Progress Texas Podcasts

After Tuesday's disastrous press conference, from which Ken Paxton fled even basic questions from the press amidst the skirts of his handler - how on Earth does he expect to face equally insistent moderators, across a stage from James Talarico, before a huge live and televised audience, at a Senatorial debate? On our weekly roundtable this week, we dive deep into this important and extremely a...

An analysis of the personal wealth of 15 first-time congressional candidates from Texas shows that only the rich can easily run for office, while Elon Musk dumps billions into GOP candidates and right wing PACs - and boorish billionaire behavior is fueling a growing populist backlash. Texas Tribune: https://www.texastribune.org/2026/07/22/texas-congress-delegation-net-worth-millionaires-2026-midte...

The full collapse of a press conference featuring Ken Paxton and a large group of Texas county sheriffs is a must-watch. After reading a lengthy statement smearing James Talarico, Paxton's handler abruptly canceled the presser after just two questions from the press didn't follow his chosen law enforcement narrative. The two questions concerned Paxton's recent real estate acquisitions,...

Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: James Talarico's outreach event for Black voters in Houston on Sunday featured a pledge to spend $25 million on a continued embrace of that community - and the majority of the tension present was provided by a single political influencer who has based her online persona largely on her personal disdain for the nominee: https://www.texastribune...

Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: James Talarico has accepted three invitations from TV operators to engage in debate with Ken Paxton, while the Paxton camp agrees that debates "should" happen, but has not confirmed any of those dates: https://www.fox7austin.com/news/james-talarico-challenges-ken-paxton-3-televised-texas-senate-debates ...Texas Senate debates have not favored...

Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: With a second consecutive year of disastrous flooding impacting Texas, fears grow that a "new normal" may have been established via climate change: https://www.kbtx.com/2026/07/17/texas-hill-country-floods-again-back-to-back-disasters-raise-alarm-over-future-storms/ ...Two deaths related to the flooding are reported - a tragedy, but one that...

Who is this guy - and what has he done with Governor Greg Abbott? In recent weeks - clearly in an election year panic of sorts - our Governor has been flip-flopping like crazy: he's been condemning the impacts of data centers - the very same data centers he's lured to Texas for years with generous incentives and kickbacks. He's tempted blowback from Donald Trump in admitting out loud t...

Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: Significant and dangerous flooding has struck Texas, just over a year after a catastrophic flood at about the same time in 2025: https://www.youtube.com/live/2Fj-1_tGtIw Victor Salgado, the brother of Houston ICE shooting victim Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, has offered new disputes against the agency's account of the incident: https://www.khou.com...

Stories we're following this morning: Donald Trump will attempt to re-invigorate his years-long conspiracy theories about the 2020 election in his address to the nation on Thursday night: https://www.npr.org/2026/07/15/nx-s1-5894580/trump-elections-primetime-address ...Part of the plan is to release unvetted intelligence documents as evidence of election fraud: https://www.ms.now/news/trump-speech...

We're continuing to dig through the mountain of content we accumulated during the Texas Democratic Convention in Corpus Christi, and up next are the full remarks from Friday from Democratic U.S. Senate nominee James Talarico. Rep. Talarico, as you know, has inspired a full panic attack on the American right, whose only counter to his solid, steady, and strong messages of leadership and change...

Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: An annual quality of life study by CNBC gives Texas an "F" and ranks us the second-worst state in which to live in the U.S.: https://www.chron.com/texas/article/texas-worst-states-2026-22342359.php ...In their business survey, Texas is #4 - proving that economic success does not guarantee a good quality of life for most people:...

Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: A Texas Tribune piece on nine Republicans who voted for Senator John Cornyn in the primary finds three swinging to James Talarico, three sticking with Ken Paxton, and three opting for neither: https://www.texastribune.org/2026/07/13/texas-gop-voters-john-cornyn-ken-paxton-james-talarico-us-senate/ ...Meanwhile Latino business owners in Te...

