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How Texas Can Lead in Fighting Anti-Asian Racism

https://www.texasobserver.org/how-texas-can-lead-in-fighting-anti-asian-racism/

Published: September 18, 2026 12:20

Thanks to Bo French’s racist social media post targeting the ethnicity of students celebrating the University of Texas at Austin’s football win, Texas again is making national and local headlines for anti-South Asian racism. But the state also holds the…

The State’s Bible-Only Reading List Is a Disservice to Texas Kids

https://www.texasobserver.org/state-bible-only-reading-list-disservice-texas-students/

Published: September 17, 2026 12:47

Should Texas public school students learn about the Bible? Yes, they should—but not in the way Texas education officials are going about it. In June, Texas became the first state to require all public school students to read religious texts, as part of a…

Free Tickets, Familiar Jokes, and an Unsettled Party Grasping for Unity—and a Fight

https://www.texasobserver.org/gop-2026-midterm-convention-dallas-dispatch/

Published: September 15, 2026 16:39

In the era of President Donald Trump, any admission of weakness or wrongdoing has become increasingly rare, but tension over the future of the party could hardly be denied at last week’s midterm Republican convention in Dallas. While the floor and lower…

Not All Texas Republicans Are Condemning Bo French

https://www.texasobserver.org/not-all-texas-republicans-are-condemning-bo-french/

Published: September 14, 2026 21:51

The often overlooked race for Texas Railroad Commissioner received national attention this past weekend due to a viral tweet from Bo French, the former Tarrant County GOP Chairman who eked out a 1-point primary runoff victory to become the Republican…

In Laredo, a County Judge and MAGA Convert Seeks to Topple Henry Cuellar

https://www.texasobserver.org/tano-tijerina-campaign-congress-henry-cuellar-laredo/

Published: September 10, 2026 14:41

On a Thursday in late August, Republican Speaker of the U.S. House Mike Johnson was on a campaign swing through a handful of key congressional districts in South Texas that will be critical to whether he keeps his job next year. One of those stops was an…

One of the Top Texas House Races Could Come Down to a Single Issue: Water

https://www.texasobserver.org/corpus-christi-water-election-texas-house-district-34/

Published: September 9, 2026 19:04

Water is one of many issues at the forefront of Texas politics this election cycle, no place more so than in Corpus Christi.  Texas’ sparkling city by the sea has received national attention in recent months over ever-worsening conditions for residents…

Who Stands Between Texas and a Fascist Railroad Commission?

https://www.texasobserver.org/railroad-commission-bo-french-jon-rosenthal/

Published: September 3, 2026 13:33

On May 26, former Tarrant County GOP Chairman Bo French eked out a 1-point victory over incumbent Jim Wright in the Republican runoff for a seat on the state’s poorly named oil and gas regulatory agency: the Railroad Commission (RRC). As the Texas Observer…

The Year for Magical Thinking

https://www.texasobserver.org/the-year-for-magical-thinking/

Published: September 1, 2026 13:36

By the beginning of the 2024 electoral cycle, I’d spent enough time as a progressive-leaning observer of Texas politics to have developed a certain telltale armor. No one was going to convince me that Colin Allred was about to succeed where Beto O’Rourke…

The Last Mayor of Houston

https://www.texasobserver.org/john-whitmire-houston-mayor-state-city-government/

Published: August 31, 2026 13:35

On his second Saturday as the 63rd mayor of Houston, former state Senator John Whitmire drove to Yale Street Grill, a no-frills diner in the Heights neighborhood, to rendezvous with Bill King, a former Houston Chronicle columnist and current fellow at Rice…

Will a Coalition of ‘MAGA Moms’ Rally Behind Gina Hinojosa’s Bid for Texas Governor?

https://www.texasobserver.org/gina-hinojosa-campaign-public-education-conservatives/

Published: August 27, 2026 15:47

Last Sunday at a venue in the Austin suburb of Kyle, Merideth Keller delivered a speech to local attendees that took square aim at a man she once voted for back in 2014: Governor Greg Abbott. Over the course of her 12 years on the school board of Hays…

Come and Take Them, Dan Patrick

https://www.texasobserver.org/dan-patrick-books-come-and-take-them/

Published: August 25, 2026 15:41

Last Wednesday morning, I welcomed students back into my high school library. Perhaps they were trying to escape the sweltering August heat, but regardless of why they walked in, the first-day-of-school energy in Abilene was contagious. I was sleep…

A Texas Austerity Crisis Is Playing Out City by City, School by School

https://www.texasobserver.org/schools-cities-budgets-2026-state/

Published: August 24, 2026 12:30

Texas is in a state of fiscal crisis. Or, at least many of its school districts and municipalities are. All across Texas, from the biggest urban ISDs and metros to the smallest towns and exurban counties, local governmental bodies are feeling the…

Indigenous Group Sues to Stop Big Bend Border Wall on Religious Grounds

https://www.texasobserver.org/indigenous-group-sues-big-bend-border-wall/

Published: August 14, 2026 13:30

The People of La Junta for Preservation, a nonprofit founded in 2024 that works to preserve Indigenous sites, and two Indigenous worshippers of Lipan Apache lineage are suing the federal government to stop the highly contentious border barrier construction…

Who Pays for the High-Powered Grid that Data Centers Need?

https://www.texasobserver.org/who-pays-for-texas-grid-upgrades-data-centers/

Published: August 11, 2026 19:51

The true scale of prospective projects that want to plug into the Texas grid is hard to hold in your head. As of August 3, the Texas governor’s office put the figure at more than 474 gigawatts of requests to connect, more than five times the grid’s record…

University of Houston Nixed Its Gender and Sexuality Classes. That Won’t Stop Texas’ Crusade Against Higher Ed

https://www.texasobserver.org/university-of-houston-ends-gender-sexuality-courses-op-ed/

Published: August 4, 2026 15:20

The sexual assault of children. The catcalling and income discrimination your sister faces. The struggles your granddad has connecting emotionally. These are topics explored in gender and sexuality studies classes.  But following Florida, universities in…