Lead Stories

Harris’s loss triggers soul-searching, recriminations within Democratic Party

Kamala Harris’s defeat generated swift condemnation and soul-searching among Democrats, who are handing the White House back to a Republican they see as deeply flawed after their party failed to connect with voters preoccupied by inflation and illegal immigration. The loss stunned Democrats, who felt confident going into Election Day that they had energy and momentum on their side. Instead, voters across several swing states delivered a clear rebuke by shifting in favor of President-elect Donald Trump. The immediate reaction from party leaders was despondency. Asked who was to blame for the loss, one senior Democrat simply said “everyone.” The party lost ground with chunks of voters who used to be core to their coalition, including working-class voters and minorities, and lost rural areas in big numbers and failed to make up that deficit.

“This is a historic disaster of Biblical proportions. The Democratic Party, as it is, is dead. This is a historic realignment. There were Reagan Democrats. Now there are Trump Democrats,” said Chris Kofinis, a Democratic strategist and former chief of staff to centrist Sen. Joe Manchin (D., W.Va.). “The elites of this country alienated voters everywhere because they didn’t want to hear what working- and middle-class voters were screaming for four years—focus on us and our problems, not your agenda to destroy Trump,” Kofinis said. Trump made significant gains among Black and Latino voters, particularly among men, and was on track to sweep the battleground states, including Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Georgia, and narrowed the margins in typically safe Democratic states such as Illinois and New Jersey. Privately, Democrats were quick to point their finger at President Biden for running for re-election as an octogenarian and then, after a disastrous debate in June, stepping aside only after a tortured process. They now will spend four years pondering the vice president’s inability to defeat Trump despite his significant vulnerabilities, including 34 felony convictions.

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Trump and allies prepare to take power after decisive win over Harris

President-elect Donald Trump and his allies prepared Wednesday to take power after a decisive election victory that could hand Republicans unified control of government and give Trump a broad mandate to pursue an agenda of radical change. Vice President Kamala Harris called Trump to concede and then addressed supporters in the afternoon, saying she told Trump she would help with his transition and “engage in a peaceful transfer of power.” Republicans have clinched the Senate majority; the race for House control is still unsettled, but the GOP is on track to retaining control. Trump’s team has already zeroed in on some candidates for top appointments. Billionaire hedge fund investor John Paulson and economic adviser Scott Bessent are contenders for treasury secretary, according to multiple people familiar with the matter who, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe internal discussions. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Florida), who was a finalist to become Trump’s running-mate, and former acting director of national intelligence Richard Grenell are under consideration for secretary of state, people familiar with the deliberations said.

Another vice-presidential finalist, North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum (R), is expected to join the Cabinet, along with Vivek Ramaswamy, a primary rival-turned-ally to Trump, said people familiar with the deliberations. And people in Trump’s orbit have floated Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas) for defense secretary, according to a Trump adviser. The first big decision Trump must make is who will be his chief of staff. Susie Wiles, his top campaign adviser, is a leading contender, multiple Trump advisers said. Others who have been discussed include Brooke Rollins, who is part of a Trump-aligned outside group. Multiple advisers said Trump’s team had silently reviewed thousands of names for jobs — they did not want the spotlight before the election because Trump was superstitious and skeptical of a transition. The names are almost all recommendations from other Trump advisers, and a goal is to avoid disloyal picks who would want to subvert Trump’s agenda, the person said.

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House majority still in play as Republicans eye a red sweep

The race to control the House is undecided, though Republicans are already expressing early optimism about securing a governing trifecta with their new Senate majority and freshly minted President-elect Donald Trump. “As more results come in it is clear that, as we have predicted all along, Republicans are poised to have unified government in the White House, Senate and House,” Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson said Wednesday in a statement. That early confidence comes as Republicans need to win 12 more seats to maintain their majority, while Democrats need 33 more to flip control. According to NBC News’ race tracker, 20 key House districts remain uncalled. The others are so far unlikely to be flipped.

Among the remaining races are California’s 47th Congressional District, Maine’s 2nd and Alaska’s at-large district, where Republicans are looking to pick up seats, along with California’s 45th, one of the most expensive races in the country. “The path to take back the majority now runs through too close to call pick-up opportunities,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., said in a Wednesday statement. “The party that will hold the majority in the House of Representatives in January 2025 has yet to be determined. We must count every vote.” House GOP members entered the 2024 contest with a historically slim majority — 220 GOP seats to Democrats’ 212 with three vacancies. Democrats poured huge sums of money into House races, trying to flip the lower chamber. They far outspent their Republican rivals in many of the most competitive House races across the country.

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More than half of Latino Texans voted for Trump. Here's why.

Despite growing up in a liberal Mexican American household in Houston’s Denver Harbor neighborhood, Tessie Kempenski hasn’t supported a Democrat in a presidential election since Jimmy Carter in 1976. For decades, the 67-year-old has been an outlier as a Republican-supporting Latina, but when she woke up to the news Wednesday that Donald Trump had regained the White House — with unprecedented levels of Latino support nationwide — she felt vindicated. “What people don’t understand is my hairdresser, my nail salon, my cleaners, they all voted for Trump because they’re small businesses and they’re taking a hit (economically),” she said as she ate breakfast at the East End staple Doña Maria on Wednesday. “(Democrats) take us for granted and assume we’re going to agree with them on everything.”

Latinos in Texas and across the country voted for President-elect Trump in striking numbers in the 2024 election, weakening the Democratic voting base and helping contribute to the Republican victory on Tuesday. Exit polling by The Washington Post indicates that 55% of Latino voters in Texas, who make up about a third of the state’s electorate, voted for Trump in this election — a 14-point swing from the 41% who voted for him in 2020. And though Vice President Kamala Harris won a slim majority of Latino voters across the country, her eight-point lead amongst Latinos nationwide is a double-digit drop from Biden’s in 2020. The results could indicate that Republicans made significant inroads into one of Democrats’ most reliable voting blocs. “The realignment continues, and it’s a phenomenon to behold,” said Orlando Sanchez, former Harris County Treasurer and president of the Texas Latino Conservatives.

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State Stories

What to know about Donald Trump border policies that could affect Texas

President-elect Donald Trump campaigned on launching a historic border security crackdown and deporting a record number of migrants. Both initiatives and other proposed immigration policies would have a significant impact on Texas, which shares a 1,254-mile border with Mexico. Here are five things to know about immigration plans Trump discussed during the campaign: Mass deportations ‘on day one’ One of Trump’s key campaign promises was to deport a record number of undocumented migrants, a policy he plans to implement immediately. “On day one I will launch the largest deportation program in American history to get the criminals out,” Trump said at a rally last month at Madison Square Garden in New York City. “I will rescue every city and town that has been invaded and conquered, and we will put these vicious and bloodthirsty criminals in jail and kick them the hell out of our country as fast as possible.”

The number of undocumented migrants in the United States is unclear, but the Migration Policy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank in Washington, D.C., estimates it to be at least 11 million. In an interview with Time magazine published earlier this year, Trump said he plans to use local law enforcement and the National Guard to help with deportations. “I would have no problem using the military, per se,” Trump said. “We have to have safety in our country. We have to have law and order in our country.” Trump has previously pointed to a program under former President Dwight Eisenhower, known as “Operation Wetback,” a derogatory slur for Hispanic people, that used military tactics to round up and remove migrant workers. Will there be detention camps? Vice President-elect JD Vance told The New York Times last month that the administration could start with 1 million deportations a year, a massive jump from previous administrations. In Trump’s first four-year term, his administration deported about 1.5 million people, according to Department of Homeland Security data. Carrying out a massive number of deportations would require the federal government to add detention space to handle large-scale arrests. More than 37,000 people were in Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facilities on Sept. 8, according to data compiled by Syracuse University’s Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse. Stephen Miller, a senior adviser to Trump, told The New York Times last year that detention camps would likely be built “on open land in Texas near the border.” Trump told Time there is unlikely to be “much need” for camps because officials will attempt to quickly remove migrants.

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Why Y’all Street vs. Wall Street? TXSE CEO James Lee on lowering barriers, raising the bar

As investors and founders wandered the halls of the George W. Bush Presidential Center at Southern Methodist University making their pitches to each other, Texas Stock Exchange CEO James Lee prepared to make a different kind of pitch. Lee closed out the Venture Dallas summit on Oct. 30 with a talk on the progress of TXSE, but really he was making a pitch: Why Y’all Street over Wall Street. His take is that it’s too costly to go public but also that too many companies are public, and TXSE aims to remedy both by lowering barriers to and raising the bar for entry. That sounds like an oxymoron, but a discussion Lee and moderator Aaron Pierce, also Venture Dallas’ co-founder, had about Texas-based rocket company SpaceX makes the point more clear. It costs a lot of money to go public and then you’re subject to stricter regulations, but the tradeoff used to be greater access to capital and fluidity in the market. “If you’re SpaceX and you just did your last round at almost $300 billion valuation, there was no problem with capital, and there’s a fairly fluid secondary market for trading in those shares today, why would SpaceX go public?” Lee said.

SpaceX, is one of many companies staying private longer, which produces what Lee called a “troubling development” in the public markets: Though the market cap of the U.S. stock market has skyrocketed, the sheer number of public companies has decreased dramatically. Exact numbers vary based on where you look, but in the ‘90s the number of publicly traded companies stateside reached as many as 7,000 to 8,000, a far cry from today’s number. What’s troubling about that is that it isn’t a worldwide trend. Booned by sharp growth in Asia, the number of public companies worldwide has increased relatively steadily since 1975. “What’s happening that’s stalling access to the public markets are costs. And it’s cost associated with changing rules and reporting requirements,” he says. “They don’t have, in many cases, underlying congressional mandates. Often they’re passed or adopted without shareholder consent, and often they have conflicting or overlapping purposes. ... The net effect of this has been the cost to go public is as high today as it’s ever been.”

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CISNT helps local students stay on track for graduation

Communities In Schools of North Texas (CISNT) is a Lewisville-based nonprofit that works with students at risk of dropping out by surrounding them with a community of support to ensure they stay in school and achieve in life. It is part of a national organization that ensures every student has what they need to realize their potential in school and beyond.

Working directly in 59 schools across Denton, Cooke and Wise counties, CISNT connects students to caring adults and community resources that help them overcome the barriers that stand between them and a brighter future. CISNT works with kids who are “already at risk for dropping out of school based on the Texas Education Agency’s criteria.” Whether it be an academic barrier, issues with home life or difficulty concentrating, the organization takes care of any student without question.

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Texas Seven prison escapee will get new Dallas trial in killing of Irving police officer, court rules

Texas Seven prison escapee Randy Halprin will get a new trial in Dallas County because the judge at his 2003 capital murder trial harbored antisemitic views, the state’s highest criminal court ruled Wednesday. Halprin, who is Jewish, is one of seven inmates who escaped from the John B. Connally Unit near Kenedy in December 2000 before fatally shooting Irving police Officer Aubrey Hawkins during a Christmas Eve robbery. Halprin was convicted and sentenced to death for his role in Hawkins’ killing, but he has denied being one of the men who shot the officer. Texas’ Court of Criminal Appeals previously halted his execution because of allegations former state District Judge Vickers Cunningham who presided over Halprin’s trial was prejudiced against him.

The ruling takes a step toward “broader trust in the criminal law by throwing out a hopelessly tainted death judgment handed down by a bigoted and biased judge,” Halprin’s attorney Tivon Schardl said in a statement. “By upholding the Constitution’s requirement of fair and equal treatment, the Court of Criminal Appeals promoted faith in the criminal law,” he said. “It also reminded Texans that religious bigotry has no place in our courts.” When reached over text Wednesday afternoon, Cunningham said “I’m in court right now.” An employee at his law office declined to comment and said Cunningham would have no comment. Cunningham has previously denied the allegation, saying the accusations were “lies from my estranged brother and his friends.” In their 5-4 opinion, the justices found Cunningham had a history of using derogatory language toward Jewish people; made “offensive, antisemitic remarks” about Halprin during his trial; and ridiculed Jewish donors to his failed campaign for district attorney. “The uncontradicted evidence supports a finding that Cunningham formed an opinion about Halprin that derived from an extrajudicial factor — Cunningham’s poisonous antisemitism,” the ruling reads.

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Why the Austin mayoral race is still too close to call

Almost 350,000 votes have been tabulated in Austin’s mayoral election. With unofficial results fully reported, KXAN is still unable to make a projection in this race — and we want you to know why. According to the Travis County Clerk’s Office, there are three types of ballots still outstanding: Mail-in ballots that were postmarked by 7 p.m. on Tuesday and received by 5 p.m. Wednesday. Overseas and military mail-in ballots that arrive by Tuesday, Nov. 12. Provisional ballots that have not yet been processed.

Incumbent Mayor Kirk Watson currently has 50.01% of the vote. A candidate must receive more than 50% to avoid a runoff. There are still ballots left to be counted, which means Watson could win outright or be forced into a runoff with second-place Carmen Llanes Pulido. The Travis County Clerk’s Office said there are about 6,000 mail ballots that were sent out but have not yet been returned, and it’s unclear how many of those will be received by the deadline. In addition, there are about 3,200 provisional ballots that still need to be reviewed before it’s determined whether they will be counted. Late-arriving ballots are also possible in Williamson and Hays County, but those totals are expected to be much lower than in Travis County. Both Travis and Williamson County told KXAN they expect official results to be released by the end of next week, after the canvas.

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New judges elected in Hidalgo County, 13th Court of Appeals

Tuesday night’s election results ushered in a new era in the Hidalgo County judicial community with new state district judges and justices taking the mantle from retiring counterparts, according to unofficial tallies in the Nov. 5 general election. Juan Ramon Alvarez was elected as the 332nd state District Court judge replacing the retiring incumbent, Mario E. Ramirez, with 149,643 votes in an uncontested race. Alvarez will now vacate the Justice of the Peace, Precinct No. 1 post. Ramirez was the longest-serving presiding judge in Hidalgo County and in the Fifth Administrative Judicial Region of Texas with 43 years of service.

Republicans swept the 13th Court of Appeals races. This appellate court encompasses a 20-county region that includes Hidalgo, Cameron and Willacy counties. Republican Jaime Tijerina took 339,878 total votes for chief justice, of which he received 97,593 in Hidalgo County, 53,687 in Cameron County and 2,445 in Willacy County to Benavides’ 258,592 total across the jurisdiction. Benavides locally secured 105,426 (Hidalgo County), 55,149 (Cameron County) and 2,665 (Willacy County). Place 2 justice on the appellate court went to Republican Jenny Cron over her Democratic opponent Nora Longoria, winning 319,258 total ballots of which she received 85,654 from Hidalgo County, 48,457 from Cameron County and 2,036 from Willacy County. Longoria won 116,361 (Hidalgo County), 60,221 (Cameron County) and 3,038 (Willacy County) votes locally and 277,807 overall. Ysmael D. Fonseca, also with the GOP, was victorious in the Place 4 race for justice with 90,867 in Hidalgo County, 50,796 in Cameron County and 2,219 in Willacy County for a total of 327,877 across the jurisdiction. His opponent, Democrat Joe Martinez, received 109,776 (Hidalgo County), 56,478 (Cameron County) and 2,809 (Willacy County) ballots locally in an overall tally of 264,697.

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Bexar County voters less energized than in 2020

In one of the most tumultuous elections in recent history, Bexar County voters showed up at a much lower rate than they did during the 2020 presidential contest, according to the county elections department. About 59% of the county's nearly 1.3 million registered voters cast ballots this election, down from the 65% turnout rate seen when then-President Donald Trump — now president-elect — lost to Democrat Joe Biden in 2020. Before early voting kicked off on Oct. 21, Bexar County Elections Administrator Jacque Callanen estimated 900,000 voters would cast ballots, or about 70% of registered voters. The turnout fell nearly 140,000 votes short, with roughly 760,000 votes counted. This fall, Bexar County residents registered to vote in record-breaking numbers and came out to vote early in droves. But the momentum stalled.

Callanen said Election Day "went pretty smoothly," though a handful of the 302 voting sites experienced computer problems and electricity outages. "There's hiccups and glitches," Callanen said. "That's sort of the norm that we're used to." Problems also popped up after polls closed. Two polling sites, Charles C. Ball Elementary School and Copernicus Community Center, closed without sending their votes to the county, stalling the Election Day results as the county waited to get the keys and retrieve the ballots, Callanen said. Callanen, who will step down Jan. 24 after overseeing the elections department since 2005, was unable to explain why the two locations failed to deliver nearly 800 votes before closing. Still, she described her last election cycle as "very successful." "I'm so proud of the staff that were out there," Callanen said. "They all showed up and worked their hearts out." The county is running against the clock to find her replacement.

Read this article at San Antonio Express-News - Subscribers Only

Beloved ABC13 Houston anchor Chauncy Glover dies, family confirms: 'Unimaginable loss'

Former ABC13 anchor Chauncy Glover has died, TV station KCAL-CBS reported Tuesday. Glover moved from Houston to Los Angeles in September 2023 to join the station as a news anchor. His family issued a statement Tuesday night: “We, Sherry and Robert Glover, along with Chauncy’s beloved family, are devastated by the unimaginable loss of our beloved Chauncy. He was more than a son and brother — he was a beacon of light in our lives and a true hero to his community." Glover's cause of death was not released. A native of Athens, Alabama, he was a three-time Emmy Award winning journalist. Prior to his eight-year career with ABC13 in Houston, he worked at WDIV in Detroit for three years and Jacksonville, Fla., for two years. His first TV job was as a reporter in Columbus, Ga. after receiving a degree in journalism from Troy University in Alabama.

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How Dallas HERO upended traditional Dallas politics

The passage of propositions S and U marks an interesting inflection point for how Dallas has traditionally taken care of its political business. An upstart group of well-funded Park Cities residents used tactics most often found in state and federal elections—endorsements from astroturf groups, social media barrages, a political nonprofit that doesn’t have to reveal its donors, and an online publication owned by the effort’s funder—to overcome the opposition of the city’s business and political class. State law requires cities to review their charter every 10 years and ask voters to approve changes. It also gives residents the ability to place their own changes onto the ballot for consideration, so long as they garner enough signatures. A group called Dallas HERO did exactly that. These propositions were packaged with the November election, when turnout is far higher than the sleepy May municipal elections. (Turnout in the last mayoral race, in May 2023, was about 9 percent. Tuesday’s was about 57 percent, per the county.) Advocacy is more difficult. This was a test of whether the Dallas way of politicking and organizing could beat a nimbler opponent during a national election. It didn’t.

In the runup to Election Day, former Mayor Mike Rawlings sat for a Q&A with Dallas Morning News editorial writer Rudy Bush in front of the Dallas Breakfast Group. He met with senior citizens clubs and a neighborhood organization from Preston Hollow. The PAC his coalition stood up, Together for Dallas, sent text messages to voters asking them to oppose propositions S, T, and U, the bottom-of-the-ballot charter amendments that basically all local officials have said will spell doom for City Hall. This is standard operating procedure for the liminal space between early voting and Election Day in Dallas. In the other corner was Dallas HERO. Theirs was a simple message: vote for their props to get more cops and more accountability for local elected officials. The opposition had the tougher task of pulling apart that messaging, explaining that what smelled good would taste spoiled, how the language in the amendments would force the city to do things it cannot afford and operate under conditions no other city has before. That’s a lot of work to pull off in a month, which is all the opposition had to work with after launching its campaign late in the process. HERO flooded the zone with mailers and online ads that existed in the gray area of election law and local ordinances, even forcing the city to send cease-and-desist orders for inappropriately using an image of Dallas police officers. A little before polls closed at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, some of the opposition gathered in a small private room at the Dallas/Park Cities Hilton to watch returns.

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Dallas-area appeals court likely flips red after a Republican sweep

Republicans claimed all the seats up for grabs in Tuesday's race for the Dallas-based Fifth District Court of Appeals, according to unofficial results — flipping what was a nearly all-Democratic court. Eight of the 13 places were up for reelection this year, including a few seats left vacant by incumbents who didn't run for reelection and one who was defeated in primary elections. Republicans won each race, according to unofficial results from the Texas Secretary of State's Office. Some won by less than a percentage point, a major shift in the political makeup of the court. This court is one of 15 intermediate appellate courts across the state, which includes a new court for statewide civil appeals. The Fifth Court of Appeals hears appeals in civil and criminal cases from Dallas, Collin, Rockwall, Kaufman, Hunt and Grayson counties. Judges serve six-year terms.

This time, all the Republican candidates were endorsed by the Judicial Fairness PAC, a group that looked to unseat Democratic judges across the state. The PAC formally endorsed GOP appellate court justices and candidates in Dallas, Houston, San Antonio and Corpus Christi. Billionaire CEO of Tesla and SpaceX Elon Musk was one of the PAC’s top donors with a $2 million gift reported last week, along with notable North Texas business owners such as Ken Fisher of Fisher Investments and the Huffines brothers. While the Judicial Fairness PAC targeted Democratic judges over their pretrial detention practices, appellate courts don’t play a direct role in presiding over criminal trials or bail. But Texas A&M School of Law professor Jenny Carroll told KERA News the political group and its donors may not have endorsed more conservative judges just to change pretrial detention policy. “I think they're endorsing these appellate judges because they want to see a particular vision applied, whether in criminal or civil court, to the lower court, to that trial level court,” Carroll said.

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Austin City Council races: Kelly unseated in D6, while Fuentes and Vela are reelected

Residents of Districts 2, 4, 6, 7 and 10 voted on who they wanted to represent them at City Hall this election season. Two incumbents in Districts 2 and 4 fended off challengers, while District 6's Mackenzie Kelly was unseated by Krista Laine. Marc Duchen eked out a win against Ashika Ganguly to take over Alison Alter's seat in District 10.

Council Member Vanessa Fuentes handily beat Robert Reynolds to hold on to her District 2 spot. Fuentes was first elected to council in 2020. Fuentes had a staggering lead in District 2. Unofficial results showed Fuentes carried District 2 with 86% of the vote, compared to challenger Robert Reynolds’ 14%. Jose "Chito" Vela faced four challengers in North Austin. Since taking over for Greg Casar in 2022, Vela has been hawkish on land-use issues. He was one of the most vocal supporters of the city's recent revisions to its land development code. His challengers seized on that record, arguing he's taken things in the wrong direction. Mackenzie Kelly was defeated by challenger Krista Laine, who received 51% of the vote, according to Travis and Williamson county numbers. Ahead of the election, Kelly garnered unlikely support from some Democrats in the reliably purple district (though, it's worth noting this is a nonpartisan office). Laine said she wants to be the voice of Northwest Austin at City Hall by focusing more on affordability issues in District 6. Laine won the district by 714 votes, according to unofficial results from Travis and Williamson counties.

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Glenfarne selects Kiewit to build Texas LNG export plant

U.S. energy company Glenfarne Group LLC said on Monday it had selected construction contractor Kiewit to build its proposed Texas LNG export terminal in Brownsville, Texas. The proposed terminal has the capacity to turn about 0.5 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd) of natural gas into 4 million tonnes per annum of liquefied natural gas. Glenfarne said it would work with Kiewit to meet the requirements needed to achieve a final investment decision (FID). The company was expected to begin construction by November 2024 and commercial operations by 2028. However, in May it asked federal energy regulators to give it until 2029 to put its plant into service. Earlier this month, Glenfarne said it had already secured enough supply agreements in a volume sufficient for achieving an FID, including agreements with EQT Corp (EQT.N), opens new tab, Gunvor Group, and Macquarie Group .

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Nonprofit apologizes for raising funds meant for Uvalde shooting victim's family

A Baptist retreat operator has issued a public apology for misusing funds meant to benefit a mother whose daughter was killed in the Robb Elementary School massacre in Uvalde. Jessica Hernandez, whose daughter Alithia Ramirez was among the 19 children and two teachers killed on May 24, 2022, had sued Alto Frio Baptist Encampment, Inc. for money it collected through a GoFundMe fundraising campaign referred to as the “Rebel Give.” Alithia’s name and image were used to promote donations that would go toward Hernandez, but the nonprofit organization used the proceeds to renovate a house on its campgrounds in Leakey, about 40 miles north of Uvalde. For about three weeks before the mass shooting, Hernandez stayed at the house as she worked as a camp housekeeper.

Attorney Javier Espinoza, who represented Hernandez for free, was referred to Hernandez by the San Antonio Legal Services Association, or SALSA. Espinoza filed the case against the non-profit in August 2023. "That money should have gone to her," he said at the time. The lawsuit was filed seeking compensatory damages, but at the time it was not known how much money was raised. The suit said the name and image of Hernandez’s daughter, Alithia, on the GoFundMe page prompted an outpouring of support from people across the country. Even actor Matthew McConaughey, a native of Uvalde, donated. Discovery and deposition of the camp’s corporate representative since revealed that donations from the GoFundMe to the non-profit were minimal, according to a SALSA statement. Because of the ongoing trauma suffered by Hernandez, and her desire not to relive the events of the slaying in a deposition, all parties agreed to conclude the matter with a publicly filed apology, according to the SALSA statement. Alto Frio Baptist Encampment Inc., its executive director Rusty Brandon and Hernandez’s former supervisor, assistant executive director Kim St. Clair said in the court record, which was filed filed recently, that they apologize for any offense that may have been caused by the GoFundMe.

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Voters approve hard term limits for Dallas City Council

Last month we looked into another proposed charter amendment on the ballot, Proposition E, which would enact a harder stop when it comes to council member and mayoral term limits. Currently, council members can serve four consecutive two-year terms and mayors can serve two consecutive four-year terms. They can then sit out an election after hitting those term limits and run again, effectively restarting the clock on another run of consecutive terms. However, last night 69 percent of Dallas voters passed Proposition E, which stops council members and mayors from running again after reaching their term limits. This means that District 8’s Tennell Atkins and District 6’s Omar Narvaez, who are term-limited, are done after the winners of the May election are sworn in. Carolyn King Arnold, who represents District 4, will not be able to run for another term, either. Hers is a most interesting case. She served one term between 2015 and 2017 and was re-elected in 2019, meaning that if Prop E had not passed, she’d still be eligible for a final term.

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Examining why Propositions S and U passed.

There will be a lot of armchair quarterbacking about why voters approved two of the three Dallas HERO amendments. This morning, the Dallas Morning News published a great column by Sharon Grigsby that offers some light. Grigsby spoke with two dozen voters on Election Day about the propositions and came to one conclusion: many voters just went with their gut feelings. Some said they were surprised to see them on the ballot in the first place. “That’s my bad for not looking into them prior,” one voter told her. Two voters she spoke to said they were aware that former and current city leaders had cautioned against the amendments and had heeded their warning, voting against all three propositions. One of those voters had researched the amendments. In the end, HERO’s message—accountability for City Hall and more cops—resonated with people who were flooded with texts, mail, and campaign ads but may not have researched their details. The passage of S and U raises many more questions, some of which will be difficult. What happens to the city’s plan to spend $11.2 billion over the next 30 years to bring the fire and police pension to solvency? What does this mean for the 7 percent raise firefighters and police officers were due to receive in January under the city’s meet and confer contract?

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Ryan Rusak: Trump’s huge margin in Texas reflects big national win

No one expected Donald Trump to lose Texas to Kamala Harris, not even Harris and her campaign staff. The sweep and magnitude of the nationwide Trump triumph — he’s on track to exceed 300 electoral votes and win a popular-vote majority — has obscured how well he did in Texas, though. It was by far the best of his three campaigns here, and one of the strongest in recent memory. Trump’s margin of victory was 13.9 percentage points, according to the final but still uncertified tabulation from the secretary of state’s office. He won 56.3% of the vote, the best presidential showing since 2004. He beat Harris by more than a million and a half votes. In 2020, Trump won what was a comfortable margin at the time but now looks almost competitive. He beat Joe Biden by a measly 5.6 percentage points. In other words, in 2024, Trump doubled the gap over his last race.

He had done better in 2016, his first foray. Then, he won by 9 percentage points in Texas. So, the drop in 2020 had some people thinking the race would be close this year, even if not enough to justify Harris trying to win the state. Not so much. In terms of raw vote totals, Trump won nearly half a million more than he did four years ago. Scatter a similar trend across the nation and you see how he beat Harris in a race considered likely to be one of the closest in history. Overall, Trump’s Texas margin of victory was the biggest in more than a decade. In 2012, Mitt Romney beat Barack Obama by 15.8% points. Before that, you have to go back to 2004, when George W. Bush racked up a 22.9-point win as a home-state incumbent. One last number: Trump is the first Texas presidential candidate to exceed 6 million votes. In a booming state, those numbers spiral up, so the comparisons don’t mean as much as percentages. Texas Republicans already controlled the state, but their hold on the Legislature deepened, and in the state’s marquee race, Sen. Ted Cruz won much more comfortably than anyone anticipated. Trump’s coattails around the country appear to have been long. When you can make Texas even more Republican, you’ve clearly hit a winning formula.

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National Stories

4 employment actions to expect under a second Trump presidency

The last decade has reshaped American life and culture, with a global pandemic, shifting identity concerns and changing work arrangements all lending a new appearance to work and life. With President-elect Donald Trump headed back to the White House and immigration issues front and center in the national consciousness, however, in many ways late 2024 feels like late 2016. “We do expect that under a Trump administration […] There will be basically a closing of the border almost immediately,” Jorge Lopez, Littler Mendelson shareholder and chair of the law firm’s immigration and global mobility practice, told attendees at a pre-election webinar Littler held Oct. 30. An immediate, stricter approach to immigration is likely to affect industries like construction, hospitality and manufacturing, he said. Lopez — along with Jim Paretti, Littler shareholder and former senior counsel to the acting chair of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Michael Lotito, co-chair of Littler’s Workplace Policy Institute, and Shannon Meade, executive director of the Workplace Policy Institute — shared a range of other predictions for how President-elect Trump might act on employment issues on his first days in office.

Immigration reform will be “a priority,” Meade said. At the worksite, a second Trump term will likely turn to “supply-side enforcement” of immigration law at the worksite, Lopez said — meaning raids, in which government officials arrive at a site with the intention of arresting undocumented workers, will likely be used again. The Biden administration, in contrast, used “demand-side enforcement,” Lopez said, characterized by focusing concern on “whether or not an employer is intentionally or unintentionally hiring undocumented workers.” On the immigration front, there will likely be a sharp rise in I-9 audits as well, he said. There were roughly 12,000 I-9 audits during Trump’s last year in office, compared to around 400 during Biden’s last year, Lopez noted. The White House has limited control over agencies, Paretti noted, with commissioners and board members protected by cause. President Trump will be able to replace the chair, however — an action he is likely to take immediately. “Plainly, on day one, a Trump administration would designate a new chair of the National Labor Relations Board, and that will almost surely be Marvin Kaplan, because he’ll be the only Republican member serving,” Paretti said. “Similarly, at the EEOC, they designate, presumably, Commissioner Andrea Lucas, who is the only Republican Commissioner serving on the agency at this time.” While the leadership will likely change hands at several agencies, those chairs may still find themselves minority members on their own commissions, as at the NLRB and EEOC.

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JD Vance's wife, Usha Vance, set to become first Indian American second lady

The White House is ushering in a new era with the election of a second Trump presidency with Usha Vance set to become the first Indian American second lady in the White House. Vance, who is the daughter of Indian immigrants, will also be the first Hindu second lady. Vice President-elect JD Vance credited his "beautiful wife for making it possible to do this" after the big win. "THANK YOU! To my beautiful wife for making it possible to do this," he wrote on X. "To President Donald J. Trump, for giving me such an opportunity to serve our country at this level. And to the American people, for their trust. I will never stop fighting for ALL of you."

