The Texan Podcast - Weekly Roundup - February 6, 2026

Episode Date: February 6, 2026

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.Democrat Taylor Rehmet Wins Special Election for GOP-Stronghold Senate District 9Menefee Wins Special Election Runoff for Houston-Area Congressional DistrictRepublicans Blame Poor Turnout for Loss of Texas Senate Stronghold, Democrats Claim Win on IssuesHere's a Look at Texas' Biggest Primary Races One Month Before the ElectionTexas Democrats Celebrate Strategy in State Senate Victory, Look Forward to NovemberDemocrats Running for Texas Attorney General Vow to Reform Office Post-PaxtonLatest U.S. Senate Campaign Finance Reports Show Cornyn Leading in Cash on Hand, Talarico and Crockett with Strong Hauls Thousands of Texas Public School Students Participated in Anti-ICE Protests During School HoursFirst Lawsuit Filed Under Texas’ New Chemical Abortion Pill Crackdown LawThousands of Texas Students Apply for Education Savings Accounts on Opening DayFBI Houston Investigation Leads to Canadian National’s Guilty Plea for Sexually Exploiting Over 100 ChildrenInterview: The Texas Education Agency's New Inspector General for Educator Misconduct Levi Fuller

regardless of whether or not we were injured is one thing. Are you trying to say, you don't think that we can lift that much weight? What are you trying to say, McKenzie? You don't know what we do? I know. You don't know what Kim can lift? Come on. You know what Mary Lisa is doing in her spare time?

You're so right. Yeah, I mean, I'm such an exercise fiend. How do folks? And welcome to another edition of the Texans Weekly Roundup. I'm McKenzie here with Mary Elise, Kim, Kim, and Meredith. Ladies, we have a big sports weekend ahead of us. This is, you know, this goes out on Friday, opening ceremony for the Olympics is going on tonight. I don't know about y'all, but I'm getting so much content on my social media from American

athletes already in Italy, ready to go. They're showing the garb that they got. They're Ralph Lauren, like Team USA sponsored stuff. They're opening ceremony out of it, like all these really awesome preview videos that I'm just seeing constantly. I'm so excited about it. I can't even explain. And of course, on Sunday, the Seahawks are in the Super Bowl, which is a really big deal. It's huge. Thank you, Mary Lees. It's huge. I can't wait. I'm so excited. Grop in Seattle. But Meredith, we kind of discussed this a little bit. You grew up in

Seattle as a well, small world. Look at us both here in Texas. But you are not invested in the Seahawks at all. I'm not. I will be in Seattle on Sunday, though. So the whole world there will be very invested. So I'll probably, I think I'll watch it. But no, not a football family. Oh, unreal. And to me in Seattle on Super Bowl Sunday, like Seattle is a sports town. Like we care deeply about our sports.

And so I just know, I just know what it's going to feel like there on Super Bowl weekend. So please like soak it in for me. That's what I ask. Yeah, Seahawks fans are crazy. One of my favorite, I don't even like football. One of my favorite memories is I was on a. fairy with a friend who is a, oh my gosh, Packers fan. Like, they're diehard. And the whole fairy filled up with Seahawks fans on the way to the game. And she was like, and I just thought it was

funny because I don't really, I don't care either way. But that was, yeah, they're crazy. Are you at least rooting for them? Like, over-dance. Okay. I love Seattle. I just, I don't like football. That's a problem in Texas. I know, but I don't care of you. Big problem, Meredith. I know. I like hate football. Actually, I know. Can I, can I, am I fired? Is that going to hate football? Is that my fireable offense?

Oh, my goodness. I know. That's what else. I mean, given the Cowboys drought for 30 years, I will just say that they performed well at the Pro Bowl. Look at that. CD and George Pickens and Jake Ferguson and Dak Prescott were all there. And the NFC won the Pro Bowl.

So that's my little. Yay for the Cowboys. That's about all we get this season. You got to take it. And I convinced you to root for the Seahawks, right? That's right, because it doesn't take much to root against the Patriots. Amen. Amen. Mary Lees, do you have any stake in this? Do I need to convert you to a temporary Seahawks fan at the very least? Well, since the Steelers are in the Super Bowl, I'm not super invested nor very interested. but I will say the whole Super Bowl atmosphere and event itself is very exciting.

So on Sunday I'll enjoy hanging out with my family and everybody for the Super Bowl, but I'm not as invested in the particular teams. Although I will say I do have kind of the subconscious distaste for the Patriots. So I might be kind of on the same page as Kim and have to kind of root for the Seahawks. Okay. I'll take it. I will take it. I think that's what I'm seeing some of those like maps on Twitter where it shows all the states that are rooting for which team. And a lot of them are like, you know, they have a little, they have New England corner.

It's rooting for the Patriots. It just cracks me up. But we'll see. We'll see what happens. It's going to be an interesting game, an interesting matchup. And I think the Seahawks are favored. So, which doesn't mean anything. I don't buy into me of that ahead of the game.

I just can't get on. I just hope it's a good game. A lot of times Super Bowls are either blowouts or really boring. It needs to be a good, tight game. I totally agree. I think Kim's love for football makes up for my hatred. I love football. I love football.

Baseball season is the interim between football seasons. Kim kind of keeps us up to date, too. Yeah. On things that we may miss. I think we all have our corners of the sports world we care about. But Kim kind of has a breadth of knowledge. Keep us up today. Well, speaking, oh, go Marylees.

I was just going to say, I love on Monday mornings, usually Kim will just have a quick update about, usually the Cowboys. But I love it because I had no idea. And then Monday morning, it's like, oh, okay, and I have a little bit of a better idea what's going on. All right. I'm glad I'm here to serve. The Texans sports reporter.

Kim Roberts. Oh, my gosh. I've pitched that to Connie, but it haven't gotten there yet. I haven't gotten the approval. Don't have it. Well, Kim, let's chat with you here. This is kind of, you know, on the theme of team of team sports. Let's talk about this special election runoff in North Texas.

This was a huge deal over the weekend, of course, you know, a separate election entirely from the primaries. We saw the first special election in November. What was the result in Senate District 9? Well, let me start a little bit with background that Senate District 9 is a giant district that takes up a large portion of Tarrant County, and it was the subject of a special election because former Senator Kelly Hancock left office to become the acting Texas controller of public accounts. And so Governor Greg Abbott called a special election for November.

It was what some referred to as a jungle primary because any candidate could jump in, and in fact three candidates jumped in, two Republicans and a Democrat. And I just want to point out that notably this is a very Republican-leaning district. Our Texas Partisan Index score has it at R-60%. So in November, no one candidate got a majority of the votes, though the Democrat Taylor Remit came very close. He got 47% in November. So there was then a runoff scheduled for January 31st between Democrat Taylor-Rimitt

and Republican Lee Wamskons. So in what many considered a surprise upset for a right-leaning district that Trump won by 17 points in 2024, Remit defeated Wamskons by 14 points in the runoff. He led in early voting returns, and Wamskons really never made up the ground. Remit will fill the seat just during this interim, but the seat is up for election again in November. And the two will face each other again because they are each the only candidate running in their respective primaries in March. So we'll see this again in November. And I'm sure the Republicans hope for a different outcome.

