Jay Root
is a native of Liberty. He never knew any reporters growing up, and he has never taken a journalism class in his life. But somehow he got hooked on the news business. It all started when Root walked into the offices of The Daily Texan, his college newspaper, during his last year at the University of Texas in 1987. He couldn't resist the draw: it was the biggest collection of misfits ever assembled. After graduating, he took a job at a Houston chemical company and soon realized it wasn't for him. Root applied for an unpaid internship at the Houston Post in 1990, and it turned into a full-time job that same year. He has been a reporter ever since. Root has covered natural disasters, live music and Texas politics — not necessarily in that order. He was Austin bureau chief of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram for a dozen years, most of them good. He also covered politics and the Legislature for The Associated Press before joining the staff of the Tribune.Root is the author of “Oops! A Diary From The 2012 Campaign Trail,” an insider’s account of Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s dramatic collapse in the 2012 presidential race. The book was released in September, 2012.
Recent Contributions
Texas Republican Party chairman Steve Munisteri speaks to the Grassroots Club in Fort Worth on June 5, 2014.
After Democrat Susan Motley complained about mailers attacking her in a state House race, state GOP chairman Steve Munisteri agreed that the ads were inaccurate. And he's issued a rare retraction to voters in North Texas.
Full Story
Enlarge
photo by: Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation
Texas Gov. Rick Perry spoke at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Library on Oct. 27, 2014.
Gov. Rick Perry took his national ambition to California Monday, bemoaning what he described as a country adrift at home and abroad and predicting that Americans will demand dramatic change in the next presidential election. Perry hit on job creation, foreign policy, energy and more.
Full Story
Enlarge
photo illustration by: Bob Daemmrich / Callie Richmond / Todd Wiseman
Attorney General Greg Abbott has raised over $45 million in the race for Texas governor, including about $4 million in the last month alone.
Full Story
Enlarge
photo by: Stephen Spillman / Cooper Neill
Democrat Wendy Davis, trying to energize young voters on the University of Texas campus in Austin Monday, said she’s seeing hopeful turnout trends despite a torrent of polls that show she’s losing the governor’s race to Attorney General Greg Abbott by double digits.
Full Story
Despite a double-digit shortfall in most early polls, Democratic candidate Wendy Davis predicts victory in the race for Texas governor on Oct. 22, 2014.
While many Democrats in southern states are running away from Barack Obama as fast as they can, Sen. Wendy Davis leaned into her embrace of the president on Wednesday, saying she would welcome him on the campaign trail.
Full Story
Enlarge
photo by: Leslie Boorhem-Stephenson
Glenn Johnson, 55, was injured in a smelting accident near Amarillo in 1997 in which a furnace filled with molten metal exploded, crushed him and left major burns over 90 percent of his body. His left arm was amputated and all but two the muscles in his right forearm were removed.
The Texas Department of Insurance is fighting the Tribune’s request for records that could shed light on why the agency has failed to collect racial data on injured workers, despite a 1993 law that requires it.
Full Story
Enlarge
photo by: Marjorie Kamys Cotera
Gov. Rick Perry at a press conference on Oct. 17, 2014, discussing the state's Ebola prevention efforts.
Gov. Rick Perry and other Texas leaders are pointing fingers at the Obama administration for botching the Ebola response. But the state did not use its own power to restrict travel and limit possible spread of the deadly virus.
Full Story
Enlarge
photo by: Marjorie Kamys Cotera
Texas gubernatorial Democratic candidate Sen. Wendy Davis speaks to group of supporters at Guero's Taco Bar on October 15th, 2014 in Austin, Texas
Several days into the media firestorm over the release of an ad that features an empty wheelchair, state Sen. Wendy Davis isn’t pulling back one inch from the harsh attacks on Attorney General Greg Abbott.
Full Story
Sam Houston, the Democratic nominee for Texas attorney general, in Houston on Oct. 7, 2014. Despite his GOP opponent's ethical troubles, Houston faces long odds and is struggling to draw attention.
With little money and swimming against the tide in conservative Texas, Democrat Sam Houston has little choice but to campaign for attorney general "the old fashioned way" — on the cheap, and largely from the front seat of his Toyota Prius.
Full Story
Screenshot taken from Wendy Davis campaign ad that first aired on Oct. 10, 2014.
The pollster for Democrat Wendy Davis defended her controversial TV commercial Sunday, saying it’s working as intended despite widespread criticism that it uses the image of an empty wheelchair.
Full Story
Screenshot taken from Wendy Davis campaign ad that first aired on Oct. 10, 2014.
State Sen. Wendy Davis touched off a political firestorm Friday with a 30-second TV ad that slams Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott for working against people with disabilities and others who filed lawsuits.
Full Story
Enlarge
photo by: Leslie Boorhem-Stephenson
Glenn Johnson, 55, was injured in a smelting accident near Amarillo in 1997 in which a furnace filled with molten metal exploded, crushed him and left major burns over 90 percent of his body. His left arm was amputated and all but two the muscles in his right forearm were removed.
The Texas Division of Workers' Compensation is not maintaining race data on all valid worker injury claims, despite a law requiring it. Advocates say without the data it's impossible to tell if injured minorities face discrimination at work.
Full Story
Enlarge
photo illustration by: Bob Daemmrich / Callie Richmond / Todd Wiseman
Attorney General Greg Abbott pulled in more than a dozen six-figure donations, spent about $200,000 a day and still had more than $30 million in the bank for the final stretch of the Texas governor’s race.
Full Story
Texas Sen. Dr. Charles Schwertner, R-Georgetown, and Texas Gov. Rick Perry at a Capitol press conference on Monday announcing creation of a Texas infectious disease task force.
Gov. Rick Perry is calling on the federal government to screen people for Ebola and set up "quarantine stations" at U.S. points of entry.
Full Story
An exterior view of Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital of Dallas on Oct. 1, 2014.
As many as 18 individuals in the Dallas area are under observation by Dallas County health officials after coming in contact with a patient confirmed to be infected with the Ebola virus, officials said on Wednesday.
Full Story