Dan Patrick

The 2018 midterm election could be an interesting one in Texas, reports KHOU.

Some Texan officials who will be on the ballot are already in a strong position. Gov. Greg Abbott already has almost $30  million in the bank. Other Lone Star lawmakers look less invincible. Attorney General Ken Paxton is facing federal securities fraud charges and is under criminal indictment in state court.

Latinos make up 17 percent of the U.S. population. But they only hold one percent of elected offices, reports Texas Standard.

And one group is hoping to change that. The Latino Victory Project’s goal is to develop a pipeline of Hispanic leaders to run for future open seats. These Latino elected officials will then address policy issues important to the Hispanic community.

Last month a federal appeals court declared that Texas’s controversial Voter ID law was biased against minority and poor voters. Now, as Bloomberg reports, the Lone Star State has reached a compromise that will allow these voters to have their voices heard.

A Federal appeals court has struck down Texas's voter identification law, reports Bloomberg. The Fifth Circuit court determined that the law is, in fact, discriminatory—as has been repeatedly charged by critics.

Texas has, traditionally, been a powerhouse in national Conservative politics. The last Republican president hailed from the Lone Star State, as did the runner-up in this year’s GOP primary runner-up. But that status may be changing. For the first time in a long time, Texas voters failed to select the eventual winner of the primary season.

Texas officials have asked all state agencies to scale back their costs by four percent, in an effort to curb spending. The cuts will affect agency budgets for the 2018-2019 fiscal year, reports The Texas Tribune. The request was announced in a letter from Gov. Greg Abbott, Lt. Gov.

With the advent of Donald Trump’s candidacy, Democrats grew excited that swing states might become solid blue wins for their party. But now, as Trump’s inflammatory rhetoric continues to cause consternation among elites in both parties, solidly red states like Texas may even be up for grabs. As Quartz.com reports, one pollster at the University of Texas thinks a Clinton win in the Lone Star State is a definite possibility.

Texan members of the GOP are gathering in Dallas this week for their state convention. And leaders have called on the Texas Republican Party to unify behind Donald Trump, reports The Texas Tribune. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick spoke to the GOP convention Thursday morning. “We must come together, he said. “We must support our Republican nominee for president: Donald Trump.”

Texan members of the GOP are gathering in Dallas this week for their state convention. And leaders have called on the Texas Republican Party to unify behind Donald Trump, reports The Texas Tribune. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick spoke to the GOP convention Thursday morning. “We must come together, he said. “We must support our Republican nominee for president: Donald Trump.”

The Texas Observer has been busy. In a massive file, they’ve aggregated every campaign photo of every candidate actively running for the Texas Legislature this year. Here are some of the Observer’s more interesting discoveries:

25 of this year’s campaign photos prominently feature the Texas Capitol. The most common pose was the crossed-arm-candidate-with-attitude. This posture can be seen in 23 of the pictures. The images feature 23 cowboy hats, two tractors, five horses and 13 dogs.

Texas county elections are coming up, and just in time for the primaries, The Canadian Record has given us a helpful overview of how county politics work. The actions of counties, unlike cities, are limited by laws passed by the state legislature. The commissioners court is the heart of each county.

In each Texas county, this court consist of four precinct commissioners and a county judge. The court is in charge of the county’s budget and tax rate, as well as all county purchases.

Former Texas Democratic gubernatorial candidate Wendy Davis opened up on Politico last week about a campaign regret. In a revealing bit of honesty, Davis said her decision to support the open carry of handguns during her campaign has haunted her.

In regional news, Texas has signed a law to establish the creation of a “Texas Bullion Depository,” a vault to hold gold bullion and increase the stability of Texas’s gold reserves. The gold that will be put in the vault, worth more than $660 biillion, is currently being held in a bank in Manhattan, Reuters reports.

Politico.com reports that Vladimir Putin has cast his eye toward the Lone Star State. The US’s lead role in imposing sanctions on Russia after the country’s annexation of the Crimea and incursions into the Ukraine has fostered Russian resentment against America. Now Putin has engaged his propaganda machine to encourage fringe groups who would like to see Texas secede from the US.

In Texas this session will be unremarkable.  All the new people at the top will get along, and those wringing their hands about change are manufacturing drama reports the Texas Tribune.

Of course, there is the other side where the mix of new personalities, the split in the Republican party, and a Legislature easily stampeded by noisy outside partisans will provide drama to keep the worriers busy.

When it comes to who wants to be the next president, all roads seem to lead to … Texas.

There are about two dozen serious contenders for the office.  And, an uncanny number have a legitimate Texas connection reports the Texas Tribune. 

Some have been in the Lone Star State for just a few months, often on a campaign job.   Others were born there.  Still others were educated or lived there for a job.

Here's a taste of Texas news:

Texas is a dangerous place to work.  Texas leads the nation in workplace fatalities and workplace injuries reported the Texas Tribune.  The rest of the story is here.

The primary runoffs are history in the Lone Star State, and maps from the Texas Tribune reveal voter turnout was pretty low. 

For example, in the race for lieutenant governor only 3.5 percent of registered Texas voters earned State Sen. Dan Patrick the Republican nomination.

David Alameel won the Democratic primary for the U.S. Senate with 1 percent of voters.

With the Texas May primary run-off looming overhead, a Republican lieutenant governor candidate is being held-- feet to the fire.  Rep. Dan Patrick answered the social media challenge of San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro, where Castro called the senator the “most anti-immigrant Republican running for office,” according to a recent article from The Texas Tribune.

The four Republican candidates for lieutenant governor debated this week in Dallas.  They took on end-of-life issues and border security, but there wasn’t much to distinguish one from another on policy according to The Texas Tribune.