Protests broke out across the U.S. over the weekend after Wednesday's fatal shooting of a mother-of-three in Minnesota.

Then, Steve Sarkisian’s football team scored two major transfer portal victories, earning former Auburn wideout Cam Coleman’s commitment after he had visited Tuscaloosa. Running back Hollywood Smothers, who had committed to Alabama from NC State earlier in the portal cycle, then flipped to Texas.

With 2025 behind us, The Texas Tribune’s politics team has compiled five of the top political stories we are watching in 2026, when voters will have their first chance to make their opinions known on the events of the last 12 months.

Many speculated the wide receiver would stay in the SEC, with other options being the LSU Tigers, Alabama Crimson Tide, or Texas A&M Aggies, the latter serving as Coleman's original commitment before flipping to Auburn his senior year of high school.

One of North Texas' newest residents, Canyon Cooper Smith, has been here for just about three weeks. But the 13 lb. newborn already has a lot of nicknames. "We call him our squishy a lot. Big boy. Somebody called him the Grand Canyon. Supa Kupa. Chunkmeister," said Arlington mom Markie Smith. "Yeah he's hefty, he's solid."

The state included identifiable information about voters, including dates of birth, driver's license numbers and the last four digits of their Social Security numbers.

San Antonio shut down its abortion travel fund after Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton's lawsuit and new state law banning public funding for out-of-state abortions.