The Texan Podcast - Weekly Roundup - January 17, 2025

Episode Date: January 17, 2025

Show off your Lone Star spirit with a free "Remember the Alamo" hat with an annual subscription to The Texan: https://thetexan.news/subscribe/The Texan’s Weekly Roundup brings you the latest news in Texas politics, breaking down the top stories of the week with our team of reporters who give you the facts so you can form your own opinion.Enjoy what you hear? Be sure to subscribe and leave a review! Got questions for the reporting team? Email [e-mail] — they just might be answered on a future podcast.This week on The Texan’s “Weekly Roundup,” the team discusses:Rep. Dustin Burrows Elected Speaker of the Texas House on Second Round of VotingHere’s How Each Texas House Member Voted in Both Rounds of the Speaker RacePatrick, Phelan Scrap Once More Ahead of Texas House Speaker Vote Over Bank TiesGov. Greg Abbott Touts $70 Million Cash on Hand After Massive 2024 Fundraising HaulDan Patrick Boasts Record Fundraising Haul, 'Second-Highest' in Texas HistoryTexas Comptroller Projects $23.8 Billion Treasury Surplus Ahead of 89th Legislative SessionTrump-Nominated Texans John Ratcliffe, Scott Turner Set for Senate Confirmation Hearings This WeekState Senator Files Bill to Create Homeland Security Division Within Texas DPSAbbott Sends Firefighters, Equipment to Assist California Wildfire ResponseAbbott Announces Flags to Fly Full-Mast in Texas for Trump Inauguration Despite Biden OrderTexas Judge Rules Against American Airlines ESG Retirement Plan Investing

Bye guys! Bye Mazel. Bye guys. Okay, ready? We're gonna start. In three. No, you do your coffee, Mary Elise. I'm taking a big gulp. Take a gulp and then I'll start us.

Howdy folks, it's Mackenzie here with Brad, Cameron, and Mary Elise in person at the Texan. Happy first week being in the office officially. Thank you, it's good to be here. I need to turn my mic so I can actually see your face. How has it been being in office in person? You got here Monday, finding the parking garage took a hot minute. Yeah, thankfully I had Mackenzie to help me. I went out

and found her on the street i was like where is she circling around finding the correct alley yes that's the problem i was like it's down an alley and really it's like okay which alley some of them are a little bit sketchy so yeah we don't want you driving down just finally yeah yeah going down bad alleys yeah it's been great happy to be here first day of session too so monday you got here it was really just getting you set up prepped for everything you need to get done this week so you're ready to go on the floor get your media credentials kind of get used to what's happening in the office you know know how to get in the office know where to park all those normal things and tuesday was the first day of session yeah wild introduction to everything

wild start it's kind of good though it's brad was saying it's a baptism by fire it was fun so you and Tuesday was the first day of session. Yeah. Wild introduction to everything. Wild start. It's kind of good, though. Brad was saying it's a baptism by fire. It was fun. So you just get thrown in head first, have to figure it out as you go. Mm-hmm. So the first day of session, we had you and Brad in the house because there was so much happening there, and Cameron was covering the Senate, holding down the fort in the Senate.

Yeah. Every time Cameron tweeted, our team was giving him so much grief because they're like, Cameron, the Senate's boring. And I'm like, he's doing what we need to do. Like I tweeted out a link for the live stream and Holly's like, no one's going to watch that. And you're like, I'm just literally doing my job. People still care about what the Senate does. They do.

Well, there was some exciting stuff in the Senate. We had Greg Abbott came and spoke. Something he did not do in the house that's why i bring it up yeah yeah and then also there were some big names that were on the floor kim paxton was there sid miller was there tea commissioner mike marath was there so there was a lot of people there to watch the senate and um but nothing like the craziness that happened it kind of like the safe place for folks to be that day. Like if you're in the House, there is, of course,

the impending Speaker's vote that now we have a result from that folks were anxiously awaiting. So that's why we're saying the Senate was like the boring chamber that day. Yeah. Right? So I get it. But there were interesting things happening in the Senate. Because there was a lot less at stake there politically,

there were a lot of folks visiting, walking around. One of the interesting things I saw, because I haven't paid any attention to the Senate because it's all been house. They apparently created a new committee for economic development. And so they kind of took that out of, it sounded like natural resources.

They just kind of split the subject matters and created this new one. So, you know, the growth of the state is a huge topic. For sure. And that's a theme we're going to be talking about at our event on January 28th. Brad, I'm so glad you brought it. We are sold out. The 89th session kickoff event is sold out. On that note, though, we may be able to admit a few more folks in. We're just kind of waiting on some numbers. So go to our website, click on the get your tickets. So we have a huge banner across our website and join the waitlist. Like this is not something you don't want to join the waitlist for. We're going to go in order of who joins the waitlist. We have a short waitlist

right now. So there's still certainly a chance if we open up more tickets that if you join now, if you join soon, that you would be able to score a ticket. So how that works is you go sign up, you get notified as soon as tickets are available and the purchase is made. So just go do that because we need to make sure that that's done. A couple of fun, exciting announcements that we're making this week, too. In addition, we have so many awesome panelists who have confirmed that they are able to attend we're so grateful for that we are sending out in fact probably it's already set out by the time this goes live our official schedule for the day so we have a border and immigration panel

comptroller glenn hager will be there we have an urban versus rural panel one on legislative dynamics kind of a house versus Senate panel. We have a public education and school choice panel, Cameron's bread and butter. We have a growing pains conversation. Brad, talk a little bit about that. That's like infrastructure, water, energy. It's all the things that are... Roads, yeah. We'll talk about a lot of stuff in it, but the general gist is the state having to cope with the growth that has come both in population and commercial activity. And that's a really good thing for the state prosperity-wise. It brings a lot of money.

We've had these really large surpluses, and that's a big reason why. But it comes with problems, and state officials are going to have to figure it out. Well, some have been calling this the water session. Yeah. Senator Charlesry will be on the panel so he's gonna have a lot to say about that yeah he's leading the charge on that particularly in the senate but overall generally too so um you know it's kind of a wonky thing not not really a sexy topic but it's one of the most important things yeah there's a lot to it

um so yeah it's kind of a catch-all but it really does just reflect on how the state is growing and the challenges that are then faced because of that growth. Brad will be moderating that one. We have a freshman panel, which I'm super excited about. I think we have such an interesting class of freshmen, specifically in the House, and so we'll have an awesome panel full of freshmen that we can chat with, kind of hear their perspectives heading into session. And at 5 p.m., our headliner, Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick,

we're so grateful that he's able to make it, which will be amazing. We're excited for that. And you get to do that interview. I do. Take two. This will be my second time interviewing him, so I'm excited about that in this format. It'll be great.

And we've got Comptroller Glenn Hager for an interview as well. Yes. I've mentioned that. Oh, well, I was not paying attention. We should count how many times. It's the beginning of the year. We should start counting how many times I mention something. And then Brad follows up and says, by the way, this thing.

I was typing notes in this, okay? So I was not just looking at memes. Which happens a lot. Marylise, do you want to mention that? How Brad sometimes looks at memes? Yes. Yeah, so when you're remote, it's kind of funny because you see, I'm just observing, and sometimes I'll be talking,

and I see Brad is just holding in laughter. And he's just kind of sitting there, lips tied. And sometimes I wonder, oh, did I just say something that was really inaccurate? But I think it's just memes. It usually is. And sometimes Brad can't stifle a laugh. So if he's something that is especially funny like it will erupt from him and it's it's like a laugh that erupts and completely

disrupts what we are talking about at that moment like it is loud it is ruckus it is sudden and does not make continuing a conversation about policy or politics very easy yeah cameron you ready for the event last time it was like day three on the job for you yeah the last event we held in the state like the last session kickoff event and this time you're moderating panels we weren't going to make you moderate panels on day three on the job as you're getting your feet under you well i didn't know who any of the legislators were so when you guys third day on the job you guys stick me at the check-in. Maybe day two, actually. Yeah, second or third day. Yeah.

Well, you guys stuck me on the check-in booth. And so people would walk up, like, hi, what's your name? And, you know, it could be some elected official or something. You know, I was still learning. You were still learning. I was still learning. And we had a cheat sheet at the, like, of different people's faces. But what was I going to do?

Hold this up. Right, exactly. It's like, how much more can you, yeah. There's always so much you could prep when it's day two on the job and you have people asking for tickets and name tags and but i learned a lot that day yeah because i was getting to learn about all you guys you know working here and uh getting to learn about all the different policies that were getting being proposed so it was fun it was good merely that's kind of the equivalent for you worked for the texan for longer but in person this is like yeah and full-time this is yes let's see third day full-time whoo yeah so the session was or fourth day right or thursday oh right because yeah the session started on tuesday yeah so the

first day of the session was my second day working full-time for the Texan, but good way to start. Yeah. Yeah. Pretty wild. It's going to be fun. Brad, you ready to interview so many people? So many people. I cannot stress how important it is, folks, to get on the wait list

because we are going to go very methodically through it. We're trying to be as fair as possible to award tickets to folks who are on the wait list right now. So just make sure to go get on the wait list. Well, I think what's going to be interesting is we have really a good mix of different perspectives, both Democrats, Republicans, and also across the spectrum of both sides of the aisle on different issues. It's a very wide array of policy views.

So getting them on stage to talk about a specific issue like immigration, you could have a Democrat sitting next to a Republican and they could have wildly different views on the issue of immigration. And so being able to ask them questions and be able to bounce ideas off of each other, maybe go back and forth on the way Texas could move forward on that issue. I'm looking forward to hearing their perspective. Especially on a panel like that, where we do have a Democrat on that panel, Eddie Morales, we're grateful Representative Morales is able to make it. And that is always fun to hear his perspective with where his district is

located and some of the ways that he'll agree with Republican colleagues on certain issues and disagree on other way. It's very interesting. So there'll be a lot of that at this event and we're excited for it. We will, if you're unable to come down to Austin on the 28th, if you don't have a ticket or you're not on the wait list, we will be releasing some of the footage and conversations post-event, but it just will be a little delayed to give folks who had the tickets and were there in person, of course, first dibs.

So it'll be exciting. Well, it's been a monumental, crazy first week of session, so we have a lot to jump into. I'm shocked Brad's not already cut me off with all this pre-podcast blather yeah blather um brad the speaker fight we've been talking about this for months and months and months and now we finally know who the speaker of the texas house is run us through the speaker fight on the floor on tuesday and merrily jump into you were there in person but run us through kind speaker fight on the floor on Tuesday, and Mary Lees, jump in too. You were there in person, but run us through kind of the narrative of the day. It was a crazy day, although not as drama-filled as I kind of thought it might be going into this,

and I'll explain that in a second. At least publicly. Yes. Right? So, you know, obviously they gather, swear in. That's the first thing. They have all their families around. It was packed, wasn't it, Marylise?

It was packed. Yeah. I would say thousands of people. Yeah. It was hard to get around. Yeah. There was a fair amount of activists, but they all kind of blended in with the other folks, the legislators and their staff. Yeah.

Yeah. So they had chairs all around. And normally on the House floor, you know, there's the gold rails, rails and the members all their desks are inside there and then everywhere else is basically you can walk around almost unencumbered as media as media but that was not the case here because they had chairs all along the sides it was you had to squeeze your way through to get to the press box um yeah it was it was packed and that's how it is all the time because they're getting all their family in and and they allow public tickets, things like that. So they did the ceremonial stuff, and then we got to the knife fight.

Well, what I thought was going to be a knife fight, and it wasn't much of one. But going into that day, I was getting blown up with all kinds of stuff about votes flipping. We saw three votes flipping between State Rep. Dustin Burroughs and State Rep. David Cook. Those were the two main candidates. You also had Representative Anna Marie Ramos from Dallas. But really, we all knew it was going to be between the two Republicans. Even as fractured as the Republican caucus is,

they're not going to elect a Democrat as speaker. So we knew it was going to be one of those two guys. The question was, was there going to be a third candidate come in? There's a lot of rumors about this. There were people angling on it. Really? Yeah. Well, Representative Gary, I think we talked about this on a podcast earlier.

Representative Gary Gates and Ryan Gann. Gary Gates wrote a letter saying specifically as much, we're exploring a third option because we don't feel like David Cook can get there. And we don't feel like Burroughs is either a great option or he can get there either because people were at each other's throats for months over this. So rumor about that didn't materialize. And I kind of got the hunch, especially over the weekend when nothing developed on that, it wasn't going to happen. So nothing did.

We get to the floor. Before we get to the floor, some votes were flipping. One of those was Guillen. He went from Burroughs to Cook. Then we saw Caroline Fairley go he went from burroughs to cook then we saw caroline fairly go from cook to burroughs a freshman a freshman um whose father is alex fairly billionaire uh donor conservative donor in amarillo he's the one that announced that texas republican leadership fund 20 million dollars it's going to go towards primaries. At least that's what he said we announced. And then, interestingly enough, right before the UT game, UT playoff game

last Friday, or whenever that was, it's all plenty together, he put out a statement kind of walking that back. And everyone's like, oh, what does this mean and sure enough you get to tuesday and his daughter caroline decided to flip from uh from cook to burroughs and then we saw cecil bell do the same cook to burroughs and he had a tweet storm last week where he was criticizing a lot of this outside fire that was being levied at the members over this race, kind of hinted at his flip. And so he did. But those were the only three that we saw at least going into this in terms of public commitments.

We get to the vote. And, well, first we get to the rules resolution, setting the parameters for this. And I thought this is where we're going to see the knives out. I thought there was going to be an effort to try and lower the threshold from 76 to the majority of votes cast. That would make it easier for someone to get to the line to gain, to be speaker. Didn't happen. Democrats didn't offer anything. It was straightforward.

They just voted by it. Not exactly. It was an acclamation because they needed to have a record vote, but everyone, I think there were only like five members. There were no amendments.

Yeah, no amendments. It only took a few minutes to get it across. Yep. There were five no votes. That was it. So it was really straightforward. All five no votes

were Democrats. Is that correct? Yes. Yeah. Yes. Ramos, I believe, was one of them. So that happened.

I'm like, oh man, what is about to happen? Are we going to have a speaker in 20 minutes? Like, what's going on? Yep. And so I want it to be known. I want to plant my flag. I was saying from the beginning, and I only wavered a couple times, that this was going to be two votes.

It's true. And I was right. You were? I was right. Let me do a victory lap right here and now. There you go. I definitely thought it was going to be more. I did, too.

I thought it was going to go into the next day. Yeah. I was imagining it would be a late-night thing. Yeah. I thought third or fourth at least, but with the potential that it would go as long as y'all did. But I definitely did not think it was a good ballot. I think the chances of that drastically decreased when there was no third candidate,

third Republican candidate. For sure, for sure, yeah. And then especially when we saw what happened with the Democrats, we saw these 23 on the first round of voting, 23 uncommitted ones, they all voted for Ana Maria Ramos. And that was notable as it's kept anyone from getting there. But the numbers that came in were Burroughs at 71, Cook at 56. And that just, because of how close Burroughs was, you knew he was going to get it. Because as soon as members see how

close that is, they want to be the ones that get them over the line, right? Because that means your bills get more priority during session. That means you get better committee assignments usually. It's just better to be on the winning side, right? And if you're on the losing side, you're going to be in the doghouse to varying degrees right we'll see how the borough's administration extends an olive branch if they do at all but and to whom but you know there's a lot of members that that took very public um in operational side with cook or just reform generally and they're going to have a tough session or tough as in if anything they want it's going to be very difficult to get so going back to that first vote after no one wins what does it look like as you guys are sitting in the press box and looking at all

the lawmakers are are they all moving around talking to each other or are they just kind of locked in do they know how they're going to vote on, or are they just kind of locked in? Do they know how they're going to vote on the next vote? Like, what did that look like? Depends on who you're talking about. There was a lot of milling about, talking, members who knew how they were going to vote, you know, who were firmly in one camp or the other. I mean, they're not changing, right?

But you did see some changes. Most of them were Democrats that changed. Do you think those changes from the Democrats were preplanned or was there negotiations happening in between the first and the second vote? I know I'm asking you to speculate, but... Some speculations, some not, right? It varies, again, like based on the person you're talking about. Some of it was pre-planned and i was hearing over the weekend about some democrats uh cooking getting some democrats some more democrats than raymond yeah and it just never came out publicly they never

got them to continue the momentum from raymond and um it just never developed. And so ultimately those ones went with Burroughs, and it just didn't materialize for Cook. And, you know, as I have said constantly in this, this race snowballs in one direction when the writing's on the wall. And it did. Burroughs went from 71 votes in the first round to 85. Now the breakdown, partisan breakdown, which is something that's going to be talked about constantly, all session, all the time, especially among Burroughs' opponents. His governing coalition is a Democratic majority.

And I talked about this before. Will he take that? Well, the answer is yes, he would take it. 36 Republicans, 49 Democrats. And so, you know, I kept hearing that Burroughs was telling everyone, I'm not committing to anything. I'll give you a shot on things. Like, I'll be fair, but I can't commit.

I can't make promises. Is that true? I don't know. I'm not in the meetings, right? And, again, it will vary based on person because one person may be really easy to get to your side. One person may be persuaded by, hey, we don't like this outside fire coming against members. And I bet you Cecil Bell was one of those because he put out a whole statement saying that he didn't like that. And he was a Cook supporter. But then you have others that are very transactional, that want something.

It just varies based on the person. So I wouldn't be surprised if there were some deal struck or at least some inferences made between the first and second vote to some of these uncommitted Democrats to get them over to Burroughs. Because Burroughs had a Democratic problem, especially a Misty problem. She was out there publicly critical of Burroughs and really rallying troops against his bid. We're talking about Representative Sinfronia Thompson Houston who is a long tenured member of the House

and certainly someone who can rally the troops. I think she's the Dean of the House now too right? I think so. I was hesitant to say that. Yeah. So it varies and I would love to know what

Thompson was able to how she was convinced to come over. Maybe it was just, oh, the writing's on the wall, so I might as well just go. She knows how these things work. Totally. She's been around the block many times. She is a vet. And so maybe it was as simple as that.

I don't know. But regardless, this partisan breakdown, this effective governing coalition is going to be a talking point among Burroughs' opponents, especially on the outside of the building for his entire speakership, however long it lasts. Well, that's something I wanted to ask too, is because as you guys were getting to the House chamber super early to get your seats, I was outside watching all the GOP activists coming in. And, you know, they all had their red shirts. They were gathered around the cannon out there. And there was some prayer circles going on.

And they were rallying the troops. And so I was observing that beforehand. What were you guys seeing after it was official Burroughs wins? There's people in the gallery. What was the reaction like? What was your takeaway? I mean, honestly, I expected to see more angry activists because I saw your message on Slack about all of the people outside and everything.

And I did hear some horns being blown in the background. I don't know if that was over where you were. but I was expecting to see a lot of angry people, but I really didn't walking around the Capitol afterwards and seeing the immediate reaction, at least on the floor. I didn't see anything really happening above. Okay. Which is like the decorum of the house, right? Like you expect folks in the gallery to be very respectful and not disrupt anything that's going on on the floor. But that does not always happen. When something contentious happens on the house floor, there are outbursts and disruptions occasionally.

And so I think it's very interesting that there is a lot of decorum. Well, there's a bit of controversy about it too because there was ticketing going on for the gallery. You had to have a ticket to get in. And a lot of these activists, you know, I was told 1, a thousand people are being bussed i don't know if it reached that i i didn't spend much time outside of the chamber i i wouldn't say a thousand but there was a couple hundred okay yeah and i did see some buses yeah yes there are definitely buses so there was some controversy about that and how that was done, whether they did that to keep these activists out.

I don't know. I have no idea. Do they usually do ticketing on the first day? It seems like something they do. Yes, I believe on the first day. I believe for impeachment as well, a very similar process happened last year, or not last year, in 2023, when the impeachment of the attorney general was going on. There was a ticketing process for that as well. So anyway, long story short, following the vote, obviously, Burroughs Camp was super happy.

Yeah. And they knew they had it after the first vote. And they were on the floor itself, not in the gallery, but Burroughs supporters were very excited the moment the vote locked in. And there were outbursts from members on the floor. But after that, tensions rose. And, you know, much of the Cook camp was really pissed. And their argument was, you know, we had a bunch of people that were telling us, that gave us their word and then backtracked on it. Maybe not a ton, but a number of people. And then, so they're mad about that um you know the other side's mad about some

of these other members going and doing this reform movement thing against feeling they felt betrayed so there were hurt feelings on this on both sides and a lot of you know fire and brimstone rhetoric that was being told to me about you about how things are going to go this session. And it might go poorly. Who knows? It might. But maybe it doesn't. And my feeling that night is a lot different than my feeling today on Thursday because I'm talking to members.

Everyone's – not everyone. Some people are still mad. But a lot of people are trying to move past this like i was talking to jay lozano who was out there just blasting burrows in in tweets constantly and not pulling any punches but he i was talking to him he's like all right we just we need to put this behind us on he told me i'm done doing that twitter thing at at least, you know, going scorched earth on Twitter. Let's just try and mend these bridges. And so that's a two-way street.

You know, leadership has to offer that. And these members who were on the outs with Cook will have to accept it. Well, it seems that way. I've seen some press releases that are related to building that bridge with this new leadership team. And even today, today is January 16th, as Dustin Burrows was about to close out the day's session, he was saying, hey, if you have any questions, my office is open. If you want to set up a meeting, I'll be around.

So it seems like people are trying to play nice here a little bit. Yes, for sure. I'll also say that what happens publicly and what happens privately are super different things, right? So we also, and that's not even to say that behind the scenes things are contentious, but I guarantee you they're more contentious privately than they are publicly. To what extent is the question.

So I think the longer we head into session, it'll be a complete, we'll just have to watch and truly see what happens in terms of relationships between Cook supporters and the Burroughs camp and his leadership. That will be the test. It's just time. So we'll see. And last thing, the votes that we saw on the final one, we saw some flips. Cameron and Mary Lee's made a really good breakdown of that.

So check it out on the website. That's next. We're going to talk about that next. Well, yeah, since we're already talking about it, I had a question because one of the interesting things is after Ramos didn't get enough votes in the first round, her name was withdrawn. The top two went to a runoff. The top two went to a runoff. So it was just Burroughs and Cook. So the Democrats who had voted for Ramos had to either vote Cook or Ramos, I mean,

Cook or Burroughs, or some even sat that second vote out. One of the interesting things, though, was Ana Maria Ramos, she goes from voting for herself to voting for Cook. So do you have any insight into or any speculation about how that switch occurred? Because we saw many of the Democrats go from Ramos to Burroughs. And Ramos to, like, we're not voting for anybody. To Ramos to, I don't know. It seems like Ramos was the only one. I think there were nine Democrats, yeah.

Ramos was the only one that went towards Cook on that second vote. Why do you think that happened? I don't think she was. What did... Well, there were a couple democrats but i can't remember if they were with richard raymond was with well sergio munoz was he with cook on the first ballot i'm gonna look right now but he's the only like there were three democrats i believe yep who were raymond was with cook on both yes let me look ramos on the second oh he was cook munoz was cook both rounds so there was no change there don't you think that's

interesting for sure the uh the two uh democrats well and i'll add ramos said specifically she was her vote for cook was a protest vote but the two okay hispanic border democrats who are in districts that Trump won this last election by a lot, went with Cook. Okay. That's interesting. Those are some potential party flippers to watch. Those aren't the only Trump. No, no.

They were just the ones that went. Yeah. But the two who did were that. But there are more members who were in Trump won districts. Correct. Like I'm thinking Morales is that. But there are more members who were in Trump won districts. Correct, yes. Like I'm thinking Morales is one. Right. But regardless.

Yeah, I don't see – there's no indication that Morales is wanting to flip parties. No, for sure. That's the point I'm making. For sure. Them going there is a hint at some sort of consideration there. Whether they do it or not, I don't know. But, you know, that is – that's a notable point there yeah um but we also saw how many flipped from cook to burrows well let's talk about this so cameron and mary

lees y'all put together while brad was compiling a story about the actual result y'all cameron was going through and counting all these votes making spreadsheets mary lees was writing the intro we got this up very quickly. And essentially what this is, folks, and I encourage you to go look at the website. It's been referenced a lot since we've published it. It's basically a breakdown of how each member voted in both rounds of balloting and specifically who switched in which rounds. So Cameron and Mary-Lise, walk us through this piece and what the takeaways are from these votes. Go ahead. Well, yeah, it's definitely a handy chart because it lists the party and first

vote, second vote, and then on the next column, the last column, it shows the change. And so it's helpful to just scroll down and see who changed. But we saw Brose win by 30 votes. Something about the voting process I found interesting, this is kind of a side, was the light process to see up on the voting boards the different lights that each member had a specific light that was designated for them, the members that were running for Speaker. And they drew each round. They would draw straws basically

yes yeah it would be what so in the first it was bros was green ramas was red and cook was white so it's really interesting to see the board light up with all of those um yeah secretary of state jane nelson oversaw the whole process um she put on a show she sure you could tell this woman had been in education she had that classroom for a long time yeah yeah so after the first round no nominee had received more than 76 votes which is why we proceeded to the second one after a short break yeah tell me if i have this right there was two moves uh two uh members that went from cook to burroughs that are republicans right sounds right it was harless and who's the other one craddock crack yep that's right so that's that's fascinating well tell us why well his former speaker right first of all and there was a lot of

talk about craddock and miss t angling for some sort of third candidate for speaker. Oh, okay. I don't know. It obviously didn't get enough momentum to run with, but that was a huge talking point leading up to this. Both of them were being coy about what they wanted to do. A cynical person would say playing both sides. I never heard that said about these two.

They were holding out. Yeah, who were? At least holding out to some degree, right? So that one was, I took note of that, that Craddock was among there. Harless was another one because he was with Burroughs, and then he flipped to Cook and then he flipped back to Burroughs on the second vote. And Harless was, he was on Burroughs' list when he announced his victory, you know, the I Have the Votes press conference on December 7th

after the caucus walkout. Harless was getting blasted online and I'm sure by other more powerful forces and he eventually decided, he came out and said I'll vote for the caucus nominee which was Cook, at least as things played out, right? But then he voted Cook on the first ballot, Burroughs on the second. So that's going to be something, you know, if Harless is primaried, which he probably will be after this, he'll have to explain that to the people who are mad at him.

But, you know, he can say I voted Cook on the first one, and he clearly wasn't going to get there because Burroughs was only five votes away. That's why I went with the winner. Yeah. But as like a 30,000-foot perspective on this, in the second round of voting, there were nine members who registered present not voting. Those members were Democrats who initially had voted for Ramos who were like, we don't want to vote for either Republican, which we talked about leading up to the vote. There was certainly a contingency of Democrats that we expected to have that attitude going in and saying, we've worked with Republican leadership for a long time. We're not getting what we want from this situation. So we're going to abstain. And then 14 members switched their votes to Burroughs. Okay. So that was a pretty significant. And one member switched to Cook, which was Ramos. So very interesting breakdown.

I encourage folks to go check out Cameron and Mary Lee's piece because it really does break down all of this and it's laid out beautifully so check it out yeah well done you guys it was a mad rush at the office to figure this all out like mary lee's came back from the house she hadn't been in the office all day and we're like we need you on this now like welcome back i have something for you and cameron was already like cameron and i were in my office just like constantly putting things in a spreadsheet it was super super fun but regardless it was wild we're 30 minutes through the podcast you guys i initially allotted like

10 minutes for this so we're going to need to relatively speed through the next not the next few pieces every other story other than the speakers race so just as a heads up um brod let's talk about patrick and phel. Ahead of the speaker vote, there was a last-minute little skirmish between these two state leaders who had certainly been at odds and have been for many years now. What were they fighting over? You know, a hallmark of their relationship, especially in the last couple of years,

has been fighting it out over Twitter. Right. And so they decided to bring it back for one last hurrah. Patrick lobbed a bomb at Phelan and then he also mentioned specifically Dennis Bonin, Greg Bonin, Dustin Burroughs, and Cody Harris.

This was a Hail Mary to try and sink Dustin Burroughs' candidacy for Speaker and make some other points that Patrick's probably been wanting to make for a while. So he tweeted out, these guys are all involved with this bank that Dennis Bonin, former Speaker, the bank he originally had merged with this,

Humble Bank merged with with this Third Coast Bank. And so they're now, each of them is either employed by the bank, involved on the board of directors, or has stock in it. And so he was making an argument or making a statement that these guys are working together. And not only they they doing that there, which, by the way, he went out of his way multiple times to say, nothing's illegal here, because this had been put out by some other social media influencer figures, people who put out this stuff a lot on the conservative right-wing side,

but accusing them of essentially corruption. Patrick said there's nothing illegal here, but then he used it to say these guys are running the house very iron-fistedly, you know. Goodfellas. Goodfellas, yeah, that's the term he used, which he always likes to coin these nicknames. Patrick has taken a page out of the Trump book of finding these ways to market and coin phrases for things in his arguments. So that started a whole evening, Sunday evening thing.

You know, I will say it's pretty ironic that he's making that argument about running the House really authoritatively, and he would argue tyrannically. I don't know if I go that far on either end here, but he is the most powerful politician in the state. And that's undeniable. Undeniable. And he's incredibly skilled political-wise. His political instinct is top-notch.

He always seems to end up on the winning side of a fight, right? That's not entirely true, but he does. His batting average is really good in these things. He runs the Senate very authoritatively. And part of that is the senators have given him that authority. Also, he is elected by voters. And so that's an easier spot to be in, where as a speaker they have to manage these competing factions that often hate each other and hate what they believe in. But it's just an easier thing to manage.

And the Senate moves so fast. That's something they're very proud of. They go through, they pass a bill all in one day, when in the House that takes at least, what, three days? Certainly. Yeah, because they can suspend the rules. So I just thought it was pretty ironic for him to say that. He manages the Senate in a very similar way in terms of the pace that they're able to do

and the amount of influence and say-so he has over that chamber. So I'll just say that. And then to finish this, Phelan responded on Twitter, and he said he called it ridiculous and completely disingenuous. You can read the tweets on Twitter. You can read it in the article. I'm not going to go into everything. Do you think we'll ever call Twitter X?

I was just wondering that. I don't think so. I did. I did. When I was sitting in the Senate gallery, I was talking with someone, and I said, oh, did you see the X post about it? And they're like, oh, you call it X. I was like, yeah, you know, I try to keep up with the news.

Cameron's like, I'm an early adopter. I'm in on it. Did you finish what Phelan said? I'm sorry. I may have interrupted you. I was finishing, yes. So sorry. He said, Phelan said, ridiculous and completely disingenuous.

I do not own any part of Third Coast Bank. I originally invested back in 2009, many years before running for office. Yada, yada, yada. Bank. I originally invested back in 2009, many years before running for office. If you look at the public disclosures, the last one available, he still has stock in Third Coast Bank. Which is what critics are pointing to. But that was covering, I think, the second half of 24. No, second half of 23 is the one that I saw. I don't remember. Yeah.

Regardless, he may well have divested by now. And who knows when he did that. We'll see in the public disclosures. Just the latest records that are public. We have not seen that. So regardless, one last hurrah for these two as two of the top of the big three in the state. Phelan, of course, is no longer Speaker. And it is notable that when I was talking earlier about the Borough supporters who were very excited and celebrating on the floor when Boroughs did clinch the

Speakership, one of them was Phelan, who was very excited, stood up, was, you know, celebrating. So it'll be interesting to watch how he navigates being just a member of the House. This is, Craddock is not, you know, Craddock's angle where he stays in the house after being speaker

is not typical. Speakers typically are speaker or they leave. Yeah. So we're going to watch how Phelan operates the session and if he returns after this. Well,

and Mac and I will have a smoke-filled room podcast out Monday. Yes. Where if you haven't gotten enough talk about the speaker race in the house and the Senate

at this point, then we'll hit that probably for an hour and a half. Consider this almost 40 minute conversation, an abridged version of what we will actually be doing in that podcast. Brad, thanks for your coverage. Mary-Lise Cameron, we're going to come to you guys, talk through some fundraising halls because amid everything else, we actually have some fundraising information that's very notable. Why don't you talk to us about the governors, Mary-Lise? Yes. So before a more complete report came out this morning, Governor Abbott shared some financial numbers and they are rather impressive. He announced that he raised more than $50 million in 2024, just as kind of a way to precede the report that came out this morning with sharing

these numbers. Texans for Greg Abbott said that they have over 70 million dollars in cash on hand. Abbott shared that he raised more than 20 million in the latest report, latest meaning the one before the one that came out this morning. And Texas Texans for Greg Abbott raised $45 million in 2024. The official Greg Abbott campaign raised over $6 million. So that resulted in a combined total of $51 million. His most recent report, again, other than the one this morning, when we wrote this story, showed that he raised nearly $21.5 million from more than 33,000 individual donors

with 84% of the funds coming from Texas residents and another $2 million in Abbott Reese, another $2 million in his cash on hand account. And something that some of our listeners might remember was before the 2024 primary election, Abbott shared how he had raised $19 million in the latter half of 2023, which did include a $6 million donation from a Pennsylvania billionaire, Jeff Yass. I believe that's what you pronounce his last name. You got it. Yeah, he donated another $2 million since the story was published, actually, to Abbott's campaign. Abbott's campaign manager commented on this. She said, raising over $50 million from every corner of the state

showcases the strength of the governor's vision for Texas. With nearly $70 million cash on hand, we are fully equipped to continue delivering on Governor Abbott's mission to keep Texas a beacon of freedom and opportunity for generations. There you go. So I would definitely read the actual piece because when you're hearing all these numbers, it's kind of hard to realize what it means, but definitely check it out. And of course, Yass is who at least monetarily partnered with the governor last primary cycle,

you said, specifically in order to help school choice pro school choice candidates get across the finish line which we're seeing um the bounty of that now that we are in the legislative session and many of these members are now sworn into office it's a very different legislature for school choice to face so we'll continue to watch that mary lee's thank you what would you do with 12 million dollars if you had it would you spend it on political lobbying? Certainly not. Thought build a parking garage?

I would build a parking garage. I could not believe you said that Cameron. I would do it. Oh my gosh. Well let's talk about Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick then Cameron because this is really interesting as well. Well Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick he said he has the second most ever

cash on hand at over $33.5 million. And then as Mary Elise just laid out, number one, obviously, Greg Abbott. These are both titans of the ability to fundraise money. And there is continued speculation if Dan Patrick would run for reelection. This fundraising hall sort of put all that to bed, even though he has said on multiple occasions that he is absolutely going to be running for re-election. He said that during our very first kickoff session two years ago,

and he has said it multiple times after that. So it seems like he's putting together a war chest for 2026 for his reelection campaign. Yeah, absolutely. Certainly lots of rumors going around about what he wants to do in the future. And so this is certainly an indicator. Can I make two more points about statewide fundraising? Very quickly. Glenn Hager, who is not running for reelection as comptroller. Do you know who's attending our event?

Oh my God. Who's interviewing him? I think you are. Oh. Yeah. So I want to prep for it. That makes sense. Okay, great.

So he has over $10 million in the bank. And so he has said he's not running for another term as comptroller. A lot of speculation about him in the running for the A&M chancellorship. That's $10 million burning a hole in his pocket. What's he going to do with that? I don't know. Another one who posted an impressive haul was Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham. And she is, of course, constantly rumored as someone that is going to eventually run

for higher office, whether that's lieutenant governor or governor or one of the other state-wise. We'll see. Maybe comptroller if that's open um but she is she posted a pretty good fundraising haul for you know a lower tier statewide official certainly so there you go probably thank you let's keep talking about the comptroller here it's big fiscal news this week um specifically from the comptroller give us the details so the biennial revenue estimate, I think I said that right.

You did great. Thank you. Very little. That came out. Karen and Mary Lisa just looked at me, and you giggled at yourself. The certain very disciplined and intent listeners will understand what my reference there was. Oh, my gosh. So the comptroller put out the biennial revenue estimate.

Basically, it's an accounting of the estimate of how much money the legislature is going to have to spend in their budget, which, of course, is the one constitutional requirement of any legislature to pass a dang budget. Pass a dang budget, not a budget. A dang budget. A dang budget. Pass a dang budget, not a budget. A dang budget. A dang budget. Well, the comptroller released the number of the estimated treasury surplus, and that is $23.8 billion for this session. That is about $8 billion less than we had last session, but still a substantial amount of money.

But that amount of money is probably going to be eaten up pretty fast. Especially when you have what you have last session when they're used to being able to spend that amount of money. Yep. So there's that. The amount of money for general purpose spending, the comptroller estimates, is $194.6 billion. He said this is a sign of the economic dominance of the state um

it's just not as because we're not we're further removed from the covid downturn we the amount of growth is is less significant because we're starting at a higher point from where we were and that's the reason reason the surplus last session was so big because the economy rebounded, especially in Texas, pretty quickly. But, you know, inflation is part of that, yada, yada, yada. Hager did point to, he did say, let's exercise caution on how much we spend. You know, there's, quote, potential economic disruption could come from weather-related disasters, hurricanes, whatnot, how much money that costs.

That's going to be something that's going to be talked about in session. Do we give Houston money, a lot of money for that? Probably. The continued wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, China's economic activities, changes in federal policies, and the possibility that the Federal Reserve must continue restrictive monetary policy efforts to combat resurgent inflation. That was his warning. Overall, it's a pretty good BRE.

People are happy with it. We'll see how fast it goes, that surplus, how much they want to spend. They're going to have to spend money that would be dedicated for the rainy day fund because they're going to hit the cap in the second year of this biennium. There's a constitutional cap on how much money you can put in the rainy day fund, the economic stabilization fund. Maybe they vote to surpass that if it's possible, but they'll probably spend the money because they have it.

And that's typically how these things work. Yeah work yeah well they put a lot away last session so that's another reason why we're hitting the cap because they put a crap ton into the esf and um for a rainy day like it's you know it's denoted with the name but but we shall see what they do. A slightly related thing, the Legislative Budget Board put out a letter this morning, Thursday, establishing the cap, the constitutional cap for spending. And they put it at $146.9 billion in general revenue spending without constitutional amendment approval. So they have a cap, and unless they pass these resolutions that then go to voters that are then approved to spend more money, they will not be able to appropriate that money and spend it.

So they had to do that last session on various things. I think the Texas Enterprise Fund, the power plant loans was part of that. So they put this letter out. The cap itself is 8.93%. And then, so that's about a $48 billion delta between the BRE and the cap. I don't know what they're going to do about that. But that's a lot of money if they decide to spend it all,

which they probably will not, to put up for voters. Well, that's why I think the panel you're going to host at the kickoff that is related to infrastructure, with all this money that the state has, is it going to be put towards building more water reservoirs or improving the highway system, whatever it is, you know, they always embark on these big projects, you know, so it'll be interesting to see what legislators plan to do with all this extra money. And especially with

this new Trump administration coming in, what is the effects of tariffs going to have on goods coming in and out of Texas, having ports along the Gulf of Mexico. So is that going to affect jobs down there? Are they going to have to use any of this state budget to facilitate the work between the federal government and the state government with the mass deportations that are planning, you know, purchasing land for those operations, whatever it's going to be. So there's a lot that could potentially happen. And one additional political side of this, the LBB is supposed to do this at a meeting, and the LBB is made up by members of the House and the Senate,

and most notably the lieutenant governor and the speaker. I have one question. Have we, realizing that this is hypocritical of me after giving you grief for not having heard me say about Glenn Hager, have we said LBB is Legislative Budget Board? I think I did. Okay. That's the kind of agency that, the accounting agency for the legislature when they're deciding, when they're crunching the numbers, figuring out all this stuff about budgets and yeah yeah yeah so phelan and um patrick

are on that of course they have this really big feud they don't disdain each other um that meeting never happened it was supposed to happen i think at least 10 days before the session never did and so there's i think constitutionally if that doesn't happen if the cap's never set then the cap is reverted back to the old budget rather than with the growth they found a way around that with this letter all is fine and dandy um the other aspect the other potential here if it's not the fact that they that those two couldn't stand to be in the same room as each other the other potential and actually it's probably more likely is that phelan was not going to be speaker because he had dropped out so they were waiting until the new speaker was in and then

they issued this i don't know which one it is speculation abounds but um that is uh you know a little political aspect to this very numbers heavy story it's true good job now we're going to move on to a less numbers heavy stories i i really am thrilled cameron let's talk about what's happening in dc it's a big week ahead of an inauguration. There are two Texans that have been nominated for positions within the Trump administration, and they had hearings this week. Walk us through. Well, those two names are John Ratcliffe and Scott Turner.

For those unfamiliar, John Ratcliffe previously served as director of national intelligence during the first Trump administration. And he has been selected to be the director of the CIA. And he actually already had his Senate hearing. And I'll just read one little bit from his opening statement. He said, quote, we will produce insightful, objective, all-source analysis, never allowing political or personal biases to cloud our judgment or infect our product. So as many have observed over the past few years, the issues within the CIA are abound. and it seems like John Ratcliffe is going to go in there and try and, you know, reinvigorate what the original intent of the CIA is supposed to be doing. And just for a little bit more background, Ratcliffe, first being elected to Congress to represent Texas's 4th Congressional District in 2014, previously served as U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Texas under the U.S. Department of Justice. The other name, Scott Turner, former member of the Texas Legislature.

He's been tapped to lead housing and urban development. Speaking of speaker fights, he was part of one. Yeah, he was involved as a member of the Texas House between 2013 to 2017. He challenged then House Speaker Joe Strauss but ultimately lost his run for the gavel but Scott Turner his hearing is actually happening today January 16 Thursday so the process will be these hearings occur then there will be a vote for confirmation for For those who need to know, there's 53 Senate seats that are held by Republicans. So hopefully they have an easier

lane towards confirmation for many of these nominations. Other names that might have a tougher time, people like Cash Patel or Pete Hegseth, RFK Jr., those more controversial figures that have been tapped by Trump to lead up various other departments. There could be a bigger fight that occurs in the Senate for those confirmation votes. So still a lot to happen, but just some updates there for people. Absolutely. Keep an eye out for those. Okay. Mary Lisa, a state senator this week filed a bill related to border security on Wednesday. It was very interesting. Tell us about it. Yes. So Senator, State Senator Tan Parker filed a bill on the second day of the 89th Texas Legislature. It essentially establish, establishes a state Homeland Security Division

within the Texas Department of Public Safety. So this is Senate Bill 780, SB 780. It describes the DPS in the bill text as an agency of the state to enforce the laws protecting the public safety and provide for the prevention and detection of crime, saying it consists of agencies such as HSD, Homeland Security Division, and the Texas Highway Patrol and as well as other agencies. Essentially this bill would allow the division to be responsible for various aspects of border operations including hosting drills for security preparation purposes, assessing certain threats, and acting to de-escalate them,

and just providing general support to the state's border security efforts. The bill would allow HSD to appoint a chief who would provide the strategic and operational planning for border security operations in Texas and would collaborate with other federal and state agencies that are involved in border security efforts. I would also be in charge of the division would be in charge of Operation Drawbridge which is a program for the installation and monitoring of cameras and surveillance equipment along the Texas-Mexico border. So this was filed on January 14th and it joined the plethora of bills related to immigration border security of the 89th Texas legislature and bill filing will be going on for a little while longer we're super curious to see especially post-inauguration what kind of border bills

continue to be filed this is a very interesting one go read Mary Lisa's piece thank you Madeer Cameron let's talk about Texas and California kind kind of tag teaming here in a headline. Of course, wildfires have certainly wiped out huge parts of California in recent weeks. Tell us what Texas is doing to help in that effort of firefighting. Yeah, I'm sure everyone listening has seen the videos on X over the last few weeks about these big fires happening in California. And Abbott recently announced he'd be directing both the Texas Division of Emergency Management and the Texas A&M Forest Service to California to provide both man and equipment assistance in California's efforts to fight these wildfires. So Texas has sent over 135 firefighters and other medical and professional personnel,

including more than 45 fire trucks and other medical and professional personnel, including more than 45 fire trucks and other emergency vehicles. So California getting assistance from Texas here, and they've been getting assistance from a number of other states that have been sending personnel and equipment to try and quell the wildfires out there. Yeah, absolutely. And then last but not least, Cameron Oldstock, we have so many stories we could hit. We're going to miss out on a few this week, but go to the text and news, read all of our stories, but let's make sure to touch on what's been happening in the Supreme Court this week relating to a Texas law. Yeah, I'd encourage everyone to go check out

this piece. You know, I get into a lot of detail about the oral arguments that were presented in this case related to a Texas law that would require or does require sexually explicit websites to have age verification this was an attempt through House Bill 1181 to keep children and minors from viewing pornographic material online. And so there was quite a bit of pre-legal action that was occurring, challenges, different orders from judges. And finally here we had these oral arguments in front of the Supreme Court, U.S. Supreme Court. And there was an issue of rational basis

and how the review would occur based upon this law. So as I was listening, it seemed like the justices were pretty split on the issue. No sort of indication where the court is going to go. But Ken Paxton, after the oral arguments occurred, said he thought everything went fantastic. That was sort of echoed by Matt Shaheen, who actually authored HB 1181. They both thought the oral arguments that were presented by the state of Texas in this case went well. So the case is submitted. SCOTUS will have a few months now to deliberate on how they're going to go with this case.

Absolutely. Cameron, thank you. Let's move on to the tweeter-y section here, guys. It's been a heck of a week, but let's take a second and talk about some tweets. Brad, I don't see anything in your section here, but I was going to start with you because Cameron and Mary Lisa's are both pretty serious, but I don't know what yours is. You don't want to end on a lighthearted note?

Well, I figured we'd end on mine for i was just gonna piggyback on yours since it's about me oh okay also how tired does brad look to you guys on a scale of one to two i can't keep looking earlier today came to my office my office is like notoriously dark and he was sitting like five feet away he came closer to tell me a story and i was looking at him like oh my gosh you look so tired. Which, honestly, is fair because Brad has told me so many times that I look exhausted and tired and horrible. And I'm like, you never say that to a woman. I have never used the word horrible.

You literally have. No, I have not. Yes, you have. You were inventing. Roll the tapes. I'm not inventing anything, you crazy person. Okay, well, on that note, let's just have Mary Elise. Let's have you start. And we'll end on the lighthearted note. Yes. Okay, well, on that note, let's just have Mary Elise, let's have you

start, and we'll end on a lighthearted note. Oh, okay, we'll start on this depressing note. So, I saw that Governor Greg Abbott shared a picture or a video of one of our canines from the United States Marshal canine who was shot in the line of duty. It's a really sad video, actually, of the people carrying him to the car, but we lost a canine today. His name is Rocky. That's my tweeter-y. So sad. Yeah, depressing. It is so sad. Brad, why are you smiling about this? It's not funny. It's not funny funny he always does this at weird moments and rarely something you're in person you see it even more closely than you already had noticed being remote maybe he's just delirious um okay cameron why don't you go next well there's been reports that a ceasefire and hostage deal has been agreed upon between Israel and Hamas.

So that was huge breaking news over the past couple of days, especially with the new Trump administration coming in on January 20th, Trump has really put a lot of pressure on Netanyahu and Israel to come to some sort of negotiation to stop the fighting in the region. So there's lots of reporting that's done on the phases of this agreement, what actually is going to occur with the ceasefire, swaps of hostages, aid going into Gaza. So there's reporting out there from other news outlets. And something I actually came across that I thought was very interesting was Trump has a special envoy to the Middle East, Stephen Witkoff, who is a real estate magnate, especially in Las Vegas. So similar background to Donald Trump, really skilled in deal making. So Trump has appointed Witkoff to go and try and broker this deal between Hamas and Israel. And there was some reporting that came out that there was a, quote,

tense meeting between Witkoff and Netanyahu and his aides in government there. So I'll just read a little bit here. It says, quote, what happened, a senior Israeli government official said, is that Witkoff delivered a stern message from the incoming president of the United States who unequivocally demanded the deal's conclusion. So just a very interesting insight to how there has been reports of how Trump was negotiating with foreign countries during his first administration. I'm sure everyone saw that clip about how when he was sitting down with, I believe it was the Taliban, and they said, oh, he showed the leader of the Taliban the picture of his house on his phone. I think Wesley Hunt has talked about that a lot. Yeah, Wesley. Yeah, so it's sort of this peace through strength message here and really putting pressure and really

working to get a deal done. So just some updates there for people because we were reporting actually on the effects of the initial October 7th attack and its effects here in Texas, especially with how involved Governor Greg Abbott has been, how involved both houses of the Texas legislature were at the time, also Glenn Hager buying Israeli bonds. So there is this overlap between what was happening over in the Mideast and here in Texas. So just a bit of an update for people.

It's true. There you go. Brad, I actually have two tweeters I want to talk about. First is that I have been requested to do a dramatic reading of a tweet conversation between you and I. Do we have the time? And if we have the time, we're going to make the time. I tweeted out, because I was asking,

I was like wanting to know what was going on. And I just sometimes will text Brad if he's in the house and be like, what is happening? Who asked for the dramatic reading? Through several days. I'm so glad you mentioned this yes um yes so the dramatic reading maybe we can let him post like music like in the editing oh maybe yeah yeah in the edit it's a good lower the contrast and the lighting so that like it's really as long if you are listening to this and you have time please do it if you do not have time do not worry about it

so much later than we usually do today. But I tweeted out, y'all should be jealous of the firsthand intel I get from Brad. Right? Because everyone on opening day with the speaker stuff is like, Brad, what's going on? And I texted thinking, hey, Brad's a coworker. Let me see if I can get some, you know, intel, some spicy stuff going on that might be interesting. That he's not sharing publicly which he was to be fair he was sharing with me all morning so i appreciate that um so i said what is happening

brad said what do you mean no punctuation i said just what is happening and brad says people are filing in finding their seats and then i said, that is nice. And then I tweeted it out because I thought I should put Brad on blast for not actually giving me the intel I was requiring. Brad, what was the tone in which, I read it in my tone that I was meeting, like what is happening? What was your tone when you were replying?

I was confused because literally nothing was happening at the time, other than people filing in. So I was being 100% honest. There was nothing happening at that point, at least that I had gotten wind of. So I was being 100% honest. There was nothing happening at that point. At least that I had gotten wind of. And so I'm like, she's watching the stream. I know, but Brad. And she's just seeing people walk in.

But Brad, that's how dense you are. Because I'm not asking what's going on. I'm asking what's going on on your phone, in your text, in your phone call. I would have told you if there was anything going on, but there wasn't. But the fact that you thought I was asking about that instead of what I actually was asking about was, it's very interesting. The other tweet.

Also, these tweets from this person who was harassing you yesterday are unavailable. Oh, they deleted them? They're gone. Yeah. So Brad has a big fan on twitter and this kind of also said twitter ablaze last night um why don't you why don't you talk about this your recollection might be better this person's an original text but it says these

posts are unavailable so this person has gone through and deleted these tweets so i was at a happy hour last night and i had had at least one lone star and i was talking to people so i wasn't paying attention to my phone for the first time in like three days and then i at one point check and i see a text from a friend of mine send me this tweet that was a reply to me and it was a tweet where I was previewing what was supposed to be the housekeeping resolution fight on Thursday today that didn't happen. We totally missed that, yeah.

That all got pushed to next week. So rules and housekeeping is all next week after inauguration. So I see this. I'm feeling a little frisky. I'm going to have some fun. And so I did have some fun. Which usually Brad will text me before he goes rogue on Twitter, and he felt no need to this time because he knew it was within. Yes, because this person was replying to a tweet of mine

where I mentioned nobody specifically. I'm sure this person was mad at Dustin Burroughs for whatever, you know, however it went down throughout this whole speaker's race. And the person said something like, you're a traitor. You are, how dare, and actually he thought I was a, he or she thought I was a representative who voted for Dustin Burroughs, now Speaker Burroughs, and confused me for a member. And so there was no – I was not getting in the middle of a fight between a member named in a tweet and someone replying.

You were just reporting as usual. And they were attacking me for being a turd turncoat. Which, you know, not the first time I've been accused of that. Saying they're going to kick you off the ballot. Kick me off the ballot. They're going to primary me. I am going to be primary. I'm scared.

I'm scared Maslin bleeped this out. Bradley! Bradley! We already. Dang it. And so I'm quaking in my boots for this primary. I mean, the 24 primary was insane. Brad said a bad word.

And so it's not the first time it's happened. And so, yeah, I was. Did you see this coming at all, your primary? No, I did not. I did not. Mostly because I did not vote in the speaker's race at all, let alone for speaker boroughs. Interesting.

Well, they're going to have to find a candidate to run against you. Yes, yes. I don't know where that person's going to come from. Good question. Yeah. Good question. Out of the ether somewhere. But I decided to continue engaging with this person because I was having fun.

Your responses. My husband says she heard it through the wall. She heard your transgression. And then she heard as well as your response. Well, what was my first response? It was, oh, the first one to this one was thank you very little, which is a Caddyshack reference since i have to explain that to everyone in this room um and then i don't know what else did i say you said ma'am this is a wendy's forgive me while i

turn tail and run can't wait to write about my own primary think of the scoops i'll get me in the deep state are tight that'd be logistically very hard to do i don't know about that but i don't know what that was in that was the one that told me to go bradley okay this is that was my favorite one that was funny people loved it i am so sorry so many comments on the floor today for members about and impress about that they enjoyed that that bit of comedy so i did the text ledge world a favor last night. You entertained everybody. Folks, I'm sorry if this podcast is a little bit less kid-friendly,

family-friendly than it typically is. We'll do our best to bleep out Brad's transcript. I can't control what that person said to me. He's literally just reporting the news. Yes, that's what I do. I'm a reporter. You know what? Y'all are so right.

Especially in the moment in which he uttered it, an unsavory word. Okay. Bradley. Well, I should say also the funny part to this was the person kept doubling down after they were told by many people, this is a reporter, not a member, and they kept doubling down. It was very funny, and Brad was on fire. Okay. Anything else to add, folks, now that we've run late on this podcast?

I hope I get a savvy for that. That's so funny. Well, happy first week of session, guys. We do have a few-day break while the legislature is out of session because of the inauguration to allow members to go to D.C. and be there for that. So they reconvene next Wednesday. Is that correct?

2 p.m. 2 p.m. There you go. Well, folks, thanks for listening. Happy first week of session. Listen to Smoke Filter on Monday for more speaker information. 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 thetexan.news. Tune in next week for another episode of our weekly roundup.

God bless you and God bless Texas.