Texas candidates are talking all kinds of things right now, but one set of issues floats to the top, as it has in state elections for decades: border security and immigration.
Ross Ramsey
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.
Posted in
Texas 2022 Elections
Analysis: Texas enters 2022 with a bang — and some whimpering
The new year comes with a new election — and with familiar challenges to the way Texans vote and have their votes counted.
Posted in
Demographics
Analysis: The Texas storms — actual and political — of 2021
Here are a dozen of my columns from 2021: highlights on the winter storm, redistricting, the state’s finances and on issues that could figure into this next round of elections.
Posted in
Texas 2022 Elections
Analysis: A rose by any other name could stink up the Texas ballot
Political people in Texas know that the Rick Perry on the 2022 Republican primary ballot is not the former governor of the state. Do voters know?
Posted in
Texas Abortion Restrictions
Analysis: Texas ducks the federal courts, inspiring copycats
Just as many legal experts predicted, the enforcement provision in Texas’ new law restricting abortion has become a magnet for other states that want to limit constitutionally protected rights.
Posted in
Politics
Analysis: Some Texas lawmakers are worried about the wrong reading problem
Some Texas Republicans are busy raising questions about what’s in the books in the state’s public school libraries. The real problem isn’t in the books.
Posted in
Texas 2022 Elections
Analysis: From homegrown culture warriors to tomorrow’s Texas leaders
Republicans in Austin have been after local governments for years, pushing aside local laws and rules on a long list of issues where local and state powers overlap. Now they’re recruiting fellow Republicans for local offices, to try to change things at the ground level.
Posted in
Winter Storm 2021
Analysis: Texas’ electric grid is half-ready for another winter freeze
Chances are, winter weather won’t be as bad as it was last February. Chances are, Texas won’t have the electric blackouts that caused so much misery then. And chances are, whatever happens will have some influence on the 2022 elections.
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Redistricting Texas
Analysis: Texas’ population has changed much faster than its political maps
Texas’ population has grown 40% this century, and 91% of the new Texans are people of color. Federal judges now have to decide whether those monumental changes are reflected in the state’s political maps.
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Politics
Analysis: The Texas-Mexico frontier still tops the news — and state politics
For Texas voters, fear of an insecure border consistently overshadows other issues — electric grid failures, handgun regulation, abortion access — even when those things top the news.
