP list counted the likes of legendary GOP strategist Karl Rove, real estate billionaire Harlan Crow and Texans for Lawsuit Reform co-founder Dick Weekley. It also included several erstwhile Republican leaders, including Texas' longest serving governor, Rick Perry; former U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison; and two former Texas House speakers, Dennis Bonnen and Joe Straus.
Their mission: Save Dade Phelan.
It was a dramatic show of force from the state's most influential GOP power brokers — or at least, it would have been a decade ago. Today, the once-gilded group of Republican kingmakers, who shaped Texas and national conservative politics across the Bush era, are locked in a power struggle with the party's far-right, socially conservative wing — the very forces that pushed Phelan, the Republican Texas House speaker, into a career-threatening runoff five weeks earlier.
These conservative establishment players, whose own reputations have been under attack in recent months as they've been recast as RINOs, are going to bat for Phelan in a May 28 runoff that, by one account, is the most expensive state House race in history. They hope to prevent Texas' lower chamber from falling under the control of hardline conservatives like their longtime rival, Tim Dunn, a Midland oilman and billionaire megadonor. Dunn and his sprawling political network have funded an aggressive campaign to oust Phelan, attack his allies and scrub so-called moderates from the party.
“If you have 100 issues, and you agree with them 99 times, you're their enemy,” said Alan Hassenflu, a Houston real estate magnate who was on the host committee for Phelan's April fundraiser.
Hassenflu, a board member of the powerful tort reform group Texans for Lawsuit Reform, added that the interests of the Dunn cohort frequently diverge from fiscal conservative orthodoxy.
“Often that purity isn't conservative,” he said. “They'd be just fine having the government tell businesses they can't have unisex bathrooms or mandate vaccines … That's not limited governance.”
Phelan's primary against GOP activist David Covey has emerged as a last stand for the Republican Party's business-minded old guard against an insurgency, primarily motivated by social and cultural issues, that aims to reshape the House in the mold of the more conservative Senate and its leader, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick. That movement landed a major victory in the March primaries, when nine House GOP incumbents were unseated by far-right challengers and eight others, including Phelan, were pushed into runoffs.
David Covey talks on the phone in Beaumont on Jan. 26, 2024. Covey is running against House Speaker Dade Phelan in the Republican primary.
Credit:
Mark Felix for The Texas Tribune
The ouster of Phelan, R-Beaumont, would give Dunn's cohort its best chance yet to elect a speaker who is aligned with Patrick and the Senate, likely clearing the way for unfinished priorities like private school vouchers, expanded state control of elections in Democrat-run counties and various measures aimed at infusing more Christianity into public life.
“This is not the party of George Herbert Walker Bush or [former Sen.] John Tower or Kay Bailey Hutchison or George W. Bush,” said Jon Taylor, a political science professor at the University of Texas at San Antonio. “It is a party that is decidedly more conservative, much less interested in the kind of approach that Texas Republicans took for decades, which was working strongly and closely with the business community … but not pushing very hard on social stuff.”
Some hardline conservatives reject the notion that they have abandoned their pro-business principles, arguing it's possible to focus on things like loosening the regulatory environment while also restricting abortion and LGBTQ+ rights.
“I don't think anybody has a better voting record than I do when it comes to alleviating and fighting against problematic regulations that we're putting on small businesses,” said state Rep. Steve Toth, a Republican from The Woodlands who owns a pool service business.
Toth, one of Phelan's most outspoken critics in the House, has endorsed Covey and joined with a group of lawmakers and candidates who want to upend the House's rules to further diminish the influence of Democrats and weaken the speaker's power.
The fourth-term Republican blamed the intra-party tension on “an element of our party working against social conservatives,” singling out one of the most prolific pro-Phelan groups this cycle, the Associated Republicans of Texas. The group, known as ART, spent around $3 million defending House incumbents in the first round and likely millions more in the runoffs.
State Rep. Steve Toth, R-The Woodlands, right, speaks with state Rep. Tom Oliverson, R-Cypress, on the House floor at the state Capitol on April 6, 2023.
