The Texan Podcast - Weekly Roundup - December 12, 2025

Episode Date: December 12, 2025

Show off your Lone Star spirit with a free "Remember the Alamo" hat with an annual subscription to The Texan: https://thetexan.news/subscribe/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.Enjoy what you hear? Be sure to subscribe and leave a review! Got questions for the reporting team? Email [e-mail] — they just might be answered on a future podcast.U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett Launches Long-Anticipated Bid for U.S. SenateColin Allred Drops U.S. Senate Run as Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett Prepares Bid for Top of TicketState Sen. Sarah Eckhardt Switches 2026 Run from Congress to Texas ComptrollerCrockett In, Allred and Veasey Out: Filing Deadline 2026 TakeawaysLt. Gov. Dan Patrick Unveils New Three-Part Property Tax Plan for 2027 SessionTexas State Securities Board Commissioner 'Refutes' Claims Made in Attorney General's EPIC City LawsuitTexas Granted TRO Against Kenvue, Johnson & Johnson for Alleged Unregistered Foreign Company StatusAbbott Praises New Turning Point USA 'Club America' Chapters at Texas High SchoolsTexas Congressman Files Bill to Prohibit Federal Issuance of Interim Storage Permits for Spent Nuclear Fuel

Well, howdy folks? It's Mackenzie here with quite a crew. We have Cameron and Rob in the office in Austin. We have Brad and Mary Elise and myself all joining remotely. So quite a crew. But let's just jump into the... Here's the thing. We have a kind of setup. Cameron, I'm going to pass it to you. Okay. Well, my heart was breaking over the evening. yesterday, well, two days ago now, because Michigan's coach has been arrested. He was fired and arrested. And all I could think was Brad must be devastated. Brad, how are you feeling? I am crashing out. This could almost be enough as much as Michigan's coach was crashing out yesterday though. Yeah. Brad, this could almost be enough to put you in a bad mood. I know right I was

so I'm up in Rockwall because I got a speaking event here in about three hours and I was getting a beer with a friend yesterday and we're just talking about the ledge and stuff and I look back behind him

and at the TV and I see headline Michigan coach fired for cause and I looked down on my phone because I hadn't checked it in like 15 minutes and it is just blown the heck up with reactions and my friends trash talking it about it

and uh yeah it's not an ideal situation no definitely but hopefully it nets us a better football coach and if that's what happens all is good in the world is this the same football coach that was with y'all when you win the natty he was the offensive coordinator yeah okay okay Jim Harbaugh left. He was the head coach. That's right. Okay. It's coming back to me. Well, I'm sorry for your loss, Bradley, truly. Well, and the going theory is if certain things bounce certain ways, the Alabama coach goes to Michigan, and then this applies to Texas because there is theory that Sark could go to Alabama.

I don't think that'll happen. I think the NIL situation of Texas is way better than Bama. but it is it has been floated out there so the n i all stuff has been getting crazy i don't know did you see the story about utah yeah getting a private equity deal yeah well the so the big 10 actually nearly just adopted a private equity deal itself and only didn't because michigan and u.s.c opposed it significantly and stopped it but yeah it's very strange what's happening And, you know, actually, I was on TVPS podcast yesterday, and we kind of talked about it a bit with, in relation to Cody Campbell, the chairman of the board of regents at Texas Tech, a very well-known political donor here in the state. And he is pushing the envelope significantly to try and fix this problem. And it's not just NIL.

It goes further than that. All these athletic departments are totally broke, except for like two in the entire country. So it goes well beyond just NIL and couch football. do you feel like there's been more volatility with coaching in college football in the last few years or am I just like slightly tuned in more than I was before? I think you're probably more tuned in. I think the volatility has come in with transfers and players themselves jumping from place to place very frequently in the sheer amount of money that's being dumped in, at least dumped in out in the open

because there was pay to play back then. Yeah. back in ye olden days it was just as ed orgeron said recently the bagman just walks through the back door now they walked through the front door well lSU has a crazy situation going on where they're paying like four different head coaches right now yeah gosh it's insane it's insane but anyway we're not a we're not a sports show so we should probably much to grad's chagrin oh yeah uh rob jings yo mis soda You guys finish each other's sandwiches.

Wow. That's what I was going to say. Did you just go frozen, Bradley? Of course I did. I'm a cultured man. Come on. A cultured man. Except you think Elfaba is named Elfaba.

Actually, Mac, that's the connection to Wicked that you were thinking of, right? Edina Menzel played Alphaba. She's the OG Alphabet. She's the OG Alphabet. So that's what you were thinking of. It did it did Duffield quite nicely. but Brad's right we are well I said Brad's right what kind of world are we living in but he is unfortunately in this instance we are a news podcast and not a sports podcast so we can jump into these stories and folks I'd stay tuned to the end of this episode we have some announcements to make so a little tease there but Mary Elise we have all sorts of crazy campaign ups and downs announcements this week because of the filing deadline that was on Monday this was a long awaited campaign announcement for a U.S. Senate that was made this week

give us these details. Yeah, Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett officially has entered the U.S. Senate race. This is something that a lot of folks have been anticipating for quite a while. Everyone's been kind of waiting for this announcement to see if she would jump in as a Democratic candidate to challenge Senator John Cornyn. So she made this decision. She officially filed just a couple hours before the filing deadline on Monday evening. So she filed the afternoon before that deadline. And of course, her entering the mix with several other high-profile Republican and Democratic challengers.

Some of those Republican challengers include Texas Attorney General Kent Paxton and Congressman Wesley Hunt. So, of course, it spurred on all sorts of reactions. Everyone was kind of waiting for this. She definitely teased it out very well. She had various news appearances where she said, you know, I'm, closer to a yes than a no for jumping into the U.S. Senate race and she had kind of said repeatedly that she was waiting on polling to indicate to her that she had a good shot in the general election because she said, you know, I've seen, and we saw this two positive

results for her with polling with the primary, Democratic primary, but she said, you know, I want to feel confident about the general election. So I guess this indicates that she does. And she, there were several campaign shifts on Monday. It was kind of a wild day with the filing deadline happening. And I think Brad will probably go more into that later. But so yeah, like I said, Crockett had been learning with this run for quite a while. As the, you know, the different candidates were jumping into the race and kind of going after each other. The other Democratic candidate is State Representative James Tala Rico.

