Blogs: March 2022

Last week, Governor Abbott quietly issued two little-noticed declarations renewing his emergency powers in two key policy areas – the COVID-19 pandemic and border security. However different the policy problems targeted by the declarations and their respective contexts, Abbott’s declarations reflect two consistent characteristics of his approach to being governor: sustained efforts to strengthen the position of the governor’s office in the state’s political system (especially vis-a-vis the legislature and other statewide elected officials), and a habit of strategic caution at the intersection of politics and governance.

In a new Second Reading Podcast, Jim Henson talks with journalists Perla Trevizo of The Texas Tribune and ProPublica and Andrew Rodriguez Calderón of the Marshall Project about their team's collaborative reporting on Operation Lone Star.

In a new Second Reading Podcast, Jim Henson talks with Robert Vitalis, author of Oilcraft: The Myths of Scarcity and Security That Haunt U.S. Energy Policy, bout the reemergence of misconceptions and myths about oil and geopolitics in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

In a new Second Reading Podcast, Jim Henson talks with Lauren McGaughy of the Dallas Morning News, where she is an investigative reporter focused on gender, sexuality and politics, about recent clashes in Texas over the governor's order to investigate parents who provide gender affirming care to transgender children.

The first round of the Texas primary election is behind us, though many of the campaigns will continue with significant statewide, legislative, and Congressional run-off elections in both parties. While there have already been a lot of hot takes and some floating of big themes, we provide a few questions and observations that have occurred to us in the post-election haze. There will be more to come.