Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to the Texas Tribune trip cast for
Speaker 1: August fifth, twenty twenty five. I'm Matthew Watkins, editor in
Speaker 1: chief of the Tribune, back from my sojourn on the
Speaker 1: Gulf Coast. I am joined as usual by Lawn politics
Speaker 1: reporter Eleanor Klebanoff. Hello, Eleanor, anything that I miss anything?
Speaker 2: I didn't miss any news. The thing has happened. We
Speaker 2: had nothing to talk about this week.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, we really really had to scramble to
Speaker 1: come up at the topic. Yes, of course, since you
Speaker 1: last heard Eleanor's voice, Texas Republicans released their proposed map
Speaker 1: for redrawn congressional districts in the state, aiming to give
Speaker 1: their party five new seats. The seats were scheduled for
Speaker 1: a floor vote in the House on Monday, but before
Speaker 1: that could happen, more than fifty Democrats fled the state,
Speaker 1: denying the House the quorum necessary to pass the bill. This,
Speaker 1: of course, has caused outrage from Republicans excitement among Democrats.
Speaker 1: House Speaker Dustin Burroughs signed arrest warrants for the members.
Speaker 1: Governor Greg Abbott has threatened to expel them from office
Speaker 1: and ordered investigations as to whether they're committing a felony bribery.
Speaker 1: But for now, at least, how the work of the
Speaker 1: House has ground to a halt. With fourteen days left
Speaker 1: in the special session, we are joined today by one
Speaker 1: of those Democrats who left the state, state Representative Gina Hinehjosa,
Speaker 1: a Democrat from Austin. Welcome, Representative. Thank you for joining us.
Speaker 3: Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1: So where are you right now? Tell us tell us
Speaker 1: your location.
Speaker 3: I don't know if I can do that.
Speaker 4: I'm at this undisclosed location outside the starry I'm right,
Speaker 4: I'm right outside of Chicago, in a suburb of Chicago.
Speaker 1: Okay, excellent. I just, you know, wanted to make sure
Speaker 1: clear that you weren't in the newsroom with us. We
Speaker 1: don't want any detests showing up at our doors. Very good,
Speaker 1: but thank you for joining us. It has been a
Speaker 1: very eventful few days week, or even more really in
Speaker 1: Texas politics. I wanted to just start by sort of
Speaker 1: asking you, just big picture, tell us why you made
Speaker 1: the decision to leave the state.
Speaker 3: It was an obvious decision for me.
Speaker 4: I heard such concern, such alarm from constituents about these
Speaker 4: Trump maps. I will say I had originally heard about
Speaker 4: this plan on Sinnee Die.
Speaker 3: I had heard rumors of it.
Speaker 4: I didn't know about the five seats, and I didn't
Speaker 4: know that they would try to attain the five Republican
Speaker 4: seats by breaking up latinal district in black districts.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 4: But when I first heard the plan, I thought, well,
Speaker 4: this is troubling and started to worry, start to talk
Speaker 4: to people and trying. I tried to prepare people for
Speaker 4: this potentially coming. But once we saw the maps and
Speaker 4: saw what they did to Austin, what they did just
Speaker 4: to Texans, it was clear to me and to enough
Speaker 4: of us that the best plan of attack would be
Speaker 4: to leave the state, to break korum and deny them
Speaker 4: the numbers they need to.
Speaker 3: Pass the bill.
Speaker 1: Let's talk briefly about those maps, right, because last time
Speaker 1: this podcast recorded, they had not been released. I understand,
Speaker 1: tell us just from your perspective, representative, what was it
Speaker 1: that what it was about that map that you know
Speaker 1: a firm for y'all that yes, we need to leave
Speaker 1: in order to stop this. This is you know, really
Speaker 1: the nuclear option. Right. That's the biggest step y'all could
Speaker 1: take to block legislation.