And his response to her entering the race was very polite and measured. He said, you know, while we feel positioned to show you why our campaign is best fit, why my team is the best option for this, he said, you know, we'll welcome Congresswoman Crockett into this race. He said, our movement is rooted in unity over division, so we welcome Congresswoman Crockett into the race. And then Paxton, Paxton and Cornyn-Waiden and Wesley Hunt, of course, Paxton said, everyone knows that Crockett will be soundly defeated.

He said, then he kind of shifted the focus to Cornyn. So his statement was more so focused on bashing Cornyn. He said, we're six months out from a runoff, and Cornyn's already stolen $40 million that should have gotten to Georgia, North Carolina, Michigan, et cetera. He said he wants to sacrifice a majority by spending $100 million on his losing primary race beyond selfish. So I was Paxton's statement, his response.

And then Cornyn responded to Crockett's decision to enter the race, and he was a lot more focused on the congresswoman herself. He said that Jasmine Crockett, he doesn't believe, represents the views of a majority of Texans. He said her time in Congress has been marked by deeply unsurious public statements, little to no actual work for her constituents, and over-the-top rhetoric, and childish insults. He said she is radical, theatrical, and ineffective. Of course, Congresswoman Crockett has been, she's very frequently in the headlines for her kind of robust rhetoric. she's not one to hold back

she'll say all sorts of things about other politicians that she's going against and we saw one of the really big incidents was her and Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Green that were kind of going at it in U.S. Congress so this will be a very of course it was all right U.S. Senate race

was very interesting to be watching but with Congresswoman Crockett in it it's going to be just that much more lively absolutely And that opening ad was something to hold, too. Very interesting to watch the messaging and follow to camera. I was just going to ask, what did you guys think of her debut ad

where it was just her on the camera with Trump insulting her in the background? Is that a smart strategy, do you guys think? So I saw a lot of people criticizing her for that saying, Maine, you didn't say anything about Texans. It was all focused on Trump. And they're saying that's not going to work out well for you in Texas. But then again, everybody and their mother was talking about that. Everyone had seen it.

Everybody was watching it because it did admittedly catch your attention. So at least she had that going for her. Well, I think it's emblematic of the difference between her and Tala Rico, where Tala Rico is the more, he seems to be trying to intellectualize a lot of his policy positions, talking about like affordability and things. And his sort of ads are him, like, speaking in front of people and things like that, whereas Crockett, her position is just, I'm anti-Trump. I'm the firebrand.

So it'll be interesting to see what resonates with Democrats in Texas. Yeah, I was all add to that. I think it really is a contrast of styles here. There's really no ideological difference between these two. and so the the biggest difference is going to be on style and how they market themselves

and position themselves clearly out of the box with this ad Crockett is making Trump front and center rather than couching Trump in this package of affordability issues

as the cause of them at least the alleged cause of them And that's more of what Tellerico's doing. You know, Crockett also has very high negatives. It's no secret that Republicans have wanted to run against Crockett. And it's every single one. And if you needed any extra evidence of it, we'll get everyone just shouting from the rooftops and excitement

on the Republican side upon her getting in the race. And then we saw reporting about the NRSC having done some, like, guerrilla tactics to try and get her into the race by one of the things I read about was by doing robocalls into Crockett's district asking people

to call her office and ask her to run for something. Interesting. And there's no way it was just the NRC's guerrilla stuff that got her into it. She clearly had been looking for an opportunity

in an opening and she found it. But the NRC played a big role, I would say, And they also were the first ones to put out polling that showed Crockett in the, in the Democratic field. And they commissioned the poll. The first Maryleast, I think you wrote about this in the 40 when it first came out. The first one that mentioned Crockett, it had the NRC stamp at the top. That's no coincidence.

There was clearly a concerted effort by Republicans to get her in because they think she's more beatable than Tala Rica or Allred. And RIP to Allred's 2026 Senate campaign, she pushed. him out. And a big part of the reason was if I recall correctly, Maryleys correct me if I'm wrong, but the polling showed Crockett polling polling P-U-L-L-I-N-G

a lot of the black support away from Allred and to her black voter support. Yes. And that just like evaporated a constituency for All-Red. Now on the flip side, she's got some high negatives.

and a big example of that is the comments she made about Hispanic voters who voted for Trump last year having a, quote, slave mentality. Now, whether that was pulled out of context or not, you can bet the House that Republicans, whoever the Republican is in the general election, if they're up against Crockett, it's going to plaster that on a bunch of ads, especially down in South Texas. And that might have the same effect that the all-red he supports men and women sports ad had last year. Who knows? But it might. And it's certainly going to be used. And so Republicans are just salivating at this opportunity.

And there's still a lot to go with, you know, what does next cycle even look like? It's clear Republicans are going to have, not Republicans, Democrats are going to have a more advantageous cycle than last year. If for no other reason that Donald Trump is not on the ballot. But the question is, are we seeing another 2018 type cycle or even better for Democrats? Or are we seeing somewhere between what's kind of been the two anomalies, one for each side, on the Republican side being 2024 and on the Democratic side being 2018? I kind of think right now it's going to fall somewhere in the middle and looking right now, we'll lean closer to 2018.

But obviously, Republicans feel good if Crockett is the nominee. Absolutely. Well, this is just, you know, announcement one. Let's pivot then to Allred. So, Brad, walk us through what that exactly looks like and that announcement coming down on Monday. This was clearly coordinated. And it was reported that they had talked. And I first heard about this Sunday evening, and that's when it first started getting around.

that all red was going to drop out and run for congress he's running for the 33rd congressional seat which is its own interesting wrinkle to this because he's running against now uh julie johnson who is an incumbent congresswoman but her district is one of those that was flipped under the redistricting from blue to pretty solid red and now you have two uh pretty notable figures going for that one seat to the 33rd district and i don't know who's going to come away with that but i can tell you crock and all red did not consult julie johnson in this decision she was blindsided by it and now you have instead of pretty much an easy win for her you have a dog fight between those two for that seats and um it the whole reason this happened is basically what i just said with crockett look it was clear all red had no path to making a runoff if Crockett got in, it was clearly going to be, or at least a significantly winnowed path to making a runoff. Now we have Crockett and Talleygo, Dukin and Out at the top, all red in Johnson, duke in and

out, down ballot, and it's going to be fun to watch. You're muted. That's crazy. You hit the button and muted yourself right before you talked. I bet this is what I think happened. I bet I unmuted and Jaden tried to unmute me at the same time and we just canceled each other at. That's my hypothesis.

