Reporting and commentary on the Legislature, campaigns, and elected officials
In Houston’s Third Ward, where some residents’ homes were extensively damaged, a fight for repairs has reached a breaking point.
Many industries bear a portion of the blame for the failure of Texas’s electric grid. But one seems to be escaping strict requirements to better prepare for future storms.
You ain’t a cowboy till your stunt double’s been bucked off.
A guide to the key players in the 87th Legislature who are trying to stuff ten pounds of “priorities” into a five-pound sack.
Governor Greg Abbott has identified passing “election integrity” bills as one of his priorities for this legislative session, but the man in charge of ushering such legislation through the Texas House seems not up to the task.
The lieutenant governor has long responded to crises with more talk than legislation. But is something different this time as he deals with the aftermath of the blackout?
The lieutenant governor wants to require state pension and education funds to divest from financial giants that are trimming their investments in oil and gas—but he hasn’t thought through the potential consequences.
Political insiders say the police chief’s move to Miami follows a turbulent year in which his hopes of being elected mayor began to look delusional.
Houston has become a hot spot for pandemic removal proceedings. For tenants such as Evelyn Powers, relief has been hard to come by.
Public Utility Commission chairman Arthur D’Andrea apologized to investors last week for the “uncertainty” around its profits.
Fed up with DNA tests and expensive investigators, some adult adoptees are fighting the state for access to their original birth records.
They fear that the end of the mask mandate and the influx of spring break crowds is a recipe for danger.
The bankruptcies and staggering electricity charges are beginning to arrive. Could it go from bad to worse?
State leaders have pointed fingers at everything from windmills to the bureaucrats at ERCOT. But the real issue is the electric grid’s reliance on a lightly regulated natural gas production industry.
The vast majority of Texans have yet to receive a single dose of vaccine, but the state is done imposing public health measures.
In a speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference, Texas’s junior senator tossed red meat but was overshadowed by the former president.
Luke Coffee, a director and actor who appeared on NBC’s ‘Friday Night Lights,’ found QAnon during the pandemic and then spent a month trying to evade the consequences of the path it led him down.
When several women spoke out against a powerful man in the former ghost town of Terlingua, the backlash was fierce.
Our governor and lawmakers want to blame everyone but themselves for the February blackouts, the latest crisis of their own making.
The Houston-based energy economist is our blackout Cassandra. Will state officials finally heed his advice?
Texas Monthly talks to the ERCOT chief about why the blackouts happened and what needs to change now.
Those in charge of Texas’s deregulated power sector were warned again and again that the electric grid was vulnerable.
Austin’s mayor, Steve Adler, and the state’s junior senator, Ted Cruz, are the latest Texas politicians to take ill-considered vacations.
May you make direct eye contact with your neighbor during your yard pee.
As multiple crises unfold across the state, photographers captured Texans doing their damnedest to keep warm and safe.
An energy expert explains why some four million Texans suffered a barrage of winter storms without heat in their homes.
Some Texans have long argued for leaving the Union. State representative Kyle Biedermann’s recent agitating about doing so is attracting an eager audience.
Lone Star State leaders have worried about transplants importing West Coast values and politics here. But they’ve largely ignored the more pressing challenges newcomers are bringing with them.
Lone Star Democrats have almost nowhere to hang their hats in the most diverse administration in U.S. history.
The state is expected to receive three new U.S. House seats. But those looking to expand the GOP majority in the congressional delegation won’t have an easy task.
Turns out not everyone loves Texas-size gas stations (or 13 varieties of jerky).
Supporters of the 45th president might not forget his contentious history with Texas’s junior senator.
Many short-term lenders receive government help even as their ultrahigh interest rates trap vulnerable customers in debt.
State lawmakers grapple with how to make this year productive, as they lose cherished time forming relationships on the floor.
The new president’s energy-related executive actions have stirred opposition in Texas and other oil-producing states. But Biden’s moves are dwarfed by the larger forces that have battered, and will transform, the industry.
Our hero contemplates a run for governor.
Anti-abortion advocates are getting their hopes up that the U.S. Supreme Court could undo Roe v. Wade, but some are tired of waiting.
A list of some of those from the Lone Star State who gathered in Washington, D.C., on January 6.
He’s visited the Alamo, waited in line at Franklin Barbecue, and cheered on the Astros (virtually).
Some Republicans expect Roy to pay a political price for upholding the Constitution, and Cruz to emerge stronger than ever.
Fear of riots and the pandemic dominated the Legislature’s opening week, with some lawmakers venting their frustration with mask regulations, and others going into quarantine.
The president called the five-year sentence for the former National Security Agency translator, convicted for leaking documents about Russian election interference, “unfair,” but he has not granted her clemency.
Lawmakers will have their hands full with a budget deficit and the pandemic. Here's what else to watch for this session.
Pedro Pascal, star of the Disney Plus series ‘The Mandalorian,’ shared the junior senator’s office number on Twitter.
Comptroller Glenn Hegar projected a nearly $1 billion deficit—far smaller than lawmakers feared.
With state government more firmly in Republican hands, the next year will feature a return of the Republican civil war. Here are the skirmishes to watch for.
After his denying local authorities tools to combat community spread, it’s no wonder Texans are desperate for vaccinations to save us from COVID-19’s renewed surge.
Texas’s junior senator shares responsibility for inciting the mob that breached the U.S. Capitol. That’s brought him scorn from much of the country—but might win him fresh support from Trump Republicans.
Several members of the Texas delegation stayed on the House floor to help defend against rioters, who they say had nothing to do with the righteous case of overturning the election.
As the president’s supporters launched a violent insurrection in Washington, D.C., about three hundred demonstrators gathered at the Texas Capitol to call for the election results to be overturned.
