The Texan Podcast - Weekly Roundup - August 14, 2026

Episode Date: August 14, 2026

The Texan’s Weekly Roundup brings you the latest news in Texas politics, breaking down the top stories of the week with our team of reporters who give you the facts so you can form your own opinion.Backlash from residents and officials to Big Bend border security constructionHow data centers are playing into the Texas gubernatorial raceThe Texas GOP's continued lawsuit against the state to close its primary electionAn Alaskan surrogate mother who fled to Texas after the intended parents sought an abortionThe Texas Classroom Commission's press conference at the Governor's MansionThe National Firearm Act being partially blocked from enforcement in Texas and 14 other statesEnjoy what you hear? Be sure to check out our articles at The Texan and leave us a review!Got questions for the reporting team? Email [e-mail] — they just might be answered on a future podcast.

In fact, speaking of barbecue, and I know Isaiah has been waiting for this, the entire podcast, I did finally try, I did finally try Rudy's barbecue and country store, which was, I have to say, pretty good. I got the moist brisket, which is very delicious. I know, Isaiah, you recommended the lean brisket, but I do like a fattier cut of brisket. I also got the cream corn and the banana pudding, and it was all very delicious. Man, I was on the edge of my seat. I really was. Well, howdy folks? Welcome back to another episode of the Texans Weekly Roundup podcast.

I'm your host, Senior Editor Rob Lauchess, and joining me today are reporters Meredith Dyer, Mary Elise O'Bar, and Isaiah Mitchell. How's everybody doing this morning? Doing well. Great. Fantastic. Well, it's been a big week for news, so I think we should just jump right in. Meredith. and Hannah wrote a monster of a piece this week about the Big Bend border wall project.

It has sparked backlash and confusion from residents and Texas officials. Tell us sort of what's going on in the Big Bend area and give us a little glimpse into why local officials and state officials, land commissioner Don Buckingham, what's got everybody in a tizzy about this project? Yes, this is kind of the news of the week. everyone's reporting on it. You've seen all these photos and videos emerging on Twitter of people showing bulldozers and construction crews that are there to clear land. And it's making people very upset. It's making residents, activists groups, lawmakers, just because of how beautiful it is.

I mean, I've never, so I've never been to Big Bend. I'm newer coming back to Texas and I haven't been there. Have you, have any of you been to Big Bend and have like memories there? you're not in the release. I'm sad to say I have never, I've always wanted to go. I've lived in Texas my whole life, never been to Big Bend. I've been to Fort Davis,

so I saw the dark skies there, but I've always wanted to hike there, haven't done it yet. Yeah, same. I was going to say that's on my bucket list. And I feel like that's pretty important for a Texan to go do, so I'll have to make that happen

at some point soon. I can also say that I have not been to Big Bend, unfortunately. So I think we're all in the same boat here. I guess this is going to have to be the Texans next trip. As soon as Connie, after, of course, we all go to Vegas. Yeah, our staff retreat.

Okay, so I know, I feel like Kim, if she was here. I know that there's a state park and then there's the national park. And so she's obviously trying to go to all the state parks, but I'm sure she's been to both of them. And so we can check in with her later more about Big Ben. But the pictures are beautiful. It's obviously, and people, it's called the crown jewel. It's just revered by people, people in the nature and conservative, conservatory.

like worlds and even just people that love somewhere beautiful to go hike and camp and so it's obviously very emotional and it's making people um very upset and so i know currently i saw some photos that there are protesters there at the park right now which i mean it's quite a drive for a lot of people it's very hot right now so it obviously means a lot to them um so i mean just a little background it started last fall when um then secretary of homeland security christy gnome waves all these regulatory restrictions in order to push through a construction of border barriers in the Big Bend sector. And so there's nine different sectors in the border, and the largest of the nine sectors is the 517 miles that are the Big Bend sector.

And one of the things, so we talked to a few different people, and then we also gathered lots of responses that people were putting out. But former Land, Texas Land Commissioner, Jerry Patterson, who is, is very fun to interview. He's always like, I'm almost 80, and he just had a lot of spirit, and it was very, very upset about this. He's been very vocal. He's attended rallies, and, you know, he just kept saying how stupid and dumb, quote, unquote, it was. He was just like, this is just so stupid. I cannot understand. He also called it the greatest folly. And he said, I've personally been knowledgeable about or heard of. And he was just highlighting that that area only accounts for

1.3% of overall illegal entries or encounters. And so it just doesn't make sense to put, to start, you know, constructing new things or barrier walls or roads or anything like that, which is part of the project. So it does, it's not going to have this 30 foot wall like other areas. That was decided earlier when I know it was the CBP commissioner Rodney Scott had told the Washington examiner like, okay, it's kind of silly to build this 30 foot board. wall on top of a 90-foot granite cliff. And that's something that people are really highlighting is the terrain here is very challenging. Even if you find your way there to try to get through still is going to be very, very hard. And so it kind of has its own wall built in in a sense. So Terrell County

Sheriff Thaddeus Cleveland opposes it. He's also been vocal about it and just talking about, you know, putting 156 miles of vehicle barriers where vehicles. can't cross across the Rio Grande. And the overall sentiment of everyone that is not, okay, not everyone, but many people that are posing it, especially people who are conservative, is that they do support border security, 100%, even a border wall for some people. But this isn't what they call border security. I know that Cleveland called it a boondoggle, which is a fun, fun word. But just how ridiculous this seems and unnecessary. And so Texas land commissioner Don Buckingham also criticized the project and she wrote a cease and desist letter at the end of last month after finding that this federal contractor had illegally

cleared over a mile of state land. And so she was just saying that the general land office prohibits any land modification, excavations or constructions without approval by the GLO. And so she said that that step was bypassed when the construction began. There's also a couple of lawsuits related to it as well. And just the pushback is strong. So I know the Texas House Democrats came out collectively saying that they want immediate halt calling on the president to like, you know, warning him that if he moves forward, there's going to be irreversible damage to what they said is one of Texas's most treasured lands. And they talked about there wasn't transparency or accountability. And that is something that speaking with people and reading online, there's just a lot of confusion about

even people still asking up until now, what is happening? What is going on? We don't have clarity from the CBP. We don't know exactly what's happening. They're not like laying it out for us. And so everyone's very concerned about the extent of how far everything's going to go. I know that Congressman Greg Kassar wrote that it would destroy natural, the natural nature and wildlife in Big Bend and called it. a disgrace. And it highlighted that Democrats and Republicans agree he said Trump needs to leave Big Bend alone. I know that the state rep for that area that encompasses Big Ben completely Eddie Morales Jr. also had written a couple of letters. I know that him along with 46 other House members had written one and then he wrote his own letter to Governor Greg Abbott later in May or in March. And so it's been going on for a while, just like a push to make it stop. But it is not. And then so those are the Democrats. Republicans have come out and had some some reactions as well, but they didn't come out as a group. And I spoke to West Verdell on the phone, State Rep West

Verdele, who was pretty upset about, like, about his colleagues. And he was just saying that he doesn't understand why some of them are quiet on the issue. He believes that he said it's lawmakers' duty to do the right thing. And he was just disappointed. He said, you know, so many people know it's a bad idea, but they're not saying anything. thing. That was his point of view. And he said that he's concerned that people, they're worried and that they won't have a seat at the table with leadership if they question it. And so he was just saying, like, they'll regret it when they look back later and see what's happened, that they maybe didn't say anything in the moment. And then also Patterson, the former land commissioner, called Republicans gutless,

asserting that they were afraid of losing endorsements in what he described as this Trump-driven Republican Party. And the idea. if you oppose this part of the border project, that maybe you will appear to support open borders. And he was just like, heck no. We're not open for open borders. I'm censoring there. Matter of fact, he's like, out of all the sheriffs,

elected officials, Republican or Democrat, they want a wall, but they want like a virtual wall. They don't want to actually construct something there. And so Mary Lees, I know that you follow Cornyn's every move. No, all the people, longer, or congressional people, But I know Coloreko had some things to say about it. What were they feeling about it?

