For some reason, the Lone Star State and its 38 Electoral College votes is considered to be a battleground—never mind that neither Vice President Joe Biden, nor his running mate, Sen. Kamala Harris, have made one visit to Texas this year. President Donald Trump leads in Texas by 4.4%, according to the Real Clear Politics average...
What we see so far in the 11 large counties with comparable data to 2016 is that registered voters are up 13% (by comparison, population is up 7.3% in Texas since 2016). In-person turnout is up 15% as a raw number, but only 1.57% as a share of registered voters (12.06% to 11.87%). Voting by...
There’s a prevailing theme out of Texas that the state is turning blue, that the inevitability of the demographic and cultural shift will lead the Lone Star State back into the Democratic column, as it was for most of its history as a state. This narrative is advanced by the media, Democrats, and even some...
Whether President Trump is reelected or Vice President Biden wins, America is not likely to know the outcome of the contest for days, or even weeks. The reason is simple: the rush to mail-in balloting will overwhelm the local elections officials who do the job of counting the vote. In-person votes cast either early or...
Does election fraud happen on a coordinated, wide-scale basis or “at the local level from time to time” or not at all? Contrary to the protestations of some in the media and pundit class, election fraud does occur. The concerns are, how pervasive is it? Does it change election outcomes? And should we be concerned...
On Sept. 23, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo delivered a speech to the Wisconsin State Senate warning of the Chinese Communist Party’s influence operations targeting state and local officials. Pompeo began by highlighting an odd incident from February when Wisconsin Senate President Roger Roth received an email from an official in China’s Chicago consulate. The email included language...
The Census Bureau’s annual reports on poverty in America were released on Sept. 15. The reports provide three salient observations. First, that the largest reductions in poverty in the past 10 years occurred in 2019, as American employment and wage growth was particularly strong in minority communities in the wake of President Trump’s economy-boosting tax cuts and...
Journalist H. L. Mencken described the unintended consequences of governance like this: “Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard.” In energy and environmental policy, California’s gotten it “good and hard” in recent years. Record wildfires. Rolling blackouts. Politicians like Democrat Gov. Gavin...
California just saw electrical blackouts due to a lack of power, rather than due to wildfires, for the first time since 2001. The left’s systemic environmentalism that emphasizes green bling over the basics, like reliability and power lines, is to blame. California’s woes would have been far worse were it not for gas and coal-powered generation in other...
We needed some groceries. Caring for my 95-year-old father-in-law at home, complicated by COVID-19 concerns, led us to do what we have increasingly done over the past few months: we ordered online for at-home delivery. At the appointed time, Billy, the driver, showed up with the groceries, driving his own car. From a respectful distance,...
So far, 2020 isn’t turning out to be a defense and foreign policy election, with voters viewing overseas commitments and threats as merely the sixth-most-important issue, according to a Pew Research poll completed in August. Foreign policy ranks behind the economy, health care, Supreme Court appointments, the coronavirus, and violent crime and just ahead of gun policy...
In America’s season of unrest, calls for police reform have too often been met with sloganeering rather than considered debate illuminated by fact and data. Unfortunately, one major city in Texas isn’t immune to this phenomenon: Austin. Of Texas’ six most-populous cities, five plan to increase their law enforcement budgets: Dallas, El Paso, Fort Worth,...