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Ross Ramsey

Ross Ramsey’s staff photo

Ross Ramsey co-founded The Texas Tribune in 2009 and served as its executive editor until his retirement in 2022. He wrote regular columns on politics, government and public policy. Before joining the Tribune, he was editor and co-owner of Texas Weekly. He did a 28-month stint in government with the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts. Before that, he reported for the Houston Chronicle, the Dallas Times Herald, as a Dallas-based freelancer for regional and national magazines and newspapers, and for radio stations in Denton and Dallas.

Latest Contributions

  • 2010: Poll: Perry Ahead of White

    By Ross Ramsey

    Gov. Rick Perry is maintaining an 11-point lead over Democrat Bill White, according to a survey of 1,200 registered and regular voters done for three statewide trade groups. Full Story 

    Rick Perry and Bill White
    Credit: Illustration by Todd Wiseman

  • 2010: White Accuses Perry of "Milking" TRS

    By Ross Ramsey

    Top appointees and employees at the state Teacher Retirement System overrode staff recommendations in order to hire political cronies and business associates for investment work there, Democratic gubernatorial nominee Bill White charged Tuesday. A spokesman for Gov. Rick Perry's campaign says White is "throwing everything at the wall to see what will stick." Full Story 

    Republican Rick Perry and Democrat Bill White
    Credit: Bob Daemmrich

  • 2010: An Hour in the Spotlight

    By Ross Ramsey

    A televised debate offered voters a chance to see and hear from Libertarian Kathie Glass and Green Deb Shafto, gubernatorial candidates who are usually overshadowed by Rick Perry and Bill White. Full Story 

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    Credit: KLRU-TV

  • Texas Weekly's Hot List, Vol. 7

    By Ross Ramsey

    This week's look at the most competitive races on the Texas congressional and legislative ballots sees two races upgraded into more urgent territory: HD-96 (Turner) moves from Orange to Red, and HD-57 (Dunnam) moves from Yellow to Orange. Two more are on the verge of downgrading from Orange to Yellow: HD-56 (Anderson) and HD-107 (Vaught). And we've added one to the Yellow zone: If HD-45 (Rose) is so uncompetitive, why's the incumbent running like a man with a wild boar on his tail? Full Story 

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  • Ready, Set, Vote

    By Ross Ramsey

    Former state Sen. Kim Brimer, R-Fort Worth, won the mail-in vote two years ago. He beat Democrat Wendy Davis on Election Day, too. But he lost the walk-in early vote in the crush of excited Democrats who went to the polls that year, and that was enough to send him home and send Davis to the state Senate. Full Story 

  • Washington Weak

    By Ross Ramsey

    The battle in the 2010 governor's race is about the battleground itself: Rick Perry wants to bind himself to voters in opposition to an intrusive and profligate Washington D.C. — meddling liberal Yankees, in other words. Bill White wants to motivate voters in opposition to what he portrays as the sorry condition of the state under Perry, the self-serving "career politician." For White, Washington is Perry's bogeyman to divert attention from his failures at home. For Perry, Washington is the root of the evils the state confronts — foremost, issues he says White ignores. Full Story 

    Rick Perry and Bill White
    Credit: Illustration by Todd Wiseman

  • TribWeek: In Case You Missed It

    By Ross Ramsey

    Hu on freshman House Democrats trying to win re-election in a Republican year, Grissom on Republicans bolstered by those same political trends, Aguilar on slow reforms in immigrant detention programs, Chang on the trouble with synthetic marijuana, Ramshaw on how proposed cuts in state Medicaid services could affect 13,000 Texans, yours truly on how political polls have as much to do with who's counted as with what they say, Galbraith on why Texas is building coal plants in spite of tightening federal air pollution standards, Hamilton on community colleges accusing the University of Texas of siphoning money from their financial wells, M. Smith on the court of inquiry proposed for a death penalty case and how it would work, and E. Smith interviews U.S. Rep. Michael Burgess about federal health care: The best of our best from Oct. 11 to 15, 2010. Full Story 

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  • A Likely Story

    By Ross Ramsey

    You can ask all the right questions in a political poll and still get a wrong answer. The results are based not only on how people answer the questions but on a pollster's educated guess about who'll vote and who won't. Full Story 

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