Our newsroom leadership team
Andy Alford, Bobby Blanchard, Darla Cameron, Ayan Mittra, Matthew Watkins and I are ready to take The Texas Tribune’s journalism to new heights. Full Story
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![Ayan Mittra, Darla Cameron, Matthew Watkins, Sewell Chan, Bobby Blanchard and Andy Alford pose for a group photo at The Texas Tribune.]()
Credit: Pu Ying Huang/The Texas Tribune -
Fighting care for transgender kids shifts from a fringe issue to a litmus test for Texas Republicans
The issue is no longer contained to just the party’s fringes — and it is unlikely to go away any time soon as the national fervor grows, Gov. Greg Abbott’s directive faces legal challenges and it factors prominently into a slew of GOP primary runoffs. Full Story
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![People held up a transgender flag at an event held by Equality Texas at the Capitol in Austin on Wednesday, April 14, 2021]()
Credit: Sergio Flores for The Texas Tribune -
Watch: North Texas superintendents say uproar over critical race theory in schools is a Republican “manufactured crisis”
Evan Smith, CEO of The Texas Tribune, sat down with superintendents Michael Hinojosa of Dallas, Kent Scribner of Fort Worth and Jeannie Stone of Richardson. Full Story
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Analysis: If it was easier to vote in Texas, would turnout still be this low?
Texas has loaded its election and voting laws with obstacles — and also has remarkably low voter turnout. Maybe those two things are connected. Full Story
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![People wait in line to cast their votes in the primary election at Collin College in Mckinney on March 1, 2022.]()
Credit: Shelby Tauber for The Texas Tribune -
State bar complaint against Attorney General Ken Paxton to proceed after key deadline passes
Paxton is accused of professional misconduct for suing to overturn the 2020 presidential election results. Full Story
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![Attorney General Ken Paxton walks onto the stage at a Trump rally in Conroe on Jan. 29, 2022.]()
Credit: Jordan Vonderhaar for The Texas Tribune -
Parents of a trans child who reached out to Attorney General Ken Paxton over dinner are now under investigation for child abuse
Amber Briggle had hoped inviting Paxton to dinner might soften his views about transgender children. Now, the family is under investigation after he issued an opinion equating gender-affirming medical care with child abuse. Full Story
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![A child chants, "God made trans kids! God loves trans kids!" with the crowd during a protest at the Texas Capitol in Austin on Tuesday, March 1, 2022.]()
Credit: Lauren Witte/The Texas Tribune -
Feds say Texas discriminated against communities of color when it denied Houston flood aid
Land Commissioner George P. Bush is in the middle of a fierce runoff in the Republican primary for Texas attorney general against incumbent Ken Paxton. During the race, several of Bush’s opponents have criticized his office’s work in distributing Hurricane Harvey relief funds. Full Story
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![Jeremy Boutor carries personal items from his home on an air mattress in a neighborhood along Eldridge Parkway in Houston on Aug. 30, 2017. The streets were flooded by waters released from the Addicks Reservoir and from Hurricane Harvey.]()
Credit: Michael Stravato for The Texas Tribune -
Harris County election chief resigns as political parties demand answers over fumbled vote count
Republicans are suing and Democrats want a full review after Harris County missed deadlines to have its votes tallied and failed to count 10,000 ballots in its initial returns. Full Story
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![Harris County Elections Administrator Isabel Longoria speaks to media at the Elections Technology Center in Houston on March 1, 2022.]()
Credit: Annie Mulligan for The Texas Tribune -
John Cornyn renews calls for Joe Biden to help Trevor Reed, a Texan detained in Russia for more than two years
Biden is visiting the Fort Worth on Tuesday afternoon. Cornyn said the Reed family, which lives in Granbury, requested a meeting with the president. Full Story
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![U.S. ex-Marine Trevor Reed, who was detained in 2019 and accused of assaulting police officers, stands inside a defendants' cage during a court hearing in Moscow, Russia on March 11, 2020.]()
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Texas lawmakers back U.S. ban on Russian oil imports and call for increased domestic production
Texas Republicans spent much of Monday demanding nearly unfettered drilling and pipeline usage across North America — policies Biden officials refused to endorse. Full Story
Credit: Michael Gonzalez/The Texas Tribune -
Oil tycoon Kelcy Warren sues Beto O’Rourke alleging defamation over power grid criticism
