Lead Stories

Inside Team Trump’s historic collapse in the 2026 midterm elections

Six days before the election, more than two dozen of President Trump’s top strategists logged onto a private video call. The mood was grim. The discussion began with talk of cyanide. “Do you want the white pill first, or the black pill first?” asked Tony Fabrizio, the president’s chief pollster. Tim Saler, one of the Republican Party’s top data consultants, laid out two scenarios. In the first, the $400 million MAGA Inc. super PAC was reaching the voters that it had wanted and expected to vote. “That’s the optimistic scenario,” he said. The other was a wipeout. “I’m getting my affairs in order,” James Blair, who left the White House to oversee the president’s midterm strategy, said to laughter, according to four people on the call. “I suggest everybody else do the same.” For roughly 30 minutes, the call ran on gallows humor: funeral arrangements, prison food, presidential pardons, even a brief riff on fleeing the country.

“At least Bibi won. He’ll protect us,” Mr. Blair said sarcastically of the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, whose country had voted the day before. (Mr. Netanyahu’s bloc fell short of a majority, and his party soon claimed the election had been stolen.) The scope of the Republican wreckage would become clear a week later. Democrats stormed to a huge House majority and won control of the Senate, a remarkable feat powered by victories in Republican strongholds — Kansas, South Carolina, Texas — that few could have imagined a year ago. This account of the Republican Party’s collapse is based on interviews with more than 70 people — among them lawmakers, political strategists, party leaders, pollsters, White House officials and congressional aides — who were directly involved in the midterm elections, many of whom were granted anonymity to describe private conversations and decisions. The scale of the defeat was far from inevitable. Republicans had record fund-raising, the world’s richest man, a favorable Supreme Court ruling on campaign finance and a demoralized, unpopular opposition. In the Senate, they had a map that required Democrats to compete in states they hadn’t won in decades. And in the House, the Trump team demolished the tradition of redrawing congressional lines only once a decade in order to carve up new districts to help the G.O.P. bolster its narrow majority. What Republicans could not overcome was a president who lost the public’s trust on the economy and so much more. And what they had not counted on was an unpopular war in the Middle East — one that would close the Strait of Hormuz and push gas prices past $4 a gallon — that would rage all the way through the election. And Democrats were ready, this time, to seize on the G.O.P. stumbles.

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Cruz suggests GOP ignored cost of living as top midterm issue: ‘They didn’t understand’

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) on Wednesday gave his take on Republicans‘ upset in the midterm elections, saying the GOP fell short on addressing voters’ concerns about the cost of living. Cruz, who is a possible 2028 presidential candidate, shared a lengthy X post the evening after the elections, which he referred to as an “a** kicking” for Republicans. He noted polls taken prior to the elections that showed the cost of living was overwhelmingly the top concern for voters but acknowledged that the GOP didn’t put enough focus on the topic.

The senator went on to compare economic data from the past to now and said it reflects “very real pain from real Americans.” “Republican politicians seem like they didn’t understand or they didn’t care,” he said. “Food is too high, gas is too high, diesel is too high, insurance is too high, life is too high.” Vice President JD Vance similarly offered his review of the “bluenami” that hit Tuesday night after Democrats took control of Congress and blamed the results on the impacts of the Iran war. Cruz, however, only briefly touched on the unpopular conflict, noting a detail in a memorandum of understanding negotiated by Vance with Iran that included funding for Tehran to rebuild. “Tariffs have made everything too expensive, and the Iran war has dragged on too long,” he said. “It should have been brief, decisive, and over. It needs to end, and we should never, under any circumstances, give the Ayatollah billions of dollars.” While acknowledging what was lost in the midterm elections, Cruz also laid out the road that lies ahead and pointed out how he is now the only statewide elected Republican after Democratic Sen.-elect James Talarico and Gov.-elect Gina Hinojosa secured their nominations.

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GOP’s losses will raise pressure on conservative Supreme Court justices to retire

The GOP’s sweeping losses in the midterm elections Tuesday set up an unsettling possibility for the party: If they don’t act now to confirm a new Supreme Court justice, they may not have another chance for years to come. That prospect is likely to ramp up pressure on the court’s two oldest conservatives — Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., 76, and Clarence Thomas, 78 — to retire during the lame-duck period, while Republicans still have the votes to get a nominee confirmed by the Senate. The new Senate, in which Democrats will hold a majority, is seated on Jan. 3. Alito, who joined the court in 2006, said last month he has no plans to retire during the lame-duck session. Thomas has said in the past he has no plans to step down from the court. He joined the court in 1991 and could become the longest-serving justice in its history in 2028.

But given the magnitude of Democratic inroads in the Senate, legal and political experts said it could be 2033 before Republicans have a realistic shot at winning back enough seats in that chamber to approve a conservative justice. At that point, Alito and Thomas would be well into their 80s. Neither responded to a request for comment. “I think both are making an implicit bet that they will live long enough ... so that a Republican president can replace them with someone ideologically similar,” said Ed Whelan, a conservative attorney and senior fellow at Ethics and Public Policy Center. This is likely to make many Republicans antsy, particularly those mindful of the lesson of liberal Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who died while still on the bench at 87, in September 2020. Ginsburg’s death allowed Republicans to move the court in a more conservative direction when they confirmed Justice Amy Coney Barrett to replace her weeks later. President Donald Trump nominated Barrett to replace Ginsburg, and over the vociferous objections of Democrats, Senate Republicans quickly muscled the nomination through just ahead of the 2020 presidential election.

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Elon Musk’s net worth drops $33.5 billion as Democratic majorities loom

Elon Musk, the world’s wealthiest person, saw his net worth fall by $33.5 billion on Wednesday as investors sold off shares in his companies in anticipation of the incoming Democratic majorities in Congress. Musk, the CEO and largest shareholder of Tesla and SpaceX, saw the total value of his wealth decline by 3.7% in just one day, according to Bloomberg’s billionaires index, which tracks the wealth of the world’s richest people and updates it every evening. Musk spent hundreds of millions of dollars backing Republicans against Democrats in the midterm elections and was one of the architects of the Department of Government Efficiency. The blue wave raises the odds of Democratic investigations into companies seen as close to President Donald Trump.

And Musk’s businesses took a hit on Wednesday after already seeing declines in overnight trading. Tesla fell about 3.3%, while the total value of SpaceX declined by about 3.8% on Wednesday. Democrats could deploy oversight investigations into Musk over his leadership of DOGE or for his decision-making when it comes to satellite communications in war-torn Ukraine. Despite Musk’s decline in net worth and his companies’ losses, the stock market as a whole performed very well on the day after the election. The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished up 1,570 points, or 3%, the best single day since April 2025. Meanwhile, the benchmark S&P 500 closed up nearly 1.6%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite gained 1.44% in value. Oil prices also fell on Wednesday, with Brent crude down more than 8% to just over $95 a barrel.

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State Stories

John Cornyn: Republicans forgot how to win elections

Even before the polls closed on Tuesday, an epic blame game had begun. How did Republicans fumble the success of 2024 into this midterm meltdown? How did we lose so many Senate seats, including in my home state of Texas, a conservative cornerstone for more than three decades and a state Donald Trump carried by 14 points in 2024? Die-hard Never Trumpers will rush to eulogize the MAGA movement. Some populists will shop a stab-in-the-back narrative that blames the traditional conservatives they themselves chased away. But both sides miss the point. This week’s beat-down wasn’t only foreseeable, it was foreseen—because our party forgot four basic rules of coalition politics. First, successful coalitions add, they don’t subtract. In 2024, a unified Republican Party dominated among the white working class, won Hispanic men outright and won the largest share of black voters since the 1970s. Lifelong conservatives and first-time Republican voters all embraced our message of lower prices, border security, cultural sanity and American strength.

This year, losing candidates like Ken Paxton and Mike Collins shrank the tent, obsessing over “RINOs” and political theater. In Texas, statewide candidate Bo French poisoned the well even further with blatant bigotry against Indian-Americans, anathema to the party of Lincoln and Reagan. When nominees show contempt for voters and request a smaller Republican Party, voters oblige them. The second forgotten lesson was even simpler: Be likeable. We are no longer in 2010, when articulate, appealing conservatives like Marco Rubio and Pat Toomey challenged “establishment” candidates over real policy differences. Today, it is fringe challengers who play down voting records and policy in favor of performative politics. A strange reverse personality test has taken root. If a candidate talks like an affable, reasonable person, he must be a sellout. If he makes bizarre comments or has past scandals, that’s considered authenticity. The oddball Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky (who lost his primary this year) once described his base as seeking “the craziest son of a bitch in the race.” This is a losing mindset that Republicans must outgrow. It selects for nominees who can’t win general elections. Third, when you win, do what you promised. In 2020, President Biden won a narrow mandate to restore normalcy, but advisers talked him into open borders, inflationary spending and unrestrained wokeism.

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“MAGA needs to be dead”: Dade Phelan on the Republican wipeout

Former Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan saw it coming—at least in part. Three weeks ago, when he and I sat down for an extended interview about the upcoming election, he told me the mood among Republicans was grim. “People are freaking out,” he said, exaggerating those last two words in his East Texas drawl for maximum effect. “You see it in their faces. There’s serious concern like I’ve never seen before.” Phelan could see the scenario in which a bad night for Republicans turned into a seismic shift in the state. If Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico won his race by six or seven percentage points, he predicted, it would be “a bloodbath downballot. I don’t know how people survive.” Talarico won even bigger than that. As of this morning, with more than 95 percent of the votes counted, the Austin Democrat is leading his Republican opponent, Ken Paxton, by twelve points. And the bloodbath for the GOP is total. Texas’s partisan politics skipped the purple phase all together, flipping from bright red to an unmistakable shade of blue. As the enormity of Democratic gains was becoming clear last night, I called up Phelan to see how he was taking stock of the Republican wreckage he had warned about.

Texas Monthly: I was just looking back at our conversation nearly a month ago, where you predicted that if Talarico won by a big margin, it would be a rout downballot. Dade Phelan: "And that’s where we are." TM: "Honestly, it looks even worse than you predicted." DP: "These are extinction-level numbers. This is a complete extinction-level election. I think the Texas House is gone. Right now, I’m looking at nineteen House seats that are gone. It only takes about fourteen to flip it. [As of this morning, Democrats have a 68–56 advantage, with 26 races yet to be called.] There will be a Democrat Speaker. And the congressional seats that we drew last year [at the urging of President Trump], I mean, all of them and then some are gone too. This is the worst-case scenario for Republicans. I don’t know how you can say it any other way." TM: Have you been talking to a lot of other Republicans tonight? DP: "Oh, yeah. I’ve gone to a couple different watch parties, and it’s about as somber as you can imagine. So it’s about as bad as you can get. Some were anticipating this. They’ve been seeing some numbers internally. They didn’t want to say it, but they knew this was probably coming—and here it is."

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This Democrat won Fort Worth House seat after dropping out. Can she take office?

A Democratic candidate for a Fort Worth area state House seat dipped out of the race less than a month before voting started, amid questions about her eligibility stemming from accusations of a past felony conviction. The candidate — Ericka Lomick — has won anyway. Will she serve in her newly elected seat? Lomick faced Republican Alan Blaylock, a former Fort Worth City Council member, in the Nov. 3 midterm election, and in a special election held on the same day to finish out the term of former state Rep. Nate Schatzline’s term that ends in January. Schatzline did not seek reelection for the seat to become a senior adviser for Texas Gov. Greg Abbott.

The district covers the northeast part of Fort Worth, Haslet, Blue Mound and northeast Saginaw. Lomick won both elections with 51% of the vote, according to unofficial results from the Secretary of State. A news release from Lomick’s campaign announcing the suspension of her campaign cited “questions” raised about her ability to serve in the seat. The press release does not mention specific questions about eligibility, but in mid-September, a political action committee alleged that Lomick has a felony record. Lomick’s name still appeared on the ballot after she suspended her campaign. Federal court records out of North Carolina analyzed by the Star-Telegram in earlier reporting indicate an Ericka Lomick was convicted in 2011 of mortgage fraud, bank fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering as part of a plea deal.

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Election results: D-FW voters reject billions in bonds, tax hikes

North Texas voters rejected billions of dollars in proposed public spending Tuesday, leaving local officials to figure out how to pay for major projects they say are needed. Residents turned down plans for schools, public safety facilities, homelessness services and a new arena for the Dallas Stars. The defeats stretched across cities, counties and school districts, including proposals that officials said wouldn't raise property tax rates. The rejections raise bigger questions about whether voters are opposed to more public spending or simply want better plans for how their tax money is spent.

Matthew Wilson, a political science professor at Southern Methodist University, said affordability concerns and skepticism about government spending likely contributed to the widespread rejections. "When people say everything costs too much, healthcare costs too much, fuel costs too much, housing costs too much, then the last thing they want to do is approve even a modest tax increase that might take a bit more out of their pockets," Wilson said Wednesday. In Plano, voters turned down five venue taxes intended to help finance a proposed $1 billion arena for the Dallas Stars. In Dallas County, a property tax increase that would have generated about $100 million a year for homelessness services also failed. "We don't want to approve funds to help the wealthiest. We don't want to approve funds to help the poorest," Wilson said. Among the other measures defeated Tuesday were Dallas' $443 million public safety bond, Collin County's $817.5 million bond package for roads and other facilities and Collin College's proposed $600 million bond for new campuses and workforce training facilities. School bond packages totaling $952 million in Irving ISD, $828 million in Keller ISD and $500 million in McKinney ISD also fell short, along with a Mesquite ISD property tax proposal meant to fund salaries, student programs and campus safety.

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Yes, Texas Attorney General-elect Nathan Johnson worked on the ‘Dragon Ball Z’ score

One of the common journalists’ greatest gripes is that we possess pieces of lore and factoids that will never be relevant to the general public. So, we live with this useless knowledge, hoping it comes up at trivia nights. Until yesterday, the knowledge that Nathan Johnson, the brand-new Texas Attorney General-elect, composed the English versions of the “Dragon Ball Z” score was purely Dallas Observer happy-hour fodder. But now, we are seizing the opportunity. Last night, Johnson won the race for the position as the state’s top lawyer, beating Sen. Mayes Middleton of the Houston area with 52.4% of the vote to replace outoing Attorney General Ken Paxton. It was a remarkable upset for the Republican Party, which lost control of the Texas House, the governor’s office and a seat in the U.S. Senate, to name a few.

Johnson, who served as a Texas state senator representing parts of Dallas, has remained one of the few local politicians who answers our emails. And so for years, when someone in the office says: “You should call Nathan Johnson; he’ll probably be willing to go on record to talk about this heinous bill that strips Texans of their rights.” Someone else in the office usually chimes in with, “Did you know he made the ‘Dragon Ball Z’ score?” Time and time again, this conversation has happened. Unfortunately, this factoid is seldom relevant to discussing lawmakers attempting to remove sex toys from convenience stores or decriminalizing small marijuana possession, and so it remains on the cutting room floor. But now, with Johnson holding a powerful political office in Texas (he’ll officially be sworn in in January), national publications have already started spreading the news. Johnson primarily plays the piano, but he can also play the ocarina, an ancient wind instrument somewhat similar to the recorder. He learned to play it specifically for the “Dragon Ball Z” score. He also has a bachelor’s degree in physics. Talk about an overachiever.

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Alex Mealer concedes to Leticia Gutierrez in Texas’ 9th Congressional District race

Mealer’s campaign manager confirmed the Republican conceded to Democrat Leticia Gutierrez in the race for the Houston-area seat. Republican Alex Mealer has conceded to Democrat Leticia Gutierrez in the race for Texas’ 9th Congressional District, Mealer’s campaign manager confirmed to KHOU 11. The candidates competed for a seat in the U.S. House representing a district whose boundaries changed substantially following Texas’ 2025 congressional redistricting. The district’s new boundaries cover parts of the Houston area, including Pasadena and the Houston Ship Channel, and extend into Liberty County, according to the University of Houston’s Hobby School of Public Affairs. Before Election Day, Gutierrez’s campaign emphasized affordability and government accountability.

“Texans in the 9th District are fed up with politics as usual and are ready for real accountability,” said Leticia Gutierrez. “Donald Trump, Greg Abbott, and their allies thought they could draw lines to protect themselves, but this community knows when it’s being taken for granted. Working families here are feeling the squeeze every single day, and they are tired of politicians who prioritize extreme partisan agendas over lowering costs and raising wages. Our campaign has built unprecedented momentum because voters want a representative from the community who answers directly to them.”

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Democrats sweep Fort Bend County judge, commissioners races

Unofficial voting totals from Fort Bend County show Democrats won the county judge and commissioner races, marking a significant shift in the county’s local leadership following a contentious election season. The future of the diverse, largely suburban and growing county outside of Houston has become a closely watched political landscape, where demographic change, population growth and shifting voter priorities intersect. The election results mean Fort Bend County Commissioners Court, a five-member governing body that oversees the county's operations, will shift from a Republican-led majority to Democrat after candidates won three of the five seats on Nov. 3. Unofficial results show Democrat Dexter McCoy defeated Republican Daniel Wong in the county judge race with 59% of the vote to Wong’s 40%.

Wong and the county’s two incumbent Republican commissioners, Andy Meyers and Vincent Morales, have held a majority on Commissioners Court, as well as when former county judge KP George switched to the Republican party in 2025 after being elected two-terms as a Democrat. The county’s political and legal turmoil intensified in April, when George was suspended from office and a visiting Galveston County district judge appointed Wong as interim county judge. “This has been a rough journey,” McCoy said. “It has been so dark and it often times didn’t seem like we could see the light. I think people responded to what we have seen as a lack of character, a lack of real care and concern for the hardworking people in our community. And it’s been overwhelming across the state.” The Wong campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Democrat incumbent Grady Prestage won reelection to Precinct 2 commissioner seat, defeating Republican challenger Tony Aranda with 74% of votes to Aranda’s 25% of votes. Precinct 2 covers the southeastern portion of the county including parts of Fresno, Missouri City and Sienna. Prestage was also at McCoy’s event when the early voting results started pouring and said public officials must handle taxpayer funds carefully, avoid arrogance and genuinely listen to the community to maintain their success.

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Gina Hinojosa’s victory could change Austin ISD’s fate. But state law may stand in the way.

Democrat Gina Hinojosa’s stunning defeat of Gov. Greg Abbott has raised hopes that Austin ISD could escape a state takeover. But even with a former district trustee in the governor’s office, Texas law may still force the state to intervene. Hinojosa, who served on the Austin ISD board of trustees between 2012 and late 2015, including as president, has promised to replace Education Commissioner Mike Morath on her first day in office and end state takeovers of public schools. Her victory Tuesday makes her Texas’ first Democratic governor since 1994, putting her in a position to reshape how the state manages struggling school districts. But the change in leadership comes as Austin ISD faces a budget crisis and the threat of state intervention after Burnet and Webb middle schools received their fifth failing accountability ratings. Education policy experts say a new commissioner would still be bound by state law, which requires intervention.

The crucial difference could be what shape that intervention takes and how a new education commissioner might oversee the district’s future, including whether to replace its elected school board or close the two campuses. Public education was central to Hinojosa’s campaign and her victory speech Tuesday. The former Austin ISD trustee, who first ran for office when her son’s school faced closure because of budget constraints, pledged to increase investment in public schools, raise teacher pay and preserve local control. “In case you have not heard, on day one, I will fire Mike Morath, and we will work tirelessly to repair the damage of the Texas vouchers scam and end an era in which our schools are sold for parts,” Hinojosa said at a rally Tuesday. But replacing Morath, whom Abbott appointed in December 2015, would not eliminate the laws governing state intervention. And with Austin ISD facing decisions about the future of Burnet and Webb, the timing of any change in leadership could prove consequential.

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Davis claws back McLennan County seat for Democrats

Jeremy Davis unseated incumbent Republican McLennan County Precinct 2 Commissioner Donis “DL” Wilson on Tuesday to take back local Democrats’ most prized seat. Davis won 51.8% of the vote in a rematch against Wilson, who narrowly won in a three-way race in 2024. Before Wilson’s narrow victory in 2024, the precinct had long been a Democratic stronghold represented by Black leaders Lester Gibson and Patricia Chisolm Miller. Davis campaigned largely on the need for more diverse representation on the all-white, Republican commissioners court. “?To have a seat at the table, to be a part of the decision-making. It was a huge win for us across Precinct 2,” he told KWBU shortly after the results were announced. He celebrated the results at a watch party Tuesday with the McLennan County Democratic Party.

“I think it’s been a long time since we’ve ushered in a new generation of leaders, so I think that motivated a lot of people to get to the polls,” Davis said. Wilson, a former state trooper, was at a private gathering Tuesday evening and could not be reached for comment. The all-Republican Commissioners Court in October 2025 redrew Precinct 2 boundaries in an unusual mid-decade redistricting, resulting in more conservative, rural precincts and fewer minority-dominated urban precincts. The precinct includes parts of East Waco, Lacy Lakeview, West, Bellmead and now most of the rural eastern edge of the county towards Axtell and Elm Mott. That means two of the three known data center projects in McLennan County now fall in the district. That’s something Davis said he plans to tackle. “?I don’t think that they will bring more benefit than harm to our community,” he said. “So I think the first thing I need to do is meet with the developers,” Davis said. “?Like I said in the campaign, we need an effective leader who knows how to negotiate, putting people first, and with the community in mind, and now we have it, so I’m ready to get to work.”

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Lockheed Martin will pay millions to settle discrimination claims related to DEI

Lockheed Martin has been ordered to pay $29.5 million after the company was accused of employment discrimination. In July 2025, Tim Booher, who was a vice president in Lockheed’s Combat Systems division in Fort Worth, filed a federal lawsuit in the Northern District of Texas against Lockheed, alleging discrimination on the basis of race and gender. In October of this year, the U.S. government intervened in that lawsuit, saying Lockheed violated antidiscrimination requirements as a federal contractor. According to the settlement agreement the Maryland-based company entered into with Booher and the government this week, Lockheed in some cases prioritized women and minorities when giving employee raises that were supposed to be merit based.

The settlement agreement quoted a director of diversity and inclusion with Lockheed as saying the company would “identify at least 11 additional PoC” for raises to clear a “race flag.” POC is shorthand for people of color. Lockheed also allegedly used demographics when evaluating performance goals for a management compensation plan and when hiring job candidates, and some of its business units were said to have tracked demographic goals tied to race and gender. Lockheed will pay the U.S. government $22 million. Booher will receive $4.4 million of that, plus attorneys’ fees. According to his LinkedIn page, Booher left Lockheed in 2023 and now serves as an adviser in the Pentagon for the U.S. Department of War. The remaining $7.5 million of the settlement money will be paid to more than 1,000 Lockheed employees who were found to be affected by the alleged discrimination. That portion of the settlement is related to a U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission charge. Under the settlement agreement, Lockheed does not admit to wrongdoing, and the agreement said the company denies the discrimination allegations.

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Texas state board of education could flip after years of GOP control

Texas Democrats swept all statewide races on Tuesday, and one of the last holdouts of Republican control — the State Board of Education — could flip, too. On Wednesday, the makeup of the board that decides what Texas’ 5.5 million public school students must learn appeared evenly split between Democrats and Republicans, with a tie-breaking Houston-area race too close to call. Democrat Dana Van de Walker appeared to be leading incumbent Republican Audrey Young by fewer than 600 votes. Young said she was still waiting on votes trickling in, while noting that the Secretary of State’s website, which was missing returns from more than a dozen precincts, showed her leading by about 3,500 votes. Democrats haven’t had a majority on the board since 1994. With this election, they’re poised to have the most influence on the board in years and the potential to halt conservative rewrites of education standards.

In addition to being on track to flip two seats on the 15-member board, Democratic governor-elect Gina Hinojosa will have the power to nominate the board’s chairperson, who runs the meetings and sets the agenda. And Hinojosa has also vowed to replace the state’s education commissioner, Mike Morath, whose office recommends charter schools and reading lists that the board considers. The board in recent years has tilted to the right, enacting more conservative social studies standards that include passages from the Bible as required reading. Those standards, known as the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills, dictate what publishers include in textbooks. The board also sets graduation requirements. Of the nine races, just three incumbents were on the ballot. Three others chose not to seek reelection, two ran for another office and one lost in the primary. Thomas Ray Garcia, a community college professor and former high school teacher, will take over this Gulf Coast district previously held by Republican L.J. Francis. Francis lost the GOP primary to Victoria Hinojosa, a U.S. Coast Guard veteran and wife of a state senator.

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Rev. Frederick Haynes on election, economy and excitement about congressional win

The Rev. Frederick Douglass Haynes III got a taste of what it would be like to be both a pastor and a politician when he learned on Tuesday (Nov. 3) that he had won a Texas congressional seat while he was working at his predominantly Black megachurch in Dallas. Haynes is aligned with two historically Black denominations — the National Baptist Convention, U.S.A., Inc., the one in which he grew up, and the Progressive National Baptist Convention, where he is cochair of the social justice commission. After being encouraged to run by his 12,000-member Friendship-West Baptist Church congregation, Haynes conducted a race calling for economic relief, including lower healthcare costs for the people he would represent if he made it to Congress.

He also agreed with Senator-elect Abdul El-Sayed of Michigan, declaring, “We’re going to have to get money out of politics so we can get money back in the pockets of the people.” Now, he plans to continue to preach to the 2,000-3,000 parishioners who attend each week — and sometimes three times that many online — while also representing Texas’ 30th congressional district. "I was doing young adult Bible study at the church. It had started at 7 p.m., and it was interesting because my team was telling me they’re going to call your race early, so you need to be available. And my phone rings, and there’s a notification that Vice President Harris is trying to reach me to congratulate me. It’s like 10 minutes into Bible study, and my daughter (Abeni Jewel Haynes) is the leader of the ministry. And then I started getting all these congratulatory messages, and so yeah, I was at Bible study, and it was very funny: The young adults stopped Bible study and said, we have Congressman-elect Haynes as our pastor. So it was a very moving moment I felt good about because I was doing my work as a pastor, which is not going to stop just because of this second job," he said of where he was.

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Denton, Collin counties pick up Democratic commissioner court seats

Democrat Candace Valenzuela unseated Republican incumbent Kevin Falconer for the Denton County Commissioners, Precinct 2 seat, according to unofficial results from Denton County. Valenzuela recorded 46,289 votes, or 52.58%, while Falconer earned 41,753 votes, or 47.42%, after all 252 Denton County precincts reported. All results are unofficial until canvassed.

Democratic candidate Julie Holmer has secured a seat as Collin County Commissioner, Precinct 4, according to unofficial results from Collin County. 56,177 of voters, or 53.3%, voted for Holmer. 49,198 of voters, or 46.7%, voted for her Republican opponent, Shelby Williams. Holmer will take the place of current Precinct 4 Commissioner Duncan Webb, who has served in the position since 2011. The Collin County Commissioner Precinct 4 position represents Plano, Allen and some of Carrollton and Dallas.

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Texas used to be ‘the best place’ to build data centers — but not anymore

When BaRupOn LLC, a California-based developer, bought land in East Texas for a 700-acre industrial campus in 2023, the company received a warm welcome from the state. The developer set out to build numerous data centers and rare-earth manufacturing facilities at the site, as well as its own power plants. At first, Gov. Greg Abbott’s office worked closely with BaRupOn, said Balaji Tammabattula, the chief operating officer. The governor’s office staff would recommend site locations for future projects and which county officials they should get in touch with, Tammabattula said. Developers were encouraged to seek out incentives and tax breaks. The governor’s office, which was just a phone call away, even gave the planned industrial campus, in Liberty, Texas, the codename of “Project Tough,” Tammabattula said. “Texas used to be the best place,” he said. “Fast forward to 2026, it’s impossible to have [the governor’s office] respond to our emails.”

The climate around data centers has soured so severely that new developments in Texas are essentially on pause until after November’s elections. The land, energy and water usage of the large warehouses filled with server racks have elicited strong protest across the country—even becoming a bipartisan issue among midterm election candidates, including in Texas. Abbott has gone against his typical business-first approach and led some companies to rethink their major data center investments in Texas, analysts and developers said. Those seeking to keep their spot in the lengthy line for grid power are laboring to not only secure state permits but social permission from communities across the state. The data center industry flocked to invest billions of dollars in the state to quickly construct the physical infrastructure required for tech companies to develop the most mature artificial intelligence and other advanced technologies. The developers, many of whom were new to the industry, saw a state not only open to doing business but a grid committed to connecting projects to power faster than anywhere else. Texas became the epicenter of A.I. development as Abbott willed last year. But that tune changed fast. The state has long been seen as the best place for business development in the country, with its previously unfussy regulatory environment.

