Meridith Dyer
Meridith Dyer is a reporter for The Texan covering Texas politics through the lens of how state decisions affect public institutions and the people who depend on them. Her work brings together close coverage of Republican power struggles, election campaigns, and public education policy, with an emphasis on the consequences of legislation and agency action for school districts and state boards. She also follows criminal and regulatory cases involving public officials and infrastructure, connecting courtrooms and commissions back to the political dynamics that shape them.
Texas School Districts and State Education Governance
Dyer devotes sustained attention to Texas’ largest school districts and the ways state oversight reshapes their operations.
She reports on Austin ISD’s exposure to a potential state takeover after two campuses received a fifth failing rating, underscoring how accountability triggers can prompt major governance changes. In Houston, she tracks the district’s “New Education System” campuses and documents enrollment declines of 17 percent over two years, showing how reform initiatives play out in student numbers and community response. Her coverage of Houston ISD’s plan to close 12 schools for the 2026–2027 school year and the Texas Education Agency’s appointment of a new Fort Worth ISD superintendent and board of managers highlights the practical impact of agency decisions on local control and campus stability.
She regularly examines school finance and property tax pressures, including stories on large districts adopting deficit budgets while legislative debates over property taxes continue, tying budget votes to state-level fiscal policy. Her reporting on school choice oversight, such as Attorney General Ken Paxton confirming the comptroller can block education savings account funds for schools tied to terrorist groups, adds a regulatory dimension that shows how political rhetoric translates into funding rules. She also covers higher education admissions policy, including changes that allow Texas universities to consider the Classic Learning Test alongside the SAT and ACT, connecting campus decisions to broader ideological and policy debates.
Republican Leaders and 2026 GOP Contests
Dyer closely follows Republican officeholders and intraparty contests, treating primaries and conventions as key arenas of Texas governance. She reports on Lt.
Gov. Dan Patrick’s call for GOP voters to unite behind either U.S. Sen.
John Cornyn or Attorney General Ken Paxton in a “nasty” U.S. Senate primary, noting his warning that division could even jeopardize the party’s majority in the Texas House. She covers Gov. Greg Abbott’s endorsements in statewide primaries, including his support for challenger Nate Sheets against incumbent agriculture commissioner Sid Miller and the long-running public disagreements between the two Republicans.
Her election writing includes previews of Texas House races, such as candidates competing for an open Tarrant County seat vacated by Tony Tinderholt, mapping local contests onto broader partisan dynamics.
She produces detailed previews of Texas State Board of Education races, summarizing eight contests ahead of the primary and explaining how the March primary and possible May runoffs structure the election calendar for education governance. Her reporting from the first-ever GOP midterm convention in Dallas centers on Republican leaders rallying voters and frames the event as part of a coordinated effort to energize party supporters for upcoming elections. In multimedia work she interviews candidates like Texas House hopeful Oziel Ochoa Jr., using discussions of South Texas, public schools, property taxes, and rural healthcare to show how campaign messaging intersects with policy priorities.
Criminal Cases Involving Antifa and Local Law Enforcement
Dyer extends her political reporting into criminal justice when legal proceedings involve protests, detention facilities, or elected law enforcement officials. She covers cases in which Antifa members are sentenced for a July 4 attack on the Prairieland ICE detention facility, detailing the outcomes and situating them within arguments over activism, public safety, and immigration enforcement. Her reporting on the Johnson County sheriff’s repeated indictments in a sexual harassment case follows an elected official through multiple rounds of charges, highlighting how criminal allegations collide with the authority and accountability structures of local law enforcement.
By focusing on both activists and officeholders in these stories, she shows how court decisions can reshape political careers and public trust in governmental institutions.
Energy Directives to ERCOT and Utility Regulators
Dyer covers energy policy when it becomes a vehicle for executive action and regulatory scrutiny.
She reports on Gov. Greg Abbott’s directive to ERCOT and the Public Utility Commission to address rising data center costs, linking grid management decisions to the economic pressures created by high-demand technology infrastructure.
In that coverage she traces how gubernatorial instructions filter down through regulatory bodies, connecting technical questions about energy supply to broader issues of state leadership, business investment, and the reliability of Texas’ power system.
4 more politics journalists.
A.D. Quig
A.D. Quig follows money and power through Chicago and Cook County government, showing how political decisions, taxes and public spending affect residents and businesses. At the Chicago Tribune, she covers city and county politics, municipal finance, tax policy, budgets and the structures shaping mayoral and council authority. She joined the Tribune in 2022 after covering politics for Crain’s Chicago Business and The Daily Line. Her work examines council power, ethics rules, police leadership, tax incentives, public agencies and pandemic aid. She has reported on data center tax breaks, property tax errors, federal relief spending and the fiscal effects of major development proposals. Quig combines insider government reporting with public accountability journalism. She uses public records, data and budget documents, follows committees and staff negotiations, and explains complex decisions in plain language with precise numbers and a direct link to everyday consequences.
Adam Daly
Adam Daly covers politics for amNewYork with a focus on the inner workings of city and state government and the low-profile forums where power is exercised and negotiated. He reports on commissions and panels that shape how New York is governed, treating charter reform and government efficiency as central political terrain. His coverage of moves to replace an Adams-era charter commission with a new government efficiency panel foregrounds mandate, authority, and what “efficiency” means in practice for agencies and services. He tracks who gains and loses influence when one commission supplants another and which constituencies are being answered to. Daly explains dense procedural questions in clear, reader-facing terms, using specific institutional details and occasional wordplay to connect jargon-heavy reforms to public spending, service delivery, and mayoral power.
Adam Pack
Adam Pack covers Capitol Hill through power struggles, investigations and ideological fights, focusing on how Congress intersects with Donald Trump’s agenda. He is a politics writer on Fox News Digital’s Capitol Hill team, covering Congress, federal elections, legislative battles, election rules, war powers, primaries and intraparty fights. He previously wrote for the Daily Caller News Foundation. His reporting examines deadlines, vote counts, bill language, campaign spending, court rulings, oversight reports, culture clashes and emerging issues such as AI-backed political groups. He has covered FISA reauthorization, defense spending, the SAVE America Act, housing policy, redistricting, candidate absences, primary spending and disputes over sex, gender, religion and race-based caucuses. He reports primarily through news features and investigative-style pieces built around documents, committee reports, court records, unearthed video and specific legislative details. He often co-writes complex Capitol Hill stories and publishes “FIRST ON FOX” exclusives.
Adam Sullivan
Adam Sullivan is a veteran politics reporter for WCAX who connects elections and party disputes to everyday life. He covers statewide races, party primaries, federal representation, political rhetoric, extremism, and accountability across the Upper Valley and neighboring states. His reporting includes Becca Balint’s victory over Molly Gray in the Democratic U.S. House primary to replace Congressman Peter Welch. He also reports when political controversies affect public safety, political culture, towns, and institutions, including a New Hampshire Libertarian Party post endorsing violence against elected Democrats. Sullivan follows cultural stories with civic consequences, such as Noah Kahan’s appeal to fans to stop stealing a Strafford road sign linked to his music. He writes straight news centered on concrete events, official reactions, political context, community impact, and what comes next.