Today, Explained - The Lone Star strategy

Episode Date: July 14, 2021

Republicans in Texas are legislating so far to the right the state’s Democrats up and fled to Washington, DC. Vox’s Nicole Narea explains. Transcript at vox.com/todayexplained. Support Today, Explained by making a financial contribution to Vox! bit.ly/givepodcasts. We are conducting an audience survey to better serve you. It takes about five minutes, and it really helps out the show. Please take our survey here: vox.com/survey Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Get groceries delivered across the GTA from Real Canadian Superstore with PC Express. Shop online for super prices and super savings. Try it today and get up to $75 in PC Optimum Points. Visit Superstore.ca to get started. Republicans in Texas are really going for it lately. They're legislating so far right where the Democrats fled the state. A bunch of them wound up here in Washington, D.C. They left the state on buses and planes to block the vote.

The Texas Democrats' decision to break a quorum in the Texas legislature and to abandon the Texas state capitol, that inflicts harm on the very Texans who elected them to serve. Nicole Nerea covers politics at Vox, but she does it from Texas. Nicole, what's going on with the GOP out there? So Republicans have passed or are trying to pass a slew of legislation on topics that are really aimed at animating their right-wing base. Democrats basically talked a big game about turning the state blue in 2020 and flipping the Texas statehouse.

While Texas has not voted for a Democrat for president since 1976, a major surge in early voting in the Lone Star State is giving Democrats new hope tonight that they could turn the traditionally red state blue next week. But that didn't come even close to fruition. It turns out that Democrats, maybe some of them spotted a blue mirage in some of the early numbers and hope overcame facts in this case. So Republicans at this point aren't really worried about a Democratic offensive. The state is solidly red, and incumbent Republicans from Governor Greg Abbott down to state House representatives just want to defend their seats from primary challengers in next year's elections and also

prove to Republican voters that they share their values. What issues are they trying to prove this on? So the governor's already signed legislation that removed permit requirements to carry a handgun and also established an effective ban on abortion that's currently facing legal challenges. But there's also a special session of the state legislature underway where lawmakers are supposed to work on legislation that would prevent schools from teaching critical race theory, provide funding for border security, and make Texas's already very restrictive voting laws even more so. And of course, this voting legislation thing is getting a ton of attention in particular because state Democrats once again fled the statehouse. Yeah, so it's

basically a last-ditch effort to prevent the passage of this restrictive new voting law by preventing a quorum in the legislature. Look, you know, to break quorum, we have to stay out of the state for a long time. We're fighting for voting rights. These bills that they're trying to pass in Texas would make it so much harder for the people of Texas to vote, especially women, people of color, and individuals with a disability. So we're committed to... They intend to stay in D.C. until the end of the special session in August. But unless Congress intervenes by passing voting rights legislation in the immediate future, it might just be a matter of delaying the special session in August. But unless Congress intervenes by passing voting rights legislation in the immediate future, it might just be a matter of delaying the inevitable

at this point because Republicans control the Texas legislature and they've been threatening to even arrest Democrats who fled the state. But why is the state's GOP being so aggressive about passing all of these bills right now? You mentioned something about sort of trying to appeal to the conservative base instead of trying to appeal to the middle. Yeah. So for a while after the 2018 midterm elections, Texas Republicans were more focused on bread and butter issues like property taxes and school finance. But Democrats made some major inroads that year, not just retaking the U.S. House, but also picking up 12 seats in the Texas House and two in the Texas Senate. And that shook

Republicans' confidence a bit in the state. But 2020 kind of marked the return of the more culture-worry issues in the Texas legislature. And with primary elections around the corner in 2022, Texas Republicans are trying to hold onto their seats and not lose them to more conservative candidates. There's also been rumors flying about that Governor Abbott is trying to boost his image for a potential 2024 presidential run. So Republicans at this point are really just returning to some of the really divisive issues that the Trump administration focused on. And the Texas governor is kind of chummy with the former president, yeah? Yeah, definitely. He recently hosted Trump for a visit down in Texas.

We had the border so closed, the best ever. We're going to begin the process of putting the border wall up just like President Trump did, just like what President Biden should be doing. He really is trying to align himself with Trump's base at this point. And I imagine the critical race theory, the abortion stuff, the voting bill stuff is all part of that agenda and has been trying to attack the Biden administration for perceived failures to deal with migration at the

U.S.-Mexico border. He's basically just saying that at this point, the Biden administration is allowing criminals over the border and that the border isn't secure. Some of the same rhetoric we saw under the Trump administration and that Trump himself has repeated in recent weeks in speeches that he's given at CPAC and other places. We ended the horrible catch and release where we catch a criminal and release him into our country. We actually said, nope, it's called stay in Mexico. And it worked very well. And we had the support of Mexico. Who else could do that?

