As our ongoing series of live debates continues, we present a discussion between the Democratic candidates for Texas Attorney General: Dallas State Senator Nathan Johnson and former Galveston Mayor Joe Jaworski (attorney Tony Box is also running, but declined to participate in this debate). Thanks to the Richardson Area Democrats for organizing and allowing us to participate! Learn more about RAD at https://rad.vote/ . Thanks for listening! Learn more about Progress Texas and how you can support...
Jan 25, 2026•1 hr 20 min
U.S. Senate hopefuls and longtime colleagues Jasmine Crockett and James Talarico met in debate for the first time this afternoon as part of the Texas AFL/CIO's COPE Convention in Georgetown. This pod presents the full debate, largely unedited. Our thanks to our friends at Texas AFL/CIO for the access today! Learn more about them at https://texasaflcio.org/ . Thanks for listening! Learn more about Progress Texas and how you can support our ongoing work at https://progresstexas.org/ ....
Jan 24, 2026•1 hr 1 min
As the state heads into another winter storm - ready or not - the crew convenes to discuss our state's tendency to panic when the weather gets bad (who can blame us?), this week's latest ugliness perpetrated by ICE and the multiple connections to Texas, Ken Paxton's freewheeling use of AI deepfakes in attacking John Cornyn, and more. Joining us is Houston businessman and Democratic candidate for Texas Comptroller, Michael Lange. Learn more about Michael Lange and his campaign at https://texansfo...
Jan 24, 2026•43 min
Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: The winter storm the state's been preparing for for days has begun affecting the Panhandle region and will drop most of the state below freezing amidst strong rain and snow chances through this weekend, ending on Tuesday: https://www.keranews.org/texas-news/2026-01-23/an-arctic-storm-is-expected-to-blanket-the-state-heres-what-texans-can-expect ...Carbon monoxide poisoning was a leading cause of death during Winter Storm Uri in 2021 - it's ...
Jan 23, 2026•12 min
Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: Much of Texas continues preparing for the arrival of a major winter storm: https://www.texastribune.org/2026/01/21/texas-winter-storm-watch-prepare-ercot-grid/ ...Senator Ted Cruz says he'll be back from sunny Laguna Beach before the weather hits, but his air travel schedule continues to betray his lack of concern for what Texans think of him: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2026/01/21/ted-cruz-flight-california-texas-storm/882...
Jan 22, 2026•10 min
Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: A potentially historic ice storm is headed for Texas this weekend: https://www.wfaa.com/article/news/local/ercot-winter-weather-advisory-texas-power-grid-updates-dfw-forecast-dallas/287-aec36113-1b6d-4076-a77e-c1d82ba9fdbc ...There are key steps that all Texans in the path of the storm should take to prepare right now: https://thekatynews.com/2026/01/20/texas-ice-storm-prep-guide-noaa-national-weather-service/ Grapevine-Colleyville ISD has ...
Jan 21, 2026•10 min
Texas is unique in that it is one of only two states in the U.S. (the other is Oklahoma) that operates a bifurcated high court system - instead of having one single state supreme court that handles everything, Texas splits its highest judicial authority between two specialized courts: the Supreme Court of Texas and the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. All of the seats on these courts are elected statewide, and just like every other statewide post, they've all been held by Republicans since the l...
Jan 21, 2026•39 min
Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: A third death in the last two months at the Camp East Montana ICE detention facility at El Paso has lawmakers from multiple states demanding answers: https://www.commondreams.org/news/ice-detention-center-deaths ...A summary of ICE activity in Texas so far, and a reminder of your rights if confronted by them: https://www.texastribune.org/2026/01/19/texas-immigration-ice-arrests-raids-police/ Ken Paxton thought it would be funny to issue a l...
Jan 20, 2026•9 min
There has been intense statewide focus on Tarrant County for weeks lately, and for good reason - the promising performance of Democrat Taylor Rehmet in the special election to fill the SD-9 State Senate seat, held for three decades by Republicans, has become a beacon of hope that this bellwether region of Texas is ripe to flip blue. Tarrant County Commissioner Alisa Simmons has been in the middle of the fight against the MAGA ravaging of the Fort Worth area for years, and is currently running to...
Jan 19, 2026•30 min
Our weekly meeting of the minds sees the PT debut of Tarrant County political strategist Gabe Rivas, who is currently running for the Precinct 2 seat on the Tarrant County Commissioner's Court - a post he's assisted the beloved Alisa Simmons with for some time. Loads to discuss as always, so strap in people. Learn more about Gabe and his campaign at https://www.gaberivasfortarrant.com/ . Thanks for listening! Learn more about Progress Texas and how you can support our ongoing work at https://pro...