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National Stories

Scott Colom projects victory in razor-thin Mississippi Senate race as uncounted ballots linger

Democratic challenger Scott Colom declared confidence Wednesday morning in Mississippi’s uncalled U.S. Senate race, telling supporters he believes outstanding ballots will carry him to victory over incumbent Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith. As of 3 a.m. Wednesday, Colom held a razor-thin lead of just 43 votes out of more than 925,000 cast — leading Hyde-Smith 462,821 to 462,778 with an estimated 95.6% of ballots tabulated. Independent candidate Ty Pinkins garnered 19,935 votes. Because federal general elections in Mississippi do not trigger a runoff, the candidate who finishes with a plurality will claim the seat.

“Where we are, where the ballots are, we’re gonna win,” Colom said as he addressed supporters at a 10 a.m. news conference. “This is our election. We’ve won it. The people have done it. They’ve decided to go in a new direction. I’m confident of that.” The outcome now hinges on uncounted ballots. According to reporting from Mississippi Today, the Colom campaign estimates between 10,000 and 15,000 affidavit ballots remain outstanding statewide. When asked about the microscopic margin, Colom emphasized that his campaign has spent months preparing for the post-election count. “We have an army of lawyers. We have local lawyers; we have everybody involved to make sure the process goes according to the law,” Colom said, adding that his primary concern is the integrity of the count rather than speed. Asked about Hyde-Smith’s earlier declaration of victory Tuesday night, Colom offered a brief response: “Bless her heart.”

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Trump asking advisers if Hegseth should stay after midterm losses, sources say

President Trump has been asking advisers around him and on the phone whether Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth should stay in his job, following Republicans' catastrophic losses Tuesday night, multiple sources familiar with the matter tell CBS News. Some White House aides have predicted some of the blame for GOP midterm losses will be trained on Adm. Brad Cooper, the head of U.S. Central Command, and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine, who both played big roles in guidance on the Iran war. Still, other sources said the president hasn't decided to replace Hegseth. Before the election, Democrats were already trying to impeach Hegseth, and the likelihood of an impeachment effort could increase with Democrats holding strong majorities in both chambers.

Vice President JD Vance is blaming the war for the GOP defeat. "The reason we lost is the war," he said in a lengthy post on X Wednesday morning. One source told CBS News that GOP Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is being floated as a possible replacement for Hegseth, arguing DeSantis could go through Senate confirmation in the lame-duck period and then take the post when his term as governor expires Jan. 5. Mr. Trump was asked Wednesday afternoon whether he was considering replacing Hegseth, and he told reporters, "No, I think he's doing a very good job." The president was also asked if he'd like to see Hegseth appointed to fill the seat that will be vacated by Tennessee Sen. Marsha Blackburn when she takes office as governor. "I actually think he'd be very popular if he did that," Mr. Trump said, "but I haven't heard that at all." Asked for comment about reports that Hegseth's future as defense secretary was in question, White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly said in a statement that the president "has full confidence in Secretary Hegseth." In the statement, Kelly also praised the military operations in Iran and Venezuela and Hegseth's efforts to reverse the Biden Pentagon's prioritizing of "DEI and woke ideology."

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Which Senate, governors races are still uncalled by The Associated Press

Just a handful of races for Senate and governor have not yet been called by The Associated Press as of 4 p.m. Eastern time on Wednesday. The narrow margins come as Democrats flipped seats in places Republicans comfortably won two years ago, securing control of both chambers of Congress. In the House, 59 races where party control of the seat is at stake have yet to be called. The AP does not make projections and will only declare a winner when it’s determined there is no scenario that would allow the trailing candidate to close the gap. In Mississippi’s Senate race, Democrat Scott Colom has a lead of a few dozen votes over Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith. Several thousand provisional ballots are expected to be counted in the race and the state has until Nov. 10 to resolve those ballots. Those votes will be decisive. In 2022, the state counted about 5,700 provisional ballots. Mississippi does not have an automatic recount process, but a challenger can seek a court order for one.

The Associated Press has also not called Alaska’s Senate contest between incumbent Republican Dan Sullivan and Democrat Mary Peltola, who has a 626-vote lead over Sullivan with an estimated 74% of votes counted. Under Alaska law, if neither candidate gets more than 50% of the vote then it goes to ranked-choice tabulation. Also in Alaska, Democrat Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins has a 20 percentage point lead over Republican Bernadette Wilson in Alaska’s governor’s race. Kreiss-Tomkins had 49.2% of the vote with an estimated 74% of the ballots counted. Like the Senate contest, the governor’s election advances to another round if no candidate gets more than 50% of the votes. In Kansas, Democrat Cindy Holscher has less than a percentage point lead over Republican Ty Masterson in the Kansas governor’s race. Holscher’s 5,557 vote lead with an estimated 98% of votes counted comes after Democrat Adam Hamilton became the first member of his party to win a Senate seat in nearly a century. Both Holscher and Masterson serve in the state Senate, where the Republican serves as its president.

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Republican Boebert still short of Democrat Laubacher in Colorado district 4 race, ballots still being counted

Republican U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert is facing the possibility of losing her congressional seat in Colorado's 4th Congressional District, with Democrat Eileen Laubacher maintaining a lead as votes continue to be counted Wednesday evening. The race is defying expectations in a district widely considered a safe Republican seat. While not all ballots have been counted, Laubacher's lead has put Boebert's political future in jeopardy. "I could not be more proud of what we have accomplished," said Eileen Laubacher, the Democratic challenger, at her election night watch party. Laubacher's campaign appeared to be gaining momentum despite early expectations that the heavily Republican district would be difficult for a Democrat to win.

"They told us that the district was too Republican," Laubacher said. Kyle Saunders, a Colorado State University political science professor, said the results are far from what political analysts anticipated heading into Election Day. "This is a pretty safe district, and most of the ratings folks had it at likely R, so for this seat to have been challenged, this had to be quite a blue wave, if not a blue tsunami," Saunders said. "I'm not sure Boebert or the Republicans were prepared for that challenge," he added. At her election night watch party, Boebert acknowledged the uncertainty surrounding the race but told supporters she was not ready to give up. "This isn't the first time I've had to wait. I know a waiting game," Boebert said. She also reminded supporters that ballots were still being counted and urged them not to give up hope. "Listen, y'all don't start trying to sell your houses and move to Florida just yet. OK, we still got to count some ballots here," Boebert said. "We are winning all but three counties right now, and we'll see. We'll see," she added. Saunders said Boebert's association with President Donald Trump could be one factor contributing to the unexpectedly competitive race. However, he said the results also point to an energized Democratic electorate and potentially lower Republican turnout. "Part of it points to Boebert being part of the problem, but then you also have this really energized Democratic electorate, as well as this idea that a lot of Republicans seem to have stayed home," Saunders said. Laubacher said her campaign was able to connect with voters who previously supported Republicans or had become disengaged from politics.

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Florida Dems scrape together a few wins but miss the big, blue wave

Democrats hoped a “blue wave” would crash over Republicans in the Sunshine State Tuesday night. They were left with a trickle. Republicans won the governor’s mansion, swept the state Cabinet, kept their U.S. Senate seat and maintained power in the Legislature. Yet Democrats displayed their strongest showing in years, winning multiple congressional districts redrawn earlier this year in an effort led by Gov. Ron DeSantis, which GOP officials hoped would net Republicans four congressional seats — and breaking the Republican supermajority that has ruled over the Florida House in Tallahassee for the last four years. While Republicans pulled off victories, headlined by Rep. Byron Donalds securing the governor’s race over Democrat David Jolly, they won by significantly tighter margins compared to 2024.

“We’ve earned trust from a number of our voters, and even in the worst situation that you can imagine politically, we were able to hold the line and prevent the worst from happening here,” DeSantis told reporters Wednesday in Tallahassee. “But just be clear, we’re in a deep hole nationally as a result of this election.” A historic blue wave swept across the nation on Tuesday, with Democrats taking control of Congress and winning gubernatorial races as well as House and Senate seats in deep red states and counties, including in Kansas, where Democrat Adam Hamilton ousted incumbent GOP Sen. Roger Marshall; South Carolina, where Republican Darline Graham lost to Annie Andrews; and shocking defeats in Texas, where three-term Gov. Greg Abbott fell to Democrat Gina Hinojosa and Democrat James Talarico beat Republican Ken Paxton. As Republicans here pounded their chests after pulling off close wins in the face of losses in other states, Democrats were left lamenting how close they came to upsets on several fronts.

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Midterms over, Democrats plunge into wide-open 2028 presidential race

With the US midterms over, Democrats are turning to what could become one of their most crowded and unpredictable presidential primaries in decades, a 2028 contest likely to expose the party's divide over how to win back the White House. No Democrat has emerged as a clear ?favorite in a field that could attract dozens of contenders, while Republicans have a smaller group of widely discussed candidates, led by Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, to succeed ?President Donald Trump, who is constitutionally barred from seeking a third term.

Potential Democratic candidates, including sitting governors and senators, have spent months cultivating donors, visiting states with early nominating contests and raising their national profiles, positioning themselves for a race that strategists expect to begin in earnest now that the midterms are over. The sweeping victories by Democrats on Tuesday, when voters delivered a sharp rebuke to Trump and his agenda, will intensify discussions within both parties about how to win over an electorate unhappy with the country's direction. Despite their resounding victories on Tuesday, Democrats enter the ?2028 campaign still divided over whether to tack to the center or move further left on issues ranging from healthcare and taxes to policing and foreign policy. Republican candidates will face a different challenge - how to distance themselves ?from Trump after Tuesday's repudiation of his policies. They need to broaden their appeal beyond the president's base while avoiding a break with the populist Make America Great Again ?movement that has come to define the party.

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Bernie Sanders lost the fight in 2016. A decade later, he won the war.

In 2016, two populist revolutions threatened to remake American politics. Donald Trump’s conquered the Republican Party and delivered him the presidency. Bernie Sanders’ fell short against Hillary Clinton, but introduced a populist economic vision that, at the time, much of the Democratic establishment dismissed as politically impractical. Ten years later, Trump and MAGA were hit with a devastating midterm repudiation, as candidates across the country in blue and red states echoing versions of Sanders’ message broke through in places that once seemed beyond Democrats’ reach. Sanders, as cantankerous as ever, isn’t surprised.

“If you’re asking me, am I shocked by that? That the argument about economic justice and taking on oligarchs and fighting for the working class is working in Texas, is working in Ohio, is working in Montana, is working in Florida, is working all over the country — no, I am not shocked,” Sanders said in an interview Wednesday, fresh off over 20 rallies in October alone. “That is what I’ve always believed.” Sanders’ laser focus on economic populism in 2016 faced criticism from his own party during his contentious primary against Clinton for being too dismissive of identity politics — often couched as his lack of support among Black voters. Now, his brand of relentless focus on corporate and billionaire election interventions and income inequality proved a winning formula not only for Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan, but for James Talarico in Texas, Sam Forstag in Montana and Rebecca Cooke in Wisconsin. “Bernie normalized the kind of campaigning that really is about making a direct appeal to working people,” El Sayed told POLITICO. “Wherever I went in Michigan, there are people who remember Bernie 2016 and Bernie 2020 — we stand on the shoulders of giants.”

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DOJ stays quiet on Alaska investigations as Senate race too close to call

The Department of Justice offered no new details Wednesday on its Alaska election investigations as Sen. Dan S. Sullivan (R-AK) and Democrat Mary Peltola remained locked in a Senate race too close to call. As of Wednesday evening, Peltola led Sullivan 102,701 to 102,075 in first-choice votes, a 626-vote advantage, with an estimated 74% of votes counted. The Associated Press has not called the race. Asked about next steps, a department spokesperson declined to comment on specific plans to the Washington Examiner but pointed to public civil filings and Attorney General Todd Blanche’s Tuesday Fox News interview, in which he defended preserving ballots to examine possible voter confusion over a spoiler candidate with the same first and last name as the Republican incumbent, who has garnered more than 3,500 votes.

Blanche on Tuesday described a scenario in which Sullivan “could lose, but really he didn’t lose,” if confusion between the incumbent and spoiler candidate Daniel J. Sullivan Jr. affected the outcome. “That’s why you need to preserve these ballots,” he said. Sullivan’s campaign argues that Peltola’s narrow lead could disappear once voters’ backup choices are counted. Under Alaska’s ranked-choice system, if no candidate wins more than 50% of first-choice votes, the last-place candidate is eliminated. Ballots for that candidate transfer to each voter’s next choice still in the race. The process repeats until someone has a majority of the remaining active ballots.

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Lead Stories

Democrats sweep Texas, likely flipping Texas House, making gains in Senate

Two closely watched races are Democrat James Talarico against Republican Ken Paxton for U.S. Senate and Republican Gov. Greg Abbott against Democratic state Rep. Gina Hinojosa. As a packed crowd of hundreds of supporters chanted her name, Vikki Goodwin stepped up to the podium on election night and claimed victory in the race for Texas Lieutenant Governor. As of 2 a.m., the Associated Press projects Goodwin wins the Texas lieutenant governor’s race. Democrat Nathan Johnson declared victory as attorney general Tuesday, breaking the GOP’s nearly three-decade grip on the powerful office and promising a new direction after Ken Paxton’s turbulent tenure. "This is a tremendous honor, and a tremendous responsibility," Johnson said in a statement. "Texans voted for an attorney general who will represent them and the interests of our state, and who will above all uphold the rule of law. That’s what I intend to do."

Democratic state Rep. Jon Rosenthal has won the race for Texas railroad commissioner, NBC News projects, defeating Republican Bo French, who faced widespread backlash in his own party and beyond for anti-immigrant, Islamophobic and antisemitic comments. Rosenthal will be one of three members of the Texas Railroad Commission, which regulates oil and gas production in the state. Members serve six-year terms. Rosenthal, a mechanical engineer, campaigned on a platform of lowering energy costs for Texans, implementing guardrails for data centers and weatherization requirements for gas production, and banning industry donations to commissioners. Democratic challenger Benjamin Flores held a substantial lead Tuesday night over Republican incumbent Dawn Buckingham in the race for Texas land commissioner, capturing nearly 58% of the vote as election results continued to come in across the state. According to unofficial results reported by the Associated Press, Flores received 2,541,836 votes, or 57.8%, compared with Buckingham’s 1,797,918 votes, or 40.9%. Third-party candidate Neill Snider trailed with 58,866 votes, accounting for 1.3% of the reported vote.

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Democrats win the US House, taking full control of Congress

Democrats won control of both chambers of Congress, delivering a decisive rebuke of Republican governance in Washington and ushering in a new era of congressional resistance to President Donald Trump. Tuesday’s midterm elections laid bare voters’ deep frustrations over high prices, the Iran war and concerns over government corruption. Democrats routed their rivals across the map, flipping states that have voted Republican for decades and that Trump won by double digits just two years ago. That includes James Talarico’s stunning Senate victory in Texas, where no Democrat had won statewide office in more than 30 years, and Annie Andrews’ upset victory over Sen. Darline Graham in South Carolina. Trump had thrown his full weight behind both losing candidates. In Michigan, progressive Abdul El-Sayed — one of a crop of left-wing candidates who prevailed in Democratic primaries — topped Republican Mike Rogers. Even Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, a battle-tested survivor of difficult elections, lost to Democrat Troy Jackson.

The results marked a fundamental unraveling of the coalition that returned Trump to the White House two years ago, with young people and Latinos moving away from Republicans, according to The AP Voter Poll. Only about one-third of Hispanic voters said they backed the Republican in their local U.S. House races. It was all a major blow to Trump, who spent nearly every day of the last month holding rallies to energize his supporters but was unable to stop a wipeout. While Trump has proven adept at steamrolling efforts to rein him in, Democratic control will profoundly reshape Trump’s final two years in office and hamstring his legislative agenda. Party leaders have signaled they’ll use their new power to ensure Trump’s final two years in office are dominated by a series of investigations of top members of his administration and deeper scrutiny of how he’s enriched his family. Impeachment of Trump and his Cabinet officials is not off the table. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and tech titan Elon Musk, a former top Trump adviser, are among possible targets for investigations. In celebratory events Tuesday night, Democratic Senate Leader Chuck Schumer called the results a “generational remake of the Senate map.” Democratic House Leader Hakeem Jeffries said “the American people are crying out for transformational change.” Trump immediately sought to shift blame for his party’s losses, posting on his social media site before polls even closed on the West Coast that he wasn’t on the ballot — even though he spent weeks asking voters to act like he was. He vowed to veto Democrat-controlled legislation, sharing a picture of a red baseball cap with “VETO” stenciled in the style of his trademark “Make America Great Again” campaign swag.

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Musk’s Tesla, SpaceX slide as Democrats sweep Congress

Shares of Elon Musk’s Tesla Inc. and Space Exploration Technologies Corp. fell ahead of Wednesday’s US stock-market opening as Democrats swept to control of Congress, sharpening investor concern over the future of the Republican megadonor’s key holdings. Tesla was down about 5% in premarket trading while SpaceX dropped 6.9% after the extent of the rebuke of President Donald Trump and his party became clear. That compares with small gains on futures for the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 indices. Few CEOs are as closely tied to the president as Musk, the world’s richest person, who had poured nearly $450 million into GOP coffers and urged his 240 million X followers to vote against Democrats. For investors in Tesla or SpaceX, a so-called blue wave in the midterm elections will come as a double blow. It will fan concerns about tighter regulations around artificial intelligence, and also creates more uncertainty over a potential merger of the electric vehicle maker and the rocket, AI and satellite giant.

“Guess my election-interfering space lasers didn’t work this time,” Musk wrote in a joking post on X. “Data centers in space looking pretty appealing right now.” Heading into the midterms, the risk was particularly acute that Musk and his businesses lie at the fault line of several divisive issues: Tesla and SpaceX are forging ahead in the AI race, their potential mega-merger raises regulatory questions, and access to a military version of the Starlink satellite service has become a point of tension between the US, Ukraine and Russia. SpaceX, which vaulted into the ranks of the world’s most valuable companies when it went public earlier this year, rakes in billions of dollars through US government contracts. The stock is largely treading water since its June initial public offering, holding on to a $1.9 trillion market valuation. Tesla shares have rallied 34% since their late-July nadir amid investor optimism surrounding AI projects and the potential combination with SpaceX.

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‘Total repudiation’: Dems sweep Texas’ top battleground Tarrant County in historic rout

In a stunning victory, Democrats swept nearly every race from the statewide level down to countywide offices in Tarrant County, an urban center that was considered a pivotal battleground county this cycle and that has historically been the largest Republican-controlled county in the country. Early vote totals showed a rout for Democrats early in the evening, with Senate candidate James Talarico pulling just shy of 60 percent, about a 22-point margin over Ken Paxton, along with every other statewide Democrat winning as well. Democratic County Judge candidate Alisa Simmons beat her opponent, County Judge Tim O’Hare, a controversial hardline Republican, by about 16 percent, signaling the first win for a Democrat at the county level since 1986. “The results are a total repudiation of the Republican extremism that’s taken hold of Tarrant County Republican leadership recently,” Brandon Rottinghaus, political science professor at the University of Houston, told the Texas Observer Tuesday night.

“There were Republican voters who felt conservatives were taking it too far and Democrats who were happy to vote against the GOP, and that’s a toxic mix that’s going to make Republicans suffer.” Ahead of the Election Day rout, Tarrant was expected to be highly competitive turf. Top statewide candidates, including Talarico and Paxston, along with Governor Greg Abbott, all made the rounds around Tarrant in the first days of early voting. Traditionally a GOP stronghold, flickers of a changing political dynamic in the North Texas county, which encompasses the cities of Fort Worth and Arlington and several booming suburbs, began when voters there favored Democrat Beto O’Rourke for U.S. Senate in 2018. The prospect of a possible purple-ish wave continued in 2020 when Joe Biden beat Donald Trump, albeit by a razor-thin margin. In 2024, Democrat Colin Allred won Tarrant over incumbent Ted Cruz by less than 2,000 votes (though Trump carried the county by 5 points) again stoking the idea that the tides may be turning.

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State Stories

‘We’ve had a difficult night’: Inside Ken Paxton’s election night party

Around 10:30 p.m. Tuesday evening in Dallas, shortly after the Associated Press announced that Democrat James Talarico won his bid for the closely-watched U.S. Senate race in Texas, his opponent — Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton — took to the stage to speak to supporters at his Election Night watch party. “I want to thank all my friends in this room,” Paxton said. Supporters had filtered into a ballroom at the Westin Galleria Dallas hotel, adorned with Texas and American flags, plus a bar and a buffet. Fox News was projected on a screen showing results from races across the country as music filled the room. “I love Texas,” Paxton said in his speech. “I always love Texas. We will still fight for this place. We will fight for our country.”

Robert Raab, of Frisco, is a pastor in McKinney. Raab told reporters Tuesday night that he believes Talarico is a good candidate — but he doesn’t align with Raab’s religious values. “I think Talarico has great political instincts,” Raab said from inside the ballroom. “He’s a good campaigner. He’s got energy. He’s personable. I get the appeal, but he’s too liberal for me, and he doesn’t represent the Christianity [that] I think is biblical Christianity.” Joshua Feuerstein, a Dallas preacher and entrepreneur who was also at the event, said Paxton has a “testicular fortitude” needed to represent Texans. “We don’t need a left-leaning libtard,” Feuerstein told the Star-Telegram. “We need somebody like Ken Paxton in office. James Talarico just does not align with the values of Texan people. He just doesn’t.” Steve Meng, of Irving, said at around 9:45 p.m. Tuesday night that he wasn’t feeling quite as optimistic as he was earlier in the night. What would it mean for him, the Star-Telegram asked, if Talarico won? “It’s going to mean that I have to suffer through him and his ‘I dream of trans children, God’s non-binary, and welcome mats at the southern border for six years,’ Meng said. “Hopefully, we’ll have in 2032 a candidate that’ll be great.”

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Democratic challenger Heather Jefts wins Williamson County Judge race

Democratic challenger Heather Jefts has defeated incumbent Williamson County Judge Steve Snell, giving Democrats hold of the top position in Williamson County government for the first time in decades. Ms. Jefts, a former Cedar Park City Council member, earned an estimated 134,371 votes in the judge race, about 55.78% of the 240,892 votes cast. "I want to thank Judge Snell for his service and for a hard-fought race. We both love this county, and I will be a county judge for everyone, regardless of who you voted for or whether you voted," Ms. Jefts said in a Statement to the Sun early Wednesday morning.

"Last December, we started this movement with a humble ambition: a progressive, accountable, and responsive county government. Tonight, that ambition has become a mandate," We built one of the most robust democratic campaigns in recent Williamson County history. We traveled this county from Florence to Coupland through our Real Talk series and met hundreds of friends and neighbors. From front porches in Taylor to folding tables in Liberty Hill, we heard worries about rising costs, crowded roads, and whether county leadership was actually listening. Those conversations shaped every plank of this campaign, and they give me hope for the thriving future that awaits Williamson County.

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Letitia Plummer declares victory in Harris County Judge race

Former Houston councilwoman Letitia Plummer declared victory in the race for Harris County judge. As of about 5 a.m. on Wednesday, Plummer led Sanchez with nearly 62% of the vote compared to Sanchez’s 38%, according to early unofficial results from the county. Plummer is the first African American to be elected Harris County judge. “I did not sign up for this job because I thought it would be easy, because nothing in my life has,” Plummer said. “I ran because I believe that I can absolutely make a difference as your public servant with your support.”

Shortly after 9 p.m., Sanchez conceded the election to Plummer. “The voters of Harris County have made their decision, and while it’s not the outcome that we had hoped for, I respect the judgment of the people that we sought to serve,” Sanchez said. “I just spoke with Dr. Letitia Plummer. I congratulated her and conceded the race.” Plummer, a dentist by trade, started her political career with a bid for Congress in 2018. The effort fell short before she was elected to serve as the Houston City Council's at-large councilmember in 2019. She resigned from her seat on city council earlier this year after announcing her intention to seek the county judge's position, held by current Democratic County Judge Lina Hidalgo for seven years. The former councilwoman will be charged with leading Harris County Commissioners Court, a five-member governing body that oversees the operations of the county. The court deals with countywide road and infrastructure projects, sets yearly property taxes and makes funding decisions on flood control initiatives.

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In blue wave, Democrats flip Northside Texas House seat their party hasn’t won in 45 years, flip back Southside seat

San Antonio’s Texas House District 121 hadn’t elected a Democrat since 1981, but in a blue wave Tuesday night, first-time candidate Zack Dunn toppled incumbent state Rep. Marc LaHood (R-San Antonio). The Northside district includes some of the area’s wealthiest enclaves, and once belonged to Texas House Speaker Joe Straus (R-San Antonio). It’s long chosen moderate, business-centric Republicans, but as the GOP continued shifting right in recent years, Democrats have been targeting the seat repeatedly, hoping it would finally break their way. “I’m unhinged right now,” Dunn told a crowd of supporters at the Quarry Golf Course minutes before early results came in. “The odds were stacked against us.”

Last election cycle LaHood was among the roughly dozen Republicans who Gov. Greg Abbott backed over popular GOP incumbents standing in the way of the governor’s much-desired school voucher program. He cruised through a November race against a well-funded Democrat that year, and went on to align with a GOP wing that pushed one of the most conservative agendas in history. In the final weeks before the election, Texas House GOP leaders were working frantically to reframe the narrative around some of those policies, particularly school vouchers. In the last month they spent more than $1 million protecting LaHood, conceded around 10 p.m. “I left it on the field. I think I did it honorably,” LaHood told the San Antonio Report from his party at the Angry Elephant. “I didn’t sell my soul or my personality to get this job, to keep this job, or to come back for re-election, so I feel good, as good as you can. Losing sucks. I mean let’s be honest, losing sucks.” Bexar County is represented by a total of 10 Texas House seats. Going into the night, three were held by Republicans and seven were held by Democrats. A GOP-held seat on the South Side, Texas House District 118, represented by state Rep. John Lujan (R-San Antonio), flipped back to Democrats’ control.

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Nydia Cardenas declares victory in Tarrant Precinct 4 race over Manny Ramirez

Democrat Nydia Cardenas declared victory over Republican incumbent Manny Ramirez shortly before midnight. According to unofficial results, she will be the next Precinct 4 commissioner in Tarrant County. When she called it, Cardenas had 51.91% of the votes, with 190 vote centers of 223 reporting. Ramirez had 48.09%. Cardenas will serve as commissioner beginning on Jan. 1, 2027, through Dec. 31, 2030. “I think the margin could probably narrow, but I think it would be very hard for him to come out on top at this point,” Cardenas said in an interview with the Star-Telegram. Ramirez conceded the race at 2:15 a.m. Wednesday, wishing her success in her new responsibility in serving northwest Tarrant County.

“Congratulations to Nydia Cardenas on her victory,” Ramirez said in a statement to the Star-Telegram. “It has been an honor to serve the people of Precinct 4, and I’m proud of what we accomplished together.” Once all the vote centers reported around 1 a.m. Wednesday morning, Cardenas was still in the lead. She received 51.80% of the votes, and Ramirez had 48.20%. Cardenas will be one of three Democrats on the Tarrant commissioners court, joining Alisa Simmons. Simmons is the Democrat who overthrew Republican County Judge Tim O’Hare in his race for re-election. The Precinct 2 race has yet to be called as of midnight Wednesday, but Democrat Jared Williams is ahead of Republican Tony Tinderholt, a state representative. With a confirmed Democrat majority on the court, Cardenas promised that the energy in the courtroom will shift. There will be at least two meetings a month, more room for public comment and fewer attendees kicked out of the meeting — all of which were decisions made by the current Republican majority or O’Hare alone. “The opportunity to actually have a real partnership with people who’ve been vocalizing challenges in the community for a long time, that’s going to shift the energy, too,” Cardenas said. “So yeah, I think it’s going to be a really exciting time.”

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Keller school board’s only incumbent loses reelection bid

A teacher who resigned to run for the Keller school board won her first election to public office by a wide margin, while the only incumbent running lost his bid for reelection. Rachel Weatherington, who challenged political newcomer Geramie Parrish in the Place 4 race, won with 70.18% of the vote with Parrish garnering 29.82%, with all vote centers reporting, according to unofficial results from Tarrant County. In Place 5, Andrew Walsh defeated incumbent Chris Coker. Walsh had 40.69% of the vote to Coker’s 39.86%. Colin Hodges had 19.45%. In Place 6, a special election to fill a one-year term after Charles Randklev resigned to run for Keller City Council, substitute teacher Barbara Brewer defeated retired educator Tommie Johnson with 51.53% of the vote to Johnson’s 48.47%.

