So, What's Different This Time? Anything?

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Not much yet. Welcome to The Texas Take Because of You, the number one politics podcast in the great state for going on a decade now. I'm Scott Braddock, and he's Jeremy Wallace. His work, of course, is at HoustonChronicle.com, and you can find the inside story on Texas politics at QuorumReport.com.

Jeremy, last week's show, I'm going to admit it right now, might have been a little subpar. I felt like it wasn't as good as some of the others. You know how critical I am. I sit around and... and think probably overthink what we do and i always think it could be better right i mean you and any show could be better right um but i think this show is going to be um it's going to be a big improvement

I think this edition of the show is going to be way better. Do you want to know why? Why is that? Well, because I feel more relaxed, honestly. And I'm here in Philadelphia where my daughter lives and I've had some time to, you know, just hang out with my kid and think about things and look at what's going on in our country. Oh, wait a minute. That's not my excuse.

That's Colin Allred's excuse for the way things went in his recent campaigns. How would this campaign be different from last year's? So much different for me. Really? Just personally, I feel more relaxed. Do you really? I do. I do.

The pressure of D.C. off of you or what? Yeah, I think part of it is spending time with my kids. Yeah, so we will get to his excuses coming up, Jeremy. He had a big announcement this week, and we'll get to that. And we will also check in on the other Democrats who are either running statewide.

or might run statewide, right? We talk a lot about Republicans here, of course, because Republicans run Texas, but there are some Democrats who are interested in the gig. So we'll see about that. But first, let's just start with this, Jeremy.

Evan, it's the 4th of July. I'm reporting today from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. As I said, the birthplace of America. Yesterday, Jeremy, I walked past Independent Hall and Independent Square. And there is something interesting and kind of magical.

about being here at this time. You know, Philly does the 4th of July like no other place can because this is where it went down, here and in Boston where they had the Boston Tea Party aggressively throwing that overtaxed tea into the water and all of that.

that. But we're, and I'll get to a couple of other observations about Philly, but look, you and I, we love the red dirt country, so it's not so much of the John Philip Sousa stuff that we're interested in. You know, we might crank up something more like this. Thank you. Well, Shooter Jennings there getting me pumped up as we move through the show. And I was trying to keep things upbeat.

but when i told jeremy yesterday evan that we should do some fourth of july you know united states of america stuff um he was a little more somber in his mood and i think that It's a sentiment that might be shared by others, Jeremy, because as much as you want to be all about the red, white, and blue, there are a lot of people, and very smart people who are saying this, that it's kind of red, white, and bleak out there.

It's the way people feel. Yeah. So Jeremy thought we should play some Ryan Bingham instead. See what's going on Can't you see what we've become Save a daughter, save a son. Our bullets dress them up in blood. Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free. Of course, it's what's there on the Statue of Liberty, Jeremy, right? And as Ryan Bingham alludes to, there's a lot of things that are different, you know, when you think about.

with the ideals of the founding and some of the things that are going on now, right? What were they talking about? They're talking about immigrants. I mean, that was there at Ellis Island where they were bringing in, you know, the migrant populations from all around the world. a great melting pot and all of that. And what's happening now? They're rounding people up and kicking them out. So I saw this headline.

in the houston chronicle this week where the houston construction industry is being rocked by all these ice raids and they've got you know workers who are being either rounded up and kicked out and so they're not there for work but then there are the others

who aren't coming to work because they think that that might happen if they leave their homes. And a lot of people just in hiding right now, this guy who is a home builder in Houston, well, he took to TikTok because everybody's a TikTok star now.

And he basically explained that he can't find the guys to do the work right now, that it's really getting desperate out there. Where did everyone go? I own and build these homes myself. I GC them. I hire the laborers. But lately, nobody's showing up. ICE is pulling up to jobs. He says these raids have scared people away from showing up for work, Jeremy. So again, it's not just the people who have been already grabbed by ice. It's the other people who think.

that that might happen. He spoke to sort of the larger sense that's out there, that there is... that there is someone out to get them. They've created fear. Fear in the very hearts of the people who keep this country standing. And let's get one thing straight. I would hire white folks, but they don't exist where I'm at. They don't show up. And if they do, it's to subcontract the work to guess who.

Us Mexicans. He said all the vilification of these hard-working folks needs to stop. In Texas alone, over 60% of the construction workforce is Mexican. We are the labor. These guys aren't criminals. They're drywallers, painters, tile guys. They pour the cement, lay the fountain. foundation, frame, lay the roof shingles, and landscape the yard. Their fathers, their taxpayers, maybe not federal, but they for damn sure pay rent.

sales tax gas food and they fuel this economy we say we love america but we're tearing down the very foundation that it's built on every stud every nail every damn piece of sheetrock in these houses every bag of cement mixed and every roof laid was put in by someone

trying to put food on the table i came from where they came from and what people don't get is this without these guys construction stops i'm a capitalist i believe in profit but if i had to hire only local born labor not only does it not exist

but costs would double, margins would disappear, and prices would skyrocket. I like the hip-hop he had there going in his TikTok video, Jeremy. He mentioned that he was sort of skeptical of the idea that these migrants are paying any of the federal taxes, but we do know...