But then there was another last minute switch, Brad, and this is one that I think is interesting, switching from kind of a district-centric race to a statewide contest. Who changed course here? Yeah, so obviously the Crockin entry and Alred jumped down to Congress was the biggest news of the day.

I don't know if it would be the second biggest, but up there is Senator Sarah Eckhart switching from running in the 10th congressional district to Comptroller. And we had talked about Eckhart's move on the podcast before and why I thought it was a good move for Democrats to field, you know, someone who's a pretty, at least a fairly notable figure in Texas politics, not a nobody, certainly, in that district to see kind of what a baseline is for how favorable next cycle is. She wasn't going to win the seat, but she could, you know, make it more competitive than otherwise would with a total nobody running for the seat. Alas, she has decided to jump in the comptroller's race. Democrats kind of dropped the ball this year in that they could have fielded a very competitive slate across the board for every race. Instead, they squabbled at the top because they all wanted to run for Senate. and now you have close to three people in the race

now it's down to two and you have Beto O'Rourke not running for office at all Joaquin Castro running for re-election and that breakdown between them had consequences down ballot where you had I think the only person who had filed to run for comptroller to this point was Michael

Lang and sorry, Michael, it's just not a notable figure for a statewide race like this. And Eckhart jumping to this race gives them at least somewhat more of a higher profile candidate running for that seat. You also have state rep Gina Hinojosa running for governor. So it could have been worse for Democrats in terms of fielding a competitive slate, but it also could have been way better. and I think Eckhart's move at the last moment signals what they all knew that they needed and at least one more slot with someone who slot on the ballot with someone who had some sort of notoriety. Absolutely.

Well, there are, I mean, we hit the high points here, but what other takeaways do we have from this big filing deadline? Yeah, I wrote a longer piece on this, so if you want all of it, the sweet, sweet goodness of filing deadline takeaways. You can read it on the texan. News. Yeah, we went through the Crockett all red VC shift. Allo, Visi was also interesting in that he was about to run for the 30th congressional district. But then, Pastor Frederick Haynes, the third, filed, and he, VC jumped abruptly to run for Tarrant County judge. I think that gives Democrats a better candidate for that. Tarrant County is still a lean red county, but in a good year for Democrats, it can be competitive.

And now Tim O'Hare, the Republican incumbent, has a tough re-election campaign on his hands. So that VC part was interesting. These congressional races are a cluster. And you've got, I think it was, a handful of races with either more than 10 candidates in the primary or close to 10 candidates in the primary. You know, you've got a heavyweight matchup down in Houston for the new 18th congressional district between Christian Meneffi, Amanda Edwards, and Al Green.

We still have yet to see the special election result in that race. But you've got to at least give the handicap to Al Green on that because this district looks more like his old district than it does the current 18th congressional district. so a lot of these voters are going to be all green voters then you look over in the in the ninth congressional district which is one of the flips you had brisco cane and alex miller's the two top notables in that race well then you have steve stockman who's a former congressman from a while ago file for that seat and that's something that we uh we had heard about for for months that he was considering um and that was the subject of a clapback i had against a national reporter who felt the need to dunk on me for tweeting out that Steve Stockman had filed. Well,

he's like, we broke this news a month ago. Buddy, everybody knew this was happening, or at least had the potential to happen since August. You know, it grinds my gears when these national guys think they know what's going on. You know, he could have said nothing. But no, he chose to be

a jerk, so I responded in kind. Sorry, I was being a little self-indulgent there. It just, gosh, it's just So stupid. But that's going to be an interesting dynamic. Like, how much does that change the Briscoe-Cain versus Alex Mueller matchup? And, like, now are we heading to a runoff?

There's also a bunch of other candidates in that race, but they're all lower profile. I think it probably is heading to a runoff now, but we'll see. You know, in the 35th congressional district, actually, this was notable. I don't think I've mentioned this in the piece, but it, I don't think, I've mentioned this in the piece, but it caught my mind when I saw the filing come through. John Leera filed for the 35th Congressional District. Democrats hadn't really had a clear, you know, higher profile candidate for that seat, which in a really bad year for Republicans could be heatering on the edge for Democrats.

It's an R-55 district, even though it's still favorable towards the Republicans. And you have a bunch of people in that race on the, Republican side, John Lujan, Carlos Dela Cruz, brother of Monica Dela Cruz, Josh Cortez seemed to be the top three notable names, but these congressional races, especially with a lot of openings, both via redistricting or via retirements, there's just so much going on there. Last thing I'll touch on with this is if you look at the full picture of these legislative of races. And the open seats are definitely a big part of this, too. There's 41 by my count across the state and federal levels. But the ledge dynamic is significantly different. First, in the

Senate, you have a handful of retirements and openings. And then over in the House, this is a massively different cycle than what we saw last year, which was, broadly speaking, for various different reasons, school choice played a role in it, impeachment played a role in it. But broadly speaking, it was a referendum on house leadership. And we saw a lot of people lose their seats because of that general theme whether it was Abbott

going after incumbents or the right flank of the party going after incumbents. This time is going to be a lot more standard, a lot more run-of-the-mill. There is no such referendum on house leadership. And you've got some notable primaries

to watch, but nothing like what we saw last year. Absolutely. But this, like, Monday was a wild day. I mean, all of these things we're talking about were Monday developments. And for the most part, except for a few that you mentioned just now in that round depth. But regardless, it was a wild, wild day. And I think a lot of these races, if you would have told us who were going to be the main candidates in them on Friday, we would not have believed you. Like it happened very, very quickly. So Bradley, thank you so much for breaking that down. Let's quickly talk about some legislative news here. governor held a press conference this week, the original announcement for which caused you to be very blown up with people asking about this topic. Was it worse or better than when Michigan's coach got canned? There were fewer notifications than with Michigan's coach getting canned. Wow. Okay. It was easily 12 to 15 inquiries if I knew what the topic was about for the And I had, I'm going to pat myself on the back here.

My response to everyone was, I know it's policy, but I don't know specifically. But my guess is property taxes. And guess what, Mac? You were right. I was right. It was property taxes. Dan Patrick, he held a press conference to announce a new property tax reform plan for next session, 27, calling it Operation Double Nickel. It's a homestead exemption focus plan, and I'll run through the top lines of it, but this is not, I don't think, very surprising.

And the lieutenant governor has remained bullish on homestead exemptions for a while. And basically ever since we have, since 2019, since the property tax reform issue really ramps back up, he wants to, currently the homestead exemption, and this is after what. was passed last the session during this year was uh it's at 140 140k for the standard and then 60k for elderly and disabled uh homeowners now the biggest part of this plan i think is he wants to drop the senior homestead exemption from 65 years old to 55 and uh in his mind that'll And it will, like that will significantly reduce the amount of people that are paying what they're paying on property taxes and the people that are even paying property taxes because of the, how many people fit into the 55 to 65 year old section of population. The other one he wants to do is increase the standard homestead exemption, another $40,000 to $180,000 total. and then he wants to place more taxing restrictions on local governments while still allowing for growth.

This one wasn't, he didn't lay out in much detail, but that was on his card sheet that he had on the easel. And he said, quote, about the elderly drop, that means for an extra 10 years, from 55 to 65, your valleys are frozen. You don't ever have to worry about appraisals anymore. By the way, how many homeowners of that? So we have about 6.1 million homeowners in Texas. 3.3 million homeowners will have their tax values frozen and their taxes will continue to go down. They won't even have an issue with the appraisal. I think I'm right in recalling this.

So the other factor about the elderly exemption is that I think it freezes your taxable value entirely. In addition to significantly dropping the amount of taxable value that can be taxed, on your homestead, your value will also not go up and it won't reset until you sell the home. So Patrick likes the homestead exemption more because a billion dollars of that goes further than a billion dollars of compression for homeowners. And the simple reason for that is that it's a smaller population of taxpayer. With all this tax talk, it's all about where are you shifting the burden? of payment and how much does the class of taxpayer that our homeowners get have to pay versus commercial properties, businesses, and whatnot.

And so there are philosophical differences on this because, you know, Abbott, especially now, but others as well, like compression because it applies all the relief equally. Well, because it's all equal across the board for all taxpayers, it's felt less significantly just on the aggregate, especially for homeowners, then if you train the relief money specifically on the precise population of homeowners. So that's why he's going with that.

The other notable part of this is that this comes after Governor Abbott announced his property tax slate when he announced for reelection, and we talked about that, ran through the details of that on a previous episode of this, but the lieutenant governor doesn't want this to be marketed or viewed as a Abbott v. Patrick thing, it's hard not to see it that way because they have different priorities on this. Like, somebody's going to win out in this and

somebody's not. And they'll probably find middle ground and compromise. I don't think either governor or lieutenant governor will get everything they want and only what they want next time around. And the lieutenant governor did say we need to continue with compression. So he's not abandoning that entirely, but there's a clear philosophical difference here on the issue of property taxes. And once again, Mac, death taxes and property taxes. Wow, I don't know if I've heard that one before. I think taxes is always, like property taxes has always just been looped in with the taxes part of that phrase. So check you out. I'm an innovator, if nothing else.

If nothing else, it's so true. Well, Bradley, thank you. Cameron, let's go to you here, the Texas State Securities Board and the Attorney General's office. But it heads over a recent lawsuit. This is a very interesting story. Give us those details. Yeah, it's one of those things where you just scratch at the surface and there's a lot more there. Because you come across press releases all the time.

And sometimes there were something, sometimes there's nothing. This one turned into a more complex story than I originally thought it was going to be. Because last week, there was a lawsuit filed by Texas Attorney General Kempaxson against Epic City. I think everyone listening to this podcast is familiar with Epic City by now. And he was alleging that both Epic City and Community Capital Partners, which is like their investment arm of this entire organization. He was alleging that they have been engaging in illegal development schemes that violated Texas securities law.

And so I read through that, looked interesting, I tweeted it out, and then this week we saw this press release from the Texas State Securities Board. Their commissioner wanted to, quote, refute claims. made in connection with this lawsuit. So after some digging, you know, lining up some of the things said in this Texas State Securities Board press release and then in the lawsuit sort of boils down to one word, really.

And it comes down to what the lawsuit claims is that the State Securities Board, their commissioner had requested Paxton to initiate the suit in the name and on behalf of the state. but that is what the state's securities board is refuting because along with the lawsuit there was also a letter that was included and in that letter it says the attorney general can act in his capacity to file claims allegations against epic city and if you go into even even deeper into this there was a parallel there were parallel investigations occurring here one by the Attorney General's office one by the State Securities Board the State Securities Board found in their investigation that at that time there wasn't the things there that they could

bring security violations against Epic City didn't say there wasn't anything there just that initially what they found they couldn't they couldn't put the pieces together there So it was a sort of differences of opinion in terms of investigation because, again, there was two investigations going on. And if the attorney general has found stuff that the securities board has not, but it really, the crux of it comes down to who did the requesting of the investigation into Epic City. And so this is sort of something that is highlighting differences in missing. communications between agencies and elected officials similarly like we were talking about at the top of the podcast how Democrats aren't having been able

to get their statements and alignment who's going to run who's not going to run for certain offices similarly here we have the State Securities Board and the Attorney General's office not totally on the same page in the process to move forward with filing allegations lawsuit against Epic City. So this is just one more thing in a long line of actions that the state has taken against Epic City. People can go check out all of our reporting and all the legal scrutiny that's fallen on this organization, Epic City. So if you're interested, go to the texan.com. Check it out. Cameron's on great reporting on it. There are many different officials

that can be attributed to that. So this is like an instance of the same. state being this big like blob of different people and things but it really does show that it does not you know sometimes the right hand does not know what the left hand is doing and there are different approaches to these kinds of things and different officials have different ways of going about different agencies and different approaches so it's very interesting to watch all of this go down but cameron thank you so much for your coverage there mary least we're going to come to you texas received a bit of illegal victory against two companies that it's been suing again the state kind of coming in on this.