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Democrat Dexter McCoy defeats Republican Daniel Wong in Fort Bend County judge race

Democrat Dexter McCoy has won the race for Fort Bend County judge, defeating Republican Daniel Wong in Tuesday's election. The victory comes after months of controversy surrounding Wong's authority to serve as interim county judge. Wong, a businessman who founded an engineering company, was seeking a full term after being appointed interim county judge in April. McCoy, a Fort Bend County commissioner, challenged him for the position. Both candidates have backgrounds in county leadership but brought different professional experiences to the race.

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Cy-Fair ISD bond and tax increase rejected

Voters in Cy-Fair ISD shot down the district's proposed $1.6 billion bond and a tax rate increase, according to unofficial results Tuesday night. None of the measures in Texas' third-largest district received more than 37% support from early voters, with double-digit failure margins. The unofficial results appear to counter the support for public education in November 2025, when Cy-Fair ISD voters flipped the political tilt of its board by electing three pro-public education members. This fall, the new board of trustuees asked taxpayers to consider a tax rate increase — which would generate $100 million in new revenue — and to approve a $1.6 billion bond across four propositions for facility repairs, technology and security upgrades and athletics improvements.

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Incumbent Mark Henry wins Galveston County Judge against Albert Smith

Republican Galveston County Judge Mark Henry defeated Albert "Al" Smith in the November general election. According to unofficial results from all voting centers, Henry received about 57% of the vote compared to about 43% for Smith. Smith ran unopposed in the Democratic primary, whereas Henry faced challenger Chris Kinard in the Republican primary earlier this year.

directly to your inbox. The Galveston County judge serves as the presiding officer of the county’s governing body, the commissioners court. County judges are elected to four-year terms and face no term limits. Henry, running for a fifth term, was first elected as Galveston County Judge in 2010. The incumbent touted an almost 50% cut in the county's property tax rate throughout his 15 years serving as county judge. He also promoted his efforts in cutting a significant amount of the county's debt and earning the highest bond rating possible for the county. Henry ran on lowering taxes, increasing law enforcement and reducing the size of government to achieve more efficiency. He previously received endorsements from Texas Gov. Greg Abbott as well as state Reps. Dennis Paul and Greg Bonnen, according to his social media.

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Democrat Leticia Gutierrez leads Republican Mealer in the race to represent Texas’ 9th

Democrat Leticia Gutierrez is leading the race for Texas' 9th Congressional District, covering the eastern parts of Harris County and all of Liberty County. Gutierrez's lead could amount to an upset after Texas House Republicans redrew the district to be friendlier to conservative candidates. Republican candidate Alex Mealer, who was endorsed by President Donald Trump, had held a six-point lead in the polls leading up to the election. As of 4 a.m. on Wednesday, Gutierrez led Mealer with 57% of the vote, according to early results from the Associated Press.

“This was not meant to happen,” Gutierrez said to supporters at her victory party. “But let me just say I’ve defied odds all of my life. This is not new to me at all.” The race for the district had tightened considerably since the March primary amid rising gas and grocery prices, a spike in publicized excessive force allegations of immigration officers across Texas, and President Trump's unpopular war with Iran. After shaking hands with roughly 50 supporters in the room, Mealer spoke to the crowd and thanked them for the work they’d done for her campaign. “Appreciate all of your guys’ hard work,” Mealer said at the Daniel’s BBQ and Meat Market in Baytown. “We’re very proud of the campaign we ran, but obviously it was very challenging backdrop.”

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Houston Democrats lead some GOP-held Texas House races, returns show

The “blue wave” in Houston could extend all the way to the Texas House of Representatives, with Democratic challengers leading several Republican incumbents in local races, according to unofficial returns. GOP state Reps. Lacey Hull, Charles Cunningham, Mike Schofield, Valoree Swanson and Gary Gates all were trailing in their reelection bids in early returns Tuesday evening. Republicans also were trailing in a couple of races for seats vacated by GOP incumbents, despite unprecedented efforts by Gov. Greg Abbott to recruit candidates and spend millions in races across the county.

Former Harris County Clerk Stan Stanart was trailing Democrat Stefanie Bord in state House District 126. And Republican Scott Bowen was losing to Albert Witliff, a Democrat, in the race to replace state Rep. Dennis Paul, who is running for Mayes Middleton's seat in the state senate. Other Republican incumbents were running races that were too close to call early Wednesday morning. State Rep. Matt Morgan, R-Katy, was in a virtual tie with Democratic challenger Elizabeth Markowitz, and Republican Reps. Cody Vasut, R-Angleton, and Jeff Barry, R-Pearland, both held slim leads in their own reelection bids. Incumbent Houston Democrats in the Texas Legislature, meanwhile, were on track to coast to reelection. And Houston’s delegation to Austin will feature some other new faces, with several lawmakers retiring or seeking other offices next year. Tom Butler, a Republican, is leading the race to fill the vacancy left by state Rep. Briscoe Cain in Deer Park. And three new Democratic candidates won races to replace outgoing Democrats. Odus Evbagharu will replace state Rep. Jon Rosenthal in HD 135, after Rosenthal decided to run for Texas Railroad Commissioner. Staci Childs will replace the retiring state Rep. Alma Allen in HD 131, and Darlene Breaux won her bid to replace state Rep. Hubert Vo in HD 149, having beat Vo in the Democratic primary.

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Dallas voters reject the $443 million public safety bond

Dallas voters rejected a $443 million bond proposal for public safety buildings, leaving city officials with difficult decisions about aging police infrastructure, training facilities and emergency operations. This is the first time since 1998 that Dallas voters have denied the city its request to borrow money and redo facilities. “This vote was not a rejection of public safety. It was a demand for a better plan,” the “Bust the Bond” campaign said in a statement early Wednesday.

The proposal would have funded a new police academy, a tactical police training complex, a consolidated evidence room and crime lab, a new downtown fire station, and a 911 operations facility outside City Hall. Civic and business leaders who supported the bond proposition said the money would help upgrade several deteriorating facilities. But residents who led a campaign to reject the proposal believed the money for the 911 center would be used to abandon the I.M. Pei-designed City Hall. Sean Pease, president of the Dallas Police Association, the city’s largest police union, said the bond package’s defeat sends a “powerful message” to City Hall that voters don’t trust city management with hundreds of millions of additional taxpayer dollars without greater accountability and transparency. Repaying the bond debt would have cost $630 million.

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Democrat Burks ousts incumbent Republican Sorrells in Tarrant County DA rematch

Tiffany Burks, a former longtime homicide prosecutor who campaigned on a pledge to implement a culture of mentorship at the Tarrant County District Attorney’s Office as it tackles violent crime, on Tuesday beat a Republican incumbent to become the county’s first Black top prosecutor. Burks won 55.96% of the vote, according to the complete vote center report from Tarrant County Elections Administration. Phil Sorrells, who was seeking a second term, received 44.04% of the vote. Burks, a Democrat, is a former deputy criminal division chief at the office she will lead beginning in January. The race was a rematch. Sorrells defeated Burks by 6.5 percentage points in 2022. Burks’ transition team is at work.

“We’ve already determined the organizational chart of the office, what that will look like, who we need and the type of experience we need in those positions,” Burks said in an interview in mid-October. Prosecutor assignment changes are likely, as are departures at the office’s highest levels. “For the most part, the biggest change is going to be the hierarchy and the structure of the office, and the people at the top in leadership will definitely change,” Burks said. Burks said the people with whom she has discussed rejoining the office are former prosecutors who have significant experience and can help train and mentor new lawyers. Burks said she would build a major crimes unit to be staffed by a deputy chief who has deep experience. Prosecutors in the unit will work closely with the narcotics, gang and homicide units at law enforcement agencies throughout the county. Burks, who spent her youth in Dallas’ Oak Cliff neighborhood, has said morale is low in Sorrells’ DA’s office. In the interview, she said she would correct what she considers office supervision errors. Sorrells, who grew up in Lubbock, pointed during the campaign to reduced crime rates. In an interview, Sorrells, a former county criminal court judge, suggested that his office was a significant contributor to a reduction in crime in Tarrant County during the three most recent consecutive years.

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Democrat Simmons declares victory over Republican O’Hare in Tarrant judge race

Republican incumbent Tim O’Hare has conceded in the race for his reelection, granting Democrat Alisa Simmons the win as the next Tarrant County judge. According to unofficial results, Simmons won by 12.8 percentage points. The final tally showed Simmons with 56.40% of the votes to O’Hare’s 43.60%. In the midst of redistricting the commissioners precincts to give Republicans a leg up in elections, the three Republican members of the Tarrant County Commissioners Court said their goal was a 4-1 majority. “Well ... that’s what we got,” Simmons said on stage Tuesday evening while declaring victory. After early results were in, all three Democrats were leading over their Republican opponents in the commissioners court races. Simmons is the first Democrat to win the top seat in Tarrant County in 40 years. O’Hare called around 7:30 p.m. to congratulate her, Simmons said. “He asked the question, ‘Did you expect this?’ And I said, ‘Yes,’” Simmons said.

Early voting results showed Simmons ahead of O’Hare by 15 percentage points when O’Hare called to concede, according to Simmons’ team. The crowd rumbled with excited anticipation waiting for Simmons to enter her celebration at Texas Live! in Arlington. She had 57.70% of the votes, with only early voting results reported, when she declared victory. O’Hare had 42.30%. Simmons will begin her term on Jan. 1, 2027, and serve in the post through Dec. 31, 2030. O’Hare did not respond to the Star-Telegram’s request for comment. Simmons congratulated all the Democrats elected in the Tuesday election “up and down the ballot.” The road to victory was paved by a cohesive movement on the Democrats’ part, she said at her party. O’Hare has been county judge since Jan. 1, 2023. Simmons has served as Precinct 2 commissioner for the same tenure. The two have dueled on commissioners court for years and traded jabs throughout the campaign season.

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Bo French ran an openly racist campaign. Texas voters went with his opponent instead.

Bo French really only had one job. Heading into the midterm election, the general wisdom was that French, who has a long history of making overtly racist and bigoted comments, was by far the weakest of the Republican statewide slate but that his race for a seat on the Texas Railroad Commission was so far down the ballot that he might sneak past voters’ attention and into office. All he needed to do was maintain a low profile—keep his head down. But French was never going to do that. On September 13, the day after the University of Texas at Austin’s historic comeback win over top-seeded Ohio State University, French began to complain about how many nonwhite students were at the game, claiming that a photo of South Asians joyously celebrating the victory was proof that America was being overrun by “foreigners.”

The backlash was swift. Republicans such as Karl Rove and Senator John Cornyn urged Texans not to support him, saying that the party would be destroyed if it did not excise bigots such as French from its ranks. Donations flowed into the campaign of French’s Democratic opponent, Texas House member Jon Rosenthal. And by week’s end, French’s name was being uttered at New York City comedy clubs, his long history of xenophobia generating headlines in major national news outlets. Voters had learned who Bo French was. And on Tuesday, they said “no thank you”—electing Rosenthal, a career pipeline engineer and Texas House member from Houston, to the open seat on the three-member Railroad Commission. Practically, the win is relatively minor—Republicans still have a supermajority on the body, which oversees the state’s massive oil and gas industry. But paired with the other victories Tuesday night, it represents a political earthquake: Democrats had not won a statewide seat in Texas in more than thirty years, and in flipping the seat, voters rejected arguably the most openly racist candidate to run for major office in a generation. French has long been a minor fixture in right-wing politics; in the mid-2010s, he was part of a wave of Texas House candidates bankrolled by oil billionaires Tim Dunn and Farris Wilks as part of their movement to remake the state legislature in their far-right image.

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National Stories

Votes are still being counted in Mississippi U.S. Senate race

Votes are still being counted to determine who will represent Mississippi in the U.S. Senate. Democrat Scott Colom was only a handful of votes ahead of Republican Cindy Hyde-Smith early Wednesday.

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Democrat Abdul El-Sayed defeats Mike Rogers in Michigan to become first Muslim U.S. senator

Democrat Abdul El-Sayed, a progressive who ran on promises to disrupt Washington’s way of doing business, defeated Republican former congressman Mike Rogers in Michigan to become the country’s first Muslim elected to the Senate. El-Sayed, born in Michigan to Egyptian immigrant parents, overcame a well-financed campaign of anti-Muslim rhetoric spearheaded by President Donald Trump and his allies. In a race that was by turns nasty and deeply personal, El-Sayed and Rogers each chased voters who would normally support the other. The race exploded Sunday when Rep. Haley Stevens, El-Sayed’s opponent in the Democratic primary, crossed party lines to endorse Rogers just two days before the election. Stevens, who said she was motivated by El-Sayed’s criticism of Israel and a personal conflict with him, might have helped El-Sayed: Her defection outraged Democrats and brought him millions of dollars in donations.

El-Sayed, a medical doctor and epidemiologist who has headed the Detroit and Wayne County health departments, rankled many in his own party with a pugnacious style and a vow to upend how politics work in D.C. He took a narrowly focused message of economic populism, campaign finance reform and Medicare-for-all to even the deep-red parts of Michigan that helped elect Trump. Rogers, an Army veteran, former FBI agent and seven-term congressman who chaired the House intelligence committee, had pressed a message that El-Sayed’s Muslim identity, views on Israel and progressive policies would endanger their communities and make life more expensive. Michigan’s Senate seat, left open by the retirement of Democratic Sen. Gary Peters, was seen as pivotal to each parties’ path to controlling the Senate. Republicans deployed anti-Muslim rhetoric and stereotypes against El-Sayed, a skilled orator whose progressive agenda energized allies and provoked opponents. His decision to campaign during the primary with Hasan Piker, a Twitch streamer who has made controversial comments about the 9/11 attacks and the militant group Hamas, also drew some backlash. Trump and top Republican allies targeted El-Sayed with Islamophobic attacks, casting him as “dangerous,” questioning his loyalty, and, in the president’s case, calling him a “jihadist.” El-Sayed and Rogers both argued that economic woes were central to the race, but they offered voters sharply different solutions.

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The historic firsts of the 2026 election

Winners up and down the 2026 ballot will make history this year, CNN’s Decision Desk projects, including the first Black woman governor, the first Muslim elected to the US Senate and the first out gay male US senator. As President Donald Trump takes on the latter half of his second term, both parties will welcome a diverse group of newly elected lawmakers at the state and national level. Read more about the candidates who are projected to boast the moniker of “first.” Keisha Lance Bottoms is projected to become the first Black governor of Georgia, the first female governor of Georgia and the first female Black governor in US history. Bottoms, who served as Atlanta mayor between 2018 and 2022, was among the women whom President Joe Biden considered as a running mate in the 2020 election. She later joined his administration. Bottoms beat out Trump-endorsed Rick Jackson, making expanding Medicaid coverage, homeowner tax relief and increasing education funding the key pillars of her campaign.

Rep. Byron Donalds is projected to become the first Black governor of Florida. He campaigned on tax reforms, regulating data centers and supporting Trump’s agenda in a state that has become more solidly red. He was bolstered early in the race with a full-throated Trump endorsement. Donalds defeated David Jolly, a former Republican congressman who became a Democrat last year and tried to appeal to voters as a pragmatic centrist. Texas state Rep. Gina Hinojosa is projected to become the first Hispanic governor of Texas, unseating Republican Gov. Greg Abbott who served almost 12 years in office. The two candidates clashed over culture issues, including abortion, during the campaign. Hinojosa, a 52-year-old state lawmaker and attorney, will be the first Democrat elected governor since Ann Richards in 1990 and only the third woman to hold the position. Deb Haaland is projected to become the first Native American governor of New Mexico, first female Native American governor in US history. The former US Interior Secretary and congresswoman was favored to win the state’s open governorship. During the Biden administration, Haaland became the first Native American Cabinet secretary.

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GOP Rep. Byron Donalds wins Florida governor’s race, becoming the state’s first Black leader

Republican Rep. Byron Donalds defeated Democrat David Jolly to become Florida’s next governor, NBC News projects, extending the GOP’s nearly three-decade run in the Governor’s Mansion. Donalds, who was endorsed early by President Donald Trump, was widely considered the favorite. He will become Florida’s first Black governor when he is sworn in next year. “Even if you didn’t vote for me, you have my word that I will be your governor, too,” Donalds told a crowd of some of Florida’s biggest Republican names gathered at the Hard Rock hotel Tuesday night. The mood throughout the day in South Florida was one of tension. For years, Republicans have dominated the state, but most public polling gave Jolly a shot of winning, which would have ushered in a political sea change in the state.

Donalds raised a staggering $130 million, giving him a huge financial advantage, and he was running in a state that has not elected a Democratic governor since 1994. Jolly did work to keep things closer than the last gubernatorial contest, which term-limited GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis won by more than 20 points. But Jolly, a former Republican congressman who became a Democrat, was outmatched and unable to secure much help from national Democratic groups, which have largely abandoned Florida over the past few election cycles. While Donalds welcomed support from Trump, much of his late messaging highlighted his endorsement from DeSantis and a promise to continue his legacy. DeSantis has a better approval rating than Trump in Florida, but he has had an icy relationship with Donalds. He did not endorse in the open GOP primary this year. “We have one goal, and that goal is for the free state of Florida to remain the free state of Florida,” Donalds said at a September event in Tampa where he stood next to DeSantis. “A lot of the issues that we’re talking about up here on this stage, this isn’t just talking points for this event.”

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Sullivan, Peltola project confidence in Alaska US Senate race

The two major candidates in Alaska’s U.S. Senate race urged supporters to be patient as results began coming in late Tuesday, delivering rousing speeches and expressing confidence against the backdrop of the fallout from allegations of partisan tricks to recruit a candidate with the same name as the Republican incumbent. The race headlined by two-term Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan and Democratic former U.S. Rep. Mary Peltola had been among those expected to play a role in determining which party gained control of the Senate. Democrats had won control before polls closed Tuesday night in Alaska. “Lower 48 blue wave. But we’re different,” Sullivan told supporters after initial results were reported. Peltola during her election night party said: “We are getting our government back.”

The race brought top Republican officials to Alaska to rally for Sullivan, including President Donald Trump, who placed particular focus on a third candidate in the race, retired teacher Dan J. Sullivan. Trump called him “fake” and ordered that the Justice Department sue to block certification if the incumbent loses, pending an investigation into potential voter confusion. The lawsuit, filed less than two weeks before the ranked vote election, was dismissed by a federal judge, prompting a Justice Department appeal. The race remained too early to call. The candidacy of Dan J. Sullivan, who won 2.5% of the vote in the August open primary and qualified for the general election with a top-four finish, dominated attention in the final days of the race after The New York Times reported that Peltola’s campaign appeared to be involved in efforts to recruit him. The report revived long-held suspicions raised by the incumbent and his allies that Dan J. Sullivan was a “sham” candidate intent on confusing voters. Peltola denied involvement in any such efforts, and Dan J. Sullivan, who lives in the small fishing community of Petersburg, has denied any contact with Peltola’s campaign. He has not returned messages in recent days. Peltola appeared to reference the controversy in her speech late Tuesday, saying she was looking out on a room of people who are “smart people and know exactly who they’re voting for.”

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Troy Jackson defeats Sen. Susan Collins to win Maine US Senate race

Democrat Troy Jackson won Maine's U.S. Senate seat early Wednesday morning, defeating longtime Republican Sen. Susan Collins. Sen. Collins conceded in the race. Collins was seeking her sixth term, which would have made her the longest-serving Senator in Maine history. Jackson initially did not plan to run for Senate this year and instead threw his hat in for the Democratic nomination for governor, but lost. Jackson a fifth-generation logger and former president of the state Senate, had a little more than 100 days to sell himself to Maine voters after he replaced Graham Platner as the party's nominee in July following sexual assault allegations against Platner.

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Adam Hamilton wins Kansas Senate race, becoming first Democrat elected to seat in nearly a century

Methodist megachurch pastor Adam Hamilton (D) defeated Sen. Roger Marshall (R) in Kansas. The state sends a Democrat to the U.S. Senate for the first time in nearly a century. Kansas, which Donald Trump won by 16 percentage points in the 2024 presidential election, was not supposed to be competitive. But Trump’s sinking approval ratings, Hamilton’s strong public profile and several potent scandals involving Marshall put the traditionally Republican territory into play. In a victory speech on Tuesday night that often sounded more like a church sermon, Hamilton vowed to “lead from the middle” and made a call for a “politics of decency.” “In deeply red Kansas, the heart of America, I want us to model what it looks like when thoughtful people actually work together to solve problems,” he said, “instead of slinging mud at each other.”

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Lead Stories

Manufacturing sector marks 10 straight months of growth ahead of midterms

U.S. manufacturing activity expanded slightly in October, marking 10 straight months of growth leading into the midterms. The manufacturing purchasing managers’ index (PMI) was 55.5 percent last month, up from 54.5 percent in September, the Institute for Supply Management (ISM) reported Monday. Four of the five subindexes that make up the PMI increased from September, as new orders, production, supplier deliveries and inventories rose last month. Employment growth, meanwhile, slowed by 0.3 percentage points in October. General sentiment also declined for the third straight month, as 66 percent of comments the ISM received were negative. Persistent inflation stemming from the Iran war and President Trump’s tariffs has hampered the manufacturing industry. Energy prices rose by 5.2 percent from August to September and were up 20.4 percent year over year, according to the consumer price index.

Energy commodity prices in September were up 9.3 percent from August and 35.3 percent from September 2025. Trump has long pledged to revive the American manufacturing sector, arguing his tariffs will compel companies to reshore jobs in the U.S. But the sector has shrunk slightly from roughly 12.67 million employees at the start of the president’s second term to about 12.65 million in September, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. The president recently announced Audi will construct a new factory in Georgia, the company’s first U.S. production facility. Through the $4 billion investment, the automaker will create 4,500 jobs, Audi said in an Oct. 25 release. Multiple Senate races in manufacturing-heavy states, including Michigan, Ohio and Texas, will be crucial in determining the balance of power in the upper chamber. Democrats need to flip a net of four seats to take control of the Senate.

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Democrats show strength in final days of race for the Senate, new polls find

Democrats are ahead of Republicans in almost all of the seven battleground states that will determine which party controls the Senate, according to the final set of polls from The New York Times and Siena University before the midterm elections. The surveys found that Democrats hold sizable leads in Texas, which has not elected a Democrat to the Senate since 1988, and Kansas, which has not elected one since 1932. To win a Senate majority, Democrats need to defend all the seats they currently hold and flip at least four seats that are currently held by Republicans. It has been seen as an uphill battle because many of the seats they need to win are in Republican strongholds. But the new polls found Democratic candidates ahead in five states that now have Republican senators and effectively tied in a sixth. They hold leads in Kansas, Maine, Ohio and Texas and a narrow edge in Alaska. They are effectively tied in Iowa.

In Michigan, the lone top Senate battleground already held by Democrats, the poll found the Democratic candidate leading by double digits. (It was conducted before a Democratic feud erupted in Michigan this weekend.) The surveys did not include North Carolina, where polls have long found the Democrat leading and Republicans have pared back their campaign spending. Dissatisfaction with President Trump and frustration over his management of the economy are dragging down Republicans, according to the polls. Just 38 percent of likely voters approved of the president’s job performance in the seven states in the poll, a strikingly low figure given that Mr. Trump had won five of the states by double digits just two years ago. The newfound Democratic strength was powered by growing trust in the party to handle the economy — the key motivating issue for voters this year. Democrats hold a nine-point advantage on the cost of living across the battlegrounds, and they led on this crucial measure in every single state. If the polls are accurate and these trends hold, Democrats would win control of the Senate.

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Texas urban counties prepare for legal fights ahead of Election Day

Ahead of Election Day, two of Texas' largest counties are gearing up for potential intervention from the state or federal government. The preparation comes as President Donald Trump's administration is already seeking to intervene in California and Alaska's elections, and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton's office challenges get-out-the-vote efforts in Harris County. Harris County Attorney Abbie Kamin, whose office serves as legal counsel for county government, has set up an election protection legal taskforce of over 30 attorneys. In an interview with Houston Public Media, she said the team includes former employees of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), whom she recruited for their expertise in civil rights and voting rights.

Kamin also tapped prominent voting rights attorney Chad Dunn as outside counsel, along with additional subject matter experts whom she declined to name but said would be focused on threats from the federal government. She pointed to a recent video statement from U.S. Attorney Aaron Reitz as an example of a threat. "If you violate federal election law, I will hunt you down and prosecute you," Reitz said in the statement, "Whether it’s the president’s playbook of desperation, a corrupt state attorney general that may also get very desperate, or a governor that has failed Texans and made it very clear that he has bent the knee to the president regardless of the legality of a matter, we’re not going to allow any agency at any level to trample on the rights of eligible voters," said Kamin, a Democrat who is running for re-election against Republican opponent Jacqueline Smith. Gov. Greg Abbott's office declined to respond to Kamin's comments and deferred questions about election-related preparations to the Texas Secretary of State's office, which did not respond. Attorney General Ken Paxton's office also did not respond to questions.

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Entrepreneur Adam Robinson and former PR chief Helen Sharp among 7 jet crash victims ID'd

Austin tech entrepreneur Adam Robinson, his wife Helen Sharp and their two young children, ages 2 and 4, were among the nine people who died Sunday afternoon when a private jet crashed in Florida, according to Sharp's father, Dudley Sharp. A joint statement released Monday afternoon identified the other deceased passengers as Rachael Reed, Charmi Fehr and Anita Maria Cetina. “With broken hearts, our families share that Adam Robinson and Helen Sharp, their children Emma and Charlie, Rachael Reed and Charmi Fehr, and Anita Maria Cetina were among those lost,” the joint statement from the deceased passengers' families said.

“We are deeply grateful to the first responders, investigators, and the Palm Beach County community for their care, and to everyone who has reached out with love. Our hearts are also with the families of the pilots, who are grieving alongside us. We ask for privacy as we grieve.” Cetina was a nanny for Robinson and Sharp's two children, Emma, 4, and Charlie, 2. Rachael Reed and Charmi Fehr were a couple who were friends of the family. Robinson's father told the American-Statesman the couple was from Austin. He also said Cetina resided in Colorado. The Learjet 60 was flying from Austin to the Bahamas when it crashed in a residential area near Cresthaven, Fla. Robinson, 45, founded and self-funded several e-commerce and marketing software companies, including Austin-based Retention.com. He had a large following on LinkedIn, where he posted frequently about business strategy, and a growing YouTube channel, where he frequently advocated for growing startups without venture capital. According to his LinkedIn profile, Robinson attended Rice University, where he played varsity basketball and graduated in 2003 with a bachelor's degree in economics and Spanish literature. At the time of his death, he served as CEO of Retention.com, RB2B and MoltSets, a startup he founded in June.

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State Stories

Greg Abbott hired an election denier to protect Texas elections. He’s using the job to attack Muslims.

One evening in early September, Nate Schatzline stood onstage before a group of right-wing activists, eager to tell them about all he was doing to save America. Speaking in his new role as a top adviser to Governor Greg Abbott on election-security issues, he outlined how he planned to combat widespread voter fraud. He described how as a young father and pastor, he was “radicalized” by COVID-19 church closures and compulsory sex education in schools. And he vowed to continue battling “demonic forces” and the “globalist agenda.” But his primary focus was an existential menace: “The greatest threat to our Western society right now is the rise in Islam in the state of Texas,” Schatzline told the members of Texas First Conservative Alliance, a grassroots GOP group based in Lampasas County. “And by the way, I want you to notice something, because the governor agrees on this: I didn’t say ‘radical Islam.’ I said ‘Islam,’ because all Islam is radical.” Texas Monthly obtained a video of Schatzline’s speech, which has since been made public, as well as other documents from his first months as a top aide to the governor. Taken together, they show that the former Texas House member and 2020 election denier has already begun working to bring his hard-line Christian nationalist views into state policy.

Among his goals for the coming year: preventing mosques from serving as polling places; cracking down on what he claimed is a Muslim practice of casting votes on behalf of long-dead relatives; and working with Abbott and right-wing Texas House members to reclassify Islam as a political ideology—a move that the far right has long sought so that it can legally target Muslims without running afoul of religious-liberty protections. In the meantime, Schatzline suggested, mosques could be invalidated as polling places if they were provoked into discriminating against non-Muslims. “I might just have to start eating bacon every time I vote,” he said to laughter. As for election issues, Schatzline said he was already assisting the Secretary of State’s ongoing cleanup of voter rolls and that he expects lawmakers will use the 2027 legislative session to drastically increase their ability to intervene in local elections. Neither Schatzline nor Abbott’s office agreed to interview requests for this story. Nor did the governor’s office respond to a list of questions from Texas Monthly. The revelations come amid a major uptick in anti-Muslim bigotry that has been fomented by GOP leaders. In recent years, Republican lawmakers and officials have accused Muslims, who make up just 2 percent of the state population, of secretly moving to take over Texas and institute sharia—a wide-ranging set of Quranic legal and moral principles not dissimilar to those found in many other religious texts.

