... people stay off that highway/interstate would be to make it a toll road.You will never guess who has a tough runoff election on May 26 in the Republican primary. pic.twitter.com/Nza9OwoWRQ
— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) May 12, 2026
(That’s an inside Texas joke. Decades back the Lege discovered what they thought were “free” roads. Toll roads would repay the cost of construction and maintenance. And private interests would buy them, repaying construction costs for the collection of tolls. Turned out Texans don’t mind paying taxes for roads, but don’t like paying twice: once to build it, once more to use it.
There’s a history here. The “turnpike” between Dallas and Fort Worth (when they were part of the megalopolis that is D/FW), was a toll road. But only until the bonds for the road were paid off. I still remember when the toll gates came down. The road was paid for, so it was a fair bargain.
Cities in Texas have toll roads; mostly it keeps the traffic down. Somewhat. But the toll roads between cities? Almost nobody uses them. There’s one that was supposed to replace the godawful congestion on I-35 between San Antonio and Dallas. I-35 is still crowded. Nobody wants to pay for the alternative. The private companies? They sold their interests back to the state, and left town. The Lege thought they’d solved highway financing to the end of time.
Nobody even talks about toll roads anymore.
And nobody wants a highway named after Trump in Texas. Well, except for a few GOP primary voters, maybe. Probably not enough to give Cornyn a chance to make good on his efforts (which will probably be reversed in ‘27, if he gets that far.) But signs indicate cruising Trump highway will be little balm to the Texas GOP in the foreseeable future.)
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