R.G.’s Roundup: Trump, Protests, and ‘the Enemy’ of the People
Our favorite political reads of the week.
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.
Our favorite political reads of the week.
The lieutenant governor wants Texas to be a film capital.
The head of the Texas Oil and Gas Association says environmentalists are trying to block production.
Growing Latino vote may be years away from deciding statewide elections.
Governor says there are no plans to use National Guard to detain immigrants.
Our favorite political reads of the week.
Carlos Uresti linked to fraud investigation of defunct company.
Property taxpayers will cover sixty percent of school costs. How did it come to this?
Our favorite political reads of the week.
If an import tax proposal goes through, refineries would have to pass costs on to consumers.
Politifact Texas calls Texas Association of Business report ’Mostly False.’
Our favorite political reads of the week.
Texans may already have paid for part of President Trump’s signature proposal.
Do sheriffs have to comply with sanctuary city regulations?
Fact checking the governor’s state of the state address.
Our favorite political reads of the week.
Consumers, refineries, computer makers, and Toyota could feel the pain from new president's proposals.
You’ve probably heard about the bathroom bill—and you’re going to hear a lot more—but here’s a behind-the-scenes look at the legislature and the politicians, lobbyists, agitators, and donors who really run the show.
By Texas Monthly, Dave Mann, Eric Benson and R.G. Ratcliffe
In his second session as lieutenant governor, Dan Patrick has become the most influential person in Texas politics. Will his attempt to legislate who uses which bathroom slip him up?
Trump reverses Obama's order on Keystone’s pipeline into Canada, and that could have an impact on Texas refineries.
Is the new study by Dan Patrick’s Senate a cover for private school vouchers?
ABC commentator talks about how to change the Texas political landscape.
State senator Konni Burton says conservatives shouldn’t just reflexively defend Trump administration.
Our favorite political reads of the week.
A brief history of the state’s love/hate relationship with D.C.
Rick Perry manages to avoid being pinned down at his Senate confirmation hearing.
When do the benefits of office become the excess of privilege?
In jab at Senate, House budget proposal makes $1.5 billion in property tax relief contingent on school finance overhaul.
House Speaker warns that transgender restrictions could cost San Antonio $243 million.
Ted Cruz, John Cornyn, and senatorial demeanor.
According to a Midland representative, Vicente Fernández's song for Clinton was on par with Russian hacks.
Our editors's favorite political reads of the week.
Both have expressed liberal viewpoints, but there's a key difference in delivery.
Speaker wins fifth term unanimously, sort of.
The governor unintentionally gives an inappropriate gift.
Can lawmakers invest in the future of Texas children with $2.8 billion less to spend?
So-called bathroom bill could undermine cities' non-discrimination ordinances.
At a press conference, the lieutenant governor reveals some details of bill aimed at limiting transgender access to restrooms.
When is advice a conflict of interest?
Politics aside, inaugurals are a time to show our nation can peaceably transfer power from one administration to the next.
At a media roundtable, the governor says his office is studying issues like border security and transgender access to bathrooms.
A few more tidbits on the controversial Texas attorney general.
It’s been a difficult two years in office for Texas’s attorney general. First came his indictment on multiple felonies, then an embarrassing series of missteps and staff shake-ups. Now, with his trial looming, he’s seeking salvation one live television interview at a time.
More than 530,000 Latinos who have registered since 2012 might tip the state toward Clinton.
From Mexicans fleeing Pancho Villa to Cubans escaping Fidel Castro, Texas has, until recently, been a haven. What’s changed?
Lessons from Exxon's handling of climate change.
The former Texas governor has been a product of disruption—but also its victim.
Does the large monument at the south entrance to the Capitol grounds honor dead soldiers or the Confederacy?
New guv, new lite guv, new attorney general, new committee chairs: the Eighty-fourth Legislature had a lot to prove. So how well did its members do?
A white nationalist organization run by a man from Longview may have helped influenced Dylann Roof to become the racist who allegedly murdered nine African-Americans in a church in Charleston, South Carolina.