July 16, 2025 • 28 mins
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Good morning, July fifteenth. Yesterday was the filing deadline for
semi annual state campaign finance reports. Those can often tell
us a lot. Let's see what we learn from this
year's state contributions over ten thousand. I'll go over those
(00:21):
in just a moment. Those are big donors. Some of
the highlights. Greg Abbott is sixty seven years old. On
November thirteenth, he'll turn sixty eight. He is the longest
serving incumbent governor in the country. He is up for
reelection should he run next year, and he will, which
(00:43):
would give him a fourth term should he win. That
has never been done in Texas history, a governor to
be elected in four separate gubernatorial elections. He raised twenty million,
one one hundred thousand. He has eighty six million dollars
(01:05):
cash on hand. Greg Abbott has pluses and minuses. His
minuses are he doesn't actually believe in very much. He's
not a leader. He's not willing to go against the critics.
(01:27):
He likes to coast. He's not a guy with an agenda,
a burning desire to accomplish. See Donald Trump had been
outside of political life, candidate wise, his entire life. If
he wanted something done, he needed a senator or president
to do it for him. When he got into office,
(01:50):
he knew he just had a minute and he wanted
to get everything done and fast. And you see that,
you see a person with a burning desire to accomplish overnight.
Devil may care. Criticize him how you want. That is
not Greg Abbott. Greg Abbott likes to be in the office.
(02:10):
If he's got to do something because you've made it
a big issue, then he'll do a little something, but
not because he wants to, not because he believes in it.
The Texans for Greg Abbott have raised twenty million, one
hundred thousand for the first half of this year, giving
him eighty six million dollars cash on hand. That is
(02:33):
enough to ward off a challenger in the primary, and
that is eighteen months well fifty what seventeen months before
a November election next year. That is enough to run
a campaign. And if he has a challenger, he'll be
(02:53):
able to raise even more. Twenty million raised eighty six
million on hand, of course, roll over what you've had before.
Dan Patrick has announced that, at seventy five years old,
he will run for Lieutenant governor next year, which would
make his fourth term. Doesn't break the record, but would
make his fourth term. He was in present, he was endorsed,
(03:17):
and it ain't an auto pen. It's a real endorsement
by President Trump. He raised five million this first half
of the year, giving him thirty seven million cash on hand.
That's enough to ward off a primary challenger and probably
even enough to run an election next November. But of
(03:38):
course you would want to keep raising. Dustin Burrows, the
Speaker of the House, raised one million dollars. He has
two million dollars cash on hand. That's an important number
because a speaker, this is what davee Vieland did, and
in races that are close, a speaker will give money
(04:00):
to candidates that are loyal to him to ward off
a primary opponent. If you don't have a lot of
money to do that with, then you don't have the power.
Texans for Lawsuit Reform Pack political Action Committee, by far
the most powerful pack in the state, raised eleven million.
They have thirty seven million cash on hand. There were
(04:22):
four one million dollar contributions, including from Dick Weekly. The
Judicial Fairness Pack, which is another Dick Weekly pack, had
four million dollar contributions, including from Dick Weekly Joan Huffman.
Now we turn to the attorney general race, where right
now we have three, maybe four candidates running. Johan Huffman,
(04:44):
state senator, raised seven hundred and sixty three thousand. She
has just over three million cash on hand. Mays Middleton,
a state senator, raised one hundred and sixty six thousand,
not nearly as much, but he has ten point two
million dollars cash on hand, and that includes a ten
million dollar loan. There is a rumor that Mays Middleton
(05:08):
could self finance this campaign. He's married into a wealthy family.
I don't know how far that self financing goes. Only
raising one hundred and sixty six million is not a
good sign. My guess is that John Huffman will get
the Texans for Lawsuit Reform money, although Mays Middleton did
collect a check from them. Aaron Wrights is the third
(05:29):
candidate in that so you have two state senators. Aaron Wrights,
who worked for Ken Paxton is now at the Department
of Justice, raised two point one million dollars. He is
not an elected official. That is catching a lot of attention.
He raised more than Huffman and Middleton combined. She with
seven sixty three May's with one sixty six, Aaron Wrights
(05:51):
with two point one million. There is the rumor that
Trump's going to support him. I am told by some
in other camps that is not true. I don't know
it would make a big difference. There is a rumor
that Ken Paxson will support him. Many people tell me
that's not true. That's an impression they're trying to give
either way. Two point one million for his campaign is
(06:12):
a pretty strong showing. Sean Tier, the Harris County District Attorney,
raised sixty million, sixty thousand dollars and has thirty nine
thousand dollars cash on hand. Lena had Allgo raised a
paltry twenty six thousand dollars. She has six hundred thousand
dollars cash on hand. That's going to be a real
(06:32):
problem if she runs for county judge. If she runs,
because An Eeseporker is going to be able to raise
a lot of money. She's got a lot of rich
white liberal Newstonians. Erica Lee's got some support Partition Plumbobile
to raise a little I think Lena's President. Trump wants
(06:57):
five new congressional Sea yeats redistricted in the state of Texas,
and he has every right to demand it. Here's the problem.