The attorney has been married to JD since 2014 and they have three children together: sons, Ewan, 6, and Vivek, 4, and a daughter, Mirabel, 2. Before law school, Vance received a bachelor’s degree in history from Yale and a master's in philosophy from the University of Cambridge. She completed multiple clerkships after her graduation from Yale, according to an Axios report, including for Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts and for Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh when he was serving on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. Vance made headlines during the Republican National Committee in July. "My background is very different from JD’s. I grew up in San Diego, in a middle-class community, with two loving parents, both immigrants from India, and a wonderful sister," she said. "That JD and I could meet at all, let alone fall in love and marry, is a testament to this great country."

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Here are the stocks rallying the most on Trump’s victory

President-elect Trump’s successful reelection bid sparked an uptrend in stocks for crypto, tech and auto industries less than 24 hours after results were announced. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up more than 3 percent, while the Nasdaq Composite and S&P 500 also rose by nearly 2 percent at midday. Cryptocurrency exchanges had measurable leaps as the price of dogecoin spiked 18 percent. Dogecoin is often used by tech giant Elon Musk, who dubbed the cryptocurrency the “people’s crypto” in October.

Currencies such as bitcoin experienced a record setting 8 percent jump in trading before a slight decline. Stock market shares in Coinbase also rose by 17 percent as reported by the AP. Early in his campaign, Trump pledged to make the nation a “crypto capital,” and statistics show he is on track to spurring upward movement in the industry. Trump Media & Technology Group, the parent company of the president-elect’s preferred Truth Social outlet, soared 35 percent according to Yahoo Finance. The morning after Election Day, the enterprise touts a market cap of more than $7 billion. Stock in Microsoft and Amazon.com were up 1.1 percent as reported by the financial outlet Barron’s. Tesla’s stock ascended by 13 percent, promising financial gains for Musk, Tesla’s owner, who avidly supported Trump’s campaign. Ford Motor Company and General Motors saw marginal gains with the former marking a 0.3 percent increase and the latter seeing a similar 0.29 percent increase. U.S. Steel also saw noteworthy gains as of Wednesday, as its stock was up more than 3 percent.

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Republicans carry ballot gains to state houses

Buoyed by strong election showings on the national level, Republicans appear poised to break up Democratic control of state governments in Minnesota and Michigan, and possibly take full control of the Pennsylvania legislature. Coupled with unexpected gains in Democratic strongholds like Vermont, the results of Tuesday’s elections point to a strengthening of the Republican Party’s grip on power at the state level. If the current returns hold, Republicans would have a state government trifecta — control of the governor’s office and both legislative chambers — in 23 states. Democrats would have 15, a loss of two from the last election cycle. “Republicans appear to have translated their good night at the top of the ticket to state legislative races as well,” Bill Kramer, vice president and counsel of MultiState, a state and local government relations firm, wrote in a post-election analysis on Wednesday.

Democrats did appear to break the Republican supermajority in the North Carolina legislature. And they were hopeful of gaining one seat in the Arizona Senate, which would create a 15-15 tie and give Gov. Katie Hobbs, a Democrat, more leverage. They also made noticeable gains in Wisconsin, after the State Supreme Court threw out Wisconsin’s gerrymandered legislative maps. Yet despite record spending, Democrats fell short of their goal of building on their successes in the 2022 midterm elections to flip several chambers. One branch of state government that did not see any change in overall party numbers was the governor’s office. Out of 11 states with races on Tuesday, eight were wide open, with no incumbent running. But there were no upsets, and the current configuration of eight Republicans and three Democrats in those states did not change.

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Dating is rough for Gen Z, especially for men who support Trump

Four years ago I warned young straight men that a vote for former President Donald Trump might hurt their chances with women in the dating market. As a wife and mother with a positive view of marriage and family life, I worried that Trump-supporting men would ruin their chance for love and romance in the years to come. Sadly, four years later, the gender gap has widened and women's reluctance to be with men who want to vote for Trump has increased, particularly when it comes to Gen Z. This may be hard for Gen Z men to understand. That's because, to their credit, when it comes to dating, they're more willing to overlook political differences than women are. While divergent points of view can make a relationship more interesting, Gen Z women apparently don't agree when it comes to Trump. Most college-educated Gen Z women not only don't want to date men who support him—many don't want to be friends with them either. When it comes to dating, it's not an even playing field.

While both Gen Z men and women have had a harder time with dating compared with previous generations, Gen Z men have fared worse. They're not as educated as their female peers, they're struggling more in the job market, and they're less likely to be living away from home. Their relationships are often virtual, and without actual romantic relationship experience, they are often ill-equipped for the dating market. To make matters worse, Gen Z women are rejecting straight Gen Z men for a host of other reasons as well. They're more likely than men to identify as LGBTQ+, with more Gen Z women than men identifying as asexual and/or aromantic. Others are focused on self-care and their friends rather than dating, or they're choosing to date millennial men. It's not surprising that so many Gen Z men are lonely and upset, nor is it surprising that in Trump they're finding a voice for their grievances. With his new buddy Elon Musk, Trump is promising to solve all their problems. Moreover, in the enticing MAGA world, guys can rant for hours on end unfiltered with their fellow bros, name-calling those who offend them and blaming others if they lose. Even better, they get to idolize a man who feels entitled to all the sex he wants without worrying about all that #MeToo stuff and the constant need to apologize.

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DOJ moving to wind down Trump criminal cases before he takes office

Justice Department officials have been evaluating how to wind down the two federal criminal cases against President-elect Donald Trump before he takes office to comply with long-standing department policy that a sitting president can’t be prosecuted, two people familiar with the matter tell NBC News. The latest discussions stand in contrast with the pre-election legal posture of special counsel Jack Smith, who in recent weeks took significant steps in the election interference case against Trump without regard to the electoral calendar. But the sources say DOJ officials have come to grips with the fact that no trial is possible anytime soon in either the Jan. 6 case or the classified documents matter — both of which are mired in legal issues that would likely prompt an appeal all the way to the Supreme Court, even if Trump had lost the election. Now that Trump will become president again, DOJ officials see no room to pursue either criminal case against him — and no point in continuing to litigate them in the weeks before he takes office, the people said. “Sensible, inevitable and unfortunate,” said former federal prosecutor Chuck Rosenberg, an NBC News contributor.

How Trump’s legal jeopardy has unfolded over the past year, in terms of both the criminal charges and his sweeping election victory, is unprecedented. The sources said it will be up to Smith to decide exactly how to unwind the charges and many questions remain unanswered. Could the prosecutions resume after Trump leaves office or would they be time-barred? What happens to the evidence? What about the two other defendants charged with helping Trump hide classified documents? Will the special counsel write a report, as special counsels usually do? The sources say all those issues require study and research. At the same time, Trump’s legal team is weighing its own next steps for how to resolve the outstanding federal cases in his favor now that he is the projected winner of the election. The ultimate goal is to get all the federal and state cases wiped out completely — the strategic call is how best to accomplish that task, according to a person familiar with the discussions. If the Trump side, for example, moved again in court to dismiss the charges in Washington related to election interference, then the Justice Department could use its legal response to explain its position on not moving forward with that case. Trump’s New York criminal case presents different challenges with a felony conviction and sentencing hearing scheduled for Nov. 26. The immediate goal of Trump’s legal team is to get that postponed indefinitely or otherwise dismissed.

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With Trump win, focus turns to older Supreme Court justices

Some prominent voices on the left called earlier this year for Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor to retire while Joe Biden was still president, so a Democrat could nominate her replacement regardless of who won the election. Sotomayor, 70, is the oldest liberal justice and has Type 1 diabetes. Advocates feared a repeat of what happened with liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who declined to retire during President Barack Obama’s tenure and died on the bench in 2020, while Donald Trump was in office. The vacancy allowed Trump to nominate Amy Coney Barrett, cementing a powerful 6-3 conservative supermajority. Now, with Trump set to return to the White House and Republicans poised to take control of the Senate, some Democrats are renewing those calls for Sotomayor to step down during the lame-duck period before the presidential inauguration in January.

“This could be Democrats’ last chance to fill her seat for some time,” said Josh Barro, author of the Very Serious newsletter. “It has been possible, historically, to go 12 or 14 years without simultaneous control of the White House and the Senate, after initially losing that control. She could be well into her 80s by the next time she has a good opportunity to retire.” Trump’s victory has inevitably sharpened speculation about what the Supreme Court senior justices will do in the months ahead and how the parties might handle any high court vacancies. Besides Sotomayor, the two oldest justices are Republican nominees, Clarence Thomas, 76, and Samuel A. Alito Jr., 74. Trump’s victory presents an opportunity for one or both of them to retire and allow him to nominate younger conservatives, preserving the supermajority that has dramatically shifted the law to the right on abortion, guns, regulation and more. It’s unclear whether Thomas or Alito would oblige, however. Neither has publicly commented on retiring, and two members of the conservative legal movement, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive issue, told The Washington Post last month that it’s unlikely either justice would step down during a Trump presidency. Neither Thomas nor Alito responded to a request for comment Wednesday. But Mike Davis, a legal adviser to Trump, posted on X: “Prediction: Justice Sam Alito is gleefully packing up his chambers.”

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For abortion ballot measures, strong success or guarded victory?

Both supporters and opponents of abortion rights are calling Tuesday’s election historic, but the lasting impact on the national landscape won’t be clear until after president-elect Donald Trump takes office in January. Supporters scored notable victories, passing ballot measures to enshrine abortion rights or protect reproductive rights in seven states’ constitutions, including Montana, Arizona, Nevada and deeply conservative Missouri. The outcome in Missouri overturned a total ban for the first time anywhere in the country and could affect more than 1.2 million women of reproductive age. Yet those wins could be blunted by the next Trump administration’s actions or policies. The results also were the first time an abortion ballot measure failed as Florida’s proposed Amendment 4, viewed by each side as a crucial mark, fell short of the 60 percent threshold required — despite a majority of voters supporting it. Several hours later, voters in Nebraska solidly rejected an initiative to expand abortion access. South Dakota then followed suit. All are Republican-controlled states.

“It’s a real milestone for the pro-life movement,” said Dan Williams, a visiting assistant professor of history at Ashland University who studies abortion politics. While he doesn’t foresee continued expansion of restrictive abortion policies, especially not at the national level, he said the election outcome will “slow the momentum of the abortion rights movement to use voter referendums to legalize abortion.” In particular, he expects it to dissuade groups in Alabama, Mississippi and other red states “from entertaining any notion of repealing their abortion bans.” Kelly Hall, executive director of the Fairness Project, a group that supports state ballot measure efforts, said Wednesday that the results were clearly mixed. “I don’t think that there is a supporter of abortion rights in America who is waking up thrilled today, given the federal landscape,” she said. Even so, she added, “It is incredible that in a country that has such a deep rightward shift, almost coast to coast, voters in Missouri — one of the reddest states in the country — rallied together, put a question of a right to abortion on the ballot and passed it.” As of reported votes by Wednesday evening, data showed that voters in about 83 counties nationwide supported both Trump and state abortion measures; more than half were suburban counties. Such split voting was especially common in Montana, where a third of counties backed Trump and the proposed abortion amendment, and Florida, where nearly a third of counties did.

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Lead Stories

Donald Trump wins presidential election, defeating Harris to retake White House

Donald John Trump was elected the nation’s 47th president, returning to the White House after a criminal conviction and two impeachments by riding a wave of voter dissatisfaction with the direction of the country under four years of Democratic leadership. The Republican defeated Vice President Kamala Harris by promising to curb inflation, crack down on undocumented immigrants and end overseas conflicts. Trump achieved an electoral college majority by maintaining his majorities with men and White voters without college degrees, while also overperforming with historic Democratic constituencies such as Latinos and young voters, according to preliminary exit polls. Trump was projected early Wednesday as the winner of the election, according to the Associated Press and Edison Research. To Trump and his supporters, retaking power after failing to overturn his 2020 election loss, inspiring a deadly attack on the U.S. Capitol, and withstanding two impeachments, four criminal indictments, a conviction and two assassination attempts represents a major vindication for their cause.

Trump’s pledges to exercise unrestrained authority alarmed millions of other Americans, including some of his former advisers, who warned he would govern like a dictator and met the definition of a fascist. Harris struggled to distance herself from President Joe Biden, whom she replaced on the ticket after a June debate in which he sometimes appeared confused. Her campaign emphasized abortion rights, promised generational change and portrayed Trump as dangerous and unstable. But as the sitting vice president, she was unable to outrun broad disapproval of the incumbent president and made strategic errors, some Democrats said, such as saying she didn’t disagree with Biden on any topic. Trump reclaimed at least three of the states he lost in 2020: Georgia, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Michigan, Arizona and Nevada remained too close to call early Wednesday. Trump is on pace to win the national popular vote, though that will depend on Harris’s final margin in California. The Republican’s campaign attacked Harris by linking her to widespread dissatisfaction with Biden’s handling of rising prices and foreign conflicts, and depicting her as further left than the country, especially on health care for transgender people. Trump demeaned her personally, at times using racist stereotypes or sexist attacks. For the second time in eight years, voters chose Trump over electing the country’s first woman president.

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Ted Cruz handily defeats Colin Allred, winning a third term in tight U.S. Senate race

U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz easily fended off Democratic challenger U.S. Rep. Colin Allred in a high-profile and expensive Senate race that helped the GOP gain control of the chamber. “Tonight is an incredible night. A huge victory here in Texas,” Cruz told supporters at an Election Night party in Houston. “Tonight, the people of Texas have spoken. And their message rings like a bell across our great state. Texas will remain Texas.” Allred told supporters gathered at his own watch party in Dallas that he called Cruz and congratulated him on the victory. “It shouldn't be remarkable to have to admit defeat. But in today’s politics, it’s becoming rarer and rarer,” Allred said. “You can’t just be a patriot when your side wins. So tonight, our side didn’t win. But we will continue to be patriots.”

Cruz had been warning supporters for months that he could be in trouble, and polls consistently showed him locked in a close contest with Allred, a former NFL player who was pushing to be the first Texas Democrat to win statewide in decades after he flipped a long-red Dallas congressional seat in 2018. But Allred appeared to be on track to end well short of the high-water mark that Democrat Beto O’Rourke set in his 2018 race against Cruz. Cruz won that race by fewer than 3 percentage points. He had a 10-point lead by the time Allred conceded. With Republicans set to hold a majority in the Senate, Cruz is on track for a high-profile position presiding over the influential commerce committee, which regulates everything from airlines to the telecom industry to NASA. The two-term Republican on Tuesday credited his improved performance on “generational change in South Texas,” long a Democratic stronghold where the GOP has made gains in recent cycles. “The results tonight, this decisive victory, should shake the Democrat establishment to its core,” Cruz said. “Our Hispanic communities aren’t just leaving the Democratic party, they’re coming home to conservative values they never left. There’s nothing progressive about open borders, there’s nothing compassionate about chaos. There is nothing Latino about letting criminals roam free.” The Republican said he was returning to the Senate with a “mandate” to “secure the border,” “unleash Texas energy,” and “defend our God-given rights.”

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Donald Trump on track to sweep historically blue South Texas in Tuesday election

Former President Donald Trump is on track to flip almost every major county in South Texas, a stunning blow to Democrats in a region long known as a blue bastion. As of early Wednesday, the Republican was leading election returns in Brownsville’s Cameron County, McAllen’s Hidalgo County and even Laredo’s Webb County, all places that had voted for Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden by double digits in 2016 and 2020. He also was poised to win Starr County, which has voted Democratic in every presidential race since 1896, the longest streak of any county in the country.

Trump’s strong performance teed up Texas Republicans to sweep a number of key races down ballot, expanding their footprint in the region and indicating that their conservative messaging has staying power with the region’s working-class and heavily-Latino electorate. “This was a very good night for Republicans in South Texas, especially looking into the future,” said Alvaro Corral, a professor of political science at the University of Texas-Rio Grande Valley. “I would not have predicted that Donald Trump would win all four counties of the [valley].” U.S. Senate candidate Colin Allred also performed slightly better than Vice President Harris did in South Texas, holding onto several blue counties that went for Trump. But Corral said Allred’s returns are still significantly worse than previous Democratic margins in the region and point to deeper Democratic troubles beyond the weakness of Vice President Kamala Harris’ brand alone.

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GOP wins back control of the Senate

Republicans have wrested back control of the Senate after four years in the minority, positioning the GOP to play a massive role on nominations and in looming policy battles regardless of whether Kamala Harris or Donald Trump emerges victorious in the presidential race. It’s a massive, if largely expected, win for the GOP, which invested heavily in candidate recruitment this cycle. Armed with a highly favorable map, national Republicans worked competitive primaries in battleground states, hoping to maximize their offensive strength in the general election. It worked. Republicans flipped West Virginia early in the night and added Ohio to their column around 11:30 p.m. Republican Tim Sheehy has led in most recent polling in Montana, though it is too early for an official call there. They have other possible pick-up opportunities in states like Wisconsin, Nevada, Michigan, Arizona and Pennsylvania. But Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Rick Scott (R-Fla.) both won reelection, closing off a path for Democrats to offset their losses by flipping a GOP-held seat.

The party will take control just as longtime GOP leader Mitch McConnell steps down from his role atop the conference, and it’s still unclear who will take his place. Elections for Senate GOP leadership are slated to occur next week, with two longtime McConnell allies, Sens. John Thune (R-S.D.) and John Cornyn (R-Texas), and conservative Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) running for what will become majority leader next term. Others could still jump into the election. There is not yet a call in the presidential race, but if Harris wins, the chamber would become an instant logjam for her administration. Republicans have signaled they’ll even make Cabinet confirmations a fight, meaning any major policy initiatives from the current vice president would be an incredibly tough sell. But a Republican-led Senate would be a boon to a Trump presidency, with the ability to confirm nominees and control legislation on the floor. The size of the majority will matter, since there are still several Republicans in the Senate that regularly broke with Trump during his presidential term, including Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska. They’re likely to become outsized voices in this newfound Senate majority, especially if Trump is in the White House. However, if Republicans win more seats, those moderate voices will lose power on nominees and other items subject to a simple-majority threshold for passage. Republican candidates in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Michigan are leading as of early Wednesday and party operatives believe that their fates will largely depend on Trump’s performance.

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State Stories

HISD’s $4.4 billion bond, the largest in Texas history, rejected by voters, preliminary returns show

Houston ISD’s historic $4.4 billion school bond — the largest school bond in Texas history — failed Tuesday, forcing the district to delay much-needed facility improvements due largely to voters’ mistrust of state-appointed Superintendent Mike Miles. Approximately 60% of roughly 350,000 voters who cast early, mail-in ballots and Election Day ballots voted against both propositions, according to preliminary returns from the Harris County Clerk’s Office. While thousands of ballots cast on Election Day were still being counted, the margin appears insurmountable. “The politics of adults beat out the needs of our children,” Miles said in a statement in response to the results. “It’s unfortunate and wrong, but I want to assure you that it will not limit our ability to do the things that our students need.”

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Annette Ramirez, Steve Radack nearly tied in Harris County's tax assessor-collector race

Democrat Annette Ramirez had a slim lead of a single percentage point over Republican Steve Radack in the race to become Harris County's next tax assessor-collector, early returns showed on Tuesday evening. Ramirez, a tax attorney for Aldine ISD, is running for office for the first time, while Radack is back on the ballot after serving as Harris County Precinct 3 Commissioner for over 30 years until his retirement in 2020. Incumbent Harris County Tax Assessor-Collector Ann Harris Bennett, a second-term Democrat, cleared the field for the two candidates announced last year she would not seek reelection. Bennett has long been absent from public view, and a recent Chronicle analysis of county records found she hadn't swiped her ID to enter the county office building since late 2020. The tax assessor-collector is a largely administrative role with several responsibilities, including property tax collections, vehicle registrations and voter registration.

The office has gone through major changes in the past four years. Historically, the tax assessor-collector handled voter registration and the county clerk ran elections. That changed in 2020, when Harris County Commissioners Court decided to create an appointed elections administrator position to oversee both of those election-related operations. However, the Texas Legislature abolished Harris County's elections office last year, returning voter registration to the tax assessor-collector and elections to the clerk. Ramirez has said that, with her background in tax law, she sees plenty of ways the office hasn't innovated to better serve taxpayers. "I think it's because we've never had a tax assessor that actually knows property taxes before they take that office," Ramirez told the Chronicle in October. "It's a heavily administrative office and you don't know what you can do if you don't know the law." She said she would allow property owners to pay their taxes in multiple installments, give delinquent taxpayers more time to get caught up on payments and reduce fees and penalties.

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Neither Teare nor Simons have substantial early lead in race for Harris County DA

As election night dragged on Tuesday, former prosecutor Sean Teare did not repeat the sweeping lead he held in the Democratic primary. Instead, he waited hours to learn whether his razor-thin lead over the Republican candidate for district attorney was enough to win. Teare's supporters from Houston's legal world slowly closed their tabs at 8th Wonder Brewery on the edge of Houston's downtown as the election results showed no substantial change and Republicans appeared poised to win races ranging from the local judiciary to the White House. Early polling predicted an easy win for Teare, but he started the night with Dan Simons, another former prosecutor, trailing him by about 14,400 votes — slightly more than 1 percentage point — after the closing of Harris County polling centers.

Teare held onto that lead as a dozen or so precincts were counted through 11:30 p..m., but the results exposed a waffling margin rather than a victor. Teare remained adamant that he would secure the most votes overnight. “We will win this race before I go to bed,” Teare said. Teare left the office in 2023 to run against outgoing District Attorney Kim Ogg, secured a landslide win against her in March after party members admonished the district attorney for a host of political grievances ranging from partisan feuds to questionable prosecutions. He campaigned to undo several of Ogg’s internal practices that he says led to experienced prosecutors departing the office in droves, leaving inexperienced lawyers behind with little-to-no training. Several prosecutors who worked under Ogg were among Teare’s supporters at his watch party. Some jeered the sight of Simons in news reports on the TVs. Simons, also a former prosecutor, left Ogg’s office in 2017. He depicted himself as a tough-on-crime candidate, and secured endorsements from Republican politicians and furniture salesman Jim McIngvale in the election’s final days.

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Republican Tarrant County Sheriff Bill Waybourn holds lead in bid for third term

Two-term incumbent Republican Sheriff Bill Waybourn leads Democratic challenger Patrick Moses by nearly 10 points after the latest results were released. The winner of the contest will take office on Jan. 1, 2025. The term will last four years. Waybourn had 53.78% of the vote to Moses’ 46.22%. with 225 of 350 vote centers reporting. Waybourn came out of the gate leading by just under 10% after the absentee and early voting results were released just after 7 p.m., and his lead grew slightly since then. Moses arrived at his watch party at the east Fort Worth restaurant Turkey Den just after 8 p.m. His team was expecting better results out of the gate, he said, but he was not ready to bow out.

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Federal election monitors agree to remain outside Texas polling locations in agreement with Texas AG

The Department of Justice agreed that election monitors will not enter Texas polling and central count locations on Election Day after Ken Paxton sued to prevent federal officials from monitoring Texas polling locations, according to an agreement filed Nov. 4, the day before Election Day. The Department of Justice announced last week it would deploy election monitors in 86 jurisdictions across 27 states on Election Day, according to the Associated Press. Election monitors are not law enforcement officers or federal agents and they are tasked with ensuring compliance with federal voting rights laws. Three Republican-led states – Texas, Florida and Missouri – sued to block the Justice Department's election monitors from going inside polling places on Election Day, the Associated Press reported.

According to the agreement, monitors will have to remain outside the polling locations and central count locations and "consistent with its longstanding practice, monitors will not interfere with voters attempting to vote," the agreement states. Voters may speak with DOJ personnel if they choose within the parameters of the Texas Election Code, the release states. Federal personnel will also be subject to restrictions on electioneering, loitering, or using a cell phone within 100 feet of the polling location, the filing states. “Texans run Texas elections, and we will not be bullied by the Department of Justice,” Attorney General Paxton said in a press release. “The DOJ knows it has no authority to monitor Texas elections and backed down when Texas stood up for the rule of law."

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Fort Bend County Pct. 3 Commissioner talks plans for community after leading in polls against challenger Taral Patel

Leading in the polls against his Democratic challenger, Fort Bend County Pct. 3 Commissioner Andy Meyers says he feels comfortable with the lead he has built over his opponent. “I’m feeling great, 59, 41, 18 points, that’s pretty much insurmountable, I’m not going to declare victory just yet but I think it’d be nearly impossible for my opponent to catch me,” Meyers said. The race has been marred with controversy as Democrat Taral Patel faces nine criminal charges related to campaign activities. Patel is accused in a social media hoax where he allegedly created fake social media accounts to post discouraging remarks about Meyers as well as to direct racial attacks at himself. Fort Bend County Judge KP George has also been implicated in the hoax. George faces a misdemeanor charge of misrepresenting the identity of a candidate.

Meyers said he is saddened at the actions Patel took. “It’s even more unfortunate that he painted this community as a racist community when we’re not. This is a very caring community,” Meyers said. Meyers also noted he believes many Democrats crossed the aisle to vote for him after Patel’s indictments. “This is a 54% Democrat precinct and up 18 points that means a whole lot of Democrats had to cross party lines to vote for me,” he said. Although the race hasn’t been officially called, Meyers is already talking about future plans for the county. He says one of those involves him being appointed by Gov. Greg Abbott to an energy working group to help develop new energy policy. “We’ll be working on legislation that he is going to be bringing forward to make Texas a leader in developing the next generation of energy, plus solving our water problems,” he said. On top of that, Meyers said he is working with a group of other leaders in other counties to allow Texas counties to create industrial development districts to help attract more industry to communities.

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John Lujan defeats Kristian Carranza in San Antonio House race

Texas state Rep. John Lujan narrowly defeated challenger Kristian Carranza, according to The Associated Press, denying Democrats one of their top Texas House pickup opportunities across the state. The race was among the most closely watched across the state throughout this election cycle, with the candidates clashing over a number of issues, including school vouchers, abortion, Lujan’s hypothetical daughter and Carranza’s last name. Both raised large sums of money from around the state and poured it into advertising in the district. The district is the only one held by a Republican that was won by Joe Biden in 2020 and Beto O’Rourke in 2022. A historically Democratic seat, Lujan — a former firefighter and sheriff’s deputy — is the only Republican to ever represent the majority-Hispanic district.

Carranza campaigned aggressively against Lujan’s anti-abortion rhetoric and support of school vouchers. She also called for the state to expand Medicaid, pointing to her personal biography dropping out of college to move home and help her uninsured mother pay her medical bills. In recent years, the district has been viewed as a test case for the GOP’s appeal to Hispanic voters. This was an important undertone throughout this campaign, as Lujan and the Republicans accused Carranza of falsely pandering to the district’s Hispanic voters by choosing to use her mother’s Spanish surname rather than her father’s last name. Carranza’s father has not been part of her life, she has said, so she uses her mother’s last name to honor her. Lujan campaigned as a moderate Republican focused on kitchen-table issues like infrastructure and economic development, although he’s also staunchly anti-abortion and supportive of Gov. Greg Abbott’s push to provide taxpayer funds to subsidize private school tuition. The governor has in turn emerged as a key ally of Lujan’s, visiting the district many times in recent years to lend his support. On election night, Carranza planned to participate in a joint watch party with Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar at Cowboys Dancehall.

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Marc LaHood defeats Laurel Jordan Swift in San Antonio state House race

Republican Marc LaHood narrowly prevailed over Democratic challenger Laurel Jordan Swift, according to The Associated Press, adding to the ranks of freshmen hard-right lawmakers joining the Texas House next year. A defense attorney, LaHood defeated incumbent Rep. Steve Allison in the GOP primary earlier this year after Allison voted against Gov. Greg Abbott’s plan to provide taxpayer funds to subsidize private school tuition. LaHood describes himself as an uncompromising conservative who supports school vouchers. He has argued the 2020 presidential election was stolen and said he wants to “bring back” prayer in schools. LaHood was backed by Gov. Greg Abbott, who sought to replace all Republican House members that voted against his plan to provide taxpayer funds for parents to send their kids to private schools, including Allison. The third-term governor provided huge amounts of cash to support LaHood and visited the district several times — including last week at the Angry Elephant, a local Republican watering hole.

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Plano Democratic Rep. Mihaela Plesa declares victory over Republican challenger

Democratic state Rep. Mihaela Plesa of Plano has declared victory over Republican challenger Steve Kinard for control of a Collin County seat that Republicans hoped to flip as they look to shore up votes to try and pass school voucher-like plans in next year’s session. Plesa won 54.09% of the votes, according to final unofficial election results posted by Collin County elections officials. “This is not my win, this is a win for my community and a win for Texas,” Plesa said when reached by phone at her North Dallas home late Tuesday.

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Former Uvalde mayor wins race for open Texas House seat, a GOP pickup

Former Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin Jr. claimed victory Tuesday night in the race for a battleground state House district in South Texas, flipping a Democratic seat to the Republican Party. “I am both humbled and honored to serve as your voice in Austin,” McLaughlin said in a statement. “I am committed to working tirelessly to make our communities safer, our economy stronger, and our future brighter. Thank you for trusting me to represent you and our community’s values.” McLaughlin, a Republican, led Democrat Cecilia Castellano, 61% to 39%, with about 85% of the vote counted, according to The Associated Press.

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More than 50 attorneys general called for a 'peaceful transfer of power.' Ken Paxton wasn't one of them

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is notably absent from a bipartisan coalition of attorneys general who called for a peaceful transfer of power. Ahead of Election Day, the National Association of Attorneys General released a statement condemning any potential acts of violence associated with the results of this year’s high-stakes presidential election. In the letter, 51 attorneys general — led by those in Ohio, Oregon, Connecticut and Kansas — vowed to use their authority to enforce the law and take action against any "illegal acts that threaten" the democratic process.

"A peaceful transfer of power is the highest testament to the rule of law, a tradition that stands at the heart of our nation’s stability," the statement reads. "As Attorneys General, we affirm our commitment to protect our communities and uphold the democratic principles we serve." Paxton, along with Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita and Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen, did not participate in the statement. His office has not responded to a request for comment on the reason for this decision. The third-term Republican has taken an active role in promoting unsubstantiated claims of widespread voter fraud alongside former President Donald Trump. Records show Paxton's election fraud unit has continued to spend millions on related investigations despite a dwindling caseload. Paxton also recently clashed with the U.S. Department of Justice over whether federal monitors should be allowed to observe Texas elections. On Monday, Paxton filed a last-minute lawsuit to keep federal monitors out of local polling places and central counting stations on Election Day. The Justice Department has since agreed to stay outside those locations.

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Tarrant commissioners accused of breaking quorum on purpose

Late in the evening before the Tarrant County Commissioners Court session scheduled for Tuesday, Nov. 5, Precinct 2 Commissioner Alisa Simmons was notified that her Republican colleagues would not be attending. With three of the court’s five commissioners not present, the session would not reach quorum. A county spokesperson announced the meeting was canceled on Tuesday morning. Simmons doesn’t believe their absences are a coincidence. She thinks they intentionally broke quorum to avoid addressing items on the agenda that would have cast Sheriff Bill Waybourn in a negative light on the day he is up for reelection. Waybourn faces Democratic challenger Patrick Moses in the race for Tarrant County Sheriff in the Nov. 5 general election.

Several agenda items related to the Sheriff’s Office “would have highlighted issues around Waybourn’s inept leadership and runaway spending,” Simmons said in a press release. “Let’s be clear, this is an effort to sidestep accountability and shield Waybourn from answering tough questions from the public,” she said. Representatives County Judge Tim O’Hare and Gary Fickes did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Tracey Knight, Manny Ramirez’s spokesperson, said the commissioner had to miss court for personal reasons and called Simmon’s accusation that the absences were an intentional move to break quorum “absolutely absurd.” In her press release, Simmons pointed to agenda items related to hiring outside legal counsel in the case brought by the family of Anthony Johnson Jr., who in July sued the county and the jailers involved in the altercation that led to the Marine veteran’s death.

