Progress Texas Podcasts

This Saturday, a terrific opportunity to express your frustration and channel your anger over the second Trump inauguration into action arrives with the Women's March in Austin, this Saturday January 18 at 9am, starting from historic Huston-Tillotson University. Lead Organizer Jen Ramos joins us to provide the details on the event, why it's important moving into Trump 2.0, and how you can get invo...

Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: President Biden's farewell address include warnings against disinformation actors now set to take power at the federal level: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/15/us/politics/biden-farewell-address.html ...Over the Biden term, Ken Paxton racked up over $6 million in legal bills - on the tab of Texas taxpayers - suing Biden's administration: htt...

In this final installment of our series of talks with Democratic lawmakers, coming to you on the first day of the 89th Texas Legislature, we wrap up with Rep. James Talarico of the Austin area, a Williamson County native who was first elected to represent House District 50 in 2018, and survived an attempt by Republicans to draw him out of the picture via redistricting by achieving reelection in Di...

Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: In defiance of the Texas Republican Party, three dozen House GOP electeds voted along with most of the Democratic minority yesterday to elect Rep. Dustin Burrows of Lubbock House Speaker: https://www.texastribune.org/2025/01/14/dustin-burrows-david-cook-texas-house-speaker-vote/ Several Democratic House members declined to vote for Burrows, w...

Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: The 89th Texas Legislature opens today! First act in a likely long and dramatic drama: the selection of a House Speaker, which may not go the way anyone thinks: https://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/commentary/2025/01/13/jason-villalba-the-texas-speaker-race-can-still-usher-a-surprise/ ...Ken Paxton, in his zeal to unify Republicans in support o...

Texas State Representative Erin Zwiener of Driftwood, one of the youngest members of the Legislature, has a resume full of fun facts: prior to her political life, she was a contestant on Jeopardy! four times, winning over $53,000. She later got involved with the Indivisible movement after the 2016 Trump win, challenged Republican Rep. Jason Isaac for his seat while she was pregnant, won that year'...

Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: Steve Bannon, arguably the master designer of MAGA, has announced intent to "take down" Texas-based billionaire and current Trump puppetmaster Elon Musk: https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/5081681-steve-bannon-says-he-will-take-down-the-truly-evil-elon-musk/ Lt. Governor Dan Patrick and Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller may be on...

Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: Ken Paxton has filed a second lawsuit against TikTok, alleging that they have far exceeded their stated limits on questionable content being made available to minors, and more: https://www.dallasnews.com/news/politics/2025/01/09/texas-sues-tiktok-alleging-platform-is-dangerous-for-minors-enables-harmful-content/ ...The platform may not be ava...

Senator Nathan Johnson of Dallas is a business attorney and music composer by trade, and has served the people of Senate District 16 since 2018, when he became the first Democrat to take that seat in decades - displacing since-perennial gubernatorial loser Don Huffines. Thanks for listening! Learn more about how you can support our important work at ⁠https://progresstexas.org/donate⁠ .

Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: The Austin Chronicle has published a nice, multi-issue preview of the upcoming Legislature, set to begin next Tuesday: https://www.austinchronicle.com/news/2025-01-10/with-trump-taking-office-the-texas-lege-is-unleashed/ Pro-Dustin Burrows GOP Rep. Cody Harris of East Texas has filed a complaint against Texas Republican Party Chair Abraham Ge...

Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg says his company is abandoning its efforts at fact-checking, and moving its content moderation operations to Texas - a move apparently meant to appease Donald Trump: https://www.texastribune.org/2025/01/07/texas-meta-content-moderators-fact-checking/ ...Texas also provides legal cover for social media platforms who pr...

Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: Attorney General Ken Paxton and Texas Republican Party Abraham George have started a tour of the state designed to intimidate GOP lawmakers into voting for Mansfield Rep. David Cook for Speaker next week: https://www.cbsnews.com/texas/news/paxton-issues-warning-to-texas-house-republicans-in-bitter-speaker-battle/ Elon Musk and Tesla want to h...

