Latest / Austin Signal / Early voting begins for the 2026 primaries

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Early voting begins for the 2026 primaries · Austin Signal

0:08
It's the first day of early voting
0:10
in the Texas primaries, and there
0:11
are lots of statewide races for
0:13
consideration.
0:14
Comptroller, Lieutenant Governor,
0:16
Governor, and of course there are a
0:18
lot of eyes and ears on the
0:19
Democratic and Republican races for
0:21
U.S.
0:22
Senator, plus plenty more on the
0:24
ballots in Travis Hayes and
0:26
Williamson Counties too.
0:27
We've got a whole lot more coming up
0:29
on today's show.
0:31
The Austin Signal is a production
0:33
of KUT News, hosted by
0:35
Jerry Kehanoff.
0:36
Plus, the Austin Rays college
0:37
student who was deported while
0:38
trying to visit family last
0:40
Thanksgiving could soon be headed
0:41
back for the US.
0:43
The latest from a judge's order and
0:44
from the attorney representing the
0:46
student. And we mark the start of
0:48
the Lunar New Year by hearing what
0:49
the occasion means to some
0:51
Austinites.
0:52
We have more on those stories and a
0:54
whole lot more coming up on
0:56
today's Austin Signal.
1:08
Howdy out there, thank you for
1:10
tuning in.
1:10
This is Austin Signal.
1:12
You're listening to Community
1:13
Powered Public Radio KUT
1:16
News. I'm your host, Jerry
1:18
Guijano.
1:19
It's Tuesday, February 17th,
1:21
and it's the first day of party
1:23
primary early voting in the Austin
1:24
area and across the state of Texas.
1:27
Now, as a reminder, that means
1:28
you're gonna be choosing to vote in
1:30
either Republican or Democratic
1:31
primaries. This go around.
1:33
And statewide, there are plenty of
1:35
important races that will be on the
1:36
ballot in the next few weeks, and
1:37
again, later this fall.
1:39
Those include governor, lieutenant
1:40
governor, attorney general, and the
1:42
race to represent Texas in the U.S.
1:44
Senate. Austin State Rep James
1:46
Tallarico is running for the
1:47
Democratic nomination against House
1:49
Rep Jasmine
1:51
Crockett of Dallas.
1:53
Meanwhile, incumbent Republican
1:54
Senator John Cornyn is looking to
1:56
hold onto his seat against Attorney
1:58
General Ken Paxton and Wesley
2:00
Hunt.
2:01
Here in Travis County, four
2:02
Democrats are running for the
2:04
Precinct Four Commissioner seat,
2:05
which has been filled for more than
2:07
three decades by Margaret Gomez.
2:09
Gomez is retiring at the end of her
2:11
term. The candidates running to
2:12
replace her include Susana Ledesma
2:15
Woody, who nearly unseated Gomez in
2:16
the primary four years ago.
2:18
Ledesima Woody has served on the Del
2:20
Valle ISD School Board for 15
2:22
years.
2:24
You know, we were just like, what's
2:25
the next step? You know how can we
2:27
really push this needle?
2:29
And you know, it was just run
2:30
for the position, right?
2:32
If you really want to make a
2:33
difference, you know you have to
2:34
scare these politicians that this
2:36
seat is not theirs.
2:38
George Morales was elected and has
2:40
served as Travis County Precinct 4
2:41
constable since 2016.
2:44
He says improving transportation for
2:45
his constituents will be a big deal.
2:48
That's gonna be my main first
2:50
priority is to go in there and say
2:52
how can we fix these roads?
2:54
How can we go get access for the
2:56
people to drive through these roads
2:57
safely?
2:58
Ofelia Maldonado Zapata
3:00
has served in leadership roles in
3:02
education and religious nonprofits
3:03
for more than three decades.
3:05
She doesn't think of herself as a
3:07
politician, more so rather as
3:09
a community organizer.
3:12
Because one thing I learned
3:14
is that, you know, we
3:16
can be angry about the
3:18
injustices that we're living in
3:20
or we can do something about
3:22
it.
3:23
And Gavino Fernandez Jr.
3:25
Rounds out the candidates for the
3:26
precinct for commissioner seat.
