Speaker 1: Hello and welcome to the Texas Tribunes trib Cast for Tuesday,
Speaker 1: December ninth. I'm Eleanor Klibanoff law and politics reporter, joined
Speaker 1: as always by Editor in chief Matthew Watkins.
Speaker 2: How's it going, Matthew?
Speaker 3: Doing well? Texas A and M in the college football playoffs.
Speaker 2: Some say, some thought it would never happen, and here.
Speaker 3: Again it's never happened. Period, It's never happened the first
Speaker 3: first time ever ever. That's I mean, we've only had
Speaker 3: a playoff for you know, a few years.
Speaker 2: But still that's exciting.
Speaker 1: Congratulations, thank you, Thank you for our ut listeners are condolence.
Speaker 2: We'll do a different tip top for them.
Speaker 3: And also congratulations to our friends at Texas Tech.
Speaker 1: Yes, yeah, a very exciting.
Speaker 2: You know, postseason for Texas football teams.
Speaker 1: Indeed, our special guest on this week's episode is Renzo Downey,
Speaker 1: lead writer for The Blast, the Tribune's premier political newsletter.
Speaker 1: You can sign up for The Blast at support dot
Speaker 1: Texas Tribune dot org slash Blast.
Speaker 2: Renzo, Welcome to the podcast.
Speaker 4: Do you have a college football team?
Speaker 5: I mean I grew up in the Bay Area, so not.
Speaker 5: How would have been my football team. Okay, okay, I.
Speaker 1: Don't want to like fuel any fire about people's potential
Speaker 1: perceptions of the Tribune, but two of what six members
Speaker 1: of the Tribune politics team are from the Bay Area,
Speaker 1: which I think does not make for much of a
Speaker 1: college football team.
Speaker 2: And then two are from Long.
Speaker 3: Island, also not a college football.
Speaker 1: Not a college football hotbed. I am solo representing from
Speaker 1: the South. So yesterday was the candidate filing deadline for
Speaker 1: TI twenty twenty six, which means we finally, after much speculation,
Speaker 1: have a slate of candidates who will be running for
Speaker 1: next year's election. Twenty twenty six promises to be a
Speaker 1: very big year for Texas politics. All the state wide
Speaker 1: offices are up for reelection or up for election in
Speaker 1: some cases. We also have a lot of really closely
Speaker 1: watched congressional races with potentially nationwide implications. The filing deadline
Speaker 1: is always sort of an exciting day. You never know,
Speaker 1: like what's going to happen, and they have until five
Speaker 1: PM on the deadline to start to make any last
Speaker 1: minute decisions. This year was extraordinary even for that usual excitement,
Speaker 1: because we didn't know until last Thursday, four days ago
Speaker 1: what congressional map would be using for next year, which
Speaker 1: is added to a degree of uncertainty and excitement. I
Speaker 1: would say, you know, certainly Republicans were proceeding as if
Speaker 1: they'd be allowed to use the newly redrawn GOP friendlier map.
Speaker 1: Democrats were proceeding as if the court order striking that
Speaker 1: map would be allowed to stay in effect. And in
Speaker 1: the end Republicans made that call correctly, leading to a
Speaker 1: lot more last minute seat swapping on the left, but
Speaker 1: certainly some surprises on the right.
Speaker 2: We're going to go sort of through.
Speaker 1: The races that await us for Marches primary and Novembers general.
Speaker 1: But yeah, any big picture thoughts after the you know,
Speaker 1: excitement of filing day.
Speaker 2: Any We'll get into the specifics.
Speaker 6: But I mean, you know, I think the big news
Speaker 6: of the day in Texas and really beyond was the
Speaker 6: Jasmin Crockett yes, right, and the way that you know,
Speaker 6: I think there are a lot of people asking, maybe
Speaker 6: from outside the state, whether this is sort of like
Speaker 6: a tea party moment for the Democratic Party, you know,
Speaker 6: where like for so long the sort of like activist
Speaker 6: wing of the Republican Party was ascendant and really took
Speaker 6: control of the party. Democrats have been able to sort
Speaker 6: of the establishment has been able to hold on. Does
Speaker 6: Jasmine Crockett jumping in this race against someone who I
Speaker 6: would say the Democratic establishment is quite excited about already,
Speaker 6: does this represented change and what does that mean?
Speaker 3: Maybe we'll talk about that a little.
Speaker 6: Bit later, but I think you know, whether or not
Speaker 6: that we'll have any influence on who actually becomes the
Speaker 6: US Senator for Texas, I think it's the big most
Speaker 6: interesting thing that happened yesterday.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I'd agree with Matthew that the Democratic side is
Speaker 5: one hundred percent a flight over what doesn't mean to
Speaker 5: be a Texas Democrat and how you go about being
Speaker 5: a Texas Democrat. But you know, beyond that, we've got
Speaker 5: some big fights for some of the biggest seats in Texas.