Our series of conversations with Democratic lawmakers in Texas continues with State Representative Vikki Goodwin, who is set to begin her fourth term at the Capitol as the 89th Texas Legislature gets underway. Rep. Goodwin has represented parts of Austin, Bee Cave and the Lake Travis area since she flipped her seat from red to blue in 2018. During that time, she's been a strong advocate for progre...

Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: Today's certification of the election of Donald Trump provides a surreal beginning to a troubling new era: https://thehill.com/opinion/white-house/5066046-trump-insurrection-pardons-betrayal/ ...Even some Republicans in Congress, at least at this point, appear hesitant about the widespread January 6 pardons Trump has promised: https://apnews....

Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: Despite right-wing attempts to drum up anti-immigrant fear over the New Orleans terror attack, the alleged perpetrator was a born and bred native of Texas: https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/crime/article/new-orleans-attacker-houston-ties-20010254.php Elon Musk's push for more foreign tech workers to be brought to the U.S. un...

Collin County Democratic State Rep. Mihaela Plesa - the only Romanian-American elected official in the country! - joins us for our continuing series with state lawmakers on the impending 2025 Lege. Rep. Plesa is one of the youngest elected lawmakers in Texas, and will be entering her second term in the Texas House after becoming the first Democrat to represent her district in decades - she's a Dal...

Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: The passing of President Jimmy Carter at the age of 100 prompts a look back at his impact on Texas, where he remains the last Democrat to have carried the Lone Star State: https://www.texastribune.org/2024/12/29/texas-remembers-jimmy-carter/ Elected leaders of both parties in Texas extol Carter's legacy: https://www.fox7austin.com/video/15689...

Richardson State Rep. Ana-Maria Rodriguez Ramos is an educator and family law attorney by trade, but has served in the Texas House ever since she flipped a Republican-held seat in 2018. Since then she has a stalward progressive fighter at the Capitol, advocating for women's rights, LGBTQ+ equality, immigrants' rights, and much more. We welcome Rep. Rodriguez-Ramos back to the pod as part of our se...

Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: Texas transplant Elon Musk, already leading Donald Trump by the nose, has waded into German politics to back the extreme right-wing party AfD: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/20/world/europe/elon-musk-afd-germany.html The AfD, similar to American MAGA elements, is supported mainly by lower-income and disillusioned Germans: https://www.bloombe...

Representative Donna Howard has represented Austin in the Texas House since her initial win in 2006 - for almost two decades, she's been a stalwart progressive standard-bearer across every issue imaginable, but in recent years has been notable as a fierce fighter for our reproductive rights, bolstered by her own professional background in nursing and healthcare. Thanks for listening! Learn more ab...

Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: Republican Fort Worth U.S. Congresswoman Kay Granger, missing from her post in D.C. since the early summer, has been located under the care of a memory care facility - a situation that her staff appears to have concealed: https://www.wfaa.com/video/news/politics/questions-swirl-after-congresswoman-kay-granger-misses-votes-lives-in-senior-faci...

This is one of several episodes in a pod series previewing the upcoming 2025 Texas Legislative Session with a range of Democratic lawmakers. Texas State Senator and Senate Minority Leader Carol Alvarado has served in that body since 2018, following a decade of service in the Texas House representing the southeast Houston area. Senator Alvarado is known for her hard work and advocacy in public heal...

Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: With each passing hour, a partial shutdown of the federal government during the busy Christmas travel season thanks to Elon Musk and Donald Trump's interference is looking more likely: https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-congress-has-two-days-avert-shutdown-after-trump-rejects-spending-bill-2024-12-19/ ...Seven Texas Republicans joined the De...

Great fun at The Finch in Mockingbird Station in Dallas earlier this week for the second of our two holiday parties for 2024! Like our first pod from the Austin shindig, settle in and meet our Dallas guests, who had great things to say about determination and courage for Texas progressives as a challenging new chapter begins next month. Our holiday fundraiser was very successful, and we are gratef...

Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas: Texas transplant Elon Musk, apparently running things for Donald Trump, is pressing Republican members of Congress hard to strike down a stopgap measure that would keep the federal government running over the holidays: https://www.axios.com/2024/12/18/elon-musk-government-shutdown-bill-doge ...Texas Congressman Chip Roy is totally down for a...