The countdown is on: just over 100 days until the midterm elections. In a typical midterm year, the party in opposition to the president is predicted to fare better – and the focus often lies on the balance of power in Congress. But in Texas – after the deadliest school shooting in state history, restrictive new abortion laws, concerns about the power grid and much more – Gov. Greg Abbott may be in for the political fight of his career.
 
It’s too early to say for certain, but there are some flashing lights for the governor's re-election team: not only tighter polling margins between Abbott and Democratic challenger Beto O'Rourke, but a record funding haul by O'Rourke's campaign. Both have at least temporarily put some wind in the sails of Texas Democrats' hopes to win a statewide office for the first time in nearly 30 years.

Though the gubernatorial contest is the marquee event, veteran political journalist Gromer Jeffers of The Dallas Morning News reminds us on today’s show that if Texas Democrats really want to shift the power to their favor, some lesser-watched down ballot races need to go blue in the fall. Whether that will happen is not clear, but politics appears to be creeping in to larger conversations – like the one Texas is currently having over the issue of gun violence in schools.

As Jim Henson of the Texas Politics Project noted in an interview earlier this week, the report from the House Committee investigating the shooting in Uvalde not only confirmed reports about law enforcement's failure at the scene, but was conspicuous for what it did not say as well. Notable, Henson said, was a deflection of blame away from the (in)actions of state troopers on the scene – and a lack of focus on the use of a semi-automatic rifle by the shooter, who, under Texas law, was able to obtain the weapon on his 18th birthday. (Critics of Texas' gun laws have been pushing to raise the age for purchasing such weapons to at least 21. This week the Uvalde school board agreed.)

We encourage you to check out the latest on these stories in this week’s newsletter and keep up everything that's happening in the Lone Star State at TexasStandard.org. Until next week, we'll see you on the radio.

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• Uvalde's Robb Elementary principal placed on administrative leave (Texas Public Radio)
• Houston man battling monkeypox looks forward to return to normalcy (Houston Public Media)
• Where should I-35 be covered? Neighbors fight for relief from planned highway expansion (KUT Austin)
• Dallas’ e-scooters are returning to city streets in the fall – this time with new rules (KERA News)