News of Congregation Beth Israel hostages’ safe escape is met with intense relief, but communities feel pain and fear over the latest in a series of antisemitic attacks and incidents in Texas and beyond.
Demographics
Explore population trends, diversity, and data shaping Texas communities, politics, and policy.
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.
Video: Afghan refugees resettling in Texas find help despite strained resources
Texas expects to resettle the second-highest number of Afghan refugees in the United States.
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.
2021 Texas politics in photos: An insurrection, legislative battles and emerging campaigns
Texas politics in 2021 were marked by a violent insurrection at the nation’s Capitol and state legislative fights over abortion, voting rights and redistricting. Our photojournalists were there every step of the way.
Unhappy holidays: Texas endures another COVID Christmas
After nearly two years of navigating life during a pandemic, many Texans are now scrambling for COVID tests, delaying plans and worrying about relatives who have been exposed to the virus.
Opportunity was snatched away from Dallas County Latino communities when Texas Republicans redrew congressional maps
Dallas-area Latinos hoped their growing numbers would finally translate into political clout this year through the creation of a new congressional district anchored by their communities. Instead, their neighborhoods were splintered between numerous white-majority districts.
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.
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.
U.S. Department of Justice sues Texas over new political maps
Texas lawmakers illegally discriminated against voters of color by drawing new political districts that give white voters more political power despite rapid growth of Hispanic and Black populations, the department claims in its lawsuit.



