• Harris County Clerk Scrubs Soros Conspiracies from Site. Will Other GOP Leaders Follow Suit?
   
• The Suburban Resistance Built a Grassroots Powerhouse — and it Could Decide the Most Competitive Race in Texas
   
• Beto Talks Texas Turnout in the Final Stretch
   
• The View From Louie Gohmert-Land

• Dallas County’s Cop-Convicting DA Is Among the Most Vulnerable Down-Ballot Republicans This Election
   
• Stuck in the Middle: Can a Conservative Democrat Win in the Heart of the Hill Country?
   
• Can Asian Voters Carry a Democrat to Congress in the Houston Suburbs?

The Lede
Inside Beto’s Plan to Turn Out Black Voters in Houston

• Black activists in Houston are cautiously optimistic — but it’s a huge challenge for Beto’s grassroots machine to reach the unlikely voters he needs to come out.
   
• Polls have consistently shown O’Rourke with overwhelming levels of support from African-American voters in Texas. The campaign has joined with an array of allied organizations and campaigns in an attempt to saturate the city’s historically black neighborhoods — from Acres Homes and the Fifth Ward on the north side to Sunnyside and South Park on the south — and maximize turnout.
   
• “We know where the folks are who are low-propensity voters,” said Rodney Ellis, the sole person of color on the Harris County Commissioners Court. “And we’re doin’ all we can in the era of voter suppression that is unprecedented to make sure that these people know what’s at stake.”

• Meet Mikael Love, the OB-GYN Who Doesn’t Prescribe Birth Control
   
• More Than 150 Families Separated at the Border Remain Locked Up in Texas

• A New Pray-the-Gay-Away Drama Suggests Conversion is Possible (Just Not the Kind You Think)
   
• AUDIO: Melissa del Bosque and Rachel Poser on Border Patrol’s Unchecked Mission Creep

From the archives
Sid Miller, Shotgazi and the End of the Texas GOP

• Sid Miller's offering a grad course in buffoonery, and Ken Paxton's not far behind, Chris Hooks writes in this 2014 column. He asks (and answers): Is it the end of the Texas GOP? Maybe, but things can always get worse.
   
• From the story: “If you’re unfamiliar with Miller, it’s worth getting acquainted. His campaign treasurer in 2014 was Ted Nugent. Before Miller took the top ag job in Texas, he raised Christmas trees and got in trouble for abusing his horses. ... During his election, Miller’s campaign spread word that his runoff opponent had sex with prostitutes in the Capitol parking garage. He’s like a French cartoonist’s caricature of a Texan.”

What’s Happening at the Observer

• The Texas Observer is taking part in NewsMatch 2018. Beginning November 1, all donations will be matched up to $30,800, thanks to generous funding provided by INN and the Jonathan Logan Family Foundation. This is a great opportunity to make your support go twice as far when you give to fund our journalism before December 31!  You can learn more and donate by clicking here.
   
• Like books? How about feature stories, essays and poems from around the state? We're launching a new monthly newsletter with all the Observer's cultural coverage, including newsletter-exclusive content. Sign up here.
   
• The Texas Observer has a revamped merch store! Here you can find all kinds of new ways to show your support for the work we do. Show the world your love for independent investigative journalism, and help pay for it all at the same time!