Progress Texas Podcasts

As we hit another Friday in the wild wild West of Texas politics, we do so with a wary eye towards Monday - the day that a special legislative session called by Governor Greg Abbott begins. A session originally to handle Dan's Ban, then to address the obvious need for flood emergency apparatus in our river basins, then to a giant pile of MAGA red meat - including a Donald Trump-ordered carving of Texas' congressional map in an attempt to deliver Trump five more Republican seats in the U.S. House, ahead of what every GOP member knows is otherwise gonna be a massive shellacking. What will - what CAN - the Democrats do about it? We discuss.

This week has also seen a grab at the control of the American news message, in the form of a wholesale defunding of public media - an essential ecosphere we at Progress Texas consider ourselves part of. In response we have launched our Summer Vacation Membership Drive, because you see, at any given time, Progress Texas stands about three months away from running out of funds. If only 10 percent of our audience signs up for at least $10 per month, that problem largely goes away - we could use your help. If you want PT to be part of the remainder of a 2025 that could see endless, contentious special sessions, and a 2026 that will see the leadup to a truly existential mid-term election for American democracy, please consider joining our fight at https://progresstexas.org/join-pt-summer-vacation-membership-drive.

Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas:

Will the special session, partly dedicated to a Trump-ordered mid-decade redistricting start on Monday, or will Democrats walk out? The history of Democratic quorum breaks in Texas is interesting, including in the summer of 2021: https://www.texastribune.org/2021/07/14/texas-democrats-walkout-quorum/#:~:text=On%20July%2012%2C%20Texas%20House,pair%20of%20federal%20voting%20bills.

...Twice in 2003: https://www.star-telegram.com/opinion/bud-kennedy/article251796163.html

...And the "Killer Bees" walkout of 1979: https://doggett.house.gov/media/in-the-news/dallas-morning-news-killer-bees-offer-strategic-roadmap-texas-democrats-latest

...A Florida judge has upheld that state's racially-gerrymandered Congressional map, an example of what Texas Democrats are up against: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/florida-supreme-court-upholds-congressional-map-that-eliminates-a-majority-black-district

...A Florida voting rights activist calls that decision "a direct attack on Black political power and a decision that will have ripple effects for generations": https://www.wlrn.org/government-politics/2025-07-17/florida-supreme-court-upholds-desantis-backed-congressional-redistricting-plan

...Meanwhile across the country in California, Governor Gavin Newsom has two options to pursue a retaliatory redistricting move - neither of which is easy: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/17/us/california-texas-redistricting-newsom.html

...Houston State Rep. Ron Reynolds issues a statement declaring his readiness to break quorum: https://t.co/LZVPAlXUjr

With two well-known Democrats declaring runs, the race for Attorney General is already interesting: https://www.lonestarleft.com/p/this-race-could-turn-the-attorney

Almost none of the homes damaged in the July 4 flood in Kerr County are covered with flood insurance: https://www.houstonchronicle.com/politics/texas/article/kerr-county-flood-insurance-20761656.php

The case against a Venezuelan man arrested in Texas, accused of being a gang member and deported to the CECOT death prison in El Salvador - where he remains now - has been thrown out: https://www.texastribune.org/2025/07/17/texas-migrant-el-salvador-tren-de-aragua-deportation-dismissed/

Progress Texas Board Chair Louis A Bedford IV decries the trend of masked, unidentified ICE officers snatching civilians off of American streets: https://progresstexas.org/blog/if-ice-agents-can-hide-their-faces-who%E2%80%99s-protecting-public

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Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas:

Desperate measures may be called for to opposed mid-decade GOP redistricting, but breaking quorum now comes with stiff financial penalties: https://woai.iheart.com/featured/san-antonios-first-news/content/2025-07-16-will-texas-democrats-attempt-to-break-quorum-during-the-special-session/

...Supreme Court Justice John Roberts is a central figure who has enabled the chaos that Trumps is now bringing to Texas: https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2025/07/blame-john-roberts-for-enabling-trumps-massive-power-grab-in-texas/

