Progress Texas Podcasts

Our Executive Director Kathleen Thompson took part in a press conference of key Democratic officeholders and nominees who gathered in Dallas as part of ongoing counter-programming to the Donald Trump bootlicking contest that the Republican Party is passing off as a "convention" this week. Sharp commentary herein from Texas Democratic Party Chairman Kendall Scudder (:00), Illinois Governo...

The Trump rally masquerading as a midterm convention beginning today in Dallas is a sure sign that the GOP sees Texas slipping from their stranglehold - while Texas Democrats respond with grocery drives and a rally of their own . And the new documentary on Elon Musk shows the world's first trillionaire and Texas' worst transplant to be a one-man existential threat to global democracy. Houston Chro...

The GOP "convention" in Dallas this Wednesday and Thursday will feature no party business - focusing instead on a desperate, gaudy Trump sideshow designed to bolster flagging interest in his brand. Trump's "MAGA Inc." PAC has set a $10 million ad buy across Texas for Ken Paxton, out of similar desperation. Current Paxton ads goofily try to blame James Talarico for policies...

This is the first episode in a joint elections series with our partners at the Texas Civil Rights Project! With limited legalese, we welcome two of Texas' sharpest voting rights attorneys - Sarah Chen with the TCRP, and Emily French with Common Cause Texas - to break down how SCOTUS has impacted your daily life and this year’s election. We discuss how our elections landscape has changed: this...

The week after Labor Day, in a desperate attempt to shore up their flagging support and fundraising, Donald Trump is bringing his gaudy sideshow to Dallas in the form of a very rare midterm Republican convention. Perfect timing for the Trump/Epstein Memorial Reading Room to arrive in Big D as well - this terrific and meticulously-crafted exhibit highlights the decades-long friendship between Donal...

Appointed and un-elected Texas Comptroller Don Huffines wants to double the $1 billion budget for the private school voucher scam. Democratic Railroad Commission nominee Jon Rosenthal details his fact- and strategy-based agenda for overseeing Texas' massive energy sector. Democratic nominee for Governor Gina Hinojosa sees yet another poll placing her in striking distance of a win, while Govern...

Michelle Davis is one of our favorite progressive political thinkers, and we're overdue to have her on to talk about the latest dirt - which lately, is the gutting of voting access in Tarrant County, the voter suspense list scare, and why so many people tune out and stay home when it comes votin' time in Texas. Michelle's terrific Lone Star Left newsletter got a recent writeup in the T...

After years of refusing to expand Medicaid coverage to help lower-income Texans get health coverage, Governor Abbott is now demanding Medicaid dollars that the Trump administration is withholding. As more and more Texas cities disconnect their Flock cameras, Tarrant County Sheriff Bill Waybourn is still big on them. And while Texas GOP officials slash polling locations for the midterm election, th...

As Tarrant County's Republican-dominated Commissioners Court slashes polling locations for Election Day, that bellwether county becomes the epicenter of the midterm paritisan struggle across Texas. Yet another death happens in the Tarrant County Jail, even as Sheriff Bill Waybourne is lauded with a plaque. And a Tarrant GOP nominee for the State House is being pressure to resign from leading a cha...

After a raucous protest delayed their plans weeks back, the GOP-dominated Tarrant County Commissioner's Court is set to vote again this morning at 10 on a plan that still significantly reduces polling locations in minority areas. An impasse between Governor Abbott and RFK Jr. begins costing Texas $27 million per day in federal funding as of today, while our backlogs on SNAP and Medicaid applic...

The latest election year reversal on his own policies comes this time from Governor Abbott on Flock cameras - just as we learn that they were quietly funded by our own auto insurance premiums. Abbott's healthcare solutions are also just deregulation - they do nothing to help Texans stay healthy. And a personal health scare over the weekend reminds Chris of why Texas is in drastic need of a cha...

Big Bend is an iconic National Park - Texas’ largest state park, an International Dark Sky Reserve, rich in biodiversity, including a wild and scenic river, plus a cultural borderland thousands of years old. Each of these unique realities is at stake, for a fight Texas doesn’t want - and for a wall that this region doesn’t need. Billy Bartko joined us with an update on this BIG story. Bartko is th...

