If the polling data is to be believed, Texas Republicans, who haven’t lost a statewide election since 1994, might be coming to the end of their reign, led by a roster of corrupt loons whose arrogance and support for unpopular policies have set the table for a turnover.
Trump hasn’t helped one bit. His disastrous Iran War has raised gas prices and only made inflation worse. Trump’s collapsing support with rural voters and Latinos is hurting the Texas GOP where they live — their base and the demographic where they’d been gaining strength.
But they’ve gone out of their way to ruin their reputations with by tyring themselves to profoundly unpopular line items like a seemingly endless string of corruption and sex scandals (US Senate Nominee Ken Paxton), data center expansion, school vouchers (Governor Gregg Abbott), a ban on the state’s semi-legal THC smokables market (Lt. Governor Dan Patrick), open racism of a kind not acceptable in the state since the 1950s (Railroad Commission nominee Bo French), and troubling links to Jeffrey Epstein (State Comptroller nominee Don Huffines).
But first I need to make a point.
In 2026, No Politics Is Local
The late US Speaker of the House Tip O’Neill’s maxim about all politics being local hasn’t been true in decades.
That’s critical to keep in mind when talking about state politics in the United States in the 21st Century.
The national media has completely eaten regional and local media.
Thirty-five years ago when I was starting out in politics, Texas had popular, prosperous major daily newspapers in all its major cities and every small city and town had a local paper that covered local news with varying degrees of quality. That’s on top of at least three major network affiliates in every city, major and minor, all of which had news gathering operations plus a wide variety of radio stations most of them locally owned.
That all changed with the one-two punch of Bill Clinton’s 1996 Telecommunications Act which legalized mass consolidation of media property ownership and the internet which cut the legs out from under first the newspaper business and then television news.
The net effect of all of this has been that for this entire century the national news monoculture has utterly dominated the narrative everywhere. The average Texan has been barely more likely to know about Ken Paxton’s endless indictments and scandals than someone living in Florida or California who pays close attention to the news.
That means the national political context matters most of all. So let’s look at Trump’s numbers in nationally and in Texas because the 2026 elections are ultimately a referendum on the POTUS and his Trump 2.0 regime.
Trump Has Shat the Bed
This infographic from Real Clear Politics says a lot:
— Nat Wilson Turner (@natwilsonturner) September 23, 2026
With the exception of the Texas US Senate race at the bottom those numbers are all national, but look at this Marist poll of Texans (taken from September 17-20) Trump’s approval is at 43%, disapproval at 55%. 39% say their congressional vote is a vote against Trump, 25% for him. Nearly four in ten say family finances have worsened in the past year.
The University of Texas/Texas Politics Project has Trump’s approval at the same 43%, with disapproval lower at 50% but also shows a trendline down from 52-38% in February.
What happened in February? Oh, yea.
Wonder if that has anything to do with the record-breaking high fuel prices that are killing the GOP at the polls?
Trump is also bleeding support with rural voters nationally. This AP-KFF poll has him at 48% with rural voters nationally, not bad compared to some demos, but when one remembers that Trump won rural voters in 2024 by a thirty point margin, 64%-34%.
Most of this erosion has to do with the economy, but 60% of rural Texans oppose a data center in their community. We’ll talk about that more when we get to Governor Greg Abbott.
But first we need to mention Trump’s popularity implosion with Hispanic Texans — keep in mind Texas is 40% non-Hispanic White, 40% Hispanic, almost 12% Black, and 5% Asian — Trump won this demographic handily in 2024 with an estimated 55% of the Hispanic Texan vote.
The Texas legislature excitedly re-drew the congressional district lines in 2025 to capitalize on this newfound strength with the Tejano community, but that might come back to bite them:
A September poll of 1,000 Latinos in Texas conducted for Cook Political and TelevisaUnivision found that 18% of Latinos who voted for Trump no longer support him, and almost two-thirds of Latino voters would be less likely to vote for candidates who support Trump’s immigration policies.