...California Governor Gavin Newsom appears ready for extreme measures to counteract Texas redistricting: https://www.politico.com/news/2025/07/16/newsom-jolts-california-house-maps-texas-00458927

...All of this while everyday Texans are suffering under Trump's policies - we're now the #1 state in the country for financial distress: https://dallas.culturemap.com/news/innovation/texas-ranks-as-no-1-state-with-the-most-people-in-financial-distress/

...Rural Texas, full of Trump voters, is set to lose a long list of rural hospitals under Trump's budget cuts: https://www.amarillo.com/story/news/2025/07/09/15-texas-rural-hospitals-are-at-risk-of-closing-medicaid-cuts-big-beautiful-bill/84518400007/

...Mental health services in Texas schools are on the chopping block too, despite mental health being blamed by Republicans for our epidemic of school shootings: https://www.texastribune.org/2025/07/14/texas-schools-budget-cuts-mental-health/

...On the Uvalde shooting, an appeals court judge has sided with news organizations who have been trying to compel Uvalde County to release related records: https://www.texastribune.org/2025/07/16/uvalde-school-shootings-records-release/

Huge amounts of money are flowing into Republican races, and that's for the primary: https://www.texastribune.org/2025/07/16/texas-attorney-general-comptroller-campaign-finance-fundraising/

Former Galveston mayor and Houston-area lawyer and radio host Joe Jaworski has become the second Democrat to announce a run for Attorney General: https://www.texastribune.org/2025/07/17/joe-jaworski-texas-attorney-general-democrat/

...While Harlingen emergency physician Ada Cuellar has announced a run to challenge incumbent GOP Congresswoman Monica De La Cruz in the 15th Congressional District: https://www.texastribune.org/2025/07/17/ada-cuellar-democrat-monica-de-la-cruz-south-texas-congress/

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Former Galveston mayor, Houston-area attorney and longtime progressive activist Joe Jaworski joins us to announce his run for Texas Attorney General in 2026!

Learn more about Joe's campaign at https://www.jaworskifortexas.com/.

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:

Drama building for the special session, as Democrats consider breaking quorum to block a Trump-ordered redistricting scheme - including : https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/15/us/politics/texas-redistricting-trump.html

...Ken Paxton is threatening to "hunt down" any Democrats fleeing the session, while the plan itself could result in a "dummymander": https://www.texastribune.org/2025/07/15/texas-democrats-redistricting-response-trump-republican-five-seats/?_bhlid=f8b2bec379355a332431cf659f421e931ee30532

...A closer look at a potential "dummymander" shows that as it stands, safe blue districts are safer than safe red districts in Texas, making a weakening of those red districts a hazardous prospect: https://prospect.org/politics/2025-07-16-texas-redistricting-maneuver-may-harm-republicans/

...The only real swing seats left in Texas are in the Rio Grande Valley, due to a surprising swing to Trump last year - no surprise, the cancellation of the RGV's biggest annual public health event due to Trump budget cuts: https://www.texastribune.org/2025/07/16/texas-rio-grande-valley-border-health-federal-cuts/

...Ahead of all of this, Ken Paxton has launched an investigation into alleged non-citizen voting in Harris and several other counties: https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/voting/2025/07/15/526434/texas-attorney-generals-office-opens-investigation-into-allegations-of-noncitizens-voting-in-harris-county/

Propublica finds great disparity between claims by Kerr County officials that the July 4 flood couldn't have been predicted, and long oral and written histories that more or less do exactly that: https://www.propublica.org/article/texas-floods-oral-histories

...Polling shows that most Americans believe that the death toll from the flood could have been much less severe if government officials had been better prepared: https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/5403144-poll-flood-deaths-texas/

Republican Kerr County officials, under scrutiny due to the flood, are experiencing an unfortunate work hazard that's become familiar to Democratic leaders in bigger cities - death threats: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/texas-officials-death-threats-flash-flooding_n_68766208e4b0eefef0c4f62c

