For nearly 70 years, federal law has barred churches from directly involving themselves in political campaigns, but the IRS has largely abdicated its enforcement responsibilities as churches have become more brazen about publicly backing candidates.
Jeremy Schwartz
Jeremy Schwartz has been an investigative reporter in Texas for nearly a decade, covering issues including voting rights and border security for the Austin American-Statesman and USA Today Network. His work has resulted in the overhaul of Texas' inspection process for farmworker housing, sparked Congressional investigations of a failed Department of Veterans Affairs research program and uncovered misleading border arrest and drug seizure statistics maintained by the Texas Department of Public Safety. Schwartz won the National Association of Hispanic Journalists' Latino Issues award for his 2017 investigation into the political underrepresentation of Latinos in Texas cities and counties, and the Headliners Foundation of Texas Reporter of the Year award, among other honors. He previously served as Cox Newspapers' Latin America correspondent in Mexico City from 2005 to 2009, and before that, he covered the U.S. Border Patrol and immigration at the Corpus Christi Caller-Times. He is based in Austin.
Posted in
The Texas Tribune-ProPublica Investigative Unit
Tell us how religious organizations in your area involve themselves in elections
Federal law bars churches and other nonprofit groups from endorsing candidates or helping to fundraise, but we know they regularly sidestep — or flat-out ignore — these rules. Help us identify examples.
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The Texas Tribune-ProPublica Investigative Unit
Election administrators are under attack in Texas. Here’s what that means for the midterms.
David Becker of The Center for Election Innovation & Research talks with The Texas Tribune and ProPublica about election official turnover and its impact on voting.
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Uvalde school shooting
Texas’ law on gun background checks plagued by critical omissions of minors’ mental health records
Lawmakers tried in 2009 to require that the state report all court-ordered mental health hospitalizations to a federal gun background check system. Juveniles have been left out.
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The Texas Tribune-ProPublica Investigative Unit
Settlement reached over private border wall, but experts say it won’t stop the environmental damage
Federal authorities have reached a deal that gives builders of the privately funded fence control over where to inspect for damage and leeway over which issues they choose to repair.
Posted in
Uvalde school shooting
Why 18-year-olds can buy AR-15s in Texas but not handguns
This week’s massacre in Uvalde highlights disparities in how federal laws regulate rifles and handguns. The shooter bought two rifles days after his 18th birthday.
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The Texas Tribune-ProPublica Investigative Unit
Problems remain for We Build the Wall group after founder’s guilty plea
Air Force veteran Brian Kolfage faces more than five years in prison after pleading guilty to defrauding donors to the private wall effort.
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The Texas Tribune-ProPublica Investigative Unit
North Texas superintendent orders books removed from schools, targeting titles about transgender people
The Granbury superintendent’s comments, made on a leaked recording, raise constitutional concerns, legal experts said.
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Politics
A push to remove LGBTQ-themed books in a Texas county could signal rising partisanship on school boards
Hood County’s refusal to remove two books from the children’s section of the library sparked a yearslong political battle. Now school board races have taken on a deeply partisan tone, and elections serve as a purity test for far-right politics.
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The Texas Tribune-ProPublica Investigative Unit
Trump won Hood County in a landslide. His supporters still hounded the elections administrator until she resigned.
Michele Carew, an elections administrator with 14 years of experience, has resigned after a monthslong campaign by Trump loyalists to oust her. “I’m leaving on my own accord,” she said.