Credit:
Evan L'Roy/The Texas Tribune
“If we try and take out someone that is moderate, we're seen as extreme, and we're the problem with the Republican Party,” said Toth, who was opposed in his own primary by ART, making him the group's only GOP incumbent target this year.
Added Toth, who was backed by Dunn's PAC and easily fended off a moderate challenger in March: “They don't want you to be socially conservative, they only want you to be moderate on those issues, and to get along and go along with the Democrats. And we're just not willing to do it.”
The old guard
Phelan's high-profile backers include some of the state's wealthiest business executives who have benefited from the state's boom years and industry-friendly approach to governing.
One member of the Dallas fundraiser's host committee was Jeanne Tower Cox, daughter of former U.S. Sen. John Tower. Tower, the first Republican Texan elected to the Senate since Reconstruction, helped launch Associated Republicans of Texas in 1974 when the party held fewer than two dozen seats in the Legislature.
Phelan's backers also include Robert Rowling, the billionaire owner of Omni hotels; energy titan Ray Hunt; and beverage distribution magnate John Nau, who serves as co-chair of ART's board. Each is also among Gov. Greg Abbott's top donors, contributing at least a million dollars to the governor's campaigns. Abbott, for his part, has remained neutral in Phelan's race.
The wave of anti-establishment energy this cycle has not only threatened Phelan's career, but also raised the prospect that his supporters in the Republican old guard — already considered pariahs among a large segment of the GOP — could become full-on outcasts in the party they helped create decades ago.
Among them is Rove, who masterminded the Texas GOP's rise in the 1980s and 1990s, engineering some of the party's earliest statewide wins, including the 1990 campaigns of Perry for agriculture commissioner and Hutchison for state treasurer, followed by George W. Bush's election as governor in 1994.
Rove, who declined comment for this story, has been in the crosshairs of the GOP grassroots since he penned an essay last year suggesting Attorney General Ken Paxton was likely to be convicted at his impeachment trial. Rove continued to blast Paxton after he was acquitted by the state Senate, arguing the attorney general bore full responsibility for the impeachment because of his “arrogance.”
Former White House Deputy Chief of Staff under President George W. Bush and Republican political consultant Karl Rove speaks on a panel at The Texas Tribune Festival in Austin on Saturday, Sept. 24, 2022.
Credit:
Eddie Gaspar/The Texas Tribune
Perry, once praised for deftly changing his political stripes to become a tea party darling, has also fallen out of favor with much of the GOP grassroots after penning his own opinion piece calling for Paxton's impeachment trial to go forward, and more recently emerging as Phelan's most high-profile defender on the campaign trail.
Perry, a former Trump cabinet member, has leaned into the criticism, joking at a Phelan rally that the derisive term “RINO” is “kind of sexy, frankly.” He has also defended Phelan's willingness to work with Democrats, noting that he often did so himself on the vast range of issues that transcend partisan politics.
“The speaker's role is not to be a dictator,” Perry said at a Phelan rally in February. He later added that he was worried about the magnitude of intra-party fighting among Republicans, telling the Tribune, “if we continue down this path, pointing our guns inside the tent, that is the definition of suicide.”
Former Gov. Rick Perry attends a get out the vote rally in support of Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan on Feb. 29, 2024, in Vidor.
Credit:
Callaghan O'Hare for The Texas Tribune
Former state Sen. Don Huffines, a wealthy businessman who has also championed social conservative causes, argued that much of Phelan's support is coming from groups like Texans for Lawsuit Reform that are interested in preserving their access to House leadership.
“You've got these people that are used to that environment in Austin, and they want to keep the levers of power,” said Huffines, who challenged Abbott in the 2022 primary with the financial backing of Dunn and fellow West Texas oil billionaire Farris Wilks.
Texans for Lawsuit Reform, known as TLR, is a major force in state politics, with a war chest of more than $29 million at last count and a reputation as the business community's leading bellwether. Once heralded on the right for helping Republicans flip Texas, TLR has been recently vilified by Paxton and his hardline allies, who believe the group worked behind the scenes to orchestrate his impeachment. TLR, which spent more than $3 million trying to oust Paxton in the 2022 primary, has insisted it had nothing to do with the effort.