3:27
He has a very simple priority,
3:30
keeping his precinct affordable.
3:33
No tax increases.
3:36
No Republicans are running in this
3:37
race, which means whoever wins the
3:39
primary will run unopposed in
3:41
November.
3:42
We have more about this story at
3:44
KUT.org, and we will have more
3:46
about elections in Travis Hayes
3:47
and Williamson counties at Kut.org
3:50
slash Signal, and in the show
3:52
notes for today's podcast.
3:59
Aniopis Beyoza, the college student
4:01
who was detained, then deported by
4:03
immigration authorities last
4:04
Thanksgiving, could soon be on her
4:06
way back to the U.S.
4:08
That's according to a recent court
4:09
order directing the federal
4:10
government to bring her back.
4:12
For more about this update, we are
4:14
speaking with KUT's government
4:16
accountability reporter Andrew
4:17
Weber. Andrew, thanks for being on
4:19
the show. Of course.
4:19
Thanks for having me, Jerry.
4:20
So listeners of the show and
4:22
followers of KUT know that we have
4:24
been following this case for a long
4:25
time. Catch us up, we know
4:27
that Ani-Lopez Belloza was deported
4:29
back in November, what's happened
4:30
since then?
4:31
Right. So since that deportation
4:33
in November, they've gone to
4:35
court a couple of times.
4:37
And last month, attorneys for
4:39
the federal government basically
4:41
admitted that Lopez Belloza
4:43
was wrongfully deported.
4:44
And that was kind of a remarkable
4:46
admission on the part of the federal
4:48
government.
4:49
And, that also started
4:51
a clock. The judge up in
4:52
Massachusetts said the government
4:54
had three weeks to make
4:56
up for that wrongful deportation.
4:59
And the feds, the attorneys for
5:01
the fed's basically waited until the
5:03
last minute to file anything in
5:05
court.
5:06
So last Friday,
5:08
the federal judge up in
5:09
Massachusetts issued another
5:11
order.
5:13
Boston attorney Todd Palmerlow is
5:15
Ani Lopez Beyoza's attorney.
5:17
He's also aggressively a Patriots
5:19
fan. He likens it to football.
5:21
He says attorneys for the government
5:22
didn't offer a solution to the
5:24
deportation and they basically gave
5:26
up any standing.
5:28
So that kind of forced
5:30
the judge's hand to
5:31
rule in Lippis Beos's favor.
5:34
It basically responded with
5:36
really no offer to do anything to
5:38
resolve the case.
5:39
It effectively punted the ball.
5:41
And now the judge has basically put
5:43
it in the end zone for us.
5:44
So we're very happy to see this
5:46
result and hopefully they facilitate
5:48
a return on.
5:51
Very quickly.
5:52
Okay, so let's follow the football
5:54
analogy. You get the punt right and
5:55
then you get the setup and you're
5:56
gonna start.
5:57
And then you have to do something
5:58
with the ball once you've gotten it.
6:00
So what happens next?
6:01
We know there's a deadline, but
6:03
what does Lopez Belloza's attorney,
6:05
Todd Palmerlo, expect to?
6:06
Happen next.
6:07
He's basically,
6:09
it's kind of a wait and see
6:10
approach.
6:11
They punted the ball, sure.
6:14
But the government
6:15
has to respond.
6:18
Otherwise, they'll be held in
6:19
contempt of court.
6:20
And because of that delay earlier,
6:23
the federal judge basically wants
6:25
progress reports on all of
6:26
this. So there's a two week deadline
6:28
in which they have to
6:30
basically get Ani Lopez-Pellosa
6:32
back into the US.
6:34
February 27th is the deadline.
6:36
Todd Pomerlow, the attorney said
6:38
he's trying to work to get this,
6:40
to have this process be as smooth as
6:42
possible.
6:44
Because Ani Lopez Belloza was,
6:47
you know, she was ignorant of it,
6:48
but she did not have legal status.
6:50
Neither did her mother.
6:52
They fled Honduras when
6:53
she was a kid,
6:55
and she was under the impression,
6:57
as was her mom, that she was here
6:58
legally. So, Palmerlo
7:01
is trying to find ways
7:02
to get them legal status.
