The Texan Podcast - Weekly Roundup - 10.01.2021

Episode Date: October 1, 2021

Today, The Texan reporters talk through newly released Texas House and congressional redistricting maps, border plans from Texas’ GOP candidates for governor, two special elections to fill Texas House seats, the lieutenant governor wading into senate races, COVID-19 vaccine mandates in the Texas National Guard, how Texas universities rank according to free speech metrics, the secretary of state responding to Trump’s request for an audit of the 2020 election, what the blocking of family unit illegal alien deportations will mean for Texas, and how rural hospitals may have to pause birthing services due to vaccine mandates and employee attrition. 

Happy October, everybody. Fall is in full swing and we are so glad you have chosen to tune in. Senior Editor Mackenzie Taylor here on this week's edition of the Texans Weekly Roundup Podcast. Today, our team talks through newly released Texas House and Congressional Redistricting Maps, border plans from Texas GOP candidates for governor, two special elections to fill Texas House seats, the Lieutenant Governor wading into Senate races, COVID-19 vaccine mandates in the Texas National Guard, how Texas universities rank according to free speech metrics, the Secretary of State responding to Trump's request

for an audit of the 2020 elections, what the blocking of family unit illegal alien deportations will mean for Texas, and how rural hospitals may have to pause birthing services due to vaccine mandates and employee attrition. Thank you for listening and enjoy your weekend. Howdy folks, Mackenzie Taylor here with Daniel Friend, Hayden Sparks, Isaiah Mitchell, and Brad Johnson. Admittedly, I did botch the first introduction of our podcast and Daniel being that he is now editing this podcast feels he has his hands folded in his

lap as if he's some star wars villain plotting to you know eliminate the rebels but um something like that yeah that just seemed fitting but there's some plotting on his end but i thought i'd admit it right out of the gate so that way you know i'm not in case i accidentally leave it in there just accidentally yeah leaving me unable to pronounce my own name yeah it happens to the best of us as sweet hayden said it made me feel better on that note daniel we're going to get right into the news we have a lot of different maps to talk about let's start with the house new map or new house maps for the texas uh legislature were released this week. And there were a lot of legislators that were paired together in districts.

And we've talked about this leading up to this discussion, particularly in regards to different retirements from lawmakers. But let's talk to specifically which lawmakers are paired together at this point who have not said they won't run for reelection. Yes, there's about three sets of people who could be paired together at this point who have not said they won't run for re-election? Yes, there's about three sets of people who could be paired together and face some primaries. Of course, you know, we're still a ways out from actually seeing the complete maps and what that final version looks like. We also don't know, you know, if there's going to be core challenges to this. And then also what their plans are, if they know that they're going to be running against someone else, you know, they could change plans and do something else. So those are a lot of factors to consider. But that being said, here are the three sets of people that are going to be together in HD 19.

That would include Representative Kyle Biederman from Fredericksburg and Representative Terry Wilson from Marble Falls, both Republicans. HD 26 would include Representatives J.C. Dutton and Phil Stevenson. And then HD 77 over in El Paso would include Representatives Claudia Ardaz-Perez and Lena Ortega. And those are both Democrats. So those are the three races to be watching to see what the incumbents will do, if they're going to continue to run against each other if they might move to neighboring districts that seems to be what representative kyle biederman alluded that he might do um so we'll see what happens yeah and in that district specifically his most populous district is now in i think it's house district 19

right so um or no house district 73 that's his current district that's where his largest county is in terms of population and so he's you know hinting that he'll probably stick with his originally numbered district yeah um what are some of the big takeaways in terms of the partisan changes of the maps so the big notable thing uh is the same thing that we saw in the senate map i think i talked about that last week uh where, where we're seeing a lot fewer purple seats if this map gets adopted. Which is kind of how this process usually works, right? I mean, that's pretty normal.

Oftentimes we'll see either Republicans or Democrats who's ever in control, they can take one of two approaches or somewhere in between. And usually that's either they're going to be aggressive and take as many Republican seats as they can, but that also leaves them at risk of losing seats down the road if the partisan swings in various parts of the state. If suburban areas become more blue, you know, it could weaken Republicans more. So you can take that extreme of trying to pick up

as many seats as you can, or you can shore up support for the incumbents and maybe swing a couple seats. And then that's playing it a little bit safer, just building up more Republican support for those competitive districts. And that's kind of the approach that we've seen the Texas House making, at least with this first draft of their map. Of course, that can change, but I expect that that is going to be the general approach that they take. So that being said, there's going to be, um, probably about, uh, three seats that are currently held by Democrats. Uh, and that would be, um, representative James Tallarico up in the Round Rock area. Then you also have a representative Ryan Guillen, who is a kind of a more of a purple, uh, border Texas Democrat. Yeah. And then you also have Representative Michelle Beckley up in Denton County.

And all three of those representatives, Democrats, could probably shift to Republican districts based on the partisan votes on the new map. Now, notably, there is one Republican who could be losing his seat potentially unless, you know, he might move into a different district where it might be more red. But that would be Representative Jeff Kasin up in Tarrant County, and his seat would become drastically more blue and probably be controlled by a Democrat. So those are the big shifts that we'll see. And, of course, we'll have an article out on the detailing, you know, which seeds get a little bit more Republican and Democrat support. Yeah, absolutely. And notably, Michelle Beckley has announced that she'll be running for Congress and will no longer be in the Texas House in that regard, running against Congresswoman Beth Van Dyne in the 24th Congressional District.

We'll see how that pans out because she might not be in it. Yeah, there's all sorts of different problems with that now. The state legislative districts require you to live within the confines of the district, within the borders. Congressional districts are more flexible. So there is that that can be considered. But let's switch real fast to the congressional maps that were released this week as well. Texas is gaining two new seats according to census data.

So let's start with those. Where is gaining two new seats according to census data. So let's start with those. Where are the two new districts? Yes. So Texas previously had 36 congressional districts. Based on our population growth, we gained two. And so those will be added into two of the urban areas. One would be added in Austin. That would be House District 37. And then House District 38, based on this plan, would be added to Houston. The one in Austin would be definitely a Democrat district. It would actually be the first district located completely in Austin, in Travis County. Before now, we've had just, you know, districts dip into it and kind of carve Austin up and reach out into the rural counties. Now, in Houston, it'd be a little bit different story.

