The Michael Berry Show.

Texas State-elected government has 31 state senators in the upper chamber, the state

Senate, 150 state representatives in the lower chamber, the House of Representatives,

and a governor who makes up the executive branch and two actual highest courts, Court of

Criminal Appeals is the court of last resort to hear criminal cases, particularly death

penalty cases in the state of Texas, and then the state Supreme Court, which hears civil

cases.

That is consolidated at the national level into the United States Supreme Court for federal

issues.

But in the state, we have two separate end of the road courts depending on whether

your issue is criminal or civil.

We have the executive branch led by the governor.

That's currently Greg Abbott.

But as we've talked about before, after the civil war during Reconstruction, our state

government was structured such that the governor wouldn't have much power because they knew

that the north was going to send down their Yankee carpet bagging placeholder puppet

who was going to then run roughshod over the state.

And so more of the power was vested in the lieutenant governor and stripped of the governor.

And that's true to the state.

A governor who is successful in the state of Texas is a governor who has a bully pulpit,

a governor who has popular appeal.

The power of the state of Texas governor is not great.

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