GREG ABBOTT

Governor Greg Abbott came to speak in front of an energetic crowd in San Antonio as part of his Celebration of Texas tour, meanwhile, Beto O'Rourke spoke with reporters in Austin Friday.

An East Texas county commissioner and his wife have pleaded guilty to misdemeanor election fraud after reaching a plea deal that allows him to remain in office.

Two of three candidates in the Texas Senate District 27 Republican primary race took part in a forum hosted by the citizen group Futuro RGV on Jan. 19.

A legal defense group is asking Travis County courts to throw out the arrests of hundreds of migrants swept up in the governor’s border initiative. The case is expected to draw in the Texas attorney general and address whether Gov. Greg Abbott’s plan is unconstitutional.

Here’s everything you need to know about the process and how to apply to vote by mail in Bexar County and throughout Texas.

One of Texas’ largest power providers asked state regulators to force the Dallas-based pipeline company Energy Transfer to continue natural gas service to its power plants.Luminant Corp. says that Energy Transfer has threatened to stop providing natural gas to its plants as soon as Monday because of $21.6 million in fees related to last February's winter storm, according to a report from WFAA.Why it matters: Luminant power plants provide energy to 400,000 Texas homes, businesses, schools and hos

O'Rourke came after Abbott on rising electric bills, among other hot-button issues.

During his San Antonio visit, O'Rourke answered media questions staying focused on two main issues — the power grid and voting rights.

Northside ISD will enforce a mask mandate for students, staff and visitors after high absenteeism among students and staff due to covid.

Decades ago, Mexican activists drove women into the United States to terminate their pregnancies at clinics.

AUSTIN (AP) — Money is pouring fast into the Texas governor's race headlined by Republican Gov.[San Marcos, TX] [Hays County news] News San Marcos News, San Marcos Record [Texas State]

The Brownsville Democrat said his resignation will be effective Jan. 31. That sets up a potential special election to finish his term, though whoever wins would only serve for a short time.

Money is pouring fast into the Texas governor’s race headlined by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott and Democrat Beto O’Rourke.

The latest fundraising figures in the governor’s race confirm what’s long been seen as the state of play: O’Rourke is a strong fundraiser, but Abbott, with over $65 million saved up, is on another level.

Authorities in the U.K. say they arrested two men in connection with Saturday’s attack at a Texas synagogue. The suspect who held hostages during a nearly 11-hour standoff with law enforcement near Dallas was a 44-year-old old British citizen, according to the FBI. Omar Villafranca reports.

News of Congregation Beth Israel hostages' safe escape is met with intense relief, but communities feel pain and fear over the latest in a series of antisemitic attacks and incidents in Texas and beyond.

In the two-week period ending Thursday, Bexar County has seen the steepest increase in new COVID-19 cases among Texas’ largest counties.

Officials in the state’s major metropolitan areas are increasingly scrambling to find health care workers to deal with a wave of patients with COVID-19.

A delegation of bipartisan Bexar County state lawmakers wrote a letter to Gov. Greg Abbott on Friday in support of a request made by San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg and Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff for more state contract nurses in San Antonio and Bexar County hospitals.

Lawyers argued that the governor's directive to arrest migrants on state charges unconstitutionally usurps federal immigration law.

Saturday’s cold front will bring gusty winds and low humidity and combined with current drought conditions, the risk of wildfires is very high.

In this week’s episode, Matthew speaks with Jolie and Alexa about a potentially influential court case in Gov. Greg Abbott’s effort to arrest migrants at the border and a high rejection rate among applicants seeking to vote by mail.

The daughter of Mexican missionaries and former journalist thinks the El Paso congressman can’t reach Republicans—and she believes in miracles.

A Travis County judge Thursday tossed out the trespassing charge of an Ecuadorian man who said he came to the United States seeking asylum. His lawyers argued that the governor’s directive to arrest migrants on state charges unconstitutionally usurps federal immigration law.

The Spaceport Development Corporation of Cameron County has been awarded a $5 million Spaceport Trust Fund grant by the Governor’s Office of Economic Development & Tourism. The fund is aimed at supporting the infrastructure necessary for spaceport development in Texas. The remainder was awarded to the Houston Spaceport Development Corporation. “This award will continue to strengthen the economic impact and growing space industry blueprint already being made in Cameron County,” he said. Nick Serafy, chairman of the county’s spaceport development corporation, said the funding “is helping us provide the infrastructure for future launches from South Texas.”The Cameron County Spaceport Development Corporation was created in 2014 to facilitate development of the aerospace industry here.

