Texas Standard

Here’s what’s coming up on Texas Standard for Wednesday, Sept. 9. 2026. Listen on your Texas public radio station, or ask your smart speaker to play Texas Standard. Check back later today for updated story links and audio. Abbott proposal targets Austin and San Antonio’s city-owned utilities Gov. Greg Abbott wants Texas to dismantle municipally owned electric utilities and introduce more retail competition, arguing customers could save money.

From KERA News: National Republicans hold their first-ever midterm convention in Dallas this week, as the party hopes to gain momentum ahead of the November election. The two-day convention begins Wednesday at the American Airlines Center.

Ben Barnes was first elected to the Texas Legislature at age 22. By 26 he was Speaker of the Texas House — and Lyndon B. Johnson was predicting he’d be president one day. Today, Barnes, who went on to serve as Texas’ lieutenant governor, is still something of a political kingmaker at age 88. His new book, “Get It Done: Seven Decades of Lessons from a Political Legend,” reflects on his time in politics.

O’Dell described Funk as an “eternal optimist,” noting that while Funk seemed frustrated with the limitations placed on women, she’d stay positive and assured that she would do what she wanted to do. “When people — many, many people — said to her, ‘you can’t do this because you’re female,’ she’d just smile and say, ‘okay, watch me.’ You know, it did not ever discourage her,” O’Dell recalled. Funk notched a long list of groundbreaking achievements in her career.

Sen. Ted Cruz is not up for reelection until 2030. But Texas’ junior senator nonetheless appears to be hitting the campaign trail, according to a report from the Wall Street Journal. Cruz recently campaigned for other Republicans in Iowa, a traditional testing ground for would-be presidential candidates because of its early primary. Cruz has also reportedly asked potential staffers around Capitol Hill if they’d be interested in joining his 2028 presidential campaign.

From KACU: The Cook Political Report rates the race a “toss up,” while recent polling by Texas Public Opinion Research gives Talarico a six-point lead over Paxton. But Democrats are also seeing potential opportunities farther west, in a region that has been a reliably Republican voting bloc since the 1990s. In a typical November election, Republican candidates can expect to receive 70% to 80% of the vote in much of West Texas.

Just across the state line, Wisconsin saw some of the steepest cuts to NRCS staff in the Midwest — losing more than 30% of its workforce. That’s left some highly agricultural counties without any NRCS staff at all, said Anderas with the Michael Fields Agricultural Institute.

“America is for Americans, not foreigners trying to cheat the system to claim citizenship,” Paxton said in a press release in April. “The Center’s scheme not only facilitated an invasion of Texas, but it also involved shielding and facilitating violations of immigration law.

Here’s what’s coming up on Texas Standard for Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2026. Listen on your Texas public radio station, or ask your smart speaker to play Texas Standard. Check back later today for updated story links and audio. Ted Cruz tests the waters for another presidential run Texas Sen. Ted Cruz may be considering another run for president in 2028, having recently traveled to Iowa and endeavored to distinguish himself from potential Republican rivals.

From KERA News: Texas’ 15-member State Board of Education on Friday approved a controversial updated social studies curriculum that Muslims say discriminates against them and that some advocates plan to work to overturn. The new standards require students to learn how “radical Islam” was the motivation behind the 9/11 attacks, and lessons present Islam’s founder, Prophet Muhammad, as a combative and “brutal” warrior who spread the faith through violence and slavery.