Twenty-five years in, and the state of Texas has only elected two governors in the 21st Century, two lieutenant governors, and two attorney generals. The current governor was elected AG in 2002 to succeed the first GOP attorney general since Reconstruction, who himself ascended to the United States Senate and has remained in that seat ever since. Today’s attorney general, who succeeded the now-governor, is now ramping up for a likely primary campaign to oust said U.S. senator. 

Such is the age of Republican domination in Texas, largely marked by remarkable entrenchment in the statewide power structure interrupted by occasional bursts of incestuous conflict.  

There are no term limits for these offices in the Lone Star State, but that didn’t prevent a healthy level of churn among the top ranks of statewide office throughout most of Texas’ political history—even in the bygone era of Democrats’ one-party rule.   

John Cornyn and Mitch McConnell in 2018 (Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call, CQ Roll Call via AP Images)

Not so much with Republicans. Under red rule, Texas has not just returned to a one-party state; it’s a one-party state controlled by just a very few politicians, who’ve used their longevity to consolidate unprecedented levels of power. Governor Greg Abbott has methodically expanded the once-limited realm of gubernatorial authority and Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick has reshaped the once independent-minded Senate into a body of one. 

For those top two, this is a time for cementing legacies, and they seemingly have no intent of leaving anytime soon. Abbott is singularly focused on passing school vouchers into law—a policy goal that eluded his two GOP predecessors. And if he wins a fourth term in 2026, he’ll be on the precipice of surpassing his predecessor Rick Perry as the state’s longest serving top executive. 

Patrick, who was at various times rumored to be considering a primary challenge against Abbott, appears to have grown content with mastering his green-carpeted domain in the Texas Senate. The lite guv, 75, also claims to be all in on running for a fourth term. While he’ll almost certainly be unable to surpass Lieutenant Governor Bill Hobby Jr.’s record 18-year reign, Patrick surely has a few things up his sleeve to cap his career. 

The logjam at the top has also extended to the lesser statewide positions such as the comptroller, land commissioner, and agriculture commissioner. Those relatively entry-level positions have long served as a training ground for higher office. But with such entrenchment, the only way for ambitious Republicans to move up is to try to take out one of their superiors—a dicey option. Texas Land Commissioner George P. Bush tried to do it with an imperiled Attorney General Ken Paxton in 2022; he failed miserably, and now his political career is all but over. (His replacement, Dawn Buckingham, seems to be using the office as a launch pad for future higher office as well.) 

Comptroller Glenn Hegar, who was long harboring aims for governor or lieutenant governor, apparently grew tired of waiting. In March, he accepted a post as chancellor of the Texas A&M University System—replacing John Sharp, another former comptroller. 

Within hours of that news, GOP candidates were already rolling out their campaigns to take the open office in the 2026 elections. The former tea-party state senator and failed guv challenger Don Huffines is promising to wield the comptroller’s office as a DOGE-like weapon. Longtime Railroad Commissioner Christi Craddick, a more traditional conservative and heir to her ex-speaker father’s political fortune, has also jumped at this rare opportunity for a promotion. 

The headliner for the 2026 Republican primaries, though, will be an especially rare showdown between two heavyweights—Paxton versus U.S. Senator John Cornyn. It’s a battle that’s been simmering for years now, as the two have traded potshots back and forth.

Paxton has teased a potential challenge to Cornyn for some time, blasting him as an anti-MAGA establishment swamp creature who helped enact new gun laws and supported U.S. aid to Ukraine during the Biden presidency. In early April, Paxton made it official that he’s taking on Cornyn, who’s held the seat for over 20 years. Paxton-world has commissioned polls showing him well ahead of Cornyn in a primary, and the press-averse AG has gone on a media tour that includes not just his typical MAGA podcast circuit but also Washington insider outlets and even The New York Times. 

“I think I can win if I have $20 million,” Paxton told the Capitol Hill tabloid Punchbowl News. “I think it’s just time. … He’s had his chance. He hasn’t performed well, and the voters know it. You can go a long time without people paying attention. And they’re paying attention now.”

While Cornyn lost his bid for the long-coveted Republican Majority Leader position, he hasn’t lost his taste for politics. In late March, he officially announced his (fourth) reelection campaign with a video in which he firmly latched on to 47’s ill-fitted coat tails: “President Trump needs a partner who is battle-tested,” he intoned. 

It’s no less an awkward tact than his last reelection in 2020, when he remixed his old campaign jingle “Big John” to include a nod to “Big Don.” Much like his crestfallen mentor Mitch McConnell, the Corndog has struggled to navigate Trump’s takeover of the GOP. Soon after January 6th, 2021, the senior senator—in a move he likely regrets today—declared it was time for Trump to move on. 

