Tag Archives: Empower Texans
The Power Politics Behind the House’s Bipartisan, Kumbaya, Feel-Good Session
House Speaker Dennis Bonnen altered his party’s near-term agenda in service of the GOP’s long-term political project: Power. Will it work?
Weeks before the 2019 legislative session even began, Jeff Leach foreshadowed the shifting political winds that would ultimately animate lawmakers. In early Dec...Read More
The $9 Billion School Finance Problem in Speaker Bonnen’s Backyard
While legislators focused on school finance and property taxes, a silent culprit continued to metastasize. If Chapter 313, a corporate welfare program, is left unaddressed, it could undermine any progress made this session, critics warn.
There’s a $9 billion (and growing) problem looming in the backyard of House Speaker Dennis Bonnen. That problem is formally known as Chapter 313. As Texas’ ...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
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
Two Special Interest Groups Bankroll More Than Three-Quarters of Konni Burton’s Senate Campaign
Two uber-conservative groups have pumped more than $830,000 into the North Texas race.
In perhaps Texas’ only remaining state Senate swing district, conservative PACs backed by fracking billionaires are doubling down on campaign contributions in...Read More
Meet Farris Wilks, Kingmaker of the Texas GOP
Wilks is an elder at an idiosyncratic church that reportedly doesn't allow women to speak during worship. He also pumps millions into Texas Republican politics.
On the morning of October 21, Farris Wilks, a North Texas fracking billionaire, was busy with matters of eschatology. Preaching at the Eastland County church fo...Read More
The Far-Right is Staging an Ouster of Moderate Republicans in the Panhandle. Will Incumbents Outlast the Attack?
King, Price and Seliger have all drawn challenges from right wing opponents who are running the Empower Texans playbook and taking money from ultraconservative advocacy groups.
The Far-Right is Staging an Ouster of Moderate Republicans in the Panhandle. Will Incumbents Outlast the Attack? King, Price and Seliger have all drawn challeng...Read More
Texas Teachers ‘Blow the Whistle’ After Conservatives Accuse Them of (Gasp!) Getting out the Vote
Public education supporters are mocking GOP attempts to stop schools from encouraging students and staff to vote.
“I will vote in support of public education in the interest of the more than 5 million Texas school children.” That’s the oath Texas Educators Vote shoppe...Read More