Challenging THC Regulations in Texas

Welcome to the Take. I'm your host Jeremy Wallace, and not so fast in those THC regulations in Texas. Big news on that front, and Isaac Yu is going to be here shortly to help catch us up to speed on everything that's happening there, including now in the courthouse. And y'all, Isaac also has new reporting on how conservatives in Texas are trying to change how social studies classes are taught.

One critic is calling it flat out an attempt to put Christian nationalism propaganda straight into our classroom. Plus, add Dan Crenshaw to the list of Republicans who just hate Ted Cruz. You have to hear what he had to say about Ted Cruz in this new podcast called Sources Say with Julie Grace Braffke. Man, Crenshaw just unloaded on him and you're gonna hear a lot of it right here on this program.

And while we're talking about settling scores, we're going to have to check in on the Texas House Republicans who are continuing to go through with this plan to punish the daylight. out of their Democratic colleagues who fled the state last summer trying to delay the passage of of those redistricting maps. Those maps passed anyhow, but that doesn't mean the Republicans are letting it go. They are going after these guys and hitting them in their wallet.

Seriously, y'all, this stuff isn't done. John Moritz is going to be by here shortly to help talk about what's going on with this big meeting on Friday and what we can expect. Now finally, y'all, you likely saw that I had RNC Chairman Joe Gruders on for a special episode of the Texas Take earlier this week.

There's a lot in that episode to catch up on, uh, including talk of the Republican National Convention in Houston in twenty twenty eight. We also talked about that potential of a Dallas midterm convention uh that is still in the planning stages. And also, Gruders talked a little bit about how he played a key role in starting the MAGA world we know of today. Really, yeah, it's really worth your listen. Take a listen to all of that.

But on this episode, I want to drill down a little bit more on what he faces with this midterm cycle. Gruders is under one order from Trump, win the midterms. That is going to mean defying a history that looms large for Gruders.

All right, y'all. Let's first get straight into this issue on THC regulations. I promised y'all I was gonna get Isaac Yu back on this program to help us sort all this out, what happened this last week. First of all, thanks for joining the program again, Isaac. It's nice to have you back on. Secondly, like we we gotta all remember, you know, where we are. Remember, last year, Governor Greg Abbott looked like the hero of the entire THC user universe, right? Here he was, he vetoed Dan Patrick.

Uh, as Dan Packers was trying to ban THC products in Texas, he looked like the hero. But g y'all, when everybody was celebrating, maybe with some THC. Maybe y'all forgot that Abbott promised to come in institut new regulations that was gonna jack up registration fees for a lot of these uh places that are selling uh THC type products.

And he was gonna ban some of the most popular products that are out there. Isaac, what exactly are we what went into effect and what impact are we seeing in the THC stores right now? So Abbott's executive order, you know, ask state agencies Start instituting a whole swath of new regulations. The fees, like you mentioned, hiking them for retail stores and manufacturers.

Um redefining the limits for the compound known as THCA, which basically bans all of your smokable natural flour products, um, and a bunch of other regulations. that some of them went into effect last week and businesses are unhappy because it does ultimately impact their bottom line um and makes it harder for a lot of the even your smaller retail stores to continue operating.

Well, that's a great point to kind of bring up. Uh our friends over at Cron dot com, which is very different from Houston Chronicle.com. I'll give you a lesson on that at some point. But over at Cron dot com, uh they caught up with Kyle Aurora over at the THC Club in Houston. Take a listen to what he had to say about what was happening to them and what they were gonna have to do. For smaller mom and pop operators, you might see them go out of the way.

and be forced to shut down because this is a huge category for us. It's probably about 70 to 80% of our business. One thing we're very concerned about is if we take these products off our shelves, the demand does not go away. It's going to just go right back to the street. झाल People are gonna get their product one way or another. Successful in our fight back against the state.

Yeah, Isaac, there's gotta be a lot of people like that right now trying to figure out what kind of products they can sell. I is it safe to assume that we're going to lose a lot of THC businesses in Texas? as they stand right now, if if these regulations stay as they are. That's what the industry is saying. They also filed a new lawsuit this week that I just wrote about.

And they're seeking to challenge and block some of these new regulations that went into effect. They're saying that the state agencies under Abbott's directive are kind of overstepping their bounds, noting that the legislature did not pass these. and saying that there's a separation of powers issue at hand. They're not going after Abbott as of right now. He's still, I think, like you said at the top of the show, a hero. But they're pretty unhappy and they're hoping to get a favorable ruling.

Yeah, this is like one of those crazy almost like one of those, you know, Marvel Universe movies where the good guy's sometimes the bad guy and the bad guy, sometimes the good guy. You just kind of never know where you are in the multiverse. Well in this case Abbott looked like the hero and now he might be the enemy, but you don't want to go too hard because he could become even a bigger enemy, you know, if it this does get back into a legislative mode mode where Derek Patrick can start doing

a full ban. You know, obviously people in the THC universe does don't wanna see that kind of a full out ban, but this is still going to have an impact on this industry, it looks like, for some time. So this lawsuit has been filed. I'm assuming they're gonna look for some sort of injunction to stop these regulations from going into effect.

That's right. What you know, right now what's banned is the sale of these flour products, which account for somewhere between a quarter and a half of all sales in Texas. It's still not quite illegal to possess them if you're a consumer and you s figure out a way to get your hands on'em, you know, you're not necessarily going to get arrested by, you know, for possessing it, although you could f if if there's an officer that suspects it's marijuana, which is still illegal.

Um, but the crucial thing here is the sale. Um, and these Texas businesses say, you know, this is hurting us. Um, you know, consumers are gonna get their hands on it one way or another. They could go out of state to other retailers or even to the black market. And so they're hoping to get these sales revived.

Yeah, and and obviously there are a couple of different facets to this regulation. One of'em was to trying to make sure the packaging and the access for kids under what, under eighteen was it, on this on the the where we're trying to make sure that they don't have access to it? That's correct. There is a new age limit and that is one of the new regulations that the hemp businesses are not contesting. They have said that they agree with that. Twenty one and up limit.

because that was a big focus of Dan Patrick's legislative push. The packaging component actually was not written to the final rules. We're trying to figure out why, but that's another kind of regulation aimed at keeping these out of kids' hands. Well it's interesting. We're we're having this fight here in April. Uh if y'all know your your marijuana history at all, 420 is coming up and Willie Nelson's birthday. And Willie Nelson sells a lot of THC products.

Uh so you have a lot happening this month on this issue potentially. Uh so we're definitely gonna have to kind of watch how this, you know, case plays out. It's obviously gonna have a big impact on people who consume these products, the businesses, and obviously the political system. So Isaac, we'll definitely bring it back on for uh all of that. as we move along in this process.

But uh since I have you, uh you're also been working on another set of stories about the state board of education's uh board that it that that is weighing what social studies uh curricula are gonna look like. in the state of Texas. Tell us a little bit about it. It sounds like there's some concern that there's Christian nationalism maybe creeping more into our social studies courses.

Catch up to speed. What what are you watching? What is this this this group this group of advisors that's working with the state board of education? Who are they and what are they trying to do? Right. So I've been writing about this process for months, and you're mentioning this group of content advisors who have been playing a pretty big role in drafting these standards, which is what form the basis of our textbooks and form the basis of StarTest.

for social studies from grades kindergarten through high school. And these content advisors, you know, the group includes a lot of conservative activists, conservative voices, as well as a few others. But overall there is a lot of focus on religion throughout, I think.

you know, Democrats and some of their supporters, especially say they're worried about the presence of more Christian references, biblical references, different stories being presented um throughout social studies, you know, as young as first grade or third grade, Bible stories that may be difficult for a teacher to explain.

supporters of including these references say that, you know, the Bible's a foundational document to this country's history, um, including, you know, in in our founding fathers uh original texts and influence the way that they laid that out. and say that that history is needed and necessary to kind of boost patriotism and civic understanding amongst our children. That's obviously been controversial.

Yeah, you can see that that has been a big push everywhere. You s hear a lot of people on the right wanted to the what they see is the problem with America right now is that we're not teaching enough about how great George Washington was.

how great Thomas Jefferson was. We're not talking about any of the other stuff. Let's just focus on the the patriotism of who these people are and let's not mention the word slavery in that process. So you can feel that tension in And it was interesting to me who one of the people who one of those advisors that you, you know, talk to uh for these stories

is Kate Rogers. Y'all might remember uh Kate Rogers was a big piece of this show back in the fall when she was ousted as the director uh the CEO of the Alamo Trust. which is overseeing the uh uh the Alamo renovation projects down there. Dan Patrick had some issues with her, uh, and let's next thing you know, she was out as the Alamo Trust CEO. She's involved in this. You know, t tell us a little bit about why she's involved in it and what she was telling you.

She's been a content advisor, Kate Rogers, on this process since the beginning. And that happened, you know, she joined the process before actually all of that. controversy with the Alamo happened. But she's been in that group, that inner group of advisors, and she says she has the inside look on what's been happening. And she says she herself is concerned about

the Christian nationalism component and just the way the process is being carried out. She says it's being rushed. The public doesn't have an adequate opportunity to, you know, provide its opinion and make sure you know, lawmakers are are seeking their guidance. And she, you know, spoke out this week about that.

So one of the things that y'all should know, it's like, you know, as as yeah, I've read a bunch of Isaac stories on this. One of the things that, you know, continues to come up is as you put more emphasis on other parts of the historical, you know, history of America. as you start losing, you know, other issues where you're not talking so much about I don't know, like the atomic bomb, about the Japanese internment camps, about the New Deal.

you can kind of feel, you know, th you know, something always has to give. There's o there's still only a hundred and eighty days in the school year. It's like you're still going to have to do all this in

you know, a process and every teacher will tell you, if you're making me put something in, something's gotta come out. It's like it's not like they're all just sitting there with nothing to talk you know, talk about for ten or fifteen days and now let's spend a lot more time on, you know, ancient Rome. You know, say they they they they need something in, something out. So

Well the question becomes like what we take out when we're doing those things. We've seen that a lot in y already in Texas history, you know. Anybody listening to the show, you know, it's like I'm always complaining that we're not talking enough about the Mini Fisher Cunningham. People and other women who have been important in Texas history. We obviously spent a lot of time on Sam Houston and, you know, Travis and all those folks.

But you know, what about the women in Texas Paul? We don't really hear about them much, you know, in that process. And and it feels like this advisory group, they are more influential in this process than they used to be, right? As like it seems like this used to be teachers that were a little bit more involved in this process, if I remember correctly, right? That's correct. It has historically been teachers who drafted the, you know, standards um to begin with and had the biggest say

um in consultation with the advisors, but remember that this process was supposed to play out in twenty twenty two and it kind of collapsed under its own weight. Republicans and conservatives said that the product that came out from those teacher groups

um was too woke and they scrapped and postponed this entire process now to this year. And that has given rise to kind of these content advisors who have a play bigger role, you know, who say that you know, if they have a bigger hand, maybe the process will go better this time around. Yeah, it goes back to that key part. You know, this isn't a surprise. You heard, you know, Governor Greg Abbott for years now talking about our schools aren't for propaganda. They're for education.

You know, it's like and so what that means to people obviously changes depending on who you are. As you're hearing, you know, in the you know, SBOE meetings here. Uh, that could mean like talking about more Christian items to be included into the curriculum for children starting in the kindergartner, you know, phase all the way up. It's like trying to get that message into

to a lot of people on the right, that's not indoctrination. That is just straight up explaining things. You know, it's like so, you know, that's not their propaganda. Uh so we'll see where all this plays out too. What what's the next step in all this, uh, Isaac? So they've vo they're voting this week and that's not a final vote. They're gonna have to give it two more stamps of approval in June.

before the standards go into place in twenty thirty. There's, you know, room for a lot of movement still between now and June. Um, you'll be happy to know in the last drafts that I read, Um, I'm not sure if they've stayed in. There is a reference to Minnie Fisher Cunningham as well as some other women in Texas history. There's also a big effort right now among, you know, some of the louder voices on the right who say this process is being

subverted by the forces of Sharia, I think, you know, and and Islamic ideology. That's been a a bigger message for the right so far this year and that's seeped into this as well. It's not super entirely clear exactly what they're referring to, but they say that that's part of the effort and just another part of the, you know, culture war battle that we should keep an eye on as these standards move to the finish line.

All right, now let's talk about a different kind of history, a little bit more recent history. Y'all remember that quorum break last summer when the Texas Democrats? fled the state of Texas, uh out of you know, the we're talking about the House Democrats, of course, and some Senate Democrats. They all left the state. Republicans were upset. They were trying to stop the redistricting maps from going through. Uh the redistricting maps ultimately did get through, but of course you know the story.

Uh it caused a lot of attention. California got involved. Next thing you know, they put past their redistricting maps. Well, it turns out all of that isn't over, y'all. It's like this week on Friday. The Republicans are going to be holding a hearing or a meeting where they're going to talk about fining the bejesus out of these Democrats for having left the state.

Uh thankfully John Moritz is along to help kind of help me understand what is this meeting and what are they probably going to be talking about here. Actually it's gonna be a bipartisan committee. Uh I believe it's um uh s seven Republicans, uh six Democrats, House Administration. House administration committee is basically the governing body have the how the House governs itself. And it it's gonna be up to them to say how we are going to implement these fines and other

financial penal penalties that the House voted to assess the Democrats. But that doesn't mean it's a slam dung. Democrats are not rolling over on this. They're m meeting with lawyers this week, uh, trying to find out if there's a um a way that they can present a legal argument that because the Constitution says it takes a two-thirds quor to make a quorum, that that implicitly means under their definition that one-third can absent themselves and stop business. So they're not giving up.

Uh the House committee, you know, should it vote, it'll probably vote along party last to proceed with the fines, but the Democrats are not gonna go quietly. And the ones that I've talked to so far have said that even if the fines stick It's worth it to them for what they did. And th and that money's coming out of their own pocket. It's not campaign funds or anything like that. Yeah, and and if I remember correctly, we're talking about like nine thousand dollars each.

you know, for each and one of these members and it ha like you mentioned, it has to come out of their personal accounts. They can't use that money that Beto Rourke had sent over to the party uh in support of their efforts. Uh they can't use any of that kind of stuff, right? They have to pay out of their own checking account essentially. Yeah, it it it's it's gotta come out of the household budget. It's it's not a political

expense. Uh and and not only is is there a fine, which comes out to about seven thousand bucks per member, they're also being told that they gotta pay a pro rata share of whatever the state expended trying to round them up. During the two weeks they were gone. DPS mileage, hotels for, you know, troopers tr you know, going to the far reaches of the state trying to find out which members are hiding where.

Oh my gosh, that's a lot. And and this is all new. Like, you know, you've been through these corner breaks before. This is a different kind of set of penalties. You know, that you know, we've always heard Republicans talking about like, oh, we're gonna like, you know, really take it to'em. But, you know, this is a lot different w the way this used to work, right?

Yeah, that's why I'm back to two thousand and three when the Senate Democrats left for New Mexico for five or six weeks. The big deal then was They took their parking places away from them on the Capitol. They weren't even there to use the damn parking places. But s but their staff members would use them, but they were not allowed to use the Capitol parking place.

That was that was Get Tough two thousand and three edition. Uh fast forward all these twenty three years later, it's a divin ball game. Yeah, it just seems so much more aggressive and you know and again the thing is like, you know, we we go back to this m this midterm cycle.

is such a difficult cycle for Republicans to begin with. It I feel like they're kind of almost playing with some fire here because look, you know, you know, the smart bet is that Democrats are going to pick up some seats in, you know, including even in the Texas House. It's just the mood of this electorate right now. We're seeing it all over the country, places where Trump did really well, Democrats are now doing well.

And so you're like, okay, so now if if the Democrats start, you know, chipping away at the majority, I'm not saying they're gonna take back the majority in the Texas House. Uh, I'm not that, you know, I haven't had that much THC, y'all. It's like I'm not that high. Uh but but seriously, I think that like, you know, as these numbers get closer and closer, it just feels like Irritating the Democrats with something like this feels like it's bad business down the road if you need them down the road.

Yeah, I mean, yeah. Th the House and to a lesser extent the the Senate used to pride itself on bipartisan cooperation, uh that the road to seventy six votes to pass a bill was not just from one side of the aisle or the other. It it took a mix. E each time, you know, it seems like each session the polarization gets a little bit deeper, um, you know, whether it's because of legislation that's being proposed that really gets under the skin of the Democrats who've been in the majority since

The that two thousand three thing I just mentioned. Yeah. And and so um, you know, they're not in the mood to take it anymore. And then the re Republicans aren't aren't in the mood to put up with the shenanigans that they uh uh which is how they define uh define things like quorum busting.

Yeah, it's really interesting to see w like where all this will go. But and it's not just like, you know, look, you know, th this redistricting stuff has taken on a life of its own. Obviously, we know why Trump wanted Texas to do the redistricting in the first place. to make sure that they had a better chance of holding their majority in the US House. Uh, but that's in all kinds of jeopardy, y'all. We're seeing like even the districts they drew

None of them are gimme's at this point. It's like, you know, who knows, you know, which seats are really gonna flip. There's a couple that probably will go, uh, but they may not get all five seats after all, as, you know, people dreamt at one point last summer. Uh and one of the seats that I like to do. Yeah. It they have some like other seats that are now more competitive than they probably anticipated, which means more money maybe having to go into it. One of those

Dan Crenshaw's seat out in Houston. As like Dan Crenshaw lost his re-election, obviously in the primary to Steve Toath. Uh, and now I'm not saying that seat is going to go Democratic, but it's closer than a lot of other districts right now, given this environment. Again, coming off of what we saw happen up in that state Senate seat up in Fort Worth.

Uh, all bets are off, y'all. It's like who knows what's gonna happen, which Republicans are gonna turn out and why they're turning out. And so you have Crenshaw now losing that seat. And let's just say

He is not happy about it. And he is taking names. And one of the first names on his list, Ted Cruz. Dan Crenshaw was on this podcast out of DC where he just let Ted Cruz have it. He called him ugly. He called him, you know, a guy that nobody likes. Well, well. Here's what Dan Crenshaw had to say on this podcast interview. There's nothing especially conservatives, there's nothing they love more than to tear down their own and figure out a reason why, even if they have to make it up.

And it's it's sorta part of the culture, right? It's like let's go brhino hunting, you know, the Democrats don't have a term like that, but the uh the Republicans do. That's been going on for years and years and years. And it's been it I think uh the source of a lot of it is to Senator Cruz. Uh that's Yeah, yeah. I mean, that's been obvious to me for years. Years and years and years. That's been obvious to me. He just finally pulled his mask off. Maybe he'll look better now.

Why did you laugh? That was so mean. Um are you saying he doesn't anyway. Um you laughed. I didn't laugh. You laughed. Um I was getting old it together. There's no beef. He just he's just I I don't know if Cruz has any friend. You know, I mean, like the the only the the only uh obvious reasoning is like he you know, he he always viewed me as a threat, like a primary threat at some point. Cheers!

Enough so where like back in early 2021, I felt the need to talk to him and say, Senator, I will never primary you. Just so you know, never gonna do it. Like just I know it is I just want you to know that. No, I didn't say anything else, didn't say what I knew about all this. somebody close to him is just just oddly just just betraying me for no reason, you know, like Michael Barry, a radio host, who's just this this drunken, like cheating loser, um, who like

But he did get me elected my first term, you know. And so but he you know, and and then he got mad at me'cause I rif didn wasn't paying enough uh uh ad money on his radio station back in the election in twenty twenty. Sure enough, you know, right after that he starts going crazy on me. And so it's all money with these guys. And um

But it's it's also it's death by a thousand cuts. And so so yeah, a lot of it starts with crews, cruise donors, like this Robert Marlin guy who who was Uh, it was it was supporting a cruise backed candidate against Morgan Lattrell, sub that in the last election. And and their big strategy for that super pack was just to to hire little little MAGA influencers like Alex Brushewitz X strategy, these losers.

And and just and just start this cottage industry of of slandering me online. Just making crap up if they have to. It didn't matter what it was. And so, you know, th again, the ties to cruise are very are very obvious.

John, that's a lot of stuff in there. He clearly is not a very happy camper with uh Ted Cruz. Is this just a guy who lost his election is just, you know Yeah, swing and punches anywhere everywhere now and is no longer confined by having to pretend to be friends with people he don't want to be friends with. Yeah, hell hath no fury like an incumbent scorn. Um l l losing your own party's renomination effort, I'm sure it's maddening for the person it uh it happens to, but it's also liberating.

If you feel like, you know, you don't have to pay lip service to the party line because of the next election, the next phone fundraising phone call, you know, you you can go that uh, you know, scorched earth um way if you want to, it kinda indicates maybe that you don't see yourself as a political figure anymore. You're you're gonna go back into uh, you know, w whatever business uh you you h you had come from, or start a new chapter

in your life, but you're not gonna go quietly. At least in in the Crenshaw case, that's what we're seeing. It's like, okay, you came after me. It's my turn now and I ain't got nothing to lose. Yeah, in this case so uh Ted Cruz endorsed Steve Toth uh towards the end of the campaign. Uh and apparently, as you heard Crenshaw talk about, there's just been a little tension between him and you know Cruz from the get go.

I don't know if Dan Crenshaw was ever really in a position to primary Ted Cruz in any election. And I'm not sure Ted Cruz cared at all. In fact on you know social media Ted Cruz ended up putting out a meme of John Ham from uh you know one of his many roles where he, you know, basically says, I don't think about you at all. And so it's like, and so i Cruz didn't say it.

