Politics & Policy
November 20, 2023
Greg Abbott Had Great Ambitions. Donald Trump Had Other Plans.
Long thought of as a presidential contender, the Texas governor has endorsed the former president—and supplicated for his favor.
188 Articles
Politics & Policy
November 6, 2023
Sinners in the Hands of an Angry GOP
For a long time, Texas Republican chairman Matt Rinaldi couldn’t win elections. Now he wants to decide them—by exacting revenge on opponents within his party.
Politics & Policy
October 12, 2023
First They Came for Those Who Met With Nazis
After right-wing activist Jonathan Stickland hosted Nick Fuentes in his office, many in the GOP have attacked Stickland’s critics.
Politics & Policy
September 16, 2023
The Texas Senate Votes to Acquit Attorney General Ken Paxton
House managers couldn’t get more than 14 votes, below the needed 21 votes to convict, on any of the sixteen impeachment counts.
Politics & Policy
September 13, 2023
Why Is a Midland Billionaire Spending So Heavily to Support Ken Paxton?
Countless right wingers could do the attorney general's job more effectively, but none would so reliably serve the interests of one faction in the Texas GOP's civil war.
Politics & Policy
September 12, 2023
Yes, George W. Bush Changed Texas. But Not the Way You Think.
His victory in the 1994 governor’s race wasn’t the election that really transformed the state.
Politics & Policy
August 3, 2023
Ken Paxton Managed to Delay His Trial on Securities Fraud Charges for Eight Years. Now It’s Coming Home to Roost.
The state Senate’s vote on Paxton’s impeachment will proceed independently from his criminal case. But the outcomes are interlinked.
Politics & Policy
July 27, 2023
Greg Abbott’s Border Policy Is at Once Cruel and Ineffective. Many State Leaders Wouldn’t Have It Any Other Way.
The Texas GOP, which once advocated for a more humane immigration policy, is wedded to Operation Lone Star despite its exorbitant costs and failures.
Politics & Policy
July 10, 2023
Before Uvalde, Roland Gutierrez Was Just Another State Senator. Now He’s Challenging Ted Cruz.
The state senator was little known until last year, when the massacre in Uvalde, in his district, thrust him into the spotlight.
Politics & Policy
July 6, 2023
How to Lose Friends and Alienate the Legislature
The governor has long suffered from the reputation that he’s a policy lightweight. He’s turning it around this year in five easy steps.
Best and Worst Legislators
June 13, 2023
2023: The Best and Worst Legislators
Our scorecard of the Eighty-eighth Texas Legislature’s noisy scoundrels and quiet heroes.
Politics & Policy
May 26, 2023
The Texas Legislature Finally Comes for Ken Paxton
The Texas House has voted to impeach the attorney general. After nearly eight years under indictment—during which he won two elections—why now?
Politics & Policy
May 11, 2023
Since the Lege Has Been in Session, There’ve Been Eighteen Mass Shootings in Texas
The gun bills most likely to pass aren’t restrictions but those that further protect firearm ownership.
Politics & Policy
April 10, 2023
One Angry Man
Governor Greg Abbott wants to overrule a jury’s conviction of Daniel Perry, who murdered a man at a Black Lives Matter protest in 2020.
Politics & Policy
March 27, 2023
In Waco, Donald Trump Parties Like It’s 1993
The rhetoric at the former president’s rally hearkened back to the fringe, anti-government messaging of the nineties Texas right wing.
Politics & Policy
March 22, 2023
Loathsome Dud: Jared Patterson’s School-Library Bill Would Ban Larry McMurtry’s Novel
The lawmaker from Frisco has rallied right-wingers by promising to remove “sexually explicit” books from shelves. But he may lose them by targeting a beloved Texan classic.
Politics & Policy
March 14, 2023
How Dan Patrick Made the Texas Senate in His Image
The lieutenant governor has consolidated power in the Legislature and exercises near-total control of his chamber. Will anyone challenge him?
Politics & Policy
March 10, 2023
Don’t Be Fooled by the Legislature’s Tough Talk About Ken Paxton
Texas lawmakers say they won’t let the attorney general settle a lawsuit using taxpayer money, but they’re letting him avoid oversight.
Politics & Policy
January 26, 2023
How to Survive the Texas Legislature
The ways of the Texas Legislature are confoundingly weird. Here’s a guide to the madness.
Texas Icons
January 17, 2023
The “Come and Take It” Flag Now Symbolizes Something It Never Stood For
On T-shirts and bumper stickers, the flag that flew during the Texas Revolution has had its cannon replaced by an AR-15. Would our ancestors approve?
Texas Icons
January 17, 2023
Sixteen of the Most Influential Texas Political Figures of the Past 50 Years
From John Connally to Lina Hidalgo, these leaders have made Texas the bellwether state for the nation.
Texas Icons
January 17, 2023
Comparing Two of the Most Powerful Lieutenant Governors in Texas History
Like Bill Hobby, Dan Patrick has made the most of an inherently powerful position.
Politics & Policy
January 11, 2023
Texas Lawmakers Want to Make It Harder to Know What They’re Doing
State leaders used to invite coverage of their activity. Now the Texas Legislature is making reporting more difficult than ever.
Politics & Policy
January 5, 2023
Chip Roy, Bless His Heart
The Central Texas representative who is helping block Kevin McCarthy’s ascent to Speaker of the House has a long history of obstructionism.
Politics & Policy
October 24, 2022
Wherever Donald Trump Goes, There You Are
The former president’s rally in Robstown was just like all his others in Texas, but he still commands state leaders’ attention.
