DEMOGRAPHICS

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.

Job growth in the state, driven by population gains, has outpaced the rest of the country in recent months, according to recent federal data.

With less than five weeks left in the primary election season, there is no shortage of political issues to debate. But most of the political conversation isn’t about the election.

Abbott promises a “parental bill of rights” amendment to the Texas Constitution. Current education code already provides an array of parent protections when it comes to schools.

News of Congregation Beth Israel hostages' safe escape is met with intense relief, but communities feel pain and fear over the latest in a series of antisemitic attacks and incidents in Texas and beyond.

The new year comes with a new election — and with familiar challenges to the way Texans vote and have their votes counted.

Here are a dozen of my columns from 2021: highlights on the winter storm, redistricting, the state’s finances and on issues that could figure into this next round of elections.

Texas politics in 2021 were marked by a violent insurrection at the nation’s Capitol and state legislative fights over abortion, voting rights and redistricting. Our photojournalists were there every step of the way.

After nearly two years of navigating life during a pandemic, many Texans are now scrambling for COVID tests, delaying plans and worrying about relatives who have been exposed to the virus.

Dallas-area Latinos hoped their growing numbers would finally translate into political clout this year through the creation of a new congressional district anchored by their communities. Instead, their neighborhoods were splintered between numerous white-majority districts.

Republicans in Austin have been after local governments for years, pushing aside local laws and rules on a long list of issues where local and state powers overlap. Now they're recruiting fellow Republicans for local offices, to try to change things at the ground level.

Texas’ population has grown 40% this century, and 91% of the new Texans are people of color. Federal judges now have to decide whether those monumental changes are reflected in the state’s political maps.

Texas lawmakers illegally discriminated against voters of color by drawing new political districts that give white voters more political power despite rapid growth of Hispanic and Black populations, the department claims in its lawsuit.

Asian and Pacific Islander populations surged in Texas over the past decade, but their political power is weakened under new congressional maps. A northwest Houston neighborhood offers a case study in how that was done.

The GOP slate for statewide office includes two high-profile Latinos and two Black candidates who have previously held state or federal office. Republicans are making a play to be more competitive with voters of color as the state’s electorate grows more diverse.

El Pasoans who have followed O’Rourke’s political career are excited about his run for governor. But his critics still remember his support of a development plan that could have displaced Mexican American residents from one of the city’s oldest barrios.

In a final push to secure federal voting rights legislation this year, congressional Democrats failed to secure the necessary votes to avoid a GOP filibuster on the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act.

The Mexican American Legislative Caucus is arguing that the new state House map violates the Texas Constitution. The lawsuit follows two legal challenges to the state’s new maps previously filed in federal court.

In Texas, the Legislature draws political maps — with results that predictably favor the party in power. Do independent commissions do any better?

Austin fire officials said they’re investigating a Sunday incident that caused about $25,000 in damage as a potential arson.

The new political maps drawn by Texas Republicans have run into some criticism from academics studying gerrymandering. That puts the Texans in the same boat with Illinois Democrats.

House Bill 25 will require student athletes who compete in interscholastic competition to play on sports teams that correspond with the sex listed on their birth certificate at or near their time of birth.

Texas lawmakers drew new maps for the state House and Senate, congressional delegation and State Board of Education. Here’s what Texans should know about the 2021 redistricting outcomes.

Texas lawmakers have redrawn political maps for the state’s congressional, House, Senate and Board of Education districts. Search your address to see how the new districts will affect your community.

The controversial issues you’ve heard Texas lawmakers debate for most of the year aren’t going away; many of them will be argued all over again during the 2022 elections.

With partisan fervor, Republicans drew new maps for Congress and the Legislature that dilute the power of voters of color. Now the lawsuits begin, as groups that feel marginalized battle for representation in the halls of power.

Gov. Greg Abbott’s office says there’s no plan for a fourth special session at this time. If this was the final special session of the year, what did we learn from it?

After a few last-minute alterations, the state's new congressional districts are drawn and await the scrutiny of federal courts. Already, one lawsuit has been filed claiming the new maps intentionally discriminate against Latino voters.

Before they’re even signed into law, the state’s new maps for congressional and statehouse districts have been challenged in federal court by the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund.

“Turn Texas Blue” was the Democratic rally cry in the 2020 elections. It didn’t happen, and with the maps the Texas Legislature is drawing, it’s not in the cards for 2022, either.

The redistricting plans for the House, Senate and State Board of Education were approved Friday.

The GOP is losing its hold on suburbs of Dallas and Fort Worth as they grow more diverse. Two new districts show how far the party is reaching to entrench rural, white electoral power.