The Texan Podcast - Weekly Roundup - June 26, 2026

Episode Date: June 26, 2026

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 check out our articles at https://thetexan.news/ and leave us a review!Got questions for the reporting team? Email [e-mail] — they just might be answered on a future podcast.

Republicans really lean into the flags in the Texas and the American flag. And there was all the sparkles and the rhinestones. That's definitely like a staple of a Republican event is there's a lot of women wearing sparkly stuff. And so if they'd actually seen an elephant there, that would have been like, America's so crazy. Yeah, like just tell them like this is normal. What you guys don't have like giant elephants walking through at y'all's political conventions? Well, howdy, folks. Welcome back to another episode of the Texans Weekly Roundup podcast.

I'm your host, senior editor, Rob Lausis. And joining me today are the Texans reporters, Mary Aliso Barr and Meredith Dyer. How's everybody doing this morning? Doing good. How are you? Can't complain. I was at a bar last night watching a little bit of those World Cup games. The bar had been completely overtaken by Brazil fans. It was crazy.

The energy was there. You know, it was a sea of yellow jerseys. I saw some of the Gertre story yesterday as well. A bunch of Brazil fans were walking around. It was a big game. Who were they playing against? Remind me, Meredith. Are they playing Scotland?

This is where I'm so out of it. I think Brazil played Scotland yesterday, right? The reason he's asking me is because I'm wearing a Scotland jersey. And there is a, I mean, I'm just getting into the spirit of it. I'm not a sports person at all. I don't, I don't even like football. I know I shouldn't say that in Texas. But I just, I know, I know a fireable offense probably.

But I actually was in Scotland. We've talked about this little about on the podcast. I was in Scotland last month. There we go. Brazil and Scotland. Okay, so I was in Scotland. And when I travel for years, I have looked for soccer jerseys at football jerseys. I think they're very fun.

And also for all the fashion girlies, I know there's so many of them listening to the podcast. But it's like a thing. It's very trendy to wear them with like your baggy jeans or your jorts or your peasant skirts even to wear a soccer jersey. It's like it's a thing right now. So I saw this and I was actually in the airport leaving. I had been in Scotland for a couple weeks visiting friends. It was my second time there. I absolutely love Scotland.

And I saw this and it's like a great material. It was only like, I don't know, 20 bucks or something. It was very inexpensive. And it's great color. Loved it. So I bought it. And then, of course, the World Cup comes here. The Tartan Army comes through.

Everyone, Boston's in love with them. They're on the beach in Miami now. and apparently they're in Houston No, where are they at? What city are they at? Oh, where's the World Cup at now? I think they were playing,

I think, they're in Miami, I think, right? I don't know. They're all over the place. It looks like this Scotland-Brazil game is in Miami. Yeah, they're on the beach. Yeah, with their back-clades. Yeah, okay, so maybe they're just the fans are all over, but they're on the beach and they're bagpipes,

with their bagpipes, with their kilts, they famously have everyone asking and confirming that they don't wear anything under them. That's become a huge thing as well. And so, and they're wool. They're hot, you know, but they're committed. So anyway, I just, I thought, okay, I could bust this out, although I have clearly no skin in the game about any of the sports related things. I'm all, I'm here for the culture. I'm here for the fun. Well, you got to get in on it, right?

I mean, it's the thing. It only comes around once every four years. You got to have fun with it. I've enjoyed seeing the, I think it's Norway has one of their, they're like, it's not like a chant, but it's like rowing oars. So they all like line up like they're on a ship and they all like row oars. I love it. Yeah. I love that when they won their captain who really does look like a Viking, if you've seen him with the ponytail and the he's a lot.

He got them all to sit down and like get in and like they faced like this wall of red and they all did it together. And that was very. I like that stuff. Like I said, I'm watching like the highlights. I'm watching the reality TV version of all of this of just how everybody's hanging out, getting along, and having a good time. That makes me happy.

And then they play soccer. Oh, yeah. That's what makes sports fun, right? Is seeing all the fans stuff, you know? Honestly, I don't usually think that, though. I don't like sports. So that's why it feels very different this time. Well, what's unique about this, I think,

is that you've got all of these four that I think for the most part probably had a pretty negative view of the United States, whether it was from the media they're consuming or just the fact that they hadn't visited. And then you see all these people visiting and having so much fun here and just marveling at like Buckees and Bass Pro Shop and talking about the weather and everything. I think that's an aspect of it. It's just like it's so refreshing to see all these foreigners come and just be so thrilled with this place that this country that we live in. instead of seeing them talking trash about it,

which usually do see foreigners kind of talking negatively about the United States. So that's a fun. That's a fun part that's different. You wouldn't usually see in like a sports fan situation. But I think we brought this up last week, but one of my favorite things was like seeing somebody talk about Bucky's barbecue and calling it like the best barbecue they've ever had. And somebody's saying that like, no, it's not even close to the best barbecue.

But if you've never had barbecue, it's pretty good, you know? that Buckees, the three-neets sandwich is pretty good, you know, after you go into debt for it. Well, Buckees is like, I've been on a road trip. I'm tired. I'm cranky. I need to get home. I have kids. It's like I need something like some kind of quick comfort food and we're going to Buckees because it's fun and I'm going to grab something. I'll tell you, those homemade beaver chips. Those are the best, the homemade potato chips. Those are fantastic. I always get work every time. Is it their brand or is there a specific one? Because I, they have their own brand of chips.

And I like the dill pickle ones. Those are my favorite. Oh, that does sound like that. They're the homemade ones. Yeah, these are the, they're not the, what do you call them? They're not like the ones that come in like a sealed bag. Like you buy them in a little box, but like they're all like homemade and they're really, really good. So I always, whenever I'm on a road trip, that's always what I have to get, even if I don't get anything else, you know.

Maybe that in a banana pudding and that's about it. Okay. I think we talked about Bucky's orders one time. It was kind of funny to hear what everybody liked. So that'll be a good. Maybe I should do that for the next, what do you call it? The from the editors desk newsletter. That'll be the next thing. What's everybody get at Buckees? Yeah. So it sounds like again, World Cup, very exciting stuff. But if I understand correctly, when y'all were in Houston for the Republican Party of Texas 20206 state convention, there was quite a bit of World Cup stuff going on there as well, right? Yeah, we talked about this last week, Rob, you and I, we did a whole podcast about going through convention, even past conventions because you've been to one before. But Mary Lisa, you were on vacation. We didn't really get to hear any of your takeaways or highlights if you have a few before we kind of jump into some of these interviews that we did. Yeah, well, it definitely was interesting timing that the GOP convention was happening the same weekend that FIFA was coming to Houston. So we definitely did see a few folks in different jerseys. there was one funny moment when there were two dudes

and the convention center wearing Germany jerseys and they were just marveling at the elephant, not the real one, the one that's called Victor, is that its name? The classic GOP convention elephant. Anyways, they were just looking at it. It was funny because I think there were some people that came in from the streets, use the restrooms.

Just people were there for the FIFA events and stuff. But I was telling Rob before this started, it was definitely a little bit jarring going from convention to Colorado in a good way in a very good way. But, you know, because the mountains are so peaceful. And then convention was so fast-paced and intense. But we had so many great interviews with people. We got to meet a lot of different folks.

You know, people you might interact with on social media, but you've never actually shaken their hand and put any into the face. So that was great. And then we saw the chairman race was pretty interesting. We saw Chairman Abraham George end up losing the chairman. chairman race. He ended up seceding. And that was pretty interesting to see that. Durinda Randall is now the chairwoman. So there was that going on. And then we saw all of the fighting over different legislative priorities, especially one topic I was following closely was having to do with

abortion and like the wording within the platform for abortion penalties for women. That was kind of a really big thing that was going on a lot behind closed doors during commencement. So that was pretty fascinating to watch. But first convention for me, first JOP convention for me. And it was just very interesting to see how the grassroots interact and how the lawmakers were interacting with the folks there. Just definitely an interesting experience. And definitely was made all the more chaotic because FIFA was in town just a couple of blocks down. Yeah. That would have been cool if they actually did see the elephant. Like if they may. And I was telling Rob last week that it was just the most Americana thing because Republicans really lean into the flags in the Texas, the American flag. And there was all the sparkles and the rhinestones. That's definitely like a staple of a Republican event is there's a lot of women wearing sparkly stuff. And so if they'd actually seen an elephant there, that would have been like, America's so crazy.

Yeah, like just tell them like this is normal. What you guys don't have like giant elephants walking through at y'all's political conventions? Sounds like you guys. Yeah. You know where bedazzled land. mannards and cowgirl hats around everywhere. Like, this is normal for us. This is Texas. Or if they would have come in with the gospel choir singing or a lot of the prayers or the

songs about America, I think they would have literally been like, okay, this is a caricature comedy sketch of what we've seen online. So probably it's better that they didn't. Pretty great. Yeah, I wish I could have been there. But it is always a fun time. There's always, you know, in the vendor hall, the people sell. and all the crazy merchandise, you know,

you'll see an infinite array of like Trump T-shirts and hats and stuff and just, yeah, everything that you can possibly imagine in the shape of Texas. If you can't get it at Buckees, you can get it at the Texas JOP convention. But from what I understand, y'all did do some interviews. So since those are now all up on our site by the time this podcast goes live,

we've interviewed sitting politicians, we've interviewed candidates, all kinds of people. But I thought it would be cool for y'all to give a little sneak peek into the interviews that you've done this, that you all did at convention. So Mary Elise, I heard you interviewed the Supreme Court of Texas Chief Justice. How did that go? Yeah, it went great. Something we've talked about before is that judges are pretty interesting to get to sit down in interview and kind of provide some more insight into them for the general public because they're not your standard lawmakers who,

who's on social media explicitly sharing their thoughts all the time. Or they're just not, you know, the public's not quite as involved in their, you know, their daily processes of thinking. And, you know, with a lot of our Texas lawmakers, you see them posting a lot and you feel like you kind of get to know them. But also judges are in a very different position than the lawmakers. And so it's interesting to sit down with Texas Supreme Court Chief Justice Jimmy Blacklock for a conversation, a quick conversation.

It was an audio recording at the convention. Asked him about several different topics, some of which are not really related to each other. So we covered a couple different angles. One of them was about judicial pay raise because this is something that he really pushed for when he gave his state of the judiciary address. And he had mentioned just, you know, what a problem it was, that there haven't been a judicial pay raise and that he was looking to increase it. And then he talked about, you know, ultimately during the 89th legislative session, it was increased. And I asked him, you know, would you like to see more of an increase than this, I believe it's 25% increase that the legislature is able to get through? And he seemed undecided on that, but for the most part, pretty pleased that that amount had been, that had been raised by that amount.

So that was interesting to hear him. Just talk about that. And, of course, can get his actual words in the recording. But I also asked him about a recent case with the Dallas County judge requiring having a mask mandate still in place for those in the court. And his office had recently sent a letter to this judge saying, you know, this is not appropriate to be requiring these mask mandates. So I talked to him a little bit about that. And he said, you know, he thought his question was on this topic more so, were the mask mandates ever, you know, appropriate, legally appropriate.

And so he said that he didn't see any justifiable reason for this to be happening. But then he spoke well of the judge and said, you know, it sounds like she's going to be following through with our request and removing these mandates. He said, and I believe her. So that was one topic that we kind of touched on. We also touched on reforming child welfare systems and talking about how to make the legal process just more affordable for the average. individual might get looped into a lawsuit. So that's something that needs reform. So we covered

several different topics there, as you can see. But it was just very interesting to hear him talk. He's a thoughtful individual. And one important aspect of this conversation I forgot to mention was constitutional originalism, which is essentially a philosophy that he aligns with as a compared to his predecessor who did not. And so he spoke very highly of his predecessor and talked about, you know, his time as judge, but also that this is something where they really very differently. And then he spoke a little bit about how that affects their work in practice, how that looks like when it's practically applied. So yeah, you can catch a little bit of information on constitutional originalism towards the beginning of our interview. It's definitely an interesting topic. Another candidate that we got to interview that Meredith

interviewed at convention was Railroad Commission candidate Beau French. So we love to hear a little bit from Meredith on that because they had a great conversation. Yeah. So Beau French was, it was an interesting interview because in person he has a much more calm demeanor than Twitter, which is always very interesting to like see those two. I feel also like just in general, Twitter feels like people are yelling all the time. You know, you're just getting their most passionate, lots of exclamation points, lots of things they wouldn't say really, and maybe to someone's face or even sometimes in interviews, apparently. And so it was interesting to talk to him because my questions, I had a few questions about, you know, working with the Railroad Commission. So it's a statewide position that is different from some of the other ones that are currently running where it's like a three-member commission that has to work together, where if you're the governor, lieutenant governor, whatever, all these other different people.

Yes, they have to work with teams or whatever, but usually they're going to be the head, the main person that's in charge where these three have to work together. And so he had mentioned another interview that he knew Christy Craddix for his whole life. So he said that he had met they'd met when they were younger. And that was kind of interesting sometimes when you see these crossovers and you kind of pull it threads a little bit in politics, you realize there's a lot of interconnectedness. And so it was just interesting because, and I know this is nothing new to politics, this is very normal. But I just am always shocked at how people talk during campaigns and how they talk after. It just is interesting. Or seeing it right now with Cornyn and Paxton.

We're seeing it with all these different people where, especially with the unity, you have to immediately go from, you don't have to, but they often go from completely bashing people, their character, all the decisions they've made to being like, oh, yeah, we're fine, we're going to work together. Everything's great. So there was that, like, sentiment there of saying he has a good relationship with Craddick. and with Wayne Christian as well. Like, yeah, that's fine. We're all going to be working together.

We, they're supporting, he said they're supporting him now. And which was just, and I pushed a couple of times about that because he had been so critical of Jim Wright. I mean, it was like, I think he called him. Okay. Like, a lot of things with Islam, I almost want to say it was like jihadi Jim. I mean, it was something pretty crazy towards the end. It was getting a lot. It was a lot.

And so I did also ask him about Islam because. that's one of his major things that he campaigned on and just pointing out and, you know, what do you say to people that don't think this is within the jurisdiction of a railroad commissioner? And his thing was kind of in a nutshell, like, it doesn't have to be. Like, and that he said he knows that that's why he believes that's why he won is because he talked about things like that. So that's interesting. I talked to like a mayor the other day about this, this shift from, and it's not, it's been going on for a long time, but some people are really leaning into it of like everything needs to be talked about at all times

and everything's encompassed in local and politics. Like we're not separating these things at all anymore. And so, yeah, you can hear him on the interview, but he really does kind of say, even if it doesn't relate directly, like these are important things to talk about. And I think the politicians should be talking about that and drawing attention to them, whether it relates to their jurisdiction or not. So I also asked him a little bit about some more technical things about the railroad commission of like what our regulations you think are good and important that they've done because he's been very critical of all the environmental regulations that they have. And so he talked about the idea of the differences between Texas that, you know, there's a difference between and as a non-oil expert, it was interesting to hear about this. But, you know, there's a difference between a deep, he said, long lateral well that's like with fracking in West Texas. and then East Texas has differences or there's like different shallow vertical wells

and other part of the states and like those don't necessarily need the exact type same types of regulations and they're very like they can be restrictive and a lot of hoops to jump through and so it's always interesting and good to hear someone talk about the job and what the job does and so it was he did go into some of those things talked about how he believes Texas is mimicking New Mexico's style of regulation which he thinks is very restrictive and you're evaluating. So check it out. It was interesting and it's always yeah, it's interesting to see a big personality face to face versus on Twitter. So that was an interview that I got to do. And then I also interviewed Don Hafeinz and he was, he was, he has a big personality. He's just

a very funny, quirky guy. And so that does come across, I think, on social media and in person. And he was had a lot of energy. I think you saw that Maryleese, right? You were there. Like he was like laughing and joking with us and had a very, I feel like he'd be a fun uncle or grandpa. Right. It was definitely cool to actually get to know his personality, which was the case with all of these people when we interviewed them to see, okay, this is actually, this is how you interact with your staff. This is how you interact with us.

But he was one of the people we interviewed where he was cracking jokes and just a lot more. more relaxed and comfortable at the start, which was great for us, I think, because that just makes everybody more relaxed and you can kind of connect better and probably get better answers, ask better questions. He obviously won his primary, like, very handedly. He was going into it pretty confident. It's interesting. One thing that I've heard him say a couple of times is when he's asked about some specifics,

he will say, like, that he's not in the job yet, which is just. And then he actually will give a specific, which was funny. I asked him about something about Tifa. And he kind of said, well, I'm not in the job yet. I don't know. But then he did proceed to give an answer about how he wanted to see better marketing for the program. So that made me, it just not made me laugh. It was just kind of interesting because most people, when they're running, they have every, they're not in the job.

And they have everything that they think they want to do or know 100% that they want to do that they would do differently. And they have everything laid out. So he does have that answer that he's used at multiple interviews. And so while he does. has some ideas and specifics. He is being honest, I guess, that he, you know, doesn't know everything about every single thing involved with the job yet. So that wasn't an answer I'd heard him give before that he also did give as well during this interview. And then, yeah, he's doing, you know, he's on his Doge, Texas thing, which he gave a speech about as well. And his, he gives

a common analogy of nobody wants to clean out the garage, but you're glad when it's done. And I think he said in our interview, like, the garage is just like full to the the brim we can't get in. So we have to go figure out what's in there and everybody, what did you say? Everybody's on nobody safe or something like that. So he, it was a good interview at the end. We got a little fun sneak peek into look into his history collection that's at the Alamo. I just asked him like, what, what are things that you wish you could talk about more in interviews that nobody asks you about? And he, I think I asked someone else this, but he was like, does I have to be about politics? And we were laughing. We're like, no, I can be about whatever you want. And so

Then he went into his collection that you can actually go view the Donne Huffines or Huffines collection that's at the Alamo. And he said that he's going to bring some of that into the comptroller's office. He said he also has a large collection of like old Texas currency and money, which he said goes well with what's going on at the comptroller's office. So that was kind of an just interesting little way to end that interview. But you were able, Mary Lisa, we talked to a couple congressional candidates. So you talked to John Bonk. Tell us how how did that go? Yeah, we had a little bit of a shorter conversation,

but I enjoyed getting to ask some questions of congressional candidate John Bonk. He is the Republican nominee for Congressional District 38, which Congressman Wesley Hunt left open after he decided to run for U.S. Senate. So we just talked a little bit about, has his campaigning or his messaging shifted now that he has secured the nomination, GOP nomination, now he's headed to the general election. We also discussed this theme that really was a theme at the convention was Republicans uniting after what was pretty rough primary season for Republicans

and then moving forward to November, you know, to kind of unite against some more formidable Democratic candidates. So talk to him about that and his thoughts on flipping Harris County read. He specifically focused. focused on just the area of Houston that he thinks has become a really great spot to raise a family. A lot of people are coming here for jobs. So it was something he spoke about when we talked about in Ken Harris County turned red. And he said, you know, it's drawing in a lot of people for good reasons. And yeah, it was just an interesting conversation with him. He talked about something that

he was doing as a candidate to kind of promote that theme of unity for Republicans. He talked about how he met up with his opponent who had lost in the runoff to him. He said they both brought their spouses and they went out for coffee and they discussed, you know, the loss, the win and how they were going to kind of unite in order for Republicans to take this across the line for CD 38. And they said, you know, and then we put out of social media post, sharing our unity, saying, you know, we're behind each other. We're going to, we're going to unite here, even though, of course, the runoff is always a little bit difficult. So he talked about that.

And then just how he plans to kind of interact with the Texas congressional delegation, which is interesting to hear, interesting to think about and also the different committees he might want to serve on. And he was pointing out, you know, if you're representing somewhere like Houston, it would be pretty great to have a committee seat because, you know, it's such a significant area that has so many different needs and it has such a big impact on the other parts of the country, just considering its economy. So yeah, I would check out that interview. It's a video interview and just hear his thoughts on, you know,

flipping Harris County Red, thoughts on Houston, and just uniting as a Republican Party, which was that theme, like I said, at the convention that, like Governor Abbott in particular was really trying to drive home. Let's unite Republicans. another congressional candidate that we interviewed, Meredith interviewed this one, was J.C. Arbro at the convention. She talked to him a little bit about his campaigning, his race. So you can take it away, Meredith. Yes, I was able to talk to J.C.R. Bro. I was just going to add a little fun fact to what Mary Elise had said about John Bonk is that he actually posted a video of Rob Schneider endorsing him because Rob Schneider was actually at the geopolitics. convention. I would have normally said hi or something, but I walked by him when I was leaving the

convention carrying a really large crate of things that Mary Elise had helped me carry in, but I was doing it by myself. So I was like, is Rob Schneider as I'm like struggling to carry it? I will just say, I was shocked. I thought that being in Texas and being at the GOP convention that a man would stop and help me, I could have asked, but I thought someone will offer because I, you know, I'm obviously, we live. live in Texas. I've got normally if you need your tire changed or I've had guys stop and be very, very, very chivalrous. But I don't know, they weren't walking in the same direction, I guess, or they didn't think I needed it. Maybe I just looked so strong. Yeah, I think you probably just

look so capable. I was like drenched and sweat by the time I got back to like the two block walked to the hotel. One guy did offer at the hotel, but he couldn't, he worked there. So he couldn't leave his hotel. Anyway, okay. So I talked to J.C. Arbro. He was, he is in a flip district. that went from Democrat leaning with Julie Johnson to Republican leaning from like D, according to our Texas partisan index, D62 to R60. So a very large flip. We talked about that a little bit.

He thinks that is well-timed. He was obviously in favor of redistricting. He talked about what it means to campaign in a place that's been flipped and just how some of the eastern part of his district is very worried about being tied in with Dallas, because they're more conservative or rural. And then how some of the GOP activists in Dallas have not felt like they could, he said, go hard in the paint on some of these issues.

And now they kind of can. And that's a new territory for them as well. He focused a lot and a lot of his answers on the America first, like national identity, being aligned with the president and immigration visa reform, a lot of very, just very, very conservative ideas. And he also talked about the Texas delegation as well, which is large, this potentially huge incoming class. He said he's really encouraged by like the different conversations that he's had. He called them good patriots and just very, yeah. If you listen to him, once again, we're talking about foreigners viewing Americans. It was just a very, very, like, pro-America loves America.

He talked about some committee assignments that he thought would be interesting to be on, judiciary potentially with infrastructure and transportation being a big thing in Dallas in that area that could be a committee he might be interested as well. And also just that there are a lot of veterans where he's at. So Veterans Affairs. So he's throwing out some ideas what he could be interested in. He said he believes that if the Republicans lose the house, there will be a lot of impeachments that come. So it's kind of interesting. He talked about that for a little bit. And then at the And I actually asked him the same thing. I asked how finds it like, what's something that you would, you don't get asked a lot,

you want to talk about or even what you want to correct for the record or something like that. And so he really focused on America being a fundamentally Christian nation, which we did see. We see those themes in the GOP and also when it comes to Islam in that discussion as well. And he just feels that the Republicans should be, he said unabashedly stand for that. And he laid out that he believes Republicans are motivated by. loving America. And then he said that he believes the left is motivated by what it hates and that he believes they hate America. And so he talked about the kind of the irony of radical, them embracing what he called radical Islam or radical Muslims and transgenderism in the same party. And he called

both of those ideas or both of those concepts tools for destroying America. So he really was very, like, clear about about where he's. fans with that. So yeah, it's an interview. That was an audio one. So, you know, get to watch me. But you can go listen to that on the website. And then another, we had a, not a, not a, he is a candidate, but he is a incumbent candidate. Brent Money came by and talked to Mary Elise. And yeah, we were welcome met him. I think we met him right when he got in. He was with his wife and his kid. And so we were able to introduce ourselves and then we saw him again. Yeah. Representative Brent Money.

He, and speaking of the, which I mentioned at the beginning of the podcast was kind of that abortion debate about the criminalization, for women being allowed to be criminalized for getting an abortion, kind of closing that loophole in our legal system. So he's, but he's someone who's been a pivotal player in this whole conversation. I mean, the big thing was happening between two pro-life groups at convention, but he's a lawmaker who's kind of been in the middle of that. And then he's also been someone that, and we discussed this during interview, but he introduced a bill that would have closed that loophole. So it would make it so that women are considered liable for getting an abortion under the law. And so we talked to him about a couple different things, including that asked him a few plans to, you know, move forward to similar legislation like that. He confirmed he would. And we talked about, you know, do you think that there's any more momentum around this?

He said, talked about how he's, everybody knows. he's quite an optimist and, you know, that he thinks that there is more momentum. But he also said that he's an optimist in response to when I brought up the fact that some people had been concerned, like, Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, that the Republicans could lose to Texas House. And he said, you know, he thinks that if that happened, it would have to be something that perhaps happened at a bigger scale. So maybe at the federal level that really turned in a negative direction for Republicans as a whole. He said he could see that impacting them holding the house. But otherwise sounded pretty positive on them holding it. We also discussed how the caucus

that he's founded to address Islam in Texas. And then he discussed kind of some legislation, some legislative ideas that he has to address Islam in Texas and ways that it might be, some of the practices might be incompatible with Texas law. And he said so specifically targeting a couple of different things that he thinks would be incompatible with the Texas Constitution. And let's see, we also discussed just how convention was going as a whole and kind of that theme of unity. And, you know, he was overall pretty positive about that subject. And, you know, when it comes to the abortion topic, I found that pretty interesting because

this is, this was just such a kind of pivotal moment for the, pro-life movement and, you know, their discussion over the platform and whether women should be penalized for abortions. So it was interesting to sit down with someone who has, you know, filed legislation on this topic and somebody who's really at the middle of this discussion, especially as a lawmaker, because you can talk to the activists and they are undoubtedly powerful in this subject, but, you know, he's the one who actually would write a law and he would actually carry it through. So we'll see if we'll see during next session when he does file legislation like that and how successful it is. If there's any new members that kind of jump on

board with that. But definitely an interesting conversation with Representative Rent Money, just discussing Sharia law, abortion abolition, and a couple other different topics. So that was a video interview with Representative Rent Money. And I will say, I think that the Texas Sharia Free caucus has grown since it, I mean, it was growing, but I know when I interviewed him a couple of a few months ago, it was at 30 something. And I believe that I've seen that it was at like 50 years. So I think he is getting some support in some of those areas. Yeah, I think he mentioned that it was, I almost want to say 60, but I'll have to go back to interview to double check. Between 50 and 60, though, the amount of people that have joined the caucus has definitely gone up quite a bit, like you said,

since you talked to him at the beginning. And that is one of their legislative priorities for the Republican Party of Texas. So it makes sense that it would grow a little bit as though as they can see the party support for it and that that's what people want to see in the legislative session. Man, between all of this, I feel like I was there at convention. And I recommend that everybody go and check out all of these interviews

because there's even more details that we weren't able to go through here, but y'all have done a great job of giving us a sort of sneak peek at every one of these interviews. I also know that y'all interviewed Mary Elise, you interviewed Governor Greg Abbott, which was, that was an interview that came out last week. And Meredith, you talked to Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick. And I wanted to just plug those again and make sure that everybody listening knows about those interviews as well. So all of the interviews from convention are now out. You can watch all of them at the Texan. News or wherever you get podcasts. But they are fantastic and hopefully the sneak peeks here have served as a bit of an appetizer to go back and

see all of the interviews from convention. But Meredith, now talking more about some of the other bigger news that happened this week. There's a story about a year in a making that just sort of concluded for now. This week, a group of Texas Antifa members were sentenced to a collective 450 years in prison. What's going on there? Yeah, fun fact about this. This was one of my first articles ever for the Texan. So I had started a year ago.

This is July 4th. So we're coming up on, yeah, on that year. So there's the North Texas Antifa cell that had operatives that were involved in this attack last July 4th. on the prairie land, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement or ICE detention center in Alvarado. I'd actually also had moved to an area that was not too far from Alvarado as well. And so all of this last year was just like, wait, okay, I just moved here. I've also just moved back to Texas a year ago. Is this normal?

Like, but it's not. This is a very unique case, especially with all these sentences that just happened this last week. So I'm not going to get into. We've linked in the article, previous reporting that we've had on it, on the attack itself, on the conviction. And then obviously this is going to be focusing on the sentencing. And we also link the press release, which has pictures and things like that. It is a, someone had posted this on Twitter. It is a wild, I always, I hate when I say this because obviously we want you to read everything.

But this one is like very juicy and full of a lot of things that are just crazy that this even happened. So just a quick, really quick rundown. These Antifa members showed up at the center. They're dressed in black. They had firearms and body armor. And they had like military grade first aid kits with like tourniquets showing that they were expecting a fight. They vandalized vehicles shot fireworks, attacked a guard shack at the property. And then Alvarado police came on the scene and they opened fire and shot one officer in the neck.

and who did survive. So they had a ringleader, and he actually got, ended up giving a sentence this last week to 100 years in prison. And part of that was for the attempted murder of an officer. And this is, the DOJ made a point to say that this is the first sentencing. They said of defendants affiliated with Antifa after President Trump had made the executive order designating them as a domestic terror organization in September. So this happened in July. Antifa is designated as a terrorist organization in September, and then their conviction and sentencing happens after that. So there were nine who were sentenced, but there were nine that were convicted in March.

Kim wrote a great piece about that. We have linked. And then on this week on Tuesday, eight of them were sentenced, ranging from 30 years to 100 years, totaling, 450 years. One of them was granted a continuance, and she will be sentenced in July 1st, with seven other co-defendants who pled guilty to one count of providing materials to support terrorists. So there's a list of people that will also get sentenced next week. They had DNA and fingerprints, linked many of them to different items at the source, talked about phone locations or even some of them that had participated in putting their phones in Faraday bags to prevent tracking.

So a lot of major players chimed in on this, including FBI director Cash Patel, who was just, you know, they were all making really clear statements about like, this is to prove and show that this will not be tolerated. And he talked about continuing to protect communities from domestic terrorism. We had U.S. Attorney Ryan Raibold from the Northern District of Texas said, their terrorist acts attempted murder, vandalism and explosive launched at a detention center were a far cry from a peaceful protest or First Amendment expression. Acting ICE director David J. Ventorella praised the men and women of ICE, who he said serve with integrity and courage, often in challenging and dangerous environments. I do know, I believe, I don't know if it was exactly at this time, but there was also another, like, ice attack with weapons as well, I think sometime last summer or in the fall. So this, and it was in, it was in Texas. And Ventrellas just ended by saying nearly one year after this cowardly act, justice has prevailed. Ice will continue to stand first. And Ventrella's just ended by saying nearly one year after this cowardly act. Justice has prevailed. Ice will continue to stand first. And. And against those who threaten our officers, our facilities, and our mission. So that was, it's not over because next week they'll be more sentencing,

but it was a very firm and, like, clear message to people that participate in these types of attacks. Well, thank you very much for giving us the details on that story, Meredith. Definitely interesting to see we're almost on the year anniversary of that attack on July 4th, 2025. So as we said earlier, a story, a year in the May 1st, But Mary Elise, you also wrote a story this week that was four years in the making because as the day we're recording this on Thursday yesterday, Wednesday, June 24th, was the four-year anniversary of the Supreme Court dropping its decision in Dobbs v. Jackson, which overturned Roe versus Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey as these, you know, major landmark Supreme Court decisions regarding abortion in. the United States. Tell us about what's happened in Texas since then. Yeah, of course, this landmark Supreme Court ruling that happened four years ago on Wednesday really returned the authority to regulate abortion back to the states. So then we saw all of these different states respond in

many different ways. And of course, we know that Texas has largely been passing lots of different forms of for life legislation and response. Now that they have this. authority to regulate abortion. I mean, about a month after the ruling happened, Texas's trigger law went into effect, which prohibited abortions from conception and then had felony criminal penalties attached for offending providers. So we talked about how, you know, we had this, that legislation that happened, that kind of was like a trigger law that happened as a result of this reversal, this overturn of Roe v. Wade. And then we, we saw in the corresponding sessions, different bills that have been put forward kind of as

responsive legislation, tweaking different aspects of the abortion industry in Texas, trying to target different areas where it is still accessible to Texas women. So that includes chemical abortion pills. So we saw last session, that was a big focus, cracking down on that and trying to ensure that the producers, manufacturers of these pills are being held liable, opened up the door for civil liability for these producers. So it's kind of one piece of legislation that's kind of responsive. And then also the Life of the Mother Act, which focused on making sure that our medical providers are fully aware of,

you know, what cases are they legally protected to perform an abortion and where they are not. So it kind of established these education programs for medical providers and for lawyers to be sure that they're familiar with the law, especially after, you know, for so long, abortions were legal and protected. And so there wasn't much, you know, conversation around or concern around that there would be, you know, penalties or kind of like legal standards for abortion.

But so there's a, there's, you know, these responsive pieces of legislation. And I think that's going to continue where the Republican lawmakers, are going to see, okay, what's another bill I need to offer forward that addresses, you know, one small part of the abortion industry that is still kind of reaching Texas women. You know, right now during the interim, they're monitoring the application of that chemical abortion pill bill to see, okay, are there any gaps here that we miss in this bill? Are we actually able to, you know, crack down on these producers? What about the ones that are out of state or even out of foreign?

country that are shipping in pills. How does that work legally? But then there's also another life ethics issue that's kind of tied into this whole abortion topic is in vitro fertilization IVF. And that's just become much more of a heated topic, much more of a topic of interest for Republicans and Democrats alike, but particularly for Republicans because it reveals some factions within the party. So, I mean, we saw during the convention, the RPT put in their platform a pretty concrete stance that said that the legislature, and I'll quote it here, must protect fetal life from destructive practices such as IVF and commercial surrogacy and promote natural procreative technologies, Napro, to help women conceive children

naturally. So they put a pretty clear stance forward there. That's the grassroots saying, this is this is where we stand this is where texas um republican party texas platform stands and then we saw texas attorney general ken paxton who's now the gop nominee for u.s senate um he came out pretty strongly against that position and he said he's actually a strong supporter of IVF um it doesn't align with that characterization the IVF is a destructive practice um and he's joining there you know senators ted cruz and john cornon um and corin of course is the one that Paxton just defeated for that GOP, during that GOP runoff. But they've also advocated in favor the practice.

They've been pretty hands-on and pushing IVF forward. So we see a couple different, you know, stances on this issue. But I think that IVF is really one of the next kind of battle rounds for pro-life Republicans. And it's just going to be particularly interesting because you see these differences and opinion on this subject here. There's not a concrete approach to it. You see Paxton kind of splitting with the RPT, which is very interesting there as he's working towards the U.S. Senate position. And just IVF itself is developing at such a rapid pace. It's this new technology that's just really kind of grown so much in the past couple of years.

So it's kind of a defining moment for both Texas state and federal lawmakers. And so that's, and this is quite a lengthy piece, so I can't cover it all right now, but I would recommend you go check it out and read through it. It kind of takes you through where does Texas stand now. Now we're four years after Roe v. Wade and kind of where lawmakers headed in the future on these life ethics topics. And I think IVF is definitely going to be a part of that conversation. Well, thank you very much, Mary Elise. It was a very detailed rundown you gave. And as you said, the piece is even more detailed. It's, you know, it's a great review. of everything that's happened over the last four years. So thank you very much. Meredith, I was on Twitter this week, and I couldn't help but notice that you had a great big tweet thread over the past few days talking about everything going on

with the State Board of Education. Meredith, what is the SBOE and what are they up to? Well, the State Board of Education, which, if you're not quite sure about what they do, I do have a newsletter on that. I'm trying to remember what, like, play on words I use. for it, but they, I can, I'll think of it in a second. But it was, they're having meetings this week and they go, they have them, I believe, quarterly or so. They can also call a meeting if they

need to, and they'll have them from like Monday to Friday usually. And these are people that have other jobs. They're not getting paid a ton for it. It's a very interesting elected position, but they'd have to shove a lot. They have to get a lot done in a week. And so they've, since January and then even before that, but it's really ramped up more in this year is two are two items, the required statewide required literacy works or reading list. And then they have been arising their social studies standards. So these have gotten a little bit more attention than like science or math because of some of the, you know, what's embedded inside of history and literature and what that means and how it forms like what you're teaching children. And so they've become quite controversial. They've garnered a lot of

public and social media attention. They send out different groups actually will send buses out to go get people from other parts of the state and bring them to these public testimony days, which is the first day usually. So in April, it was the same as this day where like Monday this week, Monday, you know, from eight in the morning. I think I left it eight or I left a little bit. Last time I stayed to like 10 or something, but I left it like eight this time. So I did 12 hours. And it's about half and half. It kind of thins out at the end just because it's late at night and people have to leave or the buses are leaving. But they did literary works, the reading list first, and then they did social studies, public comment.

So I've written a lot about this and there's lots of articles and newsletters and things about what's going on there and just the different sides and how people feel about it. But when this podcast comes out on Friday, they will be, it will come out in the morning, but they'll take the final votes that day. and then there'll be while off some pieces coming out about, okay, where did we land with social studies and with the reading list? They're headed towards being approved, but they're getting, they're just, you know, they've had give preliminary okays to send sections or part of them to the Friday vote, but they haven't made their final vote. So you can never say like this, it's happened.

Yeah, and basically after that, then I've been watching a lot online and doing some tweet threads as well when I can because it goes on, like I said, and they've gone until two or three in the morning these last couple of days. And so they will just go through every single piece of all of the social studies standards, which will eventually be turned into curriculum, but they'll go through every single one. And whoever has an amendment wants to change a word and wants to take something out or put something in and they have their legal there. They have the TEA, the Texas Education agencies telling them how much if they're over, like they have too much content or, you know, it's just they get in the weeds. So that's been going on for this past

week and like I said, I'll write a wrap up and kind of like let you know. And then I'm also going to write my newsletter next week with some of the photos that I took. Yeah, I got the, I got the Texan camera. I got my hands on that. And that's been very fun. There's the public testimony days are honestly, they are a circus. That is the truth. There was some of the things that people are, there was a man who was wearing and I didn't get a great picture of this. I regret this because I didn't see it till later, but he was wearing a full like, um, revolutionary war like a jacket outfit like soldier outfit.

There was a man who he, I don't, he frequents the capital as well, but he got kicked out because you can't have any flags and he had his confederate flag and his US flag and he wouldn't put them away and he was yelling right immediately. That's how he kicked the meeting off. And, um, and then people are ringing in children that some of them seem like they wrote the stuff

they're reading and some of them seem like maybe they didn't write the things that they're reading. And some of them say they don't know actually when questioned what they're talking about. So it's just very interesting. There's kids. There is older people who don't have children are concerned about their grandkids, grandparents. There's lots of teachers, elected officials stopped by. There's a counter, a group that was mainly, I believe they were, I believe they were associated with one woman who's come to a lot of them associated with care.

And they were outside having a funeral for freedom of religion with a casket and putting things in it. because I just, which is ironic to do that, to give a funeral for religious freedom openly on the Capitol with no repercussions. And it was, yeah, anyway, it's just, it's just interesting. When there's a group inside praying and having a press conference and bringing, yeah, so I will kind of wrap that up on Tuesday. Well, thank you very much, Meredith. There was a lot of fun to see everything going on on Twitter. the SBOE snaps were really great too. You got some really good pictures, as you said, with the camera.

And some great pictures, of course, from the, I have to plug this one again, because this was one of my favorite stories from last week was that, what was it, the convention in pictures. I thought that that was a great collection of photos really gives you the feeling of being at the convention. But then, as you said, as well, we were able to get the same feeling for the SBOE meeting. So even if you didn't go, you could. still feel like you went if you find those Twitter posts.

So I highly recommend that. And then Mary Elise, for our pretty much last big story of the week, just wanted to ask, New World Screwworm cases are continuing to rise in Texas. What are the numbers currently? And, you know, what's going on? Well, when we wrote this piece, they had just discovered the 15th detection in the state of New World Screwworm, but it is now up to 16, the 16th, the 16th. was confirmed, I think, the next day.

So we've talked about this destructive flesh-eating livestock pest when it was first discovered in a calf in Zavala County. But now, NWS is not contained in one area of the state or even the country. We found one between the border of Texas and New Mexico, which is pretty far from the first case in South Texas. There is an interactive map from the USDA that you can check out that details the confirmed detections, which we link into the piece. So it's pretty interesting to just look at.

You can see which ones, you know, where the cases have been found and what animals they have infected. Only one case has affected a dog and all the other cases have been cattle or goats. One that we mentioned here is that Congresswoman Lizzie Fletcher is leading a group of Texas Democrats in the House. And they're requesting a briefing from USDA Secretary Brooke Rawlins. just asking what's the USDA's plan to address the cases, and then also asking about different cuts that have been made by the unofficial Department of Government efficiency and asking how that's impacted kind of the response time to this issue. So you can check out this piece for the latest update, but again, that's, that number is up to 16 now, and it does look like unfortunately we're going to see it continue to rise, but our federal and state lawmakers, leaders, are definitely working to address this as quickly as possible,

but it's one of the situations where once first case is detected, it's hard to get under control after that for a little while. So we'll keep following this one. Well, thank you very much, Mary Elise. Yeah, it seems a tad concerning that Screw Worm has now made it out of Texas and is in New Mexico, you know, the first one being discovered in South Texas. Then it was kind of just in the like central western area, but now it's it's going to, you know, no longer be a purely Texas problem going forward. So it'll be, you know, we'll be following at every step of the way to see how the state and federal governments are responding. But I was wrong because that was not the last story of the week. Meredith, Congressman Craig Goldman, who used to be in the Texas House and recently went to the U.S. House, has introduced a new federal Medicaid reform bill inspired by legislation.

from Texas. Tell us about that. Yeah, so I was able to talk to the congressman about this bill that he introduced. And it was interesting to because he kind of weaved in his history with the Texas House. He also ends talking a little about the Texas delegation, which we were just touching on with some of our interviews with these congressional candidates. But try to make this as simple as possible because some of these things like Medicaid can just get really crazy and very in the weeds about it. He described what he calls the Better Care, Better Cost Act, as a bill that would create market incentives for health care insurance companies to improve patient care and reduce costs. So the idea in the bill is that companies, providers for Medicaid would be evaluated of some sort. States would be required to evaluate them.

And then from there, based on how well they do on the evaluation, that would affect the share that they are auto assigned in the patients that they get auto. auto-assigned. So we'd create this incentive for them to provide better care so that they could get more of the auto-generated assignments. Obviously, people can leave and go to different doctors, but some people just immediately get assigned to a doctor and then stay with them. So there is incentive for people to want more of that share. He talked about how there was a piece of legislation from Texas that really inspired him. He's like, when I got to D.C., I was just thinking about the Texas House and asking myself, you know, what are pieces of legislation that Texas did very well that would really could translate into the federal government? And he said, this is his quote, because the federal government's a mess. So he said that he felt that SB 7 from the 83rd legislature was a great piece of legislation that would really work well on the federal stage. He says Texas does it right. And this is an area where Texas does it better, in my opinion, than any other state. So inspired by Texas legislation, he introduced this law. It was. co, let's see, it was co-sponsored by August Flugger, Congressman August Fluger, so another Texas

congressman hopped on with this. And yeah, just this idea that they would evaluate Medicaid insurance providers, publish an annual report, and that these insurers would get a score based on a lot of different items. Part of it is, you know, surveying and seeing what he said, there could be a survey involved, seeing how people feel about it, but also like spending he talks about like a necessary and potentially avoidable hospital admissions, re-admissions, and emergency visits would factor into that score as well. So just looking at everything as a whole. He's confident that, you know, they just introduced it, but he's very confident that Republicans will sign on to it. He calls it a common sense bill with a business solution to something that has cost American taxpayers billions of dollars over the years.

And so he's like, we're just handing out money to insurance companies. He said, like, of course, they're taking. it with no repercussions, they don't, and they don't provide good enough care or they overcharge, was his sentiment for that. So he's just saying, like, we're stepping in and having oversight to, say, like, if you cut costs and you'll get more business out of it, and then you'll save the American taxpayers as well. So one thing that he talked about at the end, I just asked him about how he feels about this upcoming crop of Republican congressional candidates. And he was, he's very excited about it. So those are people like J.C.R. Burrow and John Bonk that we were interviewing. And he talks about how he called them rock stars.

He said that they've met with them in the Fort Worth area and that just very excited about it. He said that so he came in with Congressman Brandon Gill, who is kind of an up-and-coming star in on the federal level when it comes to politics. And he said they were the only two congressional Texas freshmen. And so they're kind of a little bit jealous of this class coming in because he just, like he said, he thinks they're rock stars. he thinks they're awesome. And so he sounded very excited about that. So he said, we can't wait for them to get up to D.C. And be a part of the Texas delegation.

So full circle, we interviewed some of them, talk to some current ones. They all seem very excited to work together. Well, thank you very much, Meredith. Yeah, it seems like a really interesting attempt to, like, take state legislation and translate it into the federal government. So definitely some great stories this week. Again, I recommend everybody check out those. interviews, read through the stories, read Meredith's SBOE, tweet thread and Mary Elise's post Dobbs

write up. We've had a lot of good content this week, basically. But there's also been a lot of other interesting things happening on Twitter. So for our tweetery for this week, has anybody seen anything interesting or Mary Elise seen or maybe not seen? Okay, well, this is just has been cracking me up all week, but there is a giraffe on the loose in Texas, privately owned, not from a zoo. Her name is Gracie. She has rounded ears, so not to be confused with the draft. You might see out on the highway with box steers.

There was some confusion about if she had been found or not because people had been posting AI videos or photos of her being found. And then some local people, like a neighbor of the person who had lost. the giraffe posted a photo and was like, hey, she's not been found. This is inaccurate. I know it's just been a little bit entertaining because, I mean, of course, there's a draft on the loose in Texas. I hope she's found for her owner's sake, but it is pretty comical.

And I would just love to see a giraffe wandering around Houston, Texas. That would be pretty entertaining. So we'll see. We'll keep an eye out down here. I think my favorite tweet was like, Texas is so big that, somebody lost a draft and we can't find it. Right. It was pretty great.

When I lived overseas, there was a story that it was like in more recent years that like the neighboring country had gifted this country. I lived in a lion that had gotten out and like eaten a couple of like people. Like there was a class on a field trip. And so they when they talk about zoos or like the idea of animals, they were just all like, no is like not. Not a fun topic to talk about. But a giraffe is much more safe and seems very cute.

So, yeah, I would think so. Well, Meredith, do you have a fun tweetery to talk about this? I don't know if I'd say mine's fun. I think you do. Yeah, because I mean, we've heard if you've ever listened, I get really upset about like remakes of things I don't think should happen. And they're remaking sense and sensibility. Another Jane Austen.

They already did Pride and Prejudice, which I did not watch. Also, Anna Green Gables don't even get me started about what Netflix did that. So anyway, and I'm not even like a Jane Austen, like, I'm currently reading Persuasion. I would like to read all of her books. I have not read all of them. But my sister, some of my best friends are obsessed. And once again, I'm not even like a period piece drama person, but the ones that are Jane Austen are like, are done.

I mean, Kate Winslet and Emma Thompson. And like they don't need notes on this. You know, we don't. And also they, they put a quote, I can look it up. They put a quote, someone posted the movie quote, movie poster or whatever is like being agreeable never did a woman any good. And it's almost and someone, then it got into the discussion of the whole like well-behaved women never make history and how that's like a misunderstood quote that was not actually a feminist call to, you know, offend the whole system, but more just a commentary about. pious women from whenever it was written and how they lived their life. So anyway, it sent me down a rabbit hole of like, why, why are we remaking things that were great?

So I will not be watching that. I think that what we need to do is we need to have remakes for bad movies. Like directors should be able to take another crack at a movie that was terrible, you know, instead of always trying to make movies that were good and like capture lightning in a bottle twice. Like think of the worst movies you've ever seen. It's like let some other more competent director take it over. That's an idea. Well, here's the question for you, though.

Do you think Steven Spielberg should be able to remake Disclosure Day? Who's one of the best directors ever? Sorry, I brought that. Yeah, no, we were talking about this in the office slack. Disclosure bit. I don't, okay, let me say this. I would never walk out of a movie theater in the middle of the movie because I paid for my ticket. You know, I'm going to sit there and I'm going to watch the whole movie.

I have never come so close. to just walking out of the theater as when I saw Disclosure Day. I love going to the movie theater and I never say this, but if you want to watch it, just wait till it comes out on streaming. Like, just don't, it's just not very good. It's just a really bad movie.

And I think it got a lot of decent reviews at the beginning because I think a lot of critics were kind of giving it the benefit of the doubt for being a Spielberg movie. But I think in order to be a Spielberg movie, it has to have that Spielberg quality and it doesn't. So not a, probably one of my least favorite movies I've seen in theaters in a long time.

It would take an entire another hour for me to explain all my problems with the movie. There's some harsh words because you, you love a movie. I do love a good movie. Speaking of a good movie, your tweetery goes into a classic. It kind of does. It kind of does.

Yeah. Oh, it's a good saying. It's all about the segways. That's the whole, that's the whole thing about the podcast. He's got to have the good segways. Yeah. So, Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick is launching a new Texas politics podcast himself called Lieutenant Dan in a reference to Forrest Gump. And his first person that he had on was Attorney General Ken Paxton.

And, you know, Dan Patrick started out in radio, right? Like he started out as a sports broadcaster. And then he eventually kind of transitioned into doing like more political stuff. And then that kind of led him into politics. And so I'll be excited to see, you know, what he has to say. I'm sure that for him it's fun to be back in the media space after, you know, being in, you know, leading the Texas Senate can only be so much fun, right? So it's good to get out. And, you know, obviously, as we know, recording podcasts is a lot of fun.

So I think it'll be exciting to watch. He says he's going to have a lot of political people on. So it'll be exciting. I saw a clip of it this morning with Ken Paxton, which ties into my whole theory, not theory, but just, of course, he was talking about how, of course, he would support John Cornyn. And so it's just interesting after the fact to hear everyone talk about it after the months of the brutal bashing. There you go. Well, thank you very much to everybody for listening. It's been a great podcast. And you can catch us next week.

Podcast drops every Friday morning. But thank you for listening to this week's episode of the weekly roundup. And we'll catch you all next time. Thank you to everyone for listening. If you enjoy our show, rate and review us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. And if you want more of our stories, visit us at the Texan.com. Follow us on social media for the latest in Texas politics and send any questions for our team to our mailbag by DMing us on Twitter or shooting us an email to editor at the Texan. Tune in next week for another episode of our weekly roundup. God bless you and God bless Texas.