Analysis: The 2025 Texas House, from right to left
Here’s a look at House members, ranked from most conservative to most liberal, based on votes cast during the 2025 regular session. Full Story
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![The Texas House on May 23, 2025.]()
Credit: Bob Daemmrich for The Texas Tribune -
Some Texans fear a looming THC ban could return them to opioids, illegal options
Texas hemp users stockpile products and consider moving out of state as ban looms, saying the medical marijuana program is currently an untenable alternative. Full Story
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![Wesley Barnes, 55, stands for a portrait at his home in Onalaska, Texas on Sunday, June 15, 2025. Barnes, a Gulf War veteran who has long struggled with pain, tried legal opiates and illegal THC over the years before finding affordable and effective relief in legal hemp flower beginning in 2018.]()
Credit: Ishika Samant for The Texas Tribune -
With only 8% built, Texas quietly defunds state border wall program
Texas officials suggested the federal government could pick up construction. However, during President Trump’s first term, his administration built about one-third of what the state was able to put up in the same amount of time. Full Story
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![A section of state-built border wall under construction near the banks of the Rio Grande south of Laredo in Zapata Co. on Sept. 23, 2024.]()
Credit: Ben Lowy for The Texas Tribune -
South Padre Island officials worried about FEMA’s potential disaster spending cuts
The Trump administration is proposing limits to the recreational facilities — including beaches — that are eligible for federal assistance. Full Story
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![The beach in the Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge on South Padre Island.]()
Credit: Eddie Seal for The Texas Tribune -
Here are some of the Texas Democrats eyeing statewide runs in 2026
Democrats will need to sort through a pileup of potential candidates who see an opportunity to harness backlash to the Trump administration in next year’s midterms. Full Story
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![Beto O’Rourke speaks at the Texas Democratic Convention Reception Kick-Off in El Paso, Texas on June 6, 2024.]()
Credit: Justin Hamel for The Texas Tribune -
After El Paso joined Abbott’s border crackdown, migrant deaths have surged in the New Mexico desert
Since El Paso joined Operation Lone Star in 2022, migrant remains discovered in the desert west of the city have increased every year, even as they have declined in every other border sector. Full Story
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![Doña Ana County Sheriff Deputy N. Al-Abayad, left, and Detective Alan Barbosa transport a body bag containing the bones of a migrant, first found by volunteers with Battalion Search and Rescue, on May 3, 2025. The discovery of migrant bodies in the desert has spiked since El Paso joined Texas’ Operation Lone Star.]()
Credit: Justin Hamel for The Texas Tribune -
Texas lawmakers laid the foundation for a housing boom. Here’s how.
The Legislature passed laws allowing smaller homes on smaller lots and making it harder for neighbors to block new housing. Full Story
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![Houses in a North Austin neighborhood on Oct. 9, 2020.]()
Credit: Amna Ijaz/The Texas Tribune -
Photos: “No Kings” protests across Texas
Eight Tribune photographers in eight Texas cities covered Saturday’s “No Kings” protests. Here is some of their work. Full Story
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![A protester hold the Texas Flag in the air after the No Kings protest on Saturday, June 14, 2025 in Austin, Texas.]()
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As Trump celebrates military, Texans protest president’s aggressive immigration enforcement
Demonstrations in McAllen, Midland, Odessa, Austin and elsewhere in Texas were largely peaceful, as some protests went well into the night. Full Story
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![Beth Vaughan, at center, chants as protestors march up Walker Street during a No Kings protest at City Hall, Saturday, June 14, 2025, in Houston.]()
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Texas DPS makes arrest after warning state lawmakers of “credible threats” tied to Capitol protest
The agency said there was no additional active threat, as Austin demonstrators took aim at the Trump administration. Full Story
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![Texas Department of Public Safety vehicles outside of the state Capitol on Aug. 11, 2021.]()
Credit: Miguel Gutierrez Jr./The Texas Tribune -
Top Texas donor slams Speaker Burrows, House members after legislative setbacks
Texans for Lawsuit Reform is threatening to primary House members who helped kill their major legislative priorities. Full Story
