GOP Harris County judge candidate contesting her loss after Election Day problems at polling sites
Democratic County Judge Lina Hidalgo beat Republican Alexandra del Moral Mealer by more than 18,000 votes. An assessment of Election Day problems at polling sites โhas not yet revealedโ whether any voters were turned away.
John Scott, Texasโ top elections official, to step down at end of year
Gov. Greg Abbott appointed Scott as secretary of state in October 2021, and he served in an interim capacity pending Senate confirmation. He is stepping down right before the legislative session in which his appointment would have come up for debate.
Texas voter turnout fell from 2018. It was still higher than other midterms.
In Texas, 45.7% of the 17.7 million registered voters cast ballots in the 2022 midterm election. Thatโs 7.3 percentage points lower than the stateโs total turnout in 2018 but higher than in every other midterm election in the last 20 years.
State Sen. Dawn Buckingham wins bid to manage the Alamo, disaster relief funds and more as Texasโ next land commissioner
The land commissioner manages public land, enforces mineral rights leases, controls the Texas Permanent School Fund, distributes natural disaster relief funding and is responsible for the Alamo.
Texas Republicans in tight races open to rape and incest exceptions to abortion ban
In some battleground state legislative races, Republicans have been making overtures to those who believe the ban as too extreme. They have said they are open to revising the ban to include the exceptions โ and even voiced confidence that the Legislature will do so when it reconvenes in January.
Dawn Buckingham and Jay Kleberg vie for open land commissioner seat overseeing the Alamo and disaster relief funds
The land commissioner manages the Texas General Land Office, which manages the Alamo, administers natural disaster relief funding and helps fund public education. The seat is open after incumbent George P. Bush lost his primary bid for attorney general.
Conspiracy theorists and 16-hour days: Inside the stress elections officials face ahead of the midterms
Running elections in Texas has never been easy. But since 2020, the scrutiny elections administrators face has grown โ even in small Republican-controlled counties that former President Donald Trump carried.
Gov. Greg Abbott leads Beto OโRourke by 5 percentage points in new poll
The latest survey also gave Republican incumbents single-digit leads in two other statewide races. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick led Democrat Mike Collier by 7 points, and Attorney General Ken Paxton registered a 5-point advantage over Democrat Rochelle Garza.
Families of the Uvalde shooting victims denounce Gov. Greg Abbottโs inaction on gun reform
The governor has made a vocal enemy in the families of Robb Elementary shooting victims. They are demanding a special legislative session to reach a compromise on the minimum age to purchase semi-automatic rifles.
Beto OโRourke swears at Greg Abbott supporter who heckled him over Uvalde shooting
OโRourke confronted a heckler at a campaign event Wednesday who laughed while he was talking about the Uvalde school shooting, telling the person, โIt may be funny to you, motherfucker, but it is not funny to me.โ
To stay in Congress, Mayra Flores bets Democratic South Texas is ready for an outspoken conservative
A Mexican immigrant who worked in cotton fields to pay for school supplies, Flores is a source of hope for Republicans looking to gain ground in the Rio Grande Valley. But her staying power will be put to the test this November.
Texas AG Ken Paxton bans staff lawyers from speaking at state bar events, escalating feud sparked by 2020 election
The bar, which licenses lawyers and offers training sessions, is suing Paxton in an attempt to sanction him for trying block the certification of Joe Bidenโs victory over Donald Trump.
John Cornynโs disapproval among Texas voters worsened dramatically as he negotiated a bipartisan gun bill, new poll shows
The Republican U.S. senator shepherded landmark gun legislation through the Senate last month. Between April and June, his disapproval rating went from 39% to 50%, according to a Texas Politics Project poll.
Gov. Greg Abbottโs lead over Beto OโRourke narrows to 6 points, poll finds
The Republican incumbentโs lead over his Democratic challenger shrank last month, according to a Texas Politics Project poll. The 6-point gap is smaller than when Republican George W. Bush ousted Democrat Ann Richards in 1994.
Underdog Jane Hope Hamilton angling for an upset against Jasmine Crockett in Dallas-area congressional primary
Crockett is running on her experience as a legislator, a civil rights attorney and as the incumbentโs hand-picked successor. Hamilton is running on her more than 20 years as a behind-the-scenes congressional staffer and campaign adviser.
With renewed attention on abortion, Democrats in attorney general runoff vow to defend reproductive rights
Rochelle Garza sued the Trump administration in 2017, seeking access to an abortion for an undocumented teenager. Joe Jaworski, a former Galveston mayor and a trial attorney for over three decades, presents himself as the more experienced candidate.
In Democratic runoff for South Texas congressional seat, nonprofit backing a candidate is accused of campaign finance violations
Michelle Vallejo faces Ruben Ramirez in a runoff for the Democratic nomination in the 15th Congressional District. A nonprofit that supports Vallejo is accused of breaking campaign finance rules.
Analysis: Gerrymandering has left Texas voters with few options
Texans who donโt vote in primaries and primary runoffs are missing a chance to choose who goes to Congress and the Texas Legislature. Thanks to the political maps drawn by lawmakers last year, only a handful of those contests will be competitive in November.
Analysis: Texas schools need support from politically distracted state leaders
Public education in Texas โ like everywhere in the country โ is hurting after more than two years of pandemic. But many in the political class are preoccupied with reforms that have more to do with social issues than with education.
More than 12% of mail-in ballots were rejected in Texas under new GOP voting rules, final tally shows
Figures released by the Texas secretary of state show that more than 24,000 Texas voters had their ballots rejected in the March primary. The rejection rate is a significant increase over previous elections.
โUnwinnable raceโ: State Sen. Beverly Powell of Burleson ends reelection bid, citing redrawn political map
Powell, a Democrat, had won Senate District 10 by winning over a coalition of diverse voters in Tarrant County. The GOP redrew the district to branch out to counties to the south and west that made it more rural and more white.
U.S. Rep. Filemon Velaโs resignation announcement sparks a sudden special-election scramble in hotly contested South Texas
A special election will determine who finishes Velaโs term, and while the winner will only serve for a short period, Republicans are already eyeing the contest to show momentum in South Texas.
Analysis: When 1 in 8 Texas mail ballots gets trashed, thatโs vote suppression
Nearly 23,000 Texans voted in this monthโs party primaries and saw their mail ballots rejected by election officials, evidently an aftershock from new state laws that were supposed to make voting easier and more secure.