November 1, 2026: All Newsclips

Lead Stories

Texas Republicans sweating over low turnout in early voting

Longtime Trump supporter Stefan Burns is surprisingly the voter Republican leaders worry about. An antiabortion Christian who believed in the MAGA agenda for years, Burns said that in this election, the most competitive and consequential midterm in recent history, he’s not voting. “The Republican Party has lost touch with the base,” Burns, 34, a construction project engineer and carpenter in the Houston exurbs, said during his lunch break at a mall food court on Friday, the last day of early voting in Texas. “Morally speaking, I cannot vote down a party line. Because although abortion is my main issue, it’s not the only one,” he said. “At this point, I guess you could call me a conscientious objector.” Republican lawmakers are confronting an enthusiasm gap nationally due to the unpopularity of President Donald Trump, wars, data centers, and high gas and grocery prices. Nowhere is the fallout more visible than in Texas, where Trump held Republicans’ midterm convention last month and visited several times this month to rally support.

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Republicans have controlled every lever of state government for generations by winning rural counties and significant margins in suburban and urban areas where most voters live. But early turnout shows Democrats — led by Attorney General Ken Paxton’s opponent, state Rep. James Talarico — doing the reverse. Turnout for Democrats has increased in urban areas, and Democrats have posted gains even in conservative rural counties, according to nonpartisan voting analyst Steven David. David, a former chief operating officer for the city of Houston, has monitored statewide early-vote turnout on his website and compared it with previous elections. While Texas voters don’t register with a party, they pick the primary they want to vote in. So David extrapolated party affiliation from that record to create a color-coded map that shows large swaths of blue across traditionally deep-red areas of the Panhandle, East and West Texas. Places like Montgomery County, north of Houston — where GOP officials refused a state lockdown during the pandemic — are seeing more Democrats vote than during the 2024 presidential election. “My personal precinct is now very unpredictable. We don’t know how to react to stuff like this. At some point, polling fails,” said David, who lives northwest of Houston in deeply red Tomball. “Republicans are frustrated, and Democrats are motivated, and that’s a bad mixture for anybody who’s trying to run as a Republican.”

American oil giants see profits soar as wars crimp energy supplies

America’s two biggest oil companies banked huge third-quarter profits, benefiting from the disruption in energy markets after drones took out major oil refineries in Russia and the Middle East. The fuel-making divisions at ExxonMobil turned in their highest quarterly earnings ever, while churning out fuel for a global market buffeted by supply disruptions. Both companies are taking steps to boost their output of diesel, prices of which hit records in the U.S. in September. “The higher fuel prices clearly put real pressure on families and businesses, and the most meaningful response that we can make to higher global commodity prices is to pull every lever available to us to increase supply,” Neil Hansen, Exxon’s chief financial officer, said. “That’s what we’ve been doing.”

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High profits at oil companies can sometimes draw criticism from the White House. After Exxon and Chevron reported banner earnings in July, President Trump said they should return profits to the public. His criticisms echoed those of former President Joe Biden, who accused the industry of price gouging in 2022. High fuel prices haven’t yet weighed too heavily on the U.S. economy, which grew faster than economists predicted at a 3.4% annual rate in the third quarter. Exxon’s earnings climbed to $15.4 billion, up 104% over the same period last year and the highest since 2022. Its adjusted per-share earnings of $4.23 beat analysts’ expectations of $4.12, according to FactSet. The oil company produced 5.8 million barrels a day of refined products globally—while setting a record in North America—and sent $9.4 billion to investors via dividends and share repurchases. Chevron’s profits rose to $9.9 billion, almost tripling its results from the year-earlier period. Its adjusted per-share earnings of $5.28 topped analysts’ expectations of $4.87. Its U.S. refineries processed a record 1.1 million barrels a day of crude. Rising output in Venezuela contributed to a 19% jump in international oil-production profits to $2.4 billion. Both companies boosted fuel production near their utmost limits to take advantage of soaring diesel prices, while exporting record amounts of fuel.

The midterms may revive a dying brand: The oil-state Democrat

Next week’s midterm elections could usher in the revival of a rare type of politician: Democratic senators representing states rich in fossil fuels and Republicans. Moderate Democrats view potential wins from Senate candidates like James Talarico of Texas and Mary Peltola of Alaska as a way to broaden the party’s tent on energy issues heading into what’s expected to be a competitive 2028 election cycle. Either candidate winning office in what have for decades been Republican-led states would be a major electoral upset — and potentially challenge the sway environmental groups have had with the party in recent decades. Peltola “will stand up to anyone to increase Alaskan energy production,” her campaign spokesperson, Harry Child, said in a statement. During her tenure in the House, she pushed for the Biden administration to approve the $8 billion Willow project, a large-scale oil drilling proposal in Alaska, despite pushback to the development from other Democrats.

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If elected, Talarico has similarly pledged to defend Texas’ oil and gas industry, including potentially from his own party. But that pledge could be tested by Democratic efforts to bring oil and gas executives to testify before lawmakers on Capitol Hill next Congress regarding rising fuel prices. Talarico’s campaign did not respond to a question from POLITICO on whether he would support the subpoenaing of oil and gas executives in the next Congress. Their potential arrival in Washington comes as candidates heading into 2028 are searching for a winning energy message that simultaneously acknowledges voters’ affordability and climate concerns, said former Democratic Sen. Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, a significant oil-producing state. “One thing the Democratic Party has come to the realization [on] is that you aren’t going to get good climate policy unless you have affordable energy policy,” said Heitkamp, who left office after losing her reelection bid in 2018. “You have to be fuel agnostic.” Heitkamp, along with former Louisiana Sen. Mary Landrieu and West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, are among the alumni of what had been at one time a relatively robust group: Senate Democrats who represented states with heavy fossil fuel production. Successive elections — and the Democrats’ hewing closer to environmental groups as a voting base ’ have whittled down that group’s membership severely in recent decades.

