Tag Archives: Dan Patrick
‘We’re Not Stupid’: Texas Teachers Take on Dan Patrick and the Legislature over Dismal Education Funding
After years of cuts and attacks, educators are on the offensive this legislative session. But will lawmakers do enough, and what will teachers do if they don’t?
In 2018, teachers led a wave of strikes and walkouts in red states around the country, demanding not just better pay but more public school funding after years ...Read More
Dan Patrick May Have Just Sparked Bathroom Bill 2.0
The GOP’s effort to ban local paid sick day ordinances morphed into what advocates see as an attack on LGBTQ protections that cover 6 million Texans.
Skeptics of the unusual kumbaya rhetoric in the Texas Capitol have been waiting with bated breath for Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick to throw a grenade loaded ...Read More
Christian Conservatives Bring Alarmist #BanTheBible Message to Texas Capitol
The religious right’s desperate new messaging strategy speaks to the shifting dynamics around LGBTQ equality at the Texas Legislature.
In hopes of protecting their religious right to discriminate against LGBTQ people, Texas conservatives have turned to a perplexing new message this legislative ...Read More
Abbott, Patrick, Bonnen Quietly Vote to Remove Slavery-Denying Plaque from Texas Capitol
“The reality is that plaque never should have gone up in the state Capitol in the first place, and it shouldn’t have taken 60 years to take it down,” state Representative Eric Johnson said.
Since the white supremacist violence in Charlottesville a year and a half ago, Texas officials have faced increasing demands to purge the statehouse of a plaque...Read More
The Texas GOP May Actually Get Serious about Real Problems During this Legislature
On the heels of a miniature suburban revolt in the midterms, it seems unlikely that Dan Patrick and friends will be able to hijack the session again.
So: The world’s finest deliberative body convened in Austin on Tuesday, and by early summer, if God’s grace once more falls upon this benighted state, the T...Read More
Texas Has Plenty of Money, But Will Lawmakers Use it to Fix Their Years of Negligence?
State Comptroller Glenn Hegar released his revenue estimate for the 2020-2021 biennium. The upshot is: There’s money to spend, if the Legislature is willing.
Things appear to be going swimmingly for those hoping that Texas legislators will finally address two of the state’s most intractable, intertwined problems: a...Read More
Six Texas Political Players Who Lost Power in 2018
A diverse and bipartisan ensemble of politicians and groups were rudely awakened as they were wrested from or kept out of power in 2018.
Power is a funny thing. One minute you have it; the next it’s gone. Sometimes it’s taken forcefully; other times it’s given away. In Texas, the ruling Rep...Read More
Empower Texans Flushed Millions Down the Toilet
After a decade spent trying to remake Texas politics, the right-wing enforcement group has achieved nothing interesting or notable with Tim Dunn’s money.
Earlier this decade, there was no more interesting subplot in Texas politics than the Republican Civil War, a somewhat grandiose name for the discomfort the tea...Read More
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