We've seen the studies showing that part of the reason that Social Security would be in some trouble is because you'd be kicking out some people who have paid in and that they never would have gotten any of the benefits anyway.

Right. I mean, those stories have been out there for a long time. But there was this rally in San Antonio where Representative Joaquin Castro, the congressman from SA, was talking about this very thing alongside some other Democrats.

who really want to not only talk about these issues, but also are considering running for... different high offices here in texas and we're going to talk about that but here's what castro said specifically about these raids and listen to the reaction from the crowd you see people in black masks with no badges and no identification

Snatching people off the street. The other day in San Antonio, a few weeks ago, there was a video of a woman outside an immigration court who was being ripped away from her kids. And she begged these officers, she said, my kids are at school. They don't know what's going to happen to me. They're expecting me. And these folks who had not identified themselves, who were covered.

ripped her away from her kids. That is not the America that we have worked for. That is not the America that we stand for. The crowd there energized by that message, Jeremy. Tell us about this rally. This was last Friday, right after we completed the last show, which I'm just going to go ahead. I'm not kidding anymore.

That was an excellent show last week. But after we did the show, you headed down to San Antonio and you've got these, what was it, three or four Democrats who were... maybe looking at running for different offices and maybe testing out some of their messages with a very receptive audience.

Yeah, I scooted down 281 to catch Beto O'Rourke, who is organizing this event through his Powered by People event. Originally, he was just going to have a rally there for himself. But ultimately, he decided that, you know, with all these people talking about running for the Senate. including himself, why don't I invite them all into it, right? And so he ended up inviting Joaquin Castro, James Tallarico, and Colin Allred all to be part of this event. Of course, Castro, you just...

heard was there. Tallarico spoke to the group, and so did Beto O'Rourke. Oliver did not make it, but the whole point of that was to show this unified vision of a Democratic Party where even if they do all run against...

each other maybe you know they can help each other kind of amplify all of their voices as they go through this no matter what they run for so it was kind of an interesting like you know again off cycle we're not quite there yet uh but there was a thousand people in this thing you know it's like i was kind of surprised

at the turnout. Not bad for a Friday night in San Antonio where there's a heck of a lot of great stuff to do on a Friday night in San Antonio. And here we were all packed in listening to a bunch of speeches. Yeah, so let's listen to some of that. Representative Tallarico, who you mentioned, was at that rally, and he was basically calling – he has this way of doing this where he doesn't really outright say it, but he's saying, essentially, that Republicans –

are hypocrites when it comes to their faith. My granddad was a Baptist preacher in South Texas. He told me when I was little that we follow a barefoot rabbi who gave two commandments. Love God and love neighbor Because there is no love of God without love of neighbor. He said politicians in the GOP don't practice what they preach when that barefoot rabbi saw the many abusing the few he walked into the seat of power

and he flipped over the tables of injustice. To those who love democracy, to those who love our neighbors, it's time to start flipping tables. So I know a lot of the insider crowd in Austin will be interested in your take on this, Jeremy. What was the reaction to him like specifically? Well, he's an interesting character, right? He's got such a big following growing on places like TikTok. But I don't think a lot of the usual voters who go to these rallies are used to him, right?

was kind of a newer audience for him. So kind of introducing himself. So here's a chance for him. Again, Beto's giving him part of his stage to speak to his people as maybe the next fresh voice of the party, which was kind of interesting in itself. Again, this is a guy who isn't really well known outside of Austin, right? You know, it's like the Austin bubble knows the name. But, you know, outside of that, he's.

basically like Joe's schmo off the street right now. But I thought he did pretty well in kind of working this crowd, getting this crowd energized. You know, he brings like, you know. a lot of energy potentially a new fresher face look joaquin's kind of a fresher face too in a way a lot of people get him mixed up with his brother uh which kind of like undercuts some of that you know julian castro of course is the former mayor who ended up running for president

That's not the same guy, y'all. This is Joaquin Castro, who's been kind of a who's been a state rep and then a congressman, kind of a slow and steady kind of guy who works on foreign policy stuff, but it's getting a little bit more active on thinking for a statewide campaign.

but you have in both these guys elements of just something different from what we've seen in the past, which of course, you know, it's kind of a reference to obviously, you know, Beto and all red being potentially candidates. Again, a lot of people are going, really, are we just going to run?

these guys over and over again. And so at least Tallarico is giving people a chance. Well, maybe there is something else out there that could run statewide. Again, who knows if he could actually build the name ID and the money to be able to do such a statewide campaign. at least we saw the elements of him winning over a crowd. Yeah, and so Beto there, of course, is doing his usual thing. He's firing everybody up. He's screaming. He starts out by saying that this might sound crazy.