But like but y he he's basically playing the role of John Hamm, which is so classic Ted Cruz. Like if you're gonna respond to somebody, respond to'em through an actor, a movie, a scene somewhere,'cause you know that guy loves his dramatic flair that he brings to politics. Uh but so so again, but important to note, I don't think Ted Cruz's endorsement cost Crenshaw the election. And I don't think Crenshaw thinks that either.

Really what Crenshaw was going after was all of the this Republican universe that just kept coming at him and trying to say he wasn't MAGA enough. And trying to go after him on like being soft on the second amendment, uh saying he, you know, was making money day trading and, you know, stock trading, uh, insider trading type stuff.

None of that was actually true. You know, and I'm not defending Crenshaw's role here, but like we talked about it on the show at one point, and I've written about it quite a bit. Dan Crenshaw is, you know, his wealth has not budged.

Since 2020. It's like that guy is not one of the guys who gotten, you know, wealthy off of stock trading. In fact, he hadn't made a stock trade in three years when these attacks were coming at him. And so you're like, why are they going after this guy? But it's stuck.

people going into the booth, even Crenshaw ends up saying you know when we were out there uh in Kingwood as he was you know trying to greet voters there were still voters saying but don't you do a lot of insider trading it's like no no it's like uh that's not me it's like somehow that got put on him he was never able to undo it.

And what we've learned in this media environment, once something's attached to you, even if it's not quite a hundred percent accurate, it is hard to lip that thing off. And Crenshaw said he ultimately just could not you know, refute all the things that were out there strongly and forcefully enough. And he actually at one point during that full interview, y'all really should check out the full podcast.

Uh, but during that full podcast, he ends up saying, you know, he was asked actually upset with his own campaign that they didn't address those, you know, lies about him early enough to get them to change the minds of people out there. So A lot to unpack and all of that, but you see once again, it's redistricting, redistricting, redistricting. The tentacles of this keep coming out. Cause remember, Crenshaw was one of those districts that kept getting redistricted since 2020.

That was a district that was primarily in Harris County around Houston and now stretches way up into Montgomery County and has a lot of much more conservative voters that became a lot more of a problem for Dan Crenshaw.

The last thing the Republican National Committee chairman wants is more seats that they have to worry about going into this midterm cycle. We know this midterm cycle is going to be bad for Republicans. And even Joe Gruders, the chairman of the Republican National Committee, told me just in an exclusive interview a couple of days ago that I posted on the Texas Take Feed that

You know, they n you know, they know they're up against history. They have to defy the recent history in America to be able to maintain the majorities in the House, in the Senate, in Congress. if they're going to keep you know Trump from having a miserable final two years of his tenure in office. Well, let's talk about that history a little bit. Over the last fifty years.

Republican presidents on average have lost twenty-two seats in the U.S. House during midterm cycles, going back to again, nineteen seventies. Yeah, let's go down the list here. It's like you know, it I think it's important. I have John Moritz on here. We've both been covering politics for a long time. We can talk about a little bit uh of this. And so let's just go through these, you know, election cycles. Let's start with the nineteen seventies.

You know, Richard Nixon, you know, I'm not a crook. You know, it's like he's, you know, going out there. Ford's having to grab the mantle. Well, that midterm cycle, they lost 48 seats. you know, in the house at that point. Really uh disastrous coming out of that. And then when Ronald Reagan. Everybody loved Reagan, right? Well, except in nineteen eighty two and nineteen eighty six in his two midterms.

Uh he lost twenty six seats in the first run and only lost five the second run. But he was deeply in minority and y'all heard it on that uh I th I played those tapes for you last year. Go check it out in the in in the library here. uh where Ronald Reagan was on and he was just so mad about redistricting and how Congress was always, you know, going after his agenda. And he just was a grumpy guy, even after He left office, he was telling y'all he did not like the way that makeup of Congress is.

as I and and so there's one exception to this. Okay, we've hit new the Nixon years, the Reagan years. You know, George H. W. Bush, he lost eight seats, wasn't terrible. Uh but then there's his son, George W. He actually came out with Uh he actually picked up seats in tw in 2002, uh coming off of 9-11. Uh so he kind of defies the history that Joe Gruders now hopes he can do again. If they pick up seven seats.

I can tell you right now, Donald Trump might make Joe Gruders the king of, you know, whatever fiefdom he wants in, you know, remo Republican politic. He will have pulled off a miracle. John, you've seen these numbers. What is it about a midterm cycle you think that just makes these like voters just go the other way from the uh party in power?

Every president gets a come up and s they're riding high after their election or re election, depending on the case may be. And then, you know, typically uh they might either overreach on the policy side or, you know, and then you do things that alienate maybe not so much their base, but but the middle of the road voters that decide elections.

And voters like to change their minds in America and that's what they do. Quick couple of notes on Nixon and Reagan. They started out with Democratic majorities. Neither ever uh during his presidency had a Republican Senate or a Republican House to deal with. So you lose forty eight seats and you're already down going in. That is amazing. And it's also important to point out

that the president's approval rating was in the tank, uh thirty percent or below back in s in uh seventy four. If if we if we put that on on uh Nixon and not on Ford. We're seeing similar approval ratings for Bush, I mean for uh excuse me, for Donald Trump right now. Of course he's got a majority to work with. A forty eight he didn't want to see a forty eight seat swing, probably won't. But when your approval rating is down, like it is in the in the low forties

even into the mid thirties, depending on where we are, that is that is a heck of a hill to climb out for. So um y your friend from Florida He he is he's got his work cut out for him. You know, Trump told him he has one job, win the midterms, that is one big job. Yeah, I that almost feels like uh going to uh a downtrodden, you know s you know, baseball team and saying all you have to do is win the World Series and you'll save your coach's job.

Right. It's like it's like wait a minute, but we're in last place. What are we gonna do here? Uh you know, it's really important to kind of see how like uh like remember, like the current makeup of the US house You know, there was a Georgia special election this week uh that went for Marjorie Taylor Green's seat. That you know stayed in Republican hands. So there's now two hundred and eighteen Republican seats.

Uh including one independent who caucuses with them. Uh that's what they have at this point. So uh and there's gonna be two hundred and fifteen Democrats uh in the House, you know, once this uh seat in New Jersey is filled later on this month. Uh so you see They can't afford to lose two seats at this point, let alone, you know, uh losing 20 or 30 seats. That would be an absolute disaster. And you'll hear in this interview that you know Joe Gruders talks about the ramifications of that.

If the House does turn to the Democrats, they're going to be able to hold hearings, investigations, impeachment proceedings, you name it. They can do anything they want to help slow down the you know the president's uh uh agenda for those final two years. So take a listen to this piece of the show of the of the interview with Joe Gruders. Again, a lot more on it in that previous show. If you want to hear more of it, click on that and you'll hear the rest of the interview.

What kind of crazy person would take on this leadership post in a midterm cycle where we know the average? Republican president going into a midterm loses twenty-two seats since I was born at least. Twenty-two seats they lose in the US House. You have four dollar gas, we have a war in in the Middle East. What are you doing in this position? How are you going to get this, you know, into a victory mode for Republicans?

Well, when the president calls and ask, you step up and you say yes. And I'm a huge believer that the president was saved in Butler, Pennsylvania, not only to save the country, but to save the entire world. I think that we have no other option but to win. And you know my background. Listen, I started right out of you know, and when I was in high school I started running campaigns

You know, I ended up becoming my local Sarasota County. I was just a volunteer, then I became the grassroots chairman, then I became a club chairman, then I became my county chairman for fourteen years, then the Republican Party of Florida chairman. For four years. So 22 years of my adult life, I've been serving as a chairman of the party moving up what I like to say the minor leagues.

And in order to be successful, you have to focus on the fund the fundamentals of the party. And that's registering voters, turning voters out, and now of course election integrity. And now with this job We have a we have another layer you could say I support the president and his administration. And then of course we uh I go back to election integrity because it's so important. But we have one job, one mission, that's to hold the midterms.

I think we have an incredible opportunity to defy history. Only four times in the last hundred and fifty years has the incumbent party been able to hold on to the majorities. But listen, we're Firing on all cylinders. I think this president has done more in thirteen months than most presidents do in eight years.

Uh, we have a unified leadership team. Uh, and we're cranking. We have the vice president for the first time in history as the Republican National Committee's finance chairman. We're breaking all types of records in terms of fundraising. And we're going out there and we're preparing to do everything right and we're preparing to plan that what we need. You know, we have a I think we have a great chance, uh, maybe even pick up some seats in the Senate and on the House side.

You know, with all this redistricting, including in Texas, a lot of these uh races that were competitive are gone. And so you go from about sixty-five seats down to forty seats. that are actually competitive at the end of the day. And so we're, you know, we have candidates that we're supporting that have been endorsed by the president.

Uh early on the R and C doesn't support primary candidates, but the president has clearly picked some favorites and gone out there and endorsed candidates. And so I think we're in great shape as we're heading to towards November. Now in Texas obviously we had this Fort Worth, you know, special election uh a couple uh couple of months ago now, in which it was kind of a shocker where uh Democrat won the seat for the first time since the nineteen eighties.

Uh and then to follow that up with the special election out in Palm Beach County, where you guys had kind of the similar thing happen in Florida where, you know, the there's a Democrat that won that seat that I didn't think had any business winning that seat.

Tell us about these special elections here and tell, you know, particularly the Republican listeners out there. We have a lot of them. You know, why aren't why shouldn't they be more concerned about what's happening out there and what is the plan, you know, given those results?

Well, special elections are special. You know, and a lot of times it you know, what happens is the the party that's not in power, uh, these races come down to anger and voter turnout, and they've done a better job. I've traveled to Texas right before that special election.

uh went and met and worked for that candidate. Uh and then I in Palm Beach I knew Maples well, know Ju Josie Tomco well in Florida who both lost those special elections. Both the ones in Florida were both Democrat seats just four years ago. So it's a uh I think we'll win all three of those seats in November. I'm not worried about it, but you gotta remember the Republican National Committee, the president when he called me, he said, he said, Joe, you have one goal. That's to win the midterm.

And he says everything else is is secondary and so uh we go out there and are helping where we can with people on the ground, but we're building our missile silos up to get ready for uh game day. And that's the November race when we have the US House of Representatives and the US Senate seat. The last special election that was a big one for us was Van Epps, right after Thanksgiving.

you know, this first time the Nashville area had a race and you had a candidate that bas basically on the other side, Afton Bain, who tried to pretend she was a moderate, uh, just like some of your candidates in Texas, like that Telarico guy. who these guys claim that they're moderates, but in reality they're woke leftist uh uh you know nut jobs. And the and the problem is is you got to expose them for what they are and show people what they're all about as candidates.

And it's not mainstream. It's not common sense. And once we do that, uh, in all these races, we're gonna be successful. But a lot of that's gonna come in November. Well that sets up perfectly for you know, what kind of investment does the RNC make in a place like Texas? You know, and how much does it depend on what happens in the Senate runoff? Does uh does the math change for what the RNC has to do to kind of help with both these congressional races and the Senate race.

Well, Texas has really stepped up. Uh uh Governor Abbott there, uh what a phenomenal leader you have in Texas. Uh really doing a great job. You know, they went through the redistricting, uh picked up, I think, you know, probably is gonna pick up five seats there. Uh, but listen, we're very happy with Texas.

We don't have an unlimited spending budget. We have there's a pie and how do you allocate those resources? I people get criticized all the time. Why don't you spend in this race instead of this race? Why don't you go uh spend money in all these local special election mayors races and state senate races and house races. Listen, we're trying to win the midterms. That's why I'm focused on.

Uh we're sitting on yeah, I don't know what the last report was, but over a hundred million DNC is sitting on five million uh they spend and when it comes time for the for the big game. uh they're a little bit short on on on on running. But, you know, I expect to spend wherever our candidates need it. You know, Texas is uh I myself probably come to Texas twice a month at least because you because Texas is

is a treasure trove of Republican conservative donors. And so I'm always down there trying to to to shake the trees. Uh you guys have a lot of races there, so a lot of your donors are focused on those races. But we're there. We're going to be there. Uh no Democrat has won Texas in thirty-two years. I think Trump won it by 14 points. Uh our candidates are gonna crush the Democrats.

uh in Texas, uh top to bottom. Uh so I hopefully I don't have to spend too much money there, but we're uh uh we'll be prepared if we need to. Y'all, that right there was the key line right there. Hopefully I don't have to spend too much money there. No way does Joe Gruders, the RNC, or Donald Trump want to spend a lot of money in Texas when they need it elsewhere around this country in a midterm cycle that just looks tougher and tougher as we get deeper into the year.

Well, thanks again for listening to this edition of the Texas Take. Uh you know, thanks a lot to John Moritz and Isaac U for joining the program. Big thanks to Joe Gruders for joining the program as well. Be sure to check out my Texas Take newsletter. You know, that comes out every weekday. Uh that has the up and the down of the day where you can track who is doing well or not so well in Texas politics. Uh that's free and easy to sign up for. Go to my X page. It is the pinned post there.

Well, again, thanks again for listening to the Texas Take and I'll talk to y'all soon.