November 13, 2026: All Newsclips

Lead Stories

Widespread Microsoft outage continues, taking down Outlook and other 365 services

Microsoft suffered a widespread outage on Thursday and Friday, as engineers scrambled to fix server issues that caused disruption to millions of its customers. Connectivity issues began shortly before 1 p.m. ET on Thursday and continued into Friday, with Outlook and Teams, along with multiple Microsoft 365 services such as Sharepoint and Copilot, affected. Numerous external services that connect with Microsoft products such as Outlook Calendar were also hit. Microsoft said it was not aware of any malicious activity causing the outage, which it initially blamed on a traffic surge in part of its infrastructure and issues with a component responsible for processing server health. Email and related tools were unavailable for Microsoft users throughout the Asian business day on Friday and across the European and early U.S. morning.

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In an update at around 5 a.m. ET, Microsoft said users may still be unable to connect to multiple Microsoft 365 products — including Outlook on either web or desktop and any services that interact with email — and did not give a timeline for restoring full service. Most access to Teams was available. The company said recovery actions were progressing in phases across affected infrastructure and it was seeing “incremental improvement in several workloads.” But it added that service was variable and full capacity was not restored. Around 45 minutes earlier, it said it was seeing “early signs of stabilization.” Engineering teams are taking affected systems offline for fixes and bringing them back online in stages while looking at additional options, Microsoft said, adding that it was prioritizing efforts to preserve emails delayed during the recovery process. It is extending the timeout window, whereby delayed emails continue to attempt delivery, for up to 48 hours to help protect messages. Microsoft said in its initial updates on Thursday that the connectivity problems related to infrastructure “elevated load across multiple regions,” caused by a “number of servers being unexpectedly unavailable; straining the remaining infrastructure.” Some servers were failing automated health checks, it said.

Ken Paxton divorce is finalized, his lawyer says

Ken Paxton, the Republican attorney general of Texas, has finalized his divorce with his wife, Angela, who cited his adultery in her divorce petition last year, a lawyer for Mr. Paxton said on Thursday. The final agreement comes more than a year after Ms. Paxton first filed for divorce and just over a week after Mr. Paxton lost his race for the U.S. Senate. The terms of the divorce were agreed on and will remain private, the lawyer, Laura Roach, said in a statement. “The Paxtons and their respective attorneys, worked diligently to reach an amicable resolution of their divorce,” she said. “From my observation, they share mutual respect for one another and appear to be looking forward to the next chapter of their lives.” Ms. Paxton’s divorce lawyer did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but a spokesman for Ms. Paxton, a Republican state senator, did not dispute that the divorce was final.

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In a filing with the court on Wednesday, Ms. Paxton said she and Mr. Paxton had agreed on the division of their property and debts that was “fair and equitable to both me and my husband.” The Paxtons were married on Nov. 1, 1986 and had “ceased to live together on or about June 1, 2024,” she said in the filing, which was made in state court in McKinney, Texas. On Thursday morning, Ms. Paxton posted an image of a Bible verse on social media that reads, in part: “And we know that in all things, God works for the good of those who love him.” She declined to comment on the divorce or the posting. Ms. Paxton cited “biblical grounds” in her petition last summer to end her marriage of more than 30 years to Mr. Paxton. She filed for divorce just months after Mr. Paxton announced his run for Senate, challenging Senator John Cornyn in the Republican primary. Mr. Paxton won the primary but lost by a 12-point margin to a Democrat, James Talarico, in last week's election. Mr. Paxton’s personal life was an issue at several points in the primary and general election campaigns. In the final weeks of the race, video emerged showing Mr. Paxton celebrating New Year’s Eve in 2024 in Dubai with two U.S. fugitives and Tracy Duhon, a Christian influencer.

Jensen Huang's departure as Nvidia CEO may dampen mood around AI boom

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang’s stunning resignation has sent ripples through the global technology industry, with rival chipmakers itching to take advantage of the uncertainty and others wondering if the downfall of one of AI’s biggest cheerleaders will dampen the mood around the civilization-altering technology. Huang, who stepped down Thursday following reports of extramarital affairs, including with a suspected Chinese spy, was the very public face of a company that dominates the market for computer chips used to train and run AI models. In March, Huang predicted Nvidia will be grappling with a $1 trillion backlog in orders for its chips by the end of the year, doubling his estimate from a year earlier. A linchpin of the AI boom, Nvidia trades off with Apple as Wall Street’s most valuable company and has invested heavily in other AI firms.

