August 25, 2025 • 33 mins
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
It's that time, time, time, time, luck and load. So
Michael Very Show is on the air.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
So much of elections is one long before the day
of voting. Now you need people to show up and vote.
It's hard to get Democrats to vote for Republicans or
Republicans to vote for a Democrat.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
People tend to have patterns.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
The new map has Congressional District eighteen, Shila Jackson Lee's
district at a plus fifty four Harris over Trump. Kamala
Harris got seventy six percent of the vote Donald trum
on twenty two percent. That's the new map. Mind you,
The seat that Sylvia Garcia holds has a thirty one
(01:09):
percent positive Harris over Trump at sixty five thirty four.
It is rumored that Lena had all Go wants to
run in that seat. Sylvia Garcia has made very clear
she does not appreciate people saying that she's old and frail.
Then you've got Lizzie Fletcher's district, which is less Democrat
(01:32):
but still solidly Democrat at sixty percent Harris thirty six
percent Trump for a twenty four I mean yeah, for
a plus twenty four Kamala Harris.
Speaker 3 (01:43):
This is the new maps.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
Now that's the three Democrat seats they're expected to remain.
What you do is you push some of those Democrats
from al Green's district into those Democrat seats, so you
make the Democrat seats more Democrat. That's okay. You then
carve a little bit of the Republican base out of
each of the outlying Republican seats to cobble together a seat,
(02:09):
and that is Congressional District nine where al Green was.
The seat as currently configured in the new map is
fifty seven percent Trump forty one forty two percent Harris,
which makes that a plus fifteen. So that's going to
be a new seat. You don't have to run against
(02:30):
an incumbent state representative of Briscoe Caine has announced that
he's running, and alex Miheler, who ran for county judge
in a spirited race that she barely lost. I think
it was stolen to Lena Hidalgo. Alex Miheler is our guest.
Speaker 3 (02:46):
Welcome.
Speaker 4 (02:49):
Thank you, Michael very fired us to be on here,
and I want to thank you and your listeners for
the fact that it was a race that they had
to cheat to beat us. A day that goes by
that I don't think about how we use that momentum
and take back Harris County. And one of the things
that's so interesting about that seat is, you know, it
(03:09):
is very much Trump Republicans. You know, this was a
district that no other Republican had won so Convincingly's ship
Channel Port and it's really strengthened by Liberty County and
so the ability to turn out the vote in Harris County.
If you think about the current map, Wesley Hunt essentially
has the west of Harris County. This new seat lies
(03:32):
largely in where Sylvia Garcia's district previously was, and this
is the east. And so for me, it's an opportunity
you can't miss because one, I can go, you know,
raise my hand, support Trump and his America First efforts.
And then two we've got a lot of unfinished business.
I want to run. You want me to run in
November because I'm going to turn out that vote. This
(03:55):
district is underperformed turnout by about fifteen percent compared to
every other can Get district. And my goal is work
with every single person that's running in this county to
make sure Adrian Garcia's sweating that we take back that
county judge seat because turnout, thanks to what you did
to energize the basement, we put forty five thousand signs
out in a few months, and that was your listener base.
(04:17):
So I'm really excited to have the opportunity to serve.
I'm going to run through a brick wall to get
this chance. It's too much at stake, and to be honest,
this first time, I really even had peace because it's
never sat right with me for what we built. To
not get the chance to fix it in this chance of.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
A lifetime twenty twenty two was devastating. I remember feeling
punched in the gut in a way I hadn't in
a very long time politically, because I had invested heavily
in that race. You had, your family, had, a lot
of people had, and I can handle losing. I'm perfectly
(04:54):
fine in sports in life. But I knew there was
cheating and it infuriated me and I just could not
stand for that. And I couldn't stand to know that
people would work so hard and had been cheated. When
you look at this race and what you learned from
that race, and I don't mean the cheating part. But
(05:14):
second time candidates are historically much better candidates. I've always said,
you bet on a guy the second time if they
lose the first time, they're a much stronger candidate the
second time. And it almost always bears out, how are
you a better candidate today?
Speaker 4 (05:31):
Well we'll hit on that, But just number one, I
was running in an area six times the size of
the congressional district. So you put my same hustle work
where I'm only focusing on something one sixth the size.
That's a difference maker.
Speaker 3 (05:46):
Number two, I'm not.
Speaker 4 (05:47):
Starting with zero name. I d thanks to a lot
of the business community and grassroots rallying around me. One
of the more fun things when you know, you get
tired as a candidate, get beat up a lot. I
would get calls from my team Michael must be talking
about you, you know, because the emails. You know, we'd
four thousand individual donors. You know that's statewide level enthusiasm.
So before you know, there was months and months of
(06:09):
beating that, you know, trying to earn that reputation. We
know what the team is. You know, the magic sauce
was Mattress Mac you know, Michael Berry and law enforcement
plus grass roots, and so I'm trying to just turn
that engine on. And you know, when I think about it,
it's like, if you want to underestimate, go ahead. But
it's like I've learned marketing from mattress Mac. I don't
(06:29):
know anyone better than that, And I've learned to campaign
from us as our So not starting from scratch again.
And I've had four years to think about what they did.
I have watched Rodney run this town unopposed, and what's
so great about that district? Now, instead of running in
something that was at least a ten point savor for Democrats,
I'm running in something that's at least in a you know,
(06:51):
ten point favor for Republicans. So I like those odds.
I don't think any Democrat wants to fight me in
a neutral setting. And then what I'm gonna do is
that seat that if you have a week candidate or
somebody perceived now Democrats are going to throw millions of
dollars you get me in the seat. Democrats aren't touching it.
That is going to help our fight. You've got Governor
Abbott putting twenty million. So what I learned that hurts
(07:13):
so bad before is Democrats fight as a team Federal
State County. I was that down ballot candidate that had
support from those, you know, key individuals, but it wasn't
politicians that came and helped us. Well, now I've got
a chance to kind of fix that right and use
you know, the full weight whatever resources I have because
a lot of people we know in that area, they
(07:34):
kind of took to the November off their seat was safe,
didn't matter. I strongly have unfinished business. I'm not going
to rest until we figure out how to make Rodney retire.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
And we will discuss that and more coming up. Looking
at the map, there's a good bit of Liberty County
in this district as well. It goes almost all the
way down just Nora of I ten, goes almost all
the way to Jefferson County, and then it drops below
I Tent on the western part of the district, and
(08:09):
then you've got sort of the southeastern corner.
Speaker 3 (08:12):
Of us after the Beltway. You pick up that piece
there is probably where you get your density.
Speaker 2 (08:18):
All right, we'll talk to Alex mieler Kenne Congressional District.
Speaker 3 (08:21):
Nine coming up, continues.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
President Trump hope that a redistricting effort would lead to
five Republican pickups in the House. It looks more realistic
that it would be three. Hey, I would love five.
One of those seats comes out of Houston where Al
Green Congressional District nine. His district's numbers have changed dramatically,
(08:56):
and now that is clearly a Republican seat. Alex Mieler
announcing right here, right now that she will be a
candidate in that race. And I'll leave the map aside
because I finally looked at it and I'm fascinated. But Alex,
I'm going to put you on the timer, give you
exactly three minutes to reintroduce yourself. Because there are always
(09:18):
new people coming in moving out learning about politics. I'm
going to give you three minutes on the clock to
tell folks who Alex Mieler is.