Speaker 4: Right, Breaking corn is an extraordinary Act that we use
Speaker 4: just for the most egregious bills, and let me say
Speaker 4: there are plenty of egregious bills in our eyes that
Speaker 4: come through the Texas Legislature. We haven't done this since
Speaker 4: twenty twenty one. When we did it in twenty one,
Speaker 4: it was a big deal. It hadn't been done for
Speaker 4: years before that. So this is not something that we
Speaker 4: take lightly.
Speaker 1: It.
Speaker 4: First of all, is hard for individual members to leave
Speaker 4: their lives, leave their families, leave their jobs to do this.
Speaker 4: So the maps, though, let me give you an example
Speaker 4: of Austin, where I represent. We have two congressional districts
Speaker 4: in Austin, and the Trump maps eliminate the Latinal Opportunity
Speaker 4: district in Austin that currently has a Latino representing that district,
Speaker 4: and then takes a big chunk of downtown Austin, which
Speaker 4: is in the Texas House district that I represent, and
Speaker 4: connects it to a Republican East Texas district that goes
Speaker 4: all the way to Polk County over two hundred miles away,
Speaker 4: gutting really the political voice in Congress of downtown Austin
Speaker 4: and really effectively gutting the voice of the Latino community
Speaker 4: and their ability to select the representative of their choosing
Speaker 4: in Congress. That's just Austin, right Houston. If you look
Speaker 4: at Houston, that is where you have the largest number
Speaker 4: of Latinos of any other place in Texas is in Houston.
Speaker 4: They have eliminated the Latino opportunity seat there as well,
Speaker 4: and so if these Trump maps pass, there will no
Speaker 4: longer be a Latino seat in Houston, which is outrageous.
Speaker 3: So those are just two examples.
Speaker 4: I heard from Deuli Johnson last night about how her
Speaker 4: congressional district is cut into seven districts.
Speaker 3: The list goes on and on. So once people saw what.
Speaker 4: We saw, the specific damage done to our constituents and
Speaker 4: their political power, it was easy for me and for
Speaker 4: the rest of us to choose this course of action.
Speaker 2: I mean, I think, like, you know, your Republican colleagues
Speaker 2: would say, you know, we drew these maps in twenty
Speaker 2: twenty one, you know, pretty cautiously to protect our incumbents.
Speaker 2: We had this blowout election in twenty twenty four. For Republicans,
Speaker 2: we're going to redraw these maps. It is purely partisan.
Speaker 2: It's sort of the message that we're hearing, which of course,
Speaker 2: you know, the courts have said, like, as long as
Speaker 2: it's partisan, that's fine. What you know, we still have
Speaker 2: the protections of the Voting Rights Act, you can't sort
Speaker 2: of discriminate against voters of color. And you know, but certainly,
Speaker 2: what we've been hearing from Republicans just particularly the last
Speaker 2: couple of days is, you know, we have a right
Speaker 2: to draw partisan maps if we want to. I'm seeing
Speaker 2: a lot of people now are calling it the big
Speaker 2: Beautiful Map. We're getting a lot of branding around this
Speaker 2: as like this is just about Republican politics. How does that?
Speaker 2: You know, do you think that that sort of rings
Speaker 2: true to you, this idea that this is just politics,
Speaker 2: it's not about disadvantaging black and brown voters.
Speaker 4: So I actually think this is kind of hilarious the
Speaker 4: way Republicans are insisting, no, no, no, no, no, this
Speaker 4: isn't about race.
Speaker 3: This is just a.
Speaker 4: Pure partisan power grab, right, And they are so insistent
Speaker 4: that that is their motivation because they said the quiet
Speaker 4: part out loud by issuing that Department Justice letter that
Speaker 4: specifically said these majority minority districts should be targeted for
Speaker 4: eliminated elimination because of race. Right, the Governor's proclamation then
Speaker 4: cites as the sole reason for a mid decade redistricting
Speaker 4: session that letter, and legislator saying, oh, no, did we.
Speaker 3: Say this was about race.
Speaker 4: No, Actually, this is a pure partisan power graph. So
Speaker 4: they're trying to cover up their mistake. But it is
Speaker 4: on the record. It could not be more clear that
Speaker 4: this is about race. And let me say this though,
Speaker 4: it is both things. Because the intended purpose is to
Speaker 4: achieve five additional Republican members of Congress, their Department of
Speaker 4: Justice letter the Governor's proclamation may clear. The way they
Speaker 4: intend to do that is by eliminating majority minority districts.
Speaker 1: Okay, so I want to ask you about you mentioned
Speaker 1: that y'all did this previously in twenty twenty one. There
Speaker 1: have been some things that have changed the district the court. Well, well,
Speaker 1: you did both, but you yes. I'm specifically talking about
Speaker 1: the quorum break that at the time was to block
Speaker 1: a bill imposing new voting restrictions in the state and
Speaker 1: everything like that. Since then, things have changed around the
Speaker 1: rules around quorum breaks the House. You know, past rules
Speaker 1: that would include a five hundred dollars fine, there is
Speaker 1: now the uh you know, as I mentioned in the introduction,
Speaker 1: Governor Abbott, you know, talking about you know, possibly pursuing
Speaker 1: criminal charges against members. We can get a little bit
Speaker 1: more into that. How prepared are you and your colleagues
Speaker 1: to with stan and that financial and legal pressure into
Speaker 1: the long term. How long can you make this last
Speaker 1: given that situation.
Speaker 4: So my primary concern is defending my constituents right. They
Speaker 4: have a fundamental right to representation, to hold our politicians
Speaker 4: accountable for the hurt and abuse that they are suffering.
Speaker 4: And the list of that hurt and abuse goes on
Speaker 4: and on. High prices at the grocery store because of
Speaker 4: these pay to play tariffs, constituents are losing healthcare, our
Speaker 4: neighborhood schools are losing money, are going without. That list
Speaker 4: goes on and on. So that's my primary concern. Let
Speaker 4: me start with that. I think those five hundred dollars
Speaker 4: fines are unconstitutional under the Texas Constitution. Texas is one
Speaker 4: of only four states that authorizes the breaking of core
Speaker 4: That is a rule, that is i'm sorry, a procedure
Speaker 4: under the rules that we can take to.
Speaker 3: Represent our constituents.
Speaker 4: It is the way that we protect their interests and
Speaker 4: we should not be punished for using what is a
Speaker 4: procedural tool in the toolbox. So I think it's unconstitutional,
Speaker 4: but I'll say this. I'll say that again, the primary
Speaker 4: importance here is protecting our constituents. I'm willing to do
Speaker 4: whatever it takes to do that. If you think about
Speaker 4: all the ways that Texans Americans have sacrificed for our freedoms,
Speaker 4: this is, in comparison, not a lot. To ask elected
Speaker 4: leaders whose job it is to represent and protect the
Speaker 4: interests of our constituents.
Speaker 2: Do you anticipate legal action against trying against those fines
Speaker 2: to sort of challenge that on constitutionality.
Speaker 4: Well, it's too early to say, right. They can't impose
Speaker 4: those fins until there's a quorum and there's a vote
Speaker 4: to do so, so it's a little premature to say,
Speaker 4: but I do think it is legally questionable.
Speaker 1: So we are ninety six days from the November eighth
Speaker 1: filing period. Hypothetically, if lawmakers were to stay for that
Speaker 1: entire time, that would add up to a forty eight
Speaker 1: thousand dollars fine, assuming that Abbott were to just continue
Speaker 1: calling special sessions, which I think is probably a pretty
Speaker 1: safe assumption. So we're talking about forty eight thousand dollars
Speaker 1: worth of fines. It is no secret that state lawmakers
Speaker 1: are not highly paid seventy two hundred dollars per year.
Speaker 1: You know, of course you all have other jobs, but
Speaker 1: presumably many of those jobs might be complicated how they
Speaker 1: might be able to be done when you're not in
Speaker 1: the state. How you know? There has been reporting, including
Speaker 1: from the Tribune, about you know, fundraising in order to
Speaker 1: help kind of bear that financial cost. How are you
Speaker 1: all going to pay for this? How you know? Are
Speaker 1: you raising money? Are you planning to use donor funds
Speaker 1: to help bear the cost of this expense?
Speaker 3: So I think we're getting ahead of ourselves.
Speaker 4: We are on day two of our core break, and
Speaker 4: we're taking it day by day. Right. I just have
Speaker 4: to be honest. I am not concerned about those fines
Speaker 4: right now.
Speaker 3: That is not It does not scare me. It is
Speaker 3: not a motivator for me.
Speaker 4: What is a moti vader for me is to be
Speaker 4: able to protect my constituents. And let me say this,
Speaker 4: Let me take a moment to put in perspective and
Speaker 4: context what is happening today. So when a thousand people
Speaker 4: showed up to oppose these maps, in Arlington to testify. Right,
Speaker 4: hundreds and hundreds of people showed up to testify in Austin.
Speaker 3: Over maps that I think have been released twenty four
Speaker 3: hours for hours.
Speaker 4: Maybe this has happened so fast, and you see that
Speaker 4: Texans are ready for a fight and ready to stand
Speaker 4: up to Donald Trump. In some ways, this fight is
Speaker 4: a gift to us. It is a rallying call to Texans,
Speaker 4: to Americans that we do not have to bend a
Speaker 4: need to Donald Trump, and we can take the fight
Speaker 4: directly to him. And the support, the overwhelming gratitude that
Speaker 4: we are hearing from constituents and from Americans all over
Speaker 4: this country reinforces that people are ready for this fight.
Speaker 4: And so I'm not motivated by the fear of fines.
Speaker 4: I am extremely motivated and propelled by just the determination
Speaker 4: of my constituents and Texans and Americans to do what
Speaker 4: it takes to stand up to Trump on this this
Speaker 4: most fundamental of our values. It is about who we are.
Speaker 4: It is our identity as Americans. Representation is why we
Speaker 4: exist as a country, and I'm proud to be part
Speaker 4: of that.
Speaker 2: Do you feel like there's cohesiveness among the caucus on
Speaker 2: that of like we're in this for the long haul
Speaker 2: and that mounting dollar amount doesn't scare us.
Speaker 4: Let me say that getting independently elected leaders on the
Speaker 4: same page about anything is a struggle.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 4: Everybody is strong willed and has their own good ideas,
Speaker 4: but we all understand the stakes, and so we work
Speaker 4: through these things every day because we have the shared goal,
Speaker 4: and that's to protect our constituents and stand up for
Speaker 4: what's right. So it is a day by day conversation.
Speaker 4: It is a day by day fight, and today we
Speaker 4: are united in that fight.
Speaker 1: Terry Canalis, one of your colleagues who did not make
Speaker 1: the trip, told our reporter Rinzo Downey yesterday that he
Speaker 1: thought the outcome of this is inevitable. And I think
Speaker 1: what he meant by that was inevitable that eventually these
Speaker 1: maps would get passed. Am I hearing from you that
Speaker 1: you disagree with that assessment right now?
Speaker 4: I just disagree in that defeatist attitude. It is inevitable
Speaker 4: if we do nothing and we don't fight. Sure, yeah, absolutely,
Speaker 4: that's inevitable, but that's not what we're doing. That is
Speaker 4: the only thing that is inevitable, that it will happen
Speaker 4: if we don't fight. So what we learned in the
Speaker 4: twenty one Korm break was when we broke korm for
Speaker 4: the day to kill the irregular session, and then we
Speaker 4: broke korm for the thirty days of the special session.
Speaker 4: We went to DC, we lobbied on the John Lewis
Speaker 4: voting right sack that it passed. But something else happened,
Speaker 4: and that's that Republicans were so shamed by the national
Speaker 4: attention they were getting on their bill that they could
Speaker 4: not defend that they gutted the most offensive part to
Speaker 4: the bill, the parts of the bill that inspired our
Speaker 4: corn break. We could not have anticipated that outcome when
Speaker 4: we broke korum on that one day to kill that
Speaker 4: to kill the end of the regular session or for
Speaker 4: the special session. All we knew was that we had
Speaker 4: to fight to win that day, and we take it
Speaker 4: day by day. That is the lesson from the twenty
Speaker 4: one Corm break that we bring to this corn break
Speaker 4: where the stakes are even higher.
Speaker 2: And I do think a difference between twenty twenty one
Speaker 2: and now is the level of national awareness of what's
Speaker 2: going on.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 2: This has become sort of like a national arms race
Speaker 2: in a way. We've got blue states saying they want
Speaker 2: to redistrict now certainly do you feel does that feel
Speaker 2: different for you all that, like, you know, you're obviously
Speaker 2: getting a lot of support from National Democrats.
Speaker 4: Yeah, so in twenty one it was just like this
Speaker 4: rogue thing that happened on our own. We had no
Speaker 4: support at the time, we just did it. And so
Speaker 4: this feels very different. Right, we have the DNC leader
Speaker 4: here today, Ken Martin, who's supporting us and grateful for
Speaker 4: what we were doing. We had Jeffries come speak, I'm sorry,
Speaker 4: Leader Jeffries come and speak to us last week in Austin.
Speaker 3: So yes, it's.
Speaker 4: Very different in that we have institutional support from National
Speaker 4: Democrats and in some ways it's easier. What's harder is
Speaker 4: we have now a Republican president. Right when we broke
Speaker 4: Corman twenty one, it was Biden who was president, we
Speaker 4: were able to go to DC. But having Donald Trump
Speaker 4: as president is is different and it means that we
Speaker 4: have to play this a little differently.
Speaker 1: I think one of the dynamics here, you know, mentioned
Speaker 1: other states, California, you know, saying if New York, possibly
Speaker 1: if Texas does this, we're going to do our own
Speaker 1: type of redistricting. You know, California the part and breakdown
Speaker 1: right now already forty three Democrats nine Republicans. It is all,
Speaker 1: you know, disproportionately democratic, in the same way that Texas
Speaker 1: is disproportionately Republican. I think there are a lot of
Speaker 1: people who view this as not an encouraging sign in
Speaker 1: either direction when these types of things happen. But there's
Speaker 1: also I mean, I'm not naive and thinking that, like
Speaker 1: one party is not going to unilaterally disarm in this fight, right,
Speaker 1: And I bring that up to sort of ask you
Speaker 1: the question is, like, is there any hope of either
Speaker 1: side standing down here or or the two sides coming
Speaker 1: to an agreement of like, let's just let these maps
Speaker 1: stick the way they are in the political climate that
Speaker 1: we find them ourselves in. Like, is that even you're
Speaker 1: saying that cold war, Yeah, like this is not good
Speaker 1: for anyone. Let's let's not redraw any maps here.
Speaker 2: Nice idea.
Speaker 4: Maybe I heard last night from one of our members
Speaker 4: of Congress that there were two Republican members of Congress
Speaker 4: who had now filed bills to eliminate mid decade redistricting.
Speaker 4: So they're starting to feel the heat in other parts
Speaker 4: of the country because No, this is not ideal for anyone.
Speaker 4: And in fact, if Democrats were the majority in Texas,
Speaker 4: we would have nonpartisan, independent citizen redistricting commissions. That is
Speaker 4: legislation Democrats have filed. I believe I've signed on to
Speaker 4: those pieces of legislation that would be ideal. That's what
Speaker 4: we would have if Democrats were in power. We don't
Speaker 4: exist in that world today. That world does not exist today.
Speaker 4: And so what you're seeing is governor in other states,
Speaker 4: in democratic governors in other states, trying to figure out,
Speaker 4: given this Trump powerplay in Texas, how can I protect
Speaker 4: my own constituents from the outcome of trying to predetermine
Speaker 4: the twenty twenty six midterms.
Speaker 3: Right, So it's understandable, right, is it ideal?
Speaker 2: No?
Speaker 4: What would be ideal is if everybody played by the
Speaker 4: same roles and we had these nonpartisan citizen redistricting commissions.
Speaker 4: We just don't live in that world today. But again,
Speaker 4: this is a day by day deal. You're starting to
Speaker 4: see some movement on the Republican side because they don't
Speaker 4: like this arms war, and we'll see where it ends.
Speaker 1: Right. I'm going to pause right here to read a
Speaker 1: note from our sponsor which is the Texas Tribune. This week.
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Speaker 1: dot org slash donate a right Representative. I want to
Speaker 1: ask you about the calculus about the other issues on
Speaker 1: the table during the special session, particularly flood relief. Right,
Speaker 1: you know, it is true that while Democrats are not
Speaker 1: in Texas that they cannot pass a map of new
Speaker 1: congressional districts. It also means they cannot pass legislation in
Speaker 1: response to these terrible floods that happened, you know, including
Speaker 1: in Travis County, but also in the Hill Country as well.
Speaker 1: Did that factor into y'all's decision? How do you feel
Speaker 1: about that work being grinded to a halt at the
Speaker 1: same time this other work is as well.
Speaker 4: That work hardly even kicked off When we were still
Speaker 4: in Texas. We had only had two hearings that were
Speaker 4: scheduled by the Republican majority on flood relief. We had
Speaker 4: eight hearings on Trump's maps, So it became clear to
Speaker 4: us that the Republican majority was not interested in prioritizing
Speaker 4: flood Really, even if you look at the call on
Speaker 4: the House to arrest us, it's to pass the maps,
Speaker 4: it's not to pass flood relief. The biggest problem we
Speaker 4: have with flooding and extreme weather is more who's elected
Speaker 4: and who's in charge than what the laws are. We
Speaker 4: know that it was revealed that the all Abbott elected
Speaker 4: River Authority had three point four million dollars in their
Speaker 4: reserves that they did not use for an emergency warning
Speaker 4: system for floods that would have cost a million dollars.
Speaker 4: They didn't use that money. We know the governor could,
Speaker 4: in fact, on his own use his emergency powers to
Speaker 4: transfer money for flood relief victims, just like he transferred
Speaker 4: two hundred and fifty million dollars from one agency to
Speaker 4: build parts of a border wall in twenty twenty one.
Speaker 4: That was not an appropriate use of that power. Today, absolutely,
Speaker 4: when you have an Act of God emergency whether emergency,
Speaker 4: this would be an appropriate time to use his power.
Speaker 4: But what he is doing here is the same thing
Speaker 4: that he did with the school voucher fight. He's holding
Speaker 4: hostage something that everything wants, everyone wants, which is flood relief.
Speaker 4: So as to pass his political maps. He's playing political games.
Speaker 4: You remember he did the same thing by withholding funding
Speaker 4: for schools because he didn't get his voucher scam passed.
Speaker 4: We will not play those games. He needs to be responsible.
Speaker 4: He needs to own his leadership position and his authority
Speaker 4: to grant that relief now and stop playing these political games.
Speaker 2: Speaking of the governor, you know, we have certainly heard
Speaker 2: some big talk from Governor Abbot in the last couple
Speaker 2: of days about, you know, saying he would like to
Speaker 2: begin the proceedings to declare your seats vacant, talking about
Speaker 2: you know, calling special elections to fill those seats. Certainly,
Speaker 2: as we mentioned, you know, the felony bribery investigated by
Speaker 2: the you know, he's called on the Texas Rangers to
Speaker 2: investigate you all for felony bribery. Just talking first about
Speaker 2: the vacating the seats. I mean, how credible of a
Speaker 2: threat is that to you? How worried are you all?
Speaker 4: I'm not the least bit worried about that. I will
Speaker 4: say it's shameful. It is disrespectful to Texans, to the
Speaker 4: voters to threaten to remove from office. They're duly elected representatives.
Speaker 4: They chose us, elected us to represent them in the House.
Speaker 4: They support us with overwhelming support in this endeavor. And
Speaker 4: so it is really though, in keeping with what he
Speaker 4: is doing with these redistricting maps, right, trying to silence voters,
Speaker 4: trying to subvert their will.
Speaker 1: So you don't think it's a you're not worried about
Speaker 1: losing your seat.
Speaker 4: He has no legal authority to do that. He's making
Speaker 4: threats that are outside the bounds of the law.
Speaker 1: What about the bribery.
Speaker 4: Investigations, all right, it's rich that we have the most
Speaker 4: corrupt governor in all of Texas history making allegations of bribery.
Speaker 3: This is the governor who accepted how.
Speaker 4: Many millions of dollars I can't remember, like over six
Speaker 4: million dollars from an out of state billionaire to pass
Speaker 4: the voucher scam. This is a governor who waives monthly
Speaker 4: since twenty twenty, the competitive bidding laws to do no
Speaker 4: big contracts, oftentimes to his donors. It is unprecedented grift.
Speaker 4: And so it is rich that the governor would be
Speaker 4: accusing us of bribery for raising funds during a period
Speaker 4: we're able to raise political funds.
Speaker 1: So are you just to make sure I understand though,
Speaker 1: are you and your call colleagues raising funds to support
Speaker 1: that the actions y'all have taken, Like are you well,
Speaker 1: are you collect are you fund are you fundraising off
Speaker 1: this quorum break? And are you using donor funds to
Speaker 1: help you, you know, sustain the considerable expenses of leaving
Speaker 1: your home, staying in a hotel and all that stuff.
Speaker 4: Well, what I'm raising funds for, I'll tell you what
Speaker 4: I'm doing personally. I'm raising funds to help with legal advice.
Speaker 4: I'm raising fund communications to help with paying my staff
Speaker 4: who are supporting this work. So the funds that I'm
Speaker 4: raising are to make me more effective.
Speaker 3: At my job.
Speaker 1: Where where is the money coming from for the plane,
Speaker 1: for the hotel room, all those things?
Speaker 4: So I'm not making those arrangements that is, those are
Speaker 4: being made by the caucus and I don't have that.
Speaker 4: I legitimately don't have that information. I will say that
Speaker 4: I've flew my own staff here with campaign funds, and
Speaker 4: so that's how I.
Speaker 3: Paid for my staff.
Speaker 1: Can you tell us just a little bit about just
Speaker 1: like what life is like for you right now, Like
Speaker 1: how are you passing your time? What are you all
Speaker 1: hanging out together. I mean, what's the scene up there.
Speaker 4: It's very busy. We A lot of what we're doing
Speaker 4: is just communicating, communicating. This has happened so fast, and
Speaker 4: it's at a time when families are vacationing, they're coming
Speaker 4: back to this drama. So we're having to constantly communicate
Speaker 4: so that people understand what is happening and why we
Speaker 4: took this action. So that's a large part of it.
Speaker 4: We're getting legal briefings as well. We are using this
Speaker 4: time to exchange ideas about efforts policy efforts as well.
Speaker 4: So but there just hasn't I mean, we start first
Speaker 4: thing in the morning. I woke up for an interview yesterday.
Speaker 4: I had a four fifty in the morning interview yesterday,
Speaker 4: and we didn't get home till past ten o'clock, right,
Speaker 4: So that's an idea of what our days have been like.
Speaker 2: Do you worry, I mean, after the twenty twenty one
Speaker 2: quorum break, now we've got these stricter rules around fines
Speaker 2: and things like that. Obviously I was here yesterday in Austin.
Speaker 2: Your Republican colleagues are not thrilled with you all for leaving.
Speaker 2: Do you anticipate sort of a heightening of those sort
Speaker 2: of penalties, or you know, eventually when we have a quorum,
Speaker 2: legislation to make it harder to quarm break in the future.
Speaker 4: I don't know what they will do, but let me
Speaker 4: say that their outrage is feigned.
Speaker 3: It's fake.
Speaker 4: They knew that doing mid decade redistricting would provoke pretty extreme.
Speaker 3: Opposition from us.
Speaker 4: The last time it was done two thousand and three,
Speaker 4: there was also a quorum, right, So to for them
Speaker 4: to pretend like this is something they did not anticipate,
Speaker 4: did not expect, and is out of the ordinary for
Speaker 4: what they are doing is not real.
Speaker 1: It's interesting to me how far we've gone in a year, right,
Speaker 1: I mean, there was a lot of sort of you know,
Speaker 1: in the lead up to this legislative session that sort
Speaker 1: of like defending some of the like bipartisan nature of
Speaker 1: the House. We all work together, we work toward Texas,
Speaker 1: and now we're in a place where we're talking about,
Speaker 1: you know, essentially throwing out almost all of the Democrats,
Speaker 1: you know, from their elected seats. Do you see a
Speaker 1: long term effect on the ability of the two parties
Speaker 1: to work together. Do you see a change in Democrats
Speaker 1: support for the current House Speaker who was elected with
Speaker 1: the support of many Democrats.
Speaker 4: I did not vote for Speaker Burrows. He is a
Speaker 4: maga Republican and I was not going to be a
Speaker 4: part of that. Stood from the beginning what his agenda
Speaker 4: was and still live. So just speaking for myself, I'm
Speaker 4: not surprised by anything he has done. I fully anticipated it,
Speaker 4: and there are opportunities for Democrats and Republicans to work together,
Speaker 4: but that's when we have shared policy interests. You saw
Speaker 4: that vouchers was one of those bipartisan efforts where we
Speaker 4: came together to oppose it time and time again until
Speaker 4: Donald Trump went in and told Republican members of the
Speaker 4: Legislature and of the House that he needed them to
Speaker 4: vote for the voucher and they did as told because
Speaker 4: they do not feel free to stand up to him.
Speaker 3: So there is a little bit of.
Speaker 4: Space for some bipartisan initiatives on big, overarching policy issues.
Speaker 4: It's really hard to come by these days, especially when
Speaker 4: they are so obedient to President Trump.
Speaker 1: How are you just feeling about, you know, our democracy,
Speaker 1: our state of government these days? I mean, what's your
Speaker 1: what's your how are you feeling?
Speaker 3: Well?
Speaker 4: That's why I'm doing this. I have a son who
Speaker 4: is thirteen years old. We went to Philadelphia for a
Speaker 4: summer vacation this summer, and I needed him to understand
Speaker 4: what good ideals, honest, right ideals our country was founded on.
Speaker 4: Because politics has become so nasty, so ugly, so bitter,
Speaker 4: and we're losing sight of who we are as Americans.
Speaker 4: I do this because I believe we have to fight
Speaker 4: to maintain what is good about our country and about
Speaker 4: public service. So yeah, it's a scary time. We're at
Speaker 4: a crossroads in this country and we have to fight
Speaker 4: with everything we've got to hold on to what matters
Speaker 4: in America.
Speaker 3: So that's the inspiration for why I do what I do.
Speaker 1: All right, Representative, Well, we appreciate you taking some time
Speaker 1: to talk to us during what is clearly a busy time.
Speaker 1: Thank you for that. Thank you, Eleanor, and thank you
Speaker 1: to our producers, Rob and Chris. That's all for this week.
Speaker 1: We will talk to y'all next week.
Speaker 4: Thank you.