Progress Texas Podcasts

Progressives and Democrats across the country are basking in the glow of a highly encouraging blue wave in this week's election - but the stakes couldn't be higher, nor the challenge greater for 2026. Fort Worth attorney and Progress Texas board member Jason Smith joins us to talk about a rare uplifting week for Texas progressives - and most importantly, the challenge that lies ahead. Learn more a...

Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: A Rhode Island judge has ordered the Trump administration to fully fund SNAP by the end of the day today, but Texas HHS says it will take as long as three days for Lone Star Cards to be funded: https://www.texastribune.org/2025/10/31/snap-benefits-texas-court-rulings/ Even before figuring in the Trump SNAP clawback, the Latino vote has swung...

Under the first phase of Trump 2.0, the First Amendment has been put through the wringer - and that's no more true anywhere than Texas college campuses. Progress Texas Executive Director Kathleen Thompson captured a recent live talk with civil rights lawyer J.T. Morris, Supervising Senior Attorney for FIRE, the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, during which he details the current st...

Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: Almost a week into the month, November SNAP funding remains unpaid, leaving millions of Texans, including 1.7 million kids, in a state of food insecurity - for the first time since LBJ: https://www.texastribune.org/2025/11/05/texas-snap-food-stamp-families-hunger/ ...Even when November's payment arrives, Donald Trump's USDA says it will be ha...

We're the first to talk to Colonel Terry Virts, who had previously announced a run for the U.S. Senate, about his pivot into the race for the U.S. House in the newly-drawn (we think) Congressional District 9 - part of the racist Trump-ordered plan to carve new safe Republican seats out of marginalized communities, and seemingly drawn for the personal advantage of Deer Park Rep. Briscoe Cain. We th...

Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: Huge Democratic gains on Election Night in NYC, California, Virginia, and New Jersey - a harbinger of what's to come in next year's midterms? https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/05/us/politics/democratic-party-mamdani.html ...All 17 Texas constitutional amendments on the ballot passed: https://www.texastribune.org/2025/11/04/texas-constitution-am...

Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: Less than 8% of Texans have voted so far in the 2025 constitutional amendment election, but we stand a chance of matching the 20-year high in 2023 of 14.5%: https://www.houstonchronicle.com/politics/houston/article/election-day-updates-21125022.php ...In Houston, turnout is relatively low in spite of a major election in CD-18: https://www.hou...

Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: Today marks one year to November 3, 2026 - the mid-term election. Mark YOUR commitment to the upcoming year by voting tomorrow: https://www.texastribune.org/2025/09/22/texas-statewide-propositions-november-ballot-election/ ...In particular, be sure to vote NO on Proposition 12, which would give Governor Abbott too much influence over judicial...

East Texas farmer and firefighter Bobby Cole has the distinction of being the first to announce a run challenging Governor Greg Abbott, and while that field has gotten more crowded since, he's also distinctive in his grassroots origins - Cole has never held office before, and that's what a lot of his followers like most about him. Progress Texas' Reagan Stone talked to Cole before an audience host...

Our group gripe this week has an obvious target, as Donald Trump, Greg Abbott, Mike Johnson and the rest of MAGA callously threaten millions of Americans using SNAP food assistance benefits with starvation as a political play. As usual, the cruelty is the point - especially horrifying to be happening in 2025 America. Thanks for listening! Learn more about Progress Texas and how you can support our...

Texas State Senator Sarah Eckhardt has served Austin in the legislature since 2020 after years of local leadership in Travis County, and has recently announced a run for the U.S. House in the newly-redrawn Congressional District 10. The district is drawn for a significant Republican advantage, but potentially in Eckhardt's favor, the incumbent Republican Congressman Michael McCaul has declined to...

Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: Among those trick-or-treaters you'll see out and about tonight are hundreds of thousands of Texas kids whose parents worry they'll not be able to feed them tomorrow, as Republicans including Governor Greg Abbott refuse to keep SNAP funding flowing: https://www.kxan.com/news/texas/texas-democrats-call-on-abbott-to-act-on-snap-funding-during-sh...

