Latest / The Chuck ToddCast / Interview Only w/ Gina Hinojosa - Red State, Blue Opportunity: How School Choice Could Flip Texas

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Interview Only w/ Gina Hinojosa - Red State, Blue Opportunity: How School Choice Could Flip Texas · The Chuck ToddCast

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Speaker 1: is a sponsor I absolutely embrace, so use that code. Well,
1:51
Speaker 1: I told you that there were going to be some
1:53
Speaker 1: cases where I wanted to be spending time interviewing governor
1:56
Speaker 1: in the big States. Just got done with one of
2:00
Speaker 1: the candidates in California. You've heard from some Florida candidates. Well,
2:05
Speaker 1: let's talk Texas. Right, State Representative Gina Heinosa is the
2:11
Speaker 1: leading Democratic candidate for governor in Texas. You've heard me say,
2:15
Speaker 1: you know, there's all this focus on on that Senate
2:18
Speaker 1: race and yet I kind of think if Texas Democrats
2:22
Speaker 1: are ever going to sort of break through, it may
2:25
Speaker 1: be on state issues that particularly the issue of education,
2:31
Speaker 1: which is exactly how Democrats broke through in Kansas. It's
2:34
Speaker 1: exactly likely. Why what we'll explain if Democrats win the
2:39
Speaker 1: governor's mansion in Iowa, the sort of this national move
2:44
Speaker 1: towards privatization, voucherization, whatever you want to call it, is
2:48
Speaker 1: one of those that there's a lot of rural conservatives
2:53
Speaker 1: who are like, yeah, school choice sounds great. The next
2:58
Speaker 1: school to choose from is thirty mins away type of mindset.
3:01
Speaker 1: So it is the idea and the reality. It is
3:06
Speaker 1: that nexus that has really opened the door in many
3:10
Speaker 1: of these red states for potential upsets on the Democratic
3:14
Speaker 1: side of the isle. And the issue of education is
3:16
Speaker 1: going to be front and center in this campaign. And
3:20
Speaker 1: Gina you know so, state representative who has been sort
3:23
Speaker 1: of I'm gonna let her tell her origin story, but education,
3:27
Speaker 1: the education issue, the school choice issue, in many ways
3:31
Speaker 1: her political origin story. And she joins me, now, state
3:34
Speaker 1: representative you know so, welcome to the podcast.
3:37
Speaker 2: Thank you check it's great to be here, and please
3:39
Speaker 2: just call me Gina Fair enough.
3:41
Speaker 1: Well, Gina, let me just look. I don't I can
3:44
Speaker 1: tell your story, but you know, you tell me what
3:46
Speaker 1: you know? What got you active in politics is? I
3:49
Speaker 1: love school board origin stories when it comes to politics.
3:53
Speaker 1: It's been one of my favorite I've interviewed. I've done
3:55
Speaker 1: all I used. I love to do exit interviews when
3:57
Speaker 1: people to choose to retire. And I remember I interviewed
4:01
Speaker 1: this one member of Congress, republican member of Congress from California,
4:04
Speaker 1: and I said, so, what got you into politics? He says, well,
4:07
Speaker 1: I didn't like that they read threw the boundaries and
4:09
Speaker 1: I was really upset about it. So I ran, I won,
4:11
Speaker 1: and then I found out the school board had nothing
4:13
Speaker 1: to do with the boundaries. It was like the funniest story,
4:16
Speaker 1: but it was sort of like, that's what made me
4:17
Speaker 1: get active in politics, and that's it is for a
4:20
Speaker 1: lot of people. It's your kids.
4:21
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's your first time.
4:22
Speaker 1: That you really interact with government. So tell the origin story.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, so I can sent in you just from everything
4:31
Speaker 2: you said. An education nerd like me, and I love it, Chuck,
4:36
Speaker 2: So I am an accidental education nerd. I just I'm
4:41
Speaker 2: a parent, right, and I'm a parent with kids who
4:45
Speaker 2: had kids in public schools. I still have a son
4:48
Speaker 2: in public school. But when my first child was in kindergarten,
4:53
Speaker 2: his school was threatened for closure. And this school was
4:57
Speaker 2: the longest continually operating in the whole state of Texas.
5:02
Speaker 2: Peas Elementary as stone's throw from the state's capital, a
5:07
Speaker 2: beloved school in this community. And so when his school
5:11
Speaker 2: was running foreclosure, along with many others, I just got mad.
5:15
Speaker 2: And this is how much I never wanted to run
5:18
Speaker 2: for office. So before I got married, I made my
5:22
Speaker 2: husband promise to never run for office, because he had
5:26
Speaker 2: been working for a senator in law school and so
5:30
Speaker 2: we'd like to talk about it, but he said, like, no,
5:34
Speaker 2: just make this promise, and so he did. So that's
5:38
Speaker 2: how much I didn't want to be part of You.
5:41
Speaker 1: Weren't going to marry somebody who was interested in politics.
5:45
Speaker 3: That's right. So anyway, I ran and I won, and.
5:48
Speaker 2: It was part of this grassroots effort in the community
5:52
Speaker 2: to save our schools, and we did.
5:54
Speaker 3: We flipped the.
5:54
Speaker 2: School board and none of the schools were closed.
5:59
Speaker 3: And there and I loved being on the school board.
6:01
Speaker 2: I recommend it to people who want to serve and
6:06
Speaker 2: who have an interest in we all in the education
6:10
Speaker 2: of our kids. But there I understood that the reason
6:13
Speaker 2: why our schools are threaten for closures because the state
6:16
Speaker 2: under Greg Abbott's leadership, takes our money and then doesn't
6:19
Speaker 2: put it back into our community needs and schools are.
6:25
Speaker 3: The school issue.
6:26
Speaker 2: Demonstrates better, I think than almost any other issue how
6:30
Speaker 2: that is working. I ran for the Texas House one
6:34
Speaker 2: and this was almost ten years ago, so this is
6:37
Speaker 2: my first my fifth term in the Texas House, and
6:41
Speaker 2: I've mostly focused on public schools. Though when you are
6:43
Speaker 2: a House member, you have to know about everything, right,
6:46
Speaker 2: kind of everything under the sun you have to vote on.
6:49
Speaker 2: But what I have found after almost ten years in
6:53
Speaker 2: the Texas House is that the bigger, biggest driver of
6:57
Speaker 2: policy in Texas is corruption. And it's not necessarily illegal corruption.
7:03
Speaker 2: It's just a friend of the governors hire as a
7:07
Speaker 2: former lobbyist to get at our taxpayer dollars and most
7:13
Speaker 2: of the big bills we've vote on, our vendor contracts
7:17
Speaker 2: that go to friends of Greg Abbott, right, and it's
7:20
Speaker 2: really gross, and especially when it comes to our.
7:23
Speaker 1: Public school I heat it's on this cynical you know,
7:25
Speaker 1: you're describing pretty much every part time legislator legislature situation
7:31
Speaker 1: in the country. This is why I'm very much a
7:33
Speaker 1: skeptic of part time legislature in general. But you're describing
7:37
Speaker 1: very you know. I just it's funny. And more people
7:41
Speaker 1: are getting or noticing this. Columbia, South Carolina's got a
7:44
Speaker 1: huge sort of there. More of these stories are coming
7:46
Speaker 1: out about how all of this has been political consultants
7:49
Speaker 1: and vendors using the legislative process to essentially make money
7:53
Speaker 1: off of the government.
7:55
Speaker 3: Yeah.
7:56
Speaker 2: I had a former legislator sum it up this way.
8:00
Speaker 2: Most legislators in Texas are either independently wealthy, they're supported
8:05
Speaker 2: by their spouse, or they're on the take.
8:08
Speaker 3: And I find that too.
8:11
Speaker 1: It's kind of depressing.
8:12
Speaker 3: Yeah, is depressing. So anyway, well we digress, go, Yes,
8:16
Speaker 3: we digress.
8:19
Speaker 2: So and it's especially gros when you think about our schools,
8:22
Speaker 2: right because we've been an exodus of teachers leaving the classroom.
8:25
Speaker 2: They're not paid, en up, they're not respected. We've had
8:29
Speaker 2: in my community now there are ten schools slated foreclosure.
8:32
Speaker 2: Two days ago, I was in Corpus CHRISTI They've got
8:35
Speaker 2: seven schools slated for closure.
8:37
Speaker 1: Is this due to low enrollment? What is the reasoning
8:40
Speaker 1: for it? Is there an enrollment? Is it low enrollment?
8:42
Speaker 1: Is this? Is it basically because people are using the
8:45
Speaker 1: state vouchers.
8:46
Speaker 2: To move to private The biggest reason is budget cuts.
8:50
Speaker 2: So Greg Abbott first rolled out his voucher scam in
8:55
Speaker 2: twenty twenty three. And you should know about Texas that
9:01
Speaker 2: public schools are very much a part of who we
9:04
Speaker 2: are as Texans. They are our identity. It is about
9:08
Speaker 2: Friday night lights and many of our rural communities. It's
9:11
Speaker 2: the samest, bigger, biggest employer. Think of it almost like
9:14
Speaker 2: the Chamber of Commerce in these.
9:16
Speaker 1: Rules, will can I just make one observation? It seems
9:19
Speaker 1: like any community can declare itself an independent school district,
9:24
Speaker 1: right like it? Yeah, there's sort of as it's a
9:27
Speaker 1: weird I will be it. Does you know it doesn't
9:31
Speaker 1: feel like it breaks on county lines? Right, it's suddenly right, suddenly,
9:35
Speaker 1: Oh there's a new housing development. Welcome to the independent
9:39
Speaker 1: school District of Frisco, you know, or something like that.
9:42
Speaker 3: Yeah, that is true. We do have a lot of
9:45
Speaker 3: school districts.
9:46
Speaker 2: But what has happened since in twenty twenty three? The
9:50
Speaker 2: governor held hostage school funding in exchange to try to
9:55
Speaker 2: get his voucher scam passed. It didn't work, but meanwhile
9:59
Speaker 2: our schools went without funding. And this was at a
10:02
Speaker 2: time of record inflation. And so fast forward to today,
10:06
Speaker 2: our schools have about ten billion dollars less in buying
10:12
Speaker 2: power than they did in twenty nineteen because of inflation
10:17
Speaker 2: and because we're so far behind and funding our schools.
10:20
Speaker 2: We're one of the bottom funded states when it comes
10:24
Speaker 2: to public education in the whole country. I think bottom
10:27
Speaker 2: last I knew it was bottom three. So that's why
10:32
Speaker 2: that is the biggest reason why our schools are shutting down.
10:35
Speaker 2: And so to think that where a lot of our
10:38
Speaker 2: money is going is these vendor contracts for nonsense that
10:43
Speaker 2: we don't need, is really insulting. And this is an
10:48
Speaker 2: observation that goes beyond partisanship. I had a press conference
10:55
Speaker 2: for a bill that I filed this here to do well,
10:58
Speaker 2: and I think, check, maybe you know this, but helped
11:02
Speaker 2: me remember if you can to do zero based budgeting.
11:05
Speaker 2: That was associated with the big maybe in the nineties,
11:08
Speaker 2: maybe it was New Gingridge, I don't remember who, but
11:10
Speaker 2: it was a big Republican policy approach to wipe the
11:16
Speaker 2: slate clean in spending and then build what's important prioritized.
11:22
Speaker 1: Oh, it was back when trying to like they were
11:24
Speaker 1: pushing for balanced budget amendment nationally, and they were, of course,
11:27
Speaker 1: I mean that debt was a huge issue to them
11:29
Speaker 1: at that time.
11:30
Speaker 2: And here the issue and here it fits so well,
11:33
Speaker 2: I believe because we've had thirty years of one party
11:37
Speaker 2: in control and so there's been no accountability when it
11:40
Speaker 2: comes to our spending. There is so much grift that
11:44
Speaker 2: is now baked into the system that we just need
11:46
Speaker 2: a fresh start.
11:47
Speaker 3: So I followed a bill to do that.
11:49
Speaker 2: With our education dollars at the state level, and I
11:53
Speaker 2: was surrounded only by mothers who had voted for Trump.
11:59
Speaker 3: Right.
12:00
Speaker 2: They were maga moms who understand that our money is
12:05
Speaker 2: being wasted because of these vendor contracts with Greg Abbott's friends,
12:11
Speaker 2: and they stood side by side with me at a
12:14
Speaker 2: press conference at the Capitol and support. These were also
12:18
Speaker 2: allied that I had made in this voucher fight, which
12:21
Speaker 2: is one big grift, right. Greg Abbott in twenty twenty
12:28
Speaker 2: three ended up pursuing vouchers for the first time ever.
12:32
Speaker 2: It was a big shock to put the people who
12:36
Speaker 2: have been observing politics and Texas for a long time
12:38
Speaker 2: because it's so anti Texan and so deeply unpopular. But
12:42
Speaker 2: he got a six million dollar check from Jeff yaz
12:46
Speaker 2: an At, a state billionaire from Pennsylvania who was pushing
12:51
Speaker 2: vouchers and so and now like and we've already had
12:56
Speaker 2: stories about grift happening in this voutuer program that has
12:59
Speaker 2: an even started. Right, So that's what this is. It's
13:03
Speaker 2: taking our taxpayer dollars and spending them in a way
13:08
Speaker 2: where there's no transparency, no accountability, and a lot of
13:12
Speaker 2: Republicans are against it. To your point about how education
13:16
Speaker 2: vouchers can be the issue that cuts through partisanship, I
13:21
Speaker 2: saw it here in Texas in a big way.
13:24
Speaker 1: I think the difficulty with the education issue is twofold
13:28
Speaker 1: one is we're all experts, right, because either we have
13:31
Speaker 1: a kid in school, I'm an expert. Right. It's the
13:33
Speaker 1: same with healthcare. Right. Why is it so hard to
13:35
Speaker 1: get sort of big ideas to sort of both lower
13:40
Speaker 1: the cost of healthcare and expand coverage because it's such
13:44
Speaker 1: a personal issue, right, just like education is so personal.
13:47
Speaker 1: So take the school funding issue. Look, you got on
13:51
Speaker 1: you were fighting. You were upset that money from Austin
13:54
Speaker 1: was not staying in Austin. Now one could argue that
13:59
Speaker 1: you want to make sure everybody has got an equal
14:01
Speaker 1: you know, has an equal access to good education. How
14:05
Speaker 1: do you feel about that recapture system that Texas uses
14:08
Speaker 1: in general? Are you in favor of it or are
14:11
Speaker 1: you not liking it right now because of how it's
14:13
Speaker 1: currently being managed.
14:15
Speaker 2: You are an education nerd, aren't you.
14:19
Speaker 1: Well, it's because these are well it is. Look, I'll
14:21
Speaker 1: just be honest. I think it's one of these. You know,
14:24
Speaker 1: sometimes when we look at a we talk about our
14:27
Speaker 1: national problems, like what should be our focus? Like we
14:30
Speaker 1: have the same public school funding model and public school
14:34
Speaker 1: model that was first developed right at the beginning of
14:37
Speaker 1: the industrial age, and we have not modernized. You know
14:40
Speaker 1: the reason, Like I am empathetic to people that are
14:43
Speaker 1: pro voucher because they just have given up. They're like, well,
14:46
Speaker 1: the system's not going to fix this, So can I
14:48
Speaker 1: at least how can I help my kid now? Right?
14:52
Speaker 1: So I get it right, I understand this isn't working.
14:55
Speaker 1: I want this now. You know, when you look at
14:58
Speaker 1: it from a big picture, you're really lies you know,
15:00
Speaker 1: if we vaucherize everything, then we're just going to have this.
15:03
Speaker 1: You know, we're going to gut the middle class, We're
15:05
Speaker 1: going to gut the working class because they can't all
15:07
Speaker 1: afford to just go find a perfect education for their kid.
15:11
Speaker 1: So this is always why it's such I think, you know,
15:16
Speaker 1: extraordinarily hard, and you know and and all that. So
15:20
Speaker 1: I guess the what's a what's ah, We've got to
15:24
Speaker 1: remodel this system. So what are your thoughts of remodeling
15:27
Speaker 1: this system?
15:28
Speaker 2: Okay, well let me answer it, because I don't.
15:30
Speaker 3: I didn't know through.
15:32
Speaker 1: Seven questions in there. Let's do recapture first.
15:35
Speaker 2: Okay, recapture. So I'm originally from South Texas, from the
15:38
Speaker 2: Rio Grande Valley where there is a lot of poverty.
15:40
Speaker 2: I grew up and I went to public school in Brownsville,
15:43
Speaker 2: right the southernmost tip of Texas. And yeah, we went without, right,
15:49
Speaker 2: and that shouldn't happen. So I do believe conceptually in
15:54
Speaker 2: the recaptures this equalize everybody should get a good education,
15:57
Speaker 2: regardless of the wealth of your community. I think that
16:01
Speaker 2: is right. Well we have now, and so I have
16:04
Speaker 2: this jar. Can you see this star I'm gonna make
16:08
Speaker 2: my point with this star. You should have a water bottle,
16:10
Speaker 2: but I just have crap all over this computer right now,
16:13
Speaker 2: and right now I have a jar. So this is
16:16
Speaker 2: what's happening. Though with that recapture system. The state is saying,
16:22
Speaker 2: this is only how much you can spend on public education,
16:26
Speaker 2: so they are suppressing and the amount and we can
16:30
Speaker 2: spend on our students. And this big jar, that's all
16:35
Speaker 2: the money that is coming from our property taxes. So
16:39
Speaker 2: you pour it into what can be spent on education
16:42
Speaker 2: for everybody, regardless whether they're a property wealthy or property
16:46
Speaker 2: poor school district, and most of it falls out and
16:50
Speaker 2: all that money is being spent on nonsense, and it
16:53
Speaker 2: is not education. It's spent on all sorts of other things.
16:57
Speaker 2: Because now I'm getting really nerdy.
16:59
Speaker 3: And into the weed.
17:00
Speaker 2: It's which I should not do, in which my team
17:01
Speaker 2: is going to get mad at me for. But it
17:04
Speaker 2: is state dollars are fungible, right, So they just don't
17:10
Speaker 2: put in the state dollars they would otherwise put into education,
17:14
Speaker 2: and they use our property taxes instead.
17:17
Speaker 3: And what we have is everybody.
17:20
Speaker 2: Is struggling when it comes to our neighborhood public schools,
17:23
Speaker 2: and schools are shutting down and teachers are leaving.
17:28
Speaker 1: There's a conundrum here. The Texas is very low in funding,
17:35
Speaker 1: as you've pointed out, very low in teacher salaries, but
17:39
Speaker 1: student outcomes are good. What's your explanation. Why do you
17:45
Speaker 1: think that is?
17:46
Speaker 2: Well, I think it depends how you look at it, right.
17:50
Speaker 2: I will say that when when we have looked at
17:52
Speaker 2: the only comparitor that I know on outcomes are NATE scores,
17:59
Speaker 2: and I I don't know that I can tell you
18:01
Speaker 2: what NAPE stands for right now, National Assessment.
18:05
Speaker 3: I'm making that up.
18:06
Speaker 2: So we refer to it as NAPE scores, and it
18:09
Speaker 2: is a kind of snapshot of different schools in different states,
18:14
Speaker 2: and they compare them all together. Our NAPE scores have
18:18
Speaker 2: either been have mostly been decreasing when you look at Texas. Okay,
18:23
Speaker 2: So so I would I will say, you know, there
18:28
Speaker 2: we have some some schools where they are achieving at
18:33
Speaker 2: a very high level. They make some top one hundred lists.
18:36
Speaker 2: I think that happened recently. But when you look overall
18:40
Speaker 2: at our out at our outcomes, they're not better, and
18:44
Speaker 2: in fact, in many areas they are worse and I
18:48
Speaker 2: and I think we just have to get back to
18:50
Speaker 2: the basics. And that is something where I have found
18:53
Speaker 2: agreement with Republicans, kind of getting back to basics. What
18:56
Speaker 2: do we know as our rocket science? What's the best
18:58
Speaker 2: thing we can do for our kids' education? A great
19:00
Speaker 2: teacher in the classroom, right but to pay their teachers
19:04
Speaker 2: their worth, we have to treat them like professionals.
19:07
Speaker 3: We just passed.
19:10
Speaker 2: Legislation I hated about two years ago to create this
19:14
Speaker 2: can curriculum where teachers are timed, their lesson plans are
19:19
Speaker 2: sequenced and timed, and there's very little freedom for them
19:23
Speaker 2: to be the professionals that we expect them to be.
19:27
Speaker 2: Where they assess where my kids, how do I differentiate?
19:30
Speaker 2: Where do I slow down? Where do I press on
19:33
Speaker 2: the gas? Like we're throwing that out the window. It
19:35
Speaker 2: was an almost billion dollar bill, a big grift.
19:38
Speaker 3: In my opinion.
19:40
Speaker 2: But if we gave teachers the respect they deserve, the professional,
19:44
Speaker 2: treat them as the professionals, and the pay, that's the
19:46
Speaker 2: single best improvement we can have in our classroom and
19:50
Speaker 2: smaller classes right now. Class sizes are too big in
19:54
Speaker 2: many of our schools, and that makes it harder just
19:59
Speaker 2: to teach kids.
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21:49
Speaker 1: think any tax dollars should be used for private or
21:53
Speaker 1: propial schools?
21:55
Speaker 3: No, I do not.
21:57
Speaker 2: With one exception that is already that already exists in
22:01
Speaker 2: federal law, and a lot of people don't know about it.
22:05
Speaker 2: There are some times when the child has some kind
22:09
Speaker 2: of disability where the public school cannot meet the need,
22:13
Speaker 2: and federal law requires that the school district interview that family,
22:23
Speaker 2: understand those needs, and help place that family in a
22:27
Speaker 2: private school and funding those to that private school. Usually
22:31
Speaker 2: the state will flip the bill for that.
22:33
Speaker 1: But this is if public school system can't can't deal
22:37
Speaker 1: with it. Maybe maybe you've got a learning challenge or
22:42
Speaker 1: you know whatever, it is a behavioral issue or something
22:45
Speaker 1: like that, and you need special sort of special attention.
22:49
Speaker 2: Right. Yeah, So that I think is something probably that
22:53
Speaker 2: we should be doing more of in Texas.
22:57
Speaker 3: I will say that a lot of.
23:00
Speaker 2: Frustration when it comes to our public schools, and especially
23:04
Speaker 2: in the past when it was less clear that it
23:06
Speaker 2: was about funding, is that special education is very expensive,
23:12
Speaker 2: and I think too often kids aren't getting what they
23:17
Speaker 2: need because the systems are just trying to sustain themselves
23:23
Speaker 2: and so their requests for accommodations or their requests for
23:29
Speaker 2: help are being or not being met.
23:32
Speaker 1: Well, this is where the federal This is the one
23:34
Speaker 1: place where federal government has tried to be involved in
23:36
Speaker 1: the public schools, is that in theory they were to
23:40
Speaker 1: try to at least share the burden. If you've got
23:41
Speaker 1: a you know, severely autistic student who just you know,
23:47
Speaker 1: I've got this in my family, you know, they just
23:49
Speaker 1: need five extra years in the school system, five or
23:52
Speaker 1: six extra years and then over time they you know,
23:54
Speaker 1: I think what we're learning the good news is the
23:56
Speaker 1: more we learn about these about autism, the more is that,
24:00
Speaker 1: you know, you just need longer to process. Sometimes you
24:04
Speaker 1: need not everybody is going to get through the system
24:06
Speaker 1: in twelve years. But that's where the federal government was
24:10
Speaker 1: supposed to backstop with the Department of Education.
24:13
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I agree with that. And in Texas it
24:16
Speaker 2: got so bad. The special education system was so bad
24:21
Speaker 2: that even Betsy Devas had to step in and hold
24:25
Speaker 2: Texas accountable under Greg Abbott because we were cutting The
24:29
Speaker 2: state under Abbot, under his tea commissioner was cutting corners
24:34
Speaker 2: and not identifying kids who deserved more legally entitled to
24:41
Speaker 2: a special education because it's expensive. Right, So when Betsy
24:44
Speaker 2: Devas has to come into your state and say your
24:49
Speaker 2: special education system is broken, I mean there were real
24:52
Speaker 2: problems and there still are big problems.
24:55
Speaker 1: Where are you on charters in magnets And I say this,
24:58
Speaker 1: I grew up in Miami and I hate what's happened
25:02
Speaker 1: to the Miami Dade school system. It is now a
25:05
Speaker 1: four tiered system. There's there's privates, there's those that can
25:10
Speaker 1: navigate to find out if their kid belongs in a magnet,
25:13
Speaker 1: you know, a specialization program. There's your charters, and then
25:16
Speaker 1: there's those that can't figure out the system. And you
25:19
Speaker 1: go to your local school and you and you hope
25:21
Speaker 1: you've hit the the geographic lottery. And it's a mess.
25:26
Speaker 1: It's really hard to navigate. But all these charter schools
25:30
Speaker 1: are most of them are started with in good faith
25:33
Speaker 1: right there there, there are good you know, and they're
25:36
Speaker 1: kind of quasi public. Where are you on that system?
25:40
Speaker 1: And I think Houston has done a lot of this right.
25:44
Speaker 2: Right, And you know, the Houston Independent School District was
25:46
Speaker 2: taken over by Greg Abbott and that's others another can of.
25:51
Speaker 3: Worms, congregization and serious.
25:54
Speaker 2: So probably nobody has been a grade at our champion
25:58
Speaker 2: and holding charter schools accountable than I have in the legislature.
26:03
Speaker 3: But I wouldn't. But this is what my concern is.
26:08
Speaker 2: But my concern is to your point, it is a
26:10
Speaker 2: parallel school system that is taking resources from our neighborhood
26:17
Speaker 2: public schools, but it doesn't take all kids.
26:19
Speaker 3: Is the problem?
26:20
Speaker 1: Right and right?
26:23
Speaker 2: And so what happened, what has been happening in Texas
26:27
Speaker 2: is that the charter schools will take the kids who
26:30
Speaker 2: don't have disciplinary problems. They take the easier who don't
26:35
Speaker 2: need a special education, the kids who are easier to educate.
26:38
Speaker 1: Right.
26:39
Speaker 2: Well, I'll tell you that both of my sons have
26:41
Speaker 2: been to the principal's office because I am their mother
26:44
Speaker 2: and I had it coming. And so there are charter
26:48
Speaker 2: schools that would not take these kids who had been
26:52
Speaker 2: even just going to the principal's office and they were
26:55
Speaker 2: denied admission. I got past this year legislation. I said
27:00
Speaker 2: you cannot discriminate against kids because of their disciplinary records.
27:05
Speaker 2: But that's just one example. There's also we need to
27:08
Speaker 2: make sure there is that same accountability when it comes
27:11
Speaker 2: to transparency for decision making, when it comes to parents' rights,
27:15
Speaker 2: when it comes to spending, when it comes to nepotism.
27:19
Speaker 3: We've had it.
27:19
Speaker 2: We have had a nepotism problem in charter schools that
27:23
Speaker 2: I don't think tax pay dollars should be a part of.
27:26
Speaker 2: So it's these kind of accountability measures. I will say overall,
27:29
Speaker 2: big picture, we have had just a boom in charter
27:35
Speaker 2: school growth in Texas and there's no strategic plan as
27:39
Speaker 2: to why. It is just the spending of more taxpayer dollars,
27:43
Speaker 2: and I think we need a time out. Let's assess
27:46
Speaker 2: the big picture.
27:47
Speaker 1: What it is the plan here, let me put a
27:50
Speaker 1: pin in this and let's move on to other issues
27:53
Speaker 1: with it. This way, is the education problem in Texas
27:58
Speaker 1: funding issue or more of an allocation issue?
28:03
Speaker 3: Allocation?
28:04
Speaker 1: Yeah, so you're not sitting here saying we need more
28:07
Speaker 1: dollars yet got to maybe raise revenue here or something
28:10
Speaker 1: like that. Right now you view it as this is
28:13
Speaker 1: an allocation challenge. Maybe there's a funding challenge down the road,
28:17
Speaker 1: but right now it's an allocation issue.
28:20
Speaker 2: So education is paid for in large part by our
28:24
Speaker 2: property taxes. Our property taxes has skyrocketed under Gregg Abbot.
28:29
Speaker 2: I mean, everybody's angry, rightfully.
28:32
Speaker 1: So if you don't want state income taxes.
28:34
Speaker 3: And you're, well, that's taxes, that's another conversation. But we pay.
28:41
Speaker 2: We are a high tax state because our property and
28:43
Speaker 2: taxes are so high.
28:45
Speaker 1: And so.
28:47
Speaker 2: I do believe the money is there to deliver the
28:50
Speaker 2: solid education that our kids need. But the way I
28:54
Speaker 2: refer to it is we are all paying the Greg
28:56
Speaker 2: Abbot corruption tax. And I mentioned the under contracts this
29:03
Speaker 2: governor is so out of control when it comes to corruption.
29:06
Speaker 2: And by the way, just kind of also a big
29:09
Speaker 2: picture point. I think a lot of the terrible things
29:14
Speaker 2: we see in DC, they're incubated here in Texas. And
29:17
Speaker 2: I'll give you an example of one of them that
29:20
Speaker 2: ties into this corruption. So there was an independent watchdog group,
29:25
Speaker 2: Public Citizen, that found and released a report about two
29:29
Speaker 2: or three months ago that found Greg Abbott's given almost
29:32
Speaker 2: a billion dollars in no bit contracts to his donors, right,
29:37
Speaker 2: And you can't even make this stuff up, the largest
29:40
Speaker 2: of which is one called Gotham Gotham Corporation.
29:44
Speaker 1: Right.
29:46
Speaker 2: And so what he has done since twenty twenty he
29:50
Speaker 2: started with COVID. He started signing an emergency executive order
29:56
Speaker 2: every month waiving competitive bidding loss. And that was right,
30:01
Speaker 2: I mean, it was COVID, we needed ppe, there was
30:03
Speaker 2: you know, we needed things fast. But he just got
30:08
Speaker 2: fat and happy of that kind of power and continues
30:11
Speaker 2: it to this day. And as a result, many of
30:14
Speaker 2: his friends are getting contracts. There was a an Egle pass.
30:19
Speaker 2: One of the emergency sided has been border security, right
30:24
Speaker 2: that that's one of the excuses to do non competitive bidding.
30:28
Speaker 2: I think that's what's happening in Washington right now as well.
30:31
Speaker 1: By the way, well, you know it's funny about pay
30:34
Speaker 1: to play. Yeah, you know, I think your challenge on
30:38
Speaker 1: this issue is yeah, they all do it. You know,
30:43
Speaker 1: like there's like, you know what I mean, the electorate.
30:45
Speaker 1: I'm sure you're you're you've seen this in some of
30:48
Speaker 1: your research, which is they believe your challenge, your your
30:52
Speaker 1: charge against Abbitt, but they think this is how it
30:55
Speaker 1: all works, that they're all and I've just got to
30:58
Speaker 1: decide which corrupt side am I picking from? Right, Hey,
31:02
Speaker 1: how do you how do you convince these swing voters
31:07
Speaker 1: who might be skeptical of Ariight, we're just going to
31:09
Speaker 1: go with from one political party getting you know, playing
31:12
Speaker 1: favoritism to another. How can you what's your accountability promise? Right?
31:18
Speaker 1: You know, it's sort of the trust but verified mindset,
31:21
Speaker 1: because I think this is I think the corruption issue
31:23
Speaker 1: is both ripe everywhere and at the same time, it's
31:27
Speaker 1: a very cynical electorate that exists these days, who just
31:30
Speaker 1: assume everybody's on the take.
31:32
Speaker 3: Yeah, and that's fair.
31:33
Speaker 2: And look, I think most people recognize that politics as
31:38
Speaker 2: usual as broken Democrats. So there are plenty of blame
31:42
Speaker 2: when it comes to that sense amongst the electorate, and
31:48
Speaker 2: we for too long have defended as Democrats systems that
31:51
Speaker 2: are not defensible, systems where they're using our own I mean,
31:55
Speaker 2: what's happening in Texas is Greg Abbas using our own
32:00
Speaker 2: money against us with the system.
32:02
Speaker 3: And that's why my.
32:04
Speaker 2: Proposals are clean slate, fresh start, zero based budgeting. Right,
32:09
Speaker 2: you have you hide in a zero based budgeting approach
32:14
Speaker 2: to government. I mean we're saying we're going to wipe
32:18
Speaker 2: the slate clean and let's build this budget. That's teacher pay,
32:21
Speaker 2: small class size, at school, safety, special education, that's it.
32:24
Speaker 3: Right.
32:26
Speaker 2: So we're proposing approaches that are not traditional democratic approaches
32:31
Speaker 2: to just good government. And that's why to this day
32:34
Speaker 2: I will I do have maga moms who will send
32:38
Speaker 2: me tips and information to try to help me in
32:43
Speaker 2: this race because they see everything is broken right now.
32:47
Speaker 2: And in fact that on Greg Abbott's side in the primary,
32:51
Speaker 2: he's got ten opponents right now. That's never happened before,
32:56
Speaker 2: and it is their number one talking point. His corruption
32:59
Speaker 2: is their number one talking point. So I do think
33:03
Speaker 2: to your point, people think they have a sense that
33:06
Speaker 2: government is corrupt. But when we talk about Greg Abbot,
33:11
Speaker 2: it's just a new level of corruption. And the way
33:15
Speaker 2: we tie it to people so that they care is
33:18
Speaker 2: we talk about, you're paying the price. You're paying the
33:21
Speaker 2: Greg Abbot corruption tax, and let me you know, and
33:24
Speaker 2: I can give you some examples of that. So when
33:29
Speaker 2: it comes to, for instance, our electric bills in Texas.
33:34
Speaker 2: In Texas, we spend about forty dollars more a month
33:39
Speaker 2: on electric bills since winter Storm Mury hit in twenty
33:42
Speaker 2: twenty one.
33:44
Speaker 3: Why did that happen?
33:45
Speaker 2: That happened because at that time we had gas companies
33:52
Speaker 2: holding the fuel that our grid needed while Texans were freezing,
33:57
Speaker 2: literally freezing in their homes. I went with electricity for
34:01
Speaker 2: four days in my home. Texans died in that winter storm.
34:06
Speaker 2: The gas companies waited until the price was high up
34:10
Speaker 2: that they could make billions in minutes. Right now, that
34:15
Speaker 2: price that our utilities have to pay is being socialized
34:17
Speaker 2: to mix. Now we're all paying the price for that.
34:21
Speaker 2: And that is an example of the Greg Abbot corruption tax.
34:24
Speaker 2: Because Greg Abbott got a million dollar check after that
34:28
Speaker 2: legislative session that gave these gas companies a pass and
34:32
Speaker 2: passed the cost on to rate payers and consumers.
34:37
Speaker 1: One of your big challenges is not going to be
34:40
Speaker 1: the issues you're talking about. It's going to be where
34:42
Speaker 1: where you're from. There's an Austin liberal, right, And I
34:47
Speaker 1: say this, this is true with Colorado and people that
34:51
Speaker 1: ran from Boulder. This was true for most of my
34:53
Speaker 1: life until Jeb Bush won people that ran from Miami. Right.
34:57
Speaker 1: Part of it is whatever the big blue city is
35:00
Speaker 1: or whatever the big city is. Their skepticism took over
35:03
Speaker 1: two hundred years before Amya Philadelphia ever got elected governor
35:06
Speaker 1: of Pennsylvania. So in some ways this is sort of
35:09
Speaker 1: a not unique. But you know that's the card Abbot's
35:13
Speaker 1: going to play. You're essential Austin Liberal, the crazy Austin progressives.
35:20
Speaker 1: What does she know about Abilene? How are you going
35:23
Speaker 1: to respond to those attacks?
35:26
Speaker 2: So I'd like to see Abbott come after me as
35:29
Speaker 2: being from Austin as an attack, because there's nobody who's
35:34
Speaker 2: more from Austin than Greg Abbott. He has been in
35:37
Speaker 2: statewide office for more than a quarter of the century
35:41
Speaker 2: living in Austin. He's lived in Austin longer than I have,
35:43
Speaker 2: look I don't have. I am honored to have served
35:47
Speaker 2: the community of Austin in the Texas House. I'm originally
35:51
Speaker 2: from the Rio Grand Valley and we've been back there
35:53
Speaker 2: about six or seven times since we launched. We launched
35:56
Speaker 2: in Brownsville, the real Grand Valley went for last election cycle,
36:02
Speaker 2: Trump won it. And so what's your explanation why do
36:07
Speaker 2: you believe it is battleground? Well, I think a big
36:10
Speaker 2: one was border security. So at the time I was
36:13
Speaker 2: chair of the House Campaign Committee. I was appointed by
36:17
Speaker 2: our Democratic Caucus chair to lead up that effort. So
36:21
Speaker 2: I went to the valley for campaign purposes. We had
36:25
Speaker 2: a House seat in play, and people were so angry
36:29
Speaker 2: about border security. But remember at the time, there were
36:31
Speaker 2: the caravans coming over. It was chaotic. People were living
36:35
Speaker 2: under bridges. Biden was mums. I mean, he did not
36:38
Speaker 2: show the leadership we needed and we all paid it.
36:41
Speaker 1: They blew it. Do you feel like Biden really harmed
36:43
Speaker 1: the Democratic brand on border security?
36:46
Speaker 3: Absolutely? Absolutely, and there was no reason for it.
36:50
Speaker 2: I will tell you that about a month before his
36:54
Speaker 2: last year in office, so December before this last year
36:57
Speaker 2: in office, I got a call from one of my
36:59
Speaker 2: members in Eagle Pass who was in a swing district,
37:03
Speaker 2: and he said, Gina, it is shut down the border
37:06
Speaker 2: and it's the week before Christmas, and this is not
37:11
Speaker 2: We cannot this cannot continue.
37:14
Speaker 3: So we called and.
37:15
Speaker 2: Said, hey, can we get a meeting. We called the
37:17
Speaker 2: Biden administration, can we get a meeting with your top
37:19
Speaker 2: border people, because we got real problems. We had all
37:22
Speaker 2: our border members on there, and they heard an earfold.
37:25
Speaker 2: The next week they sent a delegation to Mexico so
37:28
Speaker 2: that Mexico would start enforcing for security on their side.
37:31
Speaker 2: And at the time crossings plummeted, it happened. I'm telling you,
37:35
Speaker 2: like within a week.
37:37
Speaker 1: Oh no, I I look. I have spent some time
37:40
Speaker 1: with people that worked at DHS, and you know they
37:43
Speaker 1: were they knew what they needed to do, they just
37:46
Speaker 1: didn't they were they were handcuffed by the west point, by.
37:49
Speaker 3: The last point. It did hurt us.
37:52
Speaker 2: But I will tell you when I go now, it's
37:54
Speaker 2: a one to eighty on that issue, because everybody knows
37:57
Speaker 2: someone who's been detained or poured in, some beloved member
38:01
Speaker 2: of their community who's been there twenty years, who runs
38:05
Speaker 2: the banandaria, the bakery down the street, And that's what
38:09
Speaker 2: nobody had in mind, and in fact, last week we
38:12
Speaker 2: were meeting with the executive director of the Builders Association
38:17
Speaker 2: and all their members, most of a lot of their
38:21
Speaker 2: members that a Republican, and they're not there anymore because
38:25
Speaker 2: what ICE is doing is waiting until those job sites
38:30
Speaker 2: are they've poured the concrete, and then they'll go around
38:33
Speaker 2: and everybody up. They even had an American detained because
38:38
Speaker 2: they asked they take you first, and they ask questions later, Yeah,
38:43
Speaker 2: why are you on ICE?
38:44
Speaker 1: Is is is the Ice? Is ICE something that needs
38:48
Speaker 1: to do? You know, there's a whole abolish ICE movement.
38:52
Speaker 1: And then you know, the other argument is ICE isn't
38:54
Speaker 1: the issue. It's the leadership, it's the training. It's you know,
38:57
Speaker 1: you need to have an you know, an law enforcement
39:03
Speaker 1: agency to enforce border security and and monitor, you know,
39:08
Speaker 1: foreigners that are coming in out of the country. At
39:10
Speaker 1: the same time, I don't think anybody believes they're getting
39:13
Speaker 1: the proper training that the way that it's being used.
39:17
Speaker 1: So I guess the question is I can understand both arguments.
39:21
Speaker 1: I can understand that said I just gotta go. We
39:24
Speaker 1: need to rethink the entire agency, so start from scratch
39:28
Speaker 1: versus no, this is a leadership issue. This is this
39:30
Speaker 1: is a Christy Nome Tom Homan issue, and if we
39:35
Speaker 1: had better training, we could have a better ICE.
39:38
Speaker 3: So here's what I know.
39:40
Speaker 2: I know that what Ice is doing right now is
39:43
Speaker 2: terrorizing communities, hurting Americans, and he needs to stop now.
39:49
Speaker 1: It is.
39:53
Speaker 2: Let's just start even setting this aside. The fact that
39:56
Speaker 2: an American mom was shot in the face and killed.
39:59
Speaker 2: Let's set at aside.
40:01
Speaker 1: And the hard to set that aside. But yes, I
40:02
Speaker 1: take your point.
40:03
Speaker 2: Yeah, and that there's no investigation in it. And there's
40:06
Speaker 2: nobody in leadership in the Trump administration who will say
40:10
Speaker 2: they are even concerned about what we all witness as
40:14
Speaker 2: an atrocity. Right, just let's start with the fact that
40:19
Speaker 2: we've masked law enforcement on the streets I'm in America.
40:24
Speaker 1: That should be illegal, right, That should.
40:25
Speaker 2: Be illegal because none of us are safe when that happens,
40:28
Speaker 2: because you can't have accountability when somebody does you wrong.
40:32
Speaker 3: And this happens.
40:33
Speaker 2: We all know this is not the first time that
40:36
Speaker 2: an American has been hurt or even killed by law
40:40
Speaker 2: enforcement or harassed. But we have to hold those people accountable,
40:45
Speaker 2: and you can't do it when you have masked agents
40:48
Speaker 2: who are doing this work.
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42:26
Speaker 1: rates themselves may vary as well, but trust me, life
42:29
Speaker 1: insurance is something you should really think about, especially if
42:32
Speaker 1: you've got a growing family. You are your father was
42:39
Speaker 1: the longtime chair of the state party, so you've had
42:41
Speaker 1: a front row seat this sort of this the of
42:46
Speaker 1: the transition in Texas. You know, when I first started
42:49
Speaker 1: covering politics, I think you and I are about the
42:51
Speaker 1: same age. You know, Texas was you could see it
42:56
Speaker 1: shifting to the right. But you know, I'm old enough
42:58
Speaker 1: to remember what a big deal at to Republicans When
43:01
Speaker 1: Kate Billy Hutchinson won right, it was like, Wow, they
43:04
Speaker 1: broke through on that front, and then you saw it
43:08
Speaker 1: go We've seen it go all the other way. Now.
43:10
Speaker 1: It feels like I always tell my friends who don't
43:13
Speaker 1: quite understand Texas. I said, it's kind of a three
43:15
Speaker 1: party state right now. You do have sort of two
43:18
Speaker 1: different Republican parties and you have a Democratic Party and
43:22
Speaker 1: you witnesses look at your I point people to the
43:24
Speaker 1: state House, which is just a fascinating development we've watched
43:28
Speaker 1: over the years where you've had these coalition majorities, which
43:33
Speaker 1: frankly I find kind of healthy, right because I think
43:37
Speaker 1: if we had more coalition politics and more political parties,
43:41
Speaker 1: you know, we might we might be less polarized. How
43:44
Speaker 1: do you describe the state and what's your recipe for
43:48
Speaker 1: growing the Democratic Party so that it's not just a
43:51
Speaker 1: third but that it is truly the alternative.
43:56
Speaker 3: What I have seen in the.
43:58
Speaker 2: House, and I so I work with these Republics. I mean, actually,
44:02
Speaker 2: I think we would all be better off when you
44:04
Speaker 2: have to work. We're forced to work with people in
44:07
Speaker 2: one room from every part of the state, of every mindset.
44:11
Speaker 2: It helps to create understanding of relationships. And so it's
44:16
Speaker 2: been an area of growth for me just to get
44:20
Speaker 2: to know Republicans right and work with them.
44:24
Speaker 1: Oh, I'm a believer that if you force people, you know,
44:28
Speaker 1: if it takes you know, if it takes a coalition
44:32
Speaker 1: to get a majority, then you're more likely to compromise
44:35
Speaker 1: when you're legislating.
44:37
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know.
44:39
Speaker 2: Well here's the problem though, the problem is that now
44:46
Speaker 2: those maybe I guess you would think of as more
44:52
Speaker 2: country club or chamber type republicity.
44:55
Speaker 1: I refer to you. I guess I just now refer
44:57
Speaker 1: to them the Bush republic. I joke my son's at
45:01
Speaker 1: SMU and I'm like, yeah, you're the You're in the
45:03
Speaker 1: last Romney precinct of Dallas over there, probably, ok, right,
45:08
Speaker 1: but they're John Cornan voters and they're always going to
45:11
Speaker 1: be John Cornan voters, right.
45:12
Speaker 3: Yeah, But here's the problem.
45:14
Speaker 2: The problem is that they're not free to vote their
45:17
Speaker 2: districts anymore much less than conscience. What happened, and the
45:21
Speaker 2: voucher fight exemplifies it better than any other fight. We
45:26
Speaker 2: beat vouchers in twenty twenty three because we had rural
45:29
Speaker 2: Republicans with us, and we had some some Bush are
45:33
Speaker 2: Republicans with us.
45:36
Speaker 3: Greg Abbott put in a.
45:37
Speaker 2: Million dollars against each of them in their primaries and
45:40
Speaker 2: most of them won. He took at nine, and since
45:44
Speaker 2: then they've been very reluctant to not toe the party line.
45:49
Speaker 2: The party line at this point is Trump's line, because
45:54
Speaker 2: Abbott is the enforcer for Trump. So, I mean, on
45:57
Speaker 2: the day of the vote for vouchers last year, Trump
46:02
Speaker 2: called in and talked to all the Republican legislators and
46:04
Speaker 2: he said, I'll come down there if I have to, Right,
46:08
Speaker 2: he said, I need you to vote for this voucher,
46:09
Speaker 2: and I'll come down there if I have to.
46:12
Speaker 3: So they are not freaking.
46:14
Speaker 2: I have had several Republican colleagues say I hope you
46:17
Speaker 2: win this.
46:19
Speaker 3: They they have.
46:22
Speaker 1: Lost they feel trapped by the politics. Yeah.
46:26
Speaker 2: Yeah, they've lost control of their party. They don't agree
46:28
Speaker 2: with what's happening. They don't have the courage to risk
46:33
Speaker 2: their primary by stepping out of line and doing what
46:37
Speaker 2: they know is right, because they they tell themselves that, well,
46:42
Speaker 2: it would be worse if I weren't here, Right.
46:49
Speaker 1: If you're running your race without the national environment, I
46:55
Speaker 1: imagine you would feel like your challenge, my guess, is
46:59
Speaker 1: one of your challenges not to let them nationalize this race.
47:02
Speaker 1: Is that fair?
47:05
Speaker 2: Well, let me say I don't even see it like that.
47:08
Speaker 2: Our issues, our biggest challenges are so Texas. I mean, look,
47:12
Speaker 2: running frost governors, Like I mean, it's like ready for president.
47:16
Speaker 2: This is a big, diverse state. We are a world
47:19
Speaker 2: economic powerhouse. Our issues we got enough to deal with
47:24
Speaker 2: here in Texas. And so that is what I focus on.
47:30
Speaker 2: And at the same time, I know that what happens
47:34
Speaker 2: in this midterm election will affect every single American and
47:38
Speaker 2: that's because.
47:40
Speaker 3: Because of our size.
47:41
Speaker 2: So I don't know if you have heard this, but
47:45
Speaker 2: about three years ago I first learned from a national
47:50
Speaker 2: and kind of political player, a donor who came to
47:53
Speaker 2: talk to a few of us and said, Texas is
47:57
Speaker 2: going to gain four to five more congressional seats by
47:59
Speaker 2: the end of the day decade. That's been the Brennan Center, right.
48:03
Speaker 2: And then that's just because we're growing faster than everybody.
48:07
Speaker 2: And so that if Texas doesn't flip before the end
48:09
Speaker 2: of the decade, there cannot be democratic control of Congress.
48:13
Speaker 2: Math doesn't work, and because congressional seats a quoite to
48:17
Speaker 2: electoral votes, there cannot be democratic control of the White
48:20
Speaker 2: House and the ended. And this was like after like
48:23
Speaker 2: my fourth special session fighting this voucher, and I was
48:26
Speaker 2: like Leary, I and I was like, what is this
48:28
Speaker 2: meaning I'm going into And he said, and so the
48:32
Speaker 2: way we see it, the fate of the Union depends
48:34
Speaker 2: on Texas. And I was like, you got to be
48:38
Speaker 2: kidding me, But that is a motivator for me. We
48:43
Speaker 2: have an opportunity in Texas, yes, to save ourselves and
48:47
Speaker 2: to deliver real results for Texans, but we also have
48:52
Speaker 2: an opportunity in this race to be the difference for
48:56
Speaker 2: this country. And because the state legislature and the governor
49:00
Speaker 2: has veto power over the next maps that will be drawn,
49:04
Speaker 2: what happens in these state races is huge.
49:09
Speaker 1: Let me get to the business community because you know,
49:10
Speaker 1: one of the other things press releases you get all
49:13
Speaker 1: the time from Greg Abbott is you know some new
49:15
Speaker 1: survey Texas is the best place to do business or
49:18
Speaker 1: a new place is moving to Texas. So he is
49:21
Speaker 1: going to tout that record, right, the record of you know,
49:24
Speaker 1: job growth in the state. You know, every day there's
49:27
Speaker 1: a new headline of another new company moving to Plano
49:30
Speaker 1: or Frisco or you know even at some play Not
49:33
Speaker 1: everything's North Texas, though a lot of it is these days.
49:35
Speaker 1: Are I love I love the story of it? Is
49:37
Speaker 1: it San Angelo? The halfway point between San Antonio and
49:40
Speaker 1: Austin that is now becoming its own megapolis. Right, you know,
49:44
Speaker 1: do I have it right?
49:46
Speaker 3: Are Sa Marcus? Maybe sant Marcus?
49:48
Speaker 1: That's what I'm thinking of San Marcos. My apologies, but
49:51
Speaker 1: it's like every day you turn, it's like there's a
49:53
Speaker 1: whole new city like rising up.
49:54
Speaker 3: Right.
49:59
Speaker 1: How do you how do you get the I don't
50:02
Speaker 1: want to say support of the business community. You may
50:04
Speaker 1: not get the support. You know, maybe it takes a term.
50:08
Speaker 2: But.
50:10
Speaker 1: You know, how do you get the business community not
50:12
Speaker 1: to be antagonistic to what you're doing.
50:16
Speaker 3: The business community's pissed right now, let me tell you.
50:21
Speaker 2: Because of tariffs, because of immigration raised right, builders, builders
50:27
Speaker 2: who have typically been Republicans in this state, contractors, They
50:33
Speaker 2: are very angry at Republicans. It just politics is broken
50:39
Speaker 2: and it creates opportunities. I will say my response to
50:44
Speaker 2: Abbot touting his business record is that the people of
50:48
Speaker 2: Texas are not benefiting from our economic power in this way.
50:54
Speaker 2: We have the highest uninsured rate for working Texans of
50:58
Speaker 2: any other state, highest uninsured veterans kids, That goes on.
51:03
Speaker 2: We have more people making below fifteen dollars an hour
51:10
Speaker 2: than everywhere else we work longer hours than anyone when
51:14
Speaker 2: you look at national average for hours work. We work really,
51:19
Speaker 2: really hard and we don't get the benefit of that work.
51:21
Speaker 2: And that's because Greg Abbott basically hands over the keys
51:25
Speaker 2: to the castle. An example of that, he's become big
51:29
Speaker 2: buds with Elon Musk. Elon Musk now has his star
51:34
Speaker 2: base in South Texas. He just gave Elon Musk the
51:39
Speaker 2: ability to open our and shut our public beach Bookachika Beach.
51:44
Speaker 2: This is a beach that in the Texas Constitution says
51:48
Speaker 2: shall be free and open to the public. It is
51:50
Speaker 2: our constitutional right to have access to that beach. It
51:53
Speaker 2: is being bought in state court right now, but it
51:56
Speaker 2: is predicted that they will shut down this beach about
52:00
Speaker 2: three months out of the year. My word, so you know,
52:03
Speaker 2: it's those kinds of deals that are raw deals for
52:06
Speaker 2: the people of Texas at the exp and only really
52:11
Speaker 2: benefit fitting these CEOs of global corporations. My business approach is, look,
52:17
Speaker 2: we say we value our small business owners, Let's give them.
52:23
Speaker 3: A lega.
52:24
Speaker 2: So cut sales taxes for our small business owners. Let's
52:27
Speaker 2: have a tax free small business Saturday, the Saturday after Thanksgiving. Right,
52:32
Speaker 2: are small business owners in Texas may below the average
52:37
Speaker 2: for profits for small business owners and this nation have
52:41
Speaker 2: a harder time getting access to debts. So again, it
52:46
Speaker 2: is a clean slate, a fresh start to build an
52:50
Speaker 2: economy that actually works for Texans, including small business owners
52:53
Speaker 2: who have this bold ambition that we are proud of
52:57
Speaker 2: in Texas to create their own business, provide for their family,
53:01
Speaker 2: and create good jobs in our community.
53:03
Speaker 1: Let me get you out of here on this, which
53:04
Speaker 1: is that grid You're electric grid, which I feel like
53:09
Speaker 1: is a ticking time. It's you know, every time there's this,
53:15
Speaker 1: you know, you know, whether it's super heat or super cold. Right,
53:18
Speaker 1: You're like, is it going to hold? Is it going
53:20
Speaker 1: to hold? Is it as simple as saying that deregulation
53:25
Speaker 1: was a mistake.
53:29
Speaker 2: So here's what I think was deregulation a mistake. I
53:36
Speaker 2: think that there are some pros to deregulas, to deregulation,
53:40
Speaker 2: but definitely we have had big problems when it comes
53:44
Speaker 2: again to the corruption question. I mentioned the issue of
53:48
Speaker 2: letting the gas providers get away with basically price gouging Texans.
53:56
Speaker 2: We also have the new big concern frankly for our grid.
54:00
Speaker 2: Are these data centers that are popping up all over
54:03
Speaker 2: this state. Greg Abbas said, We're going to have more
54:05
Speaker 2: data centers than any other state in the nation, and
54:08
Speaker 2: it's going to cost any better.
54:10
Speaker 1: You guys better start four to one k electric.
54:12
Speaker 2: Bills or something, you know, I mean, right, I mean,
54:15
Speaker 2: it's so it is.
54:16
Speaker 1: I'm in northern Virginia and we're already feeling the impact.
54:18
Speaker 1: Are electric bills of skyrocketed over the last six months,
54:22
Speaker 1: and it is you know, this is this sensitivity is out.
54:26
Speaker 3: There in Texas.
54:28
Speaker 2: It's predicted we will have to pay about six hundred
54:33
Speaker 2: more dollars a year with the cost of electricity, right,
54:38
Speaker 2: because they want to socialize the expense and then and
54:42
Speaker 2: then privatize the profits. These are data centers that are
54:47
Speaker 2: owned by the richest men in the world, and they
54:49
Speaker 2: should pay for themselves. So there are the whole data
54:54
Speaker 2: center AI thing is something that we're all struggling to
54:57
Speaker 2: get ahead of. But at big basic bare minimum, they
55:01
Speaker 2: should pay for themselves. There are but there are big
55:04
Speaker 2: challenges with how are grid is going to be able
55:07
Speaker 2: to meet the energy needs of these data centers. And
55:12
Speaker 2: also I will say that there is in Texas a
55:15
Speaker 2: big problem that we have partisins who are in the
55:20
Speaker 2: legislature who are insistent that renewable energy should not be
55:27
Speaker 2: part of the equation. Renewable energy has been essential to
55:30
Speaker 2: keeping this grind going and Texas, renewable energy has been
55:34
Speaker 2: essential to helping with the cost of electricity in Texas.
55:38
Speaker 2: But on so many issues, it's the ideology, the ideological
55:44
Speaker 2: kind of true believers on when it comes to fossil fuels,
55:48
Speaker 2: who are just opposed and who threaten the viability of
55:51
Speaker 2: our grid.
55:51
Speaker 1: To where are you on nuclear energy? Just curious, that's
55:57
Speaker 1: a that's a I get it, you know, but you
55:59
Speaker 1: know it could be the it could be the solution
56:02
Speaker 1: to clean energy. Yeah.
56:03
Speaker 2: Look, I'm not against it. I know there are concerns,
56:06
Speaker 2: and I think we need to make sure that we're
56:09
Speaker 2: addressing any externalities. Any going to fall up fall out
56:12
Speaker 2: to the wrong word. So I shouldn't use that any
56:16
Speaker 2: any kind of externalities that come from it. It's my understanding. Also,
56:22
Speaker 2: water intensive. We have a severe water challenge in Texas.
56:28
Speaker 2: We're running out of water, and so these are all
56:30
Speaker 2: things that need to be looked at. Look, I'm not
56:32
Speaker 2: an expert on it. I don't have all the answers.
56:34
Speaker 2: But I can always promise the voters of Texas that
56:38
Speaker 2: I will make sure we evaluate it all and that
56:41
Speaker 2: whatever we do is about putting Texans first and not industry.
56:46
Speaker 1: All right, I'll get you out on it here on this,
56:48
Speaker 1: So give me your favorite sort of it's you know,
56:56
Speaker 1: it's nine o'clock, you're campaigning. Are you looking for a tacorea?
57:02
Speaker 1: Are you looking for barbecue? What's the what's the road,
57:05
Speaker 1: what's your campaign road trip? Food to refuel? And and
57:10
Speaker 1: you know, do you have any specific favorites You're like, boy,
57:13
Speaker 1: I hope we're running late, you know, in Fort Worth
57:16
Speaker 1: because I love this place, you know, or something like that.
57:18
Speaker 2: So like my favorite and like with that exception where
57:22
Speaker 2: we land is always tacos. And because any mom and
57:26
Speaker 2: pop and those are the best tacos you can get
57:29
Speaker 2: at some mom and pop, little not well known Mexican restaurant.
57:33
Speaker 2: You can always it's good to go food, right you can.
57:36
Speaker 1: If you don't recognize the name of the restaurant, it's
57:39
Speaker 1: going to be good.
57:40
Speaker 3: That's that's it.
57:42
Speaker 1: You got it, Jack, I love that. No, it's by
57:45
Speaker 1: the way, it's true of fried chicken in the South.
57:47
Speaker 1: The best fried chicken is usually the family that runs
57:51
Speaker 1: the local gas station who has the fryer in the back.
57:54
Speaker 1: And it's like you think gas station fried chicken. Trust me,
57:56
Speaker 1: it's the best fried chicken you're going to find in
57:58
Speaker 1: the state of Georgia, you know, or the state of Alabama.
58:01
Speaker 1: And I believe that in Texas, you know it's by
58:04
Speaker 1: the way, this is true in Iowa. You go up
58:06
Speaker 1: I thirty five and the best place to eat is
58:09
Speaker 1: usually a first generation Mexican owned restaurant, Is that right?
58:15
Speaker 1: And you will get the best best home made mole
58:18
Speaker 1: I've ever had was in Carroll County, Iowa.
58:21
Speaker 3: Oh my god, I don't know.
58:23
Speaker 1: I'm sure I'll find better, but if I go to
58:27
Speaker 1: I'm not denying that, but I think what the point
58:30
Speaker 1: being is, you know, the less known, the more authentic.
58:34
Speaker 3: Right, Yeah, I agree, that's right.
58:38
Speaker 1: Amen, All right, we'll be safe from the trail. You uh,
58:42
Speaker 1: do you have a preference in that Senate race or
58:44
Speaker 1: you just or are you gonna stay out of that primary?
58:49
Speaker 3: I'm check. I'm team Jazzeriko. They have both endorsed me,
58:56
Speaker 3: and I wish them both the best.
58:59
Speaker 1: At all or I assume you just look forward to
59:02
Speaker 1: running against Ken Paxton. Is that the h that he
59:05
Speaker 1: helps your messaging more than anybody else.
59:08
Speaker 2: Well, there's certainly a corruption issue there, so yeah, I
59:12
Speaker 2: mean he would be Yes, I think that's right. But look,
59:16
Speaker 2: I think no matter who, there's more than one way
59:19
Speaker 2: to win a race, and no matter who it is,
59:21
Speaker 2: I think Democrats just have a great opportunity this election cycle.
59:26
Speaker 1: Well, we'll see if the National Party, the National Party
59:28
Speaker 1: kicking in, you know, the Texas is always next cycle
59:31
Speaker 1: they're going.
59:31
Speaker 3: To invest, isn't that right?
59:33
Speaker 2: Well, you know I mentioned the national implications of this race.
59:38
Speaker 2: I've talked about them to Ken Martin. He seems to
59:40
Speaker 2: get at it and he seems to be on board.
59:42
Speaker 2: It's like the future is now in Texas and we.
59:46
Speaker 3: Need to make this happen.
59:47
Speaker 1: All right, Well, we'll be watching Gina. You know, it's
59:49
Speaker 1: a be saved for the trail.
59:51
Speaker 2: All right, all right, great, thank you appreciate it.