The latest Texas House of Representatives news from The Texas Tribune.
An already bitter Republican primary runoff for a Texas house seat has turned uglier in the final days before early voting begins as court filings from one candidate’s divorce and child custody battle take center stage. Full Story
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State Rep. Wayne Smith, R-Baytown, wasn't viewed as a particularly vulnerable incumbent in the March primary. But he barely eked into a runoff with 31-year-old attorney Briscoe Cain. Full Story
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State Rep. Ron Reynolds, a Democrat from Missouri City, is busy appealing convictions and settlement judgments related to his law practice, but he says he’s confident he can ‘easily’ win re-election. Full Story
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House Speaker Joe Straus, R-San Antonio, is trying to rescue legislative reviews of state agencies from poachers in the lobby and in the Legislature itself. He says they've "made a mockery" of the process. Full Story
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Buried in a couple of vanilla announcements this week, House Speaker Joe Straus gently telegraphed some of his plans for next year’s legislative session. If you weren’t listening carefully, you probably missed it. Full Story
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The Texas Department of Criminal Justice has decided that prison inmates should not be allowed to have active social media accounts, even if friends or family on the outside run them. Full Story
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If Texas decided to pay off construction debt on nearly all of its toll roads tomorrow, the price tag would be somewhere in the neighborhood of $30 billion, according to a preliminary report. Full Story
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Perhaps it’s not in the best interests of the people now in office in Texas — whatever their party labels — to change the electoral setup that put them in office. Full Story
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After questions about a special Senate committee hearing in San Antonio, and the appearance there of a challenger to House Speaker Joe Straus, state Sen. Paul Bettencourt makes a fairly strong case that there’s nothing to see here. Full Story
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Endorsements seem harmless enough, but several state senators will have to eat some crow to get their legislation passed next year. They endorsed challengers to fellow legislators — and lost. Full Story
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House Speaker Joe Straus spent $307 for every vote he got in Tuesday's primary election, leading the pack of state candidates. Here's a table detailing how much money selected state candidates spent for each vote they got. Full Story
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For all of the talk and bluster about replacing the people in government with new folks, Texas voters on Tuesday were remarkably gentle with incumbents, giving nearly all of them a ticket to the general election in November. Full Story
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House Speaker Joe Straus sailed to victory in his re-election bid and he avoided a significant net loss in fights between hard right conservatives and his lieutenants elsewhere in the state. Full Story
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Throughout the night, Tribune reporters will keep you updated on the results of Texas' Republican and Democratic primary battles, from the first early voting totals through the last ballots counted. Full Story
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Foreign terrorist groups and illegal immigration are the greatest threats to the United States, according to voters surveyed for the latest University of Texas/Texas Tribune Poll. Full Story
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A slew of open seats in the Legislature means there will be at least 18 freshman lawmakers in the Capitol come January. Two thirds of the open seats are currently held by a Republican. Full Story
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With longtime state Sen. Kevin Eltife's retirement, four GOP candidates in Senate District 1 are racing to define themselves as conservative outsiders, including state Reps. Bryan Hughes and David Simpson. Full Story
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While state Rep. Marsha Farney and challenger Terry Wilson share conservative views on abortion and immigration, they differ on whether to support House Speaker Joe Straus. Full Story
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Moving from the Texas House to the Texas Senate makes sense, but not for every politician: One current candidate for Senate — and a potential future one — each has more clout in the House than he or she would have in the Senate. Full Story
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Republican Jonathan Stickland and Democrat Trey Martinez Fischer, the noisiest pot-stirrers in the Texas House, are in tough March 1 primary contests. Each man is his own best argument, and his worst one. Full Story
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