Texas Tribune: “With Democrats sweeping Republicans statewide office and winning a surprise majority in the Texas House of Representatives, city and county officials across the state have found themselves unclenching from a yearslong defensive posture against attacks on their authority by state Republicans.”“As the state boomed, localities often felt left to their own devices to deal with the consequences of that growth on their own, or undermined by the state when they tried. Now, for the first time in decades, Democrats control the state’s major urban areas and the powerful arms of state government, an alignment that could help cities and counties with their biggest problems — like housing, transportation and economic development — or at the very least stay out of the way.”