Analysis: In the Texas House, winning eclipses party
Voting as a partisan bloc might let a majority party pick the next Texas Speaker of the House, but something like it has been tried before. It didn't work. Full Story
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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.
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![House Speaker Joe Straus emerges from a House Republican caucus meeting at the Reagan building in Austin on Aug. 15, 2017.]()
Credit: Bob Daemmrich for The Texas Tribune -
Analysis: A political bargain that’s working out for social conservatives
In the president's appointment of two Texans to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, conservatives are seeing the fruits of a bargain made in the 2016 elections: Donald Trump might not be their favorite, but they're getting judges they want. Full Story
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![The U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals building in New Orleans.]()
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Analysis: The spectacle isn’t the important part
College protests against controversial speakers and the uproar about professional athletes protesting racial injustice have this in common: The protests themselves overshadow the ideas and practices being protested. Full Story
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![The Dallas Cowboys football team takes a knee prior to the national anthem during a game against the Arizona Cardinals on Sept. 25, 2017.]()
Credit: Dallas Cowboys Twitter account -
Analysis: A storm brings distinct changes in the political winds
The physical damage from Hurricane Harvey is relatively easy to spot, assess and catalog. But it’s becoming more evident that the storm also seeped into every corner of government policy and politics. Full Story
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![A school in the Cypress-Fairbanks School District in Houston surrounded by water on Wednesday, Aug. 30, 2017.]()
Credit: Michael Stravato for The Texas Tribune -
Texas House Speaker Joe Straus welcomes challengers: “I don’t own this job”
Texas House Speaker Joe Straus brushed aside complaints that he controls the House and said he is confident that most of the members of the House will support him for a record-breaking sixth term in that post in January 2019. Full Story
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![State House Speaker Joe Straus joins Tribune CEO Evan Smith at The Texas Tribune Festival on Sept. 23, 2017.]()
Credit: Qiling Wang for The Texas Tribune -
Analysis: X-factor in 2018’s Texas elections might be Harvey, not Donald
The tempestuous president has been trumped by a tempest: Texas politics and government is all about Hurricane Harvey now, and Donald Trump might not be the most important outsider in the state's 2018 elections after all. Full Story
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![John Sharp, Texas A&M University chancellor and head of the new Governor's Commission to Rebuild Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott and Nim Kidd, Chief of Texas Emergency Management, get briefed on recovery efforts after Hurricane Harvey at the FEMA Joint Field Office in Austin on Sept. 14, 2017.]()
Credit: Marjorie Kamys Cotera -
Analysis: In politics, you must be present to win
House Speaker Joe Straus wants business to stay the course through 2018’s elections and into the 2019 session, buttressing business-friendly Republicans against a conservative tide. It's a lot to ask. Full Story
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![Austin Convention and Visitors Bureau President and CEO Tom Noonan joined other business leaders in opposition to SB6, the so-called "bathroom bill, on March 6, 2017.]()
Credit: Bob Daemmrich for The Texas Tribune -
Analysis: In Harvey, Abbott finds focus in the eye of the storm
Hurricane Harvey presents the state of Texas with a set of problems that are bigger than politics, a turn of fortune that could be a political boon to Gov. Greg Abbott. Full Story
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![Gov. Greg Abbott briefs the media about Hurricane Harvey damage to the Coastal Bend prior to touring the area by motorcade on Aug. 28, 2017.]()
Credit: Bob Daemmrich for the Texas Tribune -
Analysis: Forget about new political maps — probably
The nation's highest court says Texas should use the political maps it already has in place while litigation over those maps continues. But the courts have been known to change the maps in the middle of election years. Full Story
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Felony charges against Dukes reportedly on hold
Travis County prosecutors are setting aside felony charges against state Rep. Dawnna Dukes, D-Austin, at least temporarily, the Austin American-Statesman reported Thursday. Full Story
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![State Rep. Dawnna Dukes, D-Austin, in the House chamber as they adjourn on August 1, 2017. Dukes will apparently face trial on corruption charges Oct. 16th as she failed to accept a resignation offer by the Travis County District Attorney's office.]()
Credit: Bob Daemmrich for the Texas Tribune