Christopher Hooks
By Christopher Hooks:
The Disconnect Between Ted Cruz’s Victory Speech and What Actually Happened in Texas
When Cruz declared victory, the crowd in Houston chanted “build the wall,” and speakers on stage greatly overstated the Republican hold on Texas.
The currency of the realm for Texas Democrats is small, symbolic victories, and the currency of the realm for Texas Republicans is the overwhelming, crushing humiliation of one’s enemies, to see them driven before you and to hear the lamentations … Read More
The #FireStanStanart Campaign Finally Wins, Knocking Off the Much-Maligned GOP Harris County Clerk
Democrat Diane Trautman is now is in charge of administering the voting rolls for 4.7 million Texans.
The theme of the night for Texas Democrats, if there is one, might be frustration at the top of the ballot while making great strides at the bottom. It should be noted that Texans have seen the end of one … Read More
Ted Cruz’s Do-Nothing Record
Cruz can’t help build the future because he’s focused solely on his present.
There’s one element of the Senate race in Texas that has gotten surprisingly little attention: Ted Cruz’s astonishingly thin legislative record. As his first term comes to a close, he might as well have not been in Congress at all. … Read More
Has Pete Sessions Marinated in D.C. Too Long for Texas Voters?
In the 2008 presidential election, John McCain won Texas’ Congressional District 32 by 11 percentage points, and in 2012, Mitt Romney won it by 15. It was not, in other words, a district that anybody at the DNC hoped to … Read More
Why Don Huffines’ Destiny May Depend on Other Districts (and ‘Dragon Ball Z’)
Don Huffines won state Senate District 16 from incumbent John Carona in a bitterly contested Republican primary in 2014, when no Democrat ran, so this will be Huffines’ first general election. His district covers much of suburban North Dallas. If … Read More
Will Sarah Davis’ Odd-Duck District Keep the Legislature’s Most Moderate Republican?
The Republican Party of Texas was born in places like House District 134, which covers Houston’s Bellaire and West University Place — educated, wealthy, professional. This is part of the district that George H.W. Bush was elected to represent in Congress … Read More
The Soul-Crushing Emptiness of the Texas Governor’s Race
Greg Abbott was frustratingly vague and dodgy in the one and only gubernatorial debate, delivering the tacit message that he has little to do with the governance of the state.
The race for Texas governor this year is a deadening absurdity between two low-energy politicians with spotty records. An empty suit with a gargantuan checking account versus an empty campaign run by a candidate who is filling the slot for … Read More
The Violence of Trump’s Words
How do we assess blame for the consequences of dehumanizing rhetoric?
From the start, the essence of Donald Trump’s political project has been the dehumanization of others. When he descended the gilded escalator at Trump Tower in June 2015 to kick off his presidential campaign, he famously told a national TV … Read More
Why is Texas’ Leading GOP Think Tank Suddenly All-In on an Anti-Wind Crusade?
The Texas Public Policy Foundation’s latest PR blitz is the kind of thing you’d expect to see from a seedy advocacy group, not a would-be policy braintrust.
If you were a newcomer trying to figure out how Texas politics works, a good start would be to look at the state’s two leading think tanks. The center-left Center for Public Policy Priorities, consigned to an office in North … Read More
