The Texan Podcast - Weekly Roundup - July 4, 2025

Episode Date: July 4, 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.Sen. Brian Birdwell Will Not Seek Re-election in 2026U.S. Senate Passes Budget Reconciliation Package with Texas Border Reimbursement, Universal School Choice ProvisionsU.S. Senate Votes to Strip State AI Regulation Moratorium from 'One, Big, Beautiful Bill'Colin Allred Launches 2026 Bid for U.S. Senate Following Last Year's LossU.S. Department of Defense Designates 'National Defense Area' Along Rio GrandeAdoption Curriculum for Texas High School Students Signed Into LawTexas Supreme Court Allows United Methodist Church's Lawsuit Against Southern Methodist University to ProceedFormer Gov. Rick Perry, Fermi America Announce Amarillo AI Power Center with Texas Tech Partnership

Howdy folks, Mackenzie here with Brad Cameron and Mary Elise on another edition of the weekly roundup podcast. Gentlemen, it's good to see you. Mary Elise, it's great to see you. And we have stories to talk about today. A lot of stories. Don't we always? Yeah.

It's actually not as many stories as usual. You're not supposed to say that. We are recording on Wednesday. Yeah. So Thursday is usually a big day for us too. Certainly. And yeah but we don't have as many stories but it doesn't mean that they're not important. Each single story is gonna impact the lives of these individual Texans we're talking to. You know, Cameron, I'm just pro transparency here at the Texan.

I know you are. I want folks to know when we're recording, why we're recording when we are, the details. Maybe they're like, hey, some breaking news happened Thursday. Why aren't they talking about it? Well, it's a holiday week. So we had some scheduling to work around for folks.

Yeah. Give me your birthdays tomorrow. My birthday is tomorrow, turning 32. Woo! Yeah. How does it feel? Getting old. It's weird to say 32, but.

Is it really? No. Okay. I feel like between 31 and 30, I feel like once, I don't know, once you hit 30. Yeah, it's just entering your magic Johnson year. Wasn't he 32? I don't know. I think he was.

Are you doing anything to sell it? Do you have like a birthday tradition? Do you like stop eating lentils for lunch and have... 32. It's the magic Johnson year. That's a good year. There you go. Hopefully I can avoid some of the things that plagued him. No birthday traditions. You know, I think now that I'm older, when I was really young, my parents usually did a lot for birthdays, you know, jump houses,

parties, all sorts of things. Um, I'm pretty turned off of that now. You don't like a jump house at 32, but like the big blow up celebration sort of thing, I like to keep things low key. Got it. Will you go on like a run or something? Well, you haven't run that much lately. Will you go work out on your birthday?

I'll usually treat it just like any normal day, but, um, I do have some family that are going to come into town, hang out with them. So I love it. Yeah. I'll take it. Amazing. Um, well, we're excited. I'm also just really excited that you're going to like chill on your birthday.

I'm very excited for that. I mentioned it a time or two, but folks happy 4th of July week. We're excited and happy Independence Day This will go out. It is literally Independence Day as you're listening to this. Actually today we're recording It's the actual Independence Day. Tell us more Bradley. When the Declaration of Independence was actually signed by all the people, including John Hancock and his giant freaking signature. What a turd ball that guy was.

Hot take. But yeah, July 4th was the first day that people were actually notified about it. That's why that's Independence Day. But it takes a little while to gather everyone's signatures. Maybe that's not quite so widely circulated, but it takes a hot minute. Yeah, they didn't have social media back then. They couldn't just say, hey, we declared independence in a tweet. They also didn't

have doctrine signs. Right. It's true. I'm just saying, it takes a little more effort. A poll went out, or we got a PR pitch in our inboxes this week that was essentially asking which founding father folks would most like to have a beer with. Ben Franklin topped the list, which I think tracks that makes a lot of sense for the public to feel that way. We pulled our, I think George Washington was second. We pulled our team with the exact same six and every one, like there was no winner. It was very spread out across the board.

Who'd you vote for of the sticks that were Franklin i think Franklin yeah Hamilton Hamilton i think i said George Washington because the father of the nation Mary Elise did you what was your vote for which founding father you'd most like to have a beer with i picked Hamilton but i'll be honest there wasn't a whole lot of thought that actually went into that because I was in between I think two different pieces and I was like oh there's a poll okay I'm just gonna pick it up. I'm sticking with it, I'm sticking with Hamilton.

Well there is a line in the Hamilton musical about that Aaron Burr sings about like how jealous he is that Hamilton has his persona where people want to grab a beer with him. So it fits. I wish Robert Morris was on it, but I wanted George Mason, which I know is deep cut, but I wanted George Mason on there. But it's fun. That'll be in my in my newsletter this week, a little bit of a little bit of insight and fun. At least we think it's fun here at the Texan. We like to nerd out about these kinds of things. Yeah. Well, should we

jump into the news gentlemen? Let's do it. And Mary-Lise? I need to go with a better flow for gentlemen and Mary-Lise because it just doesn't flow off the tongue. I'll come up with one better, Mary-Lise. Maybe gentlemen. Mary-men and Mary-lise. And queen of the reporters, something like that. You know, like really kind of, yeah.

I need to come up with a better. Lord, the boys are dancing. I don't know what's happening. OK, Bradley, let's talk about a Senate retirement this week. Walk us through who this was and what happened. Senator Brian Birdwell, Republican from Granbury, announced he will retire after a decade and a half currently in the legislature. This wasn't a huge surprise, this is a name we heard talked about quite a bit about potential retirements. We saw Robert Nichols was last week yeah last week time is a flat circle but the Birdwell announced his retirement and we were

expecting it for a while, I'd say. He said in his statement, today I inform you of my decision not to seek reelection for another term as your state senator. It has been the high honor of my life on par with commanding U.S. soldiers to serve my fellow Texans for over 15 years. Birdwell was first elected to the seat in a 2010 special election and has maintained the seat without much of a competitive challenge ever since. While an Army staffer, Birdwell was in the Pentagon on September 11, 2001 when American Airlines flight crashed into crash into it. He was badly burned, barely survived, but he did and made it out and

he's made quite a career for himself ever since. And if folks have not watched the I am Second video with Birdwell kind of recounting that and talking about it, it is absolutely worth the watch. Yeah, he's a remarkable man and he decided to hang it up, at least as far as Texas politics is concerned. He was a widely respected member. His word carried a lot of weight in the building. He had some very notable moments I think the most recent very notable moment was when he gave a speech on the Senate floor voicing opposition to the

The border security bill that would create a state offense for Someone who enters the state from a hostile or from a foreign nation illegally that is and so for someone who enters the state from a foreign nation illegally. And so he authored the bill the previous special session, but then he voiced disagreement with it the way it was formatted in the next special session. Didn't author that. Gave a speech. And it was one of the rare times where he broke with his Republican colleagues.

But he did so out of genuine constitutional concern, I'd say. And that one sticks out to me quite a bit. Also, his commitment and effort in trying to reform emergency powers after COVID. Never got across the line for various reasons, but he was always the guy in the Senate that was pushing for that the hardest. So, you know, even though he was a Republican and from the most part stuck with his party and his colleagues and the lieutenant governor, he did have a bit of a maverick streak here and there on things. Absolutely. So let's talk about the kind of dominoes that fall after an announcement like this happens. Yeah. So Senate District 22 covers 17 counties from spanning from DFW

area down to Waco and over to Cisco. So kind of like a triangle. And he's the fourth state senator not to seek reelection. But shortly after he jumped or he decided to retire, state representative David Cook jumped into the race to replace him. This was another thing we were expecting. He was one of a couple state reps who had been eyeing the seat in the case that Birdwell did retire and was not surprised that he jumped in or jumped in quickly. Mack and I went through more in depth on this on Smokefield's room

that goes out Monday, but when Cook announced he had Alan Blakemore as his consultant which is notable because that's a switch from his previous consultant which is Ellie Griffin. Like I said we talked about this on Ask so far but the trend is that if you want to get be blessed for a Senate seat you hire Blakemore and we've seen that with a couple other because why open Senate seats because he is also the consultant for the lieutenant governor and so it's not to say that those always go hand-in-hand and of Blakemore hiring in a Dan Patrick endorsement but for the most part they do notable though we

haven't seen that endorsement come out for Cook yet. So, we'll be on the lookout for that. It will be even more interesting if it doesn't. Cook said when he announced over the years, we've faced a wave of growth and change, bringing both opportunities and challenges that continue to impact our way of life. These realities don't stop at district lines. They affect communities across SD-22 in much the same way I'm stepping forward because these challenges require experience, follow-through, and the time necessary to commit fully to the work ahead. We've accomplished a great deal. There's more work to be done. I look

forward to hitting the campaign trail to earn the support of the people of SD-22. Other names to watch from the House for this seat are Shelby Slauson, Republican from Stephenville Brian Harrison, Republican from Midlothian and Pat Curry, Republican from Waco I'm most watching Slauson and Harrison on this I think I'm not sure Curry's gonna jump in since I got was he's not rearing for it but maybe that changes.

He is very wealthy and he could self finance a good chunk of his campaign if he wanted to. But yeah, that's the bird well seat. And it will especially become more interesting if more people jump in, of course. Right now it's a one horse show and And this is a Republican secure Yes, I think the tpi on it is r 66-ish if I remember correctly

Um, so solidly Republican like that's not flipping um So yeah the like in many of these districts, the Republican primary is the election of consequence. Slauson and Harrison too notably supported Cook in his bid for the speakership. So it's interesting if these people jump in, it's like, you know, a little bit of a, which is how this works. Yeah.

But it would be notable. Well, Slauson herself was a candidate for speaker. So until she wasn't. Yeah, we know both of them, both her and Cook have been eyeing the seats quite a bit. And Harrison's a wild card, you know, don't know what he's gonna do. He's been hinting at... A run for something. A run for something, next steps, and he hasn't announced anything yet.

That's honestly one of the biggest questions people are asking. That's one of the questions I get the most is what's Brian Harrison doing? I don't know if Harrison knows yet. There's a lot of options in front of him depending on which way he wants to go. But there you go. Thank you, Bradley. Marylis, we're going to come to you. Yesterday, the US Senate passed the budget reconciliation bill, which included a lot

of Texan led efforts. Tell us about it. Yes, this is something that we've been following in the 40, just a little plug there for the newsletter. We'll have a good bit about it in the newsletter from this week's when the podcast goes out. It will have been published the day before. The US Senate did finally pass the budget reconciliation bill. It's otherwise known finally pass the budget reconciliation bill. It's otherwise known as the one big beautiful bill. That's a phrase that a lot of people have been using. Republican folks, the Democratic members, have been calling it more so along the lines of the big ugly bill.

And so it was a little bit of a marathon of a voting session for the Senate. I believe they were in there for, it was either 23 or 24 hours by the time they took their final vote. But there are a couple of key provisions that were within this bill that Texans authored. So one of the ones that we have, we've discussed in this podcast before was the border refund and so reimbursing Texas

for the different costs that it's incurred through securing the border under President Biden's administration. This was, I mean, there's been a lot of talk about this for a while, but especially from like Congressman Chip Roy, Governor Greg Abbott, but Senator John Cornyn is the one that authored this in the bill. And this will, in its current form, I mean we'll see what the House does with it, but in its current form, it would reimburse Texas $13.5 billion for those border security related costs.

He talked about, Cornyn said earlier on that he was working hand in glove with Governor Greg Abbott. This was after Abbott had sent out some letters formally requesting that the federal government assist us in reimbursement for Texas's border wall costs and other border security related costs. He sent letters to our congressional leadership in DC and he told them that he estimated that Operation Lone Star under the Biden administration had cost about $11.1 billion to the state of Texas. And so Cornyn, you know, he talked about he's grateful that this is in the bill. He spoke about he said, you know, I really championed this effort to reimburse Texas

for Operation Lone Star for securing the border. He said he was proud to vote in favor of this legislation. And he, like other Republican members, encouraged the House to move quickly and to pass it in its current form. Okay. And then another one was universal school choice. And obviously that's been a phrase we've talked about a whole lot on this podcast.

But that was authored by Senator Ted Cruz. And essentially that would allocate 10 billion per year in dollar for dollar tax credits for both individuals and businesses that are contributing to nonprofit scholarship granting organizations that support students' education opportunities. Andrew Cruz just talked about for over a decade, I've led the fight in the US Senate for school choice and he talked about his gratitude that it was passed in this bill, called it a historic

investment. So then moving on to an entirely different aspect of the bill, we have a relocation of a space shuttle from Virginia to Houston. This is something that Senator Cornyn has really been leading the charge on. He recently actually had an event in Houston where he spoke to different folks in NASA about his desire to see a space shuttle discovery be moved from Virginia to Houston. He said that he was trying to resolve an oversight that happened under the Obama administration when, and I quote, Houston was

wrongly snubbed from receiving one of four retiring space shuttle orbiters more than a decade ago. So this is kind of a fun aspect of the bill a little bit here, at least for the Houston folks. So this will kind of a fun aspect of the bill a little bit here, at least for the Houston folks. So this will be a spatial discovery moving from Virginia to Houston. And then another one is no tax on tips. This was Cruz's effort and definitely one of President Donald Trump's big campaign topics, something that he campaigned on a promise during the election cycle. It is the way it sounds, it would eliminate taxes on TIP income. Of course, there's qualifications for you to be able to qualify for the provision.

You have to have an annual salary lower than $160,000. And then if they are eligible, workers would be able to get 100% tax deduction on any tipped amounts that are up to $25,000 per year. And then there's a few other processes you have to go through with the IRS, but that's the basic outline there. And then also CRUZES was the Invest in America Act. That's within the big beautiful bill. This establishes a tax advantage investment account that would be complete with a thousand dollar seed investment for every American child.

And there was a lot of different takes on this, especially from Republicans saying, oh, this is a great way to promote financial opportunity for Americans and then literacy for the next generation. And then others were saying, hold on, this is government overreached into our pockets. We don't need you to be creating these investment accounts for our children taking our money to do it. This is within the bill. Cruz talked about he was glad that this is included. Also just really pushing for the House to

move quickly to get this across the board. One thing I'll mention real quickly is the AI moratorium. It ended up being kicked out of the bill and Cameron wrote a piece about that detailing kind of what went down there, but it involved Cruz and even State Senator Angela Paxton weighed in on the situation, but it would have prevented AI regulations for a certain amount of time. There was conversation about, should it be 10 years, five years? It was eventually kicked out. But you can read Kamen's piece about that for more details.

So this is definitely a lengthy piece. You should go read the full thing. Texas Democratic Party weighed in on the bill's passage and they had some strong, strong words, said, smileless Senate Republicans voted for the worst version of Trump's tax agenda to intentionally harm working families while rolling out the red carpet for billionaires. So you go check out the piece, but this bill is still in the middle of the process, but it's definitely made some big, big steps towards becoming law.

Absolutely, Mary-Lise. Thanks for breaking it all down. There's a lot to get into there. And you mentioned Cameron's piece on the AI portion, the provision in this one big, beautiful bill, the reconciliation package, whatever you want to call it. The O-Triple-B. The O-Triple-B. That's true, because if people keep saying O-B-B, it's O-B-B-B.

Yeah. I'm just saying. We're leaving out a B when we use the acronym. But let's talk about this causing quite a stir, Cameron, this AI portion and a provision that was on the table here. Yeah, well, just as lengthy as Mary-Lisa's piece, just identifying some of the top lines that is in this reconciliation package, when you actually dig into those individual issues, it gets even more complicated. And so I became aware of this AI provision and I was sort of following it as it was being

debated and so just for people to understand here, there was a provision with initially within the reconciliation package that would have placed a 10-year pause on state-level AI regulation. And this introduction was sort of spearheaded by Ted Cruz and Tennessee Republican Marsha Blackburn. And initially, there was some pushback on this moratorium. So they got back together, came to a new deal that would cut that moratorium in half to only five years, along with some other accommodations along

with it. Then they got some support from some very important people like the Commerce Secretary, Howard Lutnick. But then there was some parliamentary issues with this provision. Then there was greater partisan pushback from Republicans like Mary Lees mentioned. Angela Paxton put out a letter asking for it to be removed. There was 17 Republican governors signed on to a letter voicing their concerns with it. Even Senator John Cornyn put out a tweet. This was weeks ago saying that the AI moratorium provision might not even survive the parliamentary challenges to it. Eventually, Blackburn pulled her support for this provision and there was a motion brought forward to

remove it and it ended up passing 99 to 1. So overwhelmingly supported. And like I mentioned, this moratorium saw some pushback, especially here in Texas. Someone like Giovanni Capriglione, who has led on all things AI policy here in the state. He was vocally opposing this moratorium. And after it was removed, he called it a huge win for responsible AI. And so there was disagreements about

where the oversight for AI should come from, whether it be the state level, the federal level. And so now with this provision being removed, states are going to have a greater ability to oversee AI policies in their state. And there was concerns about a sort of patchwork that would emerge different states with different policies but we're gonna see how that's gonna be enacted now that this provision was removed and it's a developing industry so there's still a lot more to come. It's the Wild West in so many ways and

watching different states trying to figure out their approaches and of course federally there will always be responses to something as you know innovative as AI. So lots to consider here. Thank you Cameron for running that down and go read Mary-Lise's piece with all the details of the general overview and go read Cameron's piece specifically. Very interesting to watch some Texans jump in on this conversation. For sure. Thank you Cameron. Bradley, let's talk about another big high-profile campaign announcement, Democrat jumping in the U.S. Senate race here.

Yes. Former Congressman Colin Allred announced his second candidacy for the U.S. Senate in 2026, less than a year after his first one ended in defeat against Senator Ted Cruz, Allred raised $100 million, over $100 million in his run last year. And he is the first of the rumored high profile Democrats to jump in this current race. You know, it's notable that he raised a hundred million over a hundred million dollars. There was a lot of hope among Democrats to make it a close race again, like 2018 was did not happen. Crews won by eight and a half points, spurred largely by the Trump wave,

bringing a bunch of Hispanics over to the Republican side, particularly in South Texas. It just was a it was a bloodbath for Democrats across most of the country really, but especially in Texas. Al Wright is back again and trying to make another go at it. His announcement video and he said, the truth is you shouldn't have to have a son in the NFL to own a home. Everything's backwards. Folks who play by the rules and keep the faith just can't seem to get ahead. But the folks who cut corners and cut deals, well, they're doing just fine.

Um, it was markedly different than I'd say than the way he announced last time. Um, and of course, we're waiting to see if there are any opponents that jump in for him, but he is the first high level Democrats figure, democratic figure in the race. Can I? It's just, you read the statement from his announcement video, and I know they speak in these broad generalities about things, but if you said a Republican

said that statement, it would sound very similar. Yes. You know, because it's like Democrats point to the Trump administration as being the opponent as Republicans point to Democrats as being the opponent. Yeah, well, that definitely sticks out in some things that, general things that stuck out to me about the announcement was that the kind of cookie-cutter kitchen table issue focus, you know, economic issues, which is what Democrats got killed on, one of the big

ones that got killed on that in the border last year in Texas. And so he is trying to appeal to that sensibility because now like, you know, you can't, you can't blame an economy entirely on a precedent, but you can in a political sense and they do right. And presidents take credit for good economies and they get walloped over bad economies. And so if things are still costing a lot of money next year that's gonna be used against Republicans. Could you, I'm sorry, so with already taking more of this cookie-cutter approach that you mentioned maybe focusing more on

economic issues, could you see another Democrat jump in this race and focus on more cultural issues maybe in the Democrats sort of AB testing what is landing with the the electorate? Well, I mean, yeah, you could. I don't think you'd be very successful right now. It also depends on the issue, right. So one thing that stuck out was Allred last time focused heavily on abortion. That was one of his main issues. And also he tried to play to the economy stuff as well, but he was on the back foot because it was a democratic administration in office. There was no mention in this opening video of abortion as an issue.

None. Now, he mentioned it in a later tweet, but that's the online audience seeing that versus one seeing the video you're putting out, blasting out, texting out, all that. It's different, right? So he's not changed his mind on abortion. I'm just wondering from like a campaign strategy messaging side of things, like Democrats are still trying to figure out what's going to take hold with the voting population since they weren't able to capture the necessary amount of votes last cycle.

And they're trying to make adjustments to see what lands, what is going to get people to the polls to vote Democrat. Could someone else jump in this race and focus on an entirely different set of issues than all red is focused on to see just what is going to energize people to get them to the polls? They certainly could, but I don't think it'd be done out of coordination. They'd be doing it to try and get one over on All-Red. Right? Because they see that as the more viable... So there's not that much coordination? No.

Okay. No. No. Maybe I... I mean, they're all opponents right now, right? The prospective candidates and the current candidates are opponents in this race, and they're trying to set themselves apart so they get the nomination. Now, that doesn't mean there aren't going to be similar issues talked about. For example, the other issue that Alred focused on other than the economy in his opening video was anti-corruption. And so Democrats are

banking heavily on Ken Pax winning the Republican primary. It looks like he's got it, at least right now. He's up by a lot in the polls between 10 and 20 points consistently. And so some of them even higher than that. But they're going to use that as a big theme if Paxton wins. And they'll try and use it too if Cornyn manages to win this and pull off an upset so far they're gonna link Trump and Paxton specifically but also Cornyn to accusations of corruption and we know that we know where Paxton's been the last, you know, few years getting impeached and then acquitted, but they're going to drudge up all that stuff. Cornyn, I'm sure, well not Johnson,

I'm sure he's already doing that. That's going to be a theme in that race. So that will be a through line between every candidate you see with the Democrats. I don't really see, because of how things went last time, I don't see a social issue heavy candidacy really being able to separate itself. That doesn't mean they won't talk about it, they will, especially in a Democratic primary, but you're not going to see them get out there and defend things like biological men and women's sports openly, constantly, because that was such a wedge issue that went against them last time around. And then abortion turned out to be a motivating factor for a certain electorate,

but that electorate is already going to vote Democrat. And so it did not pull people over in the middle. And I think we found that out last time around. So I don't think that'll be a centerpiece. And Allred's video indicates that to me. I think especially in a race like this when you see polling that's already out there about Allred versus Cornyn or versus Paxton

and the different margins we're seeing in a potential general election matchup. Allred is, in a lot of ways, the candidate folks are like, okay, if Paxton gets the nomination, for example, could all red actually take this, right? Because he can position himself as a more moderate candidate. Like, there are a lot of these, that's what the conversation is.

It's like, okay, if anybody can enter the race and potentially have an influence on how the general election pans out from a democratic perspective, it could be already. Well, and he won't be the only person in this race. There's already Houston astronaut Terry Virts. He's in the race. I put him on a second tier of candidate level. He's kind of there by himself right now. Everyone else that's announced is just really nobody. But then you've got Beto O'Rourke, James Tallarico and Joaquin Castro who are all very much considering this.

And may all three of them jump in. Now, there's more coordination it seems between them. They were at a San Antonio town hall last weekend rallying together. And I know they're having discussions about how we're going to do this. Do we all go in this one race and we all just throw everything at the US Senate race or do we split it up? Do we try and draw out, let's say, make Abbott spend a lot of money in his own race rather than contributing elsewhere down ballot. I think that would be a better strategy, but the other thing is I don't think any of those

three are really enthusiastic about Colin Altred, particularly after the loss last time. You know, the fact that none of them are dropping out and endorsing him already is oddly enough, a pretty polarizing figure in democratic circles right now. Um, he, I don't think they feel, a chunk of them feel like he has the juice to do this. Uh, he is a good fundraiser and he does stay on message well, but he does not have the charisma that say, you know, Beto does in touring the state and revving up crowds, that kind of thing. I'd say Talarico has that too. Castro remains to be seen, we'll see.

But Allred, we know, does not have that. And that's why during the race last year, his team went with a different kind of strategy. I likened it to the Richard Nixon 72 campaign where they controlled his environment more. He'd go out and talk to Do Town Halls and whatnot, but it was to friendly audiences that you knew the questions that were coming or there were no questions at all. Um, whereas Beto, when he did it was more focused on, yeah, let's have a giant conversation about all this stuff. Throw whatever at me. I'll take all your questions. We make jokes about him standing on tables, but he was literally out there

standing on tables and standing on bar tops and saying, bring it on. Um, and all red, so Allred did focus more on controlled environments and then heavy on controlled media, which was TV ads. I can spend a small fortune, $100 million, I guess it's not really that small, a huge fortune on these ads that I control what the message is. I'm not getting caught off guard. I don't think Allred does very well in an uncontrolled environment. But in this race, let's say all three of these guys jump

in, there's gonna be a lot of uncontrolled environments. Yeah. Well, with the mention of those three individuals, that's why I'm sort of wondering the the two levers you can sort of pull like the charisma in the campaign like revving up like a Beto like to 11 and then a little lower with someone like Allred who's much more in a controlled environment like you mentioned staying on message but then also pulling the lever on policy whether they are moderating to the middle on some issues or they pull it to the left on other issues. And so with Allred, Beto, Talarico, Castro, they could pull both those levers in all sorts of

different directions and see what lands with Democrat voters. Well, it seems like Democrats are still sort of searching for an identity and this could be a testing ground for that. I see a lot of reaction to any of these guys. Oh they're all failures, whatever. They're super liberal. The Republicans came out at national level and local level and just call it all red radical. You know, I get it and you're entitled to your opinion on it but if you have that opinion you're not the person that they're marketing to, right? They're marketing to. Right.

They're marketing to first of all, Democrats, because you got to win the primary first, but then independence and Democrats have not done very well with motivating independence, you know, except for save 2018 where they did. Um, but Democrats have no bench right now and they have this crop of candidates where actually, you know, you list them all out and they're pretty formidable figures, at least in terms of what we've seen traditionally with Texas Democrats. I'm kind of flabbergasted that the odds seem pretty high that they all jump into one freaking race. I don't know. I guess it makes sense that you don't want to spread out $200 million across three different races, the Senate, the governor's race, and the lieutenant governor's race. I get it, but you're allowing Republicans to focus all their money on this one race

rather than having to spend it elsewhere. And I guess it's a question of pick your poison maybe but I just don't The logic doesn't sit sit there for me. I don't see it But I mean you have these big figures, you know take Talarico He could run against Abbott and you know, he's gonna they're not gonna win, right? Odds are very high that the Democrats just not gonna beat Abbott with the amount of money he has Odds are very high that the Democrats just not going to beat Abbott with the amount of money he has And Abbott we've seen is not very vulnerable at all. Beto tried in 22 and got nowhere lost by 13 points but to take Tallarico his biggest issue is

anti-ESA's anti-vouchers he can make that a centerpiece and a massive different differentiation between him and the incumbent, he can run on that because Abbott is the face of that. And maybe you catch lightning in a bottle and make this race a lot closer than you thought and you force Abbott to spend – he's got $70 million in the bank now – spend 60 of it on his race. There's going to be a lot more than that. But that's the line of thinking that makes more sense to me, but nobody seems to want to go up against Abbott.

And I get that too. And for good reason, for very good reason. But it does make sense in the context of what Tallerico is talking about, that he would run in some state level race. Um, high profile governor of Texas is no joke, but you know, us Senate would be a little bit different from a name ID perspective, if the, all these guys jump

in the same race, yeah, you get statewide name ID in a democratic primary. But if you're running against Abbott, cause nobody wants to do that yet. You get name ID in the primary and the general election to different electorates right it's TBD yeah lots to consider yeah thanks for that conversation gentlemen yeah very good stuff Cameron let's talk about the DOD announcing a designation of a military

zone along the border tell us about this yeah this was a press release that came out from the US Air Force last week that detailed these new national defense areas, which is going to be a directive in this case where a 250-mile stretch of land across the Rio Grande River in Cameron and Hidalgo counties, where this new installation will work in conjunction with the joint base San Antonio. Some other responsibilities will be handled by the US North Command and it's in essence to bolster border security.

And what's interesting here is that back in May, the US Attorney's Office for the Western District of Texas stated there had been quote, dozens of illegal aliens found guilty of illegally entering these NDA zones because there are a few other along the border and in some other states such as New Mexico, in addition to the 60 who had already pled guilty

to the same charges. And so this designation for these new zones are sort of a downstream effect of some of the executive orders from President Donald Trump, specifically one that was titled Clarifying the Military's Role and Protecting the Territorial Integrity of the United States,

where in that executive order, it directs the US North Command to quote, provide steady state southern border security, seal the border, and maintain the sovereignty, territorial integrity, and security of the United States by repelling forms of invasion,

including unlawful mass migration narcotics trafficking human smuggling and trafficking and other criminal activities Lost to do there in that single sentence. It seems like I was gonna say Yeah, they're working towards accomplishing that goal with these new installations So I'm sure there's gonna be more news coming out about the effectiveness of these national defense areas and keep people updated once they come out. Killing it Cameron. Thank you.

You're welcome. Let's talk about this. It's very interesting to me, Mary Elise, among a myriad of different pieces of legislation that were passed during the 89th regular session, there's one related to adoption curriculum in high schools. This is super interesting to me. Tell us about it Yeah, I think that this one might have flown a little bit under the radar But I also find it rather interesting and I enjoyed learning more about it

So this is Senate bill 1207 and it was signed into law by Governor Greg Abbott Just it was I think a couple days before that signature deadline It was a couple days before that signature deadline. This was authored by Senator Phil King and then it was carried in the House by Representative Terry Leah Wilson. This essentially establishes adoption curriculum for high school students to teach them about the different adoption related resources that are available in the state. And Leo Wilson described it as kind of providing

this alternative solution for high schoolers who might be facing a teen pregnancy by informing them about the benefits of adoption and then the different kinds of adoption that are available to them in the state, as well as just a general knowledge about, hey, what does the adoption system look like in Texas? So this will be incorporated into what we already have, which is the Parenting and Paternity Awareness Program, which is run, it's also known

as the PAPA program, so that's the little phrase there, and it's run by the Texas Office of Attorney General. So this adoption curriculum will kind of be a branch of this program. And Leo Wilson described it as an evidence-based curriculum for young adults that teaches students the benefits of waiting to become a parent until after they completed their education, started a career, and are in a stable, committed relationship. Just how Leo Wilson was describing that POP program.

And this program that the adoption curriculum will be woven into is an option for high schools to fulfill their state mandated requirement that they have to offer high school classes that deal with parenting and paternity awareness. So that's a requirement for public high schools and this is kind of one route that they can take to make sure they're offering that to their high school students. Leo Wilson was saying that she thinks it's kind of this proactive approach to

educate high school students on the rights, the responsibilities, and realities of parenting. And she was saying that she thinks that's the best way to promote healthy relationships and the general well being of the students is just to make sure that they are really well educated in this area. She said that her motivation for carrying this bill through the lower chamber was kind of stemmed from her experience as a public school teacher. She's now a retired public school teacher and also a member of the House Public Education Committee. She said, I have both a passion for students and a desire to

provide quality instructional materials for teachers. She also referenced that she's been a longtime advocate for policies policies she said that promote the value of life from the moment of conception through natural death. And she then talked about how making adoption, this kind of this topic that high school students are familiar with can maybe help broaden their understanding of what choices lay before them when they're in a teen pregnancy. So it was unanimously voted out of the

House Public Education Committee before I went to both chambers. When it was on the House floor it got, she said, received only eight registered no votes curiously from all Republican members and back in the House Journal it notes that there were nine members, members that voted against this you can check out the piece to see all of those individuals that voted against it but it did pass unanimously in the Senate and then it became effective immediately after Governor Greg Abbott's signature which was on June 20th so high school students will now kind of have this

opportunity to learn more about adoption and what it looks like in Texas as a part of this already required class that they have to take in high school. So hopefully it will be a good change for high schoolers. Go check out Mary-Lise's piece. Yeah. As Cameron will. Well because I wasn't aware of this before Mary Lee's brought it up. And it seems it's interesting to me because one of the big criticisms you hear from those who are opposed to these pro-life policies

that have been introduced is the state doesn't take care of the mother or the child after they're born. They just care about the baby being born. I think this is a sort of interesting reaction to that, instilling these sort of values of adoption and parenthood early in a person's high school education to sort of promote those values, right? And you sort of see that dynamic

at play as well, like what Mary-Lise mentioned with the O-Triple-B about the sort of savings accounts that are being introduced in that package for children that are newborns. And so it's sort of this reaction from the right about some of the criticisms that people have to pro-life policies. It's like they're shoring up, you know, arguments and feathers in their cap to say, hey, actually we're not doing this. Now that does not mean it's not being also met with criticism from some Republicans, right? But certainly that is like the approaches. Hey, we're shoring up this level of support.

Yeah, we hear you. We're trying to do something about it. Totally. Very interesting. And I mean, I think that's, of course, why it received so much bipartisan support too, was it wasn't explicitly pro-life or explicitly anti-abortion, but just saying, hey, we need to make sure that high school students are fully aware of the options they have when in a teen pregnancy. Absolutely.

We'll go read Mary Elisa's piece at the Texan.News. Cameron, let's talk about some very interesting conflict here between SMU, so the United Methodist University, and the United Methodist Church, the legal battle that they're engaged in. Yeah, and this has been a long-standing legal conflict between SMU like you mentioned and The church itself the United Methodist Church the Supreme Court issued a ruling that the lawsuit can move forward and this originally Started up in 2019 after the SMU governing board moved to change its university bylaws and that was the split sort of started with the pushback from SMU

because the United Methodist Church approved what's called the traditional plan in February 2019, which affirmed the ban on ordaining LGBT clergy and officiating same sex marriages. And I include all the different press releases from... The jockeying. The jockeying back and forth from SMU and from the United Methodist Church here.

And I run through again, the back and forth of this legal battle, but with the determination by the Supreme Court of Texas, the lawsuit can move forward. I'll just read a portion of that opinion here. It says, quote, South Central Jurisdictional Conference, that was the actual portion of the United Methodist Church that launched the lawsuit has statutory authority to pursue its claims regarding the validity of the 2019 amendments to SMU's articles of incorporation

Adding it may pursue its breach of contract claim. So we'll see after this Case goes back down to a lower court If SMU and the church will remain in this Contractual agreement with each other or a split will occur and we'll have that update once we have some more information. Cameron's the king of updates. Gotcha. There you go. Let's talk about former governor Rick Perry announcing a new energy project project that he's starting here in Texas, Cameron. This is interesting.

Yeah, well it's being labeled a first of its kind behind the meter Hypergrid campus and what does that mean? Well, they're gonna be planning to build a 5,769 acre Nuclear power complex that will host a natural gas project utility power grid in order to deliver quote next generation artificial power grid in order to deliver quote, next generation artificial intelligence. And like I mentioned, it's expected to be the largest energy driven artificial intelligence complex in the country. And this is being led by former Texas Governor Rick Perry in conjunction with Texas Tech University who is gonna be offering research and

apprenticeships for students and faculty at this new complex. And what's interesting and what is sort of bringing about this is twofold. There's the initiative being spurred by the Trump administration with some different executive orders to sort of bolster up the domestic AI industry. But then also in the press release, Rick Perry mentions that China is building

22 nuclear reactors today to power the future of AI. America has none, we're behind and it's all hands on deck. So it's the bolstering of domestic production but also the sort of global battle we're in on the AI front with with China and so both those things sort of spurred action here building this new new complex and it's being done by Fermi America which is a company that Rick Perry is a part of a partnership. So very interesting what it's going to do in terms of building up the economy in Amarillo where it's going to be located, but then also what sort of innovations come out of this

new complex. So something I'll be keeping my eye on. Fermi spelled F-E-R-M-I. Boom, got it. Thanks. First try. Just wanted to, you know, show my skills. Yeah. Thanks.

Your nunchuck skills? My nunchuck skills. Your hacking skills. Let's also talk about, K, we're in the last story, Ken Baxter and the Texas State Fair, the lawsuit's been gone for a hot minute now, walk us through the update. A hot minute is right, and the Texas State Fair. So lawsuits been gone for a hot minute now walk us through the update A hot minute is right and a lot of attention. Any comments on the hot minute thing Brad? You already beat that dead horse On SFR he was giving me a lot of grief over saying hot minute and it meaning either a Very short amount of time or a very long amount of time interchangeably. That one I was asking honestly

I was giving you grief about the of it all. Yeah, I'm trying really hard not to say it on this podcast. Well, the Kim Paxson of it all. But there's, there's a lot of attention paid to this. When the band came down in 2024. So last year, it came in response to a shooting that occurred in the year prior at the state fair. And the pushback came from Republicans who signed a letter opposing this ban. Attorney General Kim Paxton launched a lawsuit and he was denied on multiple fronts in different courts and going all the way up to the Texas Supreme Court and this is just the

latest update where Dallas County district judge essentially denied not essentially that's what happened denied a motion denied a motion for a summary judgment so siding with the State Fair of Texas in the city of Dallas in this legal battle You have to be seen if there's going to be a pivot to Argument on a different front or in a different court, but that's just the latest update here the ban and the ability for a individual entity to Have a firearms ban in place is going to be

a lot of move forward. Absolutely. Check it out. And there's a lot of things that were happening in the lead up to this. Like I mentioned, the letter, there was bills filed, there was attorney general complex and withdrawing a legal opinion. So there's a lot more into this. If you want to read it, I'll go check out the piece.

I like it, Cameron. Thank you. Let's move on to the Tweetery section here. Y'all, um, we've got some interesting, interesting items here. Mary-Lise, I want to know a lot more about what it is that I see in our docket. I realized that that sounded a lot different or it reads a lot different than I meant for it to, but let me just explain here. So I, there was this random account on X that posted a picture of his little boy and it

says, my son JJ was getting teased at summer camp because his name is the same as a cocoa melon baby. I guess there's a Coco-melon baby named JJ. Thanks to some JJ Watt highlight reels on YouTube, he has regained his confidence. Unfortunately, I now have to be on my toes at all times to avoid getting sacked. And the picture is just of this cutest little kid wearing a shirt and says Watt 99. Anyways, the main point of this is JJ Watt responded. He quote, posted quote, responded, I forget what the correct phrase for that is, but this

dad and he said, where's the camp? And so if you read all the comments of these people, everyone's talking about like, oh, JJ Watt's going to go beat up some kindergartners. But I thought that it was really sweet. And yeah, you know, there's a Texas tie there. There's a Texan tie. So, JJ, why? Well, it reminds me of the all time greatest SNL skit,

Peyton Manning, throwing those footballs at kids. You guys remember that one? Oh, that was so good, yep. So funny. My only takeaway for that is to renew my call to ban Cocoa Melon across the country. What's your beef with Cocoa Melon? It is horrible for kids. Is it?

Yeah, it is just- It's really overstimulating, right? Yes, it's just overstimulation. Like, Bluey actually has plots and- Oh, Brad knows that. And character development. He watches these shows. over stimulation. Like Bluey actually has plots and Brad knows character development. Hey, I'm at the age now where I have friends who have kids and I have gotten a lot of rants over beers about this, but it is awful for them.

And yeah, talk about TikTok, just making them zombies for screens and like no attention span. Cocoa Melon does the same thing. So ban Cocoa Melon. I will say, as a babysitter, you would probably rather babysit a baby that watches Bluey and not one that watches Cocoa Melon. That makes a lot of sense to me. I'm on board with the old school Looney Tunes situation.

Yes. Like I want Disney originals like Lion King, Peter Pan, I want Looney Tunes, I want original very 2D looking things that have longer plots and aren't just like supposed to stimulate your brain in ways that are incredibly unhealthy and set you up for... Yeah, but if it doesn't have Bugs Bunny fooling Daffy Duck over and over again, then I'm not having it. Oh, see, I was gonna put my kid in an Apple Vision Pro. And so their brain's just completely fried by the time it's bedtime. That's great. So they just go right to sleep. In the span of one day.

Yeah. Totally. Yeah. Makes a lot of sense. Maybe some like a virtual reality situation. Honestly, virtual reality may not be that, I'll have to see the studies, may not be that bad for kids. Yeah.

Just make them run around a little. If there's any childhood development researchers listening, please get on that study. Please let us know. Yeah. If there's any, if there's any, uh, childhood development researchers listening, please let us know. Yeah. Politicians listen to this podcast for the special session. Let's call on Greg Abbott to put on the proclamation of ban of Coca-Mellon. No Coca-Mellon allowed in the boundaries of the state of Texas. Are we going to see a press release from your campaign?

That's the only issue I'm campaigning on. Can you imagine how insane the response would be from parents if that was on the call? Can you imagine how crazy that would be? Oh my gosh. I'm on board. Not to get political here. We're banning all this other stuff. Might as well ban Cocomelon. I'm telling you. Okay. It's gonna get the voters rallying to the call. Well, maybe. In both ways. In both directions. Well, we have the movie bill that passed. So maybe we'll get some follow up legislation. Totally. This could be a little amendment. Yeah, a little amendment.

It says Cocomelon cannot get these movie incentives. No. It's specifically bracketed out. Oh, man. Um, I'm gonna release thank you. That really brought on some fun conversation. Bradley, let's talk Texas State. Cameron, are you ready for some more conference realignment? I think so. The last time this happened, there were legislative hearings on UT and OU, no one really cared about OU, UT specifically, leaving the Big 12 and going to the SEC. It turned out to be fine enough. Things didn't collapse, except for one thing did collapse, and that was the Pac-12.

They went from, I think it was 14 teams, even though they're named the Pac-12, down to two. Well there has been some expansion for the Pac-12 and now it includes Texas State Which is on the rise are they yeah, they've had a few good football seasons, okay Good baseball season that UT fans this year do not want to talk about because I believe they knocked him out of the playoffs And beat him during the regular season But yeah The the Texas State Bobcats are on the rise. Interesting. And they're now going to the Pac-12.

I do remember when conferences had to do far more with the region in which schools were located. Yeah, that's the other thing I would push for other than banning Coca-Mellon, is to return to regional conferences but that can't that jeans out of the bottle he can't put the ketchup back in the tube toothpaste back in the tube I should say ketchup tubes ketchup ketchup but anyway Texas State is moving up and they are going to the Pac-12 at least nominally a top-level conference. There's been a lot of additions to that conference of late. The two that were left remaining were Washington State and

Oregon State. So they're only... They're not in the Pac-12? No, they are in the Pac-12. They're the only two left from the old Pac-12 still in the Pac-12 because everyone else split and those two were left holding the bag but TSC yeah I see I still remember the days of the pack 10 yeah USC Matt liner Reggie Bush yeah give Reggie back his Heisman yeah I guess I'll end this segment with eat them up cats. Should I do the, I think I'm doing this right? Do the camera, yeah. That's so weird to see you doing that.

But good for you Bradley. I do remember growing up in Seattle, I remember in the Pac-12, which was like, I don't even recognize it anymore, which I think anybody can say about any conference that they grew up watching, but it is, it's just weird. Like it's literally the Pacific conference. And here we are with Texas State as part of it and like UW just like, anyway, it's so weird. But there's some massive Texas State fans in the Capitol vicinity or in the capital. Yes. So I'm sure they are going to be very excited. In fact one of them texted me this tweetery and was stoked as it were.

As it were. Cameron, what do you got? Well, for some reason ice cream is a recurring topic conversation on this podcast but also in the office. Well Yelp has released their top 100 ice cream shops across the country. Whoa! And a number of them are located right here in Texas. Hey, check it out. One in Austin, Manolis Ice Cream. Do you know Manolis? Have you been there?

No. This is how it's described on CBS Austin. Known for its colorful, handcrafted treats and walk-up window charm, Manolis has become a go-to summer destination for locals and visitors alike. So maybe, might have to check that out, do a little office trip. There's a Pflugerville spot, rolly rolls. You know about rolly rolls? Rolled ice cream

experience? Like the Thai rolled ice cream? Yes, the Thai dimension is not mentioned in the piece, but I understand what you're talking about. It might be, yeah. I don't know if that's like, if it's deviated entirely. What about gelato paradise? Are you familiar with this Austin shop? No, but there's a gelato shop in Hyde Park that is delicious. Well, you're a gelato expert, aren't you? No, but I do love gelato. Yeah. Yeah. I, yes, I do very much love. I would not call myself an expert. But yeah, I just thought this was a fun little story.

You know, we talked about so many serious things on this podcast. You know, so locked in to Texas politics, you know, take a step away. Talk about a sweet treat, something we all enjoy. Oh, sweet treat. I like it I'm gonna talk about fourth of July foods really quickly because that's what I would like to talk about I found this recipe for American flag focaccia that looks amazing And I think it'd be really easy to make that

I think let me finish my sentence. That'd be nice. I'd like Like that's a pretty pretty reasonable follow-up question. Yes. To you saying a word that doesn't make any sense. In order for it to be follow-up, you would need to let me finish my sentence so that I could follow up. Yeah.

But I think this would be easy to turn into like the Texas flag, right? Make a little bit of a 4th of July situation. Right, Mary-Lise, don't you think? Are those blueberries there? These are, I think they're, which I would, I would need to find a different approach but I think they're beets like marinated beets. Oh well that would make more sense. Look a little more like purple and then it's like cheese and tomatoes. Yeah. This is like the red white and blue situation so um but I'd like to

make something like that. I'm into the sourdough thing. And so this would be, I can make sourdough focaccia. Focaccia bread. Yes, learn me. Is a fluffy, porous bread that you often find at Italian restaurants. Okay. It's delicious, often very olive oily, about yay high, you've had it.

And a lot of sandwiches, it's a good sandwich bread okay often used in panini for paninis often used as like a little side for a pasta dish or a salad you've had it it's very delicious it's very fluffy okay does that help you no but thanks telling me you've had it does not help. Mary-Lys, you know what focaccia is? Yeah, absolutely. You can do a lot of different things with it too. You can do half more sweet or savory.

Yes. I've made, at Christmas time, I make like a cinnamon roll focaccia. Like a, it's basically just focaccia with cinnamon sugar, brown sugar and butter on top of it and then a little bit of cream cheese icing after you bake it and it's real good. Yeah favorite fourth of july food you can only pick one. Oh just burgers.

Burgers Brad? I'm about to come at you Cameron. I think you just think about what it might be over. You're gonna come at me? Yeah, I'm gonna come at you. Just giving you warning. I mean burgers and hot dogs, brats, all great. I think I might go potato salad. Do you like heavy dill in your potato salad? We were at Terry Black's last weekend with some friends and their potato salad is

like tons of fresh dill in it. So freaking good. So good. Yeah. I'm going with the classic American hot dog. Ketchup, mustard, relish. Simple man. Yeah.

Classic. You don't like apple pie and that's what I'm coming at you over. We did, this was an elongated conversation. I got quite a bit of push back from members of this office. Yes. I said I do not like apple pie. It's the most American dessert whether, whether folks love it or hate it you can't deny Americana in a pie dish. Yeah. I'm not saying I dislike pies as a dessert category. It's just I dislike the apple pie. So you're, but you did say your favorite pie is pecan pie. Pecan pie. I'm more of a- Excuse me, pecan.

Fall pie guy. Got it. Pumpkin? Pumpkin is good. How about minced meat? I don't think I've ever had a mince meat pie if someone put it in front of me I try it you know not opposed to trying it hmm probably what's your favorite kind of pie blueberry Interesting. Blueberry or apple? Okay. Mary-Lise? Probably pecan pie to be honest. We have, my parents have a pecan orchard so we get fresh pecans and it tastes way different than a store-bought so yeah I'm gonna go with that. I wouldn't

even think that, but that makes sense. Anything fresh will taste better, but I just hadn't thought about. I will say apple pie is the rare cross seasonal pie. You know, you can have it for the July and the summer. You can have it in the fall, winter. You know, I can't show up to the barbecue with a pecan pie. You could, it just is not as like in season. You came with like a key lime pie or like a lemon meringue. Maybe like a chocolate pie. But those are all like refrigerated pie pies.

I was thinking fruit. The one they have at Gus's. Chest. Chest pie. That's my favorite. Basically a sugar pie. It's very true. Well now I'm sufficiently hungry. Happy 4th of July folks. Happy Independence Day. Thanks for listening to our podcast and we hope you enjoy a wonderful weekend, a long weekend with family and friends doing fun patriotic things.

Grilling and drinking beer. We will catch you on next week's episode. Thank you to everyone for listening. If you enjoy our show, rate and review us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you We will catch you on next week for another episode of our weekly roundup. God bless you and God bless Texas.