Tarrant GOP ballot board judge accused of violating Texas election law

A Republican ballot board judge has been accused of breaking the election code in the ballot-counting process. The ballot board is charged by state election code to count mail-in and overseas ballots as well as oversee when the election judges bring in the hard drive of ballots from each polling location on Election Day. Amie Super, the Republican ballot board judge, is in charge of scheduling individuals from the Democratic, Libertarian and Republican parties to count ballots. According to a Secretary of State attorney, Super has been in violation of the Texas Election Code for scheduling ballot board members in a lopsided manner.

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The email from the attorney was sent to Democratic Chair Allison Campolo, who then shared it with Election Administrator Clint Ludwig and Republicans Sheriff Bill Waybourn, County Judge Tim O’Hare, GOP Chair Tim Davis and District Attorney Phil Sorrells. Steven Lawrence, who was copied on the email, shared the message with the Star-Telegram. “While ballot board is convened to qualify and process ballots, the representation of the ballot board should contain equal representation from each party that submitted a list,” Secretary of State attorney Lena Proft said in the email. “And in general, when a schedule is being created for ballot board members, it should be done in a way that does not favor one party over another.” Elizabeth Miller, who is on the Libertarian Party ballot board list, said Super did not schedule her for the majority of early voting. Super did not respond to multiple calls and a text from the Star-Telegram. The Republicans are trying to “stuff the ballot board,” Miller said. Once the Libertarian Party made it clear it would sue, Super began scheduling the ballot board evenly, Miller said. The Election Board, which approves the lists of ballot board members, convened Thursday to add more individuals from each party to the combined list. Miller said the ballot board is now having to work around the clock to get ballots counted as a result of the slow start because of Super’s scheduling.

Led by Trump, Republicans close midterms with ugly personal attacks

In Kansas, Senator Roger Marshall, a vulnerable Republican, baselessly said his Democratic opponent “probably is grooming” children. In Texas, Republicans have cast James Talarico, the Democratic Senate nominee, as a “freak” and insinuated he is gay, secretly a vegan, and obsessed with transgender children because he made statements supporting them in the past. And in Michigan, Republicans have targeted the Democratic Senate nominee, Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, with Islamophobic attacks. President Trump has described Dr. El-Sayed as a “vicious, violent jihadist.” Facing a backlash over rising prices and working to overcome the president’s deep unpopularity, Republicans across the country have tarred their opponents with false, inflammatory and deeply personal attacks in the final stretch of the midterm election. In many cases, they are following the lead of a president who has repeatedly rewritten the rules of acceptable discourse in American politics. Many of the attacks have drawn little pushback from within the party, but some Republicans say they are concerned by the trend.

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“It’s awful,” said former Senator Jeff Flake, an Arizona Republican and critic of Mr. Trump. Mr. Flake, who is backing candidates in both parties in the midterms, said Republicans had gone down a darker road in their messaging: “We’ve gotten progressively more crass and crude and vulgar. But this seems to be a new level.” The strategy risks turning off some moderate voters who see the rhetoric as over-the-top or offensive, political observers said. But it could be effective at energizing the Republican base. Democrats, who have widely condemned the Republicans’ attacks, worry the lines will land with some voters. Democrats themselves have at times used strikingly personal attacks, often accusing Republicans of corruption. And some Democrats have imitated the president’s crude approach: Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office, for example, made social-media posts this year suggesting that various conservatives were gay. But in the midterms the Republican attacks stand out for their viciousness. American political campaigns have long been awash in negative and dubious attacks by both parties — in debate lines, TV commercials and stump speeches — but this bitter, hard-fought cycle may set a new standard. Some political scientists said this election season had devolved into the most negative, dark campaign in modern American history. “I think it’s the worst,” said Christina Greer, a political science professor at Fordham University. She attributed the tone to candidates’ desire to package their message for social media, and to Republicans’ mirroring of Mr. Trump: “He’s opened a portal to the degradation of our electoral system.”

State Stories

Grand jury indicts ICE officer for striking Houston immigrant with vehicle

A grand jury indicted Mario Alberto Morales, an Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent who allegedly ran over Houston immigrant Miguel Parra-Hernandez, Harris County District Attorney Sean Teare, alongside Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez, announced on Friday. Morales was indicted for the second-degree felony offense of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. On Oct. 10, the agent allegedly struck Parra-Hernandez with his vehicle, breaking his leg and ankle. An ICE spokesperson claimed Parra-Hernandez ran in front of the agent's vehicle while they were trying to arrest a different man and said he was fleeing the scene after an attempted traffic stop. Immigrants rights advocacy groups and Parra-Hernandez's attorney have disputed ICE's account.

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Surveillance video of the incident appeared to show the agent driving towards Parra-Hernandez as he ran away from the car and into a parking lot. "An ICE badge does not give you a free rein to injure, kill, or violate the constitutional rights of anyone," Teare said. "My hope is this prosecution will do more than just seek justice for the Parra-Hernandez family and Mr. Parra-Hernandez. I hope it also sends a loud and clear message to every ICE officer who feels they have a free pass to terrorize our streets." Morales’ attorney, David Lindenmuth, told Houston Public Media his client planned to surrender himself on Monday. He said Morales did not intentionally strike Parra-Hernandez, and he argued the case was “political prosecution.” “This was nothing more than an accident, and the driving force behind this accident is somebody who fled from law enforcement,” Lindenmuth said. In a statement to Houston Public Media, a spokesperson with ICE called the indictment a "political stunt by Houston sanctuary politicians," and asserted "federal officers acting in the course of their duties can only be investigated by other federal agencies." Teare said it is "patently false" that his office cannot investigate.

Paxton’s Fort Worth rally attended by busload of supporters from rural counties

Supporters were bused into Fort Worth from surrounding rural counties for U.S. Senate nominee Ken Paxton’s campaign stop Saturday morning. The Republican attorney general has been trailing in the polls heading into Election Day on Tuesday. Lt. Gov Dan Patrick, a Houston Republican, spoke last week in Mansfield, warning that thousands fewer Republican voters had gone to the voting booth compared to Democrats. When Paxton’s Democratic opponent, James Talarico, came to Fort Worth to rally on the first day of early voting, there were roughly 1,400 in the audience. Paxton’s rally on the same day saw about 250 people.

