The Texan Podcast - Weekly Roundup - February 23, 2024

Episode Date: February 23, 2024

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, the team discusses: The top races and themes in Texas’ March 5 primary electionsState Rep. Ellen Troxclair and former Rep. Kyle Biedermann’s debate in the race for House District 19The race between Rep. Hugh Shine and challenger Hillary Hickland for House District 55Texas Rep. Ernest Bailes sparring with Gov. Greg Abbott over the Houston-area Colony Ridge developmentStormy Bradley’s challenge to Rep. Drew Darby in House District 72U.S. Senate candidate Congressman Colin Allred voting against a law to reverse Biden’s pause on liquefied natural gas exportsThe Texas Office of the Attorney General suing a nonprofit Catholic charity for allegedly facilitating illegal immigrationA poll showing Donald Trump leading Nikki Haley in Texas’ Republican primary by 71 pointsHarris County District Attorney Kim Ogg trailing her Democratic primary challenger Sean TeareThe moderate Democrat challenging Travis County District Attorney Jose Garza

Happy Friday, folks. Senior Editor Mackenzie DeLulo here, and welcome back to the Texans Weekly Roundup. This week, the team discusses the top races and themes in Texas' March 5th primary elections. State Representative Ellen Troxclair and former Rep. Kyle Biederman's debate in the race for House District 19. The race between Representative Hugh Schein and challenger Hillary Hicklund for House District 55. Texas lawmaker Ernest Bales sparring with Governor Abbott over the Houston area Colony Ridge development. Stormy Bradley's challenge to Representative Drew Darby in House District 72. U.S. Senate candidate and Congressman Colin Allred voting against a law to reverse Biden's pause on liquefied natural gas exports. The Texas Office of the Attorney General suing a

non-profit Catholic charity for allegedly facilitating illegal immigration. A poll showing Donald Trump leading Nikki Haley in Texas's Republican primary by 71 points. Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg trailing her Democratic primary challenger Sean Teer, and the moderate Democrat challenging Travis County District Attorney Jose Garza. Thanks for listening and enjoy this episode. Howdy folks, it's Mackenzie here with Brad, Cameron, and Matt on another episode of the Weekly Roundup. We have cameras in the room with us today. We're testing out some stuff. It's a little weird to be filmed while we're sitting in here chatting away. It's not normal

for us. We're like fish out of water. Brad particularly seems thrilled about this. I am just loving it. I was saying you're going to have to update your Twitter bio to include streamer. Something you won't stop talking about in the office either. Like, can't wait. Oh, yeah.

My favorite thing ever it's true but we're testing some stuff daniel's in here howdy daniel we'll see how it goes today it'll be fun i also typically have over ear headphones where i can hear y'all talking like on audio um not just across the table from each other and it is a totally different experience just chatting with you and not hearing how i sound on the mic or how you all sound on the mic yeah it's been years doing it that way i tried to wear the headphones a couple times it was so awkward really yeah i don't know why just hearing my own voice in my ears did not work out for some reason it's like a like a litmus test for me of like how do i sound how's everyone's mic like it gives me some confidence that the recording is going well, which Daniel's taking care of. So there's no

problem, but it's just different. It's just different. Okay. Well, we're going to start off our stories here with Matthew. Early voting is now underway for the March 5th primary election. Matt, you've written a story this week, kind of giving a rundown of what to watch. Give us the rundown. It's election season again. And at the top of everyone's ballot this cycle is everyone's favorite office, and that is President of the United States. And Republicans have seemed to settle in on reelecting former President Donald Trump as their nominee, as he seeks an opportunity to have a second term in the White House, and also seems to have pretty well cleared the primary field, with all but Nikki Haley remaining.

Democrats have also seemed to settle in on re-nominating President Joe Biden, setting the stage for a 2020 do-over or rematch, or whatever you would like to characterize it, as the likely contenders will be facing off again, this time to see who gets that second term in the White House. Closer to home, we of course have U.S. Senator Ted Cruz seeking a third six-year term as a United States Senator from Texas. Republicans seem to have pretty well settled in on renominating Ted Cruz. But over in the Democratic primary, Democrats are going to be deciding who their nominee to go up against Cruz will be in November. We have Democratic Congressman Colin Allred facing State Senator Roland Gutierrez, with recent polling indicating Allred may have a lead over Gutierrez.

So we'll be keeping an eye on that race and see how that unfolds. One of the notable things going on in the primaries is we have Governor Greg Abbott waging a primary war on anti-school choice House incumbents in the Texas House of Representatives. One of his top priority issues, school choice, failed this past legislative session with a number of Republican House members joining House Democrats to defeat the measures, which has prompted Abbott to go on a, what I would almost say, unprecedented amount of campaign warring against those House members, endorsing their opponents and seeking to change the statistics on the bill for the next legislative session. So we'll see how that plays out. Also, another major statewide Republican official also waging primary war on multiple fronts. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton was impeached by the Texas House of Representatives this past year, and after he was acquitted by the

Texas Senate, he has gone on a campaign warpath against House members who are responsible for the impeachment. The most notable one, House Speaker Dade Phelan. Paxton has endorsed his opponent, David Covey, and a close political ally of Paxton's, President Donald Trump, has also joined in on the race, endorsing Covey against Phelan. So it'll be interesting to see. I don't think we've ever had, at least in my lifetime, an instance where an incumbent House Speaker has had an Attorney General and a former president slash presidential contender going up against him. So it'll be interesting to see how primary voters on that race fall. Also, Paxton has been mustering a national-level political effort against three judges on the little-known Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.

For those who don't know, our Texas Court of Criminal Appeals is the sister Supreme Court to the Texas Supreme Court. The Texas Supreme Court holds civil matters, while the Court of Criminal Appeals is the final appeals court for all criminal matters. Specifically, Paxton is citing a 2021 decision called State v. Stevens in which the Court of Criminal Appeals determined that the Texas Constitution did not allow the legislature to bestow the attorney general with the power to criminally prosecute election-related crimes. Citing that decision, which he says was wrong, he has endorsed challengers to three of the nine judges who are up. Among those judges, you have presiding judge Sharon Keller and associate judges Barbara Hervey and Michelle Slaughter, all three who voted for the Stevens decision. We should note that Judge Slaughter voted to rehear the case, but there were not sufficient votes on the court to take the case back up. Among the opponents, a political action committee tied to Paxton, Texans for Responsible Judges, is backing

challengers David Schink, who is a former appeals court judge, and he is challenging Judge Keller. Meanwhile, criminal defense attorney Gina Parker is challenging Judge Hervey, and attorney Lee Finley is challenging Slaughter. Now, Finley has made headlines, including some reports over here at the Texan regarding an ongoing legal issue he and his wife are facing. The case arose after the Finleys defaulted on their mortgage payments for a home they jointly own, and a district court held them liable to the banks for the non-payment. Now, they have appealed that decision, and that appeal is presently pending in the state Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. So we will monitor that and see how that's going on. We encourage you to go over and check out our full coverage of that issue at the Texan, which highlights the arguments on both sides. One other race worth mentioning is across the courthouse. Texas Supreme Court Justice John Devine is facing a challenger in GOP primary challenger Brian Walker. Now, Walker had filed a legal challenge against Devine back

in December, claiming Devine had not obtained a sufficient number of valid signatures on his re-election application and tried to have Devine ousted from the ballot. Now, Devine's eight colleagues on the Texas Supreme Court heard the case and ruled that Walker's challenge had no merit, thus moving the battle back before primary voters. So it'll be interesting to see what happens on that front. Meanwhile, in the upper chamber of the Texas legislature, there's an interesting saga that has been going on. Retiring state Senator Drew Springer in Senate District 30 has three contenders vying for his open seat, including one which has drawn controversy over his residency status. Brent Hagenbush,

who is backed by Springer, has made headlines after his opponents filed lawsuits challenging whether or not he lives in the Senate district and is qualified to run for the job. Specifically, challenger Kerry DeMoore filed a lawsuit saying he does not live in the district, pointed to a commercial business that Hagan Bush cited as his residence, and a judge decided to allow the case to proceed to trial. Now, what is notable about this is while the challengers tried to have him removed from the ballot, the judge characterized the consequences of if Egan Bush lied about his residency, it's something that will be a punishment after the fact, but it's not proactive, which would result in him being removed from the ballot.

So all the candidates are presently moving forward, campaigning, et cetera, et cetera. The results of the lawsuit will decide whether or not he's legally on the ballot, whether the votes are counted, et cetera, et cetera. So it'll be very interesting to see how this one shakes out depending on where the lawsuit falls. Our colleague Cameron Abrams has had some excellent coverage on this race, and we encourage you to follow him on Twitter and on the Texan for updates in that particular race. In addition to checking out our reporting from Cameron Abrams, we have a fantastic piece by our very own editor, McKenzie,

that includes information regarding where you can find your local polling location, sample ballots, et cetera, for all 254 Texas counties. So go check out her story for a very useful piece of public service information. Absolutely. Thank you, Matthew. Bradley, both you and Cameron have been on the road in different capacities this week. You attended a debate between candidates in House District 19, kind of adjacent to Austin and spread throughout the Hill Country. Give us a rundown of

the event. Yeah, it stretches from the western part of Travis County to Fredericksburg. It has five counties total, including the partial in Travis County. But incumbent state rep Ellen Troxclare is in a fight for her second term for re-election. She faces former state rep Kyle Biederman, who is in the House for three terms. It's a really contentious race. I finally was able to attend a forum, a debate, and that was tense, to say the least. I was in a country club, just an interesting setting, very wealthy people in the room, and a debate broke out in this basically lunch party. But it was –

A planned debate for the record. It didn't just break out. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But the candidates are so alike on policy that there's little separating them. One example, you know, they're both pro-school choice. Really the only difference between them is TruxClear emphasized the importance of school vouchers, education savings accounts, school choice. She said it's one of her biggest issues, along with property taxes. And then former state rep Biederman said that he's for school choice, vouchers, whatever you want to call it. But he thinks it's the symptom, not the feature.

He said it's the symptom because it's the only way they can counteract things that are being taught in schools, culturally messaging, that kind of thing. That was his position on it. But they're both for it. You know, border, there's basically nothing separating them in terms of actual policy. Both agree that, you know, water supply is a massive issue for that part of the state. It's a big issue for many parts of the state, but especially in the Hill Country, it's always been a contentious issue. So when candidates agree so much on policy, are they just sitting there in the debate going, I agree, I agree, I agree? I think—

Or how do they carve out their niches when they agree so much? In a race that's so personally intertwined, it takes on a bunch of different issues that aren't policy related. So while they're agreeing with each other on policy, they're stabbing each other in various other ways. And candidates aren't going to be like, hey, you're making a great point, opponent. I totally agree and I'll just defer my time to make my own points. In a calmer race, you'll see people, they'll give their position, and then they'll just leave it at that, really. With this, though, candidates know each other very well. They've dealt with each other for a long time, and this race is just heated. It focuses a lot on the house itself, the broader theme we're seeing in a lot of

these challenges, the direction of the House, the way House leadership conducts things, specifically on Democratic chairs. That's not a policy, but that's something that... Will be voted on, potentially. Potentially. They can attempt to use their position on how the House should operate as like, oh, if I'm elected, I can use my position to sort of help steer things in the direction I want the House to operate. Yeah, I mean, I think you could, if Biederman wins,

you could count him in the Mitch Little camp of, I'm there to be someone to challenge the ruling of the chair. That's a seldom used tactic in the chamber. It's a parliamentary maneuver. multiple candidates that are basically campaigning on that idea because they don't like the House under Speaker Dave Phelan. Biederman is definitely one of those. And this race on Democratic chairs, Trax Clare said that she reiterated her previous statements that if there is a vote, she will vote against having any Democratic chairs. That's the trick, though.

Will there be a vote? There wasn't a vote in the last session. There was a maneuver done by some members of House leadership that prevented the vote. Who knows if that gets preserved again? Maybe we have the same issue. I don't know. The challengers may have something up their sleeve to try and combat that. But overall, this race is personal more than policy.

And there's no sign of that letting up. And redistricting plays a big part in that, right, where this is a new district in a lot of ways. And Trox Claire, former Austin City Council member, has a lot of connections to Austin. So this, you know, was it Lakeway? Was it Lake Travis? Where exactly was the country club? Lakeway. Lakeway. But it was the Lake Travis Country Club. Her stomping grounds in a lot of ways, right? That was a lot of her constituency was up there

and near that area. And Biederman represented Hill Country counties. Right. And so now this district combines the two. So it'll be very interesting to see on election day who shows up for who and which constituency will rally behind their former representative or current representative the most. And I think there's three new counties in the district, at least related to the district Biederman previously represented, which was 73. But during redistricting, HD-19 got moved into this part of the state from, I think, East Texas. And 73 got moved out of, Gillespie County got moved out of 73. So Biederman now. Fredericksburg. Fredericksburg resides in HG19.

He didn't run again last cycle. But what drew him out really was the vote for impeachment. Dr. Clare voted for impeachment originally. She has four school choice, so that's not an issue like we're seeing in some of these other races. Governor Abbott's backed her. He was interesting during the Get Out the Vote event, he didn't mention Biederman, despite his campaign having clashed with Biederman over a cease and desist letter,

allegedly using an endorsement. Biederman had a mail piece that had a picture with him and Abbott on it. Abbott's campaign said, you need to stop that. I'm endorsing Trox Claire in this race. Things like that. Contentious, to say the least. Yes. And one that's particularly politically interesting with the candidates'

similarities on issues. And yeah, the impeachment's really the crux of a lot of this. Brad, thanks for going down there. We appreciate it. Cameron, we're going to go to you there. You recently went down to a campaign rally where Hillary Hickland and Governor Greg Abbott spoke about her primary battle with Representative Hugh Schein. Tell us a little bit about this race for House District 55. Yeah. And again, it seems like a lot of these races are sort of emblematic of this schism in the Republican Party. It's the more established candidate, the incumbent versus the grassroots. And Hugh Shine, he was in office in 91. So he's been there for a while.

He did leave, came back in 2016. But like we've talked about, it's two votes that really are weighing on the minds of voters. It's the Paxsonxton impeachment and its school choice. And for Hugh Shine, he voted in favor of stripping ESAs out of the House education bill during the special session, and he voted to impeach Ken Paxton. So we'll see how big those two things play on the minds of voters when they go cast their ballot. But Abbott has completely backed Hickland. He came out to the campaign event promoting Hickland, and he's actually mentioned of fought back against some of the woke ideology that was going on in her kids' school district.

And she's really cemented herself as the pro-school choice candidate in this race, especially when I reached out to her to get a better idea of her position. And she was talking about universal school choice. But she did say her number one issue was, without question, securing the border. And that seems to be for a lot of candidates, especially with the federal versus state battle we're seeing in Greg Abbott stepping up and pushing back against that. So it's been interesting to watch, especially with this House District 55 battle. You know, there's over 180,000 people in this district, and it's rated R58, according to our Texas Partisan index. And it'll be interesting, uh, to follow, but, uh,

we're keeping an eye on it for sure. Yeah, absolutely. Big race there. And that one is a little bit more politically different than the Biedermann-Truxclair race and more, like you said, um, indicative of how a lot of these primary races are going. So, um, super notable camera. Thank you so much for your coverage, Bradley. We're going to come to you. The week started off with a bang early Monday morning with a scathing statement over Colony Ridge from a Texas lawmaker. What happened? State Representative Ernest Bales, Republican from Shepherd, issued a punchy statement toward Governor Abbott on Monday morning, pointing the finger of blame for Colony Ridge at the governor. He said, quote, and in part, following Colony Ridge's creation,

I was asked by the developer to write a letter in support of designating Colony Ridge as an opportunity zone so that his development would be eligible for increased federal funding to promote growth of said development. He said that on Facebook. He continued, I refuse to do so. We couldn't handle the growth as it was and sure didn't need any more. This resulted in the developer making a $50,000 contribution to Governor Abbott, which brought him a sit-down lunch in the governor's mansion with Governor Abbott and his chief of staff. This same $50,000 bought the governor's settlement in Liberty County that a large but exactly unknown number of illegal immigrants live in. It's currently facing suit from the DOJ that alleges deceptive lending practices and has stretched the county's resources thin.

Bales then went on to criticize the governor over his school choice crusade. Bales is a target of that. He said Governor Abbott is expending an astronomical amount of resources this campaign cycle in order to unseat members who serve their districts instead of his will. Yeah. So what did Governor Abbott have to say in response to that pretty scathing situation there from a Republican lawmaker in the House? Yeah. He told Cameron at the Hickland event, Ernest Bales is very defensive right now because he's the one who created Colony Ridge that led to an influx of illegal immigrants in the area, and he did nothing about it. He himself seemed to get contributions based off it. Abbott said then he hit the rep over his voting record. Bales is definitely in the most moderate quartile of members in the House

based on the Mark P. Jones rating system. No stranger to a primary fight. Right. Yeah. He was here last cycle as well. He beat that one pretty handily, if I recall correctly. Abbott has received over $1.5 million from Colony Ridge's developers since 2017 compared to Bales's $1,800. So quite a difference between the pair there on the fundraising

issue involving Trey Harris, the developer of Colony Ridge. Yeah, absolutely. So why is Bales a target on this issue? So Colony Ridge is in his district, and he, along with Senator Robert Nichols back, I think in 2017, passed legislation that created a municipal management district and a municipal utility district for the development. Those, you remember me talking about this quite often, they're special purpose districts that create levels of debt and taxing authority from which to pay that off for essentially in perpetuity. And all that's done before there really is a tax base or a voter base there to approve it. It's a tricky situation.

I don't know how you fix this, but it's commonplace throughout the state, and it was done in this case. And notably, it was done with the support of the commissioner's board at the time. And so also have it sign the legislation. So there's plenty of blame to go around for this. But the reason Bales is getting the heat on this issue right now is Attorney General Paxton, back in October when this was a really big issue, wrote a letter blaming both Nichols and Bales for the creation of this MMD and then allowed Colony Ridge itself to crop up but he contends in that letter that mmds are meant to provide debt for renovating already developed areas not this undeveloped countryside that happened here now also a mud which is different from the MMD and is used to develop these undeveloped areas, was also part of this. Since then, they have been combined into just the MMD.

And oddly enough, the president of the MMD is Trey Harris, Colony Ridge developer. So that is why Bales is a target here, along with he's a target in the school choice issue. Janice Holt is running against him, and it's a pretty contentious race. And the governor is doing campaign stops in his district backing Holt. So this is just another issue, another part of the broader fight over the Texas House, really. Tangled web. Yep. Absolutely.

Bradley, thank you. Before we move on to our next stories, I want to say that today we are launching a new merch item folks this is very exciting if you sign up for a subscription to the texan you will now get a free remember the alamo baseball cap whoa thank you cameron is that exciting how cool is this hat it's so cool i wish i had one we maybe we can hook you up with that i don't know really we'll have to ask the guy in the corner over there. But it's available in multiple colors. I always get excited about our merch items, but specifically when I saw this one, Daniel will vouch for me.

I got very, very excited. I love the design. I think it's so awesome. It's kind of like the dad hat distressed look. Yeah. What characterizes it as a dad hat? Well, it's the curved bill. Oh, it's not like a flat bill situation.

Totally. A more classic baseball cap. The lower top. A lot of baseball caps these days give you three extra inches on the top of your head. I don't get it. I got to make it to six foot. Well, this hat will not get you to six foot, but it will look awesome. Yeah. So make sure to go and grab one of these at thetexan.news.

Daniel designed these beautifully. Definitely worth checking out. And Brad, would you model it for us? Definitely not. Cameron, would you? Bradley, would you model this for us? No. I thought maybe the second time would be a charm. No. Dang it. Well, I'll put it on. Everyone, this is

way too big for my head. This is such a good hat. I'm pumped about it. Cameron and I are wearing them, people. What do you think, Brad? It looks good on you, Cameron. Thanks. You should get one. Brad, how does it look? Looks okay on you. Thank you very much. I will take that as a severe compliment from you. Cameron, we're going to move on with our stories. The West Texas House District 72 has two very interesting candidates. I can't take you seriously as we're both looking at each other in our hats, v is showcasing the split in the Republican Party.

We have the more established candidate, incumbent Drew Darby, and a more local business owner, activist type individual was Stormy Bradley. And so Drew Darby, he has been more on the pro-public school side. The school choice issue will continue to come up with all of these elections. And we had a chance to reach out to both the Darby and Bradley campaigns. And one of the things that Darby had said is, this was actually during a campaign rally back in February. He was addressing some of the critics of his school choice vote because he had voted to remove ESAs. And additionally, he voted to impeach Paxton. But he addressed his critics saying, if we don't value teachers, then we don't value our education. And he went on to say that school choice proponents are,

quote, loud, but they don't vote. So interesting position taking there. Bradley, on the other hand, has been supported by Abbott. She's been supported by Ted Cruz because of her school choice position. Both Darby and Bradley, again, have pointed to the border as being their top priority if they were elected. And just one more insight into the school choice split between the candidates. When we were looking into Darby, his positions, he said, quote, voters who know me know that I am 100% supportive of any parent choosing where their child goes to school, but I do not support a voucher program that would give taxpayer handouts to illegal immigrants, create another entitlement, and defund our local rural schools. So just an interesting perspective there. Not

totally against parents choosing where their children are able to go to school, sort of carving out a more entitlement, anti-entitlement program stance on the school choice issue. So very interesting race, just for the fact too, that this is a incredibly large district. You know, it's an area larger than seven U.S. states. My gosh. Welcome to Texas, folks. Yeah, it's a big area, over 185,000 people. So we'll keep an eye on it as it's going along. Rural district by definition. Right.

Pretty good stuff. Cameron, thank you so much. Let's go to the federal side of things here for a second. Brad, we're coming to you. Congressman Colin Allred made a very interesting vote last week, especially in light of his bid for U.S. Senate. Tell us about it. Allred, who's carved out the more moderate lane in the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate, voted against a bill aimed at the Biden administration's pause on LNG export permits. That came out at the end of January, beginning of February. August Pfluger from West Texas, who authored the bill, said of it, Once again, President Biden is playing politics with the Permian Basin instead of unleashing American energy production,

which provides our allies abroad with a secure, affordable energy source. The president is kowtowing to the climate mob and restricting future energy exports. The bill would essentially strip the Department of Energy from the permit approval process, giving it over entirely to FERC, a different agency, and removing the DOE from that process. The bill's going nowhere. Democratic-controlled Senate's not going to pass this, I don't think. And even if they did, President Biden would veto, and highly doubt there's a veto-proof majority there. But it is a symbolic vote, an interesting given. Allred has been more moderate on the energy issue, at least in statements, if not

some votes previously. But now that he's running for Senate and in a contested primary, he's running against Gutierrez, State Senator Gutierrez, who is taking the more progressive lane. It's interesting that his vote on this has shifted a bit. And even though it's kind of a nothing bill, at least in so far as it's not going to go anywhere. Right. Which a lot of bills are. If it did pass, it would do something significant. Right.

But, yeah, just a very odd tactic there, I think. And maybe it comes back to bite him if he makes the general when he faces Senator Ted Cruz. Yeah. Matt alerted to this polling earlier, but talk to us about the polling and the race between these two Democrats. So we saw national public affairs polling, I think I mentioned on the last podcast, that had Cruz and Allred tied. Well, the new UT poll this week blows that out of the water. This is not, it's not that close of a race, but it is notable. Specifically, Allred's up 38 points on Gutierrez in primary, according to this one, and both of them are down 14 points to Ted Cruz in the general

election. 2018, it is not, neither in the amount of fundraising that's coming into the state for the Senate race, nor the electoral position, at least according to this poll. Bradley, I'm curious. We've seen in past cycles a lot of chatter about Texas turning blue. Do we think that this is going to be a year in which we continue to hear that from folks eager to see that change in Texas? Or do you think that narrative has gone by the wayside just due to the sheer results that we've seen in the last few years in the general election? I posted early voting numbers yesterday for day one. And despite there's a 30 percent increase from 2022, despite almost all of that being Republicans, I still saw comments about Texas turning blue in my mentions. So that's never going away.

The environment just isn't there like it was in 2018. You don't have a very unpopular incumbent Republican in the White House. In fact, you have the opposite. You have a very unpopular Democrat in the White House. And in midterms, that tends to go the other way, go towards the other party that doesn't hold the White House. And in midterms, that tends to go the other way, go towards the other party that doesn't hold the White House. Do you think this Texas turning blue idea, is there an opportunity, let's say, for Democrats to focus on recruiting this large influx of populations from California or New York that have come to Texas that might have voted one way in these more Democrat run cities and states when they come to California to vote Democrat again?

Or are those voters going to be- Oh, when they come to Texas? Yeah, when they come to Texas. Are they going to be voting Republican, do you think? Well, it brings to mind the exit poll from 2018. Yeah. And it showed it was actually the native Texans that supported Beto more than Cruz. And reverse for the recent transplants, especially from California.

In these polls, sometimes they ask, if you're not from Texas and you recently came here, where'd you come from? The largest number by a huge margin is california yeah so um no based on that they don't come and vote democrat democratic but you might see texas is getting a bit tighter now how much might be you know just, just tiny margins. Right. But the polling shows Donald Trump up seven, I think, on Joe Biden at the moment. Yes. And when you think of Texas, generally you think that's going to hit double digits for the Republican. And it might. Maybe it does.

John Cornyn eclipsed 10 percent in 2020. But Trump only won by, I think it was like 5.5 points or so so especially with him back on likely back on the ballot um it just it's a it's a totally different equation than just rank r versus d stuff trump adds a whole other factor to this. Right. No, it's not going to turn blue this season. I don't think. But my point is I think the narrative is diminishing a little bit right now. I think we're seeing that compared to 2020, even 2022.

Obviously, 2018 was kind of the peak of it all with Beto on the ballot and the Beto v. Cruz historic race that really was an unbelievable fundraising machine. We just haven't heard as much of that because I think folks are realizing, okay, if Texas does turn blue, this is quite a ways down the road that this would happen. And the people moving to Texas, according to a lot of the data that we have, are coming because they believe Texas has different values than the state that they live in. So native Texans, when I see the bumper stickers, don't California, my Texas, they don't have to worry about that. I think that's entire. I think that depends on where you live. And I think Austin's an entirely different story than the suburbs in Texas. I think there's a lot there. But overall, the data shows us something different than what we're hearing is the narrative.

Cameron, we're going to come to you with a pretty nuanced story here. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton now launched a lawsuit accusing a non-governmental organization, an NGO, of facilitating illegal immigration. Give us the details. Yeah, the NGO Annunciation House is a Catholic charity that in Kim Paxton's announcement, he says, after reviewing significant public record information, strongly suggests that this NGO is engaging in illegal violations, such as facilitating illegal entry into the United States, alien harboring, human smuggling, and operating a stash house. So you read that and your eyebrows go up. You're like, whoa, what is this? Especially if you're not familiar with how a lot of these NGOs operate in Latin

America. But there's been lots of reporting on this, and I'll get into a little bit of that. But the organization Annunciation House, they issued their own statement. They called the accusations unfounded. And they said, if the work that Annunciation House conducts is illegal, so too is the work of our local hospitals, schools, and food banks. And according to the organization's website, they say they have hosted over 500,000 migrants, refugees, and immigrants from over 40 countries. And digging into this just a little bit, in 2022, Abbott had requested Paxton to investigate the role of NGOs in facilitating illegal immigration into the country. And the Center for Immigration Studies has actually produced reports about how the Biden administration and the United Nations, the UN, have, quote, poured taxpayer money into NGOs, this including Catholic, Lutheran, Seventh-day Adventist groups. And this is done according to the Center for Immigration Studies. They say it's what they

focus on mainlining taxpayer funds to these groups, which then distribute them to keep hundreds of thousands of migrants comfortably moving toward illegal U.S. southern border crossings. And so if you look into where that money is coming from and where it's going, over the past year, the State Department, their Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration, the PRM, and the United States Agency for International Development, the USAID, have allocated $1.4 billion to international organization for migration. So digging, it's a shocking announcement, investigating an NGO for facilitating illegal immigration. We have the organization that is being accused saying it's

unfounded. But once you dig into the numbers and see why these accusations might be bubbling up now, it's because there's lots of money coming from the federal government to these groups that help bring these individuals through Latin America to the southern border. So it's not as if the accusations are unfounded. There is lots of reporting on this. It's just about the legality or illegality of the actions this group has taken. Yeah, absolutely. Cameron, thank you so much for breaking that down for us. Bradley, coming to you, another poll we alluded to earlier.

Let's chat about it now. Release this week showing massive leads for Trump in both the primary and even in the general, too, in Texas. Give us the details. So this one touched on a lot of different topics. It included the Senate race that we talked about, but it's the UT Texas politics project in the presidential in Texas. It has Trump up on Nikki Haley. Seventy one points that Trump is up is not a surprise. He has been the whole time. 71 points is pretty steep. 71 points, yeah. That's a lot.

Yeah. 80 to 9. 80 to 9. In a general election matchup in the state, Trump is also up on Biden. Seven points, as I mentioned. While I think this is the most interesting part of this section of the poll, Haley's down nine in Texas. Now, would that

come to fruition if she managed to win and she was the only option against Biden? Probably not. But that is very surprising that even a pretty standard Republican, at least if we're talking 15 years ago, at least politically, you know, is down to a Democrat in the state. That's very shocking. Now you're saying the difference in this poll right now is that Trump is still an option in the back of people's minds. Right. Right. Exactly. Whereas if she was the only choice.

Yes. You think that this would be changed quite a bit. Yeah. But this probably indicates it might be close. And I don't know, maybe it would change drastically. But at least right now, people in Texas, Republicans in Texas are not very sold on Nikki Haley. Yeah, I'm wondering in that poll, in the Biden-Haley matchup, did it give a third candidate as an option? Like were people thinking, oh, maybe RFK would be on the back? Not in the Biden-Haley matchup.

It had someone else, the category someone else. I forget the exact number. It did have RFK at six in a matchup with Trump and Biden, along with Jill, the Green Party candidate. Yeah. Forget her name. Jill Stein. Jill Stein.

She's back on the ballot again. And so that one had RFK, but for some reason they didn't also pull RFK with Haley. I'm just wondering if people who are so enthused with casting their ballot for Trump, they would rather vote for RFK than for Haley, even if it was Haley versus Biden. Yeah, even with Trump in the back of their minds. Yeah. Interesting. You never know. Maybe.

And then some other interesting points. It had fave on fave for various officials in the states. And I'll just run through those quickly. John Cornyn's at a net minus five. Ted Cruz is at a net plus eight. Abbott at plus 16. Patrick at plus eight. Speaker Phelan at net minus three. Ken Paxton at net plus four. And the Texas legislature as a whole at plus eight. Abbott continues to have the highest ratings, favorability ratings in the state. Something that has changed quite drastically, I think, from four years ago when we were in the pandemic.

It's a different world politically, and Abbott is performing very well. And I think probably him being the face of the border resistance is definitely influencing that. And, hey, maybe it makes him a dark horse VP candidate. Really? It's certainly possible. Interesting. Okay. That's it.

That's it. Well, we are coming to Matthew next. Bradley, thank you, by the way. You're so welcome. Okay, great. Matt, let's talk about Harris County here for a second. You graciously covered a story for Holly as she takes so much deserved time off this week. Voters in Harris County, this includes most of Houston, will be selecting a district attorney this election cycle. And a new poll shows local

Democrat voters likely favor a challenger to the incumbent who has fought a lot of internal battles with her own party locally, but who is seeking reelection. Give us the details. A new poll by the University of Houston shows incumbent District Attorney Kim Ogg trailing challenger Sean Teer in the Democratic primary. According to the poll, which was conducted earlier this month via text message, to 1,400 voters who are likely to vote in the Democratic primary, tiers leading by 38 percentage points, or 59% of the respondents to only 21% who were favoring Og, and 20% of those voters remain undecided in the race. Ogg has been under fire from her local Democratic Party, which passed a resolution admonishing her for taking actions such as high-cash bail for minor crimes, attacking Democratic judges,

producing a report on the consequences of bail reform, and undermining a gun violence prevention program, as well as indicting County Judge Lena Hildago's staffers over allegations of rigging a bid for a COVID-19 vaccine outreach contract. In addition, her opponent is out fundraising her, notably with the assistance of a political action committee associated with billionaire George Soros, which the PAC has drawn considerable media attention for its influence on local prosecutor races in Texas. The poll also covered several other Harris County races, including the incumbent sheriff and county attorney races, who indicated that they were ahead in their reelection bids. And of course, you can get all the full details on the margin of errors and everything about the statistics of the polls

over at our story on the Texan. Matt, thank you for covering this. We appreciate it. Well, Kim Roberts, I think, said somewhere on social media this week, one of our awesome reporters, she said, man, it's 80 degrees in February. This is ridiculous or something along those lines. And it is wild. It is wild to see 80 degree weather here. We're actually getting up to close to 90, I think, in Austin today, which is just wild. And Brad's wearing a down vest. So we'll see how he fares later today. It's light. It's light. It's light. Sure. Okay, folks. Cameron, we're coming to you. Another DA's race here to talk about. Many have really pointed at DA Jose Garza here in Travis County as being a reason for many of the crime-related issues here in Austin, kind of being the crux of that argument.

He is a challenger for the office in the Democratic primary. Tell us about this race. And we have some familiar names, too, from what Matt just talked about in his segment. Yeah. And so Garza, he's positioned himself really as a progressive in office. When he first assumed the office in 2021, he won by almost 70 percent over the Republican that ran against him. And in the lead up to the initial election that put him in the DA's office, public safety was still a top of mind for many in that race. And he actually told the Texas Observer that he thought the criminal justice system is broken. And so since he assumed office, he's reopened abuse of force investigations

against Austin Police Department officers. He's continued that progressive policy push with issuing guidance on how to reduce over-incarceration through a modification of the county's bail and sentencing strategy. Then in May 2020, there was the anti-police protests and riots. Garza wrote a letter asking for the U.S. Department of Justice to open an inquiry into the Austin Police Department. He's caught the ire of many in law enforcement because of his actions, and he was actually accused of

suppressing evidence in the July 2020 shooting death of protester Garrett Foster that ended with the conviction of Daniel Perry. So he's been involved in many high profile cases here in Travis County. And actually, there was a citizen petition that attempted to oust him from the office, singling out his actions towards law enforcement as a reason for that petition being filed. And he has a challenger, a fellow Democrat, but someone who has positioned themselves as more moderate. And that's Jeremy Silestine. And he spent 15 years in the Travis County DA's office, but ended up leaving for what he says. He noticed things were moving in the wrong direction. And although Garza has, you know, when Garza initially ran, he got the Soros money that Matt mentioned as well that gets spread around. But when we checked the finance reports, there was no Soros money on the campaign finance reports this time around.

But Garza does have all the support of the Democrat organizations and groups. Silestine did get a bit of a soft endorsement from Elon Musk on Twitter. I thought this was interesting. Someone posted on X a characterization of Garza as being a radical Soros DA and stating U.S. cities don't need to be dangerous. And Musk responded with, absolutely. So kind of signaling to people that Garza and Celestine in that matchup, people should essentially vote him out.

But, yeah, so it's an interesting race for sure. For sure. No kidding. Soros funded DAs all over the place. Yeah. I think in his last race and in the few ballot proposition fights that have occurred, the money from Soros hasn't come directly to Garza. It's come through Equity Austin, and they then advocate on behalf of Garza. Actually, I think he did get some direct funding back in 2020,

but they've kind of moved away from that and into this. They fund a PAC, which then funds, either gives him money or conducts in-kind contributions on digital advertising or mailers things like that so i don't know that's the case this time you looked into it i didn't but um that's generally the direction they've gone on that kind of thing yeah wild stuff bradley cameron thank you so much let's move on to our tweetery section here gentlemen bradley we're going to start with you. What did you see on Twitter this week?

Is it from you? It is from me. Are you referencing yourself on the pod? Yeah. I'm doing that thing you hate. So I mentioned Governor Abbott held a Get Out the Vote event with Ellen Troxler, and he did a press gaggle afterwards. He went and cast his early vote in Bee Cave and he did a press gaggle afterwards. He went and cast his early vote in B-Cave and then did a press gaggle.

One of the things I asked him was about Dade Phelan's primary fight against David Covey that's really going to be ground zero for a lot of this clash in the Texas House on March 5th. And the answer just on its face doesn't really tell you a lot, but underneath, I think it does. He said, I asked him what he thinks about the dogfight in HG21. He said, listen, on all these races, it looks like in the House, they're going to be close. These are highly contested races, and we'll see how that works out. Governor not taking a stance he's not jumping in like dan patrick is explicitly campaigning for david covey but he's also not playing defense for dade feel on the speaker yeah and i think that tells a lot maybe this race ends

up being close um who would have thought that you know five months ago that would have thought that, you know, five months ago. That would have been very shocking. But there's been whispers of polling, nothing put out publicly. And I don't know. It's going to be interesting to see the results roll in on March 5th. I do think it's fair to say that obviously the lieutenant governor has much more willingness or motivation to go against the speaker than the governor does. Right. I mean, this is a ever since. Honestly, it's been way before this last legislative cycle, but specifically in this legislative cycle, they have been at war the entire time, really trying to make sure that their chamber or their leadership is given the credit they feel they deserve for different policy outcomes that they may agree in large part on, but not entirely. The devil's in the details, right?

Yes. And the credit is really important to these folks in political circles. And that's where a lot of this contention comes from. And school choice has been a big part of that as well, not to mention the crazy property tax fight. So within the governor and the speaker, no love lost between them. They've been very combative over all of this. Impeachment really ramped all of that up to 11. Now, the governor has a little bit of a different motivation in engaging with these kinds of races, right? Regardless of who wins in House District 21 with the speaker and Covey going head to head, he will have to work with that person. And he does not have as much motivation to go specifically on the school choice issue to bat as he does in other races where votes are cast by folks or comments are made that directly oppose his legislative priority. And also, as you said, that school choice is the issue for Abbott in this primary stuff.

And the speaker, he didn't vote against. He didn't vote to strip ESAs. He also didn't vote for it. He didn't vote at all on that. And he's voted on big issues before. The speaker is kind of in the middle on this issue. He's not, from my understanding, he doesn't believe that his constituents really care about it that much, at least in terms of the broader scope. You know, there's the poll that's talked about in every district on the gauge on school choice

or not in the primary from 22. But the speaker has not really pushed the envelope one way or the other. And that may be why Abbott is, you know, playing a little hands off on this, but also why he's not jumping in and defending Dane Phelan. Yeah, absolutely. And the Speaker does have a unique situation in which he represents a small district of folks, just as any House member does.

And then he goes to the Texas House during the legislative session and has to wrangle 149 members to pass different things and operate the House and keep his majority at the end of the day. So it's very different from a statewide elected official like losing the governor or the governor. Thank you, Brad.

What did you see on Twitter this week? Well, I'm going to pull a Brad and reference one of my own tweets. And that is an update in a story that I actually mentioned previously in the podcast. We have been covering an ongoing legal issue regarding one of the candidates for Court of Criminal Appeals, that is candidate Lee Finley. He is involved in an ongoing legal dispute with banks over defaulting on a mortgage payment for a home that he owns jointly with his wife. The update is that after a state district judge ruled against them and held them liable for defaulting on the mortgage and ordered the Collin County constable to seize the home, the Finleys appealed the case to the state's Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, where attorneys for both sides are presently arguing the case. Central to Finley's argument is that a key page in the mortgage

agreement called a fair market value agreement was not signed by the bank's representative. Essentially, this update filed this past week reemphasizes the argument that because this key page was not signed, the lien is enforceable under the Texas Constitution and the banks have no way to seize and sell the house to recover the defaulted mortgage. So once again, we noted in our previous coverage that this case will likely be unresolved before the March 5th primary elections. But as filings continue to occur in the case and the case proceeds on, we'll continue to cover the arguments. Awesome stuff, Matt. Well, thank you so much. Well, gentlemen, thanks for joining me on another episode. I appreciate it. Thanks for doing it with the cameras in your face, Brad. thank you so much well gentlemen thanks for joining me on another episode i appreciate it thanks for doing the cameras in your face brad thank you so much

for modeling the hat so well you're welcome i don't understand why you didn't want to because this hat is also your preferred cap style yes yes nothing else to add to that no explanation i have no well i have an explanation i'm not going to say it on the podcast whatever fine well folks thank you for listening make sure you go to the texan news get your remember the alamo hat right now today subscribe to the texan we appreciate you and we'll catch you next week. 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.news. Tune in next week for another episode of our weekly roundup. God bless you and God bless Texas.