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Trump Tells Texas Four County Audit Isn't Good Enough

By Schaefer Edwards

Sep 30, 2021

Days after Gov. Greg Abbott’s administration hastily announced a partial audit of Texas’ 2020 election results, former President Donald Trump declared that the limited audit wouldn’t be enough to satisfy him or the legions of MAGA diehards in the Lone Star State. In a statement to the Texas Tribune Wednesday,...

GOP-Drawn Texas Congressional Map Gives Wesley Hunt A New Red Seat For The Taking

By Schaefer Edwards

Sep 29, 2021

When the GOP Texas Senate on Monday unveiled its proposed new district maps for Texas’ seats in the U.S. House of Representatives, the likely impact on greater Houston’s slate of congressmen and women was pretty clear. Local red districts would get redder and blue districts would get bluer under the...

Abbott Tells Fox News A Rape and Incest Exception To New Abortion Ban Won't Happen

By Schaefer Edwards

Sep 27, 2021

In a recent Fox News interview, Gov. Greg Abbot didn’t flinch when questioned as to why Texas’ new “heartbeat bill” that’s effectively banned abortions as early as six weeks after conception doesn’t have any exceptions for rape or incest, and said he believes there’s no way the Republican-led Texas Legislature...

Trump-Backed Audit, a Hasty Senate and a Sleepy House Mark Week One of Texas' Third Special Session

By Schaefer Edwards

Sep 27, 2021

One week into the Texas Legislature’s third round of overtime, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick’s Senate has already cranked out plenty of GOP priority legislation and even a first stab at new Senate districts maps at a breakneck pace. Meanwhile, the biggest news to come out of the Texas House is...

Texas Redistricting When Republicans Seem to Hold All the Cards

By Schaefer Edwards

Sep 20, 2021

It doesn't matter that 95 percent of the state’s population growth since 2010 (according to the latest census results) has come from Texans of color who traditionally lean toward Democrats when voting. Not when Republicans control the Senate and House. State Democrats and progressive advocacy groups are already convinced the...

Abbott Signs Controversial GOP "Election Integrity" Bill Into Law

By Schaefer Edwards

Sep 7, 2021

After Labor Day weekend, Gov. Greg Abbott got right back to work by signing into law Senate Bill 1, the Republican-backed slate of election changes that he and his supporters proclaim as a defense against voter fraud and critics say is nothing but a way to make it harder for...

Weekend Deal On GOP Election Bill Means It Could Head To Abbott's Desk Later This Week

By Schaefer Edwards

Aug 30, 2021

Thanks to a backroom deal between Texas House and Senate members, the controversial GOP-backed “election integrity” legislation, Senate Bill 1, is on track for final approval by both chambers early this week, according to the bill’s author state Sen. Bryan Hughes (R-Minneola). The bill could now head to Gov. Greg...

Texas House Passes Controversial GOP Election Bill In the Dead of Night

By Schaefer Edwards

Aug 27, 2021

After lacking enough members to do business for almost six weeks, the Texas House finally passed the state GOP’s controversial election bill on the House floor after a 12-hour debate late Thursday night. The bill previously passed through committee earlier this week on Tuesday, and House Republicans seemed intent during...

A Handful Of Democrats Help House Republicans Move Forward On Election Bill

By Schaefer Edwards

Aug 25, 2021

After nearly six weeks of solidarity from most Texas House Democrats, who had determined to stay out of the Capitol to deny Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan the required 100 members needed for his chamber to function, enough Democrats have returned to Austin for Gov. Greg Abbott’s second straight special...

Second Round of Overtime for Texas Legislature Sees Some Democrats Trickling Back to Austin

By Schaefer Edwards

Aug 10, 2021

The second straight special session of the Texas Legislature has gotten off to a predictably slow start given that enough House Democrats who fled the state for Washington, D.C. last month to block GOP-backed voting restrictions have still refused to return to Austin to deny the House the 100 out...