Speaker 5: But also you know, looking at some of the other
Speaker 5: state wides. I mean Ken Paxton, longtime Attorney General, he's
Speaker 5: running for a different seat, Sid Miller, Agriculture commiss He's
Speaker 5: got a bit of a fight on his hands. And
Speaker 5: we're starting to see a little bit of a shakeup
Speaker 5: of that leadership at the state level that's been in
Speaker 5: place for over a decade.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I've worked at the Tribune for over ten years,
Speaker 6: and we've had the same kind of top four people,
Speaker 6: you know, Governor, the chain of governor, Senate us in
Speaker 6: it in both seats, and I mean, I guess it's
Speaker 6: possible that we will emerge from twenty twenty six with
Speaker 6: that still set up, but there's like a lot of
Speaker 6: sort of shuffling.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, it's guaranteed that it will look at
Speaker 1: least a little different with Pexton not going to be
Speaker 1: Attorney general anymore. But yeah, it's an interesting So you
Speaker 1: were at the Republican Party of Texas headquarters yesterday, which
Speaker 1: is worked outside of it side of the Republican Party
Speaker 1: Texas sort of what was the energy, what was the
Speaker 1: vibe from candidates? I mean, are they feeling pretty victorious
Speaker 1: about getting to use the map that they were hoping
Speaker 1: to use being the redistricting fight, if you will.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean this map created a lot of opportunities
Speaker 5: for Republicans that you know, speaking of this you know
Speaker 5: statewide slate that's been in place for a while. I
Speaker 5: mean there's been a lot of there have been roadblocks
Speaker 5: at the top for people trying to move up, and
Speaker 5: so you know, if you create potentially five new GOP seats,
Speaker 5: then that's a lot of opportunities for members to jump in.
Speaker 5: And so I think we'll talk about some of these races,
Speaker 5: but you're going to have like a bunch of political
Speaker 5: newcomers jumping into like one of them is going to
Speaker 5: be like probably the next congressman.
Speaker 1: Right given district, right, which is exciting, terrifying all of
Speaker 1: the above for us as political reporters. So let's start
Speaker 1: at the very top of the ticket. Governor's race looking
Speaker 1: sort of as we were expecting it would look before
Speaker 1: the filing deadline approached, Renzo Abbot, Governor Greg Abbott, as
Speaker 1: we said, longtime governor, more than a decade running for
Speaker 1: reelection with more money than God. How is it looking
Speaker 1: on the Democratic side.
Speaker 5: Well, on the Democratic side, it seems like the main
Speaker 5: candidates are going to be State Representative Genie in Ajosa,
Speaker 5: and you've also got a White, you know, son of
Speaker 5: former government and White and.
Speaker 3: Bobby Cole.
Speaker 4: Yeah, Bobby Cole. Uh think we.
Speaker 6: I mean I think it really what this shows is
Speaker 6: the strength of Abbott, right, Like, the Democrats like have
Speaker 6: a pretty decent bench right now of like interesting popular
Speaker 6: candidates who can raise money, get people energized. I mean,
Speaker 6: James Talerico, Jasmine Crockett, Colin Allred, you know, wanted to
Speaker 6: run statewide is now not you know, even people like
Speaker 6: Betto the Castro brothers, Like there are folks that like
Speaker 6: people can get excited about from a statewide and national level,
Speaker 6: and none of them even like looked at glanced at
Speaker 6: the governor's seat. And and and that's because he is
Speaker 6: so popular in the polls and because he has just
Speaker 6: an inhuman amount of money to spend. And I don't
Speaker 6: think anyone wants to go anywhere near that, even in
Speaker 6: a year where I think people think, you know, Democrats
Speaker 6: nationally are going to kind of outperform, you know, their
Speaker 6: their their sort of regular baseline in this you know,
Speaker 6: midterm election.
Speaker 5: And there was a rumor for a while that Colin
Speaker 5: Allred was going to drop out of the Senate race
Speaker 5: and run for governor. But he didn't even do that.
Speaker 5: He decided he was going to try to go back
Speaker 5: to Congress.
Speaker 1: Right, I do think it's like sort of like someone
Speaker 1: has to run for it, and like credit to the
Speaker 1: Democrats who are trying, but sacrificial the sacrifice, I mean
Speaker 1: just the sheer amount of money. It's like it does
Speaker 1: matter how people feel about Greg Abbott. It matters more
Speaker 1: that like he's got the money and obviously the party support.
Speaker 6: And a pretty sophisticated kind of political apparatus that he's
Speaker 6: been able to wheeld effectively, you know, to support himself,
Speaker 6: but also so you know, shape the legislature and other
Speaker 6: races in the way he wants.
Speaker 1: And even further down, like he's probably he's vowing to
Speaker 1: like turn Harris County red. Right, He's like got so
Speaker 1: much money, he's like gonna start going, you know, doing offshoots.
Speaker 5: No, that's kind of exactly what I was going to say,
Speaker 5: is that, you know, because he doesn't have a major
Speaker 5: fundraising challenger on the Democratic side, I mean, he's going
Speaker 5: to be free to spend his money however he wants
Speaker 5: to boost turnout in South Texas and the rear Grand
Speaker 5: Valley or in Harris County or wherever else he decides
Speaker 5: to support Republicans.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Also, I mean a little further down, is it we're
Speaker 1: not going to have a much of a primary here,
Speaker 1: so we won't don't need to like go over this
Speaker 1: to great detail. Dan Patrick, Lieutenant governor, longtime lieutenant governor
Speaker 1: up against Vicky Goodwin on the Democratic side. We didn't
Speaker 1: really see any surprises around the filing deadline with that race,
Speaker 1: so that's been said, right.
Speaker 5: The biggest surprise there would have been before the filing
Speaker 5: deadline with Mike Collier, the previous multi time Democratic nominee
Speaker 5: for lieutenant governor, deciding to take a shot as an
Speaker 5: independent in that and we'll see how the independent route goes.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: And then attorney General, our first non Paxton attorney general
Speaker 1: race in over a decade. I mean, that one I
Speaker 1: think is shaping up. Maybe it's just because I'm covering
Speaker 1: it for the Tribune.
Speaker 2: But like its shaped up to be a very very
Speaker 2: interesting fight.
Speaker 1: We've got four Republicans, three Democrats, and certainly on the
Speaker 1: Republican side, like really a battle over like what does
Speaker 1: the next generation of the Attorney General's office look like.
Speaker 1: Those candidates are US current US Rep. Chip Roy, former
Speaker 1: DOJ lawyer Aaron Wright's state senators Mays Middleton and Joan Huffman,
Speaker 1: all presenting sort of different ideas of that office, but
Speaker 1: you know, all within the vein of continue this conservative
Speaker 1: litigation strategy.
Speaker 5: I think it's amazing that you can have or four
Speaker 5: candidates in one primary and they all present a very
Speaker 5: different vision and a presentation of what it could mean
Speaker 5: to be an attorney general.
Speaker 6: Can you break down a little bit like what that
Speaker 6: what that vision looks like by this candidates.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 5: So chip Roy has been one of the strongest conservatives
Speaker 5: in Congress, you know, not afraid to buck with leadership
Speaker 5: when it when he needs to, and he's kind of
Speaker 5: bringing that to the Attorney general's race. But you know,
Speaker 5: at the same time, going after you know, talking about
Speaker 5: Epic City and Sharia law. That's kind of been some
Speaker 5: of his newer talking points. Seems to be newer on
Speaker 5: the trail. And Aaron Wrights has taking a very I
Speaker 5: think he wouldn't mind me saying militaristic. I think that
Speaker 5: approach to the role of the Attorney general, talking about
Speaker 5: the the arsenal that the legislature is creating for the
Speaker 5: attorney general.
Speaker 1: I mean he really, I mean using the language of
Speaker 1: war and like you know that the battle is happening.
Speaker 2: In the courtroom.
Speaker 4: Yes.
Speaker 5: And John Huffman's you know, talking about her background in
Speaker 5: criminal law, you know, as a judge and prosecutor, and
Speaker 5: she wants to bring the criminal side, which historically hasn't
Speaker 5: really been the role of the Texas Attorney General, but
Speaker 5: trying to play.
Speaker 1: In that relationship with the DA's and yeah, yeah, yeah, and.
Speaker 5: Then Mays Milton has had I'd say it's more similar
Speaker 5: to Aaron Wright's, but with a calmer demeanor.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 6: So I'm going to test out a take here and
Speaker 6: let me see. How how do you feel that it
Speaker 6: is that this is sort of like the sort of
Speaker 6: like first post Trump primary. I mean, I know Trump
Speaker 6: is still in office and he's still there, but I
Speaker 6: feel like I look at this race and I see
Speaker 6: this sort of like different ideological corners that are there
Speaker 6: that have usually been brought together under the Trump presidency
Speaker 6: in the Trump candidacy, and now we know that, you know,
Speaker 6: in whatever future where Trump is not around, there's going
Speaker 6: to be kind of a jockeying for like who is
Speaker 6: going to emerge and represent those different corners, you know
Speaker 6: in the national Party. This feels sort of similar to
Speaker 6: that right now, where it's like each of them sort
Speaker 6: of take their own cues from Trump and do the
Speaker 6: things that he does, but they they largely represent like
Speaker 6: a different idea of like where folks might want the
Speaker 6: conservative movement to go once Trump is gone.
Speaker 1: I think, like in terms of like personality and style
Speaker 1: and like, you know, to that quick question like who
Speaker 1: who can sort of be the next Trump? Which so
Speaker 1: much of Trump is his personality and his like charisma
Speaker 1: and all that. I think we're seeing that play out,
Speaker 1: like do people want a fighter, do they want like
Speaker 1: a renegade? Do they want, you know, a law and
Speaker 1: order conservative? I do think like broadly speaking, certainly three
Speaker 1: of these four people, and I think you could make
Speaker 1: the case for Joan Huffman as well, are pitching a
Speaker 1: very similar like some of this is splitting hairs, right,
Speaker 1: And I mean when we think about the fact that
Speaker 1: the Texas Attorney General's office is like the most important
Speaker 1: red state attorney general's office in the country, I think
Speaker 1: no one is like going to come in there republic
Speaker 1: No Republicans come in there and pitch like really blowing
Speaker 1: up what Paxton's doing and doing something really different. It's
Speaker 1: just how do you want that styled?
Speaker 4: Right?
Speaker 1: Which I would say there's there are similarities of post
Speaker 1: Trump what post Paxton Paxston is in many ways a
Speaker 1: Trump like figure in Texas.
Speaker 6: Uh and they all sort of want to claim the mantle,
Speaker 6: like they want to sort of make the case that
Speaker 6: they're representing what Trump represents, even though he might represent
Speaker 6: a different thing to different people.
Speaker 1: Exactly right. No one is saying I'm going to do
Speaker 1: it that differently.
Speaker 3: Yeah, let's move on from this guy.
Speaker 1: Yeah right, Yeah, it's gonna be I mean, I just
Speaker 1: think a fascinating race, and we're already seeing a lot
Speaker 1: of campaigning. I mean, I think it is telling how
Speaker 1: important this office is for the number of candidates who
Speaker 1: are choosing to run for Attorney General. Similarly, on the
Speaker 1: Democratic side, we have State Senator Nathan Johnson, Joe Jaworski,
Speaker 1: who has run at least once before, former Galliston mayor,
Speaker 1: and then a sort of political newcomer, Dallas lawyer Tony
Speaker 1: Box who has worked in US Attorney's office as well
Speaker 1: as like other legal background, So that will be interesting
Speaker 1: to see as well.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 6: I mean, again, like a situation of like there's a
Speaker 6: lot of good, big, interesting names in the Democratic Party
Speaker 6: and they all seem to focus on that one US
Speaker 6: Senate seat as opposed to some of the other opportunities
Speaker 6: that might be there in terms of you know what
Speaker 6: was the year two thousand and two where it had
Speaker 6: like the Democratic Dream Team ticket. They did not get
Speaker 6: organized enough to do something like that this time around, and.
Speaker 1: There was reportedly talk of trying to do that right
Speaker 1: multiple times.
Speaker 6: Yeah, and you know, maybe when we get to the
Speaker 6: Senate we can talk about the reasons why. But but
Speaker 6: I feel like when I'm looking at the list, I
Speaker 6: really feel it in this AG's race, you know, it's
Speaker 6: an open office. You know, most statewide voters in a
Speaker 6: general election frankly do not know who these people are,
Speaker 6: with the possible exception of Chip Roy, but even then,
Speaker 6: I think he has a relatively low name ID, and
Speaker 6: they really could have been a possibility to put a
Speaker 6: Democrat who maybe had higher name ID in that seat,
Speaker 6: and they did not do that.
Speaker 1: It's the Democrats had no shortage of lawyers that they
Speaker 1: could have stuck in there if they wanted to.
Speaker 2: Well, let's move I mean, we've been sort of talking around.
Speaker 2: Let's let's talk about.
Speaker 1: I mean yesterday where we saw the most chaos was
Speaker 1: in the Senate race. We already sort of had this
Speaker 1: very contentious fighting primary going on on the right, which
Speaker 1: is you know, incumbent long time incumbent Center John Cornyn
Speaker 1: being challenged by Attorney General Ken Paxton, which has been
Speaker 1: just sort of already a real knockdown, drag out fight.
Speaker 2: Then we had the addition of US Rep. Wesley Hunt.
Speaker 1: The Democrats as of yesterday seemed to be trying to
Speaker 1: match that chaotic energy that they're seeing on the right.
Speaker 1: Renzo talked to us a little bit about you know,
Speaker 1: where did we start the you know, lead up to
Speaker 1: the filing deadline and where are we now?
Speaker 5: Well, I guess going into the final weekend, it seemed
Speaker 5: like it was going to be I mean, we knew
Speaker 5: for sure Colin all Red, James tall Rico and jas
Speaker 5: mccrockett was very publicly a maybe, but seeming like she
Speaker 5: was leaning towards yes. And on the morning of Colin
Speaker 5: Allredd decides he's he's dropping out, he's running for Congress,
Speaker 5: deciding that, you know, a primary and very likely a
Speaker 5: runoff is a bad thing for the Democrats. I mean,
Speaker 5: that's time that Democrats are would be spending fighting each
Speaker 5: other rather than unifying behind the candidate, while on the
Speaker 5: GOP side they're gonna be they're gonna be going to
Speaker 5: run off, so they're gonna be you know, they're gonna
Speaker 5: have that infighting.
Speaker 1: Wasting a lot of time and money, or maybe not wasting,
Speaker 1: but using a lot of time and money to battle
Speaker 1: that out.
Speaker 5: Did you watch the Crockett I did not, Okay, give
Speaker 5: us your take. Well, do I watch the Crockett announcement
Speaker 5: or the launch video, which.
Speaker 2: We should discuss.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I mean, I guess like one of the big
Speaker 6: questions I have here is you talk about the desire
Speaker 6: not to fight. We saw the James Tallerico statement that
Speaker 6: came out and he was sort.
Speaker 3: Of like, welcome to the race. We wanted to be united.
Speaker 6: Crockett, I think has built a very strong statewide and
Speaker 6: national following for being a fighter, right like the things
Speaker 6: that she said to Marjorie Taylor Green to you know,
Speaker 6: people like her because she's a fighter. And I'm very
Speaker 6: curious to see whether or how long that's sort of
Speaker 6: like let's all say nice things about each other in
Speaker 6: order to not damage each other, you know, idea lasts
Speaker 6: in this.
Speaker 2: Primary, and I haven't seen.
Speaker 1: I mean, she is I think James Tallerico is saying,
Speaker 1: you know, welcome to the We're glad to have you.
Speaker 2: Let's all be friends.
Speaker 1: I don't know that Jasmin Crockett is making any such promises.
Speaker 1: It seems like it's I mean, I guess I'm curious,
Speaker 1: and Menzo, maybe you have a better sense of this.
Speaker 1: Do we think that she is actively going to run
Speaker 1: against James Tallerico or is she going to Can she
Speaker 1: just run on the idea of like, vote for me
Speaker 1: and I'll beat Paxton, Vote for me and I'll beat Cornyan.
Speaker 5: From what it seems like so far, it's all about
Speaker 5: Cornan and Abbot and going after the Republicans and energizing
Speaker 5: the Democratic base. I mean, she was on TV in
Speaker 5: the last twenty four hours saying, you know, she doesn't
Speaker 5: really need to win over Trump voters, that you know,
Speaker 5: she's going to bring in new voters.
Speaker 2: Turnout, turnout, turnout exactly. She'll be interesting to.
Speaker 1: I mean, I do think to some extent, maybe not
Speaker 1: contentious energy wise, but a competitive primary does draw people
Speaker 1: out in a way that a boring primary doesn't.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I mean, I'm not sure I completely buy the
Speaker 6: argument that like a heated, you know, hoighly contested primary
Speaker 6: is bad for a party. Everybody sort of talks about that,
Speaker 6: but it just sort of means that your candidate is
Speaker 6: in the news more, you know, like that there's a
Speaker 6: little bit more mind share there. People may be a
Speaker 6: little bit more familiar. I mean, I think if I
Speaker 6: were a Democrat, I would maybe be frustrated about again
Speaker 6: the clumping of high profile candidates in this race. But
Speaker 6: I don't know if they should necessarily be afraid of
Speaker 6: a primary.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean certainly you don't want to leave voters
Speaker 1: with the idea of like, ah, this is the only
Speaker 1: person we could find, like put them up right, it's
Speaker 1: like you want to feel I mean I certainly, particularly
Speaker 1: coming off of the twenty twenty four election, where there
Speaker 1: was some thoughts of you know, how did we end
Speaker 1: up with these candidates? How do these people get chosen?
Speaker 1: You know, run a competitive primary. I do think it
Speaker 1: is helped by the fact that alright is not running.
Speaker 1: There's not three people we're not going to go to.
Speaker 1: They're not going to go to a runoff, like we're
Speaker 1: not going to see the like this might be a cleaner,
Speaker 1: messy primary.
Speaker 3: And I guess, yeah, I guess we'll see.
Speaker 6: Right, because if you look on the Republican side, I
Speaker 6: think you can envision you know, John Cornyan using his
Speaker 6: considerable resources to try to make it clear to every
Speaker 6: single voter in the state that you know, Ken Paxton
Speaker 6: has been under indictment and impeached by a Republican House
Speaker 6: and you know, was accused of repeatedly, you know, cheating
Speaker 6: on his wife. And that's probably not the kind of
Speaker 6: competitive primary.
Speaker 3: You want, right But.
Speaker 6: I mean, we'll see what happens with this Democratic race.
Speaker 6: Maybe they'll dig up some dirt on each other and
Speaker 6: that really damages them. But if if it's more about
Speaker 6: like substance, more about you know, the politics or the approach,
Speaker 6: and less about you know, the skeletons in anyone's closet,
Speaker 6: I I don't know if that necessarily is a disaster
Speaker 6: for Democrats.
Speaker 2: Yeah, certainly. Here's a weird thing about me.
Speaker 1: I the night before Colin Allred dropped out, there was
Speaker 1: some chat chatter in the politics channel about, you know,
Speaker 1: is he going to drop out?
Speaker 2: Is he going to switch races? What's happening here? I
Speaker 2: went to bed that night and had a dream.
Speaker 1: That I was at I was covering Colin Alred's wedding,
Speaker 1: but I was very very late, and so I had
Speaker 1: to steal a bike and bike there and it was
Speaker 1: very stressful.
Speaker 2: You would have loved different, so you love biking.
Speaker 1: And then Azi's I'm sorry was there and he was
Speaker 1: officiating the wedding. Gabby, our DC reporter, has declined to
Speaker 1: interpret what it means.
Speaker 2: But if either of you have thoughts, I got nothing.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, I'm gonna. I'm gonna. I'm gonna recuse myself
Speaker 3: from that.
Speaker 1: Enough. If anyone listening has thoughts on what my dreams mean,
Speaker 1: would love that because therapy is expensive.
Speaker 2: So okay.
Speaker 1: So Allred was running in the Senate race. He dropped out,
Speaker 1: but moved inself over to the thirty third Congressional district,
Speaker 1: which is, after redistricting, one of two seats in the
Speaker 1: Dallas Fort Worth area that remains sort of viable for Democrats.
Speaker 2: It has about a.
Speaker 1: Third of his former constituents. He is now running against
Speaker 1: his successor in the House, Julie Johnson. As our colleague
Speaker 1: Kate McGee would say, it's a little Lionel MESSI uh,
Speaker 1: what do you make of all of this, Renzo, How
Speaker 1: is this going to shake out?
Speaker 4: Yeah, well it's already gotten a little bit heated.
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, particularly on Julie Johnson's part, saying I mean
Speaker 5: she received endorsement from Emily's List and said, you know, hey,
Speaker 5: women don't need to stand by, you know, be the
Speaker 5: placeholder for a for a man running for office.
Speaker 4: I'm paraphrasing.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And I.
Speaker 1: Think it came with a little edge of like a
Speaker 1: man who has lost his previous races, you know.
Speaker 2: Like it had a little it was a dig yeah.
Speaker 5: Yeah, And I mean in all red statement, he was
Speaker 5: kind of saying that, you know, he's stepping down from
Speaker 5: the Senate race to clear the.
Speaker 2: You know, save a contentious, more contentious primary.
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, trying to clear a path for Democrats there.
Speaker 5: And I mean he got support from Jamie Harrison, who
Speaker 5: you know, was saying that this was selfless of all
Speaker 5: ready to step down inside to run for Congress again.
Speaker 4: So I think you're going to have some I guess.
Speaker 5: Another interesting part of this is that Julie Johnson had
Speaker 5: endorsed Tallarico very early, and you know that's all read
Speaker 5: successor going hey, I'd rather go with the other guy,
Speaker 5: right there.
Speaker 1: Might not there may without knowing anything, maybe there wasn't
Speaker 1: already like love lost between them.
Speaker 2: I don't know what their relationship.
Speaker 5: Yeah, so it should be an interesting primary up there.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's seems like the kind I mean, like you said,
Speaker 1: like it's like the two step, right, the first step,
Speaker 1: people are like, that's a selfless move, step down for
Speaker 1: the good of the Democratic Party. Julie Johnson saying like, well,
Speaker 1: the second step where you went is like sort of
Speaker 1: maybe not.
Speaker 2: As selfless or sort of stepping on me and my plans.
Speaker 1: And I think she certainly seems like unlike she's not
Speaker 1: doing the tall Rico approach of like, well, welcome to
Speaker 1: the to the to the show. We basically just have
Speaker 1: because of the redrawing too many Democrats in one area.
Speaker 2: Of the state.
Speaker 1: The previous tenant of the thirty third congressional district before
Speaker 1: it was redrawn was Mark v Z. They redrew his
Speaker 1: district sort of beyond recognition. He lives in Fort Worth.
Speaker 1: The district was redrawn into Dallas.
Speaker 2: There was talk that.
Speaker 1: He would run for Crockett seat that she vacated, but
Speaker 1: at the very last minute he announced that he instead
Speaker 1: would be running for Terran County judge to try to
Speaker 1: unseat Conservative Tim O'Hare. Did that surprise you, either of you,
Speaker 1: I mean, from KNG risk to Terrent County Judge.
Speaker 4: Well, that had been.
Speaker 5: Pretty openly discussed for a while that you know, he
Speaker 5: might run for county judge, but that was almost kind
Speaker 5: of contingent on Crockett running for reelection as opposed to
Speaker 5: running for the Senate. So when it became pretty obvious
Speaker 5: that Crockett was going to run for the Senate, and
Speaker 5: it was like, oh, well, Mark Vic's gonna run for
Speaker 5: reelection in her district. And what ended up happening that morning,
Speaker 5: I believe was Pastor Freddy Hayes jumped into that race.
Speaker 5: And you know, he's a well respected member of the
Speaker 5: community up there, and that would have been another expensive,
Speaker 5: contested primary. Yeah, and so maybe VC decided the best
Speaker 5: thing to do was to go for county judge, which
Speaker 5: I think Democrats think they have a serious shot at
Speaker 5: flipping Terran County.
Speaker 6: Yeah, and that's I think that, you know, I mean,
Speaker 6: we're sort of looking ahead to the general now, but
Speaker 6: I think will be one of the most interesting races
Speaker 6: in the general election. The way that O'Hare has governed
Speaker 6: Terran County, you know, very aligned with you know, some
Speaker 6: of the most conservative members of the Republican Party. I
Speaker 6: think Democrats would really like to unseat that race. Terrant County,
Speaker 6: of course, has been sort of a swing urban county,
Speaker 6: something that has you know, real meaning for kind of
Speaker 6: you know politics in the state as a whole. Obviously,
Speaker 6: they have redistricted that so Republicans, I believe, would most
Speaker 6: likely be able to maintain a majority on that court
Speaker 6: even if the Democrat wins the county judge seat. But
Speaker 6: just I think a pretty fascinating and I think what
Speaker 6: will be a pretty hotly contested general election there.
Speaker 5: Yeah, and the other Democratic Canada in that county judge
Speaker 5: race was that the Democrat that got drawn out of court.
Speaker 3: District to ye.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I mean, I just, I mean, Tarrett County
Speaker 1: is just endlessly fascinating. But I do think like when
Speaker 1: I did some reporting out there around redistricting, and you know,
Speaker 1: the sense from Democrats I talked to was that the
Speaker 1: part of the reason that they so aggressively pushed this
Speaker 1: redistricting plan was to ensure that if Tim O'Hare gets unseated,
Speaker 1: they could still hold the majority, because you know, it's
Speaker 1: harder to elect a you know, a county wide seat
Speaker 1: versus sort of these you know districts or precincts.
Speaker 2: I think they're called so I just think like that race,
Speaker 2: like you said.
Speaker 1: Holds so much sort of tea leave freading for the
Speaker 1: future of politics in Texas? Do people want this really
Speaker 1: you know, arch conservative approach when it has direct bearing
Speaker 1: on their lives versus you know, I think sometimes at
Speaker 1: the state level, it's easy to say, like, well, whatever
Speaker 1: the legislature does, like, how will that trickle down to me?
Speaker 1: I think at the county level, it's so you know,
Speaker 1: there's like they're outsourcing health and human services, they're cutting
Speaker 1: these different programs, Like there's real impact to that. Let's
Speaker 1: run through some of the other congressional districts that are
Speaker 1: about to get much more exciting. Some of these are
Speaker 1: really significantly redrawn as a result of the twenty twenty
Speaker 1: five redistricting Texas ninth, which was Al Green, a Democrat
Speaker 1: who is at least recently best known for repeatedly trying
Speaker 1: to impeach Donald Trump. Well, now it seems likely be
Speaker 1: succeeded by a fight for who can be the most conservative.
Speaker 1: We've got State Rep. Briscocaine, Alex Mueller, former US Rep.
Speaker 1: Steve Stockman, Renzo what are we looking at in Texas nine?
Speaker 5: Yeah, Well, those are some pretty big names who are
Speaker 5: running for that seat. I mean Steve Stockman was the
Speaker 5: most recent entry into that, you know yesterday filing and
Speaker 5: perennial candidate exactly. I mean, he's held seats in Congress
Speaker 5: and two separate stints already, and and I believe he
Speaker 5: was was he pardoned or computed sentence from President Trump and.
Speaker 3: Also a prior Cornyan primary challenger.
Speaker 5: That's right, Yeah, yeah, So, I mean you've got it
Speaker 5: was already a big race that was kind of dividing
Speaker 5: folks down there, with Briscoe Caine, well respected.
Speaker 4: Member of the.
Speaker 5: Legislature and strong conservative kind of in and out of leadership,
Speaker 5: you know, then kind of being more of the conservative
Speaker 5: outsider again. And then Alex Mieler, the former Harris County
Speaker 5: judge nominee for the Republicans down there.
Speaker 4: I mean, both would have been fairly big names.
Speaker 1: Speaking of people who've had their sentences commuted or in
Speaker 1: this case pardoned by President Trump. Texas twenty eight we've
Speaker 1: got Henry Quayar, still a Democrat versus the Webb County judge,
Speaker 1: as well as Jay Furman. What are we looking at there?
Speaker 1: I mean, one of these districts that is sort of
Speaker 1: a question mark.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean, Quaard is probably going to win his
Speaker 5: Democratic primary, and he seems to have support from national
Speaker 5: figures still. I mean, and Jefferies is kind of supporting
Speaker 5: him as well. That's been the case, you know, he's
Speaker 5: had the support of Democratic leadership in his recent elections.
Speaker 5: But on the Republican side, you've got I think the
Speaker 5: big name there is Tano tier Ina.
Speaker 4: Who's the Webb County judge.
Speaker 5: He flipped parties, was almost now a Republican almost a
Speaker 5: year ago to the day it was happy earlier.
Speaker 6: So we have a Democrat who was pardoned by Republican
Speaker 6: President Trump and a Republican who you to be a
Speaker 6: Democrat possibly going up against each other in.
Speaker 5: Correct, Yeah, and both yeah, both would have been while
Speaker 5: they were both Democrats. They both would have been conservative Democrats.
Speaker 5: So I mean, this is kind of a small lane
Speaker 5: that they are right.
Speaker 1: It's I mean, it's such a statement on like the
Speaker 1: political leanings of the Rio Grand Valley. I mean, just
Speaker 1: each side sort of wanting to claim like total ownership
Speaker 1: over it. And the answer might just be like they
Speaker 1: want someone in the middle.
Speaker 6: On certain Issuesah, can we just talk about the quair
Speaker 6: and I mean, you know, I mean, I think the
Speaker 6: most popular, so much has happened that it's sort of
Speaker 6: kind of washed over and then moved on that just
Speaker 6: you know, what the hell happened there? It's so fascinating, right,
Speaker 6: So he the pardon just sort of gets announced on
Speaker 6: truth Social. Everyone's like, what's the other shoe that's going
Speaker 6: to drop? Is he going to switch parties? Quaar essentially,
Speaker 6: then you know, a few hours later, files to run
Speaker 6: in the Democratic primary, says that he like didn't even
Speaker 6: know that this was going to happen until it happened.
Speaker 6: And then you know, a few days later, Trump kind
Speaker 6: of blasts him on truth Social, saying like, you know,
Speaker 6: he's ungrateful or whatever, which.
Speaker 5: Was just yes, saying he was he wasn't loyal to
Speaker 5: Texas voters and to his.
Speaker 1: Daughters, right, which was an interesting I mean, the implication
Speaker 1: for President Trump, right being that when he pardoned him,
Speaker 1: he thought he would switch and run as a Republican, right,
Speaker 1: which is uh, you know, not great.
Speaker 4: But he also said that he didn't speak to Quaar r.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so he maybe had the you know, just be
Speaker 2: so grateful.
Speaker 6: Yeah, yeah, but but then also just like how how
Speaker 6: how do you feel as a Republican candidate in that race,
Speaker 6: being like, we're going to go after him for you
Speaker 6: know facing, you know, federal you know, corruption charges, and
Speaker 6: then all of a sudden the president in your own
Speaker 6: party pardons him, and I think in some ways sort
Speaker 6: of takes that issue off the table because now all
Speaker 6: Koair has to say is like, look, even your presidential
Speaker 6: you know, the leader of your party is saying that
Speaker 6: this was a bs ridiculous thing.
Speaker 1: I mean, it just particularly if you are gonna run again,
Speaker 1: as you likely are, as Henry Quaar has repeatedly like
Speaker 1: run to the middle right, and you're basically gonna say like,
Speaker 1: if you're a Republican, you can vote. You could like
Speaker 1: President Trump and vote for me. I could be Trump's
Speaker 1: guy in some ways, right, Like that's yeah, it has
Speaker 1: really muddled that path, I think for the Republicans hoping
Speaker 1: to unseat him.
Speaker 2: Okay, another.
Speaker 1: The Texas twenty three Tony Gonzalez versus Brandon Herrera and
Speaker 1: last minute entt entrant.
Speaker 2: I hope I'm pronouncing its correctly, Kiko, that's right.
Speaker 1: Keiko Consecco, former congressman who I saw on Twitter, responded
Speaker 1: to our Hurst colleague Bayliss Wagner, asking whether or not
Speaker 1: he had entered the race in French, which I found interesting.
Speaker 2: Yeah, fluent in French.
Speaker 4: Well, he yeah, fluent in several languages.
Speaker 1: Fluent in several languages. If that's what you're voting on,
Speaker 1: you should know that. Yeah, how's that race looking?
Speaker 3: Well?
Speaker 5: I will say that when I called him yesterday, he
Speaker 5: said that he's kind of the mature Canada in this race.
Speaker 2: In English, in English.
Speaker 5: And then after we hung up, he called me back
Speaker 5: about five minutes later and said, I just want to
Speaker 5: be clear. When I said mature, I'm not talking about
Speaker 5: my wrinkles. I'm talking about.
Speaker 2: Age and how that plays these days.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 5: I mean, you've got a ton of Gonzales. This is
Speaker 5: going to be his third term if he wins re election,
Speaker 5: third or fourth. But you know, he's been there. But
Speaker 5: Brandon Herrera, the YouTuber, the gun tuber, the ak guy,
Speaker 5: second amendment activist. Uh, he took him to a runoff
Speaker 5: last year and nearly won. And that was before these
Speaker 5: allegations that are kind of looming over Tony Gonzalez that
Speaker 5: the Tribune has not confirmed that you know, he allegedly
Speaker 5: had an affair with the staffer that has since passed away.
Speaker 5: I mean he has denied that very strong yes, but
Speaker 5: that is still looming over that race there.
Speaker 1: I can certainly imagine that the Republican candidates are going
Speaker 1: to make that an issue, whether or not it's ever
Speaker 1: borne out to be true.
Speaker 5: Right, I mean, Brandon Herrera recently went after Gonzales for
Speaker 5: that for the first time in a fundraising pitch.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I mean, just that promises to be a very messy race.
Speaker 2: I think.
Speaker 1: Another one that's sort of just the most complicated thing
Speaker 1: we've ever talked about, and every time we talked about it,
Speaker 1: I get a headache, which is Texas eighteen, where we.
Speaker 2: Currently have a runoff for a special election.
Speaker 1: That is a Houston district sometimes called the Barbara Jordan
Speaker 1: District that has been without representation for close to a
Speaker 1: year now.
Speaker 2: They have a runoff for that seat in.
Speaker 1: Early next year, which is between the county attorney, Christian
Speaker 1: Menafie and Amanda Edwards, former Harris.
Speaker 5: County Houston Houston.
Speaker 1: City Council thank you, and then they will again soon
Speaker 1: after that. They are one of them is elected, they
Speaker 1: will have to run again in the primary. They've both
Speaker 1: entered to run the primary for the sort of the
Speaker 1: permanent seat, and then confusing matters further, Al Green has
Speaker 1: stepped into that district.
Speaker 2: Lionel Messy.
Speaker 1: I think we can say, I mean poor in that district.
Speaker 5: Yeah, it seems like Harris County gets that a lot,
Speaker 5: where they have to vote back to back to back
Speaker 5: to back to back. I mean, this is going to
Speaker 5: be you know, there was this special election when Sheila
Speaker 5: Jackson Lee died. They were concerned, they being Harris Kunty Democrats,
Speaker 5: they were concerned at the time that you know, that
Speaker 5: was going to go to a runoff and then they
Speaker 5: just wouldn't have a member of Congress because the runoff
Speaker 5: would have been after the next term. So Sheila Jackson
Speaker 5: Lee's daughter, whose name I'm sorry, Erica Lee Lee. Oh
Speaker 5: my god, well I think she might go by Erica
Speaker 5: Jackson Lee. That's right. Yes, she kind of cleared clear
Speaker 5: the waters there. And then Sylvester Turner ran in the
Speaker 5: you know, the general got swapped in on the ticket,
Speaker 5: and then he passed away shortly after that, and so
Speaker 5: it's really been over a year that that's been vacant
Speaker 5: because I mean Sylvester Turner was there, but very briefly, right, right.
Speaker 1: I mean certainly it's been swapping hands in a way.
Speaker 1: That's like people in that district have not had consistent
Speaker 1: representation really since Shila Jackson.
Speaker 2: Lee passed away.
Speaker 1: A couple other districts, just briefly, I mean, Texas fifteen
Speaker 1: we've got Monica de la Cruz versus Ada Quaar and
Speaker 1: Bobby Polito, which will certainly get some eyes on that.
Speaker 1: And Texas thirty four the San die Gonzalez versus Erica
Speaker 1: Flores and Myra Flores.
Speaker 4: No relation, Yeah, yeah, Flora's and Flores. I mean, it's
Speaker 4: kind of funny.
Speaker 5: We've got multiple former members of Congress who are running again.
Speaker 2: Right, We've got a lot of a lot of people
Speaker 2: coming in already.
Speaker 5: And then there'sco there's Dockman, and then there's Mayra Flores.
Speaker 6: It's also interesting, as I'm just like sort of looking
Speaker 6: at this list, it does feel possible that we really
Speaker 6: lose a lot of kind of colorful elected officials in Texas. Right, Like,
Speaker 6: there is a scenario where Ken Paxson is no longer
Speaker 6: an elected officials in Texas. Al Green is no longer
Speaker 6: an elected official in Texas. Briscoe Caine is no longer
Speaker 6: elected official in Texas. Jasmine Crockett is no longer an
Speaker 6: elected official of Texas. Like some of the people that
Speaker 6: like get the Internet the most.
Speaker 2: Excited, even James Tallerico, even James Talerico.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, we might not have anymore.
Speaker 1: But then I look at this list and I look
Speaker 1: at who's challenging that. But I think I think we're
Speaker 1: going to be okay. I'm not too worried about losing
Speaker 1: the drama. Brandon Herrera comes to mind. You know, I think, certainly,
Speaker 1: I don't think. I think the one thing we can
Speaker 1: guarantee right now is that Texas will end this election
Speaker 1: cycle with as much drama as it started this election cycle.
Speaker 1: Fair enough, that is basically what we are teed up
Speaker 1: for for the next three months of the primary or
Speaker 1: four months of the primary, and then several more months
Speaker 1: until the general election. It's going to be a very
Speaker 1: exciting twenty twenty six. If you want to follow along
Speaker 1: on all of the insider information, you can sign up
Speaker 1: for the Blast, where Renzo is the lead writer at
Speaker 1: support dot Texastribune dot org slash Blast. Rerenzo, thank you
Speaker 1: for joining us, well, thank you, Matthew, thank you as always.
Speaker 2: That's it for today.
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