Politics

Early voting for the Nov. 3 statewide elections ends tomorrow.

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The Republican presidential race entered a new phase Wednesday night as the outsider candidates, who dominated the first two debates, were upstaged by several of their office-holding rivals — and by a budding controversy over the conduct of the third debate itself.

From the Texas Tribune: Seeking to show Texas Republicans are coalescing behind his presidential effort, Ted Cruz on Monday unveiled the endorsement of Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, a onetime critic of sorts whose backing gives the U.S. senator his biggest boost yet back home.

Calling it "an important morning in the Republican presidential campaign," Cruz convened Patrick and two other statewide officials at his campaign headquarters here to announce their support as well as that of a half-dozen major donors to former Gov. Rick Perry.

Thursday was one of the most important days of Hillary Clinton's political career. The Democratic presidential candidate faced grilling for more than eight hours over the 2012 terror attack on the diplomatic outpost in Benghazi, Libya, that claimed the lives of four Americans, including U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens.

The questions from the 12 House Select Committee members — seven Republicans and five Democrats — split mostly along partisan lines.

This week on The Ticket: In 2008, POLITICO and Huffington Post took center stage in the presidential race. In 2012, we saw the rise of BuzzFeed. In 2016, some think this will be the year of Snapchat. To explain what election coverage on Snapchat means, The Texas Tribune’s Jay Root and KUT’s Ben Philpott talk with Peter Hamby, Head of News at Snapchat.

Vice President Joe Biden announced Wednesday he will not be a candidate for president in 2016, sparing Democrats from a shake-up in the race for the White House and removing a potential stumbling block for Hillary Clinton.

The vice president's decision comes after a long, and very public, struggle with whether or not to make a third run for the White House. Overcome with grief after the death of his eldest son, Beau, in May from brain cancer, at many times Biden seemed far from ready for the rigors of the campaign trail.

Speaking from the Roosevelt Room of the White House, President Obama said on Thursday that slowing down the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan is "the right thing to do."

"Afghan forces are still not as strong as they need to be," Obama said, so the United States will leave 9,800 troops in the country through most of 2016. By 2017, about 5,500 troops will remain in a few bases across the country.

Obama said that the U.S. mission in Afghanistan will remain focused on two non-combat objectives: to train Afghan forces and carry out counterterrorism operations against al-Qaida.

This post was updated at 11:15 p.m.

After two rollicking Republican debates, the Democrats' first face-off delivered punches but was policy-focused and far more civil.

Compared to the crowded GOP debates, the stage this evening in Las Vegas seemed bare. Just five Democrats faced off: former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley, former Virginia Sen. Jim Webb and former Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chafee.

A prepaid vacation to Florence, Italy is the latest procedural hiccup in the trial of former Texas Gov. Rick Perry.

Perry was indicted on two felony counts last year of coercion and abuse of power during his time as governor. Perry’s lead attorney, David L. Botsford, filed the motion with the court yesterday to request a postponement of oral arguments in the case, which were previously scheduled for Nov. 4. According to the motion, Botsford and his wife scheduled the trip to Italy in August and, after the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals scheduled arguments yesterday, Perry’s counsel petitioned the court to delay the case to “any other date convenient” to the court.

This week on The Ticket: Bernie Sanders has been one of the biggest surprises of the 2016 Presidential campaign. But those who know the Vermont Senator’s history aren’t surprised at all. The Texas Tribune's Jay Root and KUT's Ben Philpott will go back in time to hear from Burlington Vermont Mayor Bernie Sanders. The two will also talk with UT-Austin pollster Jim Henson about what’s behind the Sanders Surge.  And we’ll hear a report on how the closure of several driver licenses offices could affect minority voter turnout in Alabama.