Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: A Texas Tribune/Propublica investigation reveals that the Trump administration lied repeatedly about the criminal backgrounds of the 238 Venezuelan migrants they sent to a prison in El Salvador from Texas last March: https://www.texastribune.org/2025/05/30/trump-el-salvador-deportees-criminal-convictions-cecot-venezuela/ ...While pictures of children in zip-tie handcuffs emerge from a San Antonio immigration court: https://www.mysanantonio....
May 30, 2025•9 min
A pattern emerged this May Election season for D/FW, Houston, Austin, and more: voters turned out for progressive candidates and issues, to stomp out bigotry and book bans. For this episode, we’re featuring several candidates from across the state who want to ride that wave through the Runoff Elections, with early voting from May 27 to June 3, and Election Day on June 7: we're joined for this talk by San Antonio City Council Member Dr. Sukh Kaur, runoff candidates Ric Galvan and Kelly Ann Gonzal...
May 30, 2025•56 min
Governor Abbott weighs in on a tragic accidental death at Grapevine Lake, calling for the death penalty against the Venezuelan national alleged to have caused it: https://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local/article/ava-moore-daikerlyn-alejandra-gonzalez-grapevine-20349012.php Elon Musk is apparently out of the Trump cadre, after critizicing the "big beautiful bill" and its certain massive bloating of the national debt: https://www.reuters.com/world/us/elon-musk-leaving-trump-administration-white-hou...
May 29, 2025•9 min
Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: Dallas U.S. Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett promises a counter to Donald Trump should Democrats retake the House in 2026: https://www.latintimes.com/rep-jasmine-crockett-says-dems-will-investigate-trump-if-they-reclaim-house-midterms-well-do-583793 ...Meanwhile, Austin U.S. Congressman Greg Casar is talking about an investigation into connection between Trump's international tariff negotiations and Elon Musk's companies: https://bsky.app/pro...
May 28, 2025•10 min
Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: Austin Rep. James Talarico scored the viral moment of the holiday weekend at the Lege, with a gotcha on Republican Rep. Candy Noble regarding her violation of the Sabbath in order to force the Ten Commandments into Texas classrooms: https://www.thepinknews.com/2025/05/26/ten-commandments-bill-texas-tiktok/ Hemp industry advocates are pleading with Governor Abbott to veto the THC ban bill, which will undercut an $8 billion business in one fe...
May 27, 2025•7 min
Advocacy Manager Reagan Stone reviews two bills that threaten your voting rights: the Texas version of the SAVE Act and the “Use it or lose it” bills! Joined by Vote Riders’ Vicente Martinez to discuss SB 16, Texas’ SAVE Act introduces new, incessant barriers to register to vote—requiring proof of citizenship to register. And from the National Coalition for Voting Rights, Robin Lederer and Dr. Andrea Barreiro discuss the “Use it or lose it bills,” or SB 396/HB 4253—as well as the soon to be publ...
May 23, 2025•50 min
Our weekly decompression session comes in the closing days of the Texas Legislature - when all the bad stuff we've fought against for months tends to happen anyway. Looked for a minute there like we might make a sensible move on cannabis - but noooo. And Sam has an idea that might make us all feel better about Republicans refusing once again to give Texas public schools and teachers what they need to get their jobs done. Thanks for listening! Learn more about Progress Texas and how you can suppo...
May 23, 2025•27 min
Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: As the line against the Trump agenda falls in the U.S. House, do Democrats have an age problem? https://newrepublic.com/post/195617/republicans-pass-tax-bill-democrat-deaths ...Texas Democratic Party Chair Kendall Scudder issues a statement on the Trump tax bill: https://www.texasdemocrats.org/media/breaking-house-republicans-pass-trumps-billionaire-benefitting-bill-that-screws-the-working-class HB 2, after a compromise between the Senate's...
May 23, 2025•11 min
Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: After a contentious all-night fight, Republicans in the U.S. House have passed Donald Trump's "big beautiful bill" - a truly historic fleecing of working-class Americans for the benefit of the rich: https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-house-republicans-set-pre-dawn-votes-get-trump-tax-bill-over-finish-line-2025-05-22/ ...It was made much easier by Governor Greg Abbott's delay in allowing Harris County voters to replace the late Congressman ...
May 22, 2025•10 min
Former Congressman Beto O'Rourke has lately been staging live town hall events in cities and towns across Texas, in both blue and red counties, raising funds and volunteers for his voter activation PAC Powered By People, and - some might theorize - perhaps testing the waters for a run against John Cornyn in 2026. We caught the full audio of Beto's event in Garland on Monday night, which we present here in full. Learn more about Powered By People at https://poweredxpeople.org/ . Thanks for listen...
