Elections 2018: Races to Watch
How Beto Built His Texas-Sized Grassroots Machine
New Democrats Hope For a More Bipartisan Texas Senate in 2019
Democrats will have a little more leverage in Dan Patrick’s far-right Senate on issues like property taxes and public school funding.
When the Texas Senate convenes in January, Democrats will have one more senator in their ranks. But the reality is that Republicans and Lieutenant Governor Dan ...Read More
Ted Cruz Won Because of Rural Texas, but Beto Made Small Gains for Democrats
O’Rourke’s strategy of hitting all 254 counties didn’t win him the race, but it likely gained Democratic ground in small-town Texas, Republicans’ most reliable stronghold.
At first glance, it would appear as if Democrats were dealt a series of miserable defeats in rural Texas Tuesday. Beto O’Rourke, who spent beaucoup time and m...Read More
The Midterms Trigger a Seismic Shift in Harris County’s Courts
Among the Democrats who won all 59 judicial seats at play in the midterms: a socialist and 19 black women running on criminal justice reform.
The Democratic sweep in Harris County Tuesday night could remake one of the largest criminal justice systems in the country. When the blue wave crashed into Hou...Read More
Texas is a Purple State Now. The Proof is in Last Night’s Results.
Tuesday’s midterm was the best election result for Texas Democrats since at least 1994, and gives a lot of reasons to think that something has meaningfully changed in this state.
Photos/Brad Tollefson, Justin Miller, Illustration/Sunny Sone When Ted Cruz slipped ahead of Beto O’Rourke in the count last night, there was a wave of anguis...Read More
Loon Star: Blue Wave
Ben Sargent on the 2018 midterms.
Ben Sargent To see more political cartoons from Ben Sargent, visit our Loon Star State section, or find Observer political reporting here....Read More
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 hu...Read More
Beto O’Rourke: ‘I’m as Hopeful as I’ve Ever Been in My Life’
In his concession speech, O’Rourke said goodbye to a crowd in El Paso, promising that “We'll see you out there down the road.”
Just after 10 p.m., Beto O’Rourke took the stage at the baseball stadium for the El Paso Chihuahuas to The Clash’s “The Clampdown,” which became somethi...Read More
Empower Texans Loses Big on Election Night
The trend of Empower Texans’ influence at the Texas Capitol dwindling continues.
Illustration/Sunny Sone Empower Texans, the aggressively reactionary group funded by oil and gas barons Tim Dunn and Farris Wilks, wasted a lot of money this ye...Read More
Beto Tried to Win a Texas That Doesn’t Quite Exist Yet
“The people of Texas are not a small, paranoid people. We are big, bold, ambitious and focused on the future,” Beto O’Rourke said last Friday, the final d...Read More