The Texan Podcast - Weekly Roundup - September 27, 2024

Episode Date: September 27, 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:Rep. David Cook Chosen as House Reform Group's Challenger to Speaker Dade PhelanKen Paxton Files Appeal Against Court Upholding State Fair of Texas Firearms BanVideo: Railroad Commissioner Christi Craddick on Texas' Oil Industry, Her Future in OfficeU.S. House Passes 'Kelly-Cruz Amendment' to CHIPS Act, Sent to Biden's DeskNational Democrats Increase Efforts in Texas for Allred, Supreme Court CandidatesCruz Knocks Allred for Supporting EPA Rule to Mandate Half of New Vehicles be Electric by 2032Texas DPS Sends Cease and Desist to Automatic License Plate Reader CompanyAbilene Christian University Approved for Research Nuclear Reactor ConstructionCarroll ISD Reduces Tax Rate for Sixth Consecutive YearTexas Education Agency Commissioner Endorses Banning Cell Phones in SchoolsCozen O’Connor Public Strategies - The Beltway BriefingListen for of-the-moment insider insights, framed by the rapidly changing social and...Listen on: Apple Podcasts   Spotify

There is one poll I wanted to ask you about before we move on here is are you familiar with the cookie poll in Ohio? I am yes they predicted all but one of the what last like 15-20 elections. Yeah since 1984 they've gotten they've predicted every single presidential election. Is this in Cincinnati or is this? Yeah, in Cincinnati. Except for 2020. They got that one wrong. So how much state do you put in this cookie poll for the presidential election? That's a pretty good track record.

Okay. So if people are interested in polling, forget all the algorithms and mathematical equation. Go buy a cookie howdy folks it's mckenzie here with brad and cameron our intrepid reporters gentlemen welcome back to the podcast i know as brad would say attractively obligated but i'm still thankful i have a question though that's at this point, you say that more than I do. Brad, I think that says more about you than it does me, that you have truly just made this a cornerstone of your personality, as some might say.

So I just am trying to acknowledge the parts of your personality that you most choose to showcase. It's seeming to bleed into your personality now that's one of brad's favorite things to say to me is that if ever i like something a lot he just makes me feel like or no it not makes me feel he just straight up says mac is that all your personal like i don't remember even what you say but you make it a point to say that it's my personality now so i'm just well no i mean i was surprised that you hadn't already made mudang as part of your personality um and i was the one who learned you about it i saw a it was like an instagram reel the other day where it was this guy who said

he was basically making the case that any guy who um like knows about mudang has been told about mudang from their girlfriend or like a girl in their life and he's like all the single guys don't know who mudang is which i think then it's hilarious that you were the one to teach me about budang it really makes me laugh well men they constantly think about the roman empire women mudang yeah i think that it really showcases the difference between the sexes Men, they constantly think about the Roman Empire. Women, mudank. I think that really showcases the difference between the sexes. Personally, I have a vendetta against propaganda hippos because if you'll remember back in 2016, the year of our Lord, when Harambe was brutally murdered by the Cincinnati Zoo,

which occurred at the time I was only living about a mile away from that. Justice for Harambe. Justice for Harambe. No justice, no peace. Rod, you've never told this story before, ever, so I want to make sure you tell it in extreme detail. Okay. So he was brutally murdered in cold blood by the evil zoo conglomerate.

They had an anti-guerrilla bias. They did. Yeah. Yeah. And they faced a massive backlash and fun, like, local politics, political angle there. They were trying to pass a tax increase the next couple of years and so everyone hated the zoo after they killed harambe and so they i don't know whether it was just happenstance or if this was a deliberate move but

one of the hippos had a baby and um what was her name so they start making this hippo the center of its marketing, and it worked, and it revived their reputation, and I think they passed the tax increase. Well, see, I think that's the positive. Fiona. Fiona's the hippo's name. Fiona. See, that's the positive aspects of DEI within the zoo.

Like there's the antique Rilla bias, and then they have to bring in the diversity of animals there. So they brought the hippo in. They showcased. They went from, you know, one of the most graceful, gentle animals in the entire kingdom, Animalia, and they replaced it with the most vicious, man-slaughtering animal of all. The baby hippo Fiona? No, the hippo.

No, hippos are responsible for more human deaths than almost any other animal i think the only one above that is like mosquitoes but that's the man is the most dangerous animal brad you guys are getting off on such a tangent and approximately overall approximately i am against propaganda hippos and Mudang is absolutely a propaganda hippo. Okay. Yeah. Approximately four minutes ago, I was, all I was trying to say was that it had been a week of dogs and costumes in the office.

That's the point I was trying to get to four minutes ago. And it is, we have a hot dog in the office today in the form of trout, Maslin's little doggo. And then we also had Trout in a Hawaiian shirt, which then we had to make sure Winston matched Trout's vibe with a Hawaiian shirt of his own size. It did look a little big in the picture. I don't know if that's true, Brad, but I wanted to bring that up that we have, you know, costumed dogs running amok at the Texan.

Let me just ask, though, will there be mudang halloween costumes will we see people walking around dressed as baby hippos yes but it's not just a baby hippo it's a baby pygmy hippo oh so i'd like that's like a see that's a cute factor times three. See, that's the nuance that gets left out of the mainstream media. That's why you have to come to the Texan to really get the facts. That's exactly right. Um, well, thanks for obliging me, gentlemen.

Any, any comments on the costume dogs? Winston hated it and I have a feeling he's never going to wear it it again but it was pretty funny because of how much he hated it yeah also is it true to say that any clothing that's in winston's uh maybe two-piece closet is has been gifted to him by me it certainly wasn't me that's for sure i feel like that's been my role as winston's um uh aunt i don't know what i would be qualified as but um occasional dog sitter if that's what you want to call yourself go for it well all i know brad is that you're a padre. So on that note, we can jump into the news. This is a week old at this point, but this is something that we're going to be talking about

on repeat. And it happened after the podcast recording last week. And so we certainly wanted to talk about it this week. Brad, you covered the Friday meeting among a large contingency of GOP House members, specifically talking about who they were going to choose as an alternative to Phelan in the speaker's race. And it's a very big development. Give us the details. Who's the candidate? Walk us through all the details.

So we prefaced the meeting on the last podcast. We recorded on Thursday, of of course the next day they were having this meeting well the reform group the group that is the most outwardly against dade feeling in the house that we have they convened at a county line barbecue just northwest of downtown austin and met for about five hours they convened at 10 a.m., left at about 3, 3.30, and when they left, they had endorsed State Rep. David Cook, a Republican from Mansfield, as their chosen speaker candidate. And, of course, this was informal.

They were using caucus rules to govern like the voting procedure like how how it went I think I I might have talked about it on the podcast last time but it went seven ballots and it was pretty contentious throughout the whole thing you know there were there were five candidates and four eventually got knocked out. Well, three got knocked out, one withdrew. I'll get to that in a second. But, you know, the whole group here was split. You know, you have the group of contract with Texas signees.

Four of them are current members. The rest of them are soon-to-be members. Then you had the group of members, and they somewhat overlap here with the members who signed the no-dem chairs letter that we've talked about. Then you had some others that weren't on either of those lists there. It was a mishmash of Republicans, and it took a while for them to figure out how they were going to go. And so each round, State Rep John Smithy was actually winning. He got the most number of votes in each round, just couldn't hit at first two-thirds threshold, and then couldn't hit the 60% threshold after that dropped.

And so in the last round after that, I believe the penultimate voting round was 27-21 Smithy, but that wasn't to the 60% level. And then on the next round, a vote or two left Smithy and went to Cook. And so it was clear no one was going to get, unless the dam broke, no one was going to get the needed threshold to get nominated here. And so at that point, Smithy decided to drop out. And, you know, I've heard from various people there that in some form or fashion, Smithy conceded that he wasn't sure if he could reach 76. And, you know, when that happened,

that kind of caused a shift. But eventually, regardless of what caused it, the overarching reason was he couldn't hit 60%. And neither could Cook when they were going head to head. But Smithy dropped out, he withdrew, and then it was a unanimous final vote for Cook. And from what I understand, the final voting power of that was 48 members. It was a mix of in-person members and proxy votes. So there were about, I think, six members who had given their vote, their proxy vote, to another member who was not a member but another individual in this group who was the – to vote for them during this proceeding. And there were a couple that left early. One of those was State Rep. Terry Wilson,

and he got up and gave a speech and criticized the group for meeting outside the caucus procedure and also for doing this before we know who the whole field is. He was saying that, you know, there might be other members that jump in as soon as next week or maybe a little bit later than that. Who knows? And he might be right. I don't know. I mean, it's certainly possible that someone else jumps into this. But he left. At one point, a couple others left. I heard went to a lunch, ended up coming back. But ultimately, the voting power of that was 48. And then there was one, I think, that did not, that abstained or did not vote in that.

So regardless, there's a lot of debate about how much this, the voting power of this reform caucus actually is. And it probably will fluctuate. But the number that happened in that moment was 48 um you know mac and i are going to talk about this right after we record this episode on smoke filled room in a lot more detail so tune into that on monday but overall the this was a significant development in the race the other four suspended their campaigns and backed cook so they're trying to put on a front of unity. Notably, though, there's been no list released of members who are backing Cook for Speaker

or even who were at this meeting. So a lot's still up in the air. Phelan criticized it. You can read his full statement in the story. And of course, we'll talk about it more on smoke filled room but overall it is a very substantial development in this speaker's race i i know you and mac are going to talk about this extensively on the smoke filled room and i'd encourage everyone to listen to that once we publish it but um just in my mind one question i have is in your estimation is it going to be cook feeling and who's the democrat who jumped in anna maria ramos anna

maria ramos or is that the final three or based upon everything you've seen do you think someone else is going to jump in and really shake things up i think you'll probably have someone jump in in the caucus when we get to that point um i don't know i think right now you have to assume it's basically cook v feeling until we know otherwise but it is very possible that you have someone else jump into this whether outwardly in public or behind the scenes in the caucus. And, of course, in my newsletter this week, I went through what this means numbers-wise in the breakdown there. But overall, this thing is very much up in the air.

Awesome. Well, I'll be interested to hear you and mac banter and give some uh predictions on the smoke field room because this has been a very heated race very interesting to follow so far so it's interesting and cam that's such a good question asking about the finality of this field because that's the big question i think in a lot of folks minds and it's never over until it's over. And there's just a lot of questions. But a big move like this, right, where you seem to have a cohesion, at least among a portion of caucus, and not only just one of the caucuses,

but the majority party in the legislature, is really interesting, right? And that certainly does mean a lot. So we'll keep an eye on all of this. And Brad, thank you for your reporting. And we have lots to talk about on Smoke-Filled Room, and I'm chopping at the bit to get to it. It's going to be fun. So great stuff. Cameron, we're going to come to you next. Attorney General Ken Paxton has continued to challenge the state fair of Texas gun ban. This is the story that's been going on here for a hot minute. Give us the update. Yeah, so there's even been an update since we published our story earlier this week when he filed an appeal in the 15th Circuit. The 15th Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously denied Paxson's request for a stay or temporary injunction.

And since then, Paxxton has appealed to the Texas Supreme Court. He filed a petition for writ of memandus in the Texas Supreme Court to prevent the city of Dallas from assisting the State Fair of Texas in enforcing the firearms ban. And just to reiterate, a district court judge denied the Attorney General's motion for a temporary injunction against the man, which prompted the 15th Circuit Court of Appeal, and that court denied it, immediately challenged to the Texas Supreme Court, and like you mentioned at the top, this has been an ongoing saga regarding this gun ban at the Texas State Fair. On August 12th, 61 Republican state lawmakers and 10 GOP legislative candidates actually signed a letter encouraging the fair's board of directors to reverse this gun ban. And officials from the state fair announced that all firearms are banned from the fairgrounds, including concealed carry. And they said this decision was made following the

shooting at last year's event, something that we covered at the time. So ongoing story. This is something we'll keep everyone updated on. And, yeah, it's just ongoing saga here. And just for people to know, I do believe the State Fair actually begins on the 27th. That's a great question. When does the State Fair begin? 27th. So tomorrow. Soiday when this comes out when this comes out so i if i recall correctly i've had to write that multiple times in articles

yeah we'll we'll see if we uh we'll see if we uh get uh an update in the meantime but yeah just ongoing story here and we'll keep everyone updated awesome cameron thank you i know this is a beat that's been passed around a few of y'all. So thanks for picking that one up. Brad, let's talk about another podcast offering we have here at the Texan. We have Smoke Filled Room. We have Send Me Some Stuff. We have our daily rundown. We have our weekly roundup. And you also had this week an interview with an elected official here in Texas. Give us a teaser of your interview with Railroad Commission Chair Christy Craddock. Yeah, I sat down with Chair Craddock to talk oil and gas, of course. That's the purview of the interestingly named Railroad Commission. She goes into a bit about

the history of why it's called the Railroad Commission. Hint, it did used to regulate railroads. Oh, really? Yeah. Okay. But obviously that is not its main purpose or purpose at all anymore. So talk about that. Talk about federal politics, the top of the ticket. I think we talked a bit about the Cruz Allred race, what it means down ballot, including for her race, just the direction of state politics generally so there was a lot of good stuff in there and it was interesting i think it was the

first time we had her on the podcast so we appreciate her joining but um yeah i'd say give it a listen and there were some some interesting. We talked about the nitty-gritty of capping orphaned wells in the state. Not Orson Welles, the movie director. Orphaned wells. Oh, no rosebud. Correct, correct. This is a much grimier topic. But, yeah, lots of offer there. And I think it was about 45 minutes long. So plenty of time to listen to on your unwieldy topics kind of being broken down into something that's more digestible and easy to understand so brad thank you for sitting down with commissioner

craddock and commissioner craddock thanks for coming on uh cameron the kelly crews substitute amendment to the chips act passed this week we've been watching the chips act for quite some time now this is aimed at boosting microchip manufacturing in the states but there have been some interesting wrinkles tell us about them, so this was a bipartisan piece of legislation, and it passed by a vote of 257 to 125, with 49 members not voting. And it will now move to the president's desk for approval. But like you mentioned, there was some wrinkles in the fallout of this passing because both Ted Cruz and his opponent, Colin Allred, were apparently taking credit for passing this piece of legislation.

A lot of back and forth going on on social media, on X. So decided to dig into it and see whose bill is this actually? And so what ended up happening is this is being labeled as the Kelly-Cruz substitute amendment. Cruz being Ted Cruz, Kelly being Mark Kelly. They submitted the amended text of their Senate bill in December 2023, and it was passed as a substitute amendment. And for those unfamiliar, when a bill passes as a substitute amendment in Congress, the original text is entirely replaced with new content. This new version of the bill offered as an amendment becomes the text that is voted on and passed. So a bit of procedural things that were happening behind the scenes.

And Colin Allred has hit Cruz multiple times on the fact that previously Ted Cruz had voted no on related legislation last year to the CHIPS Act. I break down in the piece why that no vote was taken at the time. He explained how there was two different portions of the CHIPS Act, when he he supported when he didn't but at this point this substitute amendment to the original chips act is something ted cruz has been really pushing for and really celebrated it on social media sending out all sorts of different press releases about it and just a very interesting background that I detail, highlighting the procedural background that brought this substitute amendment to the floor and got it passed. So if people are interested in more of the mechanics of how something like this happens, go check out the piece on thetexan.news. And if you get to the bottom of the article and are still interested, I give some more information about why semiconductor manufacturing is so important at this current stage of our technological development, being in a battle with China and the billions of dollars that are becoming available to encourage microchip and semiconductor production domestically.

So lots of information in the piece. People should go check it out. I encourage them to do so. Well, and this issue has been a big theme on the campaign trail in the Senate race. Cruz is touting this and already has accused him of basically being misleading about it because he voted against the original CHIPS Act. Cruz has said as the explanation, I was against this almost blank check of money going out and but now that it's passed i want to make sure we get these projects not only back stateside but to texas and facilitate it there so they're having a

you know they're fighting back and forth about this on the trail, and this is something I guarantee you is going to come up in the debate. Well, and if you want to just take a look at Cruz's principled argument in these two cases voting against the facilitation of domestic production of semiconductors by providing money, if you are someone who doesn't want the federal government spending more money, you're going to be opposed to that. What he has done with this substitute amendment, the Kelly-Crew substitute amendment, is reducing the regulatory barriers for the domestic manufacturing construction. So by exempting certain projects from agency oversight from the NEPA, which is the National Environmental Policy Act,

or just really expediting the reviews of the manufacturing of these semiconductors or the construction of these manufacturing plants. So one side voting no on the spending of federal dollars, it's already passed. Okay, what can we do to reduce the regulatory barriers from the construction projects for these semiconductor plants? So both related to semiconductors, but on two different angles of encouraging production. One being federal dollars, the other being regulatory oversight. If you're looking for a political podcast that goes beyond the headlines, check out the Beltway Briefing. I'm Howard Schweitzer, CEO of Cozen

O'Connor Public Strategies. Every week on the Beltway Briefing, our team of former Republican and Democratic presidential appointees, Capitol Hill veterans, and political advocates shares behind-the-scenes perspective that cuts through the noise. If you want the inside scoop, subscribe now to the Beltway Briefing here or wherever you get your podcasts. Yeah, and very interesting to you because you have a Texas angle, right, with manufacturing, with jobs coming into Texas, and then you have the federal angle, which is very foreign policy based. It's very interesting to watch this come home to roost in these conversations we had.

So, Cameron, thanks for breaking it down for us so we can digest it, understand it. Bradley, coming to you, there were two big developments, speaking of national Democrats, in Texas this week. What were they? So the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee announced on Thursday that it's adding millions more dollars in its existing television ad buy into Texas and Florida. Now, it didn't put an exact number on that, and Gary Peters, senator from Michigan who is the chair of that, declined to specify when asked later this morning. But that original ad buy across nine states was a total of $75 million. Texas and Florida were just a total of 75 million dollars texas and florida were just

a part of that but now they're supplementing those buys in those two states because they see opportunities to make all red here in texas more competitive than you are than it already is and it looks to be fairly competitive right now, and against Rick Scott in Florida. So, you know, as things have kind of shaken out and some states that they were previously targeting have become untenable or they are up clearly, they're now diverting resources to these two states to try and make

states where they're a bit behind the eight ball more competitive. And so Peters said Senate Democrats are expanding the map and going on offense. All cycle long, the DSCC has been preparing to take advantage of Senators Cruz and Scott's damaged standings in their states, and now our efforts in Texas and Florida are accelerating. So an All Red spokes said of this, Colin Allred has earned broad support from Texans in our campaign. It's clear momentum. Ted Cruz is weaker and more vulnerable than ever because of his failure to secure the border,

his extreme abortion ban that put women in danger, and his efforts to cut Social Security and Medicare, and his only record of looking out for himself cruz spokes responded the national democrats coming in from their ivory towers in new york dc and california tells texans all they need to know just like them colin all right is nothing more than a radical leftist with a radical record who would destroy texas and accelerate the decline of amer. There was a poll put out this morning on Thursday from Emerson that put the race at about five points, five-point margin between Cruz and Allred, Cruz up, of course. It put the presidential race at about a six-point margin in the state.

I think that's probably about right of where, based on things I've heard and the various polling discrepancies, I think that four- to five-point margin is about right for the Senate race. But it could shrink or grow in the last month. And Cruz is hoping to grow it. We saw him deploy what they think is the biggest wedge issue for the undecided voters on All Red, which is this biological men and women's sports issue. I think we talked about that on the podcast last week, the $6.7 million he put into that.

And All Red is looking to bring those voters over to his side, both through positive advertising and more negative messaging against Cruz, which he's been deploying this whole time. So it's a question of which is the biggest mover. If from an issue set, you have immigration border security that tends to favor republicans from the democratic side you have abortion that tends to favor democrats there are others all over the place i mentioned the the sports the men and women sports issue that's one so um the national dems feel they have an opportunity here to if not um if not win, make it really close again and further make their case that Texas is getting more competitive?

And is it just a Cruz issue or is it a state issue with where the state's moving? We'll see what happens. But you have arguably two of the most unpopular candidates at the top of the ticket, Trump and Cruz, from a Republican perspective, on the ballot. And so, you know, that's – it's not like Greg Abbott is at the top of the ticket. Do you think – let's say Ted Cruz, he's leading in the polls right now. Let's say he does end up winning. Do you think Democrats will chalk it up, even if Cruz wins, as a Democrat when predicting that there is this shift because they kept it so close? Do you think they're spending all this money just trying to showcase the fact that they can shift Texas towards being

more blue than it was maybe in years past. Oh, absolutely. You know, that's part of their, they're playing the long game here. And that brings me to the next update that was the National Democratic Redistricting Committee run by former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder. They endorsed in three Texas Supreme Court races. And they've been hinting at eyeing these races, but they officially endorsed the three Democrats, Christine Weems, Bonnie Lee Goldstein, and Deshaun Jones. The reason they're eyeing this is they want either close to a majority or majority on the Supreme Court by the time the next redistricting happens in 2031. And that's a big lift.

It's a big lift. But that's their goal. And so by Allred, if he doesn't win, by Allred putting in a good performance, that justifies further investment in the state from National Democrats who were really, really you know after 18 they were they were feeling good right and they put all this money into the state in 20 and 22 and it just got walloped right um you know all red beat o'rourke by 11 13 points something like that cornyn won by 11 13 points in 20 uh but if they can show crews only one by five yeah you know they can hold that up and say well i would say progress i would say five points is not progress for them okay because

the benchmark they want to close for is beto in 2018 which was a 2.6 percent margin okay so they need to build on that they need to make it around there or closer. And I think they do have an advantage given who is at the top of the ticket for Republicans. Now, both Trump and Cruz are popular among their constituency. But among undecided voters and lean Dems, soft Dems, they're quite unpopular. Even some soft Republicans aren't crazy about either of them. So when you have this perfect storm, they think at the top of the ticket, maybe it doesn't turn out that way.

Maybe both Cruz and Trump win by half a dozen points. But they think they have an opportunity here, not just because of what they think the direction of the state is, but because of who's at the top of the ticket at this moment. Do you think those moderates, lean Dems, undecided folks, that they dislike Cruz based upon policy positions or personality? Oh, personality. Same with Trump. Okay. Yeah, same with Trump. Okay. Now, the one issue from a policy perspective that I think Democrats have an advantage on that

I mentioned is abortion. But, you know, also, Cruz didn't vote on the abortion laws in Texas. That was the state legislature. That was Governor Abbott who signed it. And we're seeing Trump do the same sort of thing, like send it back to the state. It's not a federal issue. And Cruz has kind of said something similar, different than what he said in the past where he was a rock-ribbed pro-lifer. And I think he still is that. But he's also pivoted to focusing on IVF. And Trump's also done this, but Cruz especially has. He wants to to protect IVF he thinks this is the issue where the slice of the abortion issue where Republicans can stake out an advantage yeah and that's been the strategy there but it's all a question of what moves the needle more and well it's been

interesting seeing all the polling change over the past couple months. And there is one poll I wanted to ask you about before we move on here. Are you familiar with the cookie poll in Ohio? I am, yes. They predicted all but one of the last 15, 20 elections. Yeah, since 1984 gotten they've predicted every single presidential is this in cincinnati or is this yeah in cincinnati except for 2020 they got that one wrong so how much steak do you put in this cookie bowl for the presidential

it's a pretty good track record okay all right if people are interested in who's going to win presidential election who's winning that um right now trump is winning out 54 support oh okay yeah so if people are interested in polling forget all the algorithms and mathematical equation put go buy a cookie pay attention to ohio because that in ohio is where it all happens well not anymore oh okay it used to be now it's pennsylvania yeah ohio used to be the east wing state but not anymore it's red pride would know i would i would i am the foremost expert of ohio on this podcast that's very very true um well brad thanks for breaking that down for us and cam thanks for making the conversation interesting as you always do we're

going to stick on the cruise and Allred situation here. House Republicans voted to pass a resolution that aims to overturn EPA tailpipe emissions rule. Cameron, you covered this for us. Tell us about it. Yeah, so just some background before I get into it. the EPA finalized a tilt pipe vehicle emissions rule called the multi-pollant emissions standards for model years 2027 and later light duty medium duty vehicles which places new national pollution standards for vehicles from 2027 onward aiming to reduce carbon emissions the EPA was mandating that over half of all new vehicles sold by 2032 must be electric and this resolution aims to reverse much of that regulation and it passed the house by a vote of

215 to 191 with 25 not voting. Eight Democrats voted in favor while one Republican, a representative out of Pennsylvania, voted no. All Texas Republicans voted yes on the resolution except Kay Granger who did not vote. Henry Cuellar and Vicente Gonzalez also voted yes while all other Texas Democrats voted no so getting into the contentious disagreements here between Cruz and all red as we've talked about extensively Cruz locked in a heated race with all red and immediately came out with an advertisement calling Colin all red climate Colin and hitting him for his no vote on the resolution. He said in the Cruz campaign wrote, quote, Allred just said yes to crippling the Texas oil and gas industry. Once again, Cruz continued to slam Allred on his vote on social media.

And there was just a lot of going back and forth here like we've mentioned before the two are set to debate on October 15th in Dallas and we talked about earlier in the podcast the CHIPS Act talking about now environmental regulations related to vehicles. I'll really be looking forward to this debate to see the two on stage together, face-to-face, hashing out the issues to see where they're similar, where they are different, and how that's going to land with these moderate voters that we have talked about extensively, seeing as though there are people on both sides of this who are completely in support of Allred, completely in support of Cruz. They're trying to win over that independent

swing voter. So we'll see. I'll be tuning in October 15th for that debate. Love it. Cam, thank you so much. We're going to chat with you more, Cam. You've been doing some heavy lifting on reporting for us, as you always do. Abilene Christian University ACU was granted a construction permit to begin building a one-of-a-kind nuclear reactor facility. This one caught our attention for sure. Tell us about the story. Yeah, so the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, or NRC, granted Abilene Christian University a construction permit for its Molten Salt Research Reactor Facility, which is going to be located on the university's campus. In March 2020, ACU submitted a letter of intent to the NRC

to apply for a construction permit for this non-power molten salt reactor. In 2022, ACU submitted a engagement plan related to the project. The proposed reactor will have a capacity up to one megawatt thermal utilizing graphite moderation and fluoride salt flowing fluid with the fuel dissolved in the salt. So that's a lot of information there. molten salt reactor utilizes a liquid molten salt mixture as both the coolant and fuel aiming to provide advantages and safety and efficiency compared to traditional nuclear reactors which

use water as a coolant and solid rods for fuel so this is a first of its kind research facility exploring this new technology it's the first liquid salt fueled reactor ever licensed by the NRC in US history so really first of its kind be very interesting to see how this technology could be potentially used for not just energy generation, but for commercial application. So we talk a lot about nuclear power plants, nuclear energy. Texas currently operates two nuclear power plants with a total of four reactors in the state and the plants have an installed capacity of 5,000 megawatts of electricity and make up 10% of Texas's total energy generation. So continued technological advancements in the domain of nuclear reactors. Just an interesting story, something I thought I'd highlight.

Something to add to this is whenever you talk about nuclear power, the byproduct, pun very much intended, is nuclear waste. And Texas had a knockdown-dragout fight over the interim storage of nuclear waste back in 21 when the state legislature banned it. And it's important to point out that there's interim storage of waste and all of these reactors wherever they are in Texas whether it's the the power plants the big ones one in Houston one in DFW or if it's these research centers Abilene Christian now UT has one over by Q2 Stadium.

Nobody knows about it, but guess what? There's nuclear waste stored there. Not just run-of-the-mill nuclear waste, like high-level reactor core components. Interesting. The spent fuel. And so it's everywhere. And, you know, on top of that, we make the nation's nuclear weapons arsenal in Amarillo. Well, I was just going to mention, like, when you talk about nuclear energy,

most people, they have issues with, like, the nuclear facility catastrophes that have happened throughout history, right? Like Chernobyl or Three Mile Island or whatever. Well, I think Three Mile Island wasn't that as far as a meltdown happening as success, right? Because it didn't. Right. It wasn't Chernobyl. Chernobyl was its own.

But people have worries about that. Well, sure, yeah. But an interesting thing is like when nuclear technology is developed let's say for nuclear power plants to generate energy well that is also that technological advancement is the precursor for developing of nuclear weapons as well and so um it's just it's just an interesting little wrinkle to the whole idea of nuclear technology is, oh, we're working on nuclear power plants. Well, you know, that same information could be used to build nuclear weapons. So who knows what's going on at those facilities behind the scenes,

this black budget, you know, off the books, what's happening. Off the books. Well, Cam, thanks for breaking that down for us. And I'm going to have to think all my friends who went to ACU have been graduated from ACU for a very long time. But we'll send some spies out there to take a peek. Cam, thank you. Brad, I want you to cover a story here from Kim that she covered in Carol ISD. The district passed its tax rate this week,

and it was quite a notable change, definitely stirred up some conversation locally and across the state. Tell us about it. So when talking about tax rates, it's important to know that a tax rate can increase or decrease and it not be the only affected change on the tax bill. You can decrease the tax rate and still increase property taxes. When the word rate is thrown in there, it kind of muddies the water on what bills actually look like. These localities, they love to shout, oh, we're reducing your tax rate. But they kind of whisper the rate part because it's not always a tax decrease. Well, in Carroll ISD, it was in fact a tax decrease because they adopted below what's called the no new revenue rate.

The NNR is the point at which no new taxes are brought in save for new property added to the rolls and the it is an actual tax decrease it is not a we'll just decrease the rate we'll set the rate at a point where it's a lower rate but it still brings in more more revenue so Carol ISD did that. Schools are, of course, the largest component of property tax bills, over half. Just the M&O, I think, is about half. Then you add the IAS side of things. So it is a very notable development. This is something that doesn't happen a lot, but Carol ISD is not the only one that's done this. Carol ISD Board of President Cameron Bryan said, I think this board, we want to think about our taxpayers first. None of our neighboring districts are at or below the no new revenue rate. We want

to make sure the community understands that this is something that is unprecedented in the school district, especially of our size. We are truly looking out for the taxpayer in our community. So clearly Carol ISD taking a stand there, and I'm not sure if it will be paired with spending cuts. I'm sure it will. A lot of times when this happens, okay, I'm looking through Kim's piece now. The biggest reason this happened was so Carol ISD reduced its INS rate, and that is the interest in sinking. That is what pays for capital projects.

So if they're building a new school, the money from that comes from the INS rate. So they probably paid off debt that they had existing, and they just didn't increase the M&O rate commensurately to basically zero dollar budget, which is what you see happen a lot. You'll see these school districts, especially when they pay something off, they'll say, oh, we're not raising your taxes. But you are compared to what it could have been

had you just let the rate that expired with the debt go so that's not what's happening here um so yeah pretty notable development in carol isd i doubt it'll be elsewhere in any significant way and that's sorry brad i keep having there's there's a lag and i'm not I doubt it'll be elsewhere. And that's sorry, Brad, I keep having there's, there's a lag and I'm not doing a great job of gauging when you're done. The, and that's where you'll hear lawmakers talk about the no new revenue. So plentifully,

especially those who are keen on the property tax issue is because that's really what they're looking at when it comes to these kinds of conversations is specifically the no new revenue rate. So this being part of the deal in Carroll ISD, especially as I said, for a district of this size is very notable and definitely worth going and reading all of Kim's piece to get the details. It's very interesting stuff and a big part of the conversation surrounding why people's property tax bills can be so high in Texas. So Brad, thanks for covering that on behalf of Kim. Happy to. Delightful. Cameron, let's talk some more education news.

TEA Commissioner Mike Morath endorsed the idea of banning cell phones in schools before a Senate committee, a Texas Senate committee. Tell us what he said. Yeah, so Mike Morath, he spoke during the Senate Education Committee hearing where he said, quote, at least from my perspective, cell phones are extremely harmful for student learning. And if it were in my power, I would have already banned them in all schools in the state. Goes on to say, so I would encourage you to consider that as a matter of public policy going forward for our students and our teachers. Very big in terms of someone who's in charge of the TEA as the commissioner making comments like that. We saw Paul Bettencourt and Donna Campbell both commenting positively about the prospect of banning cell phones in Texas schools, with Donna Campbell noting that, quote,

some superintendents independently have called for a ban on cell phones during school, and it works. We have reported in the past on Keller ISD is one of those districts that has banned student cell phone use during the school day. We saw Texas State House Rep. Ellen Troxclare. She's been a vocal opponent of cell phone use by children during school hours, actually penning an op-ed in the Daily Signal about this issue. And this is not a new phenomenon. Jonathan Haidt, social scientist, he's very well known arguing against the use of cell phones in schools, reducing social media access by young children. And we've actually seen a number of different states enact or even recommending policy limiting children's cell phone use in schools. Florida, Louisiana, and South Carolina have all prohibited access to personal electronic devices by students

during the school day. So lots of energy behind this type of policy and with Morath coming out in support of it and with legislation planning on being filed related to it, I'm sure we'll see some movement on it during the 89th legislative session. I just want to know, Cameron, if we just heard a twang in South Carolina from you, West Coaster. If it did come out, it was unintentional. It's the natural evolution of living in texas yeah it just happens sometimes carolina i'm with you i you'll have to go back and replay the tape when this pot is uh published because i am like i'm 90 sure that there was a twang when you said south carolina

maybe we'll have to clip it and put it out. We will. We totally will. Well, the last story I want to highlight before we move on to our tweeter here, and I'll do this quickly because we're running out of time, is from Holly Hansen. It's a great story, and I should encourage folks to go read it themselves, but Texas DPF sends Cease and Desist to Automatic License Plate Reader Company. This is an exclusive from Holly, and it's certainly a story worth your time. It's very interesting considering a lot of the conversations about these automatic license plate reader companies. And of course, the argument is that the institution and the use of them can prevent certain crimes from happening or just allow law enforcement more

suitable tools to be able to track down whatever happened on a crime scene or the perpetrator. But then, of course, there are so many concerns about privacy, so many concerns about surveillance, and there certainly is correspondence between these companies and DPS saying, yes, we pretty much keep all the data we receive regardless of whether or not it might be pertinent to a crime. So I'd encourage folks to go read this from Holly. Very interesting stuff here. We have the letter from DPS at the bottom of the story as well. And it's just great all around reporting and certainly something that we keep hearing about. And I think will be tackled at least discussed in some sort of way during the legislative session this January. So keep an

eye out on that issue and certainly go read Holly's story at the Texan. Gentlemen, let's move on to our tweetery here. Brad, why don't you go ahead and start? So it got a notable poll. It's not a horse race poll, at least of the overarching picture. But it's kind of a, it's a gauge of a subset of voters. And so this is from Texans United for Conservative Majority, formerly Defend Texas Liberty, and CWS Research. They put out a poll on newly registered voters since the 2020 election, and where they stand in the Senate race specifically. So of those, I think it was 626 registered voters. So throw in the caveats of what's a likely voter,

how do we determine that? Is that an accurate picture, just registered voters? But of registered voters that were polled, 45% preferred Cruz to 37% for Allred with 18% undecided. Wow. And so, you know, there's a lot of talk about if Texas registers more voters, does that help Democrats? You know, there's this thinking that the more people, A, that turn out or B, that get registered, the more Democrats are helped. You know, that number suggests that's not the case. Now, again, that doesn't mean that that number breakdown is the same if you were to make a likely voter sample out of that. But it is notable that it's not necessarily a foregone conclusion

that more people voting, more people being registered is a problem for Republicans. Yeah. It's interesting because after the lockdowns, the whole COVID hysteria of 2020, so many people fleeing blue states for red states and many this is just my estimation maybe a lot of those people were politically ambiguous prior to 2020 and then after that they saw all the shenanigans that were happening decided to move and become more... The sand being put on skate parks?

Yes. Beaches being shut down, you know. And so they decided, you know what? I need to be more politically involved. I need to actually be registered in this new state that I'm moving to to make sure what happened in the previous place I was living doesn't happen here. So that could be an interesting sort of dynamic.

I don't know. It would take a very comprehensive survey maybe to get that information out of people. But I could see that as being something that is positive for Republicans. Well, and look back at the 2018 race. The voters that swung it for Cruz were not native Texans. They were recently moved to Texas voters. And I don't know if that same dynamic is going to play out at the Senate race. Probably a good chance it does.

But, yeah, it was not. This idea of blue voters coming to moving to texas doesn't have a ton of basis and evidence so far maybe that's changed this poll would suggest not now that also doesn't mean it's not just people moving to texas that qualify as newly registered voters right people coming of age turning 18 right people that have just never voted before. You know, Trump did that. He brought in a whole new constituency of members who either weren't registered and never voted before or just who had never voted before and turned out or hadn't voted in a long, long time. So there's multiple dynamics here. But, you know, if we're going to extrapolate that poll, it's a pretty good sign for Republicans that just because more people are voting doesn't mean you're at a disadvantage.

And also, I didn't mention this, but the generic ballot was even more stark for Republicans, 57% to 43%. You know, that's a testament to the extremes of the views on Cruz. You either love him or you hate him. There's no in-between. And how generic R, although generic R never runs against generic D. That generic ballot test is good in the abstract, but it does not take into account actual candidates, and the Senate race is a great example of that. But yeah, I think it would be more interesting to see a likely voter sample, but also that throws in a whole other level of uncertainty,

whether you can actually hit that right, hit that mix right. But a fascinating breakdown there, I think. Yeah. Absolutely. I think looking into, you know, looking to November, which we are so close to right now, and I think it's easy to forget in light of all the hubbub going on in the legislative circles right now, but there is, the data point I'm most interested in seeing is how new movers, because Texas is still dealing with, especially in certain counties in the state, with a lot of new movers. And I'm very curious to see those stats compared to 2018, specifically with Cruz. So I'm excited to see what that looks like and get some data on that front, because a general election will tell us a lot more than a primary in that regard. Bradley, thank you. Cameron, you've got some spicy stuff for us here. Federal prosecutors have indicted New York City Mayor Eric Adams, making him the first mayor in

city history to be charged while in office. I'm reading from Politico here, the dramatic move comes after a lengthy investigation that has dogged the moderate Democrat for nearly a year. The revelation, along with several other law enforcement probes that have led to a spat of high-level resignations, stand to imperil Adams' 2025 re-election prospects so very very interesting here that this being the first time a mayor in the city of New York has been charged while in office just for the fact that New York City just like Chicago known for corruption in government so the, there's been no, the specific charges are sealed. And so we don't know what is being charged yet, but just a new development in this case,

but there's been a lot of resignations from his office. And yeah, it's going to shake things up in the, not just the state politics of New York, but, you know, New York being such a high profile state, Eric Adams being the leader of New York City, you know, he's a national name. So this is big news. Absolutely. I think Brad was the first to share it in Slack last night. And oh my gosh, always, whenever you see a message, you know, a link sent to the Things Are Happening channel in our Slack, and then you see immediately responses from folks being like, oh my gosh, oh my gosh, you know, it's big news.

So I woke up this morning. I wanted to mention that whenever someone have whenever something happens to someone you know things um get brought back up from their past like oh we should have saw the sonnets or whatever it is right vision is history yeah but a funny thing that resurfaced was um when eric a state senator, he did a PSA for combating gun violence. where it's him like in a mock children's bedroom like telling parents essentially like where to look for possible contraband in a in the kids bedroom and like at one point instead of saying oh you should check your child's backpack backpack uh he calls it a backpack a popular knapsack so i don't know if he was very intense yeah um i link it for for people on the podcast here but uh yeah just i just think that's so

funny whenever something happens a popular knapsack yeah old things resurface i think that's what um bernie sanders was toting around the dfw airport when i saw him one time was a popular knapsack i kid you not it looked like you know in winnie the pooh those the the bandana you put around you tie around a stick and then you sling over your shoulder it looks like that on wheels that's what bernie sanders was toting around the dfw airport a pop i guarantee you if you found it somehow on amazon it would say popular knapsack that knapsack is a term knapsack calling a book bag or a backpack a knapsack is like calling pants trousers or calling dinner we're sitting down for

supper yeah my grandma called the supper i always heard that growing up but yeah i think that's kind of like a geographical distinction too right if you're in certain parts of the country you'll say supper versus dimmer yeah like the tennis shoes sneakers gym shoes breakdown yeah yeah i don't know how much that one stands stands up as much as separate as but maybe it does maybe i'm just ignorant have you not seen the maps i tend to be someone made a whole series of maps about these geographical terms totally yeah i just i just haven't heard the sneakers one is popularly talked about but i might just not be in the right chats yeah no i agree with everything else um my tweetery is thanks to rob lauscious our esteemed assistant editor he always tends to be the one to let us

know about the on this day in history tweets uh hearkening back to different periods of time and what's happened on this day in previous years. So, On This Day in 1960. This is presidential trivia, trivia POTUS Twitter account. Vice President Nixon and Senator Kennedy face each other in the first televised presidential debate. Of course, we all know the lore behind this debate and how the impact this had on American history. But it's interesting. And I think it's a good plug for Redacted, Cameron, because you covered this just a little bit and let it led into the larger premise of your newsletter, like two weeks ago, I want to say. Yeah, I'd have to look back and remember

which newsletter it was, because I feel like I've mentioned it a couple times. But yeah, just the radio versus television audiences perceiving who won the debate was just so starkly different. And it sort of led into the domination of television debates and the utility of performing on television leads to gaining votes yeah i found it here the debate was in the cbs studio uh 88 percent of american households owned televisions by 1960, and an estimated 70 million viewers tuned in to watch the candidates face off live. Those who watched on TV largely felt Kennedy won, while radio listeners tended to favor Nixon.

After the debate, Kennedy went on to win one of the closest elections in U.S. history, marking the significant shift in how media presentations play a crucial role in shaping voter perception. So yeah, it's a very important day in history, especially those like Brad, who is following all the different advertisements and how people perceive candidates in a more digital environment now as prior you know you'd have to go out and watch a long-form debate in person yeah very different well and the the coolest anecdote of that um of that nixon jfk debate was the sleight of hand jfk did before the first time they've been on tv right well jfk first went up to the stand to the podiums without makeup on and nixon saw that and he's like, well, I'm not going to let this young whippersnapper get one over on me.

I don't want makeup. Well, then right before it started, JFK went offstage and got makeup put on and then reassumed the spot at the podium. Well, what that caused is it made Nixon look sweaty and disgusting and just not good. Off-putting. Off-putting on TV. And they polled viewers of the debate, viewers and listeners, and those who watched it far out believed JFK won in a lot bigger margin than those who listened to it and thought Nixon won.

So playing to your mediums is huge. Yeah, that's why we usually start late on the podcast, too. It's because I have to go get my face on before i sit down to record you know this doesn't come naturally it takes a lot of work camera is definitely um definitely made for the cameras that's a joke for people who are listening i can just picture someone listening like, is this guy just have like crazy eyeliner on, just like super bright blush,

looking like a clown or something. Yeah, I got, for people who only listen, I usually come in full Joker makeup to the podcast just to really set the vibe. She totally set the vibe. Well, gentlemen, thank you for joining me on the pod folks. Thanks for listening. And we will catch you on next week's episode.

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