Jan 17, 2026•35 min
Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: Polling released this week shows an uphill battle for likely Democratic nominee and State Rep. Gina Hinojosa against Governor Greg Abbott in November, with a gap of about 8 points: https://www.newsweek.com/gina-hinojosa-chances-beating-greg-abbott-flip-texas-gop-poll-11366360 ...Abbott is sitting on a massive war chest of $106 million: https://www.texastribune.org/2026/01/15/texas-governors-race-greg-abbott-gina-hinojosa-2026-election/ ...T...
Jan 16, 2026•11 min
Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: The Texas House Democratic Committee reports a record $2.2 million fundraising windfall in 2025, fueled largely by the summer Democratic House quorum break: https://www.texastribune.org/2026/01/15/texas-house-democratic-caucus-2-2-million-fundraising/ New Emerson College polling shows a nine point lead for Austin State Rep. James Talarico over Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett in the Democratic race for Senate, while incumbent Senator John Cor...
Jan 15, 2026•9 min
The recent Trump move against Venezuela, even at this early stage, is already a model for disastrous geopolitical planning. Did we really need to disrupt a neighboring country by plucking away its leader, in order to seize oilfields full of substandard oil and in a complete state of infrastructure decay - at a moment when there's a glut of supply? While that baseline answer might seem clear, the situation is a complete mess, and Texas stands to be right in the middle of it. Joining us to try and...
Jan 14, 2026•31 min
Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: The Tarrant County Democratic Party, following Republican administrative challenges against 7 of its judicial candidates by the Tarrant GOP, has responded by challenging 43 Republican candidates: https://fortworthreport.org/2026/01/13/tarrant-democrats-seek-to-remove-all-gop-judicial-2-texas-house-candidates-from-ballot/ ...All of this amounts to a "weaponizing of election integrity": https://www.lonestarleft.com/p/inside-republicans-strate...
Jan 14, 2026•9 min
With the eyes of Texas progressives across the state focused on the March primary and the November midterm general election in November, voters in parts of Fort Worth and Houston may have missed hugely important runoff votes coming up in just days. Both Texas Senate District 9, encompassing the northern portion of Tarrant County, and Congressional District 18 in Houston have runoff elections on January 31st - from our posting date, just 19 days away. Union leader Taylor Rehmet took the popular v...
Jan 13, 2026•19 min
Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: As more and more confrontations between regular citizens and ICE pop up on our screens, it's important to understand your rights - and how ICE is likely to violate them: https://www.star-telegram.com/news/state/texas/article314293265.html ...The difference between the power ICE has over you, and that of local police or sheriff's department officers, is getting a lot harder to define: https://thedailytexan.com/2026/01/12/texas-law-enforceme...
Jan 13, 2026•8 min
Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: Protests spurred by the ICE killing of Renee Good last week continued to grow across the country over the weekend, including in Texas - where one protest Saturday in Austin drew a confrontation with Texas DPS and Austin Police: https://www.kut.org/austin/2026-01-10/ice-austin-tx-immigration-and-customs-enforcement-protests-renee-good ...Polling conducted on the day of the Good killing shows Americans already sharply souring on ICE and its a...
Jan 12, 2026•8 min
Another insane, and incredibly dark first full week of 2026 - let's hope it's not setting a permanent tone. Regardless, we plow forward into this crucial midterm election year together - and we're joined this week to talk it through by CD-33 Democratic candidate Zeeshan Hafeez of Irving. Learn more about Zeeshan and his run for Congress at https://www.zeeshanfortexas.com/ . Thanks for listening! Learn more about Progress Texas and how you can support our ongoing work at https://progresstexas.org...
Jan 09, 2026•38 min
Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: Protests have begun across Texas in reaction to the ICE killing of Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis on Wednesday, including Houston: https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/trending/article/renee-nicole-macklin-good-ice-protests-houston-21283230.php ...And Dallas: https://www.dallasnews.com/news/politics/2026/01/08/emergency-protest-begins-at-dallas-city-hall-after-fatal-minnesota-ice-shooting/ ...And Austin, and neighboring Pfl...
Jan 09, 2026•8 min
We couldn't be more excited about Progress Texas' new effort to partner with great community radio stations across Texas, which has started with the legendary KPFT in Houston carrying our weekly "In Progress" roundtable talk on Sunday mornings at 11. Podcasting Director Chris Mosser was featured on the KPFT program "The Midterms" on Tuesday morning by host and Houston attorney Earnest Wotring, and we present that conversation in this podcast episode. Make a tax-deductible contribution to our rad...
