The Press Box - A Weekend of Wild Senate Polls and Nearly Dropped Children. Plus, Gina Hinojosa on How Democrats Can Win Texas.

Episode Date: October 6, 2026

Today on The Press Box, Bryan and Joel discuss the latest polling information that provides an optimistic view for Democrats. Then they are joined by Gina Hinojosa, Democratic nominee for governor in Texas. They talk about why she joined the race, ICE, data centers, and much more (25:59). They wrap up with a Joel Anderson lightning round (55:11). Subscribe to Bryan's newsletter here! Hosts: Bryan Curtis and Joel Anderson Guest: Gina Hinojosa Producers: Isaiah Blakely, Jon Jones, and Sarah Reddy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Limited time offer see website for details. Media consumers, welcome to Pressbox Monday. It's Brian Curtis. It's Joel Anderson. What's up, man? How was your weekend? How was a food court? Man, you know, it's funny when you ask me how the weekend goes,

because it always just goes by so fast, because it's just like, I'm going from this place to this restaurant, to this indoor play place, to this playground. So it goes by very fast, but I reckon it was okay. How about you? What's funny, because I, whenever I don't hear from you on a Sunday, I just feel like you've been swallowed by the maw of fatherhood. Oh, man.

I don't know, I mean, God forbid, anybody ever asked me anything about the NFL? Because I just, I really can't tune in until, I mean, really took college football seasons over. It's funny because the Cowboys beat the Texans on Sunday. And this wasn't even a Dallas-Fort Worth versus Houston trash talk kind of text. I was just going to be like, dude, the Texans are 0 and 4. How about that? Because I know you're not a Texans person. And then I started to send that text and I was like, actually,

Joel's not watching this game. Oh, man. I'm sorry. I'm, you know, I had the TV on. I'm aware that the Chiefs beat the Raiders last night. There we go. So I do know that happened. That's the thing that happened.

And I saw that, did the Lions play the Panthers? They played the Panthers in Sunday night football. Okay, so I saw some of that. There you go. There you go. aware of NFL football that was happening. Yeah, man. I'm one of the, you know, I wish I could say I was taking some sort of political stand,

but that's not what's happening here. You're not. By the way, you're back on Twitter, too. I'm on Twitter to promote tailgate. Because you announced very dramatically last week that you were off. Well, no, I said that I'm not an active participant in Twitter, okay? Sometimes people tweeted me, I'm really more on blue sky. You know, I see, are you in blue sky?

So on Saturday, and people make friends. I had like a 90 skeet thread about college football. You know, I just do a weekly, I'm just tweeting about the games. But that's about it. So, yeah. Are you on threads, Brian? I think you are. I was, but I don't think I am on purpose anymore.

I'm an inactive user of threads. I just haven't been able to find a reason to keep going back, to be honest. It's really too much. Before we started working together, I used to look forward to those tweet and skeet threads on Saturdays because that's how I just kind of communed with you. And now that whole thread's in my phone on Saturday. So I don't even have to go to social media for that. I love it.

I'll tell you what I did this weekend. Okay. After I introduce our producers, Isaiah Blakely, John, Not Bones-Jones, and Sarah Reddy, who's sitting in with us here in the fancy studio in Los Angeles. Joel, I launched a newsletter. Wow. Why? No, I'm just joke.

I'm joking. I joke it. It's like saying I started a podcast. You know what I'm saying? It's like, all right. Yeah. No, no, no, no.

I knew that, guys. I knew that Brian started the newsletter and I'm excited about it for him. You should be too. The newsletter is called Now They Tell Us. Great name. It's a ringer newsletter just so everybody's clear because when you go to Substack, sometimes it sounds like you're leaving the place you were or you're looking for additional employment.

This is a ringer newsletter on Substack. It's free. Okay. Absolutely free. What if we want to give you money? Well, maybe we can work something out. Okay. I think it being a media newsletter,

I should probably not be accepting payoffs. Some people might want to just get you, buy you a little coffee sometimes. You know how it goes when you have fans. Yeah, send me a used book or two. I might not be opposed to that. But it is a free newsletter because we know you're spending lots of money already on substack newsletters,

including the fine ones here at the ringer, Sean Fennesse's. Tom Pellicero's. Uh-huh. We got Todd McShay's over on Beehive. You're spending a lot of money. Now they tell us is absolutely free. I love it.

That's good. You're a man of the people. A man of the people. This is, yeah, we're going, you know, blue collar here, right? This is me sitting around with firefighters and cops talking about what announcers are doing on television. Yeah, man, going down to the local diner, you know, So probably the news camera comes by to talk about, you know, who you're voting for this week. So that's where Brian likes to spend his time.

Me and the hard hats, absolutely. To your question of why, one is I miss writing regularly. Yeah. Podcasting, as you know very well, swallows up a lot of time. And my answer when everybody asks me, hey, you know, hey, what's your next piece? What are you working on? I'd always say, I really want the podcast to be great if we're doing the podcast. Like I don't want to do something and feel like I'm shortchanging box number one or number two.

I feel like we all collectively have done a good job making sure that box number one is going in a direction we wanted to. So now I'm like, I want to write. I really do. So you've decided that you don't care as much about the podcast and you prefer to put a little bit more energy into the newsletter. I'll be slacking off. You're looking at a blank Google Doc right now. I'm pretty sure. I had nothing for you.

No, no, no, stop it. Also, there's so many things that I stumble upon. or go out of my way to collect that just feel like they need a different home than a podcast. For instance, I'll see a really great piece in The New York Times and the Financial Times and Harper's in Texas Monthly. And I could mention it on here, but how incredibly frustrating is it to be driving along, listening to a podcast and here's somebody mention a piece and you're like, I got to remember that?

