Progress Texas Podcasts

Stories we're following at Progress Texas: Throwing cold water on the enthusiasm Texas progressives were enjoying early Monday after the Taylor Rehmet win in SD 9 and the regaining of representation for CD 18 with Christian Menefee's swearing in, former Congressman Colin Allred, citing an online influencer, has publicly accused U.S. Senate candidate James Talarico of racism: https://www.te...

Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: A resounding win by Democrat Taylor Rehmet over Republican Leigh Wambsganss in Tarrant County's SD 9 proves that hard work pays off, and that voters even in reliably Republican territory are souring on the disaster of Donald Trump: https://www.texastribune.org/2026/02/02/texas-senate-district-9-special-election-taylor-rehmet-upset-lat...

Here's a full run of the Stop Ice rally on Saturday afternoon - one of hundreds of such events that happened across the nation this weekend as America stirs from its slumber to begin addressing the real nightmare our country now faces. Austin City Council Member Zo Qadri emceed a lineup of great speeches today, from: The Reverend Dr. Daryl Horton of Mount Zion Baptist Church in Austin (04:58)...

Democratic Congressman Vicente Gonzales - along with fellow South Texas Congressman Henry Cuellar - has become known for breaking ranks with his party and supporting the initiatives of Trump's GOP. Is the notion that "the Valley is different" - that intrinsic social conservatism in South Texas justifies these two Democrats' frequent undermining of their party's goals - one ba...

Starting today with Friday's national shutdown day and continuing through a weekend of rallies and protests scheduled across the country - again - America and Texas appear to be awakening to the fact that the nightmare of authoritarianism is no longer a dream - it's the real deal. We're joined this week by Richardson City Council Member and CD 32 congressional candidate Dan Barrios to...

Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: As a weekend of protest dawns, reports emerge of a Texas DPS crackdown on a group of peaceful protestors outside the ICE detention facility at Dilley on Wednesday: https://www.sacurrent.com/news/eveything-we-saw-at-dilley-protest/ A national shutdown of work, school and spending has been called by a coalition of activist groups: https://w...

The Texas Secretary of State just turned over every registered voter in Texas’ private voter information (like your birthdate and the last digits of your Social Security number) to the Donald Trump Department of Justice. So, what happens now? Voting rights experts Matt Cohen, a reporter with Democracy Docket delivering national coverage on this story, and Ashley Harris, a Staff Attorney with ACLU...

Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: Texas U.S. Reps Joaquin Castro and Jasmine Crockett toured the ICE immigration detention facility at Dilley yesterday, and are now demanding the release of five-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos: https://www.fox7austin.com/news/ice-texas-democrats-release-liam-conejo-ramos-dilley-facility ...A St. Edward's University social work professor says that...

Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: A federal judge has ordered that five-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos, grabbed with his father in Minneapolis last week and rushed to a Texas detention lockup, not be deported until his case can be reviewed: https://kstp.com/kstp-news/local-news/judge-blocks-transfer-of-5-year-old-liam-ramos-father-from-texas-detention-facility/ ...Immigration att...

An important note: this discussion involves the March primary, NOT the ongoing special election runoffs in Houston's CD 18 and Tarrant County's State Senate District 9 - it is specific to the March primary's Election Day on Tuesday March 3, and specific to voters in Dallas and Williamson Counties. The county Republican Parties of Williamson and Dallas Counties have chosen to eliminate countywide v...

Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: Donald Trump, Greg Abbott, Ted Cruz and other MAGA leaders are backtracking on their commitment to the ICE occupation of Minneapolis - but not all are discovering their latent humanity: https://www.texastribune.org/2026/01/26/minneapolis-shooting-federal-agents-texas-republicans-respond-mccaul-investigation/ ...The deliberate mirroring of 193...

Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: The horrifying murder of Alex Pretti in Minneapolis has lent a sense of dread to the iced-in situation most of Texas is enduring, and has proven that ICE holds zero regard for the safety of either their supposed undocumented targets, or that of the citizens in their midst: https://en.newsner.com/news/body-language-expert-tells-people-pay-very...

As our ongoing series of live debates continues, we present a discussion between the Democratic candidates for Texas Attorney General: Dallas State Senator Nathan Johnson and former Galveston Mayor Joe Jaworski (attorney Tony Box is also running, but declined to participate in this debate). Thanks to the Richardson Area Democrats for organizing and allowing us to participate! Learn more about RAD...

U.S. Senate hopefuls and longtime colleagues Jasmine Crockett and James Talarico met in debate for the first time this afternoon as part of the Texas AFL/CIO's COPE Convention in Georgetown. This pod presents the full debate, largely unedited. Our thanks to our friends at Texas AFL/CIO for the access today! Learn more about them at https://texasaflcio.org/ . Thanks for listening! Learn more about...

As the state heads into another winter storm - ready or not - the crew convenes to discuss our state's tendency to panic when the weather gets bad (who can blame us?), this week's latest ugliness perpetrated by ICE and the multiple connections to Texas, Ken Paxton's freewheeling use of AI deepfakes in attacking John Cornyn, and more. Joining us is Houston businessman and Democratic candidate for T...

Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: The winter storm the state's been preparing for for days has begun affecting the Panhandle region and will drop most of the state below freezing amidst strong rain and snow chances through this weekend, ending on Tuesday: https://www.keranews.org/texas-news/2026-01-23/an-arctic-storm-is-expected-to-blanket-the-state-heres-what-texans-can-expe...

Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: Much of Texas continues preparing for the arrival of a major winter storm: https://www.texastribune.org/2026/01/21/texas-winter-storm-watch-prepare-ercot-grid/ ...Senator Ted Cruz says he'll be back from sunny Laguna Beach before the weather hits, but his air travel schedule continues to betray his lack of concern for what Texans think of him...

Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: A potentially historic ice storm is headed for Texas this weekend: https://www.wfaa.com/article/news/local/ercot-winter-weather-advisory-texas-power-grid-updates-dfw-forecast-dallas/287-aec36113-1b6d-4076-a77e-c1d82ba9fdbc ...There are key steps that all Texans in the path of the storm should take to prepare right now: https://thekatynews.com...

Texas is unique in that it is one of only two states in the U.S. (the other is Oklahoma) that operates a bifurcated high court system - instead of having one single state supreme court that handles everything, Texas splits its highest judicial authority between two specialized courts: the Supreme Court of Texas and the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. All of the seats on these courts are elected s...

Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: A third death in the last two months at the Camp East Montana ICE detention facility at El Paso has lawmakers from multiple states demanding answers: https://www.commondreams.org/news/ice-detention-center-deaths ...A summary of ICE activity in Texas so far, and a reminder of your rights if confronted by them: https://www.texastribune.org/2026...

There has been intense statewide focus on Tarrant County for weeks lately, and for good reason - the promising performance of Democrat Taylor Rehmet in the special election to fill the SD-9 State Senate seat, held for three decades by Republicans, has become a beacon of hope that this bellwether region of Texas is ripe to flip blue. Tarrant County Commissioner Alisa Simmons has been in the middle...

Our weekly meeting of the minds sees the PT debut of Tarrant County political strategist Gabe Rivas, who is currently running for the Precinct 2 seat on the Tarrant County Commissioner's Court - a post he's assisted the beloved Alisa Simmons with for some time. Loads to discuss as always, so strap in people. Learn more about Gabe and his campaign at https://www.gaberivasfortarrant.com/ . Thanks fo...

Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: Polling released this week shows an uphill battle for likely Democratic nominee and State Rep. Gina Hinojosa against Governor Greg Abbott in November, with a gap of about 8 points: https://www.newsweek.com/gina-hinojosa-chances-beating-greg-abbott-flip-texas-gop-poll-11366360 ...Abbott is sitting on a massive war chest of $106 million: https:...

Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: The Texas House Democratic Committee reports a record $2.2 million fundraising windfall in 2025, fueled largely by the summer Democratic House quorum break: https://www.texastribune.org/2026/01/15/texas-house-democratic-caucus-2-2-million-fundraising/ New Emerson College polling shows a nine point lead for Austin State Rep. James Talarico ove...

The recent Trump move against Venezuela, even at this early stage, is already a model for disastrous geopolitical planning. Did we really need to disrupt a neighboring country by plucking away its leader, in order to seize oilfields full of substandard oil and in a complete state of infrastructure decay - at a moment when there's a glut of supply? While that baseline answer might seem clear, the s...