The Week in the Rearview Mirror

With fewer than three weeks until the Texas primary, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz's campaign unveiled new endorsements and the expansion of the campaign's state organization. Backing the senator are 11 state senators, 43 state representatives, seven GOP members of Texas' congressional delegation and four current and past statewide officials — former Gov. Rick Perry, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, and railroad commissioners David Porter and Ryan SittonThe newly expanded Texas Leadership Team also includes 57 chairs and co-chairs covering Texas' 36 congressional districts, as well as 462 chairs and co-chairs across the state's 254 counties.

With a deadline for action looming, Texas regulators are struggling to make up their minds about the finer points of the Ray L. Hunt family’s $18 billion proposal to buy and reshape Oncor, the state’s biggest electric utility. One sticking point — should Oncor be allowed to charge customers hundreds of millions of dollars for federal taxes that the company wouldn't actually have to pay?

With the New Hampshire primary behind him, Ted Cruz is setting his sights on a string of mostly southern states that could test two central arguments of his campaign: that the map favors his deeply conservative brand — and that he is the only contender with both the money and organization to capitalize on it.

Texas A&M University is conducting an investigation after students visiting campus from a Dallas high school were harassed Tuesday with racial slurs.

A week after his win in the Iowa caucuses, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz was jockeying for third place in the New Hampshire primary Tuesday night, finding himself among a pack of GOP also-rans swamped by real estate magnate Donald Trump.

Hillary Clinton’s campaign is boasting the added support of more than 40 Texas officials as it continues to increase its focus on the Lone Star State.

CNN announced Wednesday that the University of Houston will still get to host the Feb. 25 GOP primary presidential debate. The university's status had been called into question after NBC News was removed as the organizer of the event.

In 2012, Inocente “Chente” Quintanilla decided to forgo re-election to the Texas House. Now his efforts to return are being dismissed by state Rep. Mary González, D-Clint, who says Quintanilla just missed "being part of the Austin life."

University of Texas System Chancellor Bill McRaven said Wednesday that the eight universities under his authority need to raise tuition in order to stay competitive. If approved, the increase would cost students at UT-Austin $152 per semester.

The U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling Tuesday to block President Barack Obama’s Clean Power Plan has helped state Republicans — at least temporarily — dodge major action on climate change.

The Texas State Bar was ordered last week to launch a disciplinary probe into Attorney General Ken Paxton’s conduct following the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling on same-sex marriage — an investigation that could end with Paxton getting disbarred.

On Wednesday, a day after coming in third in New Hampshire's Republican primary, Ted Cruz stormed into the next early voting state with a frontrunner's message: I'm the only who knows how to beat Donald Trump. "You cannot beat Donald Trump coming from the left," Cruz told reporters before a rally in South Carolina's Myrtle Beach.

Both Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders are increasingly looking to the March 1 Texas primary as a pivotal contest in their race for the Democratic presidential nomination. The Clinton camp is hoping for a decisive win in Texas, while Sanders' supporters are vying to overcome — or at least blunt — Clinton’s built-in advantages.

The State Auditor's Office is investigating whether state Rep. Dawnna Dukes improperly required legislative staffers on the state payroll to help work on an annual event she sponsors through a nonprofit group that she founded, a Capitol source told The Texas Tribune on Feb. 5.

Two former staffers for state Rep. Dawnna Dukes say they found their work a hectic balancing act, fitting in legislative work with the Austin's lawmaker's ever expanding list of personal errands — picking up her favorite blueberry smoothie at McDonald's, taking her dogs to the vet and often babysitting Dukes' daughter.

Three of seven Republicans vying for a seat on the Texas Railroad Commission are in favor of tightening at least one regulation — on the commissioners themselves. Ron Hale, Weston Martinez and Lance Christian say they would support a proposal barring commissioners from accepting political donations from parties doing business before the commission.

A federal judge has once again denied Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton's efforts to keep the federal government from resettling Syrian refugees in the state.

The Texas Board of Disciplinary Appeals Monday upheld the disbarment of former Burleson County District Attorney Charles Sebesta Jr. for professional misconduct in the capital murder case of Anthony Graves.

Unprompted and in the final days of his New Hampshire primary campaign, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz said it was “nuts” to draft women into military combat.

Sandra Bland's mother, Geneva Reed-Veal, has added 10 Waller County officials in a federal lawsuit over her daughter's 2015 death in the Waller County Jail. Reed-Veal originally sued the Texas Department of Public Safety trooper who arrested Bland, his agency, Waller County and two of its jailers. A preliminary hearing in the case is set for Feb. 18 in a Houston federal court.

U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz apologized to Republican rival Ben Carson for a second time at Saturday night's GOP debate for what Carson has described as "dirty tricks" during last week's Iowa caucuses. Carson dismissed Cruz's explanation as "Washington ethics."

Both Cruz and Rubio have appearances planned in the Houston area for the day before the Feb. 25 presidential debate. Rubio has a fundraiser scheduled while Cruz will address the Harris County GOP Lincoln-Reagan dinner.

Disclosure: Texas A&M University, the University of Texas at Austin are corporate sponsors of The Texas Tribune. The University of Houston was a corporate sponsor of the Tribune in 2013. Oncor was a corporate sponsor in 2012. A complete list of Tribune donors and sponsors can be viewed here.