For both parties, those shifts explain both the promise and peril of Latino voters. Their support has often proved less dependent on party loyalty than on whether they believe elected officials will improve their economic circumstances.
Trump’s disapproval number with Texas Latinos is 66%, and well, that ain’t good.
And it’s more about the economy than immigration policy by a wide margin.
We’ll top off with 2,000 words worth of infographics:
Estimated Hispanic shift (NYT/Siena applied to districts)
Texas
🔵 TX-28: +31
🔵 TX-15: +25
🔵 TX-34: +24
🔵 TX-23: +18
🔵 TX-35: +16
🔵 TX-09: +16
Florida
🔵 FL-26: +25
🔵 FL-28: +25
🔵 FL-27: +21
🔵 FL-22: +13
🔵 FL-12: +12
🔵 FL-07: +11
🔵 FL-14:…
— InteractivePolls (@IAPolls2022) September 22, 2026
Although in West Texas, as I wrote in July, Trump’s assault on the sacred Big Bend National Park (and adjoining State Park) is pissing of voters of all political stripes and ethnicities.
Enough table setting, let’s get to the main course, this gaggle of turkeys the Texas GOP is bringing to the election day table.
Ken Paxton, Criminal Attorney General and World Historic Bad Senate Candiate
Often indicted, never convicted, only impeached the one time, Ken Paxton is a remarkably bad candidate.
Coincidentally this tweet is making the rounds as I write:
Update: the official leatherbound record of the impeachment of Attorney General Paxton is seven volumes and was delivered to both Texas House and Senate offices today https://t.co/OMeMTnUCDw pic.twitter.com/gm71shQ5gK
— Scott Braddock (@scottbraddock) September 23, 2026
I’m not going to get all into the horse race bulls…family blogging, I’m just going to present Ken Paxton’s rap sheet in summary form and I’m not even going to talk about Talarico who is the personification of weak tea but certainly the best option on the ballot:
2014: Paxton Violated Securities Law, Gets Reprimand. Texas State Securities Board fine of $1,000 for soliciting investment clients without registering.
2015: Paxton Surrenders in Securities Fraud Indictment. Indicted in Collin County on two first-degree felony securities-fraud counts and one third-degree count. The SEC also filed a civil suit in 2016 (complaint).
2024: Felony charges against Ken Paxton to be dropped. Pretrial diversion: about $300,000 in restitution, 100 hours of community service and ethics classes, no admission of guilt. The case was dismissed after nearly a decade.
2020–25: Judge awards $6.6 million to whistleblowers. Four top aides who reported him to the FBI for allegedly taking bribes from Austin developer Nate Paul, who employed the woman Paxton was having an affair with, won $6.6 million. Paxton then dropped his appeal and the taxpayers pay.
2023: Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton impeached, suspended from duties. The House voted 121–23 on 20 articles, including bribery and abuse of office, mostly over Nate Paul. It was the first impeachment of a statewide official since 1975.
2023: Acquitted on all 16 articles. The Senate trial was presided over by Dan Patrick, after a pro-Paxton PAC gave him $3 million.
2025: Justice Department declined to prosecute. The federal corruption probe ended in the last weeks of the Biden administration; Texas-based investigators had thought there was enough to indict.
2025: Angela and Ken Paxton agree to unseal divorce records. Sen. Angela Paxton filed on “biblical grounds,” alleging adultery (July 2025).
2025: Ken Paxton did not disclose real estate interests for years. That just changed.. Eight properties listed after The Texas Newsroom exposed the gaps, including a luxury cabin in Oklahoma and land in Hawaii and Utah.
2026: Ken Paxton’s financial disclosures appear to violate ethics law. ProPublica/Tribune: seven homes reported with no income, though all but one were listed for rent. Mortgages on three Utah golf-resort condos weren’t disclosed, and a land stake he valued at up to $50,000 is worth about $1 million according to his partner.