And I know Republicans will say it might sound crazy because you're screaming. But here was the message that he delivered. This is going to sound crazy, but what if you only had to work one job instead of two jobs or three jobs to make it? the respect that you deserve and have earned and allow you to focus on those kids right in front of you unlocking their lifelong love of learning so that they can change the world and fulfill this vision

We are setting out here tonight. He said the GOP is robbing the poor to give to the rich in this legislation in Washington that Trump is calling the big, beautiful bill. of dollars to the already most powerful and wealthiest people in this country and instead use those trillions to cure cancer?

Use those trillions to build the millions of homes that we need in this country so everyone has a roof over their head. Use those trillions to fight climate change before it is too late and extinguish this life. Now, at a different event, Beto called Cornyn's office about the big, beautiful bill, and he had the audience join in with him about how they thought Cornyn ought to vote.

Hi Senator Cornyn it's your old friend that's all about 600 of your constituents here in Beaumont, Texas tonight and regarding this big beautiful bill All of us would like to say that we would like you to vote NO!

So, of course, another room of Democrats. It was in Jefferson County, though, Jeremy, to have 600 people show up. I mean, you still see that kind of energy from the guy. As you said earlier today when you and I were talking, he still brings this energy, right, and gets people fired up around the state.

state that you might not expect. So you talked to Beto after the rally in San Antonio, right? And I think the way you asked the question here, and I want people to hear this whole thing, the question and the answer, the way you asked it. gets right to the point of, you know, what the elephant in the room is. Y'all are all in the rumor mill of running for the United States senator or the governor or lieutenant governor or whatever else it is.

What made you decide that y'all wanted to do this together, even though there's a chance that y'all might be rivals? I take a lot of hope in James Tallarico, Joaquin Castro, Colin Allred, who couldn't be here tonight, some of the other folks that you saw right now, and I want everyone else to have that same hope. We don't lack for political talent. We don't lack for people who...

And I want everyone to see that. I think that's kind of the prerequisite for people to decide what races they're running for, even if they're going to run at all. I want people to know that we can win. And I want them to imagine. I talked about all the things we might be able to do. to do in our future. Imagine these guys representing us at a statewide level in the Senate, as governor, as attorney general, wherever people end up. So that's about as far as I've gotten, Jeremy, on this thing.

that he's hopeful about the future. And he said that he doesn't really agree with this idea that they are rivals. Because there's this groundswell across the state of Texas. of Texans demanding more from their government, both their state government and their national government. And you see that here. I mean, these aren't just Democrats that are here. We've got Republicans and independents here, too. And I just want to correct something that was said. We are not rivals. We are on the same team.

We are all trying to change the state for the better and bring power back to the people. And so we're going to coordinate and work together, whatever that looks like over the next few months and years. Jeremy, I know why he's saying that. He wants to present a united front to people, but we know better. Look, the reports have been that all of these guys are interested in the top, you know, thing on the ticket, which is the U.S. Senate race, of course, and one of the Democrats who was not.

at that event has already made his announcement about that and we'll get to him in just a minute um but if you know i mean the idea that texas would have a democratic dream team ticket is not a new one I can remember all the way back to whatever, 2000, 2001, 2003, when they had the Dream Team. Was that in 01? When they had, or no, excuse me, that was in 2002. I was right around it. I was right around it. It was Tony Sanchez and Ron Kirk and all of that. Obviously, this is a very different time.

A lot has changed since then. The numbers in Texas have changed since then. But I did have someone send me a picture, and it might have been a picture you took. There was a picture at that rally where you had Ron Nuremberg, who is the former mayor of San Antonio, who we had reported.

quorum report yesterday that the chatter was getting a little louder that he might run for governor. You've got Tallarico, you've got Castro, you've got Beto, and then you've got Allred, who's already running for Senate. And this person sent it to me and said, if this is the dream team,

It might not work. This is a Democrat who sent it to me. So there's already some folks who are doubting that it can happen. I have often said that there's sort of an imagination gap in the state for certain folks who would like to see Democrats win statewide. some of the older folks and some of the veteran.

uh folks in texas politics i'm talking people who are in their 60s and 70s who can remember all the way back when that was a competitive state and they saw it happen the democrats could win and republicans could win a statewide office that that was a thing at some point. And then you have the younger folks who, I'll just say it this way, haven't been disappointed enough times yet. And they can still believe that it might happen.

Right. There are those younger folks who think that and have reason to think it. And then there are folks in the middle. This is what I mean by the gap. The folks who are age wise in the middle who have just never seen it happen. during our careers or during our lives, except maybe we were very small children when we were not really paying attention to this stuff. And just can't imagine that Democrats would ever have a shot at winning statewide. But...

Numbers are different. Some of the tactics will be different. We'll see on that, although we'll get to Colin Allred in just a little bit to highlight some of what he's saying. But what else were they telling you there, you know, to you and some of the other reporters who were at this rally on Friday night?

Well, I think one of the things that we're trying to kind of hammer home is that what makes this cycle potentially different, again, potentially, is that, again, we were looking a little bit more like a 2018 potential cycle where you have the same guy in the White House. Trump.

creating the same kind of anxiety and maybe even more so with populations who may not have voted the last time. Right. You know, you have a lot more people who might be interested in voting. And, you know, look, you can't help but think, you know, one of the. gifts for the democratic party if they do have a shot might be ken paxton you know ken paxton becoming the nominee for this you know for the

U.S. Senate is not just important because he has his own baggage, you know, but maybe more important in that like his relationship with Trump is so close that you can run a campaign against Paxson and Trump and kind of a. seamless way you know that you may not have the same chance with like a guy like cornyn and so like if a whole ticket would kind of be able to

produce some energy and not just from one race. You can't do just, Hey, everybody loves Wendy Davis and everybody else is on your own. You can't be just like, I'm calling all red and I don't care who's running for Congress. Right. You can't do that. Like you have to have kind of a, a more universal approach.

to the midterm election, like what happened in 2018. You and I have talked about this a lot. One of the brilliant parts of what happened in 2018, and I'm not sure it was necessarily a Democratic Party strategy as much as it just happened, right? had competitive, decent...

you know, reliable candidates running all over the state for all kinds of congressional races, state house seats, you know, down to the county government level. It's like, that's why you had so many candidates bust through that year. People we had never heard of. We're like, does this person really?

a chance does lena hidalgo really have a chance to win yeah but she was a terrible kid yeah but hang on a second but hang on a second i'm gonna i'm gonna i'm not really disagreeing but let me actually bolster what you're saying you also had terrible people running for office like lena hidalgo and here's what i mean she had no experience doing anything

At that point, I don't think and it was my understanding she had maybe not even volunteered on a campaign at that point. I mean, you know why she was the only Democrat to run that year is because other Democrats in Harris County, they were thinking that Sylvia Garcia was going to run. for county judge and instead she ran for Congress. So some of the other Democrats who would have been there who might have had a shot at it.

People like John Whitmire, who later ran for mayor, people like Anise Parker, who's now running for county judge. They thought that there's no way that any of us are going to beat the Republican in that office, Ed Emmett, that year. So then you had this nobody. She didn't even have a primary. She was the only Democrat who ran that year. She was the one that they were kind of, quote unquote, stuck with. And she broke through because it was this tidal wave for Democrats that year. Exactly.

You had some people who were running in different, and I'll say this too about some of the people who won their Texas house seats that year. There were a lot of them that never would have been expected to be competitive. uh if not for that tidal wave that year and you have a potential for an even worse situation for republicans next year because and we talked about this last week a little bit because it's the second midterm for an incumbent republican president right historically

That is generally always worse. And so when in 18, you had 12 new Democrats elected to the Texas House and two new Democrats elected to the Texas Senate and two congressional districts flipped in Houston and Dallas, including the seat that Colin Allred won that year. I mean, people can think of it one of two ways. You can say, hey, a tidal wave, you know, when the tide rises, it can bring a lot of trash in with it. That's what happens sometimes with Republicans and Democrats, by the way.

for their candidate season. In 2010, they had a tidal wave the other way for Republicans, right? And there were some candidates who won and you would have said, wait a minute. How in the world did that ever happen? But you also have a lot of really good things washed on shore when that happens as well. And some people end up being stars out of that and their political careers. are launched but not necessarily because of anything they did and instead it was because of the larger environment.

Well, absolutely. I think you're dead right on it, but that's what's creating this environment, right? People are thinking, well, is this potential of that? You can never see a wave coming until it comes in politics. It's just the way these cycles work. I've been covering this since the first months.

wave in 1994 uh it's like you know it just kind of builds on its own or it doesn't on its own but it's interesting so you have like even people who aren't used to being in the in the process are now starting to kick the tires like i don't know if y'all saw i had a story on

Bobby Cole, the guy who's trying to run for governor, he announced this week I have a story about him in the Houston Chronicle. And also last week I had Terry Virts. He's that retired astronaut who he's going to try to run and get. into this race, too, for this very reason, that potentially there might be something happening that could get a guy with no name recognition into the U.S. Senate seat.

Right, and that's part of why it matters. This was Bert's campaign announcement video where he's talking about why he's getting into the Senate race. This moment demands something different. Honesty, courage, and a clean break from the past. I'll make it my mission to fight for Texans every day. Texas farmers crushed by Trump's insane tariffs. Texas workers buried with rising costs. Texas kids hit with education cuts.

and Texas communities kicked off Medicaid. I've risked my life for this country, and I'll fight anyone trying to destroy it. I'm an American first, a Texan second, and a common-sense Democrat third. Reminds me of how Dan Patrick would often say he's a Christian first, a conservative second, and a Republican third. I could give you the cynical version of all this and say there are candidates who are going to run and have no chance.

whatsoever and that we shouldn't act like there's any chance that they might do well. I think I'm two election cycles removed from a meeting I had with someone who was running statewide. a coffee shop in Austin. And this was the Democratic nominee for a certain office. I'm not going to say whether it was a man or a woman or even what office, Jeremy. But I sat across the table from this person and I said,

You know, it's called earned media for a reason. We don't call it free media. It ends up being free media. People in the business know what I'm talking about. When someone gets news coverage, that's called, quote, earned media. rather than paid media, which is your commercials and your stuff that you have on TV and radio and your flyers and all that sort of stuff. But earned media means you actually have to do something for us to cover it. So here you have Beto O'Rourke.

earning the hell out of it, running around all over Texas, 254 counties, doing all these rallies, doing all this stuff, raising all this money, and getting his, quote, earned media. There are others who don't really do anything. And yet media will still cover it and go, oh, this person officially announced. We should do a story about that. There was some farmer in East Texas, I guess. What did that guy announce for? He announced for governor. Yeah, cool. That's the guy I was just talking about.

Okay. Yeah. So see, I already forgot about him. So he hasn't done anything. Here's the thing. He hasn't done anything. I asked somebody, why are we covering this? And a friend said, well, because he officially announced. I said, well, what if I officially announce tomorrow?

Is everybody going to cover that? If I do a press conference on Monday that I'm running for governor, I guess they wouldn't come now because I'm telling you what I'm doing here on the show. But point being that they should have to earn it, right? And so there's two ways to think about it. One is...

That maybe media in this state gives people kind of a skewed version of what might happen because it's very – because when you look at the coverage, sometimes, Jeremy, it looks like, oh, it's this Republican versus this Democrat, and who knows? Anything could happen.

When we know better than that, that this is a Republican state, the numbers are with the Republicans and we shouldn't give people that impression. Right. It's our job to just tell the truth about what may happen and give people a realistic expectation. On the other hand, if you have one of these. title waves. Somebody like Terry Virts, if he was the nominee, maybe he could win, right? Or somebody like the guy from East Texas, maybe he could win.

And then say, OK, well, now we have this guy that we don't know anything about. And then, of course, media would get blamed for not, quote unquote, vetting the person better. And that has happened many times in the history of this state and the country.

Yeah, and my track record, particularly when I was in Florida, saw this happen two legitimate times. Nobody was covering Rick Scott when I was with him early on because he wasn't part of the system. There's no way this guy's going to beat Bill McCollum. the guy who everybody assumed was going to win the republican nomination that year but guess what rick scott you know

catches fire and becomes the guy. And so I took him seriously, just like I took Ron DeSantis seriously when, you know, others at the Tampa Bay Times were telling me, don't even waste your time with it. Adam Putnam is going to win the governor's race. Why is anybody even writing about the Congress and nobody's ever heard of?

Well, things happen, right? You know, that's what campaigns are about. Things are happening. And so I'm always trying to be careful. Like, I'm not going to give just anybody a story, right? But I think one of the guys, you know, I'm looking at Terry Vertz. One of the reasons I started taking him a little bit more seriously.

is like he does have a relationship with Mark Kelly, the senator from Arizona, and he's been talking to Bill Nelson, the former senator of Florida, to talk about running for a campaign, helping organize. He hired some legitimate staff, people who kind of know what's happening.

in the state of Texas so it's like at least he and he found some locals people who actually know what's happening on the ground and so okay there's some people you and I know that are actually have been working with him on the campaign that like okay at least he's going in this with some wide-open eyes

Not just saying, you know what, I'm going to run for Senate and just throw my name out there. At least he's done some pre-work. I'm not saying he's going to catch fire, but he has the potential to if he does a campaign. perfectly right just like in this guy bobby cole i gave him you know ink you know for the governor's race only in that like again he has so he's hired some people on who like i've worked with in the past well maybe there's something more to it he's got a flashy little

website. Maybe he's an MJ Hager type person who can build a little bit going on. Who knows? I don't know. I'm going to give him a little shot. Let people know he's out there until he proves otherwise that he's not going to make it. Yeah, there's no way for what I'm about to say to happen because I know the media environment in this state too well.

and I'm sure it's true in other places, but I focus on Texas, that this will happen. I guarantee you. TV stations in the state, newspapers in the state, and I've been guilty of this many years ago. I stopped it at some point. And I think people noticed that I stopped this. And in fact...

I got to kind of be evangelical about it. And I'm going to sit here and tell you this is going to be a competitive race unless I know that for sure. And what I have seen, let me just go back over the last decade as the example, is that media in this state would end up. I'm playing devil's advocate here, Jeremy. You know I do that a lot. Media would act as if the race between Greg Abbott and Wendy Davis was going to be such a competitive race. It was going to come down to the wire.

And it wasn't. That was a 21 point blowout. And the media in this state would treat that race leading up to election day. They would treat that race the same as they treated Beto O'Rourke and Ted Cruz in 2018. This is such a hot race. It's such a competitive race. Well, that actually was. That turned out to be a three-point race, right? But I think we do give...

a lot of us give the audience just a skewed perception of how all this is going to work when the races get covered exactly the same way. When you watch every one of these, you know, the coverage that plays out always makes it sound like, you know, this is... anybody's guess as to what's going to happen. We know better than that. When it came down to Allred versus Cruz, we knew better than that, that it was not going to be close.

And at some point, you know, when we were talking about a different race with Beto, Beto versus Greg Abbott when Beto ran for governor, we knew that, you know, people would say, we know this is going to be a close race. We didn't know that. What we knew was that both campaigns were treating it that way. I think that's fair, right? But the idea that all of it, you know, this is it.

This is the one. The same headlines every time, every two and four years from the New York Times, Washington Post. When they write about Texas, it's always all wrong. And and media in the state pick some of it up. And we will say, oh, you know, this is the year for Democrats. It's for real this time. And I want to throw things because it's absolute. Not only is it just clickbait nonsense. You're doing a disservice.

to the voters, not you, but you're doing a disservice to voters when you treat it as if, oh, we don't know what's going to happen. And this is some kind of false equivalence that people in media do. And we do this because of the pressure from campaigns. Colin Allred's people calling us and going, oh, you know, you've got to take us seriously and here are the reasons. And I just see them making one mistake after another. I'm going to call that out. Sorry.

Yeah, but I think there's a balance in this. And look, I don't think it has to be, oh, this is going to be the closest race ever with Wendy Davis or Beto O'Rourke or any – I don't think you have to do that. The way I kind of approach this as –

You know, a guy who's getting all these calls from candidates all the time, right? You have to make some sort of assessment as to whether or not they have a legitimate campaign and whether or not people should hear them out. I don't like I'm not for just blowing people off and just say, no, Democrats are going to win this state. So I'm not going to. I'm not saying that either.

thing that happens in the bubble of Austin a lot of times is people, oh, I've heard of this guy, you know, because he's a state senator or state rep or whatever. And so I'm going to give them more legitimacy than somebody who like isn't part of the process. Like that happens.

not by design, but almost accidentally because of the way, you know, bubble journalism can work in a place like DC or in a state capital like Austin. It's like, I've seen it happen, you know, like where it's like, well, just because you can't see this person can win.

doesn't mean they don't have a shot. You know, unless you can determine that they really don't have a shot. That's where we, as thinking... journalists we have to be like smart about well let's kind of pay attention to this thing and i'll leave you with this one thought my nightmare scenario is

Getting into a situation like the New York media, particularly the New York Times, were in when AOC came up. It's like they just didn't see her coming. It was so late in the process. You don't take somebody seriously enough. Take our own thoughts that the incumbent always wins. Of course, the person with the most money always wins, right? But then say, look, sometimes there's an exception.

And just don't be caught sleeping when the exception happens in your territory. So if one of these guys catches fire, if somebody I didn't think have a shot all of a sudden gets a shot, you know, Dan Crenshaw is a great example in Houston. There's a guy who had no chance.

in that primary but i spent time covering his campaign like he was a legitimate candidate because i saw that there were the bones in there were real and then guess what he beats kathleen wall it's like and so i think ultimately in the end it's a case by thing but yeah we don't have to go overboard you know i'm not going to cover the colin all red like colin all red is you know is

This close to winning the entire thing. I'm not saying Terry Virts is about to win, but I'm trying to tell people, hey, kick the tires on this. You listen to them. You decide what you think. Don't let me tell you I'm not even going to write about the guy.

until his people kiss my butt or something to get into my newspaper, right? I'm not going to do that. It's like, even if they don't talk to me, like Bobby Cole, I had to go look out for him. I had to go dig him out. And so, hey, can I talk to you? Is this campaign for real? Try to kind of get an assessment, you know, again.

And he's filed. That doesn't mean anything, right, ultimately in the end. But, okay, let's put him out there. If people don't like it, so what? We move on. Well, I know how this is going to go. For the next year, you watch all over the state. And again, this is not a criticism of you. I watch all over the state as people as people in media just sort of act as if this is the year and we have no idea what's going to happen.

I think we know better than that. So let me give you the – We can be smarter than that though. Let me give you the – yeah. Yeah, you can put that part – look, it's still true that no Democrat has won statewide in 30 years, but it can also be true that –

this can is interesting and you might want to pay attention to see if they catch on. So we will see if this guy catches on. He is so back. I'm Colin Allred. I've been a lot of things in life, but I've always been a fighter.