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Some of Nvidia’s biggest rivals, such as Broadcom, Intel and Advanced Micro Devices, saw their shares advance Thursday following Huang’s departure as investors predicted that its customers will look to diversify their suppliers. In the end, analysts say, this might not be a bad thing. “This could turn what has effectively been a monopoly into a horse race again, as competitors rush to meet growing demand,” said Bret Greenstein, chief AI officer at the global consultancy West Monroe. “Nvidia did not create that demand, and a shift in this part of the market could ultimately diversify the supply chain, create more choice for customers and strengthen the broader AI industry in the years ahead.” Nvidia carved out an early lead in tailoring its chipsets known as graphics processing units, or GPUs, from use in powering video games to helping to train powerful AI systems. Demand soared as tech companies scrambled for more chips to build and run AI systems. In annual filings, Nvidia has identified competitors including Advanced Micro Devices, or AMD, Intel, Broadcom and cloud services companies like Google, Amazon and Microsoft. While these other players are established and respected within the industry for their chips, they have been trying to catch up to Nvidia. Nvidia has had an advantage from the start and as soon as a competitor releases something just as good, Nvidia has put out the next better chip, said Jay Aldebert, chief growth officer of International Services Inc. “Nobody’s just sitting still,” he said.

There's only one way back for the GOP in Texas, state senator warns

As bad as the November election was for Texas Republicans, it is not a permanent realignment so long as the party makes some changes, according to a key voice of the new GOP resistance. “This is not an extinction-level event for Republicans,” state Sen. Paul Bettencourt, R-Houston, said during an interview on the Texas Take Podcast released on Thursday. He said the Republican Party has to be self-reflective and learn that it simply can’t cater to white men during election season and hope to win in Texas. He pointed to Republicans like defeated Railroad Commission candidate Bo French, who railed against non-white University of Texas football fans, and others who used harsh language toward minority communities. He didn't name anyone else. But the state's top Republican leaders, from Gov. Greg Abbott to U.S. Rep. Chip Roy, spent much of the last year targeting Muslims in their push against Sharia law. And in Houston's Hindu community, voters have said the party has been pushing them away.

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“We’ve got to get away from that,” Bettencourt said. “The only way that the Republicans come back is you've got to recognize the demographics have changed.” Non-Hispanic white residents make up less than 40% of the state’s 31 million residents. And about three of every four high school graduates in Texas this year will be Hispanic, Black, and Asian - a trend that has been developing over the last five years and shows no signs of changing. It means the only way forward is being open to Texans of varying backgrounds who are more conservative in their thinking on taxes, regulations, and other government policies, Bettencourt said. “You have to be able to work with basically everybody,” he said. “Because I've always said, I don't care what you look like, where you're from, who you sleep with. I'm trying to have one litmus test, which is the value of work performed. And we've got to get back to that because we have to build that multiracial coalition.” But whether that's possible in Donald Trump's Republican party remains to be seen. He has built his political brand off antagonizing immigrants, and has two more years left in the White House.

State Stories

A Tarrant Dem exited a Texas House race, then won. Now she plans to take office.

A North Texas Democrat who won the race for House District 93 despite suspending her campaign amid eligibility questions related to a conviction says she is qualified for office and plans to assume the elected position. Ericka Lomick won Nov. 3 elections for the Fort Worth area district, defeating Republican Alan Blaylock, a former Fort Worth City Council member. She left the race in the weeks before Election Day for a full term beginning in January and a partial term to fill the remainder of former Rep. Nate Schatzline’s current term, after he left the office early and didn’t seek reelection. He went on to work as a senior advisor for Texas Gov. Greg Abbott.

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Lomick’s campaign cited “questions” around her eligibility as the reason for the campaign’s suspension. Specific circumstances that would disqualify her from serving weren’t mentioned, but the announcement followed a news release from a political action committee claiming Lomick has a felony record. Given the timing of her exit, Lomick’s name remained on the ballot for the midterm election and special election. She won more votes than Blaylock in both instances. Federal court records out of North Carolina show that an Ericka Lomick was convicted in 2011 of mortgage fraud, bank fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering as part of a plea deal. Court records show she was sentenced to 63 months in prison. In a Thursday statement, Lomick confirmed that she does have a criminal history, but said she’s qualified to serve in the Texas House of Representatives. “I am fully qualified to take the office to which I was elected,” Lomick said in a written statement shared with the Star-Telegram. “Although I was convicted of a felony in North Carolina many years ago, I was fully released from the resulting disabilities. I am preparing to represent the residents of my district.” Lomick said the information shared was reviewed by legal counsel. The statement does not explain the means by which she was released from the “resulting disabilities” related her felony history.

Harris County seeks another extension for Harvey flood control funds

Harris County officials said Thursday they will lobby newly-elected Democrats at the state and federal level to once again extend a spending deadline on hundreds of millions in federal Hurricane Harvey aid for flood control projects. Nearly all of the county’s 28 projects now appear on schedule for completion following a recent one-year extension the county received from federal officials and Texas Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham, Harris County Flood Control District Executive Director Marcus Stuckett said in a progress update. But with Buckingham, a Republican, now leaving office next year following Democrats’ sweep of statewide offices last week, commissioners are now eyeing yet another reprieve. That could help the county better spend roughly $320 million in funding that remains uncommitted and expand projects that had been reduced in scope for the sake of speed.

