James Henson and Joshua Blank look at three big stories in Texas generating national attention as election season heats up in the state: the special election for Senate District 9, Colin Allred’s surprising re-emergence in the Democratic Senate nomination race, and Donald Trump’s public musings about endorsing in the Republican Senate primary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"James Henson and Joshua Blank look at three big stories in Texas generating national attention as election season heats up in the state: the special election for Senate District 9, Colin Allred’s surprising re-emergence in the Democratic Senate nomination race, and Donald Trump’s public musings about endorsing in the Republican Senate primary.","protected":false},"author":105,"featured_media":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","episode_type":"audio","audio_file":"http:\/\/podcasts.la.utexas.edu\/second-reading-podcast\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2026\/02\/2026-02-05_Second-Reading_master.mp3","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"00:51:41","filesize":"70.97M","filesize_raw":"74420260","date_recorded":"2026-02-05","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":""},"tags":[],"categories":[],"series":[2,369],"class_list":{"0":"post-1839","1":"podcast","2":"type-podcast","3":"status-publish","5":"series-second-reading-podcast","6":"series-default-podcast","7":"entry"},"acf":{"related_episodes":"","hosts":[{"ID":608,"post_author":"10","post_date":"2020-07-15 17:53:12","post_date_gmt":"2020-07-15 17:53:12","post_content":"\n
Dr. Henson directs the Texas Politics Project, a collection of enterprises designed to encourage informed interest and engagement in Texas politics and government. In that role, he founded and co-directs the University of Texas\/Texas Tribune Poll, the only open-access, public survey of public opinion in Texas. The data sets for those surveys are available in the polling section of the Texas Politics website. He also writes about politics for The Texas Tribune, and is a frequent resource for news media, researchers, and civic and interest groups on Texas politics and government. He also coordinates the Government Department's internship program. He is the principal author of Texas Politics,<\/em> a webtext that incorporates original media and polling data, that is used in introductory Texas government courses across the state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Henson was appointed to the City of Austin Ethics Review Commission in 2009 by the Austin City Council, and served as chairman of the commission from 2010 to 2012. He is currently a member of the advisory board of The Subiendo Academy in the McCombs School of Business at UT-Austin. <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n","post_title":"James Henson","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","post_password":"","post_name":"james-henson","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2025-04-04 16:09:11","post_modified_gmt":"2025-04-04 21:09:11","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/podcasts.la.utexas.edu\/second-reading-podcast\/?post_type=speaker&p=608","menu_order":0,"post_type":"speaker","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":614,"post_author":"38","post_date":"2020-07-15 17:57:01","post_date_gmt":"2020-07-15 17:57:01","post_content":"\n Joshua Blank is the Research Director of the Texas Politics Project. Born in New York, NY, he has a bachelor's degree in political science from Boston University and a doctoral degree in government from the University of Texas at Austin. <\/p>\n","post_title":"Joshua Blank","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","post_password":"","post_name":"joshua-m-blank","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2020-10-13 16:34:36","post_modified_gmt":"2020-10-13 16:34:36","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"http:\/\/podcasts.la.utexas.edu\/second-reading-podcast\/?post_type=speaker&p=614","menu_order":0,"post_type":"speaker","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}],"guests":"","transcript":""},"episode_featured_image":false,"episode_player_image":"https:\/\/podcasts.la.utexas.edu\/second-reading-podcast\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2021\/04\/Second_Reading_Podcast-web.jpeg","download_link":"https:\/\/podcasts.la.utexas.edu\/second-reading-podcast\/podcast-download\/1839\/a-hot-election-week-in-texas.mp3","player_link":"https:\/\/podcasts.la.utexas.edu\/second-reading-podcast\/podcast-player\/1839\/a-hot-election-week-in-texas.mp3","audio_player":"