State Representative Gina Hinojosa says she’ll put a stop to state takeovers of local school districts if she’s elected governor of Texas.  The Austin Democrat held a press conference on Monday at a closed elementary school in downtown Austin. Hinojosa is challenging Republican Governor Greg Abbott in November, and she’s making public education a focus of her campaign.  On Monday, she called for the removal of Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath, head of the Texas Education Agency.State Representative Gina Hinojosa says she’ll put a stop to state takeovers of local school districts if she’s elected governor of Texas.  The Austin Democrat held a press conference on Monday at a closed elementary school in downtown Austin. Hinojosa is challenging Republican Governor Greg Abbott in November, and she’s making public education a focus of her campaign.  On Monday, she called for the removal of Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath, head of the Texas Education Agency. view article

Committee members examined allegations that cities have failed to update local ordinances while discussing potential "Death Star 2.0" reforms ahead of the next legislative session.   Texas lawmakers are examining whether local governments are complying with a state law designed to prevent cities and counties from regulating in areas already governed by state law—and whether stronger enforcement tools are needed to ensure compliance    The Texas House Select Committee on Governmental Oversight held its first hearing Thursday to review implementation of the Texas Regulatory Consistency Act, a 2023 law that limits local regulations in broad areas of state law. Supporters say the measure helps businesses by ensuring consistent rules across Texas, while opponents argue it restricts local control. view article

The Republican said he agreed to speak at the event prior to Clayton Tucker’s involvement because it was “the right thing to do.” Both are critics of data center construction in Texas.  At least 248 data centers are currently planned to be built in Texas, almost half of which are set to be built in unincorporated areas, a Texas Tribune analysis found. The state currently has 335 existing data centers. view article

The spot will stream throughout the Spurs-Knicks series on ESPN+, depicting Gov. Greg Abbott as a basketball-playing string puppet committing “turnover after turnover of our money to his donors.” view article

Republicans are grappling with a stunning Democratic upset: a swing of 30+ points away from the G.O.P. in a deeply conservative part of the state. While the race was local, political operatives are already gaming out the impact on the midterms, how it could scramble the fundraising race, and what it portends for the Hispanic vote in the age of ICE. view article

The former state senator will leave office July 17 after overseeing seven statewide elections and a high-profile legal fight over Texas' primary system.  Texas Secretary of State Jane Nelson announced Tuesday that she will step down from the position on July 17, ending a three-and-a-half-year tenure leading the state’s elections and business filings agency.  “It has been an honor to serve the people of Texas in this role,” Nelson said in a statement. “My time as Secretary came at an important moment for Texas, and I am proud of what we have been able to accomplish as an agency in under four years.”  Gov. Greg Abbott praised Nelson’s service, calling her “a true champion for the people of Texas and an extraordinary Secretary of State.”  “I am deeply grateful for her long and loyal service and outstanding leadership,” Abbott said. “She has represented our state with grace and honor across the globe, and Texas is better because of it.” view article

Adrian Reyna’s childhood is marked by memories of running around the halls of Brewer Elementary School where his mother was principal during the 1990s. Decades later, Brewer Elementary is now called Brewer Academy and sits closed on the West Side of San Antonio, and Reyna is a master teacher at San Antonio Independent School District, working in a grant-funded position meant to strengthen teaching pipelines.   As of Tuesday night, however, Reyna appears to be on his way to a seat in the State House of Representatives to represent Texas House District 125, a district his father Arthur “Art” Reyna represented from 1997-2001.  view article

Reaffirming a statewide tuition freeze first announced in 2024, Abbott told higher education leaders they may not raise undergraduate tuition or fees. view article

The proclamation will order state lawmakers to convene in Tallahassee starting June 1.  Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on May 27 called for a special legislative session to pass his plan to exempt homeowners from paying property taxes on their permanent residence.  The Republican governor revealed his plans to sign a proclamation that would require state lawmakers to convene in Tallahassee and discuss his “Save Our Homes” proposal starting on June 1.  “Taxing something that you own repeatedly, which is a property tax, is the worst way to do taxation,” DeSantis said in a news conference on May 27. view article