...Those same officials, at their first meeting after the flood, acknowledge that the actual number of missing people remains uncertain: https://www.click2houston.com/news/local/2025/07/14/death-threats-and-uncertainty-over-total-number-of-victims-key-takeaways-from-kerr-county-commissioners-court/

The family that owns Camp Mystic admits that the supervising owner Dick Eastland, who himself perished in the flood, didn't start evacuating kids from near the river until 46 minutes after receiving an emergency flood alert: https://www.expressnews.com/news/article/camp-mystic-evacuation-delayed-despite-warning-20770025.php

...Those phone alerts, due to their frequency, similarity between situations, and typical long distance from the emergency itself, have become too easy for Texans to ignore or even turn off: https://www.keranews.org/texas-news/2025-07-15/texas-flood-alert-warning-phone

Several campaign announcements today, including Dallas State Senator Nathan Johnson, who becomes the first Democrat to announce a run for Attorney General: https://www.houstonchronicle.com/politics/texas/article/nathan-johnson-texas-attorney-general-20766914.php

...Democrat Marquette Greene-Scott announces a repeat run against MAGA clown Troy Nehls in the 22nd Congressional District: https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/news/politics/2025/07/14/526241/marquette-greene-scott-who-challenged-rep-troy-nehls-in-2024-announces-bid-for-congressional-district-22/

...And ultra-MAGA Conroe State Rep. Steve Toth issues a primary challenge against GOP incumbent Congressman Dan Crenshaw in Congressional District 2: https://www.texastribune.org/2025/07/15/steve-toth-dan-crenshaw-texas-republican-primary-congress/

Progressives across Texas are taking note of the recent return of former Tarrant County Democratic Party Chair Allison Campolo to that important post. As the political tides turn across the nation, a flip in Tarrant County would likely be a harbinger of even more widespread and long-overdue change across the Lone Star State, so having an experienced progressive fighter (and actual Kung Fu champion) in this key position is welcome news indeed. Progress Texas board member and longtime Fort Worth politico Jason Smith joins us for a fun and important discussion.

Learn more about Allison Campolo and the Tarrant County Democratic Party at https://tarrantdemocrats.org/.

Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas:

Flood recovery efforts have resumed amidst great uncertainty about how long it will take, or whether it's possible, to recover the rest of the estimated 100 who remain missing: https://www.texastribune.org/2025/07/14/texas-flood-missing-update/

Food banks in Austin, San Antonio and elsewhere, at a moment when their services will be in high demand due to the floods, have already been hobbled by Trump funding cuts - and that's before the cuts in the Big Bullshit Bill kick in: https://grist.org/food-and-agriculture/texas-food-banks-flood-survivors-trump-funding-cuts/

U.S. Senate Democrats are calling for a probe into whether or not Homeland Security Kristi Noem's cost-cutting measures caused a delay in FEMA response that may have needlessly cost lives: https://www.politico.com/live-updates/2025/07/14/congress/kristi-noem-fema-cost-control-investigation-00452212

Rumors that cloud seeding may have contributed to the intensity of the July 4 storm in the Texas Hill Country are false - just as they have been when arising after recent hurricanes: https://www.kut.org/energy-environment/2025-07-15/cloud-seeding-weather-manipulation-technology-kerr-county-texas-floods-misinformation-conspiracy-theory

A moving tribute to the counselors at Camp Mystic who bravely protected their campers, written by one of their colleagues: https://www.chron.com/news/article/camp-mystic-tribute-texas-flood-20768074.php

As lawmakers begin filing bills for the special session starting Monday, there's nothing so far relating to flood recovery or preparedness: https://www.kxan.com/news/texas-politics/no-flood-related-bills-on-first-day-of-texas-special-session-filing/

Can California Governor Gavin Newsom counteract GOP-leaning redistricting in Texas by similarly stacking his state for the Democrats? Probably not: https://www.sfchronicle.com/politics/article/california-texas-redistricting-20769678.php

When Will Democrats Get Mad? Perhaps the better question is: when will Democrats get out of their own way and do something? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2btHwfv4Go4

Governor Abbott's refusal to release emails between himself and Elon Musk because they are "too intimate and embarrassing" sure has us curious: https://fortune.com/2025/07/15/texas-governor-greg-abbott-elon-musk-emails/

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Stories we're following this morning at Progress Texas:

The July 4 flood death toll rose to 132 as new flooding stopped recovery efforts on Sunday: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/texas-flooding-map-lampasas-river-trump-fema-death-toll-latest-b2788441.html

Families of victims who are still missing are beginning to come to terms that Governor Abbott's pledge to recover all of them may be impossible to fulfill: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/texas-families-face-grim-reality-that-some-missing-from-floods-may-not-be-found

Governor Abbott's highly flawed football metaphor, meant to deflect accountability in the name of toughness, draws the condemnation of Hall Of Famer Earl Campbell: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/14/us/politics/texas-floods-greg-abbott-stoicism.html

The failure of Texas to be prepared for the July 4 flood is part of a much longer pattern of neglect under Republican rule, which includes Winter Storm Uri, the Uvalde school massacre, and much more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jul/13/texas-disaster-weather-preparations-us

West Texas Republican Congressman Tony Gonzalez calls for accountability for the flood disaster in the upcoming special session, which seems to us a pipe dream at best: https://www.cnn.com/2025/07/13/politics/video/texas-congressman-calls-on-accountability-for-floods-cannot-allow-girls-to-drown

House Minority Leader Gene Wu notes the many bills offered by Democrats in the recent regular session aimed at improving safety infrastructure and planning that were killed by Republicans out of partisan spite: https://www.cnn.com/2025/07/11/us/video/the-lead-texas-governor-abott-donald-trump-floods-fema-jake-tapper

Other Houston Democrats are also up in arms about the Trump-demanded redistricting plan, while experts note the risk of over-reach that could undermine formerly-safe GOP Representatives: https://www.khou.com/article/news/politics/democrats-gov-abbott-redrawing-districts-special-session-texas/285-3427ffde-df9d-4a12-b8d7-c492cd41d7a4

The hypocrisy of undertaking redistricting under DOJ accusations of racial gerrymandering, just as the state has been defending its current map as race-blind, is stunning: https://www.texastribune.org/2025/07/11/texas-redistricting-racial-gerrymandering-coalition-districts-trump/

The new Superman movie is being derided as "woke" by right-wing media, when the character's main mode is kindness - if kindness is wokeness, then we're woke, y'all: https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/superman-woke-james-gunn-credit-fox-news-rcna218375

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In this episode of the Progress Texas Happy Hour, we’re honored to welcome Michael Wilmore-Crumrine, President of the Lesbian & Gay Peace Officers Association – Austin (LGPOA-Austin). Under Michael’s leadership, LGPOA-Austin is preparing to host the 2025 World LGBTQI+ Conference for Criminal Justice Professionals — marking the first time this international gathering will take place in the United States. This historic event will bring together officers, activists, and public safety professionals from around the world to push for building more inclusive and equitable justice systems.We talk about what it means to lead with authenticity, the mission behind LGPOA, and why this conference is such a powerful moment — not just for Austin, but for LGBTQ+ visibility everywhere. It’s a conversation about service, community, and creating space where all people can be seen, heard, and respected.To learn more about LGPOA-Austin, visit: https://www.lgpoa-austin.com/

And, check out the 2025 Proud to Be Your Friend Conference at https://www.proudtobeyourfriend.org.

Thanks for listening! You can learn more about Progress Texas and support our ongoing work at https://progresstexas.org.

This week's blowing off of the collective steam is especially cathartic, having come at the end of a week in which we watched the horrible situation in Central Texas get worse, and worse...and worse. State Senator Angela Paxton dumps her cheating husband at long last, Colin Allred appears to be playing the same old playbook, and yet another massive tragedy strikes Texas, complete with the loss of dozens of kids. We can't even.

Thanks for listening, y'all. Learn more about Progress Texas at https://progresstexas.org/.