Texas Observer

Presenting the November/December 2026 issue of Texas Observer magazine, with cover story by @candicequestions.com. Cover photograph by @jordanvondy.bsky.social. Members get six issues of our magazine, every year. Visit our website to join.

In books: Fady Joudah, a Palestinian American and an internal medicine physician at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, has released a powerful literary survey of Palestine that charts complicity and erasure with medical precision.

From Reagan E. Thomas: If Ken Paxton succeeds in forcing Harris County to vacate a court order protecting the poor, the courts could be flooded with so many low-income defendants that they'd need to construct a new jail.

I'd love to talk to some queer Texas voters, voters from outside Houston/Dallas/Austin and especially voters from South Texas, about what it's like to participate in this election. Do you feel represented? Are the issues you care about being talked about enough? Get in touch!

I went into this story for the @texasobserver.org wondering if it's possible to put guardrails on the use of AI in political ads, or to ban it entirely, because most Americans find it deeply concerning. I spoke with media law expert @amykristinsanders.bsky.social to find out...

Between 1920 and 1932, Black Texans built 527 "Rosenwald Fund" buildings in 52 counties: 464 schools with room for 57,330 children, 31 teachers’ homes, and 32 vocational shops.

Out today: “We’re seeing questionable ads that are using various AI technologies all around the country, but the ads in Texas take it to a different level. This kind of synthetic content creation really messes with people’s traditional sense of what they can trust.”

“This is happening all over the country.” From @psskow.bsky.social, via @insideclimatenews.org and @expressnews.com: In Texas, suburbs have sprung up where oil pump jacks once bobbed. Homebuyers don't always know until it's too late.

“This is a crisis that ends in death. It is necessary for our candidates to be brave, bold, and direct about abortion rights.” From @marytuma.bsky.social: Why are so many Democrats keeping silent about what was once a key issue for the party?

Read the article and subscribe to @texasobserver.org

My contribution to Cheesecake Factory discourse: Aryan Brotherhood of Texas gang members assaulted a mixed-race family. I identified one of them because he worked at a Cheesecake Factory and their Instagram page posted pictures of him. He has a back tattoo with SS bolts and phrase "Aryan Soldier"

“You’re not going to put that genie back in the bottle,” says one political consultant on using AI for attack ads. www.texasobserver.org/ai-slop-era-... by @edenshamy.bsky.social

Featured story: From 2020 to 2025, the number of confirmed overdose deaths in Texas prisons rose from just four to at least 131. Despite this, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice did not request any additional funding to expand its drug rehabilitation programs.

New from @edenshamy.bsky.social: AI is transforming the political landscape and contorting conventional ideas about truth, free speech, and fair elections. Experts say the law is failing to keep pace as candidates and consulting firms use the rapidly evolving technology to caricature the opposition.

As Molly Ivins would remind you, there’s nothing like the Texas Legislature.

⚠️ Deadline to apply is FRIDAY (Oct 30)! We're seeking a PAID intern to cover the Texas Lege. If you're finishing your school/early career and want hands-on experience in political journalism, send a resume. 20/hours per week and located at our Austin office: www.texasobserver.org/2027-legisla...

“These actions do not signal an agency trying to pause.” Last week, from @dylanbaddour.bsky.social at @insideclimatenews.org: Regulators in Texas did not stop processing permits for data center projects when Gov. Greg Abbott publicly ordered a pause last month.

South Texas voters who embraced Trump two years ago have largely soured on him, and many of them are now smiling on a Tejano music star who’s running for Congress as a Dem. From @ajcorchado.bsky.social and Dudley Althaus, published by @expressnews.com, @elpais.com, and @puente-news.bsky.social.

From Robert Ceresa: People with no vote in the white primaries that decided Texas elections of the time, no seat on the boards that ran their schools, and no authority over public education, built 527 public buildings and made the state keep them. Nothing they used was given to them.

Early this year, I visited Ingram, a TX town of ~1,900, to check out a tip. The area was starting to recover from its worst flood in a century. But as Latino workers drove to jobsites to help rebuild, the tipster said, a cop in a black Dodge Charger kept stopping them ... 🧵

“This is a crisis that ends in death. It is necessary for our candidates to be brave, bold, and direct about abortion rights.” From @marytuma.bsky.social: Why are so many Democrats keeping silent about what was once a key issue for the party?

“What image of childhood is enough for a people to stay alive?” From Chi Pham: "Exhibit G," Fady Joudah’s phenomenal new collection of poems, essays, and photographs, denounces a culture industry that seeks to absolve itself.

The poll found that likely voters favor Bobby Pulido 51% to 44% over Republican Congresswoman Monica De La Cruz. Among Latino likely voters, the gap widens, with about 57% for Pulido, compared with 40% for De La Cruz.

“On March […], on the […] of Ramadan, during year one of our genocide, on the day you abstained, and the resolution passed, a legislative absolution in which I and my family tree were non-binding— / and with the aid of your AI eye in the sky, Israel killed Hussein.”

“This is happening all over the country.” From @psskow.bsky.social, via @insideclimatenews.org and @expressnews.com: In Texas, suburbs have sprung up where oil pump jacks once bobbed. Homebuyers don't always know until it's too late.

