Four months after running for Congress, Jessica Cisneros has settled into a different routine. Instead of knocking doors, she is drafting motions and affidavits as an immigration attorney. Instead of dialing voters, she is on the phone with clients and other attorneys...
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Progressive groups unite behind challenger Sara Stapleton-Barrera, denounce incumbent Eddie Lucio Jr.
In a remarkable display of support, progressive advocacy groups that work on a broad range of issues from education, to women’s health care and reproductive rights, to the environment, to LGBTQ equality coalesced behind Sara Stapleton-Barrera, a Democratic candidate...
From Medicare for All to divesting from police funding, Texas Democrats now have the most progressive party platform in state history
Every two years at the state convention, the Texas Democratic Party adopts a new platform that articulates the core ideas and beliefs that govern the party. Planks in the platform — from healthcare to education to criminal justice reform — form the foundation of what...
Democrats have a plan to turn Texas blue: Latino voters
For the past few decades, Texas Latinos have been frequently referred to as the “sleeping giant” — a group so large that once awakened to vote, Latinos would deliver a seismic shift in political power. An influence so powerful that it would keep Democrats in office...
Criminal Justice is broken in Texas’ most progressive county: José Garza wants to fix it
Reimagining justice and safety José Garza thinks a lot about the criminal justice system — how it can best keep the public safe using evidence and data; how it, as currently designed, weighs most heavily on working people and people of color; how it can be too often...
How Bernie changed Texas
Stories of struggle Believing in Bernie Sanders in Texas was once — and still can sometimes feel like — a lonely pursuit. Republicans called him radical — too extreme. Democrats argued that he couldn’t win — too far left. Texas, the long-standing bastion of...
Lessons learned from the last decade of racial gerrymandering in Texas
Half a century of voter discrimination Texas has been found in violation of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 because of intentional racial discrimination every decade since its enactment. The root of these violations is redistricting, the process of redrawing the...
Can a progressive beat the most conservative Democrat in the Texas Senate?
On March 3, 2020, in the shadow of a contentious presidential primary election, incumbent legislators and scores of primary challengers ran to serve in one of the 181 seats of the Texas Legislature. Sara Stapleton-Barrera, a candidate for Texas Senate District 27,...