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

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

USDA has confirmed six cases of New World screwworm in Texas livestock Ken Paxton has spent the last year positioning himself as the Trump administration's most reliable Texas ally. That positioning now sits alongside an active screwworm outbreak spreading through South and Central Texas ranch country. USDA has confirmed six cases of New World screwworm in Texas livestock since June 3, with confirmed infections in Zavala, La Salle, Gillespie, and Edwards counties. The Texas A

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 Outgoing Commissioner and the Democrat Who Agrees With Him Sid Miller has never been mistaken for a political moderate. The three-term Texas agriculture commissioner built his career on MAGA loyalty, Trump endorsements, and a public persona that thrived on confrontation. His announcement that he would share a stage with Clayton Tucker, the Democratic nominee running to replace him, landed accordingly. The two are scheduled to appear together at a forum on June 11 at the M

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

Abbott's Closed Primary Push Would Redraw Who Gets a Voice in Texas Greg Abbott stood before thousands of delegates at the 2026 Texas Republican Party Convention in Houston on Friday and announced what the party's grassroots wing has wanted for decades. Close the Republican primary to non-Republicans. Only registered party members vote. Everyone else sits out. The statement marks a first for Abbott, who had largely avoided the fight until now. The Texas GOP sued his own Secre

Does Your Vote Arrive Late… or Right on Time? Look, m’ija, if you thought voting was already complicated, now imagine that even when your ballot arrives is being debated at the highest court in the country. This week, the nine justices of the Supreme Court spent more than two hours arguing over something that sounds simple but isn’t: can mail-in ballots be counted if they arrive after Election Day, as long as they were sent on time? Let's break it down. The fight started over

Representative Jasmine Crockett angered people when she compared some Latino voting patterns to a "slave mentality" during a post-election interview with Vanity Fair. Her words have been resurfaced and people are obviously losing their minds. But nobody wants to talk about whether she was right about the matter. In a December 2024 Vanity Fair interview about Kamala Harris's loss, Crockett was asked about race and gender in the election. Trump pulled 46 percent of the Latino v

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

2026 FRONTeras Magazine 1st Quarter Issue Starr County Democrats Rally Behind Hinojosa's Gubernatorial Bid Caro's Restaurant in Rio Grande City has hosted its share of political meetings over the years, making it the obvious choice when the Starr County Democratic Party decided to bring gubernatorial candidate Gina Hinojosa to town on a Monday afternoon. The five-term state representative walked through the door with the confidence of someone who grew up in Brownsville and un

Greg Abbott has never faced a challenge quite like Gina Hinojosa. First, she's Mexican-American. Second, she's a woman. And even though he easily won against Wendy Davis, this candidate has something Davis didn't: she's puro 956. The Brownsville native and five-term state representative stopped by Caro's Restaurant in Rio Grande City on Monday to talk with local voters about her campaign. The event drew family and local Democratic officials who turned out to support her candi

Donald Trump made his choice in Texas's 34th Congressional District on December 18, and the fallout has been delicious. The former president endorsed Eric Flores, leaving his 2022 congressional candidate, Mayra Flores (who shares the surname but not the bloodline), fuming on the sidelines. Mayra Flores wasted no time posting a clarification that screamed "we are NOT related" in everything but those exact words. Eric Flores, who worked as an assistant U.S. attorney from 2021 t

Judge Baldemar Garza issued a direct response to challenger Abel Villarreal Jr.'s campaign attacks, using a social media video to defend his record and question his opponent's reliability. The 229th District Court judge framed his rebuttal around a lesson from his mother. "My mother taught me a lesson I carry every day," Garza began in a video ad. "No puedes tapar el sol con un dedo. You cannot cover the truth with a single finger." The judge addressed criticism about his war

Webb County Judge Tano Tijerina didn't have to do much to earn President Donald Trump's endorsement. He just had to not be Henry Cuellar. That's the peculiar calculus propelling Tijerina's congressional campaign in Texas's 28th District, where Trump's backing arrived Tuesday as punishment for someone else's insufficient gratitude. The president pardoned Cuellar five weeks ago, eliminating federal bribery charges that threatened prison time. Cuellar responded by staying Democr

Representative Jasmine Crockett stood during a House Judiciary Committee hearing Thursday and let it rip. "It is so hard to sit here sometimes because I didn't come to Congress to write laws or to do things that are hurting people," Crockett said. "I'm asking if there's any decency or heart or courage on that side of the aisle. The fact that a woman was killed, she was shot in her head, and y'all are pretending like nothing happened." The Texas Democrat wasn't finished. "I re