Austin, TX
Complicating The Myth of Red Texas • The Austin Chronicle
Texas is a land that revels in its idiosyncratic history and associated iconography. On bar signs, brand logos, T-shirts, and tattoo sleeves, the Western-outfitted cowboy and land-roping barbed wire feature heavily. These tangled symbols aren’t easily sorted politically, but when it comes to talking about the Texan past, more often than not, that past is associated with conservative, right-leaning political values.
The resilient trail of leftist ideologies that David Griscom traces through the state’s history in The Myth of Red Texas: Cowboys, Populism, and Class War in the Radical South aim to trouble that assumption. The author’s debut work doesn’t craft an idealized ancestral politic that left-leaning Texans can saunter on home to, but instead lassos the many worker-led movements that’ve impacted Texas history into a traceable path, complicating simple assumptions about the Lone Star State and its people and crafting a loosely tethered intergenerational community of Texas radicals.
In his pages, Griscom attempts to reassociate cowboy individualism with cowboy solidarity in the strikes of late 1800s, and the rural, tough-living pride of said barbed wire with property-hungry landowners that strangled the open range, despite resistance from fence-cutting cowpokes, farmers, and neighbors.
Following these fence-cutters through the populist movement, labor unions, and socialists, Griscom drops in on different casts of characters each cut in the rugged shape of Texas who face variations of the same struggle. Though they differ in ideology and approach, these charismatic speakers and movement leaders grapple with the same temptations of political power and infighting. Griscom does not shy away from interrogating the pitfalls of these movements – particularly the racism and misogyny that manage to transcend solidarity more often than not – and the backstabbing dance of courting imagined moderates in a plea for reelection. The Brotherhood of Timber Workers and some German socialists prove to be exceptions to these common drawbacks, Griscom reveals.
The author’s debut work doesn’t craft an idealized ancestral politic that left-leaning Texans can saunter on home to, but instead lassos the many worker-led movements that’ve impacted Texas history into a traceable path.
As staunchly as conservatives want to turn the wagon around, liberals can fix their eyes on the horizon too closely. In an introductory analysis of recent Democratic defeats in Texas, the writer argues that colloquial assumptions about history deeply impact contemporary campaigns and grassroots organizing. No modern movement is reinventing the wheel, and moving forward with a knowledge of the successes and missteps that came before could embolden today’s organizers. As Texas once led the country in socialist party sign-ups, the Houston chapter remains the organization’s largest branch and, as Griscom notes, the Texas AFL-CIO was the first statewide labor association to advocate for a ceasefire in Gaza. The legacy of collective movements and outspoken groups persists in Texas, even when the overarching narrative doesn’t celebrate them.
Unique though it may be, Texas is also something of a microcosm, a laboratory, and a weather beacon for the politics and culture that ripple throughout the United States – a fact that Griscom, a writer and podcaster for Jacobin and host of Left Reckoning, knows well. A return to the past has been the great call of the political right in America for the past decade, and its leaders have revised and reshaped that past to suit their current intentions. As Griscom writes, recalling Texas’ rich and undertaught liberalist history makes it “difficult for the GOP to remake the state in its own image completely.” As Texas leads the country in enacting conservative policies in education, reproductive rights, and voting legislation, it stands to reason that muddying its narrative can remind other states to look backward for ideas in imagining a radical future.
Griscom is clear-eyed in his introduction about this 177-page primer being a cursory introduction to the history of leftist movements in Texas, much less the history of Texas politics as a whole. But for those who have felt excluded by the mythologizing of Texas’ past, it serves as a galvanizing read for further education and collective action.
The Myth of Red Texas: Cowboys, Populism, and Class War in the Radical South
By David Griscom
OR Books
This article appears in April 10 • 2026.
South Austin hit and run victim returns home
A 23-year-old is finally returning home to Omaha, Nebraska. The active-duty Air Force firefighter was visiting Austin for a brief vacation, but instead, he has spent the last 24 days in a trauma unit on a respirator trying to survive.
AUSTIN, Texas – The 23-year-old, Dominic Dubas, finally returns home to Omaha, Nebraska. The active-duty Air Force firefighter was visiting Austin for a brief vacation, but instead, he has spent the last 24 days in a trauma unit on a respirator trying to survive.
