Battleground Texas launched in January 2013 with the goal of turning reliably red Texas into — at minimum — a purple state where Democrats could compete. But nearly two years later, on the day after the 2014 general election, Texas looks redder than ever. What went wrong? 

A year ago, Texas Democrats were still looking for candidates willing to jump into races Republicans have been winning for 20 years. Now the candidates are looking for Democrats, hoping there's a chance to break the pattern. 

Executives with the electric carmaker Tesla Motors met on Wednesday with government officials in San Antonio, according to the San Antonio Express-News, a development sure to spur further talk about Texas' odds of landing the company's $5 billion battery plant.

At the 2013 Texas Tribune Festival, Battleground Texas Senior Adviser Jeremy Bird, state Sen. Leticia Van de Putte, D-San Antonio, and former Houston Mayor Bill White talked about what it will take to make Democrats competitive in Texas again.

Rick Perry sits at the top of one of the country's most conservative state Republican parties, having forged a coalition of economic, religious and social conservatives that helped him become the state's longest-serving governor — and poised for a national political run. 

Call it the Justin Timberlake Treatment: For several reasons — the governor's strengthened executive powers and his alliance with a network of political organizations, the Republicans' ability to demonize President Obama and the federal government, the power of the Tea Party movement and the sclerotic response of Texas Democrats — the Legislature finds itself boxed in as it searches for a way out of the budget divide.

We've updated our elected officials directory this week to include the names and e-mail addresses of 2011 legislative staffers now that the House Research Organization has released a complete list.

On Monday night, former mayors Henry Cisneros, of San Antonio; Laura Miller, of Dallas; Kirk Watson, of Austin; and Bill White, of Houston offered advice about the future of the Capital City.

The growth of the state’s Hispanic population and the rise of immigration as a political issue put Texas Republicans in a tight spot — especially the ones with statewide aspirations. Can Republicans keep their current voters happy without alienating the Hispanics they hope will support them in the future?

How did the candidates on the ballot last year compare in their political spending on advertising, polling and staff? Use our interactive bubble chart to explore category data released recently by the Texas Ethics Commission. 

Gov. Rick Perry’s focus on sanctuary cities — cities that don't allow their police officers to enforce federal immigration laws — could offer him safe passage through the contentious immigration debate. But it will be tricky. 

Galbraith on why the Lege meets only every two years, Hu picks the year's best political moments on video, Ramsey on the personalities who mattered in 2010, Stiles on lobbyists with conflicts of interest and what the census means for redistricting, yours truly on the new Cameron Todd Willingham documentary, Grissom on cockfighting and Trillin on Sissy Farenthold: The best of our best from Dec. 23 to 27, 2010.

If we ever hope to see the change we desire, we have to continue to support our candidates — even after a terrible loss. The alternative is to simply give up, and just as that was not acceptable for Republicans when they found themselves on the losing side, it’s not acceptable for us.

Texas Democrats have become a political version of the Baltimore Orioles. If Ann Richards were alive, she and Earl Weaver would be comparing notes — in salty language — on what went wrong with their old teams.

A few days ago, we noted the geographic similarities in the statewide performance of Democrats Bill White and Barack Obama in their respective (and losing) Texas campaigns. The same patterns held true in Harris County, where the former Houston mayor narrowly defeated incumbent Gov. Rick Perry, according to precinct-by-precinct maps.

On April 15, 2009, Rick Perry positioned himself for the first time as the defender of Texas against Washington oppression — and the 2010 race for governor was decided.

View county-by-county thematic maps visualizing the partisan breakdown and turnout in the 2010 governor's race. 

For the 15th event in our TribLive series, I interviewed the former George W. Bush and John McCain media strategist and Rick Perry's pollster about what happened Tuesday night: how the Republicans took back the majority in the U.S. House and upped their number of seats in the Texas House by 30 percent, what that portends for the next two years in Austin and Washington, D.C., and whether the governor is really running for president.