2026: The Hoffman plea deal. His office offered a Waco lawyer charged with continuous sexual abuse of a child a plea with one day in jail and no sex-offender registration; he served 30 days (details in §06).
There’s mad money flying around, but I’m of the opinion that TV ads don’t do much more than fatten consultant wallets, especially after Labor Day. Rest assured it’s obscene, but the national context, earned media and social media are what moves the numbers in 2026 and I don’t see those going in a GOP direction in the next 30 some odd days.
I’ve written about the fundamentalist billionaires who’ve backed Paxton’s entire career before but I must recommend this article again:
The Billionaire Pastors Who Want to Turn Texas Into a Christian Nation. Tim Dunn and Farris Wilks are from the invent-your-own-religion school and it’s a doozy. Good thing our system does everything possible to enable wealthy lunatics.
Now let’s talk about the Governor, one of the longest-serving in Texas history and easily the most powerful elected official in the state since assuming office.
Greg Abbott Hitched His Wagon to the Data Center Boom
And it’s rolling him down the road toward a possible defeat in a race that should have been a gimme.
Via Fox 7 Austin:
— Nat Wilson Turner (@natwilsonturner) September 23, 2026
Those rural numbers might look bad for Hinojosa, but they’re about 10 points better than Beto O’Rourke did against Ted Cruz in 2018, the Texas Democrat high water mark in the modern era.
But let’s get to Greg Abbott and his abiding love for data centers.
Just four months ago Abbott rolled out a big data center plan with Blackrock CEO Larry Fink and sat there and smiled while Fink said the following:
If we could get more and more Americans to think about growing with the United States, we will have more than enough money to invest in this infrastructure. But as the governor was talking about, the need for electrons is growing every day. Some of these, you know, if we’re going to be the leader in technology, which we are, if we are going to be the leader in AI, which we presently are, it’s just going to require trillions of dollars of investments. And if we don’t invest in it, China will be the global leader in this. And so to me, it’s not whether. This is a must. And if you think about how that translates, it translates into a more dynamic economy. We need the United States economy to grow at over 2%. We need the U.S. economy to grow at 3%, especially with the growing deficits the federal government has. And so much of this money, not just the project, is going to be coming from the private sector, from savings accounts, from pension accounts, from insurance companies, and on and on and on. The whole world is in need of improving the infrastructure.”
At the time, Fink’s statement and Abbott’s support for it filled me with a profound sense of helplessness and rage and sent me straight to YouTube for some solace. Desperate times, desperate measures.
And this was just the capstone on Greg Abott’s love affair with data centers.
When
Greg Abbott and data centers
Jun 2025
Law
Signs SB 6: large power users help pay for their own grid hookups, and ERCOT can cut them off in emergencies. (Data Center Frontier)
Sep 2025
Booster
Calls Abilene’s $500 billion Stargate “the largest AI data center location in the entire country” and hints at unannounced projects “far larger than Stargate.” Says Texas has enough power. (Dallas Morning News)
Nov 2025
Booster
Says he wants Texas to be the “epicenter of AI development.” (Texas Tribune)
2026–27
Tax break
The state’s data center sales tax exemption is forecast to cost $3.2 billion over two years, and the comptroller says the real figure is “significantly higher.” Only 20 of 138 qualifying data centers have been audited. (Texas Tribune)
Since 2025
Donors
More than $2 million from tech and AI-linked donors, including a $1 million gift (E&E News, citing Transparency USA). (Texarkana Today)
6 May 2026
Fink
Fireside chat with BlackRock’s Larry Fink in Waco. Fink says the trillions for data centers and power will come from Americans’ “savings accounts and pension accounts.” (BlackRock video, Snopes)
10 Jun 2026
Pivot
Recommends a crackdown: data centers should pay for their own infrastructure, and he’ll work to repeal their sales tax exemptions. (Texas Tribune)
3 Aug 2026
Freeze
Freezes new data center grid connections pending audits of power, water, tax breaks and ownership. The ERCOT queue holds more than 1,800 projects and 474 gigawatts. (Texas Tribune)
7 Aug 2026
Trump
Trump calls Texas’ data center opposition a “mistake.” (Texas Tribune)
14 Aug 2026
Audit
ERCOT will audit up to 300 projects, 90% of the queue being data centers. Data centers with their own on-site power aren’t covered. (Texas Tribune)
21 Sep 2026
Freeze
Extends the pause to environmental permits: “Texans must come first. Data centers must pay their own way.” The Tribune calls it escalating efforts to slow data centers “ahead of November’s election.” (Texas Tribune)
Sources linked in each row. Shaded rows: Abbott selling the boom.
I wasn’t alone in being upset about the Texas data center boom:
My kid made that map with Maptitude based on data I pulled together
Where / when
Data center protests and local opposition in Texas
Giddings
Lee County · May 2025
Residents challenged Sandow’s 1,200 MW gas plant for data centers (source)
College Station
Brazos County · Sep 2025
5,047-signature petition; council rejected the land sale unanimously (source)
Amarillo
Potter County · Sep 2025
Courthouse protest against selling city water to Fermi America (source)
Lacy Lakeview
McLennan County · Dec 2025
~3,000-signature petition; council approved 6-1 over opponents (source)
Bells
Grayson County · Dec 2025–
Local organizing against a Black Mountain site (source)
El Paso
El Paso County · Jan 2026
Coalition demanded Meta contracts be canceled; opposed gas plant (source)
Harlingen
Cameron County · early 2026
Residents opposed the Eneus RGV project at City Commission (source)
Granbury
Hood County · Feb 2026
Standing-room-only meetings; moratorium rejected twice, 3-2; county sued by developers (source)
Round Rock
Williamson County · Feb 2026
3,000+ signature petition; approved anyway (source)
San Marcos
Hays County · Feb–Jun 2026
Hundreds packed City Hall; first Texas city to ban data centers (4-3); county water review board (source)
Forest Hill
Tarrant County · Mar 2026
Residents confronted Black Mountain’s CEO at a town hall (source)
Angleton
Brazoria County · Mar 2026
Angry crowd; commissioners voted down a tax abatement (source)
Red Oak
Ellis County · May 2026
150+ residents, 70+ left outside; rezoning approved anyway (source)
Glen Rose
Somervell County · May 2026
Court resolution opposing data centers until the Legislature acts (source)
Lockhart
Caldwell County · May 2026
Council confined data centers to heavy industry (source)
Hillsboro
Hill County · May–Jun 2026
First county moratorium in Texas, rescinded after a $100m federal suit (source)
Lufkin
Angelina County · May–Jun 2026
Residents rallied, were barred from speaking; packed commissioners court (source)
Alvin
Brazoria County · by Jun 2026
City resolution: doesn’t want data centers (source)
Kerrville
Kerr County · by Jun 2026
Zoning limits plus water-capacity approval (source)
Taylor
Williamson County · Jun 2026
Halt Taylor Data Centers Coalition petition (source)
Texarkana
Bowie County · Jun–Aug 2026
Rally; “No Bowie County Data Centers” group (source)
Athens
Henderson County · Jul 2026
Save Cedar Creek Lake petition; developer withdrew (source)
Lubbock
Lubbock County · Jul 2026
Hundreds packed the Civic Center; ~2,500-signature moratorium petition (source)
Bastrop
Bastrop County · Jul 2026
100+ packed a bipartisan town hall (source)
Austin (Capitol)
Travis County · Jul 2026
Statewide rally demanding a special session (source)
25 places, 2025–26, oldest first. Sources linked in each row, mostly Texas Tribune.
Now let’s get to the man Texans call Mr Buzzkill.
