Bill filing for 2019 session begins with legislation on marijuana, taxes and daylight saving time
The Texas Legislature's 86th session doesn't start until Jan. 8, but lawmakers got a head start on filing legislation Monday. Full Story
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![Tracy Snowden Ortiz works to sort bills filed with the Secretary of the Senate for the 86th session of the Texas Legislature. The session starts in January.]()
Credit: Bob Daemmrich for The Texas Tribune -
Dan Crenshaw started the week as a punchline and ended it as a star. The real story came before that.
The incoming congressman from Houston has a life story and now a star turn on SNL that make him a rising star for the Republican Party. Full Story
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![Dan Crenshaw.]()
Credit: Facebook campaign page -
Texas education board set to approve curriculum some say is historically inaccurate
After a politically charged September meeting, the State Board of Education meets this week to approve "streamlined" social studies curriculum standards. Teachers' responses are mixed. Full Story
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![Hilda Mondragon teaches U.S. History to a class of juniors at United South High School in Laredo.]()
Credit: Rachel Zein for The Texas Tribune -
U.S. Rep-elect Dan Crenshaw gets an apology — and a free shot — from Saturday Night Live
A week after Saturday Night Live's Pete Davidson misfired a joke at Texas Republican Dan Crenshaw, SNL gave Crenshaw an on-air apology and a chance to crack some jokes about Davidson. Full Story
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![Screen shot of Saturday Night Live, Nov. 10, 2018]()
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How the race between Ted Cruz and Beto O'Rourke became the closest in Texas in 40 years
Two years ago, Beto O'Rourke was a little-known congressman from El Paso and Ted Cruz's re-election was considered a foregone conclusion. Then everything changed. Full Story
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![U.S. Rep. Beto O'Rourke, D-El Paso (left), and U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz at their respective election night rallies on Nov. 6, 2018. O'Rourke was in El Paso. Cruz was in Houston.]()
Credit: Ivan Pierre Aguirre: O'Rourke/Bob Daemmrich: Cruz -
After a tough election night, “a wakeup call” for the Texas GOP’s hard right
Some favorite candidates of hardline conservatives lost their seats, while others won closer-than-expected races. Full Story
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![Texas Tax Day Tea Party Rally at the Texas Capitol on April 15th, 2015]()
Credit: Marjorie Kamys Cotera -
How election night may have shifted the Texas House speaker's race
Democrats, who picked up 12 state House seats, are more confident they’ll have a stronger hand in electing the next leader — an outlook that even some Republicans privately agree with. Full Story
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![The House Chamber at the Texas Capitol on August 16, 2017, the morning after the end of the special session.]()
Credit: Austin Price / The Texas Tribune -
Texas Supreme Court Justice Phil Johnson to retire effective Dec. 31
The timing allows Gov. Greg Abbott to appoint a replacement for the remainder of his term. Full Story
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![Texas Supreme Court Justice Phil Johnson on Jan. 10, 2018.]()
Credit: Laura Skelding for The Texas Tribune -
Texas Democrats’ biggest win on election night may have been the courts
Democrats flipped four major state appeals courts, toppling 19 incumbent Republican appellate judges. Full Story
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![The Texas 3rd Court of Appeals in Austin on Oct. 17, 2018.]()
Credit: Rachel Zein for The Texas Tribune -
2018 was the year of the woman in Texas. Candidates say it's "not a one-time deal."
Texas women were poised for potential wins after multiple upsets in March primaries. On Tuesday, in race after race, Texas women won up and down the ballot including races for Congress and the Texas House. Full Story
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Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick on outgoing House Speaker Joe Straus: "He's not much of a Republican."
