Governor Greg Abbott has stayed quiet on a debate invitation while his Democratic challenger keeps talking. Texas Rep. Gina Hinojosa, the Austin Democrat trying to unseat him this November, has accepted a one-hour debate slot for Oct. 15 in Fort Worth, hosted by NBC Universal Television Stations Texas and Hearst Newspapers Texas and set to air in both English and Spanish. It's the first real test of whether Abbott will face her directly, and it comes eight months into a campa

Webb County Judge Tano Tijerina filed for Congress in December 2025 with no campaign experience above the county level. Four months later, he had outraised an eleven-term incumbent, landed a spot on the NRCC's inaugural priority list, and picked up a public nod from one of South Texas's most active Republican organizing groups. That is not the trajectory of a first-time candidate finding his footing. His feet are firmly planted on solid ground. Per FEC filings, Tijerina raise

Texas Runoff Elections Explained Confusion follows the primary election cycle in Texas. Many voters assume the process has ended. State law requires a majority vote for a party nomination. When no candidate receives more than 50 percent, the race advances to a runoff between the top two finishers. This second round determines which candidate appears on the November ballot. Texas applies this rule across party primaries for statewide, legislative, and local offices. The system

Guillen has appeared on the ballot in Starr County for more than two decades. Ryan Guillen grew up working at his family's feed store in Rio Grande City. That was his first education in how Starr County works — who needs something, and who has it. He went on to earn a bachelor's degree in agriculture from Texas A&M University, briefly taught high school agriculture, and then pursued public office. Guillen was elected to the Texas House in 2002 at 24 years old and took office

Gina Hinojosa Takes the School Fight Statewide Texas school districts are closing campuses at a pace public school advocates describe as a crisis. Gina Hinojosa, the Democratic nominee for Texas governor, launched Team Texas Public Schools on Monday, a nonpartisan organizing program designed to mobilize parents, teachers, and administrators across party lines to fight school closures statewide. Hinojosa unveiled the program at Pease Elementary in Austin, a campus opened in 18

The Man Who Saved Ken Paxton Just Endorsed the Guy Running Against Him Dan Cogdell knows Ken Paxton better than most people in Texas politics ever will. He sat across courtroom tables from prosecutors for nearly a decade, first when Paxton hired him in 2015 after his securities fraud indictment, and later when he served on Paxton's defense team in the 2023 impeachment trial that ended in acquittal. The securities fraud case ran nine years before prosecutors dropped the charge

The Most Republican Democrat in Congress Faces the Most Democratic Republican in Texas Tano Tijerina spent a decade winning Webb County elections as a Democrat. He won in 2014, 2018, and 2022, each time under the same party banner, each time in a county that had been blue so long that the color felt geological. Then Trump carried Webb County in November 2024, and Tijerina announced on Fox & Friends that he had always been a conservative and that the Democratic Party lost him

Donald Trump pardoned Rep. Henry Cuellar on December 3rd. By December 9th, House Democrats were preparing to restore the Laredo congressman to his position as ranking member of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Homeland Security. It took six days for a man accused of selling his influence to foreign interests to reclaim control over more than $65 billion in annual federal spending. Cuellar doesn't just vote on border security. He decides which DHS programs get funded a

President Trump pardoned Texas Democratic Congressman Henry Cuellar and his wife, Imelda on December 3, wiping away federal bribery and money laundering charges that threatened to send the couple to prison. Cuellar was grateful on social media. On the same day, however, Cuellar filed for reelection as a Democrat. The heartfelt gratitude he expressed to Trump lasted approximately as long as a gentleman's handshake before a duel. By Sunday, Trump was raging on Truth Social, his