Lucy Nashed, a spokesperson for Texans for Lawsuit Reform, said the group backs incumbents who support TLR's legislative agenda — though she suggested other factors also play a role in endorsement decisions.
“TLRPAC's primary consideration is whether a candidate is philosophically aligned on civil justice issues, but we also seek to support men and women of integrity who we expect will be constructive members of the Legislature,” Nashed said in an email.
“Fire-breathing” conservatives
Since winning control of the speaker's gavel in 2021, Phelan has shepherded the passage of numerous conservative priorities once seen as a bridge too far for some Republicans, including laws banning abortion, allowing the permitless carry of handguns, restricting transgender rights and vastly expanding Texas' role in immigration law enforcement.
At the same time, Phelan, a real estate developer, has overseen a number of key wins for the Texas business community, including the revival of a corporate tax break program, a new law aimed at speeding up permitting for developers and a sweeping limit on city and county ordinances — a priority of business groups that complained of a growing patchwork of local regulations. The Legislature also created a new court, filled with governor-appointed judges, to hear business cases involving large transactions.
Hassenflu, who founded the Houston firm Fidelis Realty Partners and has long been involved in local Republican politics, said he appreciates that Phelan has supported business-friendly policies that promote growth and limit government. He described Phelan as more conservative than his two predecessors as speaker, fellow Republicans Bonnen and Straus, and said Dunn and his allies used “outright lies” to distort the records of Phelan and other incumbents in this year's ugly Republican primary campaign, which is nearing its conclusion with early voting underway this week.
“There's no integrity in that,” Hassenflu said of the anti-Phelan tactics.
Dunn and Phelan did not respond to requests for comment.
The far-right faction of Texas Republicans have cast Phelan as a feckless capitulator to Democrats who has slow-walked conservative priorities approved by the Senate. A 2023 documentary by Texas Scorecard — a conservative media organization funded by Dunn — made the bold and specious claim that the House is actually controlled by Democrats.
That wing of the GOP has increasingly pushed Phelan to stop appointing Democratic committee chairs, a longstanding practice in the House that has sought to foster bipartisanship by rewarding the minority party with minor positions in leadership.
What got Phelan in trouble with the far right last year were two issues: the House's rejection of Abbott's school voucher bill after it sailed through the Senate and Phelan's full-throated support for impeaching Paxton — one of Dunn's key political allies — on corruption and bribery charges.
Phelan did not take a public stance on the voucher measure at the time, but he later told the Tribune he would have preferred a modest version of it to pass; his critics say he didn't do enough to whip his caucus in line.
The speaker's political foes have pointed to a handful of other conservative priorities that did not make it through the House, including a proposal to bar the sale of Texas farmland to citizens and entities associated with China and several other countries. Covey has also blamed Phelan for allowing Democrats to sink a bill that would have created a “Border Protection Unit,” staffed by deputized everyday residents and licensed peace officers, with authority to “deter and repel” migrants between ports of entry. Phelan and his allies point to his record overseeing an eightfold spike in border security spending and passage of landmark immigration laws.
The opposing factions in Phelan's primary have been on divergent paths since Straus, a San Antonio Republican, first became speaker a decade and a half ago.
Straus rose to power in 2009, assembling a coalition of around a dozen Republicans and most Democrats in the House. Straus' reliance on the minority party made him a frequent punching bag in GOP primaries the following year, when the tea party wave swept out part of his moderate coalition, making his position seem tenuous. But the threat never materialized. Straus easily held onto the speaker's gavel, with only 15 members voting to oppose him in 2011.
Straus said this year's crop of “fire-breathing, I'm-gonna-change-everything conservatives” reminds him of the freshman class he faced in 2011. Many of them changed their tune, Straus said, once they actually met him and learned about the give-and-take needed to pass legislation.
“It was always gratifying to see how many of those who came in with that disposition learned about the institution of the House, and learned that if they were just respectful of others, and respectful of the rules and of the institution, they could be leaders too,” Straus said.
