Katie Naranjo elected as Travis County Democratic Party Chair
Katie Naranjo has won her bid for Travis County Democratic Party Chair. Naranjo’s opponent, Progress Texas executive director Ed Espinoza, has accepted the role of vice chair. https://twitter.com/TCDP/status/1290471099428372482?s=20 A native of East Texas, Naranjo...
Ted Cruz zeroes in on Antifa as Texas reaches 7,000 coronavirus deaths
Sen. Ted Cruz has been busy touting his most recent legislation, the RECLAIM Act. The bill allows business owners to hold state and local officials liable for the destruction of property inside “law enforcement free zones.” Cruz is referring to the six city blocks...
Multiple investigations now underway, three months after Vanessa Guillen’s death,
Pictured: Democratic leadership at a rally for Fort Hood soldier Vanessa Guillen in Killeen, Texas. From left to right: State Rep. Eddie Rodriguez, Democratic candidate for district 54 Likeithia Williams, State Rep. César Blanco and State Rep. Victoria Neave It has...
The El Paso Massacre, one year later
A year ago, it was an ordinary Saturday in El Paso. At least, that’s how the day started. After a gunman entered a Walmart and started firing at everyone he thought was Latino, it turned into the largest attack against Latinos in American history, with 23 people...
With Texas in play, Biden campaign staffs up
Joe Biden’s presidential campaign announced six new key hires in Texas on Monday, a sign the campaign is staffing up in a state both parties consider a battleground state. Rebecca Acuña, a former communications director for Texas Democrats and multiple lawmakers, was...
Obama issues first wave of 2020 Texas endorsements
Barack Obama is throwing his weight behind more than a dozen Texas Democratic candidates vying to flip congressional and state House seats. The former president released his first wave of 2020 endorsements on Monday in a Medium post that included endorsements...
The most important elections you’ve never heard of: Texas Supreme Court and Court of Criminal Appeals
Texas is one of just a handful of states in the country with partisan elections for its judges at all levels of the court, from the state’s district trial courts, to its intermediate appeals courts, to its highest appellate courts. In most states, the state’s Supreme...
Op-Ed: It’s been one year since the shooting in El Paso and nearly one year since the tragedy in Midland-Odessa and Texas Republicans are no closer to taking measurable steps to end gun violence and stop the spread of white supremacy.
On August 3, 2019, a gunman motivated by xenophobia and white supremacy traveled more than 11 hours through the state of Texas to open fire in an El Paso Walmart, killing 22 people. The shooter posted a manifesto shortly before committing the massacre in which he...
Koch-funded super PAC backing Chip Roy tells voter to ‘find a job’
A screenshot of a short text conversation between a Texas voter and someone with Americans for Property Action, a Koch-funded super PAC supporting Rep. Chip Roy, is making the rounds on social media. It shows the super PAC making a basic canvassing text on behalf of...
Activists in the Rio Grande Valley, hardest hit area in Texas, start mutual aid effort for Hurricane Hanna relief
Volunteer organizers and community members from the Rio Grande Valley have stepped up to fill in for state inaction by creating a mutual aid collective to provide financial assistance to offset damage from Hurricane Hanna. They are doing so in the face of surging...
New web tool shows how Austin can reinvest from police
With the city's budget adoption process now only two weeks away, three Austin councilmembers are proposing amendments that would reallocate $40 million from the city’s police budget. That’s on top of the about $11 million in cuts made by the city manager earlier this...
Op-Ed: What is an Elections Administrator and why does Harris County need one now?
On Monday, August 3, Harris County Commissioners Court will hold a public comment hearing to debate a proposed change to how elections and voter registration duties are managed in Harris County. The change would consolidate all aspects of elections, including...
Cornyn continues to enable Trump’s most autocratic instincts
Sen. John Cornyn provided cover for Trump on Thursday after the president tweeted about delaying the 2020 general election due to concerns about widespread voter fraud. (In reality, there is no evidence of widespread voter fraud, and it’s been a popular method of...
Mask skeptic Louie Gohmert tests positive for COVID-19
Rep. Louie Gohmert of Texas, a rightwing Tea Party Republican well-known for not wearing a mask while lawmaking, has tested positive for COVID-19. Gohmert was scheduled to travel to Midland, Texas with President Trump on Air Force One, but a pre-flight test came up...
Report finds coverage of Texas politics dominated by white, male sources
An analysis of news coverage during the 2020 Texas primary finds journalists overwhelmingly relied on white, male sources for their stories. The report by Progress Texas Institute found that in news coverage of the U.S. Senate primary in Texas, more than 71...