Kelcy Warren, the Dallas pipeline tycoon and top donor to Gov. Greg Abbott, is suing O’Rourke over his criticism of the windfall profits that Warren’s company made after the 2021 winter storm. Full Story
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Analysis: The Fred Rogers test, for Texas public officials
Texas voters can get some guidance for sorting through the political noise of campaigns from an unlikely source — a comforting tale for children. Full Story
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![Fred Rogers, also known as television icon Mr. Rogers, in the 1980s.]()
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Uncounted mail-in ballots discovered in Harris County add uncertainty to two Democratic races
The 6,000 Democratic primary votes could be enough to impact the results in the races for attorney general and one state House seat. Full Story
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![Ballot bags are lined up over their corresponding voting machine at the Elections Technology Center in Harris County, Houston on election night on March 1, 2022.]()
Credit: Annie Mulligan for The Texas Tribune -
Russia’s arrest of Brittney Griner, WNBA basketball star from Houston, adds to escalating global conflict
The athlete, who is Black and gay, was detained by Putin’s regime, which has stoked nationalism and homophobia and is admired by some in America’s far right. Full Story
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![Brittney Griner, of the United States Women's Basketball team, during the gold-medal match against Japan at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics in Saitama, Japan on Aug. 8, 2021.]()
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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. Full Story
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![People attend the Charro Days Grand International Parade in downtown Brownsville on Feb. 26, 2022. Republicans more than doubled their voter turnout in the Rio Grande Valley, though Democrats still had the higher number.]()
Credit: Michael Gonzalez for The Texas Tribune -
Houston hospital pauses hormone therapy for transgender children as threats of child abuse investigations loom
Citing potential criminal penalties, Texas Children’s Hospital will no longer provide hormone therapy to transgender patients. Full Story
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![People hold signs in front of the Texas Capitol during a protest for transgender kids' rights on Tuesday, Mar. 1, 2022.]()
Credit: Lauren Witte/The Texas Tribune -
Texas far-right conservatives spent millions to oust House GOP leaders, to little avail
In the Texas House, the biggest intraparty attack on Republican leadership came from the Defend Texas Liberty PAC, led by former state Rep. Jonathan Stickland, R-Bedford. Backed by hard-right donors like Tim Dunn and Farris Wilks, West Texas oil tycoons, the group spent at least $5.2 million from January onward. Full Story
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![Supporters cheer as Gov. Abbott gives a speech at his watch party in Corpus on March 1, 2022.]()
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As Texas targets trans kids, their families scramble to find lawyers
Ever since Gov. Greg Abbott directed the state’s child welfare agency to investigate parents who provide gender-affirming care to their children, LGBTQ-affirming family lawyers statewide have been deluged with calls. Full Story
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![Atlas, left, and Sam, right, chant in front of the Texas Capitol during a protest for transgender kids' rights on Tuesday, March 1, 2022. Sam said he came "so kids like me don't have to go through the hard strifes of CPS or healthcare procedures to feel like themselves."]()
Credit: Lauren Witte/The Texas Tribune -
Greg Casar, Jessica Cisneros and Jasmine Crockett, young progressive candidates for Congress, want to push Texas leftward
Redistricting has empowered activists of both parties to push platforms further right or left. Progressives view three key Democrats’ advancements in the Texas primary election as a potential turning point for their movement. Full Story
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![Democratic Congressional Candidate Greg Casar speaks to the crowd at his election night watch party in East Austin on March 1, 2022.]()
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Analysis: Texas’ GOP runoffs hinge on a name that’s not on the ballot
Ken Paxton and George P. Bush are in a May runoff for attorney general — the top race on that GOP ballot. But a name that’s not on the ballot might be the biggest name in that race. Full Story
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![State Attorney General Ken Paxton speaks at his primary election results watch party in McKinney on March 1, 2022.]()
Credit: Shelby Tauber for The Texas Tribune
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