Texas politics are on hold.

The major Republican candidates for the U.S. Senate knocked heads Thursday night in a debate that was a good deal livelier than the presidential forums that have become a TV mainstay.

Once they have maps, election administrators say they need 60 to 80 days to put an election together, and the April 3 primaries won't be possible, they say, if they don't have maps by the end of the month. That's just a couple of weeks.

The Supreme Court examines a simple question without an easy answer: Delay the Texas elections, or use maps that haven't been vetted?

Rick Perry’s 28-year-old son, Griffin, has propelled himself into the headlines — and injected some much-needed energy into his father’s decidedly downtrodden candidacy — with his Twitter missives from the campaign trail.

Online piracy is hurting the nation's economy and putting lives at risk, says U.S. Rep. Lamar Smith. He wrote the Stop Online Piracy Act to address the problem, but his bill has gotten the cold shoulder in his home state.

As the economy begins to show signs of life, efforts are under way at two-year colleges across Texas to make the state's higher ed offerings more responsive to the labor market.

Gov. Rick Perry launched his campaign for president exactly five months ago in Charleston, S.C. Once a front-runner in the Palmetto State, Perry is now hoping for a comeback to get some much-needed momentum. 

The presidential race has yet to recede, but a lively debate Thursday night finally thrust the race for U.S. Senate into the spotlight.

In a radio interview Friday morning, Rick Perry was asked again which federal departments he planned to shut down if elected president. This time he remembered to name three — but not the same three as before.

At yesterday's TribLive conversation, conservative activist Michael Quinn Sullivan explained why Empower Texans doesn't post its financial records or disclose its donors on its web site.

Two weeks after it was originally scheduled to go in to effect, Texas’ voter ID law is back in the hands of the U.S. Department of Justice.

Your afternoon reading: Paul's relaxed schedule draws scrutiny; Perry again flubs government-agencies question; evangelicals scale back goals for anti-Romney meeting

Texas abortion providers were hoping they'd have a few more weeks to start abiding by a state law requiring them to play the heartbeat of the fetus and describe its image on a sonogram before performing the procedure. They're not going to get it.

A federal judge's decision not to allow Rick Perry and three other presidential candidates onto Virginia's GOP primary ballot "disenfranchises" the state's voters, Joe Nixon, the Texas governor's lead counsel, said Friday. 

The conservative Texas Public Policy Foundation today wrapped up its annual legislative primer, which has become a must-attend for state Republican leaders. Ben Philpott of KUT News and the Tribune reports on how the group is already working to influence next year's legislative session.