The Week in Quotes (Jan. 28 – Feb. 3)

Here are some of the week’s most notable quotes.

Michael McCloskey, a member of the Texas Republican Executive Committee, on a committee vote to censure Texas House Speaker Joe Straus, R-San Antonio, on Saturday.

“I always thought our party was the one of dignity and class and to so disrespectfully kick someone of that prominence on his way out was disgraceful. The Republican Party of Texas has changed into something most mainstream Republicans would not recognize.”

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Amy Hagstrom Miller of Whole Woman’s Health, following the decision by a federal judge to block a Texas law that requires miscarried or aborted fetuses to be cremated or buried.

“Today’s decision is a strong affirmation of what we have always fought for — that women deserve to have the dignity when making health care decisions.”

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Texas State Board of Education member Ruben Cortez, D-Brownsville, recounting what he’s heard from Mexican-American studies students. The board on Tuesday reprised talks about implementing a MAS course in the next few years.

“It helps them identify with their roots. One of them said, ‘My grades have improved because I now know that I’m not the only one dealing with these sorts of things and I’ve learned about people that have had these similar challenges.’”

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Texas Rising member Kelsey Barron of San Antonio, on a recent Ken Paxton opinion that said teaching students about voting would lack an “educational purpose.”

“And therein lies the fear for state leaders like the attorney general. They are hostile to those goals and seem truly afraid of what will happen when a rising generation that supports them actually turns out at the polls in larger numbers.”

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Jensen Soderlund, president of the Texas Rising chapter at the University of Texas, on the record number of LGBTQ candidates in Texas this year. Texas Rising is a youth-focused project of the Texas Freedom Network.

“There are a lot of anti-LGBTQ people in office right now, and a lot of anti-LGBTQ sentiment throughout the state. If we want to change that, we should start electing more LGBTQ people into office.”