Democratic Voters Aren’t Behaving as if They Think Ken Paxton Is Vulnerable
Texas’s attorney general is seen as the most beatable statewide Republican, but Rochelle Garza and Joe Jaworski are struggling to motivate the Democratic base.
Michael Hardy is a native Texan and a senior editor at Texas Monthly, where he has written about viticulture, lepidoptery, opera, wrestling, graffiti, tattoo parlors, state politics, and Sugar Land’s selfie statue. Before joining TM he worked as arts editor for Houstonia magazine, where he won the 2015 City and Regional Magazine Association award for best arts writing. His reporting has appeared in the Texas Observer, Wired, the New York Times, and Playboy. He lives in Houston.
Texas’s attorney general is seen as the most beatable statewide Republican, but Rochelle Garza and Joe Jaworski are struggling to motivate the Democratic base.
The new voting law passed by the Legislature created headaches for those who cast ballots, but the problems with election administration in Harris County run far deeper.
A toxic herbicide used in cotton fields is devastating vineyards on the High Plains, endangering the state’s $13 billion wine business. Grape farmers have banded together to fight back.
The three Trumpian firebrands came to support U.S. House candidate Christian Collins, whose primary run is dividing prominent Republicans.
Brazoria County is diversifying fast, but its top elected officials are all white.
The nine-term congressman and right-wing firebrand from Tyler is staking his career on unseating the indicted attorney general.
The lawyers in the district attorney’s office say they decided to run on their own, reflecting internal Democratic divisions over public safety.
Attorney Mark Mueller promised a caring, new age workplace. But former employees tell of drum-and-smoke ceremonies and explicit text messages.
The Jackson County lawman is running to represent southeast Texas on a Trump-style “America First” platform. There’s only one problem: Trump endorsed his opponent.
Nearly 12,000 registered voters have received letters demanding proof of citizenship as part of Texas’s newest effort at “voter list maintenance.”
In the wake of the deadly Travis Scott concert, Bayou City and Harris County politicians have formed a circular firing squad.
International crowd-safety experts say better planning could have prevented the eight deaths and dozens of injuries at last week’s Travis Scott concert.
The first defendant to request a new trial because of Rhonda Barchak’s system had a hearing last week.
Brazoria County district clerk Rhonda Barchak sorted jurors by race and geography. Her attorney says the method was harmless, but the Texas Rangers are investigating.
The oldest studio in Texas has recorded everyone from Lightnin’ Hopkins and George Jones to Beyoncé and Travis Scott—and it’s still making hits.
Despite one of the state’s highest vaccination rates, the rural South Texas county is struggling to reach the goal of herd immunity.
Inside the two Texas cities’ bids to host the world’s biggest sporting event.
Bell County struggles with misinformation and conspiracy theories as the deadly Delta variant spreads like wildfire.
The Olympic champion has attracted some of the country’s top gymnasts to her family-owned facility near Houston.
The meteorologist’s no-nonsense website Space City Weather has established a cult following in flood-prone, hurricane-battered Houston.
The Rice University president recently announced his retirement after eighteen years of advances and controversies.
The young woman who mysteriously drowned in the Ropers Motel pool in 1966 might have remained anonymous forever, if not for cutting-edge genetics, old-fashioned genealogy—and the kindness of a small West Texas town.
The prolific graffiti writer has tagged his or her (or their) name across Houston, Austin, and beyond, as followers and police sift through clues about the artist's identity.
The Harris County sheriff has been overshadowed by more-vocal Houston officials, but he’s earned a reputation as an effective reformer.
Aging isn’t for the faint of heart, but Carlene knows what matters.
Being hospitalized during the pandemic is lonely and dehumanizing. In live, virtual, one-on-one performances, Houston Symphony musicians give the sickest patients a few minutes of peace.
In Harris County, two public officials fought off legal challenges to hold a successful election in the middle of a pandemic.
Young and ideologically aggressive, James Ho, Andrew Oldham, and Don Willett are already making their mark on the nation’s most conservative appellate court.
After decades of planning, the Nancy and Rich Kinder Building will open this weekend as a showcase of modern and contemporary art.
One morning in late January 2019, Rhogena Nicholas texted a prayer to her mother, Jo Ann Nicholas, just as she did every day. A widow in her eighties, Jo Ann could no longer make the four-hour drive from Natchitoches, Louisiana, to visit her daughter and her son-in-law, Dennis Tuttle, at
Thirty years after Buzz Bissinger’s bestseller chronicled the Permian Panthers’ 1988 season, these black and white photos are as compelling as ever.
After some Houstonians had to wait in six-hour lines to vote in the March primary, new county clerk Chris Hollins is determined to help every eligible Houstonian cast a ballot this fall.
Front pages once filled with stories about football games and student politics are now dedicated to tracking the latest test results, reporting on breaches of social distancing guidelines, and pressing university administrators for more transparency.
The Houston Center for Photography asked people around the world to submit images taken during lockdown. The resulting online show ranges from the mundane to the sublime.
"Shame is a powerful tool," says Kelly Ingram, the founder of Houston's COVID—Call Outs Group.
The discovery of a convict graveyard in 2018 vindicated decades of research and activism Fort Bend County had ignored.
He has become a national celebrity for publicly supporting the George Floyd protests. But Acevedo’s record is decidedly less progressive than his rhetoric.
While the rest of Houston’s legal community was adapting to COVID-19, DA Kim Ogg was determined to find who leaked an internal document.
Palestine writer Jeff Gerritt’s no-holds-barred editorials shined a spotlight on the record number of people dying in Texas jails.
Layoffs, furloughs, closures: news organizations across the state face a moment of reckoning.
Houston billionaire Tilman Fertitta on pandemics, mass furloughs, and why he’s not selling his yachts.
We’re going to need that same neighborly, can-do spirit to get us through the COVID-19 pandemic.
After being evicted from its former location, one of the state’s premier jazz venues is set to reopen in the heart of the theater district.
Four years ago, Ogg won election by promising to reform the county’s justice system. Now she’s getting primaried by two of her former prosecutors, who say she hasn’t done enough.
Freshman Sylvia Garcia of Houston, one of the first two Hispanic women to represent Texas in Congress, is among the seven House members prosecuting President Trump.
The Astros’ cheating scandal, coming on the heels of the Texans’ meltdown in Kansas City, is a low point in the city’s long history of sports failure.
Rapper Brad Jordan, better known as Scarface from the Geto Boys, is running for Houston City Council. And he might actually win.
In a landmark legal case, Harris County has agreed to release the vast majority of misdemeanor arrestees instead of locking them up. But reformers aren’t done yet.
General John Murray and his staff recently got their first chance to size up the research possibilities in College Station.
The former president held a conversation with former Secretary of State James A. Baker III, with whom he found much common ground.