Texas Politics
Voting Begins in a Month. Here’s What Is at Stake in Texas.
In an election that will chart the state’s political future for a generation, Democrats are waging an unprecedented offensive against embattled Republicans.
In late November 2018, just weeks after U.S. Senator Ted Cruz eked out a win against Democratic phenom Beto O’Rourke, Texas’ senior U.S. Senator John Cornyn...Read More
Joaquin Castro Says He’ll Champion Progressive Foreign Policy
The representative from San Antonio is vying to become the chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
San Antonio U.S. Representative Joaquin Castro is vying to become chair of one of the most powerful committees in Washington: the House Foreign Affairs Committe...Read More
Historic Runoff Turnout Sets Stage for Texas Democrats in 2020’s ‘Biggest Battleground’
MJ Hegar won a contested Senate runoff and Democrats broke their record for runoff turnout as nearly 1 million voters cast ballots.
The Texas primaries in March feel like a lifetime ago. Soon after Super Tuesday, the coronavirus pandemic spread across the country and ground political campaig...Read More
Amid a National Reckoning Over Racial Injustice, Royce West Seeks to Upset MJ Hegar—and the DSCC
Texas’ Democratic Senate runoff to face John Cornyn has taken on new political significance as a Black state senator vies to defeat the national party’s favored candidate.
Texas Democratic Senate candidate Royce West was fed up. In the final days of early voting for the runoff election, frontrunner MJ Hegar put out a new ad in whi...Read More
Doctors Reverse Course, Say Texas GOP Should Cancel In-Person Convention
One day after The Texas Tribune reported that the Texas Medical Association was a sponsor for the indoor convention that is expected to draw 6,000 people, the doctors' group announced it was calling on organizers to cancel.
This article was originally published by The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan media organization that informs Texans—and engages with them—about publ...Read More
The Next Census Could Determine the Future of Port Arthur
If a city’s population drops below 50,000, it’s no longer considered an urban area. This different designation means it could lose some of the federal dollars directed toward larger metropolitan areas.
The 2020 census will almost certainly reshape the face of politics and power in Texas. State legislative districts, as well as their congressional counterparts,...Read More
Texas Had a State Office That Could Have Investigated Racial Disparities in COVID-19 Cases. Lawmakers Defunded it Three Years Ago.
While early reports elsewhere show African Americans disproportionately infected and dying from COVID-19, Texas’ data is incomplete.
In 2005, faced with data showing that black and Native American families were overrepresented in Texas’ child welfare system, lawmakers ordered Child Protecti...Read More
The COVID-19 Disaster Has Made a Mess of Texas’ Open Government Rules
Some government officials in Texas appear to be exploiting the pandemic as a way to hide public business from the public.
Thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic and opportunistic public servants, government agencies now have carte blanche to operate in secret for as long as this crisis pe...Read More
‘I’m in Limbo Here’: Texans Are Met with an Overwhelmed and Antiquated State Unemployment System
The safety net meant to support the second largest workforce in the country is using decades-old technology. The workforce agency was trying to replace it when the pandemic hit.
Four months ago, Alan Chastain moved from Louisiana to the Houston area for a promising new job as a sales representative at a sign company. By late March, Chas...Read More