Early voting in person runs from Feb. 17-27. This guide explains your rights at Texas polls.  Voting for the 2026 primaries starts Tuesday. Texas Republican and Democrat voters will pick which candidate they want to represent their interests and their party on the ballot for the November general election.  Before you head to the polls, you should know you have rights as a voter and there are certain rules in place at voting locations about what you can bring and wear. You also need an approved photo ID to vote in person. view article

Texas families will soon be able to access $1 billion in taxpayer dollars through education savings accounts, also known as school vouchers, to pay for private school tuition, tutoring, transportation and several other education-related costs.  Passed during the 89th legislative session, the state is calling the universal program Texas Education Freedom Accounts. Families can start applying Wednesday, Feb. 4.  The application portal closes March 17 with selected families getting funds for the 2026-27 school year. State officials estimate the first year of TEFAs will serve about 100,000 families, with awards averaging about $10,000. view article

The application period will close March 17. If demand exceeds the $1 billion available, the state will prioritize students based on family income and whether they have a disability. view article

    The former Texas governor chairs the Lone Star Freedom Project, a group that has already spent almost $18 million boosting Cornyn against Attorney General Ken Paxton and Rep. Wesley Hunt. view article

Crenshaw, fighting to remain in his Houston-area congressional seat, has drawn criticism from right-wing media and a challenge from Toth, among the most conservative members of the Texas House.    Crenshaw, fighting to remain in his Houston-area congressional seat, has drawn criticism from right-wing media and a challenge from Toth, among the most conservative members of the Texas House. view article

All four candidates are vying to prove they are the heir apparent to Paxton, who has solidified the office as a juggernaut in the conservative legal movement.   At a debate that hit all the major GOP talking points, the four Republicans vying to be Texas’ next attorney general sought to differentiate themselves and their vision for running one of the state’s most powerful offices.    All four candidates are conservative, with little ideological daylight between each other and current Attorney General Ken Paxton. At the debate, they echoed calls to use the agency to go after the “Islamification” of Texas, wrest immigration enforcement authority from the federal government and stop the flow of abortion pills into the state.    As the apparent frontrunner, U.S. Rep. Chip Roy took the most arrows, as the other three candidates hope to keep him below 50% of the vote to force a runoff. Roy, a fourth-term congressman from Austin, previously served as chief of staff for Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and the top deputy to Paxton when he was first elected attorney general.    view article

Mark Zuckerberg is set to take the stand Wednesday to testify for the first time before a jury about claims that his social media platforms harmed children and teens.   Zuckerberg’s witness testimony in a landmark social media addiction trial will give the Meta chief executive a chance to defend the efforts the company says it has taken to protect young users.   Parents who say their children were harmed or died as a result of social media are traveling from around the country to attend. They say the hearing marks a crucial moment of accountability for Meta following years of concerns about youth safety on its platforms Facebook and Instagram.   Meta, as well as YouTube, are accused of intentionally designing addictive features that hooked a now-20-year-old woman as a child and harmed her mental health. The lawsuit brought by the young woman, identified by her lawyer as “Kaley,” and her mother is the first of more than 1,500 similar lawsuits to go to trial. view article

AUSTIN, Texas - Governor Greg Abbott celebrated a historic response to the Texas Education Freedom Account (TEFA) program on Monday, as more than 100,000 Texas families submitted applications in less than two weeks.   The program, the largest school choice initiative launch in U.S. history, allows eligible students to direct funding to preapproved educational providers of their choice.  Texas families can now apply for private school vouchers. Here’s what to know.  The TEFA program, overseen by Acting Comptroller Kelly Hancock and the Texas Comptroller’s office, lets parents use funds to choose the schools that best meet their children’s needs, covering expenses like tuition, transportation, and other educational costs. view article

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Commissioners voted down the proposal after a public letter from state lawmakers. view article

Huffman is running on her criminal prosecution experience and allegiance to the rule of law, cutting a contrast with her opponents who are emphasizing a continuation of Paxton’s culture war battles. view article

Polling also shows Ken Paxton leading the U.S. Senate race and Railroad Commissioner Jim Wright heading to a runoff. view article

Ten Republicans, including Trump-endorsed attorney Chris Gober, are competing for the red-leaning 10th Congressional District in Central Texas.  In the race to replace Rep. Michael McCaul in Congress, Republicans in Texas and Washington are consolidating behind prominent GOP attorney Chris Gober, who served as chief lawyer of Elon Musk’s super PAC and has raised more than $1 million for his campaign  McCaul, an Austin Republican who has represented Central Texas’ 10th Congressional District for more than two decades, announced in September he wouldn’t seek reelection. Gober is one of 10 Republicans competing to succeed him in the red-leaning district, which covers all or parts of 13 counties spanning from Austin to East Texas.   While the district added more residents of liberal Travis County under Republicans’ redrawn congressional map, it also now stretches farther into bright-red East Texas. Nearly one-third of the seat’s population remains situated in Brazos County, home to Texas A&M University and College Station. The district would have given Donald Trump about 60% of the vote had it existed during the 2024 presidential election. view article

U.S. Rep. Chip Roy of Texas warned that the Sharia system of law derived from Islam is everything that the U.S. has fought against for over 250 years.   During a Tuesday hearing before the U.S. House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution and Limited Government, Roy emphasized Sharia’s incompatibility with state and federal laws.   “Sharia encourages violence, silences dissent, rejects religious freedom, and subjugates women and children,” said Roy. “Let’s be clear, this is not about having the freedom of worshiping a religion of one’s choosing, such as Islam, but forcing a foreign legal code that is incompatible with our laws and legal system that provides unwanted consequences to the American people.”   Roy discussed the growing population of Muslims in the U.S., specifically highlighting the growth seen in Texas and proposed Islamic enclaves like The Meadow, formerly called EPIC City. view article

Abraham George says the issue of redrawing the Texas legislative maps is being discussed ahead of the next legislative session.  Republican Party of Texas Chairman Abraham George says Republican lawmakers should seriously consider another round of redistricting for the Texas House and Senate, arguing the party has an opportunity to further solidify its gains heading into the next election cycle.“That should happen. That definitely should happen,” George told Texas Scorecard when asked whether Republicans should pursue additional redistricting beyond congressional maps. “We have an opportunity to do that.” view article

Both John Cornyn and Ken Paxton argue they’re best equipped to carry the torch for Republicans and fight off Democratic headwinds in local races.  When Texas Republicans choose their Senate nominee this spring, they won’t just be picking their preferred next senator — they’ll be the name to lead a ticket that includes GOP candidates up and down the ballot.  Sen. John Cornyn, Attorney General Ken Paxton or Rep. Wesley Hunt’s position atop the ballot will shape who turns out in November, with significant implications for Texas Republicans running for federal, state and local offices. Those candidates will be confronting a fired-up Democratic electorate that helped power the party’s shocking and decisive victory in last month’s state Senate special election in bellwether Tarrant County, along with the challenge of drawing voters to the polls without President Donald Trump’s name on the ballot. view article

The Railroad Commission regulates energy infrastructure across Texas. Here’s a look at who’s running in the 2026 Democratic and Republican primaries and where they stand. view article

In an interview with Texas Scorecard, Abbott discussed the rise of radical Islam, H-1B visas, border security, and rogue prosecutors.  In an interview with Texas Scorecard, Abbott said recent actions by Democrat-run cities and school districts underscore why the state has stepped in to confront groups he has designated as foreign terrorist organizations. view article

It was a few weeks before the 2016 election, and Sid Miller’s political star was on the rise.  At a rally in Michigan, then-first-time presidential candidate Donald Trump interrupted his stump speech to give Texas’s top agriculture official a shout-out.  “Great guy. Big white cowboy hat,” Trump said, noting Miller’s signature accessory and praising him as one of his most vocal and loyal allies in the Lone Star State. view article

To help primary voters differentiate between the two, we asked Jasmine Crockett and James Talarico where they fall on major issues, ranging from international policy to taxes. See where they stand, and how they differ.  In a rare opportunity for Texas Democrats, this year’s primary for U.S. Senate features a highly competitive race between two rising stars with national audiences and strong fundraising abilities.   U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett of Dallas is facing off against her former legislative colleague, state Rep. James Talarico of Austin, to be the party’s 2026 standard-bearer atop the ticket. The view article

The state may soon take greater control in North East Independent School District because of an ongoing disagreement over the district’s cellphone policy. The Texas Education Agency notified NEISD on Tuesday that it could appoint a conservator or board of managers to oversee the district after trustees refused to change a policy that allows student cellphone use during limited periods of the school day. view article

Nearly four months after Texas' ban on cellphone use in schools went into effect, a group of Round Rock ISD students met with the district's leaders to discuss the new law. Despite some concerns, students said that, overall, they felt more engaged, both inside and outside the classroom. view article

If you’ve lived in Deep East Texas for any length of time, you learn to keep one eye on the weather. Around here, we’ve seen just about everything — floods, wildfires, hurricane remnants and the kind of hard freezes that can turn a normal drive into a long day.  With the recent winter storm and freezing conditions we’ve experienced — and with more cold weather still ahead — I want to recognize the tireless efforts of the men and women who work quietly behind the scenes to keep our communities running.  When temperatures drop and conditions get rough, the real difference-makers aren’t sitting behind a desk. They’re out on the roads and in the field: linemen restoring power in freezing conditions, first responders working long shifts, and county commissioners and support staff fielding calls, checking problem areas, coordinating crews, and helping make sure issues get addressed quickly and safely. view article

Soft-on-crime Democrat district attorneys in Dallas and Austin are founding participants in the anti-ICE project.  Two Texas district attorneys notorious for being soft on crime have joined a coalition of “progressive” prosecutors targeting what they call “lawless actions of federal forces in states and cities around the country”—especially the ongoing efforts of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to remove criminals in the U.S. illegally. view article

The program includes “unique undergraduate courses” and a “new study abroad program in Israel.”  The School of Civic Leadership at UT-Austin has introduced a new endeavor to explore “the influence of Jewish ideas and Jewish history on the Western world and the American republic.”  According to a university press release, the Ackerman Program on Jewish and Western Civilization and the Rosenthal-Levy Scholars program will launch in the Fall 2026 semester. view article

The Laredo Independent School District (LISD) has been navigating new library content procedures following the introduction of Senate Bill 13 late last year. The law expands parental rights, giving parents access to library catalogs and control over what their children can access. “It’s also putting the responsibility on the parents. The parents need to know and they have input as to what they feel their child can or cannot read. So what this SB-13 does, it is asking the schools to look carefully,” said Mely Paez, director of library and media services for Laredo ISD. view article

The General Land Office oversees investments that earn billions of dollars for public education, manages state lands, operates the Alamo and distributes benefits to Texas veterans. Here’s a look at who’s running in the 2026 Democratic and Republican primaries and where they stand.  The Texas General Land Office, referred to as the GLO, is the oldest state agency. Established in 1836, the GLO was primarily in charge of collecting and keeping records, providing maps and surveys, issuing titles and managing the settlement of state lands. view article

A Democrat won a state legislative special election in a district that President Trump carried by 17 percentage points, unnerving Republicans in Texas and beyond.  In an upset that rattled Republicans in Texas and beyond, a Democrat decisively won a state legislative special election on Saturday in a district around Fort Worth that President Trump carried by more than 17 percentage points just over a year ago.  The Democrat, Taylor Rehmet, a local union leader and first-time candidate, defeated the Republican, Leigh Wambsganss, by double digits — 57 to 43 — in the historically conservative district. view article

The casino lobby is escalating its spending blitz ahead of the Texas Republican primaries, with mailers landing in districts across the state as gambling interests push to reshape the legislature.  While some contributions have come directly from the Texas Sands PAC—an arm of the Las Vegas Sands foreign casino empire—much of the recent activity has flowed through the Texas Defense PAC, a multimillion-dollar political committee funded almost entirely by Miriam Adelson, the owner of Las Vegas Sands. view article

SAN ANTONIO — Flanked by state and local leaders, U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro, a San Antonio Democrat, and U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett, a Dallas Democrat, on Wednesday called for the immediate release of 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos and his father Adrian Conejo Arias, whose arrests in a Minneapolis suburb last week have become a flashpoint in the furor over the Trump administration’s deportation tactics.  Photographs of federal authorities detaining the Ecuadorian child, who was wearing a Spider-Man backpack and pale blue oversized winter hat, quickly went viral as some Americans saw it emblematic of the government’s severe practices in Minnesota, where immigration agents shot and killed two people this month. Liam and his father were flown to an immigrant detention center about 70 miles south of San Antonio and on Monday a federal judge in Texas temporarily blocked their deportation. view article

Texas’ next top lawyer will inherit an office that has become the tip of the spear of the conservative legal movement. To help primary voters differentiate, we asked the four GOP candidates where they stand on the agency’s major issues. view article

Our detailed guide shows what will be on the ballot, mail-in voting information, voter registration requirements, important dates to know and much more. view article

Not only do Texas school vouchers not cover the amount of tuition at many private schools, those schools don't have to let families with the vouchers in.On Feb. 4, Texas families can begin submitting applications for Texas Education Freedom Accounts, also known as school vouchers. Now legal after several failed attempts, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s signature legislation allows families to use public funds for private schooling.  view article

Texas public schools could soon be required to teach biblical passages in English classes from kindergarten to senior year, according to a draft proposal before the State Board of Education.  The proposal, created by the Texas Education Agency and set to receive a preliminary vote from the state board next week, is part of a novel push to create a common statewide literary canon, with required readings at each grade level, the first of its kind in the United States.  The list’s genres vary, from fairy tales and nursery rhymes for younger students to historical speeches and full novels in high school. Ten excerpts from the Old and New Testaments are dispersed throughout, including “The Shepherd’s Psalm” for seventh graders and the Eight Beatitudes from the book of Matthew in the eighth grade.  view article

The Texas comptroller’s office has released a set of rules to govern the state’s $1 billion education savings account program, or ESAs. Accepted families will receive thousands of dollars in state funds to send their children to a private school or homeschool them.  The overview: Accredited private schools and education vendors can begin applying to join the program as soon as Dec. 9, and applications will open for interested families Feb. 4.  Most families accepted into the program will receive about $10,300 per student, which can be spent on tuition at accredited private prekindergarten or K-12 schools and related expenses. Homeschooled students will receive up to $2,000 per year, while students with disabilities will be eligible for up to $30,000 annually. view article