A Dominant Performance: The Democratic party scored big wins on Election Day, including gubernatorial victories in New Jersey and Virginia; notably Dem candidates made gains in every single county in those states, compared with their counterparts in the previous election, according to The Washington Post. Additionally, California voters enthusiastically passed Prop 50, a redistricting effort designed explicitly to counteract the Texas Legislature’s controversial redistricting done at the behest of Trump. The five Republican seats Texas gained in that effort are expected to be zeroed out by California’s new congressional map. Why is everybody fiddling with their maps now? It’s in anticipation of the 2026 midterms, when Dems have a shot at reclaiming the House and gaining a meaningful way to push back against the president’s extreme right-wing agenda.
Mamdani’s Historic Win: Progressives had additional cause for celebration when Democratic Socialist state lawmaker Zohran Mamdani won the contest for New York City mayor, swatting down Andrew Cuomo, the disgraced former NY governor. Running on a platform that promoted universal child care, free buses, and affordable housing, Mamdani, the city’s first Muslim and South Asian mayor, inspired a diverse coalition of New Yorkers to turn out in droves. (The New York Times noted he was the first candidate since 1969 to win over one million votes in a mayoral election in the five boroughs.) Nationally, his popularity has sparked a lot of hand-wringing over which version of the Democratic party – moderate vs. lefty, establishment vs. rising stars – has the best shot to take on MAGA in 2026.
SNAP to It: Last week, a federal judge directed the Trump administration to tap available emergency funds to keep afloat the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which ran out of money during the ongoing governmental shutdown. The administration agreed to only partially fund the program, which provides food assistance to 42 million low-income Americans, but Trump pushed back even at that in a Tuesday Truth Social rant, implying some SNAP recipients are not actually in need and that benefits wouldn’t return until “the Radical Left Democrats open up government” – a statement the White House had to then walk back. On Friday night, hours before SNAP benefits were set to expire, Trump hosted his überwealthy friends at a Great Gatsby-inspired bash at Mar-a-Lago with the theme “a little party never killed nobody.”
Hungry & Hurting: The Texas Observer reports that Feeding Texas, a network of 20 food banks statewide, has lost an estimated $57 million in federal funding since Trump took office, with more cuts expected. Food pantries are being heavily relied on across the state and country as Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill slashed roughly 20% of funding for SNAP – a situation further strained by the government shutdown. “One in six Texans faces food insecurity. Hunger touches every county and community in Texas. It’s not just somebody else’s problem,” Feeding Texas CEO Celia Cole told the Observer.
ACL Fest Stays Put: Zilker Park will keep hosting ACL Fest until the end of 2040, following an agreement signed Monday between the city and concert promotion company C3 Presents, CultureMap Austin reports. The festival will also continue to fall around the first two weekends of October. Since 2006, C3 Presents estimates the festival has generated over $4 billion for the local economy.
Travis County Residents Face Immigration Uncertainty: A report from the Migration Policy Institute released this month says an estimated 85,000 Travis County residents who are unauthorized immigrants could be impacted by immigration enforcement – 6% of the total county population, based on the 2023 U.S Census American Community Survey. The majority of these residents – many of whom entered under the rolled-back Temporary Protected Status, overstayed a visa, or enrolled in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program – have lived in the U.S. for long periods and have planted roots in the community. In Travis County, migrants are parents to an estimated 23,000 U.S. citizens and are married to 25,000 U.S. citizens, according to the Austin American-Statesman.
You and Whose Army? (Musk’s, Apparently) Tesla Takedown activists convened Wednesday to host a Give Elon’s Trillion the Boot Rally in advance of Thursday’s Tesla shareholder meeting in Austin, at which shareholders will vote on a compensation package for Musk that would amount to nearly $1 trillion over 10 years. Detractors point out that not only is that an obscene amount of money to shower on a guy who’s already the wealthiest on the planet and whose polarizing personality appears to have negatively impacted Tesla sales, a sizable increase in Musk’s shares might make it harder to put any future checks on his behavior. A Nov. 4 Statesman story quoted Musk’s musings to analysts and investors: “If we build this robot army, do I have at least a strong influence over that robot army? I don’t feel comfortable building that robot army if I don’t have at least a strong influence.”
Paxton Puts the AG in AGGRO: Per The New York Times, concerns have been raised over whether Texas’ attorney general Ken Paxton’s Senate campaign is inspiring unfair and more aggressive legal actions on his part. Paxton has made national headlines for announcing he was suing the makers of Tylenol for an unproven connection to autism, further aligning himself with the Trump administration, and for attempting to force Texas’ punitive abortion laws on New York abortion pill providers in a high-profile test of that state’s “shield law.” Last week, a New York judge dismissed Paxton’s legal challenge.
Free Speech for Me But Not Thee: The Texas State Employees Union has accused the Texas Comptroller’s Office of firing an employee, Caleb Newton, for posting to his personal social media a video encouraging attendance at the “No Kings” rally in October. The firing seems to be part of an emerging pattern of public employees being terminated for private political expression.“The First Amendment was designed to protect citizens from exactly this kind of government overreach,” Newton said in a TSEU press release. “When Texas punishes state employees for expressing political opinions, it undermines the very freedoms America was founded to protect.” TSEU invites supporters to show up for a solidarity rally on Monday, Nov. 10, 2pm, outside the Texas State University System Board of Regents meeting at 601 Colorado St.
Rainbow Connection: As Gov. Greg Abbott’s order to remove pavement and street markings that promote “political ideologies” looms over Austin, community members are getting creative, including Downtown’s Central Presbyterian Church. On Sunday, the church transformed its 18-step staircase along Brazos and East Eighth into a rainbow gradient in a joyful display of “what it means to proudly and publicly celebrate diversity.”
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“Greg Abbott wanted to be Donald Trump’s Texas enforcer. Instead, he became the cautionary tale of what happens when you betray your own state to please D.C. politicians.”
Texas House of Representatives Minority Leader Gene Wu on California’s passage of Prop 50
This article appears in November 7 • 2025.