May 21, 2025•52 min
Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: Latest on the Trump bill Rep. Julie Johnson commented on this morning: https://www.reuters.com/business/us-stock-futures-dip-bond-yields-climb-trumps-tax-bill-standoff-unfolds-2025-05-21/ El Paso is seeing more adult measles infections than those affecting children - due possibly to high vaccination rates in kids, and older Texans who may be more vulnerable than they thought: https://www.texastribune.org/2025/05/21/texas-el-paso-measles/ SB...
May 21, 2025•9 min
We're super proud to be the first to bring you a talk with freshly-announced Democratic candidate for Lieutenant Governor, Austin State Rep. Vikki Goodwin! Dan Patrick, in almost a decade in that very powerful office, has been central to all manner of conservative malfeasance in Texas - thumbing the scales for the wealthy at the expense of the working class, undermining faith in science and our medical community, destroying the reproductive freedom of Texas women, allowing the unfettered prolife...
May 20, 2025•24 min
Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: Donald Trump's fixation on celebrity rejection has drawn his attention to Kamala Harris' October 2024 rally in Houston: https://www.chron.com/culture/article/trump-harris-houston-rally-beyonce-20334757.php John Cornyn's polling numbers are vastly outpaced by challenger Ken Paxton's - leading to GOP fears of a toxic candidate in the general election: https://www.cbsnews.com/texas/news/tensions-grow-new-poll-shows-senator-cornyn-trailing-atto...
May 20, 2025•9 min
Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: President Joe Biden's prostate cancer diagnosis should be seen as a reminder of the importance of continued medical research investment: https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/trending/article/texas-lawmakers-joe-biden-20333919.php HB 49, in the rush to completion at the end of the 89th Legislature, would protect oil companies from legal liability for damage caused by the use of produced water, which they wish to sell to farmer...
May 19, 2025•13 min
Our weekly airing of the grievances is perhaps a little spicy this time because frankly, we're sweating our butts off. Lucky for Texas, renewable energy has carried the load keeping the AC on, but Republicans still hate it. A curious child marriage bill gets a curious House vote, which we'll explain. Ted Cruz wants to give babies a grand (thanks Ted!). And, the nerds of PT are fired up over Andor and the important political lessons it carries for progressive types these days. Have a great weeken...
May 16, 2025•26 min
Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: The deadline for the Texas House to act on bills filed by its own members arrived at midnight last night - bills allowing landlords to more easily evict tenants, and improving conditions for kids in our juvenile justice system, are both DOA for this session: https://www.texastribune.org/2025/05/15/texas-house-deadline-winners-losers/ ...Rep. John Bucy's consistent effort to establish online voter registration also didn't make the deadline, ...
May 16, 2025•11 min
Progress Texas Executive Director Kathleen Thompson took part in a terrific celebration and fundraising event for the Texas Democratic Party hosted by the Funky East Dallas Democrats club - better known as The FEDDs - as they celebrated the rise of one of their founding members, Kendall Scudder, to the position of party chair! Kathleen asked important questions regarding recent progressive wins, how to keep the momentum going, and the plan to lead Texas Democrats out of the wilderness in 2026. L...
May 15, 2025•43 min
Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: The long-languishing HB 2, the promised "historic" public school finance proposal purported to offset concerns about the impact to public schools by private school vouchers, will be heard at the Capitol today after massive cuts by Senate Republicans - the increase to the basic allotment goes from about $500 to a paltry $55: https://www.expressnews.com/politics/article/texas-school-funding-teacher-raise-20327616.php ...Watch for a fiery deba...
May 15, 2025•7 min
Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: The ERCOT dashboard shows that solar power was the primary source for Texas energy throughout the first day of this historic heat wave yesterday: https://www.ercot.com/gridmktinfo/dashboards ...Ironic that at the very same time, Republicans in Austin are doing all they can to undermine future renewable energy development: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/14/us/politics/renewable-energy-republicans.html A great number of bills - some good, ot...
May 14, 2025•10 min
Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: All-time temperature records look likely to fall for both San Antonio and Austin as a dangerous and alarmingly early heat wave arrives: https://www.mysanantonio.com/news/weather/article/dangerous-extreme-heat-texas-20323488.php ...Even those who are bullish about ERCOT's prospects with this heat wave are concerned about the many fossil fuel-powered plants that are offline for "normal" May maintenance: https://www.expressnews.com/business/ar...
