The Texan Podcast - Weekly Roundup - December 27, 2024

Episode Date: December 27, 2024

Happy new year! 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.This week on The Texan’s “Weekly Roundup,” the team discusses their top 10 stories in Texas politics this year — from President-elect Donald Trump's red wave in the 2024 general and Democratic electoral disappointment to Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan's (R-Beaumont) year and the speaker race at large, and all the biggest stories in between.

Okay, well we're all recording here. Amazing. Okay, let me start Mary Lacey and get my windows up. Everybody ready? Let's do it. Winston. Hey, I'm gonna lock you out. No, then he'll stand at the freaking door and scratch it. That's true. The primary before we move on to the next topic here. Yep. So. If you hear something in the background, Winston, Brad's dog, is trying to break down the door to see his owner. He wanted out, and now he wants back in. Yeah, that's true. Ridiculous.

Sorry, keep going. Howdy, folks. It's Mackenzie here with Brad Cameron and Mary Elise. We're doing a little bit of a year in review weekly roundup this week. A little bit of one or a lot of bit of one? I think a sufficient amount of one. Okay. Yeah.

The appropriate amount. The appropriate amount of yapping. Yes. As we were talking about before the pod started. Cameron did say, I quoted you exactly. Okay. Always happy to yap. Always happy to yap.

Cameron is the biggest office yapper. Do you think so? Oh, 100%. Really? Who else would it be? Rob. Or you on days when you're feeling, you're not generally the biggest office yapper,

but when Brad wants to yap, he yaps. Yeah. I do what I want. Yeah. I'm a man. But he doesn't. Not yet 40. Leave me alone. Yeah, I think it's either cam or rob yeah we we could probably be tied at the top yeah because we're always yapping back

and forth yeah about all sorts of stuff that's why you got send me some stuff also if you want a year in review of other news not just tex news, but like talking national stuff, all sorts of stories from Send Me Some Stuff. It was a really good episode. Yeah, it was fun. Let's drop it soon. And we had some special guests

join us. Oh. Who were they? You know, people are going to have to tune in to find out. Yeah. You know,

that's one of the secrets of Send Me Some Stuff. You got to tune in. Hmm. Well, this is good to know. But, today in the office, this will be released after christmas but right now it is before christmas and today is a very exciting day in our offices it's our white elephant gift exchange bradley you have a very festive white elephant gift exchange i'm literally christmas party continue i was continuing my sentence

she's burying the lead. Quite literally. This is supposedly a journalism outfit. Interrupted. You're burying the lead. Mid-sentence. That was unreal. I was going through the list of things. Saying Brad is wearing a sweater.

Rob is wearing, that says freeze and it has a snowman pointing a hair dryer at another snowman. There's also Rob with his buddy the elf. The money bag. It's a robbery. I just can't get through a thought today, can I? It's aman. There's also Rob with his buddy the elf. You left out the money bag. It's a robbery. I just can't get through a thought today, can I? It's a robbery. It's freeze. That's what it's supposed to say. Freeze. Okay, anything else you want to add about your sweater? Great. What's the

currency that snowmen use? You know, do they trade in carrots or coal or... Corn cob pipes. Corn cob pipes. Corn cob pipes. Maybe that's it. Okay.

I like that. Very MacArthur of them. Rob, meanwhile, has Buddy the Elf socks. We are going to eat Chick-fil-A nuggets. Maybe have some Christmas goodies. It's going to be a great day. Mary Lise, we're so sad you're not here to join us. And yes, it is the Christmas party.

I know. I'm a little jealous. But you'll be here here soon we'll be able to party with you soon just not over christmas that's us yeah big old partiers that's a bop or bops big old partiers okay that was that landed really flat but that's what we're doing today. It's exciting. Brad was blasting Christmas music earlier.

Darn right I was. Leona Lewis made the list. Kelly Clarkson, I think, is on the rotation. All right. Don't spit on my girls, Kelly Clarkson and Leona Lewis. Oh, my gosh. They are phenomenal. Yes. Kelly Clarkson is one of the. Oh my gosh. They are phenomenal. Yes.

Kelly Clarkson is one of the best vocalists alive. And her Christmas album is stellar. I'm just saying, is it not a little bit funny that Brad, of all people, is the one turning on this music? Maslin even said earlier that it surprised her when he did it last year. It's just surprising.

Do I not have an eclectic musical taste? Well, I wouldn't say eclectic. I would say say according to screenshots i have compiled dozens of which i told cameron about today it's a lot of uh it's just a very white girl taste is what i'll say i ain't ashamed not one bit it's true who are you listening to the most right now or no tell tell about the playlist you were listening to yesterday bradley so my buddy from college sent in the group chat a spotify playlist called girly pop all the way through it was bangers you know and i've been listening to a lot of texas countries so i haven't heard a lot of these songs like sabrina carpenter

i'm blanking on who else maslin's eyes just went really wide. Chanel Roan. Chapel Roan. Yes, she's on it. She's got a lot of bangers. I got the name wrong again. Yeah, you did. Not even like trying to just for fun.

You actually got the name wrong again. Chapel Roan. Chapel. Like you go to the chapel and you're going to get married. Chapel Roan. Did he say Chanel? Yes. He said Chanel Roan.

Yeah. It shows how much I listen to it. Marylise, we need you here for... Anyway, I listened to that playlist all yesterday while writing. And it was productive? I got two pieces out. Yeah. It was awesome.

Yeah. When I go in my hole, I need music to blast out the Gabby girls that are Cameron and Rob. The Gabby girls that are Cameron and Rob. Well, Merry Christmas, guys. Happy New Year, I guess we should say, since this is being released at the precipice of the new year. Precipice, that's a word. Good job. Thank you. It took me a while to get there. Weice, that's a word. Good job. Thank you.

It took me a while to get there. We found that that's the case. But today, we're going to go through, I think it's top 10. Yeah, top 10 stories in Texas politics from the year. And I think we'd be remiss if right up front, we didn't talk about the general election. So 2024 presidential election, it was an unbelievably dominant performance by former president, now president-elect Donald Trump. Brad and Cam, I kind of want y'all to talk through this. We can all jump in, but tell us about some of the numbers to come out of the

election. We saw some trend toward Republicans in certain areas of the state as well. Walk us through all of that. I'll just start and I'll fill in. Yeah. So I think what is most interesting about the shift is it was across the entire country. It was gains not only in red states, it was gains in blue states, blue state strongholds even. There was gains. You could see California trended towards Trump, New York, even New Jersey, trending towards Trump. So really a sweeping victory, which I'll point people towards the Financial Times did a really interesting breakdown of all the voter trends. They also did some interactive maps on these voter trends. Very interesting.

People can go check that out. But he not only won the Electoral College vote, he won the popular vote, which is something a Republican hasn't done since George W. Bush. And just the... In 2004. Yeah. Because he didn't win the first time, right?

Or did he? I think, yeah, I don he didn't win the first time. Uh, I did. I think. Yeah, I don't think he did the first time, but yeah, it was just a dominant performance by Trump. I can remember on election night before votes started coming in. We were expecting it to go into the wee hours of the evening into the next day. And we're sitting on Slack, chatting back and forth. And if Mackenzie remembers, I sent her a pre-write of Trump wins

the presidential election saying, just in case this happens. Dot, dot, dot. dot hey take your victory allowed by far the most accurate in his presidential result prediction yeah because i talked about this in depth after uh the election on send me some stuff people can go back and watch that but um you know the rfk endorsement i thought that was big uh someone like tulsi gabbard coming out and endorsing Trump, that was big. She actually became a Republican over the past month, two months or so. She's dropped the Democrat label. And the social media tactics or the media campaigns both Harris and Trump went on were diametrically opposed, really, with Trump really leaning heavily on long-form podcasts

and Harris leaning on more traditional... And rallies. And rallies. Going more the traditional media route. And I listened to quite a bit of postmortems from the Harris campaign, and much of their assessment for why the loss occurred was just the truncated nature of their campaign. They have said on multiple occasions they only had less than 100 days to embark on a presidential campaign that usually lasts two years, right? Especially as the incumbent in any way, shape, or form, or at least the party in power at

the White House, right? Yeah. And I know we're talking about the Trump wave, but just some crazy things like Biden dropping out with a post on X, like just craziness occurred this past year during the the election. And not just that, but endorsing Harris in it and giving the middle finger to the other national Democratic figures who are wanting more of an open. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So there was a lot of issues with the Harris campaign, but we're talking about the Trump wave. And one of the things that he ran on was more of these conservative policies like mass deportations. That was a big thing that he was campaigning on. painting on also something that's been talked about a lot is the campaign ad that ran over and

over and over uh during sports games or um they're running it online was the uh transgender issue ad uh biological males and females yeah men and women sports ad where it was them labeling Kamala saying she's for they them, Trump is for you. And that was a ad that really resonated, it seems, with a lot of people. Even Democrats post election are like that, like messaging, right, of saying they're for whoever else and he's for you democrats are even saying aoc came out and said like that kind of messaging is what democrats have to return to yeah and so i think brad's going to get into more the democrat disarray a bit later in the pod here but well if i can add one thing on that i did hear a take that i hadn't thought of that it wasn't so much the comparison between the two sides on that issue. It was the fact that Democrats put more emphasis on that than they did, like, the economy.

Right. And so. That's something I'll chime in on, too, when we talk about that a little later. But going back to the Trump wave, if we zoom in on Texas when we talk about that a little later but going back to the Trump wave if we zoom in on Texas yeah right Starr County heavily heavily Latino area it went South Texas South Texas went for Trump 57 percent of the vote went for Trump and that ended a 132 year streak of voting Democratic in presidential elections. And that really opened a lot of people's eyes because over the past eight years, since Trump has been in the political public eye, they've attempted to label him essentially xenophobic, racist, whatever it may be, because of his strong stance on immigration. Yet, I think Stark County and this vote trend is really emblematic of how regular people are feeling on the issue of illegal immigration. You know, it's not that

Trump is, over these past eight years, attempting to label immigrants as bad for the country, he has been attempting to label illegal immigration as being an issue, whether it be related to crime, economics, housing, pick your issue. It all, in some sense, comes back to illegal immigration. And it resonated. And it resonated with people. Especially in these communities that are being affected by it directly. Exactly. And one of the things I touched on in our top stories piece we're going to be publishing and the border wrap-up piece we're going to be publishing as well is the busing program that Governor Gary Gabbitt instituted over the past year. People, when it first started, thought it was kind of a publicity stunt, a way to grab headlines. Well, it was, but there was a purpose to it. There was a purpose to

it. It resonated with people in New York, in Chicago, Martha's Vineyard, if people remember, that was part of the DeSantis Florida busing program that they did as well. People saw the effects of illegal immigration in these sanctuary cities across the country. And we've even seen someone like Eric Adams, the mayor of New York City, be much more vocal about the issue of illegal immigration in recent weeks. And we saw that in the voter trends, like how I started this entire rant here. But zooming in again, back on Texas, the Senate race that you covered, Brad, was a huge talking point because it seemed as though on the outside, people thought it was going to be much closer than it ended up being.

Right. We saw a lot of money be pushed into this race on both sides, both campaigns really working hard to get a certain message out. The All Red campaign sort of attempting to moderate on something like the NDAA with the inclusion of providing funding for transgender surgeries as part of that program. Also, men and women's sports, they tried to moderate on that issue. But the outcome was a dominant performance by Cruz as well. So why do you think Cruz dominated in the Senate race? Well, first and foremost, my takeaway on this is that it just simply was not, the environment was simply not like 2018. And going into this year. The last time Cruz was on the ballot. Right. And when he won by two and a half points, roughly. Democrats, you know, they feel that a good candidate colin colin allred is a good candidate

raised a crap ton of money you know just an insane amount of money you can't get the guy off message now he you mentioned the votes that he took that came to act to bite him he along with a lot of other democrats across the country were kind of led to the slaughter by the national party and the congressional leadership for having that for taking that vote and you mentioned aoc um and various other democrats having you know second thoughts after the fact about the strategy of that yep we're seeing a lot of we'll talk about this the next time we're seeing a lot of, we'll talk about this in the next segment, we're seeing a lot of fallout from that. But overall, this was not a midterm election against a very unpopular Republican president. Cruz, while on the ballot, wasn't the top of the ticket donald trump was yep and all of the overarching political wins disfavored democrats not republicans so

that right there is the biggest reason why cruz won by a lot more than a lot of the polls thought so i would add though that issues like the biological males and female sports thing increased its margin more than we probably thought it would have been because the Cruz team going into the election, they had their polling at plus six at least. He ended up winning by eight and a half points, I think it was. So he outperformed even his polling and the closest pollster public pollster that got it was University of Texas Texas politics project they had him plus seven in their

last poll all the other ones had it at you know either plus one to plus four yeah that was a big thing is along with the presidential race every single poll that came out was it's within one point or it's tied it's a statistic not everyone but yes a large majority yes i would say the going into it the most the average pulling average was at like three to four percent and he either tripled or doubled that yeah so so he definitely outperformed himself and this It was you can give a lot of that credit to the Trump wave

Then you talked about and the massive gains made but Cruz also made a lot of gains among Hispanics It's like my favorite stat to talk about because it's so fascinating. He lost in 2018 the Hispanic vote by 29 points. Won it by six this time. 35 points winning in six years. Now, of course, Senate terms are much longer. It gives you a lot more time as a candidate to make that work, to make those gains. But that is a significant improvement. Those numbers were unreal.

Yep. And it sets him up well for not only he has six more years until he has to run again but if he wants to jump in the presidential race in 28 he's got a good performance to bolster that and so

we'll see what happens in the next few years but you know if he is a wounded duck going into that if he barely, if he squeaked by against Allred, he would not be talked about really as someone to run for president. But he won by over eight points. So the question, of course, with South Texas and everything else that we're talking about here is can this continue in the next cycle? Is this because Trump was at the top of the ticket and the next time that there is a presidential election, he will not be at the top of the ticket? What does

that mean for Republicans? Will these gains be cemented? Is this just how Texas is now or was it really a Trump wave? And I think that will be the big question. I think it's first and foremost a Trump wave because if you look at, especially in the Rio Grande Valley, but much of the rest of South Texas, the local officials there are still either half or mostly Democratic. Now, some of them are flipping to the Republicans. We have seen that. So it's a very hard thing to nail down. Right. But it's not like the Rio Grande Valley and every county along the border is now all of a sudden bright red. It's just not.

They were bright red for Trump. Now, the task for Republicans is to turn that into a persistent and something, a majority you can count on down the road. But yeah, I think that'll be like you both mentioned. What's the voting bloc moving forward going to look like? Are they going to remain Republicans? Or is this the portion of the electorate that are independents or moderates that could from here on out could be claimed by either party that could be claimed by either party especially do you guys agree with my assessment that immigration let's say just focusing on the south texas voters immigration was the top issue yes for them if you look at every poll in in texas it has immigration not just for republicans yeah

immigration the border it's the top issue well so if we look to the future and speaking hypothetically, Trump comes into office January 20th and over the next four years, they make tremendous gains in quelling the issues of illegal immigration, whether it be through border construction, increasing security at the southern border. They institute some portions of mass deportations and and people are feeling much more positive about the Trump campaign and Republicans more generally, and they sort of see the illegal immigration issue as relatively solved, let's say, hypothetically. Does that play well for Republicans running for office in four years, or does that remove that issue for people who have immigration as their top issue?

Well, I do think, too, that they're, like, in terms of which party can maintain these voters' allegiance for now, Republicans have the advantage. It just is true, right? They campaign on the issues these people care about. They can carry out some of them. They're going to look pretty good. So, and Democrats, I think, are in a big regroup stage right now, which we'll get into in a minute. We're about to hit the 20,

we're past the 20-minute mark, so we should get to this next part here, Brad. But that's, right, that's the question is, can Democrats regroup anytime soon in order to kind of regain this independent vote? And when you have, like I've mentioned so many times on our podcast, Bernie Sanders coming out the day after and saying, we've lost the working class people, you know, Democrats, let's do some self-reflection here. They're in trouble. On that note, Brad, let's talk about our second story. Democrats had high hopes this year and came away empty-handed. We talked about it a little bit, but kind of delve into a little bit more. So obviously Democrats wanted to flip, wanted to beat Cruz, and they thought that it was possible. But the real task for them was not to beat Ted Cruz. It was to be very

competitive and set the table for the next cycles to come. 26 could be a close. Specifically in Texas we're talking about. Yes. 26 could be an environment that's closer to 2018 than what we've seen since. So that is possible. Who knows if it happens? I don't know. But it could be. And so they needed to perform well, but Allred got basically blown out compared to what we saw in 2018 with Beto.

That doesn't bode well for them. What happened in South Texas does not bode well for them. They're going to have to really readjust and figure out a different strategy on issues that these voters, these gettable, very gettable voters that they used to have, these people that had long been voting Democratic. So they need to build momentum before redistricting in 2026 because we saw in 18, it all trickles down. You know, you had Beto, he lost, but the rising tide lifts all boats and Democrats flipped 12 House seats, right,

and two Senate seats. They made substantial gains. They've been trying to replicate that ever since. So they need to build some momentum before 2030 in order to be in a position to actually dictate some redistricting before districts are, you know, redrawn and readjusted by the majority party to their benefit. And also, let me just add, everyone does this. Gerrymandering is thrown around like a dirty word, but there's no getting that out of it. Look at Illinois, you know, Democrats do it to the same effect that Republicans do it here. So this is the most political thing we do and so the only choice Democrats have is to win more seats. So if I could jump in, because like I mentioned earlier, I was listening to a lot of postmortems after the election from the Harris campaign. They went and spoke with the Harvard Kennedy School of Public Policy.

They also went and spoke with Pod Save America. People aren't familiar with them. So one of the Obama staff them. Former Obama staffers. Former Obama staffers, liberal, very popular podcast. But like I mentioned, they talked a lot about messaging and the truncated campaign. They weren't able to introduce Harris to the public. Something they didn't really talk about changing was the policy positions. And that's what it seems Democrats are going to need to change moving forward because many Democrat politicians, elected officials, future candidates, if they have taken previous stances on progressive social causes, they are going to be tapped and labeled with those positions moving forward. And it seems as though, if we just look at this past election, they're way further to the left than the average American is on those social issues.

And one of the things that I wrote about in one of my newsletters is I listened to Michael Lynn talk with Ezra Klein at the New York Times, and I just want to read a little bit about what Lynn talked about because what he was saying, this is the end of the Obama coalition and he was mentioning how the progressive social causes being promoted by activist groups they're getting funding from donors they're getting funding from the federal government and since they have these these progressive social cause activist groups have so much money, they can really dictate the public messaging for Democrats. And Lynn noted here, if this is him, if the donors wanted a strong union movement, there would be a pro-labor think tank all over Washington, D.C. But you don't have those. Instead, the issues that

dominate are the ones that appeal to the donors' priorities. So are the people that control the funds for the Democratic Party, the funds that flow to these activist groups, going to say, you know what, we're going to pull our money away from these progressive social causes and put them more towards pro-worker, pro-union, more focused on economic policy groups. That's something that they need to decide. Because as we've talked about on many weekly roundups, many Send Me Some Stuff episodes, is money really dictates politics and money really dictates policy as well. So if those who are in charge of the money for the DNC, for the Democratic Party, are they going to shift their focus? I'm not sure. We'll have to see. We'll have to see.

What do you think about all that, Brad i mean it's it's not just um about what they believe it's about what they place priority on and emphasis on and clearly the issues of the economy and at least in voters minds the economy and the border were not as important to the Democratic Party as other things. And it cost them. Yeah, absolutely. Anything else on the Democratic disappointment? Nope. Let's move on. The border, Cameron, man, we could talk about this ad nauseum, but there have been so many stories related to the border in Texas that have continued to dominate headlines. Story number three, tell us about some of the big stories from this year on the border. Yes. So even though it seems like the border is going to be addressed more during the

upcoming Trump administration, over the past year, just here in Texas, there is a lot of movement on attempting to increase border security, attempting to institute legislation that would address illegal immigration. And so just going all the way back to January. Which Cameron will have a piece up on this. Probably, I think, I can't remember our schedule, but likely by the time this podcast is released. Yeah, but Abbott declaring that this is him, quote, the Texas National Guard continues to hold the line in Eagle Pass, and he said he would continue to construct chain link walls. If you remember, we were actually having a team meeting, and we were in a conference room when he made this huge declaration

of an invasion at the border, and we all just pull out our laptops and start working. But it was the declaration. It was the seizure of Eagle Pass, property of Eagle Pass. There was Kim Paxson's lawsuit against Annunciation House because there was a lot of conversation happening about how many of these immigration nonprofits were taking federal dollars and then maybe skirting around some of the federal law to help bring immigrants into the country. And PACS ensued, one of these NGOs. And that's been a continual story that we've written quite a bit about. There was also the revelation of this migrant flights program, the CHMB program, where hundreds of thousands of individuals were being flown on planes, paid by the federal government from these foreign countries into the interior of the United States

as part of a federal program. And that really caught a lot of headlines when those numbers started to come out. And another thing that happened over this past year was a lot of coverage was paid attention to what Donald Trump was calling migrant crime. And two stories, Lake and Riley, the University of Georgia student who was killed. I'm sure everyone's familiar with that story now, but also Jocelyn Nangari here in Houston, the 12 year old who was killed by two Venezuelan Nationals here in the country illegally. Both those stories have been covered nationwide. We covered Nangari's story here quite a bit here at the Texan.

And then the last remaining story is what we've talked about it already quite a bit here at the Texan. And then the last remaining story is what we've talked about already quite a bit is Trump running on mass deportations that helping him be elected to office and his pick of Tom Homan to be the border czar and him being straight out of central casting. His official title too, Borders Are. Yeah. And so it's been a big year related to border security, illegal immigration, and there's going to be a lot of movement over the next year, whether it be at the federal level or at the state level. As I mentioned, Abbott's increased his focus on it. The Texas legislature has also focused on it quite a bit. I didn't even talk about SB4 and all the legal challenges with that. And so it's going to continue to be a story over the next 12 months, especially as we go into session.

How is funding going to be allocated now that there is a Republican in the White House? Yeah. How do those legal challenges from the attorney general here in Texas alter, right? It'll be a totally different ballgame once Trump is in the White House. Absolutely. Well, this seems like forever ago, guys, but story number four is the primary. And I think it was, I mean, I love primaries in Texas. They're so fun because you really do get to see who will be taking, in a lot of ways, office in January, right? It's where a lot of the fights are. Obviously, we had a way more interesting general cycle than we tend to in Texas. But the primary itself was a fascinating school choice.

Abbott versus Paxton, incumbents losing all over the state. I mean, there was a lot to talk about. A Senate race that had brought a lot of attention. So, Brad, give a 30,000-foot overview, and we'll all talk about this one. I mean, it was bloody. It was bruising, and it was brutal. I think you coined bloodbath. Bloodbath.

Yeah, that's funny. That was the headline that you— I'll make a shirt that says 2024. It was Brad first, then it was Trump. Yeah. It could go it could go well with your uh you know freeze shirt my snowman yeah robbery so there are a lot of themes here you mentioned them school choice abbott going in he took out i think there were nine incumbents that lost um it might have just been i don't know, 9 to 12, I forget.

There's a mix of those who lost because Abbott targeted them and those who just lost for other reasons. And those who had open seats because they retired. That too, there are a lot of open seats. And then a lot of school choice friendly candidates assumed office. We're going to have 30, I think exactly

30 new state representatives in the Texas House. One-fifth of the House. Two new senators, Brent Hagenbue and Adam Hinojosa, who won in the general. That Hagenbue-Yarbiro clash was, because the House was so chaotic and all the eyes were on that, that kind of floated under the radar, but that was brutal. When Dan Patrick walks into a room, an SD room in a

convention and gets booed, that's crazy. I can't remember that convention, that whole... Oh my gosh, yeah. It was a... Because I covered that for us here at the Texan and there was lawsuits, there was current revolt pieces. Residency challenges.

Yeah, it was crazy. Yeah, it seemed like there was a split between leadership and grassroots on that race. Just a massive turnover, amount of turnover in the legislature. And that was all happening around the Phelan race, which was the centerpiece of this whole thing. And David Covey lost to him in the runoff by 366 votes after beating him, finishing first in the primary without getting eclipsing 50 so phelan survived that but it was the most expensive house race we've ever seen it was

like 15 million dollars i think something insane amount of money and survived that and we'll get to that later but he does not survive the speakership. Right. So this primary was just, it was the biggest battleground for this overarching fight over the direction of the Republican Party. There were fights in the Democratic Party, too, like Sean Theory lost. But this is, because the Republicans hold all the cards in the state, this was the biggest proxy fight that we've seen in a long time over this. And we're seeing another one in the speaker's race right now. But those on the right of the party gained a lot of ground in this. And a lot of it has to do with Abbott. Abbott is the biggest force in the state right now.

It's clear. The sheer amount of money he put into this was astronomical. Yeah. Millions. $10 million from Jeff Yass plus some millions of his own that he put in. Just an insane amount. And, you know, we'll see what happens in session and if Abbott does it again in 26, although he'll be on the ballot that year. So I don't know, but this was just chaotic.

And it's worth mentioning the attorney general too, because impeachment was right up there as a huge issue for primary voters. And the attorney general certainly had a lot of wins. Abbott, I think, would came out the biggest winner of the primary, but the Attorney General had to certainly had a lot of wins Abbott I think would came out the biggest winner of the primary but the Attorney General had some big wins too and the Attorney General the impeachments caused a lot of primaries to happen yes you know it's debated on how much effect he actually had versus school choice I don't know we'll never know that counterfactual right but he didn't put any money in. Abbott put over $10 million. But the impeachment caused a lot of primaries that wouldn't have otherwise happened.

Challengers to jump in who wouldn't have done so. So this year, I don't know if we'll ever see this replicated again just because the sheer amount of insane events that preceded it and caused dominoes to fall um this was one for the history books and you know I've joked the last couple days that the last few years in Texas politics and probably the next few years we'll make a hell of a book one day yeah but. But this is... Maybe you could write it, Brad. Maybe I will. This is one of the centerpieces of whatever the story is of Texas politics in the last few years.

The general tells us a lot about where Texas is headed, but the primary tells us a lot about how Texas will be governed. So that will be... That's a good way to put it. Thanks, Brad.

Wow. Compliment from Brad. I'll take it. And Marylise, that was your first time covering an election for us. And my gosh, what an election to cover. How was your experience covering the primary before we move on to the next topic here? Yeah, it was good. I think I had started just a month prior. So it was definitely, I definitely got thrown into it,

but it was really interesting. I, my favorite part was talking to the candidates before the race and kind of hearing where they were at where they thought um where they thought the outcomes would land that was probably the most interesting part and then to see how it actually did turn out so covered two races yeah it was a fun one primary was awesome and now turning to january well this is just feeling let's just talk feeling because story number five number five Phelan himself rollercoaster of a year for the soon to be former speaker current speaker but

he's on his way out he'll still be a house member give us a rundown he became the symbol of opposition to the insurgent right and I know he did not enjoy being in that position.

He's coming off a couple sessions of where they passed significant stuff, especially on the conservative side. And a couple of them where the House threw the grenade into the Senate's chamber rather than the other way around, constitutional carry being the main one there. So he had some big wins to tout. He also fumbled the management of the House

significantly. You know, the impeachment's the big one. How that happened is criticized across the board, regardless of how, what someone's opinion is on whether Paxton did it or not. Obviously, he was acquitted. This isn't going to be brought back up. On all charges. On all charges, yep. If you hear something in the background, Winston, Brad's dog, is trying to break down the door to see his owner. He wanted out, and now he wants back in.

Yeah, that's true. It's ridiculous. Sorry, keep going. the door to see his owner so he wanted out and now he wants back yeah it's true ridiculous sorry keep going so he and phelan entered 2024 knowing that he would be the subject of a massive primary with lots of money coming in and he was and he finished second in the primary everyone counted him out everyone thought oh, oh, he's done. This is it. This is basically the runoff's a formality.

Just give it to David Covey. Let's start looking for a new speaker. You had Tom Oliverson jump in the speaker's race. And Phelan went into the runoff with polling showing that they're screwed. And then things changed in like the last week. Things flipped. And he ended up winning by 366 votes. It was, he pulled a rabbit out of a hat.

And then we saw him go quiet in the summer. There was not a lot of, there's acting, he was acting like he was going to be the speaker and it was just, that's how it was. I mean, he won, he survived. That's it. And was going to be the speaker and it was just that's how it was i mean he won he survived that's it and story six is just the speakers race right we'll just combine so he did not do a lot to shore up his supportership during the summer and he allowed his opponents to rally um and build up against him. Fast forward a few more

months, just recently, he ends up dropping out. So the roller coaster that Phelan's been on, not just this year, but that's what we're talking about this year, but the last few years, is, you know, I wouldn't want to deal with it. I would want to take my ball and go home and not deal with this frenzied political environment anymore. And, you know, he has himself to blame for some of this too, right? He's caused a lot of his own problems. But overall, it is going to be interesting to see what he does going forward. Does he stay in the house? How long does he stay in the house?

Does he run again? Now that he's not the subject of everyone's ire being the speaker. I don't know. But it is just simply a wild year for Dade Phelan. Yeah, I think we'll be interesting, because as House Speaker, you're not taking a lot of votes on the floor, right? You know, and it'll be interesting to see him as just another member, how he acts on the floor. Is he on the back mic a lot? Is he seeing him moving around the floor, talking with members? Because you have to build a lot of relationships as house speaker,

probably retain a lot of those. Now that you're a member, is that going to play into how he conducts himself on the floor? It'll be interesting to see. Does he, if David Cook wins, does he decide to just try and blow things up from the back mic? I don't know. Honestly, feeling blowing things up from the back mic

would be an unbelievable turn of events. I'd be tuned in every single moment for that we're going to regardless in session there's going to be a lot happening but um winston's re-entered um anything else you just want me to finish up yeah finish so feeling wins the runoff very quiet for months the reform group meeting happens in september and they nominate anti-feeling fact yeah they nominate david cook uh that itself yeah they nominate David Cook uh that itself was an interesting proceeding because you had these different factions you had those behind John Smithy and he actually was the biggest vote getter until the last round after he had dropped out but he couldn't get the necessary number to win the reform group endorsement they endorsed

Cook uh interestingly enough during the during the reform group meeting, there was a text that went out, anonymous, from Texans for a New Speaker. And it said, you know, do your job here. Don't worry. There is the largest fund ever amassed in political and Texas politics history there to defend you. Well, fast forward. Everyone was like, who's in that? Yeah. There were guesses that it was, you know, Tim Dunn and his crowd or Dan Patrick.

You know, it probably wasn't, but, you know, Abbott has the biggest war chest in the state. TLR's name was thrown out there as just a, oh, my gosh, they have all this money. Who could this possibly be? Well, I think we know now. It was Alex Fairley, an Amarillo businessman who has gotten increasingly involved. He donated to David Covey almost a million dollars. It was not quite there, but almost that much money. His daughter, notably Caroline, is going to be a freshman state representative in HD 87. That'll be interesting to see how that affects her or how things unfold in the House. But Alex Fairley announced on Friday,

when we're recording this, we'll have mentioned it in the, talked more in detail about it in the weekly roundup that already went out, but he announced a $20 million fund recording this we'll have mentioned it in the talk more in detail about it in the the weekly roundup that already went out but the he announced a 20 million dollar fund to basically target republicans not deemed conservative enough in primaries and then protect republicans that they want to support in the general election so that was interesting uh kind of finally connected some dots there. The elect fast forward to the election. Everyone starts scrambling after we see who's going to have a vote in this race.

A few weeks after that, a couple of weeks, speaker drops out and we see Chairman Dustin Burroughs jump in. So now it's where we stand today. Chairman Burroughs and Representative Cook are fighting it out for this. We have the December 7th caucus meeting, where much of the Burroughs faction walks out after the second vote, calling the process illegitimate.

Then Cook wins the next vote, wins the endorsement. Burroughs holds a press conference that says, I have the votes. It gets more complicated from there because immediately after he puts out the list, we see names dropping from it. And the list was just 76, which is what you need to get to become Speaker. We see Republicans dropping from it. It's not clear that anybody has the votes right now. Question is, does Burroughs have the votes if he wants a Democratic majority coalition? I'd say probably there if he wants it, but he clearly doesn't want that right now because it's bad messaging. Cook, meanwhile, is now reaching out to Democrats to try and build his coalition from where it was among Republicans. Vote flipping constantly.

You see these public pressure campaigns from the right and then the counteracting one more in the establishment wing of the party, lots of money being thrown around. It's it's up in the air. And if I add one more observation, I think in hindsight, both camps made a mistake in releasing lists, putting names on paper with enough time to get people to move off those lists. And they should have, both of them should have held their cards close to their chest, not been drawn out, and waited until January when the vote actually happens on this. Hindsight's always 20-20. It is. Right, and it's a race to 76.

And so they're just trying to show that they have a lot of support obviously even after the caucus meeting i think everyone expected there to be more finality in the result hey we have a nominee hey everyone stuck around hey that was not the case and now we still are in this position then well we do have a nominee but we also have the boroughs still in the race. And we have interesting criticisms of the caucus process. Colonel Terry Wilson put out an op-ed. There's been counter arguments about that. It's just all over the place. And there's, speakers races are about bluffing and nobody has really done it that well during this race we'll see if that changes

no kidding well we'll talk about it ad nauseum for the next foreseeable future um cameron let's talk about a story you you mentioned earlier in your border review section but i think it's worth mentioning specifically as one of our top stories um biggest stories of the year uh this is number seven holly hanser holly hen has covered it extremely thoroughly, so I'd encourage folks to go read her reporting, but walk us through this tragic story, Cameron. Yeah, this is the tragic story of Jocelyn Nagare. She was a 12-year-old who was killed by two Venezuelan nationals, and they have been charged with murder in this case. And both men entered the United States illegally in 2024,

but were released by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE. So like I mentioned during the border section that Jocelyn, her story has caught national attention and the issue of illegal immigration has been attached to the reason why this story has caught so much attention. Not just because of just her dying, but the brutality and her age and just a horrible story overall. And her mother has been very active in voicing her opinions and has appeared alongside a number of elected officials talking about Jocelyn and encouraging increased border security because could have prevented the death of her 12-year-old. And just the latest update that we have is Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg is going to be seeking the death penalty and the prosecution of these two Venezuelan nationals. So this is one of the most tragic stories of the year, and it's still not over because, as we'll see, we'll talk about if capital punishment will be sought in her case. And then also there's another capital punishment case that's caught national attention.

Yeah. Okay. Nice transition here, Cameron. And here we are sandwiching two very tough, tragic stories back to back. But death row inmate Robert Roberson has certainly captured a lot of attention both here in Texas and nationally. You've been on this story from very early on and even brought it to me before it was even nearly at the level it is now. Tell us about it. Run us through the story. really got on my radar initially because of the letter that was publicly announced by a bipartisan group of Texas lawmakers who were urging clemency in the case of Robert Roberson.

And Robert Roberson, he was scheduled to be executed on October 17th. He was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death in 2003 in connection with the death of his two-year-old daughter Nikki Curtis in 2002. So this letter is published, there's a press conference, and there's a committee hearing held. And at the conclusion of this committee hearing, there is a subpoena issued for Robert Roberson to have him appear. Well, this caused a huge conversation surrounding separation of powers issues, which alongside the issue of capital punishment the separation of powers was also dominating headlines and caused a lot of stir and throughout this process that is ongoing it's been going on for months now we've seen two different

factions appear within the Texas legislature, one being advocates for Robert Roberson and another faction being more opposed to the actions taken by the other group. And we've seen testimonies published from family members or extended family members. We here at the Texan got a chance to speak with the jury foreman. That was a wild weekend. Yeah, that was a wild weekend. The jury foreman on the capital murder case all the way back in 2003. We also saw the Attorney General of Texas become involved releasing documents from the autopsy documents from witness testimonies from the initial trial, which caused another big stir, a big wrinkle in this case, because

one of the big talking points that was being presented both in committee hearings and both from the Roberson advocate factions on this case was It was purported that Roberson was convicted primarily on the evidence of shaken baby syndrome and there was evidence presented recently over the past few months that shaken baby syndrome is now a debunked scientific theory. Well, when I spoke with the jury foreman from documents that have been released during the

trial, it doesn't appear as though shaken baby syndrome was as prominent as has been displayed for the public. So lots of details with this case. The last update I didn't even get into. So two things I'll leave our listeners with. Going back to the scheduled date of the execution. There was a number of different legal orders presented in the final hours, right? It was a Texas Criminal Court of Appeals rejecting an appeal, then a Austin judge saying, oh, the subpoena can be carried out, then the Supreme Court putting a halt on the

execution because of the separation of powers issues, and most recently we have the Supreme Court issuing an opinion saying there is still enough time between now and any possible future rescheduling of Roberson's execution for this committee to gather his testimony if needed. And we saw finally this week, we're recording December 18th, this week there was a second subpoena issued for Roberson to appear in a committee hearing to provide testimony. The first time he didn't show up because, you know, there was issues regarding how are they going to transport him, security in Austin, how would that work out? Because it really is an unprecedented event to have a death row inmate provide in-person testimony. At the Capitol. At the Capitol. And there was an extension of the ability to have him provide testimony over Zoom.

But because of his recently diagnosed autism, his attorneys said that wasn't going to be possible. So if he was going to provide testimony, it would only have to be in person. Again, second subpoena, we're not sure if he will show up in person or not, but this case is far from over. No kidding. Yeah. And January will bring a lot in this case. Yes. So we will keep an eye on that. I'd encourage folks to go check out Cameron's reporting. It is in-depth and helpful and very thorough and well done. Mary Elise, bless you for waiting this long to talk about your biggest story of the year. Senator John Cornyn lost the race for GOP Senate leader in November. Tell us about it. Yes. So this was about 10 days after the election. So it's probably the next biggest story after the flurry of all of the election results and everything. So this, really this race for the GOP Senate leader

picked up pace in February after Mitch McConnell announced he'd be stepping down after 18 years and Cornyn signaled then that he was going to run. Cornyn emphasized, and I think this is something that most people are pretty familiar with, his fundraising skills, but he really emphasized that. He at one point sent out a letter to fellow colleagues saying that he had immense gratitude and a sense of shared accomplishment for having raised over $406 million since his entry into the Senate in 2002. And he said that $325 million of that had gone to GOP senators, which would indicate, if you don't know the results of this race,

that would indicate that he had a pretty good shot at becoming GOP Senate leader. He also emphasized that he has good relationships on both sides of the aisle and that he has a bipartisan approach after the Uvalde shooting. And he had that gun reform bill that was bipartisan and it sparked a lot of outrage from Republicans, but he used it, kind of harped on it to emphasize his bipartisan reach. Then when November rolled around, it was down to Senator Cornyn, Senator Thune, and Scott, Senator Rick Scott, excuse me. And so the first round of voting went, this was a closed door meeting, and it went 23 for Thune, 15 for Cornyn, and 13 for Senator Rick Scott. Then they went to a second ballot,

which Senator Thune defeated Cornyn. Thune won 29 to Cornyn's 24. And prior to the vote, I would say Cornyn seemed rather confident. He had already sent a letter to colleagues just explaining what his goals are for the upcoming year for the Senate, different ideas he had, plans, just outlining what he foresaw in the future for the Senate. And he definitely received a lot of online negativity from, I guess you could call them the chronically online folks. I'm sure there were some legislators harping in, but mostly just the spectators on X commenting. But regardless whether people were for him or not, Texas was definitely waiting with bated breath to see, okay, are we going to have our Texas senator up there? Is he going to be leading the Senate, which would be a big deal for Texas. And his loss was definitely a blow to Texas a little bit in his career um it would definitely be a positive for us to have a Texas senator leading the senate um

but he did say that he's running for office again and he said uh he's confident he'll defeat any challengers so while this was a blow to his career, it's definitely not the last we're going to be seeing of Cornyn. Absolutely. For sure. Still someone who holds a lot of power in DC. And yeah, I'd encourage folks to go read both the 40 and fourth reading on some of that Cornyn behind the scenes debacle. Lots of Republican activists, not fans of Cornyn. And, you know, of course, there's also the angle that having a Texan in that kind of position positions the state in favorable ways. So both worth considering.

And great coverage, Mary Elise, as always. Bradley, number 10. Last one. This year, we saw a lot of developments in the long-running whistleblower lawsuit in the case against Attorney General Ken Paxton. Walk us through where we're at. So early in the year, the trial court had set depositions for Paxton and three top aides for February. We saw right after that, the Attorney General's office in Paxton conceded the facts of the case saying, we're not disputing this. That means we do not need to do any

additional discovery. We'll pay a settlement, essentially. But the whistleblowers, former OING employees, employees who brought allegations to the FBI in 2020, this has been going on for years, impeachment kind of paused it. It got restarted after. And they did not want a settlement. They want depositions. And so that sparked a month's long standoff. What's the Texas Supreme Court going to do? Well, first, what's the appeals court going to do? Then what's the Supreme Court going to do?

And eventually, actually fairly recently, about a month ago, I think, the Texas Supreme Court ruled in favor of the OHE, finding that they conceded the facts of the case. Therefore, these depositions are not needed and there's no need to put the OHE employees through that. So that basically has ended things. Now, caveat it with, yeah, four year long run. Now that we have the Trump administration in, it's hard to see that the ongoing grand jury investigation, if that does indeed involve Ken Paxton, doesn't get dropped. The whistleblower suit is, for all intents and purposes, over with. I suppose something wild could happen and get restarted. I don't know, but it appears to be the book is finally closed on that for now, at least as far as the courts go. There was one other interesting thing that happened.

In June, the Fifth Circuit issued this very strange and vague ruling that required unnamed agency staff, Texas State Agency staff, it did not name the Attorney General's office, but ordered them to testify in a grand jury proceeding that turns out to be involving nate paul um i suppose that something more could come with that even under the trump administration but i think it's everyone kind of expects it's going to get dropped and nothing this is we've been waiting i've been hearing for months oh the shoe's gonna about to drop an indictment's about to drop. An indictment is about to come and it never comes. Yep. So I don't obviously I'm not privy to those conversations. I don't know what's going on, but they the feds have obviously not felt comfortable issuing an indictment, certainly against Paxton, but also against Paul.

In this case, Paul is facing indictments in other unrelated cases to Paxton. So there's a lot more to come on this overall topic. But the whistleblower suit seems to be done and dusted. Done and dusted, just like this podcast. Just like this year. Happy New Year, guys. Way to put a bow on that. Well, I'm getting compliments on my transitions today from Brad. I've come a long way since I just said good stuff after every segment and got angry listener emails.

The listeners have gotten all the reporters' opinions on this past year. What's your biggest takeaway from this past year? My biggest takeaway? Yeah. I mean, I think I talked about it a little bit at the primary and the general. Those are my big, I mean, obviously. But those are my big questions. Can Republicans continue to make gains in those areas if Trump's not on the top of the ticket? I'm very curious to see that. And come session, will school choice,

what form will a school choice proposal, the blessed and endorsed school choice proposal look like with this new bevy of lawmakers and a speaker's race that's happening as it is right now would not be possible with this group of freshmen coming in and being willing to shake things up and rock the boat a little bit right there's a larger contingency of that kind of legislator the school choice friendly you know more conservative on the spectrum legislator willing to kind of put their name to a candidate who is not feeling or borrows right the speaker's race is shaping up in large part because of these new people coming into the legislature so it's a very interesting time it is it's a totally different makeup in the house and a very different one in the senate too it's worth stating as well

well guys thank you for joining me on this podcast we were recording five podcasts this week this is just like i think two we still have three more this week to record yeah it's gonna be great you got more do we have we have our weekly roundup for this week we have smoke filled a room and there's a justice wise podcast oh geez coming out you know so bless maslin on that note i'm gonna stop recording so she has less minutes to edit. Folks, Happy New Year. We'll catch you in the new year. 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, subscribe to The Texan at thetexan.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.