7:06
Her and mom were basically
7:07
wrongfully informed that
7:09
there was nothing wrong with their
7:10
situation.
7:11
That's why they lived their lives
7:12
out in the open for so many years,
7:14
completely blindsided.
7:16
But we have a green card application
7:18
pending on behalf of Ani and her
7:19
folks.
7:20
So some things have changed and
7:21
she's been deported because we've
7:22
been looking at every stone
7:24
to unturned to see what we can do to
7:25
make it right for her because we
7:27
don't want her coming back on the
7:28
same posture that she left on.
7:31
So, Palmerlo has gotten a lot of
7:33
help from a bunch of different
7:34
attorneys who have come onto the
7:36
case while that green card
7:38
is being processed.
7:39
But whatever they do is dependent on
7:41
what the attorneys for the
7:43
federal government do.
7:44
Whatever they do, whatever they
7:46
file. And that deadline for
7:48
the sort of progress reports that I
7:49
mentioned earlier is tomorrow.
7:51
So hopefully by Thursday we'll have
7:53
a clearer sense of what they're
7:55
going to do, what the plan is
7:57
going forward. But again, the
7:59
deadline to get her back into the
8:00
country is.
8:01
On or before February 27th.
8:04
Okay, that is Andrew Weber.
8:06
He is KUT's government
8:07
accountability reporter.
8:08
You can find more of his work and
8:10
updates on this case at KUT.org,
8:12
and we will continue to bring you
8:13
those updates right here on Austin
8:15
Signal. Andrew, thank you very much.
8:17
Yes, sir. Thank you, Jerry.
8:21
The Reverend Jesse Jackson died
8:23
today at the age of 84.
8:26
Jackson was a civil rights leader, a
8:27
minister, and a politician who was
8:29
a protege of Martin Luther King Jr.
8:32
In 1984, when Jackson
8:34
was candidate for president, he
8:35
spoke with John L.
8:36
Hanson Jr.
8:37
For his show in Black America.
8:40
And even though it was more than 40
8:42
years ago, some issues like
8:44
equal protection under the law and
8:46
forced policy decisions
8:48
were as important then as they are
8:50
right now.
8:52
I would think that the present
8:53
policy of
8:56
gunboat diplomacy,
8:58
big stick diplomacy,
9:01
manifest destiny, nuclear
9:03
threat, and choosing
9:05
deployment over negotiations is
9:08
a way of progressively isolating
9:10
America from the world community
9:12
and making the world a
9:14
more dangerous place in which to
9:15
live. I think a
9:17
sense of
9:20
mutual respect
9:22
and reciprocity and
9:24
human rights and democratic
9:26
principles must be the guiding line
9:28
of that determines how we
9:30
engage in foreign policy for example
9:33
latin america's not our back door
9:35
it's next door
9:37
they are our neighbors indeed latin
9:39
american's are our good neighbors in
9:42
foundation to engage in an attempt
9:44
to over to overthrow of
9:46
the government of Nicaragua and
9:48
violated sovereignty.
9:49
Is illegal, but it's also
9:51
unethical and it is short-sighted
9:54
and it's identifying with the wrong
9:55
side of history.
9:56
After all, it was our investment
9:59
in and cooperation with Somoza
10:00
across the years that created the
10:02
tyranny there in the first place.
10:05
For our nation to embrace
10:07
the tyrannies of El Salvador
10:09
is to be identifying with wrong
10:11
side history.
10:13
Our nation loses its
10:15
credibility, its moral authority,
10:18
It's legitimacy.
10:20
Will invade and occupy a nation the
10:22
size of Grenada and then
10:24
log out the American press that the
10:25
people might not have adequate
10:27
information.
10:28
That was the Reverend Jesse Jackson.
10:32
You can hear In Black America
10:33
tonight at 10 o'clock in its regular
10:35
spot, and you can hear a special
10:36
rebroadcast of this 1984
10:38
show with Reverend Jesse Jackson
10:40
at 10.30.
10:42
That's on KUT News 90.5
10:44
on the KUT app and online
10:46
at KUT.org
10:48
10.32 tonight.
10:50
We have more Austin Signal coming up
10:52
for you after this break.
11:00
This is Austin Signal, thanks for
11:01
being with us today.
11:03
It's the start of the Lunar
11:05
New Year today and KUT's
11:07
photojournalist Patricia Lim has
11:08
some great photos from a celebration
11:10
that she recently went to up
11:12
at kut.org.
11:14
Couple years ago she met up with the
11:15
Summit Lion and Dragon dance team
11:17
based out of Summit Elementary
11:18
School in Northwest Austin.
11:20
Today we're gonna hear from students
11:21
and dance team members Chloe Pham
11:23
and Story Palifox and the team's
11:25
leader Derek Galban.
11:27
But first, here's Thai Chuan, better
11:29
known as Mr. T,
11:31
a Vietnamese dual-language
11:32
interventionist at Summit
11:33
Elementary, who coordinates the
11:35
Summit Lion and Dragon dance
11:37
team.
11:42
The Lunar New Year is
11:45
a huge festival where
11:47
people come together with
11:49
joy, with happiness and they
11:51
just pretty much want to start a
11:53
brand new new year.
11:56
Lion Dance performances happen
11:58
during Lunar New Year, and it's a
12:00
time where a lot of my family
12:01
and my friends from out of town come
12:03
in here.
12:05
A week or two before New Year's, we
12:06
usually just clean up the whole
12:07
house.
12:08
You can't clean it after, because
12:10
it's not good.
12:11
It's bad luck.
12:12
They will want to get rid of all the
12:14
bad things that happened last year
12:16
and hope for the best for the
12:18
following years.
12:20
The red envelope is the lucky
12:22
envelope in Vietnamese language.
12:24
It's called bali si.
12:25
The lions come to the stores or to
12:27
the venues, and we bless the area.
12:29
And so in return, the owners,
12:31
the audience, they can also give
12:33
donations to it.
12:37
When I was in the lion, it felt
12:39
kind of like surreal, and I felt
12:40
like I belonged there.
12:43
I grew up outside of the Asian
12:44
community. Now I actually feel
12:46
connected with them, and it
12:48
feels really good.
12:51
We are considered the pioneer
12:53
of the Vietnamese dual-language
12:54
program for the state of Texas.
12:56
We have extracurricular activities
12:58
after school.
12:59
We have to do the stands and it's
13:01
really painful on
13:03
our legs.
13:06
Push the heads.
13:12
It's got a whole stance.
13:14
Not many people like it,
13:16
but I don't mind it that much.
13:18
That's a lot of work.
13:23
When I was in sixth grade,
13:25
a few of my buddies, they were
13:26
already doing it.
13:27
So they invited me and ever since
13:29
then, I've just stuck around.
13:31
I'm not Vietnamese, but I grew up
13:33
around the culture my whole life.
13:34
Now I'm at the point where I'm just
13:36
trying to give back as much as I
13:37
can. Let's see how much it's helped
13:39
me.
13:40
Back in the day, it was majority
13:41
Vietnamese, but now it's
13:43
expanded a lot to every culture.
13:45
If you provide these cultural
13:47
opportunities, they become more
13:49
respectful of the culture and
13:52
it also gives them a chance to have
13:54
self-identity.
13:58
It helps keep tradition alive,
14:01
it helps keep culture alive, but
14:02
also educates young
14:04
people who have an ethnic
14:06
background, either from Asia or
14:08
from any other country.
14:09
I feel a lot of other people
14:12
aren't as lucky as me to be able to
14:14
do line knits and feel like really
14:15
connected to their culture.
14:17
So I think it's a really big honor
14:18
for me to do this.
14:30
Those were the voices of
14:32
Thai Chuan, aka Mr. T,
14:34
a Vietnamese dual-language
14:35
interventionist at Summit Elementary
14:37
who coordinates the Summit Lion and
14:39
Dragon dance team, as well as
14:41
students and dance team members
14:43
Chloe Pham and Story Palafox,
14:45
and dance-team leader Derek Gauban.
14:49
Mental health is essential for
14:51
all of us.
14:51
For creatives especially, mental
14:53
health can shape everything from
14:55
inspiration to burnout.
14:57
But one legendary music pioneer
14:59
and certified peer specialist is
15:01
putting a special focus on the
15:02
well-being of creatives.
15:04
He has a live podcast taping
15:06
tomorrow night at 6 p.m.
15:07
At DAWA HQ, hosted by
15:09
Jonathan Chaka Mahone, called
15:11
Clarity is Sublime, Mental
15:13
Health in a World Gone Mad.
15:15
Host Miles Bloxton spoke with
15:17
Bevis M.
15:18
Griffin about this.
15:20
You've worked as a musician for
15:22
decades.
15:23
How has that experience in the
15:24
industry shaped the way you think
15:26
about mental health today?
15:28
Oh my goodness, it touches, it
15:30
checks so many boxes when I think
15:31
back historically in the
15:33
arc of my career, because I
15:35
basically started my career at the
15:37
tender age of 18 in
15:39
Austin, Texas, back in 1972.
15:42
So when you see those little bumper
15:43
stickers that say, Keep Austin
15:45
Weird,
15:47
we're the people that were making
15:48
Austin Weird in 1972,
15:50
okay? And the reason that I say that
15:52
is because at that point in time,
15:54
drug use was fairly prolific
15:56
in the youth community
15:58
at large because no one had
16:00
exposure to the ramifications of
16:02
long-term exposure to
16:04
recreational drug use.
16:06
So I actually kind of fell into
16:08
the deep end of the pool, you know,
16:10
very naive, but
16:12
in a situation where so many of my
16:14
peers were older and more
16:15
experienced, it was just a natural
16:17
case of in Rome, do as the Romans
16:19
do, and you get in where you fit in
16:21
and you go with the flow.
16:23
So one thing led to another,
16:25
and over the course of five, six
16:27
years, I had ascended
16:29
to the point to where I was a
16:31
professional musician looking to
16:32
extend my career into a more
16:34
national platform.
16:36
And so I relocated to New York City
16:38
in 1982,
16:40
because at that time, Austin was
16:42
not established as a musical
16:45
powerhouse the way that
16:47
it has been in the last 20
16:49
years since South by Southwest,
16:51
right? At that time, Austin.
16:52
Was much more colloquial.
16:54
The quality of musicianship was very
16:56
high.
16:57
And so that really elevated
16:59
my skill set, so to speak.
17:01
But as far as taking that next step
17:03
to getting a national
17:05
record deal, so to speak, there
17:07
were no major labels in Texas.
17:08
So I had to make a
17:10
pivot to either New York, Los
17:12
Angeles, or even London, for
17:14
that matter. And so I got
17:16
an invitation to come to New York
17:17
and pursued that from that
17:19
standpoint. Having said that...
17:22
That literally coincided with the
17:24
crack epidemic by the time that
17:26
I moved to New York City.
17:29
And personally, I never had any
17:30
exposure in
17:32
engaging in crack per se.
17:34
But what I could attest
17:36
to was that the degree of
17:38
recreational drug use had
17:40
proliferated the industry to such
17:42
a point to where it was completely
17:43
normalized, right?
17:45
So I'm here to tell you,
17:47
you know, I
17:49
had a lot of exposure at a very...
17:51
Tender age.
17:52
And so having gone through all of
17:54
those experiences as
17:57
a mature adult, once
17:59
I kind of turned the page at
18:01
the age of 40, so to speak, I really
18:03
wanted to start thinking of myself
18:04
as a, mature individual,
18:06
you know, with the future, right?
18:08
And I wasn't so precarious
18:10
to be so nihilistic living
18:11
on the edge, so, to speak.
18:14
Right? And that literally set me on
18:15
my path to sobriety.
18:16
Then I just embraced that,
18:20
you I'll see you in the next one. That's
18:20
literally the platform that
18:22
I stand on today.
18:24
How did you decide to
18:26
pivot from being a musician
18:28
to then being a manager, and
18:30
now you're on the board of
18:32
Sims Foundation, which is all
18:34
about mental health and supporting
18:35
artists in the Austin area?
18:37
I literally had a moment of clarity
18:40
while I was performing in a club,
18:42
thinking like, where do you wanna be
18:43
in five years?
18:44
And the voice answered, I don't
18:46
wanna be chasing these gigs around
18:47
town, you know?
18:49
I wanna be a position where I'm
18:51
actually, you now, opening some
18:53
doors of possibility for other
18:55
people, maybe as a mentor.
18:57
I was fortunate that by the time
18:59
I made that pivot,
19:01
one of the first acts that I started
19:03
working with was the band Death
19:05
out of Detroit that had a very...
19:08
Powerful backstory and a
19:10
documentary called A Band Called
19:11
Death.
19:13
And so that kind of
19:15
put me in the arena of national
19:16
exposure.
19:17
And then from that I went on to
19:18
manage the band Living Color who
19:20
were friends of
19:22
mine from my early days in New York
19:24
City.
19:25
And then the rest is history,
19:27
as they say.
19:28
Once I'd gotten to that echelon,
19:30
things just started opening up and
19:31
rolling.
19:32
Right. And so it seems like a very
19:33
natural evolution for you.
19:35
So when did you decide to step into
19:37
the mental health space?
19:40
During the pandemic, I really
19:41
started thinking along the lines of
19:43
education, right?
19:44
I wanted to develop a
19:48
curriculum of education to kind of
19:51
bring to focus the influence of
19:53
black popular culture on
19:55
pop culture writ large.
19:57
So I started collaborating with
19:59
the School of Rock.
20:01
And along that line,
20:03
I started having some...
20:05
Deep conversations with my younger
20:07
sister, who passed away a few years
20:09
ago, but she was a very savvy
20:11
executive in
20:13
Los Angeles, and she and I
20:15
started thinking about the idea of
20:17
me getting into my autobiography,
20:19
right, in earnest.
20:22
And going, tracing back through the
20:24
stages of my early development,
20:26
I realized that I had actually been
20:28
exposed to a lot of heavy childhood
20:30
trauma, you know,
20:32
and...
20:33
I won't go into the details here,
20:35
but what I can say was that my
20:37
personal journey informed
20:39
me of how
20:41
traumatized I had been and why
20:43
I had such a proclivity
20:45
to kind of escape into
20:47
the land of, let's say, drugs
20:49
and alcohol as self-medications,
20:52
so to speak.
20:53
I also was probably
20:56
trying to
20:59
address an underlying
21:01
sense of chronic depression.
21:04
For all intents and purposes.
21:06
So that really kind of
21:08
illuminated my intrigue, right?
21:10
And I happened to meet a
21:12
lady that told me about peer support
21:14
as a means of
21:16
participating in a mental health
21:18
field that
21:20
didn't require like the same rigors
21:22
of being a qualified mental
21:24
health professional that would need
21:26
a bachelor's degree, so to speak.
21:28
The criteria was lived experience,
21:30
which I had an ocean of.
21:33
And so once I pursued
21:35
the criteria for the
21:38
certifications, that really
21:40
kind of lit my fire, right?
21:41
Because I could understand how just
21:44
expressing a sense of identity and
21:46
empathy with individuals that are
21:47
going through challenges that you
21:49
yourself have endured is
21:51
very powerful.
21:52
You know what I'm saying?
21:53
And I wanted to participate in a way
21:55
to use the platform that I had
21:57
acquired culturally,
22:00
right, to pour back
22:02
to younger.
22:03
Aspiring musicians and let them know
22:05
that, first of all, you have
22:07
everything that you need to be
22:09
successful. You don't need like an
22:10
extracurricular activity
22:12
to bolster your
22:14
talent.
22:15
As a matter of fact, those external
22:18
influences can actually
22:20
be debilitating to
22:22
your best self.
22:23
You know what I'm saying?
22:24
So I'm just saying it's
22:27
so important for me to let
22:29
young individuals know that
22:31
your Talent is a gift.
22:33
From most high.
22:35
That was music pioneer Bevis M.
22:37
Griffin speaking with host Miles
22:38
Bloxson. The live taping of the
22:40
podcast, Clarity is Sublime,
22:42
Mental Health in a World Gone Mad,
22:44
hosted by Jonathan Chaka Mahone.
22:46
It's happening tomorrow night at 6
22:47
p.m. We'll have a link to more
22:49
information at kut.org
22:51
slash signal.
22:52
That's it for today's show.
22:54
I'm your host, Jerry Quijano.
22:55
We will be back with you tomorrow.
22:58
Have a great day.