Regulating hemp products remains hot button issue

Well, election day is tomorrow, so many of the top candidates here in Texas are going up and down the state trying to make some last-minute pushes. Rudy Kosky joining us in the newsroom now with more on another situation that's going on, another political fight, Rudy. Yeah, this one may not be on the radar for a lot of people. This midterm election cycle certainly has been dominated with a lot of talk about affordability, data centers, and evil big donor, fat cat donors in political cycles. Now, regulating hemp, though, that is also a lingering hot-button issue for some. Monday, a hearing was held in Travis County District Court on another challenge to a new rule from the Department of State Health Services. Tougher standards were set on how hemp products are tested and classified. Business owners and their attorneys who claim that the agency has overstepped its authority were joined today by Democrat Lieutenant Governor nominee Vicki Goodwin. On our Battleground Texas show, we talked about how Goodwin criticized Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick today for supporting the tougher rules and how she's using this legal fight as a campaign issue. Right now it's very confusing what is legal and what is not legal, and so a lot of customers are afraid to buy things that they might think might lead to a felony charge. And so we need to make it so that we go back to where we were prior to the Department of State Health Services implementing those new rules, and then we'll address it through legislation. On social media, Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick today was posting mostly about the rainy election day weather forecast for parts of Texas, but he did add a few comments noting that Goodwin is an Austin Democrat. Now, Alec, the Patrick campaign, we reached out to them to see if they would give us a statement regarding this request, this hearing today, but we have not yet received word back from the campaign. Rudy, the hearing was on a request for a temporary injunction blocking enforcement of the new rule. So was a ruling made today? Well, not yet. You know, it seems like, you know, a cart before the horse type situation. The Supreme Court has already allowed the new rules to start. They did that back in July. This hearing apparently was an attempt to try to reboot that fight. But as I mentioned, Alec, we haven't gotten any word yet in regards to any kind of ruling from the Travis County judge hearing this case. Rudy Kosky, thank you.