This would be placed in more of the Republican areas of Houston and definitely give a more of a solid, safe Republican seat over there. So, you know, when they do this, when they do the shuffling up and adding in these seats, they're also putting it in places that will help shore up Republican support and also Democrat support, pack some of those blue votes together in those regions. Very good. Now, how would it shift the partisan leanings of the delegation? So, you know, with the two seats being added, you have the new Republican seat, the new Democrat seat. Besides that, it would keep the current split of the delegation pretty much the same, but it could lead to a more competitive seat in Texas 15, which is the district down in South Texas. It's kind of in the Rio Grande Valley, and then it goes up near San Antonio.

And that congressional district currently belongs to a Democrat representative, Cente Gonzalez, and he had a very close election in the previous race. And so it was already a purple district. Representative Vicente Gonzalez, and he had a very close election in the previous race. And so it was already a purple district. This makes it a little bit more in favor of Republicans. So we could see, again, Republicans pick up a seat there, potentially, depending on who turns out to vote in 2022. And then you also have to consider that I've heard rumors that Gonzalez is actually considering moving into a neighboring district, which has been made more blue and that belonged to Representative Vela. So we'll see what happens.

But overall, you know, similar to the house map, similar to the city map, it does take away a lot of those purple seats. Certainly. Now, talk to us about lawsuits. There's always the threat of impending lawsuits with maps like this are drawn by folks who aren't in agreement with how the maps are drawn, who claim they're disenfranchised by the borders of the maps. Talk to us about that. So, of course, there's always partisan disputes. Democrats are not happy when Republicans gain seats, when Republicans build up support for Republicans. The thing that gives Democrats in this case a little bit more of an advantage is because of previous cases in the Voting Rights Act, which protects minority votes. And so since minorities in Texas tend to vote for Democrats, when you're building a map based

around party votes, you're going to affect the minority makeup of the district. And so when they're doing that, that's where these lawsuits will come in and kind of make it more favorable for Democrats to win these cases in the courts and get different maps drawn that are more favorable to Democrats. So the region that is definitely going to be kind of, I think, the focal point for a lot of these lawsuits is going to be in the DFW area. People are pointing to the radical growth or how minorities have driven the growth of population in Texas overall. And especially in the DFW area where there's a large percentage of Hispanic voters, a lot of people are upset because there's not a Hispanic majority district in the DFW area. So we might see a lawsuit kind of centered on that. Very good.

Well, Daniel, thank you for covering that for us. And there are all sorts of articles on our site, the texan.news, that Daniel has written. They include maps. They include information about the breakdowns of all this. So definitely go and check that out. Daniel, thanks for your reporting. Hayden and Brad, y'all published a piece earlier this week about the governor's race and perhaps the most hot button topic that has faced the candidates so far being the border. And you guys wrote a piece on the stances of the different candidates.

Talk to us a little bit about these different stances. So, like you said, this has definitely been the feature of the governor's race thus far. Since the beginning of this year, we've seen an uptick in border crossings, and it's really, really sped up during the summer. And so, you know, probably the, well, the national spotlight came last week, last weekend, when thousands of Haitian immigrants were kind of huddled underneath the Del Rio International Bridge. And it just caused all kinds of problems. And, you know, what was already a very talked about issue blew up even more. And so, this is definitely, this is something that Governor Greg Abbott is being asked about every day. And this is something his opponents are talking about every day. So, you know, that kind of, I guess that kind of leads into what Abbott has done. But just overall, this is going to remain a big topic.

And to be fair, before we even had this situation at the Del Rio International Bridge, this was the topic that Abbott's primary opponents were pinging him on right that were criticizing him over that in the covet response but it really had pivoted away from that as you know covet policies are a little bit in the rearview mirror now not as not as much of a hot topic as they were a year ago six months ago but regardless that's what we're seeing now um is that all just continuing to mount pressure on the governor so hayden talk to us a little bit about governor abbott's specific plan with the with the border and what his actions up to this point have been well as brad just mentioned the backdrop for this is the the extraordinary event that

happened in del rio and i know the number floating around is 15 000 16 000 but what the department of homeland security told us last week is the number of Haitian nationals who ended up here, or majority of them Haitian nationals, was actually 30,000. They were moving people in and out of this camp. So it was 15 or 16,000 at the same time. But so tens of thousands of individuals from Haiti coming into this country. And Governor Abbott has taken a number of actions this year. Some have said that they have gone too far. Some would said that they have gone too far. Some would say they haven't gone nearly far enough. But what he's done is deployed 1,000 Texas National Guard troops to the border.

And that's out of about 20,000 of our Texas National Guard force. And we were told the other day by the Texas Department of Public Safety that 1 a thousand troopers, special agents, and Texas Rangers have also been deployed. And one of the images that we saw coming out of the Del Rio disaster really was a line of Texas Department of Public Safety vehicles forming literally a steel wall at the southern border to deter the the illegal crossings that were occurring as at that one point yes yes it wasn't it wasn't across the entire del rio or velverde county area but it was at that one point and they the governor has has highlighted this this operation lone star effort that he's launched now it's important to note the governor's campaign did not respond to a request for comment for for our piece but his focus has been on what the state can do to supplement what is lacking in the federal

response to illegal immigration and of course he just signed into law house bill 9 which designates 1.8 billion dollars in border security funding in addition to funding for training programs for local prosecutors and county attorneys and district attorneys in order to train them on how to prosecute under the unique circumstances of illegal crossings however another feature of his response has been shying away from breaching the federal court's decision or the United States Supreme Court's decision in Arizona versus United States, which was a case in which Arizona about a decade ago attempted to criminalize illegal immigration at the state level. And Abbott, who was Attorney General in this state for a

number of years, is seeking to avoid running afoul of that. That is the limit of what he has been doing. So, he has enacted Operation Lone Star, but he has been clear that he's doing that within the limits of Arizona v. United States. And folks criticizing the governor which we'll get into momentarily with huffines have been you know forthright and saying okay well a lot of these actions operation lone star these press conferences held down at the border happened after the criticisms were starting to be levied right so there's that portion too that not much action was taken during the legislative session in terms of this and now in specials we're starting to see it come to the forefront. The governor's making moves on this.