Give us the details on the order and the lawsuit. Yeah, this is kind of another example of, you know, we're saying the state of Texas, but in this case, it's the Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. So he filed this lawsuit against these companies, Johnson and Johnson, and then Kenvue Incorporated, plus Kenvue Brands LLC. And he was just granted a temporary restraining order

just a couple days after he filed the lawsuit on December 3rd. So he is challenging in this lawsuit, their statuses as he's alleging unregistered foreign companies. So he's saying that they are operating illegally within the state, and that's the suit that the temporary restraining order was issued. And so Texas Attorney General is saying specifically that these companies are in violation of the Texas Business Organization's Code, Chapter 9, in case you want to look that up, which requires that, entities must register and maintain an active filing before doing business in the state. And so Paxton is saying that they haven't done that proper registration before doing business in the state. And so this temporary restraining order was given to him, granted to him on December 5th, so it was two days after he filed the lawsuit. It'll expire on December 15th and that's when the district court will hold an injunction hearing and then they'll determine there.

determined there, whether or not they're going to prohibit these companies from operating in the state of Texas. So looking through the court documents, you see that Texas is alleging that these companies have not completed the necessary registration I mentioned with the Texas Secretary of State in order to operate in Texas. Johnson & Johnson's registration is described as having lapsed into inactive status, and then they say that Kenvue has yet to even register at all. The temporary restraining order said, with respect to the state's claims, this court finds that there is a good cause to believe that these companies have engaged in and are likely engaged in acts and practices that violate that code that I mentioned a little bit earlier.

This is not the first time Paxton has sued these companies. We wrote about in late October, he was suing them over their sale of the Tylenol brand acetaminophen. And this was after the White House had made this announcement that the drugs used by pregnant women, they said, is linked to autism and children in Southern Paxton shortly followed that up, suing these companies and saying that the companies had potentially marketed the product toward pregnant women while knowing the potential risk it could pose for their children's prenatal development. And so within this lawsuit, he had said that Johnson Johnson had recognized a reckoning on the horizon, and then they had moved all of their liability associated with that product to be absorbed by Ken Buse.

That's a connection there with these companies. I got a statement from Johnson and Johnson, and they told the Texan on Monday, said, the recent order pertains to the same issues asserted in a prior pending matter commenced just weeks ago. And as in that prior pending matter, we expect the TRO, the temporary restraining order, to be denied. And then they said they also anticipate that the case will be dismissed. the case against them will be dismissed. And unfortunately, we couldn't reach Kenview for the story. So we'll see how this develops.

As it stands, there's this temporary restraining order that will expire on December 15th, and then there will be a hearing held to see where they go, where they move forward after this. Absolutely. Mary Elise, thank you for covering that. Cameron, let's talk about an announcement from the governor concerning TPUSA, expanding in the state of Texas. Give us the details. Yeah, Abbott held a press conference at the governor's mansion, where he was joined by Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, T.E.A. Commissioner Mike Marath, many other local government officials, where they were touting the expansion of TPP USA chapters across schools here in Texas. And what is notable about this press conference is Abbott said that if students face pushing,

back in their attempts to open these what are called Club America programs their school should be quote reported immediately to the TEA where an investigation will be opened and disciplinary action will be taken if necessary and so this comes on the heels actually of Patrick who made a one million dollar pledge to expand TPSA's reach in Texas and of course we are all witness to the tragic assassination of Charlie Kirk in September, and since that happened, there has been a surge in inquiries about starting these new campus chapters. So this is just an example of our elected officials, getting more involved in moving forward the mission of TPSA, something that Charlie

Kirk started all the way back in 2012 and TPSA they state their mission is to quote identify educate train and organize students to promote the principles of fiscal responsibility free markets and limited government so people should keep their eyes on how this take shape over this next school year so yeah absolutely TPSA and Texas being in headlines It's so fascinating to watch this kind of unfold. Cameron, thank you for covering that for us. Bradley, let's talk about Congressman Troy Nels.

Fowled a bill Thursday. This is a, you know, deal with a long-running issue here in Texas. What is, what's going on here? So, Troy Nels filed a bill dealing with the storage of nuclear waste, particularly spent nuclear fuel away from the reactor. And I'll get into the, I'll recap the fight in a minute, but the bill, as filed, would prohibit anyone generating nuclear waste to store, from storing these spent fuel rods anywhere outside of the site where the reactor that it came from is at. And so, like, we have two big civilian nuclear power generators in the state, Comanche Peak, and South Texas. Texas power plant, if passed, this would be a federal law, there's already a state law that

says this, but a federal law, as a federal law policy, you couldn't then take those spent fuel rods and store them at a third party location that specializes in storage of this stuff. It has to be stored on site at the reactor. The reason for that is for those that support this is that by moving it to a third-party site that increases the risk of catastrophe happening, whether it's contamination or some nefarious action trying to, I don't know, figure out a way to blow this stuff up. Like that's the fear with the fear behind it. Now, there hasn't been any example of that yet in the country.

And I think it's also notable that the reason this whole situation is happening is the Andrews County facility where there was a permit issued for that, such storage away from the reactor. You know, how many miles north up in Amarillo they assemble the nation's nuclear arsenal? So, you know, there's, we kind of think about that when we talk about this issue. That said, it is a contentious issue. Back in 21, we saw, nobody really realized it at the time. And I myself was, when I saw the special session proclamation put out on the list of items on it, I saw this and like, what the heck is that? Well, it was a prohibition of this kind of thing because there had been a permit issued by approved or nearly approved then by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for this Andrew County's,

facility to store on an interim basis the spent nuclear fuel rods. The whole reason this is a problem, the whole reason the NRC is thinking of doing this or looking, evaluating it, is because the federal government to date has failed to establish a permanent storage site for these spent fuel rods. And the one they've been trying for years to get up and running is at Yucca Mountain in Nevada. And understandably, people in Nevada are throwing up their hands. Like, I don't want, I don't want this in my state. And so it has not materialized and therefore there is no such permanent storage site and the federal government has frankly dropped the ball on it. And so now they're trying to find as the spent fuel rods amass at these reactors, they're trying to find