After playing football at Baylor, I decided to give the NFL a shot, hoping that I could help buy my mom the house that she'd been renting for 20 years. But I went undrafted. I got a chance to go to training camp where I played well, but I still got cut. So he wasn't any good then.

So let's turn that into a positive. In a lot of ways, though, I was undrafted in life, too. Raised by a single mom on a teacher's salary, I never had the option to give up. So I came back to Dallas and took a job at the YMCA. I picked up towels, I swept the floors. When my shift was done, I stayed late to put in the work in the weight room. And when I got another chance, I didn't just do our team workouts. I did my own workouts at night too. I made the team. And yeah.

I bought my mom that house. Okay, that's a hardscrabble story. There are a lot of us who had to practice, Jeremy, and we weren't just good at what we do at first, right? We had to, you know, really, really practice and get good. So now he's treating running for Senate the same way. He didn't do well the first time. And he's running again. And this from his announcement video, these are his reasons. This is why he's going for it. One.

more time the way that he kept going for it when he was trying to be a player in the NFL. Because you deserve someone who will fight for you. I get it. Your change might feel impossible. But I'm not giving up. So over the coming months, my campaign's going to roll out a series of plans, and the first will be an anti-corruption plan.

It'll be the first of many steps that we're going to take to finally get Texans the leadership that we deserve. All right. So he's going to let us know about that later, Jeremy, whatever it is he's going to do. He announced on the same day as the big, beautiful bill was passing in the U.S.

Senate, and he was asked on MSNBC whether that was coincidental. It's just a coincidence. I could not have known that they were going to do something, I think, this harmful to Texans today. But I think this is just another example. of insiders rigging the game for their friends.

And Texas families are paying the price. By the way, I did just get the alert on this, Jeremy. The United States House has sent the reconciliation bill to Trump's desk of the big, beautiful bill. The vote was 218 to 214 with, let's say, just two. Republicans voting no, neither of them was from Texas. So...

What is really going to be – yeah, go ahead. Yeah, I just want to remind everybody that the people of Houston in the 18th congressional district still don't have a person there to even vote on it. I almost want to feel like putting that in every single time I see a vote total. minus the entire city of Houston, which was not allowed to vote on this bill. Yeah, right.

What is Allred going to do differently? He mentioned in his announcement video there that, yeah, he's had some setbacks in life, that things don't always work out the first time. And that makes some sense. People can, I will say, in fairness, people can, a lot of people can identify with that.

That you try and it doesn't work and you might try again. And maybe you'll do better the next time. But you would need to shift some things up. You can't just do the same thing and hope that it's going to work out. So on Spectrum News... anchor James Baragon asked about that. You're just nine months out, a little a little less than nine months out from your last election.

which you lost to Senator Ted Cruz by more than eight points. Why are you running again? And why are you the best person to be the Democratic nominee in this crucial election? Well, I just think everything's upside down. And I spent the last few months with my family, just like anyone else, watching the news.

Seeing that the promises that I said that were made in the last election are not being delivered on. And that instead they're raising costs for folks. And that for people who are working harder and harder for less. Whereas if you're cutting corners or cutting deals, you can get ahead.

I'm sure a lot of people would agree with that. And I'm sure it's an answer to some question, just not the one that Batagon asked him. So I'm going to play a little bit more of this for you, Jeremy. And the question was, and to James's credit. He kept pressing him about this. What are you going to do different? You want to be the Senate nominee, but you lost just last year and you lost badly.

to one of the most hated politicians in the united states so what are you going to do different i hear you talking about the things that will be different this election or this campaign but i want to ask you just bluntly Why should it be you this time around? Why shouldn't it be someone else? We know that there are other people who have expressed interest because it's been less than a year since Texas voted pretty resoundingly against you. Well, as I said, I'm proud that we outran.

uh our ticket here so significantly that it was actually the biggest margin and crossover vote in the entire country but it obviously wasn't enough and as i said i've thought a lot about it and i know that what we need is somebody who's a fighter for us, who understands where we need to have these battles, but it also can bring us together around some of our shared values.

And that's what I want to do. And I have a long record of doing that. What are you going to do differently this election than you did in the last election last year? Well, I'm not in Congress, and that's one thing. And so I look forward to having more time to do some of the things that I really enjoy doing, which is having longer conversations with Texans, particularly with working Texans, about what's going on in their lives.

Rolling out plans that I know can help address what I know is a broken and rigged system in Washington. I've seen it up close. You know, my six years in Congress, I never took a single dime of corporate PAC money, never traded a single stock, never had a hint of scandal.

