With the price of exit surveys on the rise, election pollsters are curbing costs by canceling exit polls in 19 states — and non-swing-state Texas didn't make the cut.  

Democrat Yvonne Gonzalez Toureilles, who served three terms in the Texas House, is looking to make a return. She's challenging state Rep. J.M. Lozano, R-Kingsville, who switched from the Democratic Party this year.

State Rep. Mark Shelton, R-Fort Worth, called for a criminal investigation into state Sen. Wendy Davis, D-Fort Worth, on Wednesday in the latest development in this increasingly bitter race for Davis' Senate seat.

State Rep. Dee Margo, R-El Paso, is facing a familiar foe in the 2012 general election. Former state Rep. Joe Moody defeated Margo in 2008 but lost to Margo in 2010. 

Republicans Mitt Romney and Ted Cruz hold commanding leads in their Texas races for president and U.S. Senate, respectively, according to a new Texas Lyceum Poll. 

Republican Ted Cruz and Democrat Paul Sadler will participate in their first televised debate in a U.S. Senate race that has seen little back-and-forth between the candidates so far.

This week on the Newsreel we've got the return of The Hot List, bubble babies, the comptroller's new study on debt, water, health insurance, and an unusual soundbite.

Getting elected takes a particular set of skills, governing another. And some members of the incoming freshman legislative class have no experience running things.

The problem with very partisan primary elections is that the winning candidates risk being too partisan for general election voters.

More money for classrooms and less for administration and other school expenses is a staple of Texas politics. Now, with education on voters' minds, some Republican candidates are talking about higher pay for teachers.

El Paso Democrat Martha Dominguez's apparent absence from the campaign trail has prompted her SBOE opponent to call her a "ghost" — and has sparked criticism from members of her own party. But that may not stop her from winning the race.

Republican Randy Weber, a state representative from Pearland trying to make the leap to U.S. Congress in CD-14, unveiled his first commercial of the general election — a takeoff on the president's "You didn't build that" speech. 

No candidate wants to be in trouble at election time. But they don't want their supporters to think they're shoo-ins, either.

Once a force to be reckoned with in the Texas Legislature, Democrat Paul Sadler is urging voters not to count out his bid for U.S. Senate against Republican Ted Cruz.

House Bill 174, which passed with little controversy or fanfare last year, is causing a stir after several voters have been asked to prove they are not dead. 

For this week's nonscientific survey of insiders in state government and politics, we asked about the November race for U.S. Senate, whether Democrats will recover faster if Romney or Obama wins, about the GOP's weak spots and about whether the voters are as conservative as the people they've elected.

A court ruled last week that new voter registration rules in Texas can be enforced ahead of the November elections. While the effect of the new rules remains unclear, the ruling has cast new light on the state's low voter registration rates.

This week, we hit some of the races remaining in Texas, Senate committee assignments and reporter Jay Root's take on campaign consultants.