Justin Miller
By Justin Miller:
As Fossil Fuel Industry Invests Billions in New Texas Facilities, it Could Unleash a Huge Emissions Bomb
Rick Perry Exports His Pay-to-Play Politics to Ukraine
Perry has talked about his aspirations for Ukraine to become “the Texas of Europe.” On the corporate cronyism front, he may just have succeeded.
It appears that Rick Perry exported his pay-to-play politics from the Texas governor’s mansion to the notoriously corrupt Ukrainian oil and gas sector, where, as President Donald Trump’s energy secretary, he has played an outsized role in opening up the … Read More
‘Nobody’s Beating You,’ Trump Assures John Cornyn
Our state’s senior senator continues to hitch himself to Trump’s wagon, even as things get rocky.
John Cornyn might as well fire his entourage of political consultants, advisors, and pollsters. President Donald Trump—the pollster of the people, the one who triumphed in the only poll that matters, Election Day—is confident the Texas senior senator’s political future … Read More
Will a High-Stakes Suburban Houston State House Race Give Texas Dems 2020 Vision?
A sole suburban legislative seat in Texas is up for grabs in November, providing a glimpse at Democrats’ 2020 effort to expand control of the suburbs and take control of the state House.
Before the 2018 midterms, Texas Democrats targeted a long list of state House Republicans in urban and suburban seats that were won—or nearly won—by Hillary Clinton in 2016. But House District 28 in suburban Houston was nowhere near the top … Read More
‘El Paso Will Never Heal’: Three Months Later, the Border Town Still Reels
El Pasoans share the deep and expansive trauma that the Walmart massacre has inflicted, and they’re urging lawmakers to take action.
Faded American, Mexican, Texas, and German flags ripple in the wind and a single wind chime softly clinks at a makeshift memorial at the Walmart in El Paso where a white supremacist killed 22 people and injured two dozen more on … Read More
Bonnen’s Downfall Proves Politicians Don’t Mind Dirty Laundry—So Long as It’s Never Aired
The Texas House Speaker announced his resignation, becoming another example of the trite adage: it’s the cover-up, not the crime.
The political scandal known as Bonnghazi has, over the past couple months, slowly engulfed House Speaker Dennis Bonnen. After having outmaneuvered and marginalized right-wing provocateur Michael Quinn Sullivan and his group Empower Texans during his first term as speaker, Bonnen … Read More
Will Dan Patrick’s Bare-Minimum Effort for Gun Control Go Anywhere?
By supporting expanded background checks for private sales between strangers, Patrick has quickly become a conservative non grata.
Days after a man drove through Midland and Odessa, shooting his AR-15-style rifle out his window at bystanders and killing seven people, Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick issued what was seen as a potentially monumental breakthrough in the state’s gridlocked politics … Read More
Michael Quinn Sullivan’s Recorded Conversation with Speaker Bonnen Exposes the Texas GOP for What It’s Always Been
The secret recording confirms the cynicism, vindictiveness, and ugliness at the heart of the Republican politics.
In June, Empower Texans leader Michael Quinn Sullivan revealed that he had secretly recorded a meeting with House Speaker Dennis Bonnen during which, the right-wing hardliner alleged, the speaker presented him with a quid pro quo proposition: the Speaker would … Read More
How Pete Sessions Became ‘Congressman-1’
The powerful former Dallas congressman and GOP leader was trying to swim back to the swamp. Instead, he got sucked into it.
Former Dallas Congressman Pete Sessions’ attempt at a political comeback in a new congressional district was already embattled. When Sessions announced his campaign for the 17th Congressional District in Waco in early October, some local Republicans said he was a … Read More
As Pete Sessions Tries to Revive his Political Career, He May Get Sucked into Ukraine
The once-powerful Republican congressman is trying to claw his way back to Washington at a time when his allies in Trumpworld are under fire.
Former Congressman Pete Sessions stood behind a lectern at the McLennan County Republican Party headquarters in Waco, flanked by a man holding a campaign sign and a cardboard cutout of Donald Trump, and made it official: He was re-running for … Read More
