The Texan Podcast - Weekly Roundup - June 18, 2021

Episode Date: June 18, 2021

On this week’s edition of The Texan’s Weekly Roundup podcast, our team discusses the governor’s latest border wall announcement, an ERCOT capacity scare, constitutional carry being signed into law, Trump and Abbott’s impending border visit, a homeless encampment being partially removed from Austin City Hall, Texas Democrats visiting with the vice president after their walkout over election reform legislation, the race to replace Allen West as chairman of the Republican Party of Texas, the attorney general weighing in on social workers ability to discriminate based on sexual orientation and gender identity, a new candidate challenging Ken Paxton, a potential rematch in Texas 21st congressional district, the Texas Supreme Court siding with a Lubbock Diocese over a deacon accused of sexual misconduct, and conservative to liberal rankings of the members of the Texas legislature.

Howdy, folks. Mackenzie Taylor here on this week's edition of the Texans Weekly Roundup Podcast. Our team discusses the governor's latest border wall announcement, an ERCOT capacity scare, constitutional carry being signed into law, Trump and Abbott's impending border visit, a homeless encampment being partially removed from Austin City Hall, Texas Democrats visiting with the vice president after their walkout over election reform legislation. The race to replace Allen West as chairman of the Republican Party of Texas. The attorney general weighing in on social workers' ability to discriminate based on sexual orientation and gender identity. A new candidate challenging Ken Paxton.

Potential rematch in Texas' 21st congressional district. The Texas Supreme Court siding with the Lubbock Diocese over a deacon accused of sexual misconduct, and conservative to liberal rankings of the members of the Texas legislature. We appreciate you tuning in and joining this episode. Howdy, folks. Mackenzie Taylor here with Isaiah Mitchell, Hayden Sparks, and Brad Johnson. Daniel Friend is out of the office at the Alamo today at a big bill signing that we will get into later. But for now, gentlemen, we have our coffee. We have a lot to talk about. Hayden, you and I both have our mugs. Brad has his, the Texan Yeti. So I think we're a little bit more, I don't know, sophisticated, just willing to drink coffee faster.

Well, my coffee survived this morning. You know, usually, usually when i'm walking around with a cup of coffee it's a little hazardous because mckenzie likes to hide in various places and jump out and scare me while i'm holding hot cups of coffee don't know how i didn't see that coming and it's had disastrous results in the past so i'm just happy to be sitting here with my coffee share that video with uh the twitter sphere tomorrow is that a threat, Mackenzie? It's only like the last two seconds of it happening. Oh, man, that was a time. There's really only been one time where I've been successful at that.

Isaiah used to scare me all the time, and thankfully that has not happened in a while. Well, this aftermath video you're talking about just looks like Hayden just threw scalding coffee at McKenzie because McKenzie's just like rolling on the ground and Hayden is standing like with an empty cup of coffee. No, I wasn't holding it. The whole thing was on the ground and it was spilled all over the place. It was like a 24 ounce coffee that just flew through the... I hadn't even sipped it because it was still hot. I felt really awful. But don't worry, Connie Burton, if you're listening, the stains have come out of the

carpet. Everything's fine. We're okay. Well, on that note, you know, this is a great transition directly to the border wall. You know, I think just as your coffee hit the wall of our office, we're now going to transition to Abbott's border wall announcement. But this week, a lot of details have come out and the governor has really in the last week or so, you know, made plans to, you know, basically strengthen a lot of the border security

measures that have been enacted so far. A lot of folks have different opinions on the efficacy of those plans. But give us a little bit of an idea of what happened at this press conference, who was in attendance, and start there. Well, Governor Abbott announced that the Border Wall Project is officially underway in Texas. And when I say the Border Wall Project, I mean the state-funded, state-controlled Border Wall Project. He was at his left and his right, he had the Speaker of the Texas House, Dade Phelan, he had Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, and Finance Chair Jane Nelson over in the Senate. And he also had Chairman Greg Bonin,

who is the Appropriations Chair in the House, because this is going to be a huge project financially. And he wanted them to be able to speak into some of the financial aspects of this undertaking. He said that border wall or border fencing is under construction as we speak, and the border wall project is officially underway, meaning they have gotten the ball rolling to hire a program manager for this project who will be supervised by the Texas Facility Commission. And that individual will be responsible for coordinating contractors and subcontractors and the like. So there were also in attendance at the press conference, many members of the legislature, some of whom have had hands in a border wall idea in the past, including Representative Brian Slayton, who introduced

legislation to get that border wall built using state funds after the Biden administration announced that they would cancel former President Trump's border wall project. So there were many members of the legislature there, many of whom have been outspoken on border security in the past. Got it. And this is something that we had not seen much discussion on during the legislative session, right? This was something that there were a lot of other, you know, hot topics that were being debated and prioritized in both the House and the Senate by various state leaders and the governor as well. But border security really was not talked about very much during the legislative session. And, you know, now after the legislative session, and a lot of folks are pointing to the primary challenges the governor is receiving is,

well, hey, maybe pressure is being placed on Abbott. Regardless, there's some movement now. Now, talk to us about the money. So, you mentioned the, you know, both fiscal chairs in the House and the Senate being present for the signing. You know, how much money will be spent on this? How much is he allocating? The governor used an interesting term. He said that there's going to be a down payment on this project, and that payment is going to be $250 million. I've seen reports that that's going to come from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. I'm not positive about that. But that is the starting figure for this project, the floor of $250 million. And the governor said that there will be additional

funding provided later on. But that number is reflective of the size of this project and how much investment the governor's office is willing to put into the border wall. There will be additional details later. But he was very clear that we couldn't have specifics of exactly how much it's going to cost in total, the length of the wall and other details like that, because the program manager will have to sit down with all the contractors and get that information ready. So there isn't, there aren't, he said there would be details provided at this press conference. He was only able to provide additional details, such as the program manager and the starting investment of I say investment, the starting spending total of $250 million. But because this is such a huge undertaking by a state,