Jan 08, 2026•29 min
Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: The brutal killing of 37-year-old mom Renee Nicole Macklin Good yesterday by a masked ICE agent in Minneapolis is a warning to the entire nation - the Trump machine is now unafraid of openly murdering its opponents: https://apnews.com/article/ice-shooting-minneapolis-minnesota-9aa822670b705c89906f2c699f1d16c5 Early voting in the March primary starts in mere weeks, on February 17 - the time to research your ballot is right now: https://app...
Jan 08, 2026•10 min
One of the big early stories of 2026 is a lawsuit filed against the Texas Education Agency or TEA and its commissioner Mike Morath by the Texas chapter of the American Federation of Teachers, the nation's primary union of public school educators, in response to the attempted purge of teachers who were targeted for their views expressed online about Charlie Kirk and his murder last year. Texas AFT President Zeph Capo joins us to explain the lawsuit and the context behind it - context that goes fa...
Jan 07, 2026•17 min
Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: The Texas chapter of the American Federation of Teachers has filed a lawsuit against the Texas Education Agency and Commissioner Mike Morath over their efforts to smear and fire teachers over comments made on social media about Charlie Kirk: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/06/us/american-federation-teachers-charlie-kirk-lawsuit.html Potentially derailing the mobility of future Texas J.D.'s, the Texas Supreme Court has officially removed ove...
Jan 07, 2026•9 min
Our first Happy Hour of the crucial midterm year features our first conversation with veteran and Dallas attorney Tony Box, whose experience in the military, with the FBI during 9/11, and as a lawyer working both sides of the "vs" makes him an interesting Texan indeed. Tony is the third candidate to join a crowded Democratic Primary for the open Texas Attorney General seat, including former Galveston Mayor Joe Jaworski and Dallas State Senator Nathan Johnson. Learn more about Tony Box at https:/...
Jan 06, 2026•23 min
Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: Dr. Peter Hotez, Texas' top medical hero, recommends that parents ignore nonsensical new childhood vaccine recommendations coming from the Trump administration, and instead rely on the expertise of their kids' doctors: https://www.tpr.org/bioscience-medicine/2026-01-05/texas-expert-says-changes-to-childhood-vaccine-schedule-are-a-grave-mistake Republicans in both Dallas and Hays counties have abandoned plans to hand-count ballots in the upc...
Jan 06, 2026•9 min
Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: The reactions from elected leaders regarding the plucking of Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro from power predictably fall largely on party lines: https://www.chron.com/politics/article/texas-politicians-react-to-venezuela-operation-21274471.php ...Dallas State Rep. Venton Jones got stuck in St. Maarten due to Venezuelan airspace restrictions: https://www.wfaa.com/article/news/politics/national-politics/texas-state-representative-stuck-car...
Jan 05, 2026•8 min
On this very first episode of our weekly roundtable session, we try to get positive for once - this time we go around the horn and talk about the ways in which all of us plan to up our political game in the all-important mid-term election year of 2026! If you've already blown your regular resolution, never fear - there's still time to rise to the political challenges we ALL face in this crucial new year. Thanks for listening! Learn more about Progress Texas and how you can support our ongoing wo...
Jan 02, 2026•28 min
Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: As of New Year's Day on Thursday, SB-8 takes effect, requiring Texas sheriff's offices with jails to enter into immigration enforcement partnership agreements with ICE: https://www.kut.org/politics/2025-12-30/new-texas-laws-2026-taxes-immigration-ai ...Also Thursday, if you rent your home, your rights against your landlord have been eroded by SB-38: https://www.fox7austin.com/news/sb-38-how-new-property-rights-law-changes-game-texas-renters...
Dec 30, 2025•8 min
Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: Chris returns from a Christmas trip to New Orleans hoping to host Mayor-Elect Helena Moreno sometime next year: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/06/us/new-orleans-mayor-helena-moreno.html Last week's SCOTUS call against deploying Texas National Guard troops into Chicago is the right call - considering how Texas would likely react if the tables were turned: https://www.expressnews.com/opinion/editorial/article/texas-troops-illinois-supreme-co...
Dec 29, 2025•7 min
'Twas a year of high highs and low lows for Texas progressive types, and as we roll through the holidays and steel ourselves for what looks like exciting prospects in the midterm year of 2026, we look back on both the Texans that gave us hope - and the Texans who gave us heartburn - in the 2025 rundown of the five best and five worst Texans of the year. Thanks for listening! Learn more about Progress Texas and how you can support our ongoing work at https://progresstexas.org/ ....
Dec 26, 2025•34 min
