Texans who don’t vote in primaries and primary runoffs are missing a chance to choose who goes to Congress and the Texas Legislature. Thanks to the political maps drawn by lawmakers last year, only a handful of those contests will be competitive in November.
Demographics
Explore population trends, diversity, and data shaping Texas communities, politics, and policy.
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Unconventional Wisdom
Analysis: Texas’ new standard is abortions for those who can afford to leave Texas
The Texas ban on abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy effectively makes abortion illegal for most pregnant people — but not for those who can afford out-of-state travel.
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Unconventional Wisdom
Analysis: Texans without high-speed internet are getting closer, slowly
Like other states, Texas found out during the pandemic how critical high-speed broadband is for school, work and medicine. And the state is working to expand it — but it’s going to be at least a year before Texans start to see results.
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Redistricting Texas
Texas is quietly using redistricting lawsuits to launch a broader war against federal voting rights law
As Texas defends against accusations that its new political maps are discriminatory, it’s laying the groundwork to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to throw out longstanding Voting Rights Act protections.
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Unconventional Wisdom
Analysis: Rural Texas hospitals still searching for a remedy
The good news is that no rural hospitals in Texas have closed in the last two years. The bad news? They’re still in crisis mode, and the state government is still struggling to find a remedy.
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Demographics
Federal judge says Waller County voting process did not discriminate against Black college students
A group of students at Prairie View A&M University sued the county, claiming it set up an election schedule in 2018 that offered students — most of them Black — fewer opportunities to vote early than the county’s white residents.
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Unconventional Wisdom
Analysis: A health care problem too big for the Texas Legislature
Texas, unlike all but 11 other states, hasn’t expanded its Medicaid program. And it also hasn’t addressed the problem that’s supposed to help solve: The state’s worst-in-the-nation ranking for people without health insurance.
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Foster Care in Texas
Texas’ child welfare agency ordered to investigate trans kids’ families has been in crisis for years
The Department of Family and Protective Services has been under federal court monitoring for over a decade for violating the civil rights of kids in foster care. Now, the short-staffed agency has to investigate parents who provide their children with gender-affirming care.
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Texas 2022 Elections
Republicans more than doubled turnout in the Rio Grande Valley compared with the last midterm primary
Democrats in the region still had higher turnout, but Republicans celebrated the narrowing of the gap. Despite the improvement, nearly 87% of registered voters in the Rio Grande Valley did not vote in the primary, similar to the rate in 2018.
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Transgender Texans
What is gender-affirming medical care for transgender children? Here’s what you need to know.
Gender-affirming care, which leading health care organizations in Texas say is the best way to provide care to transgender children, is emerging as a top target of state Republicans and lies at the heart of brewing political and legal battles.