That’s a weakness that Paxton, who is something of a cult hero in MAGA-world, is hoping to exploit. The timing may be perfect for the long-embattled AG, as he has shed himself of all his legal baggage—securities fraud charges settled, impeachment charges acquitted, a years-long Department of Justice investigation reportedly closed. 

And with Trump back in the White House, Paxton no longer even has a federal government to incessantly sue. Many of his top deputies have already been hired away by the new administration. What better time to go to Washington? 

And what, you may ask, about that long-suffering opposition force in this one-party state? Democrats’ hopes of pulling off statewide victory in Texas have been rather thoroughly decimated over the last three cycles.

But, as always, the party will start to convince itself that the next election will be different. And, of course, one can always find reason for a shred of optimism. The 2024 cycle was a disaster for Democrats all across the country. And the shellacking of Beto O’Rourke in 2022 came on highly unfavorable terrain for a Democrat in Texas.

The 2026 elections could play out similarly to the 2018 anti-Trump midterms that fueled Dems’ best performance in recent history. That made for rough sledding for junior U.S. Senator Ted Cruz. If Paxton, the GOP’s weakest statewide general-election candidate, does win the Senate primary, he could fare even worse than Cruz, should Dems field a compelling opponent (far from a given).

Paxton’s Senate bid also means that the attorney general’s office will be up for grabs. The winner of the GOP primary will all but certainly be someone with no statewide profile, quite possibly a far-right Paxton acolyte without the benefits of incumbency. Those odds could be the closest to even that a Texas Dem is going to get.

The post It’s a Long Way to the Top (if You Wanna Oust the Pols) appeared first on The Texas Observer.

By KATE BRUMBACK, Associated Press

ATLANTA (AP) — Anjan Roy was studying with friends at Missouri State University when he got an email that turned his world upside down. His legal status as an international student had been terminated, and he was suddenly at risk for deportation.

“I was in literal shock, like, what the hell is this?” said Roy, a graduate student in computer science from Bangladesh.

At first, he avoided going out in public, skipping classes and mostly keeping his phone turned off. A court ruling in his favor led to his status being restored this week, and he has returned to his apartment, but he is still asking his roommates to screen visitors.

More than a thousand international students have faced similar disruptions in recent weeks, with their academic careers — and their lives in the U.S. — thrown into doubt in a widespread crackdown by the Trump administration. Some have found a measure of success in court, with federal judges around the country issuing orders to restore students’ legal status at least temporarily.

In addition to the case filed in Atlanta, where Roy is among 133 plaintiffs, judges have issued temporary restraining orders in states including New Hampshire, Wisconsin, Montana, Oregon and Washington. Judges have denied similar requests in some other cases, saying it was not clear the loss of status would cause irreparable harm.

International students challenge grounds for their status revocation

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said last month the State Department was revoking visas held by visitors who were acting counter to national interests, including some who protested Israel’s war in Gaza and those who face criminal charges. But many affected students said they have been involved only in minor infractions, or it’s unclear altogether why they were targeted.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio looks on upon his arrival at the Quai d’Orsay, France’s Minister of Foreign Affairs before a bilateral meeting with his French counterpart Jean-Noel Barrot in Paris Thursday, April 17, 2025. (Julien de Rosa, Pool via AP)

The attorney for Roy and his fellow plaintiffs, Charles Kuck, argued the government did not have legal grounds to terminate the students’ status.

He speculated in court last week the government is trying to encourage these students to self-deport, saying “the pressure on these students is overwhelming.” He said some asked him if it was safe to leave their homes to get food, and others worried they wouldn’t receive a degree after years of work or feared their chances of a career in the U.S. were shot.

“I think the hope is they’ll just leave,” Kuck said. “The reality is these kids are invested.”

In this image taken from video, immigration lawyer Charles Kuck speaks to reporters outside a federal courthouse in Atlanta, on April 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Kate Brumback)

An attorney for the government, R. David Powell, argued the students did not suffer significant harm because they could transfer their academic credits or find jobs in another country.

At least 1,100 students at 174 colleges, universities and university systems have had their visas revoked or their legal status terminated since late March, according to an Associated Press review of university statements, correspondence with school officials and court records. The AP is working to confirm reports of hundreds more students who are caught up in the crackdown.

In a lawsuit filed Monday by four people on student visas at the University of Iowa, attorneys detail the “mental and financial suffering” they’ve experienced. One graduate student, from India, “cannot sleep and is having difficulty breathing and eating,” the lawsuit reads. He has stopped going to school, doing research or working as a teaching assistant. Another student, a Chinese undergraduate who expected to graduate this December, said his revoked status has caused his depression to worsen to the point that his doctor increased his medication dosage. The student, the lawsuit says, has not left his apartment out of fear of detention.

