In the shadow of the COVID-19 pandemic, Texas Republicans have quietly halted plans to hold a series of public input hearings across more than 20 cities, slated to occur earlier this year, to collect public testimonials from Texans about redistricting. These...
Chris covers Texas politics and government. He is a Policy Advisor for Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo and a graduate student at Harvard University. Previously, Chris served as Texas State Director and National Barnstorm Director for Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign, and as a Political Advisor for Beto O’Rourke. Born in Houston, Texas to immigrants from Hong Kong and Mexico, he is committed to building political power for working people and communities of color. Chris is a Fulbright Scholar and a graduate of Rice University.
Immigrant leaders living in sanctuary secure major win — and hope — in the national Democratic party platform
Hilda Ramirez and her son, Ivan, with organizers and supporters at a socially-distanced celebration behind a sanctuary church in Austin. Immigrant leaders who have been locked in sanctuary — refuge like churches and schools where federal immigration enforcement...
Progressive reformers won big in Travis County. What’s next for the criminal justice system?
“On day one, we’re going to end the prosecution of low-level drug offenses in Travis County,” said José Garza, the Democratic nominee for Travis County District Attorney (DA), at a virtual briefing with The Appeal and NowThis News. In committing to end the prosecution...
The most important elections you’ve never heard of: Texas Supreme Court and Court of Criminal Appeals
Texas is one of just a handful of states in the country with partisan elections for its judges at all levels of the court, from the state’s district trial courts, to its intermediate appeals courts, to its highest appellate courts. In most states, the state’s Supreme...
Activists in the Rio Grande Valley, hardest hit area in Texas, start mutual aid effort for Hurricane Hanna relief
Volunteer organizers and community members from the Rio Grande Valley have stepped up to fill in for state inaction by creating a mutual aid collective to provide financial assistance to offset damage from Hurricane Hanna. They are doing so in the face of surging...
Beto O’Rourke and Texas Democrats unite for largest Black voter outreach effort in state history
Beto O’Rourke and Texas Democrats are joining forces to reach every single one of Texas’ 1.5 million Black voters by mid-August. The announcement comes amidst a transformative political climate steeped in demands for racial justice and calls to end police brutality...
Clayton Tucker’s crusade to bring the populist movement back to Texas
Clayton Tucker starts his days at the farm by feeding his family’s goats. He’ll sometimes need to clear the fields for crops, but after his farmwork, he’ll always start making phone calls to let voters know that he is running to deliver progressive policies to rural...
DNC launches first Texas TV ad, signaling a play for Texas’ 38 electoral votes
Today, the Democratic National Committee launched its first TV ad in Texas. The ad hammers President Donald Trump on his mishandling of the COVID-19 crisis that has led to over 100,000 deaths for older Americans, who are the most vulnerable. Eighty percent of COVID-19...
AOC and Julián Castro join forces to build America’s progressive bench
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and former HUD Secretary Julián Castro, two of the nation’s most prominent Latinos, joined forces on Tuesday night for a virtual grassroots fundraiser. Together, they laid out their plan to work shoulder-to-shoulder in building a national...
The complicity of Sen. John Cornyn and Rep. Michael McCaul in the mass arrests of Black people in Tulia, Texas
On the early morning of July 23, 1999, in Tulia, Texas, nearly 33 percent of the city’s Black male residents were arrested. Tulia, a sleepy town of 5,000 in the Texas panhandle, was shocked awake before dawn when 46 residents were roused without warning and dragged to...