Austin State Rep. Gina Hinojosa is the Democratic nominee to replace Governor Greg Abbott, and to bring a screeching halt to the mountain of corporate corruption that has become the hallmark of his administration - starting immediately with $1,500 checks to be sent to every Texas household from the Texas Rainy Day Fund, which has become a repository for the hoarding of billions upon billions of YO...

Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: The death of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, shot to death on Tuesday in Houston by ICE agents, has formally been declared a homicide: https://www.click2houston.com/news/local/2026/07/09/harris-county-medical-examiner-rules-death-of-lorenzo-salgado-araujo-a-homicide/ ...Three eyewitnesses, including Salgado Araujo's brother, contradict ICE cl...

Widespread speculation spread rapidly upon the announcement of Texas Secretary of State Jane Nelson's abrupt and largely unexplained planned departure from her office - weird timing for the state's top election official, just months before a monumental election, right? But, in steps Christian nationalist spokesmodel Nate Schatzline, who has no experience with running elections - but is a c...

Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: Grief, frustration and rising anger are seen across the Houston community in the wake of the ICE killing of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jul/08/texas-ice-shooting-victim-son ...A large gathering convened in vigil last night on Houston's Canal Street, where the shooting occurred on Tuesday morning: h...

Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: In a tragically familiar scenario, another killing by ICE of a Texas motorist - this time Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, who had lived in Houston since 1993: https://www.reuters.com/world/us/ice-agent-fatally-shoots-mexican-motorist-texas-during-vehicle-stop-agency-says-2026-07-07/ ...A large group of Houston elected leaders and advocacy groups...

Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: In thanking Donald Trump for interfering with FIFA in a USMNT red card, Ted Cruz jinxed the team into an embarrassing defeat in the World Cup: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/watch-sen-cruz-thanks-trump-for-getting-rid-of-folarin-baloguns-world-cup-red-card Governor Greg Abbott's reversal on data centers is nothing but talk, sho...

Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: By appointing Don Huffines, the GOP nominee for Texas Comptroller, to that post in the middle of an election for it, signals an amazing degree of arrogance and disdain for Texas voters: https://www.houstonchronicle.com/politics/texas/article/don-huffines-greg-abbott-comptroller-22330470.php ...And to double that effect, his elevation of e...

We're continuing to dig through the mountain of content we accumulated during the Texas Democratic Convention in Corpus Christi, and up next are the full remarks from Friday from Democratic gubernatorial nominee Gina Hinojosa. We'll remind you that Gina won the primary outright with nearly 60 percent of the vote in a crowded field, has been a longtime champion of public schools and thus on...

From Dan Patrick's declaration that the separation of church and state is dead, to Texas Republicans kicking Muslims out of their state convention in Houston, to the Ten Commandments and bible stories permeating our public schools, the takeover by Christian Nationalism of Republican politics is no longer a theory - it's real, and it's here, right now. How to resist is now one of the pr...

Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: Governor Greg Abbott has failed to accept an invitation to debate Democratic nominee Gina Hinojosa in mid-October in Fort Worth: https://www.sacurrent.com/news/texas-news/gina-hinojosa-calls-out-gov-greg-abbott-for-not-accepting-debate-invitation/ ...Abbott's drastic pivot on data centers would be very difficult to defend on a debate...

Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: The one bit of good news - in two days of mostly bad news from SCOTUS - was the denying of Donald Trump his wish to end birthright citizenship: https://progresstexas.org/blog/statement-american-birthright-protected-trump-denied-tyranny ...Texas Republicans, as you might imagine, are beside themselves: https://www.chron.com/politics/articl...

In this moment of progressive resurgence and populist success nationwide at the ballot box, at 84, Vermont U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders has lost none of his stride or fire. The main arena at Corpus Christi's Hilliard Center was packed with big Bernie fans as he gave the closing address of this year's Texas Democratic Convention! Thanks for listening! Learn more about Progress Texas and how...

Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: After being seized off a McAllen street on her way to Sunday mass last weekend, Sister Letty Ugboaja has been released by ICE: https://www.tpr.org/news/2026-06-29/south-texas-nun-released-after-being-detained-by-ice Those of us who visited Corpus Christi last weekend might be wondering what the real story is with the water crisis: in shor...