Yeah, well, I mean, you mentioned the Trump endorsement. These are two people that I highlighted who are not pursuing the Trump endorsement for sure. Why is that? Yeah, because we've got Senator John Cornyn, obviously he didn't get the endorsement. And Paxton instead received it. And that's following that, following him losing that primary runoff, Cornyn's been, like you say, even falling as every move. I mean, we kind of have because it's been very interesting to see how he is

operating as a senator following, kind of being released from, and a sense released from the chains of campaigning because everyone, you know, everybody that's campaigning, you do have to operate in a specific manner, very strategically. And just now he's, you know, he's been pushing it back against the Trump administration a little bit. And he's somebody that has weighed in on this big bend border issue. And this is an issue that's brought together some kind of unlikely bedfellows in general.

Just, you know, got some Republicans, some Democrats coming together. But we saw Senator John Cornyn come out. And he expressed concerns about just some of those things that you mentioned. He said that there's a lot of residents here that are worried that a physical wall which would be accompanied by lighting systems and different access roads. He said they're concerned about that, ruining the beauty and the landscape of this area, the wildlife, limit access to the Rio Grande River, and also harm the local economy, which is kind of depending on people visiting this beautiful site.

And he also expressed concern just about the level of coordination and communication. related to this construction and he's kind of acknowledging in a sense that confusion that you and Hannah highlighted in your piece just surrounding the whole issue what exactly is going on here residents are a bit confused or concerned of course um so cornon said that he you know he's concerned about quote the level coordination and communication related to propose construction in the big bend region so he wrote that to homeland secretary mark wayne mohun um you know just expressing like to see better communication. You know, these residents are really worried about the listed five different points.

Kind of laid it out with you there. Then Talariko stepped in and applauded Cornans. So it's kind of interesting to see these two linking arms. In a sense, he said he and I agree, we need to secure our border by listening to local sheriffs and border control. But this monument to corruption represents wasteful, irresponsible government spending. This is something I'm missing. mentioned in the newsletters, this is kind of an example of Talarika taking a little bit more of a moderate

position than what might be like the average stance within the Democratic Party on border security, at least you've seen in recent years, you know, him acknowledging we need to secure our border and saying that you have to listen to local sheriff's border patrol. That's interesting. But also it's kind of him identifying himself with Kornan to certain extent, which of course, Tala Rika is hoping to pick up his Republican supporters. that he could potentially, I mean, he would definitely like to use to defeat Paxton. And, you know, we haven't seen Korn and just giving a full-throat endorsement of Paxton either. So, yeah, just kind of interesting bedfellers here in this issue.

Two individuals you wouldn't expect seeing come together, but also they're not folks that are gotten in for a Trump endorsement, obviously, at this point. But I think Rob had something to add to that. Yes, I did. I had a couple of things I wanted to bring up from this piece that I really liked. The first thing being this quote from Patterson where he says, it's the greatest folly I have been personally knowledgeable about or heard of. It sounds like something that I would have heard from my dad every day when I was a teenager

about anything I happened to be doing. But I also thought it was interesting that you mentioned Buckingham sent a cease and desist letter, almost says cease and deceased, which would be an entirely different thing. But the cease and desist letter about this federal contractor supposedly illegally clearing over a mile of state land. The property in question, it's lessee. And Isaiah, coming from the real estate background, can tell me if I pronounce that correctly, is the property management company is TransPACOS IE LLC, which is partially owned by the co-founder of yet.

So if you have any Yeti mugs or Yeti equipment, then, you know, there's an interesting connection there. That ranch covers more than 10,000 acres across three counties in the Big Bend area. But I also thought that this was a great piece for teaching vocabulary words because one of the other lawsuits that was filed on behalf of some conservation groups and other organizations against the Department of Homeland Security over the wall. and said that it would, it would quote, fragment critical riparian and desert habitats. And so I had to look up what riparian means. I hope I'm pronouncing that correctly, which means next to a river. So now you have something great that you can impress people at a party when they ask about the Big Ben border wall. You can say, well, you know, they might impact the riparian environment.

So, Isaiah, I think you also had something to add. Yeah, and it's actually pronounced laissez-a. So you should do that. Oh, great. Well. It's interesting to me that Don Buckingham joined some of these other Republicans in opposing this project because Don Buckingham has Trump's endorsement. And she's one of these statewide leaders who is generally cooperative with overall party leadership,

which in turn generally wants to cooperate with Trump's agenda. And she's not like, for example, Sid Miller, who feels pretty comfortable about criticizing other state-wide Republican leaders. Don Buckingham is generally more of an institutionalist. And so for her to come out and join ranks with, for example, James Tolariko, you know, it bespeaks like a certain institutional opposition to this kind of thing. And Dog Buckingham also in her capacity over the GLO has facilitated the border wall in other areas. And so again, yeah, that just speaks to the significance of this patch of land in the border wall project, I think.

Well, I think it's also kind of like she's not entirely opposed to everything. You know, her very specific opposition, I think, was to this claim of illegally clearing state land specifically, right? So I don't know if she would be opposed to the project in its entirety or if she's opposed to like a very specific infringement on, you know, state land. But like she's nowhere near as strongly against it as, for example, Patterson is, right? who is absolutely roasting it in this article. I mean, I think calling Republicans gutless, you know, it's pretty strong language. Would you agree, Meredith?

Yeah, no, he definitely feels very strongly. I think that also one person I didn't mention, I'm realizing is Brendan Herrera, who is running for congressional district, I believe it is 23, which the park is located in. So Patterson, like, highlighted him as someone who has spoken out for a while now. And he's really advocated for like alternative solutions. But I think that I think that because the Republicans didn't come out as a strong group and they haven't highlighted

as much, I think that that's where the disappointment comes from, which yeah, the other thing I was going to add to what Mary Elise was saying about Tala Rico changing his tune a little bit, which I mean, everyone kind of changes their tune a little bit when it comes to election season. and you start to see these little idiosyncrasies of things that they've said, kind of changing. I believe he used the word, and you can correct me if I'm wrong, like, that we should have a welcome mat at the border. I think that's something he's been criticized for by Paxton. Is that the correct wording, Mary Lees? Well, that's an interesting one because he, that is a clip that's passed around a lot by Republican,

especially at the Republicans, especially at the national level. But he did say, to be fair, he thinks there should be a welcome mat. with a lock on the front door. I love that they leave that out, right? It's definitely something that, you know, and you hear the clip, and it's really resonating with a lot of Republicans to hear a walk on mat on the front door over country. I think some people might feel a little bit differently if they heard lock on the front door. But, yeah, that's not a big safe.