In order to do that, he needs to rely on
Greg Abbott, the governor, to make it happen. The reason
(07:20):
deportation is so dangerous to Democrats is those are their voters.
If you drain out just the illegal aliens, they lose
congressional seats in California, in Texas, and in many other states,
but particularly in those two plus New York and Florida.
(07:42):
The difference is estimated between about twenty and twenty eight
congressional seats across the country. That is an unwinnable, undefeatable margin.
Democrats would not have any influence in the House of Representatives.
You could have a few flake Congressmen on whatever issue
(08:02):
and it wouldn't matter. You would have a dominant House majority, which,
by the way, Democrats did for fifty years until New
Gingrich led the Republican Coalition that won in ninety four,
midway through Bill Clinton's first term. I will turn this
(08:24):
one over to I believe it was Brandon Walton's who
wrote this. When he says, will Democrats walk out again?
Special session agenda revives quorum busting talk. This is Brandon
Walton's with the with Texas Core Court. There were virtually
no consequences when Democrats fled in twenty twenty one. Could
(08:47):
Texas Democrats break quorum again? It's a question resurfacing in
political circles after Governor Greg Abbott unveiled an eighteen item
agenda for the upcoming special session largely packed with conservative
priorities that stalled during the regular legislative session. But what's
(09:09):
really turning up the temperature is an effort to redraw
congressional maps to increase the Republican majority in Congress. President
Donald Trump has told members he wants to see five
new Republican seats from Texas. That's the same issue that
sparked the infamous two thousand and three walk out, when
(09:30):
fifty one Democrat members of the Texas House boarded a
pair of charter buses and fled to Ardmore, Oklahoma. Their
goal to deny the House a quorum and block a
Republican led congressional redistricting plan backed by then House Speaker
Tom Cratick and US House Majority Leader Tom Delay will
(09:50):
come back to Tom Delay. The standoff lasted four days
until the clock ran out on the session, when Governor
Rick Perry called a special session to revive the redistrict effort.
Democrats in the Texas Senate followed suit, this time fleeing
to Albuquerque, New Mexico. That stand off dragged on for
over a month, but ultimately failed to stop Republicans from
(10:11):
pushing through a new mount that helped shift the state's
congressional delegation further to the right. More recently, in twenty
twenty one, Democrats once again fled the state over election
integrity legislation. Nearly sixty House Democrats chartered private planes to Washington,
d C. Claiming to fight for voting rights. Their absence
(10:33):
ground legislative business to a halt for thirty eight days. Eventually,
members began to trickle back, quorum was restored, and the
legislation was passed. Despite breaking quorum and leaving the state
for over a month, there were virtually no consequences. Lawmakers
continued collecting their pay, held onto their committee positions, and
returned without any meaningful reprimand now with redistricting once again
(10:59):
on the call, and reports that national Democrats are urging
another walkout. Questions or building over whether Governor Greg Abbot
will implement stricter deterrence, such as declaring the seats of
absent lawmaker's vacant as of publication. Abbot's office has not
responded to a request for comment, of course not. Meanwhile,
(11:21):
in Washington, d C. US House Minority Minority Leader Hakim
Jeffries appeared alongside members of the Texas congressional delegation on
Tuesday to accuse Abbot of using the special session to
quote conspire to rig the congressional map in the wake
of the deadly Hill Country floods. Well, this is an
opportunity for Greg Abbott, and you know duncan means yo.
(11:49):
John Cornyn, who is in real trouble, trailing over twenty
points behind Attorney General Ken Paxton, has d debuted an
ad today. We'll talk about that in a moment. But
his fundraising report shows two point three million dollars raised
(12:15):
from January of this year through the end of June.
Two point three million, well almost two point four I'll
given benefit of doubt. Ken Paxton's report, which only begins
on April first through June thirtieth, has him at two
point nine. Fundraising is not the sole determinant of who wins,
(12:42):
but Fundraising early can be a determinant of what of
two things. Number one, are people willing to put their
money into the race? Well, we know the swamp will
Carl has access to a lot of money. There are
(13:03):
a lot of people who don't have the energy to
keep up with the race in Wyoming and a congressional
race in California and another one in Montana. So they
give their money to Rove and they count on him
to go in and do it. Well, that's not always bad,
(13:28):
but it's often. It's often the reason that we end
up with a Dustin Burrows as speaker or a Dade
Fhlan as speaker and a big fund to defend himself.
Ken Paxton only announced on April eighth, so he got
(13:52):
into the race January February March ninety almost one hundred
days later than Cornyn, and he already out raised him.
Brandon Waltons with Texas Scorecard, authored the piece that I
read to you just a moment about the quorum busting
in the lack of any real punishment last time, Brandon,
welcome to the program.
Speaker 2 (14:13):
They always good to be on.
Speaker 1 (14:15):
So we've got an eighteen agenda item special session before
US President Trump is counting on the governor of Texas
to shepherd this thing through. I'm getting the sense that
you share my concern that Abbot won't have the stones
to get this done.
Speaker 2 (14:38):
Well, you know, look, I don't know whether Governor Abbot
will or won't. What I do know is that Democrats,
when presented with a similar set of circumstances twenty years ago,
a mid cycle redistricting, they left right. They went to Oklahoma,
they went to New Mexico to try to stop that.
