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
State Sen. Wendy Davis, D-Fort Worth, at a gubernatorial debate in Edinburg on Sept. 19, 2014.
Many Texas Democrats had said that Wendy Davis was the kind of candidate who could at least move the needle for the bedraggled state party. But failed tactics and other issues helped doom Davis' bid for governor.
Full Story
Republican Greg Abbott celebrates with family after winning governor's race in a landslide.
As expected, Attorney General Greg Abbott crushed Democratic Sen. Wendy Davis in a landslide in the Texas governor's race. Abbott, 56, who will become the first Texas governor in a wheelchair, presided over a sweep of the statewide ballot and helped usher in a whole new crop of Republican leaders.
Full Story
President Obama talked about the U.S. economy in a speech on July 10, 2014, at the Paramount Theatre in Austin.
President Obama on Monday urged Democratic voters to turn out on Election Day for Wendy Davis and Leticia Van de Putte, the candidates for governor and lieutenant governor, warning in a conference call that voter apathy would ensure Republicans retain control in Texas.
Full Story
Jeremy Bird speaking at The Texas Tribune Festival on Sep. 28, 2013
Oops. Battleground Texas, a liberal group working to boost Democratic hopes in conservative Texas, admitted Friday that its boasts of increased early voter turnout were wrong.
Full Story
Early voting at the Acres Home Multiservice Center in Houston on Oct. 26, 2014.
With early voting wrapping up Friday, turnout numbers don't seem to reflect much result from Democratic efforts to cultivate new voters.
Full Story
GOP gubernatorial candidate Greg Abbott, with wife Cecilia and daughter Audrey, leaves a south Austin polling place after voting early.
Attorney General Greg Abbott voted for himself in Austin on Thursday, then confidently predicted he would reach his goal of a strong finish in heavily Latino South Texas.
Full Story
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