Dallas Morning News: Sen. Ted Cruz placed a big bet on a former top aide hoping to topple Rep. Henry Cuellar in South Texas, spending $137,000 out of his own campaign fund to pitch Cassy Garcia in the GOP… Continue reading

From PolitiFact: Social media posts claimed that primary voters were not allowed to cast ballots at certain voting sites in Texas on March 1. Posts alternately claimed it was Democrats or Republicans that were being excluded.Many counties experienced a shortage… Continue reading

Another from Axios: Former Vice President Mike Pence’s advocacy group plans to spend $10 million on TV ads targeting vulnerable House Dems on energy and Ukraine, Axios’ Lachlan Markay and Jonathan Swan have learned. Why it matters: Pence contrasted himself… Continue reading

From Axios AM: A dark money group with ties to Democratic Party heavyweights will spend millions this year to try to disbar more than 100 lawyers who worked on Donald Trump’s post-election lawsuits, people involved with the effort tell Axios’… Continue reading

Terrific Shane Goldmacher deep dive, focused on Texas and Rep. Dan Crenshaw, on how the decline of competitive districts empowers the extremes and is going to make governing more difficult. This is also a story about the internal fragmentation… Continue reading

From Politico: Squad member to deliver response to Biden SOTU A member of the liberal “Squad” is delivering a formal response to President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address Tuesday. In the speech, given on behalf of the… Continue reading

There two recent stories capture the internal fragmentation of the Republican Party, part of the larger story about political fragmentation more generally: From the NYT: Fringe Scheme to Reverse 2020 Election Splits Wisconsin G.O.P. From Politico: GOP Plunges Into Season … Continue reading

After my earlier post on small donors in 2020 and the 2022 Texas’ governor’s race, I saw this NYT story. The subheading is in line with what that earlier story suggested: Mr. O’Rourke’s remarks during his 2020 presidential campaign shadow… Continue reading

Sarah Isgur has a long essay on Texas politics, at The Sweep, which is part of the The Dispatch and behind a paywall. The piece asserts that O’Rourke’s pursuit of small donors in his presidential bid led him to positions… Continue reading

Here’s my latest NYT piece, which endorses Alaska’s Top-Four primary structure, a reform the Alaska Supreme Court recently upheld. My piece is along similar lines to those in Ned Foley’s Washington Post op-ed on the potential of the new… Continue reading

Via Westport News: Memphis voted to adopt RCV in 2008, but it’s never been employed, as a result of long-running litigation and administrative battles. Tennessee lawmakers passed a ban Monday against instant runoff voting in elections, a move that seeks… Continue reading

This National Journal piece from Josh Kraasner reports a couple intriguing, interlocking claims about the dynamics shaping the looming Republican primary contests. He notes that large donors are not participating heavily for various reasons, in part because in crowded primary… Continue reading

The title on this LA Times story is With Biden’s agenda hanging by a thread, Democrats question Schumer-Klain strategy. Here are some excerpts: For all the ire directed by liberal activists at two moderate senators who in recent weeks… Continue reading