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Ben Flores, the Democrat who defeated Buckingham on Nov. 3, will take office in January. He does not appear to have taken a public stance on Harris County’s flood control funding, but Democrats on Commissioners Court said they hope he will take a different stance than Buckingham, who had criticized the county’s “incompetence” and said she would grant no more extensions. “All of us are reaching out to her successor to make that case,” said Precinct 1 Commissioner Rodney Ellis. The court also unanimously greenlit a letter to U.S. Sen.-elect James Talarico and members of Houston’s congressional delegation, asking for help to ensure the congressionally approved Harvey aid remains available. All 28 projects combined account for more than $860 million in federal funding. Missing spending deadlines could force the county to repay funds and cancel projects. Several of the projects were reduced in scope to make them easier and faster to complete, Stuckett said. Partly for that reason and partly because several contractors’ bids came in cheaper than expected, he said, roughly $320 million remains uncommitted to projects. An extension by one or two years could help restore some of the original designs, he added. Commissioners also directed Stuckett to commit leftover funds to new projects and report back by February. It’s unclear if the county will be allowed to do so. Buckingham rejected one such request from Stuckett related to a portion of the unspent funds last month.

Texas Rep. Ana-Maria Rodriguez Ramos joins race to replace Nathan Johnson in state Senate

Texas state Rep. Ana-Maria Rodriguez Ramos is running for a seat in the Senate to replace outgoing Sen. Nathan Johnson, who was elected attorney general. She announced her campaign for the District 16 seat Thursday. Rodriguez Ramos said her campaign will focus on affordable healthcare for Texas residents and investing in public education across the state. She said in her announcement that her campaign is deeply personal to her experiences dealing with healthcare systems in Texas. “When I think about the future of North Texas, I think about my daughter, my sons, and the opportunity to fight for yours,” Rodriguez Ramos wrote in a Facebook post. “I’m running for Senate District 16 so our kids can see a future for themselves in Texas.”

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She currently represents House District 102, which covers parts of Dallas, Richardson and Garland. She said she has secured endorsements from U.S Rep. Jasmine Crockett, state Sen. Roland Gutierrez and several other Texas representatives. Earlier this week Democratic former state Rep. John Turner announced his campaign for the seat. Turner previously served as representative for District 114 in Dallas from 2019 to 2023 and said he will focus his campaign on lowering the cost of living, as well as investing in public schools and access to health care. Turner also said he has secured Johnson’s endorsement. The date for the special election for the Senate seat has not been confirmed.

Sheinbaum celebrates Hinojosa’s victory as Texas-Mexico ties put trade, water and families in focus

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum welcomed the election of Gina Hinojosa in Texas and Xavier Becerra in California, highlighting their Mexican roots as the two Democrats prepare to govern states deeply connected to Mexico’s economy and families. “I would like to highlight the victory of two people of Mexican origin,” Sheinbaum said Nov. 4. Without naming either governor-elect, Sheinbaum emphasized their family connections to Mexico and celebrated the recognition of Mexican Americans in U.S. politics. She stopped short of predicting whether the election results would ease tensions with Washington, saying discussions with the Trump administration would continue. Their victories put new administrations at the center of relationships that shape household incomes, manufacturing jobs and water supplies on both sides of the border.

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About 12.7 million people of Mexican origin live in California and 9.5 million in Texas, according to American Community Survey estimates compiled by Neilsberg. That includes immigrants and U.S.-born residents; Mexican ancestry does not necessarily mean dual citizenship. For many families, the connection is financial. Mexico received $61.8 billion in remittances in 2025, down from a record $64.7 billion the previous year — its first annual decline since 2013. About 1.5 million Mexican households report receiving remittances, which average roughly 30% of those households’ income, according to BBVA Research. California and Texas account for close to half the money sent home. Economists have pointed to slower U.S. hiring, fewer new migrants and fears of deportation as pressures on that flow. The stakes extend from workers’ paychecks in Texas and California to the Mexican families relying on their support. Texas and Mexico exchanged $301.8 billion in goods in 2025, according to the Texas governor’s economic development office. Mexico is the largest export market for both Texas and California. Manufacturers on both sides produce goods together, connecting Mexican factories with Texas suppliers, trucking companies, warehouses and customers. For binational families and border residents, those connections also include commuting, school, shopping and visits with relatives.

Judge denies Texas’ request to pause order requiring it to air condition its prisons

A federal judge on Tuesday refused to pause his order requiring Texas to air-condition all 104 state prisons by the end of 2029, the Texas Tribune reported. That leaves the deadline in place while the state appeals the ruling to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman wrote that although the case raises serious legal questions, the public interest favors keeping the order in place, according to the Tribune. Pitman added that the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) failed to demonstrate that it would suffer irreparable harm. As of Oct. 1, just over a third of the state’s prisons were fully climate-controlled, leaving roughly 90,000 inmates without air conditioning. TDCJ officials estimate that installing air conditioning in all of the state’s prisons would cost $1.5 billion.

