{
  "id": 17293168,
  "title": "Inside the Fight to Flip the Biggest Battleground in Texas",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/30/inside-the-fight-to-flip-the-biggest-battleground-in-texas",
  "topic": "culture",
  "section": "Culture",
  "published": "2026-10-30T21:11:39.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Mother Jones",
    "slug": "mother-jones",
    "url": "https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2026/10/inside-the-fight-to-flip-the-biggest-battleground-in-texas-tarrant-county-crystal-mason/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "In mid-October, Crystal Mason was in a Fort Worth neighborhood south of downtown when I met her. She wore a black t-shirt with bright red boxing gloves and a large \"STILL ACQUITTED\" tag. Eight years prior, Mason had been sentenced to five years in prison for voting in the 2016 presidential election while on supervised release for a felony conviction. She claimed she was never informed she couldn't vote and that she only cast a provisional ballot that wasn't counted. In 2024, a court overturned the conviction, but the Republican district attorney appealed and only lost later that September. Mason then returned to her work in voter rights, currently running \"Crystal Mason: The Fight.\" She has been conducting registration drives, door-to-door canvassing, and visiting senior centers to ensure voters know their polling plans. As election day looms, the Republican-led county commission in Tarrant County has eliminated 92 voting sites, nearly a third of its total for 2024. Advocates argue this disproportionately impacts Black and Hispanic neighborhoods. Tarrant County, the last major urban county in Texas still controlled by Republicans, has been crucial in recent election outcomes. The county Republican organization supports far-right figures, while moderate Republicans like Fort Worth's mayor support Democratic candidates for higher offices. Local Democrats have made gains in recent years, including flipping a state Senate district. The county faces an uphill battle, but Democrats see hope in the growing support among traditionally Republican voters.",
  "summary": "I met up with Crystal Mason in mid-October, in a hilly neighborhood south of downtown Fort Worth. She was easy enough to recognize—she wore a black t-shirt with a pair of bright red boxing gloves on the front, and a single word in big block letters, “STILL ACQUITTED.” Eight years ago, amid a push by […]",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}