The effort is a partnership between the state party, two of its largest political organizations and the House Democrats’ campaign arm.
Texas Majority PAC and the Texas Democratic Party recruited 104 candidates to fill uncontested races. Gov. Greg Abbott’s strategist said it amounts to a gimmick “if they don’t back it up with serious resources.”
The San Antonio Democrat said at The Texas Tribune Festival that he hoped to form a statewide slate with Colin Allred, Beto O’Rourke and James Talarico, but the group couldn’t find consensus.
The Austin state lawmaker took in $6.2 million in the three weeks since he launched his bid, outpacing the $4.1 million Allred raised over the last three months.
The court, appointed by Gov. Greg Abbott, recently allowed O’Rourke to continue raising and dispersing donations, and cast doubt on Paxton’s main arguments.
The survey found many Texas voters are either undecided or would support candidates who haven’t actually entered the race. It also showed GOP Sen. John Cornyn leading Attorney General Ken Paxton.
The order came at the request of Attorney General Ken Paxton, who O’Rourke accused in a separate lawsuit of going on a “fishing expedition, constitutional rights be damned.”
Gov. Greg Abbott previously asked the court to expel Rep. Gene Wu, the House Democratic leader. Paxton disputed the governor’s authority to make the request.
Former U.S. Rep. Beto O’Rourke was joined at his San Antonio town hall by U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro and state Rep. James Talarico, whose names have been floated for statewide office.
Democrats will need to sort through a pileup of potential candidates who see an opportunity to harness backlash to the Trump administration in next year’s midterms.
Allred discusses what sets him apart from his opponent, why he thinks Ted Cruz is to blame for some of the border problems, and how he feels about being compared to former Congressman Beto O’Rourke, Cruz’s last opponent, who narrowly lost.
Republicans have a stranglehold on every statewide elected office in Texas and control the state Supreme Court, both chambers of the Legislature and both U.S. Senate seats.
The staggering fundraising numbers mean that Cruz and Allred have collectively raised at least $132 million, surpassing the final combined haul from 2018.
The party faces internal tension over the Israel-Hamas war and Biden’s new immigration policy heading into November.
U.S. Rep. Colin Allred raised over $9.5 million for his U.S. Senate campaign this quarter, surpassing Beto O’Rourke’s 2018 first quarter sum of $6.7 million.
Kelcy Warren, a Dallas pipeline billionaire, sued O’Rourke in early 2022, saying the Democrat defamed him with critical comments about his company’s windfall profits after the Texas energy-grid collapse in February 2021.
The dearth of competitive down-ballot races could contrast with the last few election cycles in Texas, when multiple congressional seats and state legislative seats drew significant national investment.
In November, The Texas Tribune reported that Beto O’Rourke had given back a $1 million donation that Bankman-Fried had donated to his campaign.
Warren, a Dallas pipeline tycoon, sued O’Rourke in February over accusations he made on the campaign trail that Warren effectively bribed Gov. Greg Abbott with a $1 million campaign contribution following the 2021 power grid collapse.
O’Rourke’s campaign said they gave the money back before the company’s scandals became widely public, because they were taken aback by such a large unsolicited donation.
Beto O’Rourke lost by double-digits on Tuesday night and so did every other statewide Democrat. That has left Democrats in a familiar position: wounded after a disappointing election night while contemplating their strategy and their future.
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.
The families of some of the 19 children killed at Robb Elementary rooted for Beto O’Rourke, hoping he would help change Texas gun laws. They left disappointed but determined to fight on.
The governor prevailed after a tumultuous period that included the pandemic, a statewide blackout, restrictions on voting and abortion and the Uvalde school shooting.
While the GOP focuses on the border and economy under President Joe Biden, Democrats are hoping to prove polls and political forecasters wrong by tapping into anger over the overturning of Roe v. Wade and the Uvalde school shooting.
Republicans may be waiting to vote on Election Day after former President Donald Trump pushed voting in person on Nov. 8 at a rally in South Texas.
The high turnout seen in 2018 may have been an anomaly rather than the start of a long-term trend.
Democrats hope population growth and Republican infighting will help them win in the state’s third-most-populous county — and finally break through in statewide races.
According to the poll, more than half of Republican voters agreed that immigration and border security are the most important. Democrats’ priorities are more dispersed between abortion, health care, gun violence and climate change.
The 11-point margin is one of the wider advantages Abbott has registered among likely voters in a public survey yet. Abbott had a smaller 5-point advantage in the last UT poll, which was done in August, though that was among registered voters.
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.
Early voting is just around the corner, and there are competitive elections across Texas. Professor Jon Taylor, Professor of Political Science and Chair of the Department of Political Science and Geography at UTSA, joined Leading SA to dive into some election detail.
The Democratic challenger ended the latest fundraising period, July 1 through Sept. 29, with slightly more cash on hand than the governor.
His campaign said the massive amount came at a faster clip than his previous, record-breaking haul. Republican Gov. Greg Abbott has not released his latest fundraising figures yet but had a large cash-on-hand advantage over O’Rourke at the end of June.
The soldier is the 10th known Texas Guard member linked to the mission to die since its rapid expansion began in September 2021.
John P. Scott, a former U.S. Secret Service agent, is tasked with ensuring Texas schools implement statewide safety policies and safeguard against school shootings.
Republican Gov. Greg Abbott said in his first debate against Democratic challenger Beto O’Rourke that Texas would send busloads of migrants who crossed the U.S.-Mexico border to more cities.