Is It Possible to Lose a Race With a 234 to 1 Cash Advantage?
This race should absolutely not be as close as it is — some polls even show Democrat Vickie Goodwin leading Lt. Governor Dan Patrick.
He’s doing everything he can to make the most of his incredible cash advantage including using AI deep fakes in his ads, but don’t worry, the campaign pulled them when they were caught.
And if Patrick does lose it will because of a giant blue wave, but I’d like to think that the fact that Patrick is a one issue idiot who put all his chips on the table to close a loophole which had created a massive semi-legal market for THC in Texas played a role.
Despite only having the support of 31% of Texans, Patrick went all in on the reefer madness:
When
Dan Patrick’s war on THC
27 Mar 2025
Threat
Patrick says he’ll push for a special session if the THC ban and bail changes fail. (Texas Tribune)
Jun 2025
Session
SB 3, a total ban on hemp THC, passes and is called “a major win for Patrick”. Texas had more than 8,000 THC retailers. (Texas Tribune)
10 Jun 2025
Backlash
Patrick’s push to ban THC draws rare backlash from the right. (Texas Tribune)
11 Jun 2025
Poll
GOP primary voters oppose the ban 47% to 37%. (San Antonio Current)
Early Jun 2025
Poll
UT/Texas Politics Project: 53% of Texas voters oppose SB 3 and 31% support it. Democrats oppose it 68%, independents 58%, and Republicans back it 46–39. (Texas Tribune, Texas Politics Project)
22 Jun 2025
Veto
Abbott vetoes SB 3. Patrick says Abbott wants to “legalize marijuana”: “Where has he been all session?” (Texas Tribune)
Jul 2025
Poll
McLaughlin & Associates: 79% would rather keep hemp products legal with more regulation. (Cannabis Business Times)
30 Jul 2025
Special
The Senate passes the ban again as SB 5. (Texas Tribune)
4 Sep 2025
Dead
The second special session ends with no THC deal. Patrick: “My position remains unchanged; the Senate and I are for a total THC ban.” (Texas Tribune)
31 Jan 2026
2027
A lawmaker says a THC ban will stay Patrick’s priority in 2027, “but the political leverage he once had is gone.” (Texas Tribune)
27 Mar 2026
2027
His Senate interim charges order a study of “THC-induced psychotic disorder.” (Texas Tribune)
31 Jul 2026
The law now
What’s actually banned now (delta-8, delta-10, THCA flower) came from a Texas Supreme Court ruling that revived a 2021 health-department rule, not from Patrick’s bill. Delta-9 under 0.3% is still legal. (Texas Tribune)
Sources linked in each row. Shaded rows: polling. The 53–31 poll measured Patrick’s total ban (SB 3), not the narrower rules in force today.
We’ll see how that works out for the man who called Trump “the greatest president in US history” at the GOP September convention in Dallas.
Now we gotta get real freaky because the GOP nominee for Comptroller (one of the most powerful positions in the state), is freak city and a major character in the Jeffrey Epstein saga.
The Guy Who Bought Zorro Ranch
To the state GOP’s credit, they didn’t want Don Huffines, but he was Trump’s guy and crushed Greg Abbott’s choice in the GOP primary, but Abbott is a flexible man and appointed Huffines to take the office after Kelly Hancock resigned following the primary.
So far, he’s up by 10 over Dem. State Senator Sarah Eckhardt, but I’m holding out hope that Huffines might get a moment or two in the spotlight, because he should melt in the sunlight like Nosferatu in the dawn.
Before the primary race, Huffines was so passionate about school vouchers (a issue so divisive that Abbott and his backers spent $8 million of his own campaign money plus another dozen or so million to virtually rid the legislature of rural anti-voucher state reps and senators in the 2024 GOP primaries) that he had to “express regret” after getting caught on video flipping out on a group of students who dared to question the policy.