Politics & Policy
September 19, 2022
What’s Driving Greg Abbott’s Escalating Migrant Busing Scheme?
The Texas governor’s plan has been adopted by Ron DeSantis in Florida, and it has grown crueler as it spreads.
Politics & Policy
September 16, 2022
Ken Starr’s Pursuit of Righteousness
The conservative legal luminary, famous for the Clinton impeachment and his leadership of Baylor, mistook piety for doing what’s right.
Politics & Policy
August 12, 2022
The Trump Raid’s Newest Victim: The Texas GOP
After the FBI searched Mar-a-Lago, state Republicans near-unanimously lined up behind the former president—before details of the investigation left them silent.
The Stand Up Desk
June 27, 2022
What Stephen Harrigan’s Late-’80s Reporting Prophesied for Galveston Bay
“Your article may be an epitaph,” the then-president of the Houston Audubon Society told the writer.
Politics & Policy
June 20, 2022
Yes, the 2022 Texas GOP Platform Is Extreme. But Little of It Is New.
Observers cite the party’s convention as evidence that state Republicans have gone “full MAGA.” But if anything, MAGA folks are following Texas.
Politics & Policy
June 7, 2022
Greg Abbott Once Promised to End School Shootings, but After Uvalde His Tone Has Changed
After ten Texans were murdered at Santa Fe High School in 2018, the Legislature passed seventeen school safety bills. They didn’t work.
Politics & Policy
May 26, 2022
A Year of “Protecting” Children in Texas
State leaders have campaigned in 2022 on saving Texas children from threats real and imagined. All the while, we’ve been selling them out.
Politics & Policy
May 26, 2022
At a Right-wing Comedy Night, the Hosts Are Laughing All the Way to the Bank
Former Texas legislator Rick Green has built a marketplace for conservative stand-up—and proselytizing.
Politics & Policy
May 25, 2022
Anti-Trans Politics Has Won in the Texas GOP, But Its Main Figurehead Lost
. . . and other key Texas Lege results from the primary runoffs.
Politics & Policy
May 20, 2022
Texas Republicans Suddenly Want to Tell CEOs What They Can and Can’t Do
The state GOP long opposed new regulations on corporations. Then Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick launched a crusade against “woke” businesses.
Politics & Policy
May 16, 2022
Donald Trump Had Nothing New to Say in Austin. His Fellow Speakers Did.
The former president played the usual hits at a rally Saturday, but rock musician Ted Nugent found new lows.
Politics & Policy
May 11, 2022
Don’t Be Certain the Draft Decision Ending Roe Will Drive Texas Turnout
Democratic leaders have predicted that the leaked draft decision will get Texas liberals to the polls. History provides caution.
Politics & Policy
May 9, 2022
Rick Perry, Drug Pusher
How did the former governor become a leading advocate for psychedelics?
Politics & Policy
April 26, 2022
Cancel Culture Comes for Beto O’Rourke
The Democratic gubernatorial candidate says he wants to have a dialogue with Texans of all persuasions. But in one rural community, Republicans worked to make sure he would have no place to talk or listen.
Politics & Policy
April 13, 2022
Is Our Children Learning Too Much?
There’s a long tradition in Texas of moral panics over what schools are teaching kids. The newest iteration is particularly quaint.
Books
April 11, 2022
How a Texas Monthly Writer Wound Up Writing Billy Graham’s Biography
William Martin’s journey from Rice professor to Billy Graham expert began with a simple assignment, one that would alter his life for decades to come.
Politics & Policy
April 2, 2022
Texas Log Cabin Republicans Will Settle for a Slightly-Bigger-Tent GOP
At an event of the group of “GLBT” conservatives in Houston, speakers studiously avoided discussion of their party’s anti-trans policies.
Politics & Policy
March 10, 2022
Texas Democrats Have a Recruitment Problem
Beyond Beto O’Rourke, the candidates on the party’s statewide slate are short on experience in elective office and in statewide campaigns.
Politics & Policy
February 23, 2022
How the West Campaign Was Lost
Former Texas GOP chair Allen West is a darling of the right wing. But the grassroots in Texas is not the kingmaker it used to be.
Politics & Policy
January 10, 2022
The Republican Race for Attorney General Will Be the Weirdest, Wildest—And Most Telling—Texas Election in 2022
Scandal-plagued incumbent Attorney General Ken Paxton faces a Bush, a congressional performance artist, and a former state Supreme Court justice.
Politics & Policy
November 3, 2021
What Do the 2021 Texas Election Results Tell Us About Next Year’s Midterms?
Mainly what we already knew: Democrats will have problems in the state in 2022 and Austin is liberal.
Politics & Policy
October 14, 2021
Critical Race Fury: The School Board Wars Are Getting Nasty in Texas
A loud minority of parents is making life miserable for Texas school officials—and shouting down the kids who speak in favor of lessons about the history and persistence of racial discrimination.
Politics & Policy
September 23, 2021
Beto O’Rourke Is the Democrats’ Least Bad Option to Challenge Greg Abbott
He isn’t as strong a candidate in 2021 as he was in 2018, but Beto O’Rourke is still the Democrats’ least bad option to challenge Greg Abbott.
Politics & Policy
September 7, 2021
Who Killed Criminal Justice Reform in Texas?
Texas was once a model of how to safely and economically move away from mass incarceration. Now the old politics of “law and order” are back.
Politics & Policy
July 13, 2021
The Democratic Quorum Break Puts Greg Abbott in a Bind
Primary challengers say Texas’s governor is weak. The failure to pass new restrictions on voting, a GOP priority, will add fuel to their criticism.