In a wide-ranging interview Wednesday night, Patrick sounded off about Straus, the midterm elections and U.S. Rep. Beto O'Rourke: "It scares me what he stands for." Full Story
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![Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick speaks at a get-out-the-vote rally held by the NE Tarrant Tea Party in Grapevine on Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2018.]()
Credit: Leslie Boorhem-Stephenson for The Texas Tribune -
In Texas, the "rainbow wave" outpaces the blue one
Fourteen of 35 LGBTQ candidates won their races Tuesday night, and activists say the 2018 election will carve a path for a future "rainbow wave" in Texas. Full Story
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![Left to right: State Reps.-elect Erin Zwiener, HD-45, Jessica González, HD-104, and Julie Johnson, HD-115.]()
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As Democrats seize U.S. House control, Texas congressional delegation set to lose clout in Washington
Democrat Eddie Bernice Johnson could be the only Texas committee chair in the next Congress. Full Story
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![Left to right: U.S. Reps. Kevin Brady, R-The Woodlands, Mike Conaway, R-Midland, and Mac Thornberry, R-Clarendon.]()
Credit: Official House portraits/U.S. Capitol: Shelby Knowles -
Gerrymandering backfired for Texas Republicans in Dallas County in 2018
Republicans hoped to keep a majority Texas House seats from Dallas County when they redrew district boundaries in 2011. Seven years later, they've only held onto two of 14. Full Story
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![Downtown Dallas in January 2018.]()
Credit: Brandon Formby / The Texas Tribune -
TribCast: The Cruz-O'Rourke matchup and other top midterm election results
On this week's TribCast, Emily talks to Evan, Ross, Patrick and two special guests — state Rep. Celia Israel and former state Rep. Larry Gonzales — about the results of the Nov. 6 elections and what they mean for the future of Texas. Full Story
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![For our post-midterm election TribCast, host and Editor-in-Chief Emily Ramshaw was joined by (left to right) state Reps. Larry Gonzales, Celia Israel and Tribune CEO Evan Smith.]()
Credit: Marjorie Kamys Cotera for The Texas Tribune -
Texas House Speaker Joe Straus: Texas and the Republican Party are “moving in opposite directions”
In a wide-ranging conversation with Texas Tribune CEO Evan Smith, Straus launched jabs at two fellow Republicans: Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and President Donald Trump. He declined to weigh in on who should succeed him as the leader of the lower chamber. Full Story
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![Texas Tribune CEO Evan Smith records an interview for a Texas Tribune podcast with Texas House Speaker Joe Straus, in the Speaker's office at the State Capitol in Austin on Wednesday, Nov. 7, 2018.]()
Credit: Rodolfo Gonzalez for The Texas Tribune -
Point of Order: Joe Straus on the midterms, Donald Trump’s tweets and the next speaker of the Texas House
In the pilot episode of his new podcast, Point of Order, Evan Smith sits down with Speaker Straus the morning after the midterms to talk everything from the balance of power in the Texas House to President Trump's tweets. Full Story
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Look up Texas midterm turnout in your county against historic numbers
Tuesday's elections fired up more Texas voters than any midterm in a generation. Turnout even eclipsed the 2000 presidential race in which Texans helped put George W. Bush — one of their own — in the White House. Full Story
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![People stand in line to vote at Oak Lawn Branch Public Library in Dallas Nov. 6, 2018.]()
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Where Ted Cruz’s close victory over Beto O’Rourke stands among Texas' historical election results
It was the closest a Democrat came to toppling a Republican incumbent U.S. senator since 1978. And while O'Rourke beat Cruz in some traditional GOP strongholds, it wasn't enough to overcome rural Texas counties and some suburbs that remain fiercely loyal to Cruz. Full Story
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![U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (left) and U.S. Rep. Beto O'Rourke, D-El Paso, at their first debate, in Dallas, on Sept. 21, 2018.]()
Credit: Leslie Boorhem-Stephenson for The Texas Tribune -
Analysis: In Donald Trump’s midterm, Texas voters tap the brakes
Texas Republicans had a tough election this year, losing more seats than expected and winning statewide races by much thinner margins than normal. Blame the president. Full Story
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![President Donald J. Trump at a MAGA rally at the Toyota Center in Houston on Oct. 22, 2018.]()
Credit: Marjorie Kamys Cotera for The Texas Tribune