We know that Democrats broke quorum four year ago, and
(15:00):
that was just for election integrity legislation. You know, redistricting
is done right will cost them seats in Congress. This
is a you know, an existential threat to Democrats, and
there's not really been you know, four years ago, there
were no consequences, like you said, I mean, they came back,
they had their committee positions, they had their offices, they
(15:23):
you know whatever. There were no real consequences when they
came back. And so the question is, you know, are
there going to be is it going to be some
stronger enforcement to make sure that they don't try to
do this again. We haven't heard from the governor on
this so I don't know, you know what he is
or isn't willing to do, but I do know that
you know, last time, you know, it wasn't enough. It
(15:44):
certainly didn't deter them from leaving. And there's a lot
of questions right now when you look at national Democrats
like a Keem Jeffries are sort of goating Texas Democrats
to leave, as questions about whether or not that'll happen again.
Speaker 1 (16:00):
Brandon Walton's Texan scorecard is our guests, But I would
assert that Democrats have a better do a better job
of wrangling their people from top to bottom. They're much
more a hierarchical structure from the top down. They've got
funding behind that, whether that be Soros or another different organizations,
whereas Republicans tend to be a much more loosely even
(16:24):
if you want to call it organized group. I just
I wonder to the extent I wonder the extent to
which President Trump's wishes can be carried out when when
when they don't necessarily have a anything personal to gain.
I don't know, I'm raising the question.
Speaker 2 (16:43):
No, I think I think it's a great question, And
I'll say this, you know, when this redistricting issue was
first brought up a couple of weeks ago when it
was put on the call for the special session. Most
people look at that and said, okay, maybe too, maybe
maybe we'll we'll be able to two more Republican seats.
The President said yesterday he wants to see five, which
(17:06):
is going to require some you know, some real work
and and but it's something at the same time that's
going to cause Democrats to to want to push back obviously.
And the question is, you know, are are is the governors,
the Speaker of the House Dustin Burrows, are they going
to be willing to actually do what needs to be
(17:27):
done to say, look, you know, for example, we've had
some lawyers. I'm not a lawyer, but but some have
looked and said, look, the governor if they if they leave,
they don't show up, they leave the state. The governor
can can essentially say you need to come back to
your seat. It's going to be vacant. We're gonna have
a special election for your seat. There are new rules
put in place that go after you know that, that
(17:48):
find people who break quorum. But even then, right there's
sort of questions about whether or not that'll be in
forest or if that will even be a drop in
the bucket, especially if you know the National Democrat Party
wants to pick up the bill for that, and so, uh,
you know, there's there's just going to need to be
you know, more gun. I think Attorney General compacton yesterday
said that, you know, if they tried to do that,
(18:12):
they needed they need to be arrested. They're certainly in
powered to arrest and bring these people back to the
Capitol and hopefully if that happens, that that's, uh, that's
a step they're willing to take.
Speaker 1 (18:22):
Well, I'm not one who believes that Dustin Burrows is
either a true Republican nor a man of great conviction.
But Matt Rinaldi had a great tweet yesterday. He said,
wait until Trump realizes the only thing keeping him from
winning this redistricting fight is the guy flaunting his endorsement
won't arrest Democrats breaking quorum because their votes elected him.
(18:44):
Speaker Brandon. I don't know how how deeply you dig
into Harris County politics, but I harkened back to a
few years ago. We had a Republican county commissioner named
Cactus Jack Cagel and Rodney Ellis, who's the boss of
of Harris County politics and runs heard over everyone. He
just he just redistricted Jack Cagele out of his commissioner's
(19:09):
seat and replaced him with his hand picked John Arnold
picked Leslie Brioni's Democrat and now a four to one
Republican commissioner's court in Harris County is a four to
one Democrat. And everyone hooted and hollered and said, oh,
there's no way he can get away with that, But
he did because in politics, might makes right, and I
think if Trump can pull this off, they can bitch
(19:30):
and moan all they want, but we'll be grateful for it,
you know. At at at the end of the day.
Wonderful piece by you, by the way in Texas scorecard
on that and you folks are doing great work. Is
this guy trimor is that he works with y'all? Doesn't he?
Oh yeah, he's fantastic, he is, absolutely. I know he's
new and he's fantastic. Women are chief Michael mary Man.
(19:53):
I think that there might.
Speaker 2 (19:54):
Because I got nothing going on down there.
Speaker 1 (19:56):
Probably Houston Public Media, it's not exactly a conservative outlet.
Headline Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton opens investigation into allegations
of quote potential non citizens end quote voting in Harris
County that means illegal aliens. The investigation, which also targets
(20:20):
Cameron County, Eastland County, and Guadeloupe County, comes ahead of
a special legislative session in which state lawmakers will consider
giving the Attorney General's office the authority to prosecute election crimes.
You'll remember our state Supreme Court took that power away
(20:40):
from the Attorney General, which was carte blanche to Rodney
Ellis to run amok to cheat elections. I will remind you.
First we had Chas Bono, remember her. They brought her
or him or whatever it was in to be the
(21:02):
Longoria was her name, and she was the elections administrator
and she was brought in to cheat. Well, they did
a dry run during the primaries. Republicans didn't even complain
because the cheating was done within the Democrat primary. And
the way that was done is Rodney had his candidates
(21:25):
he wanted to win, and in Democrat seats he had
to replace them with Democrats. So this time the fraud
got real attention because this time it was against Democrats.
There was a hue and cry, and well, they couldn't
they couldn't put that one down. So jas Bono was
(21:51):
given several more months of pay. I believe she was
vested in a retirement plan and she was given Chuck
Cheese gift cards for life. I don't know about that last,
but I just suspect I have a feeling. I have
a feeling. You get feelings sometimes. Well, then they brought
in Clifford Tatum. This was when Rodney knew he was
(22:13):
in trouble. Lena Hidalgo was going to lose and they
knew it. They were looking at polling. Alex Meeler was
going to beat her, and he couldn't have that. He
has to be able to control that. This is sort
of like the Biden administration. Democrats had to win to
(22:33):
keep control of the purse strings and the power and
the positions, but they also had to win to fend
off prosecution. I think Rodney's strategy is if he can
stay in power till he dies, you can't prosecute him.
(22:54):
He knows what he's done. He knows what he's done
more than anyone knows what he he's done, and he
has to be scared that somebody's gonna come in there
and reopen all those investigations with an intention of actually
prosecuting them. He can't control if that happens from the
state or the Feds, especially not with Trump as president.
(23:18):
But it's been a sort of hands off in Austin
toward Harris County. And I know that folks in Harris
County have been very angry. Greg Abbott, where are you?
Why can't you put a Secretary of state in there
who works for you to prosecute election fraud in Harris County?
(23:39):
And for that matter, Bettencourt, for all his talk, has
never really done anything. And he's on the evening news
every evening as if he's done something. Ah, the toll
road money, the toll road and money needs to be
given back. And then's, oh, there's tough talking Bettancourt, Oh,
toll road money to be given back. You ever follow
up what happens on that? For all the time tough
(24:00):
talk in all of the various interviews, he never actually
accomplishes any of it. Oh, betten Corey are fighting for us.
The only thing Bettencourt is fighting for is more tax
protest customers. This is a guy who was tax assessor
collector at Harris County, resigned so that he could so
(24:21):
that folks could open a tax protest firm in his name,
and then resigns from the position he was elected to
and then runs for state senator because as state senator
he could talk tough, go back and forth to Austin,
and get paid a bunch of money for tax protests.
(24:46):
So he'd we gotta fight the tax increases really for
pay or as a senator. Bettencourt doesn't want to see
your taxes go lower in court benefits from your taxes
going sky high because his firm then protests those taxes.
(25:06):
It's not just the Democrats running game on you, folks,
Let's be clear on that. So we've got Paxton pushing
to prosecute in these Harris County elections. Well, what's interesting
about this is Paxton's office as they have over one
(25:26):
hundred potential non citizens that's illegal aliens voting in the
two recent election cycles that goes back to twenty twenty two.
The investigation is focused heavily on alleged election crimes in
Harris County. That's where it has happened and we all
know it illegal aliens and foreign nationals must not be
(25:50):
allowed to influence Texas elections by casting illegal ballots with impunity. Well,
we know it did happen. In fact, Clifford Tatum, who
was brought in to be the elections administrator skip Town
after that election, remember that, Remember all the scandals around that.
(26:10):
But like the assassin he is. He was paid the
big money, some of it by taxpayers. Who knows what
he got under the table, maybe nothing, but I wouldn't
count on it. He comes in. They rigged that election.
Hidalgo wins. Republicans have mustered everything they can to beat
(26:35):
haidalgo In, the candidate of Alex Meeler, and still lose. Well,
we know a number of things had happened, the biggest
of which was Republicans said, and I hear it, I
heard every election drives me crazy. We won't vote early.
We won't vote early, and then they won't know how
(26:56):
many ballots to stuff so they can pull the data.
Republicans weren't voting early. Republicans were sandbagging till the very end.
And on the last day of the general election, Republicans
were going to go in and vote, and then you
wouldn't be able to cheat enough. So what did they do?
(27:16):
They didn't send ballots to the Republican voting locations. It's
always better to vote early, always better, because everybody who
says I'm gonna vote, I'm gonna wait till the last day.
Some percentage of those people end up getting sick. A
relative gets sick, a friend ends up in an accident,
(27:38):
it ends up raining, you get sent on a work project,
something happens, your kid gets in trouble, you get called
to the school, there's a flood, whatever that is. Harris
County's elections are absolutely third world criminal and Rodney has
run rough shot over this county period, end of story,
(28:02):
and something needs to be done about it. You want
to talk about what, what what makes people? What prevents
people from wanting to be involved in elections? To bust
your ass in an election, give everything you've got, get
everybody else excited, and get them to vote, and they
cheat so much that you still lose. The next time
(28:23):
people don't they don't even want to participate, and that
that that's the scarecrow effect. They don't have to be
You beat yourself at that point. It's frustrating.
Good morning, July fifteenth. Yesterday was the filing deadline for
semi annual state campaign finance reports. Those can often tell
us a lot. Let's see what we learn from this
year's state contributions over ten thousand. I'll go over those
(00:21):
in just a moment. Those are big donors. Some of
the highlights. Greg Abbott is sixty seven years old. On
November thirteenth, he'll turn sixty eight. He is the longest
serving incumbent governor in the country. He is up for
reelection should he run next year, and he will, which
(00:43):
would give him a fourth term should he win. That
has never been done in Texas history, a governor to
be elected in four separate gubernatorial elections. He raised twenty million,
one one hundred thousand. He has eighty six million dollars
(01:05):
cash on hand. Greg Abbott has pluses and minuses. His
minuses are he doesn't actually believe in very much. He's
not a leader. He's not willing to go against the critics.
(01:27):
He likes to coast. He's not a guy with an agenda,
a burning desire to accomplish. See Donald Trump had been
outside of political life, candidate wise, his entire life. If
he wanted something done, he needed a senator or president
to do it for him. When he got into office,
(01:50):
he knew he just had a minute and he wanted
to get everything done and fast. And you see that,
you see a person with a burning desire to accomplish overnight.
Devil may care. Criticize him how you want. That is
not Greg Abbott. Greg Abbott likes to be in the office.
(02:10):
If he's got to do something because you've made it
a big issue, then he'll do a little something, but
not because he wants to, not because he believes in it.
The Texans for Greg Abbott have raised twenty million, one
hundred thousand for the first half of this year, giving
him eighty six million dollars cash on hand. That is
(02:33):
enough to ward off a challenger in the primary, and
that is eighteen months well fifty what seventeen months before
a November election next year. That is enough to run
a campaign. And if he has a challenger, he'll be
(02:53):
able to raise even more. Twenty million raised eighty six
million on hand, of course, roll over what you've had before.
Dan Patrick has announced that, at seventy five years old,
he will run for Lieutenant governor next year, which would
make his fourth term. Doesn't break the record, but would
make his fourth term. He was in present, he was endorsed,
(03:17):
and it ain't an auto pen. It's a real endorsement
by President Trump. He raised five million this first half
of the year, giving him thirty seven million cash on hand.
That's enough to ward off a primary challenger and probably
even enough to run an election next November. But of
(03:38):
course you would want to keep raising. Dustin Burrows, the
Speaker of the House, raised one million dollars. He has
two million dollars cash on hand. That's an important number
because a speaker, this is what davee Vieland did, and
in races that are close, a speaker will give money
(04:00):
to candidates that are loyal to him to ward off
a primary opponent. If you don't have a lot of
money to do that with, then you don't have the power.
Texans for Lawsuit Reform Pack political Action Committee, by far
the most powerful pack in the state, raised eleven million.
They have thirty seven million cash on hand. There were
(04:22):
four one million dollar contributions, including from Dick Weekly. The
Judicial Fairness Pack, which is another Dick Weekly pack, had
four million dollar contributions, including from Dick Weekly Joan Huffman.
Now we turn to the attorney general race, where right
now we have three, maybe four candidates running. Johan Huffman,
(04:44):
state senator, raised seven hundred and sixty three thousand. She
has just over three million cash on hand. Mays Middleton,
a state senator, raised one hundred and sixty six thousand,
not nearly as much, but he has ten point two
million dollars cash on hand, and that includes a ten
million dollar loan. There is a rumor that Mays Middleton
(05:08):
could self finance this campaign. He's married into a wealthy family.
I don't know how far that self financing goes. Only
raising one hundred and sixty six million is not a
good sign. My guess is that John Huffman will get
the Texans for Lawsuit Reform money, although Mays Middleton did
collect a check from them. Aaron Wrights is the third
(05:29):
candidate in that so you have two state senators. Aaron Wrights,
who worked for Ken Paxton is now at the Department
of Justice, raised two point one million dollars. He is
not an elected official. That is catching a lot of attention.
He raised more than Huffman and Middleton combined. She with
seven sixty three May's with one sixty six, Aaron Wrights
(05:51):
with two point one million. There is the rumor that
Trump's going to support him. I am told by some
in other camps that is not true. I don't know
it would make a big difference. There is a rumor
that Ken Paxson will support him. Many people tell me
that's not true. That's an impression they're trying to give
either way. Two point one million for his campaign is
(06:12):
a pretty strong showing. Sean Tier, the Harris County District Attorney,
raised sixty million, sixty thousand dollars and has thirty nine
thousand dollars cash on hand. Lena had Allgo raised a
paltry twenty six thousand dollars. She has six hundred thousand
dollars cash on hand. That's going to be a real
(06:32):
problem if she runs for county judge. If she runs,
because An Eeseporker is going to be able to raise
a lot of money. She's got a lot of rich
white liberal Newstonians. Erica Lee's got some support Partition Plumbobile
to raise a little I think Lena's President. Trump wants
(06:57):
five new congressional Sea yeats redistricted in the state of Texas,
and he has every right to demand it. Here's the problem.
In order to do that, he needs to rely on
Greg Abbott, the governor, to make it happen. The reason
(07:20):
deportation is so dangerous to Democrats is those are their voters.
If you drain out just the illegal aliens, they lose
congressional seats in California, in Texas, and in many other states,
but particularly in those two plus New York and Florida.
(07:42):
The difference is estimated between about twenty and twenty eight
congressional seats across the country. That is an unwinnable, undefeatable margin.
Democrats would not have any influence in the House of Representatives.
You could have a few flake Congressmen on whatever issue
(08:02):
and it wouldn't matter. You would have a dominant House majority, which,
by the way, Democrats did for fifty years until New
Gingrich led the Republican Coalition that won in ninety four,
midway through Bill Clinton's first term. I will turn this
(08:24):
one over to I believe it was Brandon Walton's who
wrote this. When he says, will Democrats walk out again?
Special session agenda revives quorum busting talk. This is Brandon
Walton's with the with Texas Core Court. There were virtually
no consequences when Democrats fled in twenty twenty one. Could
(08:47):
Texas Democrats break quorum again? It's a question resurfacing in
political circles after Governor Greg Abbott unveiled an eighteen item
agenda for the upcoming special session largely packed with conservative
priorities that stalled during the regular legislative session. But what's
(09:09):
really turning up the temperature is an effort to redraw
congressional maps to increase the Republican majority in Congress. President
Donald Trump has told members he wants to see five
new Republican seats from Texas. That's the same issue that
sparked the infamous two thousand and three walk out, when
(09:30):
fifty one Democrat members of the Texas House boarded a
pair of charter buses and fled to Ardmore, Oklahoma. Their
goal to deny the House a quorum and block a
Republican led congressional redistricting plan backed by then House Speaker
Tom Cratick and US House Majority Leader Tom Delay will
(09:50):
come back to Tom Delay. The standoff lasted four days
until the clock ran out on the session, when Governor
Rick Perry called a special session to revive the redistrict effort.
Democrats in the Texas Senate followed suit, this time fleeing
to Albuquerque, New Mexico. That stand off dragged on for
over a month, but ultimately failed to stop Republicans from
(10:11):
pushing through a new mount that helped shift the state's
congressional delegation further to the right. More recently, in twenty
twenty one, Democrats once again fled the state over election
integrity legislation. Nearly sixty House Democrats chartered private planes to Washington,
d C. Claiming to fight for voting rights. Their absence
(10:33):
ground legislative business to a halt for thirty eight days. Eventually,
members began to trickle back, quorum was restored, and the
legislation was passed. Despite breaking quorum and leaving the state
for over a month, there were virtually no consequences. Lawmakers
continued collecting their pay, held onto their committee positions, and
returned without any meaningful reprimand now with redistricting once again
(10:59):
on the call, and reports that national Democrats are urging
another walkout. Questions or building over whether Governor Greg Abbot
will implement stricter deterrence, such as declaring the seats of
absent lawmaker's vacant as of publication. Abbot's office has not
responded to a request for comment, of course not. Meanwhile,
(11:21):
in Washington, d C. US House Minority Minority Leader Hakim
Jeffries appeared alongside members of the Texas congressional delegation on
Tuesday to accuse Abbot of using the special session to
quote conspire to rig the congressional map in the wake
of the deadly Hill Country floods. Well, this is an
opportunity for Greg Abbott, and you know duncan means yo.
(11:49):
John Cornyn, who is in real trouble, trailing over twenty
points behind Attorney General Ken Paxton, has d debuted an
ad today. We'll talk about that in a moment. But
his fundraising report shows two point three million dollars raised
(12:15):
from January of this year through the end of June.
Two point three million, well almost two point four I'll
given benefit of doubt. Ken Paxton's report, which only begins
on April first through June thirtieth, has him at two
point nine. Fundraising is not the sole determinant of who wins,
(12:42):
but Fundraising early can be a determinant of what of
two things. Number one, are people willing to put their
money into the race? Well, we know the swamp will
Carl has access to a lot of money. There are
(13:03):
a lot of people who don't have the energy to
keep up with the race in Wyoming and a congressional
race in California and another one in Montana. So they
give their money to Rove and they count on him
to go in and do it. Well, that's not always bad,
(13:28):
but it's often. It's often the reason that we end
up with a Dustin Burrows as speaker or a Dade
Fhlan as speaker and a big fund to defend himself.
Ken Paxton only announced on April eighth, so he got
(13:52):
into the race January February March ninety almost one hundred
days later than Cornyn, and he already out raised him.
Brandon Waltons with Texas Scorecard, authored the piece that I
read to you just a moment about the quorum busting
in the lack of any real punishment last time, Brandon,
welcome to the program.
Speaker 2 (14:13):
They always good to be on.
Speaker 1 (14:15):
So we've got an eighteen agenda item special session before
US President Trump is counting on the governor of Texas
to shepherd this thing through. I'm getting the sense that
you share my concern that Abbot won't have the stones
to get this done.
Speaker 2 (14:38):
Well, you know, look, I don't know whether Governor Abbot
will or won't. What I do know is that Democrats,
when presented with a similar set of circumstances twenty years ago,
a mid cycle redistricting, they left right. They went to Oklahoma,
they went to New Mexico to try to stop that.
We know that Democrats broke quorum four year ago, and
(15:00):
that was just for election integrity legislation. You know, redistricting
is done right will cost them seats in Congress. This
is a you know, an existential threat to Democrats, and
there's not really been you know, four years ago, there
were no consequences, like you said, I mean, they came back,
they had their committee positions, they had their offices, they
(15:23):
you know whatever. There were no real consequences when they
came back. And so the question is, you know, are
there going to be is it going to be some
stronger enforcement to make sure that they don't try to
do this again. We haven't heard from the governor on
this so I don't know, you know what he is
or isn't willing to do, but I do know that
you know, last time, you know, it wasn't enough. It
(15:44):
certainly didn't deter them from leaving. And there's a lot
of questions right now when you look at national Democrats
like a Keem Jeffries are sort of goating Texas Democrats
to leave, as questions about whether or not that'll happen again.
Speaker 1 (16:00):
Brandon Walton's Texan scorecard is our guests, But I would
assert that Democrats have a better do a better job
of wrangling their people from top to bottom. They're much
more a hierarchical structure from the top down. They've got
funding behind that, whether that be Soros or another different organizations,
whereas Republicans tend to be a much more loosely even
(16:24):
if you want to call it organized group. I just
I wonder to the extent I wonder the extent to
which President Trump's wishes can be carried out when when
when they don't necessarily have a anything personal to gain.
I don't know, I'm raising the question.
Speaker 2 (16:43):
No, I think I think it's a great question, And
I'll say this, you know, when this redistricting issue was
first brought up a couple of weeks ago when it
was put on the call for the special session. Most
people look at that and said, okay, maybe too, maybe
maybe we'll we'll be able to two more Republican seats.
The President said yesterday he wants to see five, which
(17:06):
is going to require some you know, some real work
and and but it's something at the same time that's
going to cause Democrats to to want to push back obviously.
And the question is, you know, are are is the governors,
the Speaker of the House Dustin Burrows, are they going
to be willing to actually do what needs to be
(17:27):
done to say, look, you know, for example, we've had
some lawyers. I'm not a lawyer, but but some have
looked and said, look, the governor if they if they leave,
they don't show up, they leave the state. The governor
can can essentially say you need to come back to
your seat. It's going to be vacant. We're gonna have
a special election for your seat. There are new rules
put in place that go after you know that, that
(17:48):
find people who break quorum. But even then, right there's
sort of questions about whether or not that'll be in
forest or if that will even be a drop in
the bucket, especially if you know the National Democrat Party
wants to pick up the bill for that, and so, uh,
you know, there's there's just going to need to be
you know, more gun. I think Attorney General compacton yesterday
said that, you know, if they tried to do that,
(18:12):
they needed they need to be arrested. They're certainly in
powered to arrest and bring these people back to the
Capitol and hopefully if that happens, that that's, uh, that's
a step they're willing to take.
Speaker 1 (18:22):
Well, I'm not one who believes that Dustin Burrows is
either a true Republican nor a man of great conviction.
But Matt Rinaldi had a great tweet yesterday. He said,
wait until Trump realizes the only thing keeping him from
winning this redistricting fight is the guy flaunting his endorsement
won't arrest Democrats breaking quorum because their votes elected him.
(18:44):
Speaker Brandon. I don't know how how deeply you dig
into Harris County politics, but I harkened back to a
few years ago. We had a Republican county commissioner named
Cactus Jack Cagel and Rodney Ellis, who's the boss of
of Harris County politics and runs heard over everyone. He
just he just redistricted Jack Cagele out of his commissioner's
(19:09):
seat and replaced him with his hand picked John Arnold
picked Leslie Brioni's Democrat and now a four to one
Republican commissioner's court in Harris County is a four to
one Democrat. And everyone hooted and hollered and said, oh,
there's no way he can get away with that, But
he did because in politics, might makes right, and I
think if Trump can pull this off, they can bitch
(19:30):
and moan all they want, but we'll be grateful for it,
you know. At at at the end of the day.
Wonderful piece by you, by the way in Texas scorecard
on that and you folks are doing great work. Is
this guy trimor is that he works with y'all? Doesn't he?
Oh yeah, he's fantastic, he is, absolutely. I know he's
new and he's fantastic. Women are chief Michael mary Man.
(19:53):
I think that there might.
Speaker 2 (19:54):
Because I got nothing going on down there.
Speaker 1 (19:56):
Probably Houston Public Media, it's not exactly a conservative outlet.
Headline Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton opens investigation into allegations
of quote potential non citizens end quote voting in Harris
County that means illegal aliens. The investigation, which also targets
(20:20):
Cameron County, Eastland County, and Guadeloupe County, comes ahead of
a special legislative session in which state lawmakers will consider
giving the Attorney General's office the authority to prosecute election crimes.
You'll remember our state Supreme Court took that power away
(20:40):
from the Attorney General, which was carte blanche to Rodney
Ellis to run amok to cheat elections. I will remind you.
First we had Chas Bono, remember her. They brought her
or him or whatever it was in to be the
(21:02):
Longoria was her name, and she was the elections administrator
and she was brought in to cheat. Well, they did
a dry run during the primaries. Republicans didn't even complain
because the cheating was done within the Democrat primary. And
the way that was done is Rodney had his candidates
(21:25):
he wanted to win, and in Democrat seats he had
to replace them with Democrats. So this time the fraud
got real attention because this time it was against Democrats.
There was a hue and cry, and well, they couldn't
they couldn't put that one down. So jas Bono was
(21:51):
given several more months of pay. I believe she was
vested in a retirement plan and she was given Chuck
Cheese gift cards for life. I don't know about that last,
but I just suspect I have a feeling. I have
a feeling. You get feelings sometimes. Well, then they brought
in Clifford Tatum. This was when Rodney knew he was
(22:13):
in trouble. Lena Hidalgo was going to lose and they
knew it. They were looking at polling. Alex Meeler was
going to beat her, and he couldn't have that. He
has to be able to control that. This is sort
of like the Biden administration. Democrats had to win to
(22:33):
keep control of the purse strings and the power and
the positions, but they also had to win to fend
off prosecution. I think Rodney's strategy is if he can
stay in power till he dies, you can't prosecute him.
(22:54):
He knows what he's done. He knows what he's done
more than anyone knows what he he's done, and he
has to be scared that somebody's gonna come in there
and reopen all those investigations with an intention of actually
prosecuting them. He can't control if that happens from the
state or the Feds, especially not with Trump as president.
(23:18):
But it's been a sort of hands off in Austin
toward Harris County. And I know that folks in Harris
County have been very angry. Greg Abbott, where are you?
Why can't you put a Secretary of state in there
who works for you to prosecute election fraud in Harris County?
(23:39):
And for that matter, Bettencourt, for all his talk, has
never really done anything. And he's on the evening news
every evening as if he's done something. Ah, the toll
road money, the toll road and money needs to be
given back. And then's, oh, there's tough talking Bettancourt, Oh,
toll road money to be given back. You ever follow
up what happens on that? For all the time tough
(24:00):
talk in all of the various interviews, he never actually
accomplishes any of it. Oh, betten Corey are fighting for us.
The only thing Bettencourt is fighting for is more tax
protest customers. This is a guy who was tax assessor
collector at Harris County, resigned so that he could so
(24:21):
that folks could open a tax protest firm in his name,
and then resigns from the position he was elected to
and then runs for state senator because as state senator
he could talk tough, go back and forth to Austin,
and get paid a bunch of money for tax protests.
(24:46):
So he'd we gotta fight the tax increases really for
pay or as a senator. Bettencourt doesn't want to see
your taxes go lower in court benefits from your taxes
going sky high because his firm then protests those taxes.
(25:06):
It's not just the Democrats running game on you, folks,
Let's be clear on that. So we've got Paxton pushing
to prosecute in these Harris County elections. Well, what's interesting
about this is Paxton's office as they have over one
(25:26):
hundred potential non citizens that's illegal aliens voting in the
two recent election cycles that goes back to twenty twenty two.
The investigation is focused heavily on alleged election crimes in
Harris County. That's where it has happened and we all
know it illegal aliens and foreign nationals must not be
(25:50):
allowed to influence Texas elections by casting illegal ballots with impunity. Well,
we know it did happen. In fact, Clifford Tatum, who
was brought in to be the elections administrator skip Town
after that election, remember that, Remember all the scandals around that.
(26:10):
But like the assassin he is. He was paid the
big money, some of it by taxpayers. Who knows what
he got under the table, maybe nothing, but I wouldn't
count on it. He comes in. They rigged that election.
Hidalgo wins. Republicans have mustered everything they can to beat
(26:35):
haidalgo In, the candidate of Alex Meeler, and still lose. Well,
we know a number of things had happened, the biggest
of which was Republicans said, and I hear it, I
heard every election drives me crazy. We won't vote early.
We won't vote early, and then they won't know how
(26:56):
many ballots to stuff so they can pull the data.
Republicans weren't voting early. Republicans were sandbagging till the very end.
And on the last day of the general election, Republicans
were going to go in and vote, and then you
wouldn't be able to cheat enough. So what did they do?
(27:16):
They didn't send ballots to the Republican voting locations. It's
always better to vote early, always better, because everybody who
says I'm gonna vote, I'm gonna wait till the last day.
Some percentage of those people end up getting sick. A
relative gets sick, a friend ends up in an accident,
(27:38):
it ends up raining, you get sent on a work project,
something happens, your kid gets in trouble, you get called
to the school, there's a flood, whatever that is. Harris
County's elections are absolutely third world criminal and Rodney has
run rough shot over this county period, end of story,
(28:02):
and something needs to be done about it. You want
to talk about what, what what makes people? What prevents
people from wanting to be involved in elections? To bust
your ass in an election, give everything you've got, get
everybody else excited, and get them to vote, and they
cheat so much that you still lose. The next time
(28:23):
people don't they don't even want to participate, and that
that that's the scarecrow effect. They don't have to be
You beat yourself at that point. It's frustrating.
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