I can't click on that and just read that thing you're talking about right now. I think people are going to benefit quite a bit from your recommendations. I have. Like, I mean, you linked to this Lawrence Wright piece on death row. You reminded me, I've kind of felt like I want to get into celebrity memoirs and biographies. And Michael Douglas definitely seems like one that, you know, just the life he lived. I mean, I already found out about the Kathleen Turner revelation. I won't spoil it for you.

You can look it up. But, yeah. So, Brian. And also, I want your book recommendations. Brian is really good at that. So to get it all right here at once, I think a lot of us will benefit from this. Yes. So now they tell us it's going to come to you in two parts.

Okay. Part one is going to be my column, which might be a traditional column. It might be bullet pointed thoughts. It might be a short feature. It might be a remembrance. It might be an oral history. Let's call it a column. That's part one.

Okay. Part two is going to be a list of the best things that I read and watched and listened to over the course of the week. And whenever I see people tweeting stories, I'll say, read Joel Anderson on college football in The Ringer. And I am all for that, right? I endorse that sentiment. But whenever somebody tweets something like that, I'm like, what exactly did you like about this story? What was good about it? Because sometimes they say that, I don't exactly believe they actually read the story.

Doing a favor for a friend. They're doing a favor for a friend. So when I send my picks, I'm going to try to tell you what I liked about something that you could read or watch or listen to. And the first post is up right now. It has a long essay about why I cover the media, something I've done from a very, very strangely young age. when other people were involved in, you know, dating and football and other things like that. I was interested in sports writers. It's sportscasters.

There's a big essay about that. And you will also get in this inaugural essay all of my picks for the first week. This is stuff from Texas Monthly, from the aforementioned Harper's, from newspapers, and to Joel's point, Michael Douglas has a memoir coming out this week. So I went to eBay and bought a bunch of... of Michael Douglas magazine covers. Oh, look at you. Which I scanned in.

You can find them in this post, going all the way back to 1979, and my little snarky comments about Michael Douglas magazine covers. There was a part of our lives when I felt Michael Douglas was in so many movies. He was the guy. He was the guy for a moment, right? And he was a particular kind of guy. Like, I always liked him, even when he was the evil business guy. like he was at Wall Street.

For some reason, I just had a liking for him. Yeah. You know, I was looking at these covers. It's funny. I put one up from Vanity Fair, 1995, when he was in the movie Disclosure. Oh, my God.

That's the one I was thinking of, Demi Moore. Yes. And he was 50 years old when that came out. And I was like, oh, my gosh. I just feel like I grew up with middle-aged Michael Douglas. That's right. You did.

Man, War of the Roses. There you go. One of the best movies. I mean, it was just fantastic. Actually, it's something I should watch again just for the hell of it. But no, man, Brian, first of all, people please read it. I read the newsletter this afternoon. And, I mean, first of all, I forget about how good of a writer is.

And it's like the best possible version of why I joined the athletic, okay? Why I'm leaving New York? Yeah, right, the best possible. But also, Brian, I had not. And I hate to say this. I had never read your piece in Grantland from 2011 about your father. I'd never read that before. And it's beautiful.

And I hope people, you know, if you haven't had a chance to read it, it's linked really high in the newsletter. You should read it because I felt like I got to know you even better. So, yeah. Please, please subscribe. Thank you so much for saying that. And yes, if you are a fan of this podcast, this is a rare ask from me. Go to Substack. fine now they tell us and subscribe for free absolutely free i'd love to have you i think you really

enjoy it and it will be coming to your inbox very very soon all right news joel okay there's news there's news there's political news okay the texas democratic nominee for governor jena henehosa gonna be in this podcast studio in just a few minutes oh wow did you got a black shirt on you dressed up. I dressed up. I always wear this shirt, though, if you know for podcast, so, you know, it's normal dress up. Before she comes in, I want to talk to you about the news we got over the weekend about

this blue wave and the potential size of it. There's a new batch of New York Times and Sienna polls. We're never as interested in Sienna as we are this time of year. Well, the NCAA tournament, every nine again, they make a little run. They are in your bracket somewhere. Let me give you some of the top lines from these polls. Texas, where James Tala Rico is running against Ken Paxton, the new poll finds Tala Rico up six points.

That's crazy. Six points. In Ohio, where Sherrod Brown is trying to get back into the Senate, running against the incumbent John Houston, Sherrod Brown is up three points. In Alaska, Mary Peltola is up seven points. The Senate race in Kansas is even. Crazy.

In Iowa, Josh Turrick running against Ashley Hinson trails by one point. That's about as good a batch of news you could get if you were a Democrat. But wait, there's more. What about governor's races? The same batch of polls finds Democrats ahead in Iowa. Way ahead in Iowa. Alaska. Texas. Uh-huh.

Ohio. and trailing by five in Kansas. So I ask you. Same question I ask whenever we talk about the Tala Rico race. Joel, do you believe this is really happening? Most recently, during primary season, we talked about how people fall for polls over and over again. They say, oh, we haven't really perfected the way that we do this now.

There's all these different factors, the kind of person that's likely to participate in a poll. is not the kind of person that's not an accurate measure of what the voting public is gonna be like. So I'm just going to be relentlessly cynical and pessimist about this. This is your corner? Yeah, I mean, until, look, I mean, what?

I don't believe in the Democrats. Look at the world I like, look at the world we live in, you know? And like, it got that way in some, in some part. And along the way, a few times I believed in the polls. and so I nobody has told me that they figured out a way to perfect the practices of polling in the last six months so I just choose to be here and believe that it's not going to happen what about you I understand your skepticism I think I have the same answer as I do on the Tala Rico race in Texas I'll believe it when I see it also when we talk about some of these states Ohio Kansas these are places of voter for Donald Trump again and again yeah so you're you You're talking about converting Trump voters into Democratic voters. That's a thing that is actually happening. If you read the right through of these Times polls,

they talk to a number of people that they surveyed. And they said, hey, I voted for Donald Trump once, twice, three times. I'm voting Democratic in this election. You and I might not understand how that process works. But there are people like that. And for the Democrats to have a wave of this size, there have got to be a lot of people like that. I think or those people don't are not inspired to vote.

Right. Like that's got to be, that's got to be a big part of it too. It's just like, well, I'll never support a Democrat, but I'm not inspired to go out and vote for anybody that's going to support Trump right now.

But doesn't there have to be a lot of stay home? I mean, Trump won Texas by 13 points. How many people are staying home if that, if that sort of movement is coming from people who aren't voting? Yeah. This is the trouble I have believing in those polls because I feel like there's always that group of people. They round up a focus group.

And it's like, well, you know, I think I'm going to consider the Democrat this time. And then they never do it. I don't trust anybody's public proclamations about this stuff for sure, particularly people who have voted for Trump before. Because I just don't, I don't think they're reliable witnesses, basically. Here's the question, if you're a newspaper reporter. Yeah. You're looking for good news for the Democrats and you're looking for bad news for the Democrats. Trying to be a balanced reporter.

You're not part of the resistance. Mm-hmm. What story would you write right now that's bad for the Democrats? It's a fascinating question, right? That's a good one. If you're just out there being like, hey, you know, I'm recording all this hopium, Kansas, the edges of the blue wave. What do I write?

I mean, Jonathan Martin had one solution in Politico when he wrote that Democrats are leaving a bunch of winnable governor's races on the table by focusing so much on the U.S. Senate. Yeah, you know, so I think there's a couple things. I mean, again, they're not the most popular things to talk about. So Ashley St. Clair, remember this character who, you know, conservative commentator, one of the mother. of Elon Musk children, she's made the allegation that she believes he had something to do with voting machines and so forth. And I'm not a conspiracy theorist, but if I were a person that was like a little bit cynical about how all this might go, I'd be like, has anybody looked into those claims? Like, has anybody tested that out? And then I would also think about,

has anybody done anything about voter turnout and the impact of the Voting Rights Act? I know that this is, I'm an annoying person when it comes to this. But I really do feel like that is one of the more under-told stories about the upcoming election. That no, we have not really talked about or grappled with the impact

of the decimation of the voting rights act. I love that you keep coming back to that. I really do. And it's funny when you ask some of these candidates about it, isn't it? Because there aren't a lot of great answers about restoring those provisions. Yeah. If I were looking for the,

bad news for Democrat story. Maybe you can find that in Maine with Troy Jackson. Man. He is such an unknown quantity, but again, it's a state that Biden won. It's a state that feels like if Susan Collins is ever going to lose, this is going to be the cycle. Wait, what is, you know what? That's a great question. What do the numbers say there?

That's actually not one of the ones that was listed. Well, the New York Times had Susan Collins up in a recent poll. Okay. Which was kind of the, to be sure, paragraph of all this. You know, that, well, it doesn't look great everywhere. Right. And again, Jackson's sort of an unknown quantity thrown in there for Graham Platner. Yeah.

Yeah. Because I was going to say, of the people, of the blue wave that they're talking about, of those five states, Maine is not one of the ones listed, which is sort of interesting, given how much attention was being paid to it, you know, three, four months ago. Oh, my God, so much attention. I also read a skeptical Times piece this morning about whether Annie Andrews can beat Darlene Graham and the South Carolina Senate race. Again, if the

wave is expanding, it gets you to Kansas, maybe, it gets to South Carolina. Maybe Mississippi's been mentioned to, but I'm like, if we're talking about are we absolutely sure that the Democrats can win a Senate race in South Carolina against Lindsay Graham's sister,

seems like a pretty big blue wave. The visual of the weekend, Joel, came at an event in Vondalia. Am I saying that right, Ohio? I feel like that's a name I have read in newspapers without ever having pronounced.

Yeah. Vivek Ramoswamy, who is running for governor of Ohio and trailing Amy Acton in just about every bowl, tried to pick up a child. This was a child, according to reports, that was holding a sign that said my dad is deployed proud military kid for Trump.

So Ramoswami's like, okay, you're up here on the podium with me. I'm going to pick you up. The kid did a thing kids love to do. My daughter does this all the time where you just go complete ragdoll dead weight. It's an adult tries to pick you up. And he almost drops the kid on camera. an unbelievable visual do you have as a parent any sympathy for Vivek Gromiswamy here I don't know why he felt the need to pick the kid up

it's a it's a tough I'm still at the age where my kids are always asking me to pick them up and they're heavy like I was I was walking around with my two-year-old yesterday and like it's it's tough and if you're not prepared but the thing is he was prepared he went in for the for the hold. So I don't know. I mean, the thing is, if you were inclined to not vote

or make fun of Vivek already, I mean, I've seen his arms. You know what I mean? Like nobody. It was going to mistake him for Jack Willane. Or Abdul Elsaid.

Oh, man. Yeah, man. He's kind of rocked up. We got a lot of candidates that are pumping iron this cycle. But Ramoswamy was the one who did the batting cage

ad, remember? Oh, yeah. That looked pretty bad, even by my low sports standards. He's having a tough go of it, and he's having this thing, and I can't remember who wrote this story. It was more about, like, in states where Republicans run black candidates for, like, governor or senator, about how they tend to underperform, even polling averages, just for an assortment of reasons. And I kind of felt like Vivek has gotten some of that, like, just, I don't know. Like there was a, I felt like his base never really, the Republican base never really

warmed to him and it seems to be reflected. So if you told me that that, like, that he's going to lose, I'd be like, yeah, I can see that, you know. Here's another funny thing about that event in Ohio. Huh. John Gruden was there. We talked him up. We really did.

We talked him into existence, not just as a barstool talking head, but as a political surrogate. Uh-huh. I did not know that he played football with the Ohio Senator John Houston at the University of Dayton. I didn't know the University of Dayton had a football team. Look at you, looking down from your big 12 school at the University of Dayton. Did you know? Did you know, had you ever heard of the Dayton Flyers football team?

I just think of them as a basketball edge of the NCAA tournament bracket team, kind of like Sienna. Yeah. Isn't that a kid that he got drafted by the Knicks? First round, he was, well, I'm not going to get it here, so I'm going to let it go. But anyway, here is John Gruden on the stump. I'm from Ohio. My mom and dad are from Cleveland. I was born in Sandusky, and I went to the University of Dayton, and I'm damn proud of it, man.

Last thing I'll say is John Houston is a lot more than my friend. He was a great player. He intercepted 17 passes. on the gridiron. He was a great player. And I know why he's a great player. It was because of his work ethic and his commitment and his day-to-day mental toughness.

He will never quit ever on you or anybody. Let's hear it for Houston. Did we have one football coach to our media guy who isn't involved in politics? I mean, man. But it's such a natural transition, right? I mean, from Tom Osborne to Jack Kemp. Tom Osborne never gave a speech like that.

Let's just put that out there. Jack Kemp also, very intellectual, never gave a speech like that. Because that is the thing that is always made Gruden unique, right? Like, he's always been, not in addition to being coach, he's been playing coach for a very long time. We are going to run spider-wide bananas straight to the polls. I mean, it's just, the thing, it's, you know, kudos to him. Now we know all his cards are on the table. Oh, yeah.

He's all in. Yeah. Oh, by the way, Isaiah says, and I was looking this up too, it was Obie Topping. Oh, there we go. That was the basketball player I was thinking of. So, John, I don't host an NBA podcast here at the ring as you might be able to tell. We did that. Good tweet from Ben Jacobs, the fine political reporter.

Someone needs to book John Gruden on a Sunday show and have him evaluate whether various statewide candidates are Gruden grinders. Okay. I'm not sure we did more of John Gruden in our lives, but I endorsed that particular idea. Also, there was a great piece by Emily Davies the other day about how John Houston is so obscure in the Senate that a lot of people in Ohio think that Sherrod Brown, who's running to get back into the U.S. Senate, is actually the incumbent in that race. And that Houston's team has not dispelled that notion. they're happy to be, hey, you know, Washington is broken. Send me back to the Senate.

That's so funny. Yeah, I mean, but it is like, I felt, because he ran for office again a couple years ago, right, and lost. So it makes, you know, I could, I could understand if you really are not tuned in. But that doesn't speak well for what he's doing as a public servant, I would imagine. It's not great. He was the lieutenant governor of Ohio, and then he became Senator Wend, J.D. Vance became vice president. So he's only been in office for

a year and a half a little bit more. Okay. But even so. I mean, he's a guy. I remember seeing him at the state of the union earlier this year when I was just watching it on TV and I was like, who is that? It's like, oh, wow, that's a member of the United States Senate. Yeah. Yeah. He's got a he kind of looks like a cross between like

George W. Bush and I don't know, man. There's another kind of mix here. I don't know how to explain it. He looks like a guy who would have had 17 interceptions in college, though. Solid safety. Yeah, that's a lot of interceptions. It's a lot of interceptions. I mean, that's at least four a year, you know. We may need to do some fact-checking on those stats. That is John Gruden's recollection. Very fair point. Not mine or Joel's. All right, Joel, it is time

for our special guest. where some see heroes and others see egos. Bloomberg sees the era of billionaire athletes. While others follow the noise, we follow the money. Learn more at Bloomberg.com. All right, Joel, let's bring in our special guest, Gina Hinajosa, is a state representative from our home state of Texas. She's also the Democratic nominee for governor.

A New York Times-Siena poll released this weekend, which I texted to several friends with emoji eyes, had her up three points over Greg Abbott. We're so happy to have her in our LA studio today. Gina, welcome to the press box. It's great to be with you. So I mentioned that New York Times, Siena poll. It's not the first poll you've led over the last month.

Based on your polling and your sense of the race, do you see yourself leading this race by three points now? I think it's dead even. I do think that it favors us, but I think it's all about turnout at this point. We're 29 days out. So we're so close that at this point, the only poll that's going to matter is election day, right? It's neck and neck.

And yeah, I think we are leading, but we just need everybody to turn out. Take me back to last October when you got into this race. You're running against a governor who's won all three of his gubernatorial elections by 10 points or more. What was your theory of why Abbott could be beaten this time? I knew he needed to be beaten. He had turned his back on our public schools, on our kids. I fought vouchers since 23. James Haldrico and myself were the co-chairs of the effort to fight vouchers, which was

his number one legislative priority. Abbott's number one legislative priority in 23. We beat him. We joined with rural Republicans who love their public schools too. And we beat him in the regular special session and then four special sessions after that. Then he went into his primaries and he just poured millions of dollars. in against Republicans who had voted with us. Like that had never happened for a sitting governor to do that,

go against his own party, and then he got the votes he passed it last year. And when he did that, I just knew that rural Texas was mad at him. I knew a lot of Republicans who I had worked for years with, in this bipartisan space that was public schools, where we could still do good things for kids, that they were angry. And I just knew we had to try. I knew we had to try to reach for that brass ring because if we don't, then we'll never have the Texas we deserve. Our kids will never have the schools they deserve.