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In his Sept. 22 order, Pitman found that conditions in Texas prisons without air conditioning violated the Eighth Amendment, which protects against cruel and unusual punishment. In an Oct. 8 filing, TDCJ argued that its appeal would likely succeed because the legal standard for deliberate indifference is difficult to meet. The agency also said the order throws “chaos and confusion” into its plans to install air conditioning throughout the prison system. TDCJ officials expect the department to have 90,000 air-conditioned beds by 2028. The state’s prison population is expected to exceed 150,000 by then, however, leaving some 60,000 inmates without air conditioning. The legal fight began with a 2023 complaint filed by Bernie Tiede, an inmate who alleges he suffered a medical emergency due to the extreme heat. Pitman found that at least nine inmates died from the heat between 2023 and 2025 — an allegation TDCJ disputes. “While it’s not a surprise given TDCJ’s long history of refusing to take accountability for the people in its custody and care, it is still disappointing that they are spending the state’s resources fighting this case rather than just installing air conditioning,” Erica Grossman, an attorney for the plaintiffs, told Texas Tribune in October.

After Texas Democrats’ sweep, Travis County steps up immigration aid

A week after Texas Democrats claimed every statewide office on the ballot, Travis County commissioners unanimously approved $500,000 to help residents facing deportation and other immigration-related proceedings. The money will go to American Gateways, a Central Texas-based nonprofit that provides no- and low-cost immigration legal services. Commissioners had declined earlier this year to approve $425,850 to fund a new immigration unit at the county public defender’s office amid the threat of legal action from Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton. Paxton, who lost his election Tuesday, sued Harris and Bexar counties after they created publicly funded immigration legal aid programs, effectively pausing Harris County’s program while Bexar County’s program had already ended. But on Tuesday, Travis County Judge Andy Brown said the political landscape had changed.

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“We have a new governor, we have a new attorney general,” Brown said at the Commissioners Court’s first meeting since the election. He said the funding to American Gateways was in addition to two, $250,000 payments the county quietly made to the group in September 2025 and April 2026. Commissioners “made a decision not to talk about that publicly because of who our attorney general was” at the time, he said. The move is the latest example of Texas city and county governments pursuing immigration-related policies that they weren’t able to implement previously because of legal and political threats from state GOP leaders. Attorney General-elect Nathan Johnson, a Democrat, has indicated he’ll take a different approach, saying in a recent Texas Standard interview that part of his job was ensuring that federal agencies “are not violating the rights of my citizens and residents here.” For months, Travis County residents and business owners have been asking commissioners to increase spending on legal aid for immigrants and enact other policies to protect residents and workers without legal status. This summer, about a dozen people spoke in favor of the Travis County Public Defender’s proposal to establish a “Family Protection Unit” for immigration cases, but ultimately, commissioners did not fund the program in their $2.3 billion budget.

Texas faces a childcare shortage. Advocates want lawmakers to invest more

The nonprofit Children at Risk is urging Texas lawmakers to increase funding for childcare when the Legislature meets in January. More than 100,000 eligible Texas children who qualify for government assistance are on a waiting list for childcare. As lawmakers prepare to return to Austin in January, a child advocacy group is calling for additional funding and changes to how the state oversees its early childhood education system. More than 100,000 Texas children who qualify for government assistance are on a waiting list for subsidized childcare, according to the nonprofit Children at Risk. Vice President Mandi Kimball said the shortage primarily impacts low-income working families. Their research found there are nearly four children needing childcare for every available spot in Texas.

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“Childcare is not just an early education issue, it’s a workforce issue, it’s an economic issue, it’s a family issue,” Kimball said during a presentation Thursday outlining the group’s legislative priorities. During the 2025 legislative session, lawmakers approved an additional $100 million for subsidized childcare by tapping into unused federal funding from the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program, which helps low-income families. The money was intended to help thousands more families access affordable childcare. But advocates said rising childcare costs absorbed much of that investment. Kimball said the state also needs to improve how its childcare system operates. “We’re really looking at stronger governance structure and a more stable, efficient early childhood education system as we’re trying to keep up with demand,” Kimball said. Texas’ childcare programs currently interact with six different state agencies. Kimball said this creates a complicated system for families and providers to navigate. Children at Risk is asking lawmakers to establish a more unified system to improve coordination, streamline services and make better use of available funding. “When we strengthen childcare, we strengthen Texas families and our economy,” Kimball said.

Sen.-elect James Talarico starts learning the Senate ropes

Sen.-elect James Talarico got his first taste of Capitol Hill this week as he and other freshmen Democrats arrived for orientation. Talarico left a Tuesday lunch with Senate Democrats saying he looks forward to working with his fellow Texan, Republican Sen. Ted Cruz, and the rest of his new colleagues. “I’ve been trying to learn as much as I can over the last few days, but it’s certainly been a whirlwind,” Talarico told reporters before a staffer cut off questions. Newly elected senators won’t be sworn in until January, but they face immediate tasks such as hiring staff, deciding which committee assignments to seek and learning the often-arcane workings of Congress.