And you're right. And he only announced the border wall project in June, which was after the regular session had concluded. Which is how primaries work. I mean, that's just the nature of the beast. That's the nature of the political beast. They're also saying that Operation Lone Star isn't going far enough. Specifically, the amount of troop deployment down there. As Hayden mentioned, you know, 1,000 of the state's 20,000 force, you know, that's a big feature of this in the primary opponent's

opposition as well. Absolutely. Well, let's talk about that then, Brad. So talk to us about Don Huffines, who's probably been the most vocal in criticism of the governor on this issue. Yeah, I think you'd probably be right to say that, although they all have just constantly been beating this drum. If you listen to Huffines, he has kind of an elevator pitch on the border issue. And a main feature of it is he uses the word invasion. And he uses that very specifically. The reason is in Article 1, Section 10 of the U.S. Constitution

basically tasks the states with the ability to protect themselves from an invasion and so you know in his assessment the uh the mass amounts of illegal immigrants uh you know kind of helped by the cartels they um that constitutes an invasion and thus it empowers the state to use all of its available resources to secure the border. And so that's one theme that, that you'll hear constantly. Um, he also believes that, uh, he wants to put up a border wall, you know, that wants to do the Trump wall. Um, you know, he's, he's knocked Abbott's wall for being just a chain link fence. He basically wants to take the Trump plan and enact that. And when we were talking to him, we asked him how he would pay for that or any of the other initiatives. times over the amount of money to finance all of this if we close off the border and then, you know,

save on the amount of education costs that we have to pay, that Texas pays to finance illegal immigrants in the public education system. And so, there wasn't really a specific, one problem I could see with that is, you know, there are a bunch of people already here. And so that kind of would require them to be deported, which I'm sure, you know, to some level that is part of the plan, you know, increased deportations prevent the current flow from continuing. But I think, you know, as if this were to happen, if Don Huffines were to win, there would be more T's that need to be crossed more eyes that need to be dotted on that specific part one of the things that's pretty notable that huffines separates himself with from the other challengers is that he would close off all commerce uh from mexico from the mexican side uh entirely no exception and you know in that he's banking on it not lasting a long time, but putting the fiscal strain on Mexico to secure their side of the border.

Because right now the cartels, you know, are running rampant on that side in places like Tamaulipas and various other provinces in Mexico. And so, you know, forcing Mexico to clean up its side would then help the U.S. and Texas specifically. So the other candidates, specifically Chad Prather, disagreed with that. And we'll talk about his later. But that's something that separates him on this specific issue from Allen West and Chad Prather. Yeah, a specific item. Now, Hayden, let's talk about Allen West. He announced his campaign on Independence Day.

He has extensive military experience. The lieutenant colonel title that he holds has certainly been a part of the conversation. What has been his immigration mantra? state's constitution that we are being invaded. In other words, Article 1, Section 10, that we are under invasion and that we should respond accordingly and coordinate with other states in accordance with that. But because their stances on immigration are very similar in that they both want a strong border, it's important to contrast. Huffines would be relying on his business acumen. He's a businessman primarily, and he did serve in the state senate for a number of years. However, Allen West has 22 years of military experience retiring as lieutenant colonel. And he said to us and in his call with us that his time on the southern border of the United States reminded him of his experience on the border of Turkey and Bulgaria during the Cold War. So, he is hearkening back

to his military experience and drawing on that to inform his position on this issue. And he told us there are four items that he wants to enact as governor of Texas, and that is to deploy more of the National Guard, to tax the remittances of illegal aliens who are sending their earnings here in the States back to their home countries, and to designate the Mexican drug cartels as terrorist organizations. I'm not quite sure how that would look on the state level. That is a federal decision that would need to be made. I'm sure he would push federal authorities or attempt to. But the fourth one is he wants to give state and local authorities the ability to arrest illegal immigrants, not just for trespassing, for being in the country illegally, and then to deport them as well and of course that would be tricky because deportation is a federal responsibility it's it's under the federal government's purview so alan west he was a tea party congressman back in 2011 he wrote the tea party wave he was from florida at the time he's been the Republican Party of Texas chairman. And so his immigration stances are similar to the other candidates. However, his are less likely to tread

carefully around the Supreme Court decision I mentioned earlier, Arizona v. United States. And we asked Senator Huffines what he would do if he got the call from the feds to stand down and stop enforcing these state laws like Arizona enacted. And he referenced the optics that would play out of the federal government preventing a state from protecting its border. And I imagine that Colonel West would respond in a similar fashion if the feds were to tell him not to take these actions to prevent illegal immigration. Thank you, Hayden. Now, Brad, let's talk about Chad Prather. You alluded to him earlier, but talk to us about his plans. You know, his main focus is the deployment of more National Guardsmen to the border. And, you um you know he shares all three of these guys

share a large the vast majority of their plans like it's all very similar the republicans yes um i think what you see with the challengers is that if they were to be elected and enact their plans, it would be a stark contrast from the current status quo in terms of, you know, deliberately and forcefully challenging the federal government's actions on this. Abbott and Attorney General Ken Paxton have sued the federal government on this issue, on various things, and that's going to continue. But the plans that these guys have, if they were to enact them, it would be open defiance of the current kind of status quo of the federal-state relationship on this issue um and so that would if there's still a democratic president you could see things something like um you know the state the president calling over his authority on the the texas national guard like we're calling them into

federal service as opposed to the kind of the current relationship of they're a federal branch, but they also serve at the pleasure of the state. There'd be a lot of conflicting orders going on. And so, really, all these guys have similar plans, except for Governor Abbott, they're planting their flag markedly against his current, you know, actions. Well, thank you, boys, for that incredible coverage. Very helpful to kind of parse through the differences. Now, Hayden and Isaiah, there were two special elections this week to fill Texas House seats. Isaiah, we're going to start with you. There was a special election in the San

Antonio area to replace Leo Pacheco, a Democrat from San Antonio. Like I said, how did that turn out? What were the details? So Republican candidate John Lujan led the pack of five candidates that were vying for the spot at 41.53% by the time all precincts reported. So that left him about nine points shy of a majority, which means the race is going to go to a runoff. The second place candidate was Frank Ramirez, a Democrat who's been involved in San Antonio local politics for some time. Yeah. So give us more detail about who these candidates are and what their involvement is locally. Lujan was kind of the de facto Republican favorite because he was endorsed by Abbott, probably the highest profile endorsement in the race. He briefly held the seat in 2016, but it's kind of funny.

