Sign up for the We the Texans newsletter to receive twice-monthly updates on our year-long initiative dedicated to boosting civic engagement and chronicling how democracy is experienced in Texas.
Republicans were poised to expand their majority in the Texas House on Tuesday evening, and appeared on track to flip two seats in historically Democratic districts as South Texas continued its dramatic shift to the right.
If those results hold, the GOP will control 87 of 150 seats in the lower chamber when the Legislature reconvenes in January. That margin will give Gov. Greg Abbott “more than enough votes” to finally pass a school voucher bill, he said late Tuesday.
Republican Don McLaughlin, the former mayor of Uvalde, was beating Democrat Cecilia Castellano in House District 80, according to incomplete results late Tuesday. The seat was open following the retirement of Democrat Tracy King.
In Corpus Christi’s District 34, Republican Denise Villalobos was on path to defeat Democrat Solomon Ortiz Jr. in a race …