The Texan Podcast - Weekly Roundup - May 22, 2026

Episode Date: May 22, 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.Early Voting Kicks Off for 2026 Primary Runoff Election on May 26Trump Endorses Paxton Over Cornyn in Texas' U.S. Senate Republican RunoffPaxton, Cornyn Both Nearly Tied with Talarico for U.S. Senate in New General Election PollTexas Supreme Court Rejects Abbott, Paxton Petition to Remove Democratic Quorum-Breakers from OfficeIncumbent Jim Wright, Bo French Face Off in Heated Texas Railroad Commissioner RunoffDemocrats in Battleground Rio Grande Valley Texas House District Vie to Challenge Incumbent Janie LopezFormer Harris County Clerk, State Rep. Sam Harless District Director Vie for Open Seat in Republican RunoffState Rep. Hubert Vo Defending Seat in Democratic Runoff Following Virtual Tie in PrimaryHere's a Look at the Texas School Districts Launching Virtual Schools for the 2026–2027 School Year

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 reporters Mary Elise O'Barr. I got your name right this time. Meredith Dyer and Hannah Brewer. How's everybody doing this morning? Doing good. I'm glad to be back after a couple weeks, though. It's good to have you back on the podcast. Yeah, we missed you. I missed you guys too. I was just telling everybody that I am. headed back to Texas in a couple days, so I'm still in Scotland, but grateful to be taking a look at what's going to be happening next week.

I wish. Absolutely. It'll be. I was going to say, I wish there was a way we could show some emeritus photos from Scotland all day. I haven't seen them recently, but like if we could flash them on the podcast for viewers to see, because it sounds incredible. Sounds amazing. I'll see.

That might be something we'll be able to do. I hope I could send a couple. Some fancy editing. even here and here. There you go. Yeah, so it'll be good to have you back stateside, Meredith, for the runoff, considering the fact that that is going to be our lives next week for the whole week, pretty much. Of course, next week is also Memorial Day on Monday.

So that will be, yeah, I guess it'll be a sort of a little respite for the entire state before we get on into the primary runoff and all the craziness and chaos that comes in the wake of that. Yeah, hopefully honoring veterans can be like a little moment before everything blows up. A moment for unity. Everyone, we all can agree. Yeah, we can be grateful and then return to what they fought for us to do. I guess. Yeah, I am pretty.

that's a good idea. I'm pretty eager for this runoff to happen. There's a lot of races where I feel pretty invested at this point in what the results are. Just when you cover a race for a while and pretty closely, there's just so much anticipation around, okay, who's going to actually went? Because we've seen all the polls. We've seen all of the ads. We've been covering this for so long. So I'm pretty eager for that to happen, although it will be definitely chaotic work-wise. Well, the thing I find most interesting about primaries is that, you know, you follow so many races because, you know, there's so many districts where it's pretty clear that one party or another is dominant, you know, you can visit the Texans, Texas partisan index to find more of those. But then, you know, it completely switches the sort of more,

you know, important districts because it'll go from the districts where you have like one party is really strong and all the competition is within that party to districts where, you know, it's much more moderate and the competition is between the parties. So it's like we, to an entirely different shift to the kind of stuff we're focusing on. Right. It's also so interesting to be, have your eyes on a completely different part of the state that you're not from. You're not, you know, you like get to know, we really get to know Texas as we cover all of this and realizing like these are the issues in this area, oh, this is what people are thinking about over here and their, Texas is just such a diverse and interesting place that the elections covering HD, fill in the blank, like, helps you see

all the idiosyncrasies of the state. And especially where those little idiosyncrasies bump up against each other, like the Earl, I was about to say Earl versus Urban, that's not correct. The Urban versus Rural, for example, the water issues in like Southeast Texas, like Houston versus Dallas, you know, all sorts of, all sorts of big different, you know, what's the, that famous book about Texio, a big, wonderful thing with a little asterisk, because sometimes things can get a little nasty, but it all works out usually in the end. Yeah, it's interesting, too, for me to see, like, during the runoff, I've been covering more urban areas, and education has been a huge topic for them, but in the primaries, it's covering

more rural areas, and education was usually not as prioritized by the candidate. That's really interesting, too. And yeah, I know that the urban versus rural issue was also a big thing during the school choice debate because there are a lot of rural areas that were less interested in school choice because like their local public schools were a real important thing around which the community revolved. You know, one of the big democratic attacks on school choice in the past session was saying Republicans are trying to take your Friday night lights. You know, they're trying to destroy the local football team, which is it seems to me to be. pretty good political advertising if you're trying to convince people to do something in Texas is tell them that this thing is going to affect their football. Right.

Yeah, my husband is from a really small town, like 1,600 people. And his graduating class was 70. And it's like shameful if you do anything other than go to the basketball. Yeah, classic small time. We've got a lot of big stuff coming up in the next week. So why don't we just get into our stories for this week? Mary Elise, major news has dropped in the GOP, U.S. Senate primary at the top of the ticket that's taking up like half the political oxygen in the room.

So give us the details. Yeah, so we've been waiting for this for quite a while. As anybody has been following the text and closely listening to our podcast knows, we've been waiting to see who is President Donald Trump going to pick who's going to be his favorite candidate in U.S. Senate race? I think it was about two and a half months ago when we thought he was just bound to drop an endorsement any moment. We were refreshing truth social for a couple of days and then everybody kind of gave up. But he has officially endorsed in the race. He endorsed Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton over Senator John Cornyn.

So he did that on the second day of early voting, which was Tuesday. So he announced this endorsement on Tuesday. he described Pakistan as a, quote, true MAGA warrior who has always delivered for Texas, well, continue to do so in the United States Senate. And then he kind of referenced loyalty when he talked about Cornyn. He said, quote, John Cornyn is a good man and I worked well with him, but he was not supportive of me when times were tough, which is a theme that seems to be pretty consistent with Trump whenever he's choosing to endorse people

or to support them in general. he usually cites loyalty as one of the main forces driving behind his decision. You know, whether this person stood with him consistently or not. Paxton, of course, responded and said, I'm incredibly honored to have this endorsement. He said no one's fought harder for the American people than President Trump, and I look forward to championing his America First agenda in the Senate. Cornyn then responded to this endorsement. Of course, this is a big blow to

his campaign and it's definitely a boost for Pakistan's campaign. I mean, just how much of a blow and just how much of a boost we'll see when the runoff results actually come in. We'll see how significant this endorsement actually pans out to be. But Cornyn said, I have worked closely with President Trump during both of his presidential terms and voted with him more than 99% of the time.

He has consistently called me a friend in this race. He said, it's now time for Texas Republican voters to decide if they want a strong nominee to help our GOP candidates down ballot and defeat Tala Rica in November or a weak nominee who jeopardizes everything we care about. I trust the Republican voters of Texas. So definitely the announcement from Trump got all sorts of responses naturally, but particularly at the federal level, Republicans seem to be generally a little bit frustrated with the endorsement and just concerned about, you know, what are Paxton's odds?

in a general election against Tala RICO. And also some concerns seem to be raised that a lot more money from out of, a lot of money from some major Democratic donors might start flowing into Tala RICO now. That was one concern that was kind of being voiced by some federal Republicans. And of course, you know, the National Republicans in a territorial committee, they've been all the way gone home behind Cornyn. From the start, they, you know, said, when they were talking to donors that Cornyn would cost less to secure in a primary election

versus what it would cost to later on secure the general election for Paxton. And so they've been just really supporting Cornyn all the way through. So there's definitely, I guess you could say blood in the water now. So we'll see how weighty this endorsement is. but Trump has had his say and Pakistan is his selected candidate for this race. Well, thank you, Mary Elise. Yeah, the final conclusion to a two and a half month saga

of being told he was going to drop that endorsement soon, but soon maybe has a slightly different meaning when you reach the level of presidency. Yeah, and I do wonder what sort of conversations were going on behind the scenes because he did originally say, I'm going to soon ask someone to drop out, and I'm going to endorse somebody and then ask the odd man out to drop out. So that does indicate that some conversations happened behind the scenes that changed the way that Trump approached it,

because, of course, he didn't ask Cornyn to drop out. And he made this announcement pretty later, quite a bit later. So I'm curious what those conversations looked like and what sort of finangling went on behind the scenes. We all wish we could be in the room where it happens. Right. But thank you. Yeah, thank you very much, Mary Elise. Hannah, turning next to you, a decision was made by the Texas Supreme Court regarding the quorum breakers from last year.

Give us the details. Yes. So the Texas Supreme Court ruled against petitions to remove Democratic members of the Texas legislature, including Texas House Democratic caucus chair, Gene Wu over last year's quorum break. Wu has been pretty vocal about all of this on Twitter. And so last August, the Texas House Democrats led the state in order to block the GOP-led congressional redistricting. Attorney General Ken Paxton and Governor Greg Abbott have since been making efforts to force those members out of their offices, but this decision allows them to stay. Last year, Abbott filed a quo warranto petition asking the Texas Supreme Court to declare Wu's office vacant on the basis that he gave him.

office up by fleeing the state during the quorum break. He also called Wu the, quote, ringleader of the derelict Democrats who fled the state to break quorum. So Paxton was also involved in petitioning and submitted a plea for 13 Democratic members who fled the state to be removed from office. Just a few weeks ago, the members who left the state in protest were fined 8,000 by the Texas House. Chief Justice Jimmy Blacklock, who was appointed by Abbott in 2025 and who formerly served as Abbott's General Counsel gave his opinion on Friday and stated that at stake in this decision were what he called fundamental questions about the allocation of power between the branches of the Texas government. So he said, whatever wrong may have been

committed by the absent House members, the Texas Constitution's internal political remedies, none of which involve the judicial branch for sufficient for the task of restoring the House's ability to do business. So he removed. the judicial branch from the conversation and rejected the petitions for the members removal. Gene Woos stated in response that when Greg Abbott threatened to arrest and expel us for denying him a quorum, we told him he should come and take him. He said, he tried and stated Abbott was wrong, weak, and couldn't take a thing from them. A spokesperson from Abbott's office told the Texan, no elected official has the right to abandon their duties, flee the state, and shut down. the people's business. Governor Abbott's legal action is what brought derelict Democrat back to Texas to do their jobs and pass the big beautiful map. So a conclusion to a story that's going on for a long time.

Well, thank you very much, Hannah. Yeah, it's definitely fun to see how like all of this national redistricting saga started, of course, right here in Texas. And even then we've still had an issue in Texas going back for a very long time. over whether or not these these corn breaking Democrats would have their offices declared vacant. So thank you very much for giving us the rundown on that story. Turning back to you, Mary Elise. As you mentioned, this endorsement came. I think you said in the second day of early voting. Today, when this podcast goes live Friday morning, will be the last day of early voting. So after you enjoy this podcast with your morning coffee, get to the polls.

if you don't want to be standing in line all day on Tuesday, May 22nd, May 26th, which is actually Election Day. Polls open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. But I think Mary Elise, we have news on a different kind of poll. So tell us about a poll that's happened in the U.S. Senate race. Yeah, this poll did come out before this endorsement dropped. This one was taking more of a look at potential general election matchups in the U.S. Senate race. So it was seeing essentially what are Cornyn's odds against Tala Rico come November and then what are Paxton's odds against Tala Rico in November. And there were a couple other races that they measured, but that was one that we really highlighted in this piece. It showed that Cornyn and Paxton were essentially tied their in dead heats against Tala Rico if they were one of them individually to go up against Tala Rico in a general matchup.

So the survey was conducted by Texas Southern University, and it was between April 22nd and May 6th, and they got responses from a little over 1,200 participants who they think are considered likely to vote in the 2026 November general election. So 45% of those likely voters that they collected responses from said that they would vote for corn in come November if he's on the ticket against Tala Rico, as well as libertarian Ted Brown. And then 44% said that they would vote for Tala Rico if that was the ticket. And Brown received just 3% of the vote. And then when Paxton was pitted against Tala Rico and Brown, 45% said that they would vote for Paxton in the general election.

And that's the same percentage that Tala Rika received. And then the libertarian, Brown, received 2% of the vote there. Then Cornyn voters were asked if they would vote for Paxton if he is the GOP nominee after the runoff. And 90% said that they would. 90% of Cornyn voters said, yeah, we'd vote for Paxton if he ends up being the nominee after the runoff. 2% said that they would cast a vote for Tala Rico instead. Another 2% said that they would vote for Brown. And 6% diselected undecided.

And then Paxton voters were asked that same question. Would you vote for Cornyn if he secures a Republican nomination? 91% said, yes, we'd cast a ballot in favor of the incumbent senator, Cornon. So this is asking Paxton voters if they would vote for Cornyn. And none of them would vote for Tala Rico while 3% said they would vote for Brown, and then 6% were also undecided. So like Rob said, early voting is just kicked off. And, you know, so we'll know who the Republican nominee is pretty shortly here for the U.S. Senate race.

But of course, Tala Rico secured his position as a Democratic nominee back in March when they had the primary and he beat Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett. They also did a little bit of polling on favorability ratings. So Paxton is viewed. favorably by 42% of the respondents and Cornyn is viewed favorably by 37%. And then Paxton and Cornyn are viewed unfavorably by 48 and 49% of the respondents, respectively. And 46 said that they would view, that they do view Tala Rico favorably and 35% on the flip side, view him unfavorably. So we have a couple other points of interest in this story about some races, but those are kind of the top lines from this poll. Of course, there's quite a lot of

polls coming out right now. We're kind of being inundated with them. But it's very interesting, especially this one, kind of taken a look more so at the general election instead of the odds here at the primary runoff. So I would recommend checking out the piece. Absolutely. It was a good piece. I enjoyed reading it. But yeah, it'll be interesting to see, I think what happens with what happens with those Cornyn voters because as you mentioned, I think 90% said that they

would vote for Paxton, but when the odds seem that close, you have to wonder if people might be crossing over to vote for Tala Rico, if they might not just vote at all. Especially, of course, the Libertarian party that perennial thorn in the GOP's side

might claim that some kind of spoiler candidate. I have a feeling like that's going to be It's going to be a long night on Tuesday. And you can follow it all here at the Texan. Absolutely. But turning now to a smaller but not any less important race. Meredith, the statewide race for Texas Railroad Commissioner has been heating up.

Walk us through the contentious Republican runoff between incumbent Jim Wright and Challenger Beau French. Yes. So just as a little reminder, refresher for everybody out there, Texas Railroad Commission, not about railroads. It is oil and gas, environmental, pipeline, safety laws, all of those things. It is the state's oldest regulatory agency, which did oversee railroads and then 20 years ago or so switch that over to transportation. So there's three statewide elected commissioners. They serve these six-year staggered terms. And so the three that are currently, in office are Wayne Christian, Christy Craddick, who ran in the primary for comptroller and lost to Don Huffines, and then Jim Wright, who is in this runoff here, who's the current chairman. So just as a point of reference, Wayne Christian and Christy Craddock did, they both endorsed Jim Wright in this race. So his coworkers like him. That's something that we saw in our reporting. He is also endorsed by Greg Abbott, Dan Patrick, Dustin Burroughs, and the Texas Oil and Gas Association Committee. And then Beau French is the former Tarrant County GOP chair endorsed by an organization like Turning Point Action, Congressman Keith Self, different state reps, quite a few of them, including Mitch Little, Brent Money, West Verdell.

So in the March primary, it was less than a percent between these two. So Wright was at 32.1 percent and French was at 31.75. So that was an interesting night. It was going back and forth. It started out one way and ended, you know, so close. This has been a controversial and kind of contentious race. French runs on, he focuses on what he calls the Islamic invasion of Texas. And so he talks about things like receiving threats from militant Islamists.

He talks about he earlier last year he was asked to resign from his from his position in the Tarrant County GOP after he had an ex-pull asking whether Jews or Muslims were a bigger threat to America, which Dan Patrick was one person who asked for his resignation and talked about anti-Semitism and religious bigotry, like having no place in Texas. So he's cost them stirs along the way. He makes very bold claims. And yeah, there's just some races that get a little more in the mix with some of these. things. So last month he had had a press release. French was saying that he had uncovered close ties with Wright and an official auxiliary of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. He talked about that when Wright has been on the Railroad Commission, that the agency approved permits that involved

the Saudi Arabia Basic Industries Corporation, which he said were under Saudi Arabia's Islamic values and laws or Sharia. And so, of course, Wright's campaign issued a press release, responding to that saying that that was factually not true, that this Exxon Mobile Joint Venture with the SABIC wasn't fully permitted, was never issued a permit by the Texas Railroad Commission. They point back that this project got a permit before Wright entered public office and they even point to like a 2017 press release where Abbott praises this partnership saying it was record-breaking project, tremendous win for Texas. So they're going back and forth a little bit about that. French also has had some criticisms about Wright's background of some of his political

donations to some Democratic candidates in the past. He calls him more than once a Democratic mega donor. And he points to, you know, Wright has, he just only did nearly 46,000 to former Democratic state rep Abel Herrero. And then smaller things like $750 to Democratic lieutenant governor nominee Letitia Van Vandiput in 2014, who would run against Dan Patrick. and then who Dan Patrick now has endorsed right very strongly. And then $1,000 to former GOP House Speaker Joe Strauss, who has also been criticized by some Republicans as well. So he's just going through his past and saying he said in a statement to the Texan, you know, asking the voters, do they want a Republican nominee, he said for Railroad Commission, who is a Republican or one who is a Democrat. So calling Wright a Democrat.

We also were able to speak to write, and he defended those donations talking about he's in South, South Texas, where Democrats historically dominate that region. And he said, I'm from South Texas, the only thing that dominates politics. Here is Democrats. And that he gave to a Democrat who he said was industry friendly to oil and gas in Texas. And that was his reason for giving for some of those donations. Also, in the latest campaign finance reports, it came out. Once again, I can just see French, like, looking through, as we all are, right? We're all looking through everybody's coming finest reports.

But it comes out, right? This one, you actually didn't need to look far. Wright had received a $500,000 donation from Texas Sands Pack, which is tied to the Las Vegas Sands owner, Miriam Edelson, and so who's a major Texas donor. I know Hannah did a piece covering all of her giving in the last, in this primary cycle in the general election, all of that. And so she's already donated around 10. million individually during Texas's

2026 primary cycle and the corporation has contributed a similar amount as well. And so French was questioning like why gambling interests were investing in a regulatory race. And he said, ask yourself, why would the casino lobby be trying to buy a non-legislative statewide seat on the RRC? So Wright responded to that, dismissing the criticism. And he said, this is a quote from him, anyone with even a basic understanding of the Texas Railroad Commission knows it has absolutely nothing to do with

legalizing gaming. in Texas. And then he also made this statement about him and Adelson's relationship, kind of pointing back to French's alleged like anti-Semitic comments or things that he'd been called out about in the past. He said, my support from Miriam Adelson underscores Bo French's hateful attacks on the Jewish people and his repeated anti-Semitic rhetoric. So this will be an interesting one to watch for. It's gotten real personal. It's gotten our favorite. it were quite spicy. So as, yeah, if you're interested in seeing which one of these candidates is going to win, obviously follow our coverage, but also get out and vote for early voting today

or next week on Tuesday. The winner is going to face state rep John Rosenthal, who is from Houston, who is a Democratic nominee in November. Well, thank you very much, Meredith. Certainly an interesting race for a position that most Texans probably don't know exists, much less could glean what it does just based on its name. But it's an interesting race. I appreciate you, given the rundown on that. And I recommend everybody to go and check out that piece. But you did mention some of Hannah's writing earlier.

And Hannah is actually the next one up here. State Representative Gina Hina Hinojosa is running for governor. She is the Democratic nominee to challenge Governor Greg Abbott this year. But that means that she has a. Texas House District seat in Austin that is up for grabs. So Hannah, tell us what's going on there. Yes, House District 49. Democrats Montserrat Garibai and Kathy Tovo are facing off for the seat and the primary runoff.

So like Rob said, the seat is being vacated by Gina Hinajosa, who's running for governor. There is no Republican running for the House seat. This is an Austin district that covers areas west of I-35, and it's rated Democratic at 82% by our Texas partisan index. So the primary election had Garibai at 33% of the vote, and Tovo at 28%. So Garibai is definitely ahead, but not by a huge margin. Garibai's most recent finance reports show her political contributions at around $245,000 with almost $91,000 in cash on hand, and Tovo's reports show her with about 120,000 in political contributions and nearly 55,000 in cash on hand. Garvey holds the endorsements of the Austin Chronicle, the Austin American statesman, and the Texas AFL-CIO, as well as a collection of progressive organizations like moms against Greg Abbott and Latino Victory.

She also boasts a 100% rating from Planned Parenthood, Texas votes. She served as a deputy assistant secretary at the U.S. Department of Education under the Biden administration, and her campaign focuses on issues ranging from education to labor rights, and she supports universal full-day preschool. She has an emphasis on bilingual learning. She also states that she intends to create pathways for new homeowners through state-level down payment assistance and tax credits. Tovo, her opponent, also focuses on education issues in her campaign, stating that one of her leading priorities is stopping Republican attacks on education, teachers, public schools, and rights. She highlights strong public education in her campaign as well as expansion of health care to all residents in the district. Tovo emphasizes what she calls climate resilience as another key issue. She stated that she will prioritize environmentally sustainable water,

infrastructure solutions and that she intends to take strong action against data centers. So this is just an interesting bit, but the data center debate has just had so much bipartisan opinions that align in some places, which is interesting. She previously served as Austin City Council member in higher education and also as a adjunct professor at UT. That's kind of the rundown of this race in the Austin area. Well, thank you very much, Hannah. Certainly, as you said, for a district that is rated D82%, meaning, you know, Democrats win 82% of the votes in every general election there is, yeah, it's nice, I think,

for any party to have somebody running in as many districts as possible, but a Republican's not winning that seat. So thank you very much for giving us the rundown. that one. Turning back to you now, Meredith, there is a Democratic runoff in a competitive Rio Grande Valley District. Tell us about the candidates looking to take on Republican incumbent Janie Lopez in November. Yeah, so very different story here, which makes it, once again, very interesting to watch. House District 37 is in the Rio Grande Valley. It covers all of Willisie County, most of Cameron County. And the reason why this is, like, like a competitive kind of battleground state that the Democrats would really like to flip back again is because there was some political movement in the district. It was D-51 in 2022 and then R-53 after the 24 election. And so Janie Lopez came in and it was like a 10-point lead against the Democrat.

She flipped that seat. So it's tight there. And so she's obviously the Republican running. And then there are two, there's two Democrats that are in a runoff. And so Oseill O'Hoa is the first candidate. And he is the Harlingen CISD Director of Special Education. And he's running against a law student who has, and also who has worked for a civil rights and employment law attorney for more than 10 years. Her name is Esmeralda Cantu Castle. And so O'Hoa got 46% in the March primary. and then Cantu Castle got 32%. So Cantu Castle is, like I said, she is a law student right now

but has more of a legal background for her work. She prioritizes education. She says at every level, talking about access to schools, jobs, colleges, job training. She talks about supporting small business, healthcare access, addressing rising rents, property taxes. But one of the things she really does focus on,

which is a very personal story for her, which was really, it was just a really heartbreaking story to read and for motivation for getting in the races. As she entered this race after the death of her 21-year-old daughter, who was allegedly killed by a fellow seaman while traveling or serving in the U.S. Navy. And she also lost her husband, who was a veteran to suicide as well. So she talks about her top priority being to bring a VA hospital to the Rio Grande Valley. So that was just very just heartbreaking and interesting to hear about like what motivated her to get into this. race. And so she's talked about it like as a calling in that way. And so she's up against Oseal Ojoa, like I said, special ed director in the district in that area. Harlingen CISD

also talks about shocker. Education is one of his number one issues. He opposes what he calls the voucher programs, talks about raising teacher salaries, strengthening the retirement system for teachers so that they can retire comfortably, he says, also touches on public safety, veteran care as well and talks about supporting law enforcement, expanding veterans' health care. So that's something that's also important to him as well. And so we took a look at their campaign finance reports, and it was pretty similar, like Cantu Castle had raised about $7,600 with no cash on hand at that point. And then Ahoa had raised $9,500, but had $1,200 cash on hand.

So it's not like one of them is blowing the other one away with a ton of, you know, a ton of fund raising in this sense. And so they're going to go up against whoever wins goes up against Janie Lopez. And Lopez has some pretty serious Republican endorsements from the president, Donald Trump, from Governor Greg Abbott, Ted Cruz, and then statewide land commissioner, Don Buckingham, and Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller. So once again, if you're in that area or nobody, anybody in that area, you want to get out and vote early today or next week. So can the Democrats reclaim HD37? Can they flip it back?

We'll see. It'll certainly be interesting given the fact that, as you said, Lopez flipped this seat fairly recently. And this is not expected by many people to be a great election for Republicans or even a great election for Republicans who managed to attract a lot of Latino voters in 2024. So it'll be it'll be something to watch. But now, Mary Lees, turning to you for another primary runoff preview. There is one seat where a Republican is retiring at the end of his term. There are two candidates in the GOP runoff for State Representative Sam Harless's Texas House seat. Tell us what's going on there.

Yeah, so this is the competition, essentially, for State Representative Sam Harle's seat, because Harless announced that he is retiring after he finishes what will be his fourth term in the Texas State House. So we've got a former Harris County clerk and then his former district director who are running in the Republican primary runoff against each other to determine who that nominee will be in this race for Harless's open seat. So we've got Kelly Peterson who served as Harle's district director in HD1. 26 over the past four years. And then we have Stan Standard, who has held lots of different Republican positions, including Harris County Clerk. And so they're both kind of running against each other and this GOP primary runoff on May 26.

Of course, early voting has already begun. So there's already some votes that will start to roll in. So Harliss announced that he was going to retire from the Texas House in September 2025. and so his seat is among the many that are in this primary election cycle. So after the March 3rd primary, we saw Peterson and Standard come out on top against one other candidate, Polly Looper. Standard collected 49.3% of the vote, but not quite a majority. And Peterson came in with 29.4%. So, of course, neither of them got a majority, although Standard was relatively close.

So that's why they proceeded to a runoff. off. Peterson is endorsed by Harless. So Peterson is his former district director. She emphasized her focus on flood mitigation, property tax relief. She emphasizes growing the economy by kind of allowing those small businesses in their district to flourish and election security. And interestingly enough, these are all priority that she shares with standard. As someone was mentioning earlier, when you're in these Republican primaries, a lot of the times, their main focuses, like the issues that they're campaigning on are very similar to each other, whether it's two Democrats or two Republicans.

And in this case, they have several shared focuses, property tax relief, election security. I was recently at one of Governor Greg Abbott's get the vote stops in Houston. He's been holding several across the state. But he was with Stannert. Stannert was one of his guests that was there at the rally with him. and he highlighted Standards campaign and said, you all need someone who's going to go to Austin represent your values.

He said, you've got to have someone who will work also collaboratively with the governor of the state of Texas to make sure we get more policies across the finish line. And then Stanter also said some words, will you stand next Abbott there? He said, I never planned to run for office, but is at the right place, at the right time. And then he kind of clarified to the crowd.

He said, I'm not running against Harless or there's been so confusion. Harless is retired. hiring. And so that's what he was saying, you know, this is kind of the right time for me to stuff. And he said, I'm running on things that this district is concerned about the flooding, the crime, the property taxes, and of course, election integrity. So as I said, a lot of similar issues there that are shared with Peterson. I talked to Peterson on Wednesday, and she said that this race is about people who, about who will fight for the people of HD-126 every single day and not who is the

biggest political endorsements. You know, she's referencing there the fact that Standards campaign is endorsed by Abbott, Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, state senator, Paul Bettin Court, and then 16 different members of the Texas State House Representatives. So he's definitely collected a pretty hefty amount of endorsements.

Peterson said that she'll bring her own voice, her own judgment, and stay focused on the priorities that matter here at home. I mean, she emphasized the point that Representative Harle's has endorsed her, as has his wife. And Harlis' wife held this seat for a decade before he started serving in HD126. So both of those reps have endorsed Peterson in this race. She said at the end of the day, I'm not running to represent Austin Insiders or political groups. I'm running to represent the families, neighborhoods, and small businesses of HD126. One fact that we have included in here was just a little bit of info about early voting turnout in Harris County since this is HD 126. And so as of day of, as of day two of early voting in Harris County, the combined totals of voter turnout reflected 66,864 participants. So we'll see how this pans out for these

to individuals, but whoever wins, whether it's Peterson or Stanart, will go on to face the Democratic nominee, Stephanie Board in November. And then, of course, that'll be the final determination of who represents HD126. Well, thank you very much, Mary Elise. Turning back to you, Meredith. Tell us about a close Democratic runoff in Houston between a 20-year-plus Texas House veteran and the school board president who took him to a a runoff. Yes. So we have incumbent Hubert Vo versus Darlene Bro. Oh, that rhymes. I just always that. And there, it's an incredibly close primary where both candidates received technically 38 percent and Vaux, who is the 20 plus year incumbent led by just three votes. So this is

some of the data that's very interesting to see. Like, I don't know, three votes. Like those are the things you hear about, but it's just so tight. So it's a Harris County district that covers southwest Houston, most of A-Leaf, parts of, you know, Katie. And it has a very strong partisan rating for Democratic-leaning 59 percent. But it is down from D-62 in the 2020-2020 cycle. And so the first candidate Hubert Vaux, or the incumbent, his background is that he has obviously been a long-time state rep, but he's served on the insurance committee as the vice chair. He is a member of the pensions, pensions, investments, and financial services committee as well. And on his website, his main priorities are public school funding and safety.

He talks about, he had a couple, it was interesting website, a couple of mentions of COVID-19. So he had talked about wanting to help students who fell behind during the pandemic. He also talks about law enforcement, which is a really hot topic in that area. And crime said that he wants to treat crime. as the serious problem that it is. Darlene Bro, A-Leaf, ISD board president. She's a former teacher. So also, like you said, Hannah earlier, like public schools are huge in these urban areas.

And so public school education funding, she specifically, obviously, being with her educational background, she was highlighting students with dyslexia, students with learning disabilities, wanting to get resources to them, wanting to have job training and school development programs and things like that. she also had she had quite a few more priorities listed as well housing health care infrastructure could go on for a while she listed her endorsements when being state rep ron reynolds the houston mayor pro tem martha castex tatum houston city council member tiffany d thomas the houston lgb q ptacques young, Harris County, Young Democrat. So she had quite a few endorsements that she listed.

She also has been endorsed by the Houston Chronicle editorial board, which is interesting because they had backed Vaux in nearly every election since 2006. I couldn't find 2008, but every other one they had picked him. And so this was a change in their endorsement. Vaux had $12,655 raised and $99,000. almost $100,000 actually, dollars cash on hand. And then Bro had raised almost $16,000. And then she had about $5,500 cash on hand. So is the 20-year incumbent, though, going to survive such a tight runoff? It'll be interesting to see where those other voters, where their heads are at as we watch next week. And just to clarify, Meredith, you said that that was ahead by 3% or ahead by 3 votes. Oh, three votes, because they both received 38%. So it's like a tie, basically, when you look at it and then you kind of look down.

Well, thank you very much, Meredith, for giving us the rundown on that one. If I recall correctly, Vaux is one of two Texas House Democrats who were taken to a runoff this election cycle. The other one is state representative Vinton Jones in Dallas. Reporter Kim Roberts had a great piece about that. that also came out today. So I would recommend everybody read both about Vaux and Jones. Yeah, you know, seeing a incumbent get taken to a primary runoff is always something very interesting, you know, exciting to see.

So thank you very much, Meredith. Turning back to you, Hannah. Give us the details on who is running in the HD 131 Democratic runoff. I understand that earlier in the podcast. we had a piece about somebody who is running with the endorsement of the outgoing representative. But here I think the connection is even closer. So tell us what's going on there. Yes.

It's a familial connection. And again, education for both these candidates and for the income that has been a really big issue. So Stacey Childs and Lawrence Allen are facing off for the Democratic nomination for HD 131. after current state rep Alma Allen announced her retirement at the end of her term. So Lawrence Allen is Alma Allen's son. And so they, on his campaign, you know,

website and Facebook, there's obviously like lots of pictures and videos of them together. She's obviously endorsed him. The winner of the race will face Republican candidates got Whitmarsh during the general election in November. But during the March, March primaries, childs received 45% of the vote and Lawrence Allen received 28%. And according to our Texas partisan index, the House District has a partisan reading of Democrat

at 77%. This Houston District reaches across the southwest and south central parts of the city. It's majority of black and Hispanic. It is home to parts of four independent school districts, including Houston ISD and Stafford ISD. Most recent finance reporting shows child's total political contributions to be almost 72,000 and her cash on hand to be about 32,000. And Alan's numbers show him at about 17,000 in political contributions and just over 5,500 in cash on hand. So child's key issues are strong public school systems, affordable health care, and community wellness. She also emphasizes criminal justice.

She herself is a lawyer and an educator. She's also a current member of the Texas State Board of Education. The Houston Chronicle has endorsed her, as well as the Council on American Islamic Relations activist Texas wing, which is called Care Action, which I believe is based out of Houston. Lawrence Allen has been obviously endorsed by Alma Allen, and he likewise has prioritized education issues in his campaign. as a former member of the State Board of Education. So he also serves as vice chair of the board's district board committee on school finance and permanent school fund, and he oversees the permanent school fund, which he states on his campaign website is the nation's largest education endowment. Alan spoke with us about his priorities, and he stated that public education was his first priority,

specifically the protection of the public education system. He also spoke to his work with the permanent school fund, and he stated that when he inherited the position, its value was at about $19 billion, but as he's left, it has grown to about $60 billion. And lastly, he stated that poverty tax relief was an important issue to him. He said, we have so many seniors in our area and a lot of growth and building going on. We want to make sure that people are able to stay in their homes and not lose their homes.

So those are our candidates' priorities, again, focused on education. And Alma Allen also has an education background. So just interesting to see that come up again. Well, thank you very much, Hannah. As you've mentioned, we've been talking a lot about education this podcast. But there are things happening in the education world, from what I understand, outside of just elections. So turning back to you, Meredith, a new. Texas law has opened the door for more virtual learning options in public schools.

Tell us how districts across Texas are rolling out these new programs. Yes. So SB 569, which passed in the 89th legislature, created this new framework for virtual and hybrid education that was just expanded it and made it much easier and offered more funding for schools to do fully virtual, hybrid, or even individual a la carte type of course. for their students and receive the same funding as would be comparable with in-person programs. Just as side that we were talking about school choice earlier in rural areas, this is something that school choice advocates will also bring up for rural areas, that there are virtual schools that are included in the TIFA program and things like that. So while you may live in a town

that doesn't have access to certain private schools, you could access some virtual schools. So now a lot of schools or public school districts are opening up and launching these virtual programs. So there's about a dozen schools, districts that we cover and just some of the specifics that have announced that they're launching in the next school year. But honestly, even after it was published, I know at least one came across my inbox that was opening. So I think, I mean, if you're interested in this in your area for anyone you know or your children like, definitely look up your district and see if they're offering that because we have 1,200 districts in Texas. And there are a dozen of them that are announcing it. But probably they are most likely,

more. So the fully virtual model, obviously, is that kids are fully virtual. They are doing every sometimes there's a variety of types of programs. Some of them will advertise that they'll be like at your own pace and then some of them need to be, you know, synchronous at different times taking the classes as their broadcast. But flexibility is one of the biggest things that these programs talk about is like, do you want a flexible situation for your child? Like some of them will talk about the reasons why you would do virtual school. If you have health concerns, or sports, you're doing like sports competitively full-time or things like that, you know, this could be something for you or if you just feel it's the best fit for your child.

So some of these programs are open to all students in the state. They will advertise that anyone in Texas can join them. And then some of them will be specifically for in district. You have to prove that you're in the district. So that was also just interesting to see that there could be more opportunities for people that are in areas where they don't feel like they have as many options. these are just allowing you to attend a public school like halfway across or all the way across the state potentially. So I know that Midway ISD, just an example, advertises learn from anywhere in Texas.

And then Plano ISD is a virtual program that was limited to in district students. There's obviously some rules and some specific like technicalities about sports. I just want to say we're not going to get into all that, but there is because I know there's a lot like you talk about the Friday. night lights and the competitiveness, like there is, they have some, you'd have to look up the sports qualifications and how that works. So, because it's not that you can just sign up and go to sports anywhere in the state of Texas. Hybrid all obviously is that it's going to be part at home. And then some of the instruction needs to be at the school. So Granbury ISD has a program called Bridge Ed where students have to take at least one person in course, in person course

daily because they want to keep that connection with the kids at the school for social reasons and just the community connection. And then Amarillo ISD has a hybrid program that they actually say is open to students anywhere in Texas. I really looked through that website, but that would be something if someone is interested in Amarillo. Check that out. And then you can take a la carte individual classes, and it could be credit recovery. It could be they use it for like staffing purposes for expanded learning. There's just like a variety of reasons a kid might need to just have one class.

class or it might help the school to offer some of those classes online. So Midway ISD, they actually have a fee-based all-a-cart course program. So you could pay to come to come take some of these if you're out of the district. And so we have, like I said, dozen schools. There's definitely more. And this is just another way that public schools are really working to retain students because we saw recently that we lost, Texas lost 76,000 students in the last school year. And so this is the first time that in a long time that it's dropped in that way other than pandemic things.

And so with the declining enrollment opening up to everyone in the state, making it virtual, trying to like find what works for people to really to retain students and to retain their funding as well. When you lose students, you lose their funding. And so maybe bringing them in from other districts or giving them something that could work with their lifestyle or whatever they think they need. So we will see, is this going to be, is this just like a little, an attempt to try to keep them or will it actually retain students or we even see students brought over to other districts? Well, thank you very much, Meredith. It's always good after all of this election stuff to have something, you know, not election focused at the end of the podcast. So I really appreciate that. Yeah.

I can make it election focused if you need to. I feel like there's something in there. There has to be something, right? There's always some way to tie it back in to the runoff and everything. It's kind of crazy to think that by this time next week, we'll have all of the primary candidates. Hopefully, there aren't any massive election problems. But I am looking for it. So, yeah, this time next week, it'll be exciting.

But getting now into tweetery. Hannah, I think you have some interesting tweeterie from another one of our reporters today, share. Yes, this is stolen, plagiarized by the one at Ollie Hollihan. So news from the little creamery, Bluebell. Bluebell introduces a very delicious new flavor. I think that pun was just for you, Rob. Black raspberry fudge ice cream is now in stores. So will I be running to the store to get this? Absolutely not. I'll be honest. Well, you don't like black raspberry? I'm just not a fruit dessert, though. Do you know what I mean?

That's fair. No, I don't. I don't know what you mean. I don't get it. I know what you mean. I don't love it unless it's like a rare, a rare thing. Yeah, I don't love it.

Like hot fruit dessert, like pies. It's a no for me cold fruit dessert. Oh, wait, maybe I'm changing. No, I don't know. I do like pie. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, this isn't true. There, this is backing that up. Because I don't love cakes with fruit stuff in them.

Yeah. I don't like that. This has been kind of a shocking conversation. Like Shantilly cake. That's not the one with them. That's real fruit on top though, right? Yeah, that's true. I don't like fruit fillings, like jelly-filled donuts.

I don't. I'll take like a real fruit popsicle or a mango sorbet or something, but I just don't like. Yeah. I can appreciate not liking like an artificial fruit flavoring, like a jelly and a jelly-filled donut. But like not liking fruit on ice cream, like fruit and chocolate. It's such a good ice cream flavor. Like, would you reject like a chocolate-covered strawberry? You'd be crazy to reject the chocolate-covered strawberry.

But the Bluebell, sorry, bluebell, yeah. That's not real fruit that you're eating in that ice cream. Or maybe it was. Sure it is. It's a little, I guess maybe it's. It's the same as a jelly donut, I feel like. Same vibes. It's not an actual piece of fruit, you know.

That's different. guess it's fair but like fresh fruit on top of bluebell homemade vanilla is really yeah different situation yeah I guess that's true let's see here I love that this us the most rolled up out of everything we just like ice cream flavors are are an important thing does everybody have a favorite ice cream flavor oh absolutely that's chocolate go for it well what are they that's chocolate for me that's so good Ooh. I'm a big fan of the midchip is good.

Yeah. I'm a buttered pecan fan myself. Oh. We used to say that was like a grandma flavor. It's just a good flavor. What? It's just like, I'm my grandma. Yeah.

It's white. Sorry, you go. No, what were you saying? It's very white. It was just a very southern thing. Like I would imagine that kind of being something a southern grandma would enjoy. But I can also appreciate that flavor. That's fair.

I also really like pecan pie. So I like pecan pie. I have had your fecon pie. Rob is a secret baker. He's doing bread and pies, just a little bit. That's good. Bourbon pecan pie is really good. H.E.B. actually sells a pre-made pecan crust.

I've not had it, but I've seen it. And it looks good. I'll have to try that because my... Like a crust made from pecan flour. instead of wheat flour. Oh, interesting. Interesting. Yeah.

I'll have to. If your pecan pies, it doesn't have enough pecan in it for you. Yeah. I'll have to try that out. My parents have a pecan orchard. And so they just harvested lots and lots of pecans. And so I've got a couple, I've got, well, their house is just full of like these giant sacks of pecans. But I've got a couple gallon Ziploc baggies of pecans.

And I don't know what to do with them. Because there's only so many, like, bowls of yogurt you can put them on or baking. I can think of an idea that you can do is you can make pecan pie. Yeah, I should probably make pecan pie. Yeah, I can get some to rub. Ooh, that sounds like fun. Pecan pie made with fresh pecan. Sounds really good.

Mary Elise, also, before we get completely derailed on desserts, I wanted to ask you, do you have any tweet for this week? I do. Yes. So this is, I ran across this video of a cow. It is, well, excuse me, it's a golden-haired buffalo in Bangladesh. And the reason I ran across it was because a government official under Secretary of State Sarah Rogers reposted this. And I was saying she's looking forward to visiting this region soon because of this golden-haired buffalo. But it's pretty big. It's, um, it's, um, They say it's 700 kilograms. It's being called Donald Trump because it has. So it's got these horns, but it's got this just very lovely orange hair on the top. And it is pretty funny. It just kind of like swoops real nicely. And it's funny because he's become a star attraction in the local community.

And they're calling him Donald Trump and Bangladesh. And they're just, everybody's really impressed with him his size and his just orange hair. So that just cracked me up. And the fact that a government official shared that on her official account that was pretty comedic. Is it the best Buffalo in the history of Buffalo's possibly ever? Yeah, I think so. The best one will ever see. It's so cute.

You just got out of the bath and his mom brushed his hair. Looks exactly like that, actually. I feel like for Trump, you need to switch the hair color and the face color of this. cow or buffalo a little bit. Her's a little too orange and the face is a little too light. So I think we need to. It's a little off. That's right.

Yeah, Trump's hair is, it's funny. Over the past 10 years, it has definitely lightened over time. It was still like gold back in 2015. Not quite as much anymore. But yeah, that's, it's, it's a, I guess we found his, I'm trying to think of a cow based pun for doppelganger, but I can't. So I will just instead turn to Meredith and ask what's your Twitter for this week. Well, speaking of grandparents, I actually felt immediately old after I said this was my tweetery.

And then I said, is this fake? And everyone was like, yes. Because you know how you're like older people will show you stuff? And you're like, oh, that's AI. But anyway, the point of it is it's a very cute idea. And it was, which I think is fake now. But it says me and my son have been sneaking out in the middle of the night and our Ewak and Chewaka costumes. to mess with our neighbor's trail cams and it's pictures of like people in those costumes like

in the middle of the night looking like a you know like a big foot or like some little creature and so just okay not real obviously way too cute but if you it's a great idea yeah is it a great idea actually i don't know now maybe what you get like only maybe only do it in the woods or not i don't know there's a lot of guns in the woods maybe not maybe this is just such a mess anyway i felt very old being like this is so cute and then immediately realizing it's fake so That's true. If somebody has a dear camera, they probably also are loaded with guns. It was real neat. Yeah, I would say that I think this is probably Photoshopped.

I'll put this on the screen for the viewers to decide, but. Oh, now I'm embarrassed. No, well, they've got to see what you're talking about. I know, I know. So, yeah. Because you know, you know, go ahead, Hannah. Well, I was just going to say, have you all you know, there's like, there's, like, compilations of people's doorbell camps.

You know, like, whatever. I feel like you can do this outside the forest. You can do this in the urban. I would be careful where. If you're scaring people or like running up on their house with like, you know what I'm saying? Especially with so many guns in Texas as a not. Yeah.

You know what I mean? You really wouldn't want to freak someone out. Yeah, I think if I saw like that kind of Chewbacca thing walking through the woods, I don't think I'd hesitate, to be honest. You think it's a bear? Yeah. Or even if kids nowadays will wear like face masks or costumes and things and run around. And it just with what's going on, I don't know.

Safety. You know, safety first people don't try any of this. Absolutely. We just live in AI AI world. No, it's true. Somebody I think in the comments of that same tweet posted a like AI generated picture of Big Bird, like walking through the woods in the middle of the night, like some kind of horror movie monster. I guess they chill bumps.

Well, for my tweet or eight for this week. We have another issue dealing with wild animals that might pose a threat to people, much like, much like wookies and Ewks. From also Holly Hanson, Holly has been in rare form this week with a lot of really, really funny tweets. She shared a story about Harris County making a Not the Bee article about alligators, where an Amtrak train conductor tried to rescue some people after they pulled their car. up onto the train track and the Amtrak, the train conductor was blowing the horn, hit the car, the car did not get out of the way. And then the guy tried to rescue these, this. It was, I believe, a father and a son. They were injured, but I don't think nobody was, nobody was killed, fortunately.

But there were alligators in the water just nearby. So, like, he was trying to help these people. and then four and a half to five foot long alligators basically came up to see what what was going on and then the guy's like oh god so they were able to um they were able to uh you know get the get the the man and the boy from the car into the hospital but just just how would you like to have how would you like to be involved in like an accident and you get out to try and offer assistance and there's frigging alligator's walking drunk to bother you um That's something beautiful Harris County. Yeah. Wonderful Harris County. Absolutely. Makes me think of Inception, though.

Of what? Not the alligators. It makes me think of inception. Not the Alligators with the train. Oh, the train. There you go. I haven't seen Inception in a while. It's a good movie.

It's a great cast. I just want to say. Stacked. Yeah. Absolutely. Is everybody excited for The Odyssey? That was Christopher Nolan, who did inception, right? Yeah.

All right nice. I know, yeah, that's also got a huge cast. And that's going to be an exciting one. I remember seeing like last year the IMAX screens were booked out like a year in advance for people who wanted to see The Odyssey. So it will be exciting. But thank you very much to everybody for joining us, Mary Elise, Meredith Hannah. You can catch us on the next episode of the Texan Weekly Roundup podcast on Friday, May 29th, when we will hopefully by that point, you know, have all of our primary runoff candidates. So make sure to follow all of our reporters here for everything that we've got going on in the next week. It's going to be a busy one and you're

not going to want to miss a thing. So thank you to everybody for joining us and we'll see you 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. News. Follow us on social media for the latest in Texas politics and send any questions for our team to our mailbag by DMing us on Twitter or shooting us an email to editor at the texan.news. Tune in next week for another episode of our weekly roundup.

God bless you and God bless Texas.