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Tarrant County Libertarians allege political discrimination in court filing

The Tarrant County Libertarian Party is pursuing legal action against the board that oversees mail-in ballots, alleging political discrimination by Republicans with less than 24 hours before polls open on Election Day. On Monday, Nov. 2, the Tarrant County Libertarian Party asked the 2nd Court of Appeals in Fort Worth to limit the number of people from the Republican Party who can serve on Tarrant County’s early voting ballot board. The party alleges that the Tarrant County Early Voting Ballot Board has appointed a lopsided number of Republicans to handle primarily mail-in ballots.

The ballot board is charged by state election code to oversee mail-in and overseas ballots as well as watch the election judges bring drive of ballots from each polling location on Election Day. Amie Super, the Republican ballot board judge, is in charge of scheduling individuals from the Democratic, Libertarian and Republican parties to count ballots. The appeals court, in a ruling Monday afternoon, asked the Election Board to respond by noon on Nov. 3. The members of the early voting ballot board are appointed by the Tarrant County Election Board, which consists of county judge, elections administrator, the sheriff and the Republican and Democratic party chairs. Super did not respond to requests for comment on Monday. This “scheduling” means that people are brought into the Tarrant County Elections Administration building at 2700 Premier St. to sort through the mail ballots. The process is livestreamed. According to an email from a Secretary of State attorney shared with the Star-Telegram, Super has been in violation of the Texas Election Code for scheduling ballot board members in a lopsided manner.

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Could Texas Democrats withstand another loss, especially in such a favorable year?

When Beto O'Rourke came within a whisker of knocking off incumbent U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz in 2018, Texas Democrats were like fans of a baseball team that had finally made it into the postseason after years — even decades — of finishing in or near the cellar of the standings. The Democrats could console themselves that they had shown in that Senate race, and in a couple of others down the ballot, that at least they belonged on a big-league ballfield. But this cycle, with the wind lifting their sails blowing even stronger in their direction than it was eight years ago, coming close simply will not cut it for Texas Democrats.

Not for their psyche. Not for their ability to recruit quality candidates, generous donors and grassroots volunteers in the future. And, perhaps most importantly, not if they want to stop the Republicans from rolling over them yet again on every issue they hold dear when the Legislature convenes in January. The 2026 midterm cycle started more than a year ago with most pundits, and probably most voters, believing that Texas Democrats were cooked before the kitchen had even opened. Republicans had redrawn the state's congressional districts in a way that, on paper, would put five more seats in their column. Gov. Greg Abbott was seeking a record fourth term, sitting on more than $100 million and promising to spend whatever it took to crush Democrats in one of their few strongholds: heavily populated Harris County. The state's best-known Democrats took a pass on challenging him. They also passed on challenging Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who, over his own three terms in office, had done more to marginalize legislative Democrats than perhaps anyone in Texas history.

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Six things we learned from Victor Wembanyama's "60 Minutes" interview

Victor Wembanyama isn’t afraid to chart his own path, whether in his NBA career, his training or his pursuit of a championship with the San Antonio Spurs. The 22-year-old French superstar offered a glimpse into his life on and off the court during an interview with CBS’ “60 Minutes.” Wembanyama reflected on his NBA Finals heartbreak, a health scare, his training habits and his vision for a new era of Spurs basketball. He also shared candid thoughts about living in the United States, the responsibility that comes with being an NBA superstar and why he refuses to wait patiently for a championship. Here are some of the biggest revelations from the interview.

Wembanyama reflected on his aggressive play during last season’s playoff run, when the Spurs reached the NBA Finals against the New York Knicks. “It showed my limits more than anything else,” Wembanyama told Wertheim. “Going out there, you need to play basketball. You don’t need to beat the (expletive) out of people if you want to win, at least.” His comments followed several controversial playoff encounters, including an ejection for elbowing then-Timberwolves forward Naz Reid in the neck and an incident in which Wembanyama shoved Knicks guard Jalen Brunson in the face while setting a screen. At 7-foot-4, Wembanyama combines size, athleticism and skill in a way rarely seen in NBA history. That combination presents challenges. Unlike many NBA stars, he said, he has no established blueprint to follow in his career or training. “I am comfortable not knowing my answers,” Wembanyama said. “I am comfortable walking through the fog.” A blood clot in Wembanyama’s shoulder, which prematurely ended his second NBA season in 2025, changed his perspective on life. “After that it’s like, life is so short, I don’t even wanna waste it being somebody else,” he said.

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Chevron keeps Microsoft data center plan despite Texas pause

Chevron Corp. expects to power up a Microsoft Corp. data center project in West Texas on schedule despite Governor Greg Abbott’s suspension of digital infrastructure permits. The energy company is working on permitting, engineering work and financing, Chevron Chief Financial Officer Eimear Bonner said during an interview. “And we don’t see any of those things impacting the overall schedule of first power in 2028” and ramp up by 2031, she added. Chevron and Joulent LLC agreed to a deal with Microsoft to supply natural gas to power a large-scale data center in the Permian Basin earlier this year. But the development, known as Project Kilby, has been held up by Abbott’s decision to pause data center developments due to local opposition. Critics have said the pause is only temporary as Abbott is campaigning for a fourth term in Tuesday’s elections. Project Kilby would supply its own power, meaning it wouldn’t raise prices for consumers, Bonner said. It also will rely on non-potable water for cooling, eliminating any impact on drinking water supplies. “That is why on August 6th, Governor Abbott announced that the Kilby project complies with his standards,” Bonner said.

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Produced water could fill increasing Texas water needs

As the competition for water across Texas grows, some state leaders are pointing toward the Permian Basin. Produced water comes up during oil production. For every barrel of oil produced, an average of six barrels of water come up. Lubbock State Senator Charles Perry says that equates to about 26 million barrels of water a day. The water contains contaminants like metals, minerals, traces of oil, and other material that make it unusable if untreated.

Perry said water quality is measured in total dissolved solids, in parts per million. He said people can drink water with about 500 parts, and up to 1,000 parts “probably.” Produced water has as much as 100,000 to 200,000 parts, he said. “I get a call from Exxon, one of our biggest producers in the Permian Basin, in the world, saying ‘we have too much water here and we need to get rid of it,’” Wayne Christian, a Texas Railroad Commissioner, said. Traditionally, disposal of produced water has consisted of injecting it back into reservoirs underground. “What we’ve discovered is that forced injection has created seismicity,” Perry said. “So when you hear about an earthquake, they’re tracing it back to oil and gas production and formation activity.” Besides the seismic activity, Perry says the other issue with forced injection is the lack of space left underground. “Within a year or two, they can no longer find places that are adequately built and naturally made for those injections,” Perry said. “So we’re running out of places to put the water.” Senator Perry is the chairman of the Agriculture, Water & Rural Affairs Committee. He’s worked on water supply issues for several years, and said he knew the technology existed to clean that produced water for reuse.

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New restrictions at Texas Tech are changing what professors can teach

Outside the library at Texas Tech University on a recent Wednesday morning, a small group gathered behind a folding table in a spot known to students as the "free speech area." Spread across the table flyers referenced names of familiar works. Homer's The Odyssey. William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. Herman Melville's Moby-Dick. Students streamed past on their way to and from class. Most kept walking. Every so often, someone lingered long enough to ask what the list was about. The people behind the table were Texas Tech professors. And the works printed on those flyers were examples of texts that professors say could run afoul of new rules governing what they can teach. Texas Tech is among the state's 45 public universities navigating a wave of higher education policy changes. That shift began with Senate Bill 17, the 2023 law banning diversity, equity and inclusion offices and programs at public universities, while explicitly exempting classroom instruction and academic research.

More changes followed in 2025, including new state oversight of university curriculum. Texas Tech has since adopted some of the state's most sweeping restrictions on how professors can teach about race, sex, gender identity and sexual orientation. The rules have led to changes in course materials, prompted accusations of censorship and fueled pushback from faculty and students. Deena Varner, an assistant professor of practice in English who's taught at Texas Tech for five years, was among the professors who stood in the Texas heat talking with students about how the new rules could affect the courses they take. Varner said she and her colleagues have spoken with hundreds of students since they began tabling nine months ago, continuing even after university administrators instructed faculty not to discuss the new policies with students. Inside the classroom, professors face the uncertainty of what's allowed to be taught.

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Indicted ICE agent surrenders himself in Harris County court

Mario Alberto Morales, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer indicted by a grand jury last week, surrendered himself in a Harris County District Court Monday. In Harris County 488th District Court, Morales entered in a gray suit and purple tie alongside his legal team David Lindenmuth and newly added co-counsel former Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg. In one-word answers, Morales acknowledged he understood the charge against him. Lawyers for the district attorney’s office requested a $75,000 bond due to the "violent nature" of the incident and some "admissions of prior drug use" they uncovered in their investigation.

Morales' lawyer David Lindenmuth countered and requested a $25,000 bond, arguing his client posed no flight risk and that there is no on-going threat to the community. Judge Matthew Peneguy, who presided over the hearing, ordered a $30,000 bond and said Morales is to have no contact with any of the victims or witnesses in the case. Morales was indicted for a second-degree felony offense of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. The agent is accused of striking Miguel Parra-Hernandez with his vehicle, breaking his leg and ankle, on Oct. 10. An ICE spokesperson claimed Parra-Hernandez ran in front of the vehicle while fleeing from the scene of an attempted traffic stop. In a press conference after the hearing, Michael Wynne, the lead defense attorney for Morales, called the indictment politically motivated. Wynne is also part of the legal team representing ICE agent Christian Castro, who was indicted in September by Minnesota prosecutors in connection with the shooting of a Venezuelan man in January. He said the team anticipates filing to move Morales’ case to federal court. Wynne has already requested Castro’s case to be moved to federal court, but said that request is still pending.

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Texas candidates still may not be connecting with Latino voters, data suggests

Despite the growing influence of Texas’ Latino voters, early polling by Spanish-language media group TelevisaUnivision suggests candidates still may be failing to connect with them. TelevisaUnivision CEO Daniel Alegre told the Current the poll results suggest campaign messages have failed to resonate with many Latino voters, despite the hundreds of millions of dollars candidates and parties poured into political ads this cycle. “When you have a broad-based message that is supposed to appeal to everyone watching, you’re not narrowing down on the specific issues and the specific nuances that matter to the Hispanic vote,” Alegre said. A survey of 1,000 registered Hispanic voters, conducted by the Cook Political Report and TelevisaUnivision, found that two-thirds of potential voters want to see candidate outreach in Spanish.

Meanwhile, the report found that around 69% of Hispanic voters said they recognized candidates’ Spanish-language media as reflecting a desire to win over the viewer’s vote. While Republicans have spent nearly $240 million on political advertising in Texas’ U.S. Senate race, just $3.5 million, or 1.5% of the total, has gone to Spanish-language ad buys, the Texas Tribune reports. Democrats have spent $5.3 million of their $98 million in advertising in that race on Spanish-language buys. The TelevisaUnivision poll also showed a consistent picture of Hispanic voters remaining issue-driven, with affordability repeatedly emerging as a top concern. After historically moving toward Republican candidates in 2024, the group’s renewed support for Democrats has solidified Latino voters as a competitive electorate for both parties, Alegre said. Democratic gubernatorial candidate Gina Hinojosa has done Spanish-language outreach through both community events and Spanish-language ad buys. Her latest Spanish-language buy is a 30-second spot titled “No Te Dejes.” For his part, incumbent Republican Gov. Greg Abbott has released Spanish-language ads criticizing the policies of Hinojosa, an Austin-area state rep.?

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Ted Cruz jokes that Democrats won’t show up to vote if someone gives them pot brownies

U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz considers himself a wit. Whether anyone else finds the Texas Republican funny is another matter entirely. Cruz, who’s been frank about predicting sweeping Democratic victories in the midterms, jokingly advised a Republican audience on Friday that they could hold off that big bad blue wave by offering progressive relatives and neighbors pot brownies. “Your crazy Uncle Louis, who has a tattoo of Chairman Mao on his left buttocks, call him and say, ‘Louis, be sure to vote next Wednesday,’” Cruz said at a rally supporting U.S. Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kansas. “And all day Tuesday, they have free marijuana brownies at the YMCA.” Get it? Democrats are commies, and they’re so dumb, all it takes is one brownie baked with the devil’s lettuce to convince them the election is taking place Wednesday! I tell ya, kid, when a bit works, it works! Cruz’s remarks, first reported on by Marijuana Moment, suggest that as the senator ramps up for a predicted 2028 presidential run, we’re in for a punishing two years of dad jokes, partisan barbs and you-kids-get-off-my-lawn social commentary that have aged as well as a Three’s Company rerun.

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Dallas Fed’s Logan says 2 more rate hikes needed

At least two more interest rate hikes will be needed to effectively curb inflation, Dallas Fed President Lorie Logan says. The comments from Logan, one of 12 voting members on the Federal Reserve’s Federal Open Market Committee, the influential body charged with setting national monetary policy, amounted to a forceful display of future public policy guidance two days after the group voted to hold rates steady. Logan’s comments also came as millions of Americans are already voting in a high-stakes midterm election that’s revolved largely around affordability. On Wednesday, while acknowledging elevated inflation, the FOMC voted 10-2 to hold rates steady, with Logan voting for the majority.

But going forward, maintaining interest rates at their current level won’t be enough to tamp down rising prices, Logan told an audience of students at Davidson College in North Carolina on Friday. “It remains clear to me, given the current outlook, that the FOMC needs to implement at least two more 25-basis-point rate increases,” Logan said, according to a transcript published by the Dallas Fed. “After that, it would make sense in my view to pause and examine economic and financial developments to determine what further action may be appropriate.” Logan, a Federal Reserve veteran who has served as the Dallas Fed’s president since 2022, is known as a relative policy hawk and has previously stressed the need for higher interest rates — in contrast to President Donald Trump’s demands to lower them — as an antidote to the persistently high prices impacting Americans. “More than five years after the post-pandemic surge, prices have continued to rise too rapidly,” Logan wrote in July, after she was one of three FOMC members who voted to raise rates at the time. “Every month of above-target inflation compounds the strain on the budgets of American families and businesses.”

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Why some Texas Democrats are forecasting a "Hispanic hurricane" in midterms

Two years ago, President Trump made historic gains with Hispanic voters nationwide and won a majority of Texas Hispanics, upending conventional wisdom and setting back the Democratic Party's hopes of making the state competitive. But now, Hispanics may be coming back. They're frustrated with the state of the economy and concerned about the Trump administration's immigration policies. These factors and Mr. Trump's sagging approval ratings are giving Democrats hope in Texas' competitive Senate, House and governor's races. "There's a Hispanic hurricane coming," said Democratic strategist and CBS News political contributor Chuck Rocha, who advises the Democratic Senate and gubernatorial candidates in Texas. "We just don't know quite yet if it's going to be Category 2 or Category 5, but it's washing ashore right in front of the GOP, and they don't know what to do about it."

But Republicans say enthusiasm for Democrats is still muted. An estimated 39 million Hispanic Americans are eligible to vote, an increase of about 5.2 million since 2022, according to the Pew Research Center. Democrats once viewed Latinos as a built-in advantage, predicting that they'd give the party an edge and make some states competitive. But in 2024, Mr. Trump won about 48% of the group, up 12 points from 2020 and 20 points from 2016, according to Pew's analysis of validated voters, largely for the same reasons Republicans are losing them now — the economy and immigration policy. Mr. Trump won Hispanic men by two points, despite losing them by 17 points in 2020. The gains were even more pronounced in Texas, where Mr. Trump won approximately 55% of Hispanic voters in 2024, according to exit polling, turning blue counties in the state's Rio Grande Valley region light red. But now, Mr. Trump's approval rating among Latinos stands at 24%, as of early October, with just 57% of Latinos who voted for the president in 2024 approving of his job performance — down from 93% in February 2025. And 51% of Latino voters said they planned to vote for a Democratic House candidate, compared to 24% who planned to vote for a Republican.

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National Stories

‘Pop-up’ super PACs pour $637 million into 2026 midterm races

A super PAC called Our Heritage Matters registered with the Federal Election Commission on Oct. 15. Five days later, it began spending to boost third-party candidates and attack Republicans. By Oct. 29, the group had spent about $1.2 million across 10 House and Senate races, according to a CNBC analysis of FEC filings. What voters still cannot see is who supplied the money. Because Our Heritage Matters formed after a key campaign finance reporting deadline on Oct. 15, its first regular report identifying its donors is not due until Dec. 3, a month after Election Day. The group is an extreme example of a broader surge reshaping the midterm election: late-forming super PACs, including the latest-forming “pop-up PACs,” pouring money into races before voters know where it came from.

Federal law requires super PACs and political committees to report large independent expenditures within 24 or 48 hours depending on how close to Election Day the spending occurs, showing how much they spent and which candidates they supported or opposed. Their donors, however, are disclosed less frequently through periodic campaign finance reports. And in 2026, the practice of creating new, last-minute PACs has exploded. Both parties are using the tactic, with Republican-linked PACs spending about twice what those connected with Democrats have disbursed. Twenty-two super PACs that registered with the FEC during the final 10 weeks before Election Day have each spent at least $1 million on congressional races, according to CNBC’s analysis. Together, they had reported roughly $637 million in independent expenditures by Oct. 29 — about one-sixth of all independent spending reported in House and Senate races this election cycle. The number of million-dollar late-forming super PACs has more than quadrupled since 2022, while their spending has grown nearly 35-fold.

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Trump focuses on Reflecting Pool in final public speech before midterms

President Donald Trump began his final scheduled in-person speech before Tuesday’s Election Day with a lengthy disquisition about his efforts to renovate the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool and other sites in Washington. “Today I’m thrilled to announce the official opening of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool,” Trump said Monday afternoon in front of the water feature, which was fenced off for months amid a problem-plagued renovation the president had ordered. The speech, which lasted nearly an hour, was expected to serve as Trump’s “closing argument” on the midterms before millions of voters head to the polls to determine which party will control the House and Senate in the next Congress.

But Trump kicked off his remarks with more than 20 minutes of commentary that focused largely on the Reflecting Pool, along with his administration’s work on refurbishing other Washington-area monuments and cracking down on crime in the nation’s capital. “The pool is now better and more beautiful than it’s ever been before, and we’re very proud of it,” Trump said, before repeating unfounded claims that vandals were responsible for damaging the pool and delaying repairs. U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro told a court July 31 that the damage was caused by a contractor’s botched installation. Trump lashed out at Pirro over the admission and has continued to claim vandals were to blame. Trump’s first explicit reference to the midterms came around the 23-minute mark. “As you know, this is the last day before the midterm elections, the most important midterm, I believe, in our lifetime,” Trump said.

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What caused the ratings decline at Fox News?

Fox News Channel is heading into Tuesday's midterm elections with an unusual problem: Its television audience is shrinking, even as its recent financial results remain strong. America's most-watched cable news network lost 27% of its total day viewers in October compared with a year earlier, while CNN and MS NOW gained ground. Among adults 25–54, Fox's total day audience fell 32% to an average of 98,000 viewers, its lowest monthly level in 25 years, according to Nielsen data. So where did Fox's viewers go? And is October a temporary dip in political news viewing or the beginning of a more lasting shift? Those questions extend beyond Fox. Cable news has spent years trying to hold on to audiences as viewers migrate to streaming and digital platforms. Fox has weathered those changes better than most, but even the industry's dominant player isn't immune.

The October numbers illustrate that tension. Fox News averaged 1.1 million total day viewers, compared with 588,000 for MS NOW and 402,000 for CNN. It captured 53% of the three networks' combined audience and accounted for 99 of October's 100 most-watched cable news telecasts. Fox News also says it's on pace for its highest-rated midterm year in total day viewers. In a statement to TheWrap, Fox emphasized its ratings leadership and digital reach. And Lachlan Murdoch shrugged off the decline on Monday's earnings call, chalking it up to fatigue. "What we are seeing is some viewer fatigue, where our viewers have gone through an incredible news cycle last year with the inauguration, the Charlie Kirk tragedy, DOGE, flooding, it was an incredible news cycle last year," Murdoch said. "Those viewers are not switching to another news channel, they are just fatigued and watching slightly less television overall. We have seen this playbook, and we know how to move through it." Its business has shown resilience, too. Ad revenue across parent Fox Corp.'s cable programming segment, which includes sports networks, rose 10% in fiscal 2026, while distribution revenue increased 5%, according to its annual filing. Higher advertising prices and distribution fees helped offset pressure from lower ratings and declining cable subscriptions. But those results predate October and don't establish how Fox performed financially during the month. Nor do they explain what happened to its television audience. One possibility is that some of Fox News' conservative viewers are simply growing tired of political news rather than turning against the network itself, according to a former Nielsen executive.

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Flouting consumer law, insurers refuse to pay medical bills for emergency care

Over the past two years, Flight for Life has airlifted car crash victims, premature babies and adults struggling to breathe to hospitals across southeastern Wisconsin. Anthem, the major health insurer, covered dozens of those patients, but it has refused to pay $2.1 million it owes the company for their helicopter rides. The amounts due for each emergency medical flight range from $9,382 to $62,373. Anthem has historically paid its bills, but late last year it suddenly stopped. “It was like a faucet they just shut off,” said Flight for Life’s executive director, Leif Erickson. The insurer’s willful nonpayment is the latest in a cascade of unintended consequences brought about by a widely supported law that was intended to protect patients from surprise medical bills. The law, which took effect in 2022, calls for arbitrators to decide appropriate levels of reimbursement, and it has already triggered millions of disputes between medical care providers and insurers. Doctors have prevailed overwhelmingly, winning arbitration settlements that sometimes far exceeded the usual insurer rates.

Now, fed up with what they consider unfair outcomes, insurers are fighting back by refusing to pay. The law, the No Surprises Act, was enacted with a large bipartisan majority to ensure patients never got excessive bills in situations, like emergencies, where they could not pick their doctors. The arbitration system set up by the law was supposed to resolve billing disputes when health care providers and insurers could not agree on a price: An arbitrator reviews a proposed dollar amount from each side and decides which one is most reasonable. Insurers are required to pay that amount within 30 days, and billing patients for anything beyond that is prohibited. Lawmakers expected the system to be used rarely and to produce reasonable payments. Instead, doctors and other health care providers have been swamping arbitrators with millions of claims, often for amounts that far exceed what is customarily paid for a service. And they have won the vast majority of their cases — sometimes receiving sums such as $440,000 for a breast reduction, $73,000 for an ankle X-ray, or $125,000 for assisting on prostate surgery. Insurers have sued doctors and lobbied Congress to change the law, contending that the large awards and lopsided results are driving up health insurance premiums.

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Supreme Court rejects Trump’s attempt to segregate ballots in California

The Supreme Court on Monday quickly shut down President Donald Trump’s effort to force California to sideline potentially thousands of ballots that the Justice Department claims may have been cast by noncitizens, rejecting the administration’s emergency request hours after it was filed. The unusually fast decision underscored that the administration’s case, which was based on an uncertain methodology, was a reach that has been rejected by every court to consider it. The appeal also came to the high court on an exceedingly tight timeline — on the eve of the midterm election — with an unknown number of mail ballots in question likely already counted. The court did not explain its reasoning and instead handed down only a one-sentence order. There were no noted dissents.

Tens of millions of voters have already cast early ballots nationwide. “This office has been informed that the United States has identified more than 20,000 individuals who appear to be registered to vote in California based on publicly available information at the time that information was received, but who, in the United States’ view, are likely not U.S. citizens,” US Solicitor General D. John Sauer told the court earlier Monday. In another sign that the Supreme Court didn’t take the appeal especially seriously, the justices did not ask to see a response brief from California or other parties before ruling – as is their usual practice in high-profile cases. “After repeatedly losing in the lower courts, the highest court in the land firmly slapped down the Trump DOJ’s baseless attack on California’s electoral process — not even entertaining it,” Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom said in a statement. The rapid decision marked another major loss for Trump on election cases at the high court. In September, the justices rejected the president’s controversial plan to change how mail ballots are sent to voters across the country, rebuffing a proposal that election officials warned would have had catastrophic consequences if allowed to take effect for this year’s midterms.

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Midterm polls open as Democrats push to check Trump

Polls have opened in Maine, North Carolina and Ohio, three states with Senate races that could determine control of the chamber. In Maine, Sen. Susan Collins — the only Senate Republican representing a state Trump lost in 2024 — is seeking a sixth term in the Senate in a tight race against Democrat Troy Jackson. In Ohio, Republican Sen. Jon Husted, who was appointed in 2025 after Vice President JD Vance vacated his seat, is locked in a close race against Democratic former Sen. Sherrod Brown. And in North Carolina, Democratic former Gov. Roy Cooper is facing former RNC chairman Michael Whatley for a seat that opened after GOP Sen. Thom Tillis said he would retire.

Flash flooding, heavy rainfall and tornadoes have forced election officials in three different regions across the United States to move polling locations, scrambling Election Day plans in hot-button races. At least seventeen polling locations were moved in five Florida counties — including Brevard County, Indian River County, St. Lucie County, Martin County and Palm Beach County — after intense rainfall caused flash floods yesterday and into this morning. Roads were impassable in several parts of the state’s Atlantic coast after a storm dumped as much as 22 inches of rain in 24 hours in a storm that “exceeded everyone’s expectations,” as one forecaster put it. Severe storms were moving across Oklahoma, Texas and Arkansas overnight. Forecasters issued a tornado watch that lasted until about 2:45 a.m. local time this morning. Forecasters were also predicting possible flash flooding in parts of Alabama, Tennessee, Arkansas and Mississippi on Tuesday, as that storm system continued to travel east.

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‘He would wind her up’: Democratic anger at Haley Stevens’ fiancé boils over after her endorsement reversal

Late last fall, Haley Stevens decided to get off social media. The Michigan congresswoman told staffers working on her Democratic Senate campaign to send her important news — but she didn’t need to be distracted by mean-spirited comments about her appearance or mannerisms. But Jason Turkish, a lawyer and donor who staffers at the time thought was an overly involved friend, didn’t get the message. According to three people who worked on her campaign, Turkish — who became Stevens’ fiancé this spring — frequently sent Stevens comments about her that he’d found on social media. Posts mocking her looks, her speaking cadence, her positions on issues, including her support for Israel — all of it ended up in Stevens’ text messages, those people said.

“He would wind her up, and then we’d have to wind her down,” one top campaign aide said. It was one of a number of examples of Turkish’s influence in Stevens’ run for the Senate — a race that ended with her losing the Democratic primary in August by less than a percentage point to progressive Abdul El-Sayed. Tensions often emerge over political strategy between a candidate’s staff and family members. Those who worked on Stevens’ campaign and in her congressional office largely kept their frustrations with Turkish private. But Stevens’ decision Sunday to drop her post-primary endorsement of El-Sayed and endorse Republican nominee Mike Rogers — after appearing at a Detroit church with Rogers and Turkish — uncorked simmering Democratic anger at her fiancé, who told reporters he was voting for Rogers days before Stevens did so. In a tense Sunday night interview with CNN’s Anderson Cooper, Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI) refused to say directly why she withdrew her support from Michigan Senate hopeful Abdul El-Sayed and backed GOP candidate Mike Rogers in the high-stakes race.

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Lead Stories

9 killed after jet from Austin bound for Bahamas crashes in Florida

A private jet that took off from Austin-Bergstrom International Airport bound for the Bahamas crashed in Florida Sunday afternoon, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. A Learjet 60 crashed in a residential area near Cresthaven, Fla., around 12:50 p.m. local time Sunday, the FAA said. Nine people were on board. U.S. Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy confirmed on X all nine people were killed in the crash. It is unknown if any bystanders were injured. The aircraft departed Austin-Bergstrom International Airport and was headed to North Eleuthera Airport in the Bahamas, the FAA said. Jim Reynolds, a spokesperson for Austin-Bergstrom International Airport, could not immediately provide details about who was on the flight. He confirmed to the American-Statesman it was a private flight, not a commercial one.

“Our thoughts go out to all of those impacted by this tragedy,” he said. The National Transportation Safety Board confirmed to the Statesman that the jet’s tail number was N722BD. Federal records show the aircraft was registered to LR60271 LLC, a Delaware corporation. Before the plane was heading east at 35,000 feet when pilots reported turbulence, icing and precipitation and requested to climb 2,000 feet. According to air-traffic control recordings, a pilot reported ice accumulating on the jet and turbulence that was moving the jet as much as 700 feet. After requesting to climb, the pilot declared an emergency issued distress calls as the plane entered a steep dive. “We’re descending 8,000 — mayday, mayday — we’re descending 10,000 feet per minute,” the pilot radioed. The pilot then reported "an overspeed condition descending 20,000 feet per minute” before saying, "We're going to crash into the ground."