May 13, 2025•9 min
Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: This week's mid-May heat wave is expected to shatter daily high temperature records - parts of Texas will be hotter than parts of the Sahara Desert between Tuesday and Thursday: https://www.expressnews.com/san-antonio-weather/forecast/article/heat-wave-south-texas-historic-temperatures-20320730.php ...ERCOT expects to keep up with power demand, which experts credit to expanded solar generation and battery storage capacity: https://www.khou....
May 12, 2025•8 min
We are proud to have been invited to host a terrific panel of Texas-based enviromental activists and advocates during the recent EarthX conference in Dallas! Advocacy Manager Reagan Stone welcomed representatives of Environment Texas, the Sunrise Movement, Public Citizen and the Environmental Defense Fund for a wide-ranging and enlightening discussion. Enjoy! Thanks for listening! Learn more about how you can support Progress Texas and our ongoing work at https://progresstexas.org/ ....
May 11, 2025•53 min
We gather for our weekly roundtable and group gripe - this week, a postgame of our terrific Party For Progress in San Antonio, the hugely important runoff election for Mayor in that city (June 7 Alamo City folks!), great engagement on social media as we celebrate Democratic and progressive municipal election wins in the May elections, and as we celebrate Mother's Day this weekend, how Texas makes being a Mom in the Lone Star State so much harder than it needs to be. Thanks for listening! Learn m...
May 10, 2025•20 min
Thumbnail credit to live-action artist Amitai Plasse: https://www.instagram.com/amirocks73/ Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: SB 37, which would allow politically-appointed regents to direct the content that Texas college professors teach, is progressing through the Lege: https://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/columnists/tomlinson/article/texas-university-censorship-patrick-legislature-20313847.php ...Meanwhile, UT Austin has announced a $100 million spend on a permanent...
May 09, 2025•8 min
Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: "Vote harvesting" - voter assistance practices long in place in many Black and Latino communities, but outlawed by the Texas GOP in 2021 - is the crime several Frio County officials have been charged with committing, resulting in their arrests: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/05/07/texas-ken-paxton-vote-harvesting/ Donald Trump's polling approval on the economy has hit a new all-time low in Texas, at only 40%: https://www.houst...
May 08, 2025•9 min
A terrific time, and far overdue, at our Party For Progress on Tuesday night in San Antonio! We recorded conversations with Mayor Ron Nirenberg, who is in the final weeks of his eight-year, four-term tenure as mayor of San Antonio, as well as the Democrat running to replace him, Gina Ortiz Jones, who is now locked in battle against a Republican challenger who is a longtime ally of Governor Greg Abbott. Learn more about Mayor Ron Nirenberg at https://www.sa.gov/Directory/Departments/Mayor-Council...
May 07, 2025•47 min
Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: Could Texas Republicans be feeling the heat from recent losses in the May municipal elections? A bill amounting to a GOP intellectual takeover of state universities may be scaled back: https://www.texastribune.org/2025/05/06/texas-house-higher-education-diversity-equity-teaching-bill/ ...On the same track, Ken Paxton has dropped his lawsuit against Coppell ISD, which he had accused of teaching "critical race theory": https://www.keranews.or...
May 07, 2025•9 min
Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: Progressives continue savoring wins in the May municipal elections across the state, while one major piece of business remains unfinished - the San Antonio mayoral race: https://www.texastribune.org/2025/05/05/texas-school-board-races/ ...What an interesting moment to visit San Antonio! Hope to see y'all at our Party For Progress tonight: https://act.progresstexas.org/a/sanantonio_mixer...
May 06, 2025•9 min
Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: Democrats and progressive candidates won widespread victories across Texas, seen by some as a backlash against MAGA extremism: https://www.lonestarleft.com/p/magas-very-bad-night-in-texas Tarrant County saw a complete shutout of county GOP and Patriot Mobile-backed candidates: https://www.wfaa.com/article/news/local/tarrant-county/gop-endorsed-candidates-lose-ground-tarrant-county-texas-nonpartisan-elections/287-818039b4-cec6-460c-8259-774a...
May 05, 2025•8 min
Reviving a program that was discontinued under the Obama Administration due to widespread abuse including racial profiling, the Trump administration has begun entering into agreements with local law enforcement agencies that essentially convert their officers into ICE agents, tasked with seeking out and arresting people whom they suspect are undocumented. More and more Texas police and sheriff's departments are signing up to work for ICE - which sidetracks time normally spent keeping their commu...
May 03, 2025•27 min