That's not to clip it that way. It's been generally omitted from those clips. Yeah. Yeah, but to be fair, that's kind of the nature of political advertising, right? that if you say something and then, you know, I mean, you're seeing this even with Tala RICO with how I believe it was in 2022, correct me if I'm wrong, that he ran his his sort of meatless campaign or said they were going to have like a zero carbon meatless campaign, which of course then through the game of political telephone becomes Tala RICO is a vegan, right? Which, of course, he's not. He posted that picture of himself

chowing down on the turkey leg. But, you know, it is interesting how he is also kind of running to the center a bit more. And given, of course, recent polling showing that he might actually be a couple points ahead of Ken Paxton, that could. And I feel like when Kamala Harris in 2024 was running more to the center, that showed a bit more weakness electorally, right? It showed more of a need to get voters. Whereas I think with Tala RICO, his running. you know, you could say more to the center on a lot of these issues represents probably some, some, you know, internal polling strength in that he's probably thinking that he can actually

swing some of those, the Cornyn Republicans and moderates who might be less willing to vote for Paxton. But we will see. But speaking of polling, Isaiah, I wanted you to go just a little bit into some of the polling between Abbott and Hinojosa, before you talk about one of the biggest issues that is defining this gubernatorial race, which is, of course, data centers. So tell us about kind of what's going on with data centers in the race. But I'm curious to know, how's Abbott doing compared to Hinojosa right now? Yeah, and I'm glad that you've got an opportunity to say gubernatorial once again. You've got to really choose that for all it's worth between now and November.

But we talked a little bit about this last week, but Abbott leads Hinojosa in all the recent major polling. And I'll be speaking to the pollsters who produced the Texas poll's poll that everybody's talking about tomorrow, actually. And so that would be Friday. That would be the day that this podcast comes out. You'll be talking to them on Friday. Right, right.

And that's the polls that, um, the polls that, generally show slimmer margins for Republican and statewide candidates compared to, you know, a few weeks ago. And,

but in all recent polling, Abbott needs, Hinojosa by varying margins, you know, and so I think the spread is from, you know, some polls measure it at about seven points.

There's a few that measure it at six points. And Fox had a poll that Hinojosa has obviously put out in all of her press releases that measured the gap at just one percentage point. And data centers

have really become one of top issues, you know, below like overall cost of living in state politics this year. And it's not just the gubernatorial race. You know, Tala Rico has made a big issue out of it as well. But we've got some tension, not tension, we've got some competition between Governor Greg Gabby, the incumbent and his opponent on the Democratic side, Gianni Hinojosa, state rep, about how to handle data centers. And then trying to outdo each other in terms of how much they scrutinize data centers, whether or not we're going to have outright restrictions or safeguards or what have you. And Abbott has generally favored more of a safeguard approach. And in his executive capacity,

he has directed the agencies that are in charge of the Texas grid and Texas power, which are the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, that's ERC, and the Public Utility Commission of Texas or the PUC. And he's directed them to require data centers to pay for their own electric infrastructure costs, among other requirements. And as a result, at least one data center project, which was in East Texas, I think in Henderson County, actually didn't proceed due to these standards that Abbott imposed in these agencies. And so what I did for this piece is I just looked at all of the data center companies that Abbott has touted as agreeing or supporting, agreeing with or supporting these standards.

standards that he implemented with PUC and ERC. And I cross-reference them with the list of companies that benefit from the state sales tax exemption on data center equipment. And we talked about this a little bit, a little while ago. 13 years ago, the legislature passed a law with, without much opposition, it was actually unanimous to the House that authorized a sales tax exemption for equipment purchased that's necessary for the use in a data center that has to be of a certain size and meet other parameters. And in the years that followed, we had one to three data centers being certified as qualifying for this exemption.

And then starting in the early 20s, 2021, it really shot up. And now the state is missing out on a lot of sales tax revenue because we've just got a glut of these data center projects coming online or in the pipeline that are making use of the sales tax exemption. And so I looked at all the companies that have expressed support for Abbott's orders and tried my best to determine whether they are making use of this exemption. And I say try my best because something that has been covered a lot is that a lot of these major users of data centers or developers, and they're both included in this category, use shell companies. And so they've got LLCs that are particular to, you know, Texas or just for that specific project. and they don't always indicate the identity of the parent company.

And so you can look through this list here, and we've got a lot of some of the really preeminent operators in the data center world. QTS is really a foremost developer. We've got Google and Meta, which is the parent company of Facebook, stream data centers. We've got a few that are based in Texas, a lot in California. OpenAI on Oracle. OpenAI is a company that developed Chad GPT, for example,

very prominent. And it's collaborating with Oracle and some other major tech companies on a very, very expensive data center infrastructure project that's going to be based in Abilene, where Tala Rico plans to host a roundtable discussion on data centers today as we're recording. And so by the time you hear this, it will have already taken place. I think I mentioned Google. And so, and also the Data Center Coalition, which represents all of these companies. And so we've got a lot of operators and developers and users of these big data centers that pretty quickly, after Abbott announced these standards rushed to express their support and say that they commit to this transparency. A lot of it has to do with water usage, with mitigating noise and light pollution, stuff like that, a lot of the major concerns. And something else that might be worth pointing out here is that Abbott has previously also said that he supports some kind of a restriction on data center development near rural neighborhoods. And just to overlay this with some geographical context, Dallas is one of the world's top markets for data center development. So the North Texas, the Metroplex area.

And also pretty close to it on the list is West Texas in general. And so those are really the two places, not just in Texas, but in the world where these developers tend to be favoring their upcoming projects. And so with West Texas, you know, that connects more directly to the issue of rural neighborhood development. But we've also got quite a bit going up in the Dallas area. serving, you know, in Dallas proper, and in the outlying suburbs like Wilmer. Yeah, I think something really interesting about the data center development is the fact that for so long, Texas has been touting itself as like the business state, right? Texas is open for business.

And now we are really seeing a business that, you know, the state government's like, hold on, you know, now we're willing to pull back on that a little bit. Something else interesting that happened is that the city of Fort Worth actually began. the process of enacting a 90-day moratorium on the development of new data centers. I believe that they currently have three within city limits, but this is a piece that our own reporter Kim Roberts wrote about this week. And something else really interesting is that State Representative Vicki Goodwin, who is the Democratic nominee challenging Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick this year for the LG seat, she was there and she was there. And she was

was encouraging people to vote for the moratorium, and in a fundraising email praising the vote, she wrote, quote, I stood at the mic and said it plainly. This vote will send a signal to state lawmakers that corporations cannot keep pushing the cost of their energy and water use onto Texas families. So not only has Hinojosa actually blamed Abbott directly for causing the data center brouhaha in the first place, you know, saying you're the one who brought this madness to Texas, you're the one who, you know, has been so utterly pro-business that you've allowed development that a lot of Texans aren't happy with, but she's not the only one, you know. Obviously, Goodwin has also, you know, been leaning into this issue. And it's certainly one that, you know, both parties are really jumping on and really trying to see what they can win.

Because I believe, is it true, Isaiah, if am I remembering correctly, that Hina Hosa herself actually did call for a statewide moratorium? on data center development because I believe that there were calls to actually enact like a statewide moratorium to prevent data center development in general in Texas. But I don't think that the state government is willing to go that far. You know, I think a lot of them are still generally in favor of business development. You know, and a lot of them recognize that data centers are a necessity, right? Even if there was no generative AI, right? Data centers are how the internet works because, you know, in order for you to have the internet, you have to have other computers that are giving information to your computer.

And, you know, you put all those computers that are serving the information, the servers in a big building together called the data center. Right. So when people like, oh, data centers aren't bringing long-term jobs, it's like, yeah, because it's, you know, a bunch of computer servers. But you still need to have that because the internet is growing all the time. The internet isn't shrinking. You know, I'm sure some people probably wish it was sometimes. but it's not. And so, yeah, I was curious. What is, what has Hinojosa then had to say about that? Yes, you remember correctly. Hina Hosa did call for a data center moratorium back in July. And specifically, she called for one until Abbott convenes the legislature. And so what

she's doing is she's challenging Abbott to call a special session on this issue. And again, this is the dynamic of, you know, the candidates trying to outdo each other. And so that hasn't happened yet. But special sessions, for those who don't know, the governor can call them at any point. on some issue of great import. And so Hinojosa has been impressing Abbott to, you know, to call a special session so lawmakers would consider some form of action, some kind of restriction on data center development. And to your point, Rob, what we heard from one of the representatives of the data center coalition

in a recent committee hearing is that a lot of this breakneck development started during the remote work trends that became popular among companies during COVID. And so before chat GPT really hit the scene, before like you said, generative AI became this widespread, it was really just cloud computing that required so many more data centers to be built. And so that's just people working remotely from their homes, more so than in the office, doing video calls, just creating a lot more demand for storing data and transferring data remotely than there had been before. And somebody else that he pointed out that I think hasn't been brought up a lot is that, you know, we think of the internet as being so incorporeal and,

you know, disconnected from the physical world. But the, because of latency, which I think measures the speed of data transfer, generally has to do the speed of data transfer. It actually matters where these are built. So we've heard ideas, you know, floating that maybe we could build these in space or on the moon like grew. And they actually need to be relatively close to the data that or the computers that are transferring, you know, the data from one computer to the next. And so financial activity might be one reason, for example, why so many of these centers need to be built in the Dallas area,

which is kind of a burgeoning finance sub. And so to have those money transfers take place quickly, you need that latency, which requires data centers to be built in, you know, some proximity to each other. And so that's just another factor that I think is under-discussed. See, I did not actually. know about the latency issue goes to show how technologically literate I am, which is to say not very at all.

Because I knew somebody, actually, one of my friends here in Austin who is like, what we could do is we could build them underwater on like submarines. And then they will naturally, because they're surrounded by freezing cold, actually below freezing cold ocean water, we won't have to spend water to cool them. Now, the only problem with that, of course, is that, you know, you can't use, this is another issue about water in general is that, you know, people like, why don't they use dirty water for these. Why don't they use dirty water to cool it instead of like, you know, purified potable drinking water? Well, the problem here is that sensitive machinery doesn't really like dirty water any more than the human body does, you know, bacteria and grit and like dirt and stuff like that. It's just as damaging to sensitive technology as it is to us. So unfortunately, they do have to use potable drinking water to cool this stuff, although, of course, there are increasing alternative solutions like closed loop systems. I think you mentioned, Isaiah in your piece, one of these uses, one of these data centers just uses fans. So there's all, now, of course, that's going to use a lot of electricity. I guess I wouldn't use that much, actually. I mean, fans are a lot less expensive than electrically expensive, I suppose, than actual full-on air conditioning.

But I just wanted to say one last thing, which is that I would love to see Abbott try to call a special session in the middle of campaign season because I think it would, you know, it would irritate a lot of people. I think you'd probably have another quorum break, honestly, telling everybody, actually, you all have to leave your campaigning and come back to Austin. So obviously, you know, he could call it just as Inohosa has said he would. And then, you know, I think if the Democratic campaigners are smart, they'll turn around and say, Abbott is stopping us from campaigning by demanding we all come to Austin for a special session. So I would love to see that happen. But Mary Elise, what did you, what were you going to say? Yeah, no, that would be absolutely wild. Also, that would just be crazy as reporters to be covering that in the middle of campaign season. That would be a wild ride. I was going to mention, I mean, you're talking about how Texas is just an interesting kind of turn of events because Texas is so business friendly and really like touts that. Trump was in an interview the other day with Punch Bowl News. And he was kind of to speak about data centers generally. And then he said, I saw Texas the other day as sort of against data center.

he said he thinks that's a mistake. He said, I think they're tremendously important for economics. And he said, for Texas to say no to data centers, he thinks it's a mistake in the sense that it could be bigger than oil, which is, you know, that's a strong state man. I'm curious what conversations are happening behind closed doors after seeing Trump say that because he's kind of like dipping his foot in here, given his opinion.

But Trump thinks it could be bigger than oil. So that's what he thinks. It's such an oversimplification, you know, clearly he just got like that we're saying no or don't like them or something like that. I feel like if you listen to people talking about them, even at the local levels where people are very upset and trying to recall their mayors and things about them or city council members. I know I had written a piece about that in Granbury. The sentiment generally is like almost like the border wall thing. It's not like we're saying, no, we're saying that we want to pause and slow down and take time to understand what's going on before we just jump in. into these things or they just get approved immediately. So obviously there's groups that are against

them completely, but then there are, it's like a large group of people like, we're not against progress. We just don't understand what's going on. Things are just going too quickly. And it doesn't seem to be any like any kind of stops here or anywhere to understand what's happening. No, that is a fair point. Now, of course, if the, you know, the, the AI company CEOs are right and they actually are going to crack general artificial intelligence and create some kind of machine. God that is going to actually turn the world into a Star Trek style utopia with infinite resources, then I guess at that point, we could say that it would be more valuable than oil. But I would bet, I think, a trillion dollars that that's probably not going to happen.

And even if I lose that bet in a world full in a utopia of infinite resources, trillion dollars won't even be worth that much. So it's a pretty good bet. But Mary Elise, I also wanted to talk about something else. interesting that happened this week, which is that Texas has a new Secretary of State, Secretary of State Jane Nelson, I believe resigned at the, I think it was the end of last month, right? Was it was in July? I was thinking at the end of last month was our previous acting comptroller, Kelly Hancock. But so we have a new Secretary of State, but we have an old

lawsuit, right? So what is going on with this lawsuit over whether or not, of all this partisan stuff, Republican primary elections in Texas should be closed. What's going on there? Yeah, well, so the newly appointed Secretary of State, Robert Howden, he is essentially saying that he is going to be approaching this lawsuit the same way that his predecessor, Jay Nelson, approached it. And that's the position that the Texas legislature needs to be the first want to take action on this issue of closing party primaries. And so, of course, there's this lawsuit. And he was asked to, since he just assumed office, he was asked to clarify a couple different aspects in this lawsuit. But essentially, how are you going to be approaching this lawsuit now that

we've got, Melo, we've got a new sheriff in town or we've got a new secretary of state. How are you going to be approaching this? Are you going to be taking kind of a different stance than Nelson? and you can have different representation. So this was a lawsuit filed in the fall of 2025 by the Republican Party of Texas. And they're arguing that Texas's open primary election system, which allows independence and Democrats to vote in Republican primaries, violates the First Amendment rights. And that's a quote from the RPT of the party.

And so in Texas, the only restriction essentially on crossover voting is that, is a prevention on one party's primary voters and like a particular cycle jumping over to another party's runoff election. But this does allow voters to cast ballots in a Democratic primary one year and then Republican primary in the next. And so that's kind of this issue here at hand. But yeah, like you said, she she left office on July 17th, so kind of towards the end of July. but she had announced her retirement in June's everyone kind of was watching that closely to see who would replace her. And she, you know, left on July 17th. But Governor Greg Abbott appointed Robert Howden, who is his director of legislative affairs and senior advisor to this position. So some of the developments in this case were, so we saw Texas Attorney, excuse me, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, join the lawsuit alongside the Party, the Republican Party of Texas.

instead of defending the state. And so then Nelson went on to get her own legal representation. And this was part of what the judge in this Northern District of Texas, this is in the Emerillo Division, he was asking that Houghton's office confirm whether they'd continue to be represented by this team, he's going to be changing anything on that front, and then whether he'd be altering the stances held by Nelson in the lawsuit.

So, but he said, and this pretty much wraps it up, is the only thing that has changed in this case is the name of the defendant. And so he said, you know, I'm the new Secretary of State, but I hold the same view here that Nelson held. He said Secretary of State would gladly implement changes to the primary election process, but he classified that as statutory changes. so they're not going to be going ahead and making their own changes first. And then before the legislature, the he's saying, you know, the legislature needs to take action on this first. This was a big topic at convention, of course, at the RPT convention. But Meredith, I think you had some to add to this story.

I was just going to say that this is yet another place that Cornyn is breaking from Republicans, the party. And obviously with Paxton being in favor of it, They don't seem to agree on anything these days. But he wrote like an op-ed in the Austin American statesman about how it would be a huge mistake and how it would cause less people to vote. It would, you know, turn people off from participating in elections, which we need more voting, not less. And he kind of lays out his argument for that. And so it's just the list keeps growing of the things that he's, like you said, now he's free from needing that endorsement.

He's like, no, no, no, no, no. Well, he just, it's interesting. The way he goes about it, which I think is kind of typical for the way he purchased these things, he hasn't turned into an entirely, like, bombastic anti-Trump politician, but he is very strategically kind of putting, kind of putting roadblocks up for the Trump admin and different things that they're trying to do. So that's an interesting point about Cornyn and jumping into this, too. Quiet operative, just kind of like.

In a sense, yeah. Post on X. Post. just say like one sentence or something like, this is not the way it is or whatever he says, and he just kind of posts it and then leaves it there. Yeah. Something else I think that's worth pointing out is the fact that Cornyn is defending

Texas current primary system when Texas current Republican primary system is what lost him his primary, you know, Paxton won against Cornyn in the runoff by, it was like 64%, I mean, it was almost two-thirds to one-third. And so, you know, Cornyn is defending the system as it currently stands that did, you know, get him, that knocked him out.

The worst loss of a sitting senator in a primary election, I believe. I want to say that I've read that. It was in 50 years, I think it was, yeah, the worst U.S. senatorial defeat. I mean, I wasn't, no, of course, that was true. And of course, you know, that's always kind of complicated, right? Because, you know, Paxton did take him to a runoff originally. And then the people who show up like during a runoff are the most partisan of partisan people, right? Like these are the turbo Republicans, right?

These are the people who care so much that they will turn out for a runoff election. And, you know, most Americans do not really vote in primaries or primary runoffs, for that matter. Many Americans don't even probably know that there's an election going on unless there is a president on the ballot. So, yeah, I mean, I do think that seeing this showing up at the convention, yeah, and then seeing Howden come out and saying like, sorry, you know, we can't, we're not going to change the rules. Because, I mean, that is how the law, you know, currently works. It would require a bit more of a radical reinterpretation of the law to say that actually, you know, this First Amendment right overrides this, the way that the system is currently set up. So now we will probably see at least an attempt at legislative action because, you know, that's what they keep saying is they say if the legislature implement statutory changes, we will be ecstatic to implement those changes. But that hasn't happened yet. I mean, you see the same thing in the U.S. Supreme Court all the time, right? As the U.S. Supreme Court says, no, you can't. And you saw this with birthright citizenship. The Supreme Court was like, no, you can't do this. You know, you can't declare that, for example, the children of visiting foreign nationals or illegal aliens are just straight up, you know, not granted citizenship under the 14th Amendment. But then I believe it was Clarence Thomas who said, yeah, but Congress could, you know, pass something clarifying how the 14th Amendment ought to be interpreted.

And then that's what the Supreme Court would have to follow. But it remains to be seen if legislative action will be taken on that sort of issue. So, yeah, I think it'll be, this will be, I think, maybe one of those issues that is not, quite as apparent going into the 90th, but will probably become a big issue. That, of course, all depends on how the elections actually turn out this year, because, you know, with Republicans, with Republicans, you know,

fighting an uphill battle with a Republican in the White House, as is always the case, you know, Beto brought a blue wave and Beto didn't win, but a lot of down. ballot races flipped blue. And so it's possible something similar could happen. I believe even Dan Patrick was warning people earlier in this election cycle. We said, we could lose the Texas House. You know, I would have, I would say I would bet money that Republicans aren't going to lose the Texas House, just because that would be, that would be an extremely dramatic thing. If that would happen,

I would expect, like, Tala Rico to also win the U.S. Senate seat if it was that big of a deal. But I do think that that kind of warning is something that, you know, some state leaders want to put out in order to motivate Republicans, in order to energize Republicans to vote. Because that's something also that they've been talking about, you know, in some of these rural, I believe Isaiah, when you visited, what was it, when you were at a Paxton event. And I think Mary Elise, you might have repeated this here when you were at the one in Houston. But like something they talked about is like, we got to get out the vote, right? We need people in rural areas to get out and vote. So that's, that's a lot. the end of my rant there. I just think, this is going to be a really interesting issue to see if the legislature does anything. Some issues will always be like this is like one of those issues

that will, you know, the legislature will keep going to like three in the morning. There will be an infinite series of points of order. And I believe that if this actually gets legislatively like taken up, this will be one of those issues where none of us will really be getting any sleep that night. But

I'll just add to what you were saying about. losing the house because that was earlier in April. I was there at the TPPF summit. And it was dismissed by Burroughs like, oh, no, we're, that's fine. But Burroughs and Abbott specifically together and everyone else as well, but they have been doing the rounds. They are going to house district after house district, like smaller events. They are, I don't know, I don't know if those guys are at home with their families out all this summer. They are, anytime you turn on open Twitter, you will see that they're out there campaigning for so many different House members and different elected officials. And so that is interesting to see that even though it was dismissed as like, oh,

never, that's not going to happen. There's growing concern that they need to make sure they really bolster those bases in those areas. No, it's true. We know that Abbott certainly has been on a tour and, in fact, even stopped at a local beloved Texas massive gas station. And we're We will be talking about that in just a few minutes. But I also wanted to touch on some of the smaller stories that might have passed under the radar this week. Mary Leeds, can you give us a little bit of information on the case of this newborn baby that's currently undergoing treatment after the state of Texas intervened in a surrogacy case? I mean, this seems pretty complicated. What's going on?

Yeah, this is a pretty wild case. It's really, especially as of yesterday, gained quite a lot. of attention from people just at a national level. But the state of Texas did intervene in this situation where there was a surrogate from Alaska and she left Alaska for Texas against the intended parents' wishes for an abortion. So this was, he's a now newborn, was born yesterday, baby Gabriel. So she was carrying this baby for the parents. And they request, to abort him after he was diagnosed with hypoplastic left heart syndrome, which is kind of a rare heart defect, but there are very specific surgeries that have been performed pretty frequently

on babies with this. And so she, and that was following his 20-week anatomy scan. And so just, it was within, she said it was within the 20th week of pregnancy where they found out. And then she said, once that diagnosis was made, then her communication with the parents was just through the surrogacy agency and they were requesting an abortion. And she did not feel comfortable with that, although she did point out, you know, she did sign a contract saying that that is within the parents' rights to request an abortion, but she said that she had lengthy conversation with them. And after that felt confident that moving forward, they would not, that they would not consider that. She said at least they wouldn't consider that as a first option. And so she felt comfortable.

moving forward as someone who would not obtain an abortion. So she left Alaska for Texas and then was aiming to get treatment for Gabriel and a state with pro-life laws. And then also, of course, this is a state for medicine. I mean, you come to, she went to a Dallas hospital, but Houston in particular, and Dallas has some of the best hospitals in the world. So you can see why she came to Texas. But this was against the intended parents. parents wishes and they did not consent to the care for him. They want to do comfort care instead and not do any treatment after he was born. And so then there was a parentage lawsuit filed. West was trying to seek custody of the child, seeing as the parents weren't going to be giving

treatment to this baby. And then on Tuesday, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton stepped in. He said he had issued a brief in this parentage case that was filed in Dallas County supporting West, and he said to identify and faithfully present the strongest legally supportable basis for ensuring that this baby receives medically necessary treatment where the law permits it. And he also wrote letters to U.T. Southwestern Medical Center and then Children's Medical Center in Dallas. And just kind of informed them said, hey, you have a legal duty to provide necessary medical care for Gabriel when he's born, which was yesterday afternoon. So then we saw pretty quickly, there was a temporary relief order issued.

So that essentially ensured that the medical care for Gabriel on this condition has to be given by these hospitals. So he has to be given this medically necessary treatment. But also a temporary restraining order was issued, which is against West, the surrogate, and that will prevent her from coming in contact with him. post-birth. So those were kind of the two, we saw those two different orders issued. But it did ensure that he'd be receiving medical care as soon as he was born because with this, with this particular defect, it's standard that he'd be sent to the NICU and that the surgery, first surgery of a couple

that would happen in the early years of his life would happen very quickly. So this is a, it would be a very quick medical response here. So he is in the NICU now. What were you going to add? Meredith. I was going to ask, I had heard some reporting about that maybe the biological parents were nearby. Have you seen anything about that? I have not. And Wes recently confirmed like two days ago that she has not personally been in contact with them. She's only in contact with them through the surrogacy and agency. But I would imagine that that might be the case.

Just a wild story. Yeah, it's wild. And I think it's going to definitely, I think it'll be brought up. during next session, especially since there's already a surrogacy related interim charge issued, I think that this will be mentioned because it, you know, it's happening in Texas, but it's kind of bringing this, we've got this clash of, okay, we've got surrogacy, which presents all sorts of complicated, you know, aspects to who the parents are and who is the rights if someone, if there's a defect in abortion, et cetera. And then what's the state's role if the mother, if the surrogacy,

it comes with the child into for life state, you know, what does that look like? So it's very, very complicated as we see in this case. So I would imagine that we're going to be hearing about this in the future. It'll be brought up for sure next session. Well, thank you very much, Mary Lee. Certainly is like a crazy story. And I highly recommend everybody go check out the article. But Meredith, I wanted to turn to you next because you are actually in Austin this week for covering the Texas Senate committee hearings, but you also were at the governor's mansion on Monday in order to cover an event with the Texas Classroom Commission. Now, you also got the exclusive a little bit ago, I believe that was at the end of last month, on the educators being appointed

to the Texas Classroom Commission. Tell us, what is the Texas Classroom Commission? What are the initial goals for it. Yeah, so the Texas Classroom Commission, just a little bit of background, is a 21 educators that were appointed by Abbott to form this commission to look at a more, like it says, to focus on the classroom, because sometimes these commissions are focused on, like, I know there's a teacher retention one. I know that there's sometimes things about teacher pay or like different things related to teachers, but this is the idea, ensuring, they say, progress toward our goal of ranking number one in America for educating our kids. And Abbott talked about that, like, we're number one in this and this and this, but we're

not number one in education, which is true. Texas is, and whenever I say Texas, I mean, most states, other than Massachusetts is always kicking everyone's butt, but, but like in general, states are like, in general, we're not doing well as a nation. We have a, like, an academic, an educational crisis. This is agreed upon. And so this is a, this commission has been criticized by, you know, so of course, he's criticizing everything Abbott does. But it's been criticized by people. There was like a reporter, they're kind of asking the question, what do you say to people that have, you know, say we've seen this before where you make a commission during election season or you make a commission with some goals that still seems to be struggling quite a bit. And Abbott was just, and when he answered, he was like, you know, he of course answered that we've, we returned, like we were successful in those missions, whether it was a teacher vacancy or other ones. And I'm not sure. He didn't mention any metrics of measuring that. But that is a question that people have is like, okay, we've seen this before, but we continue to have teacher retention issues. We continue to have some proficiency issues in reading and math.

So the main things are focusing on. There were three things that he kind of outlined that the teachers are going to get together and meet every month and then present a report to the legislature. One is the idea of limiting screen time. So this is coming. He said in addition to the cell phone ban. So obviously the cell phone ban was a big deal. It's something that nationally other states are also jumping on board. And many states now have adopted that.

And that's something that's so new that we haven't seen. We've seen some short-term effects. I know like the Dallas, in Dallas, they were talking about how library book, you know, checkouts had doubled or I want to say even more than 100 percent or something crazy numbers. Like kids are actually going to library, getting books. So there's some short-term things that we see, but we're still kind of waiting to maybe see some of the long-term effects at that. So he linked the idea of limiting screen time to the fact that we've already kind of started

with the cell phone ban. He also talked about, he did talk about teacher retention, although teacher in classroom. it's kind of one of those things, which comes first chicken or the egg, the idea that they want to retain teachers. You want to make sure that you have good quality teachers in the classroom. And then, like I said, reading in math proficiency is one of the main goals as well, just because it's not increasing in the way that they would like to see that. This just shows the big focus was public education because somebody who was asking about the teacher. TIFA program and how to, and he's just, he was just kind of saying, you know, even if people do use the Tifa program, I think it's something like 99% of Texas students will be educated

through the public school system was his point. So we need to make sure that the public school system is strong is what, as Texans, that's what he was saying. And someone, people had asked about school closures to him because that's a huge concern. And he, his answer to school closures was mainly focused on people leaving, he linked it to property taxes. Once again, we're in a collection cycle. The idea that people are moving to different locations, he said, and that he highlighted that while some schools are closing, there are new schools being built other places, and the idea that people would leave a place, he gave the example, Austin, because they can't, they can't pay the property taxes there. That is, while there may be new schools being built,

there is solid numbers that show that we have lost substantial students, whether we're building new schools or not. So go ahead and read the article, see what kind of some other answers that he gave about education as we, you know, head into the eye of the storm for, for the election cycle. And Hino-Hos is really like bearing down pretty hard on public schools. And so this is something that Abbott is doing to show that it's a priority for him. Well, thank you very much, Meredith. Here at the end, Isaiah, really quickly. A federal judge in Texas curbed the National Firearms Act, the enforcement of it for 15 states. And this does tie back to a

2021 Texas law. Real quick here, give us the rundown on what's happening here. This is our, as we're recording this, our highest rated trending story on our site. So you've got to give us, got to give us the details and tell us what's going on. Well, I can't sum it up better than the great Daniel friend did a few years ago when the state passed a law attempted to get around the NFA. And it's not really at issue here. But Daniel said, this is kind of like legalizing weed, but for gun owners. So it's that level of, you know, constitutional, you know, import, basically.

But the NFA of the National Firearms Act dates back to the 30s. it was passed explicitly as a response to mafia violence according to the ATFs website and among other things it outlaws it doesn't outlaw it taxes silencers or suppressors for guns and it established a $200 tax stamp that you had to obtain or to pay for

in order to sell transfer or make a silencer and on August 5th a Texas based federal judge, James Wesse Hendricks, he's of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, and joined the federal government from enforcing certain aspects, certain provisions of the NFA, including the silencer provision, because the One Big Beautiful Bill Act reduced the tax to $0. And so effectively, according to Hendricks's ruling, that eliminated the tax and that obviated

Congress's regulatory authority over these items that were taxed under the taxed. NFA and that now aren't. Some interesting news that took place after this article was published, Westfordell and Herrera, who we just spoke about earlier, actually participated in an unlicensed, an unregistered, silence or transfer. And so they issued a press release this morning, said, you know, as in their capacity, as members of the Gun Owners Association of America, Brandon Herrera and Westfordell lawfully acquired suppressors

without complying with the registration requirements of the NFA. Now, I'll have a brief amount of time here. I will say that this is a big deal, and it's a gutsy thing to do because citizens who, other states have tried similar things before, and the federal government has put citizens in jail for a long time for trying to skirt the NFA,

even by means that they considered legal under state law. And so for these two officials to make this transfer, it's more than a campaign stunt because, again, it's similar to the marijuana situation where some states have forbidden, you know, state or local authorities from enforcing federal law. But the federal government still has a prerogative to enforce it. That's not currently the case right now because it's enjoined by this order from Judge Hendricks. but proceedings can still be ongoing if the federal government doesn't miss this appeal deadline. Thank you very much, Isaiah. It is a big deal, as you said,

and I highly recommend everybody go and check out the story. And you can also see on Twitter, where, as you said, Verdell and Herrera at 1201am on Thursday, the day that we're recording this, they went into a silencer shop to buy unregistered suppressors. So Isaiah also does a great job of going into the sort of legal details of this about how this is actually not, as you said, it's not a, it's not a ban, it's a tax. And this is under Article 1 of the Constitution. So it's a very

interesting story. I highly recommend everybody go check it out. But let's see. As for tweeterie this week, Meredith, I see that you put something about a Houston teacher going viral. What are they going viral for? There was a Houston teacher that posted a video of himself crying about, how he was really disturbed by high school students that could not write one complete sentence. And it is, this is, like, people posted it because this is something that teachers, and even I will just say myself personally, I've seen some things that have shocked me at students' ability at times that have actually, I've cried. I know, shocker. I'm a crier. But what's interesting behind this is this is someone who actually used to be a star in the cooking world. I didn't know who he was, but he used to, he

went to fame, claim to fame, like, what year is it? Like 12 or 13 years ago when he was on the cooking channel and then he started having his own thing. Then he ran into a lot of legal trouble. He had named, he had earned the nickname Darius Crooks instead of Darius Cooks because he, the Better Business Bureau, like gave him an F and like warned people about working with him. And he had like, he was in court and there's a lot of stuff online about that. But apparently he became a teacher this year in Houston. So some of the argument was good message, wrong messenger was kind of like the question about that. But it was interesting to see people in the education world reposting him and agreeing with the sentiment that it's something I'm actually going to

write about in my newsletter. I wanted to write about great inflation for a long time. And it kind of ties into that of how do we get to the place where people, a fifth grader reads at a kindergarten level or a senior in high school can't write a full sentence. Like how is that happening when we're graduating so many students? So be on the lookout for a little more, a little more info into how we as a state and as the country have gotten to that position. Absolutely. Isaiah, do you have any tweetery for this week? I do. I do. I was encouraged to see a video of a six-year-old

playing Money for Nothing by Dyer Straits at a talent show. And that would be cool on its own. On top of that, I just like to see that, you know, there's young ins keeping the flame of rock and roll alive. Angus Young assured us that rock and roll would never die. I hope and pray that he's right. But I remember reading something a little while ago, some long think piece about rock,

and specifically jam bands that pointed out, the average teen, your layabout teen in the garage is likelier to be hustling, making a business, whatever, than starting a garage band. And I admire Henry Ford. I hope that we as a country keep producing Henry Ford's, but I feel like we'll lose something

if teens aren't getting in garages and just jamming out. I think that's an important part of American culture. And so try and find this video. I'm sure it's all over the internet of this kid playing just like nailing Money for Nothing by Dyer Straits. It's a great risk. Were you in a band, Isaiah?

I was not in a band. My little brother has a band. Copper Pines was their last name. I think they changed it. And they played at the brewery in May Pearl. And I joined them every once in a while. but no, I was not in a band on my own. So now we have the Texans' next vacation

is obviously going to be to hear Isaiah's brother's band. It's true. We should, yeah. I also wanted to bring up Isaiah, something that you wrote about in your newsletter this week about Stevie Ray Vaughn's guitar. Tell us a little bit about that if you can. Oh my gosh.

So my first den at the Texan, when I was living in Austin, I went to a guitar center actually to get my little brother some symbols because he also plays drums. He's a very talented drummer. And I was, you know, just walking through the store, you know, whistling, whatever. And then I like, you know, you can hear the record scratch.

And I zoom back. And Stevie Rayvon's guitar with the SRV sticker is just sitting there in this glass display case. And there's other guitar-centered junk around that you can buy like picks and things to hold your picks and stuff like that. And then the great one, his guitar, is just the, there. I thought, like, I could just, like, smash this glass and take it, and I didn't consider doing that, but somebody else could, you know, some vagrant. And they had his guitar,

I think a strap, a jacket, a guitar case, and an amp and some effects pedals. And I thought, this needs to be, like, in a museum somewhere, you know, not just in some guitar center on Anderson Lane in Austin. You had your own Indiana Jones moment? Yes. Yes, I did. This belongs in a museum. Yeah. Just like switch it out. that's what I should have done. Isaiah, I'm going to steal Stevie Ray Vaughn's guitar. Does he live? In Austin, I'm not a Stevie Rayvon fan.

You know, I mean, Austin takes credit for him. He says Dallas, that he's from Dallas. He's from Oak Cliff, yeah. And I think a lot of these rivalries between cities and Texas are pretty silly because to me, I think they all generally kind of feel the same. But it does bother me the way Austin just absorbs everyone who's ever set foot there. It's like, oh, you see Ray Vaughn, he's your guy. Those are fighting words.

All Texas cities feel the same. In many ways, they really do. I think if you don't live in one of them, then, like. Message, I do agree or just, no kidding. I don't know. Like, if you drop me in the downtown of Dallas, Houston, or Austin, I mean, now I have to kind of have some familiarity with them because of my job. But before that point, I would think, like, I don't know. where I am. I mean, it could be...

You would be able to tell if you were in Houston just because downtown Houston doesn't have like that much going on, to be honest, compared to downtown Austin. You're in downtown Houston. You're not going to notice a lot of people like walking around or like doing stuff, generally speaking. You're going to say, Meredith, about Fort Worth? I think Fort Worth has a distinct. They have some cobblestone streets and some, I feel like there's a little distinction.

Obviously, a little, not downtown, but there's the stockyards. There's some little bit of difference, you know, but... What's like Houston and Dallas, hate each other, right? And then everybody hates Austin and then everybody loves San Antonio is generally how I think about the, yeah, everybody, everybody loves San Antonio. Charles Barkley. That's right. Have you heard it with the, yeah, okay, we won't bring that up. Yeah. Mary Elise, I noticed you also had some other tweeterie that's kind of making the round speaking of like Texas culture and everything of, as Isaiah refers to him, the gubernator, the gubernator, the gubernatorial individual. and what's going on there. Yeah, Governor Abbott kind of

I guess he ushered in the grand opening of this new Bucky's location and they had him come inside. You know how they chop up the brisket and they'll yell. What do they yell when the brisket's ready? Brisket on the board. There you go. Isaiah, I don't think they say it.

I think they yell it. Can you demonstrate that? I think my mic would clip if I yelled it like a Buckey's employee. Yeah. But Governor Abbott yelled at Walt and he and he chopped the meat and everyone's um everyone a lot of people are kind of poking fun on it. I think in general whenever a politician goes in and does a job like that, whether it's like checking out groceries or doing something that's not kind of their usual like environment where they're, you know, by the press and they're standing before a microphone.

They know what they're talking about. They're going to catch some flak, flak obviously. But it was kind of a fun thing that he went to Buckees because Buggies is such a. staple. And the brisket, the brisket itself is such a staple of Texas culture. So, yeah, I remember seeing when all of the stuff about the World Cup was going on and all of these like Europeans and other foreigners were visiting the United States and people were saying stuff like, oh, you know, they're like, oh, Bucky's Biscuit, it's so good. It's like the best brisket ever. And I saw somebody on Twitter who said, it's not the best brisket ever. But if you've never had barbecue before, it's pretty good. You know, I always like the Buckees, the three meat sandwich, even though it is like $100.

It's still pretty good. It is so expensive. It's kind of wild. Barbecue in general is just expensive, you know. In fact, speaking of barbecue, and I know Isaiah's been waiting for this, the entire podcast, I did finally try. I did finally try Rudy's barbecue and country store, which was, I have to say, pretty good. I got the moist brisket, which is very good. delicious. I know, Isaiah, you recommended the lean brisket, but I do like a fattier cut of brisket.

I also got the cream corn and the banana pudding, and it was all very delicious. Man, I was on the edge of my seat. I really was. This is one of those things. When you're in Austin, you're going to like one because there's one on like, it's like 41st Street or something. It's actually not that far from downtown. And so I know that that'll probably be a staple for you when you're in Austin for the legislative session. So, totally. Oh, yeah. I've never been. So maybe we could. do a little another Texan trip. Yeah, let's go to dinner there. Sounds like a plan to me. The fun thing

is actually, when you go to restaurants that are like relatively close to downtown during the legislative session, you will notice that like lawmakers are everywhere, you know? Yeah. You'll be going into like this restaurant or that restaurant and you'll just walk around, you'll just see them, just eating and hanging out. So that's always fun. Of course, most Texans, much like most Americans, don't really know enough about their own, yeah, their representatives and their state government. So, you know, they don't get bothered,

which has to be kind of nice. But I wanted to round out this food-related tweetery with something that I actually saw, because earlier in this podcast, I always have my phone turned off, right? But I did check my phone, and I got a text from my sister that said, Sweet Mother of Pearl. And it was

advertising the fact that Chick-fil-A is introducing a chicken and waffles sandwich nationwide. It is two waffles as the buns with the chicken and like strips of bacon, and it appears to come with maple syrup. I guess that you could put on the chicken and

waffles or that you can dip your sandwich into. But I've not eaten in Chick-fil-A and actually quite a bit. I don't know. I feel like they might have changed the recipe a couple years ago and it doesn't taste the same as when I was a kid, so I haven't been back in a while. But I might have to go back for the chicken and waffle sandwich. And Mary Elise, you look like you are disgusted right now. I really hope you're not about to throw up during the recording. But I wanted to ask, what do you think about chicken and waffles? Because I made a note of this.

I'm going to peel back the curtain here a little bit. I made a note of this. And Mary Elise wrote, Ew, next to it. Mary Elise, what's your problem with chicken and waffles? I just think, okay, first of all, I wish that Chick-fil-A would just stay the way that they used to be, just keep your products the same. I mean, it's right, it's true, it doesn't taste like I used to. But I don't, I don't know, that just seems like a whole lot of, I don't know, it just seems really thick, like just a lot of bread. Okay, have ever had a Mick Grittle from McDonald's? That's kind of the vibe that it sounds like. I have not.

Yeah, you probably have to admit. But okay, I'm willing to try this out and give it a shot, but just my gut tells me that this is gross, and I don't know why they're doing this. Your gut might tell you after you eat it, that it's gross as well. That's possible. Right now it's saying, oh.

I don't know. I'm a big fan of chicken and waffles. I also like chicken and waffles. I am pro this idea. I haven't had the sandwich yet, but I got to try it. Your two reactions on top of each other were like horrified and, like, excited. So I was like, oh, I'm just like. Meredith, what do you think?

I probably won't eat it a lot. And I do like Chick-fil-A, though. And I don't know if I didn't grow up with it. So I don't know if I understand the difference between how it used to taste. But I think it's delicious. They finally changed the oil. I like the biscuit. After a good decade.

Breakfast thing. That's like spicy biscuits is like my favorite thing. So I don't want the waffle because I love the biscuit. But I'm willing to try it. Oh, they had, well, this is exposing. myself, but they have free minis the other day for the first day of school, and then they're going to have free biscuits in a couple of days for also like the rest of the schools that are going in on the first day in case anybody's looking to get some free chick's-light breakfast.

Absolutely. I go for some free. The chicken minis are really good. I don't know. I don't really think that I could pass for a high school student, but we could always try. I don't know. even when I was a high school student, I looked older than a high school student. Well, I think it's free to anybody. It was just saying it's just like an honor of the fact that school's going back. Yeah. Fantastic. You don't have to lie now.

The rest of us have the reward because, you know, adults who work during the summer are now going to have to deal with school traffic again. So we also get a reward from chicken minis. So that does sound where we do not so. Absolutely. Well, this podcast has made me absolutely famished. So thank you to everybody for joining us. You can catch us every week on the Texan. News or on YouTube or Spotify or wherever you get podcasts, Apple Podcasts. Podcast drops every Friday morning.

So thank you again to everybody for listening and we'll catch y'all next time. Thank you to everyone for listening. If you enjoy our show, rate and review us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts. And if you want more of our stories, visit us at the Texan. News. Follow us on social media for the latest in Texas politics and send any questions for our team to our mailbag by DMing us on Twitter or shooting us an email to editor at the Texan. News. Tune in next week for another episode of our weekly roundup.

God bless you and God bless Texas.