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Ken Paxton’s last stand

When Ken Paxton rolled up outside an airplane hangar in Rockwall, Texas, this October, he was putting three hard years in his rearview mirror. Paxton had faced some serious setbacks at work (impeachment); he’d weathered legal troubles (accusations of securities fraud); and his wife had filed divorce papers. But Paxton wasn’t going to be held down. The 63-year-old Texas attorney general left these setbacks behind, got in a freshly painted new vehicle and hit the open road. Instead of a Porsche or Corvette, Paxton opted for a tour bus. In between getting impeached and getting divorced, Paxton had announced a run for U.S. Senate, and on Oct. 17, he invited supporters to the small airport in Rockwall to kick off a 17-day trip across Texas. AC/DC’s “Thunderstruck” played over the loudspeakers as the hangar’s huge bay door opened to reveal Paxton’s bus parked just outside.

Right-wing pastor Daniel Hayworth’s amplified voice bounced in a tinny echo as he introduced “the next United States senator from the great state of Texas, my father-in-law, Ken Paxton!” The bus’s door swung open, and Paxton, dressed in his go-to blue sport coat, walked down its stairs. The crowd let out a sustained cheer. Paxton’s Democratic opponent, state Rep. James Talarico, has drawn huge crowds and wall-to-wall coverage with his promise to change Texas. Paxton has gotten less positive attention, and that’s in part because what he offers the state isn’t change; it’s continuity. Democrats haven’t won a statewide race here since 1994; no other state party, in any other state, has had a longer drought. Paxton is one of the Republicans who has managed to keep the Democrats at bay by constantly evolving his message; even after nearly 24 years in elected office, he has managed to portray himself as antiestablishment by persistently tacking to the right. Since he first entered politics in 2002, he has deftly transformed from a Bush-era conservative to tea party stalwart to MAGA warrior. That ideological nimbleness has kept Paxton and other Republicans in power. As once-red Arizona and Georgia turned into swing states, Texas held the line.

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Final rating changes: 63 races move toward Democrats, 1 toward Republicans

In the closing days of the midterm campaign, the fight for the House and Senate is taking place on traditionally Republican turf, including states and districts that would have been unthinkable Democratic targets at the beginning of the cycle. In total, Inside Elections has made a total of 64 race rating changes this week – 45 in the House, nine in the Senate and 10 for governor. All but one of those contests shift in a direction more favorable to Democrats. While President Donald Trump’s negative job approval rating is mostly to blame for Republican woes around the country, the rating changes don’t all fit a single mold. Some of the shifts are in swing districts, where it’s clearer that the Democratic nominee has at least a narrow advantage. But GOP candidates are struggling to pull away from their Democratic opponents in red districts and states as well.

Now, there’s a chance that the polls are underestimating Republican support or that GOP-leaning undecided voters will turn out and reluctantly support GOP candidates. But as I wrote two months ago, 2026 feels similar to 2006, when an unpopular Republican president and war in the Middle East created the conditions for a Democratic wave election. The final results could be remarkably the same. Twenty years ago, Democrats flipped both chambers, gaining six Senate seats and 30 House seats. Democrats appear well on their way to winning the House majority. While they only need a net gain of three seats, Inside Elections’ latest projection is that the party will gain between 20 and 30 seats. That’s the most bullish projection for Democrats at any point this cycle and a byproduct of the president’s standing and a shifting House battleground. In March 2025, when Inside Elections debuted its House ratings for the cycle, there were 64 races rated as competitive, including 30 Republican-held seats and 34 Democratic seats. Now the battleground has expanded and shifted into GOP territory, with 82 competitive races in all – 55 seats held by Republicans and 27 by Democrats. The Senate landscape has changed as well, with the latest rating changes all favoring Democrats. The party needs to flip four seats for a Senate majority, and Inside Elections now projects Democrats to gain between four and six seats.

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How Rep. Haley Stevens turned against a fellow Democrat—and became a party pariah

Rep. Haley Stevens’s journey from team player to pariah showcases some of the Democratic Party’s deepest divisions and the potential for politics to deliver the unexpected. Stevens stunned Democrats on Sunday when she withdrew her endorsement for her Democratic primary opponent, Abdul El-Sayed, and threw her backing behind Republican Mike Rogers in Michigan’s U.S. Senate race. The move required significant political gymnastics for Stevens, who in the span of less than three months has gone from bashing El-Sayed to praising him to bashing him again. She has had to perform a similar feat regarding her views of Rogers, a former congressman. In February, she said he “filled his campaign with bigots.” In June, she said his record on LGBTQ rights is “repulsive.” In August, she said he was a “rubber stamp for Donald Trump’s dangerous agenda.” As recently as Saturday, she sent out a flurry of texts telling allies she was still on team El-Sayed.

Then, just two days before Election Day, she blindsided her allies, her staff and the Michigan Democratic Party by publicly endorsing Rogers. In a 98-second social-media video, she criticized El-Sayed for recent rifts between them and said she was voting for Rogers but promised supporters she remained a “proud Democrat.” Her reversal sparked condemnations from Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.), who called it a “despicable betrayal,” and from her own state’s Democratic Party, who said she was no longer welcome as a member. By Sunday evening, when she said on CNN that her decision was “a weight off my shoulders,” she had become a pariah in her own party, which badly needs to win Michigan to keep alive its chances of taking back the Senate. Stevens didn’t respond to a request for comment. Stevens, a moderate Democrat and staunch supporter of Israel, narrowly lost the party’s primary for Senate to El-Sayed, a progressive who has campaigned on Medicare for All, taxing billionaires and ending unconditional aid to Israel. Stevens endorsed El-Sayed’s candidacy at the time. But their relationship remained strained, and in private, Stevens signaled her hesitation over the race. In September, writer Ray Wert recruited Stevens to put her name on an opinion piece criticizing Rogers and his candidacy. After initially agreeing to publish the piece, Stevens backed out, according to Wert, and didn’t let him submit the piece under her name. Wert is married to state Sen. Mallory McMorrow, who came in third in the Democratic Senate primary after exiting the race.

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State Stories

Cold front to send severe storms to Texas Monday. Here’s where.

After what will be a warm Monday across much of Texas, a cold front is expected to push through the state during the evening and overnight hours. While many won’t see a drastic temperature drop immediately, the front is expected to bring strong to severe thunderstorms to parts of North and Central Texas. The front won’t arrive in South Texas until early Tuesday morning, which will keep the severe weather threat lower locally. However, scattered showers and thunderstorms will still be possible in the Alamo City, along with the rest of the Interstate 35 corridor. Here’s an overview of what to expect.

A mild and very muggy morning is expected across South-Central Texas on Monday. Temperatures in San Antonio will sit in the upper 60s, and there is a high chance of patchy, dense fog across the region. Visibility could fall to less than a quarter-miles at times, especially between 5 a.m. and 9 a.m. By the late morning, the fog will finally clear, allowing temperatures to rise steadily. San Antonio is expected to reach 80 degrees by noon before high temps top out at 82 to 83 degrees. The incoming cold font will start to push through North Texas during the evening. Along the front, strong to severe storms are expected to form and progress eastward throughout the night. The highest risk of severe storms will be in North Texas, which is where a level 2 of 5 risk of severe weather has been issued. This includes cities such as Wichita Falls, Denton, Sherman, and the DFW metroplex. Damaging winds are the top threat with these storms, but isolated large hail and a few tornadoes are also possible.

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Republican group says it was wrongly linked to trans mailer campaign

A Republican women’s group says it was wrongly named in court filings this week over a scheme directing messages to Texas voters from a fake transgender student union. The Republican Women's Caucus Fund is a national political action committee focused on electing conservative women to Congress. A lawyer for the group said in an email Sunday that federal spending limits on PACs make it impossible that it could have paid for the text and mailing campaign, which sent messages and brochures to potentially millions of Texas voters. Civil district court Judge Jan Soifer had ruled on Wednesday that a real advocacy group named in the campaign and that brought the legal action, the Transgender Education Network of Texas, or TENT, had no role in it and is "suffering injuries, including harassment, threats, diversion of resources, and frustration of operations" as a result. Soifer said TENT should be able to depose the parties involved in the scheme.

The lawyer for the RWC Fund said Sunday that a phone number for the group was identified in the proceedings by a third-party vendor called Infobip, which was hired to send the text messages to Texas voters purporting to be from a transgender advocacy group. He said Sunday that “it’s not clear why the service provider claimed that a telephone number associated with RWCF was involved.” “My client vehemently denies the accuracy, authenticity, and attribution of any reporting that it was involved in activity targeting Texans,” wrote the lawyer, Steve Roberts. Infobip said in a statement that it had no involvement in authoring or creating the text messages, which it received from its customers and routed to telecommunications operators. The company said it was complying with a court order “requesting the identification of its customer and other information relating to the relevant telephone numbers.” “For reasons of confidentiality, we are unable to disclose more information,” the company said. “The name of Infobip customer is under confidentiality protection, therefore Infobip nor any other person is legally able to reveal it publicly.” TENT's lawyer, Mimi Marziani, said the court filings identified the RWC Fund, but “it’s not immediately clear where this association leads.” Marziani said they may have been implicated “because of some shared right-wing vendor.” Marziani said it remains unclear who ultimately was behind the messaging campaign and TENT is considering its next steps, including possibly suing the Texas Transgender Student Union. “All the evidence points to this being some sort of false flag, right wing operation and whoever did it went to great lengths, seemingly with great resources, to cover their tracks,” she said. “A lot of people have gotten injured in the process.”

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Goldman Sachs exec says Dallas is 'the future of the country'

Goldman Sachs Group Inc.?'s top executive in Dallas could not be more bullish on the city's future as a global financial center as the financial giant prepares to open its massive $709 million campus in 2028. "The reason why Goldman Sachs has invested so heavily in Dallas is we very much see the city as the future of the country," Aasem Khalil, head of Goldman Sachs' Dallas office, told Bloomberg TV? anchor Dani Burger during an on-stage interview at the inaugural Bloomberg Invest Dallas conference. Khalil, who is also global head of investment banking services for Goldman, was one of the many top finance leaders who gathered to discuss Dallas-Fort Worth's growing influence and the outlook for dealmaking during the event, which took place at the Joule Hotel in downtown Dallas on Oct. 26 and 27.

The conference drew senior executives from many of the top financial and commercial real estate firms like New York-based JPMorgan Chase & Co.?, Swiss financial giant UBS Group AG? and Dallas-based Crow Holdings, highlighting the Texas wealth wave and DFW's rise as "Y'all Street." Goldman Sachs' 800,000-square-foot building under construction in the North End development in Victory Park has topped out and is expected to open in 2028. The building will serve as a regional base for the financial giant, expected to house more than 5,000 employees across a wide range of functions and roles Khalil noted that Goldman had fewer than 900 employees when he moved to North Texas a decade ago. He cited DFW's population growth, deep talent pipeline, economic diversity and growing status as a financial center as factors that make the region compelling for investment. He also said Dallas has a "magnetism" that continues to attract companies and workers from across the country.

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‘There’s a lot of hate’: rightwing racism stirs south Asian mobilization in Texas

Last winter, while Pooja Sethi was canvassing to become the Democratic candidate for the Texas house of representatives, she received a text from a staff member alerting her to a post on X. The Turning Point USA influencer Savanah Hernandez – a Trump supporter known for creating videos that target immigrants – had posted a photo of Sethi’s campaign banner with the caption: “Welcome to politics in Texas.” The post went viral. The responses were so vile, Sethi said, “that I called my team and I said I’m going to go home because I need to be with my son. I’m a little scared about what’s happening right now.” The far right even turned her name into a racist slogan: “Don’t Pooja my Texas.” If elected, Sethi will become the first Asian Democratic woman and south Asian woman in the Texas legislature.

“I didn’t run to have to sit here and combat anti-Indian hate. I didn’t know that this was going to be a thing,” said Sethi to a room of about 50 south Asians gathered at a private community listening session on anti-south Asian hate in Austin at the height of election season in October. The event, which included Washington congresswoman Pramila Jayapal, was hosted by Indian American Impact, a nonpartisan group that supports south Asian candidates and voter engagement. Across the country, anti-south Asian hate has spiked since Trump took office. According to the Center for the Study of Organized Hate (CSOH), online rhetoric against south Asians surged by 240% between January 2024 and June 2026. In addition to citing xenophobia and racism, the report finds that economic resentment casting south Asians as “invaders” and “job thieves”, increased visibility in politics, and anti-migrant policies that include Trump’s prohibitive annual fee on H1-B visa applications, have contributed to the sharp rise in hate against south Asian communities of all faiths and nationalities. Rightwing public officials too have ramped up the xenophobic and racist rhetoric ahead of the midterm election: in September, on X, the Department of Homeland Security posted an AI-generated image resembling a movie poster that featured a Sikh man facing off against a character that looked like Optimus Prime from Transformers.

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Proposed international bridge divides border residents ahead of midterm election

In this Texas border city where international trade is the lifeblood of the local economy, a proposed commercial border crossing has mushroomed into a fierce debate. Developers and supporters of the Puerto Verde Global Trade Bridge envision "next generation commercial port of entry" for the region that includes Maverick County, Texas and Coahuila, Mexico and the border cities Eagle Pass and Piedras Negras. The proposed Puerto Verde bridge has become one of the most contentious local issues for the midterm elections despite not being on the ballot and it appears to be driving voter interest in a region wrestling with fundamental economic development issues. During a townhall hosted by Puente News Collaborative and Pulitzer Center, the Puente Verde controversy, The Puente Verde controversy, took center stage. The community engagement meeting followed a story by Hearst newspapers and the Puente News Collaborative.

In the story, Ruben Garibay, chairman of the Puerto Verde Binational Industrial Complex and Transportation, explained in an interview with Puente News and Hearst newspapers, why Puerto Verde is key for the future of the Eagle Pass-Piedras Negras region. "This is a golden opportunity for Eagle Pass, whether they see it or not," he said. "They will eventually see it. And that's OK. Sometimes it takes a man that is a trailblazer, that's going to do his own thing regardless of what happens, because I know I'm not hurting anybody." But the argument isn't simply whether Eagle Pass voters recognize the need for more economic development or have failed to appreciate Garibay's efforts. Few residents in this busy commercial corridor, which connects Mexico's industrial base to markets in the U.S. and Canada, dispute the importance of trade development. What's at stake is what that development should look like, where it should be allowed to flower and, most importantly for voters, who gets a say in the decision-making. For Maverick County Republican Party Chair Sandy Sassano, the Puente Verde project has raised concerns, from its proposed location and its impact on nearby residents to its environmental effects and what it will cost taxpayers.

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Watchdog accuses Texas State of ‘egregious’ First Amendment breach over paid advertisement

The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) on Friday accused Texas State University of “egregious” First Amendment violations after school officials removed paid advertisements from the student newspaper’s news stands. School officials seized the print advertisements on independent student newspaper The University Star’s newsstands on Oct. 23 because Democratic gubernatorial candidate Gina Hinojosa purchased ad space. Although the paper consulted free speech experts about whether the ad violated school policy, campus officials maintain that running the ad violated the university’s ban on “electioneering” within campus buildings.

“Simply put, the university has no right to deprive the University Star of its independence in advertising decisions or the revenue it would have earned had Texas State University not unconstitutionally interfered,” FIRE’s Student Press Counsel Marie McMullen said in a statement. McMullen continued: “By removing its advertisements, Texas State has not only harmed the University Star’s advertising revenue, but is also inflicting irreversible harm to its expressive rights. We therefore urge Texas State to immediately rectify its unconstitutional actions by restoring the signs to the University Star’s news racks.” It’s worth noting that Hinojosa’s campaign purchased ads through the same college media buyer at four other public Texas univerisities including UT El Paso, Texas A&M, the University of Houston and UT Dallas without issue, the University Star reports. It’s not the first time Texas State has found itself in the crosshairs of free speech advocates. Faculty members Thomas Alter and Idris Robinson both sued the school this year, alleging they were unfairly fired for expressing their political beliefs while off campus. Those firings were among the factors that prompted FIRE to rank Texas State as the nation’s worst college for free speech in its 2027 College Free Speech report. “The overall state of free speech on campus is grim,” FIRE President and CEO Greg Lukianoff said in a statement. “Too many college administrators wield their power to cancel controversial speakers, cave to government or student calls for censorship and limit academic freedom. This report emphasizes the need for colleges to embrace their constitutional obligations wholeheartedly.”

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Travis County Expo Center site considered for NHL expansion

The site of a future National Hockey League franchise in Austin could also be a nod to its past. As officials continue to evaluate both Austin and Houston for a potential NHL team, representatives from prospective franchise owner Pursuit Sports have circled in on the Travis County Exposition Center site in Northeast Austin as a top locale, several sources told the Austin Business Journal. It's most notably the home of the annual Rodeo Austin that happens every March. Discussions are said to be ongoing, but it was described by one source with knowledge of the situation as "one of the top sites under consideration."

It remains unclear where else the company – which is tied to the Friedkin Family – has looked in Austin and Houston as it narrows in on making a pitch to the NHL for the league's 33rd franchise. It is believed that if any decision comes, it will at the earliest be in December when the league's board of governors would have to vote to approve a new franchise. The 128-acre Expo site off Decker Lake Road and adjacent to Lake Walter E. Long has an unusual arrangement. It is owned by the city of Austin but is leased to Travis County to handle operations for a variety of uses, including concerts and agricultural events, as part of an agreement that ends in 2033. The Expo site has a long history of sports uses. It's home to the 6,400-seat Luedecke Arena that previously housed the city's last professional ice hockey team, the Austin Ice Bats, which played there as part of the Central Hockey League until 2006. It's also served as the home arena for a variety of indoor football league teams.

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What happens if federal election monitors show up in El Paso? County officials say they’re ready.

As the U.S. Department of Justice sets out to monitor counties throughout Texas and other states during Election Day on Tuesday, El Paso officials said they’re prepared to keep county voters and their ballots safe should federal officials show up and overstep their authority. El Paso County has not received notification that it’s among the counties being monitored, but officials haven’t ruled out the possibility. “We’re not anticipating any issues, but if there were to be any interference, the public should feel confident and assured that their votes are going to count, and if necessary, a response will be made quickly to make sure their votes are protected,” El Paso County Attorney Christina Sanchez said. Without disclosing details, she said her office is ready to file lawsuits or pursue other legal remedies should they be needed.

The Department of Justice regularly monitors federal elections to ensure compliance with voting laws – monitoring, documenting and reporting compliance problems – without intervening to address issues directly at the polls. The monitors cannot enter polling places without the consent of state or local election officials and cannot prevent voters from entering polling sites. The Justice Department recently said it was expanding its monitoring program, planning to send more than 1,000 monitors to jurisdictions across the country, including attorneys and others outside its Civil Rights Division that typically serve that role. Concerns have grown that the Justice Department, under President Donald Trump’s authority, could interfere with voting and “target certain voters based on their race, ethnicity, primary language or perceived political affiliation, and ultimately sow distrust in election results,” the nonprofit Campaign Legal Center said in an October fact sheet. Through executive orders, Trump has sought to restrict mail-in voting and implement new voter registration requirements – including asking for additional citizenship verification under some programs. The provisions were blocked by federal courts. Trump, who repeatedly claims without evidence that election fraud is widespread, maintains that the 2020 election that he lost to President Joe Biden was rigged.

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Texas energy companies urged to boost cyber resilience

Texas oil and gas regulators are urging the state’s energy industry to prepare for evolving cyber threats. Railroad Commission of Texas Commissioner Wayne Christian cited recent cyberattacks involving Texas-bound energy tankers in calling on producers, pipeline companies and other energy companies to strengthen their cybersecurity defenses.

“Texas is the energy capital of the world, and that makes our energy infrastructure a prime target for foreign adversaries,” Christian said in a statement. “When the cost of hesitation exceeds the cost of preparation, common sense says we act now to protect vital energy infrastructure from cyber threats. We must invest, test, monitor and strengthen our defenses now, before adversaries like China or Iran exploit a weakness and disrupt America’s energy security.” From the wellhead to the pipeline, oilfield equipment is increasingly connected to the internet. Companies are also using more artificial intelligence. All of this introduces more vulnerabilities. Vulnerabilities may allow hackers to steal proprietary drilling information, for example. Operators whose computers have been compromised may have to shut down operations while the intrusion is investigated. This spring, the agency issued a notice warning that cyberattacks could cause operational and financial disruptions. The notice came after the Environmental Protection Agency and Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency issued new advisories warning of an increased possibility of cyberattacks targeting internet-facing operational technology devices. That includes programmable logic controllers across the U.S.

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Houston to require better wages, health benefits for businesses receiving tax breaks

An $18 minimum wage, health insurance and workers' compensation for injuries — those are among the new requirements for businesses receiving tax abatements from the city of Houston. "Tax abatements are an important tool that cities can use, but we have to use them wisely," council member Alejandra Salinas, who spearheaded many of the provisions, told Houston Public Media. "We have to use them in a way that benefits all Houstonians, not just the companies that receive the tax break." The new rules approved by the Houston City Council on Wednesday tie workers' pay to the city's minimum wage for municipal employees — $18 an hour as of July — or to prevailing wages for construction work. The updated program also strengthens and expands requirements for apprenticeship training opportunities.

The city has approved 20 tax abatements since 2004, including for Chevron, Kroger, Memorial Hermann, Halliburton and UPS. For each project, companies promised to create jobs and generate community benefits in exchange for a negotiated amount of property tax relief — up to a maximum of 90% over ten years. Under the slate of new rules, contractors with a recent history of violating the Occupational Safety and Health Administration's rules or committing wage theft will be barred from participating in tax abatement-related construction projects. Council member Fred Flickinger pushed to limit such sanctions to OSHA violations in the Texas, Oklahoma and New Mexico region. Mayor John Whitmire supported the limit, but it failed in an 8-8 vote. Flinkinger was the sole vote against the overall tax abatement update. "In a perfect world, we wouldn't give out tax abatements," council member Fred Flickinger said. "We've muddied the water with a lot of different wish lists from people who want stuff done." During the city council's public comment session last week, Jennifer Hernandez, director of government affairs for the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades district council 10, said the city "should expect more than a promise of economic growth" in exchange for tax breaks. "We should expect good jobs, fair wages, safe working conditions and benefits that help working families make ends meet," Hernandez said. "From labor’s perspective, economic development should not come at the expense of the people who build our city or the taxpayers who help make these projects possible."

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Lone Star developers make a case for public infrastructure funding to help support long-awaited project

The latest owners of Lone Star Brewery are planning a full-scale makeover of the blighted industrial site that encompasses 57 acres in a mostly residential neighborhood south of downtown. In addition to building new for-sale and rental housing, retail and restaurant spaces, and music venues, Southstar’s president and CEO said it plans to improve streets, create new green space and trails, and restore the iconic brewery structures. To do that, the developer is seeking more than $63.7 million in public funding that will go toward $75 million of planned public space and upgraded infrastructure within the Lone Star neighborhood along the San Antonio River. Southstar’s Thad Rutherford told the board of the Westside Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone recently that the TIRZ expects to spend an estimated $575 million on a full-scale makeover of the neglected 32-acre property.

“We’re trying to create these public spaces and … [where] you can just walk into the district every day, and you could park there and feel like that’s not a spot that someone else from out of town will be,” Rutherford said, adding the district should be for everybody. The project will generate a projected $340 million in new tax revenue through 2050, including over $97 million for the San Antonio Independent School District, Rutherford said. Southstar projects the development to be assessed at almost $729 million by 2050, up from $24 million in 2026. Southstar, which developed the Mission Del Lago and Verano neighborhoods on the South Side, has so far been meeting with area neighborhood residents and other community groups for their input on the project. It’s also reviewing with the city the planned improvements to Lone Star Boulevard. That work could start in early 2027, Rutherford said during a recent community meeting. An online survey soliciting input on the project remains open to the public. The project is situated within both the Westside and Innercity TIRZ boundaries. Southstar plans to request a portion of the $63.7 million in public money from the Innercity TIRZ, Rutherford said, and another $20.7 million through a municipal management district (MMD) for the site, something that Southstar is pursuing through the state. An MMD is a government entity that allows a commercial property owner to issue bonds to help pay for public improvements such as landscaping, parks and sidewalks. The council approved an MMD for McCombs Enterprises’ Jones Avenue development, a 5.9-acre retail project underway just south of the Pearl. The developer’s TIRZ requests must be endorsed by the respective boards before going to council for final approval. Councilwoman Teri Castillo (D5), who chairs the Westside TIRZ, said she appreciated the opportunity to listen to area residents talk about what they wanted in the project, which has gained steam after 20 years of ownership changes and unmet promises for redevelopment. “I see this as a citywide project because, as we mentioned, it’s hugged by District 3, District 2, and District 1, and then of course it is the majority within D5,” she said. “It’s just at this really interesting intersection of our districts that folks from all throughout the city will eventually access.”

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National Stories

US awards last of Trump’s massive strategic oil reserve drawdown

The Trump administration awarded contracts for nearly 41 million barrels from the nation’s emergency oil reserve, completing a massive oil exchange aimed at curbing soaring energy prices after the war with Iran. Trafigura Trading LLC and ExxonMobil Holdings Corp., were among the winners, according to the Energy Department. The sale marks the last of a 172 million-barrel emergency release from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, the second-largest in its history. The release was the US contribution to a broader International Energy Agency plan to put 400 million barrels onto global markets. The US has released a total of 174.1 million barrels since the war started, exceeding its initial 172 million-barrel pledge made with the IEA.

Crude, gasoline, diesel and jet fuel prices have surged since military operations against Iran began on Feb. 28, intensifying pressure on President Donald Trump to address rising fuel costs ahead of November’s midterm elections, which could determine control of the House and Senate. Still, Energy Secretary Chris Wright has signaled another drawdown from the reserve is unlikely. “I think the releases will spill into January and soon after that, you’ll see the refill start,” Wright said in an interview earlier this week. The SPR has already fallen to its lowest level since 1982, in part because former President Joe Biden’s administration withdrew roughly 290 million barrels from the system through a series of releases, including after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Because the release was structured as an exchange, essentially a loan that companies must repay with interest, the Energy Department has said the reserve will ultimately be replenished with about 200 million barrels, or roughly 20% more than what was released, over the next year.

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More public schools are closing. Will the midterms speed or slow the process?

Public school closures are accelerating across the country, and voters in several states have a chance to speed up or slow down the process on Tuesday. Closures are largely determined by school board members and affected by a district’s funding situation, which itself is downstream from state legislatures and governors’ mansions. With school board seats up for grab and more than 12 states with ballot initiatives affecting school funding, these midterms could bring some relief to parents dissatisfied with plans to shut down more school buildings. “This is one of the least popular things a district can do, and so it would be very difficult for a candidate to run on a pro-closure platform. On the other hand, you do have some candidates who have said, “We have steep, declining enrollment. We need to align the number of schools we have with the number of students we have. We need to shrink to match our circumstances,'” said Carrie Hahnel, a partner at Bellwether, an education research nonprofit.

“It’ll be interesting to see if there are communities that are sympathetic to that,” Hahnel added. The enrollment crisis is a problem across the country, affecting major cities including Chicago, Los Angeles and Seattle. Researchers found public schools lost 1.83 million students between the 2019-2020 school year and the 2023-2024 one, a shift fueled by the pandemic. The National Center for Education Statistics projects public school enrollment will drop 7.5 percent from 2019 to 2031. And there is not much districts can do about it as most of the decline is from falling birth rates in the U.S., although some is also coming from shifts in education and greater participation in school choice programs. Since enrollment is directly linked to funding, schools start to feel the pinch in their pockets pretty quickly. Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS), a district that serves more than 29,000 students, tabled plans to talk about school closures until next year after years of funding declines took away popular programs and fears of immigration enforcement have impacted enrollment.

Read this article at The Hill - Subscribers Only

Big Tech promised to lead on climate. Now it’s driving a fossil fuel boom.

Not too long ago, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos was pledging to use his company’s size and scale to galvanize corporate America to confront global warming. If Amazon “can meet the Paris agreement 10 years early, then any company can,” Bezos said in 2019, laying out how the company would eliminate its planet-warming emissions much faster than the timeline agreed to by the world’s governments. (Bezos also owns The Washington Post.) Microsoft, Google and Meta subsequently vowed to move even more aggressively. But now Amazon and the other tech behemoths are setting a very different example. Rather than racing toward their net-zero targets, they are driving emissions sharply higher with their quest to expand AI and cloud computing.