The call for action from Texas Democrats comes as another service member based in the city of Pharr survived a suicide attempt on Sunday, according to an incident report obtained by Army Times and The Texas Tribune.

The Democratic challenger, branded as too liberal for Texas by the Abbott campaign, seeks to shift the issues to COVID response and a reliable grid.

It’s unclear whether the local mandate, which requires businesses to post signs outlining their safety guidelines, is in conflict with Gov. Greg Abbott’s previous pandemic orders.

Many Democratic candidates in Texas are pressing forward with in-person campaigning while taking some COVID-19 precautions.

San Antonio hits peak in new single-day COVID-19 cases

As litigation stands, federal mandates for Texas Army National Guard members and employers of large businesses are currently in effect.

The State Commission on Judicial Conduct had admonished Eckhardt in 2020 for her actions as Travis County judge.

Trump has heavily endorsed vaccines in recent weeks. In December, he revealed he'd received a booster shot and was pro-vaccination.

A federal judge on Friday issued a preliminary injunction, temporarily blocking a mandate from the Biden administration that required federal employees to be vaccinated against COVID-19. White House officials said 98% of federal employees have already been vaccinated.

Gov. Greg Abbott’s openness to marijuana decriminalization shows that the state, while conservative, isn’t immune to larger trends.

Abbott said the suicides are being investigated and thinks it will come out that not all “actually occurred during Operation Lone Star.”

Don Huffines, Chad Prather, and Allen West had plenty to say about the governor’s failings—all in perfect unison.

After stumping virtually in 2020, Democrats later admitted that the lack of in-person campaigning hurt them at the polls.

Gov. Greg Abbott will hold a news conference Tuesday in San Antonio with sheriffs from across the state of Texas.

In 2020, Democrats took their campaign efforts virtual. But they later admitted that the lack of in-person campaigning hurt them at the polls.

Commentary: Redistricting implies a rather paradoxical mix of uncertain-but-static choices in the lead-up to the 2022 elections.

State Board of Education Member Ruben Cortez, D-Brownsville, sent a letter to Gov. Greg Abbott on Monday calling for an executive response to the COVID-19 situation in regards to Texas schools. Local education leaders have described those staffing shortages, and say that demand for COVID-19 tests at local campuses remains high. “The lack of testing combined with staffing shortages has already caused classes to be disrupted or canceled at a time when we cannot afford a return to remote instruction. Cortez wrote that his “office stands ready to help.”Coincidentally, Abbott was in the Rio Grande Valley on the campaign trail Monday, being endorsed by the National Border Patrol Council.

The Texas Health and Human Services Commission is again extending emergency food benefits this month, with more than $307 million in emergency allocations expected to help more than 1.5 million Texas [San Marcos, TX] [Hays County news] News San Marcos News, San Marcos Record [Texas State]

Greg Abbott officially added the support of the National Border Patrol Council to his reelection effort Monday. Council President Brandon Judd cited Abbott’s deployment of Texas resources to the border as motivations for the endorsement. In 2021 the governor prompted the creation of the Texas Department of Public Safety’s Operation Lone Star, which started in Starr County, and deployed Texas National Guard personnel to the border. He chose McAllen to officially launch his reelection bid just three days ago, a high-energy campaign rally steeped in Republican rhetoric with hundreds of attendees. It was held in a nondescript Border Patrol council office building and lasted just 10 minutes.

Omicron is also impacting hospital staffing.

Recent reports from the Army Times into poor conditions and an uptick in suicides among Texas National Guard soldiers tied to Operation Lone Star has state lawmakers concerned over how the soldiers are being treated.

The officials also said they expect hospitals to reach capacity quickly as COVID-19 patient admissions increase rapidly.

The two-term Republican governor likely faces off against a Democratic challenger. Watch as we go behind the scenes.

Medicaid expansion would insure many more Texans and bring billions of federal dollars. But, the effect to the state's economy would be even greater.

Greg Abbott officially announced his reelection campaign before a crowd of about 200 people here on Saturday afternoon. And it was something Abbott focused on as he laid out his campaign platform while speaking at the McAllen Convention Center. “All Texans deserve safe communities, so when I heard radical liberals making calls to defund the police, I promised we would not let that happen in Texas,” Abbott said. “We delivered our promise by passing a law that would defund any city that defunds their law enforcement officers,” he said. 2021 also saw the largest surge in migrant crossings along the South Texas border in over two decades.

