Shocker after Shocker in Texas Primaries

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Welcome to the Texas Take. I'm your host Jeremy Wallace, and forget about October surprises. It's all about the February surprise here in the great state. That remember that October surprise thing is where all of a sudden there's this big opposition research dump on a candidate in late October going into the November election to inflict the most damage possible at the perfect time when people are thinking about the election.

Well, here in Texas, we don't have the October surprise as much as we have a February surprise. Because remember, we're a primary first state. Our races are so decided in primaries, you better take out a candidate in that primary if you're really gonna have a shot at any office. And that's what we're seeing this month. We have so many February surprises going on. I can't get to them all in this one program, but we're gonna hit a couple of big ones.

First, this talk show drama. All of a sudden, James Tallerico has getting this huge boost because of an interview with Stephen Colbert that never aired on television. We're going to get into all of that and the implications of that and how that changes the race there. But we're also going to check in on the Republican side of the U.S. Senate race. All of a sudden Wesley Hunt was showing us all his provisional ballot with all his personal information on it that got rejected in twenty sixteen.

None of that sounds like the right thing to do, but he's doing it and we'll explain why that's part of the uh February surprise that he was having to deal with about his voting record. And w y'all, we have some really shocking and troubling information out of an alleged affair down in San Antonio that's shaking up a congressional race there. It's really some really heavy stuff, y'all, so be prepared. We're gonna get in some pretty sensitive conversations as we get into that. Plus

Stick around to the end. You're going to hear Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller and his primary opponent in the Republican side, uh Nate Sheikh. I had them both on for a special uh YouTube version of the Texas take where we talked about the race and why these guys were running, where they took a lot of jabs at each other. You can go watch that whole program.

But on this episode, I wanna kinda focus on a couple of key pieces that I want y'all to hear. One about THC and just kinda, you know, Sid Miller defending how he handled THC products as agriculture commissioner. You'll remember a lot of people, including Nate Sheese. thinks he's responsible for the proliferation of THC products that has happened over the last few years in Texas and then the resulting drama over whether or not the product needs to be banned entirely across the state.

You're going to hear both Sid Miller and Nate Sheets talk about what they're going to do about THC, depending on who's going to win this primary. All right, y'all, first let's get into the stunner via talk show host Stephen Colbert. As you know by now, Colbert said he was told not to air an interview with Democratic Senate hopeful James Tallarico because it could violate fair access rules at the FCC.

uh that requ those are the rules that required talk shows to give equal time to political candidates during a campaign season. Uh though it's not really you know enforced that often when you you know think about all the talk shows out there. Uh but this one for some reason the FCC sent something to Colbert and his people and then next thing you know, CBS is telling them to take this thing down. Well Here's a little piece of what Colbert explained.

You see, here's what happened. Here here's what happened, folks. Last night I talked to Texas uh Senate candidate James Talarico. But uh it wasn't on the show. It wasn't on the show. We put the interview on our YouTube channel because of something called the equal time rule. And that rule says that if a show uh on broadcast television has a qualified candidate.

on during an election, they have to offer equal time to all that candidate's opponents. It's a pretty famous rule. But here's the thing: there has long been a very famous exception to that rule, and that exception included talk shows, interviews with politicians. We looked and we can't find one example of this rule being enforced for any talk show interview, not only for my entire late-night career, but for anyone's late night career going back to the 1960s.

On january twenty first, We heard from FCC Chairman Brendan Carr, seen here testifying how to purple a nurple. You see, he issued a letter saying he was thinking about getting rid of that talk show exception. He had not gotten rid of it yet, but CBS generously did it for him. And told me, no, told me unilaterally that I had to abide by the equal time rule. Something I have never been asked to do for an interview in the 21 years of this job. Now that decision, I want to be clear, is there right.

Well and of course James Talarico, you know, he went on MS now to talk about you know what happened from his vantage point. political affiliations or our political beliefs that the most powerful people in the country, the most powerful politicians and the most powerful corporate executives are working together to sell out the First Amendment.

to sell out our freedom of speech in order to protect their own power and their own wealth. And that should be concerning to all of us, whether you're a Democrat or a Republican, whether you're a progressive or a conservative, because an attack on any one of our First Amendment rights. is an attack on all of our First Amendment rights. And you know who isn't quite sure about how all this drama came out?

It's Jasmine Crockett. You know, listen to her as she's like trying to figure out what exactly happened and when. And like it sounds like there's a lot more explaining that needs to get done for her to kind of, you know, understand what just happened here. Here's what she was telling reporters. after that, you know, everything happened. Uh i it's a little m shaky audio here, but take a listen. We did receive um information suggesting that um The federal government did not shut down this act.

That is my understanding that the federal government did not uh didn't shut this down and we will do an official statement Another official statement that they anticipate is a way to be coming, um, from Pyramid. All right, John. Welcome to the February surprise episode of the Texas Tank. I'm of course talking about John Moritz, who is the political force over at the Austin American Statesman.