Former House Speaker Joe Straus at The Texas Tribune Festival in Austin on Sept. 24, 2022.
Credit:
Eddie Gaspar/The Texas Tribune
Still, there are important differences this year that could point to more enduring changes in the House next session. For one, Phelan is in jeopardy of becoming the first speaker in 52 years to lose reelection, while Straus was never truly threatened in his district. The in-House challenges to Straus' speakership were even less serious; in contrast, the first challenger out of the gate against Phelan is one of his own committee chairmen.
“These people have a taste for blood in the water, and they're going after him,” said Taylor, the political scientist, noting that the anti-Phelan insurgents are not only pushing a “really strong conservative agenda” like in 2011, but also outlining a specific list of demands aimed at kneecapping Phelan.
The resurgence of the party's rightmost faction comes after Dunn and his cohort spent the last several years struggling to make a dent in the primaries — including in 2022, when candidates supported by Dunn's network lost every head-to-head matchup against Phelan-backed incumbents.
The group seemed to reach its nadir in late 2023, when its leader was caught hosting Nick Fuentes, a prominent antisemite and white supremacist, at his consulting firm's office. But Dunn went on to notch a number of key wins in the March 5 primaries.
First: Tim Dunn, CEO of CrownQuest Operating and chairman of Empower Texans, speaks during The Texas Tribune Festival on Sept. 24, 2016. Last: Nick Fuentes (middle) exits the offices of Pale Horse strategies with Chris Russo, founder and president of Texans for Strong Borders (right), in Fort Worth on Oct. 6, 2023.
Credit:
Brett Buchanan | Azul Sordo for The Texas Tribune
Unlike in previous years, hardline candidates are getting a major boost from Abbott and deep-pocketed groups looking to oust GOP lawmakers who oppose private school vouchers. While the governor has stayed out of Phelan's primary, he is going after four of the speaker's anti-voucher allies in the May runoffs — and one of the pro-voucher groups, Club For Growth, has targeted the speaker directly with a TV ad that calls him “unwaveringly liberal” and a “Democrat in disguise.”
“A fundamental shift”
Democrats, meanwhile, are determined to fight to preserve the limited power they have in the lower chamber. Their caucus leader, Trey Martinez Fischer of San Antonio, said Republicans should not discount the fact that Democrats currently control 64 of 150 seats in the House and could pick up more in November.
And Republicans, no matter what they may say in campaign speeches about stamping out the last vestiges of Democratic influence in the chamber, need the minority party for certain votes. Passing the budget, establishing a daily quorum and approving constitutional amendments each require 100 ayes — a threshold Republicans, currently with 86 members, lack on their own.
Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer, D-San Antonio, speaks at a press conference prior to the start of the 3rd-called special session of the 88th Legislature on Oct. 9, 2023.
Credit:
Bob Daemmrich for the Texas Tribune
Martinez Fischer said with Republicans fighting among themselves, the possibility exists for a more moderate conservative to successfully attain the gavel through a bipartisan coalition, much as Straus did to begin his five-term reign that ended in 2019.
But if House Republicans attempt to further cut the minority party out of the legislative process, the Democratic leader said they will fight back.
“House Democrats will show up and work hard every day,” Martinez Fischer said. “You show us what the rules are and we'll find a way to elevate the discussion — that's just who we are.”
Beyond ending the tradition of bipartisan committee chairs, Phelan's critics have also called for the next speaker to only solicit support from Republican members, a demand aimed at forestalling another Straus-type coalition. The hardline faction also wants the next speaker to “ensure all GOP legislative priorities receive a floor vote before any Democrat bills.”
Sylvester Turner, a Democrat who spent 27 years in the Texas House before his recent stint as Houston mayor, said the proposed changes would produce “a fundamental shift, and in the end, quite frankly, I think everybody loses.”
Turner, a key ally of Straus' predecessor, GOP speaker Tom Craddick, served as speaker pro tempore for all three of Craddick's terms leading the chamber. Phelan's critics are also calling for an end to that tradition, which has often been used as an olive branch by Republicans to fill a largely ceremonial role.