Texas lawmakers deplore mistreatment of National Guardsmen sent to border duty

The Texas “Dog Bill of Rights,” which takes effect Jan. 18 setting new rules for how dogs can be tethered outdoors, was obviously created with canine welfare in mind, though one Brownsville animal advocate is worried it could have unintended negative consequences locally.

The Republican governor officially announced his reelection campaign Saturday in McAllen, while likely Democratic opponent Beto O'Rourke campaigned in El Paso.

Luther became nationally known at the beginning of the pandemic in 2020 when she refused to shut down her Dallas salon in defiance of emergency orders. She was sentenced to a week in jail but was released after only a few days.

Governor Greg Abbott has appointed Leslie Bingham, CEO of Valley Baptist Medical Center-Brownsville, and three others to the Joint Interim Committee to Study Land Banks. The committee is tasked with studying the powers of land banks to acquire and dispose of real property, the impact of land banks affordable housing, the funding mechanisms of land banks, and more. Bingham is a board member of the Counsel for South Texas Economic Progress and the Valley Initiative for Development and Advancement. She also serves on the College of Business and College of Health Care Professions advisory committees for The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. Bingham is a former board member of the San Benito Chamber of Commerce and a former Chair of the McAllen and San Benito Rosary Club.

Don Huffines launched his campaign tour for Texas Governor and visited Laredo, making LMT...

Texas candidates are talking all kinds of things right now, but one set of issues floats to the top, as it has in state elections for decades: border security and immigration.

Legislative leaders overseeing the Texas Military Department say they are looking into reports of suicides, habitual pay problems and poor working conditions on Gov. Greg Abbott's highly touted border mission.

Republicans including former state Sen. Don Huffines of Dallas and former Texas GOP chair Allen West are challenging Abbott for the Republican nomination.

Law enforcement will now widen the scope of their search.

Abbott continues to fight COVID mitigation while asking for help.

The ‘big, beautiful wall’ has kept US citizens away from the no man’s land it created – and in effect ceded territory to Mexico The border wall in La Joya, Texas: ‘What I didn’t realize was how quickly the negative effects of this isolated land would be felt.’ Photograph: Brandon Bell/Getty Images Several miles south of the small town of San Juan, Texas, beyond acres of onion fields, orange groves and other cash crops sits a historic cemetery and the site of the beginning of a slow decay of Amer

Abbott’s political challenger said guard members deployed to Operation Lone Star are facing late pay, being exposed to COVID-19, experiencing supply shortages and dealing with added stress that has led to multiple suicides tied to the mission.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is digging in against COVID-19 vaccinations and related mandates.

The state has already challenged the federal government’s vaccine orders for big businesses, health care workers and federal contractors.

More than 20 new state laws went into effect as Texans rang in the New Year, with another half-dozen to go on the books on Jan. 18, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported.[San Marcos, TX] [Hays County news] News San Marcos News, San Marcos Record [Texas State]

2021 was an exhausting year in Texas politics.A power grid failure that left millions of Texans without power. A Democratic quorum break in the Texas House over new voting restrictions.[San Marcos, TX] [Hays County news] News San Marcos News, San Marcos Record [Texas State]

The lieutenant governor's office said he tested positive last week and experienced mild symptoms but has since tested negative.

Patrick’s office said he tested positive for COVID-19 last week and experienced mild symptoms but has since tested negative.

Gov. Greg Abbott announced that the state of Texas, through the Texas Division of...

COVID-19 cases in Texas are on the rise. On Sunday, the state recorded over 10,000 new confirmed cases.

Officials added 36 to the estimate of lives lost in the disaster, which knocked out power in much of the state. Some experts place the toll even higher.

French authorities have announced that children six and older will have to wear masks in indoor places open to the public as new cases of the highly contagious omicron variant surge past 200.000 for the fourth consecutive day.

The governor asked the federal government for help opening test sites in Bexar, Cameron, Dallas, Harris, Hidalgo and Tarrant counties.

An initial review of four counties’ election results — launched after pressure from former President Donald Trump and touted by GOP leaders — showed few discrepancies between electronic and hand counts of ballots in a sample of voting precincts.

Governor Greg Abbott announced Friday that he has requested resources from Texas state agencies to provide additional COVID-19 testing stations with some of those to be opened in Cameron and Hidalgo counties. The Texas Department of State Health Services and the Texas Division of Emergency Management will provide the resources. This additional testing capability will aid in identifying people with COVID-19, including the Omicron variant, and help prevent and reduce further transmission. Several cities in the Rio Grande Valley are already offering free COVID-19 mobile testing because of the spread of what is suspected to be the Omicron virus. “Detecting COVID-19 and preventing COVID-related hospitalizations are critical to our fight against this virus,” said Abbott said in a press release.

