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Lately, Jesus has taken the wheel of politics at both the state and federal level - from Pete Hegseth's pastor wishing God's lethal wrath upon James Talarico while his disciple wages holy war in Iran, to Ken Paxton and Kelly Hancock squabbling over how best to discriminate against Texas Muslims, to Dan Patrick's new Senate committee on religious freedom - formed mostly from Republicans well-versed in imposing their religion on your freedom - Christ, it's been a week.
Thanks for listening! Learn more about Progress Texas and how you can support our ongoing work at https://progresstexas.org/.
Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas:
A Trump-appointed federal judge has upheld a longstanding Texas law forbidding the carrying of guns into bars, stadiums, school events and other "sensitive places", after Ken Paxton refused to defend a challenge to it: https://news.bloomberglaw.com/litigation/judge-upholds-texas-firearm-ban-for-bars-schools-stadiums
Austin Congressman Greg Casar is joined by California Congressman Robert Garcia in demanding an investigation into the federal immigration-related killing of Ruben Ray Martinez last year in South Padre Island: https://www.newsweek.com/congressmen-demand-probe-ice-killing-us-citizen-ruben-ray-martinez-11733802
Islamophobia has become central to Republican political strategy, without much more reasoning than red meat for the MAGA base: https://www.austinchronicle.com/news/islamophobia-as-political-strategy/
...Along that line, acting and soon-to-be-former State Comptroller Kelly Hancock has asked Ken Paxton to shut down a highly-rated Houston Islamic private school: https://www.houstonchronicle.com/politics/texas/article/comptroller-ken-paxton-houston-quran-academy-22096036.php
...Paxton's response is that Hancock is an "incompetent loser" who should be replaced by current Republican nominee Don Huffines: https://www.houstonchronicle.com/politics/texas-take/article/why-ken-paxton-wants-republican-kelly-hancock-22099291.php
...GOP hate has room for undocumented children too, as Stephen Miller continues a years-long crusade to kick them out of public schools: https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2026/03/stephen-miller-public-schools-immigration-plyler/
Progress Texas is expanding into both broadcast radio - including a new partnership with KPFT-FM in Houston - and into Spanish language media! Make a tax-deductible contribution to our radio initiative HERE, and to our Spanish expansion HERE.
Find our web store and other ways to support our important work at https://progresstexas.org.
Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas:
Evangelical Pastor Brooks Potteiger, a close spiritual advisor to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, agreed with a podcast host wish for Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate James Talarico, "that God kills him": https://www.sacurrent.com/news/texas-news/pete-hegseths-pastor-wants-james-talarico-to-die/
...Talarico's calm, very Christian response was gold: https://x.com/jamestalarico/status/2036647988182036730?s=20
Lt. Governor Dan Patrick has assembled a new "Senate Select Committee on Religious Liberty", staffed mostly by Republicans known for pushing their religious views in their legislating - and, El Paso Democrat Cesar Blanco: https://kvia.com/news/2026/03/23/senator-cesar-blanco-chosen-for-select-committee-on-religious-liberty/
...Patrick has also spitefully excluded freshly-elected State Senator Taylor Rehmet from any committee assignments for 2027: https://www.star-telegram.com/news/politics-government/state-politics/article315160066.html
Ted Cruz is scheming to offer to fund DHS excluding ICE to entice Democrats to cave on that funding - hoping they'll forget that ICE is funded outside that vote: https://www.houstonchronicle.com/politics/texas-take/article/ted-cruz-offer-end-shutdown-comes-big-catch-22094706.php
Republican Congressman Chip Roy is caught on video admitting that his SAVE America Act will indeed make voting more difficult for married women who have changed their names: https://www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/chip-roy-save-america-act-voting-barriers/
Progress Texas is expanding into both broadcast radio - including a new partnership with KPFT-FM in Houston - and into Spanish language media! Make a tax-deductible contribution to our radio initiative HERE, and to our Spanish expansion HERE.
Find our web store and other ways to support our important work at https://progresstexas.org.
Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas:
That explosion at a Valero oil refinery in Port Arthur comes just as much of the world's supply has been choked off by the bumbling of Donald Trump: https://x.com/jon_rosenthaltx/status/2036266795569459210?s=46
...Meanwhile, as natural gas shortages and price spikes are hitting Europe and Asia, West Texas oil companies are burning it off as a price-negative nuisance byproduct: https://fortune.com/2026/03/22/natural-gas-prices-negative-west-texas-permian-basin-burn-off-europe-asia-shortages-iran-war/
Corpus Christi residents see their lives turned upside down by water conservation measures, while the energy sector continues consuming water unabated: https://www.texastribune.org/2026/03/23/corpus-christi-water-crisis-residents-precautions/
We're reminded why supporting non-profit, independent media like Progress Texas as a coalition of eight Democratic state attorneys general attempt to block the Nexstar/Tegna merger, which would create a huge TV company piping content into 80% of American homes: https://prospect.org/2026/03/23/democratic-states-seek-to-block-massive-tv-station-merger-nexstar-tegna/
The number of families detained at the notorious Dilley ICE lockup has dropped dramatically: https://www.propublica.org/article/families-detained-at-dilley-plummets
...Part of that pressure came from San Antonio-based children's YouTuber Ms. Rachel: https://consequence.net/2026/03/ms-rachel-fighting-to-close-texas-ice-facility-thats-detaining-children/
The recent book The Myth Of Red Texas explores the real history of Texas which is peppered with populist progressivism - and the neglectful treatment of rural Texans by Donald Trump: https://www.sacurrent.com/news/bad-takes/bad-takes-the-gops-professed-love-of-rural-texans-is-all-hat-and-no-cattle/
Progress Texas is expanding into both broadcast radio - including a new partnership with KPFT-FM in Houston - and into Spanish language media! Make a tax-deductible contribution to our radio initiative HERE, and to our Spanish expansion HERE.
Find our web store and other ways to support our important work at https://progresstexas.org.
We had a blast in Houston over the weekend as media partners of the Harris County Democratic Party Convention! Later this week, watch for a recording of all the speeches given in the convention hall - but we start with all of the interviews with lawmakers, thought leaders, candidates and more that we gathered over the course of the day! These are presented in the order we recorded them, between 9am and about 4pm on Saturday March 21.
00:40 - Ann Johnson, Houston State Representative, District 134
09:53 - Annise Parker, former Houston mayor and candidate for Harris County Judge
15:59 - Gene Wu, Houston State Representative for District 137 and Texas House Minority Leader
23:49 - Dr. Wil Jeudy, Secular Houston co-founder and Progress Texas board member
30:35 - Alejandra Salinas, Houston City Council Member At-Large
35:28 - Stephanie Bord, State House District 126 Democratic Nominee
40:52 - Tyler Smith, State House District 138 Democratic Nominee
45:54 - Josh Wallenstein, State House District 133 Democratic Nominee
49:28 - Sara McGee, State House District 132 Democratic Nominee
55:46 - Odus Evbagharu, State House District 135 Democratic Nominee
1:00:40 - Lauren Ashley Simmons, State Representative for District 146
1:07:11 - Lesley Briones, Harris County Commissioner, Precinct 4
1:10:24 - Beto O'Rourke, former U.S. Congressman and founder of Powered By People
1:19:20 - Marquette Greene-Scott, State House District 22 Democratic Nominee
1:26:39 - Melissa McDonough, U.S. Congressional District 38 Democratic Nominee
1:31:00 - Benjamin Flores, Texas Land Commissioner Democratic Nominee
Thanks for listening! Learn more about Progress Texas and how you can support our ongoing work at https://progresstexas.org/.
Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas:
In an escalation against Democratically-led cities, the Trump administration is deploying ICE agents into those cities' airports - supposedly to help with long security lines, but really as a means to intimidate travelers: https://viewfromthewing.com/ice-is-showing-up-at-airport-checkpoints-your-rights-are-different-than-with-tsa/
...Meanwhile Dallas Congressman Marc Veasey is demanding clarity on whether or not an ICE prosecuter nailed for running a racist Twitter account is still on the job: https://www.texasobserver.org/congressman-veasey-ice-response-racist-x-account/
Vice President J.D. Vance is the reason traffic sucks worse than normal in Austin early this week - he's in for an RNC fundraiser being thrown by Palantir and University of Austin co-founder Joe Lonsdale: https://www.ft.com/content/43eb6903-0c8d-43f8-a0e6-8c8e81d1c8d2?syn-25a6b1a6=1
New polling shows Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate James Talarico with slight leads over both Senator John Cornyn and Attorney General Ken Paxton, both of whom are drowning in massive unfavorability numbers: https://www.politico.com/live-updates/2026/03/20/congress/texas-senate-talarico-cornyn-paxton-poll-00837336
...Donald Trump is noticing the threat James Talarico poses to GOP control and is off on ever more unhinged online attacks against him: https://www.chron.com/politics/article/trump-talarico-texas-senate-22090449.php
Progress Texas is expanding into both broadcast radio - including a new partnership with KPFT-FM in Houston - and into Spanish language media! Make a tax-deductible contribution to our radio initiative HERE, and to our Spanish expansion HERE.
Find our web store and other ways to support our important work at https://progresstexas.org.
All of us at Progress Texas are looking forward to seeing a bunch of great friends and making a bunch of brand new ones this weekend at the Harris and Collin County Democratic Party conventions, in Houston and McKinney respectively. These events are open and FREE with registration to the public and can be considered a terrific gateway into higher levels of involvement at this critical time - we hope to see YOU there.
And, the news regarding Cesar Chavez's abuse of women is difficult to deal with - but it must be dealt with, and unlike those who would protect Donald Trump from his past as indicated in the Epstein files, we're proud to see progressives tackling the Chavez revelations head-on.
This episode will air on KPFT 90.1 FM in Houston at 10am this Friday morning, and again on KPFT's HD-2 channel at 11am on Sunday - learn more at https://kpft.org/.
Thanks for listening! Learn more about Progress Texas and how you can support our ongoing work at https://progresstexas.org/.
Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas:
Energy producers around Corpus Christi already consume over half of the area's water - and as supplies dwindle, they're taking steps to greedily keep theirs flowing: https://www.texastribune.org/2026/03/20/texas-corpus-christi-water-shortage-oil-gas-refineries/
With another round of No Kings protests coming next weekend, progressive activists warily consider the Fort Worth "Antifa" verdict, which paves the way for more aggressive persecution of left-leaning protestors: https://www.texasobserver.org/prairieland-antifa-verdict-threatens-anti-trump-resistance/
The "Texas Drag Ban" is now in effect - and while it doesn't ban drag itself outright, it does provide a chilling of the form via over-compliance out of fear: https://www.austinchronicle.com/news/texas-drag-ban-takes-effect-after-appeals-court-decision/
Five-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos and his father, whose incarceration at Dilley helped spotlight the terrible conditions inside that immigrant detention lockup, have been denied American asylum: https://www.chron.com/news/article/asylum-denied-liam-ramos-dilley-22085951.php
...Meanwhile video calls from kids inside the Dilley facility have been severely curtailed after their stories have gone viral: https://www.chron.com/news/article/dilley-ice-children-videos-22083880.php
...And also meanwhile, a wide range of Texas companies and cities are profiting handsomely from that misery: https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/investigations/article/trump-deportation-texas-dilley-csi-gothams-21343570.php
...And also meanwhile, the adminstration of a mostly-Hispanic San Antonio high school thought it would be a good idea to invite a crew of uniformed Border Patrol agents on campus for a recent job fair: https://www.sacurrent.com/news/politics-and-elections/border-patrol-appearance-at-san-antonio-high-school-sparks-student-outrage/
This weekend sees county-level Democratic Party conventions across the state - "the most important political event you're ignoring": https://www.lonestarleft.com/p/the-most-important-political-event
...Find your county convention, RSVP and submit resolution ideas here: https://texasdemocraticconvention.com/
Progress Texas is the official media partner of the Harris County Democratic Convention this weekend! Come see us on Saturday to say hi, grab some merch, and take part in our day-long podcast recording session: https://www.harrisdemconvention.com/
Progress Texas is expanding into both broadcast radio - including a new partnership with KPFT-FM in Houston - and into Spanish language media! Make a tax-deductible contribution to our radio initiative HERE, and to our Spanish expansion HERE.
Find our web store and other ways to support our important work at https://progresstexas.org.
Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas:
Governor Greg Abbott achieves new heights of hypocrisy in his attempt to use sexual abuse revelations about Cesar Chavez to smear all progressives and unions, while continuing to turn a blind eye to Donald Trump's copious appearances in the Epstein files: https://www.texastribune.org/2026/03/18/cesar-chavez-day-texas-fallout-sexual-abuse-allegations/
Twisting logic to claim a victory from the chaos of the March 3 primary, Dallas County Republican Party Chair Allen West announces that his party will return to countywide voting for the May 26 runoff: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2026-election/county-gop-texas-will-switch-voting-rules-runoff-primary-day-chaos-rcna264075
...Republican attempts to undermine voter confidence failed spectacularly in the primary - notably there was bigger Democratic turnout than that for the GOP in four of the five newly-gerrymandered districts from Trump's mid-term redistricting scam: https://www.austinchronicle.com/news/post-gop-gerrymandering-heres-what-voter-turnout-looked-like-in-the-texas-primaries/
...All of this is part of a broad, system-wide phase of incompetence, including the strange press for the SAVE America Act and Trump's failure pick between John Cornyn and Ken Paxton for endorsement: https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/5787536-tillis-frustrated-republican-strategy/
This weekend sees county-level Democratic Party conventions across the state - "the most important political event you're ignoring": https://www.lonestarleft.com/p/the-most-important-political-event
...Find your county convention, RSVP and submit resolution ideas here: https://texasdemocraticconvention.com/
Progress Texas is the official media partner of the Harris County Democratic Convention this weekend! Come see us on Saturday to say hi, grab some merch, and take part in our day-long podcast recording session: https://www.harrisdemconvention.com/
Progress Texas is expanding into both broadcast radio - including a new partnership with KPFT-FM in Houston - and into Spanish language media! Make a tax-deductible contribution to our radio initiative HERE, and to our Spanish expansion HERE.
Find our web store and other ways to support our important work at https://progresstexas.org.
Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas:
Arguing in favor of the SAVE America Act as Senate debate began yesterday, Ted Cruz repeated the standard GOP lie that Democrats are systematically encouraging undocumented people to vote in the U.S. - it's simply and demonstrably false: https://www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/ted-cruz-democrats-want-illegal-aliens-to-cast-votes/
The Republican primary runoff ballot is now set, as the deadline to drop out passed yesterday - with no Trump endorsement, both Senator John Cornyn and Ken Paxton will be on the May 26 ballot: https://www.fox26houston.com/news/trump-misses-deadline-nominate-texas-republican-nominee-us-senate
...Both are now "trying to drown each other in AI slop": https://www.chron.com/culture/article/cornyn-paxton-texas-senate-ai-22082110.php
Democratic congressional nominee and Tejano singer Bobby Pulido followed through with a promise to perform at several South Texas quinceañeras last weekend: https://www.expressnews.com/politics/article/bobby-pulido-first-quinceanera-invite-22081332.php
The South Texas home construction industry has been battered by thinned workforces and slowed sales as relentless ICE raids on their workers impact production: https://www.nytimes.com/video/us/politics/100000010742128/trump-ice-raids-texas-economy-immigration.html
It's time to start making a plan to vote in the upcoming primary runoff: https://www.texastribune.org/2026/03/18/texas-primary-runoff-elections-2026/
This weekend sees county-level Democratic Party conventions across the state - "the most important political event you're ignoring": https://www.lonestarleft.com/p/the-most-important-political-event
...Find your county convention, RSVP and submit resolution ideas here: https://texasdemocraticconvention.com/
Progress Texas is the official media partner of the Harris County Democratic Convention this weekend! Come see us on Saturday to say hi, grab some merch, and take part in our day-long podcast recording session: https://www.harrisdemconvention.com/
Progress Texas is expanding into both broadcast radio - including a new partnership with KPFT-FM in Houston - and into Spanish language media! Make a tax-deductible contribution to our radio initiative HERE, and to our Spanish expansion HERE.
Find our web store and other ways to support our important work at https://progresstexas.org.
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