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The 10 a.m. rally Saturday drew about 175 people, about 70 of whom arrived on a charter bus from Runaway Bay in Wise County. Cullen Yards, where the event took place, is in what Republicans claim as the last red urban county in the United States, Tarrant County. JD Enright, Paxton’s longtime friend, paid for the bus and told the Star-Telegram there were people from Wise County and Jack County loaded up to support the Republican nominee. When the attendees stepped off the bus, Enright was there to shake every hand, and thank them for coming.

How Texas could end up paying an Israeli company billions for water

Plans are advancing on the Gulf Coast of Texas for an enormous seawater desalination plant which, if built, would be part of one of the largest water infrastructure developments in the country. Unlike other projects, this one wouldn’t belong to the public, but to a private, foreign water supplier. IDE Technologies, an Israeli water treatment giant that operates some of the largest seawater desalination plants in the world, was awarded the contract for the landmark Harbor Island project on Corpus Christi Bay this summer by the Nueces River Authority, a small state water agency. “For our company, globally, this is Project One,” IDE regional sales director Mark Ellison told the NRA board of directors at its September meeting. “Our top priority.” A 60-year-old, formerly state-owned firm, IDE has built more than 400 desalination plants in 40 countries, according to the company.

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In Texas, rapid growth and intensifying droughts have stretched present water supplies to their limits. Generations of state leaders have touted the promise of seawater desalination plants, which would produce freshwater from the salty Gulf of Mexico. But Texas still awaits its first such facility. Today, IDE’s Harbor Island project is the largest of five seawater desalination plants planned in the state. The development of seawater desalination in Texas would mark a breakthrough for the state, unlocking a new, abundant source of water from the ocean. But it would come at a high cost to consumers, and would mark a dramatic transfer of the public water supply to private ownership. “We’ve been here for a decade getting ready to get this started,” said Ellison, a former state water official during a presentation last month to officials in Corpus Christi, a major industrial port and the nation’s largest export hub for crude oil. “We’re moving very actively to get going.” It would be the largest desalination plant in the Western Hemisphere, according to IDE, eventually producing up to 100 million gallons per day of freshwater.

Austin could treat data centers like ‘adult businesses’ under new regulations

On the edge of town lies a peek at the possible predicament for data centers in Austin. Off U.S. 290, drivers can find “Pancy Inc” and “Bare Cabaret,” two businesses the city’s code of ordinances would define as “adult-oriented.” These businesses and data centers may share a similar fate by way of regulations moving through city hall. In a city memo released Oct. 28, staff showed council members and Mayor Kirk Watson the path forward for regulating data centers. The action followed an August resolution approved by council, directing staff to use Austin’s land development code for data center restrictions. Staff recommended council take a two-phase approach to the “regulatory framework” ahead.

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The first would define a data center in Austin’s books and focus on updating Title 4 of the city code to include these facilities housing computer servers. The second may establish land use through zoning and use peer city research and “targeted engagement” to draft policy. “Folks want reassurance that these polluting, noise making, light emitting facilities won’t be cited where people live and play and work,” said Mike Siegel, who represents District 7 on council. Siegel mentioned Austin’s Title 4 already regulates businesses that may be “undesirable” for neighborhoods. He said such examples include, “adult arcades” — a place where entertainment showing “sexual activity” may be viewed. It may take until May 2027 for Austin to approve a final framework for regulation, but Siegel expects a ban on large data centers to take place in December. “Even a smaller data center needs to be allowed within the city limits. And so, that’ll be a comprehensive set of regulations informed by community engagement.”

CPS Energy, Project Marvel top San Antonio’s legislative priorities

San Antonio city leaders have approved their priorities for the upcoming state legislative session, including defending the city’s publicly owned utilities while seeking state support for the downtown Sports and Entertainment District, known as Project Marvel, alongside major infrastructure projects. City Council approved its legislative agenda Thursday without discussion as part of its consent agenda, ahead of the 90th Texas Legislature’s opening on Jan. 12, 2027. The agenda outlines four major priorities: preserving the city’s municipally owned utilities, supporting legislation and funding opportunities for Project Marvel, securing funding for flood infrastructure and advancing the proposed South Texas Parkway.

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Among the city’s most immediate concerns is a proposal from Gov. Greg Abbott to open San Antonio’s electricity market to private competition, a move that could threaten a major source of revenue for the city as it faces ongoing budget challenges. Abbott announced the proposal in August, arguing that allowing customers to choose their electricity providers would lower utility bills and prevent cities from using revenue generated by publicly owned utilities to fund unrelated municipal services. CPS Energy, which is owned by the city, transfers up to 14% of its gross revenue to San Antonio’s general fund. The utility is budgeted to contribute approximately $559.7 million to the city in fiscal year 2027, making it one of San Antonio’s largest sources of revenue. City and CPS Energy officials have defended the publicly owned utility model, arguing that it keeps electricity rates affordable while ensuring revenue generated by the utility stays in the community rather than going to private investors. The city’s legislative agenda calls for preserving local ownership and governance of both CPS Energy and the San Antonio Water System while opposing legislation that would undermine their financial sustainability or reduce the city’s return on investment. The proposal comes as San Antonio continues to navigate financial challenges after approving its fiscal year 2027 budget in September, which included approximately $90 million in spending reductions over two years, increased city fees and the city’s first property tax increase in more than three decades to address a projected $158 million budget shortfall.

Frost Bank parent gives Texas Stock Exchange a big boost

Cullen/Frost Bankers Inc., whose Frost Bank has served Texans since 1868, is bringing its stock listing home to Texas. The San Antonio-based bank parent plans to switch its shares from the New York Stock Exchange to the Texas Stock Exchange, a move that underscores its Texas roots as the fledgling exchange seeks to establish itself as a rival to New York. “In the Texas Stock Exchange, we found a natural home for the listing of the shares of the preeminent Texas-based financial institution,” Cullen/Frost Chairman and CEO Phil Green said in an interview. Cullen/Frost will begin trading at its new home Nov. 12. It will keep its ticker CFR. Shareholders will notice no changes, Green said. “There’s no impact on investors,” he added.

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Adding Frost marks a coup for the Dallas-based exchange. Frost is the largest bank based in Texas, with about $55 billion in assets, and ranks among the 50 largest banks in the country. “America’s economic center of gravity is shifting to Texas, and Cullen/Frost has been helping lay the foundation for over 150 years,” James H. Lee, the Texas Stock Exchange’s chairman and CEO, said in a statement. “Their decision to list with TXSE reflects a shared conviction — that a strong, Texas-based exchange strengthens the flow of capital and the growth of financial-sector jobs across our state. We are proud to have earned the primary listing of the largest Texas-headquartered bank and look forward to a long and productive partnership.” The switch ends Cullen/Frost’s 29-year affiliation with the New York Stock Exchange. During a video call, Green pulled a money clip from his pocket that NYSE officials gave him, engraved with the date Cullen/Frost began trading — Aug. 14, 1997 — and its ticker symbol at the time, CFBI. Green said there was “no hard sell” by NYSE officials to persuade Cullen/Frost not to leave. Texas Stock Exchange officials contacted Cullen/Frost “early on” to make the jump, he added.

U.S. Attorney's office charges five people with election crimes

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Texas recently charged five noncitizens with election-related crimes. The charges, most of them brought earlier this week and announced Friday by U.S. Attorney Aaron Reitz, claim that four of the five people are lawful permanent residents, and that one is a DACA recipient. They are accused of either unlawfully voting in past federal elections, lying on immigration documents or falsely claiming American citizenship. Three of the five — Mohammed Omar Hassan of Houston, Ali Khan of La Porte, and Diego Benavides Rodriguez of Laredo — are accused of illegally voting in the 2024 presidential election. Jose Vazquez-Mendoza of Port Isabel, was accused in mid-October of illegally voting in the 2022 midterm election. Karen Hinojosa-Martinez of McAllen was charged for making a false statement under oath in May 2025 on her application for naturalization when asked if she ever registered to vote or voted in a U.S. election.

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“Anybody who says that you don’t need to be concerned about election integrity is either grossly ignorant or lying to you,” Reitz said as he announced the new charges. The timing of the announcement is unusual, and comes as the Trump administration has brought a slew of election-related legal actions in the runup to next week’s midterms. The Department of Justice has a long-accepted practice of avoiding overt investigative actions against candidates in the weeks before an election, or other public steps that could be perceived as attempting to influence a political outcome. The Justice Department has recently brought similar illegal voting charges in Pennsylvania, California, New York and Nevada. Democrats and voting rights advocates warn the actions are meant to sow distrust ahead of a midterm election that could upend President Donald Trump’s final two years in office. In the lead-up to November, the president has also revamped his claims of a stolen election in 2020, a conspiracy that Reitz has previously echoed. On Thursday, the Justice Department sent letters to elections officials in Texas and other states threatening "up to a year in prison" if they fail to comply with a law mandating the preservation of election records.

Collin County has changed. Will Paxton have home court advantage?

Cyndi Darland has long been a fan of Ken Paxton. But even in the attorney general’s political backyard, she worries Republicans may be losing their grip. Darland, a GOP precinct chair in Princeton, has watched new subdivisions spring up and new residents pour into Collin County. She’s concerned those changes could hurt Paxton in his Senate showdown with Democrat James Talarico. “If we lose Collin County, we lose Texas, and if we lose Texas, it's going to be a snowball to lose the United States of America,” Darland said. For Paxton, Collin County is more than reliable Republican territory. It’s where he launched his political career, winning a Texas House seat in 2002, and built his reputation as a conservative willing to challenge the GOP establishment. He’s made several campaign stops there in recent weeks. But the county that helped make Paxton a political force is changing.

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Corporate headquarters and an influx of racially diverse, college-educated residents have transformed Plano, Frisco, McKinney and Allen. Voter registrations have jumped 30% since 2018, but those new voters aren't necessarily Republicans. President Donald Trump won Collin County with just 51% of the vote in 2020, while Republican Sen. Ted Cruz captured slightly more than 52% against Democrat Beto O’Rourke in 2018. Four years later, Democrat Mihaela Plesa flipped a Texas House seat, becoming the first Democrat to win one in the county in almost three decades. More than 58% of Collin County residents have bachelor’s degrees, compared with about 35% statewide, a difference University of Houston political scientist Brandon Rottinghaus said could benefit Democrats. “The diploma divide is one of the biggest predictors in the scholarship,” Rottinghaus said. Collin County GOP chairman Byron Henry, whose daughter went to school with Paxton’s daughter, said the suburbs continue attracting conservatives from Democratic-led states. Demographic changes have eroded Republicans’ once-commanding advantage but he predicts Paxton will prevail. “It certainly has been redder in the past,” Henry said. “Ten years ago, it would probably be a no-brainer that he would win not just Collin County, but statewide.”

How Texas’s first openly gay legislator did the unimaginable

Decades ago this man did my family a kindness that we will never be able to repay, at the moment of our greatest vulnerability. Now, as he struggled to get out of his chair and reached for his cane, I had no choice but to accept that Glen Maxey was finally, impossibly, an old man. He had told me many times, “I’m retired.” And now I could see it for myself: Glen Maxey was retired. The former state representative and longtime political activist lives in a modest rental in North Austin that smells of cat with his roommate, Hector Corona, who is half his age. The walls of his house are festooned haphazardly with pictures from throughout his life and career, and of the progressive idols that have inspired him to take consequential action and assume great risk. The outside of the house fairly shouts his politics, from the large sign facing the street that reads “DEMOCRAT” to the dozen signs planted nearer the street for the candidates he is supporting this year. The display leaves little mystery as to who Maxey is or what he believes or what gets him out of bed in the morning. As he has aged, though, his world has gotten smaller. Never a good driver, Maxey doesn’t see so well anymore, so he has largely surrendered his car keys. If any significant driving needs to be done, Corona does it. So these days you will most often find Maxey at home. His body seems well aware that he is now 74, but his mind thinks he is decades younger and still in the thick of things.

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In late spring, with his garden in the ground, Maxey began to get nervous that he didn’t yet have a project that would get him involved in this fall’s election. He has been registering voters since he was a student at Sam Houston State University in the early seventies, and despite the sense of futility that might come with taking a stand for liberal causes in Texas, he carries on undaunted. To do his part for the upcoming elections, Maxey had an idea. On a late-summer evening he convened a statewide Zoom call to outline his plan to a community of volunteers that he has cultivated over his decades of activism. As the Zoom meeting rouses to life, there is the sound of dozens of counties trying to log on at once; it is the sound of Maxey’s volunteer infrastructure reporting for duty. Lots of people have Zoomed in from their cars. A woman named Mary Ann was driving through Greenville with her husband, heading home from Applebee’s, and had to pull over when she realized she wasn’t going to make it home in time. A man calls in from his car in Walker County. Someone’s dome light is on and someone else can see it and there is a brief, earnest negotiation about turning it off. And somewhere in the middle of it all is Maxey himself, waiting for the noise to settle so he can explain how, in just under two months, he has accidentally built what he believes to be the largest all-volunteer voter-registration operation in the history of Texas. The group can hear his voice before they can see him. There he is now. On Zoom, Maxey generally commits only to showing the top half of his head, peering cautiously from the bottom half of the screen as if he is not entirely sure he trusts this voodoo. “It ain’t going to be rocket science to do this project,” he tells the group, and then he explains the idea and where it originated. Six weeks earlier, Maxey had had lunch with Jeremy Smith, a former Army officer and the CEO of Civitech, an Austin voter-technology firm that Maxey had helped midwife into existence in 2018, when he introduced its two founders to each other. “I don’t have a project to do that is meaningful,” Maxey told Smith. What he was thinking, he said, was something modest. In order to maximize registration and turnout in vote-rich Austin, he wanted to print voter-registration applications, put them in bags, and organize volunteers to hang them on apartment doors across Travis County. The boost to turnout in Austin could provide the winning margin in close races. “Why don’t you do it all?” “What do you mean by ‘all’?” Smith meant Texas. All of it. He could print as many applications as Maxey wanted; the only question was how big Maxey was willing to dream from his easy chair. The plan grew and grew, until by the time Maxey had to tell the printer a final number, the operation would target 1.3 million doors across the state with 2.6 million voter-registration applications, two per packet, which would take a Dallas printing plant two and a half weeks to produce and would then be loaded onto a truck and driven all over the state.

Hinojosa temporarily blocked from access to Abbott, Musk emails

Back in April of last year, The Texas Newsroom submitted a Public Information Act request for Gov. Greg Abbott’s and his office’s communications with Elon Musk and his Texas-based companies. In return, they got 1,374 pages from the governor’s office, and all but about 200 were redacted or totally blacked out. The emails, flyers, and letters included an invitation to an aviation happy hour, and another to a SpaceX launch, per The Texas Newsroom. Matthew Taylor, a member of Abbott’s legal team, had explained the document redactions as containing “information that is intimate and embarrassing and not of legitimate concern to the public,” KUT first reported. Taylor also cited exceptions for information about how the state of Texas attracts and expands business. Musk is the richest man on Earth and owns several Texas-based companies: SpaceX, Starlink, Tesla, X, the Boring Company, Neuralink, and Terafab.

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He receives grants and property tax breaks, such as for the semiconductor chip factory, Terafab, from the state of Texas totaling in the billions of dollars. Austin-based attorney Jennifer Riggs, who used to serve in the Texas Attorney General’s Office and now practices law related to Texas PIA, suggested that such redaction claims for public information have gone too far. “I think we’re going towards the other extreme, where we have so many exceptions that it’s time to stop and say, ‘Wait, what do these exceptions really do? Do they really protect legitimate trade secrets, or do they let government enter into agreements with industry that the public has a legitimate interest in?’” Riggs told us. Gubernatorial candidate and current House Rep. Gina Hinojosa requested the unredacted version of The Texas Newsroom’s document on Sept. 29. The governor’s office denied her request on Oct. 13. Last Monday, Oct. 19, Hinojosa sued Abbott in Travis County for access to the unredacted Abbott-Musk communications.

How BlackRock became Texas’ comeback kid

During a September panel at the Texas Tribune Festival focused on building the Texas workforce, John Kelly, one of BlackRock’s head corporate honchos, pointed to a recent Brookings report indicating that investments in the U.S. data center boom could total up to $10.3 trillion between 2025 and 2032. It was, as Kelly put it, a “generational” opportunity for his company, the world’s largest investment manager with control of more than $15 trillion in assets. Around $500 billion of that is invested in publicly traded companies in Texas. Referring to his multinational investment firm as the “largest investor” in the state, Kelly, who is BlackRock’s global head of corporate affairs, explained that his clients want the financial behemoth to invest in training programs for electricians to meet the state’s massive data center skills gap. But he went slightly off topic during his answer. “It’s our clients’ money, right? … It’s important,” he said, “and I thank you for letting me tell that story—because in Texas, we’ve not always told our story, so I have to sometimes use opportunities like this.”

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That appeared to be a likely reference to the once-embattled asset giant’s almost completely successful campaign to get back in the good graces of Republican state leadership which had, until last summer, blacklisted the firm over its “Environmental, Social, and Governance” (ESG) investment practices—a now-verboten investment strategy that prioritizes shareholder proposals and investments that promote social and environmental justice principles. The panel at the Tribune event, for which BlackRock was a “premier” sponsor, followed a May event in which BlackRock CEO Larry Fink joined Governor Greg Abbott at a technical college in Waco to announce the firm’s $30 million philanthropic gift meant to train 12,000 Texans in the electrical trades. BlackRock’s investment in the college represents one of the firm’s largest dealings with a public institution since the passage of Senate Bill 13, the state’s 2021 anti-ESG law, which banned state entities from contracting with companies that divest from fossil fuels. That law was ruled unconstitutional in February, and an appeal is ongoing, but BlackRock had already worked its way off the law’s resultant blacklist in June 2025. The Texas Comptroller’s office, which had initially listed the company in 2022, confirmed to the Texas Observer that, since BlackRock was cleared last June, the comptroller’s office—which manages investments for the state, including a new Strategic Bitcoin Reserve—made at least two purchases of a BlackRock-managed Bitcoin exchange product. The Observer also found that the Permanent school Fund paid Blackrock about $8.3 million for investment-related services in recent years, including while the firm was blacklisted.

Democrats ride THC ban backlash in race for lieutenant governor

With a dwindling selection of THC products on their shelves, Texas hemp shops are pitching customers something new this election season: political revenge. Some stores have registered people to vote. Others are displaying voter guides near checkout counters, making the case for hemp-friendly candidates from both parties, although most are Democrats. But most of the industry's political anger is directed at one man: Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who wields enormous influence over legislation by appointing Senate committee chairs and influencing which bills come up for a vote by the full Senate. Patrick made banning hemp products that get people high a top priority last year, arguing that they pose health risks and the state can't adequately regulate thousands of retailers. After Gov. Greg Abbott vetoed the sweeping ban Patrick championed, the lieutenant governor made clear he wasn't backing down, even if it cost him his job.

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"I'm not going to legalize marijuana in Texas. And if people want to vote me out of office for that, so be it," Patrick said at a June 2025 news conference. For Democrats it was a campaign gift, practically pre-rolled. "I was a little bit surprised," said state Rep. Vikki Goodwin of Austin, the Democratic candidate for lieutenant governor. "It didn't seem like a very good political move when so many people are buying these products. And how is it so different than alcohol?" Goodwin acknowledged to KUT News that liberalizing cannabis laws hadn't been a major legislative priority for her. But she had a voting record the industry could embrace, opposing Patrick's proposed ban and supporting legislation to expand medical cannabis and reduce penalties for marijuana possession. "She's an ally to the industry as a whole," said Sarah Todd, executive director of the Texas Cannabis Policy Center. Goodwin spent much of the past year meeting with hemp business owners, learning about the industry and promising to support regulations similar to those governing alcohol, including age restrictions and rules on packaging and marketing.

D-FW domestic violence homicides increased last year, report says

At least 160 Texans were killed by a current or former intimate partner in 2025, with Dallas County reporting the second-highest number of homicides across Texas, according to a report from the Texas Council on Family Violence. The report, released annually in October to mark the start of Domestic Violence Awareness Month, found the youngest victim was 16 and the oldest was 89. Of those victims, 136 were women and 24 were men. Harris County reported the highest number of domestic violence homicides, but it saw an overall decrease compared to 2024, as reported by the Houston Chronicle. As a region, North Texas saw an increase in domestic violence homicides. According to the report, Dallas County recorded 21 deaths, up from 17 in 2024, while Tarrant County reported 16, an increase from 11 in 2025.

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Amy Norton, chief development officer at Genesis Women’s Shelter and Support, sat down with The Dallas Morning News to discuss what North Texans should know about domestic violence, including potential warning signs, types of abuse and how to find help. The Dallas-based nonprofit has spent decades helping women and children experiencing domestic violence. Founded in 1985, Genesis has grown into a multi-location operation supporting survivors by providing shelter, counseling and other services. “Domestic violence is so nuanced,” Norton said. “Every woman who comes to us has a different story, different circumstances, a different safety plan … and because of that, we have to approach it differently and a bit more customized.” While emergency shelter is a critical service for individuals experiencing domestic violence, Norton said much of Genesis’ work focuses on helping women before they leave an abusive relationship. That can include counseling, identifying risks, developing a safety plan or preparing financially. “If she can reach out to us before she needs to flee, then we’re able to help her get her ducks in a row,” Norton said. “That [way] when she is ready to leave, she’s that much more prepared.”

National Stories

Attorneys for Alaska say 'meritless' Trump demand to set aside Senate ballots 'not even possible'

Alaska's Republican-run state government on Saturday urged a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit filed at President Donald Trump's direction to stop the certification of a possible Democratic win in that state's pivotal U.S. Senate race, writing that there is "no reason for this Court to entertain this meritless lawsuit any longer." The scathing filing from the state's attorney general's office comes as U.S. District Court Judge Sharon L. Gleason set a deadline of Saturday for arguments over whether she should dismiss the lawsuit without even a hearing. The complaint from the U.S. Department of Justice has been roundly criticized by election law experts and demands that the judge halt certification of a possible win by Democrat Mary Peltola until it is determined whether voters were confused by the presence of a second candidate on the ballot with the same name as her main rival, Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan.

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The Department of Justice on Friday added a request that the judge separate all ballots showing votes for the second Dan Sullivan until it can be determined whether voters were fooled into wasting their votes for a spoiler candidate. In its Saturday filing, Alaska said this was "both disturbing and impossible." It added there would be no way to do that without violating voter privacy. Trump also demanded that Peltola be prosecuted after The New York Times this week reported that internal texts and posts appear to show the Democrats' campaign was involved in recruiting the second Sullivan, a retired school teacher in the remote fishing village of Petersburg, onto the ballot. But the state filing notes that the two Sullivans are distinguished from each other on the ballot — the senator is listed as a Republican and the incumbent, while the other simply as "Daniel J. Sullivan Jr." "State officials carefully designed the ballot to minimize voter confusion," Alaska officials wrote. "The Court should immediately dismiss this lawsuit with prejudice and allow state officials to conduct the general election — including ballot counting and certification — free from unwarranted federal interference." The Trump administration argued that a preamble to the 1990s law governing voter registration gave it the responsibility for ensuring states maintained the "integrity" of federal elections. It has said it's simply trying to combat fraud by preventing the Democrat from being declared the victor in a race that could determine which party controls the U.S. Senate.

Will MAHA endure as part of the GOP coalition? Iowa offers an early test

In the closing days of the 2026 campaign, Iowa Republican gubernatorial nominee Zach Lahn is trying to court both conservatives and those in the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) movement. As he attempts to turn out both the Republican base and MAHA voters, Lahn is trying to blend traditionally conservative priorities with those that MAHA activists have championed. “The fight to pull the Covid vaccine off the market is a pro-life issue,” he said at a rally Wednesday evening put on by the MAHA PAC at a convention center just outside of Des Moines, as hundreds of attendees snacked on complimentary Steak ‘n Shake. Lahn has long centered the MAHA movement in his campaign, in which he trails the Democratic nominee, state auditor Rob Sand. Earlier this year, Lahn pulled off an upset win in the GOP primary against Representative Randy Feenstra, who carried President Donald Trump’s endorsement.

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Lahn has supported ending vaccine mandates for Iowa schools and blamed high cancer rates in the state on agricultural runoff and contaminated water. The latter campaign theme has put off some farm groups in his state — the state’s Farm Bureau did not endorse him. “We have environmental issues that are going on,” Lahn told National Review in a brief interview. “We have water pollution issues that are going on — processed food, all these things. And here’s the thing: I really believe the people of Iowa understand this, and we’re trying to give them better options.” With less than a week to go before Election Day, Lahn is paying special attention to the MAHA voters who flocked to him in the primary. “This is a battle of corruption, of people that would put the bottom lines of a company ahead of the health of our children,” he said at Wednesday evening’s rally. Guests at the event included Florida surgeon general Joseph Ladapo, who has sought to end vaccine mandates in his state, and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who brought the MAHA movement into the Republican Party with his endorsement of Trump in 2024. “We have to figure out a way to grow food without poisoning our kids, without giving ourselves cancer, without destroying the soils that enrich us,” Kennedy said in his remarks. But as he attempts to energize his MAHA base, Lahn is also trying to ease the concerns of conservatives to whom MAHA priorities might be foreign.

Trump throws Mar-a-Lago drag and caviar party for Halloween

Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago was jam-packed with high-drag at his jungle-themed Halloween party on Saturday night. Pictures and social media posts show the party, held just three days before midterm elections where voters say affordability is a key issue, was a camp, spandex-and-glitter-filled affair far removed from the price of gas. Even caviar appeared to be part of the theme, with Golden Goat Caviar tagging Mar-a-Lago in a story showing a selection of their products and a “trick or treat” graphic.

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Trump arrived at the party around 8 p.m., bringing the White House press pool with him. The pool report, by Katherine Doyle of the Washington Post, briefly described the scene. “The ballroom room is decorated in a jungle theme, with guests circulating in costume and dining at tables with large green centerpieces. Pool spotted Lady Victoria Hervey dressed as a cheetah, and a number of guests in cheetah, leopard and tiger print dinner jackets,” she observed. Trump told reporters he had only had about 10 minutes to get ready for the party, and was dressed as himself. Other guests leaned into the theme which saw the room washed in deep green lights and filled with performers and guests in elaborate or barely-there costumes. Guests appeared to be a mix of Florida residents and visitors with Instagram biographies that described themselves variously as professional singers, real estate agents, investors, models and self-styled moguls. Party-goers posted videos and pictures from inside the gaudy get-together on their Instagram accounts. Footage from one partygoer, identified as Pochi Feuillet on Instagram, showed performers dressed in full body leotards depicting various animals, from leopards and tigers to zebras and snakes, surrounding a drumming man with a headdress onstage.

Inside the final days of Darline Graham’s reluctant Senate run

Darline Graham had just been sworn in to finish her late brother’s Senate term this summer when she was in the Oval Office trying to coax President Trump to support Lindsey Graham’s Russia sanctions bill. Trump was reluctant, but her brother had been obsessed with the bill, Graham said in an interview. Graham told the president that he could blame a grieving sister for any fallout. Trump chuckled and told her, “You’re tough.” She said it was then that Trump asked her to run for the full six-year term, something she said she hadn’t previously considered. Trump later halted most of the sanctions, leaving Graham privately disappointed. Her fate in South Carolina was now tied to the president’s. Public and internal polls show Graham tied with, or trailing, her Democratic rival, Dr. Annie Andrews, making the Palmetto State competitive in a way it hasn’t been for decades.

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In the first two weeks of October, Graham raised less than $600,000, while Andrews, a pediatrician and gun safety advocate, raised $4.5 million. Andrews has also picked up endorsements from some of the state’s prominent Republicans, including former Gov. David Beasley. On Thursday, Trump traveled to this South Carolina town about 30 miles south of Charlotte, N.C., to rally support for Graham. Several thousand showed up, but part of the large arena was blocked off, leaving much of it empty. “It’s just been absolutely brutal,” Graham said in an interview, referencing how she lost her brother and has competed in three different elections in a span of months, including a primary, a runoff and now the general election. “Campaigns are bad enough as they stand, but with all of that, it’s just been bad, times 10,” she said. Trump won South Carolina in 2024 by double-digits, and the reliably red state hasn’t voted for a Democrat statewide in two decades. Even though Trump’s approval has dropped in the state, with frustrations growing over gas prices and the Iran war, some consultants say Graham is still likely to eke out a tight victory buoyed by straight-ticket voters.

Binance resumes withdrawals following $6.3 billion hack, says 90% of stolen user assets are covered

Binance said Sunday that it has resumed withdrawals of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies following the record theft of around $6.3 billion in token assets from its hot wallets. “First batch network now opened in phase one of withdrawals is $BTC bitcoin network,” Binance said in an X post. It later said withdrawals have also been restored for the Ethereum Network and BNB Smart Chain. The exchange said Saturday that it has covered up to 90% of the assets in the heist announced Thursday. Separately, the FBI said late Saturday that ?it has determined North ?Korea ?was responsible for the ?theft. Binance also said it will continue to buy the remaining relevant token assets through market and over-the-counter channels until the covered amount reaches 100% for all tokens.

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“All BTC, ETH, USDT, BNB, SOL, USDC, XRP, USD1, RLUSD, and ZEC are fully backed 100%,” Binance said in a statement. “Binance will absorb the financial impact of these stolen funds, not our users.” The exchange said the outstanding 10% consists of tokens outside its top 10 that are “less liquid, which means they may take longer to source in the required amounts.” Binance said it is tapping its Secure Asset Fund for Users (SAFU), a portion of its Futures insurance fund, and its corporate treasury to replenish the assets. “Our commitment remains the same: Binance will fully cover the financial impact of the funds stolen in this incident. We will continue to demonstrate this commitment through measurable progress, transparent reporting, and concrete actions,” Binance said. Its “next milestone” will be resuming withdrawal services for users by Sunday, subject to security checks, while the exchange continues its investigation into the attack, it said. Binance declined to discuss additional details or updates on its investigation to CNBC, referring questions to its latest statement. It still isn’t clear how the attack — the largest crypto theft on record — took place. The FBI said malicious North Korean actors laundered Binance’s stolen ?assets by ?converting them into Ethereum. The agency expects that the thieves will convert the digital assets as they prepare them for “further laundering stages.” TRM Labs, a blockchain intelligence and AI investigations company, had initially pointed to North Korean hackers as the culprits. “Several features of this attack match earlier North Korea-linked heists, including the Bybit hack and the KelpDAO hack in April 2026: small Tornado Cash withdrawals funding an operator wallet, staging that began well before the theft, and signatures obtained in advance then executed in one burst,” the company said.

Top Kennedy Center official urged closure due to financial problems, not poor conditions, lawyers argue

Eighteen months after President Donald Trump stepped in to remake the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in his image, a top official worried about the Washington institution’s hemorrhaging finances urged for it to be shut down, according to court documents filed on behalf of the Ohio congresswoman seeking to stop the center from being shuttered. “She told him we need to get shut and need a unanimous vote,” reads a series of September text messages describing a conversation between the board of trustees Vice Chair Jennifer Fischer and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, who has been a driving force in the Trump administration’s efforts to renovate the Kennedy Center by, among other things, placing the president’s name on the building. “She said we are broke and borrowed money to pay the bills.” The tranche of documents filed Friday night on behalf of Rep. Joyce Beatty, an ex-officio board member, seek to undermine the Trump administration’s contention that the $200 million renovation it is pursuing is due to “dangerously dilapidated and decrepit” conditions that require it to be shuttered for two years.

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The Kennedy Center referred CNN to the Department of Justice for questions about the filing. CNN has reached out to the DOJ. A judge in the case has issued a temporary restraining order compelling the center to remain operating while the lawsuit continues, which Kennedy Center officials have done by continuing programming inside a portion of the campus known as the REACH. The Trump administration is seeking to have the judge’s order lifted. Lawyers for Beatty argued in the Friday filing that she and other trustees never saw an analysis by a contractor that contradicts the case for closing the center for two years over pursuing the renovations in phases. Instead, the lawyers say in a news release accompanying the filing, Trump and his managers appeared to have hidden that information from the board. According to Beatty’s attorneys, Kennedy Center Director Matt Floca insisted to the venue’s trustees that construction costs would double if the center took a phased approach. He based that assessment on a contractor’s report that used a preliminary estimate of the cost difference. But a revised estimate that was never seen by the board before it approved the building’s closure put that extra cost closer to $41 million, according to the filing.

As political ad spending skyrockets, broadcast TV remains king

The deluge of political advertising in this year’s midterm elections is shattering previous records. Almost half of that money is going to a surprising place: your local TV channel. Advertisers, following the changing viewing habits of Americans, have increasingly shifted their marketing dollars to social platforms, streaming channels and other digital media. Yet when it comes to federal and state races, politicians and PACs are brushing aside concerns that TV ads are costlier to produce and less efficient in targeting prospective voters — and are showering local stations with billions of dollars. This election will show how much that calculus still holds in a transformed media environment. “I think the Democrats and Republicans are both spending a disproportionate amount of their budgets on broadcast TV at this point,” said Danielle Butterfield, a Democratic strategist and the executive director of Priorities USA.

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“Because you can see so clearly what’s happening on the other side, there’s this muscle memory needing to chase and match.” Political consultants and television executives argue that while broadcast TV may not be what it once was, those ads can reach a larger swath of the population more quickly than through other media. And that audience watching their nightly news programs, not to mention their favorite sitcoms, dramas and football games, is a devoted one. “Local anchors and reporters are trusted, familiar voices,” said Gregg Siegel, senior vice president of national sales at Sinclair Broadcast Group, one of the country’s largest owners of local TV stations. “They don’t just cover the communities they serve. They live there, raise their families there and are part of the fabric of those communities. That connection creates a level of credibility that is difficult to replicate on other platforms.” The amount of money being spent on political advertising this election cycle is staggering, helping to boost the bottom lines of the biggest local broadcasting companies like Sinclair, Nexstar Media Group, Gray Media, Tegna and the E.W. Scripps Company. The research firm S&P Global projects broadcast television advertising this year to be 15 percent higher than the last nonpresidential election year in 2022. And political ad revenue alone is expected to account for 16.3 percent of total broadcast revenue for the year, which would be a record for a nonpresidential election year.

Hegseth digs in as confident Democrats plan to go on offense after midterms

Earlier this year, Senate Republicans decided to tighten the screws on Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. The Pentagon had, for months, stonewalled lawmakers’ request for materials related to the military’s deadly targeting of alleged drug traffickers in Latin America. So this spring, the GOP-led Senate Armed Services Committee made a threat: grant access to the documents or it would block one of the Trump administration’s political nominees. Hegseth relented, said two people familiar with the exchange, speaking like some others on the condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations and the secretary’s standing with Congress. Spokespeople for the committee and the Pentagon declined to address questions about the episode.

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The standoff, which has not been previously reported, illustrates Hegseth’s increasing susceptibility to congressional oversight and how he might attempt to navigate a shift in the balance of power on Capitol Hill should Democrats prevail in this week’s midterm elections. With limited exception, Republican lawmakers have declined to stand in Hegseth’s way while he has purged dozens of senior military leaders he’s deemed disloyal, waged an eight-month war in Iran without the consent of Congress and pursued an unprecedented campaign against the illicit drug trade. Democrats would give Hegseth far less room for maneuver once the next Congress convenes in January. Already, some are threatening to investigate and try to remove him from office if they reclaim a majority. Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in a statement that, “despite threats of sham witch hunts,” Hegseth is “100% committed” to leading the Defense Department “until the end” of President Donald Trump’s term and to advancing the president’s agenda for the military.

Copyright November 01, 2026, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved