Texas's electric grid stays deliberately isolated from the rest of the country's, a choice made in the 1930s specifically to avoid federal regulation. In February 2021, that isolation left it almost no way to import power during a shortfall that killed hundreds. Five years later, in January 2026, the same underlying failure recurred — the grid just didn't fall over this time.

Texas Instruments' $1.6 billion federal chip grant for its Sherman, Texas plant was finalized under the Biden administration a month before the handoff. The company's much larger follow-on investment was announced seven months into the Trump administration, credited publicly to it — with no comparable new federal money attached.

Houston is known for oil, but the Texas Medical Center on its doorstep is the largest medical complex in the world -- 54 institutions, 106,000 employees, one 2.1-square-mile campus. The city's real economy has always run on more than energy; the oil just gets the headline.