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Voters split on Dallas Hero propositions, early election results show

Early voters were split on the three Dallas Hero propositions dividing the city over the past three months. Returns released at 2:45 a.m. show 55% of voters supported Proposition S, 45% voted in favor of Proposition T and 50.52% backed Proposition U, according to unofficial numbers. The City Council put Propositions S, T, and U on the ballot in August after nonprofit group Dallas Hero gathered more than 20,000 voter signatures on petitions for each proposal. Dallas Hero said the amendments are necessary to improve public safety and government accountability. The proposition’s most prominent supporters were the Dallas County Republican Party and Monty Bennett, a major Republican donor and local hotelier.

The trio of propositions faced fierce opposition from elected officials, civic, business and other local leaders and groups, as well as the city’s largest police and fire associations. They argued the proposals would add obstacles to running the city and lead to drastic cuts to nearly all Dallas services to meet the new police mandates and fend off an increase in lawsuits. Proposition S would require the city to waive its governmental immunity to allow any resident to file a lawsuit alleging the municipal government isn’t complying with the charter, local ordinances or state law. Proposition T would require Dallas to conduct an annual survey of at least 1,400 residents, rating the city manager’s performance in addressing crime, homelessness, litter, panhandling and the condition of streets. The consequences of the results would range from the City Council approving a financial bonus equal to the city manager’s base salary to termination. Proposition U would require the City Council to approve setting aside at least 50% of any excess yearly revenue for the police and fire pension system, increase the police force by 900 and mandate the city maintain a minimum of 4,000 officers while increasing police starting pay and other benefits to among the highest in North Texas.

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Matt Krause, Roderick Miles declare victory in Tarrant County commissioner races

Republican Matt Krause and Democrat Roderick Miles have declared victory in their races for the Tarrant County Commissioner’s Court, according to the campaigns. “The real work begins now, so please keep the prayers coming,” Krause wrote in a Facebook post. “Can’t wait to represent Precinct 3 on the Commissioners’ Court come January.” Krause, a former state representative, led Democrat Laura Leeman 63.86% to 36.14% with 225 of 350 vote centers reporting. The precinct covers Northeast Tarrant County. Republican Gary Fickes did not seek reelection. In Precinct 1, Democrat Roderick Miles led Republican Michael Barber 57.06% to 42.94% with 225 of 350 vote centers reporting. Democrat Roy Brooks did not seek reelection.

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Lindemann ousts Democrat Gleason as Williamson County sheriff

Republican Matthew Lindemann ousted Williamson County Sheriff Mike Gleason on Tuesday while the incumbents for county attorney and Precinty 3 county commissioner held onto their positions. Lindemann received 150,187 votes, or 52%, to defeat Gleason, a Democrat who earned 137,939 votes, or 48%, in the sheriff's race.

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City Stories

McAllen becomes third RGV city to regulate commercial car washes

Two weeks after holding an extensive discussion on the subject of commercial car washes, McAllen officials unanimously approved new regulations that will limit where new ones can pop up. With the decision, which came during a McAllen City Commission meeting on Monday, McAllen became the third city in the Rio Grande Valley to pass car wash restrictions amid continued water scarcity concerns. Future commercial car washes will no longer be allowed to be less than one-half-mile apart from its neighbors. Further, new car wash developments will have to be more than 150 feet away from residential zones.

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National Stories

New York Democrats redeem themselves after crushing losses of 2022

New York Democrats bolstered one of their own, Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, Tuesday night in his ongoing quest to make history as the first Black speaker of the House. With 23 New York House races called by 1 a.m. Wednesday, Democrats redeemed their dismal 2022 showing in the Empire State. They held onto all their seats, pried two from Republicans and appeared poised to seize another — punctuating a bitter and expensive campaign season defined by the epic battle for control over the White House. “New Yorkers now can hold their head high again in the halls of congress,” said Laura Gillen, a Democrat who declared victory over her Republican opponent, Rep. Anthony D’Esposito, for the hard-fought Long Island seat. As her party drew to a close, Gillen was leading D’Esposito by 1.8 points.

In one of New York’s biggest upsets, Democrat Josh Riley unseated GOP incumbent Rep. Marc Molinaro in a close race for an upstate seat. Democrat John Mannion defeated Republican Rep. Brandon Williams for a Syracuse-area seat the incumbent has held for two years. A district President Joe Biden won in 2022, it was considered the Democrats best shot across the country at flipping a seat. And Democrats held onto two competitive seats in New York, with combat veteran Pat Ryan fending off a challenge in the Hudson Valley from retired NYPD lieutenant Alison Esposito, and Tom Suozzi beating the GOP’s Mike LiPetri. Aside from the historic implications for Jeffries, the positive showing for Democrats in New York will also serve as a boon to Gov. Kathy Hochul, who came under fire two years ago after her party lost three House seats to Republicans when she led the ticket. Hochul defeated her Republican gubernatorial challenger Lee Zeldin in 2022 by a relatively thin margin in one of the most solidly blue states in the U.S.

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World leaders congratulate Trump on election win

Congratulations are flowing in from world leaders for President-elect Trump following his win in the 2024 presidential election over Vice President Harris. The well wishes came from key allies that Trump will work with to address issues on the global stage, including United Kingdom Prime Minister Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Starmer said in a statement that he looks forward to working with Trump in the years ahead and that the U.K. and U.S. “stand shoulder to shoulder in defence of our shared values of freedom, democracy and enterprise.” Macron called back to their time working together during Trump’s first term, saying he is ready to collaborate as they did for four years previously.

“With your convictions and mine. With respect and ambition. For more peace and prosperity,” Macron said. Zelensky, who has worked to maintain a close relationship with the U.S., especially since Russia’s 2022 invasion of his country, called Trump’s win “impressive” and said he looked forward to continuing the countries’ partnership. His statement comes as the issue of continued U.S. aid for Ukraine has become polarized, with greater numbers of Republicans declaring their opposition to it. “We look forward to an era of a strong United States of America under President Trump’s decisive leadership. We rely on continued strong bipartisan support for Ukraine in the United States,” Zelensky said. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu congratulated Trump and the incoming first lady, Melania, on “history’s greatest comeback.”

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Wall Street girds for Trump 2.0: Tariffs, tax cuts and volatility

With Donald Trump heading back to the White House, Wall Street is anticipating the potential for lower taxes, deregulation and a U.S. president who is quick to sound off on everything from the stock market to the dollar. Trump made tariffs and tax cuts key elements of his pitch to voters, many of whom said the economy was the biggest issue of the election. Another important plank of his platform is expected to be deregulation in areas ranging from the banking industry to cryptocurrencies. The promise of those policies appears to have already stirred prices for some assets, including the dollar, shares of regional banks and the price of bitcoin. For a Trump administration, "markets are basically thinking it's pro-growth, even if it comes with higher inflation and higher interest rates," said David Bianco, Americas chief investment officer at DWS Group.

Edison Research projected on Wednesday that Trump had secured more than the 270 Electoral College votes needed to win the presidency. While political developments can move markets, investors say they typically tend to take a back seat to macroeconomic forces and the health of corporate profits as well as global events. For example, the S&P 500 rose nearly 70% during Trump's first term as technology shares soared, even as his tariff policies sparked bouts of volatility. Meanwhile, the energy sector notched deep losses after global economies were paralyzed by the COVID-19 pandemic, although his administration was friendly to fossil fuel development. Trump’s election in 2016 sparked a so-called reflation trade, with investors piling into an array of assets such as copper futures and shares of construction companies on the belief that tax cuts and other stimulative policies would boost sluggish U.S. economic growth. But the economic landscape has changed, and some investors believe the moves of 2016 may not offer an accurate roadmap for how stocks, bonds and the dollar might trade in coming months. The U.S. economy grew by an annualized rate of 2.8% in the third quarter of 2024, compared to just below 2% in 2016. And while months of restrictive monetary policy have helped tamp inflation down from four-decade highs hit in 2022, some investors worry tariffs or tax cuts could send consumer prices higher again. By contrast, sluggish inflation and growth were concerns for the Fed eight years ago.

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Home Depot co-founder Bernie Marcus dies

Bernie Marcus, the co-founder of Home Depot who became a billionaire philanthropist and GOP donor, has died at the age of 95. "The entire Home Depot family is deeply saddened by the death of our co-founder Bernie Marcus," the company said. "We owe an immeasurable debt of gratitude to Bernie. He was a master merchant and a retail visionary. But even more importantly, he valued our associates, customers and communities above all. He’s left us with an invaluable legacy and the backbone of our company: our values. Marcus’ death was first reported by CNN.

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4 states vote to protect abortion rights, while effort to expand access in Florida fails

More than two years after the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and ended the federal constitutional right to an abortion, voters in 10 states cast ballots on whether to cement reproductive rights in their state constitutions. Measures to protect abortion access in Arizona, Colorado, New York and Maryland will pass, CNN projects. In New York, Colorado and Maryland, where abortion is currently legal at least up to the point of viability, the measures will maintain current abortion access. In Arizona, the amendment is expected to overturn the state’s current ban on abortions 15 weeks into pregnancy. But a Florida amendment to protect the right to an abortion up to the point of viability will fail, CNN projects, with the amendment falling short of the 60% voter threshold for passage. The state’s six-week ban will remain in place. Three other states – Missouri, Nebraska and South Dakota – had ballot measures on whether to invalidate their states’ current abortion bans or restrictive policies. And in Nebraska, voters are weighing in on a dueling measure that would do the opposite – cement the current abortion ban in the state’s constitution.

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Meet the history-makers of the 2024 elections

The winners of several elections up and down the ballot will be making history this year, CNN projects. A victory for the Republican presidential ticket would see Ohio Sen. JD Vance sworn in as the first millennial vice president. Both parties are also poised to welcome a diverse group of newly elected lawmakers in Congress and in state executive offices. Among the projected winners in US Senate races are Democrats Lisa Blunt Rochester of Delaware and Angela Alsobrooks of Maryland, who – in addition to becoming their states’ first Black senators – will also be the first two Black women to serve simultaneously in the chamber.

In the House, CNN projects North Dakota to make history with the election of its first woman, Republican Julie Fedorchak, to the state’s at-large district. The result will leave Mississippi as the only state not to have elected a woman to the US House. Democrats are also poised to make breakthroughs for LGBTQ representation. Sarah McBride, the projected winner of Delaware’s at-large House seat, will be the first transgender person to serve in Congress. Julie Johnson will be the first out LGBTQ person to win a federal election in Texas, the nation’s second-most populous state. While the overwhelming majority of governors are elected in midterm elections, a handful of governorships were on the ballot this year. One of the projected winners – North Carolina Democrat Josh Stein – will be his state’s first Jewish governor.

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Netanyahu fires Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, after months of clashes over war and politics

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has fired Defense Minister Yoav Gallant after months of clashes over domestic politics and Israel’s war efforts. In a recorded statement Tuesday evening, Netanyahu said that “trust between me and the minister of defense has cracked.” Israel Katz, currently the foreign minister, will become defense minister. Gideon Sa’ar will replace Katz as foreign minister, the prime minister’s office said Tuesday. Neither has extensive military experience, though Katz has served in the cabinet throughout the war.

The move came as voters in the United States, Israel’s most important ally, voted for their next president. Gallant is a close interlocutor for the US administration, and has been said to have daily conversations with US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin. The reshuffle happened at a crucial moment for Israel, which is fighting bloody wars in Gaza and Lebanon while awaiting a potential retaliatory attack from Iran. Gallant responded to the decision shortly after it was made public, posting on X that the “security of Israel has been and will always be my lifelong mission.” In a televised statement, he said his dismissal was the result of a dispute over three things: the issue of ultra-Orthodox military services, the abandonment of hostages in Gaza, and the need for an official inquiry into Hamas’ October 7 attack. “There isn’t and won’t be forgiveness for abandoning the hostages,” he said. “This will be a ‘mark of Cain’ that the Israeli society bears, as well as those leading through this wrong path.”

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Lead Stories

Harris closes campaign in Philadelphia, Trump in Michigan on eve of deadlocked election

Donald Trump and Kamala Harris both predicted victory as they campaigned across Pennsylvania and other battleground states on Monday in the final, frantic day of an exceptionally close U.S. presidential election. The campaign has seen head-spinning twists: two assassination attempts and a felony conviction for Republican former President Trump, and Democratic Vice President Harris' surprise elevation to the top of the ticket after President Joe Biden, 81, dropped his reelection bid under pressure from his own party. More than $2.6 billion has been spent to sway voters' minds since March, according to AdImpact, an analytics firm. Nevertheless, opinion polls show Trump, 78, and Harris, 60, virtually even. The winner may not be known for days after Tuesday's vote, though Trump has already signaled that he will attempt to fight any defeat, as he did in 2020.

Both candidates predicted victory as they converged on Pennsylvania on Monday to urge supporters who have not yet cast their ballots to show up on Election Day. The state offers the largest share of votes in the Electoral College of any of the seven battleground states expected to determine the outcome. Trump also campaigned in North Carolina and Michigan on the final full day of the campaign and was due to return to his home in Palm Beach, Florida, to vote and await election results. Harris scheduled five campaign stops in Pennsylvania, including two cities where Trump also visited, Reading and Pittsburgh. She ended the day in Philadelphia with a star-studded event at the "Rocky steps" of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the site of a famous scene from the movie "Rocky." Despite enjoying the support of A-list celebrities including Lady Gaga and Oprah Winfrey, both of whom rallied the Philadelphia crowd before Harris took the stage, Harris called herself the underdog who like Rocky was ready to "climb to victory."

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Recent safeguards should quash efforts to overturn election results, experts say

Recent sweeping changes to how the nation handles election results should prevent a repeat of the near-constitutional crisis four years ago. For months, former President Donald Trump has been laying the groundwork to challenge the results, claiming that noncitizens are voting in droves and swing-state election officials are cheating. Republicans could use those false allegations to refuse to certify election results or submit alternate slates of electors to the Electoral College. But Trump’s actions four years ago led to state and federal action: Swing-state officials have reinforced that the certification process is mandatory, and Congress has passed a law clarifying certification rules and procedures to prevent a repeat of Jan. 6, 2021.

Although the Trump team likely has plans to challenge the election results if he loses, those plans will fail, said David Becker, founder and executive director of the Center for Election Innovation & Research, a nonpartisan organization that advises local election officials nationwide. “The guardrails are in place,” Becker told reporters in a conference call last week. “The counties will certify, the states will certify, the governors will ascertain, the electors will meet, and Congress will count the electoral votes as they were cast.” Much of the anxiety from election officials and experts in the post-election period involves the certification of election results. After voters cast their ballots and local election officials count them, the results are not yet official. Local bipartisan panels — known as boards of canvassers — meet to ensure that the number of ballots cast and the number counted match. If they do, the board certifies the results. If there are discrepancies in the count, local election officials can be called in to clarify mismatched numbers.

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State AG Ken Paxton sues Department of Justice on Election Day eve for ‘unlawful’ monitors

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has sued the U.S. Department of Justice for its plans to send election monitors on Tuesday to eight Texas counties, including Dallas, as voters are casting ballots. The lawsuit, which was filed in federal court and announced by Paxton Monday evening, alleges that the election monitors are “unlawful” since state law governs election administration and does not grant authority to federal officials to be present inside a polling place or central counting location. Paxton is asking for a temporary restraining order to block the monitors from entering polling or counting locations and a permanent injunction on federal election monitoring in Texas. The legal motion was filed in the U.S. District Court of the Northern District of Texas Amarillo Division, a federal trial court where a slew of conservative plaintiffs have filed lawsuits before the single sitting judge, an appointee of former President Donald Trump.

The Justice Department on Friday announced its plan to send election monitors to 86 jurisdictions across 27 states on Election Day. The department regularly visits precincts during elections to ensure compliance with federal election law, but the number of sites on the list has nearly doubled since 2020. The eight Texas counties expected to be visited by federal monitors were Atascosa, Bexar, Dallas, Frio, Harris, Hays, Palo Pinto and Waller. Texas state law lists 15 categories of people who are allowed inside polling locations, including voters and minors accompanied by voters, state and local election officials, and poll watchers who have completed state mandated training. Paxton’s lawsuit references the approved list and points out that the federal election monitors do not fit any of these criteria. A spokesperson for the Justice Department declined to comment on the lawsuit Monday evening. The Voting Rights Act of 1965, which prohibits racial discrimination in voting, allowed federal officials to observe polling places and sites where ballots are counted. But the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2013 ruling that struck down provisions of the law made it so that the Justice Department needed a court order or cooperation from state and local officials to enter polling sites, according to reporting by The Washington Post.

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Texas Supreme Court dismisses Travis GOP lawsuit over bipartisan poll staffing

The Texas Supreme Court has dismissed a lawsuit filed by the Travis County Republican Party alleging there were not enough Republican election workers at polling sites. The Texas Elections Code requires the county to ensure election workers at each polling location represent both major political parties – Democrat and Republican – to the best of its ability. The Travis GOP sued the Travis County Elections Division last week, naming Dyana Limon-Mercado in her role as the county clerk and election administrator. The Third Court of Appeals dismissed the lawsuit, and the Travis GOP appealed to the Texas Supreme Court.

On Monday, Texas Supreme Court Justice Jimmy Blacklock along with two other justices ruled there was not enough information to substantiate the GOP's claims, especially just hours before Election Day. "The evidentiary record it has provided to this Court lacks the degree of clarity and specificity that would allow this Court to know with certainty what exactly has transpired and what practical effect this kind of last-minute judicial intervention would have for election day in Travis County," the ruling states. In the meantime, the county was ordered to comply with the Election Code to the greatest extent possible. At a press conference Monday morning, Limon-Mercado said the county has assigned teams of bipartisan workers across the 176 polling sites on Election Day. "We have great teams of bipartisan election workers," she said. "Not only at the poll sites, but here in our office, at our central count process, ensuring the integrity of our election and that all election laws are followed."

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State Stories

'It's not a monolith': Why no political party can claim the 'Hispanic vote' in Texas

Jen Ramos and Ivan Andarza each left their hometowns in South Texas to advance their careers in Austin. They both took with them the political sensibilities that were shaped by the culture in their communities. And embedded within those sensibilities lies a myth-busting truth about Hispanic voters in Texas: There is no single political party and certainly no single ideology that can claim a monopoly among what since 2022 has been the largest segment of the still expanding Texas population. "There's no such thing as a Latino vote," said University of Texas political science professor Sergio Garcia-Rios, assistant director of UT's Center for the Study of Race and Democracy. "It's not a monolith. I don't think it's ever been a monolith."

Ramos, 32, grew up in Laredo. While the city, like nearly all of South Texas, was overwhelmingly Democratic, she said that most of the elected leaders were conservative and appeared to be out of touch with its more progressive-minded younger residents like her. She said that Austin, where the Democrats are both in charge and left-leaning, was a natural fit for her. The 53-year-old Andarza spent his formative years in the border city of Brownsville, where conservative Democrats also have long ruled. But as a young conservative, he said, he gravitated to the Republican Party. A lawyer, Andarza moved his practice from the Rio Grande Valley to Austin in 2001. "I seem to always be in a place where I'm a minority politically," he said with a laugh. With the race for U.S. Senate in Texas between Republican incumbent Ted Cruz and Democratic U.S. Rep. Colin Allred appearing to be nail-bitingly close, Hispanic voters could make the difference. But despite their long history of being reliably Democratic, Hispanic voters in Texas are not a lock for either Allred or Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee. They also aren't out of reach for Cruz or former President Donald Trump in his effort to regain the White House. Most polls still give Democrats the advantage among Hispanic voters in Texas. But the margins vary, and it's not the advantage they once enjoyed. When then-U.S. Rep. Beto O'Rourke in 2018 challenged Cruz and came within a whisker of winning, the former congressman from El Paso won Hispanics by nearly 30 percentage points, according to an analysis by the Pew Research Center.

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Final suspect in Houston-based teacher cheating scheme turns herself in

The last of five suspects charged in connection to a yearslong Houston-based cheating scandal, involving hundreds of unqualified teachers getting certified to teach at schools statewide, turned herself in Monday. Tywana Gilford Mason, 51, appeared in court before being released on a $50,000 bond. She’s the former director/VA certifying official at the Houston Training and Education Center. She’s accused of accepting money from Vincent Grayson, the alleged ringleader in the scheme, to keep it undetected. The scheme, reportedly worth over a million dollars, involved securing teaching positions for individuals who did not meet certification requirements and falsifying their credentials, according to the Harris County DA’s office.

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Four Gateway elders removed over pastor's sexual abuse scandal

Four elders at Gateway Church, whose senior pastor stepped down earlier this year, have been removed after the results of a law firm’s investigation of sexual abuse allegations against the pastor were announced in a sermon on Sunday (Nov. 3). The removals are the latest responses by one of the country’s largest evangelical Christian churches to allegations brought by Cindy Clemishire in June that Gateway’s founding pastor, Robert Morris, 63, had molested her in the 1980s, when Morris was in his 20s and she was 12. Soon afterward, also in June, the church retained law firm Haynes and Boone to conduct an investigation, which, church elder Tra Willbanks announced on Sunday, had found that all but three elders had been aware of Morris’ history with Clemishire, now 54, and her age at the time of the alleged abuse.

“We now know that there were elders and employees at Gateway who knew before June 14, 2024, that Cindy was 12 at the time of the abuse,” church elder Tra Willbanks said. “Both groups are fundamentally wrong and simply cannot and will not be tolerated at Gateway Church.” While Willbanks declined to identify the elders who were removed, the names of elders Jeremy Carrasco, Kevin Grove, Gayland Lawshe and Thomas Miller no longer appear on the church website, according to multiple news accounts. Morris publicly acknowledged his involvement with a young woman two days after Clemishire made her accusations, and Gateway leaders acknowledged in a statement that he had confessed to “a moral failure he had over 35 years ago,” but initially said they had no idea the person involved was a child. Clemishire has disputed that claim, saying that a church leader responded to an email she sent in 2005 informing them of her age. A transcript later came to light in which Morris discussed making a payment to Clemishire in restitution.

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Dozens of poll chaplains will be stationed in Dallas on Election Day

A national group of religious leaders and organizations has joined together on an initiative called Faiths United to Save Democracy aimed at protecting what they call “vulnerable voters.” The group has provided training to 35 poll chaplains who will be stationed at Dallas polling places on Election Day, according to a spokesperson. The campaign said it is sending 1,500 trained poll chaplains to polling places nationally. Its efforts are focused on 10 states: Alabama, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Texas.

The Rev. Frederick Haynes III, pastor of Friendship-West Baptist Church in Red Bird, is the program’s Texas lead. “Democracy needs a moral voice attempting to save it,” Haynes said in an interview Monday. “With violence threatened at the polls in many states during the 2024 Elections, our multifaith, multi-racial, intergenerational poll chaplains (ordained and lay leaders) and peacekeepers, will help provide a calming and moral presence to vulnerable voters, such as the elderly, disabled, youth, and other disenfranchised citizens,” the faith group said on its website. The group is helping chaplains learn how to de-escalate a charged situation and remain calm, Haynes said. “We still believe that religious leaders, faith leaders, have a respect in our communities that people respond to,” he said. “There’s a calming presence, there’s a moral presence, and so that’s, for me, the why of it.” That calming presence is particularly needed this election season, Haynes said. “I cannot tell you how many people have shared with me how anxious they are. This election, like none I’ve experienced before, has really been characterized by an emotional environment of anxiety.”

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More than 60 Houston OB/GYNs demand changes to Texas' abortion law after patient deaths

The newly reported deaths of two pregnant Texans sparked a renewed plea from Texas OB/GYNs, including dozens in the Houston-area, for lawmakers to change the state's abortion laws. More than 60 Houston-area OB/GYNs were among 111 of their colleagues across the state who signed a letter saying that the "heartbreaking" deaths of the two women — Josseli Barnica, of Houston, and Nevaeh Crain, of Vidor — "will continue to echo throughout our state and our nation." The deaths were first reported last week by ProPublica. "Texas needs a change," the letter states. "A change in laws. A change in how we legislate medical decisions that should be between a patient, their family and their doctor."

Texans cannot vote on abortion laws on Election Day, though the laws have been a central issue in key races, including U.S. Rep. Colin Allred's bid to unseat U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz. Allred has cast Cruz as a defender of Texas’s abortion ban and, during the October debate, invoked the names of pregnant Texans who have been forced to flee the state for care. Cruz has accused Allred of voting to allow abortions in the third trimester but has largely avoided the issue on the campaign trail. Both Barnica and Crain experienced delays when they sought care for miscarriage treatment, and experts said their deaths may have been preventable, according to ProPublica. Physicians had warned for months of the possibility that delays could lead to deaths in Texas, but no such stories had been publicly documented until now. Doctors and patients have criticized the abortion bans since they took effect in September 2021, saying they go beyond banning elective abortions. The vague exceptions in the law, combined with strict penalties that include life imprisonment for physicians, disrupt the standard process for treating pregnancy complications, they have said in court filings and news reports.

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Donald Trump looks to run up margins over Kamala Harris as Texas voters head to polls

Texas voters will go to the polls Tuesday to decide whether former president Donald Trump will win the state for a third straight time, following a campaign in which he promised to slash income taxes, turn the Justice Department on his political enemies and deport the millions of migrants who are living in the country illegally. Texas has never really been in doubt for Trump, with polls last month giving the New York real estate and media tycoon a five to seven-point lead over Vice President Kamala Harris in a state where a Democratic presidential candidate has not won since former president Jimmy Carter in 1976. Still, the state and its conservative political environment managed to grab the national spotlight for a moment this campaign season.

Both Trump and Harris chose to visit the Lone Star state in the closing weeks of the election, a time more typically devoted to swing more competitive state races in Pennsylvania, Georgia and Nevada. On the same day late last month, Trump held a press conference in Austin to rail against the Biden administration’s handling of the U.S.-Mexico border, while Harris appeared in Houston with celebrities including Beyoncé Knowles and Willie Nelson to attack Texas’ abortion ban, a product of U.S. Supreme Court appointments made during Trump’s first term. Republicans’ dominance in presidential elections in Texas has been slipping in recent years. Four years ago Trump beat President Joe Biden by only 6 points in Texas, compared to Mitt Romney’s 16 point advantage over former President Barack Obama in 2012 and former President George W. Bush’s 23 percentage point victory over John Kerry in 2004.

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Hundreds of homeless encampments in Dallas city parks, more resources needed — and limited funds

Dallas Park and Recreation officials say they need more resources to deal with homeless encampments across the city's parks. But elected officials questioned where those funds would come from. And one said park officials were casting the city’s unhoused population in “a light that we should all be scared of.” Park officials said there were 350 encampments in city parks from October 2022 to September 2023. They also said there were over 1,000 visitations to Dallas parks from October 2023 to just a month ago during Monday’s Parks, Trails and the Environment Committee. “Our entire operation is pretty much impacted by the unsheltered, the encampments and what we need to do as it is related to making sure our parks are clean and well maintained,” M. Renee Johnson, a park department assistant director, said during the meeting.

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Dallas HERO exec Pete Marocco caught on cam inside January 6 Capitol insurrection

Pete Marocco, the executive director of Dallas HERO, and his wife, Merritt Corrigan Marocco, have been accused by citizen investigators of entering the U.S. Capitol during the January 6, 2021, insurrection. A group of semi-anonymous, volunteer sleuths that has become known as the Sedition Hunters identified the couple by scouring social media, video footage, and by using facial recognition software, among other tools that has helped them identify more than 1,000 other rioters. Sedition Hunters’ work has been highlighted in national media such as PBS Newshour and the Washington Post, as well as the book Sedition Hunters: How January 6 Broke the Justice System, by NBC News justice reporter Ryan J. Reilly. Marocco is the face of the effort to change Dallas’ city charter by way of three amendments—S, T, and U—that would require the city manager to allocate half of all new future revenue to hire police and fund the pension; forces the city to waive its governmental immunity, opening it up to lawsuits from residents; and ties the city manager’s employment to a resident survey.

Sandy—an alias she uses to protect her identity—says Marocco and his wife were first identified in early 2023 by the volunteer investigators, who provided a tip to the FBI. Neither Marocco nor his wife has been charged with a crime. “I was waiting for them to be arrested, or at least to find some charging documents before I released it,” she told me on the phone tonight. “But we’re coming close to an election here and it felt like it needed to go out.” Sandy published the investigation on her X page on Monday afternoon. The government is on the clock; the five-year statute of limitation for Capitol trespassers expires January 6, 2026. Prior to posting, she said, she was unaware of Marocco’s work in Dallas and the HERO charter amendments. Reached by email, Marocco did not address whether he and his wife are in the footage. He sent the following: “Petty smear tactics and desperate personal attacks by politicians with no solutions have no bearing on the urgency of voting in these charter amendments from 170,000 Dallas citizens for more accountability and public safety. Our commitment to strengthening our city through the will of the people is resolute.”

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Fort Worth ISD uses strategic staffing to boost STAAR scores

As officials in the Fort Worth Independent School District look for ways to improve academic progress, they’re pinning hopes on a new staffing model designed to ensure that more kids get a high-quality teacher. The model, called Opportunity Culture, is based on the idea of having a few highly effective teachers spend part of the day acting as coaches and mentors for other educators in their building. The district is piloting the model at three campuses this year, with plans to expand if it’s successful. Although Fort Worth ISD leaders say it’s too early to say how the program is going here, education researchers say it’s shown promise elsewhere.

Under the staffing model, school leaders designate a few top-performing teachers to act as leaders for small teams of teachers, providing coaching and advice for their teams while continuing to work with their own students. The idea is that by placing the best teachers in peer leader positions, districts can magnify their impact, raising the quality of instruction all students get. It also gives those teachers a way to step into a leadership role — and make more money — without leaving the classroom for an administrator job. Woodrow Bailey, Fort Worth ISD’s chief of talent management, said the district is piloting the staffing model this year at Hazel Harvey Peace and Westcreek elementary schools and O.D. Wyatt High School. If the test run is successful, district leaders plan to expand the program to six more campuses next year, he said. The district’s eventual goal is to expand the program to every campus, Bailey said, but doing so will take several years. Each school has a handful of teachers designated to act as so-called multi-classroom leaders, Bailey said. Those master teachers have classes of their own that they teach for part of the day before handing the reins to a teaching assistant. For the rest of the day, the master teachers work with other classes in their team, helping teachers hone their skills or working directly with students, he said.

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Allison vs. Abbott: Republicans line up on opposite sides of HD121

At back-to-back campaign events Wednesday, Republican Gov. Greg Abbott made his closing pitch for the Republican candidate in House District 121, Marc LaHood, while two members of his own party were lining up behind the Democrat in the race, Laurel Jordan Swift. The strange political dynamics come as Abbott spent big money ousting incumbent state House Rep. Steve Allison (R-Alamo Heights) in the Republican primary — part of a larger effort to rid the GOP of members who oppose his school voucher plan. But now days out from an election that Republicans wouldn’t otherwise be worried about, GOP groups are spending big to shore up their new candidate, while some local Republicans are still stewing about a primary that featured millions of dollars of attack ads run against the personally popular incumbent.

