DEMOGRAPHICS

Those leaving are frustrated that the church has taken positions they feel are too liberal.

Extremism experts and historians sound alarms as politicians, media personalities and celebrities amplify antisemitic conspiracies that have historically led to the killing of Jews.

In this week’s episode, Texas Tribune regional editor Nic Garcia guest-hosts from Texas Tech University for a discussion about the issues facing the rural residents of the state.

In the days since Abbott was reelected for a third term, he has embraced the word like never before, using it in a letter to President Joe Biden, echoing the intensifying language many Republicans have adopted in recent years.

Thousands of bills are expected to be filed for the legislative session that begins in January. Lawmakers are expected to have a budget surplus when they return to Austin.

After seeing Democrats gain momentum in suburbs of Houston and Dallas, Republicans succeeded in reclaiming ground this election. But the GOP is still a long way from returning to pre-Trump support, even in ruby red counties.

Voters elected Christian Manuel Hayes to House District 22 in Beaumont, Venton Jones to HD-100 in Dallas, Salman Bhojani to HD-92 in Tarrant County and Suleman Lalani to HD-76 in Fort Bend County.

Downtowns are deserted, hospitals are closing, teachers are leaving. Every part of life in rural Texas is harder — but it’s worth saving.

The Texas Tribune spoke with LGBTQ voters, the parents of queer youth and advocates from across the state about what’s at stake for them this November.

The Congressional Hispanic Caucus bylaws explicitly block Republicans from joining due to major policy differences between members in the past.

Access to health care is limited in rural Texas. The mobile clinic operated by Beaumont-based TAN Healthcare aims to close that gap.

Fellowships will be available in spring, summer and fall for Texas graduate and undergraduate students at historically Black colleges and universities.

Nearly half of Hispanic Texans live in the state’s five largest counties, a voting bloc Democrats cannot afford to lose as they struggle to compete in the state’s vast rural areas.

Asian American and Pacific Islander voters said that candidates don’t often reach out — and that their elected officials don’t adequately represent their interests.

The event came as a younger, more diverse generation of Americans increasingly flocks to the left of the Democratic Party.

Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin accepted the Naming Commission’s change and announced it would take place by Jan. 1, 2024.

In these historically Democratic border areas, some voters are turning to the Republican party, while others remain unmoved.

Texas lawmakers on both sides of the aisle talked schools, abortion and guns in advance of next year’s session in a range of panels at The Texas Tribune Festival.

Born from the Chicano movement of the 1960s, La Raza Unida helped coalesce Texas Latino power and briefly formed the state’s third political party. Although the organization is long gone, its imprint on the state is unmistakable.

On this week’s episode, Matthew speaks with Alexa and James about Hispanics becoming the largest demographic group in Texas and what that means for the state’s politics.

For years, the state’s Hispanic population has grown significantly faster than the white population. The new census data is the first to reflect Texas passing a milestone in its cultural and political evolution.

UT-Austin professor Richard Lowery is represented by America First Legal — a group created by Stephen Miller, a policy adviser for former President Donald Trump, and Jonathan Mitchell, a former solicitor general for Texas and the legal architect of the state’s six-week abortion ban.

Despite its dwindling population, rural Texas has consistently helped protect GOP dominance in statewide races, even as Democratic support grows in the state’s populous metro centers and suburbs.

The Republican-drawn maps largely serve to bolster the party’s dominance. The maps are being challenged based on various claims, including intentional discrimination, vote dilution and racial gerrymandering.

In interviews, Black Texans expressed frustration over uneven progress, restrictions on teaching about racism in public schools and limitations on their political representation and voting access.

Las clínicas privadas en la Ciudad de México ofrecen abortos a una fracción del precio en Estados Unidos. También hay clínicas y hospitales públicos que ofrecen acceso gratuito al aborto, incluso para personas extranjeras.

Before abortion was legal in parts of Mexico, an extensive “accompaniment” system grew to help women safely terminate pregnancies on their own. Its organizers are now moving abortion-inducing medication across the border and helping replicate the system in the United States.

Private clinics offer abortions at a fraction of the cost in the United States. City public health clinics may be more difficult to navigate but offer abortions free of charge, including for noncitizens.

Antes de que el aborto fuera legal en algunos estados de México, los grupos de “acompañamiento” establecieron un sistema de apoyo para que las mujeres interrumpieran sus embarazos en casa. Ahora, estos grupos están ayudando a trasladar al norte de la frontera medicamento para abortar y a replicar este modelo en los Estados Unidos.

A six-year newsroom veteran, Audience Director Bobby Blanchard is now our chief audience officer and a member of the Tribune’s senior management team.

About 40% of women who get abortions in the U.S. are Black, and advocates say abortion bans like Texas’ will increase their health and financial risks.

Amid a rise in conservative efforts opposed to teaching the lingering impacts of slavery and racism, the descendants of formerly enslaved people are using the Juneteenth holiday to educate younger generations.

After the May 24 school shooting, mental health help is now pouring into Uvalde, where a fourth of residents are uninsured and counseling options are few and far between.

Residents of Uvalde, a deeply religious community, prayed, cried and embraced each other on the first Sunday since a gunman killed 21 people at an elementary school.

Residents of this town, which is nicknamed “the Crossroads of America,” grapple with the horror of losing 21 lives.

Republicans dismantled the only Galveston County commissioners precinct in which voters of color held political clout. It’s a major blow for Black and Hispanic voters who had been building political momentum.

Immigrants, people living in poverty and non-English speakers were among the most likely to be missed, yet the crucial count received lackluster promotion by Texas state government.

She will cover the Panhandle and South Plains through Report for America. She previously reported for Texas Tech Public Media.

Texas political leaders usually settle for caution. The big stuff is risky, but it’s also possible — and even inspiring — to see leaders ignoring the small stuff and aiming higher.

Texans who don’t 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.

Like other states, Texas found out during the pandemic how critical high-speed broadband is for school, work and medicine. And the state is working to expand it — but it’s going to be at least a year before Texans start to see results.

As Texas defends against accusations that its new political maps are discriminatory, it’s laying the groundwork to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to throw out longstanding Voting Rights Act protections.

The good news is that no rural hospitals in Texas have closed in the last two years. The bad news? They’re still in crisis mode, and the state government is still struggling to find a remedy.

A group of students at Prairie View A&M University sued the county, claiming it set up an election schedule in 2018 that offered students — most of them Black — fewer opportunities to vote early than the county’s white residents.

Texas, unlike all but 11 other states, hasn’t expanded its Medicaid program. And it also hasn’t addressed the problem that’s supposed to help solve: The state’s worst-in-the-nation ranking for people without health insurance.

The Department of Family and Protective Services has been under federal court monitoring for over a decade for violating the civil rights of kids in foster care. Now, the short-staffed agency has to investigate parents who provide their children with gender-affirming care.

Democrats in the region still had higher turnout, but Republicans celebrated the narrowing of the gap. Despite the improvement, nearly 87% of registered voters in the Rio Grande Valley did not vote in the primary, similar to the rate in 2018.

A week into early voting in the Texas party primaries, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick launched his latest culture-war volley, an attack on college professors whose teachings about race don’t match his notions about what they should be teaching.

On this first day of early voting in the Democratic and Republican primaries, take a moment to think through the issues — whether the candidates are talking about them or not — before you cast your ballot.

The redrawn state Senate District 10 splits Black and Hispanic voters in Tarrant County. A full trial on whether GOP lawmakers intentionally discriminated against voters of color is expected later this year.