Ronell Smith

Did the SD-9 race expose Texas Republicans as having a candidate quality problem? At least one expert thinks so. @Ross_Hunt dallasnews.com/opinion/commen…

Texas Democrats keep learning the same lesson: you can’t rely on people who typically don’t vote to win elections. open.substack.com/pub/ronellsmit…

Looking forward to being a part of the Highland Park Literary Festival, where I’ll be sharing with students how to use AI without losing their voice or their judgment, both of which are now more important than ever. hplitfest.com/archives/

@CyrusShepard Buried the lede 😂

Canceling my subscription. I vibe coded an Semrush clone in only 24 hours It uses Semrush's API to populate data and achieves nearly 35% of the same functionality Only costs $2,700/month to operate

@iPullRank That eyewear, tho 😃

Yes, you just saw me on the Grammy's broadcast

@gaetano_nyc Brings back memories. January 2011, it was 31 in Windermere, outside Orlando. Was like a whole other planet for me, being used to wearing shorts and tees every day.

I’ve lived in Miami for 8 years. This is the first time I’ve ever had to put the heat on.

In my latest Sunday column, I describe how administrative decisions made at the national level will leave residue that continues to shows up locally, as institutions learn to treat guidance as provisional rather than durable. lnkd.in/eRHiKuzS

@Ross_Hunt is “63% of Dems 56% of GOP” the final tally?

Herky-jerky policymaking doesn’t create strength. It creates drift. I call this churn governance—announce, litigate, revise. That approach is unsustainable, taxing everyone downstream who needs durable rules to hire, contract, and execute. open.substack.com/pub/ronellsmit…

Most strategy failures don’t happen where people argue. They happen underneath. The unspoken motive is reputational risk, career exposure, and asymmetric downside. Until leaders map those unseen layers, stalling continues. narrativealchemy.io/p/the-unseen-t…

Two recent DMN columns—mine on kids + social media, @RogersForTexas on TX public schools—point to the same failure mode: bad incentives governing infrastructure. ronellsmith.substack.com/p/two-infrastr…

Filing day matters more than Election Day. 5 yrs ago, I wrote The Six Cs post, which explains why most local races are decided before a single vote is cast—by who feels permitted to run, who opts out, and who faces no opposition. open.substack.com/pub/ronellsmit…

If this year is going to count, it can’t be measured by habits or intentions—only by how we show up for the people and places that matter most. — from my Sunday column dallasnews.com/opinion/commen…

Local power rarely changes hands through elections alone. It shifts when attention disappears. My latest column examines how disengagement at the local level has quietly handed control of schools, cities, and boards to a narrow activist class. dallasnews.com/opinion/commen…

Texas' SD9 race will be closely watched by both parties, especially since Rehmet overperformed. dallasnews.com/opinion/commen…

Economic anxiety rarely shows up first at food banks. The gov't shutdown exposed how fragile the margin is for thousands of North Texas families and how quickly a federal shutdown ripples into grocery budgets, rent payments, and local storefronts.dallasnews.com/opinion/commen…

Getting into your dream college isn’t everything—it's not even the most important thing. dallasnews.com/opinion/commen… latest @dallasnews column spotlights @jselingo's new book "Dream School." Parents & students often need a mindset shift when selecting a college/uni. Focus on fit.

A key lesson for anyone running for office is discovering how few candidates—including many successful ones—are truly competent, which fosters the fallacy of attributing outcomes to mere chance. open.substack.com/pub/ronellsmit…

My parents treated voting like a sacred ritual, an act of stewardship. They never missed an election—not because they loved politics, but because they believed participation was a duty. Today, that quiet habit feels endangered. dallasnews.com/opinion/commen…

The book also unflinchingly portrays the state as ground zero for unbridled racial violence and depravity. The story of Emmett Till, told in a powerful, sinewy fashion, is a stark and defining thread in the complex tapestry of Mississippi's history. 2/2

As a Mississippi native, I thought I knew my home state. After reading “The Barn,” I realize how little I truly understood. I had no idea, for example, of cotton's massive role in global commerce and that Mississippi was at the very heart of it. 1/2 open.substack.com/pub/ronellsmit… pic.twitter.com/cLjzrbl4cU