Outside the Brook Hollow Library on Wednesday, Swift was joined by Allison and former GOP state Sen. Jeff Wentworth, who said they each split from their party to vote for her, in hopes of stopping Abbott’s school voucher program from being approved next session. But Wentworth, whose own political career ended in a 2012 primary loss, also gave voice to a sentiment percolating among some local party faithful. “Another thing that really disturbed me was the way that Steve Allison was treated in the primary. Our mailboxes and airwaves were flooded with money that came from outside of Texas,” Wentworth said, referencing a Pennsylvania billionaire who gave Abbott $4 million to fund the pro-voucher campaign. “Can you imagine?” he added. “[Abbott] spent like $1.2 million just to defeat Steve Allison in the primary. It’s not right.”

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Why are some Austin Democrats supporting a conservative for City Council? The answer is housing.

For Democrats running for office in Texas, David Butts has long been the go-to guy. He’s worked on the campaigns of now-U.S. Congressman Lloyd Doggett, former Texas Gov. Ann Richards and Austin Mayor Kirk Watson. In an Austin-American Statesman story about Butts’ career from 2014, he is termed the “Obi-Wan Kenobi” of Austin politics and a “liberal warlord.” But now Butts has shifted his support, this time personal instead of professional, to a conservative candidate. He and about two dozen longtime Democrats have thrown their clout and money behind a Republican seeking reelection to the Austin City Council. They’re calling themselves “Democrats for Mackenzie Kelly.” While council races are nonpartisan, Kelly is a bonafide conservative on a liberal body. As the representative for the city’s northernmost district, she’s often the lone objector in a sea of yeses. That’s especially true when the vote is on an issue such as abortion, transgender health care or financial assistance programs.

But when it comes to land use and housing, Kelly has found backing among some Austin liberals. In the last year, the council has attempted to bring down housing prices by voting to let property owners build more on smaller pieces of land. The move has been controversial and polarizing. Kelly and a second council member have been the only "no" votes. “If she were running for state representative, I probably wouldn’t support her,” Butts, who is upset with the recent council votes on land use changes, said. “But she’s running for the City Council, where the biggest issue the city deals with is land use.” Housing produces strange bedfellows. The alliance formed with Democrats for Kelly illustrates how fights over the rules governing what can be built and where do not fall neatly along traditional party lines. And how for some, local elections have become about a single issue.

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Andrea Castaneda-Lauver: 10% of eligible U.S. voters are immigrants. We share one value: patriotism.

(Andrea Castaneda-Lauver is a business engagement and inclusion programs associate at the National Immigration Forum. She lives in Houston.) In September, I took the oath to become a U.S. citizen. As I took the oath, I looked around and saw people of all cultures and all ages, making official on paper what many of us already felt in our hearts — that we are American. As I raised my hand and repeated the words, I felt a deep sense of belonging and pride. On Tuesday, Nov. 5, I’ll join the ranks of 1 in 10 eligible voters who are naturalized citizens. The narratives surrounding this population (which has grown by an estimated 3.5 million since 2020) tend to frame us as a singular bloc, but this ignores the complexity of our motivations and diminishes our contributions to the democratic process. Like all voters, newly naturalized citizens have a wide range of political beliefs shaped by our experiences. What unites us is a profound love for our new country, one that stems from our understanding of hardship and the desire for a better future for our families.

My family emigrated from El Salvador when I was just 5 years old, seeking safety and opportunity amid the backdrop of a civil war that had torn our homeland apart. We fled not only threats of violence, but also the harmful effects of two back-to-back earthquakes that further destabilized our country. Temporary Protected Status (TPS) was a lifeline for us. Established through bipartisan legislation in 1990 and signed into law by President George H.W. Bush, TPS gives people who cannot return to their country because of extraordinary conditions such as armed conflict or natural disasters the interim ability to work, pay taxes and contribute legally to the U.S. without fear of deportation. My immigrant journey has profoundly shaped my perspective. When I say, “Immigrants make our communities better,” I picture the faces of my family and friends, each contributing their talents and resilience. This perspective is also informed by my experiences as a pastor in Texas for nearly a decade, where I witnessed the diverse challenges our communities face and the power of unity in overcoming them. In my current role, I help companies in our area utilize the National Immigration Forum’s citizenship services program, empowering their eligible employees to naturalize and reach their highest potential. This work underscores that becoming a U.S. citizen is not just a privilege but a responsibility — one that I, like so many, take seriously. As I reflect on my journey, I recognize the importance of bridging gaps between immigrants and those who may view us with skepticism. And as I prepare to vote, I carry with me the hopes and dreams of my family and the lessons I’ve learned from my faith. I am motivated to build bridges, connect with fellow citizens and advocate for a future where empathy and understanding prevail over division.

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Bexar County races we're watching on Election Day

On the same ballot as the much-anticipated presidential race between Vice President Kamala Harris (D) and former President Donald Trump (R), voters in Bexar County are weighing in on a host of downballot races in this Nov. 5 election. Here are the top races the reporters and editors of the San Antonio Report will be watching on Nov. 5. U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Laredo) survived the race of his life two years ago — narrowly fending off a progressive primary challenger, then weathering millions of dollars in attacks from a well-qualified Republican. Now Cuellar is looking like a much riper target, after draining his campaign account on lawyers’ fees as he and his wife prepare to stand trial next year on charges of bribery, unlawful foreign influence and money laundering. But national Republicans’ money has not flowed to his race this year — as GOP operatives wait for the legal system to finish Cuellar off.

Both Democrats and Republicans agree this South Texas seat will be one of the most hard-fought races of the fall — a rarity after redistricting has left hardly any truly competitive districts. Though once a Democratic stronghold, Lujan, a former San Antonio firefighter, flipped House District 118 for Republicans in a 2021 special election, then fended off Democrat Frank Ramirez the following November with 52% of the vote. Lujan’s opponent, progressive political organizer Kristian Carranza, has been raising the money that was sorely missing from her predecessor’s race. A Northside district wouldn’t be on the radar if not for an upset in the GOP primary, where state House Rep. Steve Allison (R-Alamo Heights) fell victim to Abbott’s campaign to rid the party of members who oppose school vouchers. Allison’s broad appeal helped him easily defeat past challengers, even as Democrats made inroads with college-educated suburbanites elsewhere in the state. Without him, Democrats will once again make a play for the seat, this time with political newcomer Laurel Jordan Swift, who joined the race a week before the filing deadline.

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City Stories

Irving ballot proposition would give firefighters collective bargaining rights

Irving voters will decide on a proposition that would give the city’s firefighters more of a voice in their contracts. On Tuesday’s ballot in Irving is Proposition A, which calls for the local adoption of the state’s 1993 Fire and Police Employee Relations Act allowing for collective bargaining. “It gives us a seat at the table with city management so we can advocate on behalf of the membership and assistance, for enhanced safety standards to improve working conditions, and for some of the professional development staff," said Brian Becker, president of the Irving Professional Fire Fighters Association. The act has been implemented in over 30 cities throughout the state, including Fort Worth, Houston, San Antonio and El Paso. Fire fighters in Irving are asking that it be put into action locally.

Becker said the term “collective bargaining” can be confusing to voters. He said both sides — firefighters and the city — would come to table and discuss things such as terms of employment, working conditions, staffing, compensation, discipline, and “basically everything that affects our lives that ultimately affects citizens’ lives,” he said. Firefighters would still be prohibited from going on strike. If Prop A passes, Becker said all city meetings with representatives from his association and the city would be held in public for transparency and accountability. From the cities he’s talked to, no taxes have been raised as a result of this policy, he said. In April, community members and a representative from the firefighters association requested a petition from the city manager’s office to start the process of getting the act in the Nov. 5 ballot. The Irving City Council accepted the petition with signatures in June. KERA has reached out to the city for this story.

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National Stories

What the 2024 election means for higher education

No matter which party wins the White House and control of Congress this week, colleges and universities are likely in store for more scrutiny and upheaval. As higher education finds itself in the political crosshairs and faces greater skepticism from lawmakers and the public, this election could reshape the landscape over the next four years and beyond. Will students taking out loans have to repay them completely? How will sexual assault cases be adjudicated? Will nonprofit colleges be investigated or accredited? That will become clear on Tuesday night—or sometime between now and Jan. 6. Neither political party is interested in a hands-off approach to higher education, and recent elections have meant the undoing or rewriting of significant federal regulations that dictate how colleges should be run, leading to regulatory whiplash.

Unless Vice President Kamala Harris or former president Donald Trump has a united Congress with sizable majorities, which is unlikely, they’ll have to make policy changes that aren’t law and will be subject to reversal by their successor in four (or eight) years. And they’ll likely be locked up in court on those policies after challenges from the other side, which is what happened (and is still happening) to President Biden’s efforts to provide mass debt relief and expand Title IX protections to transgender students. Trump has called for abolishing the Education Department, promised to fire accreditors and said he would reclaim colleges from the “radical left.” His running mate, Ohio senator JD Vance, has called professors the “enemy.” (The president of the American Association of University Professors has since deemed Vance a “fascist.”) Trump is widely expected to roll back the Title IX changes and other changes put in place by the Biden administration—including policies that measure whether career education programs are preparing their students for gainful employment and others that make debt relief easier to access.

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The Proud Boys have regrouped and are signaling election plans

Members of the Proud Boys, key instigators in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot, are mobilizing in support of Donald Trump—and in some cases, making threats about the presidential election. While it isn’t clear what the far-right group is planning or how coordinated its plans are, many chapters are amplifying election-cheating claims made by Trump or his allies and discussing potential responses, according to a review by The Wall Street Journal of dozens of accounts on Telegram, the messaging app, and Trump’s Truth Social platform. Chapters have gathered across state lines, talked about watching polls and have been boasting about attending Trump rallies to protect the former president. The online chatter comes as law-enforcement officials confront an unprecedented array of aggressors this election season: foreign operatives, homegrown extremists and lone wolves such as those accused of trying to assassinate Trump.

The digital activity appears to show the Proud Boys regrouping after the imprisonment of many members and top leaders—individuals that a bipartisan House panel called central orchestrators of the riot. Former national chairman Enrique Tarrio is serving 22 years for seditious conspiracy and other charges for trying to thwart the transfer of power from Trump to Joe Biden. A Texas Proud Boys chapter’s Telegram account recently shared a post alleging a Democratic conspiracy to install Vice President Kamala Harris as president through “millions of fake ballots.” Replied a commenter pictured with a Proud Boys flag in the background: “So we can shoot them then, right?” A North Carolina Proud Boys chapter, which has formally endorsed Trump on Telegram, thanked its members who volunteered to “work the polls” in the primaries, calling it an “excellent trial run for the general election in November.” The chapter also talked about providing “security” for Trump at a September rally in Wilmington, N.C., and declared that Harris “will not win without a steal, which is exactly what they are planning to do.”

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Utility regulators take millions from industries they oversee. What could go wrong?

It was 2:30 in the morning on Nov. 6, 2014, when flames engulfed the New Orleans home of political consultant Mario Zervigon. Someone had lit his cars on fire, and the flames spread to his house. Zervigon and his family barely made it out of the three-unit building alive. Multiple cats didn’t. Law enforcement deemed it arson and investigated whether the fire was related to Zerivigon's campaign work. (The case would ultimately be closed without naming a suspect.) The night before the fire, Zervigon had celebrated the primary election victory of one of his clients for a seat on Louisiana’s Public Service Commission (PSC), a down-ballot position with vast power over the state’s oil, gas and utility companies. The candidate, Forest Bradley-Wright, was running as a Republican on a reform platform. He had rejected donations from companies the PSC oversees — a rarity in Louisiana.

But the firebombing rattled his campaign. Zervigon took a leave of absence, Bradley-Wright’s fundraising flagged, and another candidate, who had received generous support from the companies in question, eked out a 1.6 percentage point win in the general election. Bradley-Wright now says he believes the firebombing was an act of “political terrorism” meant “to intimidate or at least cripple my campaign.” He argues the incident is worth revisiting because it shows just how high the stakes can get in the election of regulators charged with making, in some cases, billion-dollar decisions and shaping a state’s energy policies. "Public utility commissions — especially in the context of climate change — are really important institutions that most people aren't even aware exist,” said Jared Heern, a Brown University researcher who studies the relationship between the commissions and the industries they regulate. Floodlight is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates the powers stalling climate action. But fossil fuel companies and electric utilities, their lawyers and consultants, are well aware of their importance.

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Boeing workers vote to accept contract proposal, ending strike

Striking Boeing machinists have ended their nearly two-month walkout, voting Monday to accept a four-year deal that locks in historic gains in wages and benefits that are substantially higher than the company offered before the strike began. The victory for the union — which secured 38 percent raises over four years and $12,000 bonuses for approving the pact — also puts Boeing’s new chief executive, Kelly Ortberg, in a better position to begin pivoting the company away from a cascade of missteps and bad news this year that damaged its reputation and deepened its financial woes. Leaders of the 33,000-member International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers Districts 751 and W24 hailed the agreement, which includes a guarantee that Boeing’s next new airplane will be built in the Seattle area.

More than 26,000 union members voted Monday, with 59 percent voting to accept the deal, union district president Jon Holden said at the vote announcement in Seattle. His announcement was met with some cheers and some loud boos in the hall. Less than two weeks ago, 64 percent of union members voted no on a company proposal that included a 35 percent raise and $7,000 signing bonus. The strike began Sept. 13 after IAM members resoundingly rejected Boeing’s initial offer of a 25 percent raise over four years. “We can hold our heads high,” Holden said. “We all stood strong and we achieved something that we hadn’t achieved the last 22 years.” In a message sent to employees after the vote results were announced, Ortberg said the company was pleased to reach a deal. “We will only move forward by listening and working together,” he wrote. “There is much work ahead to return to the excellence that made Boeing an iconic company.”

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America’s political experts brace for the most unpredictable election of their careers

Washington’s political class is grappling with an uncomfortable, and unprecedented, reality: This is the most unpredictable election of their careers. The presidential race is statistically tied in all seven battleground states, making a clean Donald Trump or Kamala Harris sweep — or something in between — about equally likely. Republicans face good odds of flipping the Senate but can’t rule out the possibility that Democrats pick up less-than-ironclad GOP seats in Texas or Florida. And while control of the House often reflects the top-of-the-ticket outcome, strategists on both sides of the aisle are girding for a surprise. Never in modern political history has there been so much uncertainty heading into Election Day — with such a wide array of possible outcomes.

“The only intellectually honest answer is to say: I don’t know,” said Douglas Heye, a veteran GOP strategist and former communications director for the Republican National Committee. “Everything I see contradicts itself.” Patti Solis Doyle, a Democratic strategist and a former campaign manager for Hillary Clinton in 2008, said it’s the most unpredictable election of her more than three decades of working on presidential campaigns. “Normally I would say that the House goes where the presidential goes. That’s sort of the standard,” Solis Doyle said. “But I don’t think that’s the case here. In some of these battleground states where it’s tied, you see some of the Senate races going either D or R, full on, and it’s befuddling.” “I don’t think anybody knows how this will turn out, and people who tell you they do know, I think, are lying to you or are drinking the Kool-Aid,” she added.

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New York could decide House control — and Jeffries’ and Hochul’s political futures

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Gov. Kathy Hochul have a lot on the line Tuesday, when New York voters decide whether to redeem them after their dismal showing in House races two years ago. The whirlwind final days of the campaign found the leading Democrats crisscrossing the state, from Long Island to the Hudson Valley, hyping up candidates, voters and unions along the way. The New York politicians held high-energy rallies, presenting a united front as they fight to unseat five Republicans and make Jeffries the next House speaker. Jeffries also visited Syracuse over the weekend for John Mannion — the Democrats’ best prospect for flipping a seat anywhere in the country — amid stumping in other states. The get-out-the-vote sprint punctuated what has been a bitter campaign season that has underscored New York’s role as a battleground for the House majority, despite its standing as a solid blue state in presidential races.

The stakes for Hochul and Jeffries are sky high. She is keenly aware that this election represents a chance at retribution, after New York Democrats’ House losses contributing to Republicans taking over the chamber two years ago. Another disappointing result would weaken the governor, while a successful night would help her fend off rivals looking to unseat her in 2026. The races in New York will also play a leading role in the arc of Jeffries’ future. If Democrats retake the House, he is poised to become the body’s first Black speaker. With all that in mind, Democrats have a new “coordinated campaign” this year, devoted to building their ground game. “It’s personal. I’m harnessing the power of the party to help our candidates like it’s never been done before,” Hochul told POLITICO, “including when I ran for office and asked for help from the state party and was flat out told, ‘No.’”

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Seeking wiggle room from Republicans on climate change

Heather Reams apologized for being late to an interview with The Hill: She had been on a conference call with a GOP congressman discussing the benefits of climate-friendly energy tax credits. That’s Reams’s job as the head of Citizens for Responsible Energy Solutions (CRES) — to talk to Republicans about the climate and what they should do about it. It’s not always easy. Historically, most Republicans have been indifferent at best and hostile at worst to policies that aim to cut the nation’s planet-warming emissions. In 2015, then-Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) famously threw a snowball on the Senate floor as part of an effort to dismiss concerns about the issue.

And, for many members, that hasn’t changed. An analysis from the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank, found earlier this year that 123 Republicans, including prominent members of House leadership, continue to deny the well-established fact human activity is causing global warming and wreaking havoc on the planet. The 2022 Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which included historic investments in low-carbon energy, passed without a single GOP vote. But Reams thinks things have shifted since she joined CRES eight years ago. “For a couple of years, it was a little bit lonely,” she said. “We had a few members who, behind closed doors, would say, ‘Yeah, we’ll talk about it, but don’t quote me on it.’” But now, she pointed to both the Bipartisan Climate Solutions Caucus and the Conservative Climate Caucus as examples of Republicans who want to get serious about cutting emissions. And while she sees herself as trying to work through the Republican Party to cut emissions and protect the environment, Reams says her organization is a big tent — open to working with people who want to engage on climate change for political as well as moral reasons.

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Lead Stories

Harris goes to church while Trump muses about reporters being shot

Kamala Harris told a Michigan church on Sunday that God offers America a “divine plan strong enough to heal division,” while Donald Trump gave a profane and conspiracy-laden speech in which he mused about reporters being shot and labeled Democrats as “demonic.” The two major candidates took starkly different tones on the final Sunday of the campaign. Less than 48 hours before Election Day, Harris, the Democratic vice president, argued that Tuesday's election offers voters the chance to reject “chaos, fear and hate,” while Trump, the Republican former president, repeated lies about voter fraud to try to cast doubt on the integrity of the vote and suggested that the country was falling apart without him in office. Harris was concentrating her Sunday in Michigan, beginning the day with a few hundred parishioners at Detroit’s Greater Emmanuel Institutional Church of God in Christ.

It marked the fourth consecutive Sunday that Harris, who is Baptist, has spoken to a Black congregation, a reflection of how critical Black voters are across multiple battleground states. “I see faith in action in remarkable ways,” she said in remarks that quoted the Old Testament prophet Jeremiah. “I see a nation determined to turn the page on hate and division and chart a new way forward. As I travel, I see Americans from so-called red states and so-called blue states who are ready to bend the arc of history toward justice.” She never mentioned Trump, though she’s certain to return to her more conventional partisan speech in stops later Sunday. But Harris did tell her friendly audience that “there are those who seek to deepen division, sow hate, spread fear and cause chaos.” The election and “this moment in our nation,” she continued, “has to be about so much more than partisan politics. It must be about the good work we can do together.” Harris finished her remarks in about 11 minutes — starting and ending during Trump's roughly 90-minute speech at a chilly outdoor rally at the Lancaster, Pennsylvania, airport. Trump usually veers from subject to subject, a discursive style he has labeled “the weave.” But in Lancaster, he went on long tangents and hardly mentioned his usual points on the economy, immigration and rote criticisms of Harris.

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The election-year fight over what counts as Chinese-owned U.S. farmland

Walton Global has been identified by the U.S. government as a Chinese owner of U.S. farmland for a decade. The private land-banking company has opened four new offices in China since 2018 and last year was named by the U.S. Department of Agriculture as one of the top five Chinese owners of American farmland. But last month, the company successfully petitioned the agency to reclassify much of its land as owned by investors from other countries, after The Wall Street Journal inquired about its holdings. It said the agency had made a mistake in saying so much of its land was held by Chinese investors. Opposition to Chinese ownership of U.S. farmland in the name of economic and national security is a popular message this election cycle. It is featured in more than $8 million worth of advertisements in the 2024 election cycle alone, from both Democrats and Republicans, according to data from ad tracker AdImpact.

Some of the largest such companies caught up in this criticism are now pushing back, underscoring the limited oversight the U.S. government has on the issue. Few agree on what even counts as owned by China or which aspect of that ownership is bad for the U.S., even when that land is close to military installations. Walton, which buys and resells land to developers, owns 14 sites that have some Chinese investment within 15 miles of military bases, the company said, including two near Joint Base Andrews, the hub of presidential travel. Two Walton sites near military bases with more than 90% Chinese ownership aren’t included in the USDA database because the underlying land isn’t designated as agricultural, a company spokesman said. “We do business in China. We’re proud to do business in China,” the company’s chief executive, Bill Doherty, said in an interview. But he said, “The company is owned by me and my family. And I’m most definitely not Chinese.” The company has touted its proximity to military installations, along with other local attractions, in some of its marketing materials in China.

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Mitch McConnell leaving Senate GOP leadership post. Will John Cornyn snag the role?

Senate Republicans vying to replace longtime leader Mitch McConnell have been crossing the country to campaign and fundraise for colleagues, making their final arguments before a consequential ballot the week after the presidential election. But their pitches are mostly behind closed doors, and most GOP senators won’t yet say which lawmaker they are backing. South Dakota’s John Thune, McConnell’s current No. 2, and John Cornyn of Texas, who held that job before Thune, are the front-runners in the Nov. 13 secret ballot to replace McConnell. The Kentucky senator is stepping aside from the post in January after almost two decades as leader. The winner could steer the direction of the party for years to come and possibly become the next Senate majority leader if Republicans win enough seats in Tuesday’s election. The outcome is, for now, uncertain.

Only a few Republican senators have publicly endorsed a candidate. Many say they are still undecided. The third senator in the race — Florida Sen. Rick Scott, who is dealing with his own reelection bid — could act as a spoiler. Another candidate could still jump in. In many ways, “the two Johns” are remarkably similar, making the choice difficult for their colleagues. Both are well-liked and, in the mold of McConnell, lean toward the more traditional wing of the Republican Party. But both have also suggested they will try to move on from the McConnell era with a more open approach. “I’m trying to find differentiation because they’re both great guys,” said Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., who has worked closely with both of them. The two men are also trying to distinguish themselves from McConnell by making clear that they support Donald Trump in this year’s presidential election. Like McConnell, they have both sparred with Trump in the past, especially after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. But both Thune and Cornyn have talked to Trump frequently in recent months, attended campaign events and visited his Florida home.

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Experts: Travis County GOP lawsuit part of national strategy to sow distrust in election

Travis County Republican Party Chairman Matt Mackowiak made an urgent announcement last Tuesday, more than a week into early voting: The local GOP had sued the Travis County elections administrator, alleging that she created a “severe deficiency” in the number of Republican poll workers at the county’s 170-plus voting locations. “It is totally unacceptable that large portions of our county have no Republican election judges assigned, despite our providing far more than the number of available workers needed,” Mackowiak said in a statement announcing the emergency petition. He was referencing a list of people the county GOP had asked county officials to consider appointing to run polls during early voting in the Nov. 5 general election. It’s a common practice in Texas and other states to allow local Republican and Democratic parties to make such recommendations to help ensure bipartisan staffing at polling locations. The people on those lists are supposed to be given priority. In its emergency petition filed with the Austin-based 3rd Court of Appeals, Mackowiak and the county GOP accused Travis County Clerk Dyana Limon-Mercado of failing to exhaust the party's list before appointing other people.

According to Mackowiak, the county GOP acted entirely in response to numerous complaints from would-be Republican poll workers who never were called upon to help run a polling location. “It was not driven or influenced by any event in other states,” he said in the email. But local and state arms of the Republican Party and even the Republican National Committee have lodged nearly identical allegations this year at election offices across the country, filing complaints and lawsuits in Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin. The RNC, which did not respond to a request for comment, filed a similar case against Arizona’s Maricopa County in 2022. The RNC, for example, said it reached a settlement in October with the elections office in Detroit. And just last week, the Minnesota Supreme Court found that Hennepin County, home to Minneapolis, hadn’t exhausted a full list of Republican poll worker candidates, the Minnesota Star Tribune reported. Mackowiak said in the email that the group reached out to the RNC “for assistance in rectifying the situation.” (One of the RNC’s outside lawyers helped draft the complaint.) But he maintained the county GOP wasn’t inspired by anyone else. Paul Schiff Berman, a law professor at George Washington University who reviewed the petition at the Statesman’s request, said that while the argument could be valid, the Travis County GOP “offers no actual evidence or even factual allegations." “The complaint simply recites Texas law and asserts that the clerk isn't following it, based it seems only on the lack of parity,” Berman said. “I think the plaintiffs would need to allege something more specific — and certainly would need to offer more proof at trial — in order to win.” Barry Burden, a political scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said it’s “implausible” that elections administrators in multiple states are “systematically discriminating against thousands of potential poll workers based on their partisanship.” More likely, many of the individuals on these GOP lists didn’t take the required steps to become a poll worker. The effort has yielded some wins.

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State Stories

Bexar County expects busy Election Day with drop in early votes

Now that early voting has ended, Bexar County Elections Administrator Jacque Callanen said Saturday that the county’s voting is down from the 2020 presidential election. Callanen is still predicting a busy Election Day turnout on Nov. 5, however, in part because there have been fewer opportunities this year to vote ahead of time. Because of COVID-19 precautions during the 2020 election, early voting was extended by a week, and a tremendous emphasis was put on voting by mail. Against that backdrop, Callanen said that in 2020 the county received about 690,000 votes cast early or by mail — compared to 605,000 early and mailed votes cast in 2024, though mailed ballots are still being counted as they’re received.

That puts the county’s turnout at about 46.7% headed into Election Day this year, Callanen said on Saturday. Total turnout for county in the 2020 election was 65.1%. Callanen said it’s unlikely Bexar County will catch up to that percentage in 2024. But Election Day voting should account for a much larger share of the total votes cast this year, she said, bringing the raw vote total at least as high as 2020. The unusual focus on early and mail-in voting made for a much lower than expected Election Day turnout in 2020, with roughly 84,000 votes cast, Callanen said. “The key to this that we’re looking at is Election Day in 2020… which was like, ‘Where’s the voters?'” Callanen said. “So we’re taking a step back here, and we’re waiting.”

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This year had the warmest October in Dallas-Fort Worth since at least 1898

Last month the Dallas-Fort Worth area topped the charts as the warmest October since the National Weather Service began record keeping in 1898. The determination comes after a number of days last month were reported as unseasonably warm with above-normal temperatures. The monthly average temperature for this October at DFW International Airport was 75.7 degrees, according to weather service data. This year’s average was a jump up from 69.2 in October 2023 and 69.1 in October 2022. This October was the first to break 75 degrees for the monthly average, according to historical data. The previous warmest October was set at 74.1 degrees in 2016 followed by 73.5 in 1963 and 73.2 in 1947 and 1934.

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Cold front will shift Houston weather into fall mode again, but how long will that last?

Rain chances in Houston ramp up to 80% on Monday night, and the moisture-rich air will help keep overnight temperatures above 68 degrees. Then, a slow-moving cold front will move into and through Southeast Texas from late Monday night to Tuesday, forecasters said. “Showers and thunderstorms can be expected on Monday ahead of the front and then again Monday night and Tuesday with the front,” the weather service said in its forecast bulletin. “While the best dynamics look to be north of our forecast area, there could end up being a risk of some strong/severe storms along with the potential for locally heavy rain for parts of Southeast Texas.” Any storms that develop would only add moisture to already-saturated parts of Southeast Texas that experienced bouts of new rainfall in recent days.

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Central Texas news anchor shares colleague Kris Radcliffe’s unexpected death with viewers

Longtime Central Texas television news anchor Kris Radcliffe “died unexpectedly” Wednesday, his co-anchor Lindsay Liepman tearfully told viewers at the start of that evening’s newscast. “Kris loved this community and never took his role for granted,” Liepman said, calling his death “a true loss for our community.” Radcliffe was 51. The California native joined KCEN TV in 2002 as a sports anchor. The NBC affiliate covers Waco, Temple and Killeen. Radcliffe went on to anchor the station’s “Texas Today” morning show for nine years before becoming an evening anchor. He was named the “Waco Tribune-Herald On-Air Television Personality of The Year” for six years in a row from 2016 to 2021.

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Chris Tomlinson: How Elon Musk became the most politically powerful Texan due to COVID and transgender rights

Maybe it’s something in Austin’s water, but Elon Musk has caught the politics bug, and the world’s wealthiest man could change Texas politics and the Republican Party for years to come. Musk’s higher profile also reveals our most famous billionaire’s weird obsessions. Normally, I couldn’t care less if he created a “Big Love” compound in Austin for the baby mamas of his 12 or more kids, but using his wealth and celebrity to reshape the nation invites scrutiny. The CEO of Tesla, SpaceX and Twitter — now known as X — uses every tool to help elect former President Donald Trump. In addition to giving $132 million to support the Republican nominee, the Wall Street Journal reports X’s algorithm is pushing Musk’s political posts, including disinformation, to all users. The New York Times estimates Musk’s reprogramming is worth $100 million to Trump’s campaign.

Musk’s political awakening coincided with Tesla’s relocation to Texas in 2021. Musk was enraged that California public health authorities expected Tesla to follow the same COVID pandemic precautions as every other employer. At about this time, he also turned on his transgender daughter. By the time Musk donned a cowboy hat at the Austin Tesla plant in 2022, he was secretly financing a group called Citizens for Sanity, started by Stephen Miller, the vile racist behind Trump’s immigration policies. The money paid for ads vilifying transgender children and undocumented immigrants, the Wall Street Journal reported. Musk began weighing into Texas politics this year, quietly spending $650,000 to defeat progressive Travis County District Attorney José Garza in the Democratic primary, the Journal also reported. “José Garza is filling Austin’s streets with pedophiles & killers,” a flyer paid for by Musk said. “The next victim could be your loved one.”

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From president to propositions, ballot choices abound for North Texas voters

Tuesday is Election Day, giving North Texans one final chance to make selections for president, U.S. senator, seats in the state Legislature and much more, including the much-debated Dallas Hero charter amendments and a proposal to decriminalize marijuana possession in Dallas. Atop the ballot is the race deciding whether the state’s 40 electoral votes for president go to Republican Donald Trump or Democrat Kamala Harris. A high-profile U.S. Senate contest between Republican Ted Cruz and Democrat Colin Allred — with most polls showing a close race and money pouring in to both candidates — could help determine which party controls the Senate and the levers of power over confirming presidential nominees, particularly to federal courts. Almost 45% of registered voters in Dallas County took advantage of early voting, leaving more than 809,000 residents eligible to cast ballots Tuesday.

Dallas voters will decide the fate of 18 propositions to update the city charter or codes, including Proposition R, which would bar the Dallas Police Department from making arrests or issuing citations for possession of marijuana or from considering marijuana odor as probable cause for search and seizure, except in cases involving a violent felony or high-priority narcotics felony investigation. Voters in the Frisco Independent School District will decide whether to approve more than $1 billion in bonds for school construction and renovation, new school buses, technology improvements and an $11.2 million tennis center. Five members of Congress whose districts include parts of Dallas County are seeking reelection, including Reps. Lance Gooden, R-Terrell; Jake Ellzey, R-Midlothian; Beth Van Duyne, R-Irving; Jasmine Crockett, D-Dallas; and Marc Veasey, D-Fort Worth. State Rep. Julie Johnson, D-Farmers Branch, is running against former Arlington City Council Member Darrell Day and Libertarian candidate Kevin Hale to succeed Allred in the U.S. House. Seventeen state legislative races are on the ballot in Dallas County, with incumbents seeking reelection in all but three contests. Democrats Linda Garcia, an economic empowerment advocate, and Aicha Davis, a former member of the state education board, are running unopposed in House District 107 and 109, respectively. Democrat Cassandra Hernandez, a trial lawyer, is running against Republican John Jun, a former Coppell City Council member and mayor pro tem, in District 115. The winner will succeed Johnson, the Democrat running for Allred’s seat in Congress.

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Hudson Fire in Bastrop County grows to 100 acres, prompts evacuations on Sunday

Officials have evacuated multiple households in Bastrop County due to a spreading wildfire. The fire began west of downtown Bastrop just before 2 p.m. Sunday and quickly spread to 50 acres, the Bastrop County Office of Emergency Management said. By 3:40 p.m. Sunday, the Hudson Fire in Bastrop County had grown to an estimated 100 acres and was 0% contained, the Texas A&M Forest Service shared on X. Residents living near Texas Highway 71 and Alum Creek Road and north of Goiter Trace Road have been told to evacuate. Authorities said households along Park Road 1C were evacuated earlier in the afternoon. They did not say how many homes had been affected by the evacuations. Firefighters are expected to continue working to extinguish the "extremely active" fire throughout the night, Bastrop Emergency Management said.

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Starr County's 'culture of corruption' unveils prosecutor's $44K bribes

A former elected South Texas attorney was sentenced to serve over three years in prison for accepting tens of thousands of dollars in bribes while in office. The prosecutor is just the latest to be convicted in a known "culture of corruption" in Starr County. Victor Canales Jr., 51, pleaded guilty to extortion under color of law charges in September 2023. His sentencing was announced by U.S. Attorney Alamdar S. Hamdani. on Tuesday, October 29 in a news release. Canales served nearly 20 years as Starr County attorney between 2005 and 2022. He was responsible for prosecuting misdemeanor crimes but accepted cash deposits and dropped charges instead.

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Holding out hope on the drying Rio Grande

The year was 1897. Floodwaters from the Rio Grande submerged entire blocks of downtown El Paso. The New York Times described the crash of crumbling houses and the “cries of frightened women and children” on its May 26 front page. The raging river displaced hundreds of people and destroyed scores of adobe homes. In Mexico, the Rio Grande is known as the Rio Bravo — the rough, or wild, river — signifying the force that caused several devastating floods in El Paso and neighboring Ciudad Juárez. Today, these historic floods are hard to imagine. The river channel in El Paso-Juárez now only fills during the irrigation season. Farther downstream, the river is frequently dry in a 200-mile section known as the Forgotten Reach. Inside Climate News documented this remote stretch of the river in July on a flight with the nonprofit Light Hawk. Other than limited flows from springs and creeks, known locally as arroyos, this section of the Rio Grande barely has water.

That’s because reservoirs now harness the flows of snowmelt and monsoon rains that once defined the river and deliver that water to thirsty cities and sprawling farms. Making matters worse, climate change is increasing temperatures and aridification in the desert Southwest. Competition over dwindling water is growing. All that leaves little water to support fish, birds and wetland ecosystems that once thrived along the Rio Grande. But environmental scientists and local conservation advocates say there are opportunities to restore environmental flows — the currents of water needed to maintain a healthy river ecology — on the Rio Grande and its West Texas tributaries. Proponents of environmental flows are restoring tributaries and documenting little-known springs that feed the river. They are working with counterparts in Mexico to overcome institutional barriers. Samuel Sandoval Solis, a professor of water resource management at the University of California Davis and an expert on the Rio Grande, compared this restoration model to a “string of pearls.” “Ultimately, we start connecting these pearls,” he said. “And we start putting it back together.” But to replicate and expand these local initiatives will require more funding and political support on the embattled binational waterway.

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How to ‘repurpose’ S.A.’s many closed schools? Some ISDs made it work. Some are still deciding.

When Paola Hernandez finishes her third grade day at Roosevelt Dual Language Academy, she hops on an Edgewood Independent School District bus and goes to another school. But this one hasn’t held classes in more than a decade. She arrives at the former Coronado/Escobar Elementary School, which since 2012 has been leased by the Girl Scouts of Southwest Texas. After a snack and recess, Hernandez and about 50 other girls get homework help and do arts and crafts through the free Girl Genius After School Tutoring program. Since 2023, rapidly fraying budgets and years of declining enrollment have forced Edgewood ISD and three other local school districts to close more than two dozen campuses in central San Antonio, most of them on the South Side and West Side. To grieving neighborhoods about to lose a community anchor, they vowed to repurpose the newly-vacant buildings, but in most cases, they’re still deciding how. A few successful examples of nonprofit and corporate partnerships might provide a model.

“I learn to be nice, kind, to be respectful. I learn to be like an artist, crafting,” said Hernandez, 8, as she mixed and sculpted model clay into a pink-and-black “tie-dye ghost” on a recent afternoon. She speaks Spanish at home and didn’t know any English when she started with the Girl Scouts programs back in her pre-K days. “When I grew up, I learned new words. I learned new things. Now I know a lot of English,” Hernandez said. The Girl Scouts have operated on the West Side for more than 30 years, said Stephanie Finleon Cortez, chief development and communications officer for the Southwest Texas group. Pre-pandemic, the organization hosted monthly community events. It runs a summer day camp called Camp Metro. “The reality is, most of the families on the West Side of San Antonio are coming from marginalized communities, and there’s not a strong history of Girl Scouting or even championing girls in that community,” she said. “And so we know that in order to serve the girl, we have to support her entire family structure, because it’s a family decision for a girl to be in Girl Scouting. And we really needed a center on the West Side to build trust with the families in the area.” Among the more recent batch of closures, Harlandale ISD has converted Carroll Bell Elementary School, one of the four campuses it decided to close in March 2023, into the Carroll Bell Education Center dedicated to career and technical education for high schoolers, which opened in August.

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Adriana Rocha Garcia: Decide today what you’ll do the day after the presidential election

(San Antonio City Council Member Adriana Rocha Garcia represents District 4.) Last week, an unfortunate confrontation occurred when a voter allegedly assaulted an election clerk. The incident occurred in the area of San Antonio that I proudly call home and represent on the City Council. We pride ourselves on being a compassionate city, yet the angst people feel about this year’s presidential election seems to have impaired some people’s capacity to be empathetic. More Americans than ever are reporting feelings of anxiety around politics. While some may attempt to characterize the election results as a loss or a win, I refuse to subscribe to this notion that civility and collaboration suddenly dissipate. While divisive partisan politics make headlines and can be linked to an uptick in political violence, this cannot and should not be the norm we accept.

Recently, I attended Together We Dine, a dinner conversation about unity hosted by several nonprofit organizations from across Texas, including Common Ground USA and Project Unity. They asked the question: What happens the day after the election? I left thinking, what can I do to help bring people together? What can we all do? We can’t let our entrenched political beliefs tear us apart. As I pondered the question, I spoke to the city’s faith liaison, the Rev. Ann E. Helmke, who leads the Faith-Based Initiative & Compassionate San Antonio's efforts. She is working with local congregations to have drop-in hours throughout the day Wednesday to help those anxious or struggling to cope with the outcome of the election. Many of us, in times of pain, sorrow and tragedy, turn to community while we process our grief. This offers us an opportunity to reflect and consider the path we want to follow in the future. Our community is invited to convene at 9 a.m. Wednesday at Main Plaza in downtown San Antonio to experience a safe space where we can recognize what we gain when we stand united, forging ahead, despite our differences. Fear holds us back from our dreams, and we still have a long way to go to live up to the democratic principles that we fiercely defend. The very same foundation that affords us the opportunity to vote and mold the society we live in is only as strong as the people who stand together to address injustices, economic inequality and complacency.

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TikTok food critic Keith Lee shares his plan to move to Texas with some 16 million followers

Keith Lee, the famous food critic with more than 16 million followers on TikTok, announced he has moved to Texas. In a video posted Saturday, Lee shared that after living in Las Vegas for a decade, he made the move with his wife and two kids. "I moved to Vegas when I was 18," he said in the video, which had amassed more than 339,000 likes by Sunday morning. "I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life." Lee's announcement quickly sparked a guessing game of where the social media influencer has bought a home in the Lone Star State, especially when he ranked Houston as the second best food city in the nation even after visits to Dallas.

The former mixed martial arts fighter has become world-renowned for his honest and entertaining restaurant reviews, often traveling across the country to highlight small or family-owned businesses. With such a large following, Lee's reviews carry weight. A positive review can lead to booming business for some restaurants and even save a struggling business. But, any negative comment from Lee could elicit repercussions for restaurant owners. The critic, who had built up a following filming his his direct-but-not-too-harsh reviews in a car, panned a number of Atlanta restaurants, which garnered national attention. In his recent video, Lee lamented the downside of having such a large following. Specifically, Lee expressed frustration that his positive acts often are overshadowed by negativity from viewers and the media. "The Internet can quickly shift from something that's fun and beyond enjoyable to quickly reaching an audience that would never see your point of view or understand where you're coming from, and that's what I feel like we reached," he said. "It was to a point where it was really affecting me."

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National Stories

As Chinese EV maker puts down roots in Mexico, Harris and Trump offer competing visions

Paulina Hernández inspected her new BYD King plug-in hybrid sedan when the sales team removed the oversized red bow and cover. She noticed a smudge on the “Time Grey” finish and her sales rep, Veronica Montoya, rushed to her side with a spray bottle and cloth. Montoya held them as she answered her customer’s questions over the next hour, ready to wipe away any mark or doubts that this sale would go through. Hernández, 33, a classical dance instructor who lives in Mexico City’s tony Santa Fe district, had been looking for a better car for her daily 38-mile commute to the neighboring city of Toluca through the capital’s notoriously bad traffic. The BYD King, with an all-electric range of 31 miles and total range of 730 miles, sells for the equivalent of $24,940 USD. “The idea is that I’ll pay off this car with what I save from not buying gasoline,” Hernández said. She was the latest of what the sales team says has been an “explosion” of customers at BYD Santa Fe, the first of 30 showrooms the Chinese electric car juggernaut has opened across Mexico in the past year. The company plans to open 20 more dealerships in the country this year and soon will announce the location for a Mexico factory that will build 150,000 EVs per year.

This kind of rapid growth enabled BYD to overtake American EV pioneer Tesla as the world’s No. 1 electric vehicle company (when counting both its all-electric and its plug-in hybrids) in 2022. It’s now selling twice as many cars as Tesla. All signs point to an EV future, and BYD’s charge across Mexico is a vivid demonstration of how China has positioned itself to dominate that future. The U.S. presidential election, with two different visions for autos, will help to determine whether the country will try to close the gap with China, or double down on fossil-fuel-powered transportation. Inside Climate News spent the year examining the rise of EVs through the lens of U.S. politics. President Joe Biden’s climate law, the Inflation Reduction Act, has set off an EV factory building boom. U.S. automakers are welcoming federal money and want to ramp up their EV lineups to compete globally, which is creating a wedge in the alliance between an auto industry and the oil industry. Auto workers are watching the changes with both trepidation and hope. Car dealers, meanwhile, are trying to figure out how to sell EVs and facing reluctance, especially in rural areas.

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Charlie Kirk's TPUSA opens a new front in 'spiritual warfare' on Christian campuses

Just eight days shy of Election Day, 31-year-old political activist Charlie Kirk addressed a sea of college students in glaring-red MAGA hats at Grand Canyon University, near downtown Phoenix. Sporting a black T-shirt emblazoned with “xy = man” — a confirmation of where he stands on the GOP’s 2024 litmus test issue — Kirk, who founded Turning Point USA as a college student in 2012, was interrupted as his audience erupted into a rendition of “The Star Spangled Banner.” Afterward, students grabbed up TPUSA swag that said “Republicans are hotter” and “dump your socialist boyfriend.” “Gen Z is waking up … and voting,” Kirk posted on X later that day. “WATCH.”

Kirk’s fall 2024 “You’re Being Brainwashed” tour is an effort advertised as a way to help students “challenge left-wing indoctrination on college campuses.” TPUSA has already signed up nearly 800 college chapters, but the event at GCU, established by Baptists but now calling itself interdenominational, is part of Kirk’s recent push to populate evangelical Christian campuses with TPUSA chapters. Since 2020, TPUSA chapters have appeared at more than 45 Christian colleges or universities, at least 35 of them affiliated with the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities, the largest association of Christian schools. Only 21 chapters at Christian universities appear currently active, however, with even fewer officially recognized by the universities themselves. Expanding to Christian colleges, some scholars warn, may divide their campuses. The group, whose website says it plays “offense with a sense of urgency to win America’s culture war,” gained notoriety in 2016 for its professor watchlist, which prompted harassment of faculty at secular as well as Christian colleges, who, TPUSA said, “advance leftist propaganda.” Kirk has disputed the results of the 2020 election, questioned the qualifications of Black pilots, called George Floyd a “scumbag” and said a Bible verse about stoning gay people to death is “God’s perfect law.” “The Democrat Party supports everything that God hates,” Kirk said at a recent campaign event he organized for Donald Trump. TPUSA did not respond to requests for comment.

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Inslee activates Washington National Guard ahead of Election Day

Washington Gov. Jay Inslee announced Friday he had activated the Washington National Guard to assist local law enforcement and the Washington State Patrol as needed to quell any election-related unrest. The “purely precautionary measure” comes in response to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s nationwide warnings of threats to election infrastructure and a deliberately set fire that damaged and destroyed hundreds of ballots in a Vancouver drop box on Monday. Inslee, in a letter to Maj. Gen. Gent Welsh, the adjutant general, said the action was being taken “to ensure we are fully prepared to respond” to any potential civil unrest or violence.

“Our state depends on these skilled individuals for critical support to protect the public health, safety, and welfare, to include support necessary to protect vital infrastructure related to carrying out free and fair elections and to respond to any unrest related to the 2024 general election,” Inslee wrote. Welsh, who oversees the 8,000 soldiers and airmen of the Washington National Guard, will decide how many people will be activated and serve on standby from Monday until just after midnight on Thursday, Nov. 7, according to the governor’s office.

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Michigan city of Warren in focus amid worries about delayed election results

Officials in the U.S. battleground state of Michigan said they worry that the Democratic-leaning city of Warren could lag behind the rest of the state in reporting the results of Tuesday's presidential election, raising early doubts about the state's vote count. Warren, unlike Detroit and most other cities in Michigan, opted not to take advantage of changes enacted in a 2022 state law allowing for up to eight days of preprocessing of absentee ballots. Instead, the city of 135,000 people will wait until Election Day to verify and tabulate more than 20,000 mail-in ballots. The potential delay from Warren has worried some Democratic leaders that it could leave the results appearing artificially high for Republican Donald Trump on Tuesday evening, and that the former president would seek to exploit the situation by falsely declaring victory in the state before all votes were in.

"If the state is close at all and we don't have returns from Warren, which is our third-largest city, it's going to create all kinds of concerns," said Mark Brewer, an attorney and the former chair of the Michigan Democratic Party. "It's very, very worrisome." The Trump campaign and the Republican National Committee did not directly address questions about Warren or Trump's plans to challenge the results. In a statement, Victoria LaCivita, the Trump campaign's Michigan spokesperson, criticized Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris' record and expressed confidence that Trump would defeat her in the state. Opinion polls show a tight race between Harris and Trump in Michigan and other battleground states. The decision not to preprocess absentee ballots was made by Warren City Clerk Sonja Buffa, a nonpartisan elected official. She said in a press release that she believed stretching out the process over several days was inefficient and raised the risk of information on the election being leaked.

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Harris campaign: The Iowa poll is exciting, but…

Democrats were giddy Saturday when a gold-standard poll found Kamala Harris narrowly leading Donald Trump in deep-red Iowa. But Harris’ senior campaign officials are cautioning against getting too excited about the Des Moines Register survey. “What we are seeing across the board is energy and momentum,” said a Harris official on a call with reporters Sunday. “We are seeing that we're closing strong. I would not read into it any more than that.” The Harris aide was granted anonymity because the ground rules laid out by the campaign to participate in the call required it be on background. Few Democrats believe that Harris stands a chance in Iowa, which Trump won by 8 percentage points in 2020. But some hope that the shocking poll results signal that Harris is closing strongly in majority-white areas in the Midwest, which could be a good sign for her in battleground states such as Wisconsin and Michigan. Harris officials on the call also expressed confidence in their ground game, saying that on Saturday the campaign knocked on 807,000 doors in Pennsylvania, 256,000 doors in Michigan and 215,000 doors in Wisconsin. But they said that Harris remains the underdog and that the campaign must turn out its voters in the final days of the race.

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School board seats and funding fights: The education ballot initiatives flying under the radar

Voters in states including Florida, Colorado and Kentucky face major decisions on their education systems on Tuesday. Activists and groups on both sides of issues ranging from school choice to partisan school board races have poured millions of dollars into the fights, which often generate fewer headlines than other ballot measures on abortion or marijuana. But Election Day offers a rare opportunity for voters to decide on these education issues head on. “Even though the ballot initiatives are different in different states […] At the core of all of it is ensuring that we have a well-funded public education system that is designed for all of our students,” said Becky Pringle, president of the National Education Association (NEA).

In Kentucky, Colorado and Nebraska, voters are making decisions that could help or inhibit school choice programs, which have done well among state lawmakers but have yet to face a real challenge at the ballot box. Nebraska’s initiative seeks to repeal a law that would allow public tax dollars go to private schools. In Colorado, a decision will be made to enshrine school choice as a right in the state constitution, while Kentucky wants to change its constitution to allow choice programs. “Every child in every neighborhood, of every color, class, and background deserves a school that will help them succeed,” Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul (R) told The Courier Journal. “Educational freedom, as proposed by Amendment 2, ensures students are able to learn in the best environment possible and breaks the poverty cycle that far too often keeps children from fulfilling their potential,” Paul added.

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Quincy Jones, musical innovator and impresario, dies at 91

From bebop to hip-hop, Quincy Jones exemplified the producer and arranger as star. He elevated the voices of dozens of entertainers — most indelibly Michael Jackson, but also Frank Sinatra, Paul Simon and Aretha Franklin — with his unsurpassed artistry in combining jazz, rhythm-and-blues and classical orchestration. By the time of his death on Nov. 3 at 91 at his home in the Bel Air section of Los Angeles, he had become a renaissance impresario of music, film and television, catapulting the careers of Oprah Winfrey and Will Smith and smashing barriers for other African Americans. Mr. Jones’s death, of undisclosed causes, was announced by his publicist, Arnold Robinson, and in a family statement. Mr. Jones’s six-decade career was nothing short of Zelig-like. He brimmed with anecdotes about his encounters with figures from Nazi propagandist Leni Riefenstahl to Sinatra to the rap star Tupac Shakur, who was engaged to one of Mr. Jones’s daughters before his murder in 1996.

“It takes a lot of guts to tell Sinatra what to do, man,” Mr. Jones once told the Sunday Telegraph of London. “He takes no prisoners and if you ask him to jump without a net, you better have got it right … He would love you, or roll over you with a truck and then reverse.” Starting out as a jazz trumpeter, Mr. Jones was in Seattle in 1947 playing juke joints with Ray Charles. A decade later, he was in Paris studying composition with Nadia Boulanger, mentor to Igor Stravinsky and Aaron Copland. As the first African American to be a senior executive at a major White-owned music label — Mercury Records — he produced Lesley Gore’s 1963 hit “It’s My Party.” The next year, he arranged the jazz-pop mainstay “Fly Me to the Moon” for Sinatra and Count Basie; it was Sinatra who bestowed on him his enduring nickname, “Q.” Mr. Jones helped score films as diverse as “In Cold Blood” (1967), an acclaimed drama based on Truman Capote’s account of the notorious Clutter family murders in Kansas, and the all-Black musical “The Wiz” (1978), a major flop. In 1977 he shared an Emmy Award for his score of the TV miniseries “Roots,” a ratings juggernaut that traced a slave’s lineage. In 1979, he ushered the child singing prodigy Jackson into adulthood by producing the album “Off the Wall.” Three years later, he followed up with “Thriller,” the top-selling pop release of all time. He produced the all-star charity song “We Are the World” in 1985, a best-selling single that raised $50 million for African famine relief.

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Lead Stories

Iowa Poll: Kamala Harris leapfrogs Donald Trump to take lead near Election Day. Here's how

Kamala Harris now leads Donald Trump in Iowa — a startling reversal for Democrats and Republicans who have all but written off the state’s presidential contest as a certain Trump victory. A new Des Moines Register/Mediacom Iowa Poll shows Vice President Harris leading former President Trump 47% to 44% among likely voters just days before a high-stakes election that appears deadlocked in key battleground states. The results follow a September Iowa Poll that showed Trump with a 4-point lead over Harris and a June Iowa Poll showing him with an 18-point lead over Democratic President Joe Biden, who was the presumed Democratic nominee at the time. “It’s hard for anybody to say they saw this coming,” said pollster J. Ann Selzer, president of Selzer & Co. “She has clearly leaped into a leading position.”

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has abandoned his independent presidential campaign to support Trump but remains on the Iowa ballot, gets 3% of the vote. That’s down from 6% in September and 9% in June. Fewer than 1% say they would vote for Libertarian presidential candidate Chase Oliver, 1% would vote for someone else, 3% aren’t sure and 2% don’t want to say for whom they already cast a ballot. The poll of 808 likely Iowa voters, which include those who have already voted as well as those who say they definitely plan to vote, was conducted by Selzer & Co. from Oct. 28-31. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.4 percentage points. The results come as Trump and Harris have focused their attention almost exclusively on seven battleground states that are expected to shape the outcome of the election. Neither has campaigned in Iowa since the presidential primaries ended, and neither campaign has established a ground presence in the state. A victory for Harris would be a surprising development after Iowa has swung aggressively to the right in recent elections, delivering Trump solid victories in 2016 and 2020.

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Leaked memo details $100M emergency request to address Texas oil well blowouts, contamination

Texas oil and gas regulators requested more than $100 million in emergency funds from the state last week to address pressing problems related to uncapped wells and oil field wastewater. In a letter obtained by the Houston Chronicle, the Texas Railroad Commission, which regulates the oil and gas industry, told legislators that “emergent issues have developed” since it submitted its annual budget request Aug. 30. Railroad Commission Executive Director Danny Sorrells wrote that his staff needs additional funds to address a growing number of leaking wells. Without the additional funds, he said, the commission cannot sufficiently protect the state’s groundwater from contamination. The emergency request comes weeks after a 100-foot geyser erupted from a West Texas oil field plagued by earthquakes linked to wastewater injection. The geyser raised questions about whether the water fueling it was wastewater and, if so, how it got there.

Leaking and erupting wells are eating up more of the commission’s well-plugging budget, limiting its ability to get ahead of the problem by plugging wells before they begin to leak, it said in the letter. The additional funds would help alleviate that, the commission said in a follow-up statement. “This is all part of our vigilant work to plug wells,” it said. The surprise funding request underscores the growing nature of the problem simmering beneath the surface in West Texas. It increases the amount of state funds requested for well plugging by 72% compared to what was already budgeted. The Railroad Commission’s original budget was $234 million for well plugging in 2026 and 2027, including $95 million in federal funds provided under a new Biden administration effort. The commission’s budget noted that oil fields across Texas are aging, exacerbating the threat posed by neglected and orphaned wells without responsible owners to plug them. Orphaned wells, whose owners go bankrupt or dissolve, become wards of the state. They leave open holes in the ground that can allow wastewater to gush to the surface, requiring an emergency response from the commission. The commission spent nearly $10 million to plug 38 emergency wells during fiscal year 2023 alone, according to its budget request. Lawmakers have been warned that a new source of funds may be needed in order for the commission to do work that protects the state’s groundwater.

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Trump, preparing to challenge the results, puts his 2020 playbook into action

Former President Donald J. Trump and his allies are rolling out a late-stage campaign strategy that borrows heavily from the subversive playbook he used to challenge his loss four years ago, this time with reinforcements from outside groups built on the false notion of a stolen election. With Election Day only three days away, Mr. Trump is already claiming the Democrats are “a bunch of cheats,” as his allies in battleground states spread distorted reports of mishaps at the polls to push a narrative of widespread fraud. Mr. Trump and his most prominent supporters have pointed to partisan polling and betting markets to claim that he is heading for a “crushing victory,” as his top surrogate Elon Musk recently put it. The expectation helps set the stage for disbelief and outrage among his supporters should he lose. And in a direct echo of his failed — and, prosecutors say, illegal — bid to remain in power after the 2020 election, some of his most influential advisers are suggesting he will yet again seek to claim victory before all the votes are counted, a move that ushered in his efforts to deny his defeat four years ago and helped set the stage for the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

In many respects, though, the effort that led to Jan. 6 never ended. “It’s been four years of spreading lies about elections and recruiting volunteers to challenge the system, filing litigation,’’ said Joanna Lydgate, the chief executive of States United Democracy Center, a nonprofit group that works with state officials to bolster confidence in their elections. “What we’re seeing today is all of that coming to fruition.” The Trump campaign did not respond to an email seeking comment. In a statement, Dana Remus, a top lawyer for Vice President Kamala Harris’s campaign, said, “It isn’t surprising that he is already questioning the results of a still ongoing election” and added, “He failed when he tried this in 2020, and he will fail again.” Polls show the race is effectively tied, leaving the possibility that Mr. Trump will win and have no reason to dispute the outcome. In that case, the question of whether to accept the results would fall to Ms. Harris, who has said she would uphold “free and fair elections” and the “peaceful transfer of power.”

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As US Senate race winds down, Cruz courts rural base as Allred looks to urban Texas

Facing a friendly nighttime crowd at a bucolic sport-shooting venue in the Texas Hill Country exactly one week before Election Day, incumbent Republican U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz felt compelled to remind his supporters that they were not in California. Not that anyone was confused about where they were. The roads leading to the private club called Hog Heaven just south of Dripping Springs, about 30 miles west of Austin, were lined with Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump's large "Make America Great Again" signs, many of them flanked by Texas flags. Cruz's point was that his Democratic challenger in Tuesday's Senate election might be confused about which state he would be representing if he pulls off an upset.

"Colin Allred, in his first four years in the House, he voted with (former Speaker) Nancy Pelosi 100% of the time, every single vote," said Cruz, who is seeking a third six-year term in the Senate. "It was literally as if he walked in, took out his voting card, handed it to Nancy and said, 'Here, Nancy, whatever San Francisco wants, that's what Texas wants too.' "But this ain't California." Six years ago, Cruz lost the state's five largest counties — four of them by double-digit margins — and nearly all of the historically Democratic-friendly counties along the Rio Grande. His opponent in that 2018 race, then-U.S. Rep. Beto O'Rourke of El Paso, also made significant inroads in the suburbs, which had been key to the Republican takeover of Texas in the late 1990s and into the 2000s. That left Cruz's 2.6 percentage-point victory over O'Rourke in 2018 to his deep strength in open-country places like Dripping Springs, which were part of the 53 stops he and several Republican allies made in a luxury RV emblazoned with his "Keep Texas, Texas" campaign slogan that features an open-air sundeck at the rear. According to the latest campaign finance reports, the two candidates have raised a combined $166 million with Allred having raised slightly more than Cruz. Late campaign polling shows a tight race. Emerson College's poll last week showed Cruz with a narrow lead with 48% to Allred's 47%. The University of Houston's Oct. 15 poll shows Cruz with a 4-point lead.

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State Stories

North Texas’ Gateway Church announces removal of 4 elders

Gateway Church has removed four of its elders after an investigation into its founder’s alleged sexual abuse of a 12-year-old girl, leadership of the North Texas megachurch announced Saturday. The four elders had some information or knowledge of former senior pastor Robert Morris’ conduct prior to public disclosure of the allegations this summer, but they did not take action, church elder Tra Willbanks said during a livestreamed Nov. 2 service. There were “two groups” of elders: One group who knew victim Cindy Clemishire was 12 at the time the abuse began in the 1980s, and another group who knew of sexual abuse allegations against Morris but didn’t ask further questions, Willbanks said.

“We can report to you that as of today, no individuals in either group serves as an elder, is employed by or works at Gateway Church. They have been removed,” Willbanks said. The removals come after an independent law firm hired by the Southlake-based church delivered a report of its findings to a church committee. The church is cooperating with an ongoing criminal investigation that does not involve the church or its current leadership, Willbanks said. In addition to that investigation, the church is also the target of pending or threatened litigation, as well as financial demands from Robert Morris, according to Willbanks. Willbanks said the church will not comply with Morris’ financial demands. Morris resigned from the church in June.

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Texas Sen. Ted Cruz rallies support in Fort Worth Stockyards

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz rallied supporters in the Fort Worth Stockyards on Nov. 1, emphasizing the importance of the upcoming election. While noting that politicians often talk about the importance of elections, Cruz said the 2024 race is exceptionally important. “Holy cow! Have you ever seen a starker difference between presidential candidates?” Cruz said. He was introduced by Tarrant County Judge Tim O’Hare, who called Cruz a fighter for conservative values in the U.S. Senate. “Ted Cruz has moved the needle in the way we look at government and the way we look at our country, and the way people are now willing to stand up and fight for America,” O’Hare said. O’Hare termed Democrats “the greatest threat to American exceptionalism in the history of our country” and encouraged people to get out and vote.

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AG Ken Paxton continues fight against State Fair of Texas gun ban

Attorney General Ken Paxton has filed an updated version of his lawsuit seeking to get rid of the State Fair of Texas’ ban on most attendees carrying firearms, showing he’s sticking to his vow to fight the policy in court. The amended lawsuit filed in Dallas County Civil District Court this week marks the second time the attorney general has updated his legal complaint. The original suit against the fair, Dallas and its interim city manager was filed Aug. 29 and then first amended Sept. 6 to add three state residents who are gun owners as plaintiffs, court records show. The latest version notes the fair is now over and drops two arguments made in prior complaints claiming the policy would lead to Dallas police illegally enforcing trespass laws against people who are licensed and unlicensed to carry handguns.

“The lease agreement between the city of Dallas and the State Fair of Texas does not and cannot supersede state law,” the complaint says. “The lease agreement correctly expressly states that the agreement is subject to applicable state laws and shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws and court decisions of the state of Texas. To the extent that the lease agreement operates to purportedly supersede state law, it is void.” Fair officials announced in early August that the fair was banning visitors from bringing firearms into South Dallas’ 277-acre Fair Park for the 24-day event. The policy change came after a man shot three people during last year’s festivities. The fair previously allowed attendees with a valid handgun license to bring firearms as long as they were concealed. State law doesn’t require Texans to have a permit to carry a gun in a public place. The fair’s firearm ban doesn’t apply to active and retired law enforcement officers. The policy change led to opposition from dozens of Republican lawmakers and the Republican attorney general. Paxton has argued that the policy violates gun owners’ rights and that Dallas, as the owner of the fairgrounds, had a duty to force the fair to drop its ban to allow people to carry firearms lawfully on government-owned property.

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Thousands of Dallas and Collin County voters cast ballots in final day of early voting

In Dallas and Collin counties, Friday was a relatively smooth end to two weeks of early voting ahead of Election Day. By midday, elections administrators reported roughly 40% of registered voters had cast a ballot in Dallas County and 54% in Collin County, a robust start to the election leading up to Nov. 5. This election cycle’s early voting period was marked by a rocky start, prompting the Dallas County Commissioners Court to extend poll hours on the last three days of early voting. Poll workers on Oct. 21 in Dallas County experienced glitches with the electronic pollbook software used to check in voters, which resulted in wait times up to two hours long, and some were issued ballots for precincts where they do not live. Collin County did not report the same issues.

Voters still came out in droves throughout early voting in both counties, ensuring their ballot was cast well ahead of Tuesday. Collin County elections administrator Bruce Sherbet said the last day of early voting is usually the heaviest, and sometimes lines are longer that day than on Election Day itself. Wait times were relatively short through Friday morning and afternoon, although some polling places saw wait times over 45 minutes. Jade Osborne, 41, voted early Friday afternoon at the Samuell Grand Recreation Center. She said she normally votes early to avoid lines and waited about 30 minutes to vote Friday afternoon. As a mother of two, Osborne said she wants to provide a safe future for her children through her vote. She believes it is important to vote to make your voice heard. “Nobody else is going to do it for you,” Osborne said. “If you don’t speak up, you have no say in how your life is.”

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Texas buys two ranches near border, including massive 350,000 acres near Big Bend

The Texas General Land Office announced this week it purchased two ranches near the nation’s southern border. The first property is a smaller 1,402-acre property in Starr County where state leaders plan to build a 1.5-mile stretch of border wall along the Rio Grande. The second is the massive 353,785-acre Brewster Ranch near Big Bend National Park. The state land office did not immediately respond to questions from The Dallas Morning News regarding the transaction. News releases from the agency did not reveal the purchase prices. This story may be updated with responses. Texas Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham said the Starr County property’s frontage on the river makes it an ideal location for enhancing border security.

She alleged that the federal government has “abdicated its job to secure our southern border.” Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced the state’s plan to build a border wall three years ago. By July, the state had built about 34 miles of steel wall — far from the 1,254 miles needed. The state has paid roughly $25 million per mile of wall, the Texas Tribune reported. Buckingham told the Texas Tribune there are a variety of leasing options for the larger Brewster Ranch, including hunting, agriculture, mineral and the storing of atmospheric carbon dioxide in the soil. In a news release published by the Land Report, Buckingham said she bought Brewster Ranch to prevent “foreign adversaries from purchasing this land.” Buckingham did not elaborate further on interested parties. Brewster Ranch was previously owned by Brad Kelley’s Texas Mountain Holdings. Kelley, a tobacco tycoon who lives in Tennessee, is Texas’ largest private landowner. He owned more than 940,000 acres in the state, according to the 2024 Land Report 100.

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Is San Antonio raising city pay to inflate Erik Walsh’s salary?

The firefighters’ union claims the city has been boosting employee pay in recent years so City Manager Erik Walsh can get a raise. That’s because the City Council can’t pay Walsh more than 10 times the wages of the city’s lowest-paid, full-time employee. “We have noticed that civilian pay increases have been much better in the past four to five years than they have been historically speaking, and that is a fact,” union President Joe Jones said. “And we don’t believe it’s a coincidence.” The San Antonio Professional Firefighters Association formed the Vote Against Prop C Committee, a political action committee, to campaign against Proposition C. That’s a city charter amendment on the Nov. 5 ballot that would remove the restrictions on how much the city manager can be paid and how long someone can remain in that role — restrictions the union petitioned to put on the November 2018 ballot, and which 59% of voters approved.

“The salary boundaries you voted for are working and have led to improved pay for all city employees,” reads a mailer the committee sent out ahead of early voting. But the across-the-board pay increases that the union is talking about — which have been higher than those given in years prior to the 2018 charter change — have had no impact on Walsh’s base pay. That’s because the city manager’s compensation is tied to the city’s entry-level wage. That wage doesn’t budge when the city gives across-the-board salary increases to civilian workers, such as the 3% increase they received for the fiscal year that started on Oct. 1. (Police and firefighters’ salaries are determined by the multi-year labor contracts their unions’ negotiate with the city.) Workers in entry-level positions got that 3% increase if they were hired before Oct. 1. But workers who start with the city after that date will earn $18 an hour — the rate the city’s entry wage has been at since Oct. 1, 2023.

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Tony Quesada: SpaceX’s bid to rename South Texas home as Starbase is grounded

(Tony Quesada is the deputy editorial page editor for the San Antonio Express-News.) Elon Musk’s dream of renaming the small unincorporated community in Cameron County, where SpaceX rockets take off, as Starbase to match the launch facility’s moniker brings to mind the narrator’s musings in the movie “Fight Club.” “When deep-space exploration ramps up,” the voice of Edward Norton declares, “it’ll be the corporations that name everything: the IBM Stellarsphere, the Microsoft Galaxy, Planet Starbucks.” We’ll have to wait for manned space travel to see whether such branding comes to fruition. In the meantime, Musk’s vision of colonizing Mars propelled by SpaceX’s Starship rockets is years away, and apparently, his ambition to change the name of the area federally recognized as Kopernik Shores — also referred to as Boca Chica Village — may never happen unless a federal naming policy is changed or waived.

It turns out that officially changing the name of a geographic feature requires approval from an entity called the U.S. Board on Geographic Names, which was created in 1890 and codified by law in 1947 to maintain uniformity in the use of such monikers. And that board’s website states that it will not consider name changes associated with a commercial enterprise. So Kensico Lake near IBM’s headquarters in Armonk, N.Y., can’t become Big Blue Lake; the unincorporated area near Beaverton, Ore., that houses Nike World Headquarters can’t become Swooshtown; and the North Mountain View neighborhood north of Santa Clara, Calif., that’s home to Googleplex can’t become Alphabet City, which is no doubt a relief to certain residents in Manhattan’s East Village. Perhaps a policy pause to Musk’s naming vision would be a good time to rethink it.

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Judge says pro-Palestinian student groups can sue UT Austin, other university leaders

A federal judge said pro-Palestinian student groups have a right to sue top officials at several public universities in Texas for allegedly violating their First Amendment rights, as first reported by the Austin American-Statesman. However, in his order this week, U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman, who is based in Austin, said the groups could not sue Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who earlier this year ordered universities to change their free speech policies. The Council on American-Islamic Relations first filed the lawsuit back in May against Abbott, university leaders and the Board of Regents for the University of Texas System as well as the University of Houston System. Pitman said this week the plaintiffs have standing to sue board members in their official capacities.

The Muslim civil rights group is representing student groups such as the Palestine Solidarity Committee at UT Austin as well as Students for Justice in Palestine at UT Dallas and the University of Houston. Law enforcement arrested students on all three campuses during the spring 2024 semester while they were protesting against Israel's war in Gaza. Gadeir Abbas, a senior litigation attorney for CAIR, said public universities in Texas cracked down on pro-Palestinian protests in response to an executive order Abbott issued in March. The Republican governor told public colleges and universities to update their free speech policies to include a definition of antisemitism and create punishments for “antisemitic rhetoric.” Abbott’s order also singled out the student groups that are plaintiffs in the lawsuit. He directed universities to ensure the new free speech policies “are being enforced on campuses and that groups such as the Palestine Solidarity Committee and Students for Justice in Palestine are disciplined for violating these policies.” Abbas said Abbott’s order incorrectly conflates antisemitism and criticism of Israel.

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Tilman Fertitta's True Blue Gala in River Oaks raises $1.1 million for HPD

Friday night in River Oaks, Tilman Fertitta's annual True Blue Gala caused quite a commotion. The evening's fireworks display was visible for miles, and drones and a helicopter or two buzzed about. This year's "Salsa: A Fiesta Fantastico" made the event extra festive. Neighbors may have heard the mariachi band. Or the sound of endless margaritas being shaken from one of the party's half-dozen cocktail bars. But who's complaining? The Texas-sized shindig raised $1.1 million for the Houston Police Foundation; Fertitta co-chaired with new HPD Chief J. Noe Diaz. Mayor John Whitmire, Houston Fire Chief Thomas Muñoz and Astros owner Jim Crane were among the many guests. Michael Fertitta, Patrick Fertitta and Blake Fertitta were all in attendance, too.

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Michelin restores rescinded invitations to two notable Texas BBQ joints

For many chefs, receiving a Michelin star for their restaurant is a lifelong dream. But chefs in Texas haven’t had much hope of the same recognition until earlier this year. In July Michelin announced it would be covering Texas, or at least the major cities in Texas, for the first time. Earlier this month, many hopeful chefs and pitmasters received invitations to Michelin’s big announcement event on November 11 in Houston. Two of those pitmasters were almost left out after a mix-up from the Michelin communications team. Ernest Servantes is the pitmaster and co-owner of Burnt Bean Co., in Seguin, the number four barbecue joint on our most recent Top 50 list. Like many other restaurateurs, he and fellow co-owner David Kirkland received a request for information about their restaurant and photos of their dishes from Michelin in late September. On October 15 they were elated to get an invitation to attend an event in Houston where Michelin will announce the restaurants it’s chosen to recognize in Texas. But two days later, a new email from Michelin rescinded the invitation, citing only “human error” as an explanation.

Chuck Charnichart, pitmaster and co-owner of Barbs B Q, in Lockhart, was excited to get the same invitation. “I originally thought we weren’t in contention for it,” she said, noting that Lockhart isn’t in a major city. The geographical boundaries for consideration in the Texas Michelin guide aren’t clear. Michelin is receiving $2.7 million over three years to judge our restaurants (and hotels); half of that sum is coming from the state, and the other half is reportedly being paid equally by the cities of Austin, Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston, and San Antonio. One would presume the understanding is that the restaurants recognized would be limited to those cities and possibly their suburbs. Back in August, we didn’t include Burnt Bean Co. in our Michelin predictions because Seguin is so far outside of San Antonio. In 2023 the highly regarded Annette restaurant, just outside Denver, missed out on Michelin recognition because it was five hundred feet from city limits. A week after Charnichart received the Michelin invitation, she clicked the link to RSVP for the event but it didn’t work. She reached out to the sender of the original email and was sent a vague message similar to the one Burnt Bean Co. received regarding “human error.” She said, “I just really wanted to celebrate with the Goldee’s guys,” referring to Goldee’s Barbecue, our current number one barbecue joint, which was also invited by Michelin. Now an honor she hadn’t even considered was being taken away. “It was a kick in the gut,” Servantes said about that last email. He and the team were dejected, calling it “the biggest disappointment of my culinary career.” I reached out to a Michelin media relations contact to seek an explanation last Friday. And while they didn’t directly respond to my emails, on Tuesday morning, Servantes got a call from a number in France. He picked up, and a woman with a heavy French accent apologized. The call from Elisabeth Boucher-Anselin, communication director for the Michelin Guide, was the first response he’d gotten from Michelin that wasn’t an email. She apologized for the mistake and asked the Burnt Bean team to attend the award event. A mistake was made, Boucher-Anselin told Servantes, but “the selection committee did not make a mistake,” she explained. Burnt Bean Co. was back in the fold.

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Laura Higley, former appellate court judge and mayor of West University Place, dies at 77, family says

Laura Higley, former mayor of West University Place and longtime justice on the First District Court of Appeals, died Tuesday following a five-year struggle with Alzheimer’s disease, her family announced Thursday. She was 77. Higley served as the mayor of West University for a single term from 1989 to 1991. During that time, she earned a law degree from the University of Houston and received her license from the Texas State Bar in 1990. Her husband, Bob Higley, also served as the mayor of West University from 2019 to 2021. He said his wife was a bold woman who decided to strike her own path during a time when women were generally expected to devote their lives to their families. "Laura, upon reflection, had committed herself to a test,” Bob Higley said. “Could a woman have a career and devote herself to her family and perform rewarding work in her community?"

It was a challenge Higley was more than willing to face, according to a news release from the family. She began working at Baker Botts LLP in 1989, the same year she became mayor of West University. Higley declined to pursue a partnership at the firm, which the Chronicle recently ranked as the third-largest law firm in the Houston area, and instead negotiated to work a three-quarter schedule that allowed her to make time for her family, according to the release. The hours she missed to spend time with her family didn't hold her back. In 2002, after 13 years at Baker Botts, Higley pursued an open seat on Texas' First District Court of Appeals. She ran unopposed as a Republican and joined the nine-member panel in 2003. She ran again in 2008, this time against Democrat Leslie Taylor, whom she defeated by a margin of around 3% in the general election. She would hold the seat until her resignation in 2019. Higley was also known for her philanthropy and volunteer work. Throughout her life, she held board positions for various Houston-area organizations like the Houston Museum of Natural Science, Junior League of Houston, Children’s Assessment Center and Bo’s Place. Former West University city council member and longtime friend, George Boehme, said in the release that she left an impact on the lives of everyone she met.

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Texas Democratic Party sends out Ted Cruz-themed postcards mocking Cancún trip

As Texas residents went to their mailboxes this week, some were surprised with a U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz-themed postcard, but it wasn’t from the senator himself. In several X tweets and Reddit posts, many residents wondered where this new Cancun postcard came from. In a tweet posted to X this week, a caption read “The @TexasDemocrats are sending greetings from Ted Cruz in Cancun postcards to voters.” The Texas Democratic Party confirmed to the Houston Chronicle that the postcards residents may have received was in fact from them.

The Chronicle reached out to Cruz and his campaign through calls and emails but did not immediately receive a response. “Every Texan remembers where they were when Ted Cruz fled to the Ritz-Carlton in Cancún during Winter Storm Uri. He abandoned us when we needed him most. On Nov. 5 Texans are going to send Ted on a permanent vacation,” said Texas Democratic Party Executive Director Monique Alcala. The postcard reads “Greetings from Ted Cruz in Cancun" on the front and on the back “Dear Texans, I know it’s freezing, and you wish you were here. It’s much warmer in Cancun, enjoy the freeze.”

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Community rocked by allegations against Booker T. Washington, Yates educators tied to cheating ring

Community members spent this week grappling with the news that some of their campus leaders had been arrested as part of an alleged $1 million teacher certification exam cheating ring. The Harris County District Attorney announced criminal charges against five people, including head boys' basketball coach Vincent Grayson at Booker T. Washington High School; assistant principal Nicholas Newton at Booker T. Washington; and LaShonda Roberts at Jack Yates High School. Grayson is accused of organizing a cheating ring leading to the certification of more than 200 teachers, officials alleged. Newton is accused of wrongfully taking the tests for would-be teachers, and Roberts is accused of recruiting or referring nearly 100 people to the ring.

The staffers were longtime educators, each with at least a decade of experience in HISD and Grayson with at least 20 years. Grayson was also a well-know men's basketball coach. Under Grayson's leadership, the basketball team reached the Class 4A state championship game after the 2022-23 season and the regional final in 2023-24. Freshman Kordell Howard said the news came as a shock to the Booker T. Washington student community. Yates parent Carl Humphries' son, a senior, enrolled in the school a week before the allegations dropped. Humphries said the alleged cheating ring creates more distrust between schools and their families. "Some of these kids fail classes and aren't able to grasp the concept of different studies because these teachers were not qualified. That's a terrible thing," Humphries said. "It's a pitiful shame." Others, like Yates senior Lilianna Ortiz, said the news hasn't yet impacted their lives much. Christine Robertson, who has two nieces at the school, first heard about the alleged cheating ring Thursday. Roberston said the news was "not surprising" and that addressing challenges in education such as teacher shortages and more support could prevent other scandals from occurring.

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Harris County Judge Hidalgo and fiancé pick up marriage license

Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo and her fiancé, David James, picked up their official marriage license at the County Clerk's office on Wednesday. Hidalgo shared the news of the event on social media that same day, adding that County Clerk Teneshia Hudspeth had taken time out of a busy election cycle to be on hand. Former Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner was one of the first public figures to offer his congratulations, responding to the judge's Instagram post, “Congratulations to you both,” he said. In a statement to the Chronicle on Friday afternoon, Hidalgo said she and James plan to hold a wedding later this year. “David and I are incredibly grateful to share this special milestone,” Hidalgo said. “Obtaining our marriage license this week is just one of many exciting steps leading up to making it official at our wedding later this year. We look forward to celebrating our love and commitment surrounded by loved ones as we begin this new chapter together.”

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Commissioners court takes stand on taxpayer-funded lobbying

In a 3:2 vote Oct. 22, the Hood County Commissioners Court passed a resolution urging the Texas Legislature to ban all forms of taxpayer-funded lobbying. Taxpayer-funded lobbying is defined as the practice of using funds that come directly or indirectly from taxpayers for political lobbying purposes. Precinct 4 Commissioner Dave Eagle — who placed the item on the budget — noted that as of Nov. 11, proposed legislation can be submitted for the upcoming 89th Legislature, which is set to begin in January 2025. Eagle emphasized that during the Republican Party of Texas State Convention last May, a key legislative priority was established — to ban all forms of taxpayer-funded lobbying. He stated that this includes prohibiting the use of tax dollars for hiring lobbyists or funding lobbying associations.

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City Stories

Dallas cuts wait time in half to get commercial construction permit, launches new project

Getting a commercial construction permit in Dallas now takes less than half the time it did three years ago, according to a city memo. The city took more than 300 days to approve a permit in 2021. That number had dropped to 122 days in October. Dallas closed half of its 9,800 stale or inactive permits languishing in the system and launched a project to remove bottlenecks from the workflow and speed up the permit application intake and processing time. “These inactive permits clog the permitting system and skew data outcomes,” said Assistant City Manager Robin Bentley.

Interim City Manager Kim Tolbert teased the permitting department’s progress during Wednesday’s State of Downtown event. “As a city, we needed to learn how to be more customer-centric,” Tolbert said at the event. Dallas is working with the Toyota Production System Support System. Bentley said the new planning and development department assembled a team of division representatives with expertise in building code, sanitation, zoning and transportation. The team is collaborating with the city’s business and analytics department. In its preliminary research, the team reviewed a sample of 36 multifamily housing permits issued between October 2023 and September 2024. It found permits related to drainage, paving engineering, water and wastewater engineering, zoning, building code, and landscape reviews took the longest to be approved.

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National Stories

House races to watch on election night (and beyond)

Entering Election Day on Tuesday, the battle for control of the US House of Representatives rests on a knife’s edge, with a historically small universe of competitive races poised to determine the chamber’s majority in the next Congress – an outcome that could have far-reaching consequences for the next president’s agenda. All 435 House seats are on the ballot, with Republicans defending a slim majority and Democrats needing a net gain of four seats to flip control of the chamber. There is a clear consensus among both parties that whichever side emerges with a majority is likely to have little room to spare. A single-seat majority is not outside the realm of possibility. That could pose a challenge for Mike Johnson, if the GOP retains control and restores the Louisiana Republican as House speaker, or Hakeem Jeffries, if Democrats retake the chamber and make history by installing the New York Democrat as the first Black speaker.

Virginia’s 7th District: The early indicator. Inside Elections rating: Tilt Democratic. This open-seat contest between Democrat Eugene Vindman and Republican Derrick Anderson will be one of the most closely watched races early in the night Tuesday. Nebraska’s 2nd District: The Biden crossover seat. Inside Elections rating: Tilt Democratic. GOP Rep. Don Bacon, a centrist retired Air Force officer who has been a top target for Democrats ever since he flipped the district in 2016, defeating Rep. Brad Ashford by a little more than a percentage point. He faces a rematch with Democrat Tony Vargas, a 40-year-old state senator vying to be Nebraska’s first Latino member of Congress. In 2022, Bacon defeated Vargas by less than 3 points. Maine’s 2nd District: The Trump crossover seat. Inside Elections rating: Toss-up. On the flip side, there are five seats currently represented by Democratic members of Congress that Trump would have carried during the 2020 election. Democratic Rep. Jared Golden has crafted a moderate profile by challenging his party on issues ranging from spending to immigration. Golden’s opponent is the Trump-endorsed Austin Theriault, a 30-year-old state representative and former NASCAR driver, who Republicans hope will be able to appeal across the massive, mostly rural district, which stretches from rocky shorelines in the south all the way north to the state’s border with Canada.

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Supreme Court allows Pennsylvania to count contested provisional ballots, rejecting Republican plea

The Supreme Court on Friday rejected an emergency appeal from Republicans that could have led to thousands of provisional ballots not being counted in Pennsylvania as the presidential campaigns vie in the final days before the election in the nation’s biggest battleground state. The justices left in place a state Supreme Court ruling that elections officials must count provisional ballots cast by voters whose mail-in ballots were rejected. The ruling is a victory for voting-rights advocates, who had sought to force counties — primarily Republican-controlled counties — to let voters cast a provisional ballot on Election Day if their mail-in ballot was to be rejected for a garden-variety error.

While the Supreme Court action was a setback for Republicans, the GOP separately claimed victory in a decision by Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court. That court rejected a last-ditch effort by voting rights advocates to ensure that mail-in ballots that lack an accurate, handwritten date on the exterior envelope will still count in this year’s presidential election. The rulings are the latest in four years of litigation over voting by mail in Pennsylvania, where every vote truly counts in presidential races. Republicans have sought in dozens of court cases to push the strictest possible interpretation for throwing out mail-in ballots, which are predominantly cast by Democrats. Taken together, Friday’s near-simultaneous rulings will ensure a heavy emphasis on helping thousands of people vote provisionally on Election Day if their mail-in ballot was rejected — and potentially more litigation. As of Thursday, about 9,000 ballots out of more than 1.6 million returned have arrived at elections offices around Pennsylvania lacking a secrecy envelope, a signature or a handwritten date, according to state records.

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Top House GOP ask for documents regarding Biden’s ‘garbage’ comment

Top House Republicans called on the White House to produce all documents and internal communications regarding President Joe Biden’s statement earlier this week in which he appeared to take a swipe at supporters of Donald Trump. White House press officials altered the official transcript of Biden’s statement, drawing objections from the federal workers who document such remarks for posterity, according to two U.S. government officials and an internal email obtained Thursday by The Associated Press. The lawmakers said they question whether the decision to create “a false transcript and manipulate or alter the accurate transcript” produced for the National Archives and Records Administration was a violation of federal law.

Rep. James Comer, the Republican chair of the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability, and House Republican Conference Chairwoman Elise Stefanik demanded the White House produce the records. They’re also calling for the White House to make available for a briefing the top supervisor of the White House Stenography’s Office. “The White House cannot simply rewrite President Biden’s rhetoric,” Comer and Stefanik wrote. “...We are concerned with the latest reporting of the White House’s apparent political decision to protect the Biden-Harris Administration, instead of following longstanding and proper protocols.” Biden created an uproar earlier this week with his remarks to Latino activists responding to racist comments at a Trump rally made by the comedian Tony Hinchcliffe, who referred to the U.S. island territory of Puerto Rico as a “floating island of garbage.”

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Trump’s mass deportation plan could rely on state cooperation

Former President Donald Trump has repeatedly promised to launch what he calls the “largest deportation program in American history” if reelected, targeting immigrants living in the United States without documentation — people whom he described in a rally this week as “vicious and bloodthirsty criminals.” “I will rescue every city and town that has been invaded and conquered,” Trump pledged during the rally at New York City’s Madison Square Garden. By law, immigration is a federal matter, and Trump has said he’ll federalize state National Guard troops, activate the military and build detention camps. But experts and close Trump affiliates say state and local actions could affect any mass deportation program he might attempt. States trying to criminalize unauthorized immigration across their borders could use those laws to begin detentions, for example.

Sanctuary cities and states that refuse to assist Immigration and Customs Enforcement, known as ICE, the federal agency responsible for interior immigration enforcement and deportations, could look for barriers. In fact, Trump’s proposed mass deportation plan won’t work without states, said Mark Morgan, who served under the 45th president as acting commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the agency charged with securing the U.S. border and facilitating trade at ports of entry. “It’s not going to be successful, as long as we have sanctuary cities and states that refuse to allow local and state police departments to work with ICE,” Morgan said in an interview with Stateline. Over the past year, more than half a dozen red states have tried to address immigration independently. Arizona, Florida, Iowa, Louisiana, Ohio, Oklahoma and Texas have introduced or enacted measures that aim to criminalize unauthorized immigration into their state with severe penalties.

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Overwhelming majority of ballot boxes are secure, rare for ballots to be lost or destroyed

Millions of Americans have already cast their ballots in the 2024 presidential election at polling places or by dropping them in the mail or into drop-off ballot boxes — long a popular way to return completed ballots in some states. When some ballots were damaged Oct. 28 in fires intentionally set at ballot boxes in Oregon and Washington state, it raised questions about ballot box security and how the votes would be counted. But election officials told PolitiFact that the overwhelming majority of ballot boxes are secure, and it’s rare for ballots to be lost or destroyed completely. Election officials are accustomed to and trained in dealing with damaged ballots. "I think we’ve had a few bad actors here," U.S. Election Assistance Commission Chairman Benjamin Hovland said. "By and large it's a secure way to vote." In Portland, Oregon, a fire suppression system inside the ballot box protected hundreds of ballots; just three were damaged.

The names of the voters were still visible, and the county clerk will follow up with those voters, said Laura Kerns, Oregon secretary of state communications director. Oregon voters can also track their ballots online. "Voters should be assured that even if their ballots were in the affected box, their votes will be counted," Elections Director Tim Scott of Multnomah County, Oregon, said in an Oct. 28 news release. In Vancouver, Washington, the ballot boxes had fire suppression systems, but they appear to have malfunctioned. Election officials identified 488 damaged ballots, according to a news release from Clark County Auditor Greg Kimsey. Vancouver is in Clark County. Of those 488 voters whose ballots were damaged, 345 had contacted the Clark County elections office to request a replacement ballot as of Oct. 29, and election workers were mailing replacement ballots Oct. 31 to the remaining 143 voters. Six ballots were not able to be identified, and others could have burned beyond recognition, Kimsey said.

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Biden’s chips achievement is losing support before the money actually rolls out

Progressives and pro-labor Democrats are souring on President Joe Biden’s CHIPS and Science Act as the administration appears to be loosening some of the environmental and transparency guardrails initially attached to its $39 billion in subsidies. The 2022 law is a historic piece of industrial policy intended to boost the American high-tech sector by funneling money into semiconductor manufacturing. To sell the program to fellow Democrats, the Biden administration had promised it would come with a broad set of environmental rules, worker benefits and public reporting expectations. But early in October, Biden signed a law rolling back a key environmental review standard that companies would have been required to follow.

And the first binding award to be issued — $123 million to the Minnesota-based chipmaker Polar Semiconductor — came under sealed terms, leading many initial supporters to worry that tech companies will get what they want without any real public oversight. With former President Donald Trump attacking the CHIPS program in a recent interview, a signature Biden achievement now has an opponent who could take the White House next week and radically reshape how the law is being administered. Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson said Friday that if Trump wins and the GOP takes Congress, they could try to eliminate the law’s industry-unfriendly rules. The criticism on both sides of the political aisle raises the question of what will happen to one of the president’s biggest longterm policy legacies. “Whatever the administration does, it’ll be inadequate,” said Gary Hufbauer, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics and former top Treasury official. He predicts “blowback” from both sides as the law continues to roll out.

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EU braces for two-front trade war with US and China

Europe is already in a cold trade war with China. Can it handle a hot one with the United States? That’s the conundrum facing Ursula von der Leyen as the U.S. holds a historic presidential election that could return protectionist Donald Trump to the White House. It’s a moment of vulnerability for the EU, with the chief of its executive Commission embarking on a second term and forming her new administration. Trump has threatened to hit Beijing with punitive tariffs of up to 60 percent, and impose duties of 10 to 20 percent on all other countries. Those would have a direct impact on Europe, stemming transatlantic trade, while also redirecting rampant Chinese exports toward Europe’s relatively open market.

With its own protective duties against Chinese electric vehicles of up to 35 percent only days old, the European Union might soon find those are insufficient to hold back the Chinese tide. So should Brussels dial it back on China and deal first with Trump? Or should it double down? Fighting with its two top trading partners is the last thing that Europe — and its stagnating economy — needs. “We need to avoid trade wars, and shocks from the two sides,” said one EU official granted anonymity to speak freely. “We’ve had many shocks already,” they added, referring to the consecutive blows dealt by the Covid-19 pandemic and Russia’s all-out invasion of Ukraine. Von der Leyen’s next trade commissioner, Maroš Šefcovic, has given some clues on strategy in written answers published before he is grilled by European lawmakers in a confirmation hearing on Monday, the eve of the make-or-break U.S. vote.

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Lead Stories

Rep. Glenn Rogers on Rep. Burrows column: Remember to trust, but verify

President Ronald Reagan famously advised us to “Trust, but verify.” State Rep. Dustin Burrows recently penned an Op-ed concerning the politics of school closings in the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal. With an exceptional amount of misleading claims in his piece, Texans reading it should certainly verify what Representative Burrows wrote. While there are over a dozen points to contest, here are some of the biggest concerns to address. Burrows called the Texas Association of School Boards (TASB) a “gang.” The truth is, TASB is simply a group whose membership reflects the school board members that Texas voters elect every year. It gives our elected school board members a platform to communicate with each other and to share ideas on how to best educate our students. TASB always advocates for our students and local ISD’s. Contrary to Burrows’ conspiracy theory, the real reason school funding was not passed last session is because the voucher-entitlement crowd refused to separate school funding (including teacher pay raises) from a voucher-entitlement program.

When a bi-partisan majority voted to separate these two issues, the bill’s author sent the whole bill back to committee where it died. Thus, he refused to let the Texas House vote on school funding, which would have passed. Burrows suggested that Texas “allow for school choice (without taking any money from local districts).” This is beyond disingenuous. The truth is, if school vouchers had passed while we had an unprecedented $32 billion budget surplus, they initially would not cut into public school funds. But in just a few years, as is evidenced by the severe budgetary constraints of 2011, the program could only survive by taking money away from our public schools.As a rancher, I could double or triple my stocking rate during a rainy season (budget surplus), but this would not be a conservative or wise decision, and would definitely not be sustainable during a drought (budget deficit) as occurred in 2011. Conservatives pride themselves on responsible budgeting, but vouchers create runaway costs. Just look at states where vouchers have blown up budgets by expanding eligibility year after year. It’s hardly responsible to create a program without knowing how much it will drain from public education and the overall state budget. Conservatives should make decisions based on the long-term economic impacts of massive spending on a new entitlement program, not the short-term effects during an unprecedented surplus. Burrows referred to “false school finance fears,” immediately after describing real school finance problems. Later he spoke of “…ESA’s that would empower parents of the most vulnerable Texas students…” Would the “most vulnerable Texas students” include foster youth and would they be prioritized and guaranteed admission? Will special education students be guaranteed their federal protections? Will every private school give economically disadvantaged students free transportation, uniforms, and meals? And given the use of public funding, will private schools open up their records and results to public scrutiny?

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State Senator Phil King aided a utility he was doing business with

Eric Gay/AP Earlier this year, state senator Phil King took the unusual step of wading into a fight between Oncor, the company that owns and operates the electrical wires throughout much of North and West Texas, and its customers—among them some of his constituents. Oncor had asked the Public Utility Commission of Texas, in June 2023, for permission to charge its ratepayers higher fees to make up for $153 million in costs it had incurred for repairs and expansion of its local wires. Then it filed for another $56 million that September, plus $81 million the following March. Lawyers representing a coalition of municipal governments pushed back, arguing that Oncor couldn’t ask to pass on its expenses more than twice in a twelve-month period. In response, Oncor said that the limit was twice per calendar year. King, a Republican from Weatherford, about a 45-minute drive west of Fort Worth, had authored the 2023 bill that allowed utility monopolies such as Oncor to seek reimbursements for their spending semiannually—up from once a year previously. He weighed in with a letter to the PUC, writing that the customers’ argument represented an “irrational reading” of his bill. The commission, all of whose members were appointed by Republican Governor Greg Abbott, sided with Oncor and King.

The bill—Senate Bill 1015—was one of four pieces of legislation King authored during the last session to make significant changes to how Texas’s regulated electric utilities can operate. SB 1015 proved to be a financial boon to Oncor. In a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the company stated that the changes enacted by the bill generated more than $50 million in incremental revenue in 2023. In addition to allowing Oncor and other utilities to ask to raise rates twice a year, SB 1015 restricted the ability of municipal governments across the state to fight unreasonable utility expenditures. Tina Paez, Houston’s head of regulatory affairs, testified that the bill would replace a “balanced regulatory framework with what is effectively utility self-regulation.” Bill Kelly, who served as Houston’s director of government relations until earlier this year, said the bill as filed by King appeared to be retaliation against cities for their strong advocacy on behalf of residents. It was, he said, “like dropping a nuclear bomb because you’re mad we won.” Phil King is known for being friendly to companies such as Oncor. A Wall Street analyst I spoke with referred to him as “Mr. Utility.” In the past two years, the state political action committee that represents the electricity-delivery industry has given King’s reelection campaign $20,000, and Oncor’s chief executive has personally written two checks worth a combined $27,500.

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Company headed by Texas House candidate is facing fraud allegations by San Antonio nonprofit

A general contracting company headed by Texas House District 80 candidate Cecilia Castellano has been hit with fraud allegations by a San Antonio nonprofit that hired the firm to oversee construction work. Guardian House, which works with families going through divorce, took legal action against Castellano’s Azteca Designs Inc. last week after a subcontractor sued them both alleging it had not been paid for work on the project at 1354 Basse Road. “Simply put, Guardian House has no idea what Azteca did with the $1,070,873.64 Guardian House paid it,” the nonprofit said in court documents. “Azteca has failed to provide any accounting specifically identifying when, how much, or to whom Azteca paid out the monies it received from Guardian House.”

The nonprofit seeks unspecified actual, liquidated and punitive damages. It also wants a judge to appoint an auditor to investigate and examine the company’s books and records. In a statement, Azteca attorney Juan M. Gonzalez said Castellano’s company “stands behind its work” and indicated it would address Guardian House’s allegations in court with an answer and counterclaim. “Guardian House ejected Azteca from the job while Azteca was still performing,” Gonzalez said. “Guardian House failed to pay Azteca for work that had been done.” He also suggested the suit is politically motivated. “The fact that Guardian House resorted to making this case overtly political on the eve of the election involving Mrs. Castellano says much about the merits of their claims,” Gonzalez said. Brandy Peery, a lawyer for Guardian House, responded that Castellano “conveniently forgets her admitted failure to pay attention to this project and staff it with competent people. “She is borrowing from a more notorious politician who blames legal actions taken against him for wrongdoing as being politically motivated,” Peery said, referring to former President Donald Trump.

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Trump says ‘war hawk’ Liz Cheney should be fired upon in escalation of violent rhetoric against his opponents

Donald Trump said former Rep. Liz Cheney is a “war hawk” who should be fired upon, as he raged against one of his most prominent intra-party critics while campaigning Thursday night in Arizona. “She’s a radical war hawk. Let’s put her with a rifle standing there with nine barrels shooting at her, OK?” the former president said at a campaign event in Glendale with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson. “Let’s see how she feels about it, you know, when the guns are trained on her face.” Trump also hurled insults at Cheney, once the third-ranking Republican in House leadership, calling her “very dumb,” a “stupid person” and “the moron.”

Trump’s suggestion that Cheney be fired upon represents an escalation of the violent language he has used to target his political foes. And it comes days before an election in which the former president — who never accepted his 2020 loss — has already undermined public confidence. In recent weeks, he has also suggested a military crackdown on political opponents he has described as “the enemy within.” Cheney is perhaps the most vocal Republican critic of Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election, and his role in his supporters’ January 6, 2021, riot at the US Capitol. She played a leading role on the House select committee that investigated the attack, and later was ousted from her deep-red Wyoming House seat by a Trump-backed primary opponent in 2022. In recent weeks, Cheney has campaigned alongside Vice President Kamala Harris, urging Republicans to set aside party differences to back the Democrat and reject a candidate she says poses a threat to democracy. Trump said Thursday he was surprised former Vice President Dick Cheney also endorsed Harris, because he had pardoned Cheney’s former chief of staff Scooter Libby, who was convicted of perjury in 2007.

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State Stories

Inside Texas Democrats’ strategy to do what Beto couldn’t in 2018: Beat Ted Cruz

In his quest to unseat U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, U.S. Rep. Colin Allred has turned away from the all-of-Texas approach that Beto O’Rourke deployed ahead of his narrow loss to Cruz in 2018. Instead of holding town halls in every county in Texas like O’Rourke did, Allred and Texas Democrats are focused on flipping women and minority voters in the suburbs and exurbs around Houston, Dallas, Austin and San Antonio – places where the party is competitive but where former President Donald Trump is also popular. “It’s fun having a candidate holding turn-Texas-blue pep rallies but it’s not a strategy to win,” said Democratic strategist Matt Angle. “To win a statewide race in Texas you have to do more than rally the base.”

People of color and college-educated women voted heavily for O’Rourke six years ago, but not in enough counties for Democrats to win outright. O’Rourke won Fort Bend County outside Houston and Tarrant County west of Dallas, for instance, but he lost critical suburbs like Collin and Denton counties outside Dallas and Bell County north of Austin. And he took less than 60% of the vote in Harris County, the sort of heavily populated urban areas Democrats need to dominate if they’re going to overcome Republicans’ advantage in rural communities. Counties like Fort Bend have only been growing in diversity since then, with the arrival of new potential voters from out of state lured by Texas’s growing economy and younger minorities coming of voting age. In Collin County, for instance, one the counties Democrats are focusing their attention on, the percentage of non-white residents increased by 5 percentage points between 2018 and 2022, the most recent year for which data was available. Democrats hope that demographic shift will give them a boost they didn’t have in 2018, leaving Allred a path to win crucial suburbs and drive up the numbers in urban areas like Harris County. But the degree to which those new minority and college-educated voters will turn out for Allred remains a huge unknown.

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We asked 100 Houston voters about HISD's bond. Many said Mike Miles is why they're voting no.

When Tara Watson saw Houston ISD’s $4.4 billion school bond at the end of her ballot, she hesitated. Watson, a parent of two HISD students, said their campus “obviously” needs new infrastructure, including a permanent fix to the school’s persistent heating, ventilation and air conditioning problems. If the bond passed, the district estimates it would invest more than $4.3 million into facility improvements for her children’s highly rated elementary school in the Heights. Still, after standing there and staring at her voting machine for “a while,” she ultimately opted to vote against the district’s first school bond proposal in 12 years. The decision, she said, came down to HISD’s state-appointed Superintendent Mike Miles’ recent “interference” into her children’s campus — Harvard Elementary. HISD placed the principal on administrative leave pending an investigation in early October, prompting anxiety among parents about the future autonomy of their campus.

“I was very conflicted because I think our schools are already super underfunded,” Watson said. “I think investment in them is an easy choice to make, but with Miles, his track record and how he's been acting within HISD, without seeming to care about community input and what the parents think, and being receptive to any type of feedback or guidance, I voted no.” Watson is one of a record 728,927 Harris County residents who voted during the first week of early voting. Along with the election for president and U.S. Senate, thousands of people have weighed in on HISD’s bond — the first election where voters are casting ballots that could meaningfully affect district operations since the state takeover of the district in June 2023. In brief, in-person interviews during the first week of early voting, the Chronicle spoke to more than 100 voters at eight polling locations across the city, including the Metropolitan Multi-Service Center, SPJST Lodge 88 and the Sunnyside Health and Multi-Service Center, about how they voted on the bond. About 67% of the voters surveyed by the Chronicle said they voted no on both Proposition A and B, while 30% said they supported both measures. The remaining percentage of voters said they split their votes between the two propositions.

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Man sentenced in overdose death of T. Boone Pickens’ grandson faces federal gun charges

A Fort Worth man on deferred adjudication in the overdose death of billionaire T. Boone Pickens’ 21-year-old grandson more than a decade ago and accused earlier this year of stalking an ex-girlfriend was charged Wednesday with federal gun crimes, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Texas announced. Brennan Trainor Rodriguez, 33, was charged this week in a two-count indictment alleging illegal possession of a machine gun and illegal receipt of a firearm by a person under indictment, according to a news release. Rodriguez, a former TCU student, was charged in June 2013, with injecting heroin into Thomas “Ty” Boone Pickens IV who died from an overdose Jan. 29, 2013. He later pleaded guilty in the man’s death and was placed on 10 years of deferred adjudication beginning on Nov. 26, 2014, according to court records. Conditions of Rodriguez’s community supervision prohibited him from possessing firearms.

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Texas nuns in battle with Fort Worth bishop are dismissed from religious life

A group of Texas nuns engaged in a yearlong dispute with Catholic Church leadership has been dismissed from religious life and “reverted to the lay state,” according to their Vatican-appointed overseer. Mother Marie of the Incarnation, who replaced Mother Teresa Agnes Gerlach at the behest of the Vatican in April, wrote in a statement posted Oct. 28 on the Fort Worth Diocese’s website that the seven nuns are no longer members of the Order of Discalced Carmelites because they “have reverted to the lay state by their own actions.” The decision came after the nuns, who live in a monastery on 72 wooded acres in Arlington, Texas, announced they would no longer recognize Mother Marie of the Incarnation as their superior and would join the Society of St. Pius X, a traditionalist Catholic breakaway group. In response, the nuns in a statement called their dismissal “a moot point.”

“The Vows we have professed to God cannot be dismissed or taken away,” they added. It’s the latest dramatic development in a yearlong tussle that’s received international attention. The nuns have been at odds with Fort Worth Bishop Michael Olson since he launched an investigation last year alleging that Gerlach had broken her vow of chastity with a priest. Though Gerlach initially admitted to violating the vow, according to a statement posted on the diocese’s website, she later told Olson she had never met the priest in person and was only guilty of “sexting,” Olson told reporters earlier this year. Matthew Bobo, the nuns’ attorney, called the original allegation “completely fabricated” and stated flatly, “She did not have sex with a priest.” The nuns, who argue that their order is autonomous and answers only to the Vatican, filed a lawsuit in U.S. district court alleging that Olson had overstepped his authority when he entered the monastery’s grounds, seized laptops and phones and questioned the nuns for hours. In a statement after the lawsuit was filed, Olson accused the nuns of “inciting hatred and animosity” toward him and the diocese.

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Texas’ border takeover a factor in migrant, US citizen deaths, activists say

Texas has wrestled away control of immigration enforcement from the federal government after stationing thousands of troops and installing miles of razor wire along the Rio Grande, members of several civil rights organizations said on Wednesday. Those troops and barriers become a “gantlet” that prevents asylum-seekers from surrendering to the Border Patrol, say advocates who allege witnessing Texas National Guard members push migrants back toward Mexico, fire non-lethal projectiles or direct them to private land where they are charged with trespassing. “We have treated people who sustained injuries from canisters (launched) by the National Guard, injuries from the concertina wire, injured by rubber bullets,” said Dylan Corbett, executive director of Hope Border Institute in El Paso. “The U.S.-Mexico border is 2,000 miles long; more than 1,100 miles are in Texas. Texas has effectively taken control of immigration enforcement on more than 50 percent of the border. […] Twenty-year-olds with automatic weapons are now administering immigration law.”

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Prominent University Park Baptist church leaves Southern Baptist Convention

Prominent Dallas-area congregation Park Cities Baptist Church is leaving the Southern Baptist Convention, according to a statement published on the church’s website. One factor in the church’s exit appears to be its support for women pastors. The Southern Baptist Convention has increasingly been cracking down on member churches with women pastors and ousted five churches with women pastors in 2023, according to the official news service of the convention. The number of churches that had left or been removed from the convention in a year increased each year from 2020 to 2022, according to a 2024 report from the evangelical research firm Lifeway Research. That group reported the total number of churches that had left or been disaffiliated over the three year period it surveyed was 498. It did not break down the reasons churches cited for leaving.

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‘David versus Goliath’: Two PACs are raising money to fight Dallas Hero. Here’s how much

Two political action committees reported raising more than $1 million combined to get Dallas voters to reject three proposed charter updates that supporters say would boost public safety and local government accountability. Together for Dallas had a kick-off event in downtown Dallas at the beginning of October with more than 40 current and former city leaders urging people to vote no on Propositions S, T and U. It raised about $524,000 through Oct. 26, according to its campaign finance report. Dallas United for Progress, which touts the backing of more than a dozen local elected officials on its website, raised $533,000 from Sep. 27 to Oct. 26 in its campaign finance reports. The two groups reported spending more than $738,000 combined through Oct. 26, largely on advertising and campaign consultants. “I think it speaks to the breadth and depth of support and how the community truly feels about these propositions,” said Lorraine Birabil, executive director for Dallas United for Progress and a former Texas state representative.

The two PACs are focused on defeating Propositions S, T and U, a trio of proposals that qualified for the Nov. 5 ballot through a voter signature campaign led by the nonprofit group Dallas Hero. Of the 18 propositions on the ballot, the three are the only ones with both organized support and opposition. Dallas Hero is a 501(c)(4) nonprofit, which means it isn’t legally required to disclose its donors. A donation page on Dallas Hero’s website lists its fundraising goal as $750,000. As of Wednesday, the group reported having raised $104,000 and says it is from 38 donors but doesn’t name any of them. Proposition S would make it easier for Dallas residents to sue the city in some instances, Proposition T would give the community power to influence whether the city manager is fired or receives pay bonuses, and Proposition U would mandate Dallas spend half of its new revenue annually on police hiring, pay, pension and other benefits.

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Before shows at H-E-B Center, Texans blast comedian who called Puerto Rico 'island of garbage'

Some Texans are demanding that an Austin-area venue cancel shows by comedian-podcaster Tony Hinchcliffe, who called Puerto Rico an "island of garbage" at a Donald Trump rally over the weekend. Hinchcliffe, host of Austin-based podcast "Kill Tony," took the stage Sunday at Madison Square Garden and delivered the following line: "There's literally a floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean right now. I think it's called Puerto Rico." Hinchcliffe, who's set to bring his "Kill Tony" live tour to the H-E-B Center at Cedar Park in late December, also joked about how Jews don't like spending money, and at another point, he pointed to a Black man in the audience and joked that he had carved watermelons with him at a Halloween party the night before. The performance drew immediate condemnation from Democrats and Republicans. The Trump campaign distanced itself from the comedian in a statement, and on Tuesday, Trump said he didn't know who Hinchcliffe is.

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Lawsuit between SMU and UMC is headed to court again

Southern Methodist University in Dallas is headed back to court seeking to free itself from the authority of The United Methodist Church. Most sources trace this conflict back to actions taken by the UMC in 2019, but a tug-of-war between university and church goes back more than a decade further. According to a report in the Oct. 18 Dallas Morning News, the Texas Supreme Court has agreed to hear oral arguments in January 2025 in a lawsuit between SMU and the UMC’s South Central Jurisdiction, an eight-state region that includes Texas. Whether SMU has the authority to revise its governing language without jurisdictional approval forms the crux of the matter, because legally South Central owns much of the SMU campus. A framed poster-sized deed certificate hangs outside the bishop’s office at the United Methodist Center in Plano, Texas, attesting to the jurisdiction’s ownership of the university. Historically the resident United Methodist bishop in Dallas and other South Central bishops have served as SMU trustees.

Circumstances have changed since South Central brought the lawsuit in December 2019, but tense relations between the university and the church go back to 2003. That’s when SMU was negotiating a sweetheart deal to lease part of the campus as a site for the presidential library of George W. Bush. Even early on, SMU’s chances of landing the library looked good; not only was it a Texas location close to the Bushes’ retirement residence, but First Lady Laura Bush served as an SMU trustee. Another contender for the library was Baylor University in Waco, Texas. The site Baylor set aside now houses McLane Stadium for football. Texas Tech University and the University of Dallas also were finalists for the site selection. Amid this bidding war for the library, backlash swelled at SMU. A United Methodist clergyman, the late Andrew Weaver, spearheaded a drive against the Bush library that eventually gained support from more than 20,000 SMU alumni and South Central leaders. The dissidents professed themselves morally appalled that a church-owned institution would offer to house Bush’s presidential history given his administration’s manipulation of the Iraq invasion. Opponents argued that legally SMU couldn’t enter such a lease without the approval of the jurisdiction, a regional church body of several hundred delegates that meets only once every four years.

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Colin Allred: Texas’ abortion laws are hurting the economy

Abortion laws in Texas are having impacts on every aspect of residents lives, Democratic Rep. Colin Allred said at an Oct. 31 meeting with North Texas business leaders. That includes businesses trying to attract and retain talent to the state, he said. Former Tarrant County Judge Glen Whitley, who joined Allred along with 15 other business leaders and former government officials, mentioned a friend whose daughter won’t return to Texas after college because of the climate created by the state’s abortion ban. “We’ve got to turn the tide, and we’ve got to get back to the moderate norm where we focus on facing and passing the issues that are important to us,” Whitley said. He mentioned Allred’s support of the CHIPS and Science Act helping to bring grant funding to support to businesses across Texas.

“That’s bipartisanship. That’s why I’m here,” Whitley said. Allred is facing Republican Ted Cruz for a U.S. Senate seat, a tight race that could have a say in which party controls the Senate after the Nov. 5 election. People want to come to North Texas because it’s a problem solving place rather than a partisan place, said former Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings. “Big businesses come to Texas for a lot of reasons, but not because of Ted Cruz,” Rawlings said. He added that employees of businesses relocating to Texas are scared of what Rawlings referred to as Cruz’s, “mentality and narrative.” “It’s not good for what we want to be as a community,” he said. Fellow former Dallas Mayor Ron Kirk echoed Rawlings sentiments “If you think reproductive freedom isn’t a business issue, call any college president in this city right now and ask them how many faculty they’ve lost,” Kirk said. He referenced his experience sitting on corporate and smaller business boards, and noted the universal concern that talent attraction has gotten more difficult because of abortion restrictions.

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Tarrant GOP chair faces backlash from precinct chairs for post

Tarrant County Republican Chairman Bo French is not one to shy away from pushing buttons on social media, but a poll he posted on X this week may have gone a bit too far for some in his own party. “If you believe Kamala’s policies are better for Americans than Trump’s policies, you are:” he posted on Monday, Oct. 28. Poll takers had four choices: “Ignorant; A liar; Retarded; Gay.” The post received criticism in the comments section, and by Tuesday, French had deleted it from his feed. But the backlash continued, with one Republican precinct chair calling for his resignation in an email to her peers that was leaked on Wednesday.

“I stand alongside numerous precinct chairs in the Tarrant County Republican Party, disturbed by Chairman French’s consistent disparaging remarks about women, public berating of those in the gay community, and recent outright vile and dehumanizing language of those with special needs,” said Republican precinct chair Sheena Rodriguez in the email. Rodriguez confirmed on Thursday, Oct. 31, that she wrote and sent the email, but did not intend for it to be made public. The email first appeared on the X account for the conservative news site Current Revolt on Wednesday, Oct. 30. Rodriguez declined to comment further on the matter until after the Nov. 5 election. French’s “constant disturbing social media posts and public comments” do not represent the values of the Republican party, Rodriguez wrote before calling on him to resign from his position after Election Day. “Conservative members, supporters, and constituents of Tarrant County GOP deserve a new, humble, respectful, and productive leader — one who is capable of being a decent human being laser-focused on improving the county party, drawing new members and voters to the party, and promoting the conservative movement rather than hindering it,” she wrote.

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Humble ISD Superintendent Elizabeth Fagen defends record at proposed termination appeal hearing

Despite a brief but explicit interruption by visuals of male genitalia when a Zoom-bomber entered the proposed termination hearing of Humble ISD Superintendent Elizabeth Fagen, the appeal continued Thursday afternoon with the superintendent defending her track record. Proceedings detailed the romantic relationship between Fagen and her husband, former Humble ISD Athletic Director Troy Kite, and the legal melee borne of numerous Title IX complaints against him. Trustees voted 4-3 to terminate Fagen in July, which she then appealed in a case being heard by a state hearing officer.

Lead attorney for the Board of Trustees, Craig Wood, argued that it was Fagen’s relationship with Kite that cost the district $1.3 million in legal fees and led to a year of litigation on various Title IX complaints related to the original complaint made against Kite. He also alleged that Fagen did not act appropriately when Kite’s determination was made and that there was a breakdown in the working relationship between Fagen and the board. "We will give you specific examples of how that (relationship) became disruptive. But in particular, we're going to show you that there was a very significant event that has been hugely impactful on the school district, and not in a good way," Wood said. "The trust is broken, and that's really what this case is about.”

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City Stories

Horse-drawn carriage ban could be up for City Council vote in December

The City Council is split over how quickly to remove horse-drawn carriages from San Antonio streets, with some wanting a ban to take effect as soon as March 2026 and others wanting to wait up to five years or longer. Those wanting to see the faster timeline lamented the fact that the proposal to ban the carriages has moved so slowly through the vetting process for city ordinances. It was filed nearly two years ago. “We did an airport deal faster than that,” said District 8 Councilman Manny Peláez. “We did a $126 million baseball deal in record time, in breakneck speed.” Others felt that the city was moving too fast and should respect carriage operators’ request for a transition period of at least five years.

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National Stories

As smuggling rings made billions from migrants, the U.S. was sidelined

He called himself a simple onion farmer, a Mayan Indian with four kids and a fourth-grade education. U.S. prosecutors knew better. By his late 30s, Felipe Diego Alonzo had built a crime route stretching from Central America to Texas, allegedly paying off Mexican drug cartels along the way. He tooled around Guatemala’s western highlands in a loaded silver Ford Ranger pickup. When the police finally raided his ranch, they found a study in rural narco-chic: wooden chalets, a swimming pool, a show horse valued at $100,000. What they didn’t find was a narco. Alonzo’s business “was more profitable than drug trafficking,” said one of the Guatemalan officials who detained him. Alonzo was moving people.

He was part of a human-smuggling business that has exploded in recent years, enabling a record number of migrants to reach the U.S. southern border. At least 80 percent of unlawful border-crossers hire smugglers, according to a 2023 report by the Department of Homeland Security. Even as Donald Trump and Kamala Harris spar over migration, each presidential candidate pledging tougher controls on the border, smugglers are creating an ever-more-efficient pipeline to get people there. They guide people through treacherous jungles on the trek from Colombia to Panama. They whisk migrants over remote Guatemalan border crossings and up traffic-clogged Mexican highways. With revenue estimated at $4 billion to $12 billion a year, the smuggling of migrants has joined drugs and extortion as a top income stream for groups like Mexico’s Sinaloa and Jalisco cartels, increasing their economic clout throughout the hemisphere. Yet until the day Alonzo’s property was raided — Aug. 2, 2022 — the U.S. government had done little to prosecute and dismantle smuggling networks. “It is a major omission in our law enforcement strategy,” said Christopher Landau, who served as U.S. ambassador to Mexico in the Trump administration.

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Meet the Democrats using porn ads to convince Trump voters to stay home

Earlier this year, Wally Nowinski and his buddy Matt Curry were texting back and forth about what they — two regular voters with no ties to any political campaign — could do to defeat Donald Trump in the presidential election. "I'm in California, I could drive to Nevada and knock on doors or something, but I'm not going to reach 5 million people that way," Nowinski told NPR. Curry lives in New York. The two friends work in tech with experience in digital advertising and start ups, and Nowinski was particularly interested in what he calls "sub-prime" ad markets, aka porn sites.

Political candidates and their allied PACs don't advertise in these spaces because they don't want to associate their brands with explicit content, making the online pornographic market perhaps the last untouched frontier in political advertising. According to AdImpact, more than $10 billion will be spent in political ads in 2024 in all races across television, streaming, radio and digital platforms. While advertising in the Philadelphia suburbs, for instance, is quite expensive, ads on porn sites are inexpensive and have almost no competition. "These ads are like real cheap and it's like weirdly relevant to this campaign," Nowinski said. The relevance they saw was a market they believe can reach one of the key voter demographics in 2024. "There’s 3 million non-college white men across the 'blue wall' states, that's a lot of people, and they're probably breaking for Trump like 65-70%," he said. "You only need to make a very few of them change their mind to possibly make an impact on the election."

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Donald Trump sues CBS over Kamala Harris ‘60 Minutes’ interview

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump sued CBS on Thursday over an interview of his Democratic rival Kamala Harris aired on its “60 Minutes” news program in early October that the lawsuit alleged was misleading, according to a court filing. The complaint, filed in federal court in the Northern District of Texas, alleges the network aired two different responses from Harris responding to a question about the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza. The version that aired during the “60 Minutes” program on Oct. 6 did not include what the lawsuit calls a “word salad” response from Harris about the Biden administration’s influence on Israel’s conduct of the war.

“Former President Trump’s repeated claims against 60 Minutes are false,” a CBS News spokesperson said. “The lawsuit Trump has brought today against CBS is completely without merit and we will vigorously defend against it.” Trump and Harris face each other in what polls show to be a tight race ahead of Tuesday’s U.S. presidential election. The suit demanded a jury trial and about $10 billion in damages, the filing showed. It alleges violations of a Texas law barring deceptive acts in the conduct of business. Trump has repeatedly assailed the network on the campaign trail over the episode and has threatened to revoke CBS’s broadcasting license if elected. CBS has said Trump backed out of his own planned interview with “60 Minutes.”

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I replied ‘Stop’ to a political text message. I got 100 more.

Friday, 12:05 p.m.: “Pres. Trump’s Sec. of State here!” I might have actually bought that Mike Pompeo was texting me from his fave lunch spot, if it weren’t for the survey link and donation request that followed. I replied, firmly, “Stop.” Friday, 1 p.m. until midnight: “It’s JD Vance.” It’s Don Jr.” “Ted Cruz here.” Twenty-seven more text messages took over my inbox, all claiming to be from various Republican candidates and political-action committees. On Saturday, 28 more arrived. On Sunday, another 29. In the game of political texts, “Stop” apparently means “Go! Go! Go!” Perhaps you’ve heard there’s an election next week. Ahead of it, campaigns and political groups are scrambling to get their messages out and gather last-minute donations. Some are using shady tactics to get it done.

For years, I’ve passed on—and abided by—the advice of messaging experts: Text “Stop” to end unwanted messages, as long as they’re not blatantly scammy. Often it works. Last week? Not so much. “Unfortunately, there are unscrupulous texting vendors out there who will perversely use that opt-out message that you sent back,” said Thomas Peters, chief executive of RumbleUp, a political texting platform. “They use that as a data point, that ‘Oh, we found a live number!’” Even though my flood of messages came from right-leaning groups, others I’ve talked to have had similar barrages from the left. Look at that—a nonpartisan issue we can all agree on: Relentless political texts need to stop. Since the text-pocalypse hit my iPhone, I’ve been digging into what happened, and how to filter out the SMS spam. Here’s what I suggest in these final days of election-related text spam.

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The stock market’s surprising bet on who will win the presidency

Wall Street executives, political gamblers and cryptocurrency traders are piling up their bets that former President Donald Trump is returning to the White House. But the stock market may be telling a different story. U.S. stocks have been on a tear, with the bellwether S&P 500 index climbing more than 10 percent since August. While the stock market is not necessarily representative of the broader economy, the S&P 500’s performance in the run-up to Election Day has historically been a strong indicator of whether the incumbent party’s candidate will retain control of the White House — correctly forecasting all but four presidential races over the last 96 years. If the index is falling, the theory goes, investors are bracing for more uncertainty from a new administration. But a climb in the S&P 500 signals that the market is expecting the current president’s party to win. And the index’s recent rise is suggesting that Vice President Kamala Harris, who took over the Democratic ticket from President Joe Biden this summer, could be bound for victory.

“The market’s making a call for Harris to win,” said Adam Turnquist, chief technical strategist at the financial services company LPL Financial, which has compiled data on elections and stock prices. “When there’s more certainty about the incumbent party winning the White House, we know for the most part the policies they’ve [installed]. There’s just a level of comfort that the market has with that certainty.” Voters are clamoring for any hints of clarity about the neck-and-neck presidential race. That’s led to a surge of attention not only on public opinion polls but also on election-betting markets — which are leaning toward Trump — and just about any other indicator of who will prevail, from the “Redskins Rule” and the World Series to the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500. “People are just naturally going to feel anxiety,” said Justin Grimmer, a public policy professor at Stanford University. “All of these things, I think, are ways for people to try to relieve this anxiety they have about this election.”

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GOP: Anything short of 52-seat Senate majority would be a ‘failure’

Republicans believe that they are in prime shape to win at least 52 seats in the Senate with only days to go until Election Day. The GOP has long been favored to win back the upper chamber, but the size of its majority has been in question as the party’s candidates trailed against Democratic incumbents in a number of key swing states. Several of those races have narrowed, however, buoying Republicans’ hopes in the process. Nearly a dozen GOP senators, Senate aides and operatives with experience on Senate races predicted to The Hill that the party will hit the 52-seat mark. Most said the party brass will be left shaking their heads if they fall short of that goal. “At this point, we have to have 52,” one GOP operative involved in Senate races said, arguing that it is necessary especially after Republicans outspent Democrats in Ohio — considered their best pickup opportunity after West Virginia and Montana — by more than $20 million this cycle.

“If we can’t win a race with that level of outspending in a state Trump’s going to win between 8 to 10 points, that’s a failure,” the operative said. Republicans hold 49 seats in the Senate and are certain to pick up West Virginia, where Sen. Joe Manchin (I) is retiring. They’ve also oozed confidence for months about picking up a 51st seat in Montana, where Republican Tim Sheehy has held a consistent lead over Sen. Jon Tester (D) in the reddest state on the battlefield. According to a recent survey by The Hill/Emerson College, Sheehy holds a 4-point advantage over the incumbent Democrat, with other polls showing that his lead is nearly double that figure. Party operatives have also grown increasingly optimistic about the state of play in Ohio. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) is locked in a close race with Republican Bernie Moreno, but Moreno appears to have the momentum as Brown’s lead has been sliced to a single point.

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The next president inherits a remarkable economy

Whoever wins the White House next week will take office with no shortage of challenges, but at least one huge asset: an economy that is putting its peers to shame. With another solid performance in the third quarter, the U.S. has grown 2.7% over the past year. It is outrunning every other major developed economy, not to mention its own historical growth rate. More impressive than the rate of growth is its quality. This growth didn’t come solely from using up finite supplies of labor and other resources, which could fuel inflation. Instead, it came from making people and businesses more productive. This combination, if sustained, will be a wind at the back of the next president. Three of the past four newcomers to the White House took office in or around a recession (the exception was Donald Trump, in 2017), which consumed much of their first-term agenda. The next president should be free of that burden.

Meanwhile, higher productivity growth should make the economy a bit less prone to inflation, more capable of sustaining budget deficits, and more likely to deliver strong wages. All would be a boon to President Trump or President Kamala Harris. To describe this economy as remarkable would strike most Americans as confusing, if not insulting. In the latest WSJ poll, 62% of respondents rated the economy as “not so good” or “poor,” which explains the lack of any political dividend for President Biden. There are many reasons for the disconnect, most important the high inflation of 2021-23, whose effects still linger. When you’re unhappy at home, you can gain some perspective by checking in on your neighbors. The whole world has been through the wringer since 2020; any country’s performance alone is less revealing than how it compares with its peers. Most leaders from around the world would trade their economies for the U.S.’s in a heartbeat. Through the second quarter, the U.S. grew 3%; none of the world’s next six largest advanced economies grew more than 1%. Even China is struggling.