Check this Texas Tribune profile after he won the primary:
Huffines’ family has been a mainstay in North Texas business circles for decades, from their car dealerships to the real estate development company Huffines started with his twin brother, Phillip. The firm bills itself as one of the largest residential developers in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, through which Huffines has amassed a personal fortune.
…
Huffines’ other early proposals as an elected official demonstrated where he stood on some of the biggest issues in Texas politics: to the right of right. He proposed a bill to repeal the state’s franchise tax, which the state charges companies for doing business. The comptroller’s office administers the tax.
“It’s a sad fact that many lawmakers tell voters one thing, but do another once they’re elected,” far-right activist Cary Cheshire wrote in March 2015 in an essay praising the idea. “Fortunately, some new leaders, such as State Sen. Don Huffines (R-Dallas), are standing strong despite attempts to drag them down.”
Additionally, Huffines pitched ideas to undo local LGBT protections and let people openly carry guns, along with the proposal to tally the costs of illegal immigration to Texas — all once-fringe ideas that have become reality as the state government has veered to the right.
Then there’s what he’s done since being appointed Comptroller, like I said, one of the most powerful positions in the state, ok, what he’s done doesn’t quite describe it, let’s just say he’s running the office the way the GW Bush administration ran Baghdad, ie he’s appointing idiot frat boys to get their stupid and greedy on:
— Nat Wilson Turner (@natwilsonturner) September 24, 2026
Often, (Huffines) was accompanied by his second-in-command.
Call him “Mr. Betz,” Huffines instructed in one such meeting, referring to his fresh-faced top deputy.
Mr. Betz is Noah Betz, a Gen-Z political wunderkind who graduated from Texas A&M with a degree in business administration in 2023 and is now holding the second-most powerful position at the state agency with 3,000 employees. Betz did not disclose his age. Public records suggest he is either 24 or 25 years old.
Betz’s appointment as chief clerk — commonly referred to as deputy comptroller — comes as dozens have left or been pushed out, representing the loss of hundreds of years of institutional knowledge and experience at the agency, in what five former employees described as a chaotic start to Huffines’ temporary tenure. Those workers spoke on the condition of anonymity, out of fear they could be reprimanded by their new employers or that speaking publicly can affect their job prospects.
Betz is earning $306,000 a year, according to records — double the salary of previous acting Comptroller Kelly Hancock, who left the job at the end of July. That puts him in the top 1% of salaries for government employees. (Huffines says he’s not accepting a government salary.)
Most of Betz’s experience in the three years since graduating has been in consulting for hardline conservative politicians — including Huffines’ current campaign for a full four-year term — and leading Huffines’ real estate and development firm, according to a review of Betz’s hiring paperwork, LinkedIn profile, and previous news coverage that featured his work.
I’m hoping that this race can also attract some national attention because Don Huffines is one man who does NOT need to hold one of the most powerful positions in the country’s second largest state.
Let’s wrap with a guy who made himself the story and now stands to lose yet another gimme election.
Too Racist for the Texas GOP?
I didn’t think such a thing was possible, but Republican Texas Railroad Commissioner (a powerful position that in theory oversees the oil industry) nominee Bo French went out there and made himself a star with one post on X.com:
I heard UT graduation this year looked like this. I didn’t believe it. The problem is now obviously far worse than anyone imagined. pic.twitter.com/Ys1bql0y4U
— Bo French (@bofrench) September 13, 2026
French then proceeded to double down on the tweet, even after Senator John Cornyn called him out over it and Karl Rove said he’d be voting Democrat for the first time in his life in the race.
I thought veteran GOP staffer Susan Bellsnyder had the best response to French in her Texas Rural Reporter Substack:
If your picture of rural Texas looks like a Hallmark movie where everybody looks the same, you may need to spend a little more time in rural Texas.