Thomas Smith has won the Republican nomination for Court of Criminal Appeals Place 3 after defeating Alison Fox in Tuesday’s Primary runoff election. The CCA is Texas’ highest criminal appellate court.  The May 26 runoff followed the March 3 Primary in which none of the candidates secured more than 50 percent of the vote. Fox received 31.3 percent while Smith took 30.7 percent, forcing the two top vote-getters into Tuesday’s runoff.  Incumbent Judge Bert Richardson chose not to seek reelection to the statewide court, leaving the seat open. Richardson—who was first elected to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals in 2014 and reelected in 2020—is instead running for Chief Justice of the Fourth Court of Appeals in San Antonio. view article

Incumbent Jim Wright loses after serving one term.   A majority of Republican Primary runoff voters chose Bo French over Jim Wright as the party’s nominee for the Texas Railroad Commission.  Both men were the top vote-getters in the March Primary, but Wright underperformed with just 32.1 percent of the vote. French won 31.8 percent. With neither scoring a majority in the five-way race, both were thrust into the May 26 runoff   Established in 1891, state law transitioned the Railroad Commission of Texas into a state agency with oil and gas oversight in 1917, with the last of its railroad oversight transferred to the Texas Department of Transportation in 2005. Currently, the Railroad Commission has primary regulatory jurisdiction and enforcement over the oil and natural gas industry and is responsible for both state and federal compliance. view article

Republicans Tom Sell and Jon Bonck won their primary runoffs Tuesday for a pair of open congressional seats in Texas’ South Plains and the Houston area, respectively, making them the heavy favorites to join the U.S. House next year representing the deep red districts.  Republican voters in Texas’ 19th Congressional District, which represents a wedge of West Texas from Lubbock to Abilene, elected Sell as the Republican nominee. Sell, a businessman with deep familial ties to Lubbock, was endorsed by several U.S. House GOP leaders, including House Majority Leader Steve Scalise and House Majority Whip Tom Emmer. view article

The Austin lawmaker now faces an uphill battle against Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, the state’s second-highest executive, in November. view article

Middleton, a conservative state senator and oil and gas executive, put more than $16 million of his own money into the race. view article

The Ysleta Independent School District is in danger of wiping out its savings without significant changes as part of the 2026-27 budget, the district’s internal auditor and chief financial officer warned the school board Wednesday night.  “If we don’t change our expenditures, then we are going to end up consuming all of our fund balance” at the end of the next school year, CFO Lynly Cambern told the Ysleta school board.  Ysleta ISD is the second major El Paso district in as many days to warn of looming financial catastrophe, following El Paso ISD’s announcement Tuesday that it was facing a $52.7 million deficit this year and a $42 million deficit next year unless major changes are made. view article

John Cornyn is trying to fend off Ken Paxton. Both parties are picking attorney general nominees. And an oil and gas regulatory race has become uncharacteristically costly.  Nearly 14 months and $135 million later, Texas’ blockbuster Republican Senate primary will finally be decided Tuesday.  It’s a battle that nominally began last April, but whose contours were set long before — in 2023, when Cornyn cast doubt on President Donald Trump’s electability and Paxton faced an impeachment from members of his own party; in 2022, when Cornyn negotiated a bipartisan gun safety bill and Paxton was one of just two elected officials to show up at Trump’s presidential campaign launch; or perhaps in 2020, when the attorney general led the legal charge to overturn Trump’s presidential election loss. view article

Texas House District 41 was opened by the retirement of Rep. Bobby Guerra, a Democrat. Donald Trump carried the district with 50.3% of the vote in 2024.  Voters in the Rio Grande Valley on Tuesday will decide a pair of spicy runoffs for Texas House District 41 in the heart of President Donald Trump’s massive gains in the region in 2024.  Republicans are eyeing a seat opened by the retirement of Rep. Bobby Guerra, a Democrat from Mission who represented the area since 2013, after the president carried the district last cycle with 50.3% of the vote — a 7-point swing to the right from his 2020 performance.  Similar lurches toward Republicans played out across the Texas-Mexico border, where the Texas GOP’s yearslong efforts to make inroads with Latino voters helped Trump claim 14 of the 18 counties within 20 miles of the border, including some that had not voted for a Republican presidential candidate in more than a century. view article

Middleton helped fund the Legislature’s swing to the right, and an internecine challenge to Ken Paxton. But that’s nothing next to the money he’s spent on himself.  WASHINGTON — When Michael Burgess first ran for Congress in 2002, his name was sandwiched between two now-familiar politicians on the Republican ballot.  Above him was John Cornyn, making his first bid for U.S. Senate. Further down was Ken Paxton, a then first-time candidate running for the state House in Collin County.  All three won those initial races in a landmark year for the Texas GOP, when the party established the trifecta control of Austin it’s maintained ever since. Twenty-four years later, Cornyn and Paxton are on a collision course, battling in an ugly runoff to be the Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate seat Cornyn has occupied for over two decades.  Burgess, a Lewisville Republican and affable policy wonk, retired at the end of 2024. Having observed both for decades, he’s backing Cornyn. view article

Some party leaders are also also alleging GOP interference on behalf of Galindo, who said she would “turn Karnes ICE Detention Center into a prison for American Zionists” if elected.  Democratic leaders are condemning Texas congressional candidate Maureen Galindo over her latest round of antisemitic comments.  Galindo finished first in the Democratic primary for Texas’ 35th Congressional District and is in a runoff election against Bexar County Sheriff’s Deputy Johnny Garcia. Democratic leaders in Washington and Texas have backed Garcia amidst a mysterious six-figure advertising campaign to boost Galindo, a sex therapist and housing advocate.  Last weekend, Galindo said in an Instagram post that she intends to write legislation to “turn Karnes ICE Detention Center into a prison for American Zionists and former ICE officers for human trafficking.” view article

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The Wylie ISD Republican Student Club founder testified before Congress on the infiltration of Sharia into Texas schools. view article

Republicans and Democrats are picking party nominees in a slate of other races, from attorney general to congressional seats that could help determine partisan control in Washington. If no single candidate won at least 50% of the vote in the March 3 primary, the top two finishers head to a runoff.  view article

Campaigns are racing to turn out small slice of voters expected to decide contests for the U.S. Senate, House and statewide offices. view article

Six of Texas’ largest cities lost residents in 2025: Dallas, El Paso, Arlington, Plano, Irving and Garland.  Fewer people are moving to Texas cities amid the country’s broader immigration slowdown, but the state remains home to some of the fastest growing cities in the country, new U.S. Census Bureau data show.  Celina, a city about an hour north from downtown Dallas, was the fastest growing city in the country last year, according to census data released Thursday. The city grew by 24.6%, adding more than 12,710 residents between July 2024 and July 2025.  Eight of the 15 fastest-growing cities in the U.S. are in Texas — primarily suburbs in the Dallas-Fort Worth region, the state’s largest urban area. Meanwhile, some of the state’s biggest cities like Houston, San Antonio and Fort Worth are still adding tens of thousands of residents — despite a slowdown in international migration to the United States and lower birth rates. view article

Julie Johnson labels her opponent a “flip-flopper.” Colin Allred said previous votes reflected Rio Grande Valley frustration with Biden-era border policies. view article

Data center construction is unpopular among locals, and a majority of the facilities are being proposed in red, rural counties. That puts Texas Republicans in a tough spot, as the White House has encouraged states to let the centers flourish. view article

Texas can enforce the state's law requiring Ten Commandments posters in public schools. Here's what to know about the latest legal challenges.  Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton launched an investigation into whether public schools are displaying posters of the Ten Commandments, following a recent federal court ruling that the state can enforce a law requiring them to do so.  More than two dozen Texas school districts must provide documentation to Paxton’s office “regarding the display or lack thereof of the Ten Commandments and their policies,” Paxton said in a statement Thursday.   The districts must also show that their school boards voted on whether view article

Last year’s redistricting upended the makeup of Texas’ 35th Congressional District, prompting the Democratic incumbent, Rep. Greg Casar, to run for a different seat. The open race for the new TX-35 spurred competitive primaries on both sides, with two Democrats and two Republicans advancing to runoffs in their respective races after no one received 50% of the vote in either March primary.  view article

The president says he likes both Cornyn and Paxton as early voting nears in a closely watched GOP runoff.  The day after John Cornyn and Ken Paxton were forced into a runoff for U.S. Senate, President Donald Trump indicated he planned to endorse in the race.  Now, with early voting less than two weeks away, Trump says that endorsement decision could come “relatively soon.”  Asked Thursday whether he still planned to endorse in the runoff between John Cornyn and Ken Paxton, Trump replied, “I’ll make a decision.”  When asked when that decision could come, Trump answered: “Maybe relatively soon. I like them both actually.” view article

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is investigating Fort Worth ISD and dozens of other school districts over whether they are complying with new state laws requiring Ten Commandments displays and board votes on prayer time in schools. Paxton announced the statewide probe Thursday, weeks ahead of a May 26 runoff election where the attorney general is challenging U.S. Sen. John Cornyn for his seat. Paxton directed districts to send documents related to two religion-related laws passed by Texas lawmakers in 2025.  “I will always fight for students’ fundamental right to pray in our schools and work to ensure that Texas kids are able to learn from the Ten Commandments daily,” Paxton said in a news release.  One law requires public schools to display donated copies of the Ten Commandments that meet certain specifications. Another requires school boards to take a record vote on whether to adopt a policy allowing designated time for voluntary prayer and reading of the Bible or other religious texts. view article

Texas is growing older faster than the rest of the nation. While the number of young people in the U.S. has shrunk, the population of children in Texas has grown.  The population of Texans age 65 and older grew faster than any other age group since the start of the decade, growing by 3.8% from 2023 to 2024, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. They grew faster than working-age adults and children under the age of 18.  Their numbers show that people are living longer than in past generations. And, as they age, they'll increasingly rely on those of working age, a population that isn’t growing as quickly, said Holly Heard, vice president of data and analytics at Texas 2036.  In Texas, which has the highest levels of people without health insurance, elder Texans will likely face more ailments as they age.   view article

The state House Public Education Committee on Tuesday considered more than 30 bills aimed at making Texas public schools safer, including measures that would put more armed personnel on campuses and give districts money for sweeping security changes. The Legislature has made improving school safety a priority this session after 10 people, mostly students, were shot and killed at Santa Fe High School 10 months ago. The shooting spurred roundtable discussions and studies among policymakers, lawmakers and Gov. Greg Abbott in the immediate aftermath. “Out of that loss, we have an opportunity to devote ourselves and commit ourselves to seeing that their loss was not in vain and that future students, future teachers, future families in this state will, if at all possible, not have to experience what these individuals experienced,” said Rep. Greg Bonnen, R-Friendswood, during Tuesday’s hearing. view article

Property tax reform has been a top priority for Texas lawmakers from the start of the 86th legislative session. The early filing of identical, wide-reaching bills in the House and Senate in January—Senate Bill 2 and House Bill 2—sparked debate on the topic and earned pushback from many local entities that could be affected by the proposals. The twin bills propose to lower the cap for local entities’ annual tax revenue growth from 8 percent to 2.5 percent and to improve efficiency and transparency in the tax system. The proposals were fast-tracked for debate in both chambers after Gov. Greg Abbott declared property tax an emergency item in February, and dozens of related bills have been filed in their wake. view article

Hillary Clinton and Helen Keller are back on the lesson plan after a vote by the Texas State Board of Education. The committee voted 12-2, with one abstention, on Tuesday to continue teaching students about Clinton in high school history classes, according to State Board of Education Director Debbie Ratcliffe. The board also voted to keep Keller on the curriculum. The vote reverses a September preliminary decision to cut the women, along with 1964 Republican presidential nominee Barry Goldwater and several other historical figures, from the required curriculum. The board said then that the change was intended to streamline the curriculum for its 5.4 million students at the recommendation of volunteer work groups. view article

School finance was the big-ticket item this legislative session, said Emett Alvarez, Victoria Democrats Club president. "Education should be important to everyone," Alvarez said. "We are all taxpayers and are affected by it one way or the other." The Victoria County Democratic Party will host its club meeting Tuesday at VeraCruz Restaurant, 3110 N. Navarro St. Guest speakers will be Dwight Harris, former president of the Victoria chapter of the Texas American Federation of Teachers, and Ray Thomas, who is running for chief justice of the 13th Court of Appeals. view article