Tiny infractions made students targets for the crackdown

Roy, 23, began his academic career at Missouri State in August 2024 as an undergraduate computer science student. He was active in the chess club and a fraternity and has a broad circle of friends. After graduating in December, he began work on a master’s degree in January and expects to finish in May 2026.

When Roy received the university’s April 10 email on his status termination, one of his friends offered to skip class to go with him to the school’s international services office, even though they had a quiz in 45 minutes. The staff there said a database check showed his student status had been terminated, but they didn’t know why.

Roy said his only brush with the law came in 2021, when he was questioned by campus security after someone called in a dispute at a university housing building. But he said an officer determined there was no evidence of any crime and no charges were filed.

Roy also got an email from the U.S. embassy in Bangladesh telling him his visa had been revoked and that he could be detained at any time. It warned that if he was deported, he could be sent to a country other than his own. Roy thought about leaving the U.S. but decided to stay after talking to a lawyer.

Anxious about being in his own apartment, Roy went to stay with his second cousin and her husband nearby.

“They were scared someone was going to pick me up from the street and take me somewhere that they wouldn’t even know,” Roy said.

He mostly stayed inside, turned off his phone unless he needed to use it, and avoided internet browsers that track user data through cookies. His professors were understanding when he told them he wouldn’t be able to come to classes for a while, he said.

New doubts about students’ future in the US

After the judge’s order Friday, he moved back to his apartment. He learned Tuesday his status had been restored, and he plans to return to class. But he’s still nervous. He asked his two roommates, both international students, to let him know before they open the door if someone they don’t know knocks.

The judge’s restoration of his legal status is temporary. Another hearing scheduled for Thursday will determine whether he keeps that status while the litigation continues.

Roy chose the U.S. over other options in Canada and Australia because of the research opportunities and potential for professional connections, and he ultimately wanted to teach at an American university. But now those plans are up in the air.

His parents, back in Dhaka, have been watching the news and are “freaked out,” he said. His father mentioned to him that they have family in Melbourne, Australia, including a cousin who’s an assistant professor at a university there.

AP reporters Christopher L. Keller in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Hannah Fingerhut in Des Moines, Iowa, contributed to this story.

The Associated Press’ education coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

By ERIC TUCKER, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Two major law firms are expected to ask separate judges on Wednesday to permanently block President Donald Trump’s executive orders that were designed to punish them and hurt their business operations.

The firms — Perkins Coie and WilmerHale — have said the orders imposed in March are unconstitutional assaults on the legal profession that threaten their relationships with clients and retaliate against them based either on their past legal representations or their association with particular attorneys who Trump perceives as his adversaries.

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Courts last month temporarily halted enforcement of key provisions of both orders, but the firms are in court Wednesday asking for the edicts to be struck down in their entirety and for judges to issue rulings in their favor. Another firm, Jenner & Block, is expected to make similar arguments next week.

“Although Perkins Coie did not bring this suit lightly, it was compelled to do so to preserve its ability to continue representing the best interests of its clients,” lawyers for Perkins Coie wrote in a filing ahead of the hearing. “The Constitution does not permit our elected leaders, from any party, to punish lawyers by fiat for representing clients who oppose their political agendas. It would set a grave precedent for our Republic if the Order were allowed to stand.”

The executive orders taking aim at some of the country’s most elite and prominent law firms are part of a wide-ranging retribution campaign by Trump designed to reshape civil society and extract concessions from perceived adversaries. The actions have forced targeted entities, whether law firms or universities, to decide whether to push back and risk further incurring the administration’s ire or to agree to concessions in hopes of averting sanctions. Some firms have challenged the orders in court, but others have proactively reached settlements.

The orders have generally imposed the same consequences, including directing the suspension of attorney security clearances, restricting lawyers’ access to federal buildings and terminating federal contracts.

The first law firm action took place in February when Trump signed a memo suspending the security clearances of attorneys at Covington & Burling who have provided legal services to special counsel Jack Smith, who investigated the president between his first and second terms and secured two indictments that have since been abandoned.

The executive order targeting Perkins Coie singled out the firm’s representation of Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton during the 2016 presidential race, and the one against WilmerHale cited the fact that special counsel Robert Mueller — who investigated Trump during his first term over potential ties between Russia and his 2016 campaign — was for years a partner at the firm.

Last month, the firm Paul Weiss cut a deal with the Trump administration that resulted in an executive order against it being rescinded.