Dominic was left in critical condition after a hit-and-run in South Austin on May 30. The doctors had given him a 1% chance of survival. Weeks later, he had gained enough strength to leave Austin, as an air ambulance officially transported him back home on Tuesday.
It is a milestone that brings mixed emotions for a family headed into a years-long recovery with no criminal accountability in sight.
“It’s kind of bittersweet,” said his mother, Melissa Dubas. “I mean, I’m happy to have him here, but I just really wish they weren’t under these circumstances.”
The backstory:
Dominic and his friend were staying at an Airbnb near the 6800 block of South Congress Avenue, close to William Cannon Drive. Just before 10 p.m. on a Saturday, he went to a Walgreens across the street to get snacks.
Investigators believe Dominic was walking on the sidewalk when a vehicle going roughly 50 mph hit him. The driver left the scene.
Forty minutes later, a passerby spotted him and called police, initially thinking it was someone sleeping on the curb.
“The moment they choose to run after hitting somebody and injuring them or killing them, it’s a felony no matter what,” said Lt. William White of the Austin Police Department Highway Enforcement Division.
For nearly an hour after the impact, investigators allege the suspect circled the South Austin block for nearly an hour, watching first responders perform life-saving measures on Dubas, before abandoning his Lincoln vehicle just two miles away. The suspect also removed the license plate and registration sticker off the vehicle, which is another felony.
“Every minute that my son laid there in blood was crucial to his survival,” Melissa Dubas said. “And I just don’t understand how somebody can hit somebody else and leave them for dead.”
Dig deeper:
Police have since identified a suspect, 20-year-old Rafael Guzman Avila, who reportedly entered the country illegally in 2024. According to the affidavit, Avila’s phone records showed him crossing the border back into Mexico that night.
When asked what the extradition process looks like for a local police department, Lt. White explained the complexity.
“You want to have a pretty solid location of where they are, then you go with a district attorney’s office to see if they’ll work with the Justice Department,” White said. “There’s a bunch of processes that they have to go through in order to work with the Justice Department to get that person extradited back to the United States.”
There is a warrant in all 50 states for the arrest of Avila for tampering with evidence and collision involving serious bodily injury. Both acts are third-degree felonies in Texas. However, investigators stated that Mexico will not extradite Avila because they do not penalize those crimes the same way. As long as he remains in Mexico, he will likely never be held accountable.
Melissa said she is trying to have forgiveness in her heart because she believes that is how her son would respond.
“He would probably say in regard to Rafael that it was an accident and that he forgave him,” Melissa Dubas said. “My guess is that that’s what he would say. And so even though that’s hard for us because we’re in the midst of all the pain, I know that’s what he would think.”
As the investigation extends past the southern border, the focus in Omaha shifts entirely to the tough road ahead and the recovery already defying the odds.
Melissa said Dominic is in what they call a minimally conscious state. He just started communicating through blinks and hand squeezes, which is more than what they thought he would be able to do. She went on to compliment the kindness of Austinites and said the prayers have given her a sense of peace through all of this.
The Source: Information from interviews conducted by FOX 7 Austin’s Katie Pratt
HOUSTON, Texas — The NHL is looking to start the expansion process in Texas, with Austin and Houston as potential targets, sources told ESPN on Tuesday.
The expansion news is being discussed at the NHL’s board of governors meeting, which is being held on Tuesday in New York.
The NHL went from 30 to 32 clubs when it added the Vegas Golden Knights (began play in 2017-18) and Seattle Kraken (debuted in 2021-22). The expansion fee for Vegas was $500 million and for Seattle was $650 million.
Earlier this month at the Stanley Cup Final, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman reiterated that the league has fielded calls from across North America from prospective cities and owners who are interested in bringing in an NHL franchise.
SEE HERE: It’s official: Aeros hockey team leaving Houston at end of season
Bettman has previously told the board of governors that any potential expansion team would likely come with at least a $2 billion fee for it to make sense.
The league has seen record revenues this season — projected to be between $7.5 billion and $8 billion. The NHL salary cap is set at $104 million for the 2026-27 season, a $8.5 million increase from this past season.
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