Experts in the News

Political science fellow Mark P. Jones considered how the killing of George Floyd may impact the Texas Democratic Senate runoff election.

As the coronavirus outbreak picks up speed in Houston, fellow Peter Hotez said state and local leaders must intervene. "We have to learn our lesson. We have to redo everything that we did. As frustrating as it is, we have to go back to containment mode," he said. In a separate interview with MSNBC's Rachel Maddow, Hotez said the lack of a federal plan makes the response more difficult. The impact of the pandemic on low-income neighborhoods is a "humanitarian catastrophe," he said. Watch the interview here.

Former Harris County Judge Ed Emmett has been named a fellow in energy and transportation policy at the Baker Institute.  At the institute, Emmett, who managed the nation’s third-largest county for more than 11 years, will serve as the lead of the inaugural Houston Global Freight Summit. Emmett’s research will also focus on carbon-capture sequestration and hydrogen in the Gulf Coast region. 

Political science fellow Mark Jones discussed some of the safety measures being taken during the first few days of early voting for the primary runoff elections in Texas.

“We want to kick the tires really hard on VotingWorks’ vote by mail system to make sure we find any problems well before November,” said Baker Institute faculty scholar Dan Wallach about the work he and others are doing to improve open-source technology for voting by mail.