Cristina Tzintzún Ramirez represents the future of Texas politics—but can she make that future come this Tuesday?
Texas
Posted inPolitics
The Battle for the Democratic Party Runs Through South Texas
A primary challenge to a conservative Democrat now pits an array of national progressive organizations against the Chamber of Commerce and the Koch network.
Posted inPolitics
Progressives Help Progressives—Across City Lines
Local Progress, a nationwide network of left-leaning municipal elected officials, is fast becoming the strategic switchboard for America’s increasingly liberal cities.
Posted inHealth and Social Policy
The Emergency Room Hustle
Private equity firms and other investors have turned freestanding emergency departments into cash machines, at the expense of patients.
Posted inPolitics
Democratic Cave to Trump on Border Wall Had an Ulterior Motive
Democrats gave Trump major concessions and leverage in the year-end funding bill so Representative Henry Cuellar could get federal funding for a riverwalk in his district.
Posted inMoney, Politics, and Power
JPMorgan Gets Back Into the Electricity Business
An El Paso, Texas, electric utility is being purchased by an investment fund with deep, undisclosed ties to the big bank.
Posted inTAP
The Formula for a Blue Texas
The spate of House Republican retirements in Texas—the so-called Texodus—has gotten people thinking again about Texas’s political trajectory. Is a blue Texas really on the horizon? Certainly recent trends have been very favorable. In 2018, Beto O’Rourke missed unseating Senator Ted Cruz by just 2.3 points. And, although O’Rourke fell short, Democrats picked up 12 […]
Posted inTAP
Walmart and Guns
In the wake of the assault-weapon murders at El Paso’s mega Walmart, America’s number-one gun seller and largest private-sector employer has come under justifiable criticism for its gun policies. Roughly half of Walmart’s 4,750 stores sell guns, and the company announced on Monday that that policy would not change. It also announced that it wouldn’t […]
Posted inLaw and Justice
Beto or Not, Here Democrats Come in Texas
Talk has increased that Beto O’Rourke should end his presidential campaign to take on John Cornyn in a Senate race. Even if he doesn’t, Democrats have a shot to make gains in the Lone Star State.
Posted inTAP
The Hispanic Invasion of Texas?
The mass murderer of El Paso, shortly before he started shooting, posted that he was seeking to repel “the Hispanic invasion of Texas.” In this, consciously or merely zeitgeist-ly, he was echoing our president, who’d previously spoken of the “invasion” of the United States by Hispanics at the border. It’s clear (and not surprising) that […]