The Texan Podcast - Weekly Roundup - May 31, 2024

Episode Date: May 31, 2024

Show off your Lone Star spirit with a free "Remember the Alamo" hat with an annual subscription to The Texan: https://thetexan.news/subscribe/ The Texan’s Weekly Roundup brings you the latest news in Texas politics, breaking down the top stories of the week with our team of reporters who give you the facts so you can form your own opinion. Enjoy what you hear? Be sure to subscribe and leave a review! Got questions for the reporting team? Email [e-mail] — they just might be answered on a future podcast.This week on The Texan’s “Weekly Roundup,” the team discusses the most interesting upcoming primary runoff elections, including:Phelan’s Electoral Victory Forebodes Speakership Fight in Chaotic Texas HouseBrent Hagenbuch Wins Senate District 30 Runoff Election Against Jace YarbroughAbbott Says He Has the Votes for School Choice in the Texas House After Runoff VictoriesRep. VanDeaver Staves Off Abbott-Backed Spencer in Rural Texas House ClashIncumbent Tony Gonzales Fends Off Brandon Herrera in Texas Congressional District 23 GOP RunoffState Rep. Craig Goldman Defeats John O’Shea in 12th Congressional District RunoffLouderback Prevails Over Bauknight in Republican Runoff For House District 30David Lowe Unseats Incumbent Rep. Stephanie Klick in House District 91 GOP RunoffPierson Defeats Holland in Contentious Runoff for Rockwall Texas House SeatTrey Wharton Wins GOP Runoff for House District 12Education Commissioner Mike Morath Speaks on New State Curriculum Offering

My love for Submarines has been willfully and acceptably exploited. And if you had more going on up here, you might be doing that as well. Wow. If anyone is still listening to that, that's a clippable moment right there. You are about to be in Europe for four months. I don't think there's a way for me to get you cinnamon rolls. And I wouldn't anyway, because I'm not a butt kisser. Well, howdy, folks.

Welcome back to the Weekly Roundup. It's Mackenzie here with Brad and Cameron. It's been a runoff week. It's been a wild week of coverage at the Texan, notably because we came back from convention, had a day off from Memorial Day. Praise the Lord for that. And then we were right in it with the runoffs. You boys went from traveling to San Antonio to traveling to different corners of the state

to watch runoff races. Brad, where were you on election night? I was in Beaumont for the speaker's race, Dade Phelan against David Covey, and it turned out to be quite the finish. Certainly. We'll get to that first story of the day. Cameron, what about you? Where were you on election night? Well, I made the trip from Austin to Denton, where I was at the JCR borough election night event. Is that a Rudy's barbecue?

I did not partake in any of the barbecue festivities. I was there purely for work, monitoring the situation, writing articles on the fly, tweeting out. Relentlessly. Um, it was to cover the SD30 election, runoff election. Didn't go Yarborough's way, but we'll get into that later. Absolutely. So thank you guys for making travel so much of your week this past week.

It was awesome. I'm recording with my Bigfoot mug, and I wanted everyone to know about it. If you're watching on YouTube, which a few of you do, you'll see. But it makes me very happy. What did you say? I said a very few. Very few. He's carrying a Christmas tree, which I feel is also appropriate considering my affinity for the holiday.

And I'm having a really great time drinking coffee out of this mug today. I'm so thrilled for you. We're recording remotely today, obviously. And so there is a little bit of, there's a little bit of lag. We're going to push through. And Cameron, who is usually my support in the podcast who always makes sure if I say something there's an answer because Brad tunes us out half the time um is the one with the especially long lag so I may not receive as much support as I typically get

on the pod but we're going to do our best or I'm going to do my best to uh push through and despite Bradley's inadequacies and Cameron's internet lag. I'd say I'd pick up the slack, but that's not happening. No. Brad, did you bring a cool mug into the podcast room? No, I'm always repping the Texan marketing, unlike any of you fools. It's on my shirt, too. You're literally a walking billboard for the company with your Texan polo and your mug.

Also, when Cameron said, do you have a cool mug, and you said no, you right off the bat failed your aim of trying to advertise our merch. You really struggled with that sentence, didn't you? I really did. Oh my gosh. Okay, well on that note, with my cool mug and Brad's cool Yeti branded with the Texan, go to thetexan.news, subscribe, become a Patriot member, and you might get one yourself. Let's go ahead and start on our election coverage. The biggest race of the night was, of course,

in House District 21, where Brad was with Speaker Dade Phelan edging out his opponent, David Covey, a Trump-endorsed challenger. Brad, you were there. What was it like? During the day on Tuesday, I hopped around some polling locations just to get the lay of the land and see what turnout was like. Overall, it was very low on Election Day. Most of the voters cast their ballots in early voting the week before. And, you know, I think five of the six polling locations I went to, by noon they had fewer than 40 people having voted. So it was very low, kind of played out in an interesting way. the early vote come in and Jefferson County, Phelan's home, was a lot higher than it had been during the primary in terms of its proportion to the total vote. And that was kind of a hint at

what was to come. So Dade Phelan, Speaker of the House, emerged victorious by 366 votes. That's a very slim margin, but a slim margin is all he needed to get over the line. And he really can, he owes that to Jefferson County and Jefferson County's turnout was a lot higher. You know, as I said, early voting, they almost caught up to their total early vote numbers from the primary. And there was a whole extra week during the primary for early vote. And during the primary overall, Phelan's home county accounted for 32% of the total vote. This time around, it jumped to 39%. Meanwhile, also, he grew his support there, the vote, breakdown by 8%. And so on the flip side, Jasper County's turnout, which is the smallest county in the district, that was home to Alicia Davis, the third place finisher in the primary.

Covey won that by a lot. He won 72% of the vote in that county during this runoff. But the proportion of the total vote that Jasper County made up dropped five points. Orange County is the largest county in the district, fell by two. So a lot of moving numbers there, but overall, it was a much friendlier electorate for the Speaker than during the primary, where a majority of voters voted against the Speaker. That wasn't the case in this runoff. He edged David Covey. I was also, I made it to his victory party kind of right after they found out that he had won, but I was there for the speech and some of the festivities. And

he said, he told the crowd, I think this primary did me a favor. It allowed me to show the voters what my record is. When it's all said and done, I am your state representative. I went on to say House District 21 is not for sale. I will be your representative to the House in 2025 and I will be your speaker in 2025. one that did not look likely going into this. We saw polling. It ranged from an internal polling range from nine points. I think I mentioned that on the podcast last week. That was a Covey poll. They were feeling very bullish going into this race. The consultant told me that if Covey hits 40% in Jefferson County, it's over. The math just isn't there for Fieland.

And if I remember correctly, Covey was at like 32% in Jefferson. So that was enough to get the speaker over the line. It was a contentious race. Other polling just before the race from the Fielan side had the speaker within the margin of error. So a lot of range there, but neither of them had the money advantage. Just the precedent of no incumbent who finished second in the primary had won the runoff since the early 90s. That was Senator John Whitmire in Houston. This is the first time that that's happened in three decades. So from that regard, a very shocking result and a pretty big upset. It's weird that a speaker winning re-election feels like an upset, but it does. Yeah, absolutely. Especially after the

conversations behind closed doors between members. I mean, there's been so much scuttlebutt just about, okay, B. Ellen's not coming back. I mean, I think that was a lot of the conversations between Austin insiders, other state representatives, it was almost banked on. And so to watch this happen is fascinating. Of course, there was still hope for those who were supporting the speaker. He's still the incumbent speaker. He still has a big war chest. All that you were saying.

And I think there was certainly some skepticism that he would not return. But a very notable night to watch him emerge victorious, regardless by a slim margin, but still emerge victorious. What did Covey and his supporters have to say? So following the results, Covey released a statement that read, Dade Phelan may have won this election, but in doing so, he has irrevocably destroyed his already feeble legacy. The Texas history books will undoubtedly record how a frightened speaker desperate to save his political future mobilize the very party he claims to oppose um on on the one hand you know by running enforcing a competitive race

Covey probably helped very likely help challengers across the state take out 15 incumbents who lost both in the primary and the in the runoff because, you know, money that otherwise would have gone to the two incumbent defense from Phelan was going to protect him and his district. So, you know, another thing we've seen in these primaries is money really does affect things tremendously. It's not just, oh, yeah, if you have a slight monetary advantage, it might help you. No, it was a lot. It was everything. Look at all the races that Governor Abbott got into, and then the groups aligned with him on school choice, Club for Growth, dumped in a ton. So this was, that itself is kind of the silver lining they're taking from it, Covey and his allies.

The other thing, as I mentioned in the quote, he references this. Covey lays the blame at the feet of Democrats crossing over to support Phelan. His release states that they identified at least 1,442 Democrats who voted early in Jefferson County. It'll be interesting to see what the data looks like when you break it down further, because as I did with the primary, I think we talked about it here as well. I mentioned it in my newsletter. It's not as simple as that was for, you know, 1400 Democrats voting. When you break it down, you see a lot of mixed voting history and a good chunk of them have more Republican history than they do Democratic history. So how much how do who do we count the Democrat in that scenario as a Democrat in this scenario. But it is very likely that the number of strong Democrats that voted in this race exceeds the slim margin by which Phelan won. So both sides have points to

make there. But overall, you know, this was a very contentious race. And clearly, based on these two statements, there's no love lost between the two sides. And I don't know if we'll have another go at this in two years. Who knows what's going to happen? But they might. Covey and company might take a crack at them. And Brad, you and I will talk about this more on an episode of Smoke-Filled Room that will come out in a couple of weeks. But I think it is fair to say both sides ran an exceptional campaign or were subject to exceptional circumstances in that Covey pushed an incumbent speaker to a runoff. And that is an unbelievable accomplishment. And the speaker, like you said, was able to emerge victorious after coming in second in

the primary, which is, you know, historically an unbelievably difficult thing to do. And so, of course, he's the speaker. There's a lot of benefit there from a funding perspective, from an EMID perspective that he is banking on in a race like this. But it is not easy to emerge victorious after coming second in the primary. Yeah and you know talking to some some of those involved in the race the line said to me was Covey ran a perfect campaign in the primary. It wasn't quite enough to get him to avoid a runoff but it was it was prolific and the Trump endorsement played heavily.

And that's something that doesn't seem to have played as heavily this time around. First of all, Trump's not on the ballot, right? So there was that factor. And second of all, it sounded like the emphasis on the Trump endorsement was not as accentuated as it was during the primary by Covey's team. I don't know what the thinking was behind that, but that was an observation made that was given to me. Overall, it was 360 votes, right?

That's nothing. One thing could have gone differently one way or the other, and Covey would be in the winner's circle. The line I said in the story was he'd be picking out his capital furniture, but that's not what happened. And I'm sure there's going to be some regrets had because the speaker was very vulnerable and he could have been taken out, But overall, that's not what happened. Cameron, go for it.

Brad, I don't know if you want to comment further, but there's quite a few races that were decided by less than a thousand votes, some by less than 500 votes. Some by less than 500 votes. Some by less than 100. Yeah, exactly. It's just so interesting that on this local level, that your vote really does count for these types of elections, right? Especially in runoffs, when the electorate's already much smaller. You know, any slight shift, the effect on change is magnified. And you commented just a minute ago saying the Trump endorsement didn't play too much into the runoff elections. But did you see someone like an Abbott endorsement play more? Well, Abbott was very active. You know, Abbott was stumping for candidates across the state in the runoffs he was involved in. He wasn't involved in this one. He stayed out of this. He also had

Club for Growth pumping millions. Club said they spent $4.4 million just in the runoff. On top of the $4 million they spent in the primary. So $8.4 million total. And when you get to the runoff, there's a lot fewer races. And so the money there goes a lot longer. Maybe I'll save it for another section, but, um, yeah, I'll save my next question for a little later. Okay. We'll save it, Cam. I like it. So Brad,

obviously the speaker, um, is returning to the legislature, which was a big question for folks watching this race. But at the same time, he's elected by his fellow members. He's not elected by his district. So him being reelected to the House does not guarantee in any way, shape or form his return to the Speaker's dais. What does this mean going forward? Well, Dade Phelan went to bed a victor electorally and he woke up amidst a blazing Speaker fight. And, you know, he knew that was going to be the case. You've represented Tom Oliverson already in. You had Shelby Slauson put out a statement the day before the runoffs,

not a statement, a whole column saying that Dave Phelan can't be, can't return as speaker. You know, both of those members were at one point, you know, either in leadership or leadership adjacent, depending on how you view the kind of the clicks in the House. But Oliver said, quote, I want to reiterate this so that everyone is clear. I intend to take the fight all the way to the floor. I will ensure that Republican members will have the opportunity to declare their preference and cast their vote for the status quo or a new direction.

On the flip side of that, you had Representative Jeff Leach put out a statement that was accepting that Phelan, he's a backer of Phelan, accepting that Phelan would be the speaker again. We don't know what's going to happen, but there's been a lot of talk about how Phelan is dead. And even if he wins reelection, his speakership is done. And that's just not true. There's a lot of different scenarios that can play out where, where Phelan retains the gavel. Um, and frankly, you know, I'd probably just because he's the incumbent, despite everything that happened, if I were betting on this, I'd put my money on, on Phelan retaining the gavel. Now that doesn't mean it's going to be as easy as it once was. It absolutely will not be, you know,

you have take just the contract with Texas group, 21 members that signed that after the runoffs, presuming they all win in November. You know, that's a huge chunk of votes that is likely going to go against him. If not on the floor, then in caucus. And so the process for the caucus vote is, I believe the nominee has to get 60% of the voters, of the members supporting for that to be the recommended candidate for speaker. That's a huge Trump 21 right there. Then you include other members who want reform. You know, this is not going to be as simple a speaker fight as we had last time, or, you know, probably even the one before that when Phelan won initially. So that said, you know, he's got the advantage of incumbency. And there are, I think people are underestimating the amount of members in the House, especially Republicans.

And you can throw the Democrats in there, too, who are OK with a feel and speakership, especially if going a different route is going to hurt them legislatively with whatever they hope to accomplish. Which state reps are their political animals. So they'll put their finger to the wind, see where it's going, and figure out who they'll support. Based on that, in part, right, there is certainly a big chunk of the Republican caucus, at least, that will be doing that. Not the contract with Texas people, not those pushing for reform, and maybe not those who would willingly go with Democrats to elect a speaker, but there's a huge contingency who will just go

where the momentum is. And so that will be fascinating to watch. We can talk about this forever, but we'll continue to keep an eye on it. And it was a crazy, crazy night, wild to watch. And I do, I think for me, watching the primaries, you know, that there could be a second round, you know, that the runoffs are coming. The runoffs are so final. And I sometimes I forget that you will get the result that night. Like, it's not going to continue after that election night. It's over. It's done.

It's locked and sealed. So I think, too, you know, watching from the primary till now, the sentiment on primary night was, okay, if the speaker even is pushed to a runoff at all, he's not going to be the speaker again. And that sentiment has changed dramatically since then. So we'll see. There certainly is an open door opportunity for folks looking to assume the leadership position in the House, but we'll have to watch and see what happens. Brad, thank you. Cameron, coming to you, another big race, a very big deal watching this go down. And I think at convention, we saw this firsthand, how big of a deal this was to grassroots Texans all across the state was Senate District 30. And real fast, I do want to say folks, it was so great meeting so many of you at convention. It was so fun to actually get to

meet folks who listen to our podcast, who read our material, who engage with our content, who read the newsletters. It's just so much more fun to meet you in person than to see numbers on a page and say, okay, this is how many people read your article this week or listen to your podcast. It's so much more fun to meet you in person. So thank you for coming up to us. Thank you for remarking as to how tall I was. I appreciate that. Certainly, what's the number one comment I got from people was, man, you're taller than you look on the website, which I don't know if that's a compliment or not, but I appreciate it. We just had so much fun. And I know it was great. This is Cameron's first convention to be able to meet everybody in person was just really fun. Yeah, there was so many people coming up to the booth, had some great conversations. Lots of Brad fans.

People kept coming up to the booth asking, where'sad so so for our brad fans of the podcast out there we're trying to come up with a nickname for the brad fan club so comment on the youtube comment on the on apple podcast tell us what brad's fan club should be what the name should be brad is loving this conversation so much. He is so much. But it really was awesome. We so appreciate it. And, yeah, Cameron, I'm going to think about this,

because I'm always on board with pushing Brad's buttons a little bit. So I'll put some thought, I'll put some brain cells behind this. All right. But thank you folks so much for coming up to us it was awesome we loved it meeting you in person was amazing and really encouraging to see how many people um just listen to our podcast or read our content it was really awesome so thank you so much going back to senate district 30 cameron looping it back brent hagenbue has won the runoff election in senate district 30 that opened seat for the Texas Senate.

Tell us about it. Tell us what happened. And quickly, I would also say, give us a quick rundown of what you observed at convention and kind of the political sparring between the grassroots and some of the folks who endorsed Hagenbue in caucuses and things like that. Walk us through what happened there. Yeah, so if we want to start at the convention, we saw quite a bit of vocal support for Yarborough, whether it was Yarborough himself speaking in the caucus or it was just grassroots activists speaking up for him. I believe there was one point where Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick went into one of these caucuses and people were essentially yelling out for why he was supporting Hagenbue over Yarborough, which caused a little bit of a stir in the online Texas politics world. So that was very interesting to observe last week,

which I think we talked about how the two different strategies leading into this runoff in terms of campaigning, where it seemed as though Yarborough was boots on the ground, sort of knocking on doors, where Higginbue was holding events, but it was really front-facing with the endorsements that he had gotten, whether it be, like I mentioned, Dan Patrick or Donald Trump, most explicitly putting Donald Trump's face on some of those yard signs. And, um, the day of the election, the runoff, the election, like I said, I went up to Denton,

um, and was at the Yarborough election night event. And, um, quite a, quite a few people there. Um, you know, initially the race seemed, uh, pretty close as early voting was rolling in. And throughout the night, you know, the separation just started to occur. Hagenbue, I'm looking at the decision desk right now, ended up taking 56.7% of the vote. Yarborough, 43.3%. So it was about a little over 4,300 votes separated the two there. Over 33,000 total votes in this SD30 runoff. And it was interesting at one point as I was sitting there, the gap started to widen a little bit. Yarbrough got on the mic to sort of rile up the crowd and said, I'm not conceding yet.

Still a lot more to go. And then it was essentially 60 seconds later, we saw the press release from Hagenboos saying, you know, him essentially declaring victory. We saw the Abbott team put out a statement saying congratulations to Hagenboe. So it wasn't until maybe an hour and a half later that Yarbrough eventually did come back up and, uh, spoke to the crowd, conceded the race. And, you know, he was very gracious about, um, uh, about the defeat and, uh, said, you know, this is just sort of the beginning and, um, gonna keep building on those relationships that he has.

In Hagenbue's statement, he said, quote, serving in the Texas Senate was never anything I aspired to. It is God's timing. Hagenbue also said he had already spoken with the lieutenant governor and told him, I'm reporting for duty and ready to work. So what, but there's an interesting wrinkle in all this is throughout the entire SC30 race, even through the primary and into the runoff, there's been conversations surrounding Hagen-Boo's residency in the district. You know, we've seen multiple legal challenges to this residency. You know, I was driving up to Denton to the courthouse. There was a court hearing that was delayed. And so it's an ongoing thing. And it didn't stop during the runoff either.

And we actually saw just days before the runoff election, before voters headed to the polls, is Yarborough actually handed over documents to the Texas GOP, newly elected Texas GOP chairman, Abraham George, requesting some administrative action in regards to Hagenbue. And he was challenging, this is Yarborough, challenging Hagenbue's residency in the district and requesting George, Abraham George, to declare Hagenbue ineligible due to some alleged evidence that he had that Hagenbue doesn't actually live in SD30. You know, we've seen the current revolt video that we've mentioned before. We've seen the legal challenges. But Hagenboos consistently said he lives in the district. You know, the endorsements are there. They seem to believe that he was a residency of SC30. He won the election with the belief that he's a resident of SC30. So this last little wrinkle sort of falls in the lap of Abraham George now. And I'll just read Yarbrough's explanation that he put out on social media about this administrative challenge. He stated,

quote, this declaration has nothing to do with who wins and everything to do with taking seriously our mantra as the party of election integrity. Either way the race goes, he should be rightly declared ineligible. He cites a Texas election code, which gives the ability for a party officer to determine whether a candidate is ineligible for election. So not the end of the SD30 story. We'll see if Abraham George takes any action on this. We haven't heard anything yet. But as of right now, Higginbue will be the SC30 representative in the Senate. Oh, another wild race, guys.

We're at the 30-minute mark, and we've only talked about two races. This is how crazy we've gone off far and how much there is to talk about. But I think a big theme, Cameron, we want to really home in on here is that school choice, right? This is the crux of so much of Abbott's involvement in the primary races this cycle. And we saw the governor come out and say that he now has the votes to pass school choice after the results of these runoff races. Walk us through. Give us a rundown of where we're at. Yeah, so it was interesting, right? As the dust was settling, we saw a tweet come out from Abbott. He said explicitly, I'll read from it here, the Texas legislature now has enough votes to pass school choice. Together, we will ensure the best

future for our children. And I think he was sort of reading the tea leaves on this because as Brad has eloquently articulated in all of his newsletters about the PAC's involvement, the endorsements it's really focused on school choice and we saw a lot of those pro school choice challengers went out in these runoffs and so people like Katrina Pearson ousted Justin Holland Alan schoolcraft defeated John Kemple Helen Kirwan took down Dwayne Burns. And so in total, we saw 14 new pro-school choice members will likely take a seat in the Texas House. You know, we still have the general, but this is sort of looking ahead. Nine challengers who beat incumbents and then five who took over open seats. What is interesting, this sort of numbers

that line up here, if all these pro-school choice candidates win in November, that will put 77 pro- school choice members in the House compared to the 63 who voted against the stripping of the ESAs from the education omnibus last year. So a big jump, and we'll put them over the threshold in order to pass school choice in the next legislative session. Corey DeAngelo is someone who's been a huge school choice advocate across the country, was really fired up about this, of course, called it a political earthquake. You know, he's known for putting out those sort of statements. But really, I think with the amount of focus by Abbott

and school choice focus PACs, and with a lot of these incumbents being taken down by pro-school choice challengers could spell for a bright future for school choice come the 89th legislative session. And what's interesting too is both the House and the Senate, they put out interim charges. So what the respective chambers are going to be focusing on leading into the 89th session, and both of them talked about school choice. So already laying the groundwork there so things can transition into the regular session. We have, like I mentioned, all these pro school choice candidates coming into their respective chambers. It seems like Abbott's going to get

his priority legislation across the line. Big night for the governor. And I think that was a huge theme we were watching is, okay, will the primary, will the themes in the primary, will the momentum for these school choice candidates in the primary continue continue into the runoffs and they certainly did in most cases so we'll be excited to watch all the drama that will going down and i think in brad's words um this next session is going to be crazy or that's not exactly his words the word i used that's not the word those are not the words he used if you want to say you go check his twitter and find his most viral tweet potentially of all time unreal the amount of feedback i got from that dumb tweet it's one i can't even quote on the pod and it's your most uh engaged with tweet of all time cameron thank you

this is going to be wild and i know you'll be watching all the numbers it'll be fantastic okay let's go into some more specific races here br Brad, Gary Van Deaver was one of only two incumbents to survive this runoff in the House. How did it finish? Van Deaver defeated challenger Chris Spencer by 1,500 votes, about 7%, despite being outspent multiple times over by Abbott in the collection of pro school choice groups such as Club for Growth, AFC Victory Fund, a couple others. As Cameron mentioned, Van Dever's election will likely not delay or deny Abbott his hopes on school choice, but it does put back in a fold someone who now is very opposed to the prospect after this contentious primary. Van Deaver notably was among those

more amenable to a school choice plan during the negotiations. But, you know, after this primary, I doubt that is going to be the case. He said, following the win, the big city politicians in D.C. super PACs believe they could pour millions of dollars in false advertising into our district and fool us into believing their lies. Unfortunately, in many parts of Texas tonight, they succeeded. But here in northeast Texas, we rejected the gutter politics for what it is. An interesting part of this is that where the three other school choice focused incumbents lost their races. Vandiver won. The other incumbent who won was Phelan, of course.

That is its own animal. But Vandiver's district, unlike the others similar to him in this situation, is all rural. That's probably not an entire explanation for this, but it is an interesting side note. Why is that? Is it these suburban places are more fervent about the idea? Is it that voters in suburban areas, they move in, they move out, it's constantly fluctuating more, whereas rural, they tend to stay where they're at more. Is there something to that? I don't know, but it is an interesting parallel, especially to two incumbents that won in the primary, Drew Darby and Stanton Lambert, kind of similar. Both of them were school choice-focused

races. They both held on against Abbott and, I believe, Trump-endorsed opponents. So overall, this one went against the grain of all of these 15 incumbents losing while Gary Van Dever hung on. So an interesting aspect there. And also, you know, he did this despite Charles Butt in his public education pack pulling out during the primary or during the runoff. So, you know, that money wasn't there. Whereas in the primary, he spent $4 million backing a lot of these anti-voucher incumbents. So a weird one, but yeah. And I guess the other thing I'd say is Chris Spencer was considered among the most formidable challengers in this slate of primary races. Another one was Mitch Little, who won. I heard Andy Hopper was prolific in his campaigning. He ended up winning. That was another candidate mentioned as someone that's really formidable.

But Spencer was up there too. And Abbott put a lot of money into him and couldn't get him across the line. But that'll be interesting to see how Van Dever comes back into the fold, where he finds his niche next session. And I do want to mention quickly the Andy Hopper-Linst stucky race kim roberts has coverage of that at the texan but a wild situation in that last cycle hopper and stucky were dueling it out and they went to a runoff then too and you know well stucky won by a razor thin margin and this time we were seeing you know we were able to see that hopper brought it home and was able to oust the incumbent a pretty wild race there and certainly worth going

and reading kim's coverage at the texan and i will say folks we are not going to we're not going to touch on every single runoff race we'll do our best to hit a lot of the high profile ones on this pod but there are so many articles on our site that give a rundown of all the big races. And so make sure to go to the texan.news and read all of them. Paul Hanson, Seth Moorhead, Mary Elise Cosgrave,

and Kim Roberts all have awesome coverage. So go check those out. And Matt Stringer, who is on this pod because he's having wisdom teeth complications that I will not go into, but regardless, awesome stuff. Cameron,

we're coming to you. The biggest congressional matchup of the night was undoubtedly in the 23rd But regardless, awesome stuff. Cameron, we're coming to you. The biggest congressional matchup of the night was undoubtedly in the 23rd Congressional District. Tony Gonzalez has outlasted Brandon Herrera, the AK guy with millions of YouTube subscribers. Tell us what happened. Well, as we've talked about a lot on the podcast is this race was something we were all really following just because of the different approaches to campaigning. Like you said, the AK guy, Brandon Herrera, millions of YouTube subscribers, hundreds of thousands of Twitter followers. And then Tony Gonzalez, more of the, you know, typical politician, yard signs, you know, press events sort of stuff. And how was that going to transition into getting people to the polls, more viral campaigning or traditional campaigning? And Brandon Herrera really made this thing close. Tony Gonzalez ended up edging him out.

I'm looking at DDHQ. It was under 400 votes. Tony Gonzalez took this election. So very, very close. This was something the night of the runoff, we were in constant contact about like, does he have it? Does he not? Do we, what do we put out?

Because it was just so close. And like I mentioned, the campaigning, Brandon Herrera took a very viral approach. And then he also got some endorsements from big names, someone like Matt Gaetz campaigned hard for Herrera, May 30th, recording this. And Herrera has just put out a statement on his runoff. And he starts it off saying, am I disappointed, angry? Do I wish we did things differently? He says he's doing great. He has zero room for any emotion right now other than gratitude. He mentions the amount of money that they were outspent by. He says it was 10 to 1, saying 10 million being poured into defeating us on paper. We had no right to even come close to this race so just very interesting

um Herrera taking a you know how long has it been 24 hours to put out a statement um it was yesterday I was listening in to a virtual press conference Tony Gonzalez was holding where he said endorsements played a big role for him in getting his name across the line in first place. So I want to hear from Brad though. What do you sort of, you've been following this as well. Just under 400 votes separated the two. This was something we've talked about in terms of the different approaches to a campaign. What's your takeaway from the Text 23 results? The money. I think it was 10 to 1 spends to Gonzalez to Herrera.

It goes a long way, and people may hate it. It may grind someone's gears, but that's how it is. It's not just money. It's the ability to get your message out, the ability to talk to the right voters, to figure out who it is that you're targeting that you need to turn out. And that's what runoffs are. It's a turnout game. At that point, you're not really persuading many people. You are just getting, ensuring that your guys come out to vote. So the money right there, I'm sure the endorsements helped. But, you know, I put the st30 race in this one in very similar categories um you know

you got well very well funded in hagenboot's case self-funded um but also tlr came in late for him big time uh with a lot of big time endorsements against a more you know grassroots favorite candidate both Herrera and Yarbrough fit that description pretty well ultimately they couldn't get across the line and you know Herrera was a lot closer um but I think you can also chalk that up to Gonzalez having a record and you know in a large regard a record people don't like but enough people did like it that they reelected him so um I guess those are those are my thoughts and I wait when we're talking about money being spent and how how is the money being utilized? You said getting the right people out to the polls. So is this consultants behind the scenes saying, OK, this is a section of the county that is sort of undecided.

We can really target them. And does it get that minute where they're just saying okay this neighborhood this uh community here is it is it that precise or what's what's sort of going on behind the scenes well it depends on how good your operation is but yes it can be that precise and you can uh you know it's all about data and collecting data, tracking it, ensuring it's up to date. When campaign workers are knocking doors, they're not just saying, hey, come vote. Usually they're not just saying that. Usually they're asking questions and they're marking down what kind of messaging works for certain people.

They have the demographic features of the voter you know what how old they are you know um what gender they are um you know that kind of thing and that allows them to put this into modeling and figure out well among this demographic this message tests well among another one another message tests well so uh it really is if done well it is that targeted and that is how you run effective campaigns yeah it's just so interesting you know like you can take the sledgehammer approach just blanket marketing like and and hopefully that might work or you can be much more surgical like you just mentioned targeting individual neighborhoods getting all that data trying to tailor a message to not just just to a certain

type of individual to get them out to the polls i just think it's so fascinating how really scientific things get behind the scenes um you know many many of us, you know, before I came in to politics, you know, you just see the name come across your dashboard saying this person got elected and you say, okay. But once you start to really see the inside of how things operate, it's very eye-opening. And the amount of money that comes into these campaigns, like you said, SC30, Texas 23, if they use it the right way, it translates to real life votes. So just fascinating to see what was going on behind the scenes and how that really put Gonzalez across the finish line. Yeah, keywords being the right way. Cameron, thank you so much. Brad, another big congressional matchup involved one state House member making the jump to the federal level.

Give us the details in Texas 12. Representative Craig Goldman, Republican from Fort Worth, will succeed longtime Congresswoman Kate Granger in the open Tarrant County congressional seat that hasn't been open in a quarter century after defeating John O'Shea in the primary on Tuesday. Decision desk called the race shortly after early voting, and mail ballot returns came in. Goldman was up 65% to O'Shea's 35% at the time the race was called. Roughly 5,000 votes, far more than O'Shea could have overcome on Election Day with. In the primary, Goldman earned 44% of the vote, coming close to avoiding a runoff, but still a chunk short. That was a similar situation to Gonzalez.

Roughly about the same percent Gonzalez pulled in, although Goldman ran away with this race. And I'm not sure exactly why that is other than obviously he got more backing. He also isn't an incumbent congressional member who has a lot of other congressional members coming in, campaigning against him. That's what Gonzalez had. So Goldman here, you know, he's going to be in Congress for the foreseeable future. If, you know, the previous tenure is any indication,

he can probably be there as long as he wants. But yeah, he's now moving from the state house to the federal house and will be in D.C. in January. Absolutely. It's going to be a big one to watch. Interesting to watch Golden to make that transition. Brad, thank you so much. Cameron, another big state house race also in Tarrant County. This is a big, big deal in the Texas House. David Lowe will now represent House District 91, replacing Representative

Stephanie Click. Walk us through the details. Yeah, so Stephanie Click picked up 43.4% while Lowe was able to win with 56.6%. And this was a race, like you mentioned, that a lot of people were following because of the big names that were involved in this. We saw people like Ken Paxton, Sid Miller, Matt Rinaldi all endorsed Lowe. And so it was just interesting lead into the runoff election, a lot of back and forth between Click and Lowe, each hitting each other on different things. But ultimately, it was Lowe who was able to get enough people out to the ballot box and cast their vote for him. And so, like you said, Lowe will be representing HD91 in the Texas house. Another rematch we see from last cycle and fascinating to watch Lowe

actually emerge victorious this cycle. Very interesting. Thank you, Cameron. Brad, among the most contentious races, and I know we have a lot of adjectives and modifiers to describe these races, but this really was a very high profile, highly watched race by political insiders because of all the dynamics at play. It was House District 33 who emerged victorious. 2016 Trump campaign spokeswoman Katrina Pearson defeated state rep Justin Holland on Tuesday, beating him by about 12 points. Early vote returns in Collin County came in and at first looked not great for Holland. And then when Rockwall early votes came in, it looked even worse. Just again, a gap that couldn't be closed with the election day votes. And so she ended up winning and she will be,

she is the presumptive state representative for HD33 that covers Rockwell County and a sliver of Collin County. Spokesman Elliot Griffin for Pearson said, Katrina is extremely grateful to the people of HD33 for their support and she looks forward to serving them in the Texas House. This was a true grassroots victory and they deserve the credit. Congratulating Pearson. Holland said, it has been one of the great honors of my life to serve as your state rep for HT33 for four regular sessions and eight called sessions. This experience has taught me many valuable lessons and I'm humbled by the journey we have undertaken together.

While I will not be leaving public service indefinitely, I'm eager for more time to be a full-time husband to Neely, father to my beautiful girls, and a businessman again. This race, Holland was one of 21 Republicans who voted to strip ESA, so that was a big theme. That was a reason that AFC Victory Fund and Club for Growth got involved in this. Holland also took a vote to advance a raise the age firearm bill. Now it's notable that, you know, that bill had no shot of going anywhere other than advancing through the committee that Holland was one of the two votes that pushed it through on. And then also impeachment of Attorney General Ken Paxton. So Holland is, you know, he's brash. He didn't back down from any of the state positions he previously took. I went to a forum in February and he didn't back down from those

positions. It was also interesting that Abbott did not jump into this race until the runoff. He stayed out, partially probably due to his close, previously close relationship with Holland. They were very close allies legislatively. And also, you know, I don't know why Pearson did not draw the kind of support that the others did immediately for Abbott, but he waited until the runoff to jump in. But the he did he spent a lot of money against holland along with all the money from the other groups that was coming in including club for growth so um you know this is another race that you can apply what i said about the charles butt pulling out of the runoff thing. That was a chunk of money that didn't come in, that previously did.

We saw the Texas Defense Pack come up and try and fill that void with money from Miriam Adelson, the casino magnate out of Vegas. But it wasn't enough, and Holland got kind of walloped in this and we'll see if he comes back and runs for anything else down the road Pearson now will enter next session and what's likely to be very chaotic she signed the contract with Texas and it'll be interesting to see again what kind of niche she carves herself out in the House. Another thing to watch in this, Holland is the current Sunset Advisory Committee chair that is appointed by the Speaker. That position will have a lot of authority, a lot of power next session on the various

agencies that are up for review, but someone else will have to take the reins next session at some point, or even in the interim um but that will be something to watch certainly a shifting relationship there between holland and the governor we've gone into this before on different podcasts but this is somebody who was a very close ally of the governor and who abbott um certainly with the exception of waiting to endorse pearson pulled no punches and was very publicly critical of Holland and his approach to the school choice issue. And I think that was how he involved himself in the race in the primary was by being very critical publicly on social media of Holland from his official

accounts, but still not endorsing his opponent until the runoff. So a big shifting relationship there. Bradleyley thank you i want to highlight two quick races before we move on to another big story this week that we don't want to be overshadowed by the runoffs uh this is coverage from matt stringer we have trey wharton winning the gop uh nomination for house district 12 abbott uh backed wharton for the nomination um where attorney general ken Paxton and Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick supported Ben Bias. Bias loaned himself about $1 million to self-fund his campaign and raised about $64,000 in political contributions. Wharton raised just over a million

dollars for the race, but his main contributors came from two primary donors, Abbott, largest single donor of over half a million and texans for lawsuit reform tlr which we hear a lot about these days contributing over three hundred thousand dollars um this is a heavily republican district so it's likely that whoever uh won this nomination in wharton will assume the seat in january also quickly house district 30 um former jackson county sheriff aj ladderback took the nomination over jeff bow night if i'm saying his seat in January. Also quickly, House District 30, former Jackson County Sheriff A.J. Latterback took the nomination over Jeff Baunite. If I'm saying his name correctly, I apologize, but that's my best guess. This is another instance where Latterback was endorsed by Paxton and Lieutenant

Governor Patrick, and Baunite was endorsed by Jean Morrison, the incumbent who was retiring, and Governor Greg Abbott. Interesting dynamics there where we did not see Paxton, Abbott, and endorsed by jean morrison the incumbent uh who was retiring and governor greg abbott interesting dynamics there we did not see paxton abbott and patrick on the opposite ends of too many races this cycle it was a very interesting dynamic at play but this is a couple these are a couple examples of where that did uh happen so definitely go read matt stringer's coverage at the texan there cameron i really wanted to quickly before we move on to Twittery, talk about a story you covered this weekend, an exclusive interview with TEA Commissioner Mike Morath about the new curriculum offering offered by the state. Tell us about it. Yeah, we got a chance to talk with Mike Morath. He sort of explained what this new curriculum offering is going to bring to parents, to teachers, to students,

how it's going to improve learning and improve instruction. And this new IMRA process was actually part of a bill that was passed, House Bill 1605. And when we're talking with Marath, he touched on things like going back to sort of the basics, whether it's following the Western canon, or even just an emphasis on learning phonics, where reading instruction has gone towards whole word learning. He was like, no, we got to go back to phonics. He said that's cognitively correct way to teach reading. So just a very in-depth conversation. People can go check it out on the Texan. I will leave people with Marath, what he said ultimately about how applying this more broad-based rigorous instruction is just going to help students lead more successful lives.

He says he's hoping to equip people for the American dream. And for him, it all starts with education, obviously, as the commissioner. So very in-depth interview. He was very candid in many, many parts of this. I asked him everything and anything. So go check it out on the texan.news. And we'll certainly have more coverage from Cameron on this curriculum coming up as well. It's been a busy week, Cam, and you've juggled it like a pro. So thanks for doing all of that. Let's move on to our quick tweeter-y section here. Brad, I know you are

particularly excited to talk about what you found on Twitter this week. So why don't you start us off? So right before we started this, I was frantically looking for something. And I saw this video from some court, courtroom, looks like just handling very minor stuff. And they're doing it on Zoom and the defendant Zooms in to this, and he is driving while doing that. He tells the judge, yeah, I'm about to pull into my doctor's office. Give me just like 30 seconds. So eventually he stops, parks car, and then the judge confusingly goes, wait a second, the issue at hand here is that he's a previous charge

for driving with a suspended license. And this guy rats on himself because he's driving on Zoom with the judge. And the defense attorney is just kind of flabbergasted and doesn't know what to do. And the guy's just sitting there like, hello, anybody there? Talk to me. And then he realizes what he did,

and he's just sitting there with mouth agape what an idiot but i guess that's probably a reason that he uh you know is dealing with this situation in the first place in the first place is this better entertainment than the cat zoom situation, the cat lawyer that happened a while ago? I put it up there. Put it up there? Right on par? Yeah.

If not, just below, yeah. Okay, just below. Got it. It's still good stuff. Yes, I would say so. Thank you, Bradley. Cameron, what do you got? Well, as this last week, we were so focused on the runoffs, you know, here in Texas.

But in D.C., the Libertarian Party was holding their national convention is they invited RFK Jr., Vivek Ramaswamy, Donald Trump, all came and spoke to the Libertarian National Convention. And for those who didn't tune in, I was watching the Trump speech live. And it was so interesting because there was lots of boos, but there was some cheers for some things. Trump promised if he's elected, he's going to put libertarians in his cabinet. He says he's going to commute the sentence of Ross Olbert. And so he made some, you know, concessions, some big promises to libertarians. So I thought that was very interesting. And that speech actually came before the Libertarian Party chose their presidential nominee. And the way they do nominations in the Libertarian Party is they choose president and

vice presidents separately. And then they actually do almost like a rank choice voting system. And so just a little bit of background on what happened with the Libertarian Party over the past two years, there was this takeover by a group called the Mises Caucus. And the Mises Caucus was essentially trying to return the Libertarian Party to more of a Ron Paul-esque focus because there's been so much controversy with the Libertarian Party. But there was this big takeover. Well, the Mises caucus endorsed candidate for president did not win. The winner was actually a guy named Chase Oliver. And if anyone has been on Twitter this week and follows libertarian people or people who have been following this, you might have seen Chase Oliver is sort of the individual that they call woke. He's a bit of a woke libertarian for some of the positions he holds, whether it be very much pro LGBT with the you know, that's not a but he's just very forward with that. saying things in regards to allowing kids that use gender modification drugs,

open borders, those sorts of things. And so a lot of big name libertarians have said they're not going to endorse Chase Oliver for president. Just libertarians being libertarians, again. You know, it's like libertarian ideals. And it's like this majestic idea of what the world could be, what governance could be, and then you get actual libertarians. It's like people stripping off their clothes and, you know, just holding, they're just very schizophrenic in their ideas when it comes to actual putting candidates up. So, you know, just interesting if you guys follow that stuff at all. Popularity in the Libertarian Party is an ever evolving monster. You never know.

Well, it's so interesting because the Libertarian candidate used to be the protest vote for a lot of people when they go for the president. Well, now there's already a viable third candidate with RFK. And so Libertarians, they get two, 3%. We've seen Ross Perot get larger percentages, Gary Johnson, but with RFK in the mix, if the libertarian party doesn't get enough votes in the upcoming presidential election, they can lose ballot access in so many states. So like, with them not getting their some, essentially their preferred, the Mises caucus preferred candidate as their presidential pick, it could, it could spell disaster for the Libertarian Party. So just interesting to follow. And worth keeping an eye on for sure, Cameron. Thank you.

I want to move on to an equally important topic, cinnamon rolls. That's how, you know, I like how you set up this Twitter. Number one, court Zoom. Yep. You know, most important, Libertarian Party, and then cinnamon roll. But you got to reverse that, cinnamon roll. Are you saying cinnamon rolls are the least important, Libertarian Party and then cinnamon roll but you gotta reverse that, cinnamon roll and drop I was saying, are you saying cinnamon rolls are the least important Cameron? No, you're saving

the best for last, that's what you're doing Thank you, yeah, I would say so as well Bonnie's Donuts in League City, Texas and this is a two year old tweet so I'm realizing that this is a two year old phenomenon that is still going on but somebody

sent it to me this week i don't know if it was one of y'all or somebody that listens to the podcast i cannot remember i'm so sorry but bonnie's donuts in league city is home of the five pound cinnamon roll and the 10 pound cinnamon roll look at this thing oh my gosh crazy it's a solid breakfast it's yeah i'd say it's like round one look at this it's insane it's huge i think that's the 10 pound right there this is the five pounds um but wild and the next time i'm in league city i'm going and the next time anyone is in league city that listens to our podcast please go to bonnie's donuts try it for me and give me a review because I am a self-proclaimed cinnamon roll aficionado connoisseur and I need to try it Brad why are you waving your finger at me

while I was raising my hand but this is a tiny box so I didn't raise my finger going like this you have full ability you're trying to get your attention I was trying to get your attention anyway uh two things one you can claim to be this cinnamon roll connoisseur, and I have maybe seen you eat a cinnamon roll once in the office. So I think you're exaggerating there. and the latest residency challenge filed with Abraham George. Well, while we were talking, he put out a statement that said, quote, I support the Texas GOP taking the issue of residency seriously and I'm committed to doing so as RPT chair. As Collin County GOP chair, I remove someone from the ballot over residency issues. I am also opposed to retroactively undoing the will of the voters through a primary and runoff election.

The Texas GOP just opposed our speaker for attempting to overturn the election of Ken Paxton. The complaint that was just filed by Yarbrough and two SREC members regarding GOP nominee Brent Hagan, whose residency will not be considered. There you go. So that kind of puts a bow on this. Yeah, puts a bow on all of it. I will forget your slander because I give it no mind and pay no, I just pay no mind to the criticisms you lob at me on a daily basis. And so I'm going to let that one slide as well.

I'll give a shout out to Matt Stringer on any, on any given day. Matt has brought me cinnamon rolls to the office because he knows I love cinnamon rolls. And so if you had any, I don't know, care or even just a strategic mind of like, Hey, maybe I should butter up Mac. You'd be doing the same thing. So just saying, throwing that out there. My love for cinnamon rolls has been willfully and acceptably exploited. And if you were any sort of, if you had more going on up here, you know,

you might be doing that as well. Wow. If anyone is still listening, that's a clip ofable moment right there we need you are about to be in europe for four months i don't think there's a way for me to get you cinnamon rolls and i wouldn't anyway because i'm not a butt kisser that's brown noser lord knows lord knows whatever middle name is middle name is not Scott, but Cameron's is. So you're close. Well, Mac, have you just leave us with this?

What's been, you've been in Europe for how long now? How many days has it been? Zero days. I'm in Arizona right now. Maybe I should read the memo. I was about to say, Cameron, have you read the memo? I keep asking questions, and you're like, did you read the memo? Yes.

Every single time. Cameron's like, so what about this? I'm like, did you read my four-page long memo about everything that's going on? No, I'm in Arizona. Yeah, so if folks don't know, I should probably also say that. I'll be out of the office for a few months, um, for about four and a half months. Um, Connie and Phil have graciously agreed to allow me to continue working at a Texan while my husband and I, uh, go explore Europe for a few months. So we're excited. It'll

be awesome. We're in Arizona now with my family dropping off the dogs, the car, important documents we didn't want to, you know, put in storage. So if somebody wants to steal our identities, please come to Arizona and you can do so there. But yeah, not in Europe yet. We fly out next week. Okay. I'll save my question for next week then. One last question. This is our first podcast since the convention, right? Yes. Did everyone find a favorite piece of swag that they picked up at the convention? Was there a favorite piece of swag? Anything that caught your eye while you were there? Are you asking us or are you asking listeners?

Of course. I'm asking you guys. Interesting. Let me think. This was right next to our booth. Oh. People can see. I'll describe it for you. It is a stress ball, but in the shape of an astronaut from Maze Middleton. That's a good one. This was an immediate grab for me.

This will be on my desk permanently. Just as a little totem. My favorite was just candy. People love the candy. I did. I ate a lot of our candy as well. Brad, do you have a favorite? No, I did not.

Wow, you're a party pooper if I've ever met one. Although I did hear people were happy with our Texan bottle openers. Those went so fast. They're in the shape of Texas, and they have our logo on them. This is a Texan, and you can open bottles with them. It's killer. They're awesome. Well, folks, thank you for listening to us. We appreciate it. We'll catch you on next week's episode of the Weekly Roundup. Thank you to everyone for listening. If you enjoy our show, rate and review us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. And if you want more of our stories, subscribe to

The Texan at thetexan.news. Follow us on social media for the latest in Texas politics and send any questions for our team to our mailbag by DMing us on Twitter or shooting us an email to editor at thetexan.news. Tune in next week for another episode of our weekly roundup. God bless you and God bless Texas.