Urban affairs reporter @TexasTribune • Cities, housing, taxes, growth, transportation • Past @ExpressNews • [email protected]
Dallas, TX
Joined June 2012
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In 2020, Austin voters greenlit a 20-mile light rail system — raising their own city property tax bills by 20% to fund it.
Costs ballooned, and the project's scope shrank.
For now, it will reach less than half the distance — at about 3x the original per-mile cost.
Joshua Fechter retweeted
BREAKING: Rick Perry booted from board of Fermi, the massive planned data center company he co-founded texastribune.org/2026/10/30/…
Joshua Fechter retweeted
With polling showing a neck-and-neck race between @GregAbbott_TX and @GinaHinojosaTX, I explored what a divided state government might actually look like in Texas. #txlege
texastribune.org/2026/10/30/…
Joshua Fechter retweeted
Breaking News: The chief executive of California’s High-Speed Rail Authority has abruptly resigned after a recent state report that found that the agency had misused nearly $600,000 to pay for the travel of consultants. This is a developing story. nyti.ms/4zoacHi
High housing costs cut into Texans’ income gains in 2025, per @uscensusbureau.
The median household income sat at $82,625, up a bit from '24. Hispanic & Black households made the biggest gains.
Housing costs grew for homeowners & 50% of the state's renters remain cost-burdened.
Incomes grew in the Houston and San Antonio regions, but fell in the McAllen and Dallas-Fort Worth regions.
While household incomes have largely grown since 2021, Texas lags the national median household income of $84,780.
texastribune.org/2026/10/29/… @TexasTribune
Joshua Fechter retweeted
A GOP group in the Texas Panhandle wants to block the certification of the midterm election unless all Texas ballots are hand counted.
Without proof, the lawsuit cites potential risks of interference from AI and "foreign adversaries," such as China.
texastribune.org/2026/10/28/…
In Tarrant County, a battleground county:
Mansfield/Arlington @tarrantgop Get Out the Vote Rally: “Stand Together. Stand Strong. Keep Tarrant Red.”
Joshua Fechter retweeted
New: On state-required disclosure forms, Texas Comptroller Don Huffines omitted his leadership role in Huffines Enterprises Science & Technology, a firm that invests in Elon Musk’s company that has received tax breaks from the state. bit.ly/4sOarcd
Joshua Fechter retweeted
Your data-heavy guide to the Texas suburbs, which are getting more populous, more diverse and are increasingly a battleground for statewide control
w @ApurvaMahajan_
texastribune.org/2026/10/28/…
Joshua Fechter retweeted
MCKINNEY — Talarico’s path to victory may require doing what no federal Democrat has done since 1970, when Lloyd Bentsen defeated George H.W. Bush in his first Senate run: win Collin County.
Inside the changing politics of a fast-growing county:
texastribune.org/2026/10/27/…
Joshua Fechter retweeted
Breakdown of 4.5M votes cast thru yesterday, the 7th of 12 days of early voting in Texas, via @longhornderek:
35% - Dem primary voters who’ve never voted in a GOP primary
33% - GOP voters w/ no Dem history
It was, at this point in…
2024: 23% D, 35% R
2022: 29% D, 42% R
Joshua Fechter retweeted
After Bo French, the Republican nominee for Texas railroad commissioner, targeted South Asian UT students, UT President Jim Davis said all students were Longhorns.
“But do you seriously believe that what you have said is enough?” one student wrote.
texastribune.org/2026/10/26/…
Joshua Fechter retweeted
.@longhornderek's EV report after 7 days of voting shows Ds have a 115k-primary vote advantage over Rs statewide: mcusercontent.com/d3064a2fad…
Nearly 1 million 1Rs have not turned out to vote so far, & 3/4 of the 4Ds have voted. #txlege
Joshua Fechter retweeted
More than 350,000 people voted for Abbott and Beto O’Rourke in 2018. Sorry I'm trying to only do this tweet once a week
Joshua Fechter retweeted
Two years after major shifts in Latino voting patterns delivered Trump his largest ever margin of victory in Texas, affordability concerns and anger over the administration’s mass deportation campaign are fueling an expected swing back toward Democrats. bit.ly/4idUx5I
Joshua Fechter retweeted
A new report by the Houston Advanced Research Center warns that Texas' air quality progress could be reversed by the end of the decade, especially if facilities use natural gas power. bit.ly/4sn7XkE
Joshua Fechter retweeted
New: Attorney General Ken Paxton is suing OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, for allegedly deceiving and harming Texans.
CEO Sam Altman and ChatGPT are top competitors to Elon Musk, the tech billionaire fueling Paxton’s U.S. Senate campaign. bit.ly/4BoVWz9
Joshua Fechter retweeted
Rural Texans make up < 1/5 of voters. But their turn out is high & they are so reliably red they've long blocked Dem gains in the metros.
This yr rural Texas is angry over data centers and power lines. Will enough of them flip to help Dems win?
via @eklib
texastribune.org/2026/10/23/…
Joshua Fechter retweeted
Rural Republicans have long been the floodwall that’s held back hopes of a blue wave big enough to flip Texas.
But some rural voters are revolting, angry over the sudden proliferation of data centers, massive power lines and other Big Tech development. bit.ly/4yZbWX4
