Behind the Curtain: Texas is the #1 story of America
Why it matters: Texas is suddenly — and unexpectedly — the American story.
Key points
- In August, 57% of Texan registered voters in a University of Texas/Texas Politics Project poll opposed a data center in their own community, including 43% of Republicans, 60% of suburbanites and 60% of rural voters.
- Republicans' border-security argument was undermined as President Trump's ICE, cheered on by Abbott, hit South Texas' rural counties and then moved hard-line enforcement into cities across the state.
- Musk posted a reminder Saturday to incoming leaders: "SpaceX and Tesla have prospered in Texas, because we were not constantly operating under an oppressive and extractive state government.
As California became increasingly difficult, due to extreme taxes and overregulation, we moved our major domestic expansions and HQ to Texas." Musk made himself a midterm issue, spending $225 million on races in Texas — about half of his national total.
Additional details
- Texas is so populous, so wealthy, so Hispanic, so energy-rich — and now so top-to-bottom blue — that both parties see it as a de facto nation-state capable of reordering...
- Bannon has been so Texas-obsessed all year that he took his influential podcast, " War Room, " on the road to the " forward lines " of Texas for months at a time.
- Elon Musk, the world's richest person, moved to business-friendly Texas from California along with other tech elites, and brought along Tesla's headquarters.
- Talarico won by double digits over state Attorney General Ken Paxton, and Gina Hinojosa — who'll be Texas' first Latina governor — upset three-term Gov.
- The new Texas House speaker is likely to be an 87-year-old Black woman, Senfronia Thompson, a Houston Democrat first elected during the Watergate era.
How this summary was made: extractive summary — built from the sources' own reporting. It is drawn only from the reporting of the sources listed below — read the originals for full detail. How we summarize →
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