At the Texas Tribune Festival in Austin. I’ve hardly slept, my bag got lost, I haven’t showered, I’m about to go see a panel on women in political power and to either break my heart or restore it Wendy Davis will be there and also I am eating a breakfast taco, not everything is bad

For the next week, I’m following the Beto O’Rourke campaign around on its swing through West(ish) Texas. First stop: Abilene.

“I’m not a Democrat,” a longtime Abilene resident told me this morning. “But I’m sure as heck not voting for Ted Cruz.” One of the observations of the recent Beto profiles is that his supporters are largely white and middle-aged; those ladies are here, but so are teens and moms and seniors; I’d say ~60% of the crowd is white.

I’ll be reporting all day from the Trump Rally in Great Falls, Montana. This is the first rally for about 400 miles in any direction, and people have driven here from all over. This guy drove 12 hours from Gillette, Wyoming. Here at the counter-protest. “It was important for us to be here - to show that there are people who are opposed to bigotry and hate.”

I get asked a lot if I ever get scared out in the field as a reporter. My answer has always been no, because I'm white & straight-presenting & don't wear penny loafers.

There's more and more evidence as to just how naive that belief is.

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Last year, I was covering a congressional race where a fellow reporter was bodyslammed by a candidate. That candidate won his race and is running for re-election.

Spent the last 2 days at the Range Rights Conference in Modesto, CA, where Rep. Devin Nunes made a surprise appearance and told the crowd:

"The media that's here, they're here to mock you and call you a bunch of people in cowboy hats" Other Nunes highlights:

"I think we need a free press, but 90% of publications are owned by hard left billionaires"

"The media is totally corrupt, if you don't think 90% of the media is totally corrupt, you're fooling yourself"

Did you attend a march that didn't get much attention from the national media? I'd love to see a picture or hear about it. Here's some pics sent to me via DM of the march in Norfolk, Virginia — which drew between 4000-5000 people.

Reporting from the March for Our Lives in Helena, Montana - Population 30k. This is Amelie, Amanda, and Tyler, who helped organize the event. “This is an incredible opportunity. We didn’t ask adults permission to do this. We just did it.” This is Francie and Bud, who drove an hour from Cascade to be here. Bud was a history teacher for 37 years; first got shot at in 1973.

“I never dreamed that we’d be in our 70s and have to be marching.”

Reporting from Boise High School - this is Lily, a sophomore. “A lot of people don’t think much of Idaho. But we’re people & our voices matter. Our teachers said this is our right to practice civil disobedience.” Her message to the Parkland students: “Stay strong. If we stick together, as students, we can make change happen.”

Tonight, in the tiny town of Paradise, Montana, I watched Cliven Bundy encourage all Montanan ranchers to stop signing their grazing leases with the federal govt and "Act like Montanans. Act like you understand the constitution." The meeting was held at the old school house; completely packed. Overflow parking all the way down the hill. People from all over but a ton from near Paradise, home of Jake Ryan, who’s been charged with involvement in the Malheur standoff