He picked it up in a special election and held it between legislatures. So he doesn't have a voting record or a bill filing record. He wasn't active in a legislature at all. So there's no, I was trying to dig up his stances on certain things other than just his campaign side and thinks he's promised on the trail, but that doesn't exist because he held the seat without filing a bill or casting a vote because of the time he was there. He has signaled a deep conservative position on most issues, but moderate positions on certain things like health care, namely, in a vague kind of way.

Again, we like specificity because of his slim voting record in the legislature. Or non-existent. Right. Ramirez is a very young candidate who used to work for Councilwoman Anna Sandoval as her zoning and planning director for that district. He was endorsed by Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolf, two liberal members of the city council, and Pacheco himself. Very good stuff. Now, we don't have a date for this special election so we'll see when that ends up happening but isaiah thank you for that certainly great coverage hayden we're going to come to you on a house district a special election

that you have been covering for quite some time now now as isaiah mentioned their race will be going uh to a runoff you covered a runoff that happened this week. So give us a little bit of an idea of what's going on in House District 10 and what this means for the current special session. Well, HD 10 is a little bit ahead of HD 118 in the process. So they did go to they've already had their special election on August 31. So the runoff date was this past Tuesday. The candidates in this race were Brian Harrison and former state representative John Ray, who represented this very district from 2015 until this year in January when he was succeeded by Jake Elsey, who then several months later got elected to Congress and resigned the seat. And John Ray announced that he was going to run for his old

seat again. So lots of turnover in the seat. Brian Harrison was the victor in this runoff. And incidentally, he came in first on election day as well. So he was the former chief of staff to United States Secretary of Health and Human Services, Alex Azar, during the Trump administration. And he ran on that experience working for the policies of the Trump administration. And John Ray ran on his experience in the legislature and his support for public education and similar issues. This race was very heated, and at times it got vitriolic and personal. There were accusations of exaggerating resumes. There were accusations of improper personal attacks behind the scenes, and the candidates ultimately extended all of

branches to one another, I suppose you would say, at the end of this race. But the race itself was very heated and a state representative like Harrison, in fact, said that it was one of the most cynical campaigns that he had ever seen. And Wray, of course, accused Harrison of overplaying his involvement in the Trump administration's accomplishments or the Trump administration's policy measures that they enacted. Now, how close was this race? It was a decisive victory. I think it'd be fair to characterize it as that the final results showed Harrison coming in with 55% of the vote to former Representative Wray's 45% of the vote. So it was a 10 point spread. The margin on election day was Harrison received 41%, Wray received 36%. But of course, that was with eight candidates on the ballot. So the margin was greater on the runoff day.

But of course, there were only two candidates. So Representative-elect Harrison will be sworn as the state legislature considers the redistricting maps that Daniel discussed extensively and will be covering extensively. So HD10 will now have representation, and haven't uh during the past uh during the entirety of the second special session and during most of the first although there wasn't really a first special session because of the quorum bust but that was uh uh they they did hd10 um did not have a rep for the um entirety of the second. So they will have a rep now. There you go. Well, Hayden, thank you for that.

Daniel, let's talk about the Senate now. Now the new Senate map hasn't been finalized, but the Lieutenant Governor has already thrown his support behind several candidates in key races. Walk us through those. Yes. So right now they're about, based on the Senate map that is going through the legislature, there's three races that we'll really be watching where new Republicans could gain a seat and go into the legislature. And so those three districts are going to be SD10 in Tarrant County, SD12 up in more Denton County, and then you have SD 24, which is more central Texas and the Hill Country. So in SD 10, which is probably the most contested of these endorsements, would be the then Governor Dan Patrick endorsed Representative Phil King, who just announced that he'd be running earlier this week. And then in SD 12, even though Representative Tan Parker has been

campaigning for this seat the longest out of everybody that Patrick has endorsed, Patrick just endorsed him this week. That's not as contested, especially from a primary perspective. And then SD 24 is an interesting race where Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick actually endorsed one of his former state senators that he had campaigned for last time but lost re-election to a Democrat, and that would be Senator Pete Flores. Now, talk to us about these potential primary races. How competitive will they be? So like I mentioned, SD-10 is probably going to be the most competitive based on the new map. It's currently completely in Tarrant County. The new map that has come out would definitely bring it out of Tarrant County and into some more rural areas, including Parker County, where Phil King lives.

And so based on that, there are potentially going to be several people in this campaign. Right now, as we record this podcast, by the time the podcast come out, maybe it'll change because of how quickly things move. But Warren Norred, who's a conservative attorney up there who really pushed back against the COVID lockdown policies of Governor Abbott, Representative Shelley Luther in some of her litigation. And so he announced a campaign a while ago. I don't remember exactly when. It's been a while. He lives in Tarrant County.

Then this week, Representative Phil King launched his campaign or said that he was going to run, supposing that the maps stay the same. But after that and after Dan Patrick's endorsement of him, there's also been a kind of a draft campaign really led by Tarrant County Sheriff Bill Wayborn. And also Representative Jake Elsey has also joined this, trying to get Representative David Cook, who's in Tarrant County, to run for the seat as well. And of course, there have been other names just going around, floating around. So we'll see how big that primary gets um and i'm sure this this district is also going to be caught up in lawsuits uh with redistricting i'm

sure yeah absolutely the the other two uh sd12 like i said that's not as competitive uh one lesser-known candidate chris russell uh launched his campaign as a, quote, constitutional conservative, so probably a Republican. And then also in SD24, that gets a little bit more complicated because the district with the new map is drawn to go pick up Pete Flores, but it also draws out one of the candidates who launched her campaign who lives in Travis County, but the district won't cover Travis County under the new map, and that's Ellen Chalks Claire, a former city councilwoman for Austin. And so even though she's been campaigning for quite some time, and she's continuing to campaign, we'll see if she actually ends up in the district or not.

Very good. Well, thanks for breaking that down for us. brad you wrote a piece this week on a vaccine mandate issued to texas's national guardsmen now when did this order begin so it stems from a secretary of defense advisory memorandum something uh back in august saying that that was a great description by the way thank you it was i mean it's technically an order but it it doesn't it was the way it was written was very nonchalant and like this is our goal and right so i'm just laughing at that description it was pretty great thank you um but it stems from a secDEF order back in August. Now, SECDEF is Secretary of Defense, correct? Correct, yes.

Basically requiring all military members, all service members to get vaccinated. And the goal that they set is 100% vaccination rate and uh that begat this um this order from major general norris from of the texas national guard she oversees it you see her at press conferences with governor abbott talking a lot about the border that we just discussed um but she sent out a directive on september 27th that uh basically parroteded that order by the SECDEF and set various stipulations for it. There's the Texas Army National Guard. Then there's the Texas Air National Guard. Overall, the goal is from General Norris to get everybody vaccinated

by June of next year um but the within those two um you know subcategory organizations they have some different there's some variation in in when things need to happen but that's the general goal from them and uh we've seen that they have been we've heard i've talked to people that have just said that you know there's a lot of push from the higher-ups both federally and state uh statewide uh to get every member of the national guard vaccinated now talk to us about the members themselves there have been substantial pushback there has been substantial pushback within the ranks of the service members what are what's happening now how substantial has this pushback

been well i talked to one one guy who is an army national guardsman who also serves in border patrol so he kind of gets it from both sides um by that i mean federal and state, he said that it's basically 50-50. And the 50% that are fine with the vaccine, they have already gotten it basically or are on the path to getting it. And the ones that are objecting to it are very much against it. There's not really much gray area between the two opinions on it. It's either, you know, fine, I'll get it or hell no, I'm not. And so, you know, we've seen quite a bit of pushback there. Specifically, the order applies to everyone and only contains two exceptions, medical and religious.

There's no, there's a no exemption for, you know, philosophical beliefs, whether you think this is a good idea regardless, or even if you've had COVID and thus have antibodies. So, there's no path there. Some members, I was told, have been, actually a sizable number, have been seeking religious exemptions by going and getting kind of a letter written by quote grifter pastors. That's the description I was given. Basically, these pastors are set up in a courtyard and everyone comes over and they basically sign the same order, religious exemption for everybody. We've seen that happen all over the place. I know that's happened with healthcare workers too. So, that's something that is going to continue to happen as long as this is,

you know, this order is in effect. But by far the biggest pushback that we've seen, and this is something that kind of unfolded as I was writing this article, there were two affidavits signed by pretty high up people in the National Guard sphere, both of them medical professionals. One of them, specifically the task force surgeon for Operation Lone Star, his name is Peter Chambers. He also served as a liaison for Governor Abbott's COVID task force. So, pretty important guy. And he, I'll read his quote in the affidavit. He says, based upon risk stratification along with

treatment modalities in existence the introduction of a substance which is still in phase three trial is not necessary and introduces increased risk factors for the known side effects exhibited by this phase three trial talking about the covid vaccine i think pfizer is the only one that's been approved for non-emergency use but still like none of them have been tested over, you know, decades, like most other vaccines that these national guardsmen are subject to. He further adds, I cannot advise in good conscience nor under the Hippocratic oath to advise soldiers to take an unapproved high risk vaccine that is still in phase three trial. So we're seeing quite a bit of pushback,

not just from rank and file members, but from very notable medically focused individuals within these organizations. And I'm not sure how it's going to end up, but it seems like there is a lot of opposition. If it is 50-50 50 50 that's 50 of the force that is against this and that's that's something that probably cannot be ignored yeah absolutely and it's interesting to see almost immediately you know i think the first person of note to talk about this publicly was alan west um in direct you know basically opposition or criticism of the governor saying that this lies at his feet when you already talked about the uh difficulty and jurisdiction with these kinds of you know and i'm not sure exactly how that breaks down exactly how much oversight the governor has on this um because it sounds like the sec def who is a federal employee uh they have pretty good oversight

on them as well so i'm not sure how that breaks down now could the governor come out and make a strong position perhaps but would that stand who knows yeah and how much effect would it have maybe it would have a great effect maybe it wouldn't exactly well thank you brad um isaiah we're going to come to you now last year you covered a nationwide survey of students of about 60 colleges regarding tolerance for expression free speech and ut ranked second from the bottom. This year, we have a new, larger, more inclusive survey. Talk to us about Texas schools that were included and how they ranked on that list. Sure. So the same group, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, or FIRE, a free speech advocacy and research group. What a great acronym. It's an excellent

acronym. It's like SHIELD, you know, but less cumbersome. They conducted a survey of about 160 colleges this year compared to around 60 last year. So it's a lot bigger. And it's actually the largest survey of its kind ever recorded, you know, with regards to free speech attitudes at universities. Rice University ranked the lowest out of the seven Texas schools that were included. And those are A&M, SMU, Texas Tech, UT, UTD, Rice, and Baylor. Now, Baylor is included in the survey, but not in the same ranking, because there's a separate category for schools that openly prioritize certain values above free speech. So importantly, the study is not a rating of free speech policies. It's a survey of attitudes among the student body regarding how comfortable they feel

freely expressing themselves and how much they tolerate the expression of others and how they feel the administration protects free speech. So for example, Rice was superlative in, for example, how comfortable they would feel challenging a professor. Only 3% of Rice students said it was extremely clear that their administration protects free speech, and that was the lowest out of any of the seven in Texas. With regards to publicly challenging one of their professors verbally, Rice also had the lowest willingness out of any of the schools for its students who said that they would be very comfortable publicly disagreeing with the professor on a controversial topic. More students at Rice than any other included Texas school said it was not at all likely for their administration to defend the the pack of seven, with the greatest share of students willing to block others from attending the campus speech. And they're also the most willing out of the seven to

shout down campus speakers to prevent them from speaking. Now, talk to us about the other Texas schools included in this survey. So Texas A&M was the most highly ranked, meaning it was ranked to be the most tolerant of free speech. It just squeaked into the top 25 at the 25th spot. SMU is 88th. Texas Tech is 89th. UT is 102nd. UTD is 124th. And Rice is 135th. And this is out of, I think, 159 total, around 160 schools. So Texas A&M was kind of near the top in last year's survey too. But what I found interesting was that there are some outliers with A&M's responses. Though Rice had the greatest share of students willing to shout down speakers to prevent them from speaking, Texas A&M took

second place. And the same is also true for willingness to block students from attending a campus event. So they outpaced UT, who won or lost, depending on how you look at it, last year's survey regarding free speech tolerance in both of these respects. The two UT system schools, UT and UTD, took first and second place respectively among the seven for students most willing to stop a campus speech with violence. However, this one I think is really funny texas tech had the greatest share of students and to say let me rephrase that texas tech is both the most and least willing to use violence to stop a campus event they're just more extreme in their beliefs yes about extreme beliefs right and so the way that question was worded was, it ranges from like, not just yes or no, willing or not willing.

