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LIVING IN HOUSTON, I can explain how the Chronicle operates, given its very conservative readership:

1) First, if the race is competitive, they will ALWAYS SUPPORT THE DEMOCRAT - as that is who they are - their other editorials make their hatred of this country abundantly clear. They are owned by Hearst, and their ‘journalists’ come from the same ‘journalism schools’ as the New York Times and the Washington Post - so let’s get that out of the way first.

2) Second, if the race is NOT COMPETITIVE in Texas, they will support the presumed winner - which these days means the Republican, with few exceptions. Which is why they’ll support both John Culberson (a conservative House member) and Sheila Jackson Lee in the same editorial, as both almost always have token opposition. That’s why they could endorse Bush twice, and Romney, and McCain - TEXAS SIMPLY DIDN’T MATTER as the presidential vote as a foregone conclusion in this state, and no one outside of Texas cared what they said. Let the president be elected by the popular vote and everyone would see just who the Chronicle is.

3) Third, if the race is not competitive in Texas, but they still hate the Republican, they will not endorse anyone. This happened with Tom Delay towards the end - they said something like “vote for anyone but him, he’s going to win anyway, but just vote for anyone else”.

The above policy enables them to CLAIM CREDIBILITY with our side, when it simply doesn’t exist. So Trump in Texas seems a bit out of character for them, and so, to me, that implies that they think the race may be a bit more competitive here, possibly given Cruz’s antics - although I disagree.

But the one thing to take away here - THE HOUSTON CHRONICLE HAS NEVER BEEN CONSERVATIVE - even though they will endorse some Republicans when it will have zero effect on the outcome.