In a news conference ahead of the only gubernatorial debate, 35 family members of Uvalde school shooting victims said they would support O’Rourke because of Gov. Greg Abbott’s inaction on gun control measures.
Before the gubernatorial debate between Greg Abbott and Beto O’Rourke in the Rio Grande Valley, the parents of Robb Elementary students stepped up to the microphone to voice their opinions on one of the state’s most divisive topics: gun control.
The one-hour debate took place in Edinburg. It was the only scheduled debate between the two candidates before the November election.
Republican Governor Greg Abbott and Democratic Gubernatorial candidate Beto O’Rourke are set to debate Friday in Edinburg. Voters are hoping both gubernatorial candidates address the complexities of abortion to give voters a clear sense of where they stand before election day.
The Democratic nominee for governor said during The Texas Tribune Festival that he’s counting on a big turnout of voters energized by the U.S. Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade.
Tune in on Monday as candidates for statewide offices speak with Texas Tribune reporters Patrick Svitek and James Barragán at the 2022 Texas Disability Issues Forum.
The sudden TV spending by Coulda Been Worse LLC comes as Abbott battles for a third term against Democratic challenger Beto O’Rourke.
Both Gov. Greg Abbott and Beto O’Rourke hope to define the election on issues viewed as favorable to their own parties.
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 gunman in Uvalde bought two AR-15-style rifles days after he turned 18, the legal purchasing age in Texas, and used the weapons to kill 19 students and two teachers at Robb Elementary.
Gov. Greg Abbott signed the “trigger law” last year, ensuring that Texas would automatically outlaw abortion if the U.S. Supreme Court ever overturned Roe v. Wade. That happened in June, mobilizing Democrats nationwide and giving O’Rourke’s campaign a burst of momentum.
Any school choice policy must win over rural Republicans, who have historically been against diverting public dollars to private schools.
Final fundraising figures show that both gubernatorial candidates raised a combined $160 million in the November midterm election.
It’s O’Rourke’s largest-ever donation as he runs for governor against Greg Abbott. Abbott, however, maintains a massive fundraising advantage and is no stranger to seven-figure contributions.
Attendees in Dallas seemed energized by the state’s abortion ban, lax gun laws and power grid failures. But they also knew they face major headwinds.
Incumbent Gov. Greg Abbott entered this year with a much larger war chest and still has the financial upper hand in the race. He raised $24.9 over the same time period.
The Republican incumbent’s 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.
The Republican governor is stressing one of his biggest advantages — money — as he faces a competitive challenge for reelection.
The Democratic nominee faces an uphill battle in his challenge to Gov. Greg Abbott, and the Legislature is likely to remain under Republican control.
Hundreds of people gathered in Travis Park on Saturday to stand with the town Uvalde, during a call-to-action event in support of the victims and families affected by the mass shooting at Robb Elementary.
The question moving forward is whether Democrats, outnumbered in the Texas Legislature for two decades, will be able to put enough pressure on lawmakers to move on a previously intractable issue in gun-friendly Texas and that Republicans, who support looser gun laws, will fight tooth and nail.
What initially looked like a photo opportunity soon escalated after an activist at the National Rifle Association Convention in Houston confronted US Sen. Ted Cruz, pushing him to take action on gun control laws.
San Antonio Archbishop Gustavo Garcia-Siller has spoken out against loose gun laws following the shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, where 19 students and two teachers were killed.
O’Rourke said he is vaccinated and boosted and tests regularly while traveling the state. A campaign spokesperson said the candidate had no events scheduled for the week.
Texas school districts, cities and counties rely heavily on property taxes to pay for roads, libraries, police, firefighters and public schools. But lowering tax bills has long been a difficult endeavor.
For Democrats, especially in Texas, tackling border issues is difficult on the campaign trail as the party is not in agreement about various policies. O’Rourke has had to distance himself from President Joe Biden’s border policies, while going after Gov. Greg Abbott’s.
In a press conference, O’Rourke said the president should have given border communities a plan before ending a pandemic-era immigration rule that will lead to an increase in migrants.
The Democratic nominee for governor slammed the Republican incumbent in harsh terms, presaging a bitter lead-up to an election nearly eight months away.
Gov. Greg Abbott and most other statewide elected officials won their primaries Tuesday night. But Attorney General Ken Paxton was forced into a runoff, and progressive Democrats fell short of their congressional goals.
While testifying in a bankruptcy trial for a Texas electric co-op, the state’s former grid manager said Gov. Greg Abbott’s directive led them to keep power price points high during last year’s winter storm, according to a Houston Chronicle report.
The poll shows Gov. Greg Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick have a significant advantage over their primary opponents. Democratic respondents heavily support Beto O’Rourke for governor but don’t know enough about the party’s candidates in other races.
The two men vying to be the next governor of Texas, and widely expected to face each other in the general election in November, made appearances on the same day and within minutes of each other Wednesday in San Antonio.
During his San Antonio visit, O'Rourke answered media questions staying focused on two main issues — the power grid and voting rights.
Gov. Greg Abbott’s openness to marijuana decriminalization shows that the state, while conservative, isn’t immune to larger trends.
Next year, every state official and every member of the Texas Legislature and Congress are up for election. That makes for a big year in Texas politics.
Abbott vetoed legislation in June that would have helped shore up the Universal Service Fund, which supports telecommunications in rural Texas. He said it would have “imposed a new fee on millions of Texans.”
Every statewide office, legislative seat and U.S. House district will be on the ballot next year when the state’s new political maps are expected to be used.