Let's go girls

This is one of two cases in which Angela served on the board of a company involving a friend of Ken's. I reported on the other here www.texasobserver.org/paxtons-lobb...

Good look at the Paxtons' investment in a construction firm run by a convicted fraudster. One tidbit, not reported in the piece, is that another Wildcatter exec was John O'Shea, who Ken endorsed in his failed '24 congressional primary against Craig Goldman. bsky.app/profile/texa...

CBS identified Illinois based Three Z Printing as the holder of the permit associated with the fake transgender mailers. One of the owners, Matt Zerrusen, is based in Dallas. His Instagram shows pictures with Charlie Kirk and Donald Trump, and comments from local Republicans.

Thread 🧵: the fraudulent transgender mailers have a connection back to Dallas, Texas, where a local Republican megadonor used a similar playbook years ago when he funded a fake BLM group to send letters to wealthy white parents that were designed to discredit the BLM movement.

From Reagan E. Thomas: If Ken Paxton succeeds in forcing Harris County to vacate a court order protecting the poor, the courts could be flooded with so many low-income defendants that they'd need to construct a new jail.

Top story, from @edenshamy.bsky.social: Since taking office in January of 2025, 30-year-old Brandon Gill’s snarky commentary & trolling of high-level officials has turned him into a viral right-wing celebrity & one of the most anticipated speakers at the midterm GOP convention in Dallas last month.

From our magazine: “These plays were speaking to the experiences that we had … and yet it was a universal story that was being told. There were stories that dealt with families, communities, human beings, and all of the dynamics that are rolled into who we are.”

A reproductive health advocate told us there is a “noticeable difference” between the way local and down-ballot candidates are vocally embracing reproductive rights versus what candidates at the top of the ticket are saying, and that appears intentional.

Out today: People with no vote in the white primaries that decided Texas elections of the time, no seat on the boards that ran their schools, and no authority over public education, built 527 public buildings and made the state keep them. Nothing they used was given to them.=

Earlier: Bobby Pulido's determined to podcast, sing, and dance his way to Congress, brushing off every scandal that seeks to poison his good-vibes campaign. Can this moderate Dem reclaim the hearts, minds and votes of this border district?

The projects would release 10,000's of tons of regulated pollutants, according to permitting documents, as well as more than 100M tons per year of greenhouse gases—an enormous amount roughly equal to the annual emissions of a mid-sized industrialized country.

NEW: Citing my reporting, TX State Rep. Jessica Gonzalez sent a letter to colleagues in the state legislature regarding the fraudulent letters purporting to represent a transgender advocacy group sent to voters, calling for legislators to pass a new law to prevent such activity.

Easy, Breezy, Beautiful, Cover Girl 💅🏻

Can confirm, Sarah Stogner told me the other day that she intends to send subpoenas to individuals and groups associated with the fraudulent transgender mailers www.texastribune.org/2026/10/22/t...

My 1st for @thelever.bsky.social examines Big Oil donations to TX Railroad Commission candidate Bo French from 7/1 to 9/24—well after French's open racism had become well reported on by myself and others. In other words, here's the Big Oil donors who are funding French despite of his naked extremism

New from Robert Ceresa: Between 1920 and 1932, Black Texans built 464 schools with room for 57,330 children, 31 teachers’ homes, and 32 vocational shops. The money tells the story. Black Texans contributed $392,851 towards their construction.

“The civilized keep records to purge their wickedness from the national soul, recollected in tranquility.” In books, our review of Fady Joudah’s "Exhibit G: Poems, Essays, and Photographs of Gaza":

Featured story: Dee Azadian's work refocuses history through the lens of its ordinary participants rather than its leading men. And interviewing octogenarians in the 1970s brings us voices and historical material from the post-Civil War era. www.texasobserver.org/earth-has-no...

The projects would release 10,000's of tons of regulated pollutants, according to permitting documents, as well as more than 100M tons per year of greenhouse gases—an enormous amount roughly equal to the annual emissions of a mid-sized industrialized country.

“On March […], on the […] of Ramadan, during year one of our genocide, on the day you abstained, and the resolution passed, a legislative absolution in which I and my family tree were non-binding— / and with the aid of your AI eye in the sky, Israel killed Hussein.”

It's almost hard to keep in mind, at this point, that Pulido's race is the Trump +18 one. The 3 South Texas seats that Republicans thought they had lined up to flip (28, 34, 35) are only Trump +10. www.texasobserver.org/poll-bobby-p... from @ajcorchado.bsky.social

“The civilized keep records to purge their wickedness from the national soul, recollected in tranquility.” Review of Fady Joudah’s "Exhibit G: Poems, Essays, and Photographs of Gaza": www.texasobserver.org/after-genoci...

Brandon Gill boasts family ties to Trump's orbit: His defunct right-wing news site, DC Enquirer, was one of the biggest cheerleaders for the conspiracy-laden films of his father-in-law, Dinesh D’Souza. The site's former editor-in-chief is now director of operations for Ken Paxton’s Senate campaign.