To support their data centers, tech firms are driving construction of a new generation of supersized, gas-fired power plants that could lock in hundreds of millions of tons of climate pollution for decades to come, according to corporate disclosures and an analysis conducted for The Post by a researcher at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Industry estimates show these projects have put the tech sector on course to grow from a modest driver of industrial carbon pollution into one of the world’s biggest emitters of greenhouse gases. Some anticipate that its share of global carbon emissions will increase as much as fivefold from 2020 to 2030. That would leave the tech industry churning out more than half the climate pollution created by global aviation or shipping — sectors long associated with driving warming. “AI may feel completely digital, immaterial, but its infrastructure is very physical. It needs land, power plants, transmission, water and fuel, and those choices can last for decades,” said the Harvard researcher, Gianluca Guidi, who based his analysis on air permits, corporate disclosures, community presentations and other materials collected largely by the research firm Cleanview.

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To tame the fastest drivers, states deploy speed-limiting devices on cars

We’ve all seen them: cars flying down the highway at breakneck speed, weaving through traffic as if the rules of the road don’t exist. State officials even have a name for such drivers: super speeders. Now there’s a growing push to harness GPS technology to slow them down. Virginia is pioneering the use of speed-limiters as an enforcement tool. Other states have similar plans to tackle a roadway scourge that the government says contributes to more than 10,000 deaths a year nationwide. Since Virginia’s program began in July, about 100 speed-limiters have been installed in cars. Most users were charged with or convicted of reckless driving, often for topping 100 mph; installing the device was an alternative to license suspension. Think of it as speeding’s version of ignition-interlock devices, which force people convicted of DUI to pass a breathalyzer test to start the engine. One aims to stop drunken driving, the other egregious speeding.

Virginia’s devices use GPS and a map database to determine speed limits—then prevent drivers from surpassing those limits even if they hit the gas. Limited overrides are permitted for merging or emergency maneuvers. “We are talking about a small subset of drivers who are disproportionately causing harm on our roadways, and we finally have a tool that works,” said Amy Cohen, president of advocacy group Families for Safe Streets. “The big game-changer is that now all the roads are mapped for what their speed limits are.” Virginia’s first-in-the-nation program has hit some early bumps. One driver said a device inexplicably cut his car’s top speed to 35 mph on a highway, forcing him to pull over, according to the person’s lawyer. Another reported that the car’s device wrongly applied a cross street’s speed limit when passing through an intersection. State officials and a device supplier acknowledge some glitches caused by “GPS drift,” in which the device picks up lower speed limits on nearby roads. They say a fix will be in place soon. One driver tried tampering with the device, a potential crime; that person later complied and is no longer in the program, officials said. Even ardent advocates of the devices, called Intelligent Speed Assistance, say they know capping a car’s speed can raise concerns.

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In Alaska fishing community, the Dan Sullivan episode brings in FBI

In the sleepy Alaskan fishing community of Petersburg, nobody has seen Dan J. Sullivan for weeks. His rustic home stood dark a day after FBI agents visited friends who donated to his quixotic campaign to unseat the Republican senator with the same first and last name — Dan S. Sullivan. The only display of politics at his home was a yard sign from the League of Women Voters: “Stand Up for Democracy: Vote 2026.” What may have begun as a ploy to harm the reelection prospects of Sen. Sullivan has taken a serious turn as the Trump administration weighs criminal charges over a campaign tactic known as “ballot stacking.”

“It just seems like such a waste of our taxpayer money,” said Sharon Hunter, a Petersburg resident who, with her husband, donated $1,000 to Dan J. Sullivan, a former elementary school teacher. FBI agents knocked on her door Saturday during a round of interviews with the campaign’s dozen contributors. “I’m a bit incredulous about their whole angle,” Hunter said, “because they’re targeting a person who’s been a real contributor in this community.” Recruiting candidates to draw votes away from an opponent has been a part of Alaska’s quirky politics for years. This time around, the state’s open primary and ranked choice voting systems add another wrinkle, making it easier for lesser-known candidates to play spoilers when no contender secures a majority. The tactic has drawn fresh scrutiny as the incumbent Sullivan fights off a serious challenge from Democrat Mary Peltola, a former U.S. representative, in a race that could determine control of the Senate.

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Sen. Chris Murphy is in the hospital after having a stroke, his office says

Sen. Chris Murphy is in the hospital after having a stroke and is “awake and alert” as he receives treatment, the Connecticut Democrat’s office said Sunday. Murphy’s chief of staff, Allison Herwitt, said in a statement the 53-year-old senator “started experiencing numbness in his arm while at his son’s hockey game” on Saturday. “He was taken to a local hospital, where it was discovered he had experienced a stroke,” she said. “He was transferred to Johns Hopkins for further monitoring and is responding well to treatment. The doctors are encouraged by his progress, he is awake and alert, and we are optimistic he will make a full recovery.” Murphy was elected to the House in 2006 and to the Senate in 2012. He is not on the ballot Tuesday.

In the Senate, he serves on the Appropriations Committee and is a leading voice on immigration and gun policy. He is considered a contender for more senior leadership positions in the Senate and among the many Democrats seen as potential 2028 candidates for the White House. Three other Senate Democrats have had strokes in recent years. Sens. Ben Ray Lujan of New Mexico and Chris Van Hollen of Maryland had strokes in 2022 and have since recovered. Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman had a stroke while campaigning for his seat that same year and now uses adaptive technology in the Senate, including live captioning on a phone or tablet that transcribes words as people speak to him and helps him process the conversation. Fetterman said on social media Sunday that his family “is rooting for Chris and his family for a full and speedy recovery.” Several Republican senators, including Chuck Grassley of Iowa and Pete Ricketts of Nebraska, also offered prayers for Murphy.

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What's it like to run for Congress when the odds are stacked heavily against you?

Much ink has been spilled this election cycle about the competitive races that could determine which party controls Congress. But tossup districts represent only a fraction of congressional races. The vast majority — 80% — are rated solid Republican or solid Democrat. Candidates running against the political grain face an uphill battle, with campaigns marked by limited resources, dwindling donors, and scarce staff. What's it like to run for Congress when political wisdom says you'll probably lose? It's a question Lisa Kinney has heard again and again. She's running as a Democrat for the lone House seat in Wyoming. Since the late 1970s, it has only sent Republicans to Congress. "I don't think the people of Wyoming always hear both sides," Kinney says during a day of campaigning in Casper. "I'm glad to give another opinion. And I'm a Wyomingite, so I'm still moderate no matter what."

You wouldn't know it from an ad from her opponent that places her next to progressive figures Bernie Sanders, the independent senator from Vermont, and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani. Kinney says she finds it funny, albeit bemusing. "What's he thinking — that we all get together and do socialist stuff?" she chuckles as she walks into Johnny J's to talk to early risers. After perusing the pecan and cinnamon rolls, Kinney makes her way through the crowded diner. She's met with some hasty "nopes" from people who want to keep politics away from their pancakes — along with a gentleman who says he can't support a party that doesn't back Immigration and Customs Enforcement and a woman who doesn't like Democrats' stance on trans issues. Then she meets Joe Beck, who doesn't identify with either party. He says he's fed up with the Trump administration, but is skeptical Kinney could make a difference. "How are you going to turn things around?" he asks, eyebrows raised. "You need a person in there — that's me — who's a moderate who can talk to Republicans, who can talk to Democrats," she says. "I swear to you we're going to make a difference."

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Lead Stories

Texas Republicans sweating over low turnout in early voting

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

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

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American oil giants see profits soar as wars crimp energy supplies

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

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

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

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

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

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Tarrant GOP ballot board judge accused of violating Texas election law

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

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

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Led by Trump, Republicans close midterms with ugly personal attacks

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

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

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State Stories

Grand jury indicts ICE officer for striking Houston immigrant with vehicle

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Democrats ride THC ban backlash in race for lieutenant governor

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

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

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How Texas’s first openly gay legislator did the unimaginable

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

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

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How BlackRock became Texas’ comeback kid

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

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

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Hinojosa temporarily blocked from access to Abbott, Musk emails

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

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

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Frost Bank parent gives Texas Stock Exchange a big boost

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

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

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

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

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

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National Stories

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

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

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

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As political ad spending skyrockets, broadcast TV remains king

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Lead Stories

GOP women's group behind fake transgender mailer campaign

A Republican women's group is behind a fake Texas transgender student union that sent text messages and brochures to as many as three million voters this month. The Republican Women’s Caucus Fund and someone named John Braun were identified as those responsible for the scheme that riled up voters just as early voting began, according to legal filings made public late Thursday. The identities were ordered to be revealed by a Travis County judge. The RWC Fund is the political wing of a group of Republican women in the U.S. House and Senate. It was not immediately clear who Braun was. The Texas Observer, which first reported the names, noted that John Braun is the name of a Washington state senator running for Congress. His campaign lists as its treasurer Paul Kilgore, who is also the treasurer for RWC Fund, as well as for two political action committees — the Senate Conservatives Fund and its super PAC Senate Conservatives Action — that have supported Attorney General Ken Paxton’s U.S. Senate campaign.

Neither the RWC Fund, Braun or Kilgore could be immediately reached for comment. Civil district court Judge Jan Soifer had ruled on Wednesday that a real advocacy group named in the campaign, the Transgender Education Network of Texas, or TENT, had no role in it and is "suffering injuries, including harassment, threats, diversion of resources, and frustration of operations" as a result. The messages, which went out just days before early voting began in the midterm elections, were sent by an organization calling itself the Texas Transgender Student Union. The group was formed in September and registered as a limited liability corporation in Wyoming. In the messages, which were addressed to the children of registered voters, the group advised on how to access gender-affirming care even if it went against the wishes of their parents. Included in the messages was TENT's website. TENT's lawyer, Mimi Marziani, told Soifer on Tuesday that the mailers were clearly designed to boost conservative turnout in the election, where U.S. Senate nominee Ken Paxton is facing Democrat James Talarico. TTSU's lawyer, Chris Hilton, who previously worked for Paxton as an assistant attorney general, countered that the organization is covered by the First Amendment and is legally allowed to keep secret the names of whoever sent the messages. During a Thursday hearing, Soifer denied a request by Hilton to keep the names of the people backing the campaign secret. She said TENT deserved to hear "from the horse's mouth" about why they had sent the messages and had implied that TENT was part of it.

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How an obscure website became a force in America’s election information machine

Frustrated with hunting for information on political candidates, Ben Torres Ezrick set out to build a one-stop shop for voters. To wrangle data on thousands of candidates, the tech veteran turned to artificial intelligence. He sent out teams of digital agents across the web to build the dossiers that populate his website, the Ballot Brief. But Ezrick envisioned attracting an audience beyond humans: chatbots. This effort has been a stunning success. In tests by The Washington Post, ChatGPT cited the Ballot Brief in 22 percent of its answers to questions about the election. Microsoft’s Copilot cited it in 75 percent of answers. Ezrick said his own data shows Microsoft’s AI systems referred to the Ballot Brief more than 680,000 times in 30-day period spanning September and October. It’s part of a pattern. Chatbots like OpenAI’s ChatGPT are frequently turning to three small websites — including the Ballot Brief and two other newly launched sites — to shape their answers about voting information, according to a Post review of thousands of AI responses.

All three sites are tiny operations, almost entirely dependent on AI to gather and summarize data, their founders said. As Americans increasingly turn to chatbots for political information, experts warn that this AI feedback loop could quietly distort the information voters receive, seeding errors about candidates and elections across the internet and into the hands of millions of people. Isabel Linzer, an elections analyst at the Center for Democracy and Technology, said The Post’s findings illustrate how easy it can be to get chatbots to rely on information “some random person publishes on an AI-generated website.” “It’s really important to think about how that could affect voter trust,” she said. The Post identified numerous mistakes on the Ballot Brief. Sen. Jon Husted (R-Ohio) was credited with supporting a bill that passed before he took office — an error that Copilot repeated in a response to The Post. Two Robert Garcias running in California were collapsed into one profile. And several House members were listed with incorrect committee jobs. Profiles for other members of Congress were sparse, with missing voting records and a note incorrectly claiming that they appeared not to have a campaign website.

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Kalshi, founders charged, escalating fight over who can regulate prediction markets

Utah on Wednesday filed criminal charges against prediction market operator Kalshi and two of its executives, months after a federal judge rejected Kalshi's effort to prevent Utah from enforcing its strict anti-gambling laws against the activity. The felony charges could represent a new tactic in how states try to assert regulatory authority over the fast-expanding activity, a clash that appears headed to a showdown at the U.S. Supreme Court. The charges include 13 counts of violating the state's prohibition on gambling and another charge involving profiting off illegal activity. The state's charging documents name Kalshi and its co-founders, chief executive officer Tarek Mansour and chief operating officer Luana Lopes Lara. In a statement, Utah Attorney General Derek Brown said Kalshi has continued to operate in Utah, despite a federal court ruling that Utah's gambling laws apply to the company. “Gambling is illegal in Utah, whether you place the bet, run the game, or promote it. Calling it a ‘prediction market’ doesn’t change what it is, and being federally registered doesn’t put a company above the law," Brown said in a statement.

The attorney general's office did not immediately say what sort of criminal penalties it would seek in the case, although the felony charges carry the possibility of jail time. In a statement, Kalshi called the charges a “crazy overreach” and said that “Utah is clearly playing politics.” “We look forward to putting a stop to this in court, just like we did in Arizona,” it said. Utah has been on the front lines of a battle between states and the federal government over who regulates the markets. Litigation has spread across roughly 20 states, creating a fragmented legal landscape that analysts say will likely be settled by the U.S. Supreme Court. Kalshi has maintained that prediction markets fall exclusively under federal jurisdiction and are not governed by state gambling laws. Under President Donald Trump, the federal agency responsible for regulating financial markets, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, has agreed and even sued at least 10 states — including Utah this week — to try to stop states from regulating prediction markets.

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Harris County breaks early voting records for a midterm election

Harris County has set a new record for early voting in a midterm election, and there's still one more day to push the number even higher. With close battles for the U.S. Senate and governor, more than 862,000 people had voted before polls opened on Thursday morning. The previous record for a non-presidential election was in 2018 when 855,711 people cast ballots during the entire early voting period. “Harris County voters are making history,” Harris County Clerk Teneshia Hudspeth said on Wednesday, even before the official numbers were announced. She predicted that 1 million voters will have cast a ballot in Harris County by the time early voting ends on Friday. That would put the county just short of the nearly 1.2 million people who voted early in the 2024 presidential election, races that typically draw more voters than in midterm elections. The Richard and Meg Weekley Community Center in Cypress has become the most popular voting location in the region, with more than 29,000 ballots cast through the first 10 days of voting — a 75% increase from the same period in 2022.

The Metropolitan MultiService Center is the second busiest vote center with just over 28,000 ballots cast so far. That's a 60% increase in turnout from the same period in 2022. Voters in Houston’s Black community are a major reason for the surge. Voter turnout at Acres Homes Multiservice Center and Sunnyside Health and Multi Service Center is up over 80% compared to the first 10 days of early voting in 2024, the last presidential election. At the Northeast MultiService Center and Wheeler Avenue Baptist Church, voter turnout is up more than 150%. Turnout isn't an indicator of which candidate will win. There is no way to know how voters are casting their ballots. But State Sen. Paul Bettencourt, R-Houston, said more voters with a history of participating in Democratic primary elections are voting than those who've participated in Republican primaries. He said the big unknown is the independents. More than 37% of the people who have voted early statewide have no previous primary voting history. “Independents will decide these races, and of that there can be no doubt,” said Bettencourt, a former elections official who pays close attention to the voting numbers in Harris County. The major candidates for U.S. Senate and governor are looking to boost that turnout even higher. On Friday at noon, Republican U.S. Senate candidate Ken Paxton will rally in Houston just miles from a major voting center. And at 2 p.m. on Saturday, U.S. Senate candidate James Talarico and gubernatorial candidate Gina Hinojosa, both Democrats, will be in the city for a get-out-the-vote rally going into Election Day on Tuesday. Meanwhile, Gov. Greg Abbott was up in Montgomery County on Wednesday and is expected to be back in Houston on Monday for a final campaign push.

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State Stories

Congressman Cloud’s water comment draws mixed reactions from Corpus Christi council members

A comment from Congressman Michael Cloud during President Donald Trump's rally at the Port of Corpus Christi Tuesday is drawing mixed reactions from city leaders as water security becomes a key issue ahead of the November election. Cloud took aim at the City Council's handling of the city's water challenges, using a cowboy analogy to criticize the city's progress on finding a long-term water supply solution. “You can bring a city council to water, but you can't make it drink,” Cloud said. Councilmember Roland Barrera said he agrees with Cloud's frustration, arguing the city has spent years working toward a long-term water solution. Barrera said Cloud worked to identify federal funding opportunities that could help reduce costs for residents and other water customers across the Coastal Bend.

“He worked very, very hard to be able to create grant funds that would have reduced the cost of the residential ratepayer and all the ratepayers in the Coastal Bend,” Barrera said. The comments come after the City Council voted 5-4 this summer against applying for up to $120 million in federal Bureau of Reclamation funding for the proposed Inner Harbor desalination project. In September, the council also voted against advancing the project's design. Councilmember Mark Scott, who is running for reelection, said he shares Cloud's frustration with those decisions. “I thought the congressman's comments were poignant, spot on, and I share his frustration with the city's inability to pursue that Bureau of Reclamation grant in particular,” Scott said. Mayor Paulette Guajardo is running for reelection. She also said she understands Cloud's concerns, pointing to his efforts to help Corpus Christi address its water challenges. “We must find a water solution that is drought proof. That is long term and it's in our backyard by the way. I'm glad he made the remark,” Guajardo said. However, not all council members agree with Cloud's criticism. “With due respect, I think it was unprofessional and it was a divisive remark,” Vaughn said. “First of all, the council is not horses. We make decisions day to day and try and make the best ones we can for our constituents,” said Vaughn.

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El Paso ISD releases student data to state comptroller, prompting concerns over undocumented students

The El Paso Independent School District has provided the Texas Comptroller’s Office with records breaking down the number of students enrolled using a Social Security number and those who use a state-approved alternative identification number, raising concerns that the data may be used to target undocumented students. EPISD board President Leah Hanany confirmed to El Paso Matters that the district provided the records requested by the comptroller, but noted that they alone cannot be used to determine citizenship status. Districts assign students an alternative number when a family does not provide a Social Security number. “I think they’re trying to ascertain which children have Social Security numbers and which don’t. But it’s impossible to ascertain that. Anybody can register their child using an alternate number,” Hanany told El Paso Matters. Comptroller Don Huffines’ office requested the data but told the district not to provide identifying student information, according to a Thursday news release from El Paso state Rep. Vince Perez.

EPISD is one of four districts being reviewed by the Comptroller’s Office after Gov. Greg Abbott requested a state financial investigation to ensure that districts are spending more state funds in the classroom and not on administration. Huffines did not respond to El Paso Matters’ request for comment. Perez said the Comptroller’s Office used a financial assessment of EPISD to collect documents unrelated to the district’s finances and operations. “A Social Security number isn’t required to go to school in Texas, and an alternative ID number tells you nothing about a child’s immigration status,” Perez said in the news release. “So what does a review of central office spending have to do with a count of El Paso children who enrolled without using one?” Huffines also asked for budgets, payroll documents, contracts, an electronic copy of the district’s school library catalog and board policies on parents’ complaints about human sexuality curriculum. El Paso ISD officials did not immediately respond to El Paso Matters’ request for comment or answer questions about the records provided to the comptroller, but said they’ll have more details during a Friday morning news conference. Hanany did not comment further.

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Texas will choose Paxton or surrender, JD Vance says at Weatherford rally

If Texas doesn’t vote Ken Paxton into the U.S. Senate on Nov. 3, the state has surrendered, said Vice President JD Vance during a Republican campaign rally in Weatherford. Vance and a dozen other Republicans spoke to the packed crowd on Thursday, Oct. 29, at JRJ Construction. The message throughout the three-hour-long rally was that every conservative voter needs to get out to the polls and select the Republican nominee from the very top of the ticket all the way down. It’s the only way to keep the “demon party” out of Texas, Comptroller Don Huffines said.

About 3,000 people spanned the brand-new JRJ Construction warehouse at 1140 Ric Williamson Memorial Highway and spilled out into the overflow area outside. The vast majority of the speakers were candidates on the Republican ticket, including Huffines, Mayes Middleton (attorney general), Craig Goldman (Congressional District 12) and Brandon Gill (CD 26). The tight U.S. Senate race between Paxton, the Texas attorney general, and Democratic state Rep. James Talarico took center stag. The warehouse was crowded, hot and humid, but Vance said the perseverance of the attendees just proved how energized they were to vote for the Republican ticket, especially Paxton. “This crowd is proof that everything, from the enthusiasm, to the spirit, to the patriotism, everything is bigger than the state of Texas,” Vance said. “What I love about Texas is that Texas is not ashamed of its way of life. Texas feels real pride in the United States of America. Texans feel pride in what we built.”

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The Trump administration touts immigration enforcement push in Texas as Election Day nears

U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin speaks during a press conference Thursday, Oct. 29, 2026, in Dallas, announcing the results of Lone Star Mission, a 10-day federal immigration enforcement operation across Texas. Days before the midterm elections, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin traveled to Texas to tout the results of a statewide immigration enforcement operation during a press conference that at times took on a political tone. Thursday’s press conference centered on Lone Star Mission, a 10-day federal immigration enforcement operation that’s separate from Gov. Greg Abbott’s years-long border security initiative known as Operation Lone Star.

But Mullin spent much of the press conference criticizing so-called sanctuary jurisdictions, where local policies can limit cooperation with federal immigration authorities. He repeatedly contrasted President Donald Trump’s immigration policies with those of former President Joe Biden, at times blaming Biden administration policies for crime and public safety problems without providing evidence during the press conference to support those claims. “When you support sanctuary policies, you’re supporting gang bangers, you’re supporting child pedophiles, you’re supporting rapists, you’re supporting cartels, you’re supporting organized crime,” Mullin said. Mullin’s appearance comes as Trump and other administration officials have made a series of trips to Texas to rally Republican voters ahead of Election Day. Trump held rallies in Corpus Christi and Lubbock on Tuesday, while Vice President JD Vance appeared at a Republican rally in Weatherford on Thursday.

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Under Bean's leadership, charter school turned down lower rent, filled seats with friends and used operating funds for salaries

Dozens of parents had filled the auditorium of the Fort Worth Academy of Fine Arts. The majority of parents attending were upset about a meme posted by board chair Cheryl Bean, the AI-generated cartoon of the WNBA Indiana Fever crossing the Delaware River, re-enacting the famous painting by Emanuel Leutze. This version depicted the Black athletes wearing floaties. After critics, including some parents, called it racist, Bean removed the post. That night, Bean told the crowd that "some" people "can accept an apology," which she noted Webster's Dictionary defines as "a statement of regret." For many families at the two tuition-free arts charter schools run by Texas Center for Arts + Academics, the moment summed up years of frustration.

Although TCAA receives much of its $11.2 million budget — $9.2 million — from the Texas Education Agency, its actions face little scrutiny from the state. “The board holds itself accountable,” said Jeffrey Koch, a charter school portfolio coordinator at TEA. TEA can replace a charter’s board or revoke its charter, but only if the charter holder violates the charter, fails basic financial standards, breaks the law or fails the state’s performance standards. On paper, the schools pass. In 2025, TEA renewed FWAFA’s charter for 10 years without a site visit “because of our financial standing and academic standing,” the board was told, according to the minutes of the meeting. Records and interviews show that over the past three years, the board has barred transgender students from the choir that fits them, filled open seats with friends of its leaders and raised the rent it charged the schools by about 10% for TeSA and almost 50% for FWAFA. Parents say the board doesn't listen to them. The board isn't elected and it appoints its own members. At times, it has changed its bylaws so that its actions are in accord. Bean, who is the Republican nominee for Texas House District 94, did not respond to multiple interview requests. Board leaders say the schools are financially stronger than ever and that critics have spread false information.

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Texas General Land Office race is among the statewide races to tighten

The Texas Land Commissioner race is often overlooked during elections because of the more powerful state offices up for grabs. It’s the oldest statewide office, dating back to the Republic of Texas. Its powers are important, but narrow. The commissioner leads the state’s General Land Office, or GLO. Among other duties, the GLO manages 13 million acres of state-owned land in Texas. This year’s race features the first woman to hold the office, Republican Dawn Buckingham, and Democrat Benjamin Flores, a newcomer to statewide politics. Republican incumbent Dawn Buckingham is a ninth-generation Texan who worked her way through UT-Galveston medical school to build a career as an eye-focused plastic surgeon. She faces Democrat Benjamin Flores, a former Bay City councilman. Buckingham’s campaign didn’t respond to TPR’s interview request, but she’s been in the office since 2023. As land commissioner, she has said the Alamo is her “greatest love.”

The GLO is the custodian for the Alamo — the state’s top tourist attraction. Buckingham has overseen a more than half-a-billion-dollar makeover of its grounds in San Antonio. The project is designed to make it a bigger and more educational experience for visitors. Day-to-day operations at the Alamo, site of the 1836 battle that helped lead to Texas independence from Mexico, are handled by the Alamo Trust. On top of that, the GLO’s business is land. It sees to it that money earned from state land goes toward public education. The agency also oversees veterans’ land programs and long-term spending of federal disaster funds after floods or hurricanes. UT-San Antonio Political Science Chair Jon Taylor said the office is often a springboard into bigger things, such as the governor’s race. And it has just enough power to keep the job interesting. “The idea is that it’s managing the state’s affairs in terms of money, especially disaster relief, public schools. Those are important things, so it does make sense that someone would want this position.” Buckingham’s Democratic challenger is the Mexico-born Flores. He introduced himself in a campaign video to voters this way. “I came to the U.S. in 1996 with a big dream. I worked my way up, earned my citizenship, and built a career in cybersecurity. Today, my family and I live on a small ranch in Bay City.” Flores operates a family pig farm in Bay City, too. Besides their backgrounds, one of the biggest differences between Buckingham and Flores has to do with 2017’s Hurricane Harvey — specifically, how long-term federal relief funds were spent.

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Texas AG’s office sues Harris County Clerk for allegedly running ‘racially discriminatory advertisements’

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton's Office is suing the Harris County Clerk's Office for allegedly running social media advertisements that targeted "certain racial and ethnic groups," according to the lawsuit filed Thursday. Paxton, who is currently running as a Republican in the Texas Senate race against Democrat James Talarico, has recused himself from the investigation, according to a statement from his office. The lawsuit accuses county clerk Teneshia Hudspeth and her office’s director of communications, Irene Nuñez, of running voter awareness ads on Facebook and Instagram that were allegedly targeting "certain racial and ethnic groups (African-American, Asian, and South American or Latino Groups)" while excluding other demographics.

"The Harris County Clerk's office used Meta's ad tools to intentionally target its ‘Get Out the Vote' style ads to certain racial and ethnic groups while avoiding targeting other demographics," the attorney general’s office said via a release announcing the lawsuit. "By classifying based upon race when advertising to provide Harris County voters with election information, the county clerk's office exceeded its authority." The attorney general’s office claimed this alleged targeted advertising amounts to racial discrimination "in an effort to increase voter turnout among particular races and ethnicities." The county clerk's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. According to the lawsuit, Meta's ad library shows that the clerk's office spent over $40,000 on such advertisements in the past 30 days.

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Dozens quit Dallas County DA’s office ahead of election

With less than a week until voters choose Dallas County’s next district attorney, dozens of prosecutors and staff have already left the office that Democrat Amber Givens hopes to lead. Since Givens defeated two-term incumbent John Creuzot in the March Democratic primary, 77 employees have submitted their resignations, including 47 attorneys, according to records reviewed by The Dallas Morning News. More departures are expected before the next district attorney takes office in January. The departing lawyers represent more than 15% of the office’s 273 budgeted attorney positions. At least 19 had served more than a decade, taking years of experience with them. There are currently 49 vacant positions in the office, compared to 33 in October 2025 and 23 in October 2024.

The turnover raises questions about how the office will prosecute criminal cases, particularly with vacancies spread across divisions and several felony courts severely understaffed, according to a recent organizational chart. The departures come amid a nationwide prosecutor shortage. Givens said she has privately and publicly expressed appreciation for the “talented and dedicated team” at the DA’s office. Article continues below this ad “Dedicated public servants who are committed to justice for the people of Dallas County can rest assured that there is a place on my team for them,” Givens said in a statement to The News. “If elected District Attorney, I will lead a thoughtful, collaborative transition grounded in respect for their work and continuity of service to our community. My commitment to putting people over politics will guide how I lead.” Givens’ opponent, Dallas attorney Eric Reed, who entered the race in August as a write-in candidate, has made the departures a campaign issue. “When attorneys tell us they would rather leave than work under my opponent, that is a failure of confidence with consequences for public safety,” Reed said.