In gaming the system to allow felony-charged ICE agent Christian Castro to walk free in Texas, Governor Greg Abbott has set a precedent that will embolden other federal agents to exceed their authority in the same way. One in 16 registered Texas voters is on the current "voter suspense" list. The redistricting of three South Texas congressional districts is looking likely to backfire on MAGA mapma...

The whole world mourns Dolly Parton, while a great many of us realize for the first time what an immense socio-political impact she had on the world, through her unflappable positivity, her understanding of and support for working class Americans, her belief in science and medicine, her bold backing of the LGBTQ+ community, and so much more. For a person who made major contributions on issues that...

Christian Castro, the ICE agent wanted on violent felony charges in Minnesota, is likely to be released from the Cameron County Jail today as the 90-day limit on his detention expires, and Governor Greg Abbott continues to refuse to extradite him. Houston law enforcement officials failed to show at a Houston City Council inquiry into ICE cooperation by their officers. Polling shows a continued sou...

Dolly Parton leaves us with a prime example of real Southern character - one that embraces the vulnerable and seeks to widen our circles - and she's cited by a judge who has found Texas' drag ban unconstitutional. Greg Abbott has left the residents of CD 23 without a voice in the U.S. Congress for over 130 days - and is now one day away from releasing a fugitive wanted in Minnesota onto th...

A four-point plan announced by Ken Paxton to address Texans' concerns over data centers utterly fails to do so. Meanwhile Paxton's net worth is skyrocketing, and experts are unable to explain why. Buc-ee's is expanding, but only into red states. And MAGA types across the country have a new beef with Kacey Musgraves - for daring to support migrant kids whose parents have been deported. USA Today: h...

Governor Greg Abbott, in his striking pivots into developmental "pauses" on data centers and high-voltage transmission lines, are by definition temporary - and will be lifted quickly should he be re-elected. Ken Paxton has a long record of opposing efforts to prevent animal cruelty, both as AG and as a state representative. And Kid Rock has been promoted by the Dallas Observer from merel...

Michelle Davis, with her Lone Star Left Substack, has a keen eye for drawing sharply-focused concepts out of the muck and mess of Texas politics. In a recent post, she pointed out that three Texas Republican Congressmen - Jake Ellzey, Michael Cloud and John Carter - as members of the House Appropriations Committee, voted to kill border construction exemption for Big Bend National Park that was pro...

The Cook Political Report has updated its projections for the 2026 midterms, moving the Talarico/Paxton race to "toss up" from "lean republican", and the Hinojosa/Abbott race from "solid Republican" to "lean Republican". Ken Paxton is expected to receive some desperately-needing funding support from Elon Musk. Republicans are threading a narrative needle on...

Someone check Governor Greg Abbott for whiplash! He's been doing some pretty rad campaign trail 180's lately in response to rapidly changing political headwinds - first, he expects us to believe he's now going to crack down on the billions of dollars in AI data centers he lured to Texas to begin with. And, we're to buy the idea that he would even remotely defy Donald Trump's pl...

Governor Greg Abbott wants more state control over local ISD spending, despite ongoing GOP efforts to defund them to death - while Lt. Governor Dan Patrick threatens schools who refuse to remove books he considers "filthy and dirty" with state takeovers. State water plans, based on historical trends instead of proven climate science, are failing cities like Corpus Christi. And rural Texa...

Governor Greg Abbott has refused to extradite an ICE agent to Minnesota, where he is wanted on a felony indictment. Harris County is suing the feds over their holding funding hostage over election policy demands. A Republican nominee wants you to ignore the fact that he's a Republican - while the entire GOP just wants to get past the election and get back to their comfy corruption and grift. H...

Back to school - and backwards thinking - happening right now as students across the state return to school facing new policies and voucher programs in place, the threat or consequences of state takeovers combined with defunded public schools, and a multi-pronged attempt to indoctrinate Texas children into Christian Nationalist, Prager U-infused curriculum. We’re joined by guests Cameron Samuels,...

The halt of the destructive federally-contracted demolition of the natural landscape of Big Bend National Park, announced yesterday, is only temporary and not a reason for advocates to stand down. The U.S. Supreme Court may consider SB 10, the state law that requires the posting of the Ten Commandments in Texas classrooms. Hood County joins a list of Texas communities unplugging their Flock camera...