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![After coming up empty in the Texas Legislature this year, the state's biggest political donor, Texans for Lawsuit Reform, put out a blistering statement blaming House members for stifling its agenda. The letter blamed a slew of House members, including Houston Speaker Dustin Burrows, top, and freshman Rep. Mitch Little.]()
Credit: Susan Barber, Houston Chronicle -
See how your representatives in the Texas Legislature voted on this year’s major bills
Our interactive tool allows you to search how state lawmakers voted on the most consequential proposals debated during the session, which ended June 2. Full Story
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![Six boxes with lines and rectangles representing bills and votes for the session on a gray background. There's a large address bar with a pointer in the middle.]()
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Texas clarified when abortions are OK and aligned with RFK Jr. on health this legislative session
Amid a quiet legislative session for health, lawmakers’ priority legislation reinforced the U.S. health secretary’s agenda. Full Story
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![An entire floor of the Texas Department of State Health Services Labortory building in Austin, Texas is dedicated to newborn screening. May 1, 2025.]()
Credit: Ilana Panich-Linsman for The Texas Tribune -
U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales draws GOP primary challenge from Cotulla rancher Susan Storey Rubio
In a launch video, Storey Rubio attacked Gonzales’ border security record and said it’s “time to round up the career politicians and deport them out of Washington.” Full Story
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![Susan Storey Rubio is running in the Republican primary against U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-San Antonio.]()
Credit: Courtesy of Susan Storey Rubio -
Texas public health departments brace for another $119 million in federal cuts
Three months ago, Texas lost $700 million in unspent federal pandemic-era funding. Full Story
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![Mosquitoes are studied and tested for West Nile Virus, among other diseases, at the Texas Department of State Health Services Labortory, on May 1, 2025.]()
Credit: Ilana Panich-Linsman for The Texas Tribune -
A $20 billion effort to avoid calamity: Here’s what Texas lawmakers did to save the state’s water supply
Among other changes is a new law that says homeowner associations can no longer fine Texans for not watering their grass during a drought. Full Story
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![The secondary clarifier at the Bustamante Waste Water Treatment Plant expansion in El Paso, Texas on March 5, 2025.]()
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Aaron Reitz, former top DOJ official and Paxton aide, launches bid for Texas attorney general
Reitz, formerly a key cog in Texas’ conservative legal pipeline, once said the AG’s office is at war with “the forces that want to destroy the American order.” Full Story
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![Then-Texas Deputy Attorney General of Legal Strategy Aaron Reitz speaks during a press conference in the William Clements Building in Austin on June 9, 2022.]()
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Trans Texans brace for life under strict sex definition law
Texas has strictly defined man and woman, leaving trans Texans in legal limbo. Full Story
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![Leo Tyler Castillo-Anguiano poses for a portrait underneath an overpass in downtown San Antonio on May 26, 2025. Behind him is artwork of a woman holding a transgender symbol like a rosary, connecting the city’s predominant Catholic faith with a message of alliance with the transgender community.]()
Credit: Lorianne Willett/The Texas Tribune -
Texas parents and teachers worry bills to root out liberal sway from public schools pave the way for conservative bias
Advocates say the bills will give parents more power over their children’s schools. Critics say they don’t give parents anything they didn’t already have and will only strain their relationship with teachers. Full Story
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![Rachel Preston, a French teacher, at the state Capitol on Friday, May 23, 2025.]()
Credit: Julia Zeddies for The Texas Tribune -
Gov. Greg Abbott to deploy 5,000 Texas National Guard to sites of planned immigration protests
Demonstrations against immigration raids began in Los Angeles last week and have spread across the country, including to Texas. More are planned this weekend. Full Story
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![Gov. Greg Abbott speaks to law enforcement officials during a Southern Border Coalition event in Austin on April 29, 2025.]()
Credit: Kaylee Greenlee for The Texas Tribune