What do Texans agree on?

Charles Blain is a Houston-based writer, public policy entrepreneur, and commentator whose work on local government reform and accountability in Texas’s major cities, with particular focus on community, institutions, and social trust spans more than a decade. His forthcoming book The Brotherhood Effect will be published in 2026 by Johns Hopkins University Press, the nation’s oldest continuously operating university press. Blain is a regular contributor to City Journal on Texas policy issues and to the Houston Chronicle, where he writes about ethics and accountability, local government, institutions and public trust, and community. He serves on the Governing Board of the Prison Entrepreneurship Program and on the Texas Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.