alternatives on it as a bridge between where we are now and getting that permanent site where all these things can go on a permanent basis. They're trying to find. find a bridge between those. And the one they've selected is this interim storage site. So there was a, after the legislature passed this ban, the state ban on such storage, there was a lawsuit filed against the NRC. It went through the courts. Ultimately, the ruling in the Supreme Court was that the state of Texas and the other plaintiffs had no standing to sue because they were not parties to the original administrative proceeding that approved the permit. And so basically the Supreme Court said this is not our

jurisdiction. This is an administrative venue controlled and run by the NRC where, which is where this permit consideration occurs. And so they didn't really rule on the efficacy of a law like this, especially a state law. And so Nells with this bill, he wants to pass this and then he thinks that will prod the federal government to get its act together and actually build a permanent site for storage of this stuff. And he said, quote, I'm glad to introduce legislation that clarifies the statutory authority of the NRC, making clear that only the federal government is responsible for the safe and proper storage of nuclear waste. Importantly, my bill will prevent future litigation, which only impedes the lawful storage of nuclear waste and delays the development of our nation's nuclear energy. sector, which fuels our nation's electric grid and the addition of AI data centers. And practically speaking, why rubber's meeting the road on this is the state of Texas is booming

in population and economic footprint in order to supply that electricity, an option that is increasingly being looked at are small modular reactors. And the more reactors you have, the more waste you're producing. And so this is going to be, it's already a problem for the state. to figure out. But as the years go by and it's more of these specially data centers that have deals, negotiated deals with SMRs come online, there's going to be more and more of this waste that has to be dealt with. And so the federal government has kicked the can down the road for many, many years on this because they couldn't come to an agreement on a contentious issue. And Nells, who is retiring, by the way, he's not running for election. He hopes that this bill

can pass that that will provide the enough incentive for congress and the administrative state to finally establish a permanent storage site you know probably thanks for breaking that down for oh Cameron go Cameron go I was just going to make a joke and say maybe this is why Trump was so adamant about trying to acquire Greenland because that's where we're going to send all these nuclear waste that feels like a fever dream whatever happened to that i was i was i was 100% on board whatever happened whatever happened to trying to get canada to join the u.s i mean yeah that that kind of dissipated governor trudeau the 51st state yeah yeah governor trudeau's on dating katie perry i'm sure we all

know that oh my gosh are we going to get into that drama an unemployed man can date an astronaut that's what they can do apparently in canada The sky's the limit, literally. Well, Bradley, thank you for your coverage there. Okay, guys, well, let's pivot to the tail end. We teased earlier a couple of announcements to make. And Cameron, you've already kind of hit the ways with what you have going on. And folks, I'd encourage you to go and listen to send me some stuff,

read Cameron's redacted newsletter. But this is Cameron's last week with the Texan. And it's really been an incredible, it's almost been three years, Cameron, And it's been an incredible one, a incredible stint here. And we're so grateful for your time and the ways you poured into the company. But quickly, just run folks through what's going on with you. Well, yeah, I'm leaving.

Yeah, this is my last week. But it's been a fantastic journey. And everything in the newsletter, you know, it's crazy to think you guys just interviewed me one day in late 2022 and then it was a quick turnaround really and I came out here a couple weeks later started up in January and it's funny the very first content call well first when I got here in Texas and I was trying to move all my stuff and I was trying to acquire new things for my apartment I was at a Walmart when Rob called me and was like hey do you want to be

on the content call this week and I was like uh sure he's like yeah it starts in like 30 minutes like all right so I ran out the Walmart I had to drive home and I took the first content call while I was sitting on the ground with my laptop popped up on some boxes and so we've come a come a long way we believe in throwing them right into the pool that's how you learn how to swim yeah so yeah but it's been great you know I didn't have any journalistic experience, and it's been fun learning and understanding how to cover a story and getting to interview tons of people on the podcast, starting up our own podcast, newsletters, so I feel like I've been a part of a lot of different changes here

at the Texan. So it's been great. And I'm going to be staying in Austin. I'm not going to be going to be going down the street. I'll be. starting up at the Texas Public Policy Foundation on Monday. So just another piece in the puzzle of my crazy life. You know, again, if people want to check out the last one, the last redacted, I kind of run through what led me to this point. But yep, I'll be at TPPF starting next week. you were not only was your um introduction to working here so um rocky it was rocky because

there is you i forget how this timeline worked but you were interviewed in december you started in january day two of being on the job was our kickoff event our legislative kickoff event so we've stuck you at a table at the very front of the event we're like don't worry you don't have to be on stage and you're like oh thank goodness what we didn't tell you is you'd stop to interface with a bunch of elected officials who you did not know who they were at that point and figure out who was just an attendee and who was an elected official had to be on stage. And that's what day two of the job was. And I, you were hired while I was getting married and leaving for my honeymoon. And so you had, you were interfacing with Rob and Connie, not me or like the typical onboarding process

was, it was just not a typical onboarding process in any way, shape, or form because it was all getting figured out while I was like in another part of the world. And you handled it with so much grace and we're just so gracious as we figured out what that looks like for you. But it was like talk about drinking from fire out. And sessions started. Like you joined us right as we, I mean, the legislative session began and had to figure out what all that looked like. And so I think this previous legislative session of this last year was a lot, oh my gosh, so much easier for you in terms of knowing what to cover and who the players were and what, you know, what was notable because you started the first week of the legislative session, essentially, and we're really

thrown to the wolves. Yeah. Well, that's what I'll, I'll miss that the most is the stuff that happens behind the scenes. It's the conversations in the office. It's the, you know, midnight committee hearings, you know, having to trek up and down the hills of Austin and a full suit, you know, trying to get places but oh my gosh but yeah i'm so wait you think you're not going to have to trek around in a full suit we're yeah well now that i'm used to it now that i know i'm prepared for okay you've been preckerman you were only at the old office for like a split second that old office the hills it was far far more difficult to get to the capital and the hill was much more of a bear so once we moved to where we are currently it got a lot easier not that it still was

not difficult and walking in a hundred degree weather ensued like that's that's a whole you know that's never fun but it used to be yeah but um back in my day we had to walk up hill both ways and a hundred degree eight to get the capital i can't handle you i i definitely did fall down that hill a couple of times too walking down and like oh my gosh yeah totally just fell fell down the hills it was great um but regardless um it's just wild and so we're so grateful i would do want to fact check you on something you said you're going to miss midnight committee hearings no part of me believes you when your bedtime is 7 p.m well okay that boom rest that that that's that's that's kind of true but it but it's fun you know periodically

you know i don't want it to be every night but when it doesn't you're also going to have to like look at committee hearings and stuff at tpf you're not free from that no i know but it's just in a different capacity. It's different. Yeah. Yeah, that's fair. Are you going to have to testify on any bills? We'll see.

