Progress Texas Podcasts

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...

Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: No Kings rallies saw massive attendance and great success across Texas on Saturday: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/oct/20/no-kings-protests-trump-democrats ...Which didn't stop Trump from posting videos of himself dumping sewage on protesters, or Governor Greg Abbott from tweeting that "Texas is targeting professors": https://thehil...

The whole country is holding its breath for tomorrow's second national No Kings demonstrations - for progressives, an important opportunity to stand up to encroaching authoritarianism - but for Donald Trump, perhaps a tempting target to further crack down on his political opponents. We talk about the importance of courage at this critical moment, not only for No Kings 2, but as we face yet another...

The second No Kings Day takes place tomorrow, Saturday October 18, at thousands of locations across the country and over 40 here in Texas. We've invited Hands Off Central Texas VP Melody Tramallo to join us for an inside look at the organizing of the Austin event in particular, what to expect, and best practices for a safe and effective experience for all attendees. A handy map of No Kings events:...

Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: No Kings events, happening nationally tomorrow, include at least 40 across Texas: ⁠⁠⁠https://www.nokings.org/#map⁠⁠⁠ ...Governor Greg Abbott has again activated the Texas National Guard against the second No Kings event, specifically targeting Austin, and calling the rally a "planned Antifa-linked demonstration": https://www.texastribune.org/...

No shortage of chaos to cover with Congresswoman Julie Johnson, between the federal government shutdown, the continued desperate GOP dodging of the Epstein files, the new congressional map designed to draw her out of the picture - and now, a Qatari military base on U.S. soil? We're truly in a WTF moment, and we're glad to have Rep. Johnson in D.C. to help fight back. Learn more about Congr...

Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: Further rollbacks of the Voting Rights Act, under consideration now by the U.S. Supreme Court, could largely wipe out minority-majority congressional districts in Texas - potentially reducing the presence of Texas Democrats in the U.S. House to 3: https://www.houstonchronicle.com/politics/texas-take/article/supreme-court-weighs-future-vot...

Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: The widespread buzz that Austin State Rep. Gina Hinojosa has been planning a gubernatorial run turns out correct - she announced her run for Governor this morning: https://www.texastribune.org/2025/10/15/gina-hinojosa-texas-governor-campaign-launch-2026-greg-abbott/ ...We presented the first full-length interview after Hinojosa's announcement...

We've been fans of Austin State Rep. Gina Hinojosa for a long time, and have been proud to feature her on our podcast on multiple occasions - for THIS occasion, it's a conversation about her run for Governor of Texas in 2026, just announced today! Learn more about Rep. Gina Hinojosa's campaign at https://ginafortexas.com/. Thanks for listening! Learn more about Progress Texas and how you can suppo...

Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: President Barack Obama appeared on the final episode of comedian Marc Maron's "WTF" podcast, heaping praise on Austin State Rep. and Senate Candidate James Talarico, and taking issue with Governor Greg Abbott's deployment of Texas troops to Chicago, considering Abbott's freakout over Jade Helm in 2015: https://deadline.com/2025/10/barack-obam...

Ballotpedia counts a total of sixteen candidates who have declared runs for the historic 18th Congressional District in Houston, seeking to be the next to fill a seat once held by the legendary Barbara Jordan, more recently by the beloved and departed Sheila Jackson Lee and Sylvester Turner, and shamefully held vacant by Governor Greg Abbott since Turner's untimely death last March. We present...