Uh let's first tackle the impact on this. Clearly, this feels like a boost to me for Tal Rico in a lot of key ways. What do you think about that? This could not have happened at a more opportune time for James Tallerico's campaign. The polls show him a little bit behind, name ID not so good.

But not going on late night on the air was a big boost to his campaign. Instead of a couple million uh viewers on T V late at night when God knows who's watching, it becomes a YouTube sensation with millions more. out there. Happens on the first day of early voting here in Texas. And it happens on the day that Tel Rico is gonna kick off a bus tour that's gonna take him to cities all around the state for the sprint to the finish between now and March third, which is less than two weeks away.

Yeah, it's interesting too. I this is clearly benefiting him financially too. I saw that his campaign is saying that they raised over two and a half million dollars just in the few hours uh after the whole drama kind of played out, they're going to donors and saying, Hey, help us fight the censorship and fight for the first amendment.

And it's working. They're getting more money, you know, into the campaign at a critical juncture when campaigns start running out of money, right? So like he's gonna be able to put more of those TV ads up here in these next couple of weeks. Uh as we go down to the wire and what I think is one like look, I know what the polls say, but this feels like a toss-up race every time I look at it.

Yeah, I mean I mean the attention that the Tel Rico campaign has been getting and really accelerated uh as a result of this. It's just like a license for his campaign to print money. And, you know, as we all know, money is the engine that drives politics and it's super expensive to run in the what, fifteen, twenty media markets here in Texas.

So uh two point five million dollars with two weeks to go, it it can be used and my guess is gonna be spent. Yeah, and and w w and y you know this, you've been around politics, you know, longer than I have. Uh the momentum swing. You know, that can happen in a campaign. Think of where we were a year ago as Colin Allred is like, you know, building up the run and the momentum's going his way'cause of that last election cycle. He's like he's gonna get the nomination.

Talarico eventually gets in, the momentum goes his way for a stretch. Jasmine Crockett jumps in. The momentum all shifted to her at one point where Tal Rico was fighting to get on these T V shows'cause everybody wanted to talk to Jasmine Crockett. And now here we are at the start of early voting. Taler Rico gets this huge momentum boost at a time where it kinda felt like he was fading off a little bit and he was having those fights.

He had that weird fight going on with Colin Allred that seemed irrelevant to everything, just a massive distraction, wasn't helping anybody out anywhere, right? So it just feels like this is one of these races where the momentum just comes and goes and comes and goes and you need momentum. I just wonder, is this momentum swing

too late in the game for him. It feels like this could be like a like a fourth quarter comeback when you're down three touchdowns. Yeah, I mean he c he came off the stage at the Austin rally where I was last night with him clearly energized by what had happened. And, you know, he was wanting to drive that narrative of of the Colbert show. But a lot of the reporters' questions uh still went back to uh the Colin Allred dust up.

and whether or not, you know, uh race is playing a big factor in his campaign. And he was a little bit on defense. On that score. but clearly he was wanting to to keep the the topic on Colbert and, you know, it was sorta like, you know, him against the world, F C C coming down on him, the corporate powers of Paramount and C B S coming down on him, and here he is, this uh young kid from Texas, uh Fighting fighting back. And uh, you know, it it was a a a good narrative for'em.

and um whether it changes the the subject to the degree that he would like to. So we're not talking about the Colin all red, you know, the mediocre black man that that's been uh out there, everybody who's listened to your show has heard that phrase time and time again. We don't need to explain it. But but but clearly if if Tel Aika was hoping the subject could get changed, uh, this was probably his best opportunity uh at this stage, late stage. in the campaign cycle.

Yeah, just last week it felt like uh Jasmine Crockett scored another m mini viral moment where she had a nice confrontation with or a kind of a rough confrontation really with Pam Bondi, the attorney general over the Epstein files. Uh she was surrounded with survivors. uh who uh may have been victims uh of, you know, Epstein and whoever else, right? And it's like and she has that crowd with her.

as she's, you know, challenging uh you know, Pam Bondi's like education background, where she got her law degree and uh her concept of the law. And so it felt like she had a little viral moment there going right at the right time. going into this election cycle now.

you know, here we are. It's like we got like just a heck of a race here with anybody's guests. And you can see like you mentioned, Tal Rico's already out there, you know, doing his get out the vote efforts. We have Crockett who just voted, you know, herself up in Dallas.

And it's gonna be touring the state as well. And so, y'all, you're gonna hear these candidates everywhere right now. It's like it's just not gonna be your T V. They're coming to your town. They want they need to get every single voter outright. And this is all about turnout now. Forget about the messaging. It's all about turnout. There's only so much you can do and like just a few days left in the voting, right?

Oh, ground game is is super important, you know, if y you've got to have a field of operation. It's one thing that to bring people to rallies, they're voting for your regardless. They were voting for you before they ever left the house to go to your rally. Um, but it's a whole nother thing to get you off the couch to the voting booth in a February where you're not fully plugged in. Is this an election year again? Like who's on the ballot?