I don't know exactly yet. Well, hey, if you do, you can use your podcast stage presence as a beneficiary for that. Most other lobbyists there will not have that experience. You'll have a leg up. That's true. I don't know how many jokes they want me to crack, though, as I'm saying, their testimony depends how late in the night it is or how many cultural references i don't know if they want to talk about my favorite HBO series i will say too Cameron it is i'm going

we're going to miss you for so many reasons i'm going to miss each week when i say something and it's i met with silence you always stepping in and being like you know what mac thanks for bringing it up and just having a conversation like a human with me i feel so grateful for those moments and, yeah, there's so, and I say this, I'm, I'll have a newsletter out. It goes out the same day as this podcast, but one of the things I've appreciated most about you, Cameron, is anytime there's been a need, I don't think you've ever told me, hey, I can't do that or no. You're like, I'll make it work.

And, like, Rob and I have had to be the ones to be like, do you have, like, is your bandwidth okay? Are you sure you can take this on? And you, to your credit, love having a lot on your plate and making things, you know, you love being busy and shouldering heavy burdens. But I have just so appreciated that in you, having you on the team and always being able to rely on you. You are one of the most reliable people I've ever worked with,

and I'm so grateful for that. And so thank you for three years. Thank you for your time. Thank you for being just a cornerstone of our team and for being so integral and ushering us through different seasons of new content, new newsletters, podcasts, coverage. And I think you've just, you really have just become an incredible reporter. And I know you're going to be incredible at TPF.

And we're so grateful that you'll just be down the street and we won't miss you too badly. We'll be able to access you and knock down your, you know, your office door whenever you want to come say hi. But we're grateful, Cameron. And we miss you all right. Thanks. Well, I feel like I found my role. It took a little while to figure out what everyone's duties were in the office. But, you know, like you were saying, just wanting to pick up anything, all the quick hits and stuff.

I feel like that worked incredibly well with Brad. He being the guy on the inside doing the real hard-hitting journalist stuff at the Capitol. And so if we needed to hit content, I was there. You were always there to make sure we had like, there's like we need a piece to go out. You'd always count on camera and just get it done. Absolutely. And in stellar fashion. Well, speaking of Brad, Brad, we're going to pivot to you here and chat with you a little bit about your future and what that looks like. Why don't you take the mic here? Well, this timing wasn't planned with Cameron, but I am, this is also my last week and my, as this goes out, my last day at the Texan. It's been almost seven years and it's best job I've ever had. I came here in 2019, after getting laid off at my last job, and I had hit Rock Bottom.

And for me, Rock Bottom was taking an interview for a door-to-door sales job, and I was still back in Cincinnati at the time. I had finished second for a job at a local Chamber of Commerce that I really thought I was going to get. And so I'd been unemployed for a month and a half, and I needed money. So I took this job, walked in, I think it was door-to-door window sales or something, sat there for 30 seconds, then walked out. Like, this is not me. Well, the next morning, got an email from Connie, and I had sent this resume out,

applied for the job already, and just hadn't heard back yet. And this is the one that hit, and she eventually, y'all offered me the job. Never planned to do journalism. I didn't go to school for this. I was in politics previously and had grown a huge distaste for being in the fight. And this job provides me the ability to keep that at arm's length, stay out of the fight, but still watch with a lot of intrigue what happens. And it's kind of, for me, the best of both worlds.

But, you know, maggots... Whenever we talk about this, I always think back when we launched. I mean, you and I are the only two left from the original launch team, other than Connie, of course. And now you'll be the only one left. But I remember when we used to get accused, first of being funded by nefarious forces, as it was always marketed, but then also confused for the Daily Texan at UT, the UT paper. And that doesn't happen anymore. And we have built an institution and how many people in their lives ever get to say that.

So I'm proud of that. I have really enjoyed everything. And working with y'all, now I'm done to cry. Yeah, it's, it has been. getting laid off turned out to be the best thing that ever happened to me. So I can't say anymore right now I'm crying. Let's all give Brad a hug to the virtual hug. Oh my gosh.

I just wanted to say I'm going to forever treasure this specific legislative session, getting to be up in Austin in the office, Cameron and Brad. you both were just so generous with your time and teaching me all the ropes of this job. And Brad, you know, you let me follow you around the Capitol and meet all the people. So I made some really great connections because of you, and you were just also very, you're always very generous and willing to share your time, to share your talents. And Cameron, always I loved our conversations in the office. Sometimes it was kind of distracting, but I'm just very grateful that now that y'all, just very grateful now that y'all are leaving to be able to look back on that time during the 89th session in Austin, and it was just such a special couple of months, and it was so chaotic, and y'all really made it just such a great memory and such a great learning experience. So thank you.

and Brad you were the first reporter ever hired at the Texan and I look back at the last I want to say it's seven years but it feels like my math might be off no seven years about about to be and just thinking about when you got here you were this you know you're from Ohio you didn't know it was you were learning which way was up and I The only thing I knew about Texas politics was the Greg Abbott was going. That's how little knowledge I came in with. And then looking now and seeing your career trajectory and what you've just been able to do in the last six, seven years is just remarkable. And I really think you've become the source for people trying to figure out and just what's going on in the state politically.

And that's been incredible to watch. You've filled so many different gaps and holes left by other reporters who've been here. And it's wild to think. And at some point, and I wish I could go back and find these texts, but at different points in the last few years, you text me and be like, man, I don't feel like, I'm like the old guard in the press corps now. And a few years before that, I remember a text for me that said, I don't feel like such an imposter anymore. I understand what's going on. And I, people come to me to, for information, other reporters are kind of relying on me to break things down for them. And if that's been true for years now, and you really are at the, you know, the top political reporter in the state.

