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December 26, 2025 63 mins

In a replay of an interview Chuck Todd hosted during the summer, he’s joined by a rising star in the Democratic party, Texas Representative Jasmine Crockett. This interview was conducted prior to her announcement that she’ll be running for senate in Texas.

She provides insights into her rapidly growing Dallas district and discusses the economic benefits of immigration that contrast sharply with current policies. Crockett, known for her viral moments in congressional hearings, offers a candid assessment of the partisan circus in the House Oversight Committee and the ideological divide within the Democratic Party. The conversation delves into factors behind Trump's victory, whether racism and misogyny impacted Kamala Harris's campaign, and the complex political landscape in Texas, including potential opportunities for Democrats if Ken Paxton defeats John Cornyn in a future primary.

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Timeline:

(Timestamps may vary based on advertisements)

00:00 Chuck Todd’s introduction

02:15 Crockett’s primary against Talarico will be fascinating

02:45 Democratic primaries will be a “fight vs unite” debate

04:30 A Paxton vs Crockett race would be illuminating

08:00 Dem primary in Texas is a coin flip 

09:00 Texas senate race could be an all-timer

13:30 Jasmine Crockett joins the Chuck ToddCast!

13:30 Tour of TX-30 (Dallas)

17:00 TX-30 is a hub for aviation

19:50 Dallas is growing exponentially

21:45 How can St. Louis be revitalized?

25:20 Immigrants produce economic dynamism and we’re treating them horribly

27:50 How important are viral moments for political communications

31:30 The partisan circus in the oversight committee

32:45 We have people in government that don’t understand how it works

33:45 DOGE hearing became about trans people competing in fencing

35:30 Is it a generational divide or ideological divide in the Democratic party

36:30 Some members cling to the institutions while they’re burning around them

38:15 State of the Union displayed the differences of approach between members

39:30 How did Democrats end up in this situation?

41:20 Why did Trump win?

43:30 How much did racism and misogyny factor into Kamala Harris losing?

44:45 Did Harris’s background as a prosecutor help or hurt her?

47:15 Trump’s name being on buildings sold the public on his business acumen

49:10 Should Harris take another shot at the presidency?

50:30 Democratic voters don’t want “establishment” candidates

52:15 Democrats are fighting an uphill battle

53:15 Is Texas a 3 party state with two Republican wings?

54:15 If Ken Paxton beats John Cornyn, the Texas senate seat will be in play

56:45 Did Democrats miss the moment in Texas?

58:30 Will the Luka trade leave a lasting mark on Dallas?

59:15 Is she running for oversight chair?

59:40 Her advice for Hakeem Jeffries

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Mark as Played
Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
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(01:53):
the Chuck Podcast. Why do I call it a special edition.
I'm gonna do what Saturday Night Live used to do
when I was a kid, and you get the just
before you got the cold open, they put up on screen.
The following is an encore presentation of Saturday Night Live,
and I always loved the use of the words OnCore presentation.

(02:14):
So yes, this is an OnCore presentation of the Check podcast.
What it is is, it's my interview with Jasmine Crockett.
It took place a few a few months ago. It's
in the summer, and it was when she was first
starting to become well known outside of sort of Texas circles.

(02:35):
She was becoming, uh, she was certainly making a lot
of making herself well known, whether on the in committee hearings,
on Capitol Hill or on podcasts. And I I'd like
to think we use I use my time with her
to try to get you to understand who she is,

(02:57):
how she got elected, what she knows about her own district,
how she goes about representing the interests of her district.
She represents Dallas, Texas, the city of a full disclosure.
With my son going to school in Dallas, I am
certainly paying a lot more attention to Dallas governance, Texas governance, Dallas.

(03:20):
You know, so I myself want to learn more about
the intricacies of public service and of policy in and
around North Texas. So and look, she's this is going
to be she's now a Senate candidate. When I was,
in fact we I think the last question of the interview,
we talked about the idea that she could run for Senate.

(03:42):
She she didn't sound like somebody who was eager to
do it. She was enjoyed, I think, being speculated upon.
But something clearly changed in the last three months and
she was more I think in fairness, the redistricting probably
had a lot to do with it. If they don't
get rid of her district, does she run for senate?
That's that's interesting. But there's a look her Democratic primary

(04:07):
is going to be fascinating, Okay, is this is a
primary that is not going to have many ideological disagreements.
James Talerico, the state legislator. Pastor and Jasmine Crockett are
a member of Congress. I don't think they disagree on
a lot of issues. I think they disagree on tactics.

(04:30):
I think they disagree on tone and tenor. And I
think there's a question you know what you know if
you're thinking about a preview of what I think the
twenty twenty eight Democratic primary campaigns are going to be about,
which is essentially fight versus unite. You know, do you
need to stand stronger here and sort of frankly every
once in a while that, you know what, you got

(04:51):
to punch the other side in the face, You got
to bust their lip open type of mindset versus trying
to appeal to the larger center. Now, Talla Errico wants
to be a progressive but outreach to on the other side.
I think Jasmine Crockett wouldn't say she's not trying to
reach out, but I think she's believes you've got to

(05:14):
step up and fight a little bit harder and lean
in a little bit and not be afraid to both
throw a punch and take a punch when it comes
to politics. So I do think that what we're going
to see in Texas for the next two and a
half months is going to define both parties. Where is
the Democratic Party headed? Where's the Republican Party headed? With

(05:37):
that three way primary between John Corn and Ken Paxton
and Wesley Hunt, it's interesting to me that her candidacy,
when Jasmine Crockett got in, Colin Alred got out, he
does have an opportunity to win a House seat again
in the sort of the same general area that he
represented before. He was also a suburban North Texas congressman

(06:00):
before that. So I guess at a minimum, Colin alread
getting out save the Democrats from having a runoff, which
the Republicans won't be able to prevent, and that is
likely white. But the question is there's an outcome that
I think, as a political anthropologist I want to watch.

(06:21):
I think voters in Texas are not going to be
crazy about it. But if you get Ken Paxton as
the Republican nominee and Jasmine Crockett is the Democratic nominee,
I think it is the closest thing to a sort
of where you're going to have two candidates with high negatives,
very polarizing for different reasons. Probably not since Oliver North

(06:44):
Chuck Robb nineteen ninety four would you have a race
that will have everybody you interested Nationally. Both nominees underwater
fave unfaith higher unfavorable rating than favorable rating, And it
really is going to put swing voters in an interesting position.

(07:05):
You know, are they going to vote their party, are
they going to vote against are they going to vote
you know what are going to be the different because
because you know and we will Crockett gain an advantage
because she's got higher personal character than Paxton, or because
of that, will the attacks on Crockett gets so personal

(07:27):
and all of that that it gets even uglier because
of that, we could see just the nastiest centers when
when you have two unpopular figures or two figures that
are going to be considered polarizing, that increases the level
of negatives to heights you thought were not possible. And

(07:49):
you know, Clinton Trump was probably the closest presidential we
had where we had these double haters, and it was
the double haters that decided it, right, And this is
where I think it's a totally unknown thing. Right. I
think double haters are going to end up being slightly

(08:09):
more anti Paxton than anti Crockett. But maybe I'm underestimating
the role of race with some Texas swing voters as well.
So I don't want to I'm not I'm not going
to be naive about that either. But I do think
Paxton on the character level is at such a level
the abuse of office was impeached by members of his

(08:30):
own party potentially makes him unelectable, and then it inserts
Trump in this in such a way, and I just
don't know what Republican turnout it's going to be. Then again,
you know, the fascinating litmus test is actually going to
be the neighborhood that SMU is in Crockett versus Paxton.
Who can carry that neighborhood. It's a John Cornan neighborhood,

(08:53):
it's a George W. Bush neighborhood, but it ain't a
Donald Trump neighborhood. And I don't think it's a Can
Paxton neighborhood. But it also was an Adjasmine Crockett neighborhood.
So it's going to be, you know, if you're ironically
i'd like to think, and I'm being totally self self
servicing here for myself, is that is that I actually

(09:16):
will be going to see my son in the in
the if that is our and in some ways maybe
this is what our politics. This is the election Texans deserve,
not necessarily the one that they want, but Crockett v. Paxton,

(09:36):
the likelihood of it, you know, is probably in the
twenty to thirty percent range of this happening. I think
it's a fifty you know, I think it's a fifty
to fifty proposition on the Democratic side. I think Tolerico
will raise slightly more money than Crockett, but only slightly.
I think Crockett will have the UH, will be a
very formidable, and it'll be interesting to watch the bass. Right.

(09:58):
She may do better in Dallas, in Houston, Tallerrico may
knew better in a in Austin and in San Antonio.
And then you have what we're watching on the Republican side.
All that means is that the Texas Senate race is
absolutely has the ability to become sort of its own thing.

(10:20):
You know, there were, there's, there's there's I always and
this is a podcast series that I may end up doing.
Right the greatest, the greatest camp the twenty greatest campaigns
that weren't presidential races of all time. Right for me,
Arnold Schwarzenegger, the recall campaign, you put Jesse Ventura on that.
I put Ali Northchuck rob on that, which turned into

(10:42):
a four way race. You actually had two more people
jump in running as independent candidates on that. On that front,
so Crockett Paxton has the has the chance of breaking
becoming an all timer for non presidential because of how
contentious it will be, how expensive it'll be. The stakes

(11:03):
are huge. The future of the ideological direction and sort
of also almost emotional direction of both parties would be
on the ballot in that front. So, without further ado,
giving that little pretext to why Texas Senate could be
a race above all others for the twenty twenty six cycle,

(11:27):
here's an encore presentation of my conversation with Dallas Area
Member of Congress Democrat Jasmine Croft. Enjoy Having good life
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(13:23):
is one of the rising stars of the Democratic Party.
Jasmine Crockett, Democratic congresswoman from Dallas, Texas representing the thirtieth
Congressional district congresswoman. Welcome to the Chuck Podcast.

Speaker 2 (13:34):
It's good to see you.

Speaker 1 (13:36):
Well, look, I'm gonna make you do one of my
favorite old from the Old Colbert Show was get to
know a congressional district when he used to do that.
So tell me yours, tell him take, give, give, my
give our listeners and viewers. Here a quick tour of
the thirtieth district in Dallas, and you know, point out
a few landmarks. You know, is the school Book Depository

(13:57):
in your district or not? Is SMU? I say that
as a future father of an SMU student studying next fall.
So tell me about the geographic and the and the
demographic nature of your district.

Speaker 3 (14:09):
Yes, So when most people think of Dallas, it belongs
to me. Most people associate downtown Dallas and the downtown
Skyline with Dallas, and all of that is mine. But
basically that's pretty much as far north as I go.
I go a little bit further north and I get
to Dallas love Field, which for all of my Southwest lovers,

(14:32):
that is exactly where Southwest Airlines is based, along with
the JSX Airlines for those that like a little bit
more luxury or I found out that your dogs get
to fly and kind of have all the space that
they want.

Speaker 1 (14:45):
I'm not rights. I've never heard of this airline. They
let dogs sort of roam free.

Speaker 3 (14:51):
It's I don't know, I haven't been on it, but
that's what a dog lover told me. Is like they
only fly JSX now because of the space that they're
dog is.

Speaker 2 (15:00):
They don't have to put like their dog under or
in a cage or something.

Speaker 1 (15:03):
I don't know.

Speaker 2 (15:04):
And then you go down in your district, love field
is mine, I.

Speaker 1 (15:09):
Gotcha, okay.

Speaker 3 (15:10):
And then you go all the way to the southern
Dallas County border. You can get from one end of
my district to the other in about thirty minutes, which
there's not a lot of members of Congress that can
say that. So that means that my district is pretty compact.
You get to the southern border and that kind of
ends the districts, but you start to get into suburbs.

(15:31):
My district is majority minority. It is a Section two district.
So for those of you that have been looking into
the fights that have been waged at the Supreme Court level,
and it's all about representation, especially people of color being
able to elect their representation. It is a very historic district.

(15:52):
I am only the second person to ever represent the district.

Speaker 1 (15:57):
My predecessor is she got Eddiebridiys John's and Kirkman Farmer.
Was it ninety two her first year, yes, yes, exactly
after the voting basically the updated Voting Right Tact that
created the Bush the first Bush Bush forty one Justice
Department in many ways helped and for a variety of
political motivations, but helped make sure there was more representation

(16:22):
in the African Americans in Congress.

Speaker 3 (16:24):
And she was actually in the Senate, the last black
woman to actually serve in the Texas Senate. We've only
had two. The first one is Barbara Jordan. And so
she actually chaired the redistricting committee that ended up drawing
these maps. And then so she chaired that committee, did
that in nineteen ninety and ninety two, she ran for
the seat, won the seat, and she served until twenty

(16:48):
two basically, and then I swore in in twenty twenty three.
The reason that I brought up JSX and Southwest Airlines
is because I really do have an aviation rich district.

Speaker 2 (16:59):
Not only do.

Speaker 3 (16:59):
I have kind of two airlines that are right there
anchored in my district. American Airlines is right up the street,
not in my district, but they're so big that they
claim us all, that is for sure. But also air Bus,
which some people are starting to hear more about Airbus
as Boeing what's having issues. Usually if you are flying
domestically on a plane, it is typically an air Bus

(17:22):
plane or Boeing, and so Airbus actually has a facility
that's within my district. Airbus is probably better known for
their helicopters.

Speaker 2 (17:31):
If you're in the aviation kind of.

Speaker 3 (17:33):
World, they are the ones that build pretty much all
of our life saving helicopters, whether they are helicopters for
firefighters and they're helping to fight wildfires or whether we're
talking about the coast Guard or whether we're talking about
law enforcement. They specially retrofit the helicopters to be, you know,
specific to whichever area they're in. So with that, I

(17:56):
have a lot of aviation, so I have had to
learn a lot about aviation. But one of the coolest
things that I was able to do that I think
every member should be allowed to do, is I was
able to actually take a look of my district from
above because Airbus took me on a helicopter ride around
my district.

Speaker 1 (18:16):
So what did that teach you? What did that show you?

Speaker 2 (18:18):
So you know, you have.

Speaker 3 (18:19):
People that come in and they give you numbers or
they tell you that they have a type of industry.

Speaker 2 (18:24):
I could see it.

Speaker 3 (18:25):
So I am a logistically heavy district, Like logistics run
the world. So beyond these kind of airplanes. These airplanes
are flying in to Dallas Love or even DFW is
where a lot of our commerce is flying into. But
you know, one of the things my predecessor worked on
was an inland port. And now I can see all

(18:46):
the trucks. So I saw all of these distribution centers, right.
I knew that Home Depot had two distribution centers in
my district and there's no other district in the country
that has to. And mind you, i'mcompact, so I was thinking, oh,
I must have a lot. But JC Penny's National distribution
Center is right there in my district and so many others.

(19:07):
But I could see it. I could see all the trucking.
So in talking to those that were like, I've got
a number of trucking schools, and I've talked to some
of the owners, So it really kind of put it
all together for me to see it from above, and
it would probably surprise some people that I've actually ridden
Attractive Trailer in my district as well. So you go

(19:28):
just into my suburbs and you can get into a
little bit of farming as well, but it's mostly an
inter urban kind of district. And so we've got some
of the big corporate biggies that are based there at
and T and others a dating site that I won't meet.

Speaker 1 (19:44):
It's like, I mean, you tell me, the place feels
like a magnet right now, meaning people just want to
move to that region. People want to move to that area.

Speaker 3 (19:52):
Do you feel that, Oh yeah, I mean listen, during COVID,
the DFW area was growing exponential and overall we've seen
the growth in Texas just kind of be off the charts.
They thought we were going to get four new seats
and redistricting. We feel like there may have been an undercount.
There was a little pandemic that was going on. We

(20:12):
got three new seats and now they're projecting for twenty
thirty that will get an additional four seats. So no,
we are growing leaps and bounds in the state of Texas.
But truly, DFW has been one of those fastest growing areas.

Speaker 1 (20:27):
So how'd you get to Texas? How'd you get to Dallas?
Because I know you were born and were you how
long did you live in Saint Louis till I was eighteen? Okay?
So you're you're so do you consider.

Speaker 2 (20:40):
I am Lewis?

Speaker 3 (20:42):
Yes, okay, but no, I left at eighteen and I
was like, I'm not coming back and I haven't been back.

Speaker 2 (20:48):
So left at eighteen.

Speaker 1 (20:50):
Lewis is a tragedy to me in so many levels.
I just I it really. I have a lot of
family there, I've been have so many I go. I
go there all the time for various family events. Yeah,
and Saint Louis was this amazing, thriving city for you know,
essentially for the first eighty years of the twentieth century.

(21:10):
And it's sort of like it's like it lost every
it like it lost every deal right TWA left and
you know this left and the financial ag edwards left
and just it all just and you're like, I remember
during the Amazon headquarters debate, I was like, please go
to Saint Louis, Please put it in Saint Louis. It

(21:32):
is we need to revise this great American city. What
would you do if you could wave a magic.

Speaker 2 (21:38):
Wand I think that you're right. I mean, even though
I still wouldn't want to go home, I do.

Speaker 3 (21:46):
I think that you point out an interesting fact because
I feel like Saint Louis didn't keep up. I feel
like Saint Louis was ahead of the curve. Right we
had the Mississippi right to the west.

Speaker 1 (21:55):
It was you talk about Port that was the warld
most important.

Speaker 2 (21:59):
Port went through up and down the Mississippi right.

Speaker 3 (22:03):
So like this was like a bustling area, but like
as far as being able to kind of transition with
the times and.

Speaker 2 (22:09):
Being able to kind of keep up, I.

Speaker 3 (22:11):
Think at one point in time it was like they
were ahead of the times, and then they got a
little bit behind. I mean, I'm glad that Anheuser Bush
is still right there anchored in Saint Louis.

Speaker 1 (22:20):
I know, but it's really it's, you know, look and they.

Speaker 2 (22:23):
Trust they're all over because I don't know.

Speaker 3 (22:26):
Right right there in my district in Texas, yes, we
actually have the sixth largest beer distributor right there in
my district.

Speaker 2 (22:34):
I do lots of Vedam District too.

Speaker 3 (22:36):
But nevertheless, Anne has Bush still is you know, I
mean that's you know, this is I grew up as
a girl looking at the class deals. I mean, a
very big thing. But I think that it's a lesson
that we need to learn. I mean, if I had
a magic wand, I would say that I would try
to get the population in Saint Louis educated in a

(22:59):
future works capacity or a present day workforce capacity, understanding
technology understanding STEM, which also goes with technology obviously, but
I would get them focused on that figuring out who
is going to be over making sure that we can
safeguard what AI is and.

Speaker 2 (23:17):
What it ain't.

Speaker 3 (23:18):
So we need people that are trained up and knowledgeable enough.
But we'll do the good work of being government employees,
even though you could go out in private industry and
make more. But I would really steer them towards more technology.
And then even as we talk about logistics, like, I
don't really know what other kind of logistical kind of
angles they have besides the actual Mississippi right.

Speaker 2 (23:41):
So honestly it's.

Speaker 1 (23:43):
Not a bad one. I know it's not.

Speaker 2 (23:47):
I'm definitely not seeing that.

Speaker 3 (23:48):
But like the fact is, I'm talking to you about
my district and how.

Speaker 2 (23:52):
Many planes come through, right, Like w is one of
the law.

Speaker 1 (23:55):
That's commerce, and commerce leads to jobs and all.

Speaker 3 (23:58):
That's exactly right, So like it's kind of you know,
and when I talked about those trucks, right, it's the trains,
it's the trucks, and it's the planes, right. And so
even though I don't have a big river coming through
my district, we are doing logistics.

Speaker 2 (24:13):
And logistics is so important.

Speaker 3 (24:15):
It was so important because you know, traditionally we have
been a global economy. We historically have been building and
building and building out our our trade.

Speaker 2 (24:27):
You know, in a very global way.

Speaker 3 (24:30):
And now I don't really know so, but I would
say building around what you have that naturally occurs and
building that up, I think it could be fantastic and phenomenal.
So I think logistics would be a very strong space.
And then from an educational space, I think just anything
that you could do for getting people trained up for AI,

(24:51):
which I think is truly taken over in this moment.

Speaker 2 (24:54):
And the reason I say it's a lesson is.

Speaker 3 (24:56):
Because I think that we are not paying attention to
like what happened to the Saint Louis Is of the
world right and deciding that we won't be that as
a country. And I think that we are running the
risk of that, especially as we're going through these mass
deportations and things like that, like not making sure or
not allowing us to have the best of everything that

(25:18):
we can have.

Speaker 1 (25:19):
Right, you know, it's helped Detroit they took a lot
of immigrant populations, they took a lot of refugees. You know,
it's helped Minneapolis, Saint Paul, they took a lot of refugees.
Refugees and first gen immigrants are the building blocks of
economic dynamism within a generation.

Speaker 2 (25:37):
No, you're absolutely You're absolutely right.

Speaker 3 (25:39):
And literally, I've traveled the world on congressional delegation trips
where my colleagues speak a lot differently when we get
out to other portions of the world.

Speaker 1 (25:49):
Don't you wish that that's the way Congress work? Those
I hear those codels are what get members of Congress
to run for reelection again, meaning it sort of it
gives them hope. Boy, when we don't have a bunch
of idiot reporters like me running around shoving tape recorders
in your face or trying to get you to trash
each other. You guys could get some stuff done.

Speaker 2 (26:09):
No, I mean they believe in climate change.

Speaker 3 (26:12):
When we're out of the country, like it's like a
whole other world. When we start talking about the exchange programs,
like most people don't know, as we talk about in
healthcare healthcare worker shortage that Thailand produces like more nurses
than anybody, and so as we're trying to make sure
that we can take care of our population, and as

(26:34):
there are people that are looking for opportunities and they're
already trained up. Or the fact that there's these attacks
on our institutions right now, well that's not helping when
it comes down to exchange programs and being able to
take the unique backgrounds that some of these amazing students
have and bring them in in a collaborative way. Or

(26:54):
when we're snatching students off the streets right and throwing
them into some form of captivity and revoking their student visas,
like that's not making people want to send some of
their best and brightest to the institutions that historically have
been looked at as the best institutions. I can't tell
you how many times we've sat down across from whether

(27:17):
it was a prime minister or a president or a
secretary of this or that, and they tell us that
they went over to the United States and got their education. Literally,
people around the world have been educated right here in
the United States, and people in their home countries respect that.
They look at that and it has been a badget.

Speaker 1 (27:35):
That's why they're in charge, exactly because getting an American
education put them a little bit higher on their ladder.

Speaker 3 (27:42):
That's exactly right. And I don't know that that's going
to be the case going forward.

Speaker 1 (27:45):
So let me start with you've been in Congress a
short time. There's going to be some people this is
the first time they've heard you for more than a
few minutes, meaning they've may have gotten a piece of you,
maybe seen something go viral. When it comes to communicating
in the modern era, going viral matters, But going viral
can be a double edged sort. And I think you
tell me I feel like you've experienced both edges of

(28:06):
that sort at times. How much of it is a
necessary evil in your mind and how much of this
is just, Hey, this is the way it works now,
and you know this is the way I have to
do it.

Speaker 2 (28:19):
I don't think virality matters.

Speaker 3 (28:22):
That may not be a popular opinion, but when I
got elected, no one in my district ever expected or.

Speaker 2 (28:29):
Thought that I would go viral.

Speaker 3 (28:31):
So I don't think that it matters in the sense
that I think people should say, if I'm going to
be relevant in politics, then this is what needs to
be done. We know that one of the most unpopular
people in Congress, she has gone viral a lot, and
you know, when it comes down to her being able
to raise money, She's been able to raise money from

(28:53):
every crevice of kind of the country because of that,
and that's kind of how she's been able to build
a platform I think.

Speaker 1 (29:00):
Has huh, I don't.

Speaker 2 (29:04):
Think she has, right, Like, so the things.

Speaker 1 (29:07):
That really assume you're referring to Marjorie Taylor Green, I
am yeah. No, I say that because I think that
that's that's the you know, that's usually what happens if
you want to be a if you want to try
to go that road, you're not going to actually get
stuff done on the inside.

Speaker 3 (29:23):
Absolutely, I think that that that is a risk that
certain people run. It depends on, like for what reasons, right, Like,
for instance, I was just applauding Lauren Underwood for an
exchange that she had this week with Christinome, and you know,
it went viral. I mean, it's kind of everywhere where
Christy Nome is kind of wavering on, you know, the

(29:44):
Constitution and whether.

Speaker 2 (29:46):
Or not you know, she is Secretary of the.

Speaker 3 (29:50):
Department of Homeland to actually like follow it right, you know.
I think that there are certain things that it absolutely
is very important that information gets out. And for some people,
if I'm being honest, like a lot of people that
may be listening in, they obviously have time to do it.
But the reality is that the average American is trying

(30:10):
to figure out how they're going to put food on
the table, a roof over their head, clothes on their kids' backs,
and so they only have time for a TikTok, right, Like,
they only have those little moments, And so I do
think it does bring value in that way. But as
far as being an actual member of Congress, No, I
think what matters most as a member of Congress is

(30:31):
that you sit down and you do things like what
we do, which is we send out weekly emails that
are newsletters that give you pictures of the meetings that
I've taken with dub text on what happened in those meetings.
You can see videos, video clips of me and committee.
You can see me in district if that's where I was,
and then we give out other information. We also send

(30:52):
out mailers. We also do what we call community like
office hours, so we go out and we don't make
people necessarily come in, so sometimes they're after hours, but
they are in other parts of our districts that we've
been to every single city multiple times, and we send
out text messages with information. I think that's what matters

(31:12):
in Congress because ultimately, regardless of how viral a member
may or may not be, at the end of the day,
you only get reelected one way, and that way is
by making sure that you are communicating with your district.

Speaker 1 (31:28):
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there's a reason Morgan and Morgan is America's largest injury
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Their fee is free unless they win. I want to
go in so many directions here, including Texas politics, but

(32:33):
let me start with the Oversight committee. Oh guy, because no,
I mean I sit there. You know. Look, I'm one
of those journalists who always rolls their eyes when there's
an oversight committee hearing, right, because it feels like predictable
partisan talking points, right if it depending on who's you know,
you'll have one half of the questioners defending the person
being being questioned in the other half, and then it's

(32:57):
always like, oh, whoa a member of the same party.
He asked a tough question, right, that becomes the news
rather than let me ask you this. You've you've watched this,
now you've participated. How can we improve oversight? And would
it be better if there were no TV cameras?

Speaker 2 (33:15):
It would absolutely be better if there were no cameras.
I'm sure that that will never happen.

Speaker 1 (33:21):
But I know c SPAN is one of those things like, hey, look,
I'm a sunshine guy, but I also don't believe in
cameras in the courtroom. Give me audio, Give me all
the audio in the world. I'll take all the live
audio in the world. If we cameras in the courtroom
gives us too many lancidos, and that's not a good thing.

Speaker 3 (33:36):
Yeah, I think though, I mean, if you've got people,
if you've got like a president that doesn't understand that
he took an oath to the Constitution like to protect
and defend it, I don't I think you're giving them
a little too much credit. Like we have people that
are elected in government and truly don't understand how it works.
And so in order for oversight to work the way

(33:59):
that it should, then it honestly would take people that
understand what we're supposed to be doing. For instance, today
I had to have a DOGE subcommittee hearing, and for
everybody out in the general public, when they hear DOGE,
they hear Department of Governmental Efficiency. This is all supposedly
about efficiency. The reason that we have had to fire

(34:20):
a historic number of you know, federal employees in such
a short amount of time is because it's more efficient.
Not true, right, like, but all of these things that
we've experienced. The reason that you know, people may not
have their life saving healthcare across you know, the ocean,
is because they had to cut off us AID because

(34:41):
it was efficient. Like that's what it was coined as.
And my hearing today was about trans people fencing. I
mean our argument was, please tell me what part of
like we read through the mission of DOGE as they
created the subcommittee, what does that have to do with anything?

Speaker 2 (35:01):
And then they even admit it.

Speaker 3 (35:02):
They were like, well, yeah, you know US fencing. We
know that we don't give you any money, you get
no federal dobts.

Speaker 2 (35:10):
What are we doing?

Speaker 1 (35:10):
Wait a minute, let me let me get this straight
the US fencing team, as in like the little it
was the sword fighting. Is that what we're talking about.

Speaker 3 (35:20):
It's all about fencing. This was about girls fencing. And
I'm trying to think of the name of the I'll get.

Speaker 1 (35:26):
You the name of the world meaning but meaning that
you know, with the work mask and all this stuff.

Speaker 2 (35:31):
Yeah, yeah, okay, yes, we had to have a.

Speaker 1 (35:36):
Hearing hearing on sword fighting, like I.

Speaker 3 (35:39):
Mean so literally it's like, I mean, I hear you, right,
but like these people don't even understand and.

Speaker 2 (35:45):
Maybe they wouldn't have a hearing on that if there
were no cameras, like maybe like.

Speaker 1 (35:49):
I don't Well, that's the thing, I mean, that's that's
would be one of my contentions is that you take
away the incentive to to essentially, you know, perform for
a base political base. And in that case, there's no
doubt that's just performance, right, that's just throwing chum into
the water. Would it cut back on that, and you know,
I assume it would, But then again, you know, would

(36:13):
the country be even less informed about what Congress does? Right?

Speaker 2 (36:16):
Yeah, that's exactly.

Speaker 1 (36:20):
Let's tell let's talk about this internal I don't know
what you call it, debate this is it a generational
divide or an ideological divide inside the Democratic Party? And
are they one and the same.

Speaker 2 (36:37):
I think it's more ideological. I think that.

Speaker 3 (36:42):
You can find persons that absolutely believe that there needs
to be a more aggressive kind of fight in this moment,
and there are all ages, you know, And when I
think about some of you know, the strongest voices, you know,
I'm always going to say Maxine Waters is going to
like one of the first ones who's literally gonna call
out whatever. In Maxine is like eighty six eighties. I mean,

(37:05):
she's like up there, right, And I don't think anyone.

Speaker 1 (37:09):
I don't hear a lot of progressive saying that that
either Maxine Waters or Bernie Sanders are too old to
be talking correct.

Speaker 3 (37:15):
So that's why I really don't think. I think that
it's more so a mindset, and I think that they
are more so concerned about kind of those that are
stuck in tradition and stuck in this idea of the
institutions while not recognizing that the institutions are literally burning

(37:35):
around us right like they're like over there, you know,
they've got their water hoses. They're like Nope, Nope, it's
we're going I vacillate.

Speaker 1 (37:42):
Look, you're I'm one of these people. I vacillate between hey,
let's let's save the institution versus now, let's rebuild the institution,
meaning like, you know, you got to save what's left,
you got to salvage what you have, right. And I
understand that's probably an older mindset, right, one that says, oh,
I'm back in my day, I remember this all came together,
versus those that are newer to the situation, going, what

(38:04):
are you talking about? Like that didn't work, That's why
we're here, right.

Speaker 3 (38:09):
So I think it's more so our issue is more
so how do you save the institution and what is
worth salvaging?

Speaker 2 (38:17):
Right?

Speaker 3 (38:18):
Because when you think about like a house burning, like
if there's a child or a loved one in there,
you're going to go and like, let me go get
the kid, right, like forget the clothes, forget the pictures.
And I think that that's where we are. It's like,
what parts of this are worth saving? Because there are
parts of this that failed us in the first place,
and frankly some of them that never worked anyway, like

(38:40):
never worked in a way that they worked for all
of us. But I think the biggest debate is like
how do you do that right? I think that that
is why there's the discussions about David Hogg and his
approach to it, And it's like do you go after
you know, safe Democrats and decide that you're going to
primary them or do you just say never mind, like
a Democrat is a Democrat, go after the Republican because

(39:00):
they are the ones that are the arsonists of this story.
I think that like it's about how you fight that
we kind of differ, or you know, you can look,
the State of the Union is really the best example
of like how everyone sees this moment differently, right, Like
it's like we went out, we campaigned, we were like
this fool is a dictator and he's going to try

(39:23):
to tear everything down. And that was before thee hundred
days when we literally have receipts of him doing it right,
And he's up there and he's given a State of
the Union, and who is it that is most disruptive
a man in his seventies. It's Al Green, someone who
is of the civil rights error and believes in civil disobedience, and.

Speaker 1 (39:43):
This hole as the late John Lewis used to call
it good.

Speaker 3 (39:45):
Trouble exactly, and he believes in dealing with this completely differently.

Speaker 2 (39:51):
And then you have those that sat there and didn't
do anything.

Speaker 3 (39:54):
Then you had those that have the signs that everybody
got drove about, and then you had those of us
that decided that we were going to walk out right.
I think that that's the issue. I think that in
our hearts, none of us like what's going on. It's
just a matter of we cannot get on a similar
page of like what does the response look like? What
does the fight look look like? And I think that's

(40:15):
really our bigger issue. And I think that some people
believe if you've been in the institution too long, that
there's no way you were willing to fight back against it.

Speaker 1 (40:26):
What's your assessment of how the Democrats got into the situation.

Speaker 3 (40:31):
I think it's been being too nice to be perfectly honest.
I mean, I remember when I was in the state House,
and you know, we fled Texas and we went to
DC and we were trying to kind of ring the
alarms about these horrific voter suppression bills that the Heritage
Foundation dropped into Texas dropped into Georgia dropped into Florida

(40:53):
like they were being very strategic about making sure that
they could minimize certain voices.

Speaker 2 (40:59):
And so, you know what, I wish that.

Speaker 3 (41:03):
The Democrats in the Senate would have pushed half as
hard and said, you know what, when it comes to
something foundational such as voting rights, which we are basically
taking our authority from the Constitution, there's a car about
for that right, Like they have come up with carveouts
for what they wanted to do, and I think that
that could have prevented some of it. It's the same

(41:23):
thing as relates to the reauthorization of the Voting Rights Acts,
like they now have gone in and decimated so many
of these districts because they're like, oh well, it's like
district's gone wild, right, And when you look at our
margins in the House, we lost by three seats.

Speaker 1 (41:41):
Oh you lost by redistrict thing. You didn't lose it.
You lost by the Florida and the North Carolina remaps
and New York and the New York and the inability
to do the remap in New York. No, this was
all done in the courtroom.

Speaker 3 (41:52):
No, correct, correct, But they had the legislation and they
refused to do a car about So like, if if
we're not going to fight for our foundational things, then
I get why people are like, I'm gonna sit at
home and I'm gonna sit on the couch, because yeah,
they may do bad, but y'all might doing nothing anyway.

Speaker 1 (42:11):
Right, So let me ask this, why do you think
Trump won? And why do you think he won with
some voters that were on the Blue team at East
in twenty twelve and twenty twenty, I'm not so sure
they were there in twenty sixteen. I think they didn't
show up.

Speaker 2 (42:26):
I'm going to say that this was a ViBe's election,
and I think.

Speaker 1 (42:30):
I hate that expression. No offense, I don't know, but
I know vibes. This is the cranky old man in me.
You know, my gen exer. You're almost you're you're like
you you're millennial technical.

Speaker 2 (42:41):
I am barely, but you're.

Speaker 1 (42:44):
A little more gen x in probably how you lived culturally.

Speaker 2 (42:48):
Yes, So what I will say is this.

Speaker 3 (42:51):
The reason that I say that is because how many
interviews have you seen where you ask people, well, why
did you vote for Trump?

Speaker 2 (42:58):
They can't give you a policy, so we.

Speaker 1 (43:01):
Know I didn't. It always felt to me, it was
a vote against, not a vote for.

Speaker 2 (43:06):
I don't know about that.

Speaker 3 (43:07):
I definitely felt like as far as the people that
were willing to talk, I felt like it was absolutely
a vote for him, And if they talked about policies,
it still wasn't really policies. Like I remember being on
the road and talking to various men, mostly black men,
and I'd say what's up and they'd be like, well,

(43:29):
we feel like the Democratic Party isn't masculating us. And
then I'd say, how so, right, Like they still weren't
talking about policy, right, Like they weren't like it's not
like they answered with like policy per se. The only
thing that they would say about quote unquote policy was
about trans vote right, And I would explain to them

(43:49):
that it's a destruction because I remember being at a
barbershop in Philly and talking to a guy and he
had this beautiful little daughter that was running around, and
I was like, well, I mean, I hear you, and
I'm not going to ask you to change how you
believe about whatever you believe in that kind of stuff,
But like, tell me, is that going to better your
ability to say own your own barbershop one day? Is

(44:11):
that going to better your ability to take care of
your child. And frankly, if you are concerned about who's
playing sports, can you tell me which trans children go
to school with your daughter right now? And like he
was like, I mean, I'm a vote for her, but
those are the only you know what I mean? But
it was kind of like that, And so.

Speaker 1 (44:26):
How big do you think this was there? How big
do you think this black man voter issue with Kamala Harris?
How much of that do you think was specific to
hesitation of voting a black man hesitating to vote for
a black woman.

Speaker 3 (44:43):
I will tell you what I was told, because I
did think that I definitely think that there was misogyny
in this across the board, no matter what color male.

Speaker 2 (44:53):
You're talking about.

Speaker 3 (44:54):
I just think that you be an error to not
like know that there was misogyny that existed. I will
say this though, the very first polling briefing that we
had with a polster that I trust a lot, he
briefed the Black Caucus and he said that one of
the issues that he was running into with black and

(45:16):
brown communities was that she had been a prosecutor.

Speaker 1 (45:19):
And this was more of a resume thing that there.

Speaker 3 (45:22):
Was, there was definitely some resume stuff that this allowed
her from being able to build the type of rapport
of trust within these marginalized communities that historically have been targeted.

Speaker 1 (45:34):
But this was a huge problem in her own campaign
for president during the primaries, which is why she pivoted.
She was trying to get out of that because that
was being used by other Democratic campaigns to say, hey,
you know, she was a prosecutor. She was putting black
men in jail. And the thing is she was right,
which is why she went down the busing road with
you know, she had to go to some places that

(45:56):
she probably wouldn't have normally gone, but she felt she
had to because she was trying to fix her own
biography issues.

Speaker 3 (46:03):
So literally early numbers that we were given, and I
promise you, I really do trust this.

Speaker 2 (46:07):
Polster said that.

Speaker 3 (46:09):
So if you think back to my DNC speech, one
of the things that they actually the guidance that I
was given was to actually lean into her being a prosecutor.

Speaker 2 (46:18):
And I'm like, oh, hell, I'm like that is not helpful.

Speaker 3 (46:23):
Right, And so when I did it, I did a
bit of a swing on it. Right, As a criminal
defense attorney and I explained, like, this is the kind
of prosecutor all would have won it, right, Like, so
I built it that way. But I did talk to
some people, even a prominent rapper, who was like, I'm
going to support her, but I don't feel comfortable openly

(46:47):
endorsing her, but I'm going to vote for her. And
I'm like why, And so he told me that one
of the issues was just kind of like the prosecutor thing,
and I said, and I made sure to talk about
the things that we have been told move the needle
with these groups, right, like knowing that she had like
second chance programs and things like that, like letting them
know that she was one of the good ones, like

(47:08):
one of the ones that we would have wanted if
it was Breonna Taylor. That I mean, like that's the
kind that you want, right. So we were trying to
do that. But I think, and it goes back to
kind of the Trump phenomenon. I think that what had
been baked in about the vice president was that she
was a prosecutor. They did not know very much beyond that,

(47:29):
And when you're talking about one hundred and seven days
of a campaign, it's kind of hard to get that
across in actually.

Speaker 1 (47:34):
A classic case where more time would have helped at
least on that issue.

Speaker 3 (47:37):
Absolutely, I absolutely believe that, especially since you want people
to not fear you, but you want them to like
trust you. That's what it comes down to, is like trust.
And you know, it's like you can point out how
many lives Trump does or whatever. One of the reasons
I think that he got away with trying to paint
us as liars is where like this dude is not

(48:00):
a businessman, but you got to think about his profile
and you have to think about who he is, and
this is very specific to him. You have traveled the country,
potentially the world and seen buildings with the name Trump
on the side of them, and then you don't get
enough FaceTime with somebody to explain, no, his name is
on the building, but he don't own the building. Like

(48:21):
you don't like get to get into the minutia on that.
So he had been built up as this amazing smart
businessman who had all this money instead of like, no,
he inherited money when he was born, and frankly, he
would have had more money if he just sat on
that money and didn't do anything because.

Speaker 1 (48:39):
He do you know how hard.

Speaker 2 (48:43):
Yeah, yeah, somebody else beat the house.

Speaker 3 (48:45):
I know, it's crazy, it's but still, like, how many
people know all of these details?

Speaker 2 (48:53):
Right?

Speaker 3 (48:53):
And so that's what. So there was this longstanding kind
of idea of Trump as this successful, smart, hard businessman,
and then for the most part, what people knew about
the vice president is that she had been a prosecutor.
She had been a prosecutor on the state level, she
had been the attorney general. Like they only kind of

(49:15):
knew her in that way, because I remember struggling with
it way before we were figuring out who was gonna
run for what or whatever. Sure was this issue or
this idea of people that said, well, I voted for
I voted for Kamala, right, Like they went and voted
for the ticket, right, voted for Joe and Kamala, But
they really went because they wanted to vote for her,

(49:36):
and they were saying things like, well, we haven't seen her, right,
And so then it's like vice presidents are really not
like that prominent, like that's not their job. They are
supporting cast members, right. So I think we just really
got and it wasn't until she was stepping in as
the actual nominee that she could then go ahead and

(49:57):
direct her way and she just didn't have enough.

Speaker 2 (50:00):
Time in my life.

Speaker 1 (50:01):
Did she Do you feel like she should get another
shot at this?

Speaker 3 (50:04):
I think, I mean, I think that she should do
what she feels like is best. You know, one thing
that people don't really evaluate is the toll that all
of this takes on not only.

Speaker 2 (50:17):
You but your family.

Speaker 3 (50:19):
And I think, you know, there were those that never
thought that Joe Biden could win, and the third time.

Speaker 2 (50:25):
Was the charm.

Speaker 3 (50:27):
I can't say what will happen, And honestly, I personally
feel like the only reason we ended up with Barack
Obama was because everything had fallen apart, and so depending
on how desperate people are, I think that it may
absolutely propel You're not so likely, candidate. I think that people,

(50:52):
potentially even misogynists, would like hold their nose and be like,
forget it.

Speaker 1 (50:59):
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for thirty percent off. There was a lot of those,

(52:21):
you know, there were great stories about that that you know,
you'd hear these stories about Barack Obama's two thousand and
eight campaign. He'd go they'd have canvassers in western Pennsylvania
and they'd go to these doors that today are probably
mega voters. But in O eight they voted for Obama.
And they refer to Obama as the African American candidate,
but they didn't use African American and or black. And

(52:46):
it gets to the point you just made, which is
desperation sometimes gets you know, this is what I You know,
trumpet Obama have this in common, right, they there's a
hand there's a slice of voters who wanted have changed. Look,
I go back. This is why I think ultimately Barack
Obama made a mistake endorsing Hillary Clinton. No offense to

(53:07):
Hillary Clinton. She certainly had earned a lot of things,
and if this were at a job interview, she was
the most qualified person for the job. But you and
I both know it's not a job interview, right, It's
a different type of deal. And I would argue that
the Democratic Party picked Obama over Clinton because they didn't
want the establishment in charge, and that when he went
establishment that that may have been a fork in the

(53:30):
road that if you now go back in time, that
maybe he should have taken a different a different path.

Speaker 3 (53:35):
Look, you were making an argument for the situation that
we find ourselves in right.

Speaker 1 (53:40):
Now, right No, which is why I knew. I definitely
think new is going to be. I always say this,
if you look at successful Democratic candidates for president, it's
usually they're the new candidate there, you know, and they
were not seen as the front runner at the start.
Bill Clinton was that way, Jimmy Carter was that way,

(54:01):
Barack Obama's that way. There is you know, new and electable,
and it's subjective what electable is. But that's and the
thing that I can't figure out is who's new because
every name we're going to mention is not new because
we're mentioning their names, right, it is going to be.
You know, people will mention Mark Cuban. I bet you
know Mark Cuban a little bit better than most people,
given he's a Dallas guy. Yeah, you know, I don't

(54:26):
know if we if it's smart to go with sort
of Trump light, but you know, who knows.

Speaker 3 (54:32):
I have no idea, but I do think that we
won't truly have an idea of which way is going
to go until we really get closer to the election,
because I do believe the desperation is going to set in.

Speaker 2 (54:46):
I mean, we will find out.

Speaker 3 (54:48):
You know, there are those that are like, oh, we
just got to take the house back, and you and
I have already discussed how these lines are not set
up for us. I mean, we are like an uphill
climb in a lot of these races that we really
should not be in. But even still, I think we
are going to defy the odds. The question is that
we're going to defy the odds and have you know
three seats are we on or are we going to.

Speaker 2 (55:10):
Buy the odds?

Speaker 1 (55:10):
Can we have a working majority?

Speaker 2 (55:12):
Yeah, we're going to.

Speaker 3 (55:13):
Have just a ton of people, and I think that
that will be our first and then the Republicans will
be given an opportunity to switch back and maybe slow down,
right because they're like, whoa, this rat is big and
it's going to continue on two years after that.

Speaker 1 (55:29):
I know you've got to go, and I don't want
to keep you too long, but I do want to
dabble in Texas politics. You served in that Texas State House.
I think the most fascinating political story that no one's
paying attention to is, and you know these folks, is
the leadership of the Texas House is a bipartisan is
the result of a bipartisan effort that it was sort

(55:50):
of a rejection of the of the more right wing
elements of the Texas Republican Party. Is Texas a three
party state, meaning there's sort of two Republican parties, sort
of the John Cornyn Party and the and the Ken
Paxton Party version of it, and then there's the Democratic Party.
I mean, am i am I describing it a bit cynically,

(56:11):
but correctly you are.

Speaker 3 (56:13):
As We're about to watch what happens in this primary,
and I think that it's going to be interesting because
all of the polling says that Paxton is the one
that's going to make it out of that primary, and
it's going to make the Republicans' ability to win the
Senate seat more difficult than it had.

Speaker 2 (56:32):
I can tell you for sure that.

Speaker 3 (56:35):
With almost absolute certainty, if John Cornyn somehow managed to
be the nominee, Yeah, tough.

Speaker 1 (56:42):
Let there's too many put it this way, there's a
whole bunch of Dallas Republicans who haven't voted Republican for president,
I'm guessing now since twenty twelve. Yeah, and they'll vote
for John Cornyn. They're voting for Ken Paxton.

Speaker 2 (56:54):
Correct, Yeah, correct, correct.

Speaker 3 (56:57):
So you know, it'll be interesting to see how whichever
candidates emerge in that Senate race, how they decide to
play it. I think there's been this inclination to kind
of try to be like Republican esque, and it's.

Speaker 2 (57:11):
Not worked so far. So I just I really don't
think that that well.

Speaker 1 (57:14):
Which path works. I mean, neither one of them worked, right.
Beto didn't do that. Beto went in a different direction,
got close but lost. Colin Allred when in the hey
I'm I'm a John Cornyn type he basically said, you know,
he hugged Cornan during that race against Cruise, which I
think for swing voters, I get it. I get that

(57:34):
strategy too, and he lost by more than Beto did.
What does that tell you?

Speaker 3 (57:40):
I mean, I think again, I hate to do it.
Like when you're talking about a tite vote and you're
talking about tight election, that's when you're going to start
to get into vibes.

Speaker 2 (57:50):
Period.

Speaker 3 (57:50):
You just are because again you have a certain portion
of the electorate that does not have the time to
kind of dig into all of the details.

Speaker 1 (57:58):
And Betto broke through and Colin did right.

Speaker 3 (58:00):
Yeah, Beto was able to energize so many people. But
I also think he caught Cruse slipping right Like Cruse
wasn't anticipating that he would have a real race, so
he had that advantage. But he outworked Cruise definitely, like
you know, the entire time.

Speaker 2 (58:17):
So I think that Betzo did what we needed.

Speaker 3 (58:19):
Done in that moment at least, which was to give
us a little bit of hope. But it was because
of how well that he did. He lost by three points.
We know that Trump only won the state by five points.
Next thing, you know, they want to change all the
voting rules, right because you end up running away with Texas,
there is no path for the Republicans to get into
the White House. And that's why it's really important that

(58:41):
we make those investments. Texas is a majority.

Speaker 1 (58:43):
Why does the Demo, why does the net look I'm
a Floridian and I've watched the National Democratic Party pay
lip service to Florida Democrats for decades and now they're
in a catastrophic situation. I'm seeing the same set of
lip service was paid to if the moment's been missed in.

Speaker 3 (59:01):
Texas, I really do think that we are missing out.
But I think that we need to get on the
ground and do the work. In that same election we're
talking about, we only had seventeen percent of the people
turn out. Seventeen percent of people people.

Speaker 1 (59:15):
This wasn't a registration issue. This was a turnout issue
in correct.

Speaker 3 (59:19):
Right, But like we also do these tickets where it's
like that's always the only person that anybody was going
to vote for, Like there was nothing else that was
like exciting or jazzing them. So we do this thing
where it's like, oh, we've got one great candidate, and
then we don't do anything else. I told you about
people saying that they showed up and they voted for
Harris when they were voting for the ticket. I think

(59:39):
that we've got to be more strategic about like not
just oh, let me put somebody who's Hispanic on this ticket,
Like let's get strong people to run who can appeal
to every portion of our state, Like you can have
like people that are progressive and have people that are liberal,
and have people that are better at media than others,
have people that are black and Latino and Asian. We

(01:00:01):
have a large AAPI community. So I think that we've
got to figure out, like, okay, who will jazz up
some folk? Like who will get them going? And frankly,
black people have not been super jazzed. Just be perfectly honest.
We have more black people in the state of Texas
than any other state, and so like figuring out how
to turn them out. When they won Georgia, you know what,

(01:00:24):
they had turnout way above seventeen percent, right, And so
that's the thing I think if we can get the turnout.

Speaker 2 (01:00:30):
We can win.

Speaker 1 (01:00:33):
If Nico Harrison ran for office, how many could he
get elected to anything in Dallas right now? Now, you
know how the Lucas situation is it? What of those?
Do you think that's going to be something that leaves

(01:00:55):
a mark for years, for decades or on the maps?

Speaker 2 (01:00:59):
For sure?

Speaker 1 (01:01:00):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (01:01:01):
For sure?

Speaker 3 (01:01:02):
I mean, yeah, the fans were so supportive. We finally
were getting somewhere and relevant.

Speaker 1 (01:01:10):
Yeah yeah, But the only thing that matters in Dallas
is the Cowboys, right, Ultimately.

Speaker 3 (01:01:16):
They don't play in Dallas so Wow, that's.

Speaker 2 (01:01:19):
All I'm gonna say on that they don't play Wow.

Speaker 1 (01:01:22):
Well, well, the only people that play Dallas are the
stars in the maps. So that's Dallas's only teams in
your mind?

Speaker 3 (01:01:28):
I don't Yeah, yep, they're the ones that play in Dallas.

Speaker 1 (01:01:31):
Wow. Well they're your constituents, that's for sure. Are you
running for oversight ranking? For sure?

Speaker 2 (01:01:39):
Uh? I was pretty sure I was in.

Speaker 3 (01:01:42):
I just got a phone call from a member that
may complicate my pathway.

Speaker 1 (01:01:48):
So if you could give a Keem Jefferies one piece
of advice, what would it be?

Speaker 3 (01:01:54):
I think that a piece of advice would be to
embrace all portions of are caucus as as Democrats as
a whole, and make sure that we have that implies.

Speaker 1 (01:02:06):
You don't think he has been what do you think
he's e been too? Do you think he's been too
trying to be too strategic?

Speaker 3 (01:02:12):
I think that I think we focused on being kind
of completely unified, and I think what works in one
district doesn't necessarily work in another district. And I think
being seen is given permission for everyone to kind of
be what.

Speaker 1 (01:02:27):
They have to fight. Maybe have a debate, go ahead,
let it be public a little bit. Look, this is
what happened in nineteen ninety Bill Clinton, Jesse Jackson Robe,
They had a big, loud debate, and guess what. Democratic
Party didn't lose the popular vote but twice in the
next thirty years.

Speaker 2 (01:02:46):
Yeah, so we'll see, but I've got to run.

Speaker 1 (01:02:50):
I appree, well, I appreciate your time.

Speaker 2 (01:02:53):
It's been playing.

Speaker 1 (01:02:54):
Yeah, and I'll be bugging you again in the future.

Speaker 2 (01:02:57):
Absolutely,
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