And the Democrats are counting on it. We'll talk about that a little bit more later. Yeah, absolutely. There's a lot. There are many dynamics at play in this race. And we'll talk about that more later. The other special election that, you know, was a big deal on Saturday night was in the Houston area. I'd encourage folks to go read Holly Hanson's reporting to get the latest on all this,

but I'll give a quick rundown. This was Christian Menafee versus Amanda Edwards, a very anticipated matchup in this seat. Now there was certainly controversy as well. This is Sylvester Turner's former seat, and he passed away, and the seat had remained empty for a while, and Democrats across Texas and across the nation had petitioned to the governor, hey, please set a special election date, set a special election date. The governor finally did. It was kind of in the same timetable as SD9 here. And we saw Christian Menifee win. This was a 67% win. He won by 67 or with 67% the margin was significant. Certainly a big win for him. The Democrats, I mean, a lot of the conversation right now in a Democratic primary is very different from what we're seeing in SC9, but has to do with impeaching Christy Knoam. You know, the ICE conversation of all that's happening to deportations will happen in Minneapolis. Those are big talking points in this. Now, what's interesting about this race as well as this Congressional of the 13 is after redistricting, Christian Menafee now will be up against several other Democratic candidates and Al Green being one of them, an incumbent congressman. And so this will be a very interesting race to watch going forward because of that reshuffling and that GOP favored map that was passed mid, you know, mid-decade redistricting effort by the Republicans in Texas, largely at the behest of President Trump. So we'll

watch and see how this happens or what happens specifically with this race, but it will be very interesting to see this matchup continue through, you know, primary season into the general, of course. But go read Holly Hanson's reporting and on election nights, especially as we head into the primary, don't forget about our war room, which is a one-stop campaign election stop for everything related to campaign finance reports, polling races, coverage from our team. It'll really be. does compile all the hottest races. So the race is not on there. It's likely either decided already or not that hot of our race. These are the ones to watch that we have listed on our website. We also have the Texas Partisan Index, which is incredibly helpful. If you're looking at your district,

you're looking at your ballot and you're saying, okay, I'm in House District 45. What's the partisan makeup of this district? If I vote for a Democrat, if I vote for a Republican, what will that look like in terms of election day and the favoritism of these parties and the demographics? it will tell you all that information. So go check that out at the texan. com, let's talk a little bit more about SD9, because this is what is taking up a lot of the oxygen in the room, not just in Texas.

It's taking up almost all the oxygen in Texas, but nationally too. It's won by a Democrat. You talked about the margin, why that's so interesting and a landmark victory for them. Well, what's the reaction been like after that result? Without a doubt,

this victory by the Democrats in this republic, Republican-leaning district has stirred up a lot of conversation, speculation, and debate about the reasons why. And he won by a large margin. First thing to note was that President Donald Trump had endorsed the Republican candidate Lee Wams-Ga-WOMS in the race and had posted a truth social, truth, I guess they call them, about urging people to get out and vote for WOMS GANS on Saturday. But then when a reporter asked President Trump about the...

defeat on Sunday, he didn't seem to remember the race and claimed he had nothing to do with it. So that was an interesting development. Some speculate that a candidate tying themselves to President Trump right now, given his popularity ratings, and is that his endorsement might do more harm than good. So that's one speculation. Remit himself posited in his victory statement that he won because he won because he won because, of the issues, that he won the voters over by talking about things they cared about, like public education funding, affordable housing, and good-paying jobs. And I'll mention this now, but again

later, that this candidate had extreme message discipline. He really did. He's also a union member and union leader, and the Texas AFL-CIO put out a statement claiming that his relateability as a blue-collar union member really connected with voters. So they claim that they really won on the issues. Now, turning to Republicans, they have primarily been making an argument that it was a matter of turnout. That turnout was low and Republicans didn't get out to vote. Now, we did have an ice storm in North Texas during early voting, and it prevented voters from getting out for a couple of those days because early voting sites were shut down due to the ice.

But 50,000 people got out to vote on Saturday, January 31st, and so the overall turnout for the election was about 15% of the registered voters in the district, which is actually pretty high for an off-time election. A lot of times these types of elections runoffs and off-time elections bring out single-digit voters. Just by comparison, the election you just talked about in CD-18 had about six. percent turnout compared to the 15 percent in Tarrant County. So that's just for people to note. This was quite high for a runoff in a special election. Wamskons pointed to turnout and she's claiming that she believes the outcome will be different in November because turnout will be better in November. Now notably, her former opponent in the November election, John Huffman, who was the other Republican on the ballot in November and he took about 19,000 votes. He said in a post on social media that Wamskahn's campaign didn't really make much of an

effort to reach out to his voters and try to win them over to her. She said on Mark Davis's radio show that that was not true, that her campaign reached out to all Republicans multiple times during the time between November and January. So that's out there. Terrant County Republican Chair Tim Davis replied to some questions by the Texan. He again pointed to turn out, but he also pointed out to the importance of Republicans working together and supporting the nominee in November. He's really trying to get the message across that Republicans really need to unite and support the nominee in November. Now, I live in SD-9. I live in Senate District 9, so I happen to have a different perspective because I get to hear what local residents are saying and kind of the

banter about what happened and a lot of online comments in groups I'm in were about this issue that came up a very localized issue about Keller ISD and Keller makes up a substantial portion of of the district and last year the Keller ISD board came under some controversy for proposing this detachment plant to possibly detach a portion of the west side of Keller ISD and make two districts. instead of one. And a lot of residents really got up in arms, did not like that plan. And apparently they kind of laid some of the blame at the feet of Lee Wamskons, who used to be the head of the Patriot Mobile Action, the PAC, that helped back some of these Keller ISD board members. So because she led the PAC that supported these board members that proposed this

detachment plan, they laid this detachment plan at her feet. And all I'll say is that the map kind of backs that up. When you look at the voting map for SD9 runoff, areas that were red in 2024 were blue this time in Keller ISD, especially that western portion that would have been detached. So take that what you will, but that's one of the arguments being made locally. And so many different dynamics of play in this race. And the map is very interesting. So what does that mean for November? Who knows? I think we're all going to be tuned in watching what's going on there at SD9 and fun that you're

local to be able to watch all of it go down. I'm sure you were getting, you know, no shortage of ads and mailers and all sorts of different campaign materials sent to your home. So, Kim, thank you so much for all. And phone calls and everything, direct mail, everything. Yeah, wild. Thank you for your coverage. Mary Lisa, let's talk about the primary season's less than a month away now.

You wrote a story on some of the major races that Texans should be watching ahead of March 3rd. Walk us through the top lines. Yeah, and these are, of course, races that we've covered quite extensively on this podcast and just in general writing about them. But it might be a helpful reminder just to kind of a little bit of a recap, since we are now less than a month away from the primary election, which is on March 3rd. And so that's when we're going to have members from Republican Democratic Party going after each other. It's, of course, heating up a whole lot right now as we're just getting ever closer to this primary,

both for the Democrats and both for the Republicans as they kind of take different shots as their fellow party members who are running for the same office. So, of course, at the top of the ballot, we have the U.S. Senate race, which is a very high-profile race, of course. we've got incumbent U.S. Senator John Cornyn, and then he's facing Republican challengers, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, and then Congressman Wesley Hunt. The big thing with this race that it's appeared that all of the Republican candidates are really looking for is an endorsement from President Donald Trump. And that's something over the past couple of months that's been floated several times

and people say, oh, Trump is about to issue an endorsement shortly. So he has not yet, and at different points he kind of indicated that maybe he's would stay out of the race. And more recently, he suggested that he might be endorsing in this U.S. Senate race. So I'll have to keep an eye out for that. But that is something that's been floated several times and suggested that he'd be endorsing. But all the candidates appear to be, you know, really vying for that endorsement in this race. So that's Cornyn, Paxton, and Hunt. And then, of course, we have, since Paxton is running for U.S. Senate, this leaves the Texas Attorney General seat up for election.

So we've got several high-profile candidates that are preparing to face one another Republican candidates specifically, including a congressman Chip Roy, and then former DOJ appointee, Aaron Wrights, and then two state senators, Joan Huffman and Mace Middleton. And so they'll all be facing each other in this Republican primary for the Texas Attorney General race. Paxton has endorsed Wrights as his successor, and then Senator Ted Cruz has actually thrown his support behind Roy. There's a lot of connections here with all these individuals. Roy was Cruz's first chief of staff, and Wrights also served as Cruz's chief of staff before he headed to the DOJ.

So a lot of ties here between all these candidates, these Republican candidates for Texas Attorney General. Then we've got the Democratic side of the U.S. Senate race, of course, which has been particularly heating. up in recent days. So we've got state representative James Tallarico and then Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett. So they're facing off at the primary race. There wasn't something that kind of got the attention of a lot of people involved in Texas politics, but also at the national level since this is a U.S. Senate race. Former Congressman Colin All Red posted a video on social media where he endorsed Crockett and he addressed some allegations that had been raised about something that Tala Rico had said. It was suggested that Tala Rico had told somebody that he hadn't planned to run against,

or that he had planned, excuse me, to run against a mediocre black man suggesting not to be all red. And he didn't expect to be running against Crockett, a formidable, intelligent black woman. And so that was shared in a series of TikTok videos by a young woman. And as that got attention, Congressman Colin Al Red made a video addressing it. A very fiery video, kind of atypical for Allred, where he really attacked Talleyko, recommended him for this alleged statement that Tala Rico made, and then also through his support behind Crockett. And as we've covered before, Al-Read was the, of course,

2024 Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate. And then he dropped his 2026 bid for the U.S. Senate the same day that Crocket announced that she in early December was going to be running for U.S. Senate. So in this video, Allred shared, you know, I've heard this statement and just had some really strong words for Tala Rico and then ultimately said, we can't have him be our Democratic nominee. we need Crockett to be the one that we vote as our Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate. So there's an interesting progression here.

We also saw today that Tala Rico released really the first negative ad against Crockett. And that's pretty notable because there was reports out that Crockett was planning to release a series of attack ads. I think Punchable News reported that first. And that was notable because up until now, it's been pretty friendly between Crockett and Taurico, relatively calm. When they debated recently, it was pretty calm. There were just a couple jabs here and there, but nothing too crazy. So this is Tala RICO. This was a, excuse me, it was a political action committee that put out this ad, but it's from the pro-Taleroco camp.

And so that's notable because it was specifically negative towards Crockett instead of just advancing Tala RICO and his policies. Moving on to the lieutenant governor race, Dan Patrick will not be facing the major Republican challengers come March, but he is thinking about the general. He will be facing a Democratic candidate in November, and that will either be state representative Vicki Goodwin or she'll be running against assistant director of United Steelworkers, Marcos Veles, and so that depends on the results with Democratic primary. One more that I'll mention here that we'll be seeing during the primary. It's more contentious is the Texas Agriculture Commissioner race.

And we've written about that. I believe Meredith's covered Governor Abbott's endorsement of neat sheets over incumbent Sid Miller. Abbott and Miller's relationship goes way back. They've had longstanding political tension. You can read about more on our site. But Governor Abbott did endorse sheets. And so that was kind of a big update in this Texas agriculture commissioner race. So there's a couple more races that we've weaved into this piece.

So if you'd like just kind of a brief update reminder, what will be going on next month? You can check it out. But, yeah, we are officially less than a month away from the primary. Absolutely. And another stateway Republican who jumped in to support sheets was land commissioner Don Buckingham as well. So very interesting to watch some Republicans statewide go against the incumbent, their fellow statewide elected Republican.

So great coverage, Mary Elise, as always. Can we have more to talk about with SD9? And let's talk about, you know, November for the Democrats after this SD9 victory in North Texas. Tell us what you learned. There's a press call that the Democrats held, the, you know, the operatives and the political and campaign apparatus of the Democratic Party held a press call. What did they have to say? Absolutely. So on Tuesday morning after the election.

on Saturday, the Texas Majority PAC, which is a PAC dedicated to electing statewide Democrats, and then the Texas Democratic Party held this joint press call to review the results of the Senate District 9 race, the strategies they had used, and the lessons they think they can take away that may apply in November. Just Texas Democratic Party chair, Kendall Scudder, said Saturday was a testament to the great things Texas Democrats can accomplish when we work together. And they really spent a lot of time talking about their joint efforts between the local party, the statewide party, this Texas Majority Pack, other county parties jumped in to help. There was kind of an all-hands-on-deck strategy to attacking Senate District 9. And that resulted in them knocking

on more than 20,000 doors, making 1.5 million phone calls and sending 300,000 texts. So that, They really put a lot of energy, effort, and time into reaching the voters of Senate District 9. And as I mentioned previously, Scudder also pointed out that Remit was a great candidate to have, with message discipline, that he really focused his issues on things like public education funding, housing affordability, and good paying jobs. And he really steered clear of issues that are more controversial within the Democratic Party like LGBTQ kind of issues, abortion rights, things like that that might be more divisive. So where the Democrats had often focused in the past on just their voters and trying to get them out to vote, they really focused across the spectrum this time. Catherine Fisher, who leads the Texas Majority Pact, talked a lot about their strategy. And she said that they really focused in on these John Huffman voters, the 19,000 I mentioned, voted for John Huffman in the fall.

They really reached out to them, and she said they got a significant response from those voters. They said that about 10 percent said that they were leaning toward remit after the November election. So they really tried to work on reaching them multiple times between November and January to try to win them over to rem it. And the Democrats' efforts also include paid programming. They ran several significant negative ads against Lee Wamskons, the Republican candidate. She said two of the most effective ads were one tying her to President Trump, and then second, pointing to some controversial comments that they had found that she allegedly had made against some protesters back during the sort of George Floyd situation in 2020. Was that 2020?

Gosh, that's been a long time. It also, they also paid Tarrant County residents just to talk to their friends and family about voting for Remit and what they believed was at stake in this election and why they were going to. support remit in the election. So that was another of their paid programming. Fisher also noted that where Hispanic voters had swung toward Trump in 2024, they swung back the other way this time by as much as 30 to 50 points in certain precincts within Senate District 9. So she doesn't think that while whereas Republicans have kind of been arguing that maybe Hispanics have moved to the Republican side. She doesn't believe that's true necessarily. She thinks that they'll shift back and that that puts several congressional districts across

the state into play, including Congressional District 9, which is over in the Houston area, and then 35 and 23, which are both in the San Antonio, Central Texas area. So they believe that those are at play. She also argued that money can't win. Money alone can't win, in other words. The Republicans outspent the Democrats in Senate District 9 by quite a margin, although both poured plenty of money into the race. There was no shortage of campaign finance in this race.

But the Republicans did spend more, but she pointed out that there was a ceiling on what spending can do, that it can't win the race alone. And just coming back to the Trump connection, like I said, President Trump had endorsed Lee Wamskons. That didn't seem, that didn't push her over the edge. And they believe that they named specifically that if Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is at the top of the ballot for the U.S. Senate seat with his ties to the Trump administration, like he's, you know, done a lot of work against the Biden administration and in favor of the Trump administration, filing lawsuits and stuff, that they. will have what they called a massive opportunity to compete at the statewide level. So some very interesting, of course it was a Democratic strategy call, so that's what we heard.

But it was some pretty interesting insights into way they're thinking and some of the strategies they're planning to use. So I was glad to listen in on that and learn some of that information. I hope our readers will look at the article. There's more there. There is. And I think him to your point watching how Trump won and why he was. and how the Democrats had sort of two different ways they could go and still will see what happens

when, you know, midterms actually roll around and we're finished with the primaries, specifically here in Texas how they message. But this in large part really goes to show that a lot of the messaging that happened and that Kamala Harris and Donald Trump matchup, the Democrats were so ardent about, did not work. And this did, at least an SD9 in a special election, which, again, we can, you know, go on and on about how special elections are not real life. But can they be an indicator for trends and sentiments in local districts? Absolutely. So how this will turn out in November, who knows?

Will this be a bloodbath and Republicans will, you know, see significant losses? Who knows? I think, of course, midterms of the Republican in the White House are not usually favorable to the, you know, the party in the White House. So we expect that, but the margins will be the interesting part, right? Will there be significant wins or just encroachment on margins? Yeah. And I think another thing that I thought about after the call was, you know, they poured a lot into this race. And they can't do that with every race across the state. They just can't take everybody's resources and pour them into one race like they did here. So they'll have to kind of divide and conquer and see how that works out versus what they did in this, their strategy in this race. So that's another thing to think about. Absolutely. But all I'd to say, Democrats are energized. going into the primary, of course, but into the general.

And this race is certainly helping with that effort. So, Kim, thanks for walking to see that. And like you said, go and read your article. They've recruited, I think, 100 Democrats across the state to run. They don't want to leave any race without a Democrat opponent. Yeah. And they're succeeding in large part that recruitment process has been very successful. So we'll see what happens.

It's going to be wild. Kim, thank you. Let's go to Mary Lee's here. let's talk about federal campaign finance reports that were released recently. What were the highlights? Yeah, so these were released on January 31st. And of course, that just adds more fuel to the fire leading up to the primary. When these numbers come out and different candidates are, you know,

throw in the numbers at each other and pointing out, oh, I raise more, I've got more cash on hand. And also just using it in a lot of campaign messaging because they can tell voters, look, I was able to raise as much or look, I need to raise a bit more to be successful as your candidate. So, yeah, these end of the year financial reports for federal campaigns. We covered some statewide, I think, last podcast, and some federal numbers have already been released. So we saw one of the kind of top takeaways is that Senator John Cornyn remain in the lead and cash on hand.

But he was followed by state representative James Tolerico and then Congressman Jasmine Crockett. we're running for U.S. Senate on a Democratic side before the primary. But they both, the Democratic candidates came in with a pretty hefty amount of cash. So we also saw Congressman Wesley Hunt released his numbers and then Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. And so Talarico and Crockett, like I said, had an impressive amount. They reported Strong War Chests during the month of January. Tala Rico did come out on top with all 7 million in receipts disclosed and then a total of 7.1 million in cash on hand since he launched his campaign. And he had disclosed that earlier in the month. I mean, just reported a bit early because of the strong numbers that they were.

Crockett was also in the millions. She came in with 6.5 in receipts and then 5.6, excuse me, 6.5 million. a million in receipts and then 5.6 million and cash on hand. The 6.5 million did include, as we noted in the piece, she transferred $4.5 million from her United States House account to her Senate campaign, which she launched in December on December 8. Tala Rica, they all released statements, of course, along with their financial reports. And Tala RICO weighed in on the amount that he raised and he described it as being kind of on part with the messaging that he's been expressing up till now. He said his campaign is people powered and he said not one that's funded by political

action committees. That's something he keeps reiterating is that he wants his campaign to be people powered and not funded by kind of corporate political action committees. He said, I'm proud to receive small dollar contributions from working people in nearly every county in this state. He said because although big money is powerful, it's nothing compared to people. power. And he was highlighting that his team had raised 6.2 million in the first three weeks of the United States Senate campaign launched. So in three weeks, $6.2 million. Congressman Wesley Hunt talked about how he, when you combine the totals across all of his committees, he had raised over $1 million from 40,000 donors since he declared his candidacy

for U.S. Senate. And that was in early October when he announced that he would be joining the race. And then on January 31st, there's not a 34th of January, he reported $429,000 in receipts, and then a total of $7,78,000 in cash on hand a little bit over both of those numbers. He talked about that he's just overwhelmed with the support that his movement has garnered from tens of thousands of supporters across Texas. And then he shifted gears to focusing on John Cornyn. He said that Cornyn, his allies, has spent over 80 million to resuscitate his failed campaign. yet he hasn't seen his poll numbers in the 30s since May.