The House's bipartisan culture, Turner said, has long prevented the chamber from devolving into “outright gridlock,” while allowing members of both parties to prevent “a lot of bad shit” from reaching the House floor.
“If one side is going to play this partisan hardball sort of system, it forces the other side to do the same,” Turner said. “So, you gotta be careful what you ask for.”
Disclosure: Texans for Lawsuit Reform and University of Texas at San Antonio have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here.
House Speaker Dade Phelan presides over the House during Sine Die, the last day of the 88th Texas Legislative Session, at the Capitol in Austin on May 29, 2023.
Credit:
Eddie Gaspar/The Texas Tribune
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Texas Tribune
North Texas colleges partner to make transferring easier
by By Sneha Dey, The Texas Tribune – 2024-07-26 13:00:45
SUMMARY: Four Dallas-area schools—Dallas College, Texas A&M University-Commerce, Texas Woman's University, and the University of North Texas at Dallas—are collaborating to streamline credit transfers from community colleges to four-year universities. This initiative aims to prevent credit losses, helping students stay on track for degree completion. More than 13,000 Texas transfer students lost credits in 2022, delaying their graduation and increasing costs. The partnership introduces joint academic advising and three new programs in business, education, and health sciences, with an online portal to track credit transferability. This effort aligns with Texas legislators' changes to incentivize community college transfers.
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Transferring between North Texas colleges could get easier because of an effort to prevent students from losing credits and help them stay on track to finish their degrees.
Four Dallas-area schools — Dallas College, Texas A&M University-Commerce, Texas Woman's University and the University of North Texas at Dallas — are partnering to improve the pipeline from community college to four-year universities. The schools are introducing joint academic advising and new programs of study to help students pick courses that will transfer between the schools and count toward their bachelor's degrees.
More than 13,000 Texas students who transferred from a two-year college to a university in the fall of 2022 did not receive credit for at least one of the courses they completed, according to the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board. Those students did not get credit for about 21,000 community college courses because those credits fell outside of their new school's degree requirements.
Students lose time and money when they take classes that don't end up counting toward their degrees. The setback can discourage them from seeking or completing their bachelor's degree altogether. Those who do complete their degrees are not graduating fast enough, which delays their entry into the workforce and makes going to college more expensive.
The partnership between the Dallas-area schools includes three new programs of study in high demand fields — business, education and health sciences. The schools have agreed on what Dallas College courses will be counted for credit if students transfer to related majors at the Texas A&M Commerce, TWU and UNT-Dallas.
“The collaborative will simplify the process by providing clear, concise information for students,” UNT-Dallas President Warren von Eschenbach said. “It's really building the bridge across that pipeline between the two-year and the four-year institutions.”
The new programs of study mimic Texas Direct, a state transfer initiative that identified courses from several majors that would be guaranteed to transfer to any public university in the state.
The Dallas-area schools will also launch an online portal in the fall where prospective students will be able to see how their credits will be counted across the schools and track their progress toward degrees.
Texas legislators changed how they finance community colleges last year in part to incentivize transfers. Community colleges now get more money when their students earn at least 15 semester credit hours before enrolling in a four-year university.
The Texas Tribune partners with Open Campus on higher education coverage.
Disclosure: Texas A&M University and University of North Texas have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here.
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Texas Tribune
What I learned from my own reproductive health care emergency
by By Jayme Lozano Carver, The Texas Tribune – 2024-07-26 05:00:00
SUMMARY: A journalist recounts her harrowing health ordeal with reproductive issues, highlighting systemic problems in the healthcare system. After suffering from severe migraines and period pains, she discovered she had a large ovarian cyst and fibroid, necessitating urgent surgery. Despite insurance, her medical bills were exorbitant. She faced long wait times, difficulty in finding a doctor, and emotional turmoil. The piece underscores the prevalence of untreated conditions like fibroids due to inadequate public education and research. Through her experience, she critiques the healthcare system's inefficiencies and high costs, while reflecting on her survival and ongoing fears of recurrence.
