Phelan’s primary has emerged as a last stand for the Republican Party’s business-minded establishment against an insurgency primarily motivated by social and cultural issues.

Straus, who is Jewish, publicly confirmed the conversation for the first time Thursday. It had previously been reported by Texas Monthly.

Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley made a campaign stop in San Antonio on Friday.

Readers sometimes ask us if the outcomes in governing are predetermined and whether civic engagement makes a difference. There are plenty of examples of Texans influencing lawmakers’ decisions.

In a new court filing, the attorney general's office said the governor properly used his veto power when he nixed funding for the Legislature in response to House Democrats walkout over a Republican priority bill on elections.

Dan Patrick and the far-right wing of the Texas GOP over issues including a bill that sought to regulate which bathrooms transgender Texans could use. In Tuesday’s podcast, he continued his vocal opposition to “culture war” issues that have dominated political discourse in recent years. He said that he “continues to be concerned about the state of the current Republican party,” though Straus stopped short of saying he’d switch party affiliation. “For the moment, I’m a stay-and-fight Republican,” Straus said. This story about Tribune CEO Evan Smith’s interview with Joe Straus was written by Shawn Mulcahy.

On Jan. 3, Straus said on Twitter that “Donald Trump is trying to dismantle our democracy by seeking to invalidate an election he lost. “All political leaders have a role to play, an obligation, a responsibility, to try and bring people together,” he said. He wants as many people as possible to get vaccinated and to provide help for people affected mentally by the pandemic. As for whether Straus will run for office in the future...“I’m not done with politics. But the November election is only a couple of months old and it’s been a little bumpy since then.

While the top of the ballot has received the most attention, the balance of the Texas House of Representatives is also at stake. For the first time in years, Democrats have a chance to flip the 150-member Texas House, which has been controlled by Republicans for more than a decade. The stakes couldn’t be higher, since next legislative session will include redistricting, the once-in-a-decade process by which the Texas Legislature draws district maps for Congress and state legislative seats. To gain control of the House, Democrats would need to pick up nine seats. There are 18 to 22 state House races that Democrats are targeting.

(AP Photo/David J. Phillip)HOUSTON – A federal judge on Monday rejected another last-ditch Republican effort to invalidate nearly 127,000 votes in Houston because the ballots were cast at drive-thru polling centers established during the pandemic. Another 20,000 or more voters had been expected to use drive-thru polling locations Tuesday, Hollins said earlier Monday. “I cannot in good faith encourage voters to cast their votes in tents if that puts their votes at risk,” he said. Harris County offered 10 drive-thru locations as an option for its nearly 5 million residents amid worries of spreading the coronavirus. More than 40% of Harris County residents are Latino, and about one in five residents are Black.