The latest Housewives of Dallas drama reveals a lot about the ‘anti-racism’ backlash
For many fans of reality television, the latest season of the Real Housewives of Dallas failed to live up to other franchises, like Salt Lake City or Potomac, in terms of ratings or drama. But now, after the season ended and the two-part reunion aired on Bravo, the...
What Gina Ortiz Jones can expect in her Air Force Under Secretary confirmation
Last month, President Biden nominated Air Force veteran and Texas Democrat Gina Ortiz Jones for Under Secretary of the Air Force. As Under Secretary, Jones would be the second highest civilian official in the Air Force, overseeing hundreds of thousands of personnel...
Gov. Greg Abbott ends federal unemployment benefits for Texans
On Monday, Gov. Greg Abbott announced that Texas will be opting out of President Joe Biden’s federal unemployment benefits package. This means that Texans who filled for unemployment will no longer receive a $300 weekly check from the federal pandemic relief program...
Majority of Texas Republicans vote against Jan 6th Commission
The U.S. House of Representatives yesterday passed a bill to create a nonpartisan commission to investigate the attempted insurrection on January 6th of this year, which national and Texas Republicans immediately sought to politicize. The bill, which passed the House...
The Case: Julián Castro for Governor
I was still in high school when I saw Julián Castro speak at the 2012 Democratic National Convention. Castro started his keynote speech by telling his family’s success story, how his grandmother worked hard to give his mother a better life, and how his mother worked...
Abbott signs Senate Bill 8, one of the most extreme anti-abortion laws in the country
Even before the Texas legislature convened in Austin, abortion advocates were bracing for a particularly hostile landscape in the state. Now the legislature and Gov. Abbott have delivered on one of the most extreme anti-abortion bills in the country, and there may be...
A rally in Baytown for Pamela Turner, killed by a police officer, draws activists and community leaders demanding justice
Over 150 protestors and supporters gathered in Baytown, TX on Thursday for the protect black women rally and demand justice for 44-year old Pamela Turner who was shot and killed by Baytown Police Officer Juan DelaCruz on May 13, 2019. Exactly two years after Turner’s...
Quintin Jones’ impending execution strikes at the core of Texas’ death penalty problem
Over the past week, Texas death row inmate Quintin Jones’ pleas for clemency have galvanized criminal justice reform advocates and once again shined a spotlight on the state’s frequent use of capital punishment. Captured in a New York Times–produced video and op-ed...
A Candidate’s Perspective: An Interview with Candace Valenzuela
The following is a transcript of the Tex Mix podcast with host Jessica Montoya Coggins and Candace Valenzuela, a mother, educator, and a former congressional candidate from TX-24. Candace gives us some insight about what it’s like campaigning as a progressive, and the...
Musings: Matthew McConaughey, Democrat? Julian Castro, Governor?
With the news over the weekend that Matthew McConaughey had begun making calls to some politically connected folks in Texas to test the temperature of a potential campaign for Governor of Texas in 2022 came a jarring realization. None of them were Democrats....
What we know so far about Matthew McConaughey possibly running for governor
It’s the question looming over the 2022 election in Texas: will he or won’t he? The answer: we don’t know. But for now, Matthew McConaughey, the actor turned memoirist turned possible politician, is keeping pundits busy with the speculation that he is mulling a run...
Musings: Vast Conspiracies
If, like me, you’ve been in the unenviable position of reviewing footage of Briscoe Cain, the Republican state representative who chairs the House Elections Committee and author of one of the most far-reaching voter suppression bills since Jim Crow, you may have been...
What you need to know about the Colonial Pipeline attack
On May 7, the Colonial Pipeline was subjected to a cyber attack. This resulted in one of the nation’s largest pipelines being shut down for five days, causing gas shortages along the Eastern Seaboard. While there has been a string of serious hacking incidents in...
Texas loses chance to send stimulus checks to residents (unlike California)
Low-income residents in California have until October of this year to receive their “Golden State Stimulus,” a one-time payment of $600 for residents making under $30,000. A similar proposal in the Texas Legislature to deliver between $1,000 to $2,500 to...
Texas legislature votes down even studying Medicaid expansion
Like an 80’s horror villain, legislation in the Texas Capitol has a habit of coming back to life after it seems dead. However, in the case of Medicaid expansion, it does appear that any hope of passing in this legislative cycle is officially kaput. An amendment to the...