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Tick. Tick. Tick.
The clock in my OB-GYN's office was taunting me.
Tick. Tick. Tick.
Any moment, I thought, this could kill me.
For more than a year, I knew something was wrong. Crippling migraines radiated through my skull, I would get dizzy standing up, and I felt like I was being ripped apart from the inside during my period. Every month, my husband offered to take me to the emergency room after I doubled over in pain. I usually objected, convinced I'd be brushed off because, well, periods are supposed to hurt.
As it turns out, periods aren't supposed to hurt that bad. A cyst the size of a peach was growing in my ovary, and they found an even bigger fibroid was on the back of my uterus. An urgent care doctor said I had to find an OB-GYN. I likely needed a hysterectomy, she said.
“You're done having kids, right?” She asked.
I had told her 10 minutes before that I didn't have any children yet.
I'm 33. My husband, Johnathon, and I married in 2022, after five years together. The doctor's words cut especially deep because this was the year we wanted to start a family.
My body was frozen, but my mind was racing. What does this mean? Am I in danger? She said hysterectomy. I have to be in danger.
That's why we want to hear your thoughts about how we use artificial intelligence in our work.
That was January. Yesterday, we published the second story in a series dedicated to maternal health in the Texas Panhandle, in partnership with the Journalism and Women Symposium. My reporting paints a bleak picture for women who live north of me in and around Amarillo, where health care is difficult to come by.
The same can be said around Lubbock in the South Plains, where I've always called home. As I was working on that project, I was on the brink of an emergency with my own reproductive health.
My experience showed me a little bit of everything wrong with our health care system, including the high costs and how hard it is to see a doctor. Conditions like uterine fibroids, tumors that grow in the uterus, are common — 26 million women in the U.S. are affected by them, women of color more. And up to 77% of women develop fibroids during their childbearing years. And yet, many go undiagnosed because of a lack of public education and research.
The rest of that day, my phone was hot from calling nearly every OB-GYN in Lubbock. I told them how big both masses were and cried while I waited on hold. Some weren't accepting new patients, some said it wasn't severe enough, and others had waitlists as far out as 2025.
I didn't have that kind of time.
I finally found an OB-GYN's nurse who could see me, then refer me to the doctor if needed. It was an extra step, but I just wanted to get in the door. From the time I was diagnosed to when I met my new doctor, a month passed; it was the end of February. Every day felt like a day too long.
She got straight to the point — the cyst was dangerous. At any moment, it could flip and twist my ovary, which could make me lose the ovary or, in rare cases, cause infertility. It had to be removed.
Then there was the fibroid. It was closer to the size of a grapefruit but I could live with it. If we took the cyst but left the fibroid, there would be no guarantee that my pain would go away. This option meant a more extensive abdominal surgery, paired with a longer and harder recovery.
I booked the surgery to remove both. My doctor had an opening six weeks away — an eternity handcuffed to my cyst. Intrusive thoughts swirled around my head: What if the cyst flipped? What if it popped? My internet search history reflected my anxiety: “Can a cyst make my ovary explode?”
Words like “common,” “harmless,” and “without treatment” weighed heavily. My assailants were huge. I was part of the 8% of women who develop large cysts that needed treatment.
I won a lottery I never wanted to play.
I scrolled social media endlessly for other women's experiences. Some women with more fibroids or bigger cysts than mine commented that they couldn't afford their surgeries yet. It gave me a small taste of survivor's guilt. For so many people, medical care is a matter of debt or health, and some don't have the option to choose. I could split the $2,600 I had to pay upfront between two credit cards, and suffer with interest later.
A few days after scheduling, my doctor's office called and said my surgery was moved up to the following week. Someone else had canceled, and I was their first call.
I wasn't even close to coming to terms with my body betraying me. And I was frustrated with myself. I have reported on health care for years, and yet I fell into the same trap as so many of the people I've written about.
An urgent health issue caused by ignoring routine care? Check. A long wait because patients outnumber providers in my area? Check. Sticker shock from what it would cost to return to a clean bill of health? Check.