'Tis the season for voting and elections, and we're moving into one doozy of an election season in 2026, with the midterm election and the future of our democracy on the line - the time is NOW for ALL of us to individually step up our game. Whether you're just getting started on your activism journey, or you've been in the trenches for awhile, this talk is all about a terrific digital tool you can...

Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: Trump's choice to withhold SNAP food assistance payments resembles a forced starvation - in an armed conflict, that's a war crime, and in peacetime to force political outcomes, that's close to terrorism: https://www.lonestarleft.com/p/texas-house-democrats-form-committee ...Gubernatorial candidate and State Rep. Gina Hinojosa is calling on Go...

Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: The looming suspension of SNAP benefits, which will heavily impact Texas, can be traced to ongoing Republican efforts to keep the Epstein files under wraps: https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/the-hunger-games-begin ...The disruption will be felt by all of us, in areas beyond groceries: https://www.texastribune.org/2025/10/28/texas-snap-benefi...

Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: It's official - federal SNAP food assistance benefits will end on Saturday, for the first time in the over six decades since it started under LBJ: https://www.texastribune.org/2025/10/28/texas-snap-food-stamps-federal-shutdown-explained/ ...So, NOW is the time to get ahead of that and make a donation to your local food bank: https://www.feedi...

We've said it before, and we'll say it again: the Texas Railroad Commission has nothing to do with railroads. It's called that because the petroleum sector and their allies in the Texas Legislature would just as soon you didn't know that the Commission does regulate energy matters in Texas - matters of immense financial and environmental consequence, which under Republican control over the last 30...

Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: Millions of Texans - more people than in any other state - depend on SNAP food assistance, and the Trump administration has chosen to use them as pawns in the ongoing federal shutdown drama: https://apnews.com/article/food-aid-government-shutdown-snap-trump-democrats-8a52a63b26a707ea676962226b090bb1 ...Almost two million children in Texas are...

Our regular Friday venting session this week features Texas House candidate and longtime Austin labor leader Jeremy Hendricks as our guest for a discussion of all manner of Republican ugly - from homeless crackdowns, to university takeovers, to yanking of food services - and the potential for progressive pushback indicated by the massive No Kings turnout last Saturday - all things considered, ther...

Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: The Texas Education Agency has announced its takeover of Fort Worth ISD - behind Houston in 2023, the second-largest district they have overrun: https://www.texastribune.org/2025/10/23/texas-education-agency-fort-worth-isd-takeover/ Dallas Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett, despite an already-crowded Democratic ticket for Senate, is still consid...

Folks who have followed Texas politics for awhile will remember Houston businessman Andrew White, who put on a spirited run for governor in 2018, but was edged out in the primary that year. White is back for a second run, and this time, as he says, he's running as an "independent Democrat" - holding that progressive litmus tests and box-checking may be part of what's been holding the party back on...

Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: Worry is spreading that the Trump administration is increasingly arming ICE with military-grade weaponry: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/10/23/2349922/-WTF-does-ICE-need-guided-missile-components-for Texas businesses across a wide range of sectors are being negatively impacted by Trump's immigration crackdown: https://english.elpais.co...

Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: Without notifying city officials, Governor Greg Abbott has sent Texas DPS officers and other state agencies into Austin's homeless encampments to arrest and disperse them: https://www.texastribune.org/2025/10/21/greg-abbott-homelessness-sweeps-austin/ ..Meanwhile, the Governor was in Cypress yesterday at an event at which he pledged to "turn...

We enjoyed immensely a long-overdue visit to Texas' largest and most diverse city for a terrific discussion on what's working for Harris County and Houston area progressives in the fight for representation and justice. Thanks so much to the folks at The Spaghetti Western for their hospitality! Learn more about the Harris County Democratic Party at https://www.harrisdemocrats.org/ . Learn more abou...

Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas! Texas Secretary of State Jane Nelson announces with fanfare the discovery of a relatively small number of "potential non-citizens" on state voter registration rolls, prior to confirming that they are actual people voting illegally: https://www.kxan.com/news/texas/texas-says-database-found-more-than-2000-possible-noncitizens-on-voter-rolls/ Th...