So yeah, I I I think you're you're you're spot on correct. Probably the ground game is gonna win this thing, as much as the viral moments and, you know, whatever uh the national talk show uh hosts are bringing to the to the thing. And and even congressional hearings. It's uh ding dong at the doorbell, let's go to the polls. It's interesting, you know, it's like as you mentioned, I you know, I've had a few people who are more casual type followers of politics.

you know, send me messages over the last couple of days going, Hey, who's this James Talarico guy? What do you know about him? You know, it's like you can tell these are casual voters who are just now they just saw this flap going on with Colbert and they j it just now dawned on'em there's an election coming.

and like who's running, who they're running against. And I know there's like and li we've talked about this on you know, past shows, but here are two of the brightest stars on the Democratic bench in Texas. on a collision course with each other. I think both of them probably have a career even beyond whatever happens.

But boy, you know there's a lot of Democrats going, oh, why can't we spread these folks out a little bit? Yeah, yeah, dude it's coming up on spring training baseball season. So let's use the baseball analogy. You got two promising rookies in the outfield, a fly ball in the gap. one of'em's gonna catch it, one of'em's gonna fall down trying, and the worst case scenario is is that they crash into one another and either one of'em ends up, you know, em emerging from the game stronger as a result.

Well, I'm gonna seize on that theme and I'm gonna say it's like the Houston Astros roster right now. They have like like five people who can play shortstop or second base and nobody in the outfield. It feels like at least. So it's kinda like, all right, come on, y'all. Let's spread out the team a little bit. Not everybody can play shortstop. All right.

Well hey, thanks a lot, John, for being on the show and we'll have you on again soon. Yeah, uh always happy to be part of the show. Now let's shift gears to the shocking news out of San Antonio.

As reporter Bayless Wagner at The Express News wrote, U.S. Representative Tony Gonzalez engaged in a romantic relationship with an aide who died last year by setting herself on fire outside her Uvaldi home. Whoa, y'all, that is a lot in one sentence. We have a lot to unpack there. Thankfully, Bayless Wagner is on with us now to help us get through what tell us more. What what happened here and to tell us about your story?

Yeah, so there have been rumors of an affair between Representative Gonzalez and um a staffer named Regina Santos Aviles for months. They came out um from a a website called Current Revolt. right after she died by suicide in the fall. But there was no documentary evidence, and it was pretty easy for him to ignore these reports. He also still got Trump's endorsement. Which was which was a big deal because I don't think he had it in the past.

um in twenty twenty four. We had been working on the story for months trying to see what we could find. And so had a lot of other outlets. But what happened was I got in touch with a former staffer who was ready to come forward and provide text messages in which the woman who is now dead said, I had a f an affair with our boss. And so this was sort of the most solid proof yet that this happened.

And why it's important is because first of all it's a house it could very well be a house ethics rule violation. There is a rule against lawmakers having affairs with their staffers having sexual relationships, but it's also because there was a lot of what seemed to be described as like dysfunction from the staffer uh in the office it was an open secret. Um the representatives kind of stopped seemingly stopped visiting the office after um the the relationship ended.

And the the husband's lawyer told my colleague Nancy Pryor Johnson Yes, this happened. So it's pretty much, you know, by far the most solid proof we have that this occurred. And Representative Gonzalez has not directly denied it, besides saying all the rumors are false about the circumstances surrounding his aide's death.

Yeah, his his denials have been very uh vague, you know, as like his answers on this stuff, like he hasn't really said anything that would say, No, no, no, this didn't happen, right? It's like everything I've seen so far up to this point.

Uh, like he certainly hasn't gone out of his way to say this didn't happen, which is kind of the big red flag on all this, right? Yeah, I would say that it's it's pretty notable. The only time he really broke his silence publicly on this was at the Texas Tribune Festival in the fall. P a punch pole news reporter asked him, you know, I'm gonna give you the chance to respond to rumors surrounding the circumstances of

um Regina's death, and he said all of the rumors are completely untruthful, or you know, the rumors are completely untruthful. People are saying I'm I'm doing quote nasty things. But I get it. Um, and so then I went up to him after the the panel because he'd been ignoring he and his staff had ignored my requests for comment.

and said, Well, which rumors? Like can you specify the rumors? And he just said, All of them and contact my office. And I got radio silence from the office. And we got radio silence while we were reporting this story. We sent a detailed list of questions. We said, Did you stop visiting the Uvaldi office?

You know, did you on two different occasions stay in a cabin, you know, that belonged to this former staffer with Regina for one to two hours? And you know, what the what Regina told this former staffer was that they slept together there. No response.

And it's hard not to talk about this in relation to There's there is a campaign going on. You know, it's like Tony Gonzalez is in another heated Republican primary. You know, it's like he he you know, uh you know, obviously on the the March third primary, early voting is already underway. This is all coming out now. Uh well again, it's been trickling out for a while, but this is the the most solid evidence we've seen so far.

Uh, you know, he has a real primary, right? Like, you know, this is a guy like you mentioned, uh he has Trump's endorsement this time. But he's still in a l you know tight battle in this district. And and I should you know step back and this is a c the congressional district, the twenty third, which stretches from Holodus. uh on the north side of San Antonio and drags all the way out to El Paso. This district is huge. It is mostly a border.

uh region that he picks up. Obviously, like we mentioned it has Ubaldi in it. Has a I th I I forget how many m I wanna say there's eight hundred miles of border. uh, in his district. So, you know, y you can see what kind of drives this issue. But, you know, the San Antonio piece is a growing piece of this district. It's pretty large and can have a lot of impact.

on the ultimate, you know, results here. So that said, what's his primary opponent saying about it? And tell us a little about who his primary opponent is. He has three primary opponents in total, but the only one who we can really consider a serious threat is Brandon Herrera. He is a YouTuber and firearms manufacturer.

who first ran against Gonzalez in twenty twenty four and almost ousted him in the runoff by there was a margin of about four hundred votes that separated the two. So he really gave Gonzalez a run for his money despite being vastly outspent. He's positioned himself to the right of Gonzalez, you know, given Gonzalez's history of voting, you know, in in favor of legislation approving same sex marriage and Gonzalez's vote

on a bill that tightened a slightly tightened gun safety regulations after the Uvalde school massacre. So he has kind of boosted the rumors of this affair and then after our report came out last night he said, you know, basically that that that Gonzalez should resign because of the ethics rule violation, because of um also like Democrats are gonna exploit this. He said, like if he's the nominee, you know, we're in trouble in the general election.

And then Gonzalez responded and said Um, it's shameful and and he basically pinned the report on Herrera, um, which by the way, the staffer is not being paid by Herrera, you know, told us he's not being paid by anyone, came forward his own volition, he's actually working on two democratic campaigns out in California, which, you know, make of that way you will, but That's the situation. He was one of two staffers in the Uvaldi district office. He was a close friend of Regina's.

So anyway, this is what Gonzalez said to the Texas Tribune. They are not Gonzalez is not speaking to us, unsurprisingly. Quote It's you know, you said you know, Regina ha worked really hard to make the community a better place. Um her efforts led to improvements in school safety, healthcare, rural water. It's shameful that Brandon Herrera is using a disgruntled former staffer to smear her memory and score political points, conveniently pushing this out the very day early voting starts.

Started. I am not going to engage in these personal smears, and instead will foc we'll remain focused on helping President Trump secure the border and improve the lives of all Texans. Yeah, it's you know, th th this race, you know, like it's funny, this district used to be the old Will Heard district, you know, uh regular citizens of Texas take a remember this was the

tightest race every cycle. This is a r you know, you know, poor Will heard, like he would win his uh races by like half a percentage point. Uh and every race was a nail biter. And as they've done the redistricting over the years to try to Secure this for Republicans better.

They've made it more competitive on the in the primary world. And so you can see that's where Tony Gonzalez can now is the battle is like, you know, winning these, you know, runoff elections by a few hundred votes now. Now it's the razor shar you know, tight you know, races

in the primary instead of in the general election. So this district, you know, the twenty-third is being the twenty-third, y'all. They may draw the lines how they want, but this has been one of the most competitive districts in Texas.

For going on close to twenty years at this point. It is always a battle, whether na you know, once in the general election, now in the primary. And as you m you were mentioning in this It's like there are Democrats who are running on the other side and uh Herrera particularly becomes the candidate and maybe even now Gonzalez with this extra baggage. it feels like they're opening the door for a Democrat to maybe make a run at them

I wonder if the you know, the Democratic Congressional Committee will start putting some money and some time and investment into this like they'd have in some other districts in Texas. So it just seems like it i is an open opportunity. Have you seen anything yet from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee on t you know, what they want to do with this race now. I can see they're watching the room.

I can't I don't I don't know anything else, but I I'm sure that they're watching the race. And uh I think Democrats are very uh some Democratic candidates in San Antonio, like Christian Carranzo's running for the state house, called on, you know criticized Gonzalez over this yesterday. Yeah, and I I think I think this would be a liability for the Republicans if he's nominated. But it's interesting because he's also

appealed to the s the more overall slightly moderate Republican lean in the general election. It's not a R plus twenty five. Herrera is the kind of guy who would more appeal to a much more conservative Republican. Yeah, and as we mentioned uh time and time again, we're in a midterm cycle, y'all, where if there is this downdraft, as we talked about on the previous shows.

you know, districts like this are uh suddenly gonna be much more competitive. It's like in these environments where Republicans have started to sour on Trump. You remember, you know, in particular this area in South Texas, these are the areas that look like Trump was doing better.

