The Texan Podcast - Weekly Roundup - November 5, 2021

Episode Date: November 5, 2021

This week on The Texan’s “Weekly Roundup,” the team covers the results of the November 2 election — including police staffing in Austin, ballot propositions to amend the state constitution, House District 118, and bond packages throughout the state. Additionally, our team discusses more legislator retirements, the governor wading into the debate over “obscene” library books, the Democrats in the race for Texas attorney general, more drama on the Texas border, a vaccine mandate rescission from a Texas professional sports team, the state once again suing Biden over vaccine mandates, a new Texas Supreme Court nominee, and the latest redistricting lawsuits.

Happy Friday, folks. Senior Editor Mackenzie Taylor here, bringing you this week's News Roundup. We cover the results of the November 2nd election, including police staffing in Austin, ballot propositions to amend the state constitution, House District 118, and bond packages throughout the state. Additionally, our team discusses more legislator retirements, the governor wading into the debate over obscene library books, the Democrats in the race for Texas Attorney General, more drama on the Texas border, a vaccine mandate rescission from a Texas professional sports team, the state once again suing Biden over vaccine mandates, a new Texas Supreme Court nominee, and the latest redistricting lawsuits. Thanks for joining us. Happy fall and enjoy your weekend. Howdy folks, Mackenzie Taylor here with Brad Johnson, Isaiah Mitchell, Hayden Sparks,

and Daniel Friend. Hey, we're already laughing. I know, I'm just in a good mood. I love it. Well, me too, because I'm sitting here with a Christmas Starbucks cup. Yeah, yeah. We're already celebrating Christmas here at the Texan. Yes, thank you. I think it's, what, 53 days away now? 51. 51. Not to correct you there, but it's 51, yeah.

Well, we want to have an accurate count on the number of days. That's exactly right. We really do. Did you guys know that Veterans Day is next week? I did, next Thursday. Yeah. Yeah. It is. And there's also thanksgiving i did black friday yeah there is world toilet day in november is that real world toilet day only two

of those are real holidays by the way um well on that note we're gonna get right into our stories for this week brad let's talk about uh the election that happened on tuesday let's start off with austin the results there the long-awaited ballot box fight over austin's police department reached resolution this week well at least at least temporarily we'll see what what happens at the ballot box yes but um we'll see what happens next in terms of other initiatives i'm sure save austin now is not done but how did that election turn out it was an overwhelming defeat of the proposition uh the makeup or the divide was 68 against 32 four um that is even larger of a margin of difference than from the May election that reinstated the camping ban.

That did so, it was like 58 to whatever, 42. Yeah, that's the math. You did a really good job. But it was pretty much right after early voting numbers came in, the writing was on the wall. We saw those opposed to Prop A come out spiking the football, those supportive of it conceding effectively. And so it was not a once those came in, it was pretty clear what was going to what was going to occur. And, you know, I must say I was surprised and not not of the outcome, but of how big the divide was. Yeah. The margin of victory or defeat actually in this. But Mayor Steve Adler came out and said, Austin's culture and values were on the ballot tonight.

This election reaffirms our community's belief that public safety for all requires a comprehensive system that includes properly staffing our police, but also our fire, EMS, and mental health response as well. His big talking point during this had been that approving this staffing minimum would come at a cost to things like parks fire ems and whatnot um you know those supportive of the proposition disagreed with that we discussed that last week that the cost debate but say austin now came out and said our fight to make austin the very best place to live work and raise family continues after tonight so like you said they're not going away i have a

hunch they're going to play a big role in the council elections next year um you know who knows how effective they'll be but they're definitely going to be involved and you know push their candidates so we'll see what happens there. Certainly. Well, talk us through what your takeaways were after the election results came out. Yeah. First and foremost, you know, Austin is still the progressive city that voted in these officials who passed such policies. You know, we've talked about the police budget cut. We've talked about the homeless camping rescission of the prohibition. We've talked about the PR bond policy and various other things that just has kind of combined into this large progressive policy push. And it's still that city. Just because one thing went the other way doesn't mean that Austin is not still what it's

been for a long time. And so, I think it kind of reverted back to the mean on this election. Another one was that the opposition was far more organized and better funded than the May election, both in terms of an actual campaign on the ground campaign and the money that floated. And, you know, we've talked about the $500,000 from George Soros that came in. There was also 250 from,000 from a nurses pack or union pack in California, and then a lot of other outside money that came in. So they had a lot of resources on their side that they didn't have in May, at least those opposing. And then I think the biggest takeaway, at least comparing the May election to this one, is that the homeless

camping policy was something people saw with their own eyes every day going to work or taking their kids to school. You know, seeing these encampments all over the city was unavoidable. And with the police issue, it wasn't so physically visible. Yes, you saw headlines of homicides going up, another homicide today and tomorrow and the next day um you know other categories of violent crime going up as well but it doesn't it doesn't convey to a voter the same physical experience that seeing these things driving them driving by them every day does everyone sees the homeless encampments but not everybody knows somebody affected by violent crime right right and so i think that is the biggest difference between the two um and uh yeah yeah let's say that's my my takeaway absolutely

well we'll get into more of that later on to brad thank you hayden let's talk about the constitutional amendments that were on the ballot um Talk to us about what these particular issues were that were up for a statewide vote. the amendments to state statutes, but we get to vote on whether or not the Constitution is amended, which is why we had this panoply of things on the ballot in 2021 in an off year. So, the legislature passes these amendments, and each of the Texas House and the Texas Senate have to pass them by a two-thirds vote. And that's why these particular issues are on the ballot. Got it. Now talk to us through the results of the proposed amendments. Well, there were eight separate amendments. Some of them were more controversial than others, but the first proposition was one to legalize rodeo raffles by the professional

rodeo cowboys. Very controversial. was controversial yes well it actually was a little controversial not very but it's well it was a little bit because you have its toe into the gambling arena but that's about as controversial as it's very very measured very slight yeah expansion of gambling and one of the one of the things that we were talking about in the office the other day is this is a pro-gambling amendment. But even if you're for expanded gambling, you have a little bit of a different aspect to this because it names two private organizations in a public constitutional amendment. So it gives privileges to these two groups, the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association and the Women's Professional Rodeo Association. But it did pass 84% to 16%. Proposition 2 allows tax increases via bond debt by counties. It passed 63% to 37%. Proposition 3 is one that arose from the COVID-19 pandemic, and it adds language to the

freedom of worship section of our state constitution, prohibiting the state or any political subdivision from restricting the religious exercise at places of worship, physical worship services in churches, synagogues, mosques, etc. And this amendment passed 62% to 38%. Of course, this arose from the pandemic. A lot of local governments issued restrictions on physical church services and other religious services, and a lot of people were unnerved by that, thought it was a bizarre and strange imposition by the state on local churches. And of course, we already have language in the state constitution and the First Amendment that protects freedom of religion, but this amendment spells out that local governments or the state government cannot prevent people from physically going to church, period.

That passed with 62% support statewide. Prop 4 and Prop 5 added requirements for a minimum amount of legal practice in Texas for Texas Supreme Court justices, Texas Court of Criminal Appeals judges, courts of appeals judges, and district judges. And then Prop 5 expanded the jurisdiction of the State Commission on Judicial Conduct to include candidates for judicial office as well as office holders. Both Prop 4 and Prop 5 passed with 59% to 41%. So very similar support statewide for those two amendments. Proposition six is another COVID-19 related proposition. It adds a right for residents of nursing homes and similar care facilities to appoint essential caregivers for in-person visitation. One of the problems that arose from the pandemic is people who needed the care of their loved ones were not able to because of

a statewide executive order that prevented visitation by even family members who provide care. Kim Roberts has covered this extensively, and I wish she was here to speak on some of the cases that she was able to report on. But I remember one in particular, there was an individual, he was in his 20s, but because of an intellectual disability, he essentially functioned as a toddler. And he needed his mother for his day-to-day care and the state executive order prevented that. This proposition did not face really any serious opposition. It passed with 88% to 12% statewide. Propositions 7 and 8 were property tax relief. 7 was school property tax relief for the surviving spouses of disabled individuals over the age of 55, passed with 87% to 13%. And then Proposition

8 was property tax relief for the surviving spouses of those whose lives were lost in the line of duty for non-combat related injuries. That passed with 88% to 12%. So that's the overview of the amendments and the results on Tuesday. I like it. Well, Hayden, thank you for that. In terms of Travis County, there was an interesting observation that you made about specifically one proposition. Give us a little bit of insight into that. in a red state. And in Travis County, the Proposition 3, which secured physical religious liberty rights, and I say physical because an argument was made that, well, it's not an impingement on religious liberty because churches can still meet virtually. And another, that also ties into the Essential Caregiver Amendment specifying in-person visitation, but the voters in Travis County widely opposed the

Proposition 3, which secured the right to attend a church service physically. I believe it was a 65% opposition in Travis County to that amendment. And then voters were also, they also disliked the judicial requirements, Props 4 and 5 in the state commission on judicial conduct, jurisdiction expansion. But the essential caregiver amendment still passed overwhelmingly in Travis County. So that one was not controversial in this County. But the proposition three,

the additional religious liberty protections did fail as far as Travis County is concerned. But again, these were statewide propositions. So the general public in the state of Texas got the final word. I like it. Well, Hayden, thank you for covering that for us. Very good stuff. Well, Isaiah, let's talk about a House District election. The only from this last Tuesday, but talk to us about the special election in House District 118 and how it turned out.

Yeah, this was a special election. District District 118 and how it turned out. This was a special election. District 118 is in Bexar County. It's a San Antonio district. The Republican candidate, John Lujan, won by a bit of a narrow margin, 51.2% of the vote. That puts him 286 votes ahead of the Democrat candidate, Frank Ramirez. What led up to this? So the seat in the legislature was held by Leo Pacheco, a Democrat, and he retired to pursue an academic career in San Antonio College.

So then a special election was set to fill the vacancy, and that initially drew five candidates, three Democrats, two Republicans, and without a majority, it went to a runoff between the top two, which were John Lujan and Frank Ramirez. Both were respectively the party favorites for Republicans and Democrats. John Lujan had the endorsement of Greg Abbott, a very big endorsement. Ramirez had Pacheco's endorsement, as well as Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolfs and a couple members of the San Antonio City Council, including maybe the most prominent progressive, Jalen McKee Rodriguez. So they were each kind of the party favorite. Previously, Lujan actually held the seat.

He picked it up in a special election in early 2016, but he lost it in the general election later that same year before the legislature even began in 2017. So he's held it before, has no voting record, which is interesting. Yeah, absolutely. Well, this is a very interesting seat in that every once in a while in a special election, we'll see someone aligned with a party that the district typically does not elect actually be able to secure the seat, whether that be a difference in turnout, whether that be, you know, voters coming to the polls that were disenfranchised with the incumbent, whatever that might be. Sometimes special elections can yield different results. What does this mean for the general election when Lujan will have to face, you know, voters on the ballot when everyone's coming to the polls, not just in an off election

like this one. Right. Yeah. Some people have made predictions that in the general, Lujan would probably get kicked out because that happened with him before. And another example that comes to mind from recent years is Pete Flores in the state Senate. Same pattern. He won it in a special election, but then got ousted in a general. The monkey wrench is redistricting. Daniel has put together the Texas partisan index for current maps that, you know, that Lujan and Ramirez ran in right now, and also the new maps that have been approved. And under the current map, House District 118 is 57% Democratic. so it leans democratic by seven points and what

that means is that's just the median vote average over the past two general elections 2018 and 2020 and that median vote is 57 for democrats but under the new maps um the district is much more competitive and it's actually an even split 50 50 between republicans and democrats yeah so another way to look at that is that the new district map shaves off about seven points from the Democrats' lead. And it's with that lead that the Republican candidate won this week. So he's got better chances in the general than now, but it's still a competitive map. Yeah.

And certainly Republicans still claim this is a big victory as they flipped the seat. So that will be certainly a narrative going forward in terms of Republican victories. Well, Isaiah, thank you for covering that for us. Brad, let's talk about bonds. Let's talk about big sums of money. Talk about taxes. But Texans across the state voted on many different local government bonds this week. How did some of those turn out? And talk to us real fast about the total. Oh, yeah, the total number of dollars the Texans were voting on. So across the state, we saw 149 different propositions. Some ISDs had multiple propositions on the ballot. And so it wasn't 149 different localities that had these, but it totaled $10.8 billion. And, you know, it's not a small amount

of money. And it spanned across, you know, school districts, cities, counties, special taxing districts. So it was the gamut, although school districts, because they cost so much money, they had the lion's share of the larger item bond proposals. And so the biggest one was Fort Worth ISD. They had a package of four. The biggest amount one was $1.2 billion bond. Overall, the four cost $1.5 billion. And $1.2 billion was the largest bond in that district's history.

Correct. Yep. And so of those four, that $1.2 billion bond was the only one that passed. And it did so by a very slim margin, only 42 votes. So, you know, it's Fort Worth ISD, one of the bigger ISDs in the state. And for it to come down to 42 votes, that's, you know, quite notable. Well, particularly when bonds usually pass. Like that, they pass, yeah, there's not usually as much contention with them at the local level as a lot of voters

might think yep and so uh the second largest single bond proposition in this uh array of them on no on election day in november was leander isds it was 7 million. That failed by also a small amount of votes, 215. Leander had three propositions on the ballot. Two of them, only one of them passed was the middle one. There was $30 million to buy new student laptops and other technological upgrades. So there's that. And then as far as the bigger picture, once the bond review board uploads the results of everyone, we'll be able to see, you know, how many of them pass what percentage, um, you know, typically the, these things pass at like 80% rate. Um, and so at least 80% of them have passed. And so, uh, we'll see if that matches up here or if there's, you know, a dip in how much voters were willing to approve debt for future spending.

Good stuff. Thank you, Brad. Gentlemen, let's zoom out really fast. Talk about just generally, were there any particular surprises from this election night in your perspective? What expected outcomes did in fact come to fruition? You know, where do you guys land in terms of how the results actually came down? I think one of the biggest surprises was how much critical race theory played into, especially these lower level, the school district elections. And we saw that occur, be a big focal point in the Virginia governor's race, but it clearly had a lot more of a ripple effect than just that. And we saw Cyfair ISD, I think what's probably on the agenda to talk about if we haven't already, but three incumbents there lost and all the challengers won and they were all anti-critical race theory and so um i think that's something that's that's an issue that probably will will stay at least the next one or two election cycles yeah absolutely well and it's hot right now who knows if it'll be as hot in six months um four months when the primaries are around is that right four months dang that's crazy well i can't count

yeah i think it's about four months march five months whatever march is yeah i can't count. Yeah, I think it's about four months. March. Five months. Whatever March is. Yeah. I can't do the math. I write for a living. Come on, Daniel. I was curious about that, too, because I'd been hearing chatter about the Virginia governor's race, and I hadn't been paying much attention to it because it's all the way over in Virginia. And everything that I was hearing, for the most part, was education related. And I thought, well, I write on that a lot, so maybe that's what's filtering through to me. Yeah. But the more I hear is well, I write on that a lot. So maybe that's what's filtering through to me. Yeah. But the more I hear is that that was a really big central issue.

Same deal here. Like, you know, I write on, you know, this race conscious material and like Tasmanian scores, stuff like that. And so, you know, it just, it comes to the stuff I read and I don't know if how representative that is of what voters are thinking. But yeah, I was also surprised to see that makes such a big difference in Cy Fair and Carol ISD as well as another one. Yeah, those two specifically. Kim Roberts and Holly Hansen have done great reporting on those two districts.

For us, go to the texan.news to read more about that. And Isaiah will be publishing a piece on, you know, a more extensive piece on the results across the state with those kinds of races. Daniel, any takeaways from you? Yeah, I mean, broadly speaking, I don't think I was really that surprised to see significant Republican wins just because there is a Democrat in the White House and that tends to, you know, favor the opposite party in elections like this. Moving forward, though, it's going to be interesting to see, you know, are these issues like critical race theory still going to drive voter turnout, especially at a local level?

If it does, that could definitely shape the way politics looks like in Texas and across the country. So it'll be interesting to see if those trends continue. But again, I think that was the big thing that I saw as well. Yeah, for sure. Hayden, is there anything that you would add on that front about, you know, surprises or expectations? I think it did surprise me a little bit how strongly the people of Texas reacted to the essential caregiver amendment. Yeah. I think this pandemic has really given us an opportunity to reflect on the role we want government to play in our lives moving forward. And it's been said before, I can't remember exactly who said this, but conservatives

do not believe that government is bad. Conservatives believe that government is dangerous. And I think that was really reflected in this year's election results. And for many people, especially in Travis County, the government needs to be able to have the tools to fight a virus like COVID-19. And it's dangerous to take away from government the ability to fight a threat to our health and safety like that. But for others, there are certain lines that should never be crossed. And one of those lines is shutting down churches and preventing people from visiting their loved ones in nursing homes. And I think while there are many things that people disagreed about

and many controversial issues, the Essential Caregiver Amendment passing with such overwhelming support, I think it can be inspiring to some people that coming out of this pandemic, that is one thing by a margin of nearly nine to one that most Texans could agree on was the final number that I saw, but I did see at some point on election night kind of a breakdown of the voting, especially on Proposition 3, was it for the churches, in the major urban counties. And it was interesting that Travis County was by far very much against that proposition. So I think that's just kind of telling where Travis County is politically as well. Yeah, and the other urban counties did not oppose it to that degree. In Travis County, it was 64% against. Did they oppose it?

Did it lose in other counties? Well, off the top of my head, I can't remember Harris County's result, but Dallas County, I believe it passed with 52% or 53%. So it still passed in Dallas County, not by as much as it did statewide. But even in Dallas County, which is pretty blue at this point, I mean, it's not really a swing county anymore. Even in Dallas County, that amendment passed, albeit by a narrower margin. But yeah, Travis County, I think, showed where its priorities are in terms of this pandemic in contrast to the other urban counties. Certainly. And just like you said, Hayden, you were at the, you know, I think the debate is

whether or not is safety more important or is liberty more important? And how are those two things secured? So we'll continue to see that be debated between the parties. But gentlemen, thank you for your coverage of the election and shout out to Holly and Kim as well for their incredible coverage of the election this week. Daniel, let's talk about another state senator making a retirement announcement this week. Who might that have been? So that senator was, he's been there for a little over 30 years. I think he said at the press conference today that he was actually in the legislature in the Texas House 35 years ago today when we're recording this podcast, which would be a Thursday, November something. But that senator is Senator Eddie Lucio Jr. from Brownsville.

He's in Senate District 27, which is South Texas, Brownsville area. Now it stretches up to I think I think it goes into Noyeses County as well, kind of the Corpus Christi area to Brownsville, that section of Texas. He's the third senior most senator and his departure or retirement actually follows a few other senior senators as well leaving the legislature, including Senator Kel Selger most recently, and then also Senator Jane Nelson, who announced her retirement earlier this summer. And it's also the fourth one after Senator Don Buckingham is now running for the general land office. So, you know, there is going to be a sizable freshman class of senators in the upcoming legislature.

Upcoming being another year away still, but it's around the corner with elections. But open seats will make it interesting because Senate seats don't always have that kind of contentious partisan battle. And I think we'll have contentious primaries and maybe in the generals, but not as much. We'll have at least contentious primaries. Yes. Well, on that note, how was Lucio viewed in the Senate? What kind of role did he play among members? So he was very similar to Kel Selger in that he was liked among members of the other party

across the aisle. He was kind of a swing vote there, especially on some important social issues like pro-life legislation. He was a supporter of that. He, you know, he voted in favor and I think he was actually a co-author of the Texas Heartbeat Act, which was signed into law earlier this year. And it's now before the Supreme Court. That's the big pro-life bill everyone is talking about. So he signed onto that and he's also supported other, you know, more socially conservative issues. So, you know, that that's kind of defined a lot of his role in the Senate. But that's not to say that he doesn't get along with with Democrats as well, because, you know, everybody does seem to really like him.

It's just that he he is probably the most like Democrat in the Senate among Republicans. Yeah. If you join the team for a few key votes, you become, you know, highly favored. What are some possibilities in terms of the next person that could succeed him? So there's a couple different names out there. You know, the one that we know is probably going to run. I think he actually may have announced it or made it official. But definitely exploring a run would be state representative Alex Dominguez, who's also from Brownsville. He was in Texas

House District 37, I believe, or currently is, but that line has been redrawn. And so he'd be actually into a different South Texas seat. And so with all the redistricting stuff, he said that he's considering running for that state Senate seat. Now, Lucio has kind of spoken out against him and said, like, there's some quotes that he made in an interview that you can read oncio III, whose state representative also announced his retirement from the legislature earlier this year. We're going from two Lucios to zero. The older Lucio, very confusing, did seem to want to hand the baton to his son, but his son seems to not want to do that right now. So it looks like there probably won't be another Lucio in the Senate, at least for the time being. But then another race, it could possibly be the most competitive general election race in the Senate that we see.

Um, this is, it still leans very far, not very far. It's like 57% Democrat. Um, so it's safely Democrat, but it's also a seed that could potentially flip,

um, depending on how hard Republicans push, what the turnout looks like, what the issues are. particularly in that area of the state, we have seen swings toward Republicans in South Texas and along the border with Hispanics. So I think it's definitely ripe for that, especially coming on the heels of the HD 118 race.

Republicans are very eager to see more Hispanic seats flip to Republican, and this could potentially be one of them. A key representative who is in that race is Representative J.M. Lozano. Again, he was back in 2010, 2011, he was a Democrat in the House. And then he changed his party affiliation to be a Republican and has been a Republican since. He could potentially be running for the seat. He hasn't made any announcement at this point, but that's definitely someone to keep an eye on if he wants to go for it. But we'll see. Well, thank you, Daniel. We'll keep an eye. Isaiah, we're coming

to you. Last week, we talked about State Representative Matt Krause asking the Texas Education Agency for a complete accounting of certain books potentially deemed sexually or racially controversial in Texas public school libraries. And there have been some developments this week. Talk us through those. Yeah. So the first direct one was that Austin ISD, the Houston Chronicle reports, was the first school district to deny this request.

So they will not provide Krause with this information. And what's interesting and relevant to that is that Krause was acting, he sent the letter on the letterhead acting as chairman of the general investigating committee and state law actually describes punishments for not complying with the request of the committee. So like if you get subpoenaed or there's a request for information or documents, the law says that a person may be jailed and fined. I don't know how that would apply to a school board, which is not a person.

Right. So I'm not a legal expert, but that's, it's interesting. It's a question. It is a question. Yeah. We'll probably get some answers to it eventually,

but it's, it's, it's sitting out there in the void right now. Yes. And anyway, so that's what's going on with Krause's request. to set up voluntary vetting processes at their schools for library acquisitions so that parents can transparently see what kind of books they're buying and how much they're costing, things like that. What's interesting about that letter is that Krause's letter that he sent

had to do with obscene content and racially charged content. And Abbott's only had to do with obscene content. He was mainly focusing on pornography. So a sentence from Abbott's letter says to TASB, Texas Association of School Boards, you should have an obligation to Texas parents and students to ensure that no child in Texas is exposed to pornography or other inappropriate content while inside a Texas public school. And Abbott notes that the Texas State Library and Archives Commission sets the standards for public school libraries. For the most part, these standards do not regulate content.

But although the state agency guides libraries, ultimately what they acquire is the decision of the district, that own library. Tasby responded, saying that his request, while appreciated, was not appropriate to direct to them, and he instead should direct it to the Texas education agency or the state board of education, which is who Krause directed his request to. Yes. Yeah.

Krause directed his to the TEA, but that's, they were just the head organization from which he expected to get information from every district in Texas, assumedly. So the compilation of data right very good well isaiah thank you for that we'll continue to watch and monitor what happens now very interesting to see one long lawmaker request this information from the agency itself and then

the governor go to tasby um just interesting tactics and we'll see what changes going forward yeah one important thing um despite its officious sounding name, the Association of School Boards is not a governmental group. That's an association of Texas school board members. The TEA is a government group. That's the state agency that is the head of school boards. Yeah, so just clarifying that. To clarify.

Well, thank you, Isaiah. Daniel, we've talked at length about the Republican candidates running for attorney general against incumbent Ken Paxton. And this week, you dived into the Democrats running for that same position. Walk us through those candidates and where the race is at at this point. Yeah, it's interesting that we've, you know, seen a bunch of Democrats jump into this race because we haven't actually seen them jump into the governor's race. You know, that's the top of the ticket in 2022. Who's going to challenge the Republican nominee, whether it's Greg Abbott or another Republican? You know, that is the big race.

But we haven't seen many Democrats jump into that. We have seen them jump into the race a few steps down or maybe just one step, depending on how you're looking at it. Even however you want to define it, whatever. It's not at the top of the ticket, but the attorney general's race has been the one that has drawn several notable candidates. So there's, you know, four big ones in the Republican primary right now. And then there's in the Democratic primary, there's three different Democratic candidates who have come out that are running some actually serious campaigns that could be a contentious race. We'll see, you know, who actually comes across on the top in March or if it goes to a runoff in, I think, May is the runoff date. But that being said, the three different candidates

include former Galveston Mayor Joe Jaworski. You have civil rights attorney who's from Dallas, I believe, Lee Merritt, and he's worked on several high profile cases. And then you also have Rochelle Garza, who's the latest entrant to the race. She is a former ACLU attorney. She had originally announced a plan to run for, I believe, the 34th congressional district, which is down in kind of the Brownsville area, similar to the Eddie Lucio Senate race, Senate district, same area of the state. But she changed those plans after redistricting. There's just a little bit of, you know, shuffling going on there. And she decided to run for attorney general instead. And the two congressmen from that area, you have Representative Vicente Gonzalez and retiring Representative Philemon Vela have both backed her in this race as well. So it'll be interesting to see how this turns out.

Each of them are kind of touting their own credentials, being attorneys and working on various different things and their previous experience. So we'll see what the Democrats in Texas decide to go with. What are the themes in the race so far? So like the Republican primary race, the big central theme is jumping on the anti-Paxton bandwagon. There's a lot of controversy around Attorney General Ken Paxton with different personal things that he has going on with the securities fraud case. And you also have the controversy within his own office and the whistleblower lawsuit that's ongoing. So lots of different controversies going around there that they're pointing to and saying that we need someone, you know, with integrity.

You know, that's kind of the common buzzword that's being used. So that's the big issue in both primary races. But then in the Democratic race specifically, you also have a lot of talk about abortion. Now, this is notable because the Supreme Court heard the Texas Heartbeat Act earlier this week. And so this is one of the central issues right now. But they are promoting more of the pro-abortion side of the argument instead of supporting the pro-life bills like all the Republicans tend to do. Right. And that's just partisan politics right there. Well, thank you, Daniel, for covering that for us. Hayden, we're going to come back to you and talk about a pretty spicy border story. Talk us through this story that

you published earlier this week about illegal immigrants being smuggled into the country. Well, this incident occurred at the Falfurius border checkpoint, which is in Brooks County. If you are coming back from the valley, the Rio Grande Valley on US Highway 281, you might have to stop at this checkpoint and felt furious. What occurred in this particular incident is a tractor trailer or an 18 wheeler was flagged at this checkpoint. When it was being inspected, a canine unit responded, I presume that they barked or they reacted that they, uh, alerted the border agents in some way that there was a problem with this 18 wheeler. So the border agents flagged, uh, this

vehicle for secondary inspection. Um, and then the dogs continue to react to the, whatever the was inside this trailer. Um, and ultimately they opened the back of the trailer and found 75 individuals, um, who were in the back of the vehicle, uh, with pallets of flour. That's what this 18 wheeler, uh, was, was carrying. Um, and if it had not been for these border patrol dogs reacting to this vehicle they might not have found them or i don't know what other evidence there might have been to indicate that there were people in the back of the truck but this is one instance of human smuggling which is a huge problem in border counties especially as of late i. I know that there were counties that indicated it is worsening. And I spoke with Special Agent Victor Avila, who's a retired ICE Special Agent. And I

spoke to him yesterday, and he said that there is a lot, likely a lot of illegal immigration and human smuggling going undetected. In fact, possibly one to two people escaping or getting away for every person who is caught. So this is one instance of smuggling. And I know there was also a drug bust in Brownsville, $49 million worth of methamphetamine. Of course, these human lives are more important than the seizure of these drugs, but drug seizures and human smuggling is a huge problem in border counties. Absolutely. Now, what kind of truck were these illegal immigrants in? What was their condition? Give us a little insight.

Well, the phrase that Customs and Border Protection used when in the press release announcing this incident was that they found shivering migrants in the back of this truck because the truck was refrigerated. It was 58 degrees inside this truck and it was locked from the outside. So of course, that's incredibly dangerous in any type of, if there was a crash or something and they weren't able to get out in time, a fire could have easily injured these people in the back of this truck. And obviously you're not supposed to have people riding around in the back of a tractor trailer, especially 75 people. But most of these individuals were Central American and Mexican. And this is just one example of the dangers of human smuggling and the work that Customs and Border Protection is doing to prevent it to the best they can with

the resources they have at this time. Well, Hayden, thank you for that. Brad, let's talk about North Texas sports. Now, the Mavs, the Dallas Mavericks announced a COVID policy change for its games. What was the announcement? So they previously they had the strictest entry policy in among Texas professional sports teams. Specifically, they were the only ones that required proof of vaccination or negative covid test to attend the games for any fan

and that is being rescinded on november 15th it comes after i think it was just a week and a half or so of days with positive coronavirus tests below 500 in Dallas County. And so that was the metric that the owner, Mark Cuban, set and they passed it. And so now they're rescinding this now. There is still a that same requirement is still in place for fans sitting within 15 feet of the court. That is an NBA requirement. That's not something the Mavericks can control. But they are also preserving their mask mandate for all fans,

regardless of where you sit in the arena. Again, the only such team in Texas at the highest level with that policy. So Mark Cuban said after the announcement, if the numbers get worse again, we'll bring back the policy. And so that's where it stands right now. What kind of state and local policies are at play here? Yeah. So Dallas County currently has, Judge Clay Jenkins has a policy mandating vaccination, vaccination uh no sorry mask uh mandates for uh public events and so that runs counter to governor abbott's um prohibition on such mandates but it's being fought out in court right now and

the supreme court hasn't ultimately ruled on it at the moment although they did issue a temporary restraining order which uh you know dallas countyavs are, I guess, violating in the meantime until a permanent decision is made. But the Mavs have said they're adhering to the local order. And so that's where it stands. And for now, mask mandates, yes. Vax mandate, no, to attend the game so there it is that's that that's the uh too long didn't read thank you brad um daniel let's talk about uh the latest lawsuit that the attorney general ken paxton here in texas filed against the biden

administration and you have a note here saying uh presuming he doesn't file another one before this podcast is released yes and it's very possible that he does file another one before it's released, because as we're recording this, the Biden administration had just released a new regulation also related to vaccine mandates. So there's a few different policies that the Biden administration has to kind of push people to get the vaccine. There are, first of all, the federal contractor regulation requiring companies that contract with the federal government to require their employees to be vaccinated. Then you have the one that was just announced today, which is more for private businesses that have 100 or more employees. And that's the one that we might see a lawsuit in the future. And then the other one that the administration is also pursuing is for more health care workers to try and basically the entire health care industry to require them to get the vaccination as well. But the lawsuit specifically that we saw this week from or actually last Friday from the Paxton from the Paxton Office of the Attorney General, OAG, was related to the federal contractor

mandate. And so that is the suit that has been filed thus far as of the recording of this podcast. Very good. What are the arguments in the lawsuit? So, you know, too long to read. If you boil it down to the very basics basics it's really just about executive overreach and saying that the federal the federal the executive branch of the federal government is overstepping their bounds here by uh forcing federal contractors to require this vaccination uh in in such a sweeping manner uh now if you get onto the nuances of it and you get into the weeds

uh it does have a lot more to do with with the procedure of how this regulation was put into place. And, you know, that's just typically how lawsuits with the executive branch go. It gets very weedy, very much about the federal regulations and, you know, court precedent and yada yada. But basically executive overreach. Are there any other states that have filed similar suits? Yes. So Texas follows a any other states that have filed similar suits? Yes. So Texas follows a

couple other states. First of all, Florida was the one to jump at it right away. And then the following day, which was the same day that Texas filed their separate lawsuit, there was also another lawsuit that was a coalition of 10 states that was led by Missouri and filed in a state court there, or federal court in that state there we go state federal i can get my words together on sometimes you can you did a great job yeah i'm very proud of you well thank you daniel for covering that for us brad we're coming back to you there was a vacancy on the texas supreme court and it has now been filled by the governor who did abbott nominate so the seat is open because eva guzman resigned to run for attorney general and abbott this week

nominated evan young an attorney with baker botts in austin and a professor at ut law school he young chairs baker bosses supreme court and constitutional law practice he sits on an advisory commission with the texas supreme court advising on certain policy things that I don't understand, but that's there. About Young, Abbott said, Evan Young is a proven legal scholar and a public servant, making him an ideal pick for the Supreme Court of Texas. And yeah, that's who it is. What's his background? So, one thing that makes him notable is he clerked for Antonin Scalia at SCOTUS. Supreme Court. Supreme Court.

Yep. The one of the most conservative Supreme Court justices of the last 40, 50 years. He also served as counsel to the U.S. Department of Justice. And that was back in, I think it was 05 and 06, so during the Bush administration. But since then, he's been a practicing attorney and done quite a few other things, including, as I mentioned, that advisory committee. So he has quite an extensive resume that made him, in Abbott's eyes, the ideal choice. Now, when will he be sworn in? What are next steps here? We're not sure yet. I haven't seen any official swearing in dates.

But since the legislature is currently not in session, he does not need confirmation from the Senate. So whenever they unofficially or officially swear him in, sometimes those are two different events. that way you can get to work before they actually you know do the official swearing in ceremony um he'll be on the court and hearing cases well thank you bradley for that daniel we're coming back to you long time no talk oh hi oh hello i forgot i had another topic you do you do in fact um and one that's a little convoluted so let's just jump in. But redistricting lawsuits, we've talked about them in the past, but there have been three new ones that were filed this

week. What's the difference? So the big difference for me, these are the ones that I was actually waiting for. There were some other ones that were filed. They didn't seem to get into too many specific details. These ones seemed a little bit more substantial in getting into specific complaints about different districts there were two lawsuits filed by the mexican-american legislative caucus which is led by state representative rafael and chia in dallas and the there's one that was filed in a state court and there's also one that was filed in a federal court and then there was another lawsuit filed in federal court about the Senate district map, uh, specifically with SD 10, uh, in Tarrant County by Senator Beverly Powell. Uh, this is the lawsuit that, you know, as the map went through the process, we knew this lawsuit was coming. We were just waiting for it to actually happen. Uh, and now it. The latter two, the two federal court suits,

are primarily focused on violations of the Voting Rights Act, which again centers mostly on race and racial gerrymandering accusations, specifically with the dilution of minority voters. Yeah, so if the first Malk suit isn't also about race, talk to us about what it actually is about. So that one is kind of interesting because it's not just about the Voting Rights Act. This was filed in a state court, not a not a federal law that is touching on. This is actually talking about a Texas constitutional provision which requires statehouse maps to file a county line rule. Now, the county line rule, in essence, basically says that house districts have to stay within a county line as much as possible. That's what it boils down to.

Now, there are exceptions if the population in the county is a little bit different so that it requires like half of a district. And, you know, you have to get the district to be the ideal population size. It has to go into multiple counties. So there's a possibility for districts to be like that there. But this lawsuit in the state court really looks at just one instance down in Cameron County. You have House District 37, 38, and I believe the other one is 35. I could be getting my numbers mixed up there, but two of those districts dip out of Cameron County. And so basically what the lawsuit is saying is that's unnecessary.

You have the right amount of districts in there, but only one of them should break into a different county. There shouldn't be two county line breaks there. you know, what the, the response is there, uh, from the state. Um, because I don't know if there's, there's other, uh, considerations that were made when they filed this bill, cause it was filed in a similar manner with those two line breaks. But, uh, so there could be some court precedent there, uh, which is why they did that. I don't know. We'll see if there's a, some arguments there, or if the state ultimately concedes and says, you know will you know redraw these lines so it only goes breaks once well that's that's complicated a little bit it's it's really not that complicated but i'm glad that you have to do the that research that we don't have to yeah it's it's actually really easy well thank you for doing it actually simpler

than the voting rights act that's fair that's fair it's not quite as nuanced well gentlemen um for our fun topic today as you all know and have been aware of and been a part of um the quote-unquote i don't know who phrased it this way in this uh document that we have but the quote-unquote holiday wars have broken out here at the tean. Does Christmas, the celebration of Christmas begin right after Halloween? Does it begin earlier? Does it begin after Thanksgiving? Does Thanksgiving, should Thanksgiving be celebrated by itself without any mention of Christmas? All of these conversations have already begun here at the Texan and have begun so with quite a lot of vigor.

So boys, where are we at with this? What team do you all fall? Well, you know, where do you guys stand? I'm a firm believer that you should wait to celebrate Christmas. And by Christmas,

I mean Christmas trees and Santa Claus and the Christmas music and stuff. If you want to celebrate the life of Christ every day, like go for it. I'm totally in favor of that. But wait to put up your Christmas decorations until December 1st, please. Give Thanksgiving, give November. Until December 1st. December 1st.

Okay. That's my date. If you want to do like after Thanksgiving, there's a little bit more leeway there, but preferably December. I was about about to say some people have a tradition of setting up christmas decorations on black friday yeah including my family oh okay yeah so like i'm not very traditional when it comes to following my family's traditions i guess well that works that works well okay hayden where are you at personally i do not have strong feelings on this. I feel more strongly that Christmas

decorations should be taken down promptly than they should not be put up until a certain date. So, if you honestly, I think celebrating Christmas early is fine, especially if you've had a really stressful year or if Christmas makes you especially happy, I'm all in favor of celebrating Christmas as early as you want. However, I do think leaving Christmas decorations up long after Christmas is an impingement on New Year's, which is a favorite, one of my favorite holidays. So I personally feel that, you know, celebrate as early as you want, but, you know, maybe we should wrap it up, uh, pretty quick after Christmas so that we can celebrate the new year

and focus on what comes next. Got it. Well, there you go bradley what about you uh thanksgiving is my favorite holiday so i will defend that um so do you know christmas celebrations begin for you until post thanksgiving yeah i don't consider it christmas season until after thanksgiving got it when you want to draw the line if it's black friday or december 1st i don't i care. Yeah. As long as Thanksgiving itself is... Sacred. Yes. I have... I actually don't mind Christmas decorations being left up past the New Year because I think New Year's Eve is an abomination of a holiday and deserves absolutely no recognition whatsoever.

No recognition. Yes. So, if we want to... Why? Because it's just a terrible holiday. Yeahden needs it is it is the worst that does not give us an actual answer though bride could you tell us why it is the worst new year's is the holiday that everyone convinces themselves they're going to enjoy that they're going to go out and have a good time and nobody actually does and so whose fault is that new year's eve's oh it's the holidays

it's like a curse upon humanity is that what you're talking about yes yes so yeah i think it's an abomination and deserves no recognition at all an abomination though like can't you just disagree with it why does it have to be an abomination such a visceral hatred that you have for new year's and i'd also like to point out that he waited to make that point until i no longer had the microphone in front of me so no that's just when i got called on a little bit of you know you would have a reaction to this shot there but i i personally think it's a it's a you know i don't i'm not really one to go out on new year's eve so that part of it okay I can agree with you that it's a little pointless,

but I just, I just like it. Cause you know, it gives me a reason to set new goals and everything. But you can have that whenever you can set a new goal. Whenever people said enter the new year, it's new year, new me.

Nope. They go back to the same old stuff. I've always done. Okay. But here's the thing with thanksgiving and christmas you have like some big fancy meal but you know it's it's turkey or ham what do you do for new year's you get steak you can have steak on whenever you want yeah but it's it's more of a a tradition at least in my family. Well, my dad likes some other stuff too, like some pozole and tamales and whatnot.

But steak always seems like the thing to do. See, we do spaghetti and meatballs on Christmas Eve. So it changes from family to family. Okay. On New Year's, I don't really have a specific meal. Well, y'all know about Hoff and John, the black-eyed peas-based New Year's. Oh, that's a New Year's thing. Hoff and John.

I've never heard of this. I have no idea what you're talking about. There's black-eyed peas in it. See, I thought you were talking about the band. Oh, my gosh. You do know that it is an actual legume, right? Black-eyed peas are an actual bean. I mean, now I do.

Legume? Yes. I was just looking up the differences between legumes and other things early yesterday so in my spare time yeah you said it like stewie griffin who's stewie griffin oh he's british oh it doesn't matter oh that's from family guy by the way are you gonna mount your full-throated christmas defense yet or not well i was just waiting for all of you to you know finish um blathering for you christmas season begins the day after christmas here's the thing i my position on christmas is completely misrepresented every year i is just assumed that i hate all things that are not christmas that i hate fall that i don't appreciate thanksgiving that i don't enjoy the season

prior to christmas no none of that is true i start christmas celebrations while all these other celebrations are also going on that's how it works no no that's not how it works daniel let me finish let me finish i let i let all of you speak i was literally pounding his fingers together so mad that this is what we're talking about. But, um, but that's how it works. Like you can do both at the same time. I love fall. I love pumpkin. I love Thanksgiving with my family, cooking different dishes together, having everyone together. I absolutely love it. It's amazing. I love the leaves changing color. I love fall and it's not winter yet. And especially in Texas,

none of it really feels like fall or winter anyways. It feels a little bit like fall, but not as much like winter. I love it. But I also will gladly listen to a Christmas song here or there, or go and get a Christmas drink and start preliminary celebrations. Yes, it's preliminary.

It's getting me. Cause if, if Thanksgiving ends and I haven't started Christmas celebrations, at least a little bit, I feel like i have slighted myself i feel behind like i the best way to describe it i feel behind okay daniel so our beloved holly hansen yes wrote a beautiful article a couple years ago oh i know the know the article. Yes. It is titled In Defense of November. I'm going to tweet this out tomorrow because it's awesome.

And let me just read you some of what she wrote because I think that does a better job of expressing the importance of November and not celebrating Christmas too soon than I could put it into words. So here's just the conclusion paragraph. Properly observed, November allows for a more thoughtful, reflective, and thankful season.

A much needed pause between the excitement of Halloween and Christmas. Please don't Christmas our November. November is rich and beautiful, a season filled with its own observances and customs. And if we keep Christmas in its rightful place, we can truly keep Christmas in our hearts. So if you're just celebrating Christmas all the time, it suddenly loses its meaning on Christmas. I agree. That's why I don't start until November.

Well, okay, the way I see it, Vince Carolli recorded the Charlie Brown Christmas album and the Charlie Brown Thanksgiving album. And each of them deserves attention. I totally agree with that. And so, like, that's, like, my older brother Elijah, like, I was over at his house a little while ago. And I started playing something from the Christmas album. And he got so furious.

He's like, no, like, when November starts, you can play, like, the Thanksgiving theme and stuff. But this house will not hear. This house will not child is this until advent starts and so that's i mean the music is just part like the weather i mean yeah in texas it's kind of all one big cold slush for this chunk of the year but yeah i mean like you pointed out all the food and oh there's just a whole different feeling for november that i like to i like to preserve i've always cherish it i'm a big fan of thanksgiving uh i think that might be my second favorite holiday and um what's your first um you gotta be either christmas or easter yeah but um easter's up there there's football and all the food and did you guys ever play like

a turkey bowl on thanksgiving football what does that mean like you go out in the morning like very early and you play football with a bunch of people we would always do it tournament style is how we would do it we would always do it the saturday after during halftime of the michigan ohio state game oh that's really fine that's its own holiday in the midwest that makes total sense. I mean, my family has football games. There's like one that's the football game. Then after, like right after we're,

um, my older brother and a bunch of them like, Hey, let's play another one. And they do that like five more times. Yeah. Well, my uncle Brad falls asleep.

That sounds like our uncle Brad. God willing. Yeah. And I think it's more, I am a big fan of the holiday season so i'm not any less of a fan well christmas is my favorite holiday but i'm not anti-thanksgiving i love thanksgiving and i think that's often what people uh get mad at me over in this office in this house well okay all right if you love thanksgiving if they're just you know two peas in a pod for you yeah then why

not start all your Thanksgiving preliminary celebrations well in advance in October? I do. Do you really? Because I haven't really noticed that. Yes, pumpkin. Okay, y'all don't hear me talk about pumpkin and fall and cold weather and everything.

I talk about that starting September 30th, right? I mean, Hayden's nodding. I do. I start it as soon as I can. I start baking pumpkin things. I start getting hot chocolate. I have apples. i had apple cider ready for friends that come over on wednesday um starting like october 1st i i do is that thanksgiving or fall or christmas and winter the fall is like the precursor to thanksgiving okay i'm sorry thank you disagree

yeah i'm with isaiah okay well i'm not gonna i'm not gonna eat mashed potatoes all all and turkey all all october you know what i mean i just ignore halloween and i focus on the fall that's what i do i don't like ignore halloween either you do or don't i don't you'd rather okay it's not my favorite but yeah i carve jack-o'-lanterns every year yeah i mean i like that yes but i don't like dressing up as anything ghoulish. Just a sock monkey. That's true. Yeah, we have talked about that, haven't we?

Okay, any final thoughts, gentlemen? Beautiful. Happy Thanksgiving. Happy Thanksgiving. Oh my gosh, that made me really happy. Okay, folks, thank you for listening and we will catch you next week thank you all so much for listening if you've been enjoying our podcast it would be awesome

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