But right now we see all kinds of corruption that is holding us back and also costing you more. This bill is an example of it. But Congressman, am I hearing you correctly that you the big change is going to be you're going to have more conversations with people? Well, we'll have more time James and I think listen

I look forward to having those conversations, but also having more events, having more time to be here and not have to spend time in Congress in a closely divided house. Those are all things that I enjoy and I'm excited about. And so that's all going to be to the good. So you are saying more events because, as you know, some of the criticisms of your campaign was that there weren't enough rallies, not enough major events. Is that what I'm hearing from you?

We'll have more time for everything. And I enjoyed what we did in the last campaign. That's part of why I outperformed almost every Democrat in the state across every single county in the state. But we have to build on that.

And we know this is a different election. I think we're spending a little bit too much time talking about the past when what I think most Texans are worried about is the future. And who's going to be laser focused on lowering costs for them? Who's going to be laser focused on working for them, on fighting for them?

That's what I want to do. He mentioned that he never had any hint of a scandal. I would say people who have hints of scandal are more interesting. That's number one. He says we need to stop focusing on the past. I would say he's talking about a loss from nine months ago. he he also there at the end this is maybe the most important point he said that he outperformed every democrat and he was talking about the top of the ticket and

down ballot as well. And when you are running as the top Democrat in the state at the top of the ticket, the US Senate race is right under the race for the presidency. Your campaign should have been doing something to make sure those down-ballot Democrats did better than they did. And this is the kind of thing we were talking about with O'Rourke back in 18. And again, that's a unique election.

I think a lot of people maybe just sort of naively – that's the word I'm going to use – naively point to 2018 as this high watermark for Democrats that could easily be replicated. right and that's not true um a unique election um and the one last year was unique i would say in fairness to all red Democrats all across the country collapsed because of the way things played out at the top of the ticket. But at the same time, the complaint that I heard from Democrats all over Texas.

about Allred was that his campaign was doing nothing to help down ballot Democrats in any way, shape or form. And he admits it right there in the interview and says, yeah, we did better than all those Democrats. But when you're the top of the ticket, the Democratic Party.

The Texas Democratic Party as an entity is weak. And by the way, so is the Republican Party of Texas. On the Republican side, who is the guy generally doing the work to make sure that down ballot Republicans do better? That would be Greg Abbott. Because for all intents and purposes, he kind of is the Republican Party in Texas. This is somebody with tens of millions of dollars in the bank. Just like on the Democratic side, those candidates, they rely on the person at the top of the ticket.

for infrastructure, for messaging, for money spent and all that sort of stuff. And I know there are going to be some people will message me and say, oh, you know, already did all this, you know, to try to help other Democrats. But he says it right there in the interview.

He's bragging about the fact that he did better than the other Democrats on the ticket. Those are the people he should have been helping win some of their races. When you are the person at the top in Texas as the Democrat, you're the one who's up against, as we were talking about, almost the impossible task. ask that you're going to slay the dragon of being the first Democrat to win in the state, you know, in a generation at the statewide level for those other Democrats.

They're not, you know, in a lot of these places, they're not up against something impossible. They're up against something that's hard. And they need the person at the top of the ticket to help them with that. Yep.

Well, and I hope when he says, well, we want to talk about future, I hope the future means getting his butt into Houston and San Antonio more frequently. It's unbelievable how many people in. You know, the voting precincts that I talked to in places like Sunnyside or on the south side of San Antonio during the early voting is like how many people who had no idea who Colin Allred were.

You know, just like it was just unbelievable. Like there were no signs for Colin Allred on Election Day at the usual voting places in Sunnyside. No signs. It's like, that's criminal. It's like, you know, there's nobody in the neighborhood that knew this, you know, you know, hulking, you know, football player was running, you know, for office. It's like, I don't think they knew.

It's like – and I think that was just – he's right. They were so slow in getting out to the communities and getting outside of Dallas and talking to people like who could be their voters. They just didn't do that hardly at all. And I think –

maybe that time will help him, you know, kind of connect with those people. I don't know. But the other point you made was really interesting. I thought like, what a contrast this week to this thing, right? Okay. So you have, you know, Beto O'Rourke who may not even run. for any statewide office, right? He may not even do anything. But here he's using this platform to try to help register voters, recruit candidates, share his platform with Tallarico, Castro, and Allred.

So they may be like, he's almost acting like a party, right? He's acting like he, because as you pointed out, the state has really. weak Democratic Party and Republican Party. So somebody has to fill the void if there's going to be any organization. And you see Abbott doing it on the Republican side. And I see Beto trying to do it on a much smaller scale, of course. He doesn't have nearly the pocket.

that Abbott has at his disposal, but you see him at least trying to be a good neighbor to his fellow Democrats and work with them. And I'm just not sure if that's the vibe that Allred is giving. I don't think Allred has quite... Like he didn't really do anything with the Castros or with the Beto O'Rourke campaign of the past. He didn't really kind of work with them at all on any of that stuff.

I'm not sure – I don't know if I've ever seen him around the state capitol kind of working people there and trying to