this isn't this would be huge for the federal government. But because this is an undertaking by a state, there are even more pieces that they have to put together with even more limited resources and personnel that the state has. So they will need to get their ducks in a row. And that's certainly something that can't happen in just a week. Certainly. And there are varying opinions and different estimates that are coming out about how much wall this down payment would actually be able to build. Right. I mean, a border wall is not cheap. And we saw that, you know, Trump's different estimates for Trump's wall,

different estimates for the, you know, the Texas portion and $250 million of taxpayer money is certainly a very hefty sum. But, you know, how much wall will that actually build at the end of the day? Right. And everyone, everyone too has a different vision for what a wall is. Yes. I mean, is this going to be a 30 foot brick construction project, or is this going to be a double layer security fence? I mean, there, there are so many different definitions and visions for what a wall entails. And that I imagine we'll go into it as well, because that depends on the, or that will determine what types of supplies the state has to set aside for this project. Absolutely. So, you know, what's the urgency? What's the messaging coming from state leaders, you know, about this border wall?

During the legislative session, as we mentioned moments ago, there were bills, border wall bills presented, and Representative Slayton introduced an amendment to the appropriations bill to redirect funding for this border wall project, and that did not advance at all. So yesterday at the press conference, I asked Governor Abbott why this is a priority now, as opposed to during the legislative session. And he walked me through some of the steps that he has taken since he was governor. He said that the state added funding for border security early on before Trump was president. And during the Trump presidency, the state didn't have to take such an assertive role with border security because Trump, of course, was very hard-lined

on that issue. And the federal government's responsibility is border security. One of its responsibilities is border security. And that has been something that Abbott has emphasized. While the state is stepping up currently, this is something that constitutionally is the federal government's responsibility. So during the Trump administration, the state, according to Abbott, did not have to take as many actions as it is now. And of course, he touted Operation Lone Star, which was launched in March. Incidentally, that is about the same time that the border wall bill was presented by Representative Slayton, and it was co-authored by a number of other lawmakers as well. So in response to my question, the governor walked us through some of the border security measures that he has

taken. Of course, he's faced criticism for prioritizing a border wall. Now, here we are, it's June. We're several months into the border crisis. This is not something that just started happening. We started seeing astronomical levels of illegal crossings as early as March, I believe was when they got to about 170,000. And that's not normal to have 170,000 illegal crossings. And we've had surges on the border before. So a surge on the border is not necessarily a once in a millennium event, but it's still highly unusual to have this many illegal border crossings. So to defer to the governor, yes, we are at the height of a historic border crisis. And this is the latest in a number of steps that the governor has taken. However,

critics such as one of his challengers, Senator John Huffines, would contend that he is prioritizing a border wall now because it has become politically necessary. And because Huffines and others have started to call Abbott on not taking steps like a border wall sooner in the year, especially when the legislature was in session and they had more options. But one of the things that Speaker Dade Phelan said while he was there is that he will be giving interim charges to committees. In other words, he's going to be tasking committees between legislative sessions with working on this project. So he is working with the legislature in that regard, even though they are not currently in session. And there will be, Governor Abbott has committed to calling at least two

special sessions. Although yesterday, Speaker Phelan almost jokingly said, I've heard there's going to be a special session, but I still don't know when that's going to be. So they're not quite, they haven't nailed down a timeline on that either. But that is the essence of where we are in the sequence of border wall and border security steps. And that was Abbott's reasoning for not having prioritized this sooner. I like it. Well, Hayden, thank you. Last thing. Now, one of the big headlines this week was relating to, you know, folks donations to the border wall. Walk us through what is what is allowed. As Governor Abbott promised, people in the public, not just in Texas, but anywhere are allowed to contribute to this

project. He set up a website, borderwall.texas.gov. And there's also a P.O. box, P.O. box 13226, Austin, Texas 78711, where individuals are able to mail in donations. And I know we've had I've had people email me and ask me where they can contribute to this project. So if a border wall is something that you are in favor of, and you want to contribute financially to, that is an option that is on the table for individuals, Texans to make a personal investment in this project. Awesome. Well, Hayden, thanks for covering that for us. Certainly a lot of developments happening there. Bradley, let's go back to ERCOT. Really not that that much removed from the February storms and the legislative outcome of the session. And all of a sudden, ERCOT is back in the news.

What happened this week? Yeah, it's the acronym with the most unfortunate name, especially during this year. And it just refuses to go away. This week, ERCOT issued a conservation request, essentially asking Texans to lower their electricity use. And that set off everyone's alarm bells. I mean, it was like people thought we were going into another situation in February where power would be lost across the state wholesale. But that is not what happened. It was not that serious um but you know or cut said it was an alarming situation the reserves uh kind of reserve margins dipped a

little bit uh but not to the point where they might uh reach emergency alert level so the whole time it was just a conversation conservation request which is it's not something that happens all the time and it's not nothing but it's not also not something that is totally infrequent so um with that context uh what caused it this week was uh some forced generation outages specifically there were plants that had mechanical issues most of those were thermal so divided between natural gas coal nuclear types of sources they don't they didn't give a a breakdown of what was out and what wasn't other than just what was thermal and what was renewable and one thing that did happen at Comanche Peak the nuclear plant up in the DFW area, had a transformer

blow and catch on fire. So that was one of the mechanical issues. And it was all different. It was not the same thing as the weather related issues that we saw in February. So another contributing factor to this, to the low margins, was wind especially produced at very low levels, at times less than a tenth of its installed capacity and when does this you know it like i said it has a lot of um a sizable amount of capacity uh 31 32 000 megawatts but that doesn't generate all the time uh it's in fact it's rare for all of that 32,000 roughly megawattage to be on the grid at once.

Meaning available. Available, yeah. And electricity can't really be stored in any meaningful quantity. And so if it's generated, it has to be used. And so during the kind of scare on Monday, wind was generating at very low levels because the wind just wasn't blowing. Solar, which has a much smaller total capacity throughout the state, was actually outpacing wind in generation. So that's pretty alarming, especially as we go into the summer heat. But also, of course, these breakdowns of thermal plants is something to watch as well.

That was not something that ERCOT planned for. They called it a concerning situation, but they said it appears unlikely that we would enter emergency conditions, and we have not yet. And so, you know, that's kind of where it stands right now. Good stuff. So going forward into the rest of the summer, right, where you haven't even started getting into the extra hot months,

how concerned should Texans be about outages or blackouts? of the summer, right? We haven't even started getting into the extra hot months. How concerned should Texans be about outages or blackouts? Well, the threat of potential blackouts is, of course, never zero. But I think, you know, Texas is very well prepared. It's more prepared for the summer heat than it is for a crazy winter storm that we saw. And so the people that I've talked to think that, you know, at most we'll get into an EEA one, emergency alert one, and rolling blackouts don't start until the third. So that's until reserve margins dip. I think it's below a thousand megawatts, which is very low. And we didn't come close to that this week. So, you know, obviously,

this is such a hot topic right now. And it will continue to be ERCOT is going to get a lot of blame for anything that happens, whether it's their fault or not. For in this case, it wasn't their fault. It was these generators that had promised, you know electricity generation that fell off the wagon and couldn't provide it and um you know it mechanical failures are going to happen and pretending otherwise it's just nonsense like it you know things are going to break down here and there the question is how prepared are we in the situation where they do break down to make up for the lost generation and we were fine this week. Who knows if that'll happen in the summer. I think it was 2019 that we got pretty close

to having rolling blackouts. We did not. That was the summer, of course, that California had crazy blackouts across the entire state because of the heat. So that right there shows Texas is, off the bat, better prepared. But who knows what will happen and how much the heat will affect it.

Good stuff. Thank you, Bradley. Isaiah, we're going to step in and take this over for Daniel, who's usually our con carry guy. I'm sure this is, you know, twisting your arm to talk about a gun bill, particularly one of this magnitude. But Daniel right now, like we've already said, is down at an event at the alamo where the governor and um you know we'll be joined by other state leaders to sign several landmark second amendment bills um what happened with constitutional carry this week though this is kind of the major bill from the session a lot of folks are talking about uh well first as you mentioned big shoes to fill we miss you daniel um so abbott is set to sign, I'm sorry,

Abbott did sign a constitutional carry, and it is set to take effect on September 1st. And the way it's going to work, the intent of the bill is that anybody that can legally get a license to carry a gun now will, after September 1st, be able to carry without a license. And during the amendment process, and as it made its way through the legislature, there were a few exceptions tacked on. But for the most part, that's still just about the way it works. Like, the places where you can't carry a firearm now are still prohibited, like public schools, bars, amusement parks hospitals and if you have an LTC license to carry now then you know there are certainly requirements to get an LTC and those are still in place so if you don't meet those legal thresholds then con care

will not apply to you so it applies to individuals over 21 who can legally possess a firearm and have not been convicted in the previous five years of assault causing bodily injury, deadly conduct, terroristic threats, or illegally firing a weapon in a public place, or displaying a firearm in a manner calculated to alarm. Got it. Yeah. So pretty broad, broad spectrum of folks who can carry.

So what's then happening to the LTC program? The LTC program will still remain because, for one, there are certain advantages to having an LTC. It's pretty local, but, for example, it's kind of a fast pass into the capital. If you have an LTC, the DPS dudes can't search you, so you just zip right in. Anyway, so there's that. An LTC will also still be required to carry on public university campuses and on the Lower Colorado River Authority property for some reason. Obviously, I didn't follow this as closely as Daniel. I sense an amendment there.

I feel that that was probably not part of the original bill. But for whatever reason, if you're on the Lower Colorado River Authority, you still have to have an LTC along with college campuses. And the DPS is also going to develop a free online firearm safety training course. Good stuff. So that training can still remain and be available. I like it. Well, Isaiah slash Daniel, Daniel's fill in here. Thank you for following that for us and making sure our readers are informed.

Hayden, we're going to come back to you and the border. Both of those things are very familiar to us at this point. As Brad might say, there are three certainties in life, death, taxes, and me talking about the border on the podcast. We're going to have to update our spreadsheet there. Okay, Hayden. So the governor and former President Trump made news this week about a prospective visit to the border. When will the governor be going on to the border with Trump?

And walk us through the details there. He is going to the border on Wednesday, June 30th. I don't have any idea what the significance of that date is, but it's going to be June 30th. Last day of June, the former president said in a press release that he would be joining Governor Abbott on this border trip. And as we know, many officials have visited the border, including members of Congress and the Texas legislature. I know earlier this year, we had at least six state senators go to the border and they weren't able to access a facility where unaccompanied minors are being held.

These border visits are consequential in the border discussion and border security debate because it gives elected officials the opportunity to head down and showcase some of their policies and to interact with the media and the public regarding border security. So former President Trump, who, since as early, at least as early as 2015, probably earlier, of course, has been the go to person for hardline immigration stances against illegal immigration. And of course, the crime that goes along with the illegal immigration. So President Trump is committing to going to the border with the governor of Texas. And that is going to be a huge event. A former president who and we've talked about this before you know we're heading into a primary season when that primary season will be we'll have to see we have redistricting numbers to figure out before we can officially get that underway but you know talk to us a little bit more in depth about the

significance of this kind of move politically speaking for both of these people you're right about that we may not have a primary season and they go, oh, wait, it's election day. We have to vote now. But Don Huffines, of course, has been very critical of Abbott on immigration. And he's highlighted some of the challenges that Texas has faced under Abbott and the number of illegal crossings, despite the fact that Abbott has been governor for many years, but former President Trump has endorsed Abbott for reelection, as I mentioned moments ago. But Don Huffines has declared himself the Trump candidate in this race, despite that endorsement. So, of course, both Abbott and Huffines want to align themselves with the president. Abbott has an advantage there because the president is appearing with him. And he has the backing of the former president.

But the border visit will give Trump the opportunity to highlight some of the differences between him and the Biden administration. Of course, we had a border surge in 2019. So border surges aren't unique to democratic presidents. And Biden administration officials have contended that Trump left the Department of Homeland Security in such a condition that they were unprepared for this. And the asylum process was unprepared for this. So Biden is pushing back on the idea that their leadership has somehow caused this crisis, that border surges only happen under Democrats. So they've rebutted some of those claims. to showcase his new border wall project and his Operation Lone Star, as well as for Trump to remind the public that this border crisis, which has broken 20 year records in terms of illegal crossings, has happened as soon as he left office. Yeah, absolutely. Well, hey, thanks for covering

that for us. Bradley, we're going to get a little more local here. Another story you've been following is the homeless crisis here in Austin. There was some news this week that related to specifically an encampment on City Hall grounds and the legalese and the potentially illegal consequences of that kind of encampment, particularly after part of it was moved. So walk us through a little bit of what happened and first of all we're in the midst of transitioning back to a homeless camping ban right where are we at in that process yeah um so well the situation this week i would kind of like into the the urquhart conservation scare you know a lot was made out of it, and it really wasn't as substantive or problematic as it was first led to believe. right after the success of the Proposition B ballot question, therefore reinstating the public camping ban in the city of Austin.

So these campers have been kind of squatting there for a while. And it's kind of ironic because in the original rescission of the camping policy back in July of 2019, City Hall was one of the places that you could not camp. And so now they have this month and a half long encampment that city officials are not doing a dang thing about. But I was alerted, I think it was a Monday morning, that a group of police officers had showed up to this encampment on City Hall

and basically removed a section of the camp. Now, at first, it kind of appeared that the entire camp was going to be removed. That's not what happened. They only removed a 30 by 50 square foot section of the camp itself. And it was because of a pending construction project. But also the fact that it's that big to begin with and that's only a portion of it. Oh, yeah. It stretches around the entire is absolutely crazy yeah yeah and so uh the city said they were released they released a statement that said the um the campers had been informed

about this project and that you know they would have to move in that area of the of the grounds um some of them said that they never heard anything. So it's kind of a he said, she said thing. I don't know what the accuracy is to that. The city did not provide much detail. They just said that they did talk to the campers about it. But the rest of the encampment still stands. So that happens the same week that the city hall, the city council's phase two enforcement of the policy is, you know, begins. So the first 30 days was basically just an education telling people about what the new policy means and then ideally informing them where they can go. Now the city broke for six weeks, city council broke for six weeks before they identified camping spots that these homeless people can go and move their belongings and tents to.

So they only fulfilled one half the equation on that. Yes. And so this next phase, they're starting to cite repeat offenders. Basically, the police will go up to campers that are camping in places where they couldn't be, let's say, on a sidewalk or under an overpass and say, you can't be here. Warn them. And then if they come back and they see him there again, they'll give him a citation. So what's next for the city hall encampment and what's next for the city of Boston? Yeah.

So there's four phases. The hall encampment and what's next for the city of Boston? Yeah. So the next, there's four phases. The next phase, third one after this, you'll see more strict enforcement. There won't be just, there won't be a warning initially. They'll be basically given a citation or moved at the first contact. And then there's not a whole lot of difference between the third and the fourth. The fourth is basically just a continuation, maybe with a slightly more emphasis on preventing public camping. But that's where that lies. The city of Austin, the city officials, with the exception of Mackenzie Kelly on council and maybe a couple others here and there expressing some misgivings. There's really not an interest in enforcing this.

Mayor Adler has said that, you know, he realizes that the city voters overruled him on this, but he hasn't really shown much desire to enforce the policy that they want. Good stuff. Well, Bradley, thank you. Hayden, we're coming back to you. Let's talk a little bit about texas democrats they made a voyage to washington dc this week under what context well i mean i'm not sure if it was a voyage hey well we said probably they probably went on a

plane you know what we but we also said that uh trump and abbott would be gallivanting across the border that's right so i think voyage was you know just a little bit extra fun yeah i'm just giving you a hard time yeah thank you vice president harris invited some democrats to the white house to celebrate the defeat of the republican election bill as excuse me sb7 and there were only a handful there. And as we've discussed on this podcast before, there was a walkout on the Texas House floor to defeat this bill. And many people were involved in that walkout. And not all of them were invited to this celebration of the White House for the defeat of the Republican election bill, which of course, would have put in a lot of new restrictions on the times that people can vote. And it would have added additional protections for poll watchers, in addition to making it a felony to send out

unsolicited mail ballot applications. So there were a lot of new reforms that were lost when this bill was lost. Of course, Governor Abbott has pledged that it will return in a special session. So it is all but destined. I won't say that because anything can happen, but it is very likely to pass in a special session because they will have plenty of time to get the project done. But this press conference or this event at the White House was to celebrate the defeat of this bill, but not before a little bit of drama beforehand so yes there was certainly a lot of drama specifically about who was invited um and when you said earlier that only some democrats were invited you're you put a finger in the air like well let's talk about that so give us deets

what what all was the drama about in the texas legislature as we know you took a deep breath you're like oh man this is crazy it's just well it's a lot of a lot of very interesting social media comments on yes about this issue but competing egos and whatnot thank you yeah i was trying to look for the right the right phrase competing egos is right. But the elections committee, of course, took the lead on this bill because they were hammering out all the details and the Democrats were very strong and pushing back on it. So the Democrats in the elections committee, they would probably contend that they were on the front lines of fighting this Republican bill. And not all of them were invited to this event and representative michelle beckley who's a carolton democrat said on twitter that she she pondered aloud why uh it's disappointing that all four democratic members who sat on the texas house election committee and fought for all

versions of voter suppression are not included was what she said and what was interesting i think- I think at least one of them was, because Jessica Gonzalez was invited. Well, I think she's saying it's- It wasn't all four of them. All four of them should have been invited, is what she was saying. But yes, I think Gonzalez was invited, but Fierro and Busey, I believe, were left out as well. And so, Beckley and those two were not invited. But what was interesting is Briscoe Cain, who's the Republican chair of this committee,

and he has clashed with Beckley, but they've also had amiable backs and forth as well. He said in reply to her tweet, he said, why doesn't the vice president want to meet with the Texas legislature member Beckley, who came up with the idea of walking out to break quorum? And then she confirmed that she was one of the people who got the discussion rolling to walk out and break quorum. So I just think it's interesting that a Republican stepped in and said, yeah, why wasn't my colleague on the committee, even though I disagree with her, why wasn't she invited to this huge event?

And also between those two, they shared a desk in the 86 legislature and so yeah they're they're good friends and i remember when we were on the floor that night during the election stuff obviously before the democrats walked out but during the sp7 proceedings you could see uh briscoe and michelle beckley walking around um together and you know joking around and being amicable together so um you know that they have that that history that they are then it also goes to what we were talking about before sometimes legislators they disagree on policy but they're able to remain friends but i thought i thought that was interesting that he stepped in to this uh to this controversy. So not all the Democrats were invited to celebrate or to tout the defeat of this bill. But there were many Democrats from Austin who went to Washington, which doesn't

happen. I wouldn't say that happens all too often. So that's pretty big when a vice president invites state lawmakers to the White House. And it's all in the backdrop of a lot of things that are happening on this issue at the federal level, too. Right. There's a lot of political motivation to say, hey, well, these Texas legislators killed this bill in Texas. Here's what we're trying to do on the federal level. And, you know, that can go hand in hand, certainly politically and works well in the administration's favor. Hayden, thank you for covering that for us brad let's go to you you have covered the rpt chair race now we have three

candidates in the race now um but essentially alan west is stepping down as chairman of the republican party of texas of course he's spawning many rumors about what his next move will be likely a run for office is what we're hearing. Statewide office is what we've heard repeatedly. Congress from other folks. Who knows? Right. Nothing's confirmed yet.

It's very much up in the air. But who's declared in the race? So we have three candidates. And I think it's interesting because each one of them represents a different faction of the party or at least a different view of what the party's role is in Texas politics. So the first guy that jumped in was former state rep Matt Rinaldi. And he is much more of the grassroots conservative, focused heavily, not only, but heavily on pushing legislative priorities. Then you have David Covey, who is the Orange County GOP chair and the president. He's also an SRRC member, and he's the president of the County Chairs Association and the Republican Party across the state. So he is not the same. He doesn't hold the same opinions as Rinaldi, but he's not on the opposite end of

that. They're both relatively similar, although still somewhat different. And then the third that jumped in is Chad Wilbanks. He is a former executive director of the RPT. So he has previously worked within it. He is now a consultant and a lobbyist. He is of the opinion, he has a very drastically different opinion of the other two, that the party should focus only on the political functions, the campaigning, the raising money, the training candidates, that kind of thing. He thinks that they get Republicans elected to then deal with the policy side and the Republican Party itself should not be sticking its nose into that. And so we'll see where this race goes. It's going to be a short race.

The SREC has to make the decision on July 11th. And I kind of think we're going to have a good idea of which way it's going to shake out just before then. But before Wilbanks jumped in, it was kind of a two-horse race. And they were lining up. The respective SREC members were lining up on each side, and it appeared to be like it was going to come down the wire. We'll see how Wilbanks' entry affects that. I'm not too sure. We'll see where it goes. Yeah, absolutely.

Now, you spoke with a lot of these SREC members and got an idea of what the pulse of the, you know, executive committee is. What did they say? Where did they land in? Only one person came out and it wasn't a full-throated endorsement, but it was about as close as you can get to that

without being that. Naomi Narvaez said that she's from SD21. but it was about as close as you can get to that without, uh, without being that, um, one at Naomi Narvaez said that, uh, she's from SD 21. That stretches from the Southern tip of Travis County all the way down to the border. And she is in the, um,

in the camp that, uh, believes Matt Rinaldi is the best candidate right now. She'd fly outside. He's the strongest candidate. Uh, and that was, that was when, um when um just cubby was in the race and i asked her after will banks jumped in and that didn't change so she was the only one that came in um for one person the others were

said that you know they they may have their preferences but they're going to talk to their delegates and see what they say and so so like the SRC members individually, they're elected by delegates at the state party convention. So they have their own constituents all within the GOP. And so they're kind of going to see what they think. And before they commit to making a decision, one guy, Fernando Trevino, who is a member in Travis County's Senate district, he said that he kind of views

one-third of the SRAC already for Rinaldi, one-third for Covey, and then the other third kind of will decide where it goes. That was also before Wilbanks jumped in. He said he isn't sure how that candidacy will play itself out. So, more broadly speaking about the purpose of the party, they all kind of said that you need a balance between the legislative priority focus and the campaign focus. It varied a bit between them, but none of them were in solidly one side or the other in terms of the responsibilities of the party.

So we'll see what the body decides. I like it. Well, thank you for covering that for us. So we'll see what the body decides. I like it. Well, thank you for covering that for us. We'll certainly see what happens. And I doubt there will be any shortage of fireworks over the next month. Certainly not. Isaiah, let's talk with you about a opinion written by the Texas Attorney General this week. He just wrote that social workers can't have their licenses revoked or punished because of discrimination against their clients' gender identities or sexual orientations.

Give us a little bit more explanation. Sure. So the agency that's in charge of licensing social workers is called the Behavioral Health Executive Council. And they license counselors, family therapists, psychologists, and social workers, as I mentioned. So when the legislature created this agency in 2019, they authorized it to punish license holders that refuse to serve recipients like their clients solely because of the recipient's age, sex, race, religion, national origin, color, or political affiliation. So that was the original rule that the legislature passed. When the Behavioral Health Executive Council adopted this rule for their agency,

they kind of added some new traits into it, namely disability, sexual orientation, and in their words, gender identity and expression. So if social workers refuse to perform any act or service on the basis of these traits of their clients, then the board can punish them, like revoke their licenses and so forth. Got it. So the AG issues many an opinion. We see these come out all the time. But explain to us a little bit about the kind of authority that this has. What's the importance of an AG's opinion? Well, in this case, it was a requested opinion. So the head of the Behavioral Health Executive Council, the director, Daryl Spinks, asked Paxton to rule on whether or not the agency could tweak this rule and make it different from what the legislature passed. And Paxton said no.

That's the best way to sum it up. The bulk of his letter focused on gender identity and sexual orientation because there's a lot of case law around that. There's been a lot of writing about that in general because that's a spicy topic. law around that. There's been a lot of writing about that in general because that's a spicy topic, but it's been in the courts a lot. And disability is the third trait that they adopted as a non-discriminatable trait, if I can coin a word there. And that was a pretty minor part of Paxton's letter because mainly it focused on the religious association with what we would call discrimination against trans identity or sexual orientation. the request of, you know, a transgender specific social work, then right now under the agency's rule, they could have their licenses revoked. And so Paxton wrote that because of certain jurisprudence and because this is not the rule of legislature passed, that the agency does not

have the power to do this, but his opinion is not binding. It's not law. It's really more of a prediction. And it's meant to foretell how, in this case, the agency's rule will hold up in court. And so Paxton is predicting that this will fail in court. And if this goes to court, then the court will trim down the rule to reflect the original legislative intent. Good stuff. Well, Isaiah, thanks for covering that for us and making sure that we can understand to the best of our ability all this nuance. Hayden, we're going to jump back to you on another issue that has been covered by Daniel. But we have another person diving into the AG's race, the race for Attorney General. Ken Paxton, the current Attorney General, now has two primary challengers. So, you know, Eva Guzman, the Supreme Court Justice, announced her resignation last week, and then come to find out, she announces for Texas Attorney General. Who is she? And give us a little bit of her history. The state of Texas has two Supreme Courts.

This is a factoid about Texas that maybe not a lot of people know, but we actually have two courts of ultimate resort. I don't know if I said that right. Maybe Brad can correct me. But it is we have the Texas Supreme Court and the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. The Texas Supreme Court handles all civil cases and items on the civil docket that are appealed from the courts of appeals. And they also handle juvenile justice cases because those are considered civil cases in Texas. And the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, of course, handles all criminal matters. Eva Guzman was a justice on the Texas Supreme Court. So her area has been civil matters since 2009, when she was appointed by Governor Rick Perry

to be on the Texas Supreme Court. And then she was subsequently elected in 2010 and 2016. Had she not resigned, she would have gone up for re-election again next year. And of course, she has resigned her office and filed the paperwork to become the Attorney General of Texas. But she is probably arguably an institution, legally speaking, in Texas, because she has been on the Texas Supreme Court since before the current administration, since the Perry administration, in fact. So she has a lot of legal experience. Before she was on the Texas Supreme Court, she was a judge on the 14th Court of Appeals, I believe, which is based in Houston. So that is a little bit of her resume in the past 15 years or so before she has launched her attorney general run. Good stuff. So, you know, we've already kind of alluded to this, but, you know,

what kind of political makeup does this now provide the attorney general's race with? Well, she joins a field that is crowded with well-known names. George P. Bush is challenging Ken Paxton already, so she will be going up against those two men for the Office of Attorney General, who, of course, is the state's chief law enforcement officer. Bush is a well-known name in Texas. No one needs to be reminded of who the Bushes are. And then Ken Paxton, who has sued the Biden administration, he sued the Obama administration. I'm not sure about this. Maybe someone at this table knows, but I think he sued the Obama administration a record number of times. I don't know which record he broke. It was something like he sued Obama more than any

other attorney general or more than any other president had been sued or something, something of that nature. But he was very. It's funny, Abbott's claimed the same thing. Oh, he did? Okay. Well, maybe I'm wrong about that, but he. But Paxton has been in the AG's position for, I think, longer than. Anyway, whatever.

Okay. Maybe I'm getting my two AGs confused. No, I think you're probably right. But Paxton has butted heads with Obama and now President Biden, especially on the issue of immigration. He sued to reinstate remain in Mexico. He sued to reinstate coronavirus protocols. But he, of course, has been embattled in many legal issues, many alleged scandals. He has been indicted for alleged criminal conduct.

And he has been accused of allegedly mishandling things in his office. So there are definitely a lot of ways that Guzman and Bush are going to be able to criticize Paxton in this race. And we'll have to see whether Guzman or Bush becomes his frontrunner challenger. Could I jump in here real quick? Of course. This isn't really an extensive review of her opinions or anything. But when I saw this on her little podcast, I just looked up real quick some of the pieces we've written involving her in recent memory. a piece on the Supreme Court of Texas ruling on whether or not you can sue ERCOT. Oh, yeah.

And everybody but Nathan Hecht, including Guzman, agreed that the case was moot. And so she wrote one of the concurring dissents saying that it was moot. And so that's one. And another case in recent memory is against the San Jacinto River Authority, where, in a little bit of the reverse, she agreed with seven other justices that the case was justiciable and that they lacked governmental immunity. So not very high profile. Well, Urquhart is a little bit, but it's a little bit of a meager sample. But those are a couple in recent memory that kind of demonstrate her legal direction.

Absolutely. Well, thank you for looking that up for us today. Well, good stuff, Hayden. Thanks for stepping in in Daniel's absence. Bradley, let's talk about Texas 21 real fast. There definitely was some news that happened this week, specifically, again, relating to Trump, the elephant in the room. What happened this week? So early Monday morning, Matt McCall, he's a former challenger to Roy from the 2018 primary. He stated that he has asked Donald

Trump for his endorsement. And if he receives that endorsement, he will run against Representative Chip Roy, who's the incumbent in Texas 21. Obviously, I kind of alluded to the history of those two having against each other. They were the two candidates in the runoff. So it wasn't just a crowded primary that they ran against one another. It was the runoff as well. They were the final two. And McCall has frequently criticized Roy, especially in the last, uh, you know, six months, um, pertaining

to the election, um, and the, the Texas's challenge, um, against the, the counting of electors, the seating of electors in Congress. And so, um, it's, you know, I don't, I'm not sure what the likelihood Trump endorses him in is, um, Trump is not a big fan of Roy, but he's also not on the top of his pecking list. At least from what I've been told, the members, the Republicans who voted to impeach Trump are higher priority. And so we'll see if Trump actually decides to jump in. If he doesn't, it's going to be very difficult to unseat Roy for anybody, whether it's McCall or whatever other potential challenger. Certainly. And that's just the nature of incumbency, you know, in large part.

Well, good stuff. And I think, too, it's notable that, and you may have mentioned this, but McCall has run against Lamar Smith previously. This is a name who is very familiar to this district has been on the ballot for the last several election cycles so even just in terms of name id um there's an some sort of challenge that he's able to uh you know wage there but also you know how does redistricting affect this absolutely what's what parts of of the district stay in? What parts get removed? How does that affect each candidate? You know, we have no idea. And it's all up in the air.

And then added to that is obviously the fact that Trump may or may not jump in. Absolutely. So we'll see what happens. Good stuff. Well, Brad, thanks for covering that for us. Isaiah, we're coming to you. Explain some background on this defamation lawsuit that you've been covering involving a group of Catholic folks in Lubbock. A group of Catholic folks, yes. In this case, that group is the Diocese of Lubbock.

And so there was a defamation lawsuit that arose in January 2019 when the Diocese of lubbock published uh as this actually happened you know across catholicdom but um they all decided to to publish lists of credibly accused sex offenders in the priesthood and there was one lubbock deacon in particular that took offense to being listed among what was originally called priests who are credibly accused of sexual assault against minors. And so he sued for defamation because the sexual incident that he was accused of participating in was with an adult woman. It's important to mention, though actually not terribly central to the case, that he denies this allegation totally and still does. But more importantly to the case is the fact that the Supreme Court sided with the diocese against this deacon because canon law is too tightly interwoven with the case for a civil court to rule on it. And basically, in the 2000s, there are allegations that this deacon, Jesus Carrero,

reportedly engaged in sexual misconduct with a woman with a history of mental and emotional disorders, which is important. That's according to the diocese's brief. He denies that. But the bishop indefinitely suspended his diaconal faculties until 2006 when he was reinstated. But then new allegations led the bishop to permanently withdraw his faculties in November 2008. He wasn't laicized, meaning he's still an ordained deacon, meaning he's still under church law. So, importantly, church law, specifically the Sacramentarum Sanctitatis Tutila, the guardianship of the holy sacraments,

defines minors as people under 18, but also people who habitually lack the use of reason, a person who habitually has the imperfect use of reason. So the diocese has been arguing that that counts this woman involved in the allegations since because of her mental disorders. Right. And so technically under the original title of the list, abuse against minors would still be accurate under canon law.

And anyway, all of this is perceived as a matter of church discipline. And the group that was defending the diocese in this case, the Beckett Fund, is a religious freedom advocacy group that interpreted the Supreme Court's decision as a win for religious liberty since the court decided to take a hands-off approach and not interfere with church discipline. I like it. So then in terms of, you know, the delineation between church law, civil law, I mean, there's a lot of different angles here that make this complicated. Walk us through that breakdown. Sure. So there was one dissent, Justice Boyd.

And at the time that this article was published, he had not released his dissent on the Texas court's website. So it might come out by the time this podcast is released, probably so actually, usually pretty quick about that. But I do remember that when we'd written about this previously in oral arguments, Boyd had a problem with the public nature of the church's discipline. So he pointed out that it'd be one thing if they just decided to cut this guy off from the priesthood. But what they did was they released his name on their website in a very public way. And so can that count as private church discipline? If it does, that means the courts can't interfere. But since the church was so public about it, Boyd, the direction he

seemed to be going in with his questions and oral arguments was that the public nature of their discipline meant that this was just a civil defamation case, and it wasn't really that involved with church discipline. But in general, with this case, the majority of the court felt that the only way they could rule, you know, on the merits of his defamation lawsuit would be to start making decisions on canon law, you know, and so they have to interpret, well, does this woman count as a minor under canon law? And, you know, how is Guerrero still bound by canon law if he lacks his diaconal faculties, but is still not a layman? These are religious questions, and the court decided that

they weren't really equipped to answer those. Got it. Well, good stuff, Isaiah. Thank you for covering that for us. Brad, we're going to come to you for a quick rundown of how the text-led ratings changed to this legislative session. Now, Mark P. Jones of the Baker Institute, Rice University, always comes out with a ranking of most conservatives, most liberal in both the House and the Senate, based on a lot of votes that are taken in the House on record. Walk us through what we're seeing after this legislative session and how folks have changed if they have.

Yeah. So it's important also to note that these are based on non-lopsided votes. So when you have these 150, 149 to zero votes, that's not included in this, um, conservative liberal rating. So, um, the upshot is representative Matt Schaefer of Tyler Republican was named the most conservative representative of Michelle Beckley, whom we mentioned earlier, uh, of, um, was she Denton, Denton County area? Uh, she she is was rated the most liberal um that's a slight change from the last time um schaefer was uh in the i think he's in the top five but uh he was not the number one beckley uh was rose a sizable number of spots i can't remember exactly off the top of my head

how many it was but um so there's quite a bit of shift there uh lyle larson out of san antonio republican was the most liberal republican it's not really a surprise he was the uh repeatedly talked about uh how the gop was screwed up and uh pined for a third party an independence party um and also he was the the main republican that supported medicaid expansion on the flip side the most conservative dem was ryan guian also not really a surprise he voted for the heartbeat bill and was a sponsor on the constitutional carry bill he has long been considered the most conservative or at least among the most conservative democrats in the texas house biggest movers, Victoria Nave out of Dallas.

She moved 35 spots more conservative. Steve Allison, Republican, moved 28 spots more liberal. In the Senate, there's a lot less going on because there's a lot fewer members. Brian Hughes out of Mineola, he was the most conservative. Sarah Eckhart, the freshman out of travis county uh most liberal uh kel seliger was uh out of he's an amarilla amarillo he uh he was the most liberal republican for i think it was like the third session in a row and then eddie lucio who was the lone democrat to vote for the heartbeat bill was the

most conservative dem the biggest movers there uh both were or paul bettencourt out of houston and senator nichols out in east texas they um they each moved nine spots although nichols got nine spots more conservative and benton court got nine spots more liberal so that's the upshot of it um you know as when this podcast is released the back mic will be out and we have it all listed out so i'll go into a bit more depth than that so check it out um it's on the website good stuff well let's talk about some fun things shall we um this summer you know texas is hot texas is a difficult place to be for some folks during the summer but what summer things do y'all like to do in texas

what are your summer plans for here in texas not ohio bradley you know i'll start um i'm really excited because this summer i'm going to go to amarilla and i'm gonna are you just making that plan up just right my inflection there yeah i could have had visiting finley ohio oh we don't live in minnesota that's all the same that's that's my best attempt at making fun of your accent so sorry i i have an accent occasionally really a little bit well you pronounce your t's really hard, but so does Daniel. Like, they tease at the end of words, post-vocaleck tease. Like, you won't say that. You're like, that.

Daniel does it too, though, so I don't know what your deal is. I love that Isaiah had an actual answer for that question. I know it's an answer, but a very well thought out specific answer. I've asked this question to many people down here in Texas. I've been told the Midwestern accent is the most neutral of them all, but it's hard for me to tell unless it's a real Southern drawl. The difference between my

speaking and the average. Although you say fixin' a lot. That's something I've never heard of. You're right, though. The Midwestern accent is more neutral than the Minnesota one that I just did a little bit ago. It's true

yeah it's very true do y'all do y'all think i have an accent you do occasionally really a little bit it's subtle but it's definitely there you don't say egg you're like egg oh okay some more nasalized vowels occasionally it's uh you're they're higher like your tongue is higher in your mouth when you say e and egg and leg and things like that this whole phonic explanation i know i'm so impressed with this i was linguistics minor oh i forgot about this is totally not the fun topic we were in my scenic apartment pool. Woo! That's what I'm talking about.

Oh, my gosh. I love it. Brad? Well, once I am able to move into the new house with my roommates, I'm going to grill a lot of meat. Excellent. And I'm going to listen to baseball on the radio, and I'm going to fall asleep in my chair outside, and it is going to be glorious. You're going to yell at your kids not to touch the thermostat? By kids, you mean Winston? Yes.

Michelle is putting her head in her hands right now. I also intend to do various water-related activities. We'll see. Exciting. Well, I really got got them I don't know what was so funny about that Isaiah I was really siding with you

on the grilling and other activities you know but when you phrased it as various water related activities that was just too much apparently

because there's a bunch of red faces around here Hayden is dying That was just too much. Because there's a bunch of red faces around here. Hayden is dying. Hayden, what about that made you laugh so hard? He can't even talk. Oh, man. Wow.

Brad, do you want to tell, like, I'll give you 30 seconds to tell us why grilling, again, will be such a big deal to you. It's just the best way of cooking. Like, yeah. Oh, my personal. Yes, your personal. Travesty in my life. Yes. I was separated. I was rudely separated from my three-year partnership with a grill that I had my love because the city of

Austin's ridiculous regulations on pro actually outright prohibition on having grills in apartment complexes. They're just trying to save lives Bradley. You know, that's what I hear. And, um, I still don't care.

I want to, I want to grill some steaks. Dang it. Allaks. Dang it. Dang it. He's getting emotional. You're so selfish. Oh, man. That is my reason.

Well. I've been deprived of that joy for the last two years. Deprived. So. Okay. It can't come soon enough. I'm glad to hear this for you. I'm excited for you, Bradley.

Well, folks, thank you so much for listening. Thanks for sticking with us. And we will catch you next week. Thank you all so much for listening. If you've been enjoying our podcast, it would be awesome if you would review us on iTunes. And if there's a guest you'd love to hear on our show, give us a shout on Twitter. Tweet at The Texan News. We're so proud to have you standing with

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