Speaker 4 (09:31):
All right, thank you very much. So I am the
American first Fighter and what does that mean? So background,
I'm a West Pointer combat veteran. I served overseas in
the Army bomb Squad in Afghanistan diffusing bombs. And you know,
last campaign, I really I think made a mistake of
just assuming what people you know, what does that mean? Well,
bomb squad means you only get called when something's tough.
(09:51):
Everyone else is running away. When you're in a crisis situation.
Bomb squad, we're the ones that go run to the
danger to diffuse the ied and know how to settle
down when chaos is all around. And that's that kind
of skill set. You know, everyone can use political analogies.
I'm battle tested. That says like, no, I'm actually a
combat veteran. I know how to operate in hard times.
(10:11):
And so after that, I'm Harvard j DNBA. Moved to Houston,
no connections my husband and I with oil and gas
shell revolution. I thought this is a place where you know,
everyone says it's not who you know, but what you
could do, and that's what we really loved about. It
worked really hard. Kind of similar stories, Michael, you tell
kind of getting your first kind of white collar job
(10:33):
there and so worked on a variety of oil and
gas transactions where they're M and A capital markets. But
you know, pretty big transition, uh, from kind of rolling
up my sleeves, getting dirty, you know, digging up I
eds in awaddie, uh to now working on complex corporate transactions.
But was just grateful not knowing anyone in the city
to get an opportunity like that, and you know what happened.
(10:56):
My husband and I. You know, Houston was very good
to us. And when you have a family, it's time's changed.
So I have a four year old and a six
year old, very precocious if you know me, but it's
stubborn and outspoken, and well I get reminded of what
that's like every morning. But what changes is you know,
I was going along here, we are live in this
great American city. This is the dream, and you know,
(11:17):
things started to change. I realized that change was coming
from Lena Hidalgo. Now we all know since from Rodney Ellis.
But what I saw is, all of a sudden, this
great American city became you know, high taxes, high crime,
weak infrastructure, and it was the most progressive policies being
you know, we became this test bed. And so now
when you watch what happens in DC, everyone in Houston's like,
(11:37):
we know this, We've already been doing this in Harris County.
I know this very well where they're going next. And
the difference was for me, you know, complete political outsider.
I mean, if I think I knew more about politics,
vot to realize how crazy it was what it was doing.
But I just solve a problem and knew I could
fix it, and so quit my job. Got into the
race in November, self funded for a few months, everyone
(11:58):
thought it was a joke, like what are you doing?
And then you know I was outspent, crowded nine way
primary two opponents at over a million dollars, good relationships.
Eventually you know, raised three hundred thousand. But it started
grassroots first, law enforcement, huge win, having a hometown legend,
put his you know, reputation behind me, Mattress Mac and
(12:20):
you know, people just wonder what that's about. Honestly, I
think Max just knows that I work hard and where
my values are.
Speaker 2 (12:24):
The last three minutes and let me stop you there,
because that will feed into the next question is what
does this campaign look like for you? Who's behind you?
How do you run it? What do you need to
do to win? It's the primary you got to win,
so what do you have to do to win that?
Speaker 4 (12:39):
Sure? So the population statistics eighty five percent Harris County voters,
fifteen percent liberty. So you know, step one, turn on
old campaign infrastructure. As we just discussed obviously Michael, you
are a huge piece of that. And I need to
go do the same ground game that I did before
I met voters. Right, So first, you know, prior to
(13:00):
for me is getting the Liberty County and start doing
that same work that it did before, and a lot
more to learn about it. But I know that there's
a development the size of Washington, DC that you know,
call it willful blindness, but a lot of politicians turn
a blind eye to something you know, as large as
a big city to be a cartel haven. And that's
something that's not new known about that very well since
(13:20):
twenty two my county judge race. There's no excuse for
anyone not to understand exactly what Colony Ridge is to
come hard at that, but excited to meet everyone there
and so far what's been happening is we are just
turning on the old machine. So very strong support from
my own gas community and then Mattress Mac and so
I've also really proud that Fred Flickinger, District E, whose
(13:41):
city council represents a lot of that, he's actually one
of the people approached me and said, if you're not
thinking about this, you should, And I've you know, put
my weight behind you, and so he's very well respected.
He's been a mentor. And you know, we've only had
a couple of days, you know, for me to start
getting up and running. But so far it just looks
like we're turning on the old engine. And I'm better, smarter,
(14:02):
faster now and couldn't be more excited to have an
opportunity to try to show everybody that listen, you want
an American first fighter, look at what I've done on
your pick.
Speaker 2 (14:11):
Speaking of Fred Flickinscher, his mother, Marie was a legend
on the South Belt and I was running my first
race in two thousand and one. She's one of the
first people I went to see. She endorsed me on
the spot, supported me like crazy. She had a newspaper
at the time, she had a Chamber of Commerce at
the time, and as I always.
Speaker 3 (14:28):
Did, I would say, give me five to.
Speaker 2 (14:30):
Ten people I can go with your blessing and your endorsement,
to go and talk to and get support. And so
he comes from a hecklo bloodline, that family just first
rate folks.
Speaker 3 (14:42):
Do you expect President Trump to endorse.
Speaker 4 (14:46):
I surely hope, and it makes the case I think
I'm clearly the right answer, just in terms of we
don't need another Thomas Massey, you know, trying to be
a spotlight ranger. And one thing about me is I
was just into getting clicks or attention to certainly plenty
of that way. You know, it doesn't take hard to
ask around that I'm always working behind the scenes, rolling
up the sleeves, not trying to be you know, take credit,
(15:07):
just trying to get stuff done. And I think that's
a differentiator that I don't have a problem, you know,
when it's time to follow. You know, President Trump is
one of the few politicans. You know, I don't want
to call politicians leaders who sacrifice more than anyone could,
but a lot of these guys have never really had
to lose anything, really had a you know, every victory
ATH had has been hard earned. And it took a
(15:28):
lot to beat me. I mean I had Nancy Pelosi,
Hillary Clinton, Jane Fonda, all of the Hollywood elite get
involved in a county judge race in a Democrat county
because I was that hard to beat to the first time. Canon,
what do you think I do with a priority congressional
seat in a Republican district. They're not messing with me.
I had to bring out the full weight to beat us.
Speaker 2 (15:50):
Alex Wheeler candidate for Congressional District nine, which was Al Green.
He probably won't even run for reelection there. Thank you
for being with us. We'll talk again before the primary.
This is going to be a very very very much
got it. This is going to be a very very
interesting political season. Buckle obyers, smart devices from Michael's brain
(16:15):
to your ears.
Speaker 1 (16:16):
This is the Michael Very Show.