It's like most or least in a range of about five options. Very likely, most likely. Right. Yeah. And Texas Tech had the greatest share of students among the seven, like 90% say that it's never acceptable to stop a campus event with violence. But 2% of them said that it is always acceptable to stop a campus event with violence. But 2% of them said that it is always acceptable to stop a campus speech with violence. And none of the other schools cracked 1%. It should be noted that this is out of a sample size of 250 to 252 for every school. So that's

about five students at Tech that are always just raring to go at a campus speech and resort to violence. I just thought it was kind of funny. If it was, I don't know, 20%, maybe it wouldn't be so funny. But yeah, they reside in both those extremes. Very interesting. Well, thank you for covering that. Definitely something to keep an eye on over the years as we continue to monitor how, you know, universities handle the tenets of free speech.

Daniel, let's talk about election audits, certainly something that has been in the news a lot lately. Talk to us about what the Secretary of State announced last week about auditing the 2020 election. Yes. So last week, and Hayden actually wrote an article on this, about former President Donald Trump sent a letter to Governor Greg Abbott requesting the governor to add to this current special session that we're in legislation related to auditing the 2020 election. There were two bills in specific that he named, one from Senator Paul Bettencourt and another from Representative Steve Toth. And he requested this legislation to, for Governor Abbott to put this legislation on the special session agenda. There I said it.

Hey, I couldn't say my name earlier, so you're doing great. Session, McKenzie, both complicated words. So, the governor has not added that to the special session, but shortly after Donald Trump sent this letter, this open letter that was publicized to the governor, shortly after that, the Secretary of State's office, which also, side note, the Secretary of State is currently vacant. It's not a position that's filled right now, as Governor Abbott has yet to appoint someone to replace the person who this and it did not confirm the nomination for the previous one. That said, the Secretary of State's office sent out a notice saying that they were conducting, had already begun conducting, an election audit for the 2020 election in four of the state's biggest counties, the top two Democrat counties, which would be Harris and Dallas, and the top two Republican counties, which would be Tarrant and Collin, I believe. And so that is what the

Secretary of State announced. Now, how have people responded to this audit by the Secretary of State? So there has been a lot of opposition from Democrats, do no surprise. A lot of these people, you know causes more controversy and they have different arguments like that uh and then you have some republicans who've also criticized governor abbott for not uh taking trump's advice to the to the full extent and actually placing this on the special session agenda uh for a not just a an audit of the the four big counties but a broader audit um i believe tooth's bill would have required the 13 large counties in Texas to have an audit done. So there's been some criticism from both sides. And then there's also been some criticism in Harris County in particular. They recently

passed a resolution, which our good reporter Holly Hansen wrote on, and also the Harris County attorney sent an open records request to the Secretary of State's office trying to figure out when this audit actually began, because the governor had said at one point that it had begun months ago, but he wasn't really aware of that audit actually beginning. So after that, the Secretary of State's office sent out a list or kind of a more detailed information about what that audit looks like. And so they say that it's done in two phases. The first phase is testing voting machine accuracy, cybersecurity assessments, and identifying and removing ineligible voters who cast ballots in 2020. And the second phase is a comprehensive election records examination, and that will be

done in spring of 2022. So those are the two phases that the Secretary of State says this audit is going through, and they have a lot more detailed information on that. Very good. Well, thank you, Daniel. Now, Hayden, we are going to turn to you. Title 42 has been making headlines this week. Now, a lot of folks may not be familiar with what this exactly is. Walk us through this program and who it applies to, what it applies to. Well, Title 42 is the title between Title 41 and Title 43. I'm sorry.

I couldn't help it. You were all... What code? I knew Daniel would be excited about that. I knew he would be excited. That is such a Daniel joke you just made, Hayden. 181 and title 43 i'm sorry i just i couldn't help it you were all what code i knew daniel would be excited about that i knew he would be excited that is such a daniel joke you just made hayden i know well i've been spending way too much um time around daniel but it's the public health and welfare code daniel so wow just to answer your question cool um the program i call it a program it's not really a program program. It's more of a process. These are statutes that were enacted in 1944. So, this was not necessarily…

Back in the old days. Yeah, back in the old days. Not a contemporary event. Back in my youth. The world is a very different place in 1944. Immigration looked very different back then, but this statute was enacted to prevent, and this is the word the statute uses, the introduction of people who were, during a time that the Surgeon General has determined there is a communicable disease that could be spreaded to the United States. And, of course, that could be applied in different ways. Someone coming to the United States on a boat, for instance, or a ship is very different than someone crossing the

land border. But the Biden administration has continued this policy that was invoked in March of 2020 after the coronavirus pandemic began and President Trump began in his administration started expelling people under this policy. The Biden administration chose to continue it, but in February of this year, they stopped expelling unaccompanied minors under this policy most of the people who have been expelled have been expelled under title 42 most of the haitian nationals who were expelled have been or were expelled under title 42 and recently at the del rio international bridge recently at the del rio international bridge that incident that we were talking about earlier. There had been, according to CBP, 958,795 expulsions under the Title 42 process through the end of August in fiscal year 2021.

And 108,416 individuals expelled under Title 42 were part of a family unit, which is important for this particular ruling. Yeah, absolutely. Now talk to us about, you know, one, why this is controversial, and two, what the most recent court ruling, you know, how that factors in. There are those who are saying that this is not a legitimate public health policy, that it's an immigration policy. It is a holdover from President Trump's restrictive era of building the wall and sending people back. And those on the left are saying this is just Biden not reversing what Trump has put in place. Meanwhile, Alejandro Mayorkas, the Department of Homeland Security Secretary, contends that this is a public health policy and that it is necessary based on the expertise of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,

that this policy is necessary to prevent or to mitigate the spread of COVID-19. So that is the crux of the controversy. Of course, in the most recent example, most of the Haitian nationals who arrived in Del Rio were not deported to Haiti. A couple thousand were. And many of them under Tata 42. And how many were under the bridge? It was like 14,000.

Well, at any given time, I think at one point there were as many as 15 000 16 000 but the dhs said last week that there were 30 000 individuals but because they were there they're coming going yeah so the vast majority of them were not deported but the the even the ones that were deported the controversy is that they should not be deported under this public health policy. And it is in the public health and welfare statutes. So, in that sense, in a legal sense, it is a public health policy in the strictest sense. But that is the center of the controversy.

The ruling was that all non-citizens, and that word's important because there's been a back and forth over whether that is even a legitimate word to use in this context, because the word legally is alien. That's the word in the statutes, and even Democrats wrote that into the statutes when they introduced their immigration proposals. But the ruling is that all non-citizens who are ostensibly a part of a family unit, which would be any individual, or it would be the family unit has anyone who is under 18 years of age, and is that child's parent or legal guardian. Of course, whether or not that's been proven, you know, someone can say, this is my

child, and that person could in fact not be that person's child. So, um, I, I would be interested to know, uh, what numbers of people are legitimate family units or not. Um, and then the third criteria is that they have to be subjected to the title 42 process. So it's very broad language. It could be applied more broadly. Uh, there is, um, a concern that it could apply to more people, not just those who are parts of family units. And the volume of people, as I said, was about 108,000 people over the course of fiscal year 2021 thus far, but it could be applied more broadly and include more individuals. The ruling was stayed for 14 days. I just checked the federal court records moments ago, and the last activity was a notice of appeal

on September 21st, and I don't see any indication that this ruling has been overruled. And just an important note is that these decisions are being made by judges in Washington, D.C. on the border crisis. This is not a Del Rio federal judge. These are not state judges that are making these decisions. This is the appeals court for the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit that is making this decision. And Judge Emmett G. Sullivan was the one who issued the ruling so i'm not quite exactly sure if it takes effect uh today or if today is just the last day of the stay but on september 16 he stayed up for 14 days so either at midnight uh i believe at midnight tonight um uh or today

it takes effect and the feds are not supposed to expel family units under title 42 any longer well hayden thank you for that coverage breaking that down for us and our listeners and our readers all of the above brad let's talk about the health care industry and how it's being affected by vaccine mandates you wrote a story on that this week that has a pretty interesting angle talk to us a little bit about that yeah so i kind of alluded to it earlier, but especially rural hospitals are struggling with these vaccine mandates. I believe there's a federal order from the White House demanding it. Many hospitals, we've seen this play out in Houston. Holly's covered this at Memorial Hermann.

There's been kind of a massive backlash against the vaccine mandates like 150 nurses there have outright said we're not going to get it and are in the process of challenging and whatnot but the angle here is that rural hospitals because they they're they have less of an employee pool to pull from. They're less attractive places to live to the larger amount, the average, you know, nurse or healthcare practitioner. And so it's just naturally harder to pull in talent. And so with these vaccine mandates, you know, you still reach a point at which, you know, employees who aren't vaccinated don't want to be vaccinated and refuse to. And that's kind of what's happening in at least a couple hospitals in rural areas here

in Texas. There was one specifically that said they may have to pause birthing services because because of a lack of potential lack of employee or labor ability. And so that's stemming from this vaccine mandate. I think the CEO of that hospital, I think it was Brownfield Regional Medical Center, said that it was something like they reached 70%. So the next 30% of the employment base that is not vaccinated, it's impossible to get them to at least willingly. Um, you know, and many of them, if they, if the mandate is enforced, they'll just leave to go to another place or they'll retire or they'll go just leave healthcare entirely. I think one, one person that he mentioned was just going to

go work for their husband's business. So, it's really stressing these hospitals. Another hospital in Texas, they said that they might have to close if this were to go through. That was the Goodall Witcher Hospital in Clifton actually have those reversed. So the Brownfield was the one that said it might have to close. The Goodall Witcher Hospital in Clifton is the one that said delivering children might need to at least be pared back, if not stopped entirely. So, you know, these things, these top-down policies have a lot of, you know, trickle-down effects. And it's not often that the policymakers implementing these really

comprehend all that that could create and all the implications it may have. And it's something we're seeing play out right here. There's no way that President Biden, when he issued this order, wanted these hospitals to fail to have an adequate labor pool. But, you know, that's the reality of it. And so that's something that these larger metropolitan areas are not quite having to struggle with, at least to this level. But also the fact that it's a smaller area, they are, you know, they have less of a voice. And so they're considered less. There you go. it's a smaller area, they are, you know, they have less of a voice. And so they're considered less. So there you go.

That's a problem. In short, it's a problem. In short, it's a problem. Well, Brad, thanks for that. Gentlemen, it is we're recording on national or international. I don't know. It's a podcast day. It's a day celebrating podcast.

So for our time, our fun topic today on our podcast, we're going to talk about our favorites, the ones we listen to when we aren't recording our own or listening. Do any of y'all ever listen to our podcast out of curiosity? Out of all the podcasts I listen to, I'd say that I listen to ours the most regularly. Really? Oh, that's awesome. That's what I like to hear. Because he doesn't listen to podcasts.

Oh, oh, oh, got it. Okay. Well, there you go dang daniel i would assume you'd be a podcast aficionado it just seems to fit really not um i usually go for an audiobook that makes sense i get that i can totally see that too okay well for those who do listen to podcasts um brad let's start with you do you have any podcasts that are your favorites that you want to give a shout out to well i've been listening to working my way through the uh revolutions podcast by this guy named mike duncan he also does the history of rome oh cool is it like like historical revolutions

he starts with the english the glorious revolution now then goes into the american then eventually the french the haitian revolution which i've not gotten to do they talk about the ostrich revolutions and the on the excuse me yeah that's what i meant do you want me to uh no i don't i just want maybe i should do a podcast about that oh my gosh you should and various other animal grandiose animal fights going on the texan won't sponsor it but we'll applaud you okay yeah um another one that's great is for texas history that i very much enjoyed is wise about texas by ken wise oh very cool um that has 100 episodes roughly and so you know i've having lacked a texas

education growing up i am making up for it by listening to Ken Wise. That's awesome. Justice Wise, if you're listening, shout out to you. Then I listen to various sports podcasts. Do you have a favorite?

Yeah, Detroit Tigers podcast I listen to. Nice. Nobody gives a riff about that. That's very true, but we still appreciate your knowledge of this. I did meet one of those guys

when I went up to a game with Phil. Oh, wow. When the Tigers were playing the Rangers. about that that's very true but we still appreciate your knowledge i did meet one of those guys at when i went up to a game with phil oh wow tigers were playing the rangers he he one of the hosts of that lives in dfw and so and he was there yeah i dm'd him and we met up in the ninth inning and just talked for a bit and yeah it's cool that's i didn't i had no idea that's really cool that's cool. I had no idea. That's really cool. That was awesome. That was awesome. Hayden, are there any in particular that you really enjoy? Well, I'm not much of a podcast listener either. You picked a great topic. I do, at times, listen to podcasts. I do go back and listen to ours occasionally.

But, you know, since I was here and everything i don't um i already know what was said so of course sometimes we are working on you know our segments while each other is talking so yes it's like you can go back and listen to the podcast and it's like you're listening to something you never heard before because um you kind of didn't yeah um but i i know uh one journalist who's pretty well known megan kelly started her own podcast and i listened to it's really interesting it is really interesting and she has some interesting guests i i don't listen to it all the time but i have listened to a few of her episodes and she always has spicy commentary on on current events and has a lot of a lot of things to say. So definitely listen to some some news podcasts.

That's pretty much it. It's very on brand for a reporter. I like it. What about you, Isaiah? Anything in particular that you listen to on a frequent basis? I never, ever listen to podcasts. I'm so glad. Also, I like when I pitched this to y'all earlier, nobody objected.

I don't remember hearing this pitch. Oh, wow. I was busy working. That's true. Yeah, while we were about to record. Yeah. I was photoshopping Brad's face under a guy with a powdered wig. Cause you said baguette earlier. Have you put this meme in Slack yet?

It's a work in progress. I was not prepared for that. Wow. That's great. I can't wait to see the finished product. Really glad that that's what the time was spent on. Wow. Okay.

Well, I'm really. What about you i'm really okay yeah because i actually have answers to this one so i'll take i'll take the mic on this one i listen to armchair expert often it's a dax shepherd um monica padwin podcast it's really interesting they have a lot of interesting i know dax shepherds who is monica padwin so he's married she's not the one she's not the one that you know died in childbirth while her husband was dueling i don't know what you're talking best friend on the lava planet okay i literally don't know what you're talking about that's great um but it's it's it's basically him and his wife's like best friend and so they have a podcast together um mainly i like to find podcasts where comedians talk about comedy i think it's so interesting i think that they're very

i don't know introspective and self- interesting i think that they're very i don't know introspective and self-aware about a lot of things like i don't really care so much about the celebrity portion of it i really but i really do enjoy comics talking about comedy or other comics i think that's fascinating and they'll often have comics on i also like uh conan o'brien needs a friend he had um i think it was mart Martin Short I think that was his show yeah because I think he's been on all of them but um Martin Short on Conan's show was just unbelievable because he was just hammering Conan the entire time like relentlessly there was never a moment where Conan could get a break and it was just like Martin Short's just one of the funniest people alive so

you listened to the Norm Macdonald I did yeah so i listened to a like the tribute is that you're talking about yeah i listened to that and that was really really interesting um yeah so i really like those if you're in the mood for true crime the dropout the elizabeth holmes podcast is awesome and that the trial is going on right now i'm not surprised at all that you are into true crime well not very, but I'll go through phases. There was a podcast on the awesome. I'm calling you a basic white girl. I knew that that was coming.

Yeah. Next I'll talk about pumpkin spice just to fill your tank there. What other ones? I really, my church has one that's awesome. It's called the green room. I'm trying to think of other podcasts and just in general but i listen to quite a few i really do rob low has a podcast that's interesting sometimes it's not i don't think it's as good as like conan or uh dax's podcast but those are interesting too because they'll

talk about parks and rec or like the behind the scenes of nbc and snl and i love i love that kind of let's listen to the most popular podcasts in america rogan rogan i do oh you do oh yeah 100 i will get an occasional episode that was someone who i find interesting but it's more about the guests for four hours long even if i put that up on two and it's two times speed usually it's like three four hours long good night no yeah it's a lot i just listened to uh so i listened jordan peterson too jordan peterson had a podcast where he had matthew mcconaughey on which was so random but it was one of the more interesting podcasts I listened to in a while.

Cause those two names together, I was like, what are you talking? Yeah. Well, that's why I listened to it. I was like, does he say anything about this?

But, um, it was very, it was more his book. He was, uh, plug in his book, but it was a very interesting to,

um, you know, to people on a podcast was very interesting. Rogan. Rogan's great. If it's somebody that you're interested that he's interviewing because he is a great interviewer yeah but if it's someone you don't care about then or don't find interesting then it's three four hours of just or if they're

talking about like ai or celestial beans or mushrooms it's just a lot so that's just preferable not to you know it's not really my thing so but if dan crunch i was on obviously the texas angle there is very specific what if i was on i would 100 listen daniel yeah there you go sorry oh my gosh well i would listen to you if you were on brad because you're a rock star. Oh, my God. Kill me now. Oh, man. That made my day. Well, folks, on International Podcast Day, thank you for listening and tuning in to our podcast. We appreciate you all, and we will catch you next week.

Thank you all so much for listening. If you've been enjoying our podcast, it would be awesome if you would review us on iTunes. And if there's a guest you'd love to hear on our show, give us a shout on Twitter. Tweet at The Texan News. We're so proud to have you standing with us as we seek to provide real journalism in an age of disinformation. We're paid for exclusively by readers like you, so it's important we all do our part to support The Texan by subscribing and telling your friends about us. God bless you, and God bless Texas.