It was a cycle I couldn't escape. I was stuck in anger, close to depression, but far from acceptance.
By the morning of my surgery, some of my anger was replaced with resolve. I checked in, begrudgingly paid $100 toward my growing hospital bill, and tried to stay calm while my husband, parents and sister distracted me. My doctor stopped by my room to remind me that she's done this hundreds of times. She was confident. I was terrified.
Bright bunnies for Easter led the way along the walls of the hall toward the surgery center. I wondered if it was too late to turn back now.
Then, as my eyelids grew heavier from the anesthesia, I finally felt calm.
I woke up a few hours later. A little blue pillow, sewn by a local church, was on my midsection. I moved it and felt the bandages covering the seven-inch cut along the bottom of my stomach.
The surgery went as planned. She got everything, didn't find any more growths, and took photos in case I wanted to see, which I did. The fibroid looked like an anatomical heart. The cyst that I was so afraid of, was like a water balloon. Nurses warned me I would feel sore as the shots to numb my stomach muscles wore off.
I told myself to breathe. It's over.
But, the truth is I'm not sure if this is ever actually going to be over. Depression hit when I had my first period post-surgery — it was the most painful in my life. My body ached any time I got up, walked around, or even coughed. I wondered if the surgery and all the pain from recovering was even going to be worth it.
Then there's the scar. It's different from the one on my arm when I scraped it against my car's trunk as a teenager. It's not like a scratch from my cat. It's dark and sensitive to the touch. I see it and relive the whole experience all over again.
Months later, it's a good reminder of how I survived something that could have destroyed me.
I think back to the eight weeks between my diagnosis and my surgery, and I'm proud of how I managed to keep it together and write and prepare, knowing what was growing inside me. My friends, who know my love for horror movies, joke that I'm a real scream queen now, since I've been sliced open and lived to talk about it.
The price of everything does frustrate me when I look back on it. Some charges included $37 for inserting the needle in my vein for a blood sample or $11 per ibuprofen pill. After the first 30 minutes of my surgery, I was charged for every minute I was on the operating table. In the recovery room, I was charged per minute after the first 15 minutes while the anesthesia wore off. Before insurance, the surgery was nearly $31,000. My share after insurance was nearly $5,000.
There is something surreal about knowing the faults of our health care system first-hand now, instead of through collecting other people's stories. I still feel random rushes of pain, though not nearly as powerful as they were before. I'll probably always be worried that any little sign of change in my body, like my hair not growing or the return of my dizzy spells, means something is growing back.
All I can do is go to my annual screenings and stay ahead of it.
Big news: director and screenwriter Richard Linklater; NPR President and CEO Katherine Maher; U.S. Rep. Pete Aguilar, D-California; and Luci Baines Johnson will take the stage at The Texas Tribune Festival, Sept. 5–7 in downtown Austin. Buy tickets today!
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The Texas Tribune is a nonprofit, nonpartisan media organization that informs Texans — and engages with them — about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues.
Texas Tribune
Texas teachers welcome Kamala Harris’ support
by By Jaden Edison, The Texas Tribune – 2024-07-25 18:21:47
SUMMARY: The Texas Tribune reports on the experiences of Texas teachers during the past few years, highlighting their feelings of burnout, lack of resources, and underappreciation, exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, political decisions, and inadequate funding. At the American Federation of Teachers' national convention in Houston, Vice President Kamala Harris acknowledged these struggles and expressed gratitude for their efforts, promising to advocate for adequate resources and fight against conservative measures that may undermine education. Teachers like Gena Coston and Tiffany Spurlock appreciated Harris' message of solidarity and urged for tangible changes to improve the education system and support for teachers.
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HOUSTON — Gena Coston summed up the experience of being a teacher over the last four years with two words: very stressful.
Texas teachers have reported feeling burned out, underresourced and underappreciated in the last few years as they've dealt with the COVID-19 pandemic, classroom changes spearheaded by Republican officials and unsuccessful calls for more state funding toward raises.
