This was my third year at the Texas Tribune Festival, and without a doubt, 2019 was the biggest and most interesting Festival. The overarching topic was last week’s announcement of an impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump’s dealings with Ukraine. Once again, TribFest was centered on and around Congress Avenue in downtown Austin. I saw four of the five Democratic presidential candidates who attended the Festival: Pete Buttegieg, Beto O’Rourke, Michael Bennet and Julian Castro. (I missed Amy Kobluchar.) I saw one US Senator (Ted Cruz), one US Representative (Michael Bennet), one 2019 UN Environment award winner (Katharine Hayhoe), several Texas state legislators, and lots of journalists and pundits.
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