Jimmy's Pledge

Today on the Jimmy Barrett Show:

• Jimmy's pledge on Texas politics
• Runoff results

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
What we need is more common sense, breaking down the
world's nonsense.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
About how American common sense.

Speaker 3 (00:13):
We'll see this through with the common sense of Houston.
I'm just pro common sense for Houston. From Houston dot com.
This is the Jimmy Barrett Show, brought to you by
viewind dot Com.

Speaker 4 (00:29):
Now here's Jimmy Barrett. All right, welcome to the show.

Speaker 5 (00:33):
I'm gonna make a little about try to keep this pledge.
I may mean, I may end up now, don't say that, Jimmy.
Don't say you're gonna go back any word. Make the pledge.
If you're gonna do it, do it. Okay, I'm see here,
I'm talking myself into it. The Texas raw off election
was yesterday. I'm gonna try very hard on this show

(00:55):
to take a break between now and Labor Day and
now talk about Texas politics. I mean, we'll probably talk
about politics, but not talk about the races in November,
the midterm elections, at least on this show. I feel
like we're all little fatigued. We've all kind of had

(01:15):
enough for a while. We're ready to do something else.
But today today we kind of need to go through
it all. And there's a lot to go through. So
let's just go ahead and go through it. The big winners,
the big losers, the big surprises. If you thought there
were any real surprises in what happened with the election,

(01:36):
Let's start with Ken Paxton twenty five six maybe twenty
seven point win over John Cornyn. Did anybody see that
race being that wide open? I mean just pretty much amazing. Now, granted,
the Trump endorsement was the thing that got added on
towards the end of it. Was that the reason for

(01:58):
the big margin of victory or where some of the
other reasons behind it. Let's hear from Ken Paxton himself.
Here's Ken Paxton last night. You know, obviously jubilant because
that race got called like a minute after the last
pol in El Paso closed.

Speaker 2 (02:12):
Wow.

Speaker 6 (02:13):
To the people in this room, to the people watching
at home, and to the people of the great state
of Texas, tonight we just made history. I want to
thank my family, my kids, my grandchildren, the Paxton patriots,

(02:34):
and every single person here today. Without your love, your support,
and your prayers, we would not be here tonight celebrating
this incredible victory. I'd also like to thank all of
the grassroots, local, state and national leaders who supported this campaign,
including Congressman Brandon Guilt who just spoke, Lance Gooden, congress

(03:00):
Van Nells, Congressman Wesley Hunt, and Congressman Ronnie Jackson. I'd
also like to thank Scott Pressler and Turning Point Action
and Turning Point Action for their endorsements. And then there's
one person I think you might.

Speaker 2 (03:21):
Know, President Donald J.

Speaker 7 (03:25):
Trump.

Speaker 6 (03:32):
When everyone in Washington told him to abandon me and
abandon the people of Texas, he didn't listen. Instead, he
gave his complete and total endorsement.

Speaker 4 (03:42):
President Trump is the leader of our.

Speaker 6 (03:44):
Party, and his endorsement in this is the most powerful
force in politics. And I'm honored to have his support,
and I look forward to working with him in the
Senate to deliver for Texas.

Speaker 5 (03:58):
You know, I think that might be the happiest I've
ever heard Kim Paxton. I mean, winning's fun. Obviously, winning
is fun. Losing, however, yeah, not not nearly as much fun.
Here's John Cornyn in his defeat, conceding.

Speaker 7 (04:15):
After a public service career lasting more than four decades,
an eighteen consecutive campaign wins tonight. We've come up short
in this primary runoff, and a few years ago, I
had a friend of mine say, you know.

Speaker 4 (04:36):
What makes God laugh?

Speaker 2 (04:39):
He said, when we make plans.

Speaker 7 (04:43):
I've spent most of my time in the Senate building
the Republican Party in Texas, and he's in the US Senate,
and I've always supported the Republican ticket, and I intend
to do so again in this general election.

Speaker 4 (05:00):
I've said throughout this race.

Speaker 7 (05:02):
That I trust the voters of Texas, and they've made
their decision and I must respect it.

Speaker 4 (05:12):
Tonight.

Speaker 7 (05:13):
I'm joined up here by three women who mean everything
to me, and without whom I never would have enjoyed
the incredible ride in public service career that I've had
for many, many years. Of course, my wife, Sandy of
forty six years and counting, and then our daughters, Danley

(05:39):
and Haley, of whom I'm enormously.

Speaker 4 (05:42):
Proud and they mean everything to me.

Speaker 7 (05:47):
Politics is hard on families, especially, but I believe, and
I know my family believes, that public service is an
honorable calling. Serving others is a high purpose. And while
much about politics is ugly, we choose to serve through

(06:08):
the good, the bad, and the ugly.

Speaker 5 (06:12):
Yeah, And I think I think that's how he was
describing his loss. It was ugly. It was ugly when
you lose it by as many points as he did
in the run off election like that when you are
the four term incumbent. Yeah, that's that's that's pretty ugly,
no doubt about it. So we're asking listeners this morning,
did anything about this race or this this you know,

(06:34):
the Texas election that surprised you?

Speaker 4 (06:37):
Are you?

Speaker 5 (06:37):
Are you surprised that John Cornyn lost as badly as
he did? Are you surprised that Chip Roy got beat
by May's Middleton? That's kind of the question I was
working on this morning, and here's some of the answers.

Speaker 8 (06:51):
Good morning, Good morning. This is Nancy from Angleton. I
have absolutely not surprised at all that Kim Haxton beat
John Cornyn, and as far as May's Middleton and Ship Roy,
I am absolutely not surprised that.

Speaker 4 (07:04):
May's whipped Chips.

Speaker 8 (07:08):
If you have any doubts about that, go on X
and look at some of the things that Roy has
said about Maga.

Speaker 4 (07:17):
This is Debbie from Baytown.

Speaker 9 (07:19):
No, I wasn't surprised about who all won in the elections.

Speaker 4 (07:22):
I think the ones that lost were surprised. People are
tired of just talk. They want action.

Speaker 10 (07:30):
We want to see results, and hopefully we'll start to see.

Speaker 4 (07:34):
Those results coming into Fruition.

Speaker 2 (07:36):
Good morning.

Speaker 11 (07:38):
The piece that y'all are playing from TV about the
swings for Paxton and claiming that it was the Trump endorsement,
they're not mentioning Wesley Hunt and the fact that many
of Paxton's voters for the runoff.

Speaker 1 (07:55):
Were Wesley Hunt voters.

Speaker 2 (07:56):
In the primary.

Speaker 11 (07:58):
So Trump's and endorsement may have swung it, it may
not have, but they're leaving out something important.

Speaker 1 (08:04):
Jimmy, David and Oakridge, do you think that Paxton's a
huge win might have been fueled by a Democrat crossover
voters who see him as being easier to beat.

Speaker 5 (08:18):
Well, that's a good question. But the reason why I
don't think so is because that race was so close
the first time out with Wesley Hunt and the race
between Cornyn and Paxton, uh not in Corning placed third
in that by the way, and you have to vote

(08:39):
the same in the same primary. If you were a
Democrat voting in the Republican primary, you could do that
the second time, But I don't know how many people
crossover to do that really when you get right down
to it, so that that would be an interesting aspect.
I would agree with the caller though that needed more

(08:59):
about Wesley Hunt. Combination of Wesley Hunt dropping out on
the Trump and Dorsal. I think it's a combination of
those two things and just the general dislike for John
Cornyn and nothing John Cornyn did between the first primary
and the runoff did anything to improve his standing with
Republicans in the great state of Texas. All right, quick
little break, we'll continue all this in just a moment.

(09:20):
Jimmy Barrett show here. I think of nine fifty KPRC.

(09:45):
All right, let's continue, because we're just gonna go ahead
and get it all out there today. Well, anybody still
cares about the election results. Let's let's examine a couple
of other races and then we'll get some guest analysis here.
But we'll start with Let's start with the attorney general's
race again. That one was a lot closer, obviously, but

(10:06):
May's Middleton still won handily over chip Roy. I was
a little surprised at that margin victory. I thought the
margin would be razor thin on that one, and I
was incorrect about that. But here's the report on the
Texas Attorney General's race. From k h O U eleven.

Speaker 12 (10:24):
This was one of the closely watched race and i
one of the highest profile races we've been tracking. And
you can see May's middleton has been called he will
move on beating Congressmanship Roy Chip, Roy Brandon outperforming House
Senator Cornyn had been still not enough. What are your
takeaways from what we're looking at here on the map, Well,
you can see obviously a lot of green on that map.
May's Middleton is winning big in places where the voters are.

(10:47):
He also wins big in the area he represented in
the state Senate. That makes a big difference in a
low turnout race where every vote is going to count,
and for him, the branding worked MAGA. May's Middleton was
I think scoffed at our Republicans early, but he definitely
stuck and perception to be close to Trump is oftentimes
a winner at Republican circles. This was the most expensive

(11:08):
attorney general's primary in the country, breaking every record book,
so far more spending likely to come, maybe not as
much as he did in the primary, but what does
that tell us about him putting his money where his
mouth is. I think he spent eleven million dollars of
his own money to pull this off.

Speaker 4 (11:23):
Impressive.

Speaker 10 (11:24):
It's a new model for how I think candidates are
going to self fund in the future. Middleton was a
huge donor for Republicans the last several cycles, and we'll
certainly see that continue. But that money made a big difference.
He came from behind to beat Chip Roy. He was
polling in the single digits early on in the primary.
He ends up eclipsing Roy, and now we see the

(11:45):
result real quick.

Speaker 12 (11:46):
Middleton will now face a state Senator, Nathan Johnson, who
won the Democratic run. On any chance for Democrats in
this race, it's a tough lift for Democrats.

Speaker 10 (11:54):
It's an office most people don't know much about, and
getting statewide traction for Democrats is tough. The money's not
always there, the apparatus is really set for Republicans.

Speaker 4 (12:04):
So it's a big lift. Not impossible, but really tough.

Speaker 12 (12:07):
Well answer likely now.

Speaker 5 (12:09):
Well, especially too, when you consider the fact that the
candidates on the left are all progressives, many of them
are socialists, and the candidates on the right are conservatives,
Maga conservatives. I mean, you talk about a difference, man,
it's like ninth Day. I mean, there's virtually no moderate
candidates left. We'll get into that a little bit too

(12:31):
with some of our political analysis. But one more report
here before we bring some of that analysis on, and
that has to do with something a little bit closer home.
The congressional ninth district race between Briscoe Cain and Alex Meeler.
Alex Meeler, same thing, big margin of victory. Here's that
report from KPRC two.

Speaker 4 (12:49):
The best way to.

Speaker 13 (12:50):
Describe the battle between Briscoe Caain and Alex Meeler tonight
is to compare it to a championship boxing match in
Las Vegas. This was a first round knockout. Give the
win to Alex Mieler. She made very short work of
the state representative. Once those early votes from Liberty and
Harris County came in, it was obvious this was her win,

(13:14):
her victory. She addressed her supporters inside of O'Neill's here
in Baytown. She also spoke with us.

Speaker 14 (13:21):
For me, this was phase one. Now, you know, really
focused is November. That's the whole point is trying to
make sure that we can hold the House passing America
First agenda. And I'm excited to get the opportunity to
really deliver real results for the hardworking families in.

Speaker 13 (13:34):
This district, Meeler, making it very clear that the endorsement
of President Donald Trump helped her.

Speaker 4 (13:41):
Significantly with the final results this evening.

Speaker 13 (13:44):
Up next for her a showdown against the Democratic nominee
Aletesa Gataris in November's general election.

Speaker 5 (13:52):
All right, now, let's get some political analysts on all this.
We had a couple on this morning. We'll start with
vlad Davidiek his thoughts and what happened here in Texas
last night. Here is my conversation with Ladd. One thing
in particular, Bladd, and that is the far left candidates

(14:13):
one for Democrats, the mega candidates, one for Republicans, the
modern candidates all pretty much went down to defeat.

Speaker 15 (14:22):
Yeah, you're seeing that across the board, where the parties
are basically just moving completely into their corners. I think
most people understand that there's a big fight coming in
November and we can't have any kind of middle of
the ground milk dosed candidates. And so both parties went

(14:42):
to there, went all the way to their corners and
picked the the candidates most strongly aligned with the current
energy of the party and that we're seeing that on
both sides.

Speaker 5 (14:53):
Yeah, it's interesting. The other thing I'm struck by is
that Donald J. Trump was absolutely perfect every single candidate
he picked, and he picked well over one hundred candidates.
When you when you take a look at governorships, the House,
and in other major races, he was one correct on

(15:15):
every single one, Every every endorsement came through for him.
What does that tell you about those coattails?

Speaker 15 (15:20):
Well, it tells you a lot, not only because the
fact that you know, when he himself makes a choice
in a race, not only did it did it come true,
but in a lot of other races where he declined
to endorse. You can look at the Middleton versus chip
Roy race, it was pretty clear.

Speaker 2 (15:37):
That the did the.

Speaker 15 (15:39):
Party understood where he would probably align and and made
that choice. So what has happened? A lot of people
have said, well, what's going to happen when Trump has
gone and Trump doesn't endorse anybody anymore. The party is
starting to pick that mantle up. The party is starting
to impose its own MAGA test on candidates and making
sure those candidates aligned with the agenda best suited to

(16:03):
make America first.

Speaker 5 (16:04):
Do you think that the other issue that voters had
with these candidates were wasn't just that they were milk
toast or they were too moderate, they just weren't getting
anything done.

Speaker 15 (16:14):
Well, look, you have you have on both sides, you
have some some really experienced and long term elected.

Speaker 2 (16:23):
Officials who had diverging results.

Speaker 15 (16:25):
Like on the on the left, Anice Parker, who was
a longtime mayor of Houston is bought down to.

Speaker 2 (16:32):
Defeat the Letitia Plumber, who's you know.

Speaker 15 (16:35):
Uh, somebody who's never really had that level of responsibility.
On the right, you know, for Harris County judge, you
have some of Orlando Sanchez who has prevailed over a
really strongly aligned MAGA aligned Warren hell Uh. But I
think their voters made the choices that for the strongest

(16:56):
candidates that are aligned with their party that can win
in November.

Speaker 2 (17:00):
And so it's pretty clear on both sides.

Speaker 15 (17:04):
And even in the party chairman race, I mean, you
had somebody who's Cindy Siegel, who's been the incumbent party chairman,
prevail against a challenger because she's been able to prove
that she can win. So both sides are moving in
the direction of preparing for November. They're not necessarily looking

(17:24):
at which one is best aligned right now, but looking
down the road.

Speaker 2 (17:28):
For the best opportunity to win in November.

Speaker 5 (17:30):
Any of the results really surprise you, For mister, I'm
not really surprised, except perhaps by the margin of victory
in some of those races.

Speaker 15 (17:38):
I'm a little surprised on the Democrats side that Plumber
is over at Anas Parker. But at the same time,
I'm kind of not surprised because the left has really
embraced leftists and leftism and socialism and progressivism more than
responsible governance. So it's not surprising that the Democrats would
pick somebody who's very similar to.

Speaker 2 (18:00):
And Headwlage are replaced with Headwough.

Speaker 15 (18:02):
And on the right, I'm really surprised at the margins,
how badly John.

Speaker 2 (18:07):
Corny and lost to Ken Paxton, and.

Speaker 15 (18:09):
That all materialized after President Trump made his endorsement, and
saying with Alex Miller and brisco Kine, both of those
races really demonstrate the power and the strength of the
President's endorsement and how important it is to the publican
party right now.

Speaker 16 (18:22):
You know.

Speaker 5 (18:22):
One of our listeners did point out though in fairness
in the in the Middleton roy race that are not
that race. But when the race that Wesley Hunt pulled
out of, I mean, that's a lot of votes went
to Ken Baxton without Wesley Hunt and the race yeah.

Speaker 15 (18:38):
Well, and a lot of people are thinking maybe a lot.

Speaker 2 (18:41):
Of those Wesley Hunters would have.

Speaker 15 (18:42):
Flipped to Cornyn, but I think a lot of those
votes were waiting to see what President Trump would would recommend,
and those clearly, clearly all of those votes for Wesley.

Speaker 2 (18:54):
Hunt went to John Corny.

Speaker 15 (18:55):
And it's unfortunate that Cornan waited this long. He could
have could have left one at the end of this
current term and announced he was going to step aside,
and he shows to stay in the race because he
didn't trust President Trump would would help guide the party.

Speaker 2 (19:10):
And the results speak for themselves.

Speaker 4 (19:13):
Yeah, they do, there's no doubt about that.

Speaker 5 (19:15):
All Right, more political analysts coming up here in just
a Moment's stick with us, please, Jimmy Barrett show here
on AM nine fifty KPRC.

Speaker 4 (19:34):
All right, let's continue our analysis.

Speaker 5 (19:36):
And like I said, we're very election centric today because
obviously the Roy up election was yesterday and we want
to do it while it's fresh. And then I promise
we're going to be taking a break at least on
our program. I'm going to take a break in talking
that kind of politics about the midterms until hopefully until
Labor Day or or slightly thereafter. I could use a
few months off, how about you. Chris Bagala was also

(19:58):
one of my guests. He's all good to talk to
you about national politics and local politics. He follows both.
Here's my conversation with him about those election results, what
he may have found surprising, and what he thinks all
of this means. What killed John Corny's political career last night?

Speaker 16 (20:13):
Chris, Oh, jeez, you know he lost by so much.
He just lost sight I think of conservative base Republican voters,
and spent much of his time thinking, doing and acting
like you know, your basic foundational political individual.

Speaker 7 (20:38):
You know.

Speaker 4 (20:39):
It just he lost so much last night.

Speaker 9 (20:44):
And it's a combination of over the years, you know,
just just drifting away and being a political animal instead
of thinking about where his constituents are.

Speaker 4 (20:55):
And where they want him to be.

Speaker 9 (20:57):
It's amazing to spend a hunt hundred and I still
can't believe it, but to spend one hundred and fifty
million dollars in a Republican primary, and then the day
of the vote, John Cornyn went on CNN and said, well,
you know what, if Ken Paxton wins, Republicans are going

(21:19):
to waste one hundred million dollars for him to have
to run as a United States Senator in the state
of Texas.

Speaker 4 (21:26):
He said that knowing he just blew one.

Speaker 9 (21:29):
Hundred and fifty million dollars in a primary. So you know,
that's just another example not a bad guy, just not
a very good politician and didn't really think about his
constituents the last few years. But it just gives you
a glimpse of where he was.

Speaker 4 (21:46):
Yeah, no doubt about it.

Speaker 5 (21:47):
I think it also says a lot about where Texas
voters are because whether you're talking about a Democrat candidate
or Republican candidate, it was the I want to say
the extremes. Necessarily in some cases, I believe it's the
extra dreams, but it certainly is the very progressive extreme
for the Democrats and it's at the mega end for
the Republicans. There's no more monitors out there. Those monitors

(22:08):
are all getting picked off one by one. There's no
doubt about that.

Speaker 9 (22:14):
And you know, this sent a chill across all of
moderate Republicans in the United States when Donald Trump went
in there and said, hey, I'm behind Paxton.

Speaker 4 (22:27):
Now'll make no mistake about it. Trump played it.

Speaker 9 (22:30):
You know, you could say, well, my gosh, why didn't
you jump in there earlier.

Speaker 4 (22:34):
Well, he played it right. Politically.

Speaker 9 (22:36):
He did the shrewd maneuver of staying out and thinking, well,
maybe I'll have Cornn's vote for you know, the Save
of America Act or a few other pieces of legislation
which never had come about.

Speaker 4 (22:51):
But at least he stayed in there till the end.

Speaker 9 (22:53):
And then he went in and his internal polls told
him for sure that his base Republican voters in this
Texas we're supremely against Cornyn and Paxton was gonna win.

Speaker 4 (23:06):
So, you know, you could say Trump pushed him.

Speaker 9 (23:08):
Over the finish line, maybe a few extra points, so
Paxton was gonna win anyways, and Trump played it right,
and it sends a message across the country that, yeah,
in the Republican Party, if you're in a primary and
you've got Donald Trump on your side, you're gonna win.

Speaker 5 (23:25):
Well, no doubt about it. After all, he endorsed in
over one hundred races in all, In all of those races,
his candidate the one he endorsed, one, every single one.

Speaker 9 (23:36):
Yeah, those are some strong tail wins. And look, he's
gonna have a hard time. President Trump's gonna have a
hard time getting any piece of legislation up, much less
winning one from now until the midterms.

Speaker 4 (23:50):
Good luck there. But as far as who do you
need to.

Speaker 9 (23:55):
Try to get across the finish line, if you're in
a primary as a Republican, you can forget it if.

Speaker 4 (24:00):
Donald Trumps catch you.

Speaker 9 (24:01):
This is as strong an incumbent as we've seen in
you know, forever.

Speaker 5 (24:08):
Basically, what does this say to people like John Thune?
Because I still believe that at least a part of
the Trump endorsement of Ken Paxon was retribution for John
Thune and John Cornyn being unable to get the Save
of America Act through.

Speaker 4 (24:23):
Yeah.

Speaker 9 (24:24):
Well, you know, look, what it tells Tune is that
as long as you are in the United States Senate,
you may be the Senate majority leader, but as soon
as you get into a primary, you can kiss it goodbye.
And that's what it tells him, and it tells other

(24:44):
you know, Republicans, you don't mess with Trump if you
want to win, don't mess with him. To tell you
the truth, though I really do not think I could
go on and on, you know, telling you how pathetic
tune has been in so far as the majority leader.
But besides that, Donald Trump's not going to get any

(25:04):
legislation passed from here on out.

Speaker 4 (25:07):
He just won't. I'll be stunned.

Speaker 9 (25:10):
But it tells soon and it tells others if you
can forget it, if you don't have Trump.

Speaker 4 (25:15):
There's no doubt about that.

Speaker 9 (25:17):
And I thought it was really interesting jumping over to
the Democrats real quick, former mayor, three term mayor, a
niece Parker couldn't beat Latitia.

Speaker 4 (25:27):
Plumber County wide. Crazy, that's wild.

Speaker 9 (25:29):
That is so Latisa Plumber will go up against Orlando
Sanchez for a county judge.

Speaker 4 (25:34):
That'll be quite a choice.

Speaker 9 (25:35):
Wanting you know, look, you gotta go DEM Harris County.
But that is really surprising. If you're a niece Parker,
you just couldn't even beat almost.

Speaker 4 (25:48):
A no name DEM county wide.

Speaker 5 (25:50):
That's really surprising. Same yet it is, but by the
same token, it's the same thing. Nobody wants the status quote,
nobody wants a moderate career politician, and Denise Parker is
quite honestly not moderate enough for my taste, but he
starts to the imagination. But for progressives, she's way too moderate.

(26:13):
And that's that party has gone about as far left
as you can go, and they continue to march in
that direction, and just like the Republican Party continues to
march to the right. Now, I'm very comfortable with that,
but I'm not comfortable with what the progressives are doing
over in the and the socialists are doing on the left.
But again we we Just when you thought that there

(26:36):
couldn't be a bigger divide, that there couldn't be a
bigger difference between the right and the left in this country,
it gets even bigger. It gets even bigger.

Speaker 15 (26:46):
Now.

Speaker 5 (26:46):
You would think in a place like Texas there would
still be some moderates, you know, there's still be some
John Whitmyers out there. But if John Whitmyer had to
run for mayor tomorrow, I don't think John Whitmeyer would
have a whole lot of luck because he's you know,
the progressive left doesn't like him. They consider him a

(27:07):
Republican light and and the and the conservative base thinks
he's a little bit too far to the left. So
again he's one of he's part of a disappearing breed.
Moderates just pretty much don't exist hardly anymore at all.
The martyrs continued to disappear. So at what point in

(27:29):
time do we get to where the the the divide
is so great that we just can't continue as a country.
You know, I've oftentimes wondered about that. I've I've said
it out a loud many times, so many times I
kind of scare myself sometimes to think that, you know,
this is like pre civil war, but it's getting more

(27:49):
and more like pre civil war all the time. Is
is there a point where everything starts moving back in
the other direction again or do we just kind of
keep going in the direction going?

Speaker 4 (28:00):
Now?

Speaker 5 (28:01):
All right, quick little break back with our final segment
in the moment, Jimmy Barrett Show here at AM nine
fifty KPRC. All right, let's send our final segment today.

(28:23):
Let's take a break for the politics and talk about
something else. I used to play high school football. I
got recruited to play college football, didn't play my own choice,
mainly recruited by Division two schools. I was an All
State high school football player for not that I'm not
trying to brag or anything. I'm just saying I was

(28:43):
a pretty good football player. I just wasn't very big
six to two twenty pounds, not very big for an
offensive lineman, and that was the position I played, so
when I take a look, but again, I was All States,
So I was a pretty good football player and probably
could have played at the college level if I was
willing to play Division two. But I've just any way,

(29:05):
long story short, it didn't play. So here's the question.
When I see a story like this, our parents, you know,
we hear all the time. We complain all the time
that parents have these unrealistic dreams of their children being
great athletes who make millions of dollars. And I think

(29:28):
that the nil this name image and like this money
is making the problem even worse. And kids, of course,
when you were a kid, you probably thought, well, I'm
going to be a professional baseball player, or I'm going
to be a professional whatever. Kids think like that, but
that's usually where a parent kind of reels them in
a little bit and says, hey, listen here, Johnny, you
know you're a pretty good little baseball player. But I

(29:50):
don't think the Houston Astros are going to be signing
you up any time soon. There's millions of players that
are better than you know, trying to bring a little realism.
I don't think a lot of parents seem to do
that anymore. So I saw this story about eighth graders
red shirting and thinking, what does that even mean? How

(30:11):
do you red shirt an eighth grader? Well, evidently, just
before they go to high school, some parents are holding
their kids back a year, repeating the eighth grade, so
that their child can grow another year older, another year stronger,
another year bigger, and enhance their chances of being a

(30:36):
more successful high school sports star, and therefore a better
possibility of getting a scholarship or even better, get nil
money to go on to college because they're just going
to be awesome sports stars. Now, some of these kids
may actually be legitimately be talented. I don't know, And

(30:57):
I'd like to think that there's very few parents that
would go along with his bi ice all the feature
in Fox. Here's that feature from Fox on red shirted
eighth graders.

Speaker 17 (31:05):
So, Santra, did your parents ever say you better get
your grades up?

Speaker 4 (31:08):
Little lady? Or you're gonna repeat eighth grade.

Speaker 17 (31:10):
Well now some thirteen year olds are doing it by choice,
hoping to get into a better school, a bigger scholarship,
or more nil money.

Speaker 18 (31:19):
I play baseball because I love the game. But it's
cool to know that if I do what I love,
I'll get a little bit of money out of it.

Speaker 17 (31:27):
Carter Cancellary is attending eighth grade a second time by choice.

Speaker 10 (31:32):
It's given him an extra year to work on both
his academic skills and his athletic skills.

Speaker 17 (31:39):
Fifteen year old Carter is part of a growing trend
of young athletes reclassing.

Speaker 19 (31:43):
What's first students that are currently in eighth grade and
they get an additional year of middle school to delay
their start of high school. Once you start high school,
you have a four year clock academically and athletically.

Speaker 17 (31:57):
Michael Hatcher started the Elite Performance Academy at a public
middle school in Orange County, California.

Speaker 19 (32:03):
Kids can come in person and have access to two
separate classes. One is a speeding agility class and also
a strength and power class.

Speaker 17 (32:12):
After losing students to private schools, Hatcher decided to give
parents what they wanted. I'm witnessing more people doing it
and doing it wrong, to be honest, or doing it loudly.
Consultant Shane Howard offers families a reality check.

Speaker 4 (32:27):
It's a one percent chance for them to go D
one one percent for D two one percent.

Speaker 17 (32:32):
Of eight million high school students in sports, only seven
percent will play in college.

Speaker 4 (32:38):
So far, ten students.

Speaker 17 (32:40):
Signed up for Hatcher's Performance Academy, but across town enrollment
at this private sports program is booming.

Speaker 4 (32:47):
It's not cheap.

Speaker 17 (32:48):
Parents pay thousands a year at schools like this, but
believe the investment is worth it.

Speaker 18 (32:53):
Hopefully when I get to them, I'll be in I'm
making a lot more money than fifty k. I'll be
able to pan back well well worked.

Speaker 4 (32:59):
I would do it again an heartbeat.

Speaker 5 (33:02):
Interesting that was the dad, by the way, at the
very end there, I would do it again in a heartbeat.
So maybe he just believes his kid is that talented
that he's going to be a professional baseball player, And
maybe he's right, or maybe he is a little delusional.
What do you think of that idea?

Speaker 2 (33:22):
Though?

Speaker 5 (33:23):
I mean, there's worse things I guess in life than
being held back. At least he's not being helped back.
As far as we know, at least he's not being
held back because of academics. I mean, there are plenty
of kids that repeat a grade in order to make
sure that they have enough academics to move on to
the next grade. But that's the first time I've ever

(33:46):
heard where you can get a public school system to
agree to the idea that we're going to hold a
kid back who's perfectly academically eligible to move on to
the ninth grade. We're going to hold him back because
you want him held back. He can get another year
older and more experience to hopefully do better in sports
in high school. That part of it concerns me a

(34:08):
little bit, but you know, I guess we'll see. Yep,
reality will bite soon enough for these kids. I'm sure
all listen appreciate you being out there. Thank you for listening.
At least the morning or the afternoon drive home is
a little better than the morning drive was.

Speaker 2 (34:23):
Right.

Speaker 5 (34:23):
We'll see you tomorrow morning, bighten early at five am
over our news radio seven rh hope to have you
back here at four on a nine fifty KPRC