Governor Greg Abbott formally requested more federal support as COVID-19 cases soar throughout Texas.

Statewide elections, a redder South Texas, Beto: biggest Texas political stories to watch for in 2022

What the candidates in 2022 can learn, and what should they avoid, as they enter yet another campaign cycle under the shadow of COVID.

Editor’s note: This story is the final installment of a four-part series looking back at the year that was — 2021.[San Marcos, TX] [Hays County news] News San Marcos News, San Marcos Record [Texas State]

Next year, every state official and every member of the Texas Legislature and Congress are up for election. That makes for a big year in Texas politics.

Violators can face a Class C misdemanor.

Texas' holiday spike in omicron-fueled cases mirrored the national trend, which showed record-breaking caseloads of COVID-19.

He's been heavily involved in positive public messaging about the grid’s winter readiness, but the data aren't rosy — and experts fear the grid could fail if there's another winter storm.

Here are a dozen of my columns from 2021: highlights on the winter storm, redistricting, the state’s finances and on issues that could figure into this next round of elections.

As other states are mobilizing to respond to the rapidly spreading omicron variant, Gov. Greg Abbott is not budging on his hands-off approach to the coronavirus pandemic that was cemented months ago.[San Marcos, TX] [Hays County news] News San Marcos News, San Marcos Record [Texas State]

Texas politics in 2021 were marked by a violent insurrection at the nation’s Capitol and state legislative fights over abortion, voting rights and redistricting. Our photojournalists were there every step of the way.

Floyd, who was from Houston, was killed last year by former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin.

George Floyd will not be posthumously pardoned for a 2004 Houston drug charge because the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles withdrew its recommendation, the Dallas Morning News first reported Thursday. Driving the news: The board had recommended a full pardon for Floyd for the charge, for which he served 10 months in prison. A spokesperson for Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) told the Morning News that recommendation "contained procedural errors" and said there had been a "lack of compliance with Boa

A Texas board has withdrawn a unanimous pardon recommendation for George Floyd over a 2004 drug arrest in Houston.

A Texas board has withdrawn a unanimous pardon recommendation for George Floyd over a 2004 drug arrest in Houston.

A Texas board that unanimously supported a posthumous pardon for George Floyd over a 2004 drug arrest in Houston has withdrawn that recommendation over “procedural errors" after sending it to Republican Gov. Greg Abbott's desk, his office said Thursday. The unusual reversal announced by Abbott's office two days before Christmas — around the time he typically doles out pardons — drew outrage from a public defender who had submitted the pardon application for Floyd, who spent much of his life in Houston before his death in 2020 in the custody of a white Minneapolis police officer. Floyd's name was withdrawn along with two dozen other clemency recommendations that had been submitted by the Texas Board of Pardon and Paroles.

Abbott’s office says vaccines are the best defense to the pandemic, however, the governor has rarely spoken about vaccines in recent months other than to push back against mandates. He did not respond to a question about whether he got the booster.

After nearly two years of navigating life during a pandemic, many Texans are now scrambling for COVID tests, delaying plans and worrying about relatives who have been exposed to the virus.

Most local officials insist they still have testing capacity at their public testing sites, but Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins said demand has outpaced supply.

Abbott vetoed legislation in June that would have helped shore up the Universal Service Fund, which supports telecommunications in rural Texas. He said it would have “imposed a new fee on millions of Texans.”

Abbott unveiled the first 900 feet of border barrier Saturday. But the state has been mum on where it plans to build additional barriers and how many miles it can afford.

Opinion: Let’s entertain the possibility that Trump could lose Texas in a close election in 2024. How would the state’s Republicans respond?

Doling out pardons is a holiday tradition for Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who around every Christmas grants them to a handful of ordinary citizens, typically for minor offenses committed years or decades ago. Abbott has not said whether he will posthumously pardon Floyd this year for a 2004 drug arrest in Houston by a former officer whose police work is no longer trusted by prosecutors. Texas' parole board — stacked with Abbott appointees — unanimously recommended a pardon for Floyd in October.

The Texas labor market exceeded the previous pre-pandemic high in February 2020 by hitting just under 13 million nonagricultural jobs in November, the Texas Workforce Commission reported last Friday.[San Marcos, TX] [Hays County news] News San Marcos News, San Marcos Record [Texas State]