Speaker 2 (16:22):
That was interesting. Consider how big Harris County is. Harris
County is just over five million people. You're running to
be the Harris County judge, which is the mayor of
Harris County. You are running in a region bigger than several,
I think three states. There were one point one million
(16:43):
people who voted in the twenty twenty two election that
Lena had all go stole. I mean, technically we know
who stole. It wasn't Lena. She isn't smart enough to
do that. Remember Clifford Tatum, the election commissioner. Yeah, he's
not there anymore either, but he.
Speaker 3 (16:59):
Was brought in and he did it job.
Speaker 2 (17:00):
He did his job exactly the way he was told to.
There were one point one million votes casts in that
race that Mieler lost to Lena Hidalgo. A county of
over five million, one point one million votes. A congressional
district is about seven hundred thousand population seven hundred thousand
(17:25):
in On average, between two hundred and two hundred and
fifty thousand people vote, so about a quarter of the
number of voters that you get in the Harrison County race. Now,
sometimes that's good, sometimes that's bad. Because you take Richard
Nixon running for president in nineteen sixty, barely loses in
(17:45):
the closest presidential election in history to that point, barely
loses to Kennedy, comes home to California, his home state.
So surely if he can do that well across the
country and he manages to lose ouse.
Speaker 3 (18:01):
To moonbeing Brown's father, so it's not always the case.
Speaker 2 (18:05):
That's when he gave the famous you won't have Dick
Nixon to kick around anymore. But of course he would
come back and win the presidency in sixty eight and
seventy two. It's an interesting race, an interesting district now
that I've looked at it a little more, and Alex
Mieler referenced Colony Ridge. I don't think she said it
(18:27):
by name, but she made reference to what we all know,
I think most Republican primary voters. It's very important to remember,
and people get lost in this. A primary is very
different than a general and a candidate in a prime.
(18:47):
A candidate can be stronger in a primary and weaker
in a general or vice versa. But remember that the
only people voting in a primary are the Republican base.
There are many people who will vote next November who
will vote Republican, but for whatever reason, they don't show
(19:09):
up and vote in a primary. When you're building a campaign,
you look at something called a three R that means
that voter has voted in the last three Republican primaries. Now,
a lot of Republicans will vote in a presidential primary,
but not in the mid year primaries.
Speaker 3 (19:31):
If those three.
Speaker 2 (19:32):
Rs are two midterms and a presidential as opposed to
a presidential midterm and a presidential.
Speaker 3 (19:38):
If you have.
Speaker 2 (19:39):
Somebody that's voted in three straight elections that includes two midterms,
that person, if they're still alive and haven't moved away,
they are going to vote in a Republican primary. So
targeting becomes extremely important. You're no longer talking to the
general public, because the general republic does not vote in
(20:01):
the Republican primary. So if you walk into a grocery
store that has an average number of people there, you
can basically take out the people doing two or three
of the early checkout lines, and maybe the people over
in frozen goods and two people in the restroom, and
that's the only people in the whole store that are voting.
(20:24):
So the challenge becomes, how do you find just the
people who are going to vote and not speak to everybody?
So what do we know that people who are going
to vote? Do people who are going to vote Republican
watch Fox News, They watch Newsmax, those are their television
(20:48):
doing habits. They listen to talk radio. They're going to
be our listener. A Republican primary voter is going to
be our listener. There are some other things that Republican
primary votvoters, other patterns that they're going to have. You
can mail to them because you know where they live,
and they tend to be more likely to be a homeowner,
(21:10):
which means a consistency of residents than an apartment dweller,
which you're going to have a higher number of apartment
dwellers that are Democrats than Republicans, and so you know
where they live, so you can mail to them, you
can talk to them through our show. Now I want
to I'm going to say this one hundred times. Candidates
(21:31):
are going to pour money into KTRH from now until
the election. That does not mean I endorse them. What
it does mean is that they know that you are
more likely to be a voter than people listening to
music radio, and the numbers bear that out. You're more
likely to be a voter because you're someone who's tuned
(21:52):
into a lot of political talk and news consumers are
more likely to be voters. So whether they're listening to
our morning show or our show or anytime during the day,
that's where you're going to get a much higher propensity
of voters. Your cable news buy on television is going
(22:15):
to let you geo target where voters vote. So you
may see on Fox an ad for the candidate we
just spoke to, Alex Meeter. You may see a can
You may see an ad for her in Liberty County
or in the portion of Harris County where that makes
up the new Congressional District nine, and you may see
(22:35):
a lot of those. That's because she's targeting those spots.
You're also going to see that on You're also going
to see website advertising that'll be pretty heavy. And then
you should start getting mailers. I don't know when those
campaigns are going to start. They're mailers at this point.
They're putting those campaigns together. This whole redistricting effort was
(22:58):
talked about for quite some time. It happened really fast.
There are a couple of people I need to make
sure that I can release their names, but there are
a couple of people who moved mountains to make this happen,
to get this redic redistricting done. I didn't think it
(23:19):
would happen, and I didn't think it could happen because
I didn't think Abbott had the gravitas to get the
House to pass it. But I'll tell you how it
did happen. And you're not going to like this, but
it's the truth. Dustin Burrows sold us out. Dustin Burroughs
is drunk daylight, and Dustin Burroughs and his folks are
(23:42):
not our friends.
Speaker 3 (23:43):
They are not Maga, they are not Trump.
Speaker 2 (23:46):
You remember, these are the folks who impeached sent articles
of impeachment on Ken Paxton, and Trump warned them not
to do it, and they.
Speaker 3 (23:56):
Did it anyway.
Speaker 2 (23:58):
Those folks are up for real in the spring, and
their unpopularity has been building. That's why drunk Dade was
no longer. They couldn't have him be the speaker. That's
why he's stepping down. Their deals with the Democrats were problematic.
You've got the spotlight being shown that they weren't getting
(24:18):
anything done. So in one fell swoop, really two, they
passed what they called school choice, which is not school choice,
but they can call it school choice. And in one
fell swoop they get redistricting done and Trump endorses Burroughs
the next day, and that that's the deal. You may say,
(24:41):
I'm comfortable with that compromise. I'm comfortable with that transaction.
Whatever Trump needed to increase the Republican majority in the
House of Representatives to avoid being impeached his last two years,
that's the deal that was cut.
Speaker 3 (24:57):
And that's where we are. So there you go. Prepare
for a complete meltdown.
Speaker 2 (25:04):
With you, Lord of the Michael Berry Show. I got
an email from a lady who said I was going
to mail you this letter, but I figured just take
a screenshot of it in email it, and she did,
(25:25):
and it says, Hello, Zara. I started listening to your
show about two years ago. I just gotten divorced from
a ten year marriage and I quit a ten year
career as a public elementary math teacher. I was delivering
packages while deciding my future career.
Speaker 3 (25:40):
I was lost, alone and terrified.
Speaker 2 (25:46):
Your show brought me great comfort then and still does.
I'm now a real estate agent in Houston, building a
business for myself and my three children. Listening to you
help me feel like I was part of something bigger
and gave and gives me hope to keep going. Thank
you from the bottom of my heart. And then the
(26:07):
nice lady's name, which I'm not authorized to release, you know,
I will just say this.
Speaker 3 (26:12):
My study of people reveals again and again and again
and again.