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Talarico is the first Democrat Texas has sent to the Senate since 1988. He defeated Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton by roughly 12 percentage points after an intense, high-profile race that set spending records. The day after his historic victory, Talarico did a blitz of national media, appearing on morning news programs across the major broadcast networks. Talarico followed the example of other Texans last weekend when he placed an “I voted” sticker on a memorial in Houston to Lorenzo Salgado, who was killed in July during an ICE pursuit. He also made a cameo during the cold open of “Saturday Night Live.” After James Austin Johnson, portraying President Donald Trump, used the Republican nickname “Talafreako,” the senator-elect walked into frame. “That’s Senator Talafreako,” Talarico said. After arriving in Washington, Talarico met Monday with the man he’s replacing, longtime Sen. John Cornyn, who lost the Republican runoff in May to Paxton. Cornyn told reporters after the meeting he and Talarico have very different political perspectives but called his successor a “decent, honest person.” He predicted Talarico will face challenges operating in a Democratic majority while representing a state Cornyn said still leans conservative.

Houston Chronicle Editorial: Dan Patrick lost. Texas Republicans don’t have to listen to him anymore.

Congratulations and well-wishes are owed to the soon-to-be former Texas lieutenant governor as he enters the next phase in his life: Being a political consultant at Patrick Strategies. You can tell Patrick is excited about this change because he hasn’t even left office yet and already his new business website is up and operating. Ethical concerns aside — we’ll let the prosecutors decide whether Patrick is violating the state’s requirement that politicians wait two years before serving as lobbyists — the website itself is worthy of some praise. Particularly the part that quotes a 2021 Houston Chronicle editorial. “Patrick’s predecessors — Ben Ramsey, Bob Bullock, Ben Barnes, Bill Hobby, Rick Perry — have taken up the gavel … but arguably none have used it more efficiently … than Patrick. His predecessors, in the words of the aforementioned insider, ‘are not in the same league, the same universe, the same galaxy.’” That’s quite the high compliment coming from us, but the well-placed ellipses leave out critical language that Patrick’s web designer must have accidentally skipped. Here’s the full quote, with our emphasis added.

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“Patrick’s predecessors — Ben Ramsey, Bob Bullock, Ben Barnes, Bill Hobby, Rick Perry — have taken up the gavel and used the power of the office for good or ill, but arguably none have used it more efficiently or more ruthlessly than Patrick.” It’s hard to imagine why Patrick would want to leave out the reference to his ruthlessness. After all, ruthlessness has been critical to his political success. When future clients write a big fat check to Patrick Strategies, they’re going to expect some ruthlessness. Voters have come to expect it, too. Over the past 12 years, the Lone Star State has watched helplessly as Patrick gutted bipartisan cooperation in the Senate, killed the two-thirds rule that gave the minority party — whomever it may be — some power on the floor, and waged war on fellow Republicans who refused to acquiesce to his concentrating power in himself at the expense of senators and in Austin at the expense of local governments. Which is why nobody should be surprised that Patrick has been caught trying to meddle with the Texas Senate rules on his way out the door to disempower his Democratic successor, Vikki Goodwin. Besides, Patrick Strategies wouldn’t be all that lucrative if a bipartisan-minded Democrat like Goodwin returned power to individual senators and let them work for their constituents rather than just voters in Republican primaries. No, Patrick has been openly urging the Republican majority in the Texas Senate to transfer the lieutenant governor’s traditional powers — like appointing committee chairs and controlling the flow of legislation to the chamber floor — to a Senate majority leader position appointed by the 19 Republican members. This political scheme would set up a Senate where the Republicans maintain total control, shutting out Democratic influence — and essentially telling Texas voters to shut up after they spoke so clearly on Election Day. “If you lose the statewide offices and you still have the majority in the Senate, which we do, you shouldn't give up your majority because the governor lost or the lieutenant governor lost,” Patrick told conservative radio host Mark Davis this week. Again, that’s exactly what voters have come to expect from Patrick: Prioritizing partisan power grabs over the wants and needs of everyday Texans. Other states have endured similar antics where outgoing politicians undercut their successors — like in Wisconsin and North Carolina — but Patrick’s plan feels more at home in, say, Arizona or Georgia.

Texas’ top courts have Democrats for the first time in years. They could reshape the legal system

Maggie Ellis was eating Indian takeout in her pajamas with her kids while she watched the midterm election results roll in last Tuesday. Ellis, who currently serves on one of the state’s appellate courts, was running to become the chief justice of the Texas Supreme Court. She didn’t expect to win against the Republican incumbent, who was appointed to the role on a court that had been ruby red for decades. So when early voting returns showed Ellis leading the race, she was taken aback. “I was completely gobsmacked,” Ellis told The Texas Newsroom in an interview after the election. “I was shocked. And then I was fervently hitting refresh and going to the major counties and checking their election returns and thinking, 'oh my goodness, we might actually be able to do this.'”

