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Observer Radio Episode 85: Battleground Texas, plus The Great Hanging

by Patrick Michels and Jen Reel Published on Friday, November 21, 2014, at 2:37 CST

The Great Hanging — Two years after the incident, news of the Great Hanging made its way east. This depiction, from the Feb. 20, 1864, issue of *Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Weekly Newspaper*, is apocryphal—the victims were actually hanged one or two at a time.

In this episode, Observer reporter Patrick Michels speaks with the Observer's political writer Chris Hooks, RH Reality Check senior political reporter and Observer columnist Andrea Grimes, and former Observer reporter and current freelance writer Abby Rapoport about Battleground Texas. Launched in early 2013, Battleground Texas was formed by a cadre of seasoned Obama campaign veterans who promised to relax Republicans' grip on Texas politics with their mysterious data tools and a new pipeline to D.C. money.

And later in the episode, Patrick and Abby discuss a dark and troubling history that many in the state would like to forget—a little known episode of Civil War paranoia that became the deadliest act of mob violence in the nation's history.

Observer Radio appears on KEOS in College Station on Sundays at 6:30 p.m., on KOOP in Austin on Tuesdays at 2 p.m., and on Wimberley Valley Radio on Sunday mornings and afternoons. Subscribe to Observer Radio on iTunes and never miss an episode.