Speaker 1: Today's episode of The Trip Cast is brought to you
by Raise Your Hand, Texas and One World Strategy Group.
Hello and welcome back to the Tribcast. I'm Eleanor Klibanoff,
women's health reporter here at the Tribune, joined by my
co host, politics reporter James Berrigan.
Speaker 2: How you doing, James, I'm doing great.
Speaker 1: Great and fan favorite friend of the pod politics reporter
Jasper Sharer, how you doing.
Speaker 2: I'm good.
Speaker 3: I didn't know I was a fan favorite, but happy.
Speaker 2: To be back.
Speaker 1: Everyone's talking about it.
Speaker 3: Everyone everyone.
Speaker 1: Jasper is standing in today for our co host Matthew Watkins,
which I believe also gives you all the powers of
interim editor in chief.
Speaker 4: It's fine, it's, you know, a big duty. But all
I take my powers, I don't take them lightly.
Speaker 1: Yeah, long overdue. People have been saying, many people, do
you have any emergency action items you're going to shove
through while you're interim editor in chief.
Speaker 3: M That's a good quest.
Speaker 4: I mean, I've just learned ten seconds ago that I
have this title now, so I haven't put a ton
of thought into it, but I am excited to try
to you know, Phil Matthew's shoes on the podcast.
Speaker 1: Speaking of Power. This week's episode is all about the
Texas the top dog in Texas, Governor Greg Abbot. This week,
the governor gave his State of the State address on Sunday,
where he laid out the emergency items that the legislature
can fast track, sort of his priorities for the session.
This speech is also an opportunity for the governor, he's
been governor for a decade to sort of talk about
how the state is going under his tutelage, under his leadership.
Came at a tricky time this year, I think for Abbot.
Just hours before this speech, Texas experience a pretty significant tragedy.
The Dallas Mavericks traded Luka Doncik.
Speaker 2: To the La Laders.
Speaker 3: Sure.
Speaker 1: I just think it's important that we start and I
think people put a lot of trust in us here
at the Texas Tribune. Who you get your news from matters.
I want to go on the record and I want
to say to our North Texas listeners, our North Texas fans,
I am not now and have never been a Los
Angeles Lakers fan. Jasper, have you ever been a Los
Angeles Lakers fan?
Speaker 4: No, I can't say I have I can't speak for
everyone on the podcast, but personally no.
Speaker 1: Right, So that's two of three.
Speaker 5: James, I love the Los Angeles Lakers. I will not
apologize for it, and I'm sorry. I mean, I think
the Nico Harrison made a bad decision, but it benefits
my team, So I am okay with this.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think it's a matter that maybe the House
General Investigative Committee should start taking a look at just
they've They've been dormant for some number of months now
and this I just feel like things look a little
fishy here.
Speaker 2: To look into what went into the decision? Yes, yeah,
A what went.
Speaker 1: Into the decision? B James's fandom of the LA right
that too. Yeah, it is a trade that the Ringer
referred to as the dumbest NBA move I've ever seen someone.
I mean, I think it was the front page of
the Dallas Morning News. I mean, I feel like Dallas
is mourning, Like are the MAVs.
Speaker 2: There's done?
Speaker 5: There was a literal like funeral situation rightside of the
American Airline Center.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and I guess some of them.
Speaker 4: The more I think you could call it outlandish speculation
or at least, you know, really verging in almost conspiracy
theory territory, but maybe not is that you know, Miriam
Addelson of course is part of the ownership group that
has the majority ownership stake. She wants to you know,
legalize casinos, legalized gaming in Texas. Has the prospects for
that don't seem awesome with Dan Patrick in charge of
the Senate. So the theories out there in the in
the ether, or that this could be priming the pump
for you know, moving the Mavericks outside of Texas, which
you know, I don't know if that's actually in the cards,
but I feel like just the ties to the you know,
Texas political world here like there there's always some sort
of Texas politics connection, and everyone's running rampant with all
the speculation right off the bat.
Speaker 1: So it's a trade so bad you have to assume
there's some kind of political ulterior motive motivate play. Yeah, James,
do you have anything you'd like to say to the
people of North Texas.
Speaker 5: I've been completely caught off guard by this intro right now,
and I feel like it was just to make fun
of me.
Speaker 1: I told Jess right said, please come, prepare to talk about.
Speaker 5: But I think what the listeners are learning is that
we are political reporters and not sports reporters. We do
not have a whole lot.
Speaker 1: We want to tie this back to the Texas legislature
and the odds of a gambling a legislation which is terrible,
not the legislation. I just mean that we can ruin
anything by making it about the Texas legislature.
Speaker 2: Yes, come to parties with us were very fun.
Speaker 1: Anyway, moving on to the real stuff, which is that
also on Sunday night, Houston native Beyonce one Album of
the Year at the Grammys. Huge night for Texas. Uh,
I've just hearded learned that a resolution has been filed
to honor her. So Texas legislation, legislature connections to everything.
Speaker 2: Los Angeles Nativekendrick Lamar also did pretty.
Speaker 1: Well at the gramm How dare you uh right not
to say to that? Yes, I refuse to engage with
that information. Anyway. Let's move on to Governor Abbott and
the State of the State address. James You on Sunday
took a break from I assume planning a Lakers parade
in downtown Dallas to uh attend the State of the
State Address. Talked just a little bit about the event.
You know what the what the vibe was, what the
energy was.
Speaker 2: Well, the vibe was celebratory.
Speaker 5: As listeners may know, this is a tradition the State
of the State address that traditionally had been held at
the Capitol in front of a joint legislative session of
the House and Senate. But a couple of years ago
Governor Abbott made the decision he was going to take
the show on the road. First, he did it during
the pandemic and now he's continued sort of doing that tradition,
holding it at businesses to sort of, I think emphasize
his business friendly attitudes and how Texas is a leader
in business. So it was a lot of invited attendees.
The number given to us in the press box was
eleven hundred people there. Members of the House, member of
the Senate were there, Speaker Borroughs was there, and it
was sort of a summary of what the governor believes
is going right in the state of Texas. We're leaders
in business in the nation. Got a lot of top
tier research universities and casting his vision forward for what
the state needs to do to continue on that path.
And you know, it's all invited guests. So I saw
people saying, oh, he's getting a standing ovation. He's like, well, yeah,
he's going to get.
Speaker 2: A standing ovation.
Speaker 3: Friendly audience.
Speaker 2: It was a friendly audience, but you know it was.
Speaker 5: It was a speech that cast Governor Abbott's vision forward, saying,
here's what we need to do for the next couple
of decades for Texas to remain a leader. And some
of those things we're going to talk about, like water infrastructure,
which seems like nuts and bolts kind of boring stuff.
But then there's also other things like school vouchers that
he talked about and said that was a must pass item.
And then things that weren't emergency items but that he
certainly stressed were things like immigration, further restrictions on diversity,
equity and inclusion programs not just in universities but in
other tax paying entities, so we'll see what comes of that.
And then further restrictions on transgender Texans in public life,
which which really caught a lot of people's attention.
Speaker 1: Absolutely. I mean, were there any big surprises to you
jasper on what got the attention?
Speaker 4: What didn't I don't you know, I don't think so
I mean one thing that maybe caught my attention rather
than any individual item.
Speaker 3: Was just how.
Speaker 4: I guess broad some of the you know, the overall
like menu of items was how there's kind of something
for everyone in the sense that like what James was
talking about, you know, there's I think everyone in the
universe of Texas politics knew that education savings accounts was
going to be on the list. Bail reform, the Republican
version of bail reform has been this is a repeat item.
So some of the more partisan items I think were expected,
and then just kind of the everything else I think
you could put in the category of bipartisan, you know,
the the shoring up the water infrastructure, teacher pay, you know,
I think it it was, I guess notable in how
uncontroversial the agenda was beyond sort of the partisan items
that we all we all knew would would be on there.
Speaker 5: I think part of that was to sort of project
the strength on things like fool vouchers, but also to
sort of quell this infighting that we have seen in
the Texas GOP for many many years now. He has
Jasper put really well, is putting something out there for
everybody business friendly Republicans love it. They love the investment
and water infrastructure, They love the career workforce training that
is coming. Something that wasn't an emergency item but that
he talked about was investment in nuclear power and nuclear energy.
They love all that stuff because it creates a better
business atmosphere. And then social conservatives are very very happy
about school vouchers, are very happy about DEI talk, are
very happy about the further restrictions on transgender Texans and
about immigration. So something for everybody, and everybody seems the
Republicans of that is, seem to be happy with the
direction that Abbot is laying out.
Speaker 1: You guys mentioned most of these, but just for the
sake of totality, the seven emergency items were cutting property taxes,
a generational investment in water infrastructure, increasing teacher pay, vocational
training programs, school choice, school vouchers, educational savings accounts, bail reform,
and then creating a cybersecurity hub in San Antonio.
Speaker 5: Yeah, thats me for a loop. Yeah, because it's a
little boring, boring, a.
Speaker 1: Little specific, a little yeah, yeah, but I think.
Speaker 5: It's like a national security thing, but it is kind
of boring.
Speaker 1: It's a good reminder that like a lot of what
the government does is gets no headlines and uh, you know,
is not that incendiary, but is important.
Speaker 4: Could maybe throw that in the category of things that
the business you know, the Chamber of Commerce Republicans would
would be happy about to.
Speaker 1: Yeah, how does this sort of align with what we're
hearing from the House and the Senate on what they
want to accomplish this session.
Speaker 4: I think it generally lines up pretty pretty closely, especially
with I think the Senate has a more with with
Dan Patrick laying out his list of so far twenty
five top priority bills. I think they have a more
formal agenda that you know, we can sort of compare
to and just looking at what, you know, the emergency
items that Dan Patrick has has already listed as his priorities, water, infrastructure,
property tax cuts, school choice, education savings accounts, and bail
reform are all up there, and those you know, those
low built numbers. And I think Speaker Burrows also put
out a statement, you know, listing a few items that
he said basically, you know, we're all aligned on passing
this stuff. So I think, you know, there there were
may be some some items on Dan Patrick's priority list
that that were not mentioned by Abbott. You know, you could,
you could talk about that, but you know, I did.
It did seem to me that Abbot was intentionally going
back to my earlier point about you know it. It
was kind of striking how little controversial stuff was on here.
It feels like that could be kind of an intentional
move to you know, let's make sure we can knock
out school vouchers, essays and some of these other, you know,
tricky things like property tax cuts. Took two special sessions
last year. Let's get those out of the way before
we bring up, you know, all the stuff that could
have nasty floor fights and derail these other items.
Speaker 5: Yeah, the speaker's statement that you're referencing said, excuse me.
The speaker's statement that you're referencing said, the House Senate
and Governor Abbott are quote clearly aligned. So he and
the items that he was mentioning were all items that
were emergency items for the governor.
Speaker 2: So they're trying to project unity.
Speaker 5: They're trying to project that they're all on the same
page and there's not going to be this infighting that
we saw. We may be on track to another Kumbai
Ya session like we saw in twenty nineteen.
Speaker 3: Was distant memory.
Speaker 5: We'll have to wait and see what that relationship between
the House and the Senate looks like. But also also
can I just get on like a little rant here, please,
seven emergency items, that's what you call priorities. When you
have seven of them, you can track them, and we
know easily what the seven are.
Speaker 2: Seven even is a little bit big.
Speaker 5: But Lieutenant Governor has forty forty and that has grown
from the original twenty that it was. And I get
the idea of like you've got to do more and more,
but when you have forty like it, each one gets
a little less deprioritized.
Speaker 2: And the House under Speaker Feeling was going to have
one hundred and fifty of them. Now we don't know
what it's actually going to be.
Speaker 5: Like Speaker Borrows hasn't put out his statement, but just
a little rant about priorities and top the Governor said
seven and he said these are our emergency items, and
then he talked about a bunch of other issues. And
I think you know he's covering all his bases. But
that's it's just a little pet peeve of you. Well,
and we should note too, that. Patrick also made a
point to say, even if an item is not included
in this top forty list doesn't mean that it's not
a priority or it's not important. So really forty is
kind of just the starting point of his So he's right, it's.
Speaker 1: Like everyone gets a few. There's not even there's not
that many senators guys.
Speaker 5: As a wise woman once said, a friend to all
is a friend and none though, come on now, I mean,
there's just show what your priorities are.
Speaker 1: I would say if I could broad this out even further.
A real issue I have had with the Texas I've
covered several state legislatures. There's too many bills, period, doesn't
matter if their priorities or not. Texas the text legislature
files north of ten thousand bills every session. We pass
about a thousand of them. Many of them are the
same bill again and again and again. It is insane
to me. I just saw a memo someone I think
Brad Johnson tweeted out this memo from the you know,
legislative Legislative Research Council that you know helps write the bills,
basically being like, can you please tell us which ones
are your priorities? So we can like prioritize getting those written.
How about everyone? Here's my ask to the Texas legislators
when you are sending a memo to them saying, these
are the priorities I'd like you to, you know, prioritize
these bills of the many that I have five asked
you to write up. Just knock off everything else at
the bottom there. Just just everyone gets a couple of priorities.
This is what according to our politics editor are now
managing editor for Politics and Enterprise, Rebecca Allen has told
me that Louisiana they meet every year, but every other
year there's a limit on how many bills legislators can file.
Let's give that a try in Texas.
Speaker 3: It's an interesting idea. I mean, I think, to be fair, he's.
Speaker 2: Like, let's stop talking on a high wire right now.
Speaker 4: It's a pleasure to be here. Now I am. I
will just to be fair to the Lieutenant governor. I
do think that, you know, he he has still been
pretty intentional about you know, the low bill numbers are
still you know, he indicates that those are his his
utmost priorities. I think, you know, he sort of assumes
that people know Senate Bill three, like his his THHC
band is going to be top of mind. You know,
I think people aren't necessarily equating that in importance to
like Senate Bill thirty nine, no offense to whoever files that,
But you know, it's it's.
Speaker 3: So I don't know, I think.
Speaker 4: And it's also sort of like him flexing his muscles
in some way where he's like he's just amassed this.
I think he's pretty regularly referred to as like the
most powerful lieutenant governor in history, and he's like, I'm
gonna roll out forty priority bills and like get guys
better pass.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but there's not being nothing about being unfair. But
it's just like just something that is like more colloquial,
very easy.
Speaker 5: There's the Ten Commandments, there's the seven sacraments, right, they
make it easy for the people to follow.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, I will say, I mean there is a
risk to doing seven items when in fact we know
that of these also, of these seven, you know a
few of them are higher priorities, and certainly you do forty,
you get to say at the end, we passed a
majority of my priorities with this. You know, Governor Abbott
has thrown a ton of political capital last session and
this and now this session into vouchers. I mean, I
think we can really see this as like there's seven
and one rises above the rest, right, what I mean,
James talked to us a little bit about how we
got here. Governor Abbot's role in getting vouchers to this point, right,
And I think you.
Speaker 5: Make an excellent point, like there's seven of them. It's
easier for us to track, like, it's easier for the
people to watch. It's also easier to snipe them. It's
a bigger gamble, for sure, percent bigger gamble. Didn't get
his agenda done.
Speaker 2: Here's what I'll say.
Speaker 5: I mean, the governor is at an all time high
in terms of his power.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 5: He was very involved in the Republican primaries last year.
He wiped out eleven of fourteen opponents to school vouchers
and replace them with people who say they support it.
He's so confident that the day after the election he says,
We've got seventy nine hardcore.
Speaker 2: School voucher supporters.
Speaker 5: That's more than the seventy six that he needs to
get passed in the House, which is where the problem was.
He's also raised or has seventy million dollars in the
bank for an election that's two years away. And right
now you look around and see who would be crazy
enough to challenge Governor Abbott in an election, whether that
be in Republican Party from the right or any Democrat
who would want to go up against that gargantuan war chess.
He is at his all time strength, and I think
that's what he's projecting in this It's a bold sort
of agenda that he's put out. School vouchers is the
number one thing, and he's saying, you guys want to
oppose me on anything, I dare you, look at what
just happened to the folks that did that last time around.
So I think the legislature has gotten the message and
they are on board, and that's why you're seeing so
much unity. Not to mention that he has also been
very wise with the way he's put the agenda out.
He realizes he's got a Republican majority in both chambers,
and he sprinkled a little bit of something for everybody.
So it's a unifying agenda for Republicans and he's.
Speaker 2: Just super strong. So there's nobody's going to challenge him now.
The Democrats.
Speaker 5: They are in real trouble, and there's clear opposition from
them to a lot of the agenda, not necessarily the
emergency items, but some of the emergency items, certainly including
how the teacher pay.
Speaker 2: Raise is going to go.
Speaker 5: But what do you do if you're the Democrats is
my question.
Speaker 2: It's gonna be a tough session for them, I think.
Speaker 1: Right, I mean, Jasper Governor Abbott, Like you know, last
session we went to several special sessions on school Boucher's
He's thrown his weight behind you know, in these races.
He has come out very clearly as like this is
the cornerstone of at least you know, the last couple
of years of his or you know that's most recent
few years. How much of his legacy is riting on
getting this done this session, you know, from the zenith
of his power to it's a big risk.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, I think the short answer is a lot.
You know, it's especially just thinking about he's been in
office for such a long tenure, just historically speaking for governors,
and you know, he's he's generally gotten what he wants
from the legisl but he hasn't with some exceptions. But
he hasn't you know, I'd be hard pressed to think
of like really a legacy defining you know, item like
this that he's put all his weight behind and you know,
gotten it through, and we could think twenty thirty years
down the line that people will like associate this new
law with like his name. So in that sense, this
is like, you know, potentially what people will remember his
his governorship for, especially if it comes kind of towards
the tail end of it, depending on how many more
terms he serves. And I think, you know, it's also
kind of impressive in some ways just thinking about how,
you know, where education savings accounts vouchers were at in
those you know, the test votes in the House, you know,
going back even just like four or six years ago,
it was pretty overwhelming opposition to get from like you know,
in the twenties. The number of votes for vouchers up
to potentially in the seventies is pretty significant. So I
don't know, I think it's a lot is writing on
it and kind of like what James is saying, it's
you know, kind of his his political like it's assumed
right now that he is at the height of his powers.
But you know, if if he struggles to get it through,
Like if they get stuck at seventy four seventy five
votes somehow it's you know, that'll be a huge black
mark on him in some ways, given the expectations that
he's set coming into the session.
Speaker 1: Right, absolutely, all right, Let's take a quick break to
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smart strategy, real impact, proven results. James tell us a
little bit more about Greg Abbott as a leader. I mean,
he's been a longtime governor, but like you said, not
a ton of splashy in a state of a you know,
a let's say, firebrand political leaders. He sort of runs
a little more quiet.
Speaker 5: Right, Yeah, And I think having spoken to people who
have worked for the governor and seen sort of behind
the scenes. They've sort of admitted that he has grown
into the job. You know, he spent most of his
career in the legal field as an attorney, as a judge,
as the attorney general, and it's a different role from
being in the executive and being working with the legislature.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 5: I think if you think back to twenty fifteen, you
could certainly see a governor who was getting his head
on straight about how to work with the legislature. And
he was so different from his immediate predecessor, Perry, who
was a creature of the legislature and had been in
both the House and the Senate and knew how to
sort of play the game. I don't think it can
be argued that Governor Abbott doesn't know how to play
the game now. He I think certainly takes a little
bit longer to sort of go out there and say
his public position, a public view on a position or
on an issue. But once he's made up his mind,
he's going full bore on it. And we've seen that
with school vouchers, right. It wasn't something that I think
people in his circles say he's always been a supporter,
but he clearly was not as strong a supporter in
twenty seventeen or twenty nineteen or even twenty twenty one.
It really came last session in twenty twenty three that
we saw him going like really really strongly for this.
And you know, school Boucher's supporters they see that and
they say, this has really sort of changed the dynamic here.
He has become a lot stronger. We've also seen it
on things like immigration. He is very very clear on
how being stricter border enforcement, stricter immigration enforcement, and he's
really gone for it. So I think he's grown into
this very very very strong governor who is willing to
do almost unprecedented things like we have seen with the
immigration enforcement in the state led border wall, and then
also even in trying to get his agenda through with
his involvement in the primaries. He's really become this very
very powerful governor that I think people ten years ago
might not have foreseen.
Speaker 4: But yeah, I think it's also interesting to add on
to that point about just you know, he of course
went scorched earth in the primaries, but even you know
before that, like during session, you know, and it's been
interesting to see him how he interacts with the legislator,
the legislature as someone who hasn't served there before. Just
he was showing all these hardball tendencies even before you know,
it got to election season, where he was you know,
went on a veto spree, you know, penalizing lawmakers who
didn't get on board with vouchers or I believe also
some of the rationale for that was penalizing them for
not getting property attacks cuts done in time. Even going
back to the twenty twenty one session when Republicans were
trying to pass the they're voting an election overhaul bill
and the they failed to do that during the regular
session and the Democrats fled the state and held up
the bill. You know, Abbott went ahead and defunded, used
the line item veto to I guess, defund the legislature.
So he's clearly establishing this pattern of like governing and
and sort of interacting with the legislature. You know, he
also of course has his allies who you know, will
work with him on sort of you know, the weedsy
stuff and you know, getting what he needs in the
budget and and all that kind of stuff. But we've
also you know, I guess a striking number of these
kind of high profile clashes involving Abbott in the legislature
where he's not you know, he's willing to use the sword.
Speaker 2: I guess yeah.
Speaker 5: And it's interesting too because having spoken with people who
have worked for the governor as well, like again they said,
he wants to have good relationships with the legislature. He
doesn't like it when there's that rift between them, right.
But to your point, is has shown that if you
don't get on board with something that he has clearly
said is a priority item, there will be consequences. And
we saw the worst version of that for the people
who lost in the primaries. But there has been previous ones,
like defunding the legislature, and it's something that I think
is interesting for us to view as that separation of
the legislative branch and the executive branch because.
Speaker 2: He has grown so strong.
Speaker 5: I mean, even at the peak of Rick Perry's height,
there was that thing where he wanted to require like
HPV vaccines and the legislature overwrote it and they were like, no,
we're not going to do that. And that was like
the legislature sort of flexing its muscle saying no, we
are our own independent branch and we are going to
do things our way because we are an equal branch
at government.
Speaker 1: Here.
Speaker 5: The governor is so popular and so strong, and popular
is important because voters really really like Greg Abbott, and
so he is so powerful and so popular and so
strong that he sort of has overridden that sort of independence,
if you will, of the legislature.
Speaker 1: Well, and he's like a voracious like fundraiser, right, I
think he has learned like he is not the guy
who is like making the headlines with like crazy quotes
or like getting out that. I mean, he certainly does
interviews on Fox News and things like that, but he
is that's not what he is known for. He's like
I think certainly maybe always new, but now really seems
to have stepped into like this like soft powers soft
unless you're on the other side of it, but you know,
the behind the scenes stuff, you know, he can kind
of you know, unless you're closely watching the Texas legislature,
you just kind of know him as like as Greg Abbott,
you know, like he's not really I know this from
like a report of a lot of the Attorney General's office,
Like I mean, he really like laid the groundwork for
you know, suing the Obama administration and like suing the
you know, the Texas as. This leader in setting policy
through the courts, and like you know, rarely talks about that.
I mean, you know it talks about it when it
serves him. But now you've got Ken Paxton, who obviously
takes a very different pr tack.
Speaker 5: I think it's more of a like a focused power,
Like he has the things that he wants to do,
and he certainly I mean, he goes on Fox News
on those things like immigration, and he has obviously gone
on a big campaign tour about vouchers, but he doesn't
feel the need to like talk about every single thing.
He's like, I'm with you guys on these things, like
I don't need to. He's got his going back to
this his priority, and he's like, I'm going to focus
on these because I know I've got where the same
page about everything else.
Speaker 2: I don't need to be talking about it all the time.
Speaker 4: I do think, I mean, one area where he we
have seen I guess maybe the limits or I guess
one check on Abbot's power is when he runs into
any sorts of disagreements with Dan Patrick and the Senate especially,
I'm thinking of the property tax rift. I guess we
could call it at the end of the regular session
in twenty twenty three, where you know, I know that
the governor and his staff were somewhat involved during the
regular session, but they really you know, a lot of
the clashing was between the House and the Senate, and
then Abbot sort of comes in, you know, pretty I
guess hot like at the start of the first special
session saying here's exactly how we need to do these
property tax cuts, and he was on the same page
as the House, and Dan Patrick said, no, that's actually
not how we're gonna do it. We're gonna raise the
homestead exemption, and Abbots sort of ended up backing off
just I mean, what ended up passing was more or
less what Dan Patrick wanted. So that is one area
where I think, you know, part of Abbot's power I
think also comes from just it is a very powerful
alliance when when Abbott and Patrick are on the same page,
and just so happens that they on the vast majority
of these these items, they are pretty aligned.
Speaker 1: Right, These were not emergency items, but as you mentioned,
sort of a governor Abbot took the opportunity to mention
a couple other things, two of which, you know, immigration
and his sort of taking a big swing at what
he called the woke agendas in schools and you know, diversity, equity,
inclusion measures, gender and athletics and those sort of things.
These are things Texas has already done a lot on that.
Now we're getting a lot of airtime nationally because of
our new President Trump. Talk a little bit about, you know,
the relationship between Governor Abbott President Trump and like Texas's
you know, taking a little bit of a victory lap
on some of these issues.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 4: Well, I think during the the speech, Abbot mentioned how
he was saying that he thought like the Trump administration
was kind of modeling their approach in some ways off
of what Texas was doing. Not sure exactly what, you know,
how that's playing out so far. It's so early with
the Trump Administration's policies that I think even just looking
at you know, how Texas is approaching, you know, trying
to trying to be a willing and able partner to
you know, help with the mass deportation efforts and all that,
it's it seems like we don't really know how how
the how much the state is going to actually spend
on order security or watching some of the Senate Finance
hearings lately, it's you know, it sounds like that could
just be like a starting point. You know, Abbot's still
trying to get the Feds to agree to reimburse Texas
for all the billions they've spent on border security, which
I think even Joan Huffman, the Finance chair in the Senate,
was like not saying, you know, I'm not super optimistic
about that, but but.
Speaker 2: I just happens every couple of years that they do.
Speaker 4: This, right, But I do think, I mean, it's we
are starting to see a little bit more. It is
coming into folks a little bit. Just how the you know,
Abbot signing these these explicit agreements to you know, basically
with the Trump administration to deputize or allow state police
to serve as de facto immigration officers as long as
they're in coordination some of some sort with the Feds.
You know, that is in a lot of ways getting
Texas right back to where it was with Senate bill
for what they were trying to do with their their
big immigration bill before it got put on pause by
the courts. So I think, you know, we'll just continue
to see more details roll out as you know, the
Trump administration starts, continues to put in more executive orders
and and and all that. But it's clearly the posture
for Texas is like, whatever you guys need from at,
let's team up and do as much as we can together,
which is striking.
Speaker 3: Really.
Speaker 5: I also saw it kind of as a like as
a massive flex you know, for yeah, because he did say,
you know, Trump Trump, the Trump administration is looking at
us as the model they're doing what we were doing,
and so and it is interesting that it's not an
emergency item because it was an emergency item last session.
There were two items related to the border last time around,
and it's been an emergency item like twice before, like
immigration related or border related things. You'll remember sanctuary cities
in twenty seventeen. But yeah, I mean, I think I
just think like it's a massive flex to say we
don't really need to We feel like we have a
comfortable partner in the federal government to all the points
that Jasper was saying. But again, I think just because
it's not an emergency item for the government governor. Doesn't
mean he doesn't care about it. I mean it's one
of the things that he cares most about. It's been
a defining item of his tenure as governor. And I
think that lawmakers are still going to be filing bills.
So like, let's make no mistake, immigration is going to
continue to be a huge issue in the Texas legislature.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think.
Speaker 4: I mean, to your point, it's like habit and state
leaders can can get done what they want to do
on immigration. They can ink these agreements with with the
Trump administration without having to pass any new legislation. And
in the meantime, you know, kind of to the point
I was making earlier, I could see why Abbot wouldn't
be super eager to have you know, these prolonged and
really emotional for debates over you know, contentious immigration legislation
while he's simultaneously trying to get this potentially legacy defining
school choice es a bill through. So I think, well,
and we have seen some some proposed legislation already as
far as just expanding the state's role in immigration. I
think the dan Patrick Priority bill was you know, requiring
local govern mint cities to cooperate with you know, federal
mass deportation efforts, so that that's still coming later in
the session, and.
Speaker 2: The governor announced support for that.
Speaker 1: Right, well, right, and certainly, I mean I was just
looking at some polling before this that you know, they
have the support of the voters on this. You know,
the immigration is the number one issue. The Texas Politics
Project found twenty two percent of Texas voters think that
should be the legislature's top priority, which is not you know,
a majority, but it is the issue that they are
you know, that have the most support for, followed by
the economy and then in third place, I don't know
which same.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think relatable.
Speaker 4: If there's anything we can you know, consistent through line
on all the state wide polling, especially from the Texas
Politics Project folks over there, I know they've pulled this
question for a number of years. It's like it just
feels like there's no it's like an endless appetite. There's
no amount that is too much that the legislature can spin.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, But to your point, you know, if the if
you want to focus your energy on education savings account
of vouchers, maybe right now you can say, well, the
federal government's got, you know, the big swings and let
them catch up to where where Texas already is. Yeah yeah, well, Jasper,
thank you so much for joining us on this week's
episode of The Trip Cast. James, you as well. We
hope the good people of North Texas forgive you for
your allegiance.
Speaker 3: Shameful, shameful, shameful.
Speaker 1: We want to thank you to our sponsors, Raise Your
Hand Texas and One World Strategy Group. Our producers are
Rob Avila and Chris Spobada. Our theme music is composed
by Rob and we will see you next week