And so I'm just, um, super humbled to have worked with you for so long and grateful for everything you brought. And, um, I'm just, yeah, I, so much could be said, but I really am just, um, proud of everything that you've done. and the ways that you've just invested in the company and the Texan, and we just would not be where we are without you. And so you're going to make me cry now. This is super stupid. Well, this is a bad sign for how our last smoke-filled room episode's going to go wrong. Yeah, I guess the other thing I need to say,

and I should probably have started it from the top, is that thanks to all the readers, listeners, followers, I mean, truly without y'all, we're just shouting out into the void. And it is a remarkable testament to what we have produced that y'all actually want to consume it. That y'all find it useful enough to listen every week, to read every day or every other day, or whatever it is. You know, special shout-outs and thank you to the people who followed forth reading. you know, that is my favorite thing I've done at the Texan, you know, other than maybe a couple standalone in-depth pieces on things.

Those are the fourth reading is the thing I'm happiest with that I produced, and I'm glad people found that useful and interesting and entertaining. I'll have one more next week. It's kind of a going-away thing, but, yeah, thanks y'all for following. and for being consumers of our product. Because without y'all, there's quite literally no company, no, nothing. There's no point to it if people aren't actually consuming what we produce. Absolutely. Absolutely.

And as sad as it is to have both of y'all leave, we are always going to be cheering for you guys in the next things that you're doing. And we're excited about them and excited to cheer you on. And so everyone keep an eye out for all the incredible work that these guys are going to I continue to do and provide the state. So I'll just add that I'm not going to, I'm not going to announce what I'm doing next to yet here right now, but stay tuned and I won't be going far at all. So, yeah, that announcement will come later on.

Later on. I do think that this does provide an opportunity, you know, both of you boys leaving for me to finally beat the allegations that I am a sexist when it comes to hiring, and that I only hire, men in the Austin office because it took you seven years also these allegations come from the men in the office who don't like that they're outnumbered on the team because we've always had more women on the team generally speaking than men so I just want to say that too because you know I finally get to not only the allegations themselves are bogus because we have more women on the Texan team than men but we officially get to be I

officially get to beat this allegation about the Austin office so um you know that's just some silver lining here well i was i was going to wait for rob jumping because he's going to be the only guy left here in Austin because what someone who's not on the pod right now is our media marketing manager jaden heard he's he's going to be stepping away from the Texan as well and so we're going to miss him and his contributions to the team. So it's just going to be Rob left here. For a little bit, this office will be mine. So I am...

For a little bit. Yeah, for just a little bit. I'm thinking here this... You'll office like a king for a little bit. No, it's true. I get to drink all the coffee in the coffee pot and nobody can complain about it. You can lay on the futon.

I can lay on the futon and take a nap in the middle of the That hasn't stopped you before, though. No, no, it's never stopped me before, but now I don't have to worry about somebody taking a candid picture of me and putting it in their weekly newsletter. So that's not a concern I have anymore, but, yeah. Rob, I've been able to have my tentacles and what happened in the Austin office, even when I'm not physically there. So I would not put it, I would not say that. One of my fond memories, I want to share a memory of Brad, actually, that what happened once is you and I were in some dispute, Mack, over who knows, what and I'm sitting at my desk which is in the office my desk is near the front of the room so

when you walk in you would see my desk Brad sits behind me and um out of nowhere in the middle of our argument on Slack I feel a pillow whack me in the back of the head and it was Brad and you had told Brad as your agent to go and hit me in the back of the head with the pillow so um it's one of the few times Brad has done what I've said for sure those are the kind of you know, in office, I think experiences that I'm going to miss. I mean, Brad, when I started here, you know, I was, I have to say, I was intimidated by Brad a little bit. I was like, this is like a serious guy.

He is no nonsense. He is, you know, he's like great at his job. You know, you always have to have that one person who's like the no nonsense expert, right? And I thought that was Brad and I was almost a little bit intimidated to even talk to Brad at the beginning. Cameron, it was the opposite problem because Cameron brought the energy and sheer, like, drive for the job that I felt like I couldn't match. So I feel like both of y'all have helped me become better at my job, too, and I'm going to miss, you know, when we're all hanging out in the office. Although it is good that everybody is staying in the same area. So it's not – this isn't goodbye.

This is just to see you later. you know it's so true it's so true you guys um it's just been special and it will continue to be but this is like a it's been a while since we had to say bye to somebody on our team like this and so um you know this it's inevitable these changes happen but it doesn't make them easier and so we miss y'all already and um are excited for what's next but okay any parting word and also Also, yes, to Brad's point, we'll, Brad and I are still recording a final episode of smoke-filled room, so stay tuned for that, where I'm sure we'll be totally composed the entire time. Are you guys finally going to do smoke-filled room with, like, the cigars for actual smoke?

Brad, maybe. We'll have a baby in tow, so, well, I will be in the vicinity of a baby. It's not my baby. Since Mac's probably bringing LZM to the office, yeah. Probably. That need to be said primarily. Sticking and smoke, probably not great for a child. But if Mac is willing to bite the bullet, I am.

Or the fire alarms nearby. Yeah, where's the smoke detector? Details. We're off. We'll do some checking. Folks stay tuned for that. It'll be out in a couple of Mondays. So, okay, guys, well, we might as well wrap this thing up.

We, um, can I say that hasn't already been said. We appreciate everything you brought to the Texan. And we still got, you know, 24 hours here to enjoy your presence as employees and co-workers. Well, and here's the thing, too, we make sure we take advantage of that. We've been working on end of year pieces. So even though me and Brad are going to be gone, there's still going to be our bylines on articles that are showing up on the site over the next couple weeks.

It's like we can still hear their voices, you know? It's like they're not really gone. It's so true. It's so true. Okay, folks, well, thank you for listening to this episode of the Weekly Roundup. As always, we appreciate it, and we will catch you on next week's episode. Thank you to everyone for listening. If you enjoy our show, rate and review us on Apple Podcast, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

And if you want more of our stories, subscribe to the Texan at the Texan. dot 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 dot news tune in next week for another episode of our weekly roundup god bless you and god bless texas