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Speaker 1: Patrip Cast listeners. Once again, we're taking a break for

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the holidays and are going to play you a conversation

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from the Texas Tribune Festival last month. This week's conversation

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features three candidates for statewide office on the Republican side,

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Nate Sheets, who's running for AG Commissioner, Joan Huffman, and

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Aaron Wrights, who are both running for Attorney General. The

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conversations will be moderated by Brad Johnson, formerly of the

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Texan News outlet. We'll be back next week with a

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new episode featuring me and Eleanor.

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Speaker 2: Happy New Year, Good afternoon, Austin. Great to be here

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with y'all.

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Speaker 3: My name's Brad Johnson. I'm a senior reporter at the

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Texan cover statewide politics. I see GUIDs of the Tribune

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and all the other reporters in here quite a bit,

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especially with the legislatures and session. We got rapid fire

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interview setup today. We've got three republic Cans back to

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back to back, one for Agriculture Commission, two for the

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Attorney General's office. First up, we've got Nate Sheets, Republican

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running for ag commission.

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Speaker 4: Nate Welcome, Thanks Brad.

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Speaker 2: Great to be here with you. Thank you.

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Speaker 3: So you know you're new with this. You're a first

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time candidate. You never run for anything before. Actually, let

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me sit first. Say everyone, make sure you silence your

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phones please. You never run for office.

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Speaker 2: Before, that's correct.

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Speaker 3: You have had a pretty interesting background, to say the least.

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Once you run us through where you've been and you

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know how you made your keep.

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Speaker 5: Yeah, thank you. So it's fun to be back here

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in Austin. I grew up down in Hayes County with

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Southwest Texas. I was never smart enough. They wouldn't let

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me into ut and so I here we go, and

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so moved up to Dallas, where I met my lovely wife, Patty,

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where she's in here somewhere.

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Speaker 2: Patty's back there.

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Speaker 5: And right after Patty and I got married, she told

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us that we need a hobby together, and she was

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thinking jogging, working out. But I bought a bee high

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back in nineteen ninety six as a hobby and put

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it at my parents' backyard because we lived in a apartment.

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And that resulted in turning into what today is the

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largest honey company in America called Nature Nates. But I

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also went on a mission trip that year and at

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the same time, wound up spending twelve years in full

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time Christian ministry, travel into eighty eight countries around the

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world telling.

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Speaker 2: People about Jesus.

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Speaker 5: And so I left there in twenty ten and started

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doing the honey company full time. And at the time,

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and honey, you know, people really didn't trust honey companies.

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There was a lot of confusion and fraud, and so

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I felt like we needed to be the most trusted

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honey company in the world, and the only way to

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have trust.

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Speaker 2: Is through transparency.

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Speaker 5: So I started testing all the honey that we bought

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twice for pest sides, rbside, fun sides, corn syrup, rice syrup, antibiotics,

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and so at first that really kind of annoyed the beekeepers,

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but over time they realized Nathan's going to pay more

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than anybody else, and he's going to pay early, and

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he's not going to take any deductions. And so the

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benefit of doing that is over time, I started to

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motivate the beekeepers and how they produced honey, and all

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of a sudden, I started getting a lot more clean

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honey over the years, and so so we just did

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that and within just a few years we became the

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number one brand that honey in America, but we also

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created the raw and unfiltered sector of honey. Before that,

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no one had done that. And at the time honey

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was like at three hundred million. Today it's at one

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point five billion, and it all came from that raw

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and unfiltered sector.

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Speaker 2: So, you know, I come at this.

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Speaker 5: Race is you know, thirty years of food experience, but

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we also have the calcaf and we do cutting horses

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and things like that, but really knowing how agriculture works,

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knowing how to scale a small company and help small

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producers become large producers and penetrate markets and have more revenue.

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Speaker 3: So when we think the agriculture industry in Texas, which

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is obviously a massive one, but typically we think crops,

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we think livestock. What's the share of the egg industry

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that is encompassed by the honey industry, Like, is that

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is that a huge section.

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Speaker 5: Or no, No, I mean the whole the industry is

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probably you know, if you included the ingredient side, you

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included the industrial and the.

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Speaker 2: Food service side, it's probably two billion.

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Speaker 5: You know, the egg industry is one hundred and fifty

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eight billion, so a little bit a little bit broader

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when you start.

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Speaker 2: Adding in corn and cattle and wheat.

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Speaker 3: What are the biggest challenges facing the agriculture industry today?

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Speaker 5: Yeah, let me ask you. Anybody in agriculture in here? Okay, oh,

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we've got one very nice all right. Anybody eat food today?

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Now here's the real question. Who believes that the food

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that you eat is related to your health?

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Speaker 2: This matters.

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Speaker 5: So I think we are today at this day and

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age in America where we have a president who understands

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the relationship between.

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Speaker 2: Agriculture and our health.

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Speaker 5: Because we have issues like seventy percent of all Americans

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having one chronic disease or more. We spend five trillion

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dollars a year treating symptoms of diseases related to the

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food that we eat. We have seventy eight percent of

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kids eighteen to twenty five who can't even serve in

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the military. And yet at the same time, we're losing

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small agriculture. Last year, we lost one hundred and twenty

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two thousand farms in America. That's seven percent. That's a

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pretty alarming statistic. We actually lost eighty percent of the

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bees and Texas this past year. Sixty five percent across

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the United States. Last week in Texas we lost sixty

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eight farms. So we did this week and the week before.

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All the way back to twenty eighteen, we've lost seventeen

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thousand small farms. So, you know, the issues that we

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have in agriculture today is really the intersection of consolidation

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and food and how do we start to deconsolidate big

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agriculture and have smaller agriculture that really cares about the

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food that they produce.

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Speaker 3: Where's the ag Department fit into this? What's its role

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with the industry.

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Speaker 5: Yeah, so in nineteen ninety four, when I got into

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the honey business, I was a member of the Go

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Texan program. And the Go Texan program is part of

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text Apartment of Agriculture, and it's this little logo that

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looks like a brand of the State of Texas, and

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you know that is there as the TDA is to

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try to help small producers, you know, grow. Having been

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a member for many years, they don't do anything to

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help you grow. I'm not belittling their efforts, but they

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never helped me penetrate a store, They never helped me

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do marketing.

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Speaker 2: They you know, there was nothing there.

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Speaker 5: And so I think that the role of the text

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Department of Agriculture is to help farmers and ranchers not

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just thrive or survive, but thrive, and so being able

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to go and utilize tools like the Texas Department of

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the Go Texas program and know how to really use

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that as a way to help farmers and ranchers grow

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that product by penetrating retail, by creating a more robust

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direct to consumer platform, so you're selling it full retail.

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Because the issue that farmers have today in nineteen eighty

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they made forty cents of every one dollar food forty cents.

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Today they make fifteen cents. Now, any of y'all, but

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I don't want to really have a job where I

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make sixty percent less forty five years into my career.

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Farmers the ranching side, they used to make seventy cents.

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Now they make thirty. You know who does make seventy cents?

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The four packers, Tyson, Cargill, JBS, National Beef.

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Speaker 2: It's been reversed. And so we have these types of

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issues where the TDA.

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Speaker 5: Really needs to be more thoughtful about how do we

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help people stay in business, how do we level the

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playing field? And so, for instance, in in nineteen seventy

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we had about eight hundred meat packing plants across the state.

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They could make seventy cents of every dollar because packing

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was a commodity. We need to get back to that

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so people that are small producers have the ability to

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go process their beef and to be able to sell

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it to consumers direct. Actually just got a text message

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just a little while ago New Hampshire. New Hampshire just

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passed a law that there don't require ranchers to have

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USDA approved certification on their box beef. They can just

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sell it anywhere in the state and they don't have

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to sell it by the quarter or by the half.

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And so New Hampshire's one up to us here in

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Texas to help ranchers be able to be in business

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more easily. And that's what the TDA needs to do.

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We need to help people be in business better.

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Speaker 3: When I think of two more external problems that the

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agriculture industry is facing in Texas, I think of water

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that's a problem the entire state has to deal with

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and is coping with right now, and then the screw worm.

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Where do you see those two issues on the list

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of top priorities for the states in the agg Department specifically.

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Speaker 5: Yeah, it's hard to grow crops or animals if you

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don't have water. So it's pretty important. And having been

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out on the campaign trail, it doesn't matter where I go, North, southeast,

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or west, people are upset about water, either someone coming

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in taking it from them, like in East Texas or

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up in North Texas where there is imminent domaining four

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hundred thousand acres of fifth, sixth, seventh generation of farmland

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of people, so they can make an aquifer or a reservoir,

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you know, to be able to provide water to the

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city of Dallas. And so I've got a ranch out

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in West Texas. Water out in West Texas is pretty

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sparse right now. So it's a massive issue. No one's

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got a silver bullet, candidly, but it's going to take

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a lot of really smart people. And I think at

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the end of the day, we're going to have to

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do some things as consumers that maybe none of us

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want to do. No one wants a restrictive waterhead. That's California,

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not Texas. But if we all do something, I mean

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there's going to be some issues. The new World screwworm.

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You know, obviously everybody know what that is. Yeah, yeah,

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So the New World screwworm is a fly that lays

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an egg, typically on an open wound on an animal,

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the umbilical cord of a newborn calf, or an orifice

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on an animal or a person, and the fly lays

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it looks like a blowfly, that big, ugly kind of

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green blowfly, but it lays an egg and within seven

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hours that egg hatches and then that pupa burrows, screws

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itself into the living host, and it eats living flesh,

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not dead flesh. So we had an outbreak here in

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nineteen seventy one, caused billions of dollars of damage, and

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it's coming back. The way it was stopped in nineteen

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seventy one was through they sterilized male flies. The female

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mate one time and she doesn't know if she mates

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with a sterile male or a fertile male, but they

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would produce about five hundred male flies a week, drop

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them into the infected areas, and eventually they just burned

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them out. So we had down in Panama sit facility

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the sterile insect, and so that was kind of our

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line of defense. But during COVID, and then also with

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the immigration issues and even cartels utilizing cattle trying to

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use it as a way to ferry people up. We've

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had that New World screw worm within the border of

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seventy miles, so the USDA has the border shut down,

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and so the cattle, the feeding industry of cattle really

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relies upon inputs from Mexico, Mexican cattle to be able

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to go into the processing facilities to be able to

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provide beef to McDonald's and Burger King and everyone else.

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So that's just another issue on top of historically low

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cattle population numbers lowest in seventy years, and one of

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the highest prices that you've had, and all the input

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costs continue to go through the.

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Speaker 3: Roof low in large part because of the droughts we've

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seen in recent years.

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Speaker 5: Right, Yeah, the cattle population, yeah, and the input costs.

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I mean, I've got we have this conversation internally inside

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of our team. So if you have a how that

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you want to hold off until the spring and have

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her have a calf, you have all that cost of

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feed and everything else between now and that spring, and

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so it becomes a utilization, you know, time value of money.

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So do you send that cow off to get processed

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and buy her back, you know, pregnant or by a

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by one back pregnant in the spring.

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Speaker 2: And that's what a lot of people are doing.

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Speaker 5: And so we really have to help figure out and

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incentivize producers to hold back heifers and calves so we

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can birth them and grow that population.

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Speaker 3: So back on the screwhere, we've seen some butting of

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heads between the federal government and the states on the

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issue of how exactly do we fix this. You mentioned

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the sterile flies, there's also fly traps. What do you

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make of at least somewhat of a disagreement between the

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state and federal government on how to address this.

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Speaker 5: I don't know if it was so much of a

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disagreement as it was that we had a leader of

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the Texas Department of Agriculture that was viewed as wasting

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time and resources and coming up with a plan that

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was more about him using it as a way to

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promote himself and coming up with three hundred and fifty

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traps and having a I think it's called swarm bait

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that wasn't even an FDA or EPA approves lure, and

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out of those three hundred and fifty traps they deployed,

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they got one fly, not even screwworm. And the USDA

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has nine thousand traps scattered along the border, and they

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have USDA employees. And so Brooke Rawlins candidly got tired

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of seeing how my opponent was dealing with it, and

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so she did a public SmackDown on him by just saying,

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stop wasting time of money and get out of the way.

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So the adults can handle this. And so that's so

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they're working hard on it. And even this morning, I

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was meeting with the local association and they gave me

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the car.

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Speaker 2: And I had talked with these people previously.

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Speaker 5: But there's a company called three M and they can

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produce a mobile sterile fly facility for ten million dollars

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that can do like two hundred and fifty thousand flies

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a week. So you know, I've done that quick calculation.

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For about one hundred million bucks, we can get enough

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facilities to you know, to be able to have our

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five hundred million flies. So I'm going to go reach

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out to their CEO and talk with them, and I

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provide it to Dan Hunter, who is the farm service

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agent for USDA here in Texas.

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Speaker 3: Have you talked to Secretary Rollins about your candiacy? I

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have she backing you or she staying out of it?

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Speaker 2: Is this just between me and.

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Speaker 3: You'd be a pretty big endorsement if you can get it.

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Speaker 5: Well, you know what, Honestly, I think her position is

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it's not her place to endorse. She's on Donald Trump's cabinet.

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But she did tell me that she's working in the

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background and she's she's glad that were in the campaign.

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Speaker 3: Let's let's get to the campaign side of this. You know,

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you famously were one of Sid Miller's biggest donors before

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you decided to run against him. I remember hearing the

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story of out the conversation you had when he was

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in his mind hopefully vuying for the USDA spot and

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he was being considered for that and didn't get it. Ultimately,

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there was a conversation between you two and you talked

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about this. You talked about your desire to run, and

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according to you, he says, do it right. I asked

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him about that the other day and he said, well,

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Nate conveniently leaves out the second half of that, and that's.

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Speaker 4: If I didn't run. If I didn't run, what do

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you mean respond to that? Please?

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Speaker 2: Yeah.

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Speaker 5: So you know, I try to live my life according

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to the biblical principles. And there's this verse in the

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Bible says give honor to honors due. And since I've

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been one of his donors, and actually my buddy Rick Sandtrum,

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we have been up in Washington, d C. And we're

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having lunch and Rick said, because I was the CEO

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of Nature Nates until November of last year and I

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stepped away and I was just on the board and

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so I was just talking to Rick. I said, Man,

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I'm just trying to figure out where I can go

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invest my life next and go make a difference, you know,

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for God's kingdom and people. And so Rick said, why

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don't you go be the act commissioner. I was like,

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you met governor or senator. I mean, so it's so

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we started talking about that, and he said, you know,

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you've been in the agg industry. People are getting sick.

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You understand that part. Go make a difference. So I

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came back talk with Patty about that, and we looked

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at the job description and candidly, I was quite surprised

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what the responsibilities were. Because I've been a donor of

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his for a long time, didn't realize he was in

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charge of feeding five and a half million kids in

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school lunch programs.

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Speaker 2: And so Patty said.

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Speaker 5: Man, I could really see that because she said a

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lot of the things I was attempting to do at

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Nature Nate's. I was trying to, you know, do a

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lot of those things that the act Commissioner's responsibilities were.

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So I called sit up, took him lunch in March

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and asked him what his plans were. And he actually

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said he was thinking about running for John Cornet and

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see for Senate. And I said, I think that's a

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great idea. And I said I would like to run,

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you know, praying about running for agg Commissioner, and kind

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of laid it out, and he said, I think you

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should run.

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Speaker 2: And I asked him if that was an endorsement and

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he said no.

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Speaker 5: And so so you know, I didn't go to ask permission.

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I just went to tell him what I was thinking

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about doing. Again, that was in March, and so then

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April I filed. May. We went out and had a

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big launch party up at our farm up in McKinney,

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and then after Ken Paxton announced that he was running

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in June or July, Sid announced that he was.

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Speaker 2: Going to run again.

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Speaker 5: So this did not I didn't go down this road

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as an anti SID rant, you know, candidly, but I

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will tell you now that I've gotten into it, the unethicalness,

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the corruption, the things that I've seen that go on

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at TDA. I'm not anti SID, but the guy needs

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to be fired. It's time to replace him. If it

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were my company and he was running that company for me,

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I would fire him and all his leadership team because

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it's not the way that you would run a company,

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and it's certainly not the way that you stewed taxpayers

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dollars in the opportunity to make an impact in the

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agriculture and all of Texas and ultimately America.

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Speaker 3: We made an accusation. Let's get in specifics. What is

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it about the TDA that you think is corrupt or

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going awry?

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Speaker 5: Yeah, it's you know, Sid calls me a rhino in

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elitist rhino, and I would just say that there's even

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ambiguity and how he talks. I mean, when he was

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in the state legislature, he actually voted to give illegal

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aliens in state tuition. You know, he was against Donald

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Trump's border wall and said that the Mexican government needs

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to have more input on the on the wall. When

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he left the legislature, he became a lobbyist, you know,

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in between that and running for text Department of Agriculture.

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But the ethical issues beyond him using state resources. I

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mean the one article about he went and got the

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Jesus shot or something, you know, and the state took

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away his budgets, as Texas Department of Agriculture actually told

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me at lunch, he goes, you know, I only have

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like a two thousand dollars travel budget as a state legislator,

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as a state agency head, I thought, huh, that's weird.

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You didn't tell me the rest of the reason why

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they took it away, you know, because he had abused it.

381
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But you know, his campaign manager and this is where

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the whole thing, you know, when the whole HMP thing

383
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came about. The TDA was responsible for writing the regulations

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for the state. I think that they did kind of

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leave this crack in the door that ultimately became the

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divide between the governor and lieutenant governor. But his campaign manager,

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guy named Todd Smith went around and told people they're

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only going to be fifteen licenses in the state for

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HMP growers, and that licensed one hundred dollars. But if

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you give me twenty five thousand dollars, Todd said, I

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will make sure that.

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Speaker 2: You're one of the fifteen.

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Speaker 5: So after I guess he had about one hundred and

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fifty one hundred and fifty thousand dollars sent to his

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bank account. He was arrested and charged with commercial felony bribery.

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And then in November of last year, he plgged guilty

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to that because they had subpoena SID to come in

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and testify again. But he negotiated since he plaged guilty,

399
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negotiated a deferred sentence. But he wasn't allowed to be

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a lobbyist anymore. I think four years he couldn't be

401
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a lobbyist. So now Todd, Poor Todd's out of work.