Greg Abbott has just decided he's going to do the bidding of his donors. He doesn't really care about it. He doesn't fear the voters anymore. So Brian mentioned that Abbott has won his last three elections by more than 10 points. But obviously the Democrats losing streak for governor goes back further than that, like Gary Marl, Tony Sanchez, Bill White. As a Texan, why do you think Texans have repeatedly and soundly rejected Democratic candidates over the past 30 years? I mean, it's hard to know. My memory doesn't go back that far. I will say, and one thing that I would like to make sure your viewers knew is Greg Abbott had

$100 million when this campaign started this election cycle. Right. So the main reason people said, like, what are you doing, Gina? But I will say this is a midterm election with Trump in the White House. And last time we had that was 2018. And Democrats swept, even in Texas, in Houston, they swept all of Harris County. And so those national like political implications, they do matter when it comes to statewide politics. Last election cycle was bad. Biden stepped down last minute.

Kamala ran. People didn't like that. Didn't inspire confidence. All Democrats got hurt before that. it was the midterm election with Biden in the White House and in our history with like three exceptions in our whole history in the United States of America apparently the party that is in the power in the White House loses power in the midterms before that was COVID so like recent memory national politics I think made it hard for Democrats but I also think I think the opportunity

for 26 is this this is election about who does Texas belong to? Is it by and for the people or is this the billionaires world? Because it is so hard to make it in Texas right now. Like when I was a little girl, Texas was the land of opportunity where if you worked hard, you could make it. Like it was, like if you could make it, it's the opposite. I say it's the opposite of what Frank Sinatra is saying about in York. Like if you can make it, if you can make it here, you can make it anywhere. Texas is like, you can't make it here. You can't make it nowhere. Right. It's like hard work paid in Texas and hard work doesn't pay the same way it used to pay after 12 years of Greg Abbott.

Like I'm meeting working Texans, middle class Texans who are having to line up outside the plasma center to give blood two to three times a week just to pay for their bills like teachers having to do this. Right. And so people are feeling like it's harder to make it like the American dream is out of reach. And because all of this is in our face with data centers, which are the physical manifestation of a governor during the bidding of the money to interest because he invited them all in with rich tax breaks and there are no protections. It's just people get it. It's like 99% of us at this point are in the same boat. And it's no longer about right versus left. It's about like 15 billionaire tech dudes and then all the rest of us. And so I just think it's

gotten so bad that people are receptive to it. My background is I'm a labor lawyer. So I've always been working on working families issues. And then also I come to public education from the perspective of a mom, right? Not like from policy walk like other people's kids should be doing this. No, I want this for my kids. And in that way, I connect with Republican moms, independent moms, parents, right, who just want a solid education for their kids. So I just think we need back to basics in government. To go back to more recent election, Donald Trump won. Texas by 13 points two years ago. Yeah. In order to win this election, do you need people who voted for Trump to vote for you? Yes. No question. And what's going to be the issue where they

flip from voting for Donald Trump to voting for a Democrat for governor? This high cost economy is really is really forcing Texans just to take a second look at who they're voting for. And what I'm hearing is people just want change. People know who's been in charge and know Greg Greg Abbott's been there 12 years. They know Republicans have been in charge. And so it's not that suddenly people are pro-democrat. They're just like, whatever this is, we don't want it. And so it creates this space, this opportunity where even with MAGA,

and nobody's fighting data centers harder than MAGA in Texas. Because all the data centers have descended into rural Texas. And there are just no legal protections, like really like nothing. I talked to some people who were in the pain handle who were told that their municipal water source was now legally obligated to the data center and in times of drought when there's not enough water that the citizens, the residents will be cut off first. So like when I say there are no protections, there are no protections for Texans right now. So I sat down with like MAGA who like they had, they asked me to have questions about culture war issues. Like they want to ask me.

me about Sharia law and constitutional carry and I'm like, look, I don't agree with you on, I support background checks when it comes to, I call it permanent this carry. That's why I support. This election is not about that. And like, as we've been fighting these culture wars, really the only people who have won are like 15 billion our tech dudes. They're just amassing all our money, all our power and about to blow up the world if we don't come together fast to save ourselves. So that's what this election is about. And after sitting with even MAGA, who were very skeptical about me before, like after sitting and understanding that thing and understanding what this election is about is about, again, who does Texas belong to? They stood with me in a press conference

in Red Oak, Texas, Red, Red, Red, Red, Red, Republican County right outside of Dallas. So that's the opportunity. And yes, I am inviting everybody to be a part of, this fight in this effort because it's going to take all of this coming together to save ourselves at this point. You know, Gina, another theory of the case in Texas is that it's not just a red state, it's a non-voting state. And so like from 2024, they were saying voter turnout in Texas was about nine points lower than the national average, with the drops of being most dramatic in Harris, Bear,

in Dallas counties. Bear is spelled B-E-X-R for the non-Texans here. Those are the big urban counties in Texas, the Democratic. Democrats need to dominate the win. So I'm just curious about, like, what is your campaign doing to address issues, like the turnout issue? Because it's like places in Terrant right now where Republican officials have eliminated dozens of, like, polling places in mostly black and Latino areas.

So I know they're trying to stop change from coming, but they're not going to stop it. What they're doing is backfiring. So in Territ County, for instance, they started this what, like, maybe two months ago, they started talking about shutting down all these polling locations. And then people turned out, people are now locked in to make sure they vote. It has had the opposite effect. People are angry. They now understand the importance of their vote because people are trying to stop them from doing it.

And so I do think these efforts across the state to kind of make it harder for people to vote just have the opposite effect this year. I just think people are hurting in a way that. I've never seen before and people understand this is probably our last best chance. I think last election cycle, I think a lot of young people stayed home because, again, that whole switch up, I have a 21-year-old son and I watched that debate with Biden, the presidential debate where he couldn't perform. And my son is like not into politics at all.