So kind of this messaging, of course, so we're going up to the primary using this fundraising to attack primary candidates. You know, candidates that you'll be facing the primary. Something that I highlighted in this piece was how the National Republican Senateorial Committee has maintained that they would like to spend more up front to secure Senator John Corrin in his seat

versus what they think would be a heftier cost, getting Paxon and across the line in November. And so that's just kind of an important fact to keep in mind as we look at these different financial reports. McCornan's campaign share that they raised more than $1 million in receipts, and then they reported $5.8 million in cash on hand. So he led there with the cash on hand number for sure. and that was a part of his broader combined committees, $7 million reported, which he had shared a little bit earlier in the month.

And then Paxton came in with a haul of over $1 million in receipts, and then he disclosed $3.6 million in cash on hand. And so this is fourth quarter financial report. So the U.S. Senate primary, of course, will be on March 3rd, as we've discussed. But so that means there will be one more finance reporting period, which we'll cover due on. on February 19th. And so those numbers will be particularly interesting, just being so close to the primary to see where these candidates are at and where the financial support is lying.

But, of course, just an interesting update for the primary here to see these federal financial reports. Absolutely. And again, the reporting deadline for federal campaigns is very different from state offices. And so that's why there's a little bit of difference when those are brought forward. and when we talk about them, it's just because the reporting deadlines are different. So Mary Alis, thanks for bringing that to our attention. And like you said, February spending will be really the bread and butter of the entire primary season, walking through how people are actually spending money as folks get closer to going to polls, because that's when it matters the most.

Strategy ahead of that absolutely matters as well, but this is when the rubber meets the road. So Mary Lisa, thank you. Meredith, it's time to talk about another huge story that seems to have gotten swallowed up and all the crazy political news of the week. This is still a huge story. A lot of education news, but tell us what happened with public school ice protests. Yeah, so this week in Texas, we saw thousands of students participating in walkouts to protest ice actions in the United States. So this is blowing up, it's snowballing. It's still continuing. We have news as of yesterday. There were still walkouts continuing. So this is just kind of a backup and give you.

that timeline. So Friday is the big day where we start to see attention on this online. We start to see pictures come out videos. It's called to people's attention and it's the first kind of batch of these walkouts. So thousands of students walked out and Austin they walked to the capital and back from different schools. And we see these photos where there is Austin ISD police escorting them and staff that are with them. And so that triggers a lot of social media discussion and backlash from parents, legislators, different elected officials chiming in on how they feel about

these issues. So Austin ISD releases a statement that they're like, this is not an Austin ISD event. Any of these presence of our Austin ISD police is for the safety of students during the school day. And so they say that they're exercising First Amendment rights and that their parents have been notified. They even show a parent letter to one of the high schools that tell the parents ahead of time what time it is,

that it's student organized, it's a peaceful walkout, that there will be a resource officer with them and that counselors are available during and after so with them during the event as well. So there is parent backlash. One parent said on social media that his student who was a middle schooler, he, this is a quote, he didn't decide to protest. He mentions that the parent believes classes were canceled, that teachers held the door open and everyone left. That was a parent's description of what his student had told him. And he ended saying, my son and a few hundred others walked five miles to the

capital and back, which I did go look at that at this middle school and did the little map. It is about five mile walk there and back. And there was even a separate report that happened after this article where a school sent on a letter that a 12-year-old got caught up with a high school and ended up group and ended up going back to the wrong place. And so a lot of safety concerns as well around this. So the superintendent, Mattias Segrura, responds saying that the staff at Austin ISD can't physically prevent students from leaving campus.

and that if they protest that they will be considered unexcused absence. So a lot of lawmakers chime in. So the first batch of lawmakers to chime in is state rep Briscoe Cain talks specifically the Austin ISD to make sure that they lose their attendance funding. So their attendance allotments are based on how many students come and then the funding is attached to that. Representative State Rep. Mitch Little chimed in saying the same people who hysterically fought the mere presence of the Ten Commandments in the classroom are content to march your children to the capital with F word ice signs. And he ended saying, we see you, nothing is hidden.

State rep Jeff Leach talked about just, I have questions. And one of his questions was, where are these kids' parents? So a lot of energy and they were upset about it. State rep Cody Harris had a point where he talks about, districts like Austin are, they're struggling academically. This is an ongoing thing and most, a lot of public schools just have very low testing scores. And so he said yet every session they beg for more money. So they're, we're seeing this financial obligation from the state and then the testing tied in with their political action. So it's kind of this big ball of issues. State rep Brad Buckley talked about, made a point that there were

other numerous ISDs in Texas that met this issue of the ICE protest. He said, head on, kept kids where they belong in the classroom, don't tell me it can't be done. So making the point that while other districts did not have this issue, some did, so why? Like, that's the main question here. Governor Abbott made a statement as well saying that ordering the TEA Commissioner Mike Murath to investigate Austin ISD, saying that the district is given taxpayer dollars to teach these subjects not to help students skip school to protest. He said, our schools are for educating our children, not political indoctrination. And he also said this is one of the many reasons why Austin ISD is losing so many students. And we've covered a lot of this in different articles that they

are closing 10 schools at the end of this school year. And they're also trying to consolidate others, give them off to charter schools and things like that. There's Democratic Response. State Rep. Lauren Ashley Simmons said about Governor Abbot. He really hates public education and free speech. And then Christian Caranza, who is a, she is running, I believe, in House District 118, said just last month, Abbott said he expects meaningful disciplinary in action to take place against stoppage of Turning Point USA's high school chapters in Texas, but she said schools are not a place for politics.

So this happens in a lot of different other cities, San Antonio, Fort Worth. In Fort Worth, we see Congressman Mark V.C. actually joined. students in a protest and he talks about how this is the beginning of them learning the importance of voting and being civilly engaged. So Fort Worth ISD board president, Roxanne Martinez also issued a statement, a lot of statements, lots of statements about this. Peaceful civic engagement is an important part of learning and democratic participation and I want to know, I want our students to know that they are heard. So quite a few other campuses and districts rounded out Friday, but like I said, it continued Monday Tuesday, Wednesday, it's not really, doesn't look like it's stopping at this point. And so

a lot of these districts are having academic issues. Fort Worth ISD is under state takeover for that reason. Austin ISD, like I said, is closing a lot of schools. Fort Worth ISD is projected to close 16 schools by 2029 and there's a lot of declining enrollment. So these, this is highlighting an issue that people have been talking about of what is going on in these schools as they're losing a lot of enrollment. So just with these student walkouts continuing, the story is definitely not over. And just as a little tease, I will be talking about this in my newsletter coming up and diving into some different aspects and what's going on in the nation at large because it's also happening all over the country. And there's a lot to dive into with this issue.

Absolutely. Meredith, thank you for covering that so well. And I'd encourage there's all sorts of different information out there about what these protests were like. So go read Meredith's article for more information. Mary Lisa, let's come to you here. The first lawsuit under Texas's new chemical abortion pill law was filed. Give us the details. Yeah, so this law that we saw pass during the second special session that was taken up during the first regular legislative session that was cracking down on chemical abortion pill distribution, production, and it allowed for private citizens to file lawsuits against those that distribute these. pills. Well, the first lawsuit has been filed under this new law. It was a lawsuit that was

filed originally in July 24, but the plaintiff filed an amended complaint under the new Texas law on January 1st, which is just about a month after the law took effect. So this was filed by Jerry Rodriguez. He is seeking to sue defendant Remi Koto, a California-based doctor who operates a private practice. And Rodriguez is alleging that the doctor provided his girlfriend, Kendall Garza, with abortion-inducing drugs on two separate occasions, using them to abort to the pre-born, two different pre-born children that Rodriguez believes he is the father of. And so this is filed under the Texas Women and Child Protection Act, and that was, you know, the law to, aiming to curb the production, distribution, and chemical abortion pills into Texas, as Texas already has very strong

pro-life laws, but they felt that the chemical abortion pills was still kind of an aspect of the abortion industry that was still in Texas and still allowing for Texans to have abortions. The lawsuit includes up to $100,000 damages available for an individual filing any such lawsuit, which was a big point of contention when it was taken up. in the legislature because different folks were calling this a bounty hunter law because it'll allow for so much money available damages. So one kind of guardrail that they put on it is that if you are related to the pre-born child that's being affected by these pills, you can receive the full $100,000. But if not, you're not related, if you're just a private citizen unrelated, you may only

collect 10% of the award and the remaining 90,000 may be donated to a chair. So in this lawsuit, that's been the minute complaint has been filed on Sunday. So the plaintiff is seeking at least $100,000 for each violation. So he's seeking to see that both violations actually happen and that he would like $100,000 for each of those. And specifically, he's alleging that Coyto male transported, delivered, prescribed, or provided any abortion-inducing drug to any person or location in Texas. So those are the violations he's seeking to prove since the law took effect in December.

So in the court documents, it describes how Rodriguez believes he's a father of three different babies with Garza, one of whom she's actively pregnant with. He expressed concern may be aborted. And two that were allegedly aborted via chemical abortion pills that were shipped to Garza by this California doctor. the court documents lay out how the woman Garza's estranged husband, who it said she was separated from but had not divorced, was the one that ordered the chemical abortion pills. And Rodriguez believes that Garza wanted to have the children, that she was, quote, happy about the pregnancies,

but that her estranged husband pressured her into taking these pills, wanted her to abort these two different pre-born children. So there was the July 2024 pregnancy that's listed in the court documents, which happened a month after Rodriguez began dating Garza. In the court documents, they cite a Venmo transaction that is allegedly between Garza's husband, a strange husband, and Rumicoto for $150. and it's captioned aid access Kendall Garza.

And so this is likely referring to in the documents is saying it's likely referring to this organization aid access that illegally ships abortion-inducing drugs. And this is a claim that they illegally ship abortion drugs into jurisdictions where abortion has been outlawed and that would include Texas now. Actually, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxson did send a letter to the specific California Dr. Coto, Coytos, excuse me, who he described as an affiliate of 8AXS. He had sent a couple of cease and desist letters to these online chemical abortion pill networks. And, you know, this was related to what he believed was their legal activity in shipping abortion, inducing drugs to Texas women and men.

And this, as in this case where the document is alleging that the estranged husband was the one that was actually ordering these pills. So the second pregnancy was in October 24 when Garza became pregnant with Rodriguez, as he claims. And he writes that she was again happy about the pregnancy and that she told him that she planned to give birth to the child a son. There's a couple of details in this piece that might be a little bit disturbing to readers, but it's from the court documents just describing some details that Kendall gave. her boyfriend who filed this lawsuit about after she took the pills, what she experienced. So within the court documents, another aspect that's in here is an anti-Clawback injunction provision. And so that would prevent Rodriguez.

The goal is that it would prevent him from facing a retaliatory lawsuit from California. As a state has laws that aim to allow abortion drug providers such as a California doctor to file revenge lawsuits against any person who files or prosecutes an action against a doctor over their providing abortion-inducing drugs. So other states like California have law such as that to respond to Texas's laws against chemical abortion pill providers. Some, I think Kim wrote a piece recently about some updates, which you should go check out for sure about the FDA and chemical abortion pill provisions that they've been kind of rolling back some things from the Biden administration. But one thing that I listed here is that the FDA and the HHS under President Donald Trump

did confirm that they intend to conduct a comprehensive review of abortion-inducing drugs. But there have been some pro-life lawmakers and activists who are questioning, you know, what the commitment really is to doing that, how long it might take. So I would definitely go check out this piece. There's a couple details I admitted, just that might be. better to read. But this is the first lawsuit under this new law, and it's very interesting to see it go from the Texas legislature to actually being applied now, and we'll see how this pans out in court with Rodriguez's case against this California doctor. Absolutely. Well, speaking, Mary Alice,

thank you. Speaking of legislation that we're now watching, really kind of meet the real world, Let's talk about education savings accounts, Meredith. Walk us through what opening day was like for this program. Yes, so Wednesday, February 4th, the portal opens for families, and it is a very quick response. In the first hour, there were 8,000 applicants. And then by noon, there was 20,000 reported. At the end of the day, just an update on social media,

Kelly Hancock announced that there were nearly 42,000 students. So big day, and just as a reminder to anyone who's want to refresh your, the ESA program, is the Texas Education Freedom accounts. And that allows for eligible students to have $10,500 to use on private school tuitions, tutoring, educated, related items such as curriculum, things like that. Up to $30,000 is available for students with disabilities and homeschooling. eligible students would get $2,000. So it's a $1 billion program, the largest ESA program in the country, and priority is given to these low-income families or students with disabilities. So the website, when you went on to it yesterday,

there is a big thing at the top letting everybody know that there's high demand, that they might be put in a queue, but basically not to worry because it's not a first-come, first-served situation. They are running this until March 17th, So you can apply all the way up until the last day. And they said timing won't affect priority. So I think that for people that were worried that that was happening, they wanted to calm those fears and let them know.

We're just collecting everybody, and then they will prioritize as necessary. So as of yesterday or Tuesday, a more than 1,700 private schools were currently participating. You can see all of those on the TEFA website. The Houston area had more than 500, and so did Dallas-Forth as well. And then San Antonio had 188 and Austin had 144. And so Hancock said, you know, our office is moving at business speed

to deliver a user-friendly experience for every family who wants to participate. We are committed to implementing this program responsibly and transparently. They have application checklist, parent application guide, video walkthrough explaining the process. And so we will be watching this to see how the rollout is, how smooth it is. What is this going to look like at the beginning of next school year for enrollment numbers? which is a big trend, so keep an eye on this. Absolutely. Well, Meredith, we're going to stick with you here, and we're almost out of time, so we're going to be very quick in plugging this,

but this is a wonderful interview on our website that I think a lot of folks would find interesting, especially with a lot of the really horrible headlines we're seeing about some educator misconduct around the state, quickly, quickly tease this interview that you had with this new education official in the state. Yeah, so TE announced as well, like I said, a big week for education, They announced that they were going to have their first inspector general for educator misconduct, Levi Fuller. So it's an interview full of a lot of things, and we won't be able to go over everything, obviously. But his main thing was just this idea that to have someone specifically have an office over this issue is much needed.

He talks about streamlining the process, filling in gaps. I mean, he has a lot of work ahead of him as there are a lot of pending. allegations and different things. And so he walks through what his things his office is going to do, some of his goals, some of the things that they're going to be looking into. And so it's, like I said, it's a nice full interview, full of a lot of good information. Absolutely. Big announcement this week from the TEA. So Meredith, thanks for covering that. And we appreciate the interview. And it's in transcript form, which I think is such a great way to, you know, get to know somebody in this capacity and digest the information that they're putting forward.

So go read Meredith's article. Ladies, let's move on to the tweetery section. Kim, I've got to start with you. What do you have for us? Well, as you mentioned at the top of the podcast, the Olympics start this weekend. And so America's own Lindsay Vaughn, downhill skier, has been retired for some time,

and she's making her comeback. And last week, sadly, she had an accident and tore the, well, ruptured the ACL in her left knee. And I saw a video of her on Instagram, lifting weights, doing jumps, prepping. She is going to race anyway. She intends to do the downhill, even with a ruptured ACL. So, kudos to her. I wish her well. I hope she doesn't make it worse. And I hope she comes away with the gold and proves that being old isn't the end of the world. Can you imagine if she meddles with a ruptured ACL? Oh, that would be insane. And what the, the exercise she was doing, she was, she was squatting. Oh, yeah. Barbell.

I mean, I should have done the math on how heavy the weight, but it was an unbelievable load that she was squatting. Jumps, lunges, lots. I mean, so many, I'm like, how are you doing that with your knee? Yeah. I don't, I don't know. Like, she must be so, I mean, her formal already is so strong. She's so strong and keeps like, she knows how to keep her knees in line. one tweak like I know I just the form has to be I'm such a I'm such a pessimist I'm like I hope she

doesn't show that this really wasn't the best thing to do oh I mean this is dangerous I don't know that it is very dangerous yes there's like a very and downhouse skiing is an unbelievably dangerous sport without an injury so I just yeah go Lindsay Vaughn she's like a staple of my childhood. I just, I want her to do well. You have to admire, you have to admire her fortitude. Like, my gosh, the amount of work it takes to come back and do that again. It's just amazing. Well, and the amount of work it takes to come back to, like, to make a comeback like that. And it does, and even though it's so wild and us mere mortals can't comprehend lifting weights at that capacity, regardless of whether or not we were injured is. Are you, are you?

I'm trying to say you don't think that we can lift that much weight. What are you trying to say, McKenzie? You don't know what we do. I know. You don't know what Kim can lift. Come on. You know what Mary Lisa is doing in her spare time? You're so right.

Yeah, I mean, I'm such an exercise fiend. Oh my gosh. But I can imagine all that work putting into this and then you get injured. I could almost see a world in which I'd be like, yeah. Like if I'm already put in that much work, how could I miss it? If there's even a chance I can still compete. Like just like that's the whole knee off. Just let it.

Right. Just like I'll just I'll do it. You know, find a way to do it. And it's just the mindset of these athletes have is just unbelievable. So go team USA. Just getting an injury like that though. So soon to the actual Olympics is quite the mental trip for her to get over. Because so much of what these athletes prepare beforehand is their mental state to prepare to go into this.

And then it's, you know, you get injured and that kind of messes up. That messes up a lot. so hopefully she will come back better than ever yeah and you have to be so unabandoned when you're going like not that i know i've skied maybe three times in my life but you like those speed at which these gals and guys go down the hill like you have to be so ready just to like no holds bar and to do that while having a ruptured ac i just can't like what an incredible athlete like i just it's going to be insane. I just pray she remains as she's already injured. So I was going to say, she remains, she's injured. So I just pray it doesn't get worse and that she doesn't

injure anything. Yes, no further injuries, because this isn't unbelievable. Is this your teasable moment? You're like, as a skier that's skied three times. Yeah, as a skier that's skied three times, I'm an expert. I know. You have to have mental afforded to. Yeah, exactly. I know that this is something that has to be done. No, as a skier who's three times, as a skier who's skied three times. I wouldn't even call myself a skier, Meredith. So I wouldn't either. I'm teasing. Yeah. It's very clear. Let's move on. Yeah, Meredith, what do you have for us? Yeah. I was going to say, as someone who is literally fallen down a mountain on a snowboard once or twice in high school. So good. Let me tell you how this works. Mine is totally unrelated and kind of weird,

but it does have to do with something cold. I read an article. I saw this on Twitter that they're, you know, those tubes of juice concentrate that we all used to make when we were a little, you'd like put it in, you know, in wooden spoon. The cardboard. Yes. I kind of tasted like hard word a little bit, you know, but they're discontinuing those. And it's just such a, such a core memory. I texted it to my sister this morning and she had the same reaction I did. We were like scavengers around the house. We would eat junk food like immediately once upon arrival and never, people that have junk drawers in their house of like food and snacks like that. We don't. We don't. understand we're just kind of peril in that way we just eat all of it. And so we would go scrounging

for sweets, which that's, you know, everyone eats the chocolate chips or not everybody eats maybe frosting out of a can. But we would actually eat, take a spoon to these juice concentrates and just like, it's so gross. And that's the first thing she texted me. She's like, it is not meant to be eaten out of the cart. You know, I'm kind of thinking about the environmental aspect of this. It seems like the plastic jugs you get the juice from are worse than little cardboard tubes. Somebody wrote, it takes effort to make this. That's why they're getting rid of it. And I was like, not wrong. But someone, if we count that as effort, then we have another thing coming. Well, have you, I'm not going to lie, it would take a while. And there's always a little bit that

you'd have to, there's just be like a little chunk floating around you couldn't get. It was, speaking of working out, arm workout out, you know, so. Yeah. So if you're feeling nostalgic, it said in the article. You have until April to grab some. So maybe next time you see me, I'll be eating it out of the tube. In honor of Lindsay Vaughn, I will be using a tube to concentrate because that's the same thing. It's cold. Totally.

Yeah, mental fortitude. Meredith, what's at all brands? Minute Made. Okay. Oh, well, then what am I thinking? Oh my gosh, you've told now I will always be able to not buy this. Thank you. This is the job of a reporter to ask good questions.

Listen, that girl. Now I want to go see if there even is. I've never even seen these in the freezers in a long time. So let me go see what's going on. And I'll come back and report back next week. These do. This is important. I'm curious.

Minut made was a big one, though. So I wonder, I mean, many brands did it. But I'm curious what that looks like. And I feel like this is the product that would be at some stores and not others, depending on like where it is. It just probably not whole foods, you know, I don't think. Probably not. Central market.

Probably not. Yeah. Not so much. Aldi, maybe. Listen, don't hate on Aldi. That is my story. I go to Aldi. Love Aldi.

Okay, okay. Love Aldi. That's where I walked during the snowstorm was to Aldi. It's a good workout. Again, Lindsay Vaughn and us three, us four, we're on the same. I was in the snow. Exactly, exactly. Yeah.

Mary Leas, what do you got for us? Well, Turning Point, USA has announced their halftime show lineup, because they're throwing their own half-time show during the Super Bowl to kind of counteract Bad Bunny performing at the Super Bowl. So they have got Kid Rock performing Brantley Gilbert, Lee, Bryce, and Gabby Barrett. So kind of a very interesting lineup with Kid Rock and then Gabby Barrett, she's a country singer a little bit, sings a little bit slower, kind of sweet country love songs. Brantley Gilbert is definitely kind of like rock and country. and Lee Bryce is kind of somewhere in between.

So I'm very curious to see how this goes. I wonder if we'll be able to see kind of the viewership numbers between Bad Bunny and then this one. I think Bad Bunny might be a little bit more popular even among conservatives than Turning Point realizes, but maybe not. Maybe it would be a flop. But I did hear that Bad Bunny is planning to wear a dress to kind of counteract this Republican halftime.

show and kind of protest some of the conservatives who have been against him performing. So very interesting, just details going into these two halftime shows here. But regardless, I'll probably just be like getting a snack during the halftime show anyways. Getting a snack. That's the appropriate move during the halftime show. I wonder just the discourse after every halftime show is so interesting. This will be one for the one for the books for sure. We haven't had a competing halftime show like this.

I don't understand. I am not shocker. I don't listen to a lot of Kid Rock's music. I know a couple of his, you know, songs from the radio, but I have looked at a few songs. I've looked at lyrics and different things. I don't know how that some of his ideas and songs represent conservative values. Just a question there. That's what I, that's very interesting to me. I said the same. I was like, Kid Rock is their family friendly performer, huh? Okay. Interesting. Like what is left after you take certain things out of his songs? Like, what do we, what are we doing? Is he covering other people? I'm confused, so, yeah. Yeah, maybe he'll just be doing other people's songs that are more family-friendly. He's just going to sing Lee Greenwood's proud to be an American the whole time. And everyone's just going to sit there and be excited about that.

And pretend like that's normal. I miss the girls that dance. I like a good dancing. I love like. Like a pop halftime show? I love a pop halftime show. Yeah. Like, or the hip hop one, I like nostalgic stuff.

I like the 2000s one. That was so good. They managed to find enough songs that they could sing that were. The Snoop Dog. Yes, and everybody. Yeah. I want to say everyone seemingly had their clothes on, I think. But, you know, sometimes I just like as a good sing-along, a good, like, it's fun.

You get to enjoy and just, yeah, I don't, it doesn't need to, everything doesn't need to be political. I know. That's shocking. It makes the Super Bowl go long. I would just be like, okay, let's have a regular half-time. Kim's like, give me football. That's what Kim was. Get back to the football.

That's right. Get back to the football. I really just want to go to a concert is what I'm saying. So I try to cut the football. Polar opposites here. Polar opposites. Does anybody, real fast before we go, does anybody have a favorite halftime show of all time? Well, it's not my, can I share just an interesting memory?

Yes. It's kind of somewhat in any way. I was in youth career. watching when it was Janet Jackson and Justin Timber. Like, I just wanted to say it. It was a very interesting moment. So it's not my favorite, but that is just like the funniest, weirdest memory to me of being like, oh, this did not turn out the way that everybody thought it was going to be.

But, yeah, so I'd have to think about my favorite, though. Haven't watched one in a long time, so. Okay. I liked Bruno Mars personally. He, it was very, like him and his. My mom loves Bruno Mars. him and his like the dances and his band and everything it was very fun it was very like i feel like it was enjoyable but i'd say the 2000s hip-hop one was super fun recently a lot of people like that

that's one i would probably say like dr j snoop dog that was Eminem and when m&m came out was so good and i'm not even like a huge rap fan with that hip-hop it was just so good and nostalgic and i like when it i liked it was a bunch of artists too and how they put everything together like just everything was so fun. Yeah, I'm looking at the list. I was going to say, I don't think I have a favorite one, but I do have a least favorite one. Kendrick, was it Kendrick Omar that performed last year?

Yeah. I thought, so I think it's kind of, I think that there's not many rappers that could pull off a successful halftime show, and I don't think that he did it. It felt a little bit awkward, also the camera was just, like, very close to his face. and I also, you couldn't hear him very well. I think that was part of the problem,

but I was not a fan of that one. But honestly, I haven't really watched very many in recent years. I know Shakira and J-Lo did one, didn't watch that. That was a couple years ago. Now I'm looking back at this list and there's like Diana Ross did it in the 90s. I'm like, okay, cool. I remember Insink and Britney Spears and Mary J. Blige coming up with Aerosmith and stuff. I thought that was very fun as well.

Yeah. Yeah, I was one of the, I think I loved the Kendrick Lamar half-time show. I know. It's, I did. But also, I kind of, I kind of enjoy Kendrake Lamar. I do. He's up there for me. But I don't like much rap, and I like his rap, which I know is wild.

But it's true. Honestly, I do listen to him sometimes. I do appreciate him at times. But I just like the performance itself wasn't incredible. But, huh. There's a lot. Yeah, we should, we should call it before I go on, like, a whole backstory. I'm like, wait, Usher, or whatever. What was going on in the performance and the beef he had to do is there's a lot.

There's a lot there. Usher was a few years ago. That felt like a, what was that? Oh, I like that. Kim's just like, I hate them all. I like that. Everyone was dancing and singing to the Usher one. What I'm hearing is nobody in this group has the same taste. Nobody in this group has the same taste. That's really what I'm understanding. We will not be going to a concert together.

I think the Judds did it back in the 90s. I would bring back the judge. I like country. Let's do it, yeah. There you go, Kim. Usher was two years ago, I just want to say. It was two years ago. It was not that long ago.

Okay, well, ladies, thank you. Folks, thanks for listening to us blather on and on about all the happenings of the day and other things that find out that strike our fancy. Go Hawks. And we'll catch you on next week's episode. Thank you to everyone for listening. If you enjoy our show, rate and review us. us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. And if you want more of our stories,

subscribe to the Texan at the Texan. News. Follow us on social media for the latest in Texas politics and send any questions for our team to our mailbag by DMing us on Twitter or shooting an email to editor at the Texan. News. We are funded entirely by readers and listeners like you. So thank you again for your support. Tune in next week for another episode of our weekly roundup. God bless you and God bless Texas.