For them, Vice President Kamala Harris' message of appreciation at the American Federation of Teachers' national convention in Houston on Thursday was a welcome change.
“It is you who have taken on the most noble of work, which is to concern yourself with the well-being of the children of America,” Harris said.
That's why we want to hear your thoughts about how we use artificial intelligence in our work.
Harris' remarks came on the last day of AFT's national convention, three days after the labor group of more than 1.7 million members became the first union to endorse her presidential run.
“I'm excited because I know that she cares,” said Coston, who teaches eighth grade English Language Arts in the Aldine Independent School District.
Gena Coston poses for a portrait at the American Federation of Teachers' 88th national convention after Vice President Kamala Harris' keynote speech.
Credit:
Danielle Villasana for The Texas Tribune
Harris' message was on par with what some educators said they hoped to hear from her in recent days — a message of solidarity. They acknowledged that while the president cannot control everything that happens in schools, their influence and support while shaping the national agenda is meaningful, particularly at this time in Texas.
In the last few years, teachers had to adapt to online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. Enrollment declined. People left the profession. Officials, districts and parents fought over mask mandates. New state laws limited how they could teach about race, gender and sexual orientation and expanded the influence of Christianity. School boards banned books. A mass shooting happened. The state ousted the democratically elected school board and superintendent of its largest district. Gov. Greg Abbott used his power to push for a program that would allow families to use tax dollars to pay for their children's private education. And through it all, their calls for raises were largely unheeded.
Tiffany Spurlock, who teaches second grade math and science in Cy Fair ISD, said she is concerned about school districts' budget woes, accentuated by inflation and the Texas Legislature's failure to approve significant funding increases amid the fight for vouchers last year.
Spurlock also worries about her colleagues in Houston ISD, which is currently under state oversight. She and her three children previously attended school in the district, and she said current students, parents and teachers are being held to an unfair standard.
Left: Convention attendees hug during Dr. Frederick D. Haynes III's speech. Right: Vice President Kamala Harris arrives on stage to deliver the keynote speech at the American Federation of Teachers' 88th national convention.
Credit:
Danielle Villasana for The Texas Tribune
Attendees of the American Federation of Teachers' 88th national convention clap during Dr. Frederick D. Haynes III's speech, a pastor who spoke before Vice President Kamala Harris' keynote speech at the convention.
Credit:
Danielle Villasana for The Texas Tribune
Spurlock said Harris has the perfect chance to advocate for a system that serves all families.
“We have to make sure we're doing things that's best for kids,” Spurlock said. “Not just processes wise, not just systematically, but also morally.”
Harris, who arrived in Houston a day earlier to receive a briefing on Hurricane Beryl recovery efforts, said Thursday she would fight for the rights of children and educators to have adequate resources to thrive in and out of the classroom.
She said she would also push back against a conservative-backed plan for a second Donald Trump presidency known as Project 2025, which calls for the elimination of the U.S. Department of Education, phasing out billions of dollars in assistance to schools serving low-income families and rolling back protections for students on the basis of gender identity and sexual orientation.
“Project 2025 is a plan to return America to a dark past,” Harris said. “But we are not going back. No, we will move forward.”
Prior to Harris' arrival, some advocacy organizations criticized her for being “out of touch” with Texas values.
“The people of Texas made it clear that it wants parents in charge of their children's education — not government,” said Genevieve Collins, state director of Americans for Prosperity-Texas.
Coston saw Harris' visit as an opportunity for the vice president to hear teachers out. She said Texas teachers are quitting their jobs because the pay and school funding are inadequate. She worries about the rise in teachers without formal training. She is also concerned about student and teacher safety, particularly as it relates to gun violence.
Tiffany Spurlock poses for a portrait at the American Federation of Teachers' 88th national convention.
Credit:
Danielle Villasana for The Texas Tribune
“We gotta feed our teachers and get them motivated,” Coston said. “So in turn, they'll get the kids motivated.”
Going into Harris' speech, Coston's expectation was for the vice president to show awareness of what's going on in schools. She said she was encouraged by what she heard.
“Now we just gotta see it happen,” Coston said.
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