At our latest TribLive conversation, U.S. Senate candidate Ted Cruz talked about the debt ceiling debate — why he would have voted no and why the threat of default was political theater.

At our latest TribLive conversation, U.S. Senate candidate Ted Cruz talked about President Obama's jobs speech — and what he would do differently.

At our last TribLive conversation, U.S. Senate candidate Ted Cruz talked about President Obama's jobs speech, the future of Social Security and the debt ceiling debate, among other topics that could impact his 2012 GOP primary race.

M. Smith on Rick Perry's allergic reaction to federal school money, E. Smith elicits Ted Cruz's take on David Dewhurst, Root and Ramshaw cover Perry's first presidential debate, Ramshaw and Aguilar poke at Perry's immigration record and how it plays among Republicans, Hamilton on the dash for top status among Texas colleges, Galbraith on an environmental ruling from the White House that got conservative applause and one that didn't, Grissom has the latest on the Willingham arson case and the state's plans to look at other fires and Aaronson's widget for comparing the presidential candidates: The best of our best content from Sept. 5 to 9, 2011.

At this morning's TribLive conversation, U.S. Senate candidate Ted Cruz explained why the presumed front-runner in the GOP primary race, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, is the wrong man for the job.

U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Austin, is still in the maybe column in the race to replace U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison. But Sen. Dan Patrick, R-Houston, says he won't run for that federal job; he might be looking instead at the lieutenant governor's post in 2014.

This week on the TribCast, Ross, Reeve, Ben and Scott consider Michael McCaul's potential entry into the U.S. Senate race, review Rick Perry and His Eggheads and talk about how nobody's talking about Ron Paul.

U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Austin, is quietly exploring a run for the U.S. Senate seat now held by Kay Bailey Hutchison, Republican sources told The Texas Tribune on Tuesday.

In the latest edition of our unscientific survey of government and political insiders, we asked how the primary and general election races for U.S. Senate will go. And the winner is...

Five of the declared Republican candidates for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Kay Bailey Hutchison met in Waco on Saturday night for a wide-ranging forum notable for the absence of the frontrunner, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst.

Congress is set to vote on a deal that would raise the federal debt ceiling to avoid an unprecedented default. They may not be in Washington now, but we asked several U.S. Senate candidates to weigh in on how they'd vote on the plan if they were.

Republican Ted Cruz parried David "unapologetically conservative" Dewhurst's video announcement this morning, calling himself the "proven conservative" in the U.S. Senate race. 

Promising an "unapologetically conservative" campaign, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst today jumped into the Republican primary race to succeed Kay Bailey Hutchison in the U.S. Senate. Among other promises he made in a video sent to supporters, he pledged to support the controversial "Cut, Cap and Balance" budget plan under discussion in Congress.

The three declared Republican candidates for Kay Bailey Hutchison's U.S. Senate seat released mid-year campaign finance totals today. Tom Leppert got to the end of June with more money in the bank than either Ted Cruz or Elizabeth Ames Jones.

Candidates are dropping out of the U.S. Senate race in Texas faster than teenagers drop out of Texas high schools. It’s been a month of un-declaration in the Republican race to replace Kay Bailey Hutchison.

Democrats may have a shot at the seat being vacated by Republican U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, according to a new poll from Public Policy Polling, a left-leaning polling firm. 

At this morning's TribLive conversation, the authors of Texas Monthly's biennial Best and Worst Legislators story explained why they put Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst on the Ten Worst list.

After Wednesday night's forum with Ted Cruz, Elizabeth Ames Jones, Tom Leppert and Roger Williams, Editor-in-Chief Evan Smith continued the conversation with questions from the public about the Tea Party, the 10th Amendment and one contender in the race who wasn't present.