Speaker 2 (26:20):
When you are in a bad spot, and we're all
in a bad spot at some point, when your spouse passes,
or your spouse leaves you, or you have to leave
your spouse for whatever that reason may be, when the
career you have dedicated yourself to falls apart, you're laid off, fired,
the business goes bankrupt, when the business you've built goes
(26:45):
under when you have a terrible accident, whatever that is.
If you can just have the foresight to say, I
don't know how it's going to get better. I can't
imagine it getting better, but it is going to get better,
and there's going to be a day, and I just
got to keep working until I get to that day.
(27:05):
That level of foresight can get you out of any trough,
any mess, any bind, any sadness. I see these stories
of you know, the one that always hits me.
Speaker 4 (27:15):
Ramon.
Speaker 2 (27:16):
We played every Thanksgiving the woman called in. It was
our Thanksgiving edition, and she told the story about eating
sardines at the Thanksgiving table with it that she ate
sardines at Chris at Thanksgiving. And I said, what kind
of crazy, wacky lady are you in a minute, and
she said, well, when my husband left us, my son
(27:38):
and I were in a little apartment and we were
struggling and we had nothing, I mean nothing, and it
was Thanksgiving, so and I said, we're going to have
We're going to do something to mark Thanksgiving. So I
opened a cannas sardines and we ate them together. And
at the time, I think her son was eight or whatever,
she said, you know, now, my son is twenty.
Speaker 3 (27:58):
Five and he's got a great life.
Speaker 2 (28:00):
And I got married seven years later, and you know,
my life is wonderful. I'm very happily married, and I
want for nothing. And she went through this whole thing,
and she said, but my son and I still at Thanksgiving,
we still go through that ritual to remind ourselves.
Speaker 3 (28:18):
I mean, I get choked up.
Speaker 2 (28:19):
Think about it today, and I just think, man, getting
to the top of the mountain is so much more
meaningful when you've been through a hell or a very
very difficult time like that. It makes you appreciate that
it's just having the foresight and the strength and the
conviction of saying I can get there. I don't know how,
(28:41):
I don't know what it looks like. I don't know
how long it'll take, but I can do it. Today
marks eight years since Hurricane Harvey made landfall in Texas
near Porta, Riansas, causing unprecedented flooding across much of southeast Texas,
with some areas seeing over fifty five zero inches of
rain over the course of a few days. Harvey dumped
(29:03):
so much water over the area that the impact could
be seen from space. KPRCTV with the.
Speaker 5 (29:09):
Story Dey marks eight years since Hurricane Harvey. Remember that, boy,
oh boy, Midland falls a Cat four with sustained winds
of one hundred and thirty miles an hour. That was
down south in Rockport. Then it came up here and
dumped rain for how long days? Geez Meyerland in southwest Houston,
the mainland area, experience a massive flooding early on. Homes
and cars submerged, and that was the third time in
(29:30):
four years for a lot of families happened there and
really all over the city. Parts of Houston that had
never flooded found themselves underwater. Officials say the Attics Barker
Reservoir was the main culprit because it was opened for
fear it would fail. We caught up with two residents
whose home filled with water. Back then, did you know
that tomorrow was the anniversary?
Speaker 4 (29:49):
Oh yeah, yeah, we I mean, I'd keep it on
my calendar.
Speaker 3 (29:53):
Do you think about the day much? Not too much anymore.
I mean, yeah, it's been eight years.
Speaker 1 (30:00):
How challenging was it for you to get back into
your home post Harvey?
Speaker 4 (30:05):
We moved back.
Speaker 3 (30:06):
In like middle of January.
Speaker 2 (30:08):
I mean the Bayou was completely redone right, I mean
they widened the bridges and took out the pinch points.
Speaker 5 (30:15):
It done quite a bit of work towards flood mitigation
and the various parts of the city. And of course
we haven't been tested like that since. Thankfully, Harvey was
like no other store, well almost like no other storm.
I mean they're all kind of different, but in terms
of money and damage, it was the second costliest behind Katrina.
That anniversary twenty years is coming up soon.
Speaker 3 (30:35):
I got an email this morning.
Speaker 2 (30:38):
From the nice fellow who rescued my wife and kids
and dog from the Omni hotel where I had sent
them because I was giving a speech in Baton Rooch
and then couldn't get back in time.
Speaker 3 (30:48):
They had sealed off the county and.
Speaker 2 (30:49):
I couldn't get in, and so on this memorial He's
hit me a video of saving them in the little
boat that hero around the neighborhood at Let's see that
would have been at about Woodway and six 'ten and
got them to high ground.
Speaker 3 (31:08):
Boy, that.
Speaker 2 (31:11):
Just goes to show we are all one flood, one
wrong turn, one you name it from your whole life
changing several emails asking that I explained how this redistricting
came about, Well, I'll tell you it was a multi
(31:34):
year effort by people who toil in silence. First is
the case of Petaway versus Galveston County, which you may
have heard about. Now, Galveston County fought back against the
Democrats because so what happened was the Fifth Mark. Henry,
the County judge of Galveston, was on ktr H this
(31:54):
morning and he told the story. But i'll give you
the abbreviated version, had determined this redistrict what you couldn't
couldn't do for drawing plans, and so Galveston County said, well,
this isn't right. You've got Democrats representing more folks than
(32:15):
they should because of how the lines have been drawn.
So they jerrymandered these district and these districts, and so
the case was brought at the district court. They said, well,
the Fifth Circuit said that's how that's supposed to be done,
and so they had to lose in the Fifth Circuit
to get to the Fifth Circuit, so that they had
to lose in the district court to get to the
(32:35):
Fifth Circuit, so the Fifth Circuit could overrule its past
ruling and they did. That's ped Away v. Galveston County.
And then there is a guy who is the hero
in all of this. I've never met him. I couldn't
pick him out of a crowd. But his name is
doctor Robin Armstrong. He is a Galveston County commissioner. He's
(32:56):
also an RNC committeeman. However, he's reported har Meat Dylan,
who was on the r n C. He supported r
Harmeat Dylan to be a RNC chairman and so the
other members of the r n C didn't like him
for that. So when he came up with the redistricting plan,
(33:16):
they said, no, we're not going to do that. And
he said, okay, I'm one of those relentless guys that
gets things done.
Speaker 4 (33:22):
You know.
Speaker 2 (33:23):
I used to say, it's usually women like this. I
used to say, Ted Cruz had a woman who was
kind of his. She would just irritate you. She wanted
you to come to an event. She wouldn't stop calling you,
she wouldn't stop badgering you.
Speaker 3 (33:34):
And he knew it. But I'm gonna tell you something.
You got to have a few folks like that. So
what did he do?
Speaker 2 (33:39):
Doctor Armstrong went to Team Trump, they took up redistricting.
They told Abbott, Patrick and Burrows to get it done,
and it happened.
It's that time, time, time, time, luck and load. So
Michael Very Show is on the air.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
So much of elections is one long before the day
of voting. Now you need people to show up and vote.
It's hard to get Democrats to vote for Republicans or
Republicans to vote for a Democrat.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
People tend to have patterns.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
The new map has Congressional District eighteen, Shila Jackson Lee's
district at a plus fifty four Harris over Trump. Kamala
Harris got seventy six percent of the vote Donald trum
on twenty two percent. That's the new map. Mind you,
The seat that Sylvia Garcia holds has a thirty one
(01:09):
percent positive Harris over Trump at sixty five thirty four.
It is rumored that Lena had all Go wants to
run in that seat. Sylvia Garcia has made very clear
she does not appreciate people saying that she's old and frail.
Then you've got Lizzie Fletcher's district, which is less Democrat
(01:32):
but still solidly Democrat at sixty percent Harris thirty six
percent Trump for a twenty four I mean yeah, for
a plus twenty four Kamala Harris.
Speaker 3 (01:43):
This is the new maps.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
Now that's the three Democrat seats they're expected to remain.
What you do is you push some of those Democrats
from al Green's district into those Democrat seats, so you
make the Democrat seats more Democrat. That's okay. You then
carve a little bit of the Republican base out of
each of the outlying Republican seats to cobble together a seat,
(02:09):
and that is Congressional District nine where al Green was.
The seat as currently configured in the new map is
fifty seven percent Trump forty one forty two percent Harris,
which makes that a plus fifteen. So that's going to
be a new seat. You don't have to run against
(02:30):
an incumbent state representative of Briscoe Caine has announced that
he's running, and alex Miheler, who ran for county judge
in a spirited race that she barely lost. I think
it was stolen to Lena Hidalgo. Alex Miheler is our guest.
Speaker 3 (02:46):
Welcome.
Speaker 4 (02:49):
Thank you, Michael very fired us to be on here,
and I want to thank you and your listeners for
the fact that it was a race that they had
to cheat to beat us. A day that goes by
that I don't think about how we use that momentum
and take back Harris County. And one of the things
that's so interesting about that seat is, you know, it
(03:09):
is very much Trump Republicans. You know, this was a
district that no other Republican had won so Convincingly's ship
Channel Port and it's really strengthened by Liberty County and
so the ability to turn out the vote in Harris County.
If you think about the current map, Wesley Hunt essentially
has the west of Harris County. This new seat lies
(03:32):
largely in where Sylvia Garcia's district previously was, and this
is the east. And so for me, it's an opportunity
you can't miss because one, I can go, you know,
raise my hand, support Trump and his America First efforts.
And then two we've got a lot of unfinished business.
I want to run. You want me to run in
November because I'm going to turn out that vote. This
(03:55):
district is underperformed turnout by about fifteen percent compared to
every other can Get district. And my goal is work
with every single person that's running in this county to
make sure Adrian Garcia's sweating that we take back that
county judge seat because turnout, thanks to what you did
to energize the basement, we put forty five thousand signs
out in a few months, and that was your listener base.
(04:17):
So I'm really excited to have the opportunity to serve.
I'm going to run through a brick wall to get
this chance. It's too much at stake, and to be honest,
this first time, I really even had peace because it's
never sat right with me for what we built. To
not get the chance to fix it in this chance of.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
A lifetime twenty twenty two was devastating. I remember feeling
punched in the gut in a way I hadn't in
a very long time politically, because I had invested heavily
in that race. You had, your family, had, a lot
of people had, and I can handle losing. I'm perfectly
(04:54):
fine in sports in life. But I knew there was
cheating and it infuriated me and I just could not
stand for that. And I couldn't stand to know that
people would work so hard and had been cheated. When
you look at this race and what you learned from
that race, and I don't mean the cheating part. But
(05:14):
second time candidates are historically much better candidates. I've always said,
you bet on a guy the second time if they
lose the first time, they're a much stronger candidate the
second time. And it almost always bears out, how are
you a better candidate today?
Speaker 4 (05:31):
Well we'll hit on that, But just number one, I
was running in an area six times the size of
the congressional district. So you put my same hustle work
where I'm only focusing on something one sixth the size.
That's a difference maker.
Speaker 3 (05:46):
Number two, I'm not.
Speaker 4 (05:47):
Starting with zero name. I d thanks to a lot
of the business community and grassroots rallying around me. One
of the more fun things when you know, you get
tired as a candidate, get beat up a lot. I
would get calls from my team Michael must be talking
about you, you know, because the emails. You know, we'd
four thousand individual donors. You know that's statewide level enthusiasm.
So before you know, there was months and months of
(06:09):
beating that, you know, trying to earn that reputation. We
know what the team is. You know, the magic sauce
was Mattress Mac you know, Michael Berry and law enforcement
plus grass roots, and so I'm trying to just turn
that engine on. And you know, when I think about it,
it's like, if you want to underestimate, go ahead. But
it's like I've learned marketing from mattress Mac. I don't
(06:29):
know anyone better than that, And I've learned to campaign
from us as our So not starting from scratch again.
And I've had four years to think about what they did.
I have watched Rodney run this town unopposed, and what's
so great about that district? Now, instead of running in
something that was at least a ten point savor for Democrats,
I'm running in something that's at least in a you know,
(06:51):
ten point favor for Republicans. So I like those odds.
I don't think any Democrat wants to fight me in
a neutral setting. And then what I'm gonna do is
that seat that if you have a week candidate or
somebody perceived now Democrats are going to throw millions of
dollars you get me in the seat. Democrats aren't touching it.
That is going to help our fight. You've got Governor
Abbott putting twenty million. So what I learned that hurts
(07:13):
so bad before is Democrats fight as a team Federal
State County. I was that down ballot candidate that had
support from those, you know, key individuals, but it wasn't
politicians that came and helped us. Well, now I've got
a chance to kind of fix that right and use
you know, the full weight whatever resources I have because
a lot of people we know in that area, they
(07:34):
kind of took to the November off their seat was safe,
didn't matter. I strongly have unfinished business. I'm not going
to rest until we figure out how to make Rodney retire.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
And we will discuss that and more coming up. Looking
at the map, there's a good bit of Liberty County
in this district as well. It goes almost all the
way down just Nora of I ten, goes almost all
the way to Jefferson County, and then it drops below
I Tent on the western part of the district, and
(08:09):
then you've got sort of the southeastern corner.
Speaker 3 (08:12):
Of us after the Beltway. You pick up that piece
there is probably where you get your density.
Speaker 2 (08:18):
All right, we'll talk to Alex mieler Kenne Congressional District.
Speaker 3 (08:21):
Nine coming up, continues.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
President Trump hope that a redistricting effort would lead to
five Republican pickups in the House. It looks more realistic
that it would be three. Hey, I would love five.
One of those seats comes out of Houston where Al
Green Congressional District nine. His district's numbers have changed dramatically,
(08:56):
and now that is clearly a Republican seat. Alex Mieler
announcing right here, right now that she will be a
candidate in that race. And I'll leave the map aside
because I finally looked at it and I'm fascinated. But Alex,
I'm going to put you on the timer, give you
exactly three minutes to reintroduce yourself. Because there are always
(09:18):
new people coming in moving out learning about politics. I'm
going to give you three minutes on the clock to
tell folks who Alex Mieler is.
Speaker 4 (09:31):
All right, thank you very much. So I am the
American first Fighter and what does that mean? So background,
I'm a West Pointer combat veteran. I served overseas in
the Army bomb Squad in Afghanistan diffusing bombs. And you know,
last campaign, I really I think made a mistake of
just assuming what people you know, what does that mean? Well,
bomb squad means you only get called when something's tough.
(09:51):
Everyone else is running away. When you're in a crisis situation.
Bomb squad, we're the ones that go run to the
danger to diffuse the ied and know how to settle
down when chaos is all around. And that's that kind
of skill set. You know, everyone can use political analogies.
I'm battle tested. That says like, no, I'm actually a
combat veteran. I know how to operate in hard times.
(10:11):
And so after that, I'm Harvard j DNBA. Moved to Houston,
no connections my husband and I with oil and gas
shell revolution. I thought this is a place where you know,
everyone says it's not who you know, but what you
could do, and that's what we really loved about. It
worked really hard. Kind of similar stories, Michael, you tell
kind of getting your first kind of white collar job
(10:33):
there and so worked on a variety of oil and
gas transactions where they're M and A capital markets. But
you know, pretty big transition, uh, from kind of rolling
up my sleeves, getting dirty, you know, digging up I
eds in awaddie, uh to now working on complex corporate transactions.
But was just grateful not knowing anyone in the city
to get an opportunity like that, and you know what happened.
(10:56):
My husband and I. You know, Houston was very good
to us. And when you have a family, it's time's changed.
So I have a four year old and a six
year old, very precocious if you know me, but it's
stubborn and outspoken, and well I get reminded of what
that's like every morning. But what changes is you know,
I was going along here, we are live in this
great American city. This is the dream, and you know,
(11:17):
things started to change. I realized that change was coming
from Lena Hidalgo. Now we all know since from Rodney Ellis.
But what I saw is, all of a sudden, this
great American city became you know, high taxes, high crime,
weak infrastructure, and it was the most progressive policies being
you know, we became this test bed. And so now
when you watch what happens in DC, everyone in Houston's like,
(11:37):
we know this, We've already been doing this in Harris County.
I know this very well where they're going next. And
the difference was for me, you know, complete political outsider.
I mean, if I think I knew more about politics,
vot to realize how crazy it was what it was doing.
But I just solve a problem and knew I could
fix it, and so quit my job. Got into the
race in November, self funded for a few months, everyone
(11:58):
thought it was a joke, like what are you doing?
And then you know I was outspent, crowded nine way
primary two opponents at over a million dollars, good relationships.
Eventually you know, raised three hundred thousand. But it started
grassroots first, law enforcement, huge win, having a hometown legend,
put his you know, reputation behind me, Mattress Mac and
(12:20):
you know, people just wonder what that's about. Honestly, I
think Max just knows that I work hard and where
my values are.
Speaker 2 (12:24):
The last three minutes and let me stop you there,
because that will feed into the next question is what
does this campaign look like for you? Who's behind you?
How do you run it? What do you need to
do to win? It's the primary you got to win,
so what do you have to do to win that?
Speaker 4 (12:39):
Sure? So the population statistics eighty five percent Harris County voters,
fifteen percent liberty. So you know, step one, turn on
old campaign infrastructure. As we just discussed obviously Michael, you
are a huge piece of that. And I need to
go do the same ground game that I did before
I met voters. Right, So first, you know, prior to
(13:00):
for me is getting the Liberty County and start doing
that same work that it did before, and a lot
more to learn about it. But I know that there's
a development the size of Washington, DC that you know,
call it willful blindness, but a lot of politicians turn
a blind eye to something you know, as large as
a big city to be a cartel haven. And that's
something that's not new known about that very well since
(13:20):
twenty two my county judge race. There's no excuse for
anyone not to understand exactly what Colony Ridge is to
come hard at that, but excited to meet everyone there
and so far what's been happening is we are just
turning on the old machine. So very strong support from
my own gas community and then Mattress Mac and so
I've also really proud that Fred Flickinger, District E, whose
(13:41):
city council represents a lot of that, he's actually one
of the people approached me and said, if you're not
thinking about this, you should, And I've you know, put
my weight behind you, and so he's very well respected.
He's been a mentor. And you know, we've only had
a couple of days, you know, for me to start
getting up and running. But so far it just looks
like we're turning on the old engine. And I'm better, smarter,
(14:02):
faster now and couldn't be more excited to have an
opportunity to try to show everybody that listen, you want
an American first fighter, look at what I've done on
your pick.
Speaker 2 (14:11):
Speaking of Fred Flickinscher, his mother, Marie was a legend
on the South Belt and I was running my first
race in two thousand and one. She's one of the
first people I went to see. She endorsed me on
the spot, supported me like crazy. She had a newspaper
at the time, she had a Chamber of Commerce at
the time, and as I always.
Speaker 3 (14:28):
Did, I would say, give me five to.
Speaker 2 (14:30):
Ten people I can go with your blessing and your endorsement,
to go and talk to and get support. And so
he comes from a hecklo bloodline, that family just first
rate folks.
Speaker 3 (14:42):
Do you expect President Trump to endorse.
Speaker 4 (14:46):
I surely hope, and it makes the case I think
I'm clearly the right answer, just in terms of we
don't need another Thomas Massey, you know, trying to be
a spotlight ranger. And one thing about me is I
was just into getting clicks or attention to certainly plenty
of that way. You know, it doesn't take hard to
ask around that I'm always working behind the scenes, rolling
up the sleeves, not trying to be you know, take credit,
(15:07):
just trying to get stuff done. And I think that's
a differentiator that I don't have a problem, you know,
when it's time to follow. You know, President Trump is
one of the few politicans. You know, I don't want
to call politicians leaders who sacrifice more than anyone could,
but a lot of these guys have never really had
to lose anything, really had a you know, every victory
ATH had has been hard earned. And it took a
(15:28):
lot to beat me. I mean I had Nancy Pelosi,
Hillary Clinton, Jane Fonda, all of the Hollywood elite get
involved in a county judge race in a Democrat county
because I was that hard to beat to the first time. Canon,
what do you think I do with a priority congressional
seat in a Republican district. They're not messing with me.
I had to bring out the full weight to beat us.
Speaker 2 (15:50):
Alex Wheeler candidate for Congressional District nine, which was Al Green.
He probably won't even run for reelection there. Thank you
for being with us. We'll talk again before the primary.
This is going to be a very very very much
got it. This is going to be a very very
interesting political season. Buckle obyers, smart devices from Michael's brain
(16:15):
to your ears.
Speaker 1 (16:16):
This is the Michael Very Show.
Speaker 2 (16:22):
That was interesting. Consider how big Harris County is. Harris
County is just over five million people. You're running to
be the Harris County judge, which is the mayor of
Harris County. You are running in a region bigger than several,
I think three states. There were one point one million
(16:43):
people who voted in the twenty twenty two election that
Lena had all go stole. I mean, technically we know
who stole. It wasn't Lena. She isn't smart enough to
do that. Remember Clifford Tatum, the election commissioner. Yeah, he's
not there anymore either, but he.
Speaker 3 (16:59):
Was brought in and he did it job.
Speaker 2 (17:00):
He did his job exactly the way he was told to.
There were one point one million votes casts in that
race that Mieler lost to Lena Hidalgo. A county of
over five million, one point one million votes. A congressional
district is about seven hundred thousand population seven hundred thousand
(17:25):
in On average, between two hundred and two hundred and
fifty thousand people vote, so about a quarter of the
number of voters that you get in the Harrison County race. Now,
sometimes that's good, sometimes that's bad. Because you take Richard
Nixon running for president in nineteen sixty, barely loses in
(17:45):
the closest presidential election in history to that point, barely
loses to Kennedy, comes home to California, his home state.
So surely if he can do that well across the
country and he manages to lose ouse.
Speaker 3 (18:01):
To moonbeing Brown's father, so it's not always the case.
Speaker 2 (18:05):
That's when he gave the famous you won't have Dick
Nixon to kick around anymore. But of course he would
come back and win the presidency in sixty eight and
seventy two. It's an interesting race, an interesting district now
that I've looked at it a little more, and Alex
Mieler referenced Colony Ridge. I don't think she said it
(18:27):
by name, but she made reference to what we all know,
I think most Republican primary voters. It's very important to remember,
and people get lost in this. A primary is very
different than a general and a candidate in a prime.
(18:47):
A candidate can be stronger in a primary and weaker
in a general or vice versa. But remember that the
only people voting in a primary are the Republican base.
There are many people who will vote next November who
will vote Republican, but for whatever reason, they don't show
(19:09):
up and vote in a primary. When you're building a campaign,
you look at something called a three R that means
that voter has voted in the last three Republican primaries. Now,
a lot of Republicans will vote in a presidential primary,
but not in the mid year primaries.
Speaker 3 (19:31):
If those three.
Speaker 2 (19:32):
Rs are two midterms and a presidential as opposed to
a presidential midterm and a presidential.
Speaker 3 (19:38):
If you have.
Speaker 2 (19:39):
Somebody that's voted in three straight elections that includes two midterms,
that person, if they're still alive and haven't moved away,
they are going to vote in a Republican primary. So
targeting becomes extremely important. You're no longer talking to the
general public, because the general republic does not vote in
(20:01):
the Republican primary. So if you walk into a grocery
store that has an average number of people there, you
can basically take out the people doing two or three
of the early checkout lines, and maybe the people over
in frozen goods and two people in the restroom, and
that's the only people in the whole store that are voting.
(20:24):
So the challenge becomes, how do you find just the
people who are going to vote and not speak to everybody?
So what do we know that people who are going
to vote? Do people who are going to vote Republican
watch Fox News, They watch Newsmax, those are their television
(20:48):
doing habits. They listen to talk radio. They're going to
be our listener. A Republican primary voter is going to
be our listener. There are some other things that Republican
primary votvoters, other patterns that they're going to have. You
can mail to them because you know where they live,
and they tend to be more likely to be a homeowner,
(21:10):
which means a consistency of residents than an apartment dweller,
which you're going to have a higher number of apartment
dwellers that are Democrats than Republicans, and so you know
where they live, so you can mail to them, you
can talk to them through our show. Now I want
to I'm going to say this one hundred times. Candidates
(21:31):
are going to pour money into KTRH from now until
the election. That does not mean I endorse them. What
it does mean is that they know that you are
more likely to be a voter than people listening to
music radio, and the numbers bear that out. You're more
likely to be a voter because you're someone who's tuned
(21:52):
into a lot of political talk and news consumers are
more likely to be voters. So whether they're listening to
our morning show or our show or anytime during the day,
that's where you're going to get a much higher propensity
of voters. Your cable news buy on television is going
(22:15):
to let you geo target where voters vote. So you
may see on Fox an ad for the candidate we
just spoke to, Alex Meeter. You may see a can
You may see an ad for her in Liberty County
or in the portion of Harris County where that makes
up the new Congressional District nine, and you may see
(22:35):
a lot of those. That's because she's targeting those spots.
You're also going to see that on You're also going
to see website advertising that'll be pretty heavy. And then
you should start getting mailers. I don't know when those
campaigns are going to start. They're mailers at this point.
They're putting those campaigns together. This whole redistricting effort was
(22:58):
talked about for quite some time. It happened really fast.
There are a couple of people I need to make
sure that I can release their names, but there are
a couple of people who moved mountains to make this happen,
to get this redic redistricting done. I didn't think it
(23:19):
would happen, and I didn't think it could happen because
I didn't think Abbott had the gravitas to get the
House to pass it. But I'll tell you how it
did happen. And you're not going to like this, but
it's the truth. Dustin Burrows sold us out. Dustin Burroughs
is drunk daylight, and Dustin Burroughs and his folks are
(23:42):
not our friends.
Speaker 3 (23:43):
They are not Maga, they are not Trump.
Speaker 2 (23:46):
You remember, these are the folks who impeached sent articles
of impeachment on Ken Paxton, and Trump warned them not
to do it, and they.
Speaker 3 (23:56):
Did it anyway.
Speaker 2 (23:58):
Those folks are up for real in the spring, and
their unpopularity has been building. That's why drunk Dade was
no longer. They couldn't have him be the speaker. That's
why he's stepping down. Their deals with the Democrats were problematic.
You've got the spotlight being shown that they weren't getting
(24:18):
anything done. So in one fell swoop, really two, they
passed what they called school choice, which is not school choice,
but they can call it school choice. And in one
fell swoop they get redistricting done and Trump endorses Burroughs
the next day, and that that's the deal. You may say,
(24:41):
I'm comfortable with that compromise. I'm comfortable with that transaction.
Whatever Trump needed to increase the Republican majority in the
House of Representatives to avoid being impeached his last two years,
that's the deal that was cut.
Speaker 3 (24:57):
And that's where we are. So there you go. Prepare
for a complete meltdown.
Speaker 2 (25:04):
With you, Lord of the Michael Berry Show. I got
an email from a lady who said I was going
to mail you this letter, but I figured just take
a screenshot of it in email it, and she did,
(25:25):
and it says, Hello, Zara. I started listening to your
show about two years ago. I just gotten divorced from
a ten year marriage and I quit a ten year
career as a public elementary math teacher. I was delivering
packages while deciding my future career.
Speaker 3 (25:40):
I was lost, alone and terrified.
Speaker 2 (25:46):
Your show brought me great comfort then and still does.
I'm now a real estate agent in Houston, building a
business for myself and my three children. Listening to you
help me feel like I was part of something bigger
and gave and gives me hope to keep going. Thank
you from the bottom of my heart. And then the
(26:07):
nice lady's name, which I'm not authorized to release, you know,
I will just say this.
Speaker 3 (26:12):
My study of people reveals again and again and again
and again.
Speaker 2 (26:20):
When you are in a bad spot, and we're all
in a bad spot at some point, when your spouse passes,
or your spouse leaves you, or you have to leave
your spouse for whatever that reason may be, when the
career you have dedicated yourself to falls apart, you're laid off, fired,
the business goes bankrupt, when the business you've built goes
(26:45):
under when you have a terrible accident, whatever that is.
If you can just have the foresight to say, I
don't know how it's going to get better. I can't
imagine it getting better, but it is going to get better,
and there's going to be a day, and I just
got to keep working until I get to that day.
(27:05):
That level of foresight can get you out of any trough,
any mess, any bind, any sadness. I see these stories
of you know, the one that always hits me.
Speaker 4 (27:15):
Ramon.
Speaker 2 (27:16):
We played every Thanksgiving the woman called in. It was
our Thanksgiving edition, and she told the story about eating
sardines at the Thanksgiving table with it that she ate
sardines at Chris at Thanksgiving. And I said, what kind
of crazy, wacky lady are you in a minute, and
she said, well, when my husband left us, my son
(27:38):
and I were in a little apartment and we were
struggling and we had nothing, I mean nothing, and it
was Thanksgiving, so and I said, we're going to have
We're going to do something to mark Thanksgiving. So I
opened a cannas sardines and we ate them together. And
at the time, I think her son was eight or whatever,
she said, you know, now, my son is twenty.
Speaker 3 (27:58):
Five and he's got a great life.
Speaker 2 (28:00):
And I got married seven years later, and you know,
my life is wonderful. I'm very happily married, and I
want for nothing. And she went through this whole thing,
and she said, but my son and I still at Thanksgiving,
we still go through that ritual to remind ourselves.
Speaker 3 (28:18):
I mean, I get choked up.
Speaker 2 (28:19):
Think about it today, and I just think, man, getting
to the top of the mountain is so much more
meaningful when you've been through a hell or a very
very difficult time like that. It makes you appreciate that
it's just having the foresight and the strength and the
conviction of saying I can get there. I don't know how,
(28:41):
I don't know what it looks like. I don't know
how long it'll take, but I can do it. Today
marks eight years since Hurricane Harvey made landfall in Texas
near Porta, Riansas, causing unprecedented flooding across much of southeast Texas,
with some areas seeing over fifty five zero inches of
rain over the course of a few days. Harvey dumped
(29:03):
so much water over the area that the impact could
be seen from space. KPRCTV with the.
Speaker 5 (29:09):
Story Dey marks eight years since Hurricane Harvey. Remember that, boy,
oh boy, Midland falls a Cat four with sustained winds
of one hundred and thirty miles an hour. That was
down south in Rockport. Then it came up here and
dumped rain for how long days? Geez Meyerland in southwest Houston,
the mainland area, experience a massive flooding early on. Homes
and cars submerged, and that was the third time in
(29:30):
four years for a lot of families happened there and
really all over the city. Parts of Houston that had
never flooded found themselves underwater. Officials say the Attics Barker
Reservoir was the main culprit because it was opened for
fear it would fail. We caught up with two residents
whose home filled with water. Back then, did you know
that tomorrow was the anniversary?
Speaker 4 (29:49):
Oh yeah, yeah, we I mean, I'd keep it on
my calendar.
Speaker 3 (29:53):
Do you think about the day much? Not too much anymore.
I mean, yeah, it's been eight years.
Speaker 1 (30:00):
How challenging was it for you to get back into
your home post Harvey?
Speaker 4 (30:05):
We moved back.
Speaker 3 (30:06):
In like middle of January.
Speaker 2 (30:08):
I mean the Bayou was completely redone right, I mean
they widened the bridges and took out the pinch points.
Speaker 5 (30:15):
It done quite a bit of work towards flood mitigation
and the various parts of the city. And of course
we haven't been tested like that since. Thankfully, Harvey was
like no other store, well almost like no other storm.
I mean they're all kind of different, but in terms
of money and damage, it was the second costliest behind Katrina.
That anniversary twenty years is coming up soon.
Speaker 3 (30:35):
I got an email this morning.
Speaker 2 (30:38):
From the nice fellow who rescued my wife and kids
and dog from the Omni hotel where I had sent
them because I was giving a speech in Baton Rooch
and then couldn't get back in time.
Speaker 3 (30:48):
They had sealed off the county and.
Speaker 2 (30:49):
I couldn't get in, and so on this memorial He's
hit me a video of saving them in the little
boat that hero around the neighborhood at Let's see that
would have been at about Woodway and six 'ten and
got them to high ground.
Speaker 3 (31:08):
Boy, that.
Speaker 2 (31:11):
Just goes to show we are all one flood, one
wrong turn, one you name it from your whole life
changing several emails asking that I explained how this redistricting
came about, Well, I'll tell you it was a multi
(31:34):
year effort by people who toil in silence. First is
the case of Petaway versus Galveston County, which you may
have heard about. Now, Galveston County fought back against the
Democrats because so what happened was the Fifth Mark. Henry,
the County judge of Galveston, was on ktr H this
(31:54):
morning and he told the story. But i'll give you
the abbreviated version, had determined this redistrict what you couldn't
couldn't do for drawing plans, and so Galveston County said, well,
this isn't right. You've got Democrats representing more folks than
(32:15):
they should because of how the lines have been drawn.
So they jerrymandered these district and these districts, and so
the case was brought at the district court. They said, well,
the Fifth Circuit said that's how that's supposed to be done,
and so they had to lose in the Fifth Circuit
to get to the Fifth Circuit, so that they had
to lose in the district court to get to the
(32:35):
Fifth Circuit, so the Fifth Circuit could overrule its past
ruling and they did. That's ped Away v. Galveston County.
And then there is a guy who is the hero
in all of this. I've never met him. I couldn't
pick him out of a crowd. But his name is
doctor Robin Armstrong. He is a Galveston County commissioner. He's
(32:56):
also an RNC committeeman. However, he's reported har Meat Dylan,
who was on the r n C. He supported r
Harmeat Dylan to be a RNC chairman and so the
other members of the r n C didn't like him
for that. So when he came up with the redistricting plan,
(33:16):
they said, no, we're not going to do that. And
he said, okay, I'm one of those relentless guys that
gets things done.
Speaker 4 (33:22):
You know.
Speaker 2 (33:23):
I used to say, it's usually women like this. I
used to say, Ted Cruz had a woman who was
kind of his. She would just irritate you. She wanted
you to come to an event. She wouldn't stop calling you,
she wouldn't stop badgering you.
Speaker 3 (33:34):
And he knew it. But I'm gonna tell you something.
You got to have a few folks like that. So
what did he do?
Speaker 2 (33:39):
Doctor Armstrong went to Team Trump, they took up redistricting.
They told Abbott, Patrick and Burrows to get it done,
and it happened.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
New Heights with Jason & Travis Kelce
Football’s funniest family duo — Jason Kelce of the Philadelphia Eagles and Travis Kelce of the Kansas City Chiefs — team up to provide next-level access to life in the league as it unfolds. The two brothers and Super Bowl champions drop weekly insights about the weekly slate of games and share their INSIDE perspectives on trending NFL news and sports headlines. They also endlessly rag on each other as brothers do, chat the latest in pop culture and welcome some very popular and well-known friends to chat with them. Check out new episodes every Wednesday. Follow New Heights on the Wondery App, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to new episodes early and ad-free, and get exclusive content on Wondery+. Join Wondery+ in the Wondery App, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. And join our new membership for a unique fan experience by going to the New Heights YouTube channel now!