The 2023 Bum Steer Awards
The dopes, villains, and terrible ideas that bedeviled our beloved state over the past twelve months. (This time, with slightly less Ted Cruz!)
Roundups of Texas’s most ridiculous and idiotic endeavors
The dopes, villains, and terrible ideas that bedeviled our beloved state over the past twelve months. (This time, with slightly less Ted Cruz!)
How a funky little college town became the unbearable-traffic, unaffordable-real-estate, insufferable-tech-bro, inanely-precious-restaurant, expensive-BBQ capital of the world!
Greg Abbott’s $4 billion program to deter migration . . . doesn’t seem to be deterring migration.
Texas Monthly recently acquired the (fake!) résumé of one Gilberto Hinojosa, the seemingly indefatigable chair of the long-suffering Texas Democratic party. We print it here in full.
An open letter to Louie Gohmert, the Bum Steer Hall of Fame’s newest inductee!
(Fake!) excerpts from the campaign diary of a displaced Texan, summer–fall 2022.
A year ago, in this very space, we referred to 2020 as “perhaps the craziest, stupidest, Bum Steeriest year in Texas Monthly’s history.” The unspoken assumption—or perhaps it was a desperate wish—was that 2021 would prove to be at least marginally saner than that misbegotten election year. And how
An A-to-Z list of 25 Lone Star State residents who disgraced themselves last January 6.
Six years after he became governor, we still don’t know what Greg Abbott wants to accomplish—except, as this year made clear, to hold on to office, no matter how many Texans get hurt.
Let’s face it: this was no one’s favorite year. Here are a few dozen reasons why.
Because it grew so overconfident about its ability to win Texas that it didn’t bother to figure out how to win Texas, the state’s Democratic party is our Bum Steer of the Year!
Can you help Texas's attorney general escape the long arm of the law?
The not-quite-twenty Texans who spectacularly disgraced themselves during the pandemic.
In Harris County, two public officials fought off legal challenges to hold a successful election in the middle of a pandemic.
A little girl responds to unspeakable loss, the governor de-escalates, black trail-riders take Discovery Green, Ted Cruz’s craven response to military force, and a guy with a sword in Deep Ellum.
From Mattress Mack to that Austin guy who pushed a park ranger into the lake, the pandemic is bringing out the best and worst in people.
Plus, feeling grateful for our gimlet-eyed deputy editor, Jeff Salamon.
For breaking new ground in being bad at being bad, Texas Speaker of the House Dennis Bonnen has earned one half of our annual booby prize!
For abandoning the state that had lifted him up from obscurity, Beto O’Rourke is the winner of one half of our annual booby prize!
Beto O'Rourke, Dennis Bonnen, and the Houston Astros make our annual dishonor roll, along with assorted lesser-known idiots and evildoers.
An open letter to a team that made us all proud—and then started whiffing.
The disgraced former congressman is our third runner-up for his eagerness to enrich himself—or at least pay his kennel bills—in a transparently illegal manner.
The former Dallas County sheriff, our second runner-up, ran the worst gubernatorial campaign in Texas since the last time a Democrat went up against Greg Abbott.
The former congressman’s troublesome professional ethics, alleged caddish behavior, and questionable taste in adult-size onesie pajamas made him our first runner-up.
Our Bum Steer of the Year, the radio host dragged our democracy into the same sewer he crawled out of so many years ago.
Welcome back to our annual roundup of Texas's most ridiculous and idiotic endeavors, featuring political personalities, flashy figures, and plenty of nameless ne'er-do-wells.
Cruz 2.0, West Texas umbrellas, and our Bum Steer of the Year.
Episode one: Behind the scenes of the 2018 Bum Steer Awards.
The Houston Texans owner nabs sixth place, for saying of his players’ decision to kneel during the National Anthem: “We can’t have the inmates running the prison.”
This year, virtually everyone embarrassed themselves—and the rest of us.
Selecting the Bum Steers can be a bit of a drag. That's why this year we're supplementing our list with something a bit more upbeat.
The Austin-based office captured third place for the botched investigation of state representative Dawnna Dukes.
The outgoing congressman takes eighth place for his refusal to face the truth about climate change.
The East Texas congressman takes seventh place for his wack-job debut as an infographic creator.
Our lieutenant governor, for his eagerness to squander his power, waste our time, and drag Texas politics into the bathroom, is our Bum Steer of the Year.
The Mistress of the Elements occupies second place—for being really, really mean to Texas.
The eight infamous Steers celebrated elsewhere in this package had a lot of company this year in our hall of shame. Here are another fifty or so Texans deserving of some ignominy.
Landing in fourth place, the state government’s also-ran loyal opposition, for going missing in action, year after year.
In fifth place: the excitable radio host, for saying so many crazy things that his unsuccessful and very public child custody battle wasn’t the most embarrassing thing that happened to him this year.
Help us choose 2017’s Bum Steer. Vote in round two of our poll.
Help us choose 2017's Bum Steer.
It took nine years for him to meat his match.
Proceed with caution: steers ahead.
It was a year of amateurish attorneys, buck-naked burglars, credulous coal-walkers, doughnut detractors, empty-headed educators, fund-raising fabulists, grumbling graduates, hacked highway signs, ill-timed imitators, judgment-justifying Jerry Joneses, kavalier Katrinas, lime-laden locoweed, misguided mattress merchants, naive notes, outré outfits, pitmaster poseurs, questionable quarterbacks, reactive racists, slipshod spellers, taco tiffs, unwise users,
A twist on the Aggie War Hymn.
A case of mistaken identity in Groesbeck.
The Blackland Prairie becomes an unfortunate dumping ground.
A bit of magic in the U.S. House of Representatives.
A case of carrots and the customs checkpoint in Pharr.
Readers respond to our annual Bum Steer Awards.