Do you remember where you were on Election Night 2020? Though Joe Biden had been elected President of the United States, the excitement of Democrats was dampened somewhat by results from South Texas. In persistently blue counties along the border, Democrats did worse than expected. Then the hand-wringing and finger-pointing began. Should Joe Biden have visited South Texas? Was the Latino vote being taken for granted? Such questions have returned front and center with a much talked-about column in Sunday's New York Times. Columnist Ezra Klein noted that a longtime Democratic Party election superstar from President Obama's re-election campaign, David Shor, had issued an ominous warning for 2022 and beyond: namely, that Democrats are on the edge of an abyss. To avoid it, they need to win states that lean Republican. And to do that, Shor says Democratic leaders and operatives need to internalize that they do not resemble nor understand the voters they need to win over: namely, the swing voters in these states. According to Shor, those swing voters are not liberals and do not see the world the same way as people who staff and donate to Democratic campaigns. But Shor's prescription is as provocative as his analysis, if not more so. According to Shor (and other Democrats who have been "Shor-pilled", as Klein puts it), party staffers are caught in a Twitter-fueled echo chamber and are out of touch with swing voters. But as Democrats at the national level argue over whether to take a more poll-driven approach to winning campaigns versus pushing more progressive reforms to win swing voters, Texas 2020 could be instructive in more nuanced ways. On today's show, Prairie View A&M University political science professor Melanye Price told the Standard that Democrats need to make more meaningful inroads into communities of color, noting that many African American Texans who have only recently joined the middle class now find themselves in danger of getting left behind as the economy treads treacherous waters. In that same conversation, Victoria DeFrancesco Soto, a dean at the University of Texas at Austin's LBJ School of Public Affairs added that in order to avoid a repeat of 2020 in South Texas, Democrats need to make greater investments in local community efforts to turn out the vote for Democrats. As we were noting in this space only last week, to an increasing extent "as Texas goes, so goes the rest of the country". Whether election season 2022 nationwide will resemble Texas in 2020 may well be determined by strategic political conversations taking place right now. We will continue to track our ever-changing Texas on the air and online at TexasStandard.org . In the meantime, we hope you enjoy getting caught up on some of our latest coverage, handpicked by our editors below.

- David Brown

Work safe, Texas. Texas Work Comp Insurance

Southwest Airlines, pilots’ union say vaccine mandate had nothing to do with canceled flights

Southwest is one of several airlines starting to require COVID-19 vaccinations for employees to comply with federal rules.

Bill restricting transgender student athletes clears Texas House committee

House Bill 25 would prohibit transgender public school athletes from participating on sports teams that don’t align with their sex assigned at birth.

Hospitalizations of pregnant people rose with the delta variant, study shows

Of the 1,500 people included in the study, only one vaccinated person was hospitalized.

The young lieutenant who crossed the Wild Horse Desert

No spoilers here. You'll want to listen to our commentator W.F. Strong's story to find out just who the young lieutenant was.

Survey shows Austin's downtown bars are back to business as usual. Music venues? Not so much. (KUT)
Bexar County Jail detained a man for 5 extra months. There's no clear answer to why. (Texas Public Radio)
‘Still mourning her loss’: North Texans honor Atatiana Jefferson, killed by police 2 years ago (KERA News)
Texas businesses should sue over Abbott’s vaccine mandate ban, Harris County attorney says (Houston Public Media)

Hi! Wells Dunbar here, social media editor with Texas Standard. I’ve been with the show since it started in 2015. Before it started, really – I helped determine the sound and direction of the social media segments I appear in, back before the Standard launched and I was still digital editor at our home station, KUT Austin. 2015 sure was way different from today – and one way that change has been reflected is through our social media landscape. I’ve been doing this job for a while and still love the hell out of it, but it’s always good to kick the tires every now and then to see what works (and what might need a tune up). That’s where you come in: I’ve created a survey where you can send me your thoughts on our on-air social media segments and our online social media presence. Most the questions are open-ended and you can share as much or as little as you like. And since you’re already familiar with the work of Texas Standard – heck, you are reading this newsletter! – your informed opinion can help determine the direction of the show going forward. You can take the survey here . Or, if you prefer, you can email me directly: [email protected]. Thanks for reading, and for your help!

- Wells Dunbar
@wellsdunbar

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