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