Revenge and Retribution

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Revenge and Retribution. Welcome to The Texas Take. I'm Jeremy Wallace of the Houston Chronicle and the San Antonio Express News, and what a week it has been for our friends Revenge and Retribution, both in Texas and in national politics. The Texas House Speaker is in some jeopardy of being knocked out of office by his own party. Donald Trump's administration finally knocked Jimmy Kimmel off the air, at least temporarily.

And the only Hispanic to ever represent Houston in the United States House has a fight on her hands to keep her seat in Congress, thanks to a White House-directed redistricting map. And did I mention she was once an impeachment manager? against Donald Trump. Plus, I'll tell you what Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett said about abortion last week, but more importantly, where she said it and why that was important.

And I have something important to say about the passing of Sonny Curtis at the end of this program. Curtis was a rock and roll legend from the South Plains of Texas that underscores, once again, how much this state has shaped rock, country, blues, and everything in between in American history. But first up...

I believe we need to hold them accountable personally, and I also believe the party will do that. That was Texas Republican Party Chairman Abraham George earlier this year on KXAN News in Austin. warning that Republicans in the Texas legislature who defy the state party could face censures if they don't comply with everything the party officials want them to do.

But he warned it wouldn't just be a slap on the wrist. The worst thing that could happen is remove them from ballot and tell them you cannot run as a Republican in the next cycle. It wasn't a hollow threat, it turns out. This week, George sent a letter to Republicans in the Texas legislature, including House Speaker Dustin Burroughs, saying that they faced the possibility of being barred from future elections under a censure process that is happening. happening within the next two weeks.

Texas house that for the first time ever passed a massive school voucher law. Governor Greg Abbott has given him a lot of credit for getting that to the finish line. Plus, they cut property taxes and they sent more money to the border. to fight border crossings. Seemingly a trifecta of what the GOP wants, right? Not so in this case. Still, Burroughs remains at the risk of being censured and being barred from being on future ballots.

Thankfully, once again, I have Benjamin Werman with me to help me explain what the heck is happening here. So, Ben, what gives? Why is Burroughs and these other members getting heat from the party right now? Well, you know, a lot of this dates back to the speaker's race from earlier this year. You know, Burroughs came in and was not...

the candidate that was supported by most Republicans, he ended up having to win the gavel with the support of Democrats. And, you know, the censure against him specifically cites that as a reason for censuring him. It also slams him for appointing Democratic chairs to subcommittees, which is a huge gripe among some of the... Republicans, especially on the right, who do not want to see Democrats running committees in the House.

He did change it, though, because originally you used to have committees that the Democrats were. Now they get subcommittees. Look, it's a little bit of like a word game, but still he's not giving them chairmanships that have the same power that they.

once did right no not at all and a lot of this does sort of get into the weeds of house rules and how the the house is run and um essentially it boils down to Republicans, some Republicans believing that, you know, he allowed for for the House to be run out of a way that gave Democrats too much power, allowed them to tank some legislation with. points of order or things like that and and that's basically what his uh

centric kind of boils down to. So it's that coalition he built to get him elected in the first place by having Democrats help him get into that position. That's what they're mad about ultimately in the end. And obviously they've threatened to knock some other member. off the ballot. Are they doing the same thing with Burroughs or is there a little bit of a distinction there?

It seems like they're not going all the way for that. The censures for all of the members except for Burroughs do specifically call for that action, which is, it would be the first time that this... has happened, that the party has tried to block members from actually being on the ballot, the primary ballot. So it's likely to be sort of tested in court, you would assume. But yeah, the censure for boroughs does not go that far. It does.

does call for discouraging him to run in the primary and would allow the party to spend some money against him. Yeah. And this is such a big deal, seemingly, for the South Plains. Look, it's not every day they've had a House Speaker. As Speaker of the House, you have immense power, not just...

overseeing the Texas budget, but you have a lot of influence to really drive issues and topics important to your community into the legislative process. And Burroughs has that right now. It'll be amazing to see kind of how this goes over. You know, I think if I remember correctly, the censure on Burroughs came out of Brazos County, which is clearly not Lubbock County. And I'm interested to see how the Lubbock County Republicans ultimately are going to weigh in on this thing.

I can't imagine, no matter what the loyalty test is for the Republican Party, it's probably not in the best interest of Lubbock County to lose the Speaker of the House, right? Yeah, you would think so. It's going to be interesting to see how it plays out.

on multiple levels. I mean, Burroughs is going to have a chance and they all will have a chance to go basically present their case to the party next month. And the actual censures have a kind of high bar to pass. It's like three-fifths vote of the...

executive committee that they need. So it's pretty unclear at this point whether we're going to actually get to that point or not. There's a ways to go. Now, if I remember correctly, the actual meeting is on October the 11th, right? Is that correct? That's right. Right. Well, we'll definitely have to check back to see what happens in this in the end. Again, this is such a weird situation where you have like a very Republican legislature run by a very conservative Republican, seemingly.

you know, get all these conservative victories and yet his own party. is threatening to censure him. It's just kind of blowing my mind still, Ben. I'm trying to get my head around this thing. I was just like, what more can he do to make this party happy, right? He's got to cut out the Democrats completely, I think.

Yeah, absolutely. I guess until they're plowed under and thrown out of the chamber, who knows where this all goes. But again, thanks a lot for joining me on the show to explain all this to the listeners out there. Thanks a lot, Ben. Yeah, thanks for having me.

But of course, Burroughs is far from the only one feeling the wrath of the GOP these days. A more expected target has been, of course, talk show host Jimmy Kimmel. He was knocked off the air following immense pressure from FCC Chairman Brendan Carr. I mean, look, we can do this the easy way or the hard way. These companies can find ways to change conduct, to take action, frankly, on Kimmel, or there's going to be additional work for the FCC ahead.

But the reason this is on the Texas take is because of a pair of Texas Republicans who had a stern message for Carr and really did not like how he was approaching it all. Absolutely inappropriate. Brennan Carr has got no business weighing in on this. Look, look, I like Brendan Carr. He's a good guy. He's the chairman of the FCC. I work closely with him. But what he said there is dangerous as hell. He says, we can do this the easy way.

But we can do this the hard way. Yeah. And I got to say, that's right out of Goodfellas. That's right out of a mafioso coming into a bar going. Now, the thing I love about that clip from Ted Cruz tells you so much about him. One, it underscores his dislike for Jimmy Kimmel, which is clearly well documented. Two, his love for the Constitution is at full play there. Third...

Listen to that insane passion for movies. That guy loves doing movie character impressions any chance he gets. It reminds me of my all-time favorite clip of Ted Cruz when he was on the campaign trail in 2015. in New Hampshire. He was on WMUR where he... goes perfectly into character as he reenacts his favorite scene from his favorite movie, The Princess Bride. For example, one of my favorite scenes is when Wesley the Dread Private Roberts is brought in to Billy Crystal.

And he's dead. And Billy Crystal explains, ah, he's only mostly dead. And then he pumps him up with the bellows and says, so! What is it you have that is so worth living for? He presses on his chest and he goes, true love. And Danilo Montoya goes, you see, he said true love. There is nothing better than true love.

Billy Crystal goes, you're not right. There's nothing better. Except for a nice mutton, lettuce, and tomato salad. When the mutton is so lean. But that's not what he said. What he said was to blave. And to blave means to bluff. So what happened was you were playing poker. And he came in.

And then suddenly, Carole Kane, his wife, runs in and goes, liar! Shut up, witch! I'm not a witch, I'm your wife! But after what you said, I wish I wasn't. The problem is he's afraid, he's afraid. Ever since Prince Humperdinck fired him, he's been afraid. Do not say that name. What? Humpadick? Humpadick? Humpadick? I can't hear you! That's why I love the movie.

So my media team is now having a heart attack. Yes, folks, that's your junior senator, the one time president of his drama club in high school. But back to Kimmel. Even Kimmel couldn't help but cite Cruz during his opening monologue on his return to the show on Tuesday. He thanked Cruz. for being among those who stood up against the FCC chairman and said what they were trying to do was wrong. I don't think I've ever said this before, but Ted Cruz is right. He's absolutely right.

All of us, including him. I mean, think about it. If Ted Cruz can't speak freely, then he can't cast spells on the Smurfs. Even though I don't agree with many of those people on most subjects, some of the things they say even make me want to throw up. It takes courage for them to speak out against this administration. And they did and they deserve credit.

Cruz here for another important reason. He had some pretty powerful remarks about Charlie Kirk at the Texas Youth Summit down in the Woodlands last week. And I highlighted some of that back in the Texas Tech newsletter earlier in the week. But here's a little bit of what he had to say. And I know that every heart here is grieving. What we saw last week on September 10th.

I've got to be honest, it still doesn't feel real. I met Charlie when he was an 18-year-old kid. He was fresh out of high school. He was the same age as a lot of young men and a lot of young women here. And I met him in the living room of this friend of mine. And he had a vision. And I'll tell you, the three of us, we just prayed. We prayed for Charlie. We prayed for his wife. We prayed for his kids.

But I remember that 18 year old. He had a vision for what would become Turning Point USA. It didn't exist at the time. But he said, look, we are going to organize young people. All over this country. We are going to energize young people all over this country. We are going to energize them to defend liberty. going to energize them to love the Constitution and Bill of Rights.

Well, and that's why I wanted to bring on Taylor Goldenstein next. She was at the Youth Summit. I wanted to talk to you about what you heard from that Cruz speech. What was the reaction that you heard in the crowd? Were they paying attention to what he had to say there? Yeah, for sure. I mean, Cruz was essentially the headliner on the first night of the summit.

Friday night, you know, they put out literally the fireworks for him, the cold sparks, and you could feel, you know, people rushing back into the room. Some folks were getting tired. The night was kind of running late and you can tell that people were really trying to hold on just to be there for him. And I can talk a little bit more later on, you know, kind of what the vibe was, but he definitely played into the overall mood.

Yeah, I think that personal story he had, I think it surprised me. I did not know how far back they had gone. I knew he knew him, but I didn't know like he knew him before turning point. And so I think that where he was starting to talk to the crowd about, look, I met him at eight.

the same age a lot of y'all are in this room and like what can happen next who knows that whole kind of feel but tell me about the mood of that crowd because like I can imagine there was a mix in that audience obviously like Kirk having just and been killed a week earlier, like it had to be pretty somber. But yet you hear messages from Cruz and a lot of the other speakers talking about how we're going to take this movement, you know, and really ramp it up even more so now.

What did you hear on the ground there? Tell me a little bit about the story that y'all wrote on this whole thing. Right. I would agree. I mean, I feel like the mood was somewhere between a memorial funeral and a campaign rally. You know what I mean? Definitely a lot of eulogizing of Kirk and, you know, memorializing of his character and his political views. But then that was kind of taken as the springboard and pretty much every speaker hit on this idea that.

you know, what Charlie would have wanted and, you know, what the best thing for them to do with their grief is to channel that into action. And a lot of the kids that I spoke to, that was exactly what they were doing. Turning Point USA had a booth at the at the summit, which we write about in our story. You can hear from some of the youth who were there about talking about, you know, how.

When the kids found out about Kirk's death, they were not texting, you know, their leaders of their chapter saying, like, I can't do this anymore. They were saying, this actually makes me more energized. Like, what else can I do? Yeah, it's interesting because, like, I heard afterwards, at least from Turning Point, they said they. We've gotten something like 50,000 applications for additional chapters like around, you know, the state and the nation.

And I'm interested in the crowd there. Did you hear a lot of people saying that, hey, we already have a turning point chapter? Were there I guess were there a lot of like, you know, youth groups that are already kind of affiliated with them at that summit? Or did you get a sense that they were like, you know. newer people in the crowd too that hadn't been part of these groups in the past.

Definitely a little bit of both. I heard, you know, just folks who are already kind of in the Charlie Kirk world saying they wanted to be there because, of course, they already had that affiliation with him and already knew him very well. And then there were the folks who had, you know, come across and talked to one group.

girl who, you know, her gateway was YouTube and Candace Owens. And then, you know, that's how she learned who Charlie Kirk was. And now she's, you know, trying to start a chapter at her Magnolia high school. So, you know. These things are definitely just starting up because of this event.

It's interesting with all these youth groups, one of the things we've seen, and we've reported a lot about this in all of our publications, of course, is that there's like this tendency for these groups to really do well with young men on college campuses. And it was interesting to see like the Democrats. Could you see, was there like, was it representative of both men and women or was it more men than women in the crowd? Did you get a sense as to what that audience looked like?

I couldn't really count, but it did seem like a good mix. One thing that kind of goes toward what you're saying is I did notice one of the booths at the summit was a book. published by an activist about, you know, how to be a man. And there was no similar tent for women. So I guess there were some signs that they're trying to cater to young men for sure.

Yeah, it's interesting, too, because in Charlie Kirk and some of the interviews, we played some of his podcast interview with Gavin Newsom a couple of weeks ago. In it, he really kind of talked about how they had kind of changed, at least how they believe they've changed. college campuses. They say the youth vote, they increased it by, I want to say he said something like 13% of that vote. It jumped from 13% to whatever it is now that helped Trump get into the White House this time around.

So he thinks that they're more influential or he thought that they were being more influential and really starting to grow far beyond what they had expected coming out of this summit. Do you get a sense that this is going to have staying power? Is there an overall message you think that's going to keep this youth movement engaged in these events and keep them active in politics?

Yeah, it's a really good question, because obviously, like you say, you know, we can go off of the results in the last election, but so much has changed. And, you know, we've had a chance to see, you know, some of Trump's policies go into effect and people have their opinion. about.

You know, whether that's moving the needle on their important issues and even just early polling amongst young people shows that there's already been a little bit of a fall off amongst the younger generation or the 18 to 29 category. Seems like it's a little split whether you're older.

were younger in that group. But yeah, I think that's kind of the big question here is will that hold? And, you know, are Trump's policies living up to what those young and maybe not super engaged voters thought they would be when they went out for him?

That last election. That's going to be such a story in this whole next coming cycle. What are younger voters going to do this time? Right. It's like it's like there's so much kind of at play. You know, of course, we don't even know who are going to be the Democratic nominee.

knees at this point. It's not like the last time around where it was like, okay, do you like Joe Biden and Kamala Harris? But now the question of who emerges, does it become a Gavin Newsom, whoever else competing for these younger voters?

Where do they all go? Well, as Taylor, it's like it was so great to see y'all on the ground there. Like people should check out the stories that y'all wrote in the Houston Chronicle, Tianto Express News and the Austin American Statesman. Lots of good reporting in there.

They really kind of give you a feel of a lot of the people in that audience and what they had to say and what they see the future of their movement is. Really good reporting. Please go check that out. Any final words, anything else that caught you by surprise? While you were at the summit. I think the main thing that stood out to me is kind of continuation of this war or spiritual war rhetoric. You know, a lot of the speakers, you know, were talking about.

how the Charlie Kirk incident kind of set off something for them. And, you know, to them that means, you know, less compromise and more, you know, kind of banding together as a conservative group. And, you know, one of them actually said there is no middle ground anymore, you know, that this is a war. And so, you know, I'm interested to see how these kind of dialogues are going to affect the long term kind of proliferation of. political violence or not. We'll see.

Yeah, it'll be interesting how that all gets processed over time too, right? There's that initial reaction that people have to any sort of crises that happens in American politics. But the question is like, where will that, what will that feel like and what will that look like come January?

and February, you know, of this next year. It's like as we approach the next primary cycle, I'll be interested to see just kind of what role this all plays in all of that. Again, thanks a lot for joining us on the show, Taylor. Thanks so much for all your reporting, and we'll have you back on soon.

Of course. Thanks so much. Now let's get back to the initial theme of the episode. Let's get into how the only Hispanic person to ever represent Houston in the U.S. House suddenly has a fight on her hands to win re-election. I'm talking, of course, of U.S. Rep. Sylvia Garcia, who in 2018 became the first Hispanic elected to represent Houston's 29th Congressional District.

But check out what happened to her district in the redistricting process that the White House has pushed through the Texas legislature. In that redrawing, Houston's east end, and much of East Houston, with a huge Hispanic population, will be cut out of her district. The new 29th district will mostly be north of Loop 610 in Houston.

Sure, it will still be a majority Hispanic district by the census data, but take a closer look at the data and you'll see that the percentage of eligible Hispanic voters in the 29th district is going to drop from about 60%. down to 43%. That is a huge opening for other Democrats to challenge Garcia in a primary, particularly from the Black community. And that's what's happening.

Former state rep Jarvis Johnson has filed to run in that Democratic primary, hoping to knock off Garcia. Look, Garcia is still the incumbent and has really strong name identification well beyond East Houston. But she's certainly in for a tougher race this time around than in her previous re-election campaigns. Did I mention Garcia also happens to have been one of the impeachment managers during Trump's first impeachment in the U.S. House?

I can't help but think that somewhere that might be part of the equation of why the White House pushed these maps that would include going after her district in this way. Certainly, I'm not the only one thinking that. Garcia herself has been bringing this up. In her re-election campaign announcement last month, she reminded voters very clearly that she had been an impeachment manager, and she's not going to back down to...

despite attempts to redraw her district. I talked to veteran Democratic consultant Mark Campos in Houston about Garcia's election chances. He said there's definitely an opening for a Democrat from the black community to give her a run for her money. But Campos says... polling consistently shows that Sylvia Garcia has some huge advantages. Her name always comes up high.

Even if Garcia prevails, State Senator Carol Alvarado, a Houston Democrat, said she just is not happy with how Republicans have done this. She fought them tooth and nail in the Texas Senate, of course, but to no avail. She said it took decades for Latinos in Houston to finally have someone from the community representing them in Congress. And she said with one redistricting map, Texas Republicans are now.

putting Houston at risk of having no Hispanic members at all in Congress. That, she said, would be a major step backwards for the community. Oh, I was outraged. I was pissed because it took us a long time. To get that 29th congressional district frustrates me the most and I guess angers me the most is the fact that the population growth in Texas. that has allowed us to have the second largest delegation in Congress has been because of Latinos. We have...

that we do in Congress with such a big delegation because of Latinos. And Republicans don't care. They don't acknowledge it. It's worth noting that Republicans will tell you that they have created another district for Latinos. They have pointed out that the new... 9th Congressional District will start in the east end of Houston and drive all the way out to Liberty County. That district, they said, was created to give Hispanics a chance to elect somebody of their choice.

But it's going to have a little bit more of a Republican lean to it. At least that's what they're hoping. The data suggests that the district will still have 51 percent of the eligible voters being Hispanic. But here's the thing, because it stretches out to Liberty County and. the winner of the Republican primary is going to have a great advantage going into the general election. We know.

that in primaries, there'll be more white voters who participate in that primary than Latinos in that East End. So that all gives potentially a non-Hispanic candidate a real shot at winning that district and leaving. no Hispanic representing that district either.

Look, there's a lot more to be played out on this, and a lot's going to depend on who even files to run for these seats still. Jarvis Johnson may not be the only Democrat challenging Sylvia Garcia, and we may still have more candidates jumping to the 9th Congress. district that could keep it as more of a Hispanic district. We'll see that down the road. So stay tuned to all that.

Next, I want to touch on something that went a little more viral in my Texas newsletter last weekend than I had expected. I'm talking about Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett. who was in Austin last week explaining what made her decide with the majority on the court to end Roe v. Wade protections for abortion rights. First, listen to what she had to say. Particularly, pay attention to the very beginning of what she says here.

Dispute between the dissent and the majority and Dobbs was more about the role of the court in making that determination, whether the court should be forward-looking and identifying rights that should be protected, or whether this history and tradition test should control. So what she's saying there is that abortion rights has never been the established position of a super majority of Americans like other fundamental rights. And that Roe was wrong when it made that case.

Obviously, a lot of people are going to disagree with that position, and you should read the dissent opinion in the Dobbs case to get a better sense of what that opposition is. It's certainly worth your time. What struck me, though, about what Barrett was saying during her speech was more about where she was saying it. You know, there is a Jack Kerouac quote that I love. It ain't what you write is the way at you write it. In this case.

That becomes, for me at least, it's not what you say, it's where at you say it. Barrett was saying all of this at the LBJ library on the campus of the University of Texas. That just happens to be across the street from the University of Texas Law School, which played a huge role in establishing the right to abortion under Roe v. Wade. You'll remember Sarah Weddington and Linda Coffey.

who won that case in 1973, were both UT Law School graduates. And remember, the case was based in Dallas. It's a very Texas case. To me, the whole presentation from Barrett took on a whole different meaning when I thought about where she was saying it and who she was maybe saying it to.

Finally, as I mentioned at the top of the show, Texas has lost another important piece of its music history. I know the Country Music Hall of Fame is in Tennessee and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is in Ohio. But y'all, Texas is such an important part of the story of American music. Sonny Curtis is the latest example of that.

Curtis was a native of the South Plain just outside of Lubbock. He died last week. He was a member of the Crickets. That was the backup band to Buddy Holly, and they did their own stuff on their own. But he was also a master songwriter. He played on Holly's That'll Be the Day, which became one of the most important rock songs in American history. But he also wrote the song I Fought the Law. You know you've heard that. I fought the law in the long one

In the true mark of a great song, that song has been remade by so many other artists. Green Day, Bruce Springsteen. Here's one of my favorite versions from The Clash. Curtis had yet another entire life as a songwriter for TV shows. For those of y'all old enough to remember, he wrote the theme song to Mary Tyler Moore Show.

You know, he's just an amazing guy. And it's like, it really, you know, like he's certainly not as famous as Buddy Holly or some of these other great musicians, but man, he really did have an impact. Anyhow, he's another true Texas musician who really had an impact in all of our Texas music. Think about it. From blues to rock to country, it's people like Buddy Holly, Roy Orbison.

Bob Wills, Willie Nelson, George Strait, Lightning Hopkins, T-Bone Walker, Chris Christopherson, ZZ Top, Selena, Beyonce. It's hard to tell the story of American music without Texans. All right, that's just getting me fired up. That seems like the perfect place for me to end this show so I can get ready to go head off to listen to some live music, which is probably 100% of the reason why I live here in Texas.

Thanks again, as always, for listening to the Texas Take podcast. Thanks again to Ben, Taylor, Senator Alvarado, and Mark Campos for all taking time out to be on this week's show. Of course, check out my free Texas Take newsletter. That comes out every weekday and has all the political news of the day. Each day in there, that's where I have that stock market report on who's up or who's down on any given day in Texas politics.

I get so much reaction from people on that, by the way. I had one legislator tell me recently that they check the newsletter every day just to make sure they're not the down of the day. So if they're checking out, you should too. Anyhow, thanks again for listening and I'll talk to you all next week.