But, you know, it's not really clear at this point whether those attacks can actually land, given that it's not really clear that there is a crisis at the border. It's just maybe the result of pandemic-related policies that have led to a pent-up demand for migration. And is Governor Abbott trying to do something about this himself? Yes, he has said that he wants to build a border wall by himself. By himself?

Yeah, you're not the only one who's skeptical. Like, is he going to go down there in cargo shorts with like a sun hat? Who knows? At this point, it is very much of a theoretical vision as opposed to a practical one, given that there are a lot of concerns legally and also just practically about implementing the project from fundraising to seizing private property to the limited powers of state government over immigration. And it's really unclear if he'll actually be able to do it, but he's still going to try. And so far, he's managed to raise some money for it. Quick break, then how a Texas governor plans to do what the federal government couldn't, build that wall. Support for Today Explained comes from Ramp. Ramp is the corporate card and spend management software designed to help you save time and put money back in your pocket. Ramp says they give finance teams unprecedented control and insight into company spend. With Ramp, you're able to issue cards to every employee with limits and

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a sportsbook worth a slam dunk, an authorized gaming partner of the NBA. BetMGM.com for terms and conditions. Must be 19 years of age or older to wager. Ontario only. Please play responsibly. If you have any questions or concerns about your gambling or someone close to you, please contact Connex Ontario at 1-866-531-2600 to speak to an advisor free of charge. BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario. Nicole, so when we left off, you said that the Texas governor, Governor Greg Abbott, plans on building the border wall by himself.

How exactly does a governor go about doing that? So he is planning on picking up where Trump left off. And the Trump administration built about 450 miles of barrier on the border. But most of it was in Arizona. So Abbott's looking to finish the wall along the Texas border and has so far put down a $250 million down payment that was drawn from state disaster relief funds. And he's also crowdfunded almost another half a million dollars as of June 23rd. But that's still kind of a drop in the bucket of what he might need to finish the project. And the federal government's estimated that it could cost as much as $46 million a mile

in some sectors of the border. So it's not really clear at this point where that money's coming from. Yeah. Is that like a thing you can do? Can a state governor just take disaster relief funds and put it towards a vanity project, a construction project, or, you know, as he probably would like to phrase it, an essential security spending project? Yeah, it's not clear whether that's legal under Texas state law. He basically declared a disaster for 34 counties in the state last month, citing a recent increase in unauthorized immigration at the border. And that freed up some resources to deal with the problem and also allowed him to suspend any state laws and regulations that would stand in the way.

But as I mentioned before, it's not really clear that the current levels of unauthorized immigration actually constitute a disaster as it's defined legally. Fair. Assuming he does raise enough money and doesn't run into legal challenges for using emergency funds for this, which who knows, but where exactly in Texas would this wall go? Yeah, so this is going to be another challenge for Abbott. We have an obligation to take care of this land. Been in my family since 1750. It's in our DNA. He basically needs the consent of private landowners on the border to build the wall on what is currently their property. My name is Mauricio Alejandro Vidauri. I'm a retired CBP officer, now turned farmer and rancher. My name is Jose, and my last name is Vidalri.

We're standing on the United States side. The land over there that you see is Mexico. And these landowners have already fought both the Trump and Biden administrations in the courts to prevent the federal government from seizing their land in order to construct the wall. Army Corps of Engineers already came in. They took their soil samples. They did some wall. Army Corps of Engineers already came in. They took their soil samples. They did some survey. They did some cleanup. We have not received anything from the governor's office. I would not personally donate any land for that use or for any use.

The Texas Civil Rights Project, which is a legal aid organization, is currently representing more than 130 property owners that want to keep their land. So it's not clear that that land will actually be available for Texas to construct its wall. What are these landowners' reasons for fighting the wall? Do they just not believe in walls? Do they want to keep their property wall-less? Yeah, so this is Texas, and the idea of big government taking your property isn't all that popular. These 65-plus acres of family land in Mission, Texas, sit right on the banks of the Rio Grande. It's belonged to the Cavazos family for three generations, and it's no secret how they feel about a border wall going up on their property.

How would you like somebody, the government, to come to your house and say, we're going to put a gate right in your house? It's actually been an issue not just in terms of constructing the wall, but also it's been an obstacle to various infrastructure and rail construction projects over the years. And you also have to remember that the region of South Texas has been really hard hit by both the pandemic and the resulting recession. So voters there are more focused on boosting the local economy and

resuming cross-border trade, which has been a huge source of jobs and economic growth for the region for a long time. So if locals aren't crazy about this wall and the governor is probably going to face a lot of challenges using this money to build the wall, why bother? It seems like state Republicans aren't really that interested in capitulating to the predominantly Hispanic communities along the border where a wall would actually matter to them. It's really much more of a political ploy than an actual project at this point. And much like the other laws we talked about before, this is an attempt to fire up a conservative base before 2022 and 2024. And we reached out to Governor Abbott's office for comment, and his press secretary said that this wall is not about politics.

Quote, border security is not a red or blue issue. This is a public safety issue. She went on to say that until the Biden administration starts doing their job, Texas is stepping up to secure our southern border and protect Texans. So clearly the governor's office is saying they don't see this as like some sort of GOP ploy. Is this border wall going to be popular among Texans, though? It could work in the way that it did for Trump, but it could also backfire. So in 2016, immigration was seen as an issue that helped mobilize white grievance voters, as well as some swing voters in places like Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania in favor of Republicans. But in 2018, when Trump really focused on the

quote-unquote invasion of migrant caravans and smugglers, it really didn't help the Republicans' case. And Democrats, who focused on health care for the most part instead, ended up taking back 41 House seats. So it's definitely proved a risky strategy for Republicans nationally in the past. But if there's a place where that strategy could succeed, it's probably Texas. You mentioned the Texas governor might be gearing up for a presidential run in 2024. But before he gets there, he has to run for reelection in Texas next year. And he's going up against what, like a clean shaven Beto O'Rourke? Yeah, I think that's a question that a lot of people want to ask.

But the Democratic Party at this point in Texas is pretty demoralized after the results of 2020. And I just don't see them launching an offensive that threatens Abbott in any way, even though he's faced a lot of challenges over the last year with the pandemic and also this crazy winter storm that left a lot of people without power in the cold for days. But he's hearkening back to the issues that his voters care about. And it's a strategy that's worked for Texas Republicans in the past and that he's hoping will work for him in 2022. Is that dream of flipping Texas blue sort of dead now with all of these initiatives from the Texas GOP that sort of run so hard and fast in the face of everything that the state's

liberals probably want to see happen? Yeah, I mean, I think a lot of people thought that 2020 was Democrats' best chance to make some progress in Texas. And when that didn't come to fruition, especially in terms of, you know, the Texas legislature now being controlled by Republicans, it means that they'll be in control of redistricting, which could basically harm Democrats for the next 10 years. And also these initiatives to clamp down on voting rights leave Democrats in a really precarious position and pretty much unable to make progress for the foreseeable future unless there's some federal intervention here. So pretty bleak for the state's Democrats, but there's always the question of Governor

Matthew McConaughey? Well, I want to talk to you about a couple of things. One is there's speculation that maybe you might one day run for governor of Texas. Right. It's something I'm giving consideration. Absolutely. What an honorable thing to even be able to consider. I'm a bit skeptical about this one as well. And it's not even clear whether he would run as a Democrat or Republican or independent. But he has expressed interest in the governorship. So the 2022 race could shape up to be quite interesting.

And we got to keep realizing that we're a place where our individual pursuits and desires need to be appreciative and supportive of our collective responsibilities as Americans, hence the United States of America. Has probable candidate McConaughey weighed in on the wall on voting legislation, critical race theory, abortion, handguns? I can't believe I'm asking what Matthew McConaughey thinks about critical race theory. He seems to be staying out of the fray for now, but he has said that

he would take an aggressively centric approach to his platform, whatever that means. Nicole Nerea covers politics and immigration at Vox. Find her work at Vox.com. I'm Sean Ramos for him. It's Today Explained. The team includes Halima Shah, Will Reed, Victoria Chamberlain, Emily Sen, and Miles Bryan.

Afim Shapiro is our engineer. Matthew Kalletz, our editor. And Amina Alsadi is our supervising producer. Music from Breakmaster Cylinder. Facts checked by Laura Bullard. Liz Kelly Nelson's the veep of audio at Vox. Jillian Weinberger's the deputy. Today Explained is part of the Vox Media Podcast Network.

You can reach us with an email, todayexplained at vox.com. Thank you.