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Lead Stories

Workers say they were tricked and threatened as part of Elon Musk’s get-out-the-vote effort

“I was in shock and disbelief,” says a paid door knocker flown to Michigan to help turn out the vote for former president Donald Trump on behalf of Elon Musk’s America PAC. In Michigan, canvassers and paid door knockers for the former president, contracted by a firm associated with America PAC, have been subjected to poor working conditions: A number of them have been driven around in the back of a seatless U-Haul van, according to video obtained by WIRED, and threatened that their lodging at a local motel wouldn’t be paid for if they didn’t meet canvassing quotas. One door knocker alleges that they didn’t even know they were signing up for anything having to do with Musk or Trump. A representative for Musk and America PAC did not return a request for comment. The contract these door knockers signed with Blitz Canvassing, which is a subcontractor of Musk’s America PAC, says they are “expected to maintain a 17-22% engagement rate during the campaign,” which is a high target relative to the number of people who typically open their door for a stranger. A group of out-of-state America PAC canvassers were told during a recent team meeting that if they didn’t hit their targets, which the door knocker says were more than 1,000 a week on total doors knocked, the organization would stop paying for their motel rooms.

“What’s gonna happen is, they’re gonna stop paying for these rooms,” a manager told the door knockers in an audio recording obtained by WIRED. “And then you’re gonna end up having to pay for it yourself. You can’t do that with no money.” The door knocker also alleges that they were told that they will have to pay for their own flight home. Blitz Canvassing, which had received more than $9 million from America PAC for presidential campaign canvassing as of October 29, did not immediately reply to a request for comment. One of the canvassers, who was flown in from outside the Midwest, tells WIRED they had no idea they would be knocking on doors in support of Trump or that the subcontractor they were working for was part of Elon Musk’s voter-turnout operation through America PAC. “I knew nothing of the job, or much of the job description, other than going door to door and asking the voters who are they voting for,” says a door knocker who was one of the people in the back of the van and who is requesting anonymity because they signed a nondisclosure agreement. “Then, after I signed over an NDA, is when I found out we are for Republicans and with Trump.” The door knocker adds that they had “overheard my supervisor and a few others mention Elon Musk” by name, marking the first time they had heard of the billionaire X owner’s involvement.

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A Texas Supreme Court judge is being outspent by his Democratic challenger ahead of Election Day

Texas Supreme Court Justice John Devine is being outraised and outspent by his Democratic challenger as Democrats see an opening to break through on the all-Republican high court after the court’s rulings that upheld the state’s near-total abortion ban. Devine is the only Republican high court judge being both outraised and outspent in this election cycle. Democrat Christine Weems, a Harris County judge and a civil and personal injury trial attorney, raised about $33,000 more than Devine between Sept. 27 and Oct. 26, according to the latest campaign finance reports. Weems also outspent Devine, shelling out nearly $185,000 compared to his $33,000.

Weems’ war chest is also in better shape, with $97,000 in the bank compared to Devine’s $31,000. Most of Weems’ fundraising came from national pro-abortion rights PAC Emily's List, consultant John Condos and a number of private attorneys. “Judge Weems’ fundraising is sort of indicative of the change people want to see,” said her campaign manager Eddie Rodriguez. “I do know that there’s been money raised not only across the state but money been raised across the country, so it shows that even people outside of Texas understand how important these races are.” Devine, whose campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment, was first elected to the court in 2012 and has come under scrutiny this year for failing to recuse himself from a major lawsuit against Southern Baptist leader Paul Pressler over alleged sexual abuse. Devine worked with Pressler at the time of the alleged conduct. Pressler was never charged criminally, and the case was privately settled last year.

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Private job creation totaled a stunning 233,000 in October, far more than expected, ADP says

Private job creation burst to its highest level in more than a year during October, despite a devastating storm season in the Southeast and major labor disruptions, ADP reported Wednesday. The payrolls processing firm said companies hired 233,000 new workers in the month, better than the upwardly revised 159,000 in September and far ahead of the Dow Jones estimate for 113,000. ADP said it was the best month for job creation since July 2023. “Even amid hurricane recovery, job growth was strong in October,” ADP’s chief economist, Nela Richardson, said. “As we round out the year, hiring in the U.S. is proving to be robust and broadly resilient.”

The numbers counter expectations for a slowdown in October on the heels of two brutal hurricanes — Helene and Milton — that ravaged the Southeast, with Florida and North Carolina getting slammed in particular. On top of that, labor disruptions with port workers and Boeing were expected to hit payrolls as well, with some economists suggesting that October would be an outlier report that Federal Reserve officials would largely dismiss when meeting next week. However, the ADP report indicates that the labor market has held up. In addition to hiring rising, wages grew 4.6% from a year ago. Moreover, gains were widespread. Leading sectors included education and health services (53,000), trade, transportation and utilities (51,000), construction and leisure and hospitality, which added 37,000 apiece, and professional and business services, which contributed 31,000. Manufacturing was the only sector to report losses, down 19,000 on the month, as the Boeing strike since Sept. 13 has sidelined 33,000 of the company’s workers.

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The Fed’s about to get its preferred measure of inflation. Here’s what it could mean.

The Federal Reserve is about to learn how its preferred measure of inflation fared in September: On Thursday, the Commerce Department releases the latest Personal Consumption Expenditures price index, the last reading the central bank will get before it meets to set interest rates next week. From the same month one year ago, the PCE price index for August increased 2.2%. Prices for goods decreased 0.9% and prices for services increased 3.7%. This could be the week when inflation hits the Fed’s sweet spot of 2%. “You know, we’re getting back to where we should be,” said Alan Detmeister, an economist for UBS who used to work for the Fed. He expects the PCE price index for September to come in around maybe 2.1% or 2%, adding that’s largely due to recent declines in energy prices — specifically, gasoline. But don’t get used to that 2%, he said. “We’re expecting it to bounce back up over the next handful of months.”

That’s because Detmeister doesn’t expect energy prices to keep falling the way they have been, though he believes the overall trajectory of inflation is on track. That’s the good news, said Belinda Román, a professor of economics at St. Mary’s University in San Antonio, Texas. “The maybe not so good news is what’s inside of it.” If you look at the make up of the most recent PCE price index, you can see that in August, prices for services were up nearly 4% over last year. A lot of that is due to housing, where prices have been slow to come down. Also, services tend to require a lot of labor, and after a few years of a tight job market, wages have gone up in many service sectors. Those wages “tend to be sticky and that also contributes to a little bit of inflation,” Román noted.

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State Stories

American Airlines mechanics, fleet workers ratify 27-month contract extension

Over 35,000 maintenance technicians, fleet service and cargo workers at American Airlines ratified a new 27-month contract extension this week. The contract extension will bring immediate pay rate increases ranging from 12% to 15%, according to Transport Workers Union of America, the union representing aircraft maintenance, material logistics specialists and fleet service workers at American. Some 68% of members voted and the contract extension passed with 90% approval, according to the union. “We set goals, and we achieved them,” John Samuelsen, TWU international president said in a release. “When the International and TWU locals work hand-in-hand, we win.” The new contract goes into effect Jan. 1 and includes two additional annual raises of 3% on Jan. 1, 2026, and Jan. 1, 2027.

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Kamala Harris campaign deploys Jasmine Crockett to reach key swing state voters

Looking to fire up North Carolina Democrats who want to help Vice President Kamala Harris win the state, U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett expressed amazement that the presidential race was so close. “What’s so frightening about it is that while we have this amazing talent on our side of the bench, and there are fools on the other side, we are in this race and it’s competitive,” Crockett said at the Guilford County Democrats unity dinner in Greensboro. “Like, what is happening? It’s a tight race.” North Carolina is among seven swing states where Crockett has appeared as a campaign surrogate for Harris since summer.

The Dallas Democrat brings a unique perspective as a Black woman with experience as a civil rights lawyer and grassroots organizer. Crockett’s social media savvy and clapbacks against political rivals have repeatedly made her a viral sensation in her first term in Congress. Crockett has deployed her acid wit and sharp tongue on Harris’ behalf in Georgia, South Carolina and other states that are filled with Black residents and college students who tend to vote Democratic. “She’s a tremendous motivator,” said Jim Gallucci, a Greensboro Democrat and sculptor who heard Crockett speak at the unity dinner. “She’s real and has real experiences, including getting things done on a state level. Now she’s shaking things up in Congress.” Crockett began the campaign season traveling on behalf of Biden but shifted her focus after he dropped from the race in July after a poor debate performance. She’s now a national co-chair for Harris, campaigning in states with demographic profiles that play to her strengths. The switch was smooth, Crockett told The Dallas Morning News before a speech in Charlotte.

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Colin Allred, Ted Cruz make final pitches to Texas voters for U.S. Senate seat

Republican Sen. Ted Cruz and Democratic U.S. Rep. Colin Allred are making their final pitches to Texas voters in a frenzied burst of travel across the state near the end of one of the nation’s most expensive and closely watched Senate races. Cruz, who finds himself in another competitive contest after narrowly winning a second term in 2018, is leaning into conservative pledges for tougher border measures and attacks on policies that support transgender people, including at a bus tour rally outside of San Antonio on Tuesday. Allred, who would become Texas’ first Black senator, spent a day criss-crossing Houston, the state’s biggest city and a crucial Democratic stronghold for the underdog congressman, who needs a big showing from loyal Democrats to unseat the incumbent.

At a rally at Texas Southern University, a historically Black college, the three-term congressman emphasized his support for abortion rights and blamed Cruz for limiting women’s access to reproductive healthcare. Statewide races in Texas have been out of reach for Democrats for decades, but recent signs that the race might be tightening have led some to think 2024 might finally be the year. It’s an ambitious target but one of the few pickup opportunities for Democrats in a year when they are defending twice as many Senate seats as Republicans nationally.A surprise win in Texas would dramatically boost their chances of maintaining their narrow Senate majority. Both candidates combined have raised more than $160 million in the race. Last week, Democrats backing Allred announced a $5 million ad campaign on reproductive freedom for women. At one of his stops in Houston, Allred asked voters to turn the page on divisive politics and look to leaders who can accomplish something. “I don’t spend my time throwing bombs,” he said. “I work hard not because bipartisanship is the end goal, because that’s how you get things done.” Some 250 miles to the west, at a rally in the rural South Texas town of Jourdanton, Cruz cast himself as the reasonable candidate.

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A surge in data center development is feeding demand for electricity. Here's why that's a win for natural gas in Texas.

The Texas natural gas industry could be a major beneficiary of the boom in data center development, which is expected to dramatically increase demand for electricity from already-strained power grids across the country, according to a recent series of reports from the credit rating agency S&P Global Ratings. That need for power is in turn feeding demand for more generation, which is expected to require between 3 billion and 6 billion cubic feet per day of natural gas by 2030, said Michael Grande, midstream and refining managing director at S&P Global Ratings. “A lot of that three bcf at the lower end will be in Texas and the Southeast, because that's where the infrastructure will be able to be built,” Grande said in an interview, citing environmental opposition to new gas infrastructure projects in the Northeast. Data center demand, on top of energy security concerns because of geopolitical conflicts, “should contribute to at least a decade of supply growth” beneficial to midstream energy companies, especially those servicing the Permian Basin, Grande’s team concluded.

The development of data centers, buildings that house computers and other infrastructure necessary for running much of the digital world, is expected to surge with the advancement of artificial intelligence. Indeed, Houston-area electric utility CenterPoint Energy on Monday reported a 700% increase in requests from data centers to connect to its grid from the beginning to the end of summer. Running and cooling data center equipment requires a lot of electricity. In fact, data centers could add as much power demand to the U.S. grids by 2030 as the state of California uses in a year, according to S&P. To meet that demand, approximately 50 gigawatts of new power supply would need to be added, the firm’s analysts wrote. (The power demand record in Texas is 85.5 gigawatts.) Big tech companies have tried to square their AI ambitions with their pledges to reduce climate-warming emissions by touting various deals to power their data centers with clean energy. In the past week, various reports projected the possibility of 3 degrees Celsius of global warming if countries don’t accelerate efforts to limit climate-warming emissions.

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Marathon Oil to lay off more than 500 at Houston office after ConocoPhillips merger

Marathon Oil will lay off more than 500 people as result of its $22.5 billion merger with oil giant ConocoPhillips, the company said in a letter to the Texas Workforce Commission this week. Marathon did not detail how many employees would be affected by the layoff, nor the types of positions that would be cut. However, the energy firm estimated that there would be “more than 500 employees at the company’s facility located at 990 Town and Country Blvd” — the address of Marathon’s headquarters in CityCentre. The layoffs would occur within a year after the merger is finalized in the fourth quarter of 2024, according to the letter. “While these employees will be notified of specific employment end dates within a month of close, many will be retained for transition roles. Transition role scope and duration are currently being finalized and more than 50% of these transition roles are expected to extend beyond six months,” said Jill Ramshaw, senior vice president of human resources, in the letter to the state. Ramshaw said the Town and Country Boulevard office would remain open, despite the layoffs.

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About 1,600 Medicare Advantage patients expected to lose coverage at MD Anderson, officials say

About 1,600 patients covered by Medicare Advantage plans are expected to lose insurance coverage at MD Anderson Cancer Center by the end of this week, officials at the cancer hospital said Wednesday. The patients have been covered by Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas, which previously announced that its Medicare Advantage members would no longer receive "in-network" access to the hospital as of Nov. 1. That means those patients could not receive care at heavily discounted rates. The number of impacted patients has not been previously reported. "Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas made the difficult but necessary decision to remove The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston from our" Medicare Advantage and Medicaid plans, the insurer said in a statement last week.

The decision affects "fewer than five" Medicaid patients, according to an MD Anderson spokesperson. The hospital has arranged to continue treating roughly 600 Medicare patients after the deadline and "is working to determine best options for others," the spokesperson said. The separation will not impact Medicare Advantage plans for retirees and retiree dependents who have health insurance through the University of Texas System and the Texas A&M University System, the hospital previously said. Medicare Advantage plans are offered by private insurance companies and, like original Medicare, cover people over the age of 65 or people with certain disabilities.

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'Reddest county in the state': How Montgomery County powers Republican victories in Texas

Virginia Miller moved to this quiet enclave on the outskirts of Houston in 1978 when there were just around 7,000 people. The town’s only McDonald’s had just opened. Since then, the development, which Miller’s father helped plan, and surrounding Montgomery County have become a suburban behemoth, home to 700,000 and counting. The Woodlands is now the largest master-planned community in Texas, home to residents drawn to work at the corporate campuses of ExxonMobil and Chevron Chemical. “So many people are moving in, more so than ever,” said Miller, a retired accountant and president of the county’s Women Republicans. “It’s just extraordinary.”

Unlike other booming Texas suburbs that have undergone political shifts to the left, Montgomery is still firmly red and a key reason Republicans keep notching statewide wins. It will be critical for U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz on Tuesday as he tries to fend off a spirited challenge from Democratic U.S. Rep. Colin Allred. The county consistently votes more Republican than any other among Texas’ top 15 counties by a long shot, and it provides GOP candidates with a high volume of votes as the state’s growing cities turn blue and rural red areas see population decline. In 2020, Donald Trump won Montgomery County by a margin of 120,000 votes, more than in any other county in the country. In 2018, the county vote made up nearly half of Cruz’s winning margin.

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North Texas doctor sentenced to prison in sweeping $54 million Medicare fraud case

A North Texas doctor was sentenced to 10 years and one month in prison Tuesday for a scheme to defraud Medicare out of millions of dollars, authorities said. Dr. Daniel Canchola, 54, of Flower Mound, accepted bribes and kickbacks for ordering bogus cancer screening tests and medical equipment, the Justice Department said. Canchola, who pleaded guilty in 2022 to conspiracy to commit wire fraud, was also ordered to pay $34 million in restitution. Federal prosecutors say Canchola signed scores of phony doctor’s orders for genetic cancer tests without examining or speaking to patients, who were recruited at health fairs and by telemarketers. Between August 2018 to April 2019, Canchola received about $30 for each order, totaling over $466,000 in kickbacks, federal court documents say. Orders signed by Canchola were then used to submit more than $54 million in fraudulent claims to Medicare.

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State buys South Texas ranch to build its own border wall

A Texas agency has bought a ranch on the border in rural Starr County where the state plans to build more border wall. The Texas General Land Office on Tuesday announced it purchased a 1,400-acre ranch where corn and other crops were being grown and the state will build a 1.5-mile new segment of border wall on the property. The land is near where Texas built its first, 1.7-mile segment of state-funded border wall in 2022 as part of the state’s Operation Lone Star border security initiative. Texas Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham told Border Report on Tuesday that the agency had been trying to acquire the land for a while because of reports that the area is notorious for sexual assaults of migrant women and children by Mexican drug cartel and human trafficking organizations. “This is a high traffic area at the border. A lot of terrible things happening there,” Buckingham said via a Zoom interview from Austin. “Because the landowner was not allowing law enforcement nor the border wall to be built on her property, once the bad guys know this is a free pass zone, then they just start running through. And the stories that I was hearing as we were getting closer and closer to acquiring this property were just heartbreaking. It was story after story of abused women and children.”

The agency bought the land on Oct. 23 with mineral revenue and Buckingham said the purchase was approved by two independent boards. The agency plans to give an easement of the borderland to the Texas Facilities Commission to start border wall construction in December. “It’s been a long fight to get here, to be able to acquire this piece of property to get this wall built,” she said. As of the summer, Texas has built about 34 miles of state-funded border wall at a cost of about $25 million per mile, according to an investigation by the Texas Tribune. Border Report asked the Texas Facilities Commission, which oversees state border wall projects, how much this new section will cost, but the agency declined to comment.

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Billion-dollar company moves headquarters to North Texas from New Jersey

North Texas is getting another new corporate hub — and it’s one that’s helping clients around the world see and hear better with thoughtful designs and technology. Diversified, which specializes in audiovisual and media services, has moved its global headquarters to Plano, according to a statement. The company, which touts $1 billion-plus in annual revenue, formerly housed its main office in New Jersey, a spokesperson said. The new headquarters provides easy access to DFW International Airport and the greater Dallas-Fort Worth area, the company said. The “central location” helps Diversified attract top talent from the region while providing accessibility for clients and partners, including globally. Diversified designs and builds what it calls “experiential environments” at spaces that include media organizations, retailers, sports venues and corporate sites. For example, earlier this year, it announced the build out of a sound system at Oracle Park, home of the San Francisco Giants. It also worked on digital signage for Lululemon and Armani Exchange. Other clients include the National Football League and Microsoft.

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Northeast Texans criticize Marvin Nichols Reservoir plans

Dozens of sign-bearing, jean-sporting northeast Texans packed the meeting hall of a community center outside Pittsburg on Wednesday afternoon. A roughly 30-mile drive north along U.S. 271 — two and a half hours from Fort Worth — sat the subject of their fears and frustrations: tens of thousands of acres of forest, pasture, and wetland some Texas water planners hope to convert into a 66,000-acre reservoir preemptively christened Marvin Nichols. What Metroplex officials tout as a necessary and sensible strategy to plug future holes in the region’s water supply, critics dismiss as a pointless, damaging boondoggle, putting their livelihoods and businesses at risk. The North East Texas Regional Water Planning Group (dubbed Region D) convened the Oct. 30 meeting to afford Dallas-Fort Worth water planners another chance to respond directly to their concerns. A cross section of northeast Texans — county officials, ranch hands, timber cutters — took turns sharing their seemingly unshakable objections.

“I know, that you know, that this is just a land grab. This is more greed than need,” said one landowner living near the site before inviting reservoir proponents to have dinner with his family. “You can send the Texas Rangers, the FBI, and the National Guard, and I will not leave.” North Texas officials first conceived of Marvin Nichols in the late 1960s. Tensions surrounding its future intensified in the 2000s, as Dallas-Fort Worth’s surging population laid bare the long-term inadequacies of its water reserves. The officials tasked with managing the Metroplex’s water insist the reservoir is an economical way to help hydrate the millions expected to relocate to the region in the coming decades. They’re hoping to slot the project into the 2027 State Water Plan — a Legislature-approved guide for Texas water management. “We know conservation isn’t going to get us where we need to go,” Kevin Ward, the chair of the Metroplex’s water planning authority (Region C), told an unsympathetic audience. “We’re going to need water.” Constructing the $7 billion lake would require damming the Sulfur River and flooding more than 100 square miles of land near Cuthand, a ranching community of roughly 300 about 35 miles southeast of Paris. The massive man-made pool, slated for completion by 2050, would submerge portions of Red River, Titus, and Franklin counties. The Texas Legislature in 2007 deemed it a “site of unique value for the construction of a reservoir,” given the area’s ample surface water and the comparatively low estimated costs of sending water to consumers — in municipalities stretching from Henderson County to Wise County.

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Mara Richards Bim: Why is Texas Gov. Greg Abbott violating Article VI of the U.S. Constitution?

(Mara Richards Bim serves as a Clemons Fellow with BNG and as program director at Faith Commons. She is a spiritual director and a recent master of divinity degree graduate from Perkins School of Theology at SMU. She also is an award-winning theater artist and founder of the nationally acclaimed Cry Havoc Theater Company which operated in Dallas from 2014 to 2023.) Article VI of the U.S. Constitution states, in part: “No religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States.” Yet, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is violating this article of the Constitution. Earlier this week, Abbott sent out a text message political ad to supporters. The ad falsely claims Elizabeth Ginsberg failed to pay her taxes seven times — an accusation the Democratic candidate for the Texas House adamantly denies. But what is most shocking is the religious litmus test issued by the ad. Superimposed over the opening image is the phrase “Anti-Christian,” as the voice over says “Elizabeth Ginsberg calls you an extremist if you’re a Christian or if you oppose radical ideology in schools.” Ginsberg was raised Methodist, and her husband and children are Jewish.

None of that should matter because using religious language to validate or invalidate a person running for office is unconstitutional. Also troubling is the not-so-subtle dog whistle Abbott is issuing to Christian nationalists. The image of a candidate whose last name is Jewish superimposed with the phrase “Anti-Christian” is designed to send a message — an antisemitic message. And this disgusting messaging plays on centuries old narratives. What is surprising is that Abbott would send such an attack ad less than three weeks after appearing at an event sponsored by The Jewish Federation of Greater Dallas honoring the victims of the October 7 attack by Hamas on Israel. The ad ends with an endorsement of the incumbent Republican Rep. Morgan Meyer — who is Methodist, making the smear against Ginsberg even more startling. The ad states it is paid for by “Greg Abbott Campaign.” As a Christian, I also find the ad offensive. Christian nationalism is a problem in this country and especially in the state of Texas where I live. In fact, Texas has been identified as the epicenter of Christian nationalism. Christian nationalists like Abbott like to paint opposition to Christian nationalism as some kind of attack against Christianity. It isn’t.

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Beloved 6 News Anchor Kris Radcliffe has passed away

It is with a heavy heart that we announce KCEN 6 News' Evening Anchor Kris Radcliffe died Wednesday. His passing was sudden and his family is asking for privacy. "KCEN and the Central Texas community lost a truly wonderful person," said Rob Dwyer, President and General Manager of KCEN/KAGS. "Kris Radcliffe, husband, father, grandfather and anchor for KCEN and the community will be missed. Kris was a kind and generous person who elevated everyone he was around. It is hard to say goodbye." Kris was with KCEN for the past 22 years, starting in 2002. He first started as a sports anchor and later became the morning anchor for Texas Today for years before transitioning into the evening anchor role, bringing the latest headlines and breaking news during 6 News at 5, 6 and 10.

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National Stories

Supreme Court's conservative justices leave in place Virginia's purge of voter registrations

The Supreme Court’s conservative majority on Wednesday left in place Virginia’s purge of voter registrations that the state says is aimed at stopping people who are not U.S. citizens from voting. One Virginian, whose registration was canceled despite living in the state her entire life, called the purge “a very bad October surprise.” The high court, over the dissents of the three liberal justices, granted an emergency appeal from Virginia’s Republican administration led by Gov. Glenn Youngkin. The court provided no rationale for its action, which is typical in emergency appeals. The justices acted on Virginia’s appeal after a federal judge found that the state illegally purged more than 1,600 voter registrations in the past two months. A federal appeals court had previously allowed the judge’s order to remain in effect. The specter of immigrants voting illegally has been a main part of the political messaging this year from former President Donald Trump and other Republicans, even though such voting is rare in American elections.

Trump had criticized the earlier ruling, calling it “a totally unacceptable travesty” on social media. “Only U.S. Citizens should be allowed to vote,” Trump wrote. Youngkin said voters who believe they were improperly removed from the rolls can still vote in the election because Virginia has same-day registration. “And so there is the ultimate, ultimate safeguard in Virginia, no one is being precluded from voting, and therefore, I encourage every single citizen go vote,” Youngkin told reporters. That option was noted also by the campaign of Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee for the White House. “Every eligible voter has a right to cast their ballot and have their vote counted, and this ruling does not change that,” campaign spokesman Charles Lutvak said in a statement. “Our campaign is going to make sure every eligible voter is able to vote. Voting by noncitizens remains illegal under federal law.” Rina Shaw, 22, of Chesterfield, Virginia, said she was born in Virginia, has lived in the state her whole life and has never left the U.S. Shaw thinks she may have forgotten to check a citizenship box on a form when she was updating her voter registration at the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles while getting her learner’s permit.

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Is US high-speed rail finally on a roll?

In just four years, trains traveling nearly 200 mph could whoosh passengers between the entertainment capital of Las Vegas and the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. “When that starts to happen, people all across the country will say, ‘Why can’t we have this closer to where I live?’” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg in an interview. High-speed rail projects are under construction in California and Nevada and in the planning stages in the Pacific Northwest, the Southeast and Texas. Government officials, industry leaders, labor representatives and rail advocates this summer and fall described the growing momentum in the U.S. for true high-speed trains like those in Europe, Japan and China. Cities are increasingly looking to technology and data to address real-world issues from traffic safety to law enforcement. But the history of U.S. high-speed rail is one of starts and stops instead of smooth, fast journeys. When Japan launched the world’s first bullet train in 1964, some in President Lyndon Johnson’s administration called for the launch of similar service between Boston and Washington, D.C. Sixty years later, that corridor is still waiting.

The 1965 High-Speed Ground Transportation Act authorized high-speed rail research and development, primarily focused on the Northeast Corridor. The outcome was the development of electrically powered, self-propelled Metroliners for the Washington-New York City portion of the corridor, which is electrified, and trains with gas-turbine engines, dubbed TurboTrains, for the New York City-Boston portion, which was not completely electrified at that time. Both went into service in 1969. Despite being capable of running up to 160 mph, the Metroliners were limited to 120 mph by track conditions and electrical issues. Even so, the trains cut travel time between D.C. and New York City by almost an hour. Both the TurboTrains and Metroliners were unreliable, but by 1971 an Amtrak survey found that half of Metroliner passengers had switched from other transportation modes. In 1992, the Federal Railroad Administration designated five corridors as ripe for fast trains, including a line linking Chicago with other cities in the Midwest and one connecting Miami with Orlando and Tampa, Florida. The agency added more prospective high-speed rail corridors in the late 1990s and early 2000s. In 2009, the Obama administration made federal funding available for intercity rail projects, with priority given to high-speed rail. Republican governors in three states — Florida, Ohio and Wisconsin — rejected the money. In 2011, when Republicans held the majority in the House of Representatives, they eliminated funding for high-speed intercity rail.

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Judge accelerates, relocates hearing on suit over Elon Musk’s $1 million-a-day giveaway

A Philadelphia judge moved up and relocated a court hearing on Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner’s lawsuit aimed at halting Elon Musk’s $1 million-a-day giveaway to swing-state voters. The moves followed complaints by Krasner that he’s receiving threats and antisemitic messages in connection with the case. Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas Judge Angelo Foglietta said he will now hold the hearing Thursday instead of Friday, and he set it for a courtroom in City Hall, which Krasner said has better security than the courthouse where it was originally scheduled. Krasner sued Musk on Monday, contending that the tech mogul and prominent backer of Donald Trump is violating Pennsylvania’s strict laws on lotteries by offering $1 million daily prizes for voters who sign a petition supporting the First Amendment and Second Amendment.

On the social media platform X, which Musk owns, Musk amplified a post claiming that Krasner knows the suit is meritless and wants a “leftist judge” to shut down the contest. The message resulted in “an avalanche of posts from Musk’s followers,” Krasner wrote in a court filing Wednesday. Many of the posts were antisemitic and one account repeatedly included Krasner’s home address, encouraging others to visit. “Mask up and leave all cellphones at home,” said the messages, which the DA described as “unquestionably … criminal.” The Justice Department warned Musk’s political action committee last week that the payments to voters might violate federal law. A lawyer for America PAC did not respond to several requests for comment.

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Harris breaks with Biden over 'garbage' comment about Trump's supporters after reluctance to distance herself

Vice President Kamala Harris disagreed with President Joe Biden's comments when he appeared to refer to former President Donald Trump's supporters as “garbage," saying that while the president clarified his remarks, she does not agree with criticisms of voters based on whom they're supporting. “First of all he clarified his comments, but let me be clear: I strongly disagree with any criticism of people based on who they vote for," she told reporters at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland. Harris pointed to her speech on the Ellipse on Tuesday evening in which she pledged to be a president for all Americans as she courted undecided voters. "I've been very clear with the American public: I respect the challenges that people face," she said. “I am serious, what I mean when elected president, I will represent all Americans, including folks who don't vote for me, and address their needs and their desires.”

Biden had addressed offensive comments comedian Tony Hinchcliffe made at Trump’s rally on Sunday, where he called Puerto Rico a “floating island of garbage." Biden, during a virtual event Tuesday with Voto Latino, criticized those comments and went on to say: “The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporter’s – his – his demonization of Latinos is unconscionable and it’s un-American,” according to a transcript released by the White House. The president and the White House quickly clarified that the Biden was talking about Hinchcliffe specifically. When speaking with reporters Wednesday, Harris said that she spoke with Biden after her speech Tuesday but that the two did not talk about his "garbage" comment. After Biden's remark, Trump, at a rally in Allentown, Pennsylvania, called the president's remarks “terrible," likening them to Hillary Clinton's comments calling half of his supporters "deplorables" during the 2016 presidential campaign, which he later won. Harris has come under fire for being reluctant to lay out how she will be different from Biden's presidency. During an interview with Fox News' Bret Baier earlier this month, Harris was pressed to lay out how her presidency would be different from Biden's.

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Trump allies draw up plans targeting legal immigration

On the campaign trail, Donald Trump routinely promises he will end illegal immigration. Behind the scenes, his closest advisers and allies are also drawing up plans that would restrict many forms of legal immigration, some of which could affect the ability of businesses to hire foreign workers. Outside advisers including Stephen Miller, the architect of Trump’s immigration agenda when he was in the White House, and such groups as the America First Policy Institute have been preparing executive orders, regulations and memos for a future homeland security secretary to sign that would narrow legal ways to migrate. That is according to interviews with a dozen former Trump administration officials, a review of public plans published by the campaign, and outside groups aligned with the campaign.

While public attention centers on the hot-button topic of illegal migration, how Trump and his opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, approach lesser-known legal-immigration issues could have a broad impact, from Americans looking to bring foreign family members into the country to businesses that rely on visas to fill jobs ranging from software engineering to seasonal positions at theme parks. The plans feature a return of some controversial policies from Trump’s first term. Included are a ban on travel to the U.S. from several Muslim-majority countries, a halt on refugee resettlement from overseas, and the public charge rule, a policy seeking to block immigrants who are low-income, disabled or speak limited English, so those people wouldn’t eventually use public benefits. Last time around, Trump’s team struggled to fully implement most of its immigration policies because they weren’t issued properly, allowing them to be toppled by lawsuits from Democratic states and immigration-advocacy groups. “They are explicitly more prepared this time around,” said Kristie De Peña, senior vice president for policy at the Niskanen Center, a think tank in Washington with libertarian roots that supports immigration. De Peña is one of several analysts tracking the emerging plans by parsing policy papers, social-media posts and public statements.

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Copyright November 07, 2024, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved