Sameea Kamal

TX Brief reporter @BLaw / alum @calmatters @latimes @publicintegrity | #cuj13 + go bears! | RTs/active-listening nods ❌️ endorsements

[Kayla Guo @kaylaguo_]

First in @TexasTribune: National Democrats @DLCC are looking to flip 12 Texas House seats this cycle in a newly expanded battleground list.

A dozen flips would put Democrats one seat shy of an even split in a chamber they haven't held since 2003. #txlege https://t.co/WC5HSBtnta

[Kate Wolffe @katewolffe]

Excited to be covering politics for @CalMatters as of last Tuesday.

Here's my first story - a rundown of why, even as some results roll in this hour, it takes days, sometimes weeks, to tabulate California's many ballots: https://t.co/Rg40cMwsy3

[Sameea Kamal @SameeaKamal]

Five things to know about California’s election, from Congress to the governor’s race, via @FromBenC @CalMatters https://t.co/qY0h64HvHC

[Ryan Autullo @RyanAutullo]

New: Texas for now can require proof of age to download a smart phone app, a federal appeals court ruled.

2025 App Store Accountability Act was blocked by a trial court in December.

Fifth Circuit temporarily lifts injunction as it considers state's defense of the Act. #txlege

[Lauren McGaughy @lmcgaughy]

Inbox: Several days into early voting, Dallas GOP sends out plea for more election volunteers. #txlege

[Alejandro Serrano @serrano_alej]

Houston-area developer Colony Ridge, fresh off its settlements with the DOJ and Texas, today sued Alex Jones and former GOP gov candidate Pete Chambers for defamation.

Suit here: https://t.co/zBHn73tugN

[Bloomberg Law @BLaw]

The US Supreme Court limited the use of the Voting Rights Act to create predominantly Black or Hispanic election districts in a major constitutional ruling that buttresses Republican efforts to keep control of the House in this year’s midterms and beyond. https://t.co/tiu9stY9hB

[Eleanor Klibanoff @eklib]

Texas’ newly redrawn congressional map is officially cleared for use, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Monday.

The district court struck down the map in November, but the high court swiftly blocked that ruling. Today’s summary ruling affirms that the map can be used through 2030.

[Sameea Kamal @SameeaKamal]

❗️Texas lawyers, especially those in the patent world -- would love to hear what this means to you / about your experiences in Judge Alan Albright's court. ([email protected])

[Ryan Autullo @RyanAutullo]

New: Trump-appointed Judge Alan Albright stepping down from Austin bench in Western District of Texas, two people familiar with his decision tell @BLaw.

Albright will leave at the end of August.

https://t.co/c2GdgyrWVq

[Bloomberg Law @BLaw]

Texas can enforce a law requiring the Ten Commandments be displayed in public classrooms, a divided Fifth Circuit ruled. https://t.co/IjUIbz5q6Q

[Sameea Kamal @SameeaKamal]

A good day to read/re-read this story from @RyanAutullo on Paxton's workaround of his fundraising gap:

[Ryan Autullo @RyanAutullo]

AG Ken Paxton has overcome a big spending gap in his Senate primary in part because of strategically timed announcements and politically savvy actions from his state office.

They include "suspect, dicey" attacks on Sen. John Cornyn.

No paywall. #txlege

https://t.co/s6S2TwRk8Y

[Sameea Kamal @SameeaKamal]

TL;DR: when @jeremiak & i looked at this in '23, we learned cities that lobby get 7% to 9% more per person in state funding than those that don’t. But the process lacked transparency: there were no disclosure requirements for why a city lobbies on a specific bill or its position

[Sameea Kamal @SameeaKamal]

@TPPF's Texas Policy Summit kicks off w/ @robhenneke laying out the group's priority: asking #TXlege to end taxpayer-funded lobbying & the "continued Californization of Texas governments."
(Here's a piece of what taxpayer-funded lobbying looks like in CA https://t.co/mGv50LmDwU)

[Paul Cobler @PaulCobler]

New: Texas is set to forego at least $3.1 billion in sales tax revenue from data centers over the next two years. That figure already makes it one of the state’s costliest tax breaks, and tax experts tell me it’s likely an underestimate. #txlege https://t.co/qD8QzrU0Jd

[Ryan Autullo @RyanAutullo]

Dallas Mavericks redeem Dallas Stars' interests in partnership of American Airlines Center because the hockey team broke contract in maintaining offices outside of Dallas, judge says.

Mavs prevail in all seven claims decided by Judge Bill Whitehill.

https://t.co/nfnXX1lzwT

[Lauren McGaughy @lmcgaughy]

More reporting on recent departure of senior employees from Ken Paxton's agency.

Agency says their ouster was due to DC hotel rooms for Trump's inauguration that were used by non-agency employees and then reimbursed. @TXBullpen reports rooms were used by Paxton donors. #txlege

[Sameea Kamal @SameeaKamal]

Dropping in to the end of #CERAweek - give me a shout if youre here 👋

[Michael Li 李之樸 @mcpli]

5 of 10 of the fastest growing counties between July 2024 & July 2025 were in Texas.

The rest were in Arizona, North Carolina, and Washington.

https://t.co/wkszVtvXWg #txlege

[Alexandra Samuels @AlexSamuelsx5]

NEW from me at @BGOV featuring everything you need to know about the #TXSen primaries:

[Eleanor Mueller @Eleanor_Mueller]

"We have a great attorney general, Ken Paxton," Trump says in TX. "Hi Ken. And we have a great senator, John Cornyn. Hi John."

"You're in a little race together, you know that? ... Gonna be an interesting one."

He told reporters before getting on stage he'd "pretty much" decided who to endorse, per pool.