402
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So SID hired him as the chief of staff the

403
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Texan Department of Agriculture today, where he gets paid two

404
00:20:20,119 --> 00:20:24,440
hundred and twenty thousand dollars running the very agency where

405
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he was defrauding people that customer base. Now go back

406
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to my example of if this was your company, and

407
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you had a guy that was running that and hired

408
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a consultant that did all that. You would make their

409
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head spin so fast. So it's just it's just the

410
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boldness of them. And Sid says, well, they were after

411
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me like Donald Trump. They were after Donald Trump. And

412
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Todd only plaged guilty because he was here in Travis

413
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County and there was a Soros DA down there. He

414
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plgged guilty to a felony people. So you know this

415
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is continued, you know, to happen. He's now, you know,

416
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go up and see the music festival that he sponsored

417
00:21:01,880 --> 00:21:04,519
two weeks ago up in Waxahachi that now all of

418
00:21:04,519 --> 00:21:07,839
a sudden it's the Go Texas Music Festival. He's got

419
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banners around the eleven sound stages of himself and he's

420
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the announcer and gave himself created some award and gave

421
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it to himself. So he's just you know, they're just

422
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using state resources like it's their own private company. And

423
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I think it's atrocious. You know that that's how things

424
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are run. And they've had one hundred and thirty people

425
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leave since March. One hundred and thirty and a lot

426
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of those have been fired by Todd and a lot

427
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of them have left by choice, but they have gutted

428
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the organization of people who really know and care for

429
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the agriculture community in all of Texas.

430
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Speaker 2: So I know we can do better. You know.

431
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Speaker 5: Culture for me is always Sacker saying, you know, in

432
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a company, because it's the people, They're the lifeblood, they're

433
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you know. So as the CEO of Nature and A

434
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it's my job was cast the vision, help them as

435
00:22:03,759 --> 00:22:05,880
a leadership team, figure out what we're going to go do,

436
00:22:06,039 --> 00:22:08,279
and then I serve them to be successful. So it's

437
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an inverted leadership org chart and that's what we need

438
00:22:12,680 --> 00:22:17,200
inside Texas Department Agriculture with both consumers Texas families, farmers

439
00:22:17,200 --> 00:22:19,279
and ranchers at the very top, and all this down

440
00:22:19,359 --> 00:22:21,240
below serving them to be successful.

441
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Speaker 3: The ethical concerns there you just voice are clearly one

442
00:22:25,000 --> 00:22:28,640
wedge issue in this race. Another one maybe it's now

443
00:22:28,680 --> 00:22:31,960
moot after what happened at the federal level, but the

444
00:22:32,000 --> 00:22:36,920
hemp issue was huge in the legislature. Commissioner Miller was

445
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against the perspective ban. Where do you fall on that

446
00:22:41,720 --> 00:22:42,680
policy issue?

447
00:22:43,079 --> 00:22:45,240
Speaker 5: Well, thank you Donald Trump. He took care of it all.

448
00:22:45,440 --> 00:22:48,319
So it really doesn't matter. You know, I'm a CBD user.

449
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I put it on joints and you know, it's amazing.

450
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And so I know that the governor and the Lieutenant

451
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Governor were kind of on different sides of that. And

452
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you know, it's the compassion of the governor of wanting

453
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veterans to be able to have access for PTSD, you know,

454
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utilizing that. And so I don't think we'd ever want

455
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to intentionally create harm to people who valiantly saved our

456
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country and who suffer from challenges from that. But again,

457
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Donald Trump took care of all that, and it's not

458
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something I'm gonna have to worry about.

459
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Speaker 3: And how did that happen? Can you can explain what

460
00:23:23,480 --> 00:23:24,799
the federal government did in that?

461
00:23:24,960 --> 00:23:27,640
Speaker 5: Yeah, so there was the crack in the door that

462
00:23:27,640 --> 00:23:30,799
I referenced earlier. Is Delta eight or Delta ten, and

463
00:23:30,839 --> 00:23:36,720
so there are synthetic components of hemp, and so those

464
00:23:36,799 --> 00:23:40,119
by themselves are inert if they were just sitting there.

465
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But if you take delta ten and go and spread

466
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it on a hemp joint, which if you smoked it

467
00:23:46,799 --> 00:23:49,279
without the Delta eight, you're just smoking a hemp cigarette.

468
00:23:49,720 --> 00:23:52,480
But you apply delta eight or Delta ten onto it

469
00:23:52,519 --> 00:23:55,160
and now once you apply heat to it, it gets

470
00:23:55,200 --> 00:23:56,839
you high, just like THHC does.

471
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Speaker 2: And then there were a lot of edibles and things

472
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like that.

473
00:24:00,200 --> 00:24:02,720
Speaker 5: There was a lot of confusion, and Sid's talked about this,

474
00:24:02,799 --> 00:24:07,000
and he was always, you know, pro these vape shops around.

475
00:24:06,720 --> 00:24:09,200
Speaker 2: The state that sell all of these edibles.

476
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Speaker 5: And yet at the same time he talks about how

477
00:24:11,279 --> 00:24:13,799
tragic it is that we have, you know, junior high

478
00:24:13,920 --> 00:24:15,720
kids go in and buy these things and bring them

479
00:24:15,720 --> 00:24:17,720
back and they sell them in school. So it's like,

480
00:24:18,359 --> 00:24:20,440
what way is it? You know, you can't have it

481
00:24:20,480 --> 00:24:20,960
both ways?

482
00:24:20,960 --> 00:24:26,559
Speaker 3: Said, you've never run for office before, and obviously this

483
00:24:26,680 --> 00:24:29,839
is getting to be a pretty heated race. What's the

484
00:24:29,839 --> 00:24:33,599
adjustment been like coming from being a donner, not someone

485
00:24:33,599 --> 00:24:37,880
who's in the fight explicitly at least, to now being

486
00:24:37,920 --> 00:24:43,559
the one not just receiving punches but delivering them.

487
00:24:43,720 --> 00:24:45,480
Speaker 5: You know, I used to think he got stung a

488
00:24:45,480 --> 00:24:50,440
lot in the bee keeping industry. Welcome to politics. No, honestly,

489
00:24:50,519 --> 00:24:52,359
I love it. I mean it's so fun. I love

490
00:24:52,400 --> 00:24:55,599
going out and meeting everybody, and Patty and I we

491
00:24:55,759 --> 00:24:56,960
drove across the state.

492
00:24:56,759 --> 00:24:57,240
Speaker 2: The other night.

493
00:24:57,319 --> 00:25:00,000
Speaker 5: I actually ran out of gas going heading towards af

494
00:25:00,240 --> 00:25:04,160
and you know, I was too focused on the phone.

495
00:25:04,200 --> 00:25:06,640
But and I told Patty, I said, well I can't.

496
00:25:07,200 --> 00:25:09,920
I can't do this on video because then Sid can go. Look,

497
00:25:09,920 --> 00:25:11,880
this guy must have run the text Apartment of Agriculture.

498
00:25:11,880 --> 00:25:13,720
He can't even get to a campaign event without running

499
00:25:13,720 --> 00:25:15,599
out of gas. So there you go, said you can

500
00:25:15,680 --> 00:25:18,799
use that one. But but you know, honestly, going around

501
00:25:18,880 --> 00:25:23,000
and meeting people, hearing a lot of heartbreaking stories, people

502
00:25:23,039 --> 00:25:26,000
losing their land, losing their agriculture businesses.

503
00:25:27,799 --> 00:25:29,200
Speaker 2: But it also gives.

504
00:25:29,000 --> 00:25:32,599
Speaker 5: Me more hope that I believe that we genuinely can

505
00:25:32,759 --> 00:25:36,200
turn this around. You know, farmers and ranchers have a

506
00:25:36,240 --> 00:25:39,319
revenue problem today. All the expenses continue to go up.

507
00:25:39,400 --> 00:25:42,319
Like I said earlier, they make forty cents in nineteen

508
00:25:42,359 --> 00:25:45,240
eighty fifteen cents today. And the one thing I've spent

509
00:25:45,279 --> 00:25:48,240
a career doing is figuring out how you grow revenue.

510
00:25:48,319 --> 00:25:49,839
Speaker 2: You know, how do you penetrate retail?

511
00:25:49,880 --> 00:25:52,079
Speaker 5: How do you go sell more product and more customers

512
00:25:52,079 --> 00:25:55,720
for more money. And so yes, farmers and ranchers have

513
00:25:55,720 --> 00:25:58,960
an expense problem because they don't have any hope for

514
00:25:59,039 --> 00:26:00,279
their revenue going up.

515
00:26:01,160 --> 00:26:02,160
Speaker 2: But we can change that.

516
00:26:02,519 --> 00:26:04,519
Speaker 5: We can go in and we can you know, create

517
00:26:04,559 --> 00:26:07,559
an industry to where you know, small producers can go

518
00:26:07,640 --> 00:26:10,880
and get their own animals butchered and to go sell

519
00:26:10,880 --> 00:26:13,039
it as box beef and sell it direct to consumers

520
00:26:13,079 --> 00:26:16,519
through the new coming go texting program, where you're going

521
00:26:16,559 --> 00:26:19,119
to have a viable platform that they can actually utilize

522
00:26:19,119 --> 00:26:21,720
to be profitable. And so once you're able to do that,

523
00:26:21,720 --> 00:26:25,279
that's full retail and we can get agriculture back to

524
00:26:25,319 --> 00:26:27,480
this place where kids actually look at that as a

525
00:26:27,599 --> 00:26:31,440
viable place to be able to invest their life and

526
00:26:30,680 --> 00:26:34,680
bring back rural Texas because you drive through these small

527
00:26:34,720 --> 00:26:37,680
Texas towns, y'all do it, drive in South Texas, West Texas.

528
00:26:37,839 --> 00:26:41,480
They are dying and we need to help bring life

529
00:26:41,519 --> 00:26:42,039
back to them.

530
00:26:42,039 --> 00:26:43,799
Speaker 2: And the only way we're going to do it is

531
00:26:43,839 --> 00:26:46,720
to help farmers or ranchers not survive but thrive.

532
00:26:47,839 --> 00:26:50,039
Speaker 4: What's the industry telling you about your candidacy?

533
00:26:51,000 --> 00:26:51,160
Speaker 2: Man?

534
00:26:51,200 --> 00:26:54,039
Speaker 5: We've had so many endorsements, it's hard to keep track

535
00:26:54,079 --> 00:26:57,920
of all of them, which is really exciting. You know,

536
00:26:58,440 --> 00:27:02,039
they got Randy, Travis and Mac Do I need anything else?

537
00:27:02,079 --> 00:27:02,240
You know?

538
00:27:02,279 --> 00:27:04,000
Speaker 4: Down out I don't think they're in the industry.

539
00:27:04,119 --> 00:27:08,480
Speaker 5: I mean, but we've got you know, Senator Sparks out

540
00:27:08,480 --> 00:27:11,319
in Midland, West Texas. He actually hosted a fundraiser in

541
00:27:11,400 --> 00:27:13,920
Midland night before last for us UH with a bunch

542
00:27:13,960 --> 00:27:16,319
of oil and gas folks and my own cousin out there.

543
00:27:16,880 --> 00:27:21,440
We've got Angela Paxson who's endorsed us UH. Tons of

544
00:27:21,559 --> 00:27:23,839
s r C members, maybe a dozen or so, a

545
00:27:23,880 --> 00:27:26,759
lot of county chairs have endorsed US. We've got Texas

546
00:27:26,799 --> 00:27:29,279
Eagle for him. We have Grassroots America, Joe Ian Fleming,

547
00:27:29,319 --> 00:27:31,519
we the people. We've got the Kingwood Tea Party, the

548
00:27:31,559 --> 00:27:36,200
Fredericksburg Tea Party. It just there's a lot of energy

549
00:27:36,240 --> 00:27:41,119
and enthusiasm behind, you know, the campaign, and because people

550
00:27:41,279 --> 00:27:44,640
have been hopeless and and now I was actually over

551
00:27:44,640 --> 00:27:46,920
at Pete and Missy Bonds. He's the former president of

552
00:27:46,920 --> 00:27:51,720
the Texas Cattle Raisers and and their lead government guy

553
00:27:51,920 --> 00:27:54,440
was there and he whipped out his check book wrote

554
00:27:54,440 --> 00:27:55,960
a check to me. He said, I have to wait

555
00:27:56,000 --> 00:27:58,200
for cattle Raisers to personally endorse you.

556
00:27:58,480 --> 00:28:00,440
Speaker 2: Here's a check. I'm gonna endorse you.

557
00:28:00,480 --> 00:28:02,240
Speaker 5: And miss he's on the board at Cattle Raisers and

558
00:28:02,359 --> 00:28:04,279
she's an endorse you and then we're going to have

559
00:28:04,319 --> 00:28:06,880
a fundraiser for you. And so when I see the

560
00:28:07,400 --> 00:28:12,720
industry start to get excited and come alongside because they realize,

561
00:28:13,079 --> 00:28:15,000
you know what, this guy doesn't know how to farm wheat,

562
00:28:15,640 --> 00:28:17,599
but we don't need to have him know how to

563
00:28:17,599 --> 00:28:19,480
farm wheat. We need to have him help us figure

564
00:28:19,480 --> 00:28:21,400
out how to sell more wheat for more money to

565
00:28:21,519 --> 00:28:23,720
more people, and that they believe I can do.

566
00:28:24,359 --> 00:28:26,480
Speaker 2: So it's it's been awesome.

567
00:28:26,559 --> 00:28:27,240
Speaker 4: Last one for you.

568
00:28:28,279 --> 00:28:31,440
Speaker 3: People have tried to take SID out before and been

569
00:28:31,480 --> 00:28:35,480
wildly unsuccessful. We saw James White, a long time stay

570
00:28:35,519 --> 00:28:38,799
rep who had a pretty extensive resume. I think he

571
00:28:38,839 --> 00:28:42,200
barely cracked thirty percents in the primary against SID the

572
00:28:42,240 --> 00:28:43,200
last time this was up.

573
00:28:43,920 --> 00:28:44,720
Speaker 4: Why are you different?

574
00:28:45,720 --> 00:28:48,119
Speaker 5: You know, I'm all about team and so we have

575
00:28:48,279 --> 00:28:51,920
a great team, very robust. We've got Travis McCormick who's

576
00:28:51,960 --> 00:28:54,240
back here. He's on our team, heads up our communications.

577
00:28:54,240 --> 00:28:57,200
We've got Elliott Griffin as our consultant. We have Cynthia

578
00:28:57,240 --> 00:29:00,480
Whedaman and Kathy Scott. Kathy's leading the chart on our

579
00:29:00,519 --> 00:29:04,599
finance side. We've got a great digital team that's actually

580
00:29:04,680 --> 00:29:07,519
doing all the digital for the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary,

581
00:29:07,599 --> 00:29:09,799
and so we went and got the right people, the

582
00:29:09,920 --> 00:29:11,839
right team to be able to get us across the

583
00:29:11,839 --> 00:29:16,519
finish line. SIDS never had an opponent who's got thirty

584
00:29:16,599 --> 00:29:20,960
years of food experience, who took a single beehive and

585
00:29:21,000 --> 00:29:24,759
turned it into a honey company that is will bout

586
00:29:24,799 --> 00:29:26,680
one hundred million pounds of honey this year, and we've

587
00:29:26,680 --> 00:29:29,160
got one hundred and twenty thousand beehives. And the the

588
00:29:29,799 --> 00:29:33,319
b industry and the beef industry are almost identical, just

589
00:29:33,359 --> 00:29:36,200
in terms of process and things that we did in

590
00:29:36,240 --> 00:29:38,799
the honey industry, we can go do in the beef industry.

591
00:29:39,319 --> 00:29:41,559
And so I would just say that Sid's never really

592
00:29:41,720 --> 00:29:43,119
you know, and I don't know all the other guys

593
00:29:43,160 --> 00:29:48,759
who've run against him, but he's nervous. I've had a

594
00:29:48,759 --> 00:29:51,400
woman come to my she was an SRAC member, and

595
00:29:51,480 --> 00:29:53,079
she came to a fundraiser we had in Dallas a

596
00:29:53,079 --> 00:29:55,599
few nights ago, and she said, he's called me three

597
00:29:55,640 --> 00:29:58,559
times in the past week, you know, telling me to

598
00:29:58,680 --> 00:30:03,559
endorse them. You know, I think people are just ready

599
00:30:03,640 --> 00:30:05,599
for a change. And I will say that I think

600
00:30:05,880 --> 00:30:09,119
where we are in America right now with Brooke Rawlins,

601
00:30:09,119 --> 00:30:12,279
Bobby Kennedy, and Donald Trump seeing this as an absolute

602
00:30:12,319 --> 00:30:16,119
critical nature. Listen, this doesn't matter if you're a Republican

603
00:30:16,480 --> 00:30:19,480
or a Democrat, what your color is, what your ethnic

604
00:30:19,720 --> 00:30:22,960
you know, what your background is, what your socioeconomic level.

605
00:30:23,400 --> 00:30:25,680
Everybody's getting sick from the food that we eat, and

606
00:30:25,720 --> 00:30:28,400
we all eat food, and so we've got to fix this,

607
00:30:28,559 --> 00:30:31,920
and we can fix this, and so that is that

608
00:30:32,079 --> 00:30:35,119
I think that's what changes everything else. And also those

609
00:30:35,160 --> 00:30:38,039
other guys, they hadn't had the Todd Smith thing play

610
00:30:38,079 --> 00:30:40,680
all the way out. So at the time when James

611
00:30:40,720 --> 00:30:46,400
White ran, he had been arrested and was being you know, prosecuted,

612
00:30:46,480 --> 00:30:50,000
but he hadn't gone fully through. And had he been

613
00:30:50,079 --> 00:30:53,920
prosecuted and played guilty and gone off on the sunset.

614
00:30:53,519 --> 00:30:55,039
Speaker 2: It might be a little bit of a different picture.

615
00:30:55,519 --> 00:30:58,039
But he's not in the sunset. He's at the TDA headquarters.

616
00:30:58,559 --> 00:31:01,519
Speaker 5: So you know, again, we lost eighty percent of the

617
00:31:01,559 --> 00:31:03,920
bees in Texas this year. So if you want to

618
00:31:03,920 --> 00:31:07,960
save the bees, go plant. You know next you're producing flowers.

619
00:31:08,200 --> 00:31:11,039
If you want to save our health Texas farm families

620
00:31:11,039 --> 00:31:14,759
and agriculture in Texas, vote for Nate Sheets Fragg Commissioner.

621
00:31:14,319 --> 00:31:15,680
Speaker 4: In neat Sheets, thanks for joining us.

622
00:31:15,720 --> 00:31:20,519
Speaker 5: Thank you, God, bless you, God bless great state of Texas. Well.

623
00:31:29,640 --> 00:31:33,759
Speaker 3: Next up, we've got Senator Joan Huffman, Republican, running for

624
00:31:34,039 --> 00:31:38,759
Attorney General. Senator Huffman, you've how long you have been

625
00:31:38,799 --> 00:31:39,559
in the Senate.

626
00:31:39,799 --> 00:31:43,319
Speaker 6: Since I was elected in December of two thousand and eight,

627
00:31:43,559 --> 00:31:45,480
so over sixteen.

628
00:31:45,119 --> 00:31:48,440
Speaker 3: Years, and you have a lot of extensive background before then.

629
00:31:48,480 --> 00:31:49,599
Can you run us through that?

630
00:31:49,839 --> 00:31:50,200
Speaker 4: Sure?

631
00:31:50,359 --> 00:31:53,359
Speaker 6: So I started my career actually as a secretary in

632
00:31:53,359 --> 00:31:56,839
the Harrison County District Attorney's office in nineteen eighty one,

633
00:31:56,920 --> 00:32:00,519
so that's a long time ago, and went to law

634
00:32:00,519 --> 00:32:03,799
school at night. Worked as a secretary and as an

635
00:32:03,880 --> 00:32:07,119
intern at the DA's office during that time period.

636
00:32:08,160 --> 00:32:09,759
Speaker 7: And when I graduated from law school and.

637
00:32:09,720 --> 00:32:12,000
Speaker 6: Passed the bar, I was hired as a prosecutor and

638
00:32:12,039 --> 00:32:14,799
I worked there for fourteen years as a Harris County

639
00:32:15,359 --> 00:32:20,880
District Attorney prosecutor. Prosecuted over one hundred jury trials during

640
00:32:20,880 --> 00:32:25,480
that time period, served some time as the Special Crimes

641
00:32:25,599 --> 00:32:29,720
Gang prosecutor. I was assigned to the Organized Crime Narcotics

642
00:32:29,759 --> 00:32:32,559
Task Force for eighteen months, where I was embedded with

643
00:32:32,759 --> 00:32:36,960
law enforcement worked their cases with them, and then when

644
00:32:37,000 --> 00:32:41,039
I decided I would move on, I ran for Criminal

645
00:32:41,079 --> 00:32:44,200
district Court judge was twice elected. So I served as

646
00:32:44,240 --> 00:32:47,599
a criminal district Court judge, presiding over tens of thousands

647
00:32:47,640 --> 00:32:50,039
of cases, and then ran for the Senate in two

648
00:32:50,079 --> 00:32:53,160
thousand and eight in a special election when Senator Janak

649
00:32:53,200 --> 00:32:57,640
stepped down and was elected and been elected several times

650
00:32:57,680 --> 00:32:58,119
since then.

651
00:33:00,000 --> 00:33:02,559
Speaker 3: I'll get to the ag race. That's probably what everyone

652
00:33:02,559 --> 00:33:05,000
wants to hear about, but I'd be remiss. We didn't

653
00:33:05,000 --> 00:33:08,599
talk about session because it was first of all grueling, right,

654
00:33:08,759 --> 00:33:10,279
A couple of specials.

655
00:33:10,000 --> 00:33:11,480
Speaker 7: Yes, lasted a long time.

656
00:33:11,640 --> 00:33:15,519
Speaker 3: Yeah, But your biggest responsibility during that was the budget.

657
00:33:16,960 --> 00:33:17,880
Speaker 4: First of all, what's that? Like?

658
00:33:17,920 --> 00:33:22,039
Speaker 3: How extensive of a process is building a massive state budget?

659
00:33:22,119 --> 00:33:23,240
Speaker 7: Well, it's quite extensive.

660
00:33:23,279 --> 00:33:27,000
Speaker 6: It actually starts in the fall before session, so usually

661
00:33:27,079 --> 00:33:32,400
in August September October we start having Boards of Review,

662
00:33:32,920 --> 00:33:37,039
which really means doctor Bondon at the time. The appropriations

663
00:33:37,119 --> 00:33:38,960
chare from the House and myself sit in a room

664
00:33:39,000 --> 00:33:42,359
with about fifty other people who are from the Legislative

665
00:33:42,359 --> 00:33:47,720
Budget Board, our staff, the Lieutenant Governor's staff, the Governor's staff,

666
00:33:48,119 --> 00:33:51,319
and just really go line by line through the budget.

667
00:33:51,680 --> 00:33:53,960
And I know a lot of people think how does

668
00:33:54,039 --> 00:33:56,759
this get made? It actually is made by a line

669
00:33:56,759 --> 00:34:00,279
by line process. There's kind of a base budget we

670
00:34:00,319 --> 00:34:03,000
start with at LBB presents based on what we had

671
00:34:03,000 --> 00:34:06,519
done the previous by anium, but we do go through

672
00:34:06,559 --> 00:34:08,760
those and we make adjustments, and we make quite a

673
00:34:08,800 --> 00:34:14,840
few adjustments either from observations and issues that maybe doctor

674
00:34:14,920 --> 00:34:18,280
Bonnen or I or staff or LBB has encountered in

675
00:34:18,320 --> 00:34:20,920
the previous by anium, and there's adjustments that need to

676
00:34:20,960 --> 00:34:24,039
be made. As you know, most of the budget is

677
00:34:24,079 --> 00:34:28,559
written on projections, and sometimes those projections are off, and sometimes.

678
00:34:28,199 --> 00:34:28,800
Speaker 7: Off quite a bit.

679
00:34:28,960 --> 00:34:30,559
Speaker 4: That's why the supplemental exactly.

680
00:34:30,639 --> 00:34:33,440
Speaker 6: So we do the supplemental and then LBB presents a

681
00:34:33,440 --> 00:34:37,679
lot of scenarios to us as to what they believe

682
00:34:37,760 --> 00:34:39,679
the projections will be at that you know, at the

683
00:34:39,719 --> 00:34:42,159
time when we have to make the final decisions, and

684
00:34:42,639 --> 00:34:47,280
many times it does affect, you know, kind of what

685
00:34:47,400 --> 00:34:49,840
our bottom line looks like. And I've been there when

686
00:34:50,039 --> 00:34:53,199
we were way off and when we were we didn't

687
00:34:53,199 --> 00:34:57,079
spend enough. Other times when we projected quite a bit

688
00:34:57,920 --> 00:35:00,639
more and then we had a surplus. So it really

689
00:35:00,639 --> 00:35:03,480
can go a lot of different ways, and a lot

690
00:35:03,519 --> 00:35:07,440
of that is because, for examples, through the Foundation School program,

691
00:35:07,480 --> 00:35:11,920
you're making decisions based on enrollment growth, property tax of values,

692
00:35:11,960 --> 00:35:14,880
and so forth, which really affects the bottom line as

693
00:35:14,880 --> 00:35:18,599
to how much money is left and so again. So

694
00:35:19,000 --> 00:35:21,920
we make those types of decisions, we go through several

695
00:35:21,960 --> 00:35:25,320
boards of a review, and then of course the budget

696
00:35:25,360 --> 00:35:28,679
comes before the committee when we get into session in January.

697
00:35:28,760 --> 00:35:32,679
In the Senate, we meet for several weeks daily long

698
00:35:32,800 --> 00:35:36,239
grueling days where we listen to that different agencies present

699
00:35:36,320 --> 00:35:40,360
their request and we hear from the public and then,

700
00:35:41,079 --> 00:35:43,679
you know, then the real work gets done, you know,

701
00:35:43,800 --> 00:35:46,559
trying to get the budget written and then finding the votes.

702
00:35:46,559 --> 00:35:49,559
I will say that the last budget was able to

703
00:35:49,599 --> 00:35:51,679
pass out the Senate with thirty one votes, which I

704
00:35:51,719 --> 00:35:54,920
think is a sign of a really good budget because

705
00:35:54,960 --> 00:35:57,639
it does mean that you have, you know, buy in

706
00:35:57,719 --> 00:36:01,000
from both parties and a lot of different interests start met.

707
00:36:01,159 --> 00:36:03,400
And I think if your priorities are correct and you

708
00:36:03,440 --> 00:36:06,599
work real hard at trying to bring everybody into be

709
00:36:06,719 --> 00:36:10,159
part of the processes, that's that's you get those successful results.

710
00:36:10,719 --> 00:36:13,239
Speaker 3: So my first session covering the legislature was twenty nineteen,

711
00:36:13,440 --> 00:36:15,079
and I remember one of the first pieces I wrote

712
00:36:15,239 --> 00:36:18,599
was two hundred and fifty billion dollar budget passes. Now

713
00:36:18,840 --> 00:36:20,559
I understand things a lot better than I do than

714
00:36:20,599 --> 00:36:24,800
I did then. But the budget y'all passed this time

715
00:36:25,239 --> 00:36:26,639
was three hundred and thirty eight billion.

716
00:36:26,679 --> 00:36:29,639
Speaker 6: I believe about three thirty big increase right right.

717
00:36:30,360 --> 00:36:34,039
Speaker 3: Yet I see all this messaging about a fiscally responsible budget.

718
00:36:34,159 --> 00:36:35,400
Speaker 4: Yes, you walk me through.

719
00:36:35,239 --> 00:36:38,719
Speaker 6: That, sure, well, I will say it is a physically

720
00:36:38,840 --> 00:36:41,559
responsible budget. And the budget is, you know, well below

721
00:36:41,679 --> 00:36:46,519
all three of the spending limits. And the budget has

722
00:36:46,519 --> 00:36:49,400
grown for several reasons. A lot of it is the

723
00:36:49,440 --> 00:36:54,559
state is growing. So and then the COVID era, i'll

724
00:36:54,559 --> 00:36:56,679
call it the COVID nightmare or whatever you want to

725
00:36:56,719 --> 00:37:01,000
call it. That era really kind of changed the budget

726
00:37:01,039 --> 00:37:04,199
in several ways. And part of it was that there

727
00:37:04,320 --> 00:37:06,760
was a huge influx of federal funds that came into

728
00:37:06,800 --> 00:37:08,920
the state. It didn't just come to the state, It

729
00:37:08,960 --> 00:37:13,360
actually went to a lot of local entities, even hospitals,

730
00:37:13,360 --> 00:37:17,679
but counties and cities, schools, and some of it was

731
00:37:17,719 --> 00:37:20,440
accounted for that we could sort of follow it and

732
00:37:20,440 --> 00:37:22,800
see where it was. There was some money that went

733
00:37:22,840 --> 00:37:25,880
in that we never really could track through our tracking

734
00:37:25,920 --> 00:37:28,679
systems about where this money came in. But a lot

735
00:37:28,719 --> 00:37:30,800
of money came into the state of Texas. We were

736
00:37:30,840 --> 00:37:35,440
one of the probably largest recipients of federal funds during

737
00:37:35,440 --> 00:37:39,039
the COVID era. So all that money, you know, they

738
00:37:39,039 --> 00:37:40,960
were printing a lot of money in Washington and they

739
00:37:40,960 --> 00:37:43,000
were giving Texas quite a bit of money. So a

740
00:37:43,000 --> 00:37:44,920
lot of it was billions and billions of dollars, So

741
00:37:44,960 --> 00:37:47,719
a lot of that money kind of came into the treasury.

742
00:37:48,079 --> 00:37:51,920
What also happened was after COVID there was a pin

743
00:37:52,039 --> 00:37:54,880
up demand for people to spend money because people some

744
00:37:55,000 --> 00:37:57,960
people had gotten stimulus checks or different types of checks,

745
00:37:58,440 --> 00:38:01,880
or many people took quarantine very seriously, right and they

746
00:38:01,920 --> 00:38:04,280
stayed home. They didn't buy a you know, they didn't

747
00:38:04,280 --> 00:38:06,280
buy anything, and so they started spending money. And so

748
00:38:06,320 --> 00:38:08,960
we saw sales tax revenue really just go up like this.

749
00:38:09,119 --> 00:38:12,920
So we were just flush with cash now, so it

750
00:38:13,000 --> 00:38:16,159
elevated the numbers in a lot of ways. Now, what

751
00:38:16,199 --> 00:38:19,159
we did with the money was at the state level,

752
00:38:19,280 --> 00:38:22,679
we were very careful about not investing the money into

753
00:38:23,400 --> 00:38:26,199
projects or concepts or whatever you want to call it

754
00:38:26,719 --> 00:38:31,159
that would be ongoing expenses. So we did try to

755
00:38:31,199 --> 00:38:35,239
dedicate start funds that would be long term, like with

756
00:38:35,440 --> 00:38:40,119
the the Texas University Fund, where we set up a

757
00:38:40,159 --> 00:38:43,519
fund for U of H and Tech Texas state, you know,

758
00:38:43,599 --> 00:38:46,239
not exactly like what UT and A and M have,

759
00:38:46,400 --> 00:38:49,880
but an endowment type of fun We did things like this.

760
00:38:49,960 --> 00:38:54,360
We invested big money in water, in mental health hospital

761
00:38:54,360 --> 00:38:58,440
construction two and a half billion for that, over four

762
00:38:58,480 --> 00:39:01,760
billion for water. We did a huge amount of property

763
00:39:01,800 --> 00:39:03,800
tax relief. And I know that a lot of folks

764
00:39:03,840 --> 00:39:06,079
still complained about property tax, and I get it, and

765
00:39:06,119 --> 00:39:08,960
it's a work in progress. But over the last since

766
00:39:09,000 --> 00:39:12,440
about nineteen, we have put in about fifty one billion

767
00:39:12,519 --> 00:39:13,760
dollars in property tax.

768
00:39:13,760 --> 00:39:14,519
Speaker 4: Really now that's recurring.

769
00:39:14,599 --> 00:39:15,639
Speaker 7: Everything that's recurring.

770
00:39:15,719 --> 00:39:19,000
Speaker 6: So we we did things like that, but a lot

771
00:39:19,039 --> 00:39:21,960
of it had to do with the state growth, with

772
00:39:22,079 --> 00:39:24,760
our economy growing. As you know, we continue we're the

773
00:39:24,800 --> 00:39:26,360
seventh largest economy in the world.

774
00:39:26,440 --> 00:39:26,639
Speaker 5: Now.

775
00:39:27,480 --> 00:39:29,599
Speaker 6: Just yesterday we were again to sign you know, the

776
00:39:29,639 --> 00:39:32,079
best Business Climate in the in the United States, you know,

777
00:39:32,239 --> 00:39:37,039
place to do business. We continued to have those awards,

778
00:39:37,119 --> 00:39:39,760
those accolades, and people continue to come to Texas and

779
00:39:39,840 --> 00:39:43,280
invest in Texas, and because of that, our economy is

780
00:39:43,320 --> 00:39:46,199
growing and so our budget grows. But we have been

781
00:39:47,119 --> 00:39:49,599
I think it's a conservative budget because we have made

782
00:39:49,679 --> 00:39:54,079
these long term investments. We spent more on public education

783
00:39:54,239 --> 00:39:57,599
this last session. One hundred billion dollars went into to

784
00:39:57,760 --> 00:40:01,800
public education than we ever seen before. We gave teachers

785
00:40:01,800 --> 00:40:05,480
to substantial pay raises, would put more money into special education,

786
00:40:06,639 --> 00:40:11,400
just things that make the state better off as a whole.

787
00:40:11,639 --> 00:40:15,039
And I think that's conservative in my book.

788
00:40:15,400 --> 00:40:20,599
Speaker 3: Fair enough, nobody knows what next year will look like economically.

789
00:40:20,599 --> 00:40:24,480
Obviously I'll have effects on the election itself. But you

790
00:40:24,639 --> 00:40:27,920
being the budget writer or one of the chief budget writers,

791
00:40:28,559 --> 00:40:30,840
and if you don't make the jump to AG, you'll

792
00:40:30,880 --> 00:40:33,480
remain in the Senate and presumably share finance.

793
00:40:33,519 --> 00:40:35,559
Speaker 7: Again, that's what the Lieutenant governor has said.

794
00:40:35,679 --> 00:40:40,280
Speaker 3: Yes, does it keep you up at night if there's

795
00:40:40,280 --> 00:40:42,119
an economic collapse and all of a sudden the state

796
00:40:42,199 --> 00:40:45,440
doesn't have a bunch of money in surplus and we

797
00:40:45,480 --> 00:40:46,679
actually have to cut spending.

798
00:40:47,360 --> 00:40:49,760
Speaker 6: I think that if we had some kind of major

799
00:40:49,840 --> 00:40:52,360
economic collapse, we know we still have the rainy Day

800
00:40:52,360 --> 00:40:55,480
fund right and it is at twenty eight billion dollars.

801
00:40:55,519 --> 00:40:58,480
It's actually maxed out just about probably as we speak,

802
00:40:58,519 --> 00:41:01,800
it's very close to maxing out, so that transfer will

803
00:41:01,840 --> 00:41:04,800
not be made into the Rainy Day Fund, so that

804
00:41:04,840 --> 00:41:08,360
money will stay in gr general revenue actually, so there

805
00:41:08,400 --> 00:41:12,360
will be sort of more money coming in and we

806
00:41:12,440 --> 00:41:16,000
still have the Rainy Day Fund because the severance taxes

807
00:41:16,039 --> 00:41:17,119
are still producing.

808
00:41:18,039 --> 00:41:22,280
Speaker 7: I think I heard Hancock Controller Hancocks.

809
00:41:21,800 --> 00:41:25,960
Speaker 6: Say recently that the sales tax revenue was up about

810
00:41:25,960 --> 00:41:28,760
five percent, which is a little higher than it happened. So,

811
00:41:29,000 --> 00:41:31,679
you know, as far as taxes goes, we still look

812
00:41:31,719 --> 00:41:37,159
pretty optimistic as we talk about, you know, are the

813
00:41:37,480 --> 00:41:41,119
economy of this state. But I will say that the

814
00:41:41,119 --> 00:41:45,280
commitments we've made for property tax relief, to public education

815
00:41:46,239 --> 00:41:50,599
and those types of investments are ongoing, long term investments,

816
00:41:50,599 --> 00:41:53,039
but to the benefit of all the all of our citizens.

817
00:41:55,119 --> 00:41:57,960
But I think we're in pretty good shape. Were the

818
00:41:57,960 --> 00:42:01,079
safeguards you put in, We have safeguards put into the system,

819
00:42:01,280 --> 00:42:04,000
and so I think we're in good shape.

820
00:42:04,079 --> 00:42:05,760
Speaker 4: Okay, let's get to the age race.

821
00:42:05,960 --> 00:42:10,840
Speaker 3: Sure you're both in your extensive resume, but also the

822
00:42:10,880 --> 00:42:12,960
fact that you're running from cover. You don't have to

823
00:42:12,960 --> 00:42:15,599
give up your Senate seat, right, unlike Center Milton who

824
00:42:15,599 --> 00:42:16,239
does yes.

825
00:42:18,360 --> 00:42:22,440
Speaker 4: How does that affect your run for the seat?

826
00:42:22,679 --> 00:42:26,199
Speaker 6: Well, I'm running full speed ahead, one hundred percent, whether

827
00:42:26,480 --> 00:42:30,400
you know. I just feel blessed that my when we

828
00:42:30,480 --> 00:42:32,440
drew the beans at the beginning of the decade, I

829
00:42:32,480 --> 00:42:37,559
got the cycle that let me do this. And but

830
00:42:37,599 --> 00:42:43,679
I'm running to win, honestly, and but I if I lose,

831
00:42:43,719 --> 00:42:46,599
I'll be you know, excited to continue to represent the

832
00:42:46,639 --> 00:42:49,000
people that I have the privilege of representing.

833
00:42:49,199 --> 00:42:50,119
Speaker 4: So why'd you pull the trigger?

834
00:42:51,079 --> 00:42:53,880
Speaker 6: Well, because I think that I'm the most qualified person

835
00:42:53,920 --> 00:42:56,320
to be a g I think that I have a

836
00:42:56,440 --> 00:42:59,599
very unique background. You know, I've told you a little

837
00:42:59,599 --> 00:43:03,280
bit about it. I don't think there's ever been anyone

838
00:43:03,320 --> 00:43:08,199
in any Attorney General who has been a prosecutor with

839
00:43:08,519 --> 00:43:13,000
extensive you know, litigation experience, one hundred jury trials, you know,

840
00:43:13,119 --> 00:43:15,960
worked very closely with law enforcement. Never been one that's

841
00:43:16,000 --> 00:43:18,960
a former criminal district court judge that presided over thousands

842
00:43:18,960 --> 00:43:21,559
and tens of thousands of cases, tried death penalty cases

843
00:43:21,599 --> 00:43:25,320
both as a prosecutor and a judge, and been a

844
00:43:25,360 --> 00:43:28,119
conservative state senator who's you know, I've been chair of

845
00:43:29,960 --> 00:43:31,960
state affairs were all you know, a lot of the

846
00:43:32,000 --> 00:43:36,400
big major state legislation, conservative legislation, and other important issues

847
00:43:36,440 --> 00:43:39,639
that affect the state of Texas go through. I chaired

848
00:43:39,639 --> 00:43:42,280
those committees. I've been on criminal justice pretty much NonStop

849
00:43:42,360 --> 00:43:47,280
the whole time, and I chaired redistricting, which is an

850
00:43:47,280 --> 00:43:49,920
important function of the AG's office to defend the maps.

851
00:43:49,920 --> 00:43:50,719
Speaker 7: I drew the maps.

852
00:43:50,760 --> 00:43:53,360
Speaker 6: I've been, you know, testified in federal court several times

853
00:43:53,400 --> 00:43:56,559
about the maps, and then as Chair of Finance for

854
00:43:56,639 --> 00:44:01,000
two terms, I know a lot about every state agency.

855
00:44:01,039 --> 00:44:03,880
I've served on Sunset before, so I've really deep into

856
00:44:03,920 --> 00:44:07,639
the state agencies, know where you know, all the issues

857
00:44:07,679 --> 00:44:09,400
are where you know, when you follow the money, you

858
00:44:09,480 --> 00:44:11,400
kind of figure out the policy, right you kind of

859
00:44:11,400 --> 00:44:14,840
know what's going on. So I'm very qualified, and I'll

860
00:44:14,840 --> 00:44:17,400
add so it's kind of a mixed audience here. You know,

861
00:44:17,480 --> 00:44:19,480
i'd be the first woman, and I'm not running because

862
00:44:19,519 --> 00:44:21,239
I'm a woman, but I think and i'd be the

863
00:44:21,239 --> 00:44:25,199
first mother who was ever the Attorney General of Texas.

864
00:44:25,199 --> 00:44:28,760
I think that brings some other qualities to the to

865
00:44:28,840 --> 00:44:30,840
the table, and I'm ready to serve.

866
00:44:30,880 --> 00:44:32,679
Speaker 7: I really, you know, I.

867
00:44:33,079 --> 00:44:35,920
Speaker 6: Could have run for this office earlier in my career,

868
00:44:35,920 --> 00:44:38,360
and I was actually offered it, not offered the office

869
00:44:38,960 --> 00:44:40,880
the office, of course, but you know, people said, well,

870
00:44:40,880 --> 00:44:44,039
why don't you run, you know, and I felt like

871
00:44:44,119 --> 00:44:45,960
I was wanted to stay in the Senate. I was

872
00:44:46,000 --> 00:44:49,800
doing important work. I love what I did. I passed

873
00:44:50,360 --> 00:44:52,920
a lot of heavy legislation in the Senate while i've

874
00:44:52,920 --> 00:44:56,639
been there, whether it's pension reform, you know, the bail

875
00:44:56,760 --> 00:44:59,039
reform that I worked seven years on that the voter's

876
00:44:59,119 --> 00:45:02,239
just approved. So I've been working on heavy issues for

877
00:45:02,280 --> 00:45:04,840
a long long time, and I'm glad I did all that.

878
00:45:05,320 --> 00:45:08,159
But now I think that I have something to offer

879
00:45:08,239 --> 00:45:10,280
to the people of Texas and to the voters of

880
00:45:10,320 --> 00:45:13,400
Texas that i'd be a really good Attorney General for them,

881
00:45:13,639 --> 00:45:15,280
and I focus on the people.

882
00:45:15,440 --> 00:45:17,800
Speaker 3: Yeah, you mentioned the bail reform thing, like you said,

883
00:45:17,840 --> 00:45:22,599
that's something you've been pushing for for multiple cycles. With

884
00:45:22,639 --> 00:45:25,639
what passed, is that enough or is there more that

885
00:45:25,679 --> 00:45:27,119
needs to be done on that issue?

886
00:45:27,280 --> 00:45:30,519
Speaker 6: Well, I think it's we're in a wait and see mode, right.

887
00:45:30,559 --> 00:45:32,199
I think a lot of this is going to depend

888
00:45:32,320 --> 00:45:38,480
on how the judges respond, how the prosecutors use the law,

889
00:45:38,599 --> 00:45:41,639
the tools that they've been given, how the judges respond,

890
00:45:42,920 --> 00:45:47,239
and then we'll see. There were some pieces of legislation

891
00:45:47,679 --> 00:45:49,960
that did not pass, as you know, that passed the

892
00:45:50,000 --> 00:45:53,719
Senate died in the House. One was the process of

893
00:45:53,760 --> 00:45:57,360
those who were here illegally, who committed a serious felony

894
00:45:57,880 --> 00:46:03,400
could be held automatically without That's still I think something

895
00:46:03,440 --> 00:46:06,400
I'd like to look at again and talk about, especially

896
00:46:06,440 --> 00:46:08,880
as we go, you know, another two years through through

897
00:46:08,880 --> 00:46:11,360
this or another year i'd say of this process with

898
00:46:11,760 --> 00:46:14,079
kind of seeing how the ICE is working and so forth,

899
00:46:14,679 --> 00:46:18,840
and the two eighty seven G that we implemented. Now

900
00:46:18,920 --> 00:46:21,239
all the counties have to participate in the two ad

901
00:46:21,360 --> 00:46:25,119
C seven G process, which is, you know, working with

902
00:46:25,280 --> 00:46:29,280
ICE to report individuals that are arrested.

903
00:46:28,880 --> 00:46:30,880
Speaker 7: Or in your jail that may be here illegally.

904
00:46:31,440 --> 00:46:34,199
Speaker 6: So I think we would look at that more carefully

905
00:46:34,199 --> 00:46:39,159
moving forward. But I think a lot of this is

906
00:46:39,159 --> 00:46:41,920
going to depend on if the judges do their job.

907
00:46:42,079 --> 00:46:44,159
They have the tools that they need now to keep

908
00:46:44,199 --> 00:46:48,880
folks safe, and remember these are the most violent offenders

909
00:46:49,000 --> 00:46:54,519
and so but I'm hoping for the best because it

910
00:46:54,519 --> 00:46:55,360
could only get better.

911
00:46:55,480 --> 00:46:58,519
Speaker 3: Yeah, you might see it come back up again next

912
00:46:58,800 --> 00:47:02,320
next cycle. Yeah, certainly in your estimation. What makes a

913
00:47:02,320 --> 00:47:03,440
good Attorney General.

914
00:47:04,039 --> 00:47:07,519
Speaker 6: Well, I think it's someone whose best interest is with

915
00:47:07,800 --> 00:47:11,320
the the folks they represent, that's the all, all the

916
00:47:11,360 --> 00:47:15,079
citizens of Texas. I think that you want someone who's

917
00:47:15,079 --> 00:47:17,199
gonna be a fighter for you, who's going to defend

918
00:47:17,239 --> 00:47:21,440
your freedoms, who's going to defend your rights, but will

919
00:47:21,679 --> 00:47:27,760
also aggressively prosecute and go after those who harm you

920
00:47:27,880 --> 00:47:31,199
or your families or your communities. And I think that

921
00:47:32,360 --> 00:47:36,719
you know, Paxton has been very aggressive at going after

922
00:47:37,000 --> 00:47:40,239
corporations or those that may be trying to steal, you know,

923
00:47:40,519 --> 00:47:44,639
our information or our privacy, and he has been very

924
00:47:44,639 --> 00:47:48,480
aggressive in that since I would like to see them

925
00:47:48,519 --> 00:47:52,440
be there be a focus on working with local law enforcement,

926
00:47:52,639 --> 00:48:00,159
local prosecutors, and being a real resources resource and a

927
00:48:00,239 --> 00:48:04,239
tool for local law enforcement. Over the years, it used

928
00:48:04,280 --> 00:48:06,840
to be one of the core functions of the AG's office,

929
00:48:06,880 --> 00:48:10,840
and that was to help local prosecution with complex cases,

930
00:48:11,400 --> 00:48:15,079
with you know, complicated prosecutions and so forth. But somehow

931
00:48:15,119 --> 00:48:17,800
over the years there's been a trust that's been lost

932
00:48:17,880 --> 00:48:22,400
between the local government, whether it's you know, local prosecutors,

933
00:48:22,440 --> 00:48:26,000
local law enforcement. In the attorney General's Office, and I

934
00:48:26,039 --> 00:48:31,239
think with my background, I have great relationship with law enforcement.

935
00:48:31,639 --> 00:48:34,760
I've been endorsed by CLEETE, which is the big certified

936
00:48:34,800 --> 00:48:38,960
law enforcement association of Texas. I have endorsements from sheriffs

937
00:48:39,000 --> 00:48:42,559
around the state. You know the Houston Police Department, Dallas

938
00:48:42,599 --> 00:48:47,559
Police Association, you know Amarillo Police Association, so throughout the state.

939
00:48:47,679 --> 00:48:50,639
And that is because I've worked with police officers and

940
00:48:50,920 --> 00:48:55,480
district attorneys for many years, whether it's you know, I

941
00:48:55,639 --> 00:49:00,719
passed the defund so that cities couldn't defund police officers

942
00:49:00,800 --> 00:49:04,440
back the Blue Act, the one that allows you to

943
00:49:04,440 --> 00:49:07,920
go after rogue prosecutors who just refuse to prosecute the law.

944
00:49:08,280 --> 00:49:11,000
So I've worked with these groups for many years to

945
00:49:11,519 --> 00:49:15,239
come up with legislation that they were that they could

946
00:49:15,320 --> 00:49:17,840
live with, that was going to work for the people

947
00:49:17,880 --> 00:49:22,719
of Texas. Including remember years ago, bad police officers were

948
00:49:22,760 --> 00:49:25,440
just sent from one jurisdiction to another, get fired, they

949
00:49:25,440 --> 00:49:28,000
get hired somewhere else. Well, I passed the law that

950
00:49:28,039 --> 00:49:31,239
doesn't allow that to happen anymore. Well, that didn't happen

951
00:49:31,360 --> 00:49:34,320
without buy in from prosecutors and law enforcement. And I

952
00:49:34,400 --> 00:49:39,119
work really hard with law the law enforcement from across

953
00:49:39,119 --> 00:49:42,400
the state to make that work. And it works now,

954
00:49:42,559 --> 00:49:45,800
and so the bad apples don't get to be, you know,

955
00:49:45,880 --> 00:49:48,000
shifted around the state to actually get fired and they

956
00:49:48,000 --> 00:49:52,079
can't combat. So I give that as an example of

957
00:49:52,679 --> 00:49:55,159
if you, if you build trust with people and you

958
00:49:55,199 --> 00:49:56,599
work with them, that.

959
00:49:56,880 --> 00:49:58,719
Speaker 7: You know you can do great things.

960
00:49:58,880 --> 00:50:02,679
Speaker 6: And so I would I think of it as turning

961
00:50:02,679 --> 00:50:05,400
my face kind of back towards the people of Texas

962
00:50:05,440 --> 00:50:07,639
and say, what can I do for you? How can

963
00:50:07,679 --> 00:50:11,280
I make your businesses more successful? How can I make

964
00:50:11,360 --> 00:50:14,440
you feel safer? How could I make the state better

965
00:50:14,480 --> 00:50:16,719
for you? And that's the way I.

966
00:50:16,639 --> 00:50:17,519
Speaker 7: Look at the position.

967
00:50:17,639 --> 00:50:20,800
Speaker 6: And again I think, because of my background and my

968
00:50:20,880 --> 00:50:25,039
relationships and my qualifications, my work ethic, that I'd be

969
00:50:25,159 --> 00:50:27,880
the type of Attorney General that the people of Texas

970
00:50:27,880 --> 00:50:28,760
would be pleased with.

971
00:50:29,519 --> 00:50:34,239
Speaker 3: On the so called Rodier Bill, we haven't seen any

972
00:50:34,280 --> 00:50:37,760
of those lawsuits brought forward actually work in that regard.

973
00:50:38,440 --> 00:50:40,199
Is that law working in your estimation?

974
00:50:40,400 --> 00:50:42,320
Speaker 7: Well, it can work.

975
00:50:42,599 --> 00:50:44,519
Speaker 6: And I'm going to say this because I think a

976
00:50:44,519 --> 00:50:47,360
lot of us throw around this term rogue prosecutors and

977
00:50:47,440 --> 00:50:50,760
bad prosecutors. The truth is, the vast majority of the

978
00:50:50,760 --> 00:50:53,360
prosecutors in state of Texas do a dang good job,

979
00:50:53,480 --> 00:50:56,800
right and there are probably some people in this room

980
00:50:56,800 --> 00:50:59,000
who disagree with me. I think there's you know, two

981
00:50:59,079 --> 00:51:03,079
or three that aren't doing a great job. But the

982
00:51:03,159 --> 00:51:05,719
way the law is set up, you know, you have

983
00:51:05,760 --> 00:51:09,159
to have a person in that county to under the constitution,

984
00:51:09,320 --> 00:51:13,840
you know, file a complaint and goes through a district court.

985
00:51:14,199 --> 00:51:16,119
There have a right to a jury trial, so there's

986
00:51:16,159 --> 00:51:20,000
a process to remove. Some states have you can have

987
00:51:20,039 --> 00:51:22,719
a legislative impeachment or the governor can remove.

988
00:51:22,760 --> 00:51:23,320
Speaker 7: We don't have that.

989
00:51:23,360 --> 00:51:27,480
Speaker 6: Our constitution speaks very clearly to how a prosecutor can

990
00:51:27,519 --> 00:51:32,559
be removed. And so I think in the right situations, yes,

991
00:51:32,639 --> 00:51:35,880
the bill can work. It's just and I think the

992
00:51:35,920 --> 00:51:38,360
threat of the bill has actually worked. I know El

993
00:51:38,440 --> 00:51:43,400
Paso had an incident. I think that that individual resigned

994
00:51:43,480 --> 00:51:47,719
on their own. Some people have been voted out of office.

995
00:51:48,079 --> 00:51:50,519
You know, there's still you know, if you're convicted of

996
00:51:50,559 --> 00:51:55,079
a felony, then there's kind of an automatic removal once

997
00:51:55,119 --> 00:51:58,000
the judge reports that to the proper authorities and so forth.

998
00:51:58,159 --> 00:52:02,960
So there's things built into the constitution. I think the

999
00:52:03,039 --> 00:52:05,880
law can work in the right circumstances.

1000
00:52:06,199 --> 00:52:10,039
Speaker 3: Yeah, this Attorney General Ray is, particularly the Republican primary

1001
00:52:10,280 --> 00:52:12,639
I think is the most interesting on the ballot next year,

1002
00:52:12,639 --> 00:52:14,159
and a lot of tensions obviously going to be paid

1003
00:52:14,159 --> 00:52:18,800
at the US Senate level, but the dynamics here are

1004
00:52:18,840 --> 00:52:22,199
fascinating to me. What is your assessment of this primary

1005
00:52:22,280 --> 00:52:22,599
so far?

1006
00:52:23,800 --> 00:52:28,559
Speaker 6: Well, I'll tell you, Brad what folk I've decided. I'm

1007
00:52:28,599 --> 00:52:33,360
just getna, I look straight ahead. I'm focused on my background,

1008
00:52:33,440 --> 00:52:36,639
who I am, what I've done, what I think I

1009
00:52:36,679 --> 00:52:39,360
can do, what I want to do, and I'm going

1010
00:52:39,400 --> 00:52:42,480
to let those guys do their thing, and I'm going

1011
00:52:42,519 --> 00:52:45,039
to be joan and I'm going to work really as

1012
00:52:45,079 --> 00:52:48,159
hard as I can, and we'll just let the voters

1013
00:52:48,199 --> 00:52:51,159
decide who what kind of attorney general they want, what

1014
00:52:51,199 --> 00:52:54,320
they want, who they want to stand up and represent

1015
00:52:54,400 --> 00:52:57,519
them in the state of Texas as their attorney general.

1016
00:52:58,920 --> 00:53:02,360
Speaker 3: The polling array of pulling i've seen, obviously it's very early, right,

1017
00:53:02,440 --> 00:53:05,599
lock and change. A lot will change, but it looks

1018
00:53:05,679 --> 00:53:09,639
like Chip Roy is up top. He's the most recognized name, right.

1019
00:53:09,880 --> 00:53:13,599
Everyone else doesn't have that yet. Is that what you're seeing?

1020
00:53:13,760 --> 00:53:16,440
And how do you make up that ground? As a candidate.

1021
00:53:16,519 --> 00:53:18,320
Speaker 6: Well, I think again, you just have to work hard.

1022
00:53:18,360 --> 00:53:21,119
You have to raise money. He'll be perfectly up front

1023
00:53:21,199 --> 00:53:24,760
on that, because it takes money. The tech Texas is

1024
00:53:24,800 --> 00:53:27,840
a very large state. It's a long way from Olpaso

1025
00:53:27,920 --> 00:53:31,760
to Beaumont, and so to get the message out takes money.

1026
00:53:31,800 --> 00:53:33,360
Speaker 7: So I'm trying to raise money.

1027
00:53:34,679 --> 00:53:37,599
Speaker 6: I think I have a very good message that I

1028
00:53:37,840 --> 00:53:39,719
want to get out, and I think that's helpful. I

1029
00:53:39,760 --> 00:53:42,880
have something to say, and I'm just going to work

1030
00:53:42,920 --> 00:53:45,199
hard to raise money and to go to as many

1031
00:53:45,239 --> 00:53:49,400
places as I can. Yeah, Chip Roy starts out with

1032
00:53:49,480 --> 00:53:51,639
am I d You know, he's been in the public

1033
00:53:51,639 --> 00:53:53,719
eye a lot in Fox News and so forth, so

1034
00:53:53,960 --> 00:53:57,000
people kind of know him, and the rest of us

1035
00:53:57,000 --> 00:54:00,960
are I think, fighting for to be known statewide. You know,

1036
00:54:01,599 --> 00:54:04,000
people in the Houston area of course know me more

1037
00:54:04,079 --> 00:54:06,360
because I represent a lot of those areas and out

1038
00:54:06,360 --> 00:54:10,159
in the rural to the west of you know, Houston

1039
00:54:10,239 --> 00:54:14,360
and along the coast where I recommend uh. You know,

1040
00:54:14,440 --> 00:54:17,440
represented folks for a long time. But you know, to

1041
00:54:17,480 --> 00:54:19,880
get get into Dallas, get into West Texas, get in

1042
00:54:19,960 --> 00:54:20,440
East Texas.

1043
00:54:20,480 --> 00:54:23,480
Speaker 7: I think we're all, you know, fighting to do that again.

1044
00:54:23,559 --> 00:54:25,679
Speaker 6: I just hope that my message is the best and

1045
00:54:25,760 --> 00:54:28,239
so that'll get me to that runoff that I think

1046
00:54:28,320 --> 00:54:31,000
is what I'm coveting. So you think it is a

1047
00:54:31,079 --> 00:54:34,079
sure fire runoff, I think it's that that would be

1048
00:54:34,159 --> 00:54:34,760
my prediction.

1049
00:54:35,039 --> 00:54:37,320
Speaker 7: I no, you know, I would say that there will

1050
00:54:37,360 --> 00:54:38,000
be a runoff.

1051
00:54:38,119 --> 00:54:40,039
Speaker 6: Yes, and I'd be happy to be in a runoff

1052
00:54:40,039 --> 00:54:41,880
against any any three of those.

1053
00:54:42,880 --> 00:54:48,800
Speaker 3: So politics today, it pays to be aggressive as a candidate. Right,

1054
00:54:50,719 --> 00:54:53,079
your persona has not been that. It doesn't mean you're

1055
00:54:53,079 --> 00:54:56,559
not firm. There's a difference, but you haven't been outwardly aggressive.

1056
00:54:57,559 --> 00:54:59,760
Does that put you at a disadvantage in this dandage?

1057
00:55:00,320 --> 00:55:03,400
Speaker 6: Well, I guess that time will tell on that, you know.

1058
00:55:03,599 --> 00:55:06,800
I guess it's how you define aggressive. I'll say something

1059
00:55:06,840 --> 00:55:10,239
to you and maybe the women in this I don't

1060
00:55:10,239 --> 00:55:12,440
know if there's any women my age, but maybe there are.

1061
00:55:13,639 --> 00:55:16,440
You try going from being a secretary to being the

1062
00:55:16,559 --> 00:55:19,400
chair of Senate Finance to the state of Texas right

1063
00:55:19,440 --> 00:55:22,480
in a three hundred and sixty four billion dollar budget,

1064
00:55:22,679 --> 00:55:25,239
I'm only the thirteenth woman in the history of Texas

1065
00:55:25,239 --> 00:55:28,519
to be a Senator. Okay, you try that and then

1066
00:55:28,920 --> 00:55:32,840
then label me as not effective or not aggressive. I

1067
00:55:32,920 --> 00:55:35,960
dare someone do that, because you just go back and

1068
00:55:36,039 --> 00:55:40,159
look at it, and it's not an easy road. So

1069
00:55:40,719 --> 00:55:46,280
I'm perfectly capable, competent, aggressive enough, assertive enough to be

1070
00:55:46,400 --> 00:55:47,840
the Attorney General of Texas.

1071
00:55:49,119 --> 00:55:54,679
Speaker 3: What's your competitive advantage in messaging against your three opponents?

1072
00:55:54,840 --> 00:55:56,480
Speaker 7: I think that my.

1073
00:55:57,920 --> 00:56:02,039
Speaker 6: Secret strategy is just to be myself and to stand

1074
00:56:02,199 --> 00:56:06,519
on my background. Look, I've taken over, you know, fourteen

1075
00:56:06,639 --> 00:56:09,480
thousand votes in the Texas Senate. You know I was

1076
00:56:09,599 --> 00:56:13,440
a prosecutor. I've got case results, I've been sued, I've

1077
00:56:13,480 --> 00:56:16,519
been you know, ACLU didn't like me. You know this

1078
00:56:16,599 --> 00:56:19,800
defendant didn't like me someone you know, people protest at

1079
00:56:19,800 --> 00:56:24,199
the office. You know I've made I have a history

1080
00:56:24,199 --> 00:56:26,679
and a record, and I'm just going to stand on that.

1081
00:56:26,760 --> 00:56:30,360
I don't have anything to hide. People know who I am,

1082
00:56:30,440 --> 00:56:32,079
and I think they know what they'll get if they

1083
00:56:32,199 --> 00:56:32,719
vote for me.

1084
00:56:33,599 --> 00:56:36,360
Speaker 3: Should you win, What are the top priorities as AG?

1085
00:56:36,880 --> 00:56:39,880
Speaker 6: I think sort of what I've already stated that and

1086
00:56:39,920 --> 00:56:42,360
that is I really want to kind of beef up

1087
00:56:42,400 --> 00:56:45,840
the law enforcement side of the office, reach out to

1088
00:56:45,960 --> 00:56:49,920
local law enforcement, local prosecutors, and sort of turn up

1089
00:56:49,960 --> 00:56:53,199
the volume on that side of the office really kind

1090
00:56:53,199 --> 00:56:57,159
of you know, there's so many things that need to

1091
00:56:57,199 --> 00:56:59,679
be worked on. You you look at the national level,

1092
00:56:59,679 --> 00:57:02,719
whether it's the fraud through the what's being dug up

1093
00:57:02,760 --> 00:57:06,440
through doze, right, or you look at human trafficking. I've

1094
00:57:06,440 --> 00:57:09,400
wrote written most of the legislation that's been passed in

1095
00:57:09,440 --> 00:57:13,280
Texas in the last decade on human trafficking, but honestly,

1096
00:57:13,760 --> 00:57:17,480
the results and the data, there's not enough prosecution, and

1097
00:57:17,599 --> 00:57:20,119
I would like to see the Attorney General's Office really

1098
00:57:20,960 --> 00:57:23,920
ramp up that prosecution and work with the locals on

1099
00:57:24,519 --> 00:57:30,360
human trafficking. You know, the FEDS investigate transnational gangs and crimes,

1100
00:57:30,519 --> 00:57:35,639
crimes against children, fentanyl trafficking, they do that. But my

1101
00:57:35,719 --> 00:57:37,519
experience with the FEDS, and I've been working with them

1102
00:57:37,559 --> 00:57:39,760
a long time, back to my days as a prosecutor

1103
00:57:39,800 --> 00:57:44,960
as a secretary, even they like to handpick the premium cases, right.

1104
00:57:45,039 --> 00:57:46,480
Speaker 4: They like the easy wins.

1105
00:57:46,519 --> 00:57:50,239
Speaker 6: And I'm not being nasty about any you know, US

1106
00:57:50,360 --> 00:57:52,199
attorneys here, but that's just the name.

1107
00:57:52,400 --> 00:57:53,440
Speaker 7: That's the way it works.

1108
00:57:53,440 --> 00:57:57,159
Speaker 6: They're not going to take all what's left the crumbs,

1109
00:57:57,199 --> 00:57:59,840
but the crumbs might be one hundred million dollar fraud case.

1110
00:58:00,079 --> 00:58:03,639
It might be a human trafficking ring that has fifty

1111
00:58:03,679 --> 00:58:06,320
women their trafficking. That might be the crumbs to the Feds,

1112
00:58:06,719 --> 00:58:09,599
and a lot of that those issues are just being

1113
00:58:09,679 --> 00:58:12,320
left behind. The locals don't have the resources or the

1114
00:58:12,360 --> 00:58:15,239
time to do it. So I will really focus on

1115
00:58:16,159 --> 00:58:20,760
getting you know, on that. That would be my top

1116
00:58:20,800 --> 00:58:25,639
priority is the safety of Texans. Anything else you like that, well,

1117
00:58:25,679 --> 00:58:28,920
I'm going to work hard on everything that's important, but

1118
00:58:29,079 --> 00:58:30,360
that would be my top priority.

1119
00:58:30,719 --> 00:58:32,079
Speaker 4: Senator John Huffman, thank you for joining me.

1120
00:58:32,119 --> 00:58:34,000
Speaker 7: Thank you, thank you for having me. Thank y'all.

1121
00:58:35,639 --> 00:58:35,760
Speaker 6: Um.

1122
00:58:41,400 --> 00:58:44,800
Speaker 3: Last, but not least, we have Aaron Rights, Republican running

1123
00:58:44,800 --> 00:58:47,360
for Attorney General, one of the four candidates.

1124
00:58:48,039 --> 00:58:50,119
Speaker 4: Aaron, welcome, happy to be here. Thank you.

1125
00:58:50,480 --> 00:58:53,480
Speaker 3: The first time we met you were running for Texas

1126
00:58:53,519 --> 00:58:55,639
House in twenty twenty. I think it's safe to say

1127
00:58:55,639 --> 00:58:56,639
they didn't go as you planned.

1128
00:58:56,840 --> 00:58:56,880
Speaker 1: No.

1129
00:58:57,199 --> 00:58:59,320
Speaker 8: I had the same hairstyle back then, though it was

1130
00:58:59,360 --> 00:59:01,119
a little done to a couple heres.

1131
00:59:01,400 --> 00:59:02,400
Speaker 4: Where have you been since then?

1132
00:59:03,159 --> 00:59:03,280
Speaker 5: Oh?

1133
00:59:03,360 --> 00:59:05,400
Speaker 8: A lot has happened, you know. Several years ago I

1134
00:59:05,480 --> 00:59:10,159
ran for State rep. Blessedly in God's providence, lost that

1135
00:59:10,320 --> 00:59:15,119
race and was elevated to serve as Attorney General Ken

1136
00:59:15,159 --> 00:59:19,400
Paxson's deputy, and I served as his he likes to

1137
00:59:19,440 --> 00:59:22,960
call me as offensive coordinator, leading the Texas v. Biden

1138
00:59:23,079 --> 00:59:27,000
docket during the Biden administration. Did that for three years,

1139
00:59:27,039 --> 00:59:30,519
served as Senator Ted Cruz's chief of staff before getting

1140
00:59:30,599 --> 00:59:32,840
my job offer from the President to serve as the

1141
00:59:33,119 --> 00:59:35,599
presidentially appointed Senate confirmed head of the Office of Legal

1142
00:59:35,599 --> 00:59:40,039
Policy at DOJ. And they spent the spring season in

1143
00:59:40,079 --> 00:59:43,599
the Trump administration before launching my bid for ag So.

1144
00:59:43,559 --> 00:59:44,000
Speaker 4: Here we are.

1145
00:59:44,679 --> 00:59:46,719
Speaker 3: It was what like seventyeh days that you spent those

1146
00:59:46,760 --> 00:59:48,639
three months there? Yeah, what did you do there?

1147
00:59:49,440 --> 00:59:50,519
Speaker 4: So? The Office of.

1148
00:59:50,559 --> 00:59:54,480
Speaker 8: Legal Policy under statute has a very open ended mission statement,

1149
00:59:54,880 --> 00:59:58,400
and it says the Assistant Attorney General over the Office

1150
00:59:58,400 --> 01:00:02,119
of Legal Policy shall plan, execute, and coordinate matters of

1151
01:00:02,199 --> 01:00:04,559
high priority to the President and the Attorney General of

1152
01:00:04,559 --> 01:00:05,360
the United States.

1153
01:00:05,599 --> 01:00:07,039
Speaker 4: That's the statutory charge.

1154
01:00:07,159 --> 01:00:10,599
Speaker 8: Now, what it ends up looking like in reality is

1155
01:00:10,639 --> 01:00:13,960
that any of the executive orders that the President promulgated

1156
01:00:14,320 --> 01:00:17,840
in which the Department of Justice or Just Justice related

1157
01:00:17,920 --> 01:00:21,880
issues were implicated, my office, the Office of Legal Policy

1158
01:00:21,920 --> 01:00:26,920
at DOJ, was charged with crafting the blueprint to effectuate

1159
01:00:27,119 --> 01:00:32,599
that executive order for the Justice Department. So, for example,

1160
01:00:33,480 --> 01:00:37,800
when the President wanted to reinstate or increase the proper

1161
01:00:37,880 --> 01:00:40,960
use of the death penalty, well, obviously the Justice Department

1162
01:00:41,000 --> 01:00:46,159
and the various US Attorney's offices around the country need

1163
01:00:46,239 --> 01:00:48,639
to receive guidance on how to do that, and so

1164
01:00:48,719 --> 01:00:51,000
the Office of Legal Policy will draft the initial sort

1165
01:00:51,000 --> 01:00:54,800
of white paper internally circulated with the AG's new guidance.

1166
01:00:55,199 --> 01:00:59,960
Or another example, when the President drafts an executive order

1167
01:01:00,320 --> 01:01:04,320
that says, hey, I really want to unleash American oil

1168
01:01:04,400 --> 01:01:07,280
and gas and energy, and I want the Justice Department

1169
01:01:07,639 --> 01:01:11,760
to revisit its various investigations or lawsuits that during the

1170
01:01:11,800 --> 01:01:17,239
Biden era were intentionally used to disrupt or frustrate or

1171
01:01:17,280 --> 01:01:20,719
thwart the domestic production of oil and gas. And so

1172
01:01:21,159 --> 01:01:23,000
then the Office of Legal Policy would go and do

1173
01:01:23,039 --> 01:01:26,079
a full scale review of all the outstanding litigation or

1174
01:01:26,079 --> 01:01:29,199
investigations and appeals that had to do with the energy sector,

1175
01:01:29,639 --> 01:01:33,039
coordinating with the Environment and Natural Resources Division, and then

1176
01:01:33,119 --> 01:01:37,119
come up with a Justice Department wide blueprint to bring

1177
01:01:37,280 --> 01:01:40,320
life to that executive order. And so I can continue

1178
01:01:40,320 --> 01:01:43,440
to give other examples of that that was the main

1179
01:01:43,519 --> 01:01:46,000
mission at the Office of Legal Policy. We also were

1180
01:01:46,039 --> 01:01:49,719
responsible for judicial vetting, so a lot of the district

1181
01:01:49,760 --> 01:01:52,559
Court or the Court of Appeals judges that were sort

1182
01:01:52,599 --> 01:01:55,639
of getting floated before anything was public. We would do

1183
01:01:55,960 --> 01:01:58,840
all the background investigations. We would do the interviews about

1184
01:01:58,840 --> 01:02:02,159
their jurisprudence, and a lot signment with the justice related

1185
01:02:02,199 --> 01:02:04,639
matters that the President ran on. And then I was

1186
01:02:04,679 --> 01:02:07,639
also sort of the third component of my job at

1187
01:02:07,639 --> 01:02:10,920
the Justice Department under President Trump was I was sort.

1188
01:02:10,719 --> 01:02:12,480
Speaker 4: Of the chief regulatory officer.

1189
01:02:12,519 --> 01:02:16,239
Speaker 8: So the Justice Department and its various component parts promulgate

1190
01:02:16,320 --> 01:02:20,280
hundreds and hundreds of pieces of federal regulations throughout the year,

1191
01:02:20,679 --> 01:02:23,639
and our office was sort of the clearinghouse in terms

1192
01:02:23,679 --> 01:02:26,840
of both form and substance on any regulations that were

1193
01:02:26,840 --> 01:02:29,159
going to leave the Justice Department to get published into

1194
01:02:29,199 --> 01:02:33,199
the Federal Register. So all of those things were things

1195
01:02:33,199 --> 01:02:35,400
that I touched. If it was sort of a headline

1196
01:02:35,480 --> 01:02:39,920
making matter that came out of the DOJ. There's almost

1197
01:02:39,960 --> 01:02:44,559
a near certainty that I was involved with Attorney General Pambondi,

1198
01:02:44,760 --> 01:02:47,920
the Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, and various other senior

1199
01:02:48,000 --> 01:02:52,599
leaders about crafting what would the Justice Department wide legal

1200
01:02:52,639 --> 01:02:55,719
policy be on those particular issues.

1201
01:02:55,760 --> 01:02:56,679
Speaker 4: So it was a blast.

1202
01:02:56,920 --> 01:03:00,519
Speaker 8: And then look, Attorney General Ken Paxton, the you know,

1203
01:03:00,559 --> 01:03:03,119
in the middle of the spring season, announced that he

1204
01:03:03,199 --> 01:03:07,079
was going to be running for Senate, and as someone

1205
01:03:07,119 --> 01:03:10,440
who served under Packson as his deputy and someone who had,

1206
01:03:10,519 --> 01:03:12,360
you know, on behalf of the state of Texas, led

1207
01:03:12,440 --> 01:03:15,079
some of the most consequential pieces of litigation and appeals

1208
01:03:15,400 --> 01:03:18,960
and investigations and then done similarly at the federal level

1209
01:03:19,320 --> 01:03:22,320
under the Justice Department, and the Trump had been you know,

1210
01:03:22,400 --> 01:03:25,760
I thought, you know, I wasn't there at DJ for

1211
01:03:25,880 --> 01:03:30,119
very long, but I can't not consider this. And so

1212
01:03:30,159 --> 01:03:32,679
the first conversation I had was with Attorney General Pambondi

1213
01:03:32,679 --> 01:03:36,039
about what it might look like from early and then

1214
01:03:36,079 --> 01:03:39,119
from early April to mid June when I announced, that

1215
01:03:39,239 --> 01:03:42,440
was a period of very prayerful and deliberate due diligence.

1216
01:03:42,840 --> 01:03:44,360
You know, what would the path to victory be? Who

1217
01:03:44,360 --> 01:03:45,559
else is in the field, what is it?

1218
01:03:45,800 --> 01:03:46,159
Speaker 4: What is it?

1219
01:03:46,159 --> 01:03:47,840
Speaker 8: How do we find a replacement for me at DOJ?

1220
01:03:48,239 --> 01:03:50,280
Is the money going to be there? What about endorsements?

1221
01:03:50,320 --> 01:03:52,920
What does Ken Paxton think? What is et cetera? Et cetera.

1222
01:03:53,119 --> 01:03:55,639
All the due diligence that you would imagine needs to

1223
01:03:55,719 --> 01:04:01,639
happen before somebody steps into something of this scale was completed,

1224
01:04:01,679 --> 01:04:03,519
and by the time mid June came around, it was

1225
01:04:03,559 --> 01:04:08,239
green lights across the board. It made total sense politically, financially,

1226
01:04:08,480 --> 01:04:12,079
from a grassroots perspective, Blessings from the White House, DJ,

1227
01:04:12,239 --> 01:04:15,599
et cetera, et cetera. And then we launched a mid June.

1228
01:04:15,639 --> 01:04:17,119
We've had an incredible time since then.

1229
01:04:17,719 --> 01:04:20,000
Speaker 3: When you first launched, a lot of the reaction I

1230
01:04:20,039 --> 01:04:24,360
heard was dismissive and pointing back to the twenty twenty

1231
01:04:24,719 --> 01:04:29,719
race where you'd finish forth and that seemed to be

1232
01:04:29,960 --> 01:04:33,199
how people thought you would perform in this race, and

1233
01:04:33,239 --> 01:04:35,119
I think it's pretty clear that it hasn't been the case.

1234
01:04:35,800 --> 01:04:37,840
Why is this time different for you as a candidate

1235
01:04:37,920 --> 01:04:38,519
versus twenty two.

1236
01:04:38,559 --> 01:04:40,760
Speaker 8: Well, look, there's always going to be haters and losers

1237
01:04:40,760 --> 01:04:43,360
and doubters out there, right, I mean, it's always going

1238
01:04:43,400 --> 01:04:45,920
to be the peanut gallery, those who whether you're in

1239
01:04:45,960 --> 01:04:48,840
politics or business, or you're an entrepreneur, whatever it is

1240
01:04:48,880 --> 01:04:51,440
that you're doing in your life, and this applies to

1241
01:04:51,559 --> 01:04:54,800
everybody in this audience. You know, when you muster that

1242
01:04:54,920 --> 01:04:57,559
courage to do something and put your name out there,

1243
01:04:57,719 --> 01:05:00,440
there's always going to be the armchair quarterbackers who are like, man,

1244
01:05:00,480 --> 01:05:02,920
you know whatever, we'll see how this goes or whatever,

1245
01:05:03,119 --> 01:05:05,280
and they'll they never have what it takes to be

1246
01:05:05,320 --> 01:05:07,599
the ones that step out right. They're always just whispering

1247
01:05:07,599 --> 01:05:10,239
in the background. So ignore the haters and the losers.

1248
01:05:10,679 --> 01:05:12,760
But I'll tell you, let me answer your question more directly,

1249
01:05:13,639 --> 01:05:16,079
A couple of things happened. Number One, I ran for

1250
01:05:16,119 --> 01:05:19,079
State Rep. Having no clue what I was doing, no

1251
01:05:19,199 --> 01:05:22,000
clue what I was doing right, And I went through

1252
01:05:22,920 --> 01:05:26,039
years of additional not only life experience, but legal experience,

1253
01:05:26,039 --> 01:05:30,159
professional experience, and political experience, having been the senior official

1254
01:05:30,840 --> 01:05:34,840
staff leader for both Paxton during his twenty twenty two

1255
01:05:34,880 --> 01:05:37,880
reelect and Senator Cruz as his chief during his twenty

1256
01:05:37,920 --> 01:05:40,880
four reelect. And you learn a lot about statewide politics

1257
01:05:40,920 --> 01:05:43,519
at that point. And so while I jumped into this

1258
01:05:43,639 --> 01:05:46,000
State Rep race because I just love the game, you know,

1259
01:05:46,079 --> 01:05:48,639
I mean, I'm passionate about it, I jumped in no

1260
01:05:48,719 --> 01:05:49,559
idea what I was doing.

1261
01:05:49,559 --> 01:05:50,599
Speaker 4: Of course, it didn't work out.

1262
01:05:51,440 --> 01:05:56,000
Speaker 8: Now, after nearly a decade after that launching for this bid.

1263
01:05:56,440 --> 01:06:01,039
We've got the know how, the experience, the message, the relationships,

1264
01:06:01,079 --> 01:06:04,760
the money, the statewide infrastructure. So there's a huge just

1265
01:06:04,800 --> 01:06:07,840
in terms of campaign mechanics difference from back then. But

1266
01:06:08,039 --> 01:06:13,800
really what put all of the doubters to shame is

1267
01:06:13,840 --> 01:06:17,679
the fact that in my first two weeks as a

1268
01:06:18,320 --> 01:06:23,000
no namer, zero percent name id, never won or held

1269
01:06:23,199 --> 01:06:24,079
elected office.

1270
01:06:24,519 --> 01:06:24,920
Speaker 4: Nothing.

1271
01:06:25,079 --> 01:06:27,000
Speaker 8: Just I mean somebody with I think a pretty good

1272
01:06:27,039 --> 01:06:29,840
resume and a good background, somebody who you would want

1273
01:06:29,880 --> 01:06:33,559
to hire as your attorney, but somebody who's never been

1274
01:06:33,599 --> 01:06:38,079
elected to anything. In my first two weeks as a

1275
01:06:38,119 --> 01:06:42,599
non incumbent, non officeholder, no committee, no subcommittee, no nothing,

1276
01:06:42,639 --> 01:06:44,719
I don't get to sit up here and say I'm

1277
01:06:44,719 --> 01:06:47,400
gonna be Senate finance chairman, whether you like it or not,

1278
01:06:47,559 --> 01:06:49,400
give me your money, right, I mean, some candidates in

1279
01:06:49,440 --> 01:06:52,199
this race can do this, right. I had no incentives

1280
01:06:52,199 --> 01:06:56,239
to give anybody anything, and in two weeks from two

1281
01:06:56,360 --> 01:06:59,599
hundred and fifty individual donors, I raised two point one

1282
01:06:59,719 --> 01:07:04,519
five million dollars. Now this is not just record breaking,

1283
01:07:04,599 --> 01:07:08,079
it is in fact record setting. No one in modern

1284
01:07:08,079 --> 01:07:12,760
Texas politics as a no namer going from zero zero

1285
01:07:12,880 --> 01:07:13,960
dollars and zero percent.

1286
01:07:14,039 --> 01:07:17,440
Speaker 4: Name ID has ever achieved that.

1287
01:07:17,320 --> 01:07:20,079
Speaker 8: Kind of fundraising from so many donors in that amount

1288
01:07:20,079 --> 01:07:23,559
of time. Why Because when people hear about what I

1289
01:07:23,719 --> 01:07:29,400
offer the supporters, both in terms of grassroots endorsers, small dollar,

1290
01:07:29,480 --> 01:07:33,079
big dollar, they flock to this flag. They're excited about it.

1291
01:07:33,400 --> 01:07:35,400
I've not been the kind of guy that's waiting in

1292
01:07:35,480 --> 01:07:38,400
line for the next thing. Oh, I've climbed through the ranks.

1293
01:07:38,400 --> 01:07:40,119
I run for House, I ran for Senate, or I've

1294
01:07:40,119 --> 01:07:42,119
been in Senate for so many some idears, I've been

1295
01:07:42,159 --> 01:07:45,840
a chairman where we just in Texas politics often resign

1296
01:07:45,880 --> 01:07:49,039
ourselves to prefer the person who has been waiting in

1297
01:07:49,079 --> 01:07:49,920
line the longest.

1298
01:07:50,480 --> 01:07:54,199
Speaker 4: What I offer is a degree of.

1299
01:07:56,199 --> 01:07:59,960
Speaker 8: Energy around a vision for this office and the credit

1300
01:08:00,519 --> 01:08:03,800
to back it up. And people are excited about this.

1301
01:08:03,960 --> 01:08:08,000
I'm not a conventional politician. I'm somebody who President Trump

1302
01:08:08,039 --> 01:08:10,960
described as a true MAGA attorney and a warrior for

1303
01:08:11,000 --> 01:08:15,559
the Constitution. I'm a candidate for office that Senator Dick Durbin,

1304
01:08:15,599 --> 01:08:18,600
the senior Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee when I

1305
01:08:18,640 --> 01:08:23,039
got confirmed, described me as a danger to democracy and

1306
01:08:23,119 --> 01:08:26,359
a menace to the rule of law, which is obviously insane,

1307
01:08:26,439 --> 01:08:31,560
hyperbolic left wing talking points and it's nonsense. But there's

1308
01:08:31,600 --> 01:08:35,439
a reason why, and it's because people are excited about

1309
01:08:35,439 --> 01:08:38,279
what I have to offer. And I think that is

1310
01:08:38,319 --> 01:08:41,279
one of the distinguishing things about this campaign, in my

1311
01:08:41,359 --> 01:08:44,319
candidacy in particular, is I'm the only one in this

1312
01:08:44,520 --> 01:08:52,079
race with actual recent and relevant experience litigating, investigating, suing, defending,

1313
01:08:52,119 --> 01:08:54,960
and appealing on all of the major issues on behalf

1314
01:08:54,960 --> 01:08:58,479
of the state of Texas and Texans constitutional rights. No

1315
01:08:58,479 --> 01:09:03,159
one else in this race canssibly suggest anything approximating that

1316
01:09:04,199 --> 01:09:06,600
the person that was just up on the stage wants

1317
01:09:06,600 --> 01:09:08,840
to talk about a prose prosecutorial experience.

1318
01:09:08,880 --> 01:09:09,560
Speaker 4: I think that's great.

1319
01:09:10,319 --> 01:09:13,720
Speaker 8: Number One, that's from the early nineties, Okay, it's not recent.

1320
01:09:14,560 --> 01:09:21,640
And number two, this job is ninety nine percent civil law. Now,

1321
01:09:21,680 --> 01:09:22,960
I don't want to get too wonky, but look, if

1322
01:09:23,000 --> 01:09:25,199
you're at the Texas Tribune Festival, you're a little bit wonky. Okay,

1323
01:09:25,239 --> 01:09:28,600
So I will for just a second, All right, ninety

1324
01:09:28,680 --> 01:09:32,600
nine percent of what the Attorney general does is civil litigation,

1325
01:09:33,680 --> 01:09:40,000
not criminal law. If you're running on your prosecution experience,

1326
01:09:40,920 --> 01:09:44,920
run for district attorney. But if you're running to be

1327
01:09:45,000 --> 01:09:48,279
the Attorney General of the State of Texas. I want

1328
01:09:48,279 --> 01:09:51,319
to hear about your record litigating, investigating, suing, defending, and

1329
01:09:51,359 --> 01:09:54,880
appealing on the First Amendment, the Second Amendment, the Tenth Amendment,

1330
01:09:55,000 --> 01:10:01,159
the Fourteenth Amendment, religious liberty, redistricting, election integrity, border security.

1331
01:10:02,119 --> 01:10:04,560
I want to hear about the appeals that you've run.

1332
01:10:04,600 --> 01:10:06,079
I want to hear about the cases that you've brought

1333
01:10:06,119 --> 01:10:08,439
up to the United States Supreme Court. That's what I

1334
01:10:08,479 --> 01:10:10,560
want to hear about, not about the bad guys that

1335
01:10:10,600 --> 01:10:14,520
you booked in nineteen ninety three. That's great, but it

1336
01:10:14,560 --> 01:10:16,479
has nothing to do with the job for which we

1337
01:10:16,520 --> 01:10:19,199
are applying. Article four, Section twenty two of the Texas

1338
01:10:19,199 --> 01:10:23,800
Constitution says, quote, the Attorney General shall represent the State

1339
01:10:23,840 --> 01:10:27,399
of Texas in all courts and pleas. This is a

1340
01:10:27,560 --> 01:10:31,319
legal executive branch law enforcement job.

1341
01:10:32,399 --> 01:10:34,479
Speaker 4: It is not a legislative job.

1342
01:10:35,359 --> 01:10:38,279
Speaker 8: And my three opponents are, for the most part, running

1343
01:10:38,319 --> 01:10:41,960
on their legislative experience. Oh, I got this amendment through,

1344
01:10:42,039 --> 01:10:44,600
I passed this bill, I co sponsored that thing, I

1345
01:10:44,680 --> 01:10:47,039
killed this bad bill, I sat on this committee. Great,

1346
01:10:47,680 --> 01:10:51,239
are you applying for a legislative job. I have no

1347
01:10:51,439 --> 01:10:55,800
legislative record of which to speak none. You can't rape me,

1348
01:10:55,920 --> 01:10:59,920
you can't do any of that. However, what I do have,

1349
01:11:00,680 --> 01:11:03,680
and what no one else in this race has, is

1350
01:11:03,760 --> 01:11:07,920
a legal record fighting and winning on behalf of the

1351
01:11:07,960 --> 01:11:11,439
issues that Texas cares about, Texans care about at every

1352
01:11:11,560 --> 01:11:15,000
level of state and federal court. And so what have

1353
01:11:15,079 --> 01:11:17,359
I learned since that time? Over the past decade or so,

1354
01:11:17,760 --> 01:11:19,880
I've learned how to fight and win in court. I've

1355
01:11:19,960 --> 01:11:22,399
learned how to lead litigation teams. I've learned how to

1356
01:11:22,520 --> 01:11:25,680
lead investigation teams. I've learned how to succeed and win

1357
01:11:25,800 --> 01:11:28,439
at the federal, state and local level in court on

1358
01:11:28,520 --> 01:11:31,840
behalf of Texas and on behalf of Texans. That's why

1359
01:11:31,840 --> 01:11:35,640
President Trump looked at my record and said, I want

1360
01:11:35,640 --> 01:11:36,079
to bring.

1361
01:11:35,880 --> 01:11:37,640
Speaker 4: This guy to the senior most ranks of the DOJ.

1362
01:11:38,079 --> 01:11:40,199
Speaker 8: I'm going to call this guy my true MAGA attorney

1363
01:11:40,199 --> 01:11:44,039
and warrior for the Constitution. My opponents they wouldn't have

1364
01:11:44,039 --> 01:11:46,840
even gotten an entry level job at the Justice Department

1365
01:11:46,960 --> 01:11:49,079
or the Office of the Attorney General. Why Because they

1366
01:11:49,079 --> 01:11:51,560
have no legal experience that is relevant to this position.

1367
01:11:52,159 --> 01:11:52,520
Speaker 4: I do.

1368
01:11:53,159 --> 01:11:56,239
Speaker 8: And that's why people are fired up about my candidacy

1369
01:11:56,560 --> 01:11:58,640
and it's why so much has changed since those many

1370
01:11:58,680 --> 01:11:59,760
years ago.

1371
01:12:00,039 --> 01:12:02,119
Speaker 3: President has not weighed in in this race yet there's

1372
01:12:02,119 --> 01:12:05,600
no guarantee does why not in your estimation?

1373
01:12:06,319 --> 01:12:09,119
Speaker 8: Well, look, I think that he is going to want it,

1374
01:12:09,119 --> 01:12:13,439
but President Trump typically will wait until his endorsement, his

1375
01:12:13,520 --> 01:12:16,720
weighing in has the highest impact, and right now it's

1376
01:12:16,760 --> 01:12:20,640
still extremely early. There's still a lot of campaigning to do.

1377
01:12:22,119 --> 01:12:24,520
But look, it's true that he has not weighed in

1378
01:12:25,439 --> 01:12:30,920
contemporaneously on this race, but he has weighed in on

1379
01:12:31,079 --> 01:12:35,000
three out of the four candidates and their fitness for

1380
01:12:35,079 --> 01:12:40,319
an office of this nature. Okay, so let's review Joan Huffman.

1381
01:12:40,720 --> 01:12:43,039
He doesn't have a clue who Joan Huffman is. And

1382
01:12:43,079 --> 01:12:48,680
John Huffman I don't think has suggested any fealty or

1383
01:12:48,720 --> 01:12:52,239
align or even alignment with the America First Law and

1384
01:12:52,319 --> 01:12:54,359
Order agenda. Now, folks in this room might think that

1385
01:12:54,359 --> 01:12:58,279
that's great, Republican primary voters don't. So I don't think

1386
01:12:58,359 --> 01:13:01,159
Joan knows who he is or cares or anything. So Joan,

1387
01:13:01,199 --> 01:13:06,239
I would say, not even Maga credible at all. Mays

1388
01:13:07,000 --> 01:13:10,520
purchased for himself a legislative endorsement in two thousand and

1389
01:13:10,560 --> 01:13:14,920
one and is sending mailers around the country, quoting President

1390
01:13:14,960 --> 01:13:18,640
Trump from twenty twenty one praising his legislative record, to

1391
01:13:18,640 --> 01:13:20,920
which again I say, well, that's great. Are you applying

1392
01:13:20,920 --> 01:13:25,840
for the legislature? Why do I care about your legislative record?

1393
01:13:26,560 --> 01:13:29,720
This is a legal position. And by the way, that

1394
01:13:29,880 --> 01:13:32,960
was almost six years ago, five years ago.

1395
01:13:33,039 --> 01:13:34,039
Speaker 4: I'm a lawyer, not the math.

1396
01:13:34,079 --> 01:13:35,640
Speaker 8: Okay, you know this is pract I think it's about

1397
01:13:35,640 --> 01:13:39,319
five years it's five years ago on a legislative record.

1398
01:13:40,399 --> 01:13:41,960
Speaker 4: Now, what about.

1399
01:13:41,720 --> 01:13:44,359
Speaker 8: Chip Roy or Chipsoy or Flip Roy as many people

1400
01:13:44,359 --> 01:13:44,760
call him.

1401
01:13:44,960 --> 01:13:46,760
Speaker 4: I think it's a little bit mean, but people call

1402
01:13:46,800 --> 01:13:47,439
him that. I don't know.

1403
01:13:48,239 --> 01:13:51,600
Speaker 8: You can go to chipsoy dot time I tweet something,

1404
01:13:51,680 --> 01:13:53,159
Yeah you like that. Yeah, And you can actually go

1405
01:13:53,239 --> 01:13:54,199
to chip soy for that.

1406
01:13:54,600 --> 01:13:55,039
Speaker 4: You're welcome.

1407
01:13:55,119 --> 01:13:57,399
Speaker 8: Yeah, you can go to chipsoy dot org, actually, where

1408
01:13:57,399 --> 01:14:00,159
we chronicle his run ins with the Trump administration and

1409
01:14:00,199 --> 01:14:02,000
with President and with Attorney General Packson.

1410
01:14:02,880 --> 01:14:05,920
Speaker 4: We know what President Trump feels about Chip Roy.

1411
01:14:06,119 --> 01:14:10,680
Speaker 8: As late as December of twenty twenty four, President Trump,

1412
01:14:10,760 --> 01:14:14,119
less than a year ago, President Trump was calling for

1413
01:14:14,239 --> 01:14:19,319
Chip Roy to be booted from office. President Trump has

1414
01:14:19,319 --> 01:14:23,560
called Chip Roy a rhino, a grand stander, a blowhard,

1415
01:14:23,920 --> 01:14:29,359
not very talented, not very smart, egomaniac, self serving, do nothing,

1416
01:14:29,760 --> 01:14:35,039
congressional loser. I'm not making those things up, chipsoy dot org.

1417
01:14:35,399 --> 01:14:36,880
We got all the receipts out there if you want

1418
01:14:36,880 --> 01:14:41,159
to see him. So we know what President Trump thinks

1419
01:14:41,159 --> 01:14:45,119
about Chip Roy. We also know what Chip Roy thinks

1420
01:14:45,159 --> 01:14:49,159
about President Trump. Remember in January of twenty twenty one,

1421
01:14:49,479 --> 01:14:52,880
when Attorney General Paxson and I were fighting to stop

1422
01:14:52,920 --> 01:14:57,920
the stolen election, chip Roy was calling for President Trump

1423
01:14:57,960 --> 01:15:02,479
to be impeached. He sided with Mike Pence to stop

1424
01:15:02,520 --> 01:15:08,840
the steal. He sided with Liz Cheney when Republican leadership

1425
01:15:08,880 --> 01:15:11,680
was calling for her to be removed. We also know

1426
01:15:11,800 --> 01:15:15,720
that Chip Roy was the very first United States congressman

1427
01:15:17,640 --> 01:15:20,840
not just to campaign for Ron DeSantis for the twenty

1428
01:15:20,840 --> 01:15:25,560
twenty four presidential cycle, but was the first Republican in

1429
01:15:25,640 --> 01:15:30,079
Congress to recruit Ron de Santis to run for president,

1430
01:15:30,560 --> 01:15:33,880
citing President Trump's inadequacies to serve as the next president

1431
01:15:33,880 --> 01:15:36,520
of the United States, and then campaigned around the country

1432
01:15:36,520 --> 01:15:44,159
with Thomas Massey as one of his chief surrogates. Meanwhile,

1433
01:15:45,479 --> 01:15:49,359
chip Roy was also the very first elected official to

1434
01:15:49,479 --> 01:15:52,239
call for Attorney General Paxton to be removed from office.

1435
01:15:52,520 --> 01:15:55,359
In that swirling month of October of twenty twenty when

1436
01:15:55,359 --> 01:15:58,840
what I call the coup happened. Not only was he

1437
01:15:58,880 --> 01:16:01,319
the first elected official to call for him to be removed,

1438
01:16:02,159 --> 01:16:05,079
but he was also then went on a speaking tour

1439
01:16:05,760 --> 01:16:08,880
and a news media blitz from the spring to fall

1440
01:16:08,960 --> 01:16:12,640
of twenty twenty three when the House impeached Paxton and

1441
01:16:12,680 --> 01:16:14,359
then was in the trial with him in the Senate

1442
01:16:14,720 --> 01:16:18,560
and was urging everybody to convict him and impeach him.

1443
01:16:19,079 --> 01:16:19,920
Speaker 4: That's chip Roy.

1444
01:16:20,960 --> 01:16:24,199
Speaker 8: Chip Roy will betray you, he will flip on you,

1445
01:16:24,479 --> 01:16:27,800
he will betray this president. He will betray Ken Paxton.

1446
01:16:28,239 --> 01:16:31,399
So yes, you are right, Brad that in the year

1447
01:16:31,439 --> 01:16:35,640
twenty twenty five, President Trump has not weighed in on

1448
01:16:35,720 --> 01:16:40,000
this race, but in the past several years, Trump has

1449
01:16:40,039 --> 01:16:43,079
weighed in on the individuals that happened to be running.

1450
01:16:43,119 --> 01:16:46,600
What has he said about me when he nominated me

1451
01:16:46,640 --> 01:16:49,079
to the senior post of the Justice Department. He did

1452
01:16:49,079 --> 01:16:53,439
two things. Number One, he described me as a true

1453
01:16:53,600 --> 01:16:54,880
MAGA attorney.

1454
01:16:54,520 --> 01:16:56,039
Speaker 4: And a warrior for the Constitution.

1455
01:16:56,840 --> 01:16:59,920
Speaker 8: And let me be clear, that's exactly what Republican primary

1456
01:17:00,079 --> 01:17:04,159
voters want as their next attorney general. But the reason

1457
01:17:04,239 --> 01:17:06,640
why he called me those things, he said it in

1458
01:17:06,680 --> 01:17:12,159
his nominating statement. He specifically praised my vast legal experience

1459
01:17:13,119 --> 01:17:19,000
under both Attorney General Ken Paxson and Senator Cruz litigating, investigating, suing, defending,

1460
01:17:19,000 --> 01:17:21,880
and appealing on all the major issues, in particular the

1461
01:17:21,960 --> 01:17:25,680
fact that I led the Texas v. Biden Dockett from

1462
01:17:25,720 --> 01:17:28,479
twenty twenty to twenty twenty three. And I'm proud to

1463
01:17:28,479 --> 01:17:31,439
say that I sued the forty six president forty six

1464
01:17:31,520 --> 01:17:34,079
times and I won eighty five percent of those cases.

1465
01:17:35,760 --> 01:17:39,159
That's why Republicans are excited about my candidacy. That's why

1466
01:17:39,159 --> 01:17:42,479
President Trump has trusted me to lead legal teams.

1467
01:17:43,760 --> 01:17:44,680
Speaker 4: My three opponents.

1468
01:17:45,680 --> 01:17:48,640
Speaker 8: Not only would neither President Trump nor Attorney General Packson

1469
01:17:48,680 --> 01:17:51,880
ever entrust them with any position of any sort of

1470
01:17:51,960 --> 01:17:54,800
legal authority, but you wouldn't hire them as your personal attorney.

1471
01:17:54,960 --> 01:17:58,840
Why because they have no legal experience whatsoever, and yet

1472
01:17:59,199 --> 01:18:01,880
they're applying to be the chief legal officer of Texas.

1473
01:18:02,800 --> 01:18:06,119
We should evaluate the criteria and fitness for the candidate

1474
01:18:06,399 --> 01:18:10,800
based upon the job description. The chief legal officer ought

1475
01:18:10,840 --> 01:18:15,319
to be a very experienced attorney and I'm the only

1476
01:18:15,399 --> 01:18:17,199
one despite being the youngest in the race, I've got

1477
01:18:17,199 --> 01:18:19,680
the oldest hair style. Well, no, Chip, Maybe Chip's got

1478
01:18:19,720 --> 01:18:21,640
a good haircut. I'll give him that. I'll give him that.

1479
01:18:22,479 --> 01:18:24,560
But Maze is the only one with nice hair in

1480
01:18:24,560 --> 01:18:27,000
the race. I'll give him that too. You know, well,

1481
01:18:27,079 --> 01:18:28,720
Joan has nice hair. I mean for the men, Joan

1482
01:18:28,760 --> 01:18:33,760
looks great. But my point is, no one if you

1483
01:18:33,800 --> 01:18:36,560
look at the criteria for this office and you put

1484
01:18:36,960 --> 01:18:40,520
just the qualifications right, Texans are hiring the state's lawyer

1485
01:18:41,680 --> 01:18:43,800
and I'm the only one with the background that you

1486
01:18:43,920 --> 01:18:46,119
got the proven battle scars to show you I can

1487
01:18:46,159 --> 01:18:48,239
do it.

1488
01:18:48,680 --> 01:18:51,840
Speaker 3: You've been very aggressive in attacking each of your candidates,

1489
01:18:52,239 --> 01:18:56,960
your opponents so far, I mean putting it lightly. Campaign

1490
01:18:57,000 --> 01:19:00,479
one on one is usually if you're the front, you're

1491
01:19:00,479 --> 01:19:03,159
ignoring your opponents. Sure you're not doing that. What is

1492
01:19:03,199 --> 01:19:04,560
your assessment of the race?

1493
01:19:04,600 --> 01:19:06,279
Speaker 4: Are you? Are you behind? Where are you?

1494
01:19:06,880 --> 01:19:08,640
Speaker 8: I think you know on your panel that you just

1495
01:19:08,680 --> 01:19:12,560
had you know, a few with with Joan a little

1496
01:19:12,560 --> 01:19:15,439
while ago. I think there is like a clear like

1497
01:19:16,039 --> 01:19:21,000
general campaign dynamic right now. Right Chip Roy is starting

1498
01:19:21,039 --> 01:19:23,880
on day one with astronomically hired name ID. That's just

1499
01:19:23,960 --> 01:19:26,479
a fact, right, And then depending on the poll that

1500
01:19:26,520 --> 01:19:27,119
you look at.

1501
01:19:27,359 --> 01:19:28,720
Speaker 4: You know, some camps have put up poles.

1502
01:19:28,720 --> 01:19:30,079
Speaker 8: There have been some public polls, there have been some

1503
01:19:30,119 --> 01:19:31,920
internal polls that have come from each of the camps.

1504
01:19:32,560 --> 01:19:37,560
I'm willing to concede that there's this kind of like teen,

1505
01:19:38,359 --> 01:19:41,920
you know, low single digit name ID where it's flipped

1506
01:19:41,920 --> 01:19:44,640
depending on the poll. Maybe you get May's Joan rights,

1507
01:19:44,640 --> 01:19:46,800
and maybe you get Rights May's Joan. It's just we're

1508
01:19:46,880 --> 01:19:50,359
kind of in that sort of that cluster, right, And

1509
01:19:50,439 --> 01:19:55,439
so look, I understand Chip has that advantage. I think

1510
01:19:55,520 --> 01:19:57,359
that what at least my polling has shown, and we've

1511
01:19:57,359 --> 01:19:59,520
put the polling out on this, is that while he

1512
01:19:59,560 --> 01:20:02,600
has high, his negatives are catastrophic, and I think that

1513
01:20:02,640 --> 01:20:05,479
they're going to prove fatal. Are they going to prove

1514
01:20:05,520 --> 01:20:08,600
fatal prior to March third or or instead in a runoff.

1515
01:20:08,640 --> 01:20:12,600
I don't know, but I can tell you that they

1516
01:20:12,640 --> 01:20:15,520
are fatal. And when Texans learn about the things that

1517
01:20:15,560 --> 01:20:17,560
he said about the President, or said about Paxon, or

1518
01:20:17,560 --> 01:20:20,239
the betrayals that he's done serially over the past several years,

1519
01:20:20,479 --> 01:20:23,199
they will not vote for him, and they become unpersuadable

1520
01:20:23,359 --> 01:20:27,479
never chippers. Right now, the other ones my hope. Look,

1521
01:20:27,479 --> 01:20:31,720
we're we are here in this race to make distinctions.

1522
01:20:31,800 --> 01:20:35,600
I don't think anything that I've said is unfair. And

1523
01:20:35,640 --> 01:20:38,920
by the way I make these distinctions in the context

1524
01:20:39,239 --> 01:20:41,560
of the strength that I bring to the table, I

1525
01:20:41,600 --> 01:20:43,920
want to be clear. I'm running on my legal record.

1526
01:20:44,199 --> 01:20:47,640
I'm running on my record litigating, investigating, suing, defending, and

1527
01:20:47,680 --> 01:20:50,560
appealing on all of the major issues that we care about.

1528
01:20:50,760 --> 01:20:52,520
Whether you're in this room and you care about the

1529
01:20:52,560 --> 01:20:55,680
Second Amendment, the First Amendment, religious liberty, you know, the

1530
01:20:55,680 --> 01:20:59,159
the ESG anti energy agenda, whether you care about you know,

1531
01:20:59,199 --> 01:21:02,079
the woke offication of schools or the transification of our

1532
01:21:02,159 --> 01:21:05,720
kids K through twelve higher education. You pick your issue

1533
01:21:05,760 --> 01:21:09,640
in this room, and I guarantee you that I have

1534
01:21:09,760 --> 01:21:14,000
either personally litigated, or appealed or led legal teams and

1535
01:21:14,159 --> 01:21:17,920
directed them in legal combat to deliver wins for Texas.

1536
01:21:18,399 --> 01:21:21,479
That's something that is I have uniquely in this field.

1537
01:21:22,239 --> 01:21:26,720
And I don't have a problem, you know, sort of

1538
01:21:26,800 --> 01:21:29,279
dancing around the issue that there are other opponents in

1539
01:21:29,279 --> 01:21:33,479
this field. I'm not saying anything cruel or made up.

1540
01:21:33,560 --> 01:21:37,760
I'm not slandering anybody, but I think the contrast in

1541
01:21:37,880 --> 01:21:41,560
light of what I bring to the table right my background,

1542
01:21:41,600 --> 01:21:43,720
even before I was a lawyer, as a Marine officer,

1543
01:21:43,920 --> 01:21:47,319
as an Afghanistan War veteran, still still in the Marine

1544
01:21:47,319 --> 01:21:49,800
Corps Reserve, as a major, the fact that even as

1545
01:21:49,800 --> 01:21:54,880
a law student, I was leading nationally recognized student activist organizations.

1546
01:21:54,880 --> 01:21:57,800
I was editor in chief of Conservative Law Journal, president

1547
01:21:57,840 --> 01:22:00,159
of the Texas Federalist Society. I clerked up in the

1548
01:22:00,159 --> 01:22:03,159
Texas Supreme Court for now Chief Justice Jimmy Blacklock. I

1549
01:22:03,199 --> 01:22:06,920
spent several years in private practice before becoming Ken Paxson's

1550
01:22:06,960 --> 01:22:09,079
right hand man than Ted Cruz's right hand man, and

1551
01:22:09,119 --> 01:22:12,000
then go in to doj to help build out the

1552
01:22:12,039 --> 01:22:15,399
blueprints for some of the most consequential justice related things

1553
01:22:15,399 --> 01:22:17,680
that the President ran on and then launched in his

1554
01:22:17,680 --> 01:22:20,119
first one hundred days in office. That's what I'm running

1555
01:22:20,119 --> 01:22:24,399
on the fact that I also provide that in contrast

1556
01:22:24,960 --> 01:22:29,680
to the totally inadequate, totally inadequate records of my opponents,

1557
01:22:30,319 --> 01:22:34,439
I don't think that that's an indication of being unnecessarily

1558
01:22:34,520 --> 01:22:37,800
or needlessly harsh against my opponents. I think they're nice people.

1559
01:22:37,800 --> 01:22:40,319
Here's my bottom line. I think they're all nice and

1560
01:22:40,359 --> 01:22:43,000
decent people. I like Joan, I personally get along with her.

1561
01:22:43,000 --> 01:22:45,079
I like Mays, I like Chip. It's fine, I get

1562
01:22:45,119 --> 01:22:47,199
along with I've done work with all of them. My

1563
01:22:47,279 --> 01:22:50,000
bottom line contention, though, is that they're applying for the

1564
01:22:50,039 --> 01:22:54,239
wrong job. You don't see me applying to be a

1565
01:22:54,319 --> 01:22:58,359
railroad commissioner. Why not because I don't think I'd be

1566
01:22:58,359 --> 01:22:59,720
able to figure it out, but because I don't have

1567
01:22:59,760 --> 01:23:03,000
a bad I'm not an oil and gas guy.

1568
01:23:03,079 --> 01:23:05,079
Speaker 4: You don't see me running to be the lieutenant governor.

1569
01:23:05,119 --> 01:23:08,560
Speaker 8: Why Because I'm not really the guy to help manage,

1570
01:23:08,840 --> 01:23:11,680
you know, legislative processes and procedures. There are others much

1571
01:23:11,720 --> 01:23:15,439
more qualified for that. I'm not a doctor either. You

1572
01:23:15,439 --> 01:23:18,000
don't see me applying to take over a medical practice.

1573
01:23:18,520 --> 01:23:22,239
That would be absurd, right, And you know often I

1574
01:23:22,239 --> 01:23:24,560
hear this from some of my opponents on the campaign trail.

1575
01:23:24,800 --> 01:23:29,760
They'll say things like this. One in particular, he'll say,

1576
01:23:30,000 --> 01:23:35,680
who better to defend the laws in court than the

1577
01:23:35,680 --> 01:23:40,000
one who has worked to pass them, to which I say,

1578
01:23:40,199 --> 01:23:44,399
it really makes no sense at all. You know, I'm

1579
01:23:44,439 --> 01:23:48,800
a marine and the M four service rifle is the

1580
01:23:48,840 --> 01:23:54,000
standard issue rifle that's given to every marine. Cult Manufacturing

1581
01:23:54,079 --> 01:23:57,159
makes the rifle. But when we have to go to war,

1582
01:23:57,239 --> 01:24:02,760
when we're in actual military conflict, right combat, who are

1583
01:24:02,760 --> 01:24:06,279
you sending overseas to go fight the enemy? The manager

1584
01:24:06,319 --> 01:24:10,479
at CULT Manufacturing who produces the weapons, or the marine

1585
01:24:10,479 --> 01:24:14,479
who's been deployed a dozen times, vanquished many enemies, sustained

1586
01:24:14,479 --> 01:24:17,439
many battle scars, and won a bunch of combat ribbons.

1587
01:24:18,520 --> 01:24:20,399
And when you ask the question that way and you

1588
01:24:20,439 --> 01:24:22,560
answer it, we all know intuitively what the answer to

1589
01:24:22,560 --> 01:24:24,960
that question is. Of course, you send the marine to

1590
01:24:25,079 --> 01:24:28,760
go use the tools that CULT provided him to go

1591
01:24:28,880 --> 01:24:32,479
fight with. Then you understand the difference between the legislative

1592
01:24:32,479 --> 01:24:36,800
and the executive branch. I love good legislation. I like

1593
01:24:36,880 --> 01:24:41,640
good legislators. I support them. I like when good legislation

1594
01:24:41,680 --> 01:24:43,840
gets through. I don't like when good legislation dies. I

1595
01:24:43,880 --> 01:24:46,279
like when bad legislation gets killed. It's all good stuff.

1596
01:24:47,279 --> 01:24:49,760
But at the end of the day, the Attorney General

1597
01:24:49,840 --> 01:24:54,039
presides over a beautifully appointed armory of tools and weapons,

1598
01:24:55,119 --> 01:25:00,439
and the question is who is best able to elect

1599
01:25:00,479 --> 01:25:03,680
the appropriate weapon at the appropriate time, on the appropriate

1600
01:25:03,760 --> 01:25:07,920
terrain to go fight and win on behalf of Texas

1601
01:25:07,960 --> 01:25:12,920
and Texans. It's the legislature that puts the weapons up

1602
01:25:12,960 --> 01:25:17,800
on the wall. Raytheon makes the F sixteen, But you

1603
01:25:17,840 --> 01:25:20,960
don't send Raytheon to go fly combat sorties. You send

1604
01:25:20,960 --> 01:25:25,880
the pilot. That's the difference. I've been in legal combat.

1605
01:25:26,560 --> 01:25:30,159
That's what sets me apart my opponents. Yeah, Look, it's

1606
01:25:30,199 --> 01:25:32,800
a primary. We are choosing and we are making distinctions.

1607
01:25:33,079 --> 01:25:36,159
That's what we're doing, and that's what sets me apart.

1608
01:25:36,680 --> 01:25:39,439
So that's what I'll say about that.

1609
01:25:40,359 --> 01:25:45,920
Speaker 3: Everybody knows what an attorney general in Texas a Republican

1610
01:25:45,960 --> 01:25:48,720
does during a democratic presidential administration.

1611
01:25:49,000 --> 01:25:49,960
Speaker 4: You see the administration.

1612
01:25:50,760 --> 01:25:54,159
Speaker 3: What's the role for the Texas Attorney General's office when

1613
01:25:54,199 --> 01:25:57,439
there's a Republican administration? And will you if you win,

1614
01:25:58,119 --> 01:26:00,399
will you be suing? Will be seeing any law suits

1615
01:26:00,439 --> 01:26:02,359
against the Trump administration?

1616
01:26:02,840 --> 01:26:04,600
Speaker 4: So no, I think you're right.

1617
01:26:04,640 --> 01:26:08,239
Speaker 8: Look, I came up through the cut my teeth as

1618
01:26:08,279 --> 01:26:09,199
Paxson's deputy.

1619
01:26:10,199 --> 01:26:11,920
Speaker 4: I mean, going to war every single day against the

1620
01:26:11,960 --> 01:26:12,720
Biden administration.

1621
01:26:13,920 --> 01:26:16,479
Speaker 8: And it was based upon the belief and the conviction

1622
01:26:17,079 --> 01:26:20,159
that everything that the Biden administration was attempting to do

1623
01:26:21,239 --> 01:26:26,840
through regulations, through the exercise of administrative power and unlawful

1624
01:26:26,880 --> 01:26:32,239
executive power, harmed Texas and harmed Texans, and we on

1625
01:26:32,279 --> 01:26:34,399
behalf of the state of Texas, in order to protect

1626
01:26:34,720 --> 01:26:37,079
our interests and our rights and our way of life

1627
01:26:37,079 --> 01:26:40,359
and our values, had to enter into legal combat to

1628
01:26:40,439 --> 01:26:45,279
vindicate those rights. We were overwhelmingly successful. You're exactly right, though, Brad,

1629
01:26:45,279 --> 01:26:47,680
that like now that we have an ally in the

1630
01:26:47,680 --> 01:26:51,840
White House, the dynamic is very different. We no longer

1631
01:26:52,000 --> 01:26:56,000
need to point ninety nine percent of our guns toward

1632
01:26:56,680 --> 01:26:59,720
a hostel in the White House. Right now we have

1633
01:26:59,760 --> 01:27:02,800
a friend in the White House. And so what that

1634
01:27:02,840 --> 01:27:05,520
allows us to do is to turn all of our

1635
01:27:05,640 --> 01:27:10,239
resources internally. But that also provides us with huge resource

1636
01:27:10,239 --> 01:27:15,399
advantages because we now have an administration that wants to

1637
01:27:15,560 --> 01:27:19,319
realize a similar vision to what I want to realize

1638
01:27:19,439 --> 01:27:22,720
as the age. And there's nobody better in this race

1639
01:27:23,159 --> 01:27:26,720
than someone who's already been vetted, selected and trusted by

1640
01:27:26,800 --> 01:27:29,880
President Trump and by this administration to be able to

1641
01:27:29,880 --> 01:27:32,720
be the chief legal officer of Texas to help call

1642
01:27:32,840 --> 01:27:36,560
upon all of those resources to come benefit Texas, whether

1643
01:27:36,600 --> 01:27:40,239
that's law enforcement or dollar resources or even just you know,

1644
01:27:40,319 --> 01:27:45,239
political support, the bully pulpit of having the Trump administration

1645
01:27:45,600 --> 01:27:47,359
helped to weigh in and support on the things that

1646
01:27:47,359 --> 01:27:49,680
we're trying to do. It allows us then to really

1647
01:27:49,760 --> 01:27:52,479
focus on the home front rather than just go on

1648
01:27:52,479 --> 01:27:54,159
a war against the FEDI. You're really focus on the

1649
01:27:54,159 --> 01:27:56,800
home front. And the way that this will manifest itself

1650
01:27:57,159 --> 01:27:58,960
is I think that it is time.

1651
01:28:00,119 --> 01:28:02,760
Speaker 4: To really treat.

1652
01:28:02,640 --> 01:28:05,520
Speaker 8: The big blue cities and the big blue counties in

1653
01:28:05,600 --> 01:28:09,560
Texas as the number one threat to what it means

1654
01:28:09,560 --> 01:28:13,119
to be Texas. So when I'm elected Attorney General, of

1655
01:28:13,199 --> 01:28:15,960
course I'm going to partner with the Trump administration to

1656
01:28:16,119 --> 01:28:21,439
accelerate the identification, arrest, attention, and deportation of millions of

1657
01:28:21,479 --> 01:28:25,039
illegal aliens, hopefully tens of millions. So I'll play a

1658
01:28:25,039 --> 01:28:28,520
critical role in that, and I'll play a critical role

1659
01:28:28,960 --> 01:28:32,319
in partnering with the FBI, with DHS, with DOJ to

1660
01:28:32,399 --> 01:28:35,760
advance the America First Law and Order agenda. But in

1661
01:28:35,840 --> 01:28:40,920
my opinion, if Texas is ever one day going to

1662
01:28:40,920 --> 01:28:45,800
become something that is not Texas, it will be because

1663
01:28:46,640 --> 01:28:49,720
of the abuses of power and the fraud and the

1664
01:28:49,720 --> 01:28:54,920
waste and the liberal insanity that is coming out of

1665
01:28:54,960 --> 01:29:00,920
places like Travis County, Harris County, Dallas County, Bear County,

1666
01:29:01,319 --> 01:29:05,359
and another certain blue pockets around the state. And the

1667
01:29:05,399 --> 01:29:11,279
Attorney General plays a mission essential role in supervising, if

1668
01:29:11,279 --> 01:29:17,800
you will, to use a broad legal term, supervising the fraud, waste, abuse,

1669
01:29:18,319 --> 01:29:22,000
and in many cases criminality of these big blue cities

1670
01:29:22,000 --> 01:29:25,760
in big blue counties. And I'm not going to allow

1671
01:29:26,479 --> 01:29:28,800
Harris County or the City of Houston, or Travis County,

1672
01:29:28,880 --> 01:29:30,439
or the City of Austin, or Dallas County or the

1673
01:29:30,479 --> 01:29:33,000
City of Dallas and so on and so forth to

1674
01:29:33,119 --> 01:29:37,079
turn Texas into something that is untexan. And as the

1675
01:29:37,119 --> 01:29:41,840
Attorney General, I maintain vast constitutional, statutory, and common law

1676
01:29:41,880 --> 01:29:45,600
powers to be able to go against them. You know,

1677
01:29:45,680 --> 01:29:48,960
Joan was up here talking earlier about these rogue das,

1678
01:29:49,399 --> 01:29:51,960
and then the question came up about well what do

1679
01:29:52,000 --> 01:29:53,960
you do about them? And what I heard at least

1680
01:29:54,079 --> 01:29:57,159
was well, there's not much that we can do. I

1681
01:29:57,159 --> 01:29:59,800
don't think that that's true at all. Actually, and I

1682
01:29:59,840 --> 01:30:04,199
have experience bringing what are called quo warrento actions, right.

1683
01:30:04,199 --> 01:30:06,479
It's a Latin phrase which stands for show me the warrant.

1684
01:30:07,399 --> 01:30:10,079
And when I was Packson's deputy. I've successfully brought quot

1685
01:30:10,079 --> 01:30:14,039
WARENTO actions. This is where you file a lawsuit in court,

1686
01:30:14,159 --> 01:30:18,520
petitioning a judge to declare a public official after having

1687
01:30:18,560 --> 01:30:23,159
committed serial violations inconsistent with their oath or city ordinances

1688
01:30:23,439 --> 01:30:26,840
or constitutional provisions and other various laws, that they have

1689
01:30:27,079 --> 01:30:31,119
functionally abdicated their office and should be removed. So I'm

1690
01:30:31,119 --> 01:30:33,960
going to seek the removal of all Jose Garza. Maybe

1691
01:30:34,000 --> 01:30:36,439
in this audience he may even hear my voice. Jose

1692
01:30:36,600 --> 01:30:41,079
Garza will be target number one when I'm elected Attorney General.

1693
01:30:41,640 --> 01:30:44,800
At the same time, Shawn Tier and Harris County, two

1694
01:30:44,800 --> 01:30:48,439
of the most crooked and corrupt and pro criminal district

1695
01:30:48,479 --> 01:30:51,119
attorneys in the United States of America. I will seek

1696
01:30:51,159 --> 01:30:55,840
their removal almost immediately when I take office. And I

1697
01:30:55,880 --> 01:30:59,399
am familiar with the tools in that armory in order

1698
01:30:59,399 --> 01:31:01,279
to be able to do so, and I'm excited to

1699
01:31:01,279 --> 01:31:05,479
do it. And so look, I'm running on my record,

1700
01:31:05,520 --> 01:31:08,159
and what I will tell you is, in the middle

1701
01:31:08,199 --> 01:31:10,600
of my term in twenty twenty eight, it's a four

1702
01:31:10,640 --> 01:31:14,039
year term, I'll have two years with Trump and then

1703
01:31:14,039 --> 01:31:16,600
there's a presidential election. Now, look, I'm optimistic that a

1704
01:31:16,640 --> 01:31:19,880
Republican will win in twenty twenty eight, and if they do,

1705
01:31:19,960 --> 01:31:23,000
we're going to continue that integration in partnership and sort

1706
01:31:23,039 --> 01:31:24,800
of all the ores of the boat.

1707
01:31:24,680 --> 01:31:25,640
Speaker 4: Rowing in the same direction.

1708
01:31:26,399 --> 01:31:29,920
Speaker 8: But if God forbid, a Democrat wins in twenty twenty eight,

1709
01:31:30,359 --> 01:31:34,079
We're going to war. We are going to war because

1710
01:31:34,119 --> 01:31:36,600
whatever that administration is, I don't care who's in it,

1711
01:31:37,760 --> 01:31:41,199
they are going to try to destroy Texas, And as

1712
01:31:41,239 --> 01:31:44,039
has been proven in our recent history and I've been

1713
01:31:44,039 --> 01:31:47,199
in the middle of it as Paxson's deputy, the Attorney

1714
01:31:47,199 --> 01:31:52,840
General's office provides a mission critical fire roll, firewall around

1715
01:31:52,880 --> 01:31:56,960
those attacks to keep Texas free and prosperous and a

1716
01:31:57,000 --> 01:32:00,239
place that's great where Americans want to be. And I'm

1717
01:32:00,279 --> 01:32:01,479
going to go to war, and I'm going to be

1718
01:32:01,560 --> 01:32:04,720
the firewall. And there's no one in this race who

1719
01:32:04,800 --> 01:32:10,199
has proven himself more capable, more able, more experienced, more

1720
01:32:10,279 --> 01:32:15,880
effective at waging law fair when it is necessary to

1721
01:32:15,920 --> 01:32:19,560
do so against an enemy that is occupying the White House.

1722
01:32:19,880 --> 01:32:21,520
Speaker 3: We're almost done, but I do want to follow up

1723
01:32:21,520 --> 01:32:23,680
on one thing you mentioned, the quot warr into That

1724
01:32:23,760 --> 01:32:27,199
lawsuit is still pending that's against representive gene Wu for

1725
01:32:27,359 --> 01:32:30,640
allegedly abandoning in his office trying to declare his seat vacant.

1726
01:32:30,880 --> 01:32:33,880
The All Republican Supreme Court has not addressed that yet,

1727
01:32:34,039 --> 01:32:38,960
and the longer it goes on, it seems like they're

1728
01:32:38,960 --> 01:32:41,279
going to rule against it or at least punt on

1729
01:32:41,359 --> 01:32:45,560
it entirely. That's within your own party at least somewhat.

1730
01:32:45,760 --> 01:32:45,960
Speaker 4: See.

1731
01:32:46,079 --> 01:32:47,800
Speaker 8: Yeah, but I think I think that that's more legally

1732
01:32:47,800 --> 01:32:49,720
complicated than I think a lot of people would would

1733
01:32:49,800 --> 01:32:52,319
would you know. Look, I clerked on the Texas Supreme

1734
01:32:52,319 --> 01:32:55,800
Court for now Chief Justice Jimmy Blacklock. Again, this is

1735
01:32:55,840 --> 01:32:57,920
another sort of credential and experience that I have that

1736
01:32:57,960 --> 01:33:00,520
none of my opponents have. I mean, I have supervise

1737
01:33:00,560 --> 01:33:04,720
at the very highest level sort of the statewide appellate process. Look,

1738
01:33:04,760 --> 01:33:06,560
I don't know what the Court is thinking right now,

1739
01:33:06,600 --> 01:33:08,800
and of course it's not appropriate for them necessarily to

1740
01:33:08,840 --> 01:33:10,680
be like commenting in real time.

1741
01:33:10,880 --> 01:33:11,359
Speaker 4: But there is.

1742
01:33:12,960 --> 01:33:15,840
Speaker 8: I hope that they rule in in the state's favor.

1743
01:33:16,279 --> 01:33:21,359
I know both Paxton and Abbott both filed similar causes

1744
01:33:21,359 --> 01:33:23,159
of action, which I think the Supreme Court took up

1745
01:33:23,279 --> 01:33:25,960
and they joined the case together under a single cause number.

1746
01:33:26,800 --> 01:33:28,760
But there may be an argument if I could give

1747
01:33:28,760 --> 01:33:30,800
credit to the Texas Supreme Court for a moment.

1748
01:33:30,680 --> 01:33:31,399
Speaker 4: There may be.

1749
01:33:33,119 --> 01:33:37,279
Speaker 8: A basis to declare the case moot with the underlying

1750
01:33:37,359 --> 01:33:40,760
facts are no longer apparent, and the relief that's been

1751
01:33:40,800 --> 01:33:44,680
requested would no longer actually give relief. Like they're not

1752
01:33:44,960 --> 01:33:47,000
they're there and they're showing up to work, right, Like

1753
01:33:47,199 --> 01:33:51,800
maybe there are other legislative mechanisms to inflict discipline or

1754
01:33:51,800 --> 01:33:55,000
punishment on those members, but that's an a legislative function.

1755
01:33:55,399 --> 01:33:58,279
But if the question is a legal, you know, a

1756
01:33:58,399 --> 01:34:01,920
judicial branch question, then you know, if I were to

1757
01:34:02,039 --> 01:34:04,760
if I were to defend the Texas Supreme Court, I

1758
01:34:04,760 --> 01:34:07,760
would just say, look, there's probably an argument that it's moot,

1759
01:34:08,279 --> 01:34:12,920
like that that dispute is no longer live, and so

1760
01:34:13,319 --> 01:34:15,800
you know, relief granted by a by a court wouldn't

1761
01:34:15,880 --> 01:34:16,880
actually solve anything.

1762
01:34:17,279 --> 01:34:18,720
Speaker 4: So maybe you say, punt.

1763
01:34:18,960 --> 01:34:20,439
Speaker 8: I know that there's a lot of the grassroots my

1764
01:34:20,479 --> 01:34:22,399
friends are frustrated by it. I mean, I get it,

1765
01:34:22,840 --> 01:34:25,880
but like the dispute's not there anymore, if that makes sense.

1766
01:34:26,359 --> 01:34:28,840
Speaker 4: So Aaron Rights, thanks for joining us, Thanks for having

1767
01:34:28,880 --> 01:34:29,560
me appreciate it.