Because that is not the Texas I know. And the numbers back that up.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Texas now has more than 31.7 million people. About 41 percent of Texans are Hispanic or Latino, 13 percent are Black and nearly 7 percent are Asian. Those numbers are not some future version of Texas. They are Texas today — and you don’t have to travel to Austin, Dallas or Houston to see it.
…
Diversity is woven into the fabric of our rural communities. You can see it in our schools, our churches and the stands on Friday night. You can see it in the people caring for patients in our hospitals, running businesses, teaching our children, raising cattle, working in agriculture and gathering together at community celebrations.
Rural Texas is made up of many cultures, many traditions and many family stories. That is not something that takes away from who we are. It is part of what makes our communities strong.
Farmers and gardeners have always known that diversity matters. Good soil is not made up of just one thing; it takes a healthy mix to build the strongest foundation for a good harvest. The same is true of our communities, our state and our nation.
That is why I keep coming back to the question raised by the conversation this week.
When did diversity become something Texans were supposed to fear?
How did looking around and seeing Texans who don’t all look alike become evidence that something has gone wrong? This doesn’t have to be a Republican question or a Democratic question. In fact, the strong Republican criticism of French this week is evidence that it doesn’t fit neatly into those boxes.
This is a Texas question.
Are we moving forward, learning to live together in a state that is growing and changing? Or are we moving backward, teaching another generation to see differences between their neighbors as something threatening?
My faith in my fellow Texans was somewhat restored by a TCU poll following the incident showing that French’s net favorability had dropped 15 points and his opponent had closed to within 2%.
But the GOP has a hole card.
Election Interference, Us?
If you ain’t cheating, you ain’t trying.
When / who
Trump and Texas GOP moves on the 2026 election
Aug 2025
Texas GOP
The Senate passes the mid-decade congressional map Trump demanded, worth up to five more GOP seats, on an 18–11 party-line vote. (Texas Tribune)
Oct 2025
Texas GOP
The secretary of state runs the voter roll through the Trump administration’s SAVE database and flags 2,724 voters as possible noncitizens. LULAC and Common Cause sue in March over an “illegal voter purge.” (KERA)
23 Dec 2025
Both
Texas hands the Justice Department its full voter roll, about 18.4 million voters, including dates of birth, driver’s license numbers and the last four digits of Social Security numbers. (Texas Tribune)
Mar 2026
Trump
Executive order: states must give the Postal Service lists of mail voters, DHS builds state-by-state eligible-voter lists, and DOJ is to prioritize prosecuting election officials who send ballots to people it deems ineligible. (Votebeat)
30 Jul 2026
Texas GOP
The state concedes some of the 2,724 were wrongly flagged; SAVE has “some inaccurate information,” and counties are told to reinstate them. (Texas Tribune)
24 Aug 2026
Trump
The Supreme Court lifts one of two injunctions against the mail-voting order; a second injunction, covering all states, still blocks it. (Votebeat)
1 Sep 2026
Texas GOP
Tarrant County’s Republican commissioners cut polling sites from 316 in the 2022 midterm to 224, over hours of public opposition. Commissioner Alisa Simmons and Talarico say voters of color will be hit hardest. (ABC News, NBC)
15 Sep 2026
Texas GOP
The state announces noncitizen-voting charges: 117 people referred for investigation, while nearly 600 flagged voters turn out to be citizens. (Texas Tribune)
16 Sep 2026
Trump
DHS said ICE agents could be stationed at polling places nationwide; secretaries of state later said DHS committed not to put ICE at polls in 2026. (U.S. News)
22–23 Sep 2026
Texas GOP
DPS failed to send tens of thousands of voter registration applications to counties. Travis County got about 32,000 overnight and Collin more than 40,000 records, less than two weeks before the 5 Oct registration deadline. Democrats want Abbott to investigate. (Texas Tribune, follow-up)
Sources linked in each row. Shaded rows: steps that directly touch who can vote in November. The ICE-at-polls row relies on U.S. News’s roundup.
Can’t fault Trump and the Texas GOP for trying.
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