So everybody assumed this district was safer than it might be now that things have kind of turned. And we're seeing all the polling even in Texas where you know Republican voters aren't necessarily happy. Are they gonna turn out to vote? for either Gonzalez or Herrera in this environment when everything seems like Kind of chaotic right now. I'm not sure if that's gonna happen this time. They they're they're b they're putting a lot of m they're betting money on

you know, Republicans voting like they did in twenty twenty four. And I'm not sure if that's a great model going into the twenty twenty six midterm cycle. No matter who comes out of this primary, whoever comes out of it is dragging some baggage. We know that. Now of course This requires can the Democrats get behind a candidate, whoever wins their primary. Can that can it be a legitimate challenger who can raise some money and present a a good message?

They've lacked that in this district. Even when it was competitive, they've had some kind of uh weak candidates in the past try to make a run at this district who just didn't have the financial support or the ability to campaign in such a wide district. So

This bears a lot of watching, y'all. This is definitely one of the races when we come out on March 3rd. You want to look for this result to see what happened here and if we're going to be facing another runoff battle and will this be another nail biter?

Well, Bayless, thanks a lot for coming on the show. And certainly, y'all check out her work, Google, you know, St. Tony Express News, Bayless Wagner, and Tony Gonzalez, and you're gonna get all kinds of great stories that she's been covering on this. Yeah, thanks a lot for joining the show and we will have you on again soon, no doubt. Always a pleasure to be here.

Right, y'all. We have you know more February surprises to kind of deal with. All of a sudden, like for some reason I saw Wesley Hunt with putting out his private provisional ballot for the whole world to see and I'm thinking, what the heck is going on? No worries. I decided to call our Washington Bureau where James Osborne. He's here with us now to help explain what on earth, why was Wesley Hunt

the Republican running for the US Senate, why was he putting his ballot out there for all the world to see? Well, I mean he's got all he's got he's got a bunch of uh negative ads running against him from Gorning and Paxton camps tr trying to claim he he's not a Trump supporter. Uh you've seen the I'm sure you've seen the ads on T V, you know, claiming that he's uh who's a Clinton supporter and an Obama supporter.

So uh Congressman Hunt decided to release his provisional ballot from twenty sixteen, which It was rejected uh by the uh election precinct on the grounds that uh it doesn't appear Congressman Hunt was actually registered to vote at that time. But he decided to release his provisional ballot anyway, along with a photo of um his voter screen. Technically illegal under Texas state law, but he did it.

And he's now putting it out there to try to prove to everybody that um he is a Trump supporter and always has been. Yeah, the attacks on him is like he hasn't been a Trump supporter. Yeah, I have an ad here that will play here so y'all can hear one of the attacks. Terrible Democrats are the Republicans. Take Washington's Wesley Hunt. Hunt didn't even vote for President Trump.

And d James, like this isn't the first time we've heard Wesley Hunt's ballot being questioned, right? Like I was there back in twenty twenty, uh when I was at a Republican meeting that's when he was running for uh in the

uh seventh congressional district against Lizzie Fletcher or was hoping to take her on. And in that one of the meetings we were at at the I think it was the Houston Packaderm Club, you know, they had asked him why didn't you vote in the Republican primary in two thousand and eight? And he had to explain to this crowd that like look, that was part of Operation Chaos.

You know, for the a long time, you know, listeners of the Texas take, we've talked about this before. This has tripped up Canada's before. You'll remember Kathleen Wall had to do you know explain this at one point. I had Troy Nails having to explain this at one point.

And now here uh Wesley Hunt back in twenty twenty was having to explain that he voted in the Democratic primary in two thousand eight Because Rush Limbaugh had told every Republican to go vote in the Democratic primary and vote for Hillary Clinton to prolong that Democratic primary as long as possible so Obama and Clinton would have to waste all their money on each other. and not on the Republican, you know, against the Republican who was gonna be John McCain.

He had already secured the nomination and it was just this crazy convoluted thing to like, you know, would this really h work? And it turned out lots of people ended up doing that. Rush Limbaugh, like it's hard for us for us to remember in this new social media world, right? Rush Limbaugh was the king. If Rush Limbaugh told you to go vote in Democratic primary,

And you're a Republican, you might actually do it. Rush Limbaugh actually had that kind of power to convince you that, oh, this will be good. Don't worry about someday when you're running for office when you're being attacked for having, you know, not voted for Trump, you voted in a Democratic primary. And I've even had some people, well he probably w liked Obama really. It's like like but with no evidence.

Well then it got all it got all the more complicated because that's when there was a twenty twenty T New York Times story that uh Hunt was interviewed for. Which reported that he had supported Obama. So the whole thing is completely now convoluted, that you have all these different stories about who he supported, who he didn't.

So, you know, I guess, you know, last week he tries to clean all this up in the process creates another mess for himself, really. Yeah, right. It it's so unusual to see a candidate, you know, put out a provisional ballot that was rejected.

I think that's the key point in this thing. He showed us like he didn't act he wasn't really registered to vote at that point, you know, in yeah, back in Texas to to cast that ballot in the district he was in. And so th that's the thing, y'all. This is a good reminder. If you have moved and you go try to register to uh and try to go vote, you gotta make sure you're in the place where you used to live. You can't just show up to your current precinct.

a and expect you're gonna get the right ballot. It's like you like especially in Texas, if you move from one county to the next It's you're not gonna be able to vote. You're gonna get end up with a provisional ballot that could count potentially, but like you that moving thing really changes because it changes your entire ballot. Who you're voting for school board, who you're voting for the city council, all that stuff changes.

You know, particularly if you go from one county to the next. So there's your lesson, everybody out there in Texas Take World. Go check your voter registration if you moved. Double check it. Don't be like Wesley Hunt, where you try to cast a ballot provisionally and it gets thrown out. Those provisional ballots. Like it it's not the same experience as getting that sticker on your shirt with a regular ballot that you know will get counted. So

Well thanks James for joining us on the Texas Take and explaining why the heck Wesley Hunt uh wants us to all see that his provisional ballot was rejected once. Thanks a lot. Always good. Always good to talk with you, Jeremy. Thanks for having me on. All right, y'all, you know what we could really use on this show at about this point with all of this stuff we just went through? Some THC.

Okay, I'm kidding. And we're not really gonna get into TC. Well, well, we're gonna get into TC, but we're gonna get into it through the prism of the Texas Agriculture Commissioner race. Look, y'all, I like I mentioned at the top of the program, I sat down with both Sid Miller and Nate Sheets for what was almost a debate. It was really close to actually happening where I had them both on screen at the same time and going back and forth.

I didn't quite pull that out, almost did it. I did interviews with both of them back to back. And what I want to do now is go through some of that, you know, back and forth and give you a taste of what, you know, was happening during that episode. Now look, y if you wanna see the full back to back interviews in the agriculture commissioner race.

Y you look you wanna check that out. They I really got them talking about, you know, all the different industries from beekeeping to cattle industry. We talked about shrimping at one point. We talked a little about cotton. We talked about all kinds of issues. So if you're in the agriculture world you really want to check that out and if you're just trying to decide which of these two Republicans you want to vote for

It's probably worth your time to go listen at that last episode. We have the full episode up on YouTube. So you can go check it out. uh just look for Texas Take, Jeremy Wallace, and YouTube and you're gonna find it there. So I'm gonna hit a couple of pieces here that I think are super interesting whether you're in agriculture or not.

First, the one thing I did with both of them is I really pushed them on why the heck they are running, right? And Sid Miller's been in office since twenty fourteen. Uh, why is he doing this again? And why is Nate uh sheets you know deciding to try to take on this guy he once was a hundred percent for. So first here's what Sid Miller told me. Uh Mr. Miller, I definitely wanted to get your you know take on

Uh why you're running again? It's like you know, it's like you know you you've been in this office f uh you know since twenty fourteen. What makes you want to jump into another race here? Well we've got a lot of things left t to do that that are undone that that that I need to see get get finished for the state of Texas. I

Take my job v very seriously, actually. This job normally is is a stepping stone to a higher political office. It's not that with me. I think anybody that knows me would would tell you that that I'm the Act Commissioner today, tomorrow, next week. And I it's my full time it's it's my purpose on this planet actually. I I I don't seek higher office. I seek to be the de best agriculture commissioner that Texas has ever had. So uh that's that's where I'm coming from.

And here's Nate Sheets explaining what made him ultimately decide to get into this race. Um, I was up in DC after the inauguration having lunch with my buddy Rick Santorm, um, who is a politician and I was just talking about phases of life. I had spent twelve years in full time Christian ministry. Uh you know, I spent six years in the Navy serving our country, spent twelve years in ministry serving

God in his kingdom spent 14 years at Nature Nate serving communities and serving people with better products. And now I'm just like, what's this next phase? And so, you know, when you're a uh a nail, the answer is always a hammer. And so Rick said, Well, you should get into politics and you should be the ag commissioner. People are getting sick.

We gotta c help farmers and ranchers. And so that's what kind of got us going in this whole direction. And boy, y'all, during the back and forth, and look, even though they weren't on the screen at the same time, these guys were throwing some real punches at each other.

Let's get into the one that Sid Miller had on Nate Sheets. I want you to hear what he said about Nate Sheets and why he thinks he's vastly more qualified than Nate Sheets. Take a listen. So, you know, I am an eighth generation farmer and rancher. You know, I still make my living off the land, raising crops and cattle and horses and uh Sheets has never even lived on a phone. Uh my education is from Charlton State University with a degree in agriculture. He has no agriculture education.

When I got out of s uh college I became an ag teacher, had the great honor of teaching our youth the virtues of farming and ranching and agriculture vocations and uh FFA advisor, four H leader. Uh Sheetz has never never done any of that. Mat matter of fact he says F F A doesn't teach anything about agriculture. I couldn't wait till I turned nine years old so I could join four H and then later F F A and show and Start showing my farm at him.

And he's never even been a you know, a member of four H or F F A. And thinks that FFA doesn't teach kids about agriculture. The b the boy's really, really naive. Next, here's Nate Sheets dishing it right back at Sid Miller. Like here's him talking about heat with failures that he says that are happening over at the Department of Agriculture under Sid Miller's leadership.

When I really started, you know, looking into this, like what the job is and and what's it gonna entail, and then looking at his true track record. And and things have come to light as we've continued to be in this process of of campaigning. And now I'm not um a pro Sid guy. I mean he's he's He's honestly he's not a real nice guy. He's a bully. Um he

threatens to fire anybody at the Text Department of Agriculture who follows me on social media. They have fired over a fired or 160 people have been have left TDA since March of last year. The organization is in chaos. He has significant components of his job which have not been done um like

Inspecting nurseries. 30% of nurseries haven't been inspected in four years. Forty percent of truck scales in Texas have not been calibrated in over four years. And those are the ways that farmers and ranchers get paid. you know, 44th in the nation school nutrition program.

All right, y'all. Now let's get into the THC component of this. Look, uh THC and the Department of Agriculture are uh are linked on all of this at this point because of the fact that there was a farm bill. uh back a few years ago, that a lot of people point to as the opening of the door for THC products in Texas. You're gonna hear first I'm gonna have Sid Miller explain you know, what they were doing back then and why or why not, he's responsible for what happened in the market.

Let's first talk about hemp and THC. You know, that whole uh issue is obviously, you know, really important to a lot of farmers and to a lot of consumers out there. It's like what should we be doing at this point on THC and hemp? You know, what was it the intention for all these THC products to be out here as part of that farm bill from a few years ago? Uh or was this some sort of accident here?

Well, it's it's it's a loophole basically. You know, I I wrote the hemp uh legislation. Uh the the legislation that I wrote and in enacted, uh is when the hemp is on the farm. When it leaves the farm, it's out of my jurisdiction. There's no hemp ever left a farm that's that's high on T H C. We test every bit of it before it leaves.

What happens is once it leaves the farm They distill it and they concentrate the THC uh Delta Nine in high concentration, Delta eight, Delta ten, and then they they put this in products like gummies or smokables. And the farm bill, we didn't even that stuff didn't exist. Th there was no Delta eight, Delta Nine. We didn't know what that was. So it it's basically a loophole. Uh it's legal, uh, but it was never intended.

I have never wavered on my position on THC. I have always been a very huge proponent, like for a long time, the the only statewide official that that that supported uh the use of medical marijuana. If it'll help somebody and it's proven medically to do so, I want to get them the help. I want that soldier to get treated for PTSD. I want that person with epilepsy to get treated for for seizures. That person with glaucoma to get their sight back.

Uh any the list goes on and on. We have scientific facts that it's uh It's a it's a m medical breakthrough in in many of these diseases and problems that we have. So let's have it. I have never ever been a proponent of of, you know, recreational marijuana. Uh so that's my position. Uh right now, uh

the we overproduced uh a matter of fact I grew th three crops of him. Just so I could s understand the the process. N not for a profit, didn't really make a profit, didn't try. I was trying to understand the the the the uh The the agronomy, the entomology, everything that goes in, the the you know, the the nutri nutrients required so I could actually talk intelligently about him. My opponents never planted or harvested crop of any kind, so he's he certainly doesn't know much about it.

So we overproduced, so the market for the C B D all type hemp uh uh has crashed. Uh we've got fewer and fewer growers growing that. But I have promoted a new type of hip industry. It's the industrial hemp industry. And this doesn't have T H C. It it's used for products like building products, upholstery, uh rope, uh things like that. So Uh through my efforts, uh not my efforts alone by any stretch, we now have the North America's largest industrial hemp processing plant in Wichita Falls.

We are now growing uh about fifteen thousand acres of hemp to feed that plant. So farmers now have a another tool in the toolbox, crop rotation. Uh i it's a good plant to rotate. It it takes uh heavy metals out of the soil, traps them and binds them up. So th that's kind of where we are. There there's uh you know, o ongoing legislation but I'm not a legislator. I'm I'm a regulator, you know, so uh whatever the uh Senate and House and the Governor decide to do, I'll implement it.

So you're you're obviously pro hemp for the farmers. Uh you're for medical marijuana, uh, you know, for people to have access to that. But you know, the THC part in itself is like i are you uh supportive of banning uh these THC, you know, synthetic products uh around the state? Yeah, I'm for whatever's legal. Like I said, I'm I'm not the lawmaker. Whatever they make legal I'll implement. So it's it's up to the lawmakers to decide how far they want to go. I I'm just telling you

Full blown recreational marijuana like they got in Colorado and Oregon. No, I'm not for that.

All right, y'all. And Nate Sheets, of course, says this all belongs in uh Sid Miller's blame category. He didn't hedge anything on this. He went right after Sid Miller and said, Sid Miller's responsible for all that confusion. Take a listen. All the confusion was created by the Texas Department of Agriculture and and Sid Miller and how they wrote these regulations. And so they were responsible for writing the regulations and they did it.

Unintentionally, maybe intentionally, I'm not sure, you know, kind of leaving this crack in the door of the Delta eight, nine and ten. So it's not THC, you know, it's a derivative, it's a syn synthesized derivative of C B D. And so um i you know, and so the This f I was actually I stopped by a um one of these shops the other day just because I was curious. And but I was shocked that there were products in there that have, you know, ninety milligrams of THC. And so you would

perceive that the state of Texas has approved recreational marijuana just by the products that are sold in there. But the state of Texas has not approved that. And so there's been, you know, when the first farm bill was written, they included hemp in there. And I will tell you, I'm a CBD consumer user. I believe in it. It's amazing. It's great for joints and cuts and all kinds of things. Has great medicinal use. But when they did the original hemp bill for hemp,

uh or farm bill that included hemp, it was a crop that they thought would be beneficial for farmers and ranchers. They weren't saying that to say, hey, let's go legalize marijuana in uh in America. And so after that farm bill was passed, then chemists, scientists, figured out that you could synthesize and do this delta eight, nine and ten, which then if you spray those onto um a product and then you apply heat, then it has the same effect as THC.

And so um I think that's where all the confusion has happened. That's why Donald Trump went in and did a executive order to ban that component to try to create Take that off the table. And at the same time he's looking at rescheduling marijuana. um down to a sk uh one so he can they can give us more research use to be able to see about um uh vet uh um vets to be able um veterans to use for PTSD and other medicinal uses to help, you know, uh with stress related to their uh careers. So

You know, I think that's happening at the federal level and we'll see how it plays out at the state level. I I will say hemp is a product and as an industry is something that we really need to unpack further here in Texas. Uh as it goes back to relating back to my honey illustration about driving consumption, you know, breakfast, lunch, dinner, baking, snacking, all these other ways to get people to eat more honey more often. The thing that the current commissioner never did.

was to go out and drive consumption from an industrial use, to go get partners to use hemp products for cups and and material and, you know, all the different ways that it can be utilized in industrial use. And we've got one of the largest hemp processing plants in North Texas up in the panhandle.

But we don't have the adoption in industry. And so that's one thing we'll do. We'll work on going and finding industry and make it a viable product for farmers and ranchers to be able to use. But I have talked to farmers, you know, who are like, well, I'll grow hemp. And they said, man, it's a lot harder. It's not cotton. And it's a lot harder than you think. And so we had six thousand uh acres.

planted when it first started. And I think now we've got 80 acres. And so obviously it's not been a very successful program under Sid's leadership. All right, there you have it, y'all. There's a lot more to that interview. If you're a beekeeper, you'll want to go, you know, check out the full interview. I actually got both of them talking about you know what's happening with you know the bee populations right now in Texas. Like I mentioned earlier, we have a whole segment

just on the cattle industry and what the heck is going on there. Remember those folks are dealing with these tariffs that have really hurt them, this Argentine beef that's coming in, the border being shut to Mexican cattle. uh because that screw worm virus that is working its way up from central and uh South America. And so the w a lot more to get into. Go check that out.

Again, the full episodes up on YouTube. You can go check that out. Please go take a look at it and you'll see my pretty face as I'm interviewing these guys. So you get a little bit more of that that visual component we've been adding into some of these special editions. You might remember I did one with Beto O'Rourke and before that I did one with Dan Crenshaw. Go check out all those. I could use as many views on those as possible. So thanks a lot for checking those out.

So there you have it, y'all. Surprise after surprise after surprise in the month of February. I even had a personal one on my side. Uh it turns out I became a grandfather a little bit earlier than we expected. It's my first grandkid. And so uh y'all are getting this show despite me being fully distracted.

on the wonders of being a grandparent for the first time. I know, I look too young to have a grand son at this point, but hey, let's just say I'm a young grandfather. There you go. Is that all right? But anyhow, so yeah, uh my entire perspective on everything has changed. So I have my own February surprise that it's a lot more positive than most of what you heard in this show, right? Well anyhow Thanks again for listening to the Texas Take.

Uh be sure to check out the Tex to Tech newsletter, y'all. It's like I have a lot of information I'm putting out there every single day for you. Uh that's where you get the up and the down of the day. So if you're a first time listener to this program, uh you'll want to go check that out so you can see you know the daily stock market report we have on Texas politics.

Uh and again, you can you know search that you know on Google, just go Texas Take and Jeremy Wallace uh newsletter and you will find me there. Or you can go to the top of my ex page. I have a pinned post there that will take you right to the sign-up page. Uh so there you go. Thanks again y'all for listening to the Texas take and I will see y'all.