R.G. Ratcliffe

R. G. Ratcliffe began working for Texas Monthly as a freelance writer in 2011 and joined the staff as a senior editor for politics in 2017. After retiring in 2019, he became one of the magazine’s writers-at-large. Drawing on 22 years of experience as a political and investigative reporter for the Houston Chronicle, Ratcliffe was on the Texas Monthly team that produced the Best and Worst Legislators list from 2015 to 2021. Ratcliffe covered seven presidential campaigns, as well as the classic gubernatorial races when Democrat Ann Richards defeated Republican cowboy businessman Clayton Williams, in 1990, and when she was defeated, four years later, in an election that put Republican George W. Bush on the path to the presidency. Ratcliffe was featured in the HBO documentary about Bush’s 2000 presidential campaign, Journeys With George. He also was a key source in the Bill Moyers documentary Capitol Crimes, about the political corruption of lobbyist Jack Abramoff and Republican House majority leader Tom DeLay. A native of Dallas, Ratcliffe earned bachelor’s degrees in journalism and in American history from the University of Missouri.