Since then, more than a half-dozen other firms have reached agreements with the White House that require them, among other things, to dedicate free legal services to causes the Trump administration says it champions.

They include Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom; Milbank; Willkie, Farr & Gallagher; Kirkland & Ellis; Latham & Watkins LLP; Allen Overy Shearman Sterling US LLP; Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP; and Cadwalader, Taft & Wickersham.

By MEHMET GUZEL and SUZAN FRASER, Associated Press

ISTANBUL (AP) — An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 6.2 shook Istanbul and other areas on Wednesday, Turkey’s disaster and emergency management agency said. There were no immediate reports of serious damage in the metropolis of 16 million.

More than 150 people were hospitalized with injuries sustained while attempting to flee buildings, the Istanbul governor’s office said.

The earthquake had a shallow depth of about 6 miles, according to the United States Geological Survey, with its epicenter about 25 miles southwest of Istanbul, in the Sea of Marmara.

It was felt in the neighboring provinces of Tekirdag, Yalova, Bursa and Balikesir and in the city of Izmir, some 550 kilometers south of Istanbul. There were several aftershocks, including one measuring 5.3.

The incident, which started at 12:49 p.m. during a public holiday when many children were out of school and celebrating in the streets, caused widespread panic in Istanbul, which is on tenterhooks due to the looming threat of a major earthquake. Panicked residents rushed from their homes and buildings into the streets. The disaster and emergency management agency urged people to stay away from buildings.

More than 150 injured

“Due to panic, 151 of our citizens were injured from jumping from heights,” the Istanbul governor’s office said in a statement. “Their treatments are ongoing in hospitals, and they are not in life-threatening condition.”

Many residents flocked to parks, school yards and other open areas to avoid being near buildings in case of collapse or subsequent earthquakes. Some people pitched tents in parks.

“Thank God, there does not seem to be any problems for now,” President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said at an event marking the National Sovereignty and Children’s Day holiday. “May God protect our country and our people from all kinds of calamities, disasters, accidents and troubles.”

Leyla Ucar, a personal trainer, said she was exercising with her student on the 20th floor of a building when they felt intense shaking.

“We shook incredibly. It threw us around, we couldn’t understand what was happening, we didn’t think of an earthquake at first because of the shock of the event,” she said. “It was very scary.”

Senol Sari, a 51-year-old resident who fled to a park nearby his house, told The Associated Press he was with his children in the living room of his flat on the third floor of an apartment building when he heard a loud noise and the building started shaking.

“We immediately protected ourselves from the earthquake and waited for it to pass, then calmly walked away from the house,” Sari said. “Of course, we were scared during the earthquake. We were worried that it would continue. Since the (great) Istanbul earthquake is (still) an expected earthquake, our concerns continue.”

‘My children were a little scared’

Cihan Boztepe, 40, was one of those who hurriedly fled to the streets with his family in order to avoid a potential collapse. Boztepe, standing next to his sobbing child, told AP that he was living in Batman province, an area close to the southern part of Turkey where the 2023 quakes hit, and that Wednesday’s tremor felt weaker and that he wasn’t as scared.

“At first we were shaken, then it stopped, then we were shaken again. My children were a little scared, but I wasn’t. We quickly gathered our things and went down to a safe place. If it were up to me, we would have already returned home.”

Turkey’s interior minister, Ali Yerlikaya, said the authorities had not received reports of collapsed buildings. He told HaberTurk television that there had been reports of damage to buildings.

The NTV broadcaster reported that a derelict and abandoned former residential building in this historic Fatih district, which houses the Blue Mosque and the Hagia Sophia Grand Mosque, had collapsed.

Kemal Cebi, the mayor of Kucukcekmece district in western Istanbul, told NTV there were “no negative developments yet,” but reported traffic jams, and said many buildings were already at risk due to the area’s density.

In Zeytinburnu district, some people were injured after jumping out of buildings, mayor Omer Arisoy told NTV.

Urban reconstruction projects

Turkey is crossed by two major fault lines, and earthquakes are frequent.

A magnitude 7.8 earthquake on Feb. 6, 2023, and a second powerful tremor hours later, destroyed or damaged hundreds of thousands of buildings in 11 southern and southeastern provinces, leaving more than 53,000 people dead. Another 6,000 people were killed in the northern parts of neighboring Syria.

Istanbul was not impacted by that earthquake, but the devastation heightened fears of a similar quake, with experts citing the city’s proximity to fault lines.

In a bid to prevent damage from any future quake, the national government and local administrations started urban reconstruction projects to fortify buildings at risk and launched campaigns to demolish buildings at risk of collapse.

Fraser reported from Ankara, Turkey. Robert Badendieck contributed from Canakkale, Turkey.