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No Democrat has been elected to a statewide seat in Texas since 1994. That drought included the state’s highest civil and criminal courts, which, at their most powerful, decide whether parents lose custody of their children and whether people are put to death. But as part of the “blue tsunami” that overtook Texas last week, Ellis and a slate of other Democrats who ran for statewide judicial positions flipped seven of the eighteen seats on the Texas Supreme Court and the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. Democrats swept all the seats on a newly-created intermediate appeals court, one which Republican Gov. Greg Abbott had previously stacked with three GOP judges. Republicans have dominated Texas’ statewide courts for so long, there’s no 21st-century playbook for how their liberal and conservative judges will get along. But party affiliation shouldn’t matter to judges who are supposed to remain impartial, and rule on the law as written, Ellis said. “We might not be politically aligned. We might not share the same values in regards to social issues,” Ellis said of her soon-to-be coworkers. “But they are all very good jurists, and I think I'm hopeful that they are looking forward to the opportunity to have balance on the court, and that we will bring different ideas and different perspectives.”

Austin-area officials and politicos eye Eckhardt’s Senate seat

Several Austin-area elected officials won higher office in Texas’ Democratic sweep, creating vacancies that will require special elections or a governor's appointment to fill. They include tthe Texas Senate seat Sarah Eckhardt will vacate when she takes office as state comptroller in January, and three seats on the Third Court of Appeals. A week after the general election, the American-Statesman has identified seven people who are considering running for Eckhardt’s Senate District 14 seat. They include Austin City Council members Chito Vela and Paige Ellis, and Pflugerville City Council Member Rudy Metayer.

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Others who have expressed interest in the SD 14 seat or declared their intent to run include: Jocelyn Tau, chief of staff for U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett and a tax attorney, said she intends to run for the seat. Katie Naranjo, chief executive officer of A Pineywoods Home Health Care, said she was running for the seat. Naranjo previously served as chair of the Travis County Democratic Party and a superdelegate to the 2016 Democratic National Convention from Texas. Lauren Peña, a policy advisor and legal advocate who ran against U.S. Rep. Greg Casar to represent Texas’s 37th Congressional District, launched her campaign for state Senate on Wednesday. Molly Quirk, the mayor of the Village of San Leanna and former chief of staff for Rep. Jim Murphy, said she was seriously considering a run for the state Senate. Stephanie Gharakhanian, a member of the Austin Community College District Board of Trustees, announced her campaign for the seat Tuesday. The timing of a special election to fill Eckhardt’s seat remains unclear. The sitting governor calls elections to fill legislative vacancies, but the office of outgoing Gov. Greg Abbott did not respond to inquiries about his plans. Eckhardt will become comptroller Jan. 1, while Gov.-elect Gina Hinojosa won’t be sworn in until Jan. 12, which is the first day of the next legislative session. Blank said that Abbott is not likely to call a special election before he leaves office because Senate District 14 is a Democratic district and would give the state Senate less of a Republican majority. “There's no reason to suspect that he's looking to fill the seat immediately, so it's going to come down to Hinojosa probably calling an emergency election because it's during a legislative session and there's a vacancy,” he said. Hinojosa, U.S. Sen.-elect James Talarico and Texas Lt. Gov.-elect Vikki Goodwin are all finishing out Texas House terms representing Austin-area districts, but their seats were not left open after the election. That’s because they all decided not to seek re-election when they ran for higher office, even though they were not required to. (Their successors are state Reps.-elect Montserrat Garibay, Samantha Lopez-Resendez and Pooja Sethi, respectively.)

National Stories

Chris Van Hollen says he will run for Senate majority leader

Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen said Thursday that he will run for majority leader, challenging longtime Democratic leader Chuck Schumer. Van Hollen said in a statement that the midterm election results are a sign Americans want “change” not only from “Donald Trump’s disastrous policies” but also from a “status quo that isn’t working for working people.” “It’s now on us to meet this moment, and to do that we need new leadership. This is not about any one person — it’s about answering the call of the American people,” he said in the statement. Van Hollen’s decision is a setback to Schumer, who remains favored to become leader but had previously predicted that he would not have a challenge. Democrats will hold their caucus elections next month.

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Schumer has repeatedly predicted since the Democrats won a majority in last week’s midterms that he will be elected majority leader. In a statement after Van Hollen’s announcement Thursday, he said he has already locked up the votes in the race. “I welcome any discussion about the future of our caucus and the important work ahead. I’m proud of what we’ve accomplished together — 55 seats and counting is an amazing result — and I have the votes to continue serving as Democratic Leader,” Schumer said in a social media post. “I look forward to leading our new Democratic majority and delivering for the American people,” he added. Van Hollen said in an MSNOW interview he had the support of more than 10 of the 55 Democratic senators who are known to be voting but acknowledged that he was the “underdog” in the race. “I’ve gotten feedback from members of the caucus,” Van Hollen added. “And my view is this is very much in flux. … People will have to make a decision one way or the other.” Several Senate Democrats — including Ruben Gallego of Arizona, Angela Alsobrooks of Maryland and Kirsten Gillibrand of New York — have publicly said they will support Schumer for leader. Several other Democratic senators who were granted anonymity to discuss the sensitive leadership race have said either in interviews or through their offices that they intend to vote for Schumer during the closed-door election.

