Texas Legislature
‘Life Was Her Art’: Nadine Eckhardt Remembered as an Influential Cultural Conduit in Texas and Washington
As Speaker of the House, Will Dennis Bonnen be a Menace to the Environment?
Despite his earlier reputation as a hatchet man for environmental regulation bills, activists are cautiously optimistic that they can find common ground with Bonnen as speaker.
As chair of the Texas House Committee on Environmental Regulation from 2003 to 2008, Representative Dennis Bonnen was labeled a “tyrant,” a “Clean Air Vil...Read More
Four Texas Abortion Court Cases to Watch in 2019
The lawsuits could eventually end up at the Supreme Court, where the future of Roe v. Wade is now in question.
The Texas Legislature’s zeal for passing anti-abortion legislation has created an endless cycle of court challenges that’s frustrated lawmakers and judg...Read More
When Prison Reform Goes Bad
What happened to the Legislature's two-decade-old attempt to break the cycle of incarceration for low-level felons?
In the early 1990s, the Texas Legislature tried to build something surprisingly progressive amid the state’s tough-on-crime prison boom: an alternative to pri...Read More
Texas GOP Chair: Racism and Bigotry are an ‘Extreme Exception’ in the Party
James Dickey on white nationalists in the Texas GOP, xenophobia and “America First.”
Last week, the Observer reported that Ray Myers — who had a hand in crafting the platform for the most influential state Republican party in the country — ...Read More
‘Damn Right, I’m a White Nationalist’ Declares Texas GOP Platform Committee Member
A connected tea party activist says white nationalism has nothing to do with race supremacy — it’s just part of Trump’s “America First” vision.
At the Texas Republican Party’s 2018 convention, Ray Myers was a part of a select group of activists charged with crafting the platform for the biggest and mo...Read More
How Beto Built His Texas-Sized Grassroots Machine
To pull off the largest GOTV effort in state history, O’Rourke turned to the top architects of Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign.
How Beto Built His Texas-Sized Grassroots Machine To pull off the largest GOTV effort in state history, O’Rourke turned to the top architects of Bernie Sander...Read More
Audit Says State Windstorm Insurance Program is Failing… Again
After Hurricane Harvey, the windstorm insurer of last resort for the Texas coast is “broke, in debt and facing a shrinking revenue pool.”
In 2008, after hurricanes Ike and Dolly ravaged the Texas coast and caused more than $30 billion in property damage, the state’s quasi-governmental windstorm ...Read More
In 2019, Another Chance to Fix the Texas Public Information Act
With a GOP committee chair gone and new bills in the pipeline, state lawmakers and government transparency advocates seek to close loopholes in Texas open records law.
It’s been three years since Enrique Iglesias walked away from the Rio Grande Valley holding a proverbial sack full of taxpayer cash. He got the money in 2015 ...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