Abbott Calls For Second Special Legislative Session To Start Saturday After Democrat Walkout Killed His First

By Schaefer Edwards

Aug 5, 2021

Early Thursday afternoon, Gov. Greg Abbott called for a new special session of the Texas Legislature to begin at noon on Saturday, August 7, mere hours after the end of the current special session which was thrown off course almost immediately once over fifty Texas House Democrats fled the state...

The Woodlands' State Rep. Steve Toth Thinks Texas Needs Its Own 2020 Election Audit

By Schaefer Edwards

Jul 21, 2021

If state Rep. Steve Toth (R-The Woodlands) has his way, Texas will be the next red state that reevaluates the 2020 presidential election through a top-to-bottom “forensic audit” of the state’s elections results in Texas' biggest counties. Toth’s proposed audit bill, House Bill 241, is the latest evidence that there...

Patrick's Texas Senate Keeps Cranking Out Bills That With No House To Pass Them Will Never Get to The Governor

By Schaefer Edwards

Jul 19, 2021

Texas House Democrats’ dramatic fly-out to Washington, D.C. last week left the state House at a standstill. But across the hall in Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick’s Senate, Republican lawmakers were undaunted, rapidly passing a conservative laundry list of legislation that's all but assured to die at the special session's end...

Day 5 in Exile: Phelan Hires a Jet to Haul AWOL Dems Back From D.C. But Has No Takers

By Schaefer Edwards

Jul 16, 2021

The saga of Texas House Democrats in exile got even more entertaining on Day 5 with Willie Nelson in fund-raising mode for the AWOL Dems and Republican Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan announcing Thursday afternoon he had a private plane standing by in Washington, D.C. ready to whisk the AWOL group...

Defiant Texas Dems In D.C. Tell Abbott To Quit Holding Lege Hostage, Demand Congress Act on Voting Bills

By Schaefer Edwards

Jul 13, 2021

To begin their first full-day of self-imposed exile in Washington, D.C., the Texas House Democrats who fled the state Monday afternoon spoke in front of the U.S. Capitol Tuesday to explain why they felt they had no choice but to skip town to prevent Texas Republicans from forcing through new...

Texas Dems Plan To Flee Texas For D.C. Monday To Block GOP Election Bills A Second Time [UPDATED]

By Schaefer Edwards

Jul 12, 2021

Democratic members of the Texas House of Representatives are planning to fly to Washington, D.C. Monday in an attempt to halt the state Legislature from advancing controversial Republican-backed election bills during the ongoing special legislative session, sources close to state Democrats told to NBC News and The New York Times...

Texas GOP Jumps Into Round Two Of Election Reform Fight As Special Session Kicks Off

By Schaefer Edwards

Jul 12, 2021

The special session of the Texas Legislature ordered by Gov. Greg Abbott is well underway, and lawmakers worked through the weekend filing and debating new laws that fit within Abbott’s narrowly-tailored list of conservative priority items, the only topics lawmakers are allowed to legislate on in the weeks ahead. Seeing...

Right-Wing Voting Limits Killed By Texas House Democrats

By Schaefer Edwards

May 31, 2021

Instead of enjoying Memorial Day weekend, Texas lawmakers have been working through the night in a sprint to push forward several big-ticket bills before the legally-mandated closing time of the 2021 legislative session at 11:59 p.m. Monday. Most notably, the Republican-majority Legislature is still on track to send a sweeping...

Abbott Gets First Real Right-Wing Challenge As Patrick Secures Trump's Vote of Confidence

By Schaefer Edwards

May 11, 2021

Gov. Greg Abbott took a blow from his party’s right wing Monday when conservative millionaire and former state Sen. Don Huffines announced he’ll be challenging Abbott in the 2022 governor’s race. Just a few hours later, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick received the coveted endorsement of former President Donald Trump, in...

Texas House Approves Republican-Backed Voting Bill Over Democratic Cries Of Voter Suppression

By Schaefer Edwards

May 7, 2021

In the wee hours of Friday morning, the Texas House of Representatives voted to pass a slate of election reforms Republicans argue would secure “election integrity” but that Democrats and other critics call voter suppression. The vote put Texas one step closer to joining other Republican-led states — Georgia, Iowa...

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House Speaker Phelan Rebukes Abbott and Patrick

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