The Week in the Rearview Mirror

The newly elected chair of the Republican Party in Travis County, Robert Morrow, spent most of election night tweeting about former Gov. Rick Perry’s sexual orientation and former President Bill Clinton’s penis. Members of the Travis County GOP are split about their feelings toward the controversial incoming chairman — some are pledging mutiny, while others embrace him as an agent of change.

Two of the closest races in Tuesday’s Texas Republican primary may not be over yet. State Rep. Molly White, R-Belton, is requesting a recount after she lost her re-election bid to Hugh Shine by 118 votes. In Senate District 1, state Rep. Bryan Hughes, R-Mineola, fell short of the 50 percent required to avoid a runoff. State Rep. David Simpson, R-Longview, is in the runoff but by just 13 votes over third-place finisher Red Brown.

More voters chose Republican Ted Cruz and Democrat Hillary Clinton than their leading primary challengers in almost every county in Texas, according to unofficial results from the Secretary of State.

During oral arguments Wednesday in a case challenging the constitutionality of Texas’ abortion restrictions, U.S. Supreme Court justices focused on what role the rules played in closing dozens of clinics, and probed the state’s justifications for the law.

Republican Mary Lou Bruner, who once claimed President Barack Obama used to be a gay prostitute, appears to be headed for a May 24 primary runoff against Lufkin school board president Keven Ellis in the race to represent District 9 on the State Board of Education.

House Speaker Joe Straus sailed to victory in his re-election bid and he avoided a significant net loss in fights between hard right conservatives and his lieutenants elsewhere in the state.

The University of Texas at Austin and all seven other schools in the University of Texas System won approval to increase tuition Monday, a move that will eventually tack on between $148 and $361 to the cost of students' schooling each semester. 

The U.S. Supreme Court has denied a request from Texas and 19 other states to block a landmark federal rule requiring power plants to slashes emissions of mercury, acid gases and other toxic metals emissions.

A private company that operates part of the Texas toll road with the highest speed limit in the country filed for bankruptcy Wednesday, fewer than three years after the section of the road it oversees first opened.

Disclosure: The University of Texas at Austin is a corporate sponsor of The Texas Tribune. A complete list of Tribune donors and sponsors can be viewed here.