And when he saw that Biden couldn't perform, he looked at me with like eyes of the trail. And he knew Trump was bad, but he just thought we had something better to offer than that. And I think young people were turned off and didn't show up, and I don't blame them. We should have had something better to offer than that. Kamala ran, yes, but that whole switchup, people didn't like the way it was chosen for them. Anyway, that whole thing was just a stain on Democrats. I don't blame Kamala. for that. But look, I think

young people are back. We're seeing it in the primaries. I got twice as many votes as Beto got in 2018 in his primary and I had eight opponents, seven or eight opponents. Because people, like I think at this point, Democrats, young people, would crawl on glass to vote because they understand the stakes

and we're winning over. Even Republicans independence in a big way. Young people, Latinos, who went for Trump last election cycle are back in a big, big way. We flipped a seat, a state Senate seat in Terek County, swung at 31 points this year. Taylor Ramet got 79% of the Latino vote in that election, which is like astounding, right? So, yeah, I just think it's a perfect storm of opportunity and we can't blow it.

Well, to follow up on that, like, you know, the hope is that people don't have to get mad to vote, right? Eventually, at some point, that people will start trying to restore the Voting Rights Act or whatever. And you were also part of the group of Democrats that left the state when they tried to do the redistricting thing. So, like, is there any, like, if, when you get elected, is there anything you could or are planning to do to restore some of that to make it so that it's more fair and equitable so that people don't have to, you know, get pissed and stand in line for four hours to vote? So what I believe, what I support is an independent citizens redistricting committee. Politicians should not be deciding who their voters are.

Voters should be able to pick who they want to lead them. That is the ideal. Now, I will tell you that Republicans in Austin have already said they will come back next year and redraw maps because the U.S. Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act. And now there are no rules. Like we thought we saw bad gerrymandering before. Like, we ain't seen nothing. And when they do that, they'll eliminate five Democrats from Congress.

And then two years later with the census, we'll get another like four to five seats in Texas because we're just growing faster than all the other states. So if we don't flip, that's 10 seats off the table for Democrats in U.S. Congress. There's not Democratic control of Congress with 10 seats just off the table. Texas becomes too big at that point. The math no longer works. And so every American should care about this race for governor because we need a governor who will veto rigged maps. And I will be that governor. And look, it doesn't matter which party you belong to.

If control of Congress is determined before the first ballot is cast, then we all lose, right? Because then the elections are rigged. Politicians don't fear the voters. We cease to be America. And those are the stakes in 2026 in this governor's race. Ask about a story you referred to a minute ago. It was from 2024, and I think one of the most interesting stories of that election was that some Hispanic voters in the Rio Grande Valley flipped and voted for Donald Trump. You're from Brownsville. We grew up in Brownsville. In your experience, why did those voters flip to Trump?

A couple things. One is border security was a big concern at that time. So if you'll remember, there were the caravans that had come over. people were sleeping under bridges just felt chaotic, did not inspire confidence, and Democrats got punished, right? Biden, frankly, was hiding on immigration issues, didn't lead. And Latinos along the border just did not like that chaos and Democrats got hurt. And I will say that I think Trump's appeal in Texas to Latinos and beyond is because Trump has always said he's different and he is like people want change people don't want

politics as usual Trump said the system's rigged and people know that's true the system's rigged I mean and it's it's a system we pay into that is working against us he's not rigged it for himself and people don't like that and you see that his polling is underwater even in Texas but I think that Democrats have been defending an indefensible system for too long. We need to see it and say it. We need to say, yeah. You know what? The reason why it's harder to make it in Texas is because the system's rigged. The policy that is the priority in the Texas legislature is all driven by moneyed interest, not the people of Texas, right? And so, I think that was Trump's appeal. Um, you know, I just, just for a second, I want to, because

you've talked about the culture war things here. And you, in last week, you said something about Democrats taking debate here. And I just want to kind of for a moment, just lay out something here. So a year and a half ago, I lived in California, and I had to make a decision about where to move. And for years, the expectation that I was going to move back to Texas to be with my family and my friends. And then my wife and I decided we couldn't do it. We moved to Maryland instead. Here's why.

In a state where women can't get an abortion, maternal mortality rate is higher than a national average, couldn't risk my wife getting sick. Close family member that's transgender. friends who are parents who are transgender children, they don't feel like Texas is safe. And in a state that has issued all these sweeping bans on DEI and cultural studies, like, how could I justify sending my kids to school in a state with that sort of open hostility towards diversity, inclusion, and equity? So I was just thinking, like, I know what some people call cultural issues actually impact the quality of life from millions of Texans. So like,

why shouldn't Democrats defend those people in their side of those issues? I think, absolutely my record is to defend all Texans from this governor and the leadership's punching down at people and that's what's happened the problem is that we have let them determine what we are talking about right and they are setting the agenda for what we are talking about we have to set the agenda and the way we win is to set the agenda on what all of us impacts all all of us and those are the economic issues and it's not just because the price eggs can you for it it is because it's about who we are i think it the reason why the culture wars have taken off with republicans is because it is who republicans serve up to explain the economic struggle people

are experiencing and so long as people are experiencing more and more struggle it'll be harder to get bring us back all together the root cause I think of why they're so successful with culture wars is because people are struggling in a way they've never have before. And so Democrats for too long have not said, you know, why is the reason you're struggling too much? Because of the billionaires and the corporation CEOs and this trickle-down economy that, yes, even elected Democrats are voting for. In Texas, like, there is blame to go around. It's one party that's been in control, but also the culture has been to do the bidding of corporate America, of these multinational corporations, frankly.

So we, we're just at a place where I just feel, and it's because I was on an airplane today probably, but it's like we're in a situation where we first have to, like, secure our own oxygen mask, and then we can start, you know, worrying about others, but right now everybody is struggling economically. everybody. And so focusing on that, making sure people know we've heard them, I think then we'll create an environment where people can be more generous to people who are not like them. I think it's just a matter of leadership, how we lead. And I think we have to say the reason why they are pointing at a different subgroup of people every week to blame for your struggle is because

the real reason is they're bought and paid for in doing the bidding of the corporate interest. And somewhat of a relevant follow-up to that. Both French is running for statewide office in Texas. He had a tweet about South Asian students who were at the UT Ohio State Game the other day. Who's your reaction to that tweet? This man is not fit for office. That was not even the worst of what he's posted. This man is something wrong with him, and he should be nowhere near statewide office.

One question for Democratic governors across the country is what can they do to rain in ICE and Trump's immigration agenda? If you get elected on day one, what would you do? So one thing that Abbott has done to kind of facilitate it is he, so now the detention centers are run by private prison companies. And he's put our Texas National Guard in the private prison company detention centers to cut their staffing costs. And so they make, you know, it's just about making. That's why they exist. They exist to make money. I would take Texas National Guard out immediately. Texas, these are people who are sacrificing to serve in times of emergency. This is not appropriate for them to be in there. He also allows for the locking up of little kids with their parents in these detention centers.

No other state allows that. That's why Liam was locked up in Texas. That's child abuse. It ends when I'm governor. Abbott has created a kind of licensing that allows us. for that to happen. There's just no place for that. And look, I think the bully pulpit is, needs to be used by a strong governor who says in this state in Texas, we have laws, we have rights, and having masked agents come into Texas where they shoot first, ask questions later, killed a man on his way to work. It was a case of mistaken identity. Like nobody is safe in that environment. Two American 17-year-olds in South Texas last month were pulled over and beaten by ice on the way to enlist in the Marines, right? There's a man who slept on a detention cell floor

two weeks ago in Austin, Texas, with a bullet in his back put there by ice. He didn't get, he didn't have any pain medication. They left him to suffer. I never even seen anything like that modern history in the criminal justice system for murderers. Murderers aren't treated that way, right? This was a man who's doing his door dash delivery. So we need a governor who stands up for the rights of toxins who says we have certain standards. Even our own state police have body cabs, dash cans. We need transparency. Mass agents have no place in Texas to stand up and at minimum use the bully pulpitment and use the courts where we can and can be successful to protect and defend Texans. People are angry about this. Latinos especially are angry because there's now

racial profiling that's allowed to happen. We know the U.S. Supreme Court said that's allowable and it is happening. And so I do think that all that chaos and violence that is being perpetrated by ICE in Texas will play into this election. So obviously, you know, one of the biggest planks of your campaign is public schools. You mentioned it earlier, right? And under Abbott's administration, you know, taken over these school districts. I'm an HISD product, right? He's messed up here. HISD, Fort Worth, some other ones.

What do you think you'll be able to do? What could you do to build back the trust in public schools, to rebuild them after this, you know, this string of mismanagement of our public schools? Yeah, it's not rocket science. But by the way, you should know the plan for Houston ISD. They're going to convert 100 public schools into AI schools. It's this model where they replace teachers with education guides. It's after Greg Abbott received over a million dollars for McKinsey Price,

who is this model of AI schools. I mean, it's just dystopian reality. And that's all, again, driven by money. That's what this is about. Look, it's not rocket science. We all know what's the number one thing we can do for a child's education is a great teacher in the classroom. We all know that. Smaller class size, great teacher in the classroom.

And we just need to get back to basics. And that is how over the years I have established alliances who are supporting me to this day with Republican moms, with Republican superintendents, with Republican coaches, like people who love public schools. Because they see what is happening for what it is. It's one big rift. The reason they're taking over, the reason Abbott's taking over school districts and he started with the largest school district in the state is because he wants to control all those contracts. all the money that comes. Second to health care, public schools is the biggest line item in the budget. And avid's donors don't get rich or off of paying teachers their worth, right? So they instead look for ways to privatize. And that's what's happening. So my approach is back to basics. I would

fire Mike Morath, who's a current Texas Education Agency Commissioner and put an educator in that position. He, I have nothing against the man personally, but he's been there for over 10 years, and our schools are off track. We didn't get him back on track. He's a tech entrepreneur, and more and more money is going just to tech contracts, and it's not, our kids don't need to be spending more time on screens. So, fire him, put an educator in place, pause the ather of accountability system. It's based on a rig star test. It's a test that the Texas Education Agency creates. Then the kids take it, and then they decide where the passing score is going to be after the kids take it.

So it's like it is rigged, right? There should be an objective standard. So you don't buy the schools like these test scores because that's what they're saying in HSD. Well, the test scores are up now, right? That's their argument for why things are working. No, the test is rigged. I mean, the test, they have kids doing,

they have third grade kids doing typed essays. Half of them get zeros. They have typed essays being graded by AI. when school districts, they have to pay for every one test to get retested, like the rate of errors is through the roof, right? I mean, it's just a messed up test. It is just a system that has been set up to take over school districts. And I would wipe clean all those vendor contracts and use that money to pay teachers to be amongst the highest paid in the nation. My number one priority for public schools will be to get a great teacher in the classroom. A lot of teachers have left the classroom in Texas. We've had an exodus of teachers.

and we just have to get them back. And I've got a lot of teachers you show up at my rallies and say, if you're governor, I'll come back. Here's one thing I wanted to ask you. I was a student of the University of Texas in 1998. That was the election when Republicans won every single statewide office in Texas. And when I talked to my friends back home who work in politics, they're excited about this cycle. They're fired up. But it's almost hard for them to believe a Democrat can win statewide because a Democrat has not done so in a generation.

How do you confront the problem of Democrats, not Republicans, the Democrats not thinking that a Democrat can win? Yeah, I know. I mean, it's funny because I do encounter it. And even when they start to see that you can win, they're like, well, then how are you going to win the next time? I'm like, really? They're on to the reelect. Yeah, they're looking for the problem. Look, I will tell you, it is the success that we have had.

that has converted people. Yes, there were a lot of doubters when we launched and few people believed we had a chance. But with what people are hearing on the campaign trail, even from Republicans, Republicans who are stepping out and saying, I'm not voting for Greg Abbott again. With the polling, with having one elections, it was Territ County this year, yes, and Saifair. Outside of Houston, they flipped the school board and Pearland, where they flip. the mayor's seat and Leander where we flip the mayor's seat like these winds are happening right so when the evidence is before your eyes it's easier to believe I'll put it that way so to that point you've put a couple of really good polls onto the board as you said there was a time in this race

and people like what are you doing why are you challenging Greg Abbott what are you asking for now from national Democrats is it money is it resources is it surrogates to come into Texas and campaign with you not surrogates this is all about Texans Um, it's like, does anywhere else matter? Really? To me and Joel? No. Yeah.

No. Number one in our hearts. Um, so, um, listen, Greg Abbott has spent $80 million on paid communications. I've spent seven. And we've been able to reach a lot of Texans. There's still like 20% that we haven't reached. We're up on broadcast TV.

It's really expensive to do that in Texas. there's lots of media markets, big media markets. So we are asking for people to invest in this race because we need to be, we don't have to spend dollar for dollar what Abbott spends. We've already shown that. We just have to be able to spend enough to reach the people with who I am and what I'm about. That's what you do with campaign cash. You should tell people who you are and what you're about. That's actually Greg Abbott's problem. People know who he is and what he's about and they don't want him, right? And so he's stuck where he's got all this money and he's, the more he spends, the better I do, but we just need to be able to reach those people.

We typically in these interviews with a Joel lightning round. Okay. He's got some questions for you about Texas. Okay. Don't be. Take it away. Don't be scared. Okay, here we go.

You ready? I'm good. All right. Your all-time favorite Texas Democrat. Ann Richards. Okay. That's what you thought you'd say, right? Yeah, that's an easy one.

the last Democratic governor of Texas. I should have said somebody other than Andrews, I'm not too late. Your all-time favorite Texas Republican. Huh. That's a good one. It's hard for me to say, you know why? That's a trick question.

Let me tell you why. Because if I say it, they can never get elected again. But let me say this. I'm going to tell you a class of Texas Republicans. The Texas Republican, who went up against Greg Abbott and stood in support of their public schools

in 2023 to say public schools, they went up against the big money against their governor to do it was right. That took a level of courage. That's probably the most courageous thing I've seen any politician do in Texas. Favorite musician from Texas? So my favorite musician is Adrian Casada.

He's brilliant. I don't know if you know he is, but do you know? No, I'm not. I'm sorry. No, I don't, this is not me. Uh-uh. Back Pumas.

They, he's, he's brilliant and he's in all sorts of, all sorts of work. And right, and I've known him personally since our kids play together on the playground in, uh, in like the early, I don't know, long time ago. But just so proud of what he's done. And he's the music behind one of our ads, too. Okay. Joel likes to tease me about not knowing anything about music. So I'm glad we found a hole in. Yeah, you got me.

You got to look him up. Yeah, okay. All right. Brian really enjoyed that. I don't know it. Book or movie that best explains Texas? Book or movie that best explains Texas? That's a good one.

I mean, I will tell you, I mean, it's not a time that I know, but Lonesome Dove is just the classic that people go to. and the movie, the screenwriting in the movie by a Texan was true to the book and was beautifully done. Favorite place to vacation in Texas? Hmm. So I will tell you, we have a family farm like right next to Round Top. And I love to go there. just to disconnect. It's been my husband's family for over a hundred years and it was like an original like Czech establishment and it's so peaceful and so beautiful there that when I go there

just disconnect from everything. Oh we so have you been to Royers then? Have you been to Royers? Yes, I have been to Royers. Yes. Okay. Yeah my family we always make a real road trip up to Royers whenever I'm home. So yeah it's a good place. It's a good place. Yeah, this is outside of Roundtop. But yeah, it's just beautiful, rolling hills, beautiful country. Your favorite Texas Longhorn? Arch Manning.

Okay, all right, fine. I'm on your way. All right. We believe in Arch. Come on now. Final question here. Favorite Tex-Mex restaurant and your order there? This is an important question.

This is an important question. Look, Tex-Mex, tend towards the more Mexican than the Tex-Mex. Oh, okay, all right. Yeah, I tend more towards the Mexican than Tex-Mex. Not all that cheese, you're not a fan of all that cheese. Yeah, I didn't grow up with it

because I grew up in the valley. And we didn't eat, I didn't even grow up with queso. We grew up with Caso flamado, which is, white cheese with chorizo on a flame. That's like the original queso and it's really good. Well, what's your, give me your Mexican place. What's that? My favorite Mexican.

A Mexican restaurant. So I do love polvo's in Austin and they have great in the morning, cafe con canella coffee with cinnamon that they brew and homemade tortillas. It's so delicious. Very good. I put that on my list. All right, Joel. I'm officially hungry.

Okay, yeah, good. Come back. There we go. Gina Hinoosa. Thank you so much for coming. Thanks for coming on the press box. It's great to be with you. Thanks.

All right, that's the press box. I'm Brian Curtis. He's Joel Anderson. Productions magic. By the dynamic trio. It's Isaiah Blakely. It's John Jones. It's Sarah Reddy.

Thank you all for your help. One more plug for my new newsletter. Now they tell us. Go over to Substack. It's free. I'd be grateful if you sign. up later this week. David Shoemaker is going to be in a day early, Joel.

Okay. Because my wife and are going to be celebrating our 15th anniversary later on this week. Oh, look at you, man. That's great. How about that? So Shoemaker and I will have a pot up on Wednesday. Instagram, follow us at Pressbox Ringer. Gmail, it's the same address, pressbox ringer, gmail.com.

If you have any comments, we always love to read those. Joel, I will see you next Monday with more lukewarm takes about the media. Looking forward to it, buddy. Thank you.