The state politics team in Austin is expanding with the addition of three reporters: Lawrence Mower, Casey Murray and Haajrah Gilani.
The three join a team covering the people, policies and power dynamics shaping Texas for the Houston Chronicle, San Antonio Express-News, Dallas Morning News and Austin American-Statesman. Mower joins in a newly created education role focused on the state’s private school voucher rollout and expanding oversight of public school districts. Murray and Gilani join as political reporters.
Mower was most recently a capital correspondent for the Tampa Bay Times/Miami Herald, where his investigative reporting led to new state laws, legislative hearings and a federal grand jury probe. As home insurance premiums doubled in the state, Mower discovered that Florida insurance executives were using elaborate financial schemes to siphon off profits and make themselves seem poorer than they really were. He was also part of a team that uncovered how Gov. Ron DeSantis steered more than $10 million in public funds to political committees working to defeat marijuana and abortion ballot measures. The series was a finalist for the 2026 Goldsmith Prize.
Mower lived in Houston until he was 13 and remains a Rockets and Astros fan.
“I’m thrilled at the chance to cover the nation’s largest school privatization effort and investigate the billions of dollars that come along with it,” Mower said. “I’m also excited to work for the first newspaper I remember reading and to join a team of reporters and editors I’ve long admired.”
Murray, a Dallas native, is returning to the state from California, where she wrote about tax policy for Bloomberg. Earlier this year she coauthored an investigation into how California regulators abdicated key oversight of the state’s multibillion dollar lobbying industry. Before that, she covered Texas’ congressional delegation for NOTUS in Washington, D.C., producing exclusive stories including an expose on how U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar and his siblings amassed power in Webb County through questionable deals and conflicts.
Gilani joins the politics team after covering religion for the Houston Chronicle through Report for America. She has interviewed some of the state’s top religious leaders and documented ongoing legal fights over the 10 Commandments in classrooms and Gov. Greg Abbott’s effort to label a prominent Muslim advocacy group as a terrorist organization. Before the Chronicle, Gilani was a politics reporter at the Las Vegas Sun.
“I’m incredibly excited to join the Austin bureau ahead of a highly-anticipated election and to tell the stories of how its outcomes will affect readers,” Gilani said.
“It’s more important now than ever to produce insightful reporting about how the Legislature’s choices impact regular people,” Murray said. “The policies that define life for Texans today could one day define the country.”
Led by Houston Chronicle Managing Editor Alejandra Matos, Texas Editor Jeremy Blackman and Deputy Texas Editor Allie Morris, the politics team has broken many of the state’s biggest stories in recent years while helping readers understand how state politics and policy shape their everyday lives. Its work was recognized with a National Headliner award in 2024 and again in 2026.
“Texas is one of the most consequential states in the country, and the decisions made here increasingly shape national conversations,” Matos said. “Lawrence, Casey and Haajrah will deepen our coverage with ambitious reporting that helps Texans understand the people, policies and power shaping the state.”
