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Chris Essig is the data visuals editor at The Texas Tribune. Based in Austin, he leads a team of developers who build charts, maintain public databases and analyze data to help reporters hold elected officials accountable. Chris has been a newsroom developer for 10 years and has worked in several local newsrooms. As a native of the Midwest, Chris received his journalism degree from Eastern Illinois University and spent six years in Iowa working at The Gazette in Cedar Rapids and at the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier in Waterloo.
Several new facilities have already opened this summer, and the federal government has requested up to 15,500 beds at two Texas military bases. Full Story
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How exactly are families being separated at the border? Here's where parents and children go after they're apprehended. Full Story
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The U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments Tuesday in a Texas redistricting case that has flagged two congressional districts and nine Texas House districts. Here's a closer look at one of the districts in question: U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett's curiously shaped 35th Congressional District. Full Story
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Two congressional districts are part of a Texas redistricting case the U.S. Supreme Court will take up Tuesday. Here's a detailed look at what's at issue in one of them: the 27th Congressional District. Full Story
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Last year, federal judges ruled that when Texas lawmakers redrew the 27th Congressional District in 2011, they did so in a way that diminished the political clout of Hispanic voters. As the U.S. Supreme Court prepares to hear arguments in a redistricting case that includes CD-27, take a closer look at what's at issue in the district. Full Story
Local officials, demographers and advocates are worried the census could be particularly tough to carry out in Texas in 2020. They are bracing for challenges both practical and political that could make the state, which is already hard to count, even tougher to enumerate. Full Story
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The Texas House is in the midst of a months-long scramble for control. Here's an updated look at who is running to lead the chamber after Speaker Joe Straus steps down in January as well as who may soon throw their hats in the ring. Full Story
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After a months-long investigation, the Tribune found that the state's data on maternal mortality is a moving target, that the number of women dying during or after pregnancy is still rising and that the state has missed opportunities to improve women's health programs. Full Story
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Revisit our animated tour of Texas Congressional District 35, which wiggles its way from Austin to San Antonio, swallowing specific neighborhoods while avoiding — or splitting — others, all in the name of partisan political advantage. Full Story
The U.S. House and Senate voted for a major overhaul of the American tax code on Tuesday and Wednesday, sending the measure to President Donald Trump's desk. Here's how all 38 Texans in Congress voted on the bill. Full Story
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