Texas

Legalized marijuana supporters hope voters in this Texas city will send a message to state lawmakers

Published

2 years ago

May 2, 2024

Legalized marijuana supporters hope voters in this Texas city will send a message to state lawmakers

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In conservative Killeen, it was apparently the veterans. In eclectic Denton, the college community. In left-leaning Austin, most likely the white liberals.

But who will show up at the polls to decriminalize marijuana in staunchly right, rural-adjacent, fiercely independent Lubbock?

The slow green wave of voter-driven marijuana decriminalization in Texas hits the largest city in the South Plans this weekend, as Lubbock residents vote on a proposed ordinance that would decriminalize small amounts of marijuana.

It’s a test, not just for the movement, but for direct democracy in the Lone Star State.

The proposed ordinance — if approved — would instruct Lubbock police to stop arresting adults for possession of less than 4 ounces of marijuana in most cases.

Texas is one of 26 states that has not fully legalized marijuana. The 24 states that have include both liberal California and conservative Montana. For an issue like pot — which is nearly impossible to label politically — support in this city of 265,000 could come from anywhere.

“We have people who would classify themselves as far right who are for this,” said Adam Hernandez, a candidate for mayor and communications director for Lubbock Compact, the organization behind the local effort. “We’ve got people obviously on the other side of the spectrum, and everybody in between, and they’re from every profession, every age group.”

The opposition is easier to identify.

The outcry against Proposition A, as it’s called, appears to be pipelined largely through the megachurches and hard-right, pro-law enforcement GOP state leaders.

Where Hernandez sees evidence of widespread support — signatures for the ballot initiative came from all over the city, he said — his opponents carry huge bullhorns.

State Rep. Dustin Burrows, R-Lubbock, has come out strongly against the effort.

Burrows released a video recently calling Proposition A “part of a nationwide effort by the left to undermine our public safety laws” and saying they were funded by liberal mega-donor George Soros “to change the fabric of our great nation and put our neighborhoods and values under siege.”

“Next we’ll see local ordinances proposed to defund the police, to decriminalize shoplifting, to allow squatters to stay in houses rent free, and even Green New Deal ordinances to shut down our oil and gas industry,” Burrows says in the video. “Let’s send a clear message that Lubbock is still a conservative beacon of hope in a country that is losing touch with morality and the rule of law.”

State Rep. Dustin Burrows, R-Lubbock, examines a document at his desk on the House floor during a session at the state Capitol in Austin on April 25, 2023. Credit: Evan L’Roy/The Texas Tribune

Similar ordinances have passed in six other cities: Austin, Killeen, Harker Heights, Denton, Elgin and San Marcos. In some cases, city officials have resisted putting the voter-approved ordinances in place. And Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has taken steps to block them from going into effect.

Passage in Lubbock would signal support among the same voters who overwhelmingly banned abortion — by the same direct-democracy mechanism — in Lubbock even before Texas lawmakers did. It would illustrate favorable opinion for the issue in the same county that overwhelmingly turned out for President Donald Trump in the 2020 election.

And it would run counter to the stances of — and maybe even lay pressure on — most of the anti-marijuana GOP politicians the region sends to Austin, whom advocates have been unable to convince after years of awareness and lobbying campaigns.

“We’re building local movements that put pressure on City Hall to comply with the will of voters about marijuana reform,” said Mike Siegel, political director for Ground Game Texas, which is pushing for similar ordinances across the state.

Perhaps, Hernandez said, if enough cities adopt such policies, state lawmakers will follow the will of their constituents.

That’s why decriminalizing marijuana in such a hard-to-crack conservative stronghold could dramatically boost the movement to pass similar voter-driven ordinances in other regions of Texas outside the liberal metropolitan areas, supporters say.

“We think that Lubbock is a bellwether, if you will, or that it will at least be a wake-up call if it passes,” Hernandez said. “It would help the overall movement for sure. Because the state has ignored the citizens on this issue for several years.”

That’s key to any effort to decriminalize weed across the state, because there is no process in Texas for a voter-driven statewide referendum that would let voters from the Rio Grande Valley to the Panhandle decide what they want their marijuana laws to be.

There is little hope for a law in favor of marijuana decriminalization or outright legalization while hard-right social conservatives are in charge of the state. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who presides over the Senate, and his allies have blocked legislation that would relax marijuana laws in the past.

There’s even less hope for a constitutional amendment, which would be the only way to put the question to voters across the state. Only lawmakers can pose a statewide question and to do that, it would need two-thirds support from a historically unenthusiastic Texas Legislature.

Support for varying levels of marijuana reform polls upwards of 65% statewide. The Texas House signaled its support for expanding access to medical marijuana by overwhelmingly supporting legislation last session that would have added a host of conditions allowed by the state’s medical marijuana program, including depression and anxiety.

But proponents have not been able to find enough support in the Texas Legislature to get anything to the governor’s desk.

“That’s a breakdown of the democratic process,” said Siegel, a candidate for Austin City Council. “Texans want some sort of marijuana reform but a minority of Texas Republicans, led by Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, are preventing this from happening.”

Texas does allow direct democracy — voter-driven lawmaking, as opposed to politician-driven lawmaking — in municipal elections. Voters can collect signatures to force ballot measures that create or strike down city ordinances.

Historically, that right has been frequently exercised without pushback from legislative leaders, in cities large and small, on a host of issues ranging from texting bans to paper bag restrictions.

However, state leaders have begun to push back. During the last legislative session, the Legislature approved a law that effectively prohibits cities from putting in place certain policies that might go beyond state law, such as requiring employers to have paid sick leave. Burrows, the Republican House representative from Lubbock, led the effort to pass the bill. The law, while in effect, is being challenged in court.

More recently, Gov. Greg Abbott stopped short of taking a position on the Lubbock ordinance but took aim at the effort, saying the issue of cities trying to supersede state law was “really bigger than just the issue about marijuana on the ballot.”

“They don’t have the authority to override state law,” Abbott told a KAMC reporter last week. “If they want to see a different law passed, they need to work with their state legislators.”

Abbott added: “If we have every city in the entire state of Texas picking and choosing which laws the state has passed that they are going to enforce, that would lead to chaos legally in the state of Texas and so it’s an unworkable system.”

State leaders took a similar position when city governments themselves began enacting ordinances to create sanctuary cities for undocumented immigrants, saying that cities may not enact statutes in direct opposition to state law.

“We have had a lot of situations where cities have passed ordinances, but the state can come in and pass laws that supersede them and say, ‘No, you can’t do that,’” said Sherri Greenberg, an assistant dean at the University of Texas at Austin LBJ School of Public Affairs and a former state representative. “So you have this issue of local control versus state preemption.”

Usually, the state wins.

Paxton is suing five of the cities that have voted to decriminalize marijuana — Harker Heights’ ordinance was immediately repealed by the city council — and has threatened Lubbock with similar legal action if it follows suit.

To sidestep potential legal action, supporters included a section in Proposition A that ratchets it down to a budgetary suggestion — prioritize other crimes over marijuana violations — if courts decide that Lubbock can’t decriminalize a substance without the blessing of state lawmakers.

But the proponents of marijuana decriminalization are determined to make a statement, even if it means that they’re testing the legal limits of what voters can demand of the laws in their communities.

The new ordinances, Siegel said, are about the voters telling the cities how to allocate their resources. The permissive laws around low-THC cannabis, known as hemp, in Texas offer a strong argument for allowing the ordinances to stick, he said.

“The Texas Constitution allows for home-rule cities, and home-rule cities are allowed to set priorities of prosecutorial discretion,” he said.

Unlike the discourse over similar propositions in places like Austin, where marijuana had already been unofficially decriminalized for years before it was voted on in 2022, the battle in Lubbock has been divisive, emotional, and personal.

Epithets hurled on social media, marquee politicians hitting the airwaves, and signage in front of megachurches highlight the intensity of the fight. Hernandez was even accused, by a pastor in the pulpit of a large local church, of trying to turn Lubbock into “a sanctuary city for the cartel.”

The City Council has already rejected a similar proposal. The mayor and the sheriff have come out against it. Locals are at powerful odds with each other.

Voters are hitting the polls early at double the rate they did in the 2022 municipal elections, and while it’s unclear at this point what’s driving them, Hernandez and others who are watching the election say it’s likely Proposition A that’s stirring up unusual interest.

Only about 10% of Lubbock registered voters have, for the past four decades, regularly turned out to municipal elections.

Residents in the city’s more affluent southwest neighborhoods are voting early at a higher rate than those in Lubbock’s lower-income east side communities, data from the Hernandez campaign shows.

Supporters point to statistics that show that while marijuana is used by a broad swath of people in all demographics, white and affluent included, arresting people for small amounts of marijuana creates huge disparities in the justice system and has bigger implications in the lower-income communities of color.

In Lubbock, for example, Black residents account for 8% of the population but 29% of the marijuana arrests, according to a report by Ground Game Texas. Similarly, Latinos make up 37% of the population but nearly half the arrests. Only one in five people arrested on marijuana charges in Lubbock are white.

Hernandez, who has been involved in community politics for years in Lubbock before his run for mayor, said Lubbock has plenty of challenges more important than marijuana — which he said criminalizes people for minor crimes.

“We’ve got serious issues that we deal with here that are much more serious than somebody having a joint in their car or being in possession,” he said. “Property crime, sex trafficking, gang activity, gun violence, domestic violence. … And we don’t have unlimited police resources.”

Opponents say that Lubbock should stop the movement in its tracks.

Staff writer Jayme Lozano Carver contributed to this report.

Disclosure: University of Texas at Austin and University of Texas at Austin – LBJ School of Public Affairs have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune’s journalism. Find a complete list of them here.

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Texas

Big top, bigger mission: Inclusive Omnium Circus makes Texas debut in Garland

Published

12 hours ago

March 4, 2026

Press Room

Big top, bigger mission: Inclusive Omnium Circus makes Texas debut in Garland

Garland is about to witness a different kind of big top spectacle when Omnium Circus’ new show “I’m Possible” rolls into town for its first Texas performance on March 16 and 17 at the Atrium in Garland.

This inclusive circus was founded in 2020 by founder and executive director Lisa B. Lewis. She is no stranger to the circus world. Lewis grew up attending the circus with her grandfather, who was a Shriner. She would then later begin her own circus career at the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey’s Clown College.

A performer in a black suit rides inside a cyr wheel
against a stage lit in red. The letters of the OMNIUM
sign are in the background.

The idea for an inclusive circus came to her during one of her first experiences working as a clown. Lewis says that during her performance, she saw a row of grumpy teenagers.

“They had their arms folded like they were mad and grumpy, and then my partner, whom I was working with, began telling jokes in sign language,” Lewis said. “How he knew they were deaf, I don’t know. The group of teenagers immediately started laughing, and the energy of the entire section shifted.”

Lewis said that in that moment, something clicked in her head, and she realized the power of inclusion.

She would then go on to spread joy through the art of circus to special-needs kids. And then later, she created Omnium Circus.

“Circus elevates our belief in ourselves; it allows us to see the best of what humanity has to offer,” Lewis said.

A female with blue hair facing a man with a red hat
between them is a large bubble with... — A female with blue hair facing a man with a red hat
between them is a large bubble with smaller bubbles
inside of it. There is a golden light coming from
behind the bubbles.
Maike Schulz

Omnium is a Latin word meaning of all and belonging to all. The circus’ mission is to create joy and entertainment for all no matter the body you inhabit or the skin that you’re in.

The hour-long show in Garland will feature many inclusive acts, such as deaf singer-songwriter Mandy Harvey, an America’s Got Talent finalist and Golden Buzzer winner.

The show will feature two ringmasters: deaf ringmaster Malik Paris will conduct the sign-language portion of the show, while ringmaster Johnathan Lee Iverson will handle the vocal portion. Iverson is the first Black ringmaster for a major U.S. circus, the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus.

A juggler wearing red and black gazes at his pins in
the air while cast members around him... — A juggler wearing red and black gazes at his pins in
the air while cast members around him look on in
amazement. The letters of the OMNIUM sign are in
the background behind the performers.

The show will also feature the six-time Paraclimbing World Cup champion, the world’s fastest female juggler, clowns from Dallas, plus more.

Details: March 16 at 7 p.m. and March 17 at 10:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m.at the Atrium, 300 N. 5th Street, Garland. Tickets are $21.99 for youth and $27.19 for adults.

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Texas

Texas GOP Sen. Cornyn tries to hold his seat for a 5th term while Democrats Crockett, Talarico face off

Published

1 day ago

March 3, 2026

Press Room

Texas GOP Sen. Cornyn tries to hold his seat for a 5th term while Democrats Crockett, Talarico face off

DALLAS (AP) — Texas Republican Sen. John Cornyn is trying to hold on for a fifth term in Tuesday’s GOP primary, while Democrats will choose whether to send Rep. Jasmine Crockett or state Rep. James Talarico to a November general election where the party once again hopes it has a chance.

Texas is one of three states kicking off this year’s midterm elections, a slate of primaries that come as the U.S. and Israel are at war with Iran. The war, which began over the weekend, has killed at least six U.S. service members, spiraled into a regional confrontation as Iran retaliated and sent oil and natural gas prices soaring. President Donald Trump, who campaigned on an isolationist “America First” agenda and went to war without authorization from Congress, faces mounting questions over its rationale and an exit strategy.

Tuesday also is the final day of voting in North Carolina and Arkansas in primaries that mark the start of the 2026 midterms, as Democrats look to break the GOP’s hold on Washington and derail Trump.

Cornyn faces a challenge from MAGA favorite Ken Paxton, the state’s attorney general, and Rep. Wesley Hunt in a contest that’s expected to advance to a May runoff between the top two vote-getters. The three Republicans have campaigned on their ties to Trump, who has not endorsed in the race.

Crockett and Talarico each argue that they are the stronger general election candidate in a state that backed Trump by almost 14 percentage points in 2024 and where a Democrat hasn’t won a statewide race in over 30 years.

Voters also are choosing House candidates using new congressional district boundaries that GOP lawmakers — urged on by Trump — redrew to help elect more Republicans.

Cornyn fights to hold seat, Crockett and Talarico race for Democrats

Cornyn hopes to avoid becoming the first Republican senator in Texas history not to be renominated.

His cool relationship with Trump is part of why Cornyn is vulnerable. He and allied groups have spent $64 million in television advertising alone since July to try stabilize his support.

Paxton began campaigning in earnest only last month but has made national headlines for filing lawsuits against Democratic initiatives. He has remained popular in Texas despite a 2023 impeachment trial on corruption charges, of which he was acquitted, and accusations of marital infidelity by his wife.

Senate GOP leaders, who are backing Cornyn, worry that Paxton’s liabilities would require the party to spend substantially to defend the seat if he is the nominee — money that could be better used elsewhere.

READ MORE: Lawsuit by Trump ally Paxton asserts unproven claim of autism risk from acetaminophen

Paxton has run ads touting his support from Turning Point USA, the group founded by the late conservative activist Charlie Kirk, as well as Kirk’s praise for Paxton before he was assassinated in September.

Hunt’s entry into the race in October made it trickier for any primary candidate to win at least 50%, the threshold needed to avoid a May 26 runoff.

All three Republicans have run ads boasting of their coziness with Trump.

On the Democratic side, the party’s first major contest of 2026 offers a choice between stylistic opposites as it hungers for its first Senate win in Texas since 1988.

Talarico, a seminarian who often references the Bible, has held rallies across the state including in heavily Republican areas. Crockett, who has built a national profile for zinger attacks on Republicans, has focused on turning out Black voters in the Dallas and Houston areas.

Talarico had outspent Crockett on television advertising by more than four to one as of late February. He got a burst of attention last month from CBS’ decision not to air his interview with late-night host Stephen Colbert. Colbert said the network pulled the interview for fear of running afoul of Trump’s FCC. Talarico’s campaign announced it raised $2.5 million in the 24 hours after the interview — which was streamed online — was pulled from TV.

Key House primaries

Texas Republicans’ unusual, mid-decade redistricting was aimed at helping Trump’s party pick up five Democratic-held seats in an effort to avoid losing control of the House. It set up some intraparty conflicts between Democratic incumbents, and what are expected to be some of November’s most competitive races.

In the 34th District, former Rep. Mayra Flores is attempting a comeback. Flores made history in a 2022 special election as the first Republican to win in the Rio Grande Valley in 150 years, but she lost her bid for a full term later that year. She faces Eric Flores, a lawyer endorsed by Trump, for the nomination to run against Democratic Rep. Vicente Gonzalez.

In the 23rd District, Rep. Tony Gonzales is considered vulnerable after fellow Republicans called on him to resign over an affair with a staffer who killed herself. He is being challenged by gun manufacturer and YouTube influencer Brandon Herrera, who calls himself “the AK guy.” The district includes Uvalde, site of a deadly 2022 shooting at Robb Elementary School.

Republican Rep. Dan Crenshaw is challenged in the 2nd District by GOP state Rep. Steve Toth, who was endorsed by Sen. Ted Cruz.

Former Major League Baseball star Mark Teixeira is running in District 21, in southwest Texas, for the seat held by Republican Rep. Chip Roy, who is running for state attorney general. Teixeira, a Republican, played for four MLB teams, including the Texas Rangers and the New York Yankees when they won the 2009 World Series.

Democrat Bobby Pulido, a Latin Grammy winner, is running in South Texas’ 15th District against physician Ada Cuellar. The nominee will face two-term Republican Rep. Monica De La Cruz.

In the 33rd District, Democratic Rep. Julie Johnson faces former Rep. Colin Allred, a former NFL linebacker and 2024 Senate nominee. Johnson, a first-term congresswoman, is seen as vulnerable partly because Allred previously represented part of the district, which weaves through the Dallas and Fort Worth areas. He also retains a national fundraising network from his Senate campaign.

And Democratic Rep. Al Green also is fighting to stay in office after his Houston-based 9th District was drawn to be lean Republican. Green, 78, is now running in a newly drawn 18th District against Democratic Rep. Christian Menefee, 37, who won a January special election for the current 18th District. The new one includes two-thirds of Green’s old district.

Abbott and Hinojosa seem bound to face off for governor, while Roy seeks Paxton’s office

Republican Gov. Greg Abbott is running for reelection and faces a likely matchup with Democratic state Rep. Gina Hinojosa.

Four-term U.S. Rep. Chip Roy is seeking the GOP nomination for state attorney general, with Paxton running for Senate. Roy has been a prominent member of the conservative Freedom Caucus.

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Texas

North Texas voters flood polls early, boosting turnout in both parties

Published

2 days ago

March 3, 2026

Press Room

North Texas voters flood polls early, boosting turnout in both parties

North Texans showed up in greater numbers for early voting in the 2026 midterm primary compared to recent election cycles, with the number of early voters surging across the region’s four largest counties: Dallas, Tarrant, Collin and Denton.

A look at voter turnout from 2018, 2022 and 2026 showed the same pattern each time: more people are taking part, and both parties are seeing increases in turnout.

Data showed that Democrats are making noticeable progress in counties that have traditionally leaned Republican. At the same time, voter registration has grown significantly, giving both sides a larger pool of potential voters.

Data from the Texas Secretary of State were used to compile Election Day totals for 2018 and 2022. For the remaining dates, Early Voting totals were derived from the county websites themselves, including Dallas, Tarrant, Collin, and Denton.

What do the numbers show?

The bigger picture

Across all four counties, the numbers point to a clear trend: voter participation is growing on both sides of the political divide. Early voting is especially strong in 2026, driven by population growth, competitive primaries and heightened political interest.

Although Republicans still dominate turnout in Collin and Denton, Democrats’ early‑voting surges, including taking the lead in Tarrant, suggest that the region’s electoral map continues to evolve.

The full impact will come into focus once Election Day results are final, but for now, 2026 is shaping up to be the most energized North Texas primary in at least a decade.

Primary turnout surges as 2.8 million vote early statewide

Ahead of Election Day on Tuesday, Texas is already seeing what voter data experts are calling a historic primary turnout.

During the 10 days of early voting, roughly 2.8 million people have voted so far in either the Republican or Democratic primary. More people have cast ballots than in any other recent midterm primary, and voter data experts say they expect about the same number of people to show up on Election Day.

The surge appears to be tied, in part, to a highly competitive Democratic primary that voter data analysts say is too close to call based on early vote numbers alone.

Garrett Herrin, CEO of Votehub, said the contest remains exceptionally tight.

“I’m not telling you anything you don’t know, right? But the race is razor thin,” Herrin said.

Herrin said early vote patterns do not show one side dominating geographically, making the outcome difficult to predict.

“There isn’t any sort of dramatic geographic imbalance that clearly signals that one side is running away with it. Instead, turnout looks broad and competitive, and that’s what makes it difficult to call based on early vote data alone,” Herrin said.

County-by-county data compiled by Ryan Data suggested the jump in turnout is not being driven mainly by first-time voters. Instead, analysts said it is coming from voters who typically only participate in November elections but now want a say in the primary.

The data shows 13% of GOP primary voters have only voted in November elections. On the Democratic side, that share is much higher — 28% of early voters in the Democratic primary have only voted in November elections.

Derek Ryan, who compiled the data, said that shift is the defining feature of the race so far.

“Now they’ve decided that, ‘Hey, there’s a contested Senate race in the Democratic primary. Maybe now is the time for me to make my voice heard in that race,’” said Ryan.

Ryan’s data also suggests the age breakdown of early voters has not changed much this year. Just 17% of Republican primary voters are under 50. The Democratic primary electorate is younger, with 41% of early voters so far under the age of 50.

This story was originally reported for broadcast by NBC DFW. AI tools helped convert the story into a digital article, and an NBC DFW journalist edited it again before publication.

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