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All data centers built in San Antonio now must receive City Council approval on case-by-case basis

The City of San Antonio on Thursday passed its first significant restrictions on data center development, requiring each of the computing facilities to seek City Council approval on a case-by-case basis before construction can begin. City Council approved the amendment to the city’s Unified Development Code (UDC) on a 9-2 vote, with District 9’s Misty Spears and District 10’s Mark Whyte — the council’s two conservatives — casting the dissenting votes. In addition to requiring council approval for each data center, the code amendment also limits the development of such facilities to the city’s heavy industrial and commercial zones. Additionally, the amendment gives council flexibility to require increased setbacks for certain facilities, depending on the surrounding area. An alternate proposal by Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones requiring a minimum setback of 1,000 feet was shot down during the session.

In her remarks, Jones described her visit to a data center this week, when she reflected on the homes surrounding it. “Does anyone think that those homeowners’ property values increased when that data center showed up? It’s not likely,” Jones said. “It’s not likely that Redfin or Zillow will start advertising the distance to a data center as a selling point.” With her proposed amendment, Jones suggested offering public hearings in order to address a common complaint community members have voiced at town halls and permit hearings — that they didn’t have a say before a data center was built in their backyard. At a town hall hosted by Public Citizen and the Great Edwards Aquifer Alliance at Northwest Vista College earlier this month, one woman said she initially thought a warehouse was being constructed across the street from her home in Westover Hills. In impassioned public comments, she spoke of the “perpetual daylight” that flooded through her windows from the center and lamented that she was no longer able to see the stars at night. Like many others who live next to data centers, she got her first chance to vocalize her opposition after the facility was already built, she added.

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TACA Emerging Leaders Academy recognized for community service initiative providing 2,000 backpacks to Texas students

The Texas Aggregates & Concrete Association’s (TACA) Emerging Leaders Academy (ELA) has been recognized by Communities In Schools of San Antonio for a community service project that doubled its original goal, providing 2,000 backpacks filled with school supplies to students in need across Texas, including 1,250 backpacks to Communities In Schools communities in San Antonio, Austin and Midland. The recognition took place Oct. 22 at Margil Elementary School in San Antonio, where ELA representatives joined Communities In Schools for an event highlighting the nonprofit organization’s work supporting students and families. The group was honored for its contributions to the organization’s mission. As part of its community service project during TACA’s 2026 Annual Meeting, ELA members set out to assemble 1,000 backpacks filled with essential school supplies. Through the efforts of participating members and supporters, the group exceeded its goal by 100 percent, ultimately preparing 2,000 backpacks for distribution to students across Texas.

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Can the Texas border flip the governor's race?

Texas hasn’t elected a Democratic governor since Ann Richards in 1990. But in November, Democrats have a better shot than they’ve had in decades, with Brownsville-raised Gina Hinojosa closing in on longtime Republican governor Greg Abbott in the polls. Republicans are doing everything in their power to hold on to Texas, with Elon Musk and others spending hundreds of millions to keep them in power. Crucial to deciding who wins: the border. The Texas border was once reliably blue but made headlines in 2024 when many Latinos voted for Donald Trump. Two years of punishing ICE raids, spiraling gas prices, and a worsening economy, along with Abbott’s costly Operation Lone Star, have led many border residents to reconsider their votes. A win by Hinojosa, a 52-year-old attorney and state representative, would be historic, making her the first Hispanic candidate to hold the state’s highest office. It would also break a decades-long losing streak for Democrats. Hinojosa’s hometown and the Texas border will be decisive in her historic bid for governor. That’s why, in October 2025, Hinojosa launched her campaign in downtown Brownsville, just blocks from where she grew up.

A lot has changed since Hinojosa’s school days. For one, in 2014, Musk, the world’s richest man, broke ground on his SpaceX rocket facility just east of town, an area that recently became its own municipality called Starbase. Brownsville’s historic center is now dotted with Tesla Cybertrucks and sedans. The controversial Musk, who has poured hundreds of millions into Texas Republican candidates, continues to push for more land and more tax incentives for his projects, including a data center. In August, Brownsville city commissioners voted unanimously to disannex 444 acres of land and relinquish governing authority to the city of Starbase. At the center of this stretch of land, a large steel building under construction will be SpaceX’s first data center in the Rio Grande Valley. In 2013, not long before Musk broke ground on SpaceX, then Republican governor Rick Perry signed House Bill 1223 into law, offering sales tax exemptions to companies that build data centers. Thanks to these exemptions, the state will lose as much as $3.3 billion in revenue under the 2028–29 budget, and Musk’s data center will draw its water from the Rio Grande, Brownsville’s main source of drinking water. Texas already has more than 300 data centers and hundreds more planned, many in rural areas and in South Texas, spurring a fierce local backlash.

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Months since new rules took effect, hemp businesses feel the burn

Back in January, Mary Tello was planning for a big year. Co-owner of South Austin hemp shop Green Haus Wellness, she was considering expanding her business to a second location in town. The opposite happened: Amidst a chaotic year of rule changes and legal battles involving the hemp industry, Tello had to close her brick-and-mortar, transitioning to online-only sales. “Things just kind of went downhill for everybody. … People were scared to come and purchase, and we lost thousands of dollars per month,” she told the Chronicle. In March, the Department of State Health Services implemented new restrictions on hemp. Among those new rules were a large hike in licensing fees and the prohibition of products containing THCA – alterations that many business owners said put the entire industry at risk. The Texas Hemp Business Council, a nonprofit group of industry members and advocates that works to safeguard hemp access in the state, then led the effort in filing a lawsuit against state agencies in an attempt to overturn the new rules.

After two Travis County district judges sided with the industry, blocking some of the changes, the state turned to the Texas 15th Court of Appeals, which reinstated those rules as the case continues to unfold. On Dec. 8, the appellate court will hear oral arguments. Concurrently, the Texas Supreme Court issued a ruling on a 2021 lawsuit related to products containing Delta-8, in which it decided that the DSHS has authority to categorize certain hemp-derived THC isomers as controlled substances. Since July 31, retailers have been prohibited from selling any products containing Delta-8, Delta-10, THCP, and other cannabinoids, only allowed to distribute goods with less than the 0.3% Delta-9 THC legal limit. The DSHS did not respond to the Chronicle’s questions regarding enforcement of the regulations. Three months after those July changes, Tello isn’t the only hemp business owner who has felt the impacts of the modifications the industry has undertaken this year. Mark Bordas, executive director of the THBC, told the Chronicle that the changes have substantially damaged businesses throughout the entire state. “People have to lay folks off, shutter their business, or move to another state and start all over again,” he said.

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National Stories

General ousted by Hegseth referred for possible criminal prosecution, officials say

The Pentagon said Thursday that it has made a criminal referral in an alleged leak case, claiming the ouster of a top general was necessary “to protect sensitive information.” The unusual announcement followed reports by The Washington Post and others that Army Lt. Gen. Brett Sylvia had been abruptly removed from his job as director for strategy, plans and policy on the Joint Staff. In that role he reported to Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Sylvia was fired this week without any previous explanation from the Pentagon, stunning many of his colleagues and leading some of them to question the narrative being promoted by members of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s team.

Attempts to reach Sylvia for comment have been unsuccessful. Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in a statement Thursday that the Defense Department has “zero tolerance for the intentional, unauthorized disclosure of classified information” and that following an “extensive” internal investigation, the matter — “along with others” — had been referred to the Justice Department “for potential legal action.” Parnell and other spokespeople for Hegseth declined to address questions about the extraordinary accusations against Sylvia, and they have not publicly disclosed any evidence corroborating their claims. Parnell’s statement does not identify Sylvia by name, but a defense official familiar with the matter said Parnell’s comments were related to the general’s removal. Like others, the official spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the issue’s sensitivity. In a statement, the Justice Department said it has “ongoing investigations related to possible leaks of classified information” and is coordinating with government partners, including at the Pentagon. When asked by a reporter Thursday what proof the administration has that the general leaked classified information, President Donald Trump appeared unaware that Sylvia is a man. “She’s going to have big problems,” he said. “Long-term problems.”

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USDA employees ask court to stop Rollins’ proselytizing before Christmas

Employees of the U.S. Department of Agriculture believe Secretary Brooke Rollins is abusing her position by proselytizing to 100,000 employees through email. Now, a union has sued her over the practice and wants it stopped before Christmas. Attorneys for the plaintiffs in National Federation of Federal Employees v. USDA made the plea before a federal judge Oct. 27, emphasizing that workers cannot avoid the religious messages because they are required to read emails from agency leaders. In addition to seeking a preliminary injunction in the case, they also argued against the federal government’s motion for the lawsuit to be dismissed. Rollins has made no secret of her employer-to-employee preaching and has promised to continue doing so despite the litigation and criticism.

She went even further in September by telling Trinity Broadcasting Network she views her federal cabinet position as an instrument for saving souls: “I do use this platform. I believe in making disciples of all the nations. I believe that God has blessed this country and so ensuring that we are using this and bringing the light to a very dark world.” Americans United for Separation of Church and State, Democracy Forward and Bryan Schwartz Law represent six federal workers and the union that represents 110,000 federal employees, including thousands at the USDA, in the lawsuit. “We urge the court to protect federal workers’ religious freedom and stop Secretary Rollins from abusing the power of her public office to impose her beliefs on others,” said Americans United President Rachel Laser. “Across the federal government, the Trump administration has misused taxpayer resources to preach, hold government-sponsored prayer services during work time, and broadcast Christian nationalism over official communications channels. Not on our watch.” Americans United also sued Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth in March for hosting prayer and worship services at the Pentagon. Those events are promoted in emails to Defense Department employees and have included sermons by Hegseth’s Christian nationalist pastor, Doug Wilson, and evangelist Franklin Graham.

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Patrick Stewart, ‘Star Trek’ captain and Professor X on ‘X-Men,’ dies at 86

Patrick Stewart, who overcame a bleak childhood in England’s coal-mining country to find acclaim as a Shakespearean actor before making an unlikely career pivot in middle age that would bring him his greatest fame, playing a noble starship captain on the TV series “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” died on Wednesday at his home in Los Angeles. He was 86. The death, from Alzheimer’s disease and Lewy body dementia, was announced on social media. With a commanding baritone voice — he had shed his Yorkshire dialect as an acting student — Mr. Stewart was by his late 40s an eloquent, statesmanlike presence on the British stage. But to many American television viewers, Mr. Stewart was a new face when he made his debut in 1987 as Capt. Jean-Luc Picard in “The Next Generation,” the first live-action spinoff of the original “Star Trek” series of the late 1960s.

Old and new fans embraced the balding, graying Picard and the members of his 24th-century crew, among them a pale-skinned android with deadpan comic timing; an intense, half-alien mind-reader; a gruff Klingon; and a blind human engineer wearing a vision visor. Over the show’s seven seasons, Picard became known for his preternatural calm and his trademark directives “Engage!” and “Make it so.” (Mr. Stewart titled a 2023 memoir “Making It So.”) Mr. Stewart went on to star in four feature-film spinoffs — “Star Trek Generations” (1994), “Star Trek: First Contact” (1996), “Star Trek: Insurrection” (1998) and “Star Trek: Nemesis” (2002) — before returning to the bridge of the Starship Enterprise in 2020 in a TV sequel that he could call his own, “Star Trek: Picard,” which ran for three seasons. The Enterprise was neither Mr. Stewart’s first science-fiction home nor his last. He appeared in David Lynch’s original film version of “Dune” (1984) as the weapons teacher Gurney Halleck. Years later, he was Charles Xavier, a.k.a. Professor X, in five “X-Men” movies, playing a wealthy telepath in a wheelchair who leads other mutants with superpowers. Those films, some of which also starred Mr. Stewart’s close friend Ian McKellen, included “X-Men” (2000), “X2: X-Men United” (2003) and “Logan” (2017).

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Binance suspends transactions after it is targeted in biggest-ever cyber heist

Binance suspended transactions Thursday as the exchange investigates the biggest cyber heist in history. “It does look like a hack on Binance,” Changpeng Zhao, Binance’s founder, said in a post on the social-media platform X. “User funds are safe.” Binance said late Thursday that the hack totaled around $6.3 billion. Zhao, who no longer leads the world’s biggest crypto exchange but remains its largest shareholder, added that stablecoin providers Tether and Circle had moved quickly to freeze some $1.7 billion in stolen assets. Binance later revised that number to $3 billion across several different assets. Cybersecurity research firms TRM Labs and Pangolin Intelligence said the heist appears to have been conducted by North Korea’s TraderTraitor hacking group, which has been behind many of the largest crypto hacks in recent memory. “This was absolutely North Korea,” said Nick Carlsen, a senior investigator on the Global Investigations team at TRM, who told the Journal he worked with Pangolin Intelligence to correlate hackers’ blockchain activity with information they gathered on other DPRK-linked attacks.

Binance said it has suspended all deposits and withdrawals as its team conducts security checks, freezes funds and works with law enforcement. Binance said in a statement on X that an initial investigation into the incident suggested it involved “a compromised DevOps engineer’s laptop,” which allowed the attacker to “submit unauthorized withdrawal transactions.” In a follow-up statement on X early Friday, Binance said a “subsequent investigation has uncovered additional points of breach.” “This was a complex attack, and we are doing all we can in coordination with law enforcement to resolve it. We are still gathering the facts, and will share more directly as we have them,” Binance said Friday, adding that withdrawal service should resume in 45 hours. A Binance spokesman said the company is working with law enforcement to “to confirm the identity of the criminals and bring them to justice.” When stablecoin providers freeze stolen funds, hackers cannot move, transfer or cash out of those specific tokens. They essentially blacklist the hacker’s crypto wallet address, trapping the tokens inside the wallet before hackers can convert them into other cryptocurrencies or launder them through a mixer.

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Senate Democrats’ PAC spends in South Carolina for first time

Senate Democrats are buying ads in South Carolina for the first time as polls show a close Senate contest in the deep-red state. Senate Majority PAC (SMP), the Senate Democrats’ main political action committee in the midterms, will spend $750,000 on digital ads in the Palmetto State on the race between Sen. Darline Graham (R) and Annie Andrews (D). “We’ll draw a sharp contrast between Andrews and Darline Graham, focusing on Graham raising health care costs and Rx drug prices,” SMP spokesperson Lauren French wrote in a post to the social platform X. Recent polls of the race have shown Graham and Andrews in a close contest, with a New York Times/Siena University poll giving each candidate 48 percent support among likely voters. South Carolina has not elected a Democrat to the Senate since 1998. SMP’s response comes after Republicans moved more money into South Carolina to support Graham, with GOP spending reaching more than $20 million.

Despite not having outside support up to this point, Andrews has raised more than $20 million herself compared to Graham’s $1.2 million, Federal Election Commission filings show. One of Graham’s challenges has been her struggle to unite Republicans. Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.), Graham’s opponent in the primary election, said he would keep his word and vote for her, but outright refused to campaign with Graham. He even said that his family would not be supporting her. President Trump has made multiple trips to the state to boost his hand-picked candidate, who was appointed by Gov. Henry McMaster (R-S.C.) following the death of her brother, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R). Still, Democrats have been burned before in South Carolina, namely in 2020, when polls showed a close race, but Lindsey Graham went on to defeat Democrat Jaime Harrison by 10 points. Nonpartisan election forecaster Decision Desk HQ (DDHQ), a partner of The Hill, gives Graham a 65 percent chance to win a full term.

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Netanyahu alleges fraud as Arab parties score record gains — emerge as potential kingmakers

Israel's two Arab parties are in a position to have a say in who the country's next prime minister and government will be — but not if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has anything to do with it, after he alleged serious criminal activities took place during voting in the Arab areas of the nation. The two parties were projected to win a combined 19 Knesset seats, according to preliminary results. However, both Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud-led right-wing bloc and the opposition leader Gadi Eisenkot’s centrist bloc fell short of the 61 seats needed for a parliamentary majority. On Wednesday, Prime Minister Netanyahu wrote on X that Israel’s election had been "stolen by Arab parties that support terrorism and the elimination of the Jewish state," alleging serious criminal offenses, including bribery, threats, violence, forgery and the use of prohibited software to mobilize voters.

"The Likud party is transferring to the police, the Shin Bet and the Central Elections Committee hundreds of testimonies and pieces of evidence regarding election theft in many Arab polling stations," he wrote. He cited allegations of thousands of envelopes containing cash and Ra’am ballot slips, threats and violence against polling station staff, multiple votes cast behind the voting curtain, voting under multiple identities, discrepancies between the number of ballot envelopes and the number of voters, the use of prohibited voter-mobilization software and other offenses. "We demand from the police and the Shin Bet a thorough investigation into the election theft by the Arab parties and the full prosecution of the criminals. We demand from the Central Elections Committee an immediate response to investigate these criminal offenses that have severely damaged the integrity of the elections in Israel and the election results," he added. In a letter addressed to Yesh Atid lawmaker Vladimir Beliak, Acting Central Elections Committee Director-General Dean Livne wrote that the elections "were conducted lawfully" and that, "to the best of my knowledge, there is no basis for allegations of systematic violations of election integrity," the Times of Israel reported. He also acknowledged that the request for an investigation concerned classified information whose veracity had not yet been determined.

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How can sports teams possibly be worth this much?

Pity James Dolan: According to the stock market, he is not as rich as he thinks he should be. Unlike most teams in the Big Four North American pro-sports leagues, the Knicks and Rangers have been owned by a publicly traded company, MSG Sports Corp. The Dolan family trust owned a fifth, and legally controlled all, of MSG Sports, which, as of last week, was valued at $9.5 billion. Or, in the mind of James Dolan, which was valued at only $9.5 billion. Earlier this year, Bob Iger and Josh Kushner said they would buy the Lakers for $12.5 billion; a trio of investors just bought an eighth of the NHL team in Raleigh, North Carolina (where God did not mean for people to play hockey) at a valuation of $2.7 billion. Dolan can check the Forbes and Sportico websites. Both estimate the teams should be worth about $7 billion more. So, this week, Dolan tried some Wall Street hocus-pocus: One company became two, and the Rangers and Knicks are now owned by separate entities. Their combined value is still $9.5 billion, but Dolan hopes that a more transparent daily measure of how undervalued the teams are will move their value closer to the $17 billion estimate.

That dream can be hard to understand for an outsider. Ten years ago, Forbes estimated the teams’ value below $5 billion. Has the value of the Rangers and Knicks tripled because they have become a great business recently? No. In the fiscal year ending on June 30, the company generated $32 million in earnings before interest, taxes, and depreciation. (That is, for context, the operating profits of a distributor of laundry equipment; it is two-thirds less than MSG Sports made in 2022.) Are the teams worth a lot more because Dolan — after 27 years of being seen as a talentless, short-tempered nepo baby — oversaw the Knicks finally winning an NBA championship? No again. The team would likely be worth the same had Jalen Brunson missed every shot or if Dolan had won five rings over his reign. The truth is that the prices of American sports teams are post-logic. Their value has, in Wall Street lingo, technical trading dynamics independent from the fundamentals (or the basic rules of finance). In the past few years, prices of sports teams have rapidly accelerated — suddenly in the case of the NBA, relentlessly in the case of the NFL, incredibly in the case of the MLB. In the NBA, Kushner and Iger are buying the team from Mark Walter (who purchased the team himself last year with money that may not have been exactly his) for twice what the Celtics sold for in 2025 — and three times the recent “get-in price” for teams in Minnesota and Phoenix. In the NFL, prices have quadrupled between David Tepper’s purchase of the Panthers for $2.3 billion in 2018 and Vinod Khosla’s purchase of the Seahawks for $9.6 billion in 2026. In the MLB, the Padres (the small-market winner of one World Series game in their entire history) sold for $3.9 billion, 62 percent more than what Steve Cohen paid for the Mets only six years ago.

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Lead Stories

As Trump faces down the midterms, a grim mood takes over the White House

President Trump’s private dining room, located just off the Oval Office, is where he goes to watch television, make phone calls and sift through stacks of printed-out news articles and documents that eat up most of the space. A spot has been cleared for Natalie Harp, a devoted aide who now works out of that room when she is not seated behind the president at his desk. Elsewhere, Bill Pulte, a top federal housing official and purveyor of A.I.-generated images and memes that make their way to the president’s social media feed, spends some of his time making posters. He recently made one of Senator Jon Husted of Ohio, a Republican whose backside Mr. Trump has admired, for the president to display while riding aboard Air Force One. Amid the loyalists, news clippings, poster boards and pieces of art made by his fans is an increasingly unpredictable president staring down the possibility that the Republican Party could lose both chambers of Congress in next week’s elections.

Many G.O.P. candidates in tight races have tried to distance themselves from Mr. Trump’s policies, his behavior and the widespread allegations of self-dealing in his administration. Behind the scenes, some political advisers and outside Republican groups have warned the president’s aides that Mr. Trump could do more harm than good by holding rallies in battleground states with uncomfortably close races, according to people with knowledge of the conversations. Mr. Trump receives a steady stream of updates from loyalists like Natalie Harp and Bill Pulte. Credit...Haiyun Jiang/The New York Times But the president, under pressure and angry with naysayers, has dismissed polls that reflect his unpopularity, and has raged against unflattering stories that plunge him into a dark mood. Determined to win by turning the midterm season into a referendum on himself, he is set to headline rallies around the country all week, including in Ohio on Wednesday. Mr. Trump remains convinced that his dominant place in the Republican Party is enough to mitigate a tough political climate. But a grim mood has set in around the White House, which has been rocked by turnover, tension among internal factions and anxiety over what happens should Republicans lose legislative control in Washington, according to 16 current and former administration officials and allies of Mr. Trump’s, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe private conversations.

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The money behind data center red tape

More than two months into Gov. Greg Abbott’s audit on data center approvals around Texas, millions of dollars and gigawatts of power demand are still tied up in red tape. In early August, Abbott directed the Electric Reliability Council of Texas Inc. and the Public Utility Council of Texas to conduct the audit against large loads advancing through ERCOT’s new interconnection process, later expanding the audit to the Texas Water Development Board and the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. The audit aims to reduce the impacts on local communities, such as strains on water and transmission infrastructure and increases in electricity prices for residents. But it’s still unclear how the PUCT will ensure the cost of future transmission upgrades aren’t passed on to the consumer.

"The commission is developing new rules related to how large-load projects would pay for the transmission infrastructure needed to serve their facilities. These adopted and proposed rules will protect customers from paying for large-load interconnection and improve grid planning. ... The PUCT expects final consideration of the proposed rules by the end of 2026," a spokesperson for the PUCT told the Houston Business Journal. Ken Medlock, senior director of the Center for Energy Studies at Rice University, told the HBJ that the audit may be partly for show, given that a lot of what was required in the audit was already a part of the siting and permitting process for the data centers. “I think a lot of this is just part of the political cycle … it wasn't really adding a lot. It was just making it more visible to the general public, which has a very specific political objective,” Medlock said. “I am sure six or seven months from now there will be another issue that grabs the general public's eye, and we will not be anywhere close to having all the data centers built that are going to get built. And who knows? This may actually start to dissipate right after the elections in early November.” The audit specifically targets the Batch Zero process, ERCOT’s new interconnection approval process that studies and approves new demand loads in groups rather than individually.

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Texas county Republicans sue to block election certification unless every ballot is hand counted

A Texas county Republican Party is asking a federal court to stop certification of the state’s upcoming election results unless officials first hand count every paper ballot in the state. The extraordinary request rests on speculative claims about artificial intelligence, foreign-made voting machine components and the possibility of undetected hacking. The Potter County Republican Party and its chairman, Daniel Rogers, filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday against Potter County Elections Administrator Christy Benge seeking to prevent certification of the Nov. 3 election until officials conduct a hand count of every paper ballot cast in every Texas precinct. The case was filed in the Amarillo Division of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, where it is assigned to U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, a Trump appointee who has presided over a series of high-profile conservative legal challenges.

Kacsmaryk was confirmed to the federal bench in 2019. His Amarillo courtroom has drawn scrutiny over judge shopping because the division has historically allowed litigants filing there to reliably land before Kacsmaryk. The lawsuit does not allege that voting machines in Potter County — or anywhere else in Texas — have actually changed votes. In fact, the plaintiffs explicitly concede that they are not claiming any previous Potter County election was altered or inaccurately reported. Instead, the 27-page complaint argues that the possibility of hacking, software errors and manipulation by increasingly sophisticated artificial intelligence makes Texas’ existing election safeguards constitutionally inadequate. The plaintiffs want the court to require a 100% statewide hand count before results for federal races can be certified. The lawsuit attempts to turn a case against one county official into a statewide challenge by asking the court to certify a class of Texas county election administrators, with Benge serving as their representative.

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The Hispanic voters who turned on Trump and put Texas in play

Abad Morales, who owns a construction company here in South Texas, was swayed by President Trump’s 2024 campaign question: “Are you better off today than you were four years ago?” Two years later, he is asking himself the same question—and now, he says, life has only gotten worse. Morales is having a harder time finding workers for his construction jobs and says the cost of everything continues to rise. His company won’t be able to host an annual toy drive this year because he has opted instead to use the money to help friends and local families who have been deported. His frustration with Trump has pushed him deeper into politics. Once largely disengaged, Morales is now running for the city commission in Weslaco and has become a Democratic precinct chair. By his count, he has helped register more than 350 voters this year.

“I’m done. I don’t think it’s right what he’s doing at all,” Morales, 36 years old, said of Trump. “We need a change. It’s time to put our foot down and make a change.” As Texans head to the polls to decide some of the nation’s most closely watched races, Latino voters—who helped propel Trump’s return to the White House in 2024—once again could play a decisive role, this time in determining whether Democrats win majorities in the House and Senate. ?A recent Wall Street Journal poll found a majority of Latino voters picking a Democrat for Congress over a Republican, 53% to 35%. On Trump’s job approval among Latinos, only 26% approve while 68% disapprove—significantly lower than his approval of 37% with voters overall, the poll found. In 2024, Trump flipped all four counties in the Rio Grande Valley, a predominantly Latino region that had long been a Democratic stronghold in Texas but had shifted rightward in recent elections. At the time, he appealed to Hispanic voters, especially men, with promises to lower the cost of living and tighten border security and immigration enforcement. Now, signs of growing disenchantment with Trump over his handling of the economy and his administration’s immigration crackdown suggest the gains are unraveling.

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State Stories

Texas faces growing flood threat as Tropical Storm Vance sends moisture north

Moisture from Tropical Storm Vance will stream north into Texas, bringing days of tropical downpours and an increased flood threat to parts of the Lone Star State. Rain will move into southwestern Texas Thursday before expanding northward into the northern part of the state later in the day. Repeated rounds of showers and thunderstorms will produce widespread rainfall totals of 1 to 2 inches, with isolated amounts reaching up to 3 inches.

A Level 2 out of 4 flash flood threat is in place from Del Rio to Lubbock on Thursday, with Flood Watches already issued for parts of West Texas. This latest threat comes after Texas and much of the Southwest endured multiple rounds of devastating flooding this year as Pacific moisture repeatedly surged inland, fueled in part by the brewing Super El Niño and an active Pacific basin. Rain will continue spreading north across much of West and Central Texas on Friday before reaching parts of Oklahoma. A Level 1 out of 4 flash flood threat stretches from northern Oklahoma, and southward across Central and West Texas, including Oklahoma City, San Antonio and Fort Worth. For Texans soaked earlier in the week, the spooky weather leading up to Halloween shouldn’t ruin all trick-or-treating plans. By Friday night into Saturday morning, moisture will begin to wane as it shifts north, limiting rainfall to a few light showers across parts of the Midwest.

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New report finds childcare remains biggest barrier to economic opportunity for Texas women

A new report on Texas women’s economic well-being finds little progress in being made and access to affordable childcare is one of the biggest obstacles. The Texas Women’s Foundation has been tracking women’s economic indicators for more than a decade. Its latest report finds that women working full-time now earn, on average, 81 cents for every dollar earned by men, down from 83 cents in the previous report. The gap is wider for Black and Latina women. “I would say there’s not been a lot of forward progress,” said Karen Hughes White, president and CEO of the Texas Women’s Foundation. The new research, conducted in partnership with the policy group Every Texan, examines 12 indicators of women’s economic opportunity across 252 of the state’s 254 counties, including employment, education, health care and childcare. (Loving and Kennedy Counties were excluded because of insufficient data.)

