Ashley Lopez
Ashley Lopez joined KUT in January 2016. She covers politics and health care, and is part of the NPR-Kaiser Health News reporting collaborative. Previously she worked as a reporter at public radio stations in Louisville, Ky.; Miami and Fort Myers, Fla., where she won a National Edward R. Murrow Award.
Ashley was also part of NPR’s Political Reporting Partnership during the 2016 presidential election. She earned her bachelor’s degree in journalism and political science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
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Dozens of Democratic state lawmakers fled Texas in an effort to block Republican-led restrictive voting legislation from being passed. -
Dozens of Texas Democrats left the state and went to Washington, D.C., in an effort to stop Republicans from passing new voting restrictions. Texas has some of the nation's toughest voting laws.
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The GOP-led law includes new identification requirements for people voting by mail, and it expands access for partisan poll watchers. -
Texas legislators have begun a special session, where they once again will consider a bill that could change how the state votes.
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Harris County around Houston used drive-thru voting and extended voting hours to boost turnout in 2020. Republican leaders in Texas say such efforts were an overreach.
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Texas has lifted its mask mandate and is opening up restaurants and other venues to full capacity. Frontline workers in the state do not have priority access to vaccines and many say they're nervous.
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Patients and families at a children's hospital are being asked to not take showers, KUT reports. They were also told the toilets can't flush, and staff are changing linens only as needed. -
An NPR analysis of COVID-19 vaccination sites in major cities across the Southern U.S. reveals a racial disparity, with most sites located in whiter neighborhoods. -
In 2021, states will redraw voting district lines to redistribute political power. In many places, the fight over where lines fall is expected to be bitter and partisan.
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Millions of dollars are flowing into state legislative races. Redistricting and the coronavirus are expected to be top of the policy agenda in 2021 and party control could mean everything.