Democrat Cindy Holscher wins Kansas governor’s race, defeating Trump-backed Ty Masterson

State Sen. Cindy Holscher (D) defeated Kansas Senate President Ty Masterson (R) to become the state’s next governor. Masterson had prevailed in a crowded GOP primary and was endorsed by President Donald Trump and Sen. Roger Marshall (R). Masterson and Holscher have clashed over taxes, education and data center expansion in Kansas, with Holscher calling for a complete pause on new projects. Trump won the state by more than 16 percentage points in 2024. Republicans control both chambers of Kansas’s state legislature, and the governor’s race is an elusive chance for the GOP to gain a statewide trifecta in an otherwise difficult political environment. Kansas periodically elects Democratic governors, but it became a major hub in the conservative moment last decade under Republican governor Sam Brownback. Steep tax cuts under Brownback caused a budget crisis and backlash to Republicans.

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JD Vance still likely to run for president as GOP rivals circle

Vice President JD Vance isn’t out of the 2028 presidential race — at least not yet. Detractors and even some well-wishers began writing his political obituary after Republicans’ historic drubbing in the midterm elections, surmising that the vice president — tied to a president with an all-time-low approval rating — sees the 2028 election as a lost cause. But Vance is still more likely to run for president than not, according to several close allies with knowledge of his thinking. In interviews, more than a dozen people with a view into the vice president’s orbit, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to candidly discuss his future, described Vance as keenly aware of the headwinds against the Trump administration — but also of the potential for those winds to shift as Democrats increase their power in Washington.

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“Two years is such an eternity in politics, and people are very easily prisoners of the moment,” said one person close to Vance, describing the vice president as someone who is largely able to resist “panicky inclinations.” Vance faces major hurdles to a presidential bid. “The war needs to end,” for any Republican to have a chance of winning, said Curt Mills, the executive director of the American Conservative magazine, which has vociferously opposed President Donald Trump’s war against Iran. Trump’s appetite for ending the war has changed by the day. On Thursday, the president posted to Truth Social that he had asked Vance to stop working on a deal with Iran, and instead focus his attention on fighting fraud against public programs in “Democrat run Cities and States.” Beyond that, Vance in the coming months will have the difficult task of separating himself from allegations of wrongdoing by administration officials or advisers who will be the targets of investigations by congressional Democrats. The potential for those investigations to create havoc for Trump and those around him gained attention this week with the furor surrounding the president’s adviser, Nvidia founder Jensen Huang, who resigned as his company’s CEO after admitting to an affair with a woman who is alleged to be a Chinese spy.

Meet the 27-year old behind the protein ad that helped flip Mississippi

You know you’ve made a good ad when it’s outperforming an endorsement video from Barack Obama. Ryan Sayles, a 27-year-old Mississippi content creator, is behind arguably the best political spot of the election cycle: Democrat Scott Colom’s viral “pick another protein” ad against GOP Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith. You’ve probably seen it by now. The ad featured Mississippi voters’ blunt reactions to Hyde-Smith’s suggestion that people struggling with rising beef prices choose from other protein options. “Pick another protein? Shiiii-, I’d rather pick another senator instead.” “Pick another protein? She done lost her damn mind. I’d rather pick another senator.” Sayles was at his nephew’s football game when he realized something extraordinary was happening.

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“I was looking at the first numbers when it first dropped, and I was like, ‘Oh, this is about to be a really good video,’” he told POLITICO after Colom’s historic Senate race victory in the longtime Republican stronghold. “We had the Obama endorsement the day before, so that was our biggest video. It was like, ‘Dang, we ain’t ever gonna top that.’” “And then this ad came, and we posted it, and it outperformed anything we ever did,” Sayles said. The 30-second spot quickly became the talk of Mississippi and Washington, helping fuel Colom’s longshot campaign to unseat Hyde-Smith and become the first Black senator from the state since Reconstruction. And, it’s given Democrats across the country another blueprint for how to break through online ahead of a critical 2028 presidential race, as the party continues to rethink its strategy. With the ad — and Colom’s win — Sayles has gone from a newcomer who stumbled into campaigning almost by accident to a name to watch in Democratic digital politics, as the party looks for fresh ways to reach voters ahead of 2028. “[Sayles] should be considered the breakout-star of this cycle,” Colom wrote in a post on X about the viral ad earlier this month. “He’s going to be a giant in the media consultant game. He did GAME CHANGING work with SO little.”

MAGA influencers reel after midterm rout of Trump's Republicans

For years, influencers with the "Make America Great Again" movement thrived alongside President Donald Trump. But after Democrats hammered candidates from Trump's Republican Party in last week's midterm elections, the content creators find themselves facing questions over their ideological and financial futures. "I've been running on empty for too long," said conservative commentator Laura Loomer, a conspiracy theorist and confidante of Trump who announced last week she was taking a break from her podcast. Samuel Woolley, a communication professor at the University of Pittsburgh, said post-midterm soul-searching would result in an inevitable "changing of the guard" among influencers espousing Trump's nationalist views. "I would expect that many influencers who worked with MAGA are going through an introspective period in the same way that many conservatives are," Woolley told AFP.

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Danielle Lee Tomson, a researcher at the University of Washington, said many prominent pro-Trump influencers were losing their appeal. "A lot of these creators, like Laura Loomer or Mike Cernovich or even Jack Posobiec, they are now aging, they're older millennials," Tomson said, naming a few top influencers. "They don't have the same kind of novelty as they once did," she added. "Quite frankly, a lot of their message got boring." Ring-wing commentators like Posobiec, Tim Pool and Benny Johnson built their online audiences on a fiercely anti-establishment message. But over time, their closeness with the Trump administration lent them an institutional air, having taken part in news conferences alongside the president and flying on his jet. The midterms also put a spotlight on the waning momentum of top MAGA-aligned movements, such as youth organization Turning Point USA, whose founder Charlie Kirk was shot dead last year. Candidates backed by Turning Point were overwhelmingly defeated in last Tuesday's Democratic "blue tsunami." Some pro-Trump influencers have opted to "reclaim that they're underdogs" after the midterms rout, Tomson said, and lash out at the Republican Party rather than Trump. Specifically, they have accused the party of alienating young, white, working-class, male MAGA supporters by pushing for war with Iran. Others have cheered Stephen Miller's appointment to White House chief of staff. The combative Trump ultra-loyalist spearheaded the administration's staunch anti-immigration policies and is seen as a return to the MAGA movement's ideological roots. Commentator Johnson called Miller's ascension "a complete game-changer" and a "great move."

Petition to make Ayanna Pressley next Speaker garners more than 75K signatures

A Change.org petition requesting Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) be named the next Speaker of the House has received more than 75,000 signatures as of Thursday night. The petition, released last Friday, was set up by the Coalition for Speaker Ayanna Pressley, “progressive activists from across the country dedicated to electing” the lawmaker to lead her party in the House. It has received 75,466 signatures as of 10:49 p.m. EST on Thursday. The coalition said in a statement that Pressley “represents a beacon of hope and integrity in a tumultuous political landscape.” It praised her record and leadership on issues like criminal justice reform and climate change, adding that electing her was “not just about politics.”

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“Her ability to foster meaningful conversations and build bridges across the political aisle makes her uniquely qualified for this pivotal role,” the group said. “In a divided Congress, her role as a fair and balanced leader will be crucial in driving [bipartisan] legislation that addresses the needs of all Americans.” The group added that Pressley’s leadership style “aligns with what the majority of Americans want to see in their government,” and that she “listens to her constituents … making informed decisions that reflect the diversity and complexity of our society.” Common Dreams first reported on the petition Wednesday. Pressley has not expressed interest in launching a bid to challenge the Speakership from House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), who is poised to become the country’s first Black Speaker at the start of the 120th Congress in January. She did, though, call on Democrats to meet the expectations from voters after the party made sweeping victories in the 2026 midterm elections last week, calling on her colleagues to be “the FIGHTERS in the room,” according to a social media post Tuesday.

Before his ouster, Jensen Huang belittled the executive replacing him

Jensen Huang summoned his top finance executives to his office this summer. The AI economy, backstopped by Nvidia’s increasingly outrageous bets, was teetering, and Huang wanted to make sure they were getting it right. Over the course of the meeting, he proceeded to tear into the woman who is now taking over for him as Nvidia CEO. Colette Kress was “a deer in the headlights,” he said, interrupting her presentation, according to a person familiar with the comments. He had summoned Kress and his senior finance team to diagnose a ballooning problem: Nvidia was in talks to provide billions of dollars of guarantees to companies that couldn’t afford its chips. That included deals led by Huang’s son-in-law, Nico Caprez, who had been offering upstart cloud providers and data-center developers financing in the hopes of turning them into long-term customers.

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Huang had launched a dealmaking spree and was now starting to question whether it had gone too far, according to people familiar with the matter. Kress was a “reporting CFO,” not someone who could help him define a strategy or make decisions, Huang said during the August meeting. Then he went on to describe the situation the company was in. Major cloud providers were running away from Nvidia, making plans to use alternative chips and lessen their reliance on the firm. Even worse, Huang said, the vast supply of chip wafers and memory Nvidia had committed to buying were coming at him like an “avalanche.” Kress now has to steer Nvidia through that avalanche—and a bigger one. She was named interim chief executive Thursday, taking over for Huang, who resigned after revelations of two extramarital affairs, including one with a suspected Chinese spy and another with an employee. Kress will need to stabilize a company facing federal and internal investigations. One of the largest companies in the world didn’t have a clear successor lined up. It has said it will look at internal and external CEO candidates. In a memo to staff Thursday, Kress praised Huang, saying she will continue “building on the extraordinary foundation Jensen created over the last 33 years.” Kress joined Nvidia more than a decade ago as chief financial officer after holding finance roles at Cisco, Microsoft and Texas Instruments.

Copyright November 13, 2026, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved