Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to the Texas Tribune Trip Cast. I
Speaker 1: am Matthew Watkins, editor in chief of the trip Cast,
Speaker 1: joined as usual by the trip Text.
Speaker 2: I mean you are your editor in chief of everything.
Speaker 2: That's everything that I can see in this building.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and that other voice you hear, of course, eleanor
Speaker 1: Klibanoff and now I'm forgetting your title too.
Speaker 2: It's been a long couple of days law and politics
Speaker 2: reporter at the Texas Tribune, which maybe give context.
Speaker 1: Yes, so we are we are joining you. We are
Speaker 1: recording this on the Tuesday of July eighth, but we
Speaker 1: are you will probably be hearing this in the future,
Speaker 1: as we are recording another podcast today on the flooding
Speaker 1: that happened in the Hill Country.
Speaker 2: The Tribune is sort of on breaking news alert, so
Speaker 2: I'm glad we're going to pivot into a flood episode.
Speaker 1: But for this week, we are beginning what is going
Speaker 1: to be, I guess, a series of two podcasts looking
Speaker 1: forward to the twenty twenty sixth election. I had to
Speaker 1: check myself there to make sure that that's correct. It
Speaker 1: is indeed almost twenty twenty six.
Speaker 2: Since it is currently twenty twenty five.
Speaker 1: It is currently twenty twenty five. I believe crazy?
Speaker 2: Do you know? And I'm sorry we will get into this,
Speaker 2: but do you know that because we are past July second,
Speaker 2: twenty twenty five, we are closer to twenty fifty than
Speaker 2: we are to two thousand.
Speaker 1: That is indeed shocking, horrifying. Yes, you know, time flies.
Speaker 1: I have nothing to say I'm going to say about that. Yes, yes,
Speaker 1: But today we are going to focus on the Democratic
Speaker 1: Party and we are joined by a special guest, Kendall Scudder,
Speaker 1: the new chair of the Texas Democratic Party. Hello, Kendall,
Speaker 1: thank you for joining us.
Speaker 3: Hey, thanks so much for having me. Y'all. I've always
Speaker 3: been a list so now it's a weird experience getting
Speaker 3: to be.
Speaker 2: On Great to have a listener, a listener and a fan,
Speaker 2: A longtime listener, first time caller.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's right. We asked that you still listen to
Speaker 1: the podcast even though you're on it, so yes, you
Speaker 1: can keep those listen.
Speaker 2: You don't transcend to a new plane where you don't
Speaker 2: have to listen anymore.
Speaker 3: I don't know are y all the same way, where
Speaker 3: like you can't listen to your own voice if you
Speaker 3: try to listen to it, it sounds weird, so this
Speaker 3: might be an episode I have to skip.
Speaker 1: That's fair, all right, Well, maybe just like play it,
Speaker 1: you know, like play it on your phone, and just
Speaker 1: like leave your phone in the other room, you.
Speaker 2: Know, share it with your networks and have them listen
Speaker 2: to it.
Speaker 3: You go, there, you go.
Speaker 1: I will say, you have a very good radio voice,
Speaker 1: so that I do understand everyone.
Speaker 2: I don't listen anxiety.
Speaker 1: And yes, all right, well, chairman, we are going to talk,
Speaker 1: like we said, about the twenty twenty six elections. But
Speaker 1: before we do that, I actually want to look back
Speaker 1: a little bit. You are fairly new to your position.
Speaker 1: You were elected in March, I believe, after your predecessor
Speaker 1: resigned mid term. In the aftermath of you know what,
Speaker 1: was a pretty painful and I think we can say
Speaker 1: unsuccessful twenty four election statewide, the party the top of
Speaker 1: the ticket for president losing by fourteen percent, the Senate
Speaker 1: candidate Colin all Read losing by nine percent, during a
Speaker 1: time where at times during that cycle folks were thinking
Speaker 1: that Texas might be competitive. That election obviously brought about
Speaker 1: a considerable amount of soul searching in the Democratic Party
Speaker 1: in Texas, and beyond your election, came amid that soul searching.
Speaker 1: Can you just sort of remind folks who might not
Speaker 1: have fault paid attention to that race, what was your
Speaker 1: kind of message, what was the vision you were selling
Speaker 1: to the party? Looking forward after and admittedly pretty tough
Speaker 1: twenty twenty four.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, what I I think was probably the
Speaker 3: most interesting about that election is that I come from
Speaker 3: the grassroots. I'm not really of the political apparatus in Austin.
Speaker 3: I'm a farm kid from East Texas who ended up
Speaker 3: moving to Dallas and being elected as one of the
Speaker 3: directors of the Dallas Central Appraisal District, And so I'm
Speaker 3: kind of this outsider of that space. And for me,
Speaker 3: I feel like the organizing, grassroots piece of our party
Speaker 3: has been neglected all across the state. It's been this
Speaker 3: idea that you could just stick a sack of flower
Speaker 3: in the oven and expect it to make biscuits every
Speaker 3: election cycle. You know, you just raise a whole bunch
Speaker 3: of money and try to buy your way out of
Speaker 3: a loss. But you can't do that. I mean, we
Speaker 3: have a lot of steps that we have to go
Speaker 3: through if we want to have success in this state.
Speaker 3: And that means organizing in every corner of this state,
Speaker 3: not just in the major metros. There's forty mid sized
Speaker 3: cities with over one hundred thousand people in them. They
Speaker 3: deserve a little bit of love too. And you know
Speaker 3: these rural communities all across the state, a lot of
Speaker 3: which we don't even have democratic county chairs in. I
Speaker 3: mean over twenty percent of counties in Texas don't have
Speaker 3: Democratic county chairs. We just have not been building the
Speaker 3: apparatus in Texas, in my opinion, in a way that
Speaker 3: can be successful. I also am a firm believer that,
Speaker 3: you know, as that farm kid from East Texas, that
Speaker 3: the party's kind of gotten away from its key message,
Speaker 3: and it's that we're the party of the little guy.
Speaker 3: My granddaddy was born on a farm in East Texas
Speaker 3: that only had electricity because of Franklin Roosevelt, Sam Rayburn,
Speaker 3: the New Deal of the Democratic Party. And when our
Speaker 3: family lost everything after the big droughts in nineteen fifty nine,
Speaker 3: we depended on programs in Linda Johnson's Great Society in
Speaker 3: order to survive. You know, that used to be who
Speaker 3: our party was, a party of big, bold ideas that
Speaker 3: helped working people and poor people, and we would disrupt
Speaker 3: systems and take on billionaires and banks and whoever. We
Speaker 3: had to to make sure that the little guy had
Speaker 3: a seat at the table. And I'm trying to bring
Speaker 3: that back for the party. That needs to be the
Speaker 3: focus of everything that we do. I'm not saying that
Speaker 3: the party hasn't made an effort at that, but it's
Speaker 3: not been the center of all of our messaging and
Speaker 3: all of our discussion discussions. So for me, everything that
Speaker 3: we talk about, everything that we do, everything that we
Speaker 3: are building for the next soccle is centered around how
Speaker 3: do we help the little guy? How do we help
Speaker 3: a work and family be able to get ahead in
Speaker 3: a society that just feels like it's stacked and stacked
Speaker 3: against them every day.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, I think I wonder if you agree
Speaker 1: with this assessment. But there was like a weird sort
Speaker 1: of sense of complacency among some Democrats in Texas, even
Speaker 1: though the party has you know, essentially lost every election
Speaker 1: this century. I think, you know, people maybe looked at
Speaker 1: the demographics of this state, the changing demographics, and said, oh, well,
Speaker 1: you know, there is this sort of inevitable shift, if
Speaker 1: not to the left, at least to the middle. You know,
Speaker 1: twenty sixteen the presidential ticket, Democrats lose by sixteen points
Speaker 1: twenty sorry, twenty twelve, they lose by sixteen points. Sixteen,
Speaker 1: they lose by nine points. Twenty twenty, they lose by
Speaker 1: six points. The state's becoming more urban, the state is
Speaker 1: becoming more diverse. That means the state is becoming democratic.
Speaker 1: And then we get to twenty twenty four and all
Speaker 1: of those trends get reversed. You know, Hispanic voters go
Speaker 1: way to the right way to Trump. Even in the
Speaker 1: big cities, you see a bit of a shift to
Speaker 1: the right. And maybe there's this idea of Okay, we
Speaker 1: can't just let demographics be destiny. We need to do
Speaker 1: something about the message here. Do you agree with that assessment?
Speaker 1: Is that where the party is right now?
Speaker 3: I partially agree with that assessment. I think that it
Speaker 3: is kind of in order to have this discussion, you
Speaker 3: also have to have it about the fact that a
Speaker 3: fifth of our voters stayed home Democrats. You know, we
Speaker 3: had a million people in Texas that voted for Joe
Speaker 3: Biden and chose to stay home in twenty twenty four, So,
Speaker 3: you know, did they get redder in those areas, or
Speaker 3: did our people decide we weren't worth voting for. And
Speaker 3: I'm just going to be honest. I mean, if you
Speaker 3: want to fix the situation, it's not about self preservation.
Speaker 3: Sometimes you got to look in a mirror and acknowledge
Speaker 3: that you made some mistakes. And so I think that
Speaker 3: the party needs to do some of that. You know,
Speaker 3: we need to figure out what we did wrong and
Speaker 3: figure out what we can do to make it right.
Speaker 3: I personally believe that it's because, you know, when you're
Speaker 3: in a coalition party like ours that has so many
Speaker 3: diverse interests and groups inside of it, you have to
Speaker 3: focus on the things that connect every single person in
Speaker 3: that coalition, And to me, it's that everyone of them
Speaker 3: pay bills and every single one of them are trying
Speaker 3: to get along in this life that is just more
Speaker 3: and more expensive. Since Republicans have taken over the state,
Speaker 3: I'd remind you that it was before I entered kindergarten,
Speaker 3: since a Democrat has held statewide office in Texas, and
Speaker 3: because I am a thirty five year old, one of
Speaker 3: the only millennials in the country leading to major party.
Speaker 3: You know, in the last thirty years, do you feel
Speaker 3: like your taxes have gone down. Do you feel like
Speaker 3: your community's more safe? Do you feel like your schools
Speaker 3: are better? Do you feel like your hospitals are better?
Speaker 3: Do you feel like your bridges and roads have gotten better?
Speaker 3: Because the only difference between thirty years ago and now
Speaker 3: is that Democrats ran the state thirty years ago, and
Speaker 3: for the last thirty years, Republicans have been chipping away
Speaker 3: at all of these wonderful projects and programs that we've
Speaker 3: had in Texas that help working people and that we're
Speaker 3: designed to make us this beacon for business and for
Speaker 3: opportunity people in the country wanting to come to Texas.
Speaker 3: You know, Republicans have eaten away at that over the years.
Speaker 3: And now we don't know that when we flip a
Speaker 3: LT switch to the electricity is going to come on.
Speaker 3: We don't know that whenever a natural disaster hits, we're
Speaker 3: going to get the emergency services warnings that we need
Speaker 3: to stay safe. We don't have the top schools in
Speaker 3: the country anymore. We're funded forty third, forty fourth in
Speaker 3: the nation now and this big beautiful bill that just
Speaker 3: passes going to shut down you know, three hundred hospitals
Speaker 3: in this country in rural communities, a lot of those
Speaker 3: in Texas where people aren't even going to get access
Speaker 3: to life saving medical care when they need it, or
Speaker 3: even primitive healthcare when they need it. Life has not
Speaker 3: gotten better under Republican leadership. And it's our responsibility to
Speaker 3: make clear to people, you know, what that looks like
Speaker 3: and to point it out. And I think we've just
Speaker 3: kind of allowed it to happen and thrown our hands
Speaker 3: in the air and said, well, it is what it is.
Speaker 3: We just need demographics to change to take the state back.
Speaker 3: I think we got to be more aggressive, and we've
Speaker 3: got to get to a point where we're reminding people
Speaker 3: every day what it looks like under a Republican administration
Speaker 3: versus democratic administration.
Speaker 2: Yeah, because I feel like this is like, you know,
Speaker 2: I talk about this experience a lot, but I this
Speaker 2: last election cycle wrote a story that was like, you know,
Speaker 2: is our Texas Supreme Court seats vulnerable because of their
Speaker 2: people are so unhappy about their rulings on abortion? And
Speaker 2: then I was like, back in our archives and you know,
Speaker 2: we've written a version of that story every you know,
Speaker 2: are these seeds vulnerable because of their COVID rulings? Are
Speaker 2: these seats vulnerable because of you know, their rulings on
Speaker 2: you know xyz thing. I mean, there's so many things
Speaker 2: that actually think national Democrats but also Texas Democrats and
Speaker 2: individual people are like good at saying I'm unhappy with
Speaker 2: what lawmakers have done on this, I'm unhappy with what
Speaker 2: the governor is doing on this. I'm it's outrageous what's
Speaker 2: happening here. But that's not translating into votes.
Speaker 1: I mean, you talk.
Speaker 2: About people staying home. What is the disconnect there that
Speaker 2: people are saying, I'm not happy with what the Republicans
Speaker 2: are doing, but I'm still not going to vote period
Speaker 2: or not going to vote blue.
Speaker 3: Well, look, i mean the most conservative speaker in Texas
Speaker 3: history was elected with fifty five percent of the votes
Speaker 3: coming from Democrats, you know. I mean, if I can't
Speaker 3: tell the difference between Democrat and a Republican, I don't
Speaker 3: know how a voter is supposed to be able to.
Speaker 3: If you take that million voters and you ask them
Speaker 3: why they chose to stay home, they'll say things to
Speaker 3: you like the Democrats don't fight hard enough that whatever
Speaker 3: we elect them, they sit in the middle and negotiate
Speaker 3: away the things that are important to us. We've got
Speaker 3: to get back to a point where we don't put
Speaker 3: things like you know, cordiality above the fight for working people,
Speaker 3: that when we walk in a door, we're going to
Speaker 3: flip whatever tables we have to to protect working people
Speaker 3: from the onsught of attacks that are coming from billionaires
Speaker 3: in banks. And it's one thing to say it, it's
Speaker 3: another thing to do it. And I don't think that
Speaker 3: they have seen that coming from Democrats. I mean, the
Speaker 3: most big, bold policy we've seen from Democrats aside from
Speaker 3: I mean, we saw some giant infrastructure investments in the
Speaker 3: Biden administration that haven't had enough time to come to fruition.
Speaker 3: But if you're talking about programs that have had time
Speaker 3: to come into fruition, the ACA, I guess is the
Speaker 3: biggest Democratic accomplishment. And even that was us coming to
Speaker 3: the table with a center idea that Republicans chipped away on,
Speaker 3: and then we took away things like the public option
Speaker 3: that would have given people access to competitive healthcare costs.
Speaker 3: You know, it's a shame to me when the Democrats
Speaker 3: don't walk in the door with big, bold, progressive ideas.
Speaker 3: If you don't have that healthy side of the spectrum
Speaker 3: in politics, the people who are counting on us are
Speaker 3: going to struggle, and that's what I think has happened.
Speaker 3: So I'd like to see the Party get back to
Speaker 3: situations where we're unapologetic advocates for the working poor and
Speaker 3: for the working class. And you know, that's what I'd
Speaker 3: like to see the Party do. I'm going to work
Speaker 3: with our legislators. I think a lot of them that
Speaker 3: I've talked to have been on board that idea. We
Speaker 3: just had to focus and stop thinking that this onslaught
Speaker 3: and this flooding of the end zone of their Trump administration,
Speaker 3: you know, nitpicking. That is the way forward. We have
Speaker 3: to have a fifty thousand foot view and some vision
Speaker 3: and a guide on how to get there.
Speaker 1: I want to somewhat question a little bit of your
Speaker 1: framing here, particularly around the idea of like, you know,
Speaker 1: we have heard people say for a long time, right,
Speaker 1: Texas isn't a red state or a blue state. It's
Speaker 1: a non voting state, right. And there's this idea of like,
Speaker 1: if we could just get more this is the Democrats speaking,
Speaker 1: if we could just get more people to the polls,
Speaker 1: you know, the people, the poorer folks, the people of color,
Speaker 1: all those types of folks, like we can we can
Speaker 1: shift the election in this state. One of the few
Speaker 1: kind of public polling entities that tests not you know,
Speaker 1: expected voters. What's the term I'm looking for here, Well,
Speaker 1: we'll go with yeah, yeah, yeah, sure, like yeah, sorry,
Speaker 1: but actually just like eligible voters, not even just registered voters.
Speaker 1: It's the Texas Lyceum poll that comes out every I
Speaker 1: think a couple of years or something, or maybe it's
Speaker 1: every year, and they the poll this year like really
Speaker 1: got into my head because I think it disrupted some
Speaker 1: of those expectations. Greg Abbott's approval rating in this group
Speaker 1: was fifty five percent. Donald Trump's was fifty four percent.
Speaker 1: The state had moved dramatically to the right on issues
Speaker 1: of immigration compared to four years ago, and things like that.
Speaker 1: It on the other hand, you talk about working class
Speaker 1: issues and things like that. I mean, we look at
Speaker 1: what happened in the New York mayoral primary with Mom Dummy,
Speaker 1: who was really pushing some of these economic populist ideas
Speaker 1: and everything like that. And if you look at the
Speaker 1: precincts where he won, he won in the wealthy areas
Speaker 1: and not the poorer areas. I mean, how sure are
Speaker 1: you that those voters, those working class voters are actually
Speaker 1: going to respond to that progressive message you're pointing to,
Speaker 1: because I think you look at some of the polls
Speaker 1: and history suggests that that's not always the case.
Speaker 3: Well, this is the biggest difference between democt rights and
Speaker 3: Republicans in my opinion. We don't forge our ideas based
Speaker 3: on who's going to politically respond to them. We forged
Speaker 3: them over what the right thing to do is. And
Speaker 3: what the right thing to do is to make sure
Speaker 3: that somebody that gets out of bed every morning and
Speaker 3: works their ass off in order to put soccer cleats
Speaker 3: on their kid, you know that they get an opportunity
Speaker 3: in this economy that's rigged so that the people at
Speaker 3: the top are constantly raking in record profits while all
Speaker 3: the rest of us are left at the bottom groveling
Speaker 3: for crumbs. And you know whether or not that translates,
Speaker 3: I mean, well, we'll have to see. But we as
Speaker 3: a party have always made decisions based on what the
Speaker 3: right thing to do is, and that hasn't always worked
Speaker 3: out for us in pan But that's just kind of
Speaker 3: a crux of how weird different than them. That's what
Speaker 3: we do. I'll also point out that these holes are
Speaker 3: a snapshot of a moment in time, and that's fine.
Speaker 3: You know, I don't know what was happening in the
Speaker 3: news at the time that that license pulled.
Speaker 1: Well, you know what I will tell you was before
Speaker 1: a big beautiful bill. It was sure. Yeah, that poll
Speaker 1: I remember talking about at the time it was in
Speaker 1: the field. About three quarters of the time that was
Speaker 1: out in the field was before Liberation Day, before the
Speaker 1: tariffs came in. So you are correct in pointing out
Speaker 1: that a lot has happened since then, for sure.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And that was exactly where I was going with
Speaker 3: that was Number one. In just three months, Donald Trump
Speaker 3: pushed the largest tax increase in working class families in
Speaker 3: my lifetime with these tariffs. Number two, this big beautiful
Speaker 3: bill pass where the richest people in this country will
Speaker 3: now pay a lower baseline tax rate than the poorest,
Speaker 3: which is just straight up and moral that a billionaire
Speaker 3: would pay less in taxes than their waiter, than their secretaries,
Speaker 3: than their golf caddies, than their top secret cabana boys. Right,
Speaker 3: it's not acceptable. And when all of that is flushing
Speaker 3: through us, when people are getting their healthcare gutted through Medicaid,
Speaker 3: when rural hospitals are going to shut down because of
Speaker 3: that lack of funding, When we are seeing energy rates
Speaker 3: increasing because they failed to fund those programs for alternative
Speaker 3: energy that have always been funded. As these things start
Speaker 3: to hit, you're going to see it different, Stapshot in time.
Speaker 3: Our job is to make sure that people know what
Speaker 3: we stand for. And I'm not here to chase polls.
Speaker 3: We're going to do what's right. That's what we've always
Speaker 3: done and that's who we're going to be.
Speaker 2: But right, and I think that you know framework, so
Speaker 2: that North start sounds like you guys have of like
Speaker 2: we're going to do what's right and like sort of
Speaker 2: you know, try to sell I presume, try to sell
Speaker 2: that to voters and like if they come with us
Speaker 2: on that, great, but you do need to win elections
Speaker 2: to implement, you know, what you all see as like
Speaker 2: what is right?
Speaker 1: Right?
Speaker 2: I mean, when people see, you know, so many years
Speaker 2: of Republican dominance, how do you sort of get them
Speaker 2: to stay aboard with the Texas Democrats and maybe even
Speaker 2: join you know, what has been for to your point
Speaker 2: thirty years, you know, a losing party.
Speaker 3: I would argue that we have a seismic shift right
Speaker 3: now in the way that we're operating as a party
Speaker 3: in addition to kind of the seismic shifts that are
Speaker 3: happening in the realignment of the electorate. But as a party,
Speaker 3: I mean, when you put a thirty five year old
Speaker 3: for the Progressive Caucus in charge of the way that
Speaker 3: you're operating, I think you're sending a pretty strong message
Speaker 3: that things are going to be done differently than the
Speaker 3: way that we've been doing them. Our organizing is going
Speaker 3: to be different, our messaging is different. The way that
Speaker 3: we conduct our coordinated is going to be different. The
Speaker 3: way that we go and solicit funds is going to
Speaker 3: be different. I mean, I'm everywhere I go. We're building
Speaker 3: a grassroots movement across this state where we're going to
Speaker 3: be trying to lean on our grassroots donors so that
Speaker 3: we aren't reliant on the super wealthy and corporate donors
Speaker 3: to be able to function as an organization. And when
Speaker 3: we do that, we're able to be faithful to the
Speaker 3: people who fund our organization, and that's the working class
Speaker 3: and working people across the state. It doesn't happen overnight
Speaker 3: you can't make a U turn on the Titanic. But
Speaker 3: we're working right now to rebuild what it means to
Speaker 3: be a Texas Democrat. And if the National Party isn't
Speaker 3: going to be here with us, and they're not here
Speaker 3: to help, that's fine, that's their thing. I think it
Speaker 3: means something a little bit different to be a Texasmocrat
Speaker 3: than being a National Democrat. And we're going to lean
Speaker 3: into the policies of Sam Rayburn and Lyndon Johnson and
Speaker 3: Lloyd Benson, and you know, we're going to make sure
Speaker 3: that people understand that Texas Democrats get big things done.
Speaker 1: So I am noticing your invocation of the working class.
Speaker 1: You're clearly a very big point of emphasis for you.
Speaker 1: I don't think you're the only Democrat in this situation.
Speaker 1: You know, there are many people who believe that the
Speaker 1: failures of twenty twenty four, both nationally and in the state,
Speaker 1: were in part because a rejection by the working class
Speaker 1: of whether it's real or perceived, an idea of the
Speaker 1: Democrats going a little too far on the wokeness perspective. Right,
Speaker 1: the social issues, social issues, race, all the you know, gender.
Speaker 2: Issues, particularly right like this real tension around gender issues
Speaker 2: and you know trans you know, how much are we
Speaker 2: talking about issues of gender exactly?
Speaker 1: Am I to take by the messaging that we're hearing
Speaker 1: from you today a sign of agreement on that? Do
Speaker 1: you feel like the Democrats should maybe, if not even
Speaker 1: change their positions, at least deemphasize some of those social
Speaker 1: issues and focus more on the economics.
Speaker 3: When you're a part of a coalition party, you have
Speaker 3: a lot of different people, with a lot of different
Speaker 3: walks of life and different perspectives. And the way I
Speaker 3: view it is that if you're willing to respect everybody
Speaker 3: sitting at the table, you're welcome at it. And where
Speaker 3: I'm from, you just be nice to people, mind your
Speaker 3: own business. And that is how I think we're going
Speaker 3: to continue to operate as a party as we always
Speaker 3: have been. I'm not throwing anybody overboard. The coach after
Speaker 3: losing a game doesn't go into the press junk it
Speaker 3: and blame the running backs. Okay, that's not how this works.
Speaker 3: But I do think we can get to a point
Speaker 3: where people say, you know, kind of, actually, I'll make
Speaker 3: a point, kind of like they do about Donald Trump.
Speaker 3: You hear people say this all the time. You know,
Speaker 3: the guy's a total asshole. We don't like him. We
Speaker 3: think he goes too far on X, Y and Z.
Speaker 3: But I did feel like in his first term he
Speaker 3: was throwing down and fighting for us. I disagree with that.
Speaker 3: I think that is a bad assessment, but I hear
Speaker 3: it a lot. You've heard it a lot. I'm sure
Speaker 3: I can see why you're nodding. We've got to get
Speaker 3: to a point as a party where people will say
Speaker 3: that about us. You know, I don't have to agree
Speaker 3: with them on everything that they do all the time,
Speaker 3: and I may not understand this issue, and I may
Speaker 3: not appreciate where they're out on this issue, but I
Speaker 3: did feel like when they were elected they were throwing
Speaker 3: down and fighting for us, and it's worth it. Nobody
Speaker 3: agrees with every political party one hundred percent of the time,
Speaker 3: except for the chairmen who are elected and required to.
Speaker 3: So I would say that we have to get to
Speaker 3: a point where we're treating everybody with respect. Basic human
Speaker 3: dignity is a baseline being nice to people, minding our
Speaker 3: own business, and leading with the issues that impact every
Speaker 3: member of our coalition. And fun fact about trans people.
Speaker 3: They pay bills to every single person in our coalition
Speaker 3: is struggling to get by because we don't have massive
Speaker 3: old barons and billionaires in West Texas within our coalition.
Speaker 3: Our people are struggling to pay their bills, to pay
Speaker 3: their electric rates, to pay their insurance rates, to pay
Speaker 3: their property taxes, all of them skaha. I'll remind everyone
Speaker 3: that when the Democratic budget two sessions ago, we tried
Speaker 3: to double your home set exemptions, and every single Republican
Speaker 3: voted against it. We tried to give a ten percent
Speaker 3: rental rebate to renters, every single Republican voted against it.
Speaker 3: We tried to expand medicaid, every Republican voted against it.
Speaker 3: We are the ones advocating to make sure that work
Speaker 3: can people get an opportunity. It's our obligation to make
Speaker 3: sure they see it. If they haven't in the past,
Speaker 3: that's our bad. We need to fix it.
Speaker 1: All right. Shall we talk a little bit about twenty
Speaker 1: twenty six? All right, twenty six, let's do it. I
Speaker 1: would say one thing that the Democrats do have going
Speaker 1: from them is a pretty solid and prominent bench of
Speaker 1: candidates who have you know, high name recognition, you know support,
Speaker 1: you know. The Dallas Morning News wrote this story not
Speaker 1: too long ago about four of those people, Beto Rourke,
Speaker 1: James Tall, Rico, Colin Allred, Joaquin Castro, all kind of
Speaker 1: coming together to discuss whether how they might run, and
Speaker 1: their interests in running, and where they might all piece together.
Speaker 1: I think there is a general idea of maybe the
Speaker 1: Senate is the best place to run statewide if you're
Speaker 1: a Democrat right now, particularly if if Ken Paxton is
Speaker 1: able to primary John Cornyan, particularly given the just massive,
Speaker 1: massive amounts of money and pretty strong popularity in the
Speaker 1: polls of the governor Greg Abbott. But I think there's
Speaker 1: also a sense even among those candidates that maybe the
Speaker 1: best thing for the Democratic Party isn't to have four
Speaker 1: people running for Senate and no in any of those
Speaker 1: other seats. I'm curious, just, first of all, are you
Speaker 1: involved in those conversations. Are you trying to help these
Speaker 1: candidates and other candidates sort of make the right decision
Speaker 1: for the party in terms of what sets up the
Speaker 1: best slate for them.
Speaker 3: Well, first, let me say this is a little less
Speaker 3: news oriented and kind of personal, but I'll say it's
Speaker 3: weird to me to be in those conversations, because you know,
Speaker 3: I'm still adjusting to it. I got elected one hundred
Speaker 3: days ago, and you know, I come from a family
Speaker 3: that just had nothing, and so it's just this wild,
Speaker 3: you know, acclaim to the Texas public school system that
Speaker 3: I'm even able to be sitting in this chair and
Speaker 3: doing it, and just I'm just appreciate the opportunity to
Speaker 3: be here. So yeah, I've been having a lot of
Speaker 3: conversations with folks. What I'll say is that I love
Speaker 3: all my Democrats equally, that unlike my cohort in the
Speaker 3: Republican Party, I don't involve myself in those inter party spats.
Speaker 3: My job is to hold the team together, to be
Speaker 3: a coach, to make sure that we're all moving in
Speaker 3: the same direction, working on a team to get more
Speaker 3: Democrats elected. So I think we have a really great
Speaker 3: slate of candidates. I've had conversations with all of them.
Speaker 3: Most of the time. My conversations say, you do what
Speaker 3: you feel is best for Texas first, and what you
Speaker 3: feel is best for yourself second. And you know it's
Speaker 3: all going to come out in the wash. It'll be
Speaker 3: fine because I don't think primaries are bad. If primaries
Speaker 3: were bad, Republicans would have been losing this state for
Speaker 3: the last thirty years, right. I mean, just because you
Speaker 3: have a contested primary, that doesn't mean you're going to
Speaker 3: lose an election. I think that Democrats spending money on
Speaker 3: engaging and turning Democrats out to vote would be a
Speaker 3: good thing, you know, as long as we're treating everybody
Speaker 3: with respect in that process, and we're not being tacky,
Speaker 3: and we're not getting back into the huge, vitriolic fights
Speaker 3: of the Richards and Maddox fights of nineteen ninety. But
Speaker 3: I think we're going to be fine. So that's kind
Speaker 3: of what I told them. You know, we as a
Speaker 3: party are here to help them with their data systems
Speaker 3: and helping them with filing. We're happy to do, you know,
Speaker 3: whatever a party does to interact with these folks. I
Speaker 3: think it's a miscalculation to assume that the Senate race
Speaker 3: is the only race that is viable. Anybody that's doing that,
Speaker 3: I think is making a big mistake. I think the
Speaker 3: Senate race is viable for obvious reasons that people who
Speaker 3: listen to trip cast already knows. There's no reason to
Speaker 3: rehash it. But if you look at the governor's race,
Speaker 3: he just passed a coupon to put rich people's kids
Speaker 3: in fancy private schools in the backs of poor people,
Speaker 3: and it's going to shut down schools without a doubt
Speaker 3: across the state. I don't even think it's really disputed
Speaker 3: that that's going to happen. And so you have that.
Speaker 3: You have a lieutenant governor who just fought to do
Speaker 3: something that literally no one's asking for, that's decriminalized all
Speaker 3: THHC project products. You have Republicans up in arms about it.
Speaker 3: The guy's already pretty unpopular, and now he's going to
Speaker 3: have people in his own side that are going to
Speaker 3: be refusing to because he's just completely out of line
Speaker 3: with what Texans want. You have a comptroller's office that's
Speaker 3: job is to administer this about your program. You have
Speaker 3: a land commissioner's office that's in charge of protecting our
Speaker 3: public lands at a time where pollutants are running rampant.
Speaker 3: And we have a railroad Commission's office where, you know,
Speaker 3: when we have an unstable electric grid. I think that
Speaker 3: the office that regulates energy is really important. I think
Speaker 3: every office that we have has a real viable opportunity
Speaker 3: if we seize this moment, if we build in every
Speaker 3: corner of this state. And if we spend our time
Speaker 3: defining ourselves and not allowing Republicans to define us. We
Speaker 3: have let Republicans lead us around this state and we
Speaker 3: chase them around like a lost puppy, and we say, oh,
Speaker 3: don't say that about us. That's not true, that's not true. Well,
Speaker 3: if we don't have a cohesion message about who we
Speaker 3: are and what we stand for, the people can't define
Speaker 3: us by who we are. They define us by what
Speaker 3: Republicans say we are right and they say we don't
Speaker 3: support strong borders and we don't support public safety. Well,
Speaker 3: I'm sorry. Last I checked, and Patrick is who just
Speaker 3: passed a new cash prop for the cartels, and Greg
Speaker 3: Abbott is who just pushed for gun policies that arms
Speaker 3: those cartels, keeping all of our communities less safe. We
Speaker 3: are not people who are here to conceive those issues.
Speaker 3: We need to define who we are and stick with it.
Speaker 3: That's what I intend to do is to make a
Speaker 3: very clear presentation of who we are as a party.
Speaker 3: We're a party for the working class, a party that
Speaker 3: gets out of bed every day to take on the
Speaker 3: billionaires and the banks to protect people who are depending
Speaker 3: on them. To keep your community safe, and to make
Speaker 3: sure that we're making your schools better for your kiddos.
Speaker 1: Okay, so do you think it is important though? I
Speaker 1: mean so as we record this, it is earlier, and
Speaker 1: maybe things will have changed by the time people almost guarantee.
Speaker 1: But right now, Colin already is in the Senate race.
Speaker 1: We're wonder looking to see what the other three do.
Speaker 1: Do you think it's important that that group in particular
Speaker 1: avoids a clustering into that race and seeks out other
Speaker 1: ones are Do you think you're a either way.
Speaker 3: They're gonna do what they feel it best for the
Speaker 3: state and what's best for themselves. And that's fine. Like,
Speaker 3: I literally this is I think where I'm me and
Speaker 3: kind of my generation are different. Like we're not as
Speaker 3: risk adverse as the Democratic Party in the past. I
Speaker 3: didn't come onto this podcast with a script of talking
Speaker 3: points I'm going to make sure I hit today. It's
Speaker 3: you know, we're just here to have a conversation. That's
Speaker 3: where I think my generation is different. Look, they're gonna
Speaker 3: duke it out if they want to duke it out.
Speaker 3: I don't think it's bad for Democrats to spend money
Speaker 3: reach out to Democrats. In fact, there are some Democratic
Speaker 3: strongholds in this state. When I'm doing precinct analysis that
Speaker 3: had thirteen percent turnout in a presidential year, I think
Speaker 3: having Democrats spending money on turning those people out to
Speaker 3: votes important. So, if anything, I think the primary could
Speaker 3: be great for us. It'd be healthy. We haven't had
Speaker 3: one for a long time. The last time that we
Speaker 3: had a really well funded primary here I think was
Speaker 3: probably the Obama Hillary situation in eight where we started
Speaker 3: to see the party move and seismically start shifting in
Speaker 3: the right direction. So you know, it's going to happen
Speaker 3: the way it's going to happen as long as they're
Speaker 3: what I would encourage them, and what in all of
Speaker 3: my conversations with them it's been is, you need to
Speaker 3: make do what you feel is right, but make sure
Speaker 3: that you're treating everybody with respect. You know, we're not gonna,
Speaker 3: you know, knock down the barn just so that you
Speaker 3: know we can get ahead a little bit, but you know,
Speaker 3: treat everybody fairly, and let's have an honest discussion about
Speaker 3: where we want to see the party go.
Speaker 2: I mean, we've got these four names that people are
Speaker 2: talking about a lot, and it's a good amount of
Speaker 2: enthusiasm around them, but also, you know, each or many
Speaker 2: of them can sort of come with their own baggage, right,
Speaker 2: I mean, bet o'rourk has lost several state wide races.
Speaker 2: Colin already coming off of a bruising loss, you know,
Speaker 2: James Hillerico a pretty fresh face, untested.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 2: If let's say, I mean, if they're all fighting off,
Speaker 2: you know, for the Senate or even the Senate and
Speaker 2: the governor, are these like really high profile races, what
Speaker 2: do you make of the bench below them? I mean,
Speaker 2: we've got, like you said, comptroller, attorney general. We also
Speaker 2: have you know, any number of smaller positions we need
Speaker 2: to fill in, you know, really, you know, we're going
Speaker 2: to have races on you know, even state legislature and
Speaker 2: things like that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean this is where my job as state
Speaker 3: party chair of the Democratic Party in Texas actually isn't
Speaker 3: the hardest job. A lot of places it is, and
Speaker 3: a lot of facets it is. But as I go
Speaker 3: around and talk to other state chairs around the country,
Speaker 3: what's different for us is that we've got so many
Speaker 3: people in this state and we're so geographically diverse that
Speaker 3: even if we haven't been able to win some statewide races.
Speaker 3: We have some real talent in a lot of places,
Speaker 3: so you know, the bench below them is only below
Speaker 3: them because you know they haven't been resourced. I think
Speaker 3: we have a lot of stars all over the state.
Speaker 3: We have lots of great county judges, we have lots
Speaker 3: of great das, We have lots of great county commissioners,
Speaker 3: we have lots of great city council people. I mean,
Speaker 3: we have some good folks that are in elected office
Speaker 3: around the state. So we have a bit of an
Speaker 3: embarrassment of riches in that. Yeah, they can go ahead
Speaker 3: and slog out what they're going to do. But you know,
Speaker 3: if we have issues on we don't have a problem
Speaker 3: filling out a statewide ballot because of our talent. I
Speaker 3: guess that's the point I'm making. I don't lose a
Speaker 3: second of sleep at night worried about who's going to
Speaker 3: be able to pinch hit because we just have a
Speaker 3: lot of talent. They just haven't had an opportunity to
Speaker 3: move up. Because I mean, let's call it like it
Speaker 3: is and be a little honest. Our party's electeds tend
Speaker 3: to be quite a bit older than they are in Republicans.
Speaker 3: That's just statistically true, and it's caused a lot of
Speaker 3: younger talent to just kind of be sitting in the waiting,
Speaker 3: And so there's plenty of people there ready to step
Speaker 3: up if given the opportunity.
Speaker 1: There is, of course not a shortage of money among
Speaker 1: Democrats in Texas, at least among people who support Democrats
Speaker 1: in Texas. There are wealthy Democratic donors in this state.
Speaker 1: I think often the question for the state party is
Speaker 1: can they convince those wealthy folks to spend the money
Speaker 1: here as opposed to supporting races outside the state. You know,
Speaker 1: this is a race where I think Democrats nationally are
Speaker 1: going to find it very very important to try to
Speaker 1: win back the House when the Senate, How are you
Speaker 1: going to convince those folks to spend locally as well?
Speaker 1: How can you show people that that is a good
Speaker 1: investment when there's so much at stake elsewhere across the
Speaker 1: country as well?
Speaker 3: Well? If they're listening today, I know a great statewide
Speaker 3: party that they can invest their resources. You know, here's
Speaker 3: the argument that I would make. We are not going
Speaker 3: to make gains in this state unless we are making
Speaker 3: investments in long term infrastructure we have been looking at
Speaker 3: the election right in front of us and not been
Speaker 3: looking down the road at how we build up long
Speaker 3: term success. And that's how organizing apparatus has fallen as
Speaker 3: defunct as it has. We're working to rebuild that and
Speaker 3: that continues on with our data systems that we have
Speaker 3: that we operate with all of our campaigns. It continues
Speaker 3: all with our compliance mechanisms, our voter protection mechanisms, everything
Speaker 3: that we have in our party. It requires long term investment.
Speaker 3: If you invest in a candidate, that's fine, they need
Speaker 3: the help, but they're going to spend it all in
Speaker 3: one election and whether they win or they lose, that's
Speaker 3: over and the party's still going to be here. And
Speaker 3: so what we've been trying to convey to people is that,
Speaker 3: you know, it's a new day in the Texas Democratic Party.
Speaker 3: We have a laser focus on building for long term success.
Speaker 3: I think most people have probably seen the redistricting maps
Speaker 3: after the United States Census, and that makes Texas a
Speaker 3: very high priority for the nation. And if we are
Speaker 3: not doing the work now, we are going to be
Speaker 3: in a bad position six years from now, and so
Speaker 3: we're laser focused on it. That's what we're telling Texas donors.
Speaker 3: If you want to send money out of the state,
Speaker 3: you know places around the country need it too, That's fine,
Speaker 3: but understand that neglecting the fight that we have right
Speaker 3: here at home is going to reach very long term consequences. Luckily,
Speaker 3: I don't think that we're seeing people afraid to invest
Speaker 3: in Texas. I think we have a little bit of
Speaker 3: donor fatigue, but I think that people our donors are
Speaker 3: smart people. Are our activists are smart people. They understand
Speaker 3: that this doesn't just you don't just wake up and
Speaker 3: fix this overnight. It's going to take time, and hopefully
Speaker 3: in this upcoming year we can show some progress. You know,
Speaker 3: progress looks to me like moving the needle statewide. It
Speaker 3: looks to me like flipping seats down ballot to show
Speaker 3: that we're having success on the ground and moving in
Speaker 3: the right direction. If we're doing that and continuing the
Speaker 3: trend line moving in the right direction for us, I
Speaker 3: think we continue to lock those donors in long term.
Speaker 1: Do you it feels like in some ways there's been
Speaker 1: like two different ways for a Democrat to run statewide
Speaker 1: in recent years. It's been the sort of you know,
Speaker 1: go everywhere hold the rallies and Lubbock and San Angeles
Speaker 1: on the table. I'm just trying to make it that explicit, yeah,
Speaker 1: or the sort of like, you know, play go, go
Speaker 1: to the middle, play the traditional you know, go for
Speaker 1: the big cities, run the TV ads, but maybe not
Speaker 1: make such a big splash and the grassroots will come
Speaker 1: with you. Do you have an opinion on how that
Speaker 1: should look in twenty twenty six, like O, which of
Speaker 1: those paths is the right way to go?
Speaker 3: It is? Well, okay, look number one, I've already done
Speaker 3: events in forty five different counties across the state of Texas.
Speaker 3: I think you can assume where my natural inclination is
Speaker 3: on that question. But I'll tell you I think it's hilarious,
Speaker 3: honestly that every election cycle we have this discussion where
Speaker 3: the party that put a man on the moon is
Speaker 3: trying to figure out if we have the ability to
Speaker 3: organize in both rural and urban areas. It's not rocket science, Okay,
Speaker 3: we are a party of big, bold ideas. We should
Speaker 3: be able to walk into gum. At the same time,
Speaker 3: I think you've got to do a little bit of both.
Speaker 3: You've got to make sure you're milking votes out of
Speaker 3: urban areas. You've got to make sure that we're not
Speaker 3: emorrhaging in rural areas of the state. But there's a
Speaker 3: piece of that discussion, in my opinion where I think
Speaker 3: my vision's a little different than others. That is missing.
Speaker 3: The piece of that that is missing is the forty
Speaker 3: mid sized cities with them were one hundred thousand people
Speaker 3: and then in this state, I'm sorry, Luddick is not rural.
Speaker 3: Am Marilla is not rural. You're talking to a guy
Speaker 3: who grew up in New Boston, Texas. Sant Angelo is
Speaker 3: not rural. They are mid size cities. They should be
Speaker 3: treated as population centers. Beaumont, Texas is bigger than Richmond, Virginia. Laredo,
Speaker 3: Texas is bigger than Richmond, Abilee or Lubbock, Ambilla twice
Speaker 3: that size. So as a party, it's not just about
Speaker 3: do we do better in rural or do we run
Speaker 3: up our numbers in urban it's why aren't you walking
Speaker 3: into population centers and why are you not organizing there
Speaker 3: to treat them like their population centers. And it's unacceptable
Speaker 3: for us to have giant cities that in any other
Speaker 3: state are population centers that we don't have precinct chairs
Speaker 3: in or don't have a county chair in, and we're
Speaker 3: fixing that. We're going to be showing up in all
Speaker 3: of those communities and making sure that we're not hemorrhaging
Speaker 3: the way that we always have. When we do that,
Speaker 3: you're going to see repercussions across the state. And so
Speaker 3: I think it's all things and a part already a
Speaker 3: big bulld id issh should be able to do all
Speaker 3: of that organizing because it's nothing more than shaking people's hand,
Speaker 3: look at them in the ID, telling me what you
Speaker 3: stand for, and ask them for their vote. It's not
Speaker 3: that complicated.
Speaker 2: I want to ask about one specific group that was
Speaker 2: a big storyline after the twenty twenty four election, which
Speaker 2: is Hispanic voters. You know, traditionally voted Democrat. Now you
Speaker 2: know really, I mean obviously pivoted in twenty four. Do
Speaker 2: you see that as still up in the air. What
Speaker 2: is the party doing to try to regain those voters?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, let's be honest about what's happening in
Speaker 3: that community. What's happening in that community is the same
Speaker 3: as what's happened in the white community, where you have
Speaker 3: seen billionaires that are on the conservative side of the
Speaker 3: spectrum buy up a lot of media markets and push
Speaker 3: far right news to people without presenting it as such,
Speaker 3: and so they're getting a lot of misinformation on their
Speaker 3: Spanish language media, and Democrats have not met them there.
Speaker 3: The Texas Democratic Party doesn't have a Spanish language department.
Speaker 3: The National Democratic Party doesn't have a Spanish language coms department.
Speaker 3: Texas is unique because we are thirty percent of people
Speaker 3: speaking Spanish at home. If you start to look at
Speaker 3: our border and swing communities, it's closer to sixty seven
Speaker 3: seventy percent of people speaking Spanish at home, and we're
Speaker 3: not meeting no where they're at. We have to show
Speaker 3: up not just geographically in people's communities. We have to
Speaker 3: not only talk about the issues that are important to them,
Speaker 3: but we also have to show up where they're consuming news.
Speaker 3: And it's the same thing with young people too. You
Speaker 3: know young people. You know we saw in the last
Speaker 3: cycle they kind of moved away from the Democratic Party.
Speaker 3: I would argue it's a turnout thing, but you know,
Speaker 3: Democrats weren't showing up where they consume news. I mean,
Speaker 3: I'm going to say something that's going to shake all
Speaker 3: of your listeners who are liberal to the core. Ready,
Speaker 3: I've never watched Rachel Maddow. I'm thirty five. I don't
Speaker 3: have cable like people my age and in my age group.
Speaker 3: That mainstream formerly mainstream media is not where we're consuming information.
Speaker 3: We have to meet people where they're consuming it. And
Speaker 3: so this ties in with the conversation on his spending
Speaker 3: voters because Democrats have not been meeting people where they're
Speaker 3: consuming news. We haven't been present in people's communities, and
Speaker 3: we have an obligation to fix it. I think we've
Speaker 3: also failed to make a really salient point on border
Speaker 3: security and on immigration. I mean, just sin Stone it that.
Speaker 3: I don't know why it's so hard to get Democrats
Speaker 3: to say that we support strong borders. Every one of
Speaker 3: them do. I've never met a Democrat that says that
Speaker 3: they don't support strong borders and keeping communities safe. But
Speaker 3: what they're supporting is modernizing the way that we're doing it.
Speaker 3: And I don't know why Democrats are so adverse to
Speaker 3: talking about it. I think it's because it's a real
Speaker 3: complex issue and they get in their heads, you know.
Speaker 3: They Democrats sometimes can be a little too smart for
Speaker 3: their own good and they spend too much time kind
Speaker 3: of trying to think about over analyzing things when you
Speaker 3: just have to speak to people their guts and let
Speaker 3: them know who we are and what we're standing for.
Speaker 3: We want to keep your community safe. We want to
Speaker 3: make sure that your kids able to get the same
Speaker 3: opportunities that you had. And I'm only able to sit
Speaker 3: here as the chair of the Texas Democratic Party because
Speaker 3: I had a high quality public school out in East
Speaker 3: Texas and that opportunity is being taken away from kids
Speaker 3: all across the state, including South Texas and then the
Speaker 3: Rio Grandee Valley and the Democrats are here standing on
Speaker 3: the front lines. Every single Democrat voted against vouchers.
Speaker 1: All right, well, chairman, thank you for taking the time
Speaker 1: to talk to us. It's been a very interesting conversation.
Speaker 1: We will be back soon here from the other side
Speaker 1: of the aisle on this but that's it for today.
Speaker 1: Thank you again, Chairman, Thank you to our producers, Robin Chris,
Speaker 1: thank you Eleanor, and we will talk to you all soon.