Karen Brooks Harper is a senior politics writer in the Austin bureau of the Dallas Morning News, and has covered 13 sessions of the Texas Legislature under three governors and four news agencies across the state. Her beat includes lobbyists and power players, elections, fiscal policy, criminal justice, family, immigration and healthcare. She is a Mizzou alumna who has covered Texas politics in and out of Austin for nearly 30 years. She's also covered the cartel wars along the TX-MX border, Congress in Mexico City, 3 presidential races, and 6 hurricanes, and more special sessions than she can count.