The stakes are growing: According to the report, women currently make up 46% of the Texas workforce, but White said they could become the majority by 2040. And, the research shows childcare stands out as the biggest challenge. Half of Texans live in what’s considered a childcare desert. That’s an area with at least three children for every available licensed childcare spot. For families who can find care, affordability is another hurdle. The average cost of center-based infant care in Texas is nearly $12,000 a year. White said that’s roughly the cost of a year of tuition at a public university. “It forces, especially women, to make these untenable decisions about going to work to support their family or being able to afford childcare,” she said. She said women often end up reducing their hours or leaving the workforce altogether. The report comes as Texas lawmakers and state leaders consider ways to address the childcare crisis ahead of the legislative session in January. White said expanding paid parental leave and increasing enrollment in public pre-K could help. But she cautioned that expanding public pre-K can also put financial pressure on private childcare centers, which depend on revenue from older children to help offset the higher cost of infant care. She said policymakers also need to look at what they’ve already tried to see what’s working and what isn’t. “Oftentimes, we’ll have policy changes. We’ll have funding increases. We’ll have stronger participation by philanthropy,” White said. “But we don’t do a good job, in my opinion, of coming back around the table together … to assess what we solved for and where we may have created some unintended consequences.”

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Texas says 9 islands in Rio Grande belong to state, not Mexico

The State of Texas on Tuesday declared that nine river islands in the middle of the Rio Grande belong to the state, not to Mexico. For years, river islands have provided what officials says are safe havens for cartels that smuggle drugs and migrants into the U.S. from Mexico, giving them a place to hide and wait out border patrols in those areas. A couple years ago, however, the Texas General Land Office declared some islands a part of the state and cleared them of vegetation. Some islands have had military troops land on them recently, and some are also used as border security staging zones.

“For years, the ownership of these islands has been uncertain, limiting the ability to ensure they are properly monitored and protected,” Texas Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham said. “Now that the GLO has confirmed these nine islands belong to the State of Texas, we are notifying our law enforcement partners so that they can gain access to these state-owned properties to patrol, inspect and clear them of any illegal activity they may encounter, consistent with the law. Texas land will never become a safe haven for cartels, human traffickers, smugglers, or other criminal organizations.” The nine islands are in South Texas and span from Laredo to McAllen, the GLO says. Buckingham last month told Border Report that the Texas Department of Public Safety requested that they map the ownership of these islands in the Rion Grande. In 2023, Buckingham declared Fronton Island off Starr County as part of the state. Last year, her office declared Roma and Bear islands, also in Starr County, also as part of the Lone Star State. Fronton Island was cleared and used by Operation Lone Star, Texas’ border security operation during the Biden administration. Roma Island was cleared in March, and Chinook helicopters and hundreds of military have recently landed on the island as part of Operation Unified Resolve.

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Dallas VC firm Disruptive raises record $10 billion fund, largest in Texas history

Venture capital firm Disruptive has raised $10 billion for its first flagship fund, setting a record for the largest venture capital investment fund ever raised in Texas. The Dallas-based firm, which operates legally as Disruptive Technology Advisers LLC, announced the raise of its so-called "megafund" on Oct. 27. The announcement comes just a couple of weeks after Dallas Business Journal and other media reported Disruptive had already secured roughly $7.5 billion in commitments toward the $10 billion target. Disruptive plans to deploy the capital in about 10 late-stage companies, with investments of up to $1 billion apiece. The firm is known for backing high-profile artificial intelligence startups including Groq?? and Reflection AI.

At $10 billion, Disruptive's fund is the largest ever raised by a Dallas firm, and the largest venture capital fund in state history, according to PitchBook? data. Private equity firm Lone Star Funds?, previously headquartered in Dallas but now based in London, previously closed an $8.1 billion buyout fund in 2019. The raise also puts Disruptive among a small group of venture firms managing megafunds — defined by PitchBook as a venture vehicle with at least $500 million in committed capital. Firms such as Josh Kushner's Thrive Capital? and Silicon Valley-based Andreessen Horowitz are among the few that have raised funds exceeding $10 billion in recent years. "The best private technology companies are growing larger, staying private longer and requiring more capital than ever before," Disruptive founder and CEO Alex Davis said in a statement. "We have always focused on a small number of exceptional companies, building the conviction and relationships to be there for founders at their most important moments. The Disruptive Flagship Fund gives us the scale to match the opportunity."

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Tarrant woman accused of stealing campaign sign listed as ballot board member

The wife of a White Settlement council member who is accused of stealing a campaign sign is on the approved list of appointees to the early voting ballot board, but it is unclear if she is still a member. Jennifer James’ name appears on Page 6 on the list of Republican Party members of the board. Jennifer James and her husband Aaron did not return phone calls from the Star-Telegram seeking comment. Tim Davis, chairman of the Tarrant County GOP, did not respond to email messages. Allison Campollo, chair of the Tarrant County Democratic Party, said she saw James on video footage from the ballot board room. Campolo said James was on the approved list for the Republican Party, but it is unclear if she is still on the board. The election board is meeting at 4 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 29. The agenda lists public comment and appointing ballot board members for the Nov. 3 election.

The Tarrant County Election Board, which includes the Republican and Democratic party chairs, the county judge and elections administrator, is responsible for appointing the early voting ballot board members, who must be from the Republican, Democratic and Libertarian parties. The members’ primary responsibility is to count ballots that were not scanned, which includes mail-in ballots, provisional ballots or if a scanner was down at a voting site, Campolo said. The board live-streams the ballot counting proceedings. James was cited for theft after White Settlement Mayor Faron Young, who is unopposed in his re-election bid, said that on Oct. 1, he checked on his campaign signs after a rainstorm. Young told the Star-Telegram previously that the sign in question was on private property belonging to a dealership, Cars-For-U on White Settlement Road. Young asked to review security-camera footage and saw someone driving up in a blue SUV. He said he recognized Jennifer James taking his sign. “I have no idea why she would do that,” Young said. Jennifer James’ husband, Aaron, is running for his second council term with two opponents for the Place 1 seat. When asked why he filed the police report, Young said he did so because the signs cost money. “We raised funds. I had people who made donations for those signs,” he said. “We shouldn’t be touching people’s private property.”

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Lawsuit filed against Grand Prairie ISD after play cancellation

South Grand Prairie High School senior Ana Mota, 17, is suing the Grand Prairie Independent School District after district officials cancelled the high school’s planned production of Little Shop of Horrors rather than allow Mota to perform the role of the male lead, Seymour, according to breaking news reports from the Dallas Morning News. The lawsuit claims GPISD violated Title IX, the federal law prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sex by institutions receiving federal funds. Mota’s mother, Nancy Jimenez, has also filed a Title IX complaint with the Office of Civil Rights of the U.S. Department of Education.

GPISD district officials have declined to comment on the lawsuit. News that the play was being cancelled was made public the week of Oct. 12, when Mota told the Morning News that she had been cast as Seymour and rehearsals had already started when district officials stepped. Mota told reporters she was informed she couldn’t play Seymour in the production because of Texas Senate Bill 12, which was passed in 2023 and which bans certain drag performances. At a GPISD Board of Trustees meeting that same week — on Thursday, Oct. 15 — board president Emily Liles defended the school district’s decision but insisted that GPISD Superintendent Gabe Trujillo instead canceled the production based on the OTHER Senate Bill 12, passed in 2025, which bans diversity, equity and inclusion measures in public schools along with school-sanctioned clubs based on sexual orientation or gender identity and anything school curricula on acknowledging transgender identities. Jimenez asked GPISD officials to explain in writing exactly how her daughter playing a male role in a play would violate state law. She never received an answer, the Morning News Reports. Mota’s lawsuit claims the school district is misrepresenting SB 12 and applying it too broadly, noting that cross-gender acting is a centuries-old staple of theater. The lawsuit also points out that Mota is not transgender and “was not engaged in any personal gender transition. She was portraying a scripted fictional character in an official school theatrical production.”

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Mavs CEO to retire

Rick Welts, 73, the out CEO of the Dallas Mavericks will retire on Dec. 31, the team announced on Wednesday, Oct. 28. Mavs president Ethan Casson will succeed him. Welts has been CEO since 2024 when he agreed to serve in the position for two years. His impact on the team may be best remembered for the plan to move the team from the American Airlines Center to North Dallas. The Mavs are currently planning to build a new arena at the former Valley View Mall on Preston Road at LBJ Freeway. The team hopes it will be ready for the 2031 season, when the team’s lease expires at the American Airlines Center.

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HPD says officers called ICE 88 times from July through September

Houston police officers contacted federal immigration agents 88 times from July through the end of September, according to data issued by the department on Thursday. The calls happened when officers found people with immigration warrants. On average, officers detained people for approximately 45 minutes while waiting for agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to respond. According to the figures from the Houston Police Department (HPD), 58 people were released after the calls, 13 were taken to jail for new charges, and 17 were taken into ICE custody.

In 33 cases, officers were responding to a call for emergency services when they encountered someone with an immigration warrant. The data report doesn’t make clear whether the person placing the call for help was the subject of the warrant. "Out of 300,000 contacts [between HPD and citizens] that have 17 end with ICE involvement speaks for itself," Houston Mayor John Whitmire told reporters on Wednesday. "Very small, very small number. And for anyone to say different about our involvement is just wrong." Related: Houston police responded to a man in a mental health crisis. ICE arrested him Authorities did not provide full details on each interaction, but records obtained by Houston Public Media for incidents from April through June showed contacts between HPD and ICE during responses to a mental health crisis, a suicide attempt and domestic disturbances. Asked by a Houston Public Media reporter about community trust, particularly when contacts involve victims of crimes, HPD Chief Noe Diaz said, "I won't diminish that because that's real. People feel that. But for us, statistically speaking, the calls for service haven't changed in the last quarter."

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Republicans for Talarico? New video features former North Texas GOP officials

U.S. Senate candidate James Talarico is reaching out to Republicans with a new video focused on some of the Democrat’s GOP supporters. The video from Talarico’s campaign features former state Rep. Bennett Ratliff and former state Rep. Todd Smith, who used to represent parts of North Texas in the Texas Legislature. It also includes former U.S. Rep. Alan Steelman from Dallas, former Ennis Mayor Russell Thomas and former Tarrant County Judge Glen Whitley. The former elected officials explain why they’re “passing on Paxton” in the short video shared on X Wednesday afternoon. Talarico, a state representative from Round Rock, is facing Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in the Nov. 3 election for U.S. Senate.

“I truly believe that he is the most corrupt politician Texas has seen,” Whitley says in the video, later adding that he’s ashamed Paxton is on the ballot. Whitley has crossed party lines in the past to support candidates, including former Vice President Kamala Harris for president and former U.S. Rep. Colin Allred, both of whom are Democrats, in 2024. Whitley said he wouldn’t support Paxton relatively early in the general election, after Sen. John Cornyn lost his bid for reelection in a GOP primary runoff. At the time, Whitely told the Star-Telegram he no longer “publicizes himself” as a Republican, but leans conservative and is more of Republican than a “liberal Democrat.” Thomas raises concerns about Paxton’s past legal troubles and his 2023 impeachment in the video. The attorney general was acquitted after a trial in the Texas Senate. Ratliff calls Talarico the best person in the race before the video flips to Smith, who represented House District 92 in Tarrant County for eight terms, before leaving the House in January 2013.

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Texas nonprofit hospitals must offer charity care, but many patients never realize they can apply

Nikki Myles knew the hospital bill about to hit her mailbox would be expensive and probably take years to pay off. But she wasn't prepared for what she saw. Myles, 38, got the bill in March, a couple weeks after an emergency hospitalization that included a three-night stay and surgery to remove her gallbladder. She had hoped doctors at Houston Methodist Hospital in Baytown, Texas — a city on the north shore of Galveston Bay — could treat the unceasing pain in her abdomen with a prescription. But the culprit was gallstones, and her gallbladder had to come out. Myles declined the operation at first because she didn't have health insurance. She relented after her doctor warned her that the horrible pain would return. A few weeks after the surgery, the hospital bills started to arrive. Myles braced for a big number — she thought $20,000, maybe $30,000. The total exceeded $117,000. A first payment of $989 was due in a month.

Myles said a nurse had mentioned the possibility of financial assistance while she was still in the hospital. But that was the last she remembers hearing about it before she learned of her six-figure debt. "I panicked," said Myles, who was working as a case manager at a Houston-area nonprofit that helps children in foster care. "I had no resources to pay." The burden was too much. She dropped her master's degree courses, which she had hoped would help her land a higher-paying job. Like all nonprofit hospitals, Houston Methodist is required under federal and state laws to offer eligible patients financial assistance, or charity care, as a condition of its tax-exempt status. Hospitals also must communicate to patients that the program exists and make it accessible. But in interviews with Public Health Watch, some patients, researchers and advocacy groups said nonprofit hospitals are falling short in letting patients know about charity care and making it easy to apply. As a result, low-income patients can fall into heavy medical debt that upends their lives.

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Judge orders senders of trans advocacy comms in Texas to reveal identity

Who sent the mysterious text messages and mailers purporting to come from Texas transgender advocacy groups? Their identity was not revealed during a court hearing in downtown Austin on Tuesday, but Chris Hilton, who used to work for Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, identified himself as the lawyer for the senders. Hilton argued he should not have to divulge the names of his clients. Travis County District Judge Jan Soifer disagreed, and ruled that the clients must agree to answer questions about the matter later this week. Texans across the political spectrum received the communications in recent weeks. They promoted resources for transgender, nonbinary and questioning youth and mentioned several different LGBTQ+ organizations across the state, including the Transgender Education Network of Texas (TENT).

But they stood out from the sea of text messages and pamphlets that voters receive during election season because TENT says it didn’t send them. Last week, the organization filed what’s called a “Rule 202” petition in court, asking Soifer to allow it to force the senders to answer its questions in a deposition. In court, Hilton said his clients will stop sending out the pamphlets but argued that their actions are protected by the First Amendment. He said TENT’s rush to expose his clients’ identity before the election is a political ploy, and “doxxing” or publicly revealing personal information about his client would cause them harm. “They seek to inflict some of the same harms that they claim to be suffering, they seek to engage in electioneering,” Hilton said. Mimi Marziani, one of TENT’s attorneys, countered that the communications led to harassment and threats against TENT staff and that they could amount to illegally impersonating the nonprofit. “Somebody has been impersonating our client and sending out millions of unauthorized text messages and mailers to voters across Texas, intentionally creating confusion for voters and strife,” Marziani told reporters after the hearing. She added TENT is “very pleased” with Soifer’s ruling, which Hilton has appealed.

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Nuclear power projects flock to Texas, with billions in tax subsidies

On the Texas Gulf Coast, Maryland-based X-Energy is awaiting federal approval to begin building a more than $4 billion, next-generation nuclear reactor at a Dow plastic plant. If successful, it will be among the first of what the nuclear industry hopes will be a new class of advanced reactors that are less expensive to build and safer to run. The venture is one of more than half a dozen similar projects underway in Texas, driven by tens of billions of dollars in federal grants and lucrative tax credits created by a Congress eager to revive the nation’s dormant nuclear energy industry amid a flood of power-hungry data center projects.

Texas is quickly emerging as an epicenter for the nascent technology. Already, a wave of startup nuclear companies is locating in the state, setting up offices in and around Austin while partnering with universities, including Texas Tech and Texas A&M, which is offering up a more than 2,000-acre site near its flagship campus for companies to build advanced reactors. In Abilene, the startup Natura Resources, founded by local oil billionaire Doug Robison, is building a test reactor on the campus of Abilene Christian University, with plans to one day turn out what are known as small modular reactors, much as GM and Ford produce cars. “I can see Stargate, one of the world’s largest data centers, out my window,” said CEO Jordan Robison. "The need is out there. We need to find clean, firm generation sources. The technology is proven, and we have the ability to bring the cost down.” But the technology is far from proven, and traditional investors, including Wall Street banks and pension funds, have been reluctant to invest. Some are wary of nuclear projects after the last U.S. effort to revive the industry resulted in the construction of two reactors in Georgia whose costs ballooned to more than $36 billion, double what they were budgeted for. Andrew Kleinman, an analyst at the research firm Wood Mackenzie, said while the surge in U.S. power demand has revived interest in nuclear, as yet no one has proven they can build reactors at a cost competitive with more traditional power sources, like natural gas plants or wind and solar farms.

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National Stories

Dolores Huerta, United Farmworkers co-founder and civil rights icon, dies at 96

Dolores Huerta, the legendary labor organizer whose advocacy improved conditions for migrant farm workers in the nation’s fruit and vegetable fields and persuaded presidents to do more for women’s equality and immigrant rights, died Wednesday. She was 96. Huerta, who co-founded the United Farm Workers union with César Chavez, was celebrated for her enduring rallying cry “Sí, se puede!” — which translates to “Yes, it can be done!” She died of cancer at her home in Bakersfield, California, surrounded by family, said Erik Olvera, a family spokesperson. Well into her 90s, Huerta was marching in protests and encouraging activists to keep speaking out about race, poverty and LGBTQ+ and women’s rights. “It seems like history continues to repeat itself,” she told The Associated Press in August. “You see what’s happening right now in our country, and we know that people have to stand up.”

Huerta’s resolve cemented her place in history as one of the nation’s most influential labor leaders, civil rights icons and feminist activists. Her three-word Spanish-language slogan was grounded in the belief that people who take action can affect change. Her accolades over the decades included the Presidential Medal of Freedom. When President Barack Obama presented her with the nation’s highest civilian honor in 2012, he praised Huerta as a tenacious leader. He said she was gracious when he stole her slogan for his 2008 campaign. “I’m pleased that she let me off easy ... ’cause Dolores does not play,” Obama joked. Just days after President Donald Trump’s first inauguration, Huerta voiced concern about the rise of so-called “alt-right” groups. “We cannot survive as a nation, as a democracy, if we continue with the racism, with the sexism and homophobia, with the militarization that we have in our society,” she told the AP in 2017. This year, Huerta revealed a shocking chapter in her life story — that she was sexually abused in the 1960s by Chavez, the farmworker movement’s co-founder, leading to the birth of two children who were raised by others. She had kept the secret for 60 years, long after he died. Chavez’s reputation immediately soured, his name removed from the holiday that had been a point of Hispanic pride.

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Inside Democrats’ secret effort to stack Alaska’s midterm ballot with another Dan Sullivan

In the summer of 2025, a staffer for Mary Peltola, the Alaska Democrat who was eyeing a run for Senate, received unusual instructions from top campaign aides: Find as many people named Dan Sullivan in Alaska as you can. The staffer complied, combing through voter records to produce a list of Dan Sullivans from across the state. This was no random request. Dan S. Sullivan is the name of the state’s Republican senator. And if the Peltola campaign or its allies could track down and persuade another Dan Sullivan to run for Senate, the confusion could cost the senator crucial votes on the state’s unusual, four-person ballot. The plan worked. This spring, a retired teacher from a tiny fishing village along the Alaska Panhandle, reachable only by air and sea, announced his candidacy for Senate. His name was Dan J. Sullivan.

The Peltola campaign has repeatedly denied any involvement in his candidacy. But The Times has found, based on interviews and text messages, along with documents prepared for a potential lawsuit against the campaign, that not only did Ms. Peltola’s team work with people trying to recruit Mr. Sullivan to run for Senate, but the effort was much broader. The group worked to coax other would-be spoilers into the race, to dilute the incumbent’s support and help catapult the Democrat to victory. The endeavor, which was internally called the ballot composition project, involved secret trips to far-flung Alaskan communities and the appearance of a mysterious Midwestern operative, who traversed the state using a fake name and made his pitch to would-be candidates over beers at brew pubs. It also involved the Peltola campaign’s lawyers, as well as senior aides at the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, which directs the party’s campaign strategy in Senate races across the country. From Washington to Anchorage, those advisers participated in regular conversations about the effort and even considered forming a new political party to draw conservatives onto the ballot. Ballot-stacking tactics are common in politics and generally considered legal — and have been employed by both parties in Alaska.

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Trump turns stolen election claims from rhetoric to action

Democrats, election officials and voting rights groups have long wondered whether President Donald Trump, upon his return to the Oval Office, would again attempt to overturn an election when his party is trailing. It’s no longer hypothetical. Late last week, the president directed the Department of Justice to preemptively contest a potential Republican loss in the Alaska U.S. Senate race. The department is demanding a court hold up certification of a possible Democratic win until it’s determined whether voters were confused by having two candidates with the same name on the ballot. Trump followed that by calling for the prosecution of Democratic candidate Mary Peltola, a former congresswoman, based on a New York Times report that her campaign helped recruit someone named Dan Sullivan to siphon away votes from the Republican incumbent, also named Dan Sullivan.

Academics believe the lawsuit is the first time since the Civil Rights era that the federal government has sued to halt certification of an election, a duty the Constitution places in the hands of states. Trump for years has claimed elections are rigged when he or his party loses, and this time is no exception. He has used his midterm rallies to say Democrats cheat, criticize election officials by name and call the ranked choice voting system in Alaska, which might hold the key to Senate control, a scam. But the certification lawsuit elevates Trump’s crusade beyond mere rhetoric, indicating that he is preparing to use the power of the presidency to try to reverse a possible loss as his party is struggling to hold its control of Congress. Earlier this week, the president also announced a $1 million bounty for anyone who provides proof of prior or current voter fraud in the country. It wasn’t clear whether or how he planned to follow through. “For at least the last year and a half, they’ve been laying that groundwork,” said Theresa Lee, a senior attorney with the ACLU. “We’ve been preparing for just as long, if not longer.”

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As support for Trump dips, conservatives fight to boost evangelical turnout in midterms

Ralph Reed, head of the Faith & Freedom Coalition, has worked for decades to get conservative evangelical Christians to the polls. Widely known as a key architect of what is sometimes called the Religious Right, the Georgia-based activist and his organization have expended enormous resources to hone what has become the Republican Party’s core voting bloc — and a crucial player in President Donald Trump’s rise to power. But earlier this month, as Reed drove to a Trump rally in Dalton, Georgia, where his group planned to recruit volunteers to help with voter turnout in the upcoming midterm elections, he acknowledged that getting conservative Christians to vote this year — when the president’s approval rating has hit historic lows — has been challenging. “We’re hearing what you would expect to hear, which is concerns about cost of living, concerns about gas prices,” Reed told Religion News Service in a phone interview, referring to evangelical voters.

“But also real fear about the extremism and radicalism on the other side.” It’s a dynamic that has left a question mark hanging over conservative Christian voters this election cycle, sparking anxiety among some in the GOP as polls indicate the group’s enthusiasm for the president — like that of many Americans — is dipping ahead of Election Day. With some voters already casting ballots in battleground states across the country, organizers such as Reed are rushing to ensure evangelicals still turn out with their usual gusto — or at least vote enough to limit conservative losses. Recent polling paints a muddy picture of how evangelicals will respond to the upcoming midterms. On the one hand, a recent Pew Research survey found that 73% of white evangelicals who are registered to vote say they are likely to support their local Republican House candidate on Election Day. But while approval of Trump among evangelicals hovered near 80% in many polls last year, recent surveys from Pew, Public Religion Research Institute and The Washington Post show support for the president dipping to anywhere from 66% to 58% with the group. Michael Wear, an evangelical who once helped organize former President Barack Obama’s efforts to court conservative religious voters, stressed that while white evangelicals may be souring on Trump in the near term, that doesn’t necessarily signal a sea change for Democrats.

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James O’Keefe charged over hidden-camera operation at Minnesota polls

Prosecutors in Minnesota charged two conservative activists, James O’Keefe and Cam Higby, on Wednesday with felony identity theft and unlawful voting. The complaints allege that O’Keefe, 42, and Higby, 26, wore disguises and used hidden cameras while giving poll workers the names and addresses of four registered voters at Minneapolis polling places during the August primary. The voters had not authorized them to use their identities, prosecutors said. The complaints do not allege that either man cast ballots. Each faces one count of identity theft and one count of unlawful voting, which covers misidentifying oneself while applying for a ballot. Each count carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $10,000 fine, or both.

The pair later posted videos on social media of the visits, during which they were dressed in what they called Muslim clothing: Higby’s face covered by a black veil and O’Keefe wearing a long white robe and skullcap. In the videos, they criticized Minnesota for allowing registered voters to cast ballots without showing IDs and allowing registered voters to vouch for others so they can also register to vote at the polls. In a statement, Higby said he was trying to “expose vulnerabilities” in how Minnesota runs elections. “I never voted, I never signed an affidavit and I never violated a law,” he said. “For showing how Minnesota abuses votes, they seek to take mine away from me permanently.” In a nine-minute video posted Wednesday night, O’Keefe said the charges would allow him to “expose injustice at the highest levels.” “This is an attempt to criminalize investigative journalism,” he said. “The charges are an attempt to distract from what we exposed as insecure elections in Minnesota. Now, this case has become a landmark First Amendment case where everyone’s right to speak truth to power has just been put on the line.”

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Fox News ratings sink a staggering 27% in October, but audience still larger than CNN or MS NOW

In the lead-up to the 2026 midterm elections, Fox News lost more than a quarter of its overall viewing audience in the month of October, according to new data. That said, the network remains the most-watched news outlet on cable, well ahead of rivals CNN and MS NOW. For October 2026, Fox News is on track to post its lowest-rated month in total-day viewers since December 2023, according to preliminary figures from Nielsen, first reported by Status. FNC averaged 1.1 million total viewers for the month, down 27%, and 98,000 viewers in the key 25-54 demographic coveted by advertisers, a drop of 32%. The ratings decline comes amid a continuation of the drop-off in TV viewers overall — but Fox News has been losing viewers at a double-digit clip as CNN and MS NOW have been slightly up in recent months.

As Variety has reported, Fox News on many nights draws a bigger live audience than one or more broadcast TV networks. But its viewership is steadily eroding: In the third quarter of 2026, Fox News saw total-day viewership decline 16%, and viewership in the 25-54 demo fall 24%. Both CNN and MS NOW saw small gains in overall audience for Q3. In primetime, Fox News averaged about 2 million total viewers (down 28% year over year) in October, with viewers in the 25-54 demo falling 36% to 183,000, according to the Nielsen data. “Fox & Friends” had its second consecutive month below 1 million total viewers and under 100,000 in the key demo, with October representing its lowest overall viewers since July 2015 (and its lowest in the 25-54 demographic since June 2001). Meanwhile, progressive rival MS NOW saw its daytime audience rise 16% to 588,000 total viewers in October, and CNN viewership was up 3% to 402,000 viewers over the same timeframe, according to the preliminary Nielsen figures.

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Hegseth fires a top general

Earlier this week, the Pentagon’s chief planner, Army Lieutenant General Brett Sylvia, was ousted from the Joint Chiefs of Staff. No explanation was given. This comes at an inopportune moment, given that President Trump may be planning to relaunch the war on Iran. Sylvia, the former commander of the 101st Airborne Division, becomes the latest in a long line of senior officers who have been shown the door since Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth arrived at the Pentagon almost two years ago. No replacement for Sylvia was named, and it is unclear who will take over his responsibilities. In the past, the deputy or vice director of the relevant directorate of the Joint Chiefs of Staff would fill the role on a temporary basis until the president nominated a candidate for Senate confirmation. Sylvia is the second person to be pushed out of the job of director of the Directorate for Strategy, Plans, and Policy at the Joint Chiefs of Staff, known inside the military as the J5, in the past year. His predecessor, Army Lieutenant General Joseph McGee, was forced to retire. “Now is not the time when you’d want to lose the J5,” a former Joint Chiefs of Staff official said. “This person would serve as a critical link between the operational force, the department policy, and the White House.”

Sylvia’s departure presages more upheaval in the Pentagon’s upper echelons as Trump looks to break the stalemate with Iran and weighs renewed combat after Tuesday’s elections. Trump had considered striking Iran before the midterms, my colleagues and I previously reported, and U.S. Central Command, which is running the war effort, has prepared a variety of strike options. Those plans range from a short burst of strikes targeting Iran’s nuclear sites to a longer campaign aimed at pushing Iran’s economy closer to the brink—and Iran’s government to the negotiating table. But the president has not yet decided how to proceed, and any strikes are unlikely to happen before next week. The war, which began in February, has been relatively quiet in recent months as U.S. and Iranian forces face off in the Strait of Hormuz, a vital waterway for global energy supplies. Iran effectively seized control of the strait shortly after the war began, while the U.S. has countered with a blockade of Iranian shipping. The webpage naming Sylvia as a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff has already been taken down. Sylvia did not respond to a request for comment. If the war has gotten bogged down, Hegseth’s campaign of firings at the Pentagon has not. Sylvia is at least the fifth general pushed out or fired this year, each holding key positions within the military. Hegseth forced out General Randy George, chief of staff of the Army, at the height of the U.S. strike campaign in Iran, despite the Army’s role in restocking key munitions, which are now in short supply.

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Copyright November 05, 2026, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved