A growing number of House Republicans have called for Gonzales’ ouster — though he has yet to explicitly lose the support of any members who endorsed him. view article

Magnolia ISD has become one of the first school districts in the Houston area — and only the second known so far in Texas  —  to approve a daily period of prayer under a new state law.  Several other area districts, including Houston, Conroe, Cypress-Fairbanks and Katy ISDs, have declined to establish a new prayer period, citing logistical challenges and that students are already allowed to express their faith under state and federal law. Last year, state lawmakers passed Senate Bill 11, which tasks school boards with voting on whether to establish a district-wide period of prayer and “reading of the Bible or other religious text on each school day” for students and employees. view article

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

Huntington ISD trustees voted Monday to take no action on a Senate Bill 11 resolution that would have created a daily period of prayer and reading of the Bible or other religious texts on each campus, while also approving the 2026-27 school calendar and several state-required policy items. view article

A deluge of spending and attack ads are suddenly raining down on two San Antonio-area state legislative races that previously weren’t getting much attention.  Campaign finance reports covering Jan. 23 through Feb. 21 were due Monday, detailing money raised and spent by campaigns and outside groups in the month leading up to early voting.  They showed state and national PACs pouring money into a GOP primary on the South Side, where Republicans are choosing between a school voucher architect and a trial lawyer as their nominee to replace state Rep. John Lujan (R-San Antonio). view article

EASTLAND, Texas — On Monday, a group of four people spent more than an hour at a table inside a Realtor’s office, hand-counting the results of two races on 100 sample ballots. It was only a week before Tuesday’s primary election, and for this small group, it was their first time practicing to tally votes by hand.  They counted in batches of 25 and used different colored markers to keep track of where one counted batch ended and a new one began. They also used laminated tally sheets, which allowed them to erase and remark them if they made any errors. The group twice marked a vote for the wrong candidate, an error that meant they had to go back and start over and correct their laminated sheets. view article

The Texas Democratic primary race for U.S. Senate between Jasmine Crockett and James Talarico has been heavily shaped by social media influencers. Online creators on platforms like TikTok, X, and SubStack are driving viral moments and amplifying allegations against both candidates. The conversations are being framed as a broader debate over identity, electability, and the future of the Democratic party in Texas. Kayla Guo, reporter for The Texas Tribune, discusses the rising influence of these social media pundits and the changing landscape of political discourse. view article

AUSTIN (KXAN) — Last spring, the Texas Legislature passed a bill that allows school districts to add a period dedicated to prayer and reading the Bible or other religious texts in public schools. Now, school districts are nearly at the end of their deadline to vote on whether or not they’ll do so.  While Senate Bill 11 doesn’t require prayer in all public schools, it allows school districts to “adopt a policy requiring every campus of the district or school to provide students and employees with an opportunity to participate in a period of prayer and reading of the Bible or other religious text on each school day.” view article

The Texas constitution generally prevents lawmakers from holding other paid public offices.  The Texas Attorney General’s Office is investigating State Rep. Stan Kitzman over questions surrounding his paid work for a local governmental entity while serving in the Legislature.  The inquiry follows a report by Texans for Fiscal Responsibility, which raised concerns about Kitzman’s role with the Brookshire-Katy Drainage District.  According to documents highlighted in that report, Kitzman—through a private firm—has been performing administrative and management services for the district under an agreement reportedly worth more than $11,000 per month. The responsibilities listed in the contract include overseeing district operations, supervising employees, preparing budgets, and recommending tax rates.  view article

Candidates Middleton and Reitz differentiate themselves in the field of four.    Republican candidates for Texas attorney general were asked in a recent debate whether the state GOP should be allowed to close its primaries to all but affiliated Republicans and what role the attorney general should play in the process.     U.S. Rep. Chip Roy gave the briefest remarks of the bunch, saying that the primaries should be closed and that the attorney general should enforce the law. view article

A federal judge temporarily banned Houston Independent School District (HISD), Katy Independent School District (Katy ISD), and Plano Independent School District (PISD) from enforcing sections 3,7,24, and 27 of Senate Bill 12 (SB 12). view article

More than 100,000 families have applied for the Texas private school voucher program as of this week, meaning the state will officially use a lottery process to determine which are first in line.  Republicans say hitting the milestone just two weeks after the application portal opened is a sign that their signature education policy, which sends state dollars to families for private tuition, books, therapy and more, is popular with the public   t also means the applicant pool likely exceeds the program’s available funding, set at $1 billion for the first year. The Texas comptroller’s office will need to run a complex lottery system to determine which applicants' families will ultimately receive the limited state dollars, and which families go on a waitlist.  view article

Republican U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales of San Antonio on Thursday claimed he was being blackmailed by the husband of a former staffer who died by suicide. Earlier this week, the San Antonio Express-News reported that the staffer had confided in a colleague that she had an affair with the congressman while they were both married.  “I WILL NOT BE BLACKMAILED. Disgusting to see people profit politically and financially off a tragic death,” Gonzales wrote in a social media post on X. He shared a screenshot of half of an email, which seems to indicate a lawyer for the staffer’s husband is requesting a settlement of up to $300,000 from Gonzales in exchange for a non-disclosure agreement.   The email, which is not dated or timestamped, is signed by Robert Barrera, an attorney who is representing the staffer’s husband. view article

Katy ISD trustees indicated Monday that they plan to reject a state-authorized daily school prayer policy, saying the district already protects religious expression and does not want to impose restrictions that could limit when or how students pray.  PROPERTY TAXES: A homeowner’s guide to 2026 deadlines in Harris, Fort Bend and Montgomery counties  The board introduced a resolution affirming students’ right to voluntary, student-initiated religious expression while declining to create a district-run daily period for prayer allowed under Senate Bill 11. Trustees are expected to take a vote next wee  k ahead of the March 1 state deadline. view article

Trustees from a handful of Tarrant County districts recently voted not to create a daily period for voluntary prayer in public school classrooms stressing that students already have religious rights.  Lake Worth, Hurst-Euless-Bedford, Eagle Mountain-Saginaw, Mansfield and Castleberry join a growing list of Texas districts declining the option in a vote a new state law requires of every Texas public school board by March 1. So far two area districts — Keller and Aledo — adopted the prayer period. view article

San Angelo ISD trustees unanimously voted against adopting a resolution that would have required every campus to provide a daily period for prayer and reading of the Bible or other religious text during the board’s regular meeting Monday. The meeting was held the evening of Feb. 16 at the SAISD Administration Building. Trustees took up an agenda item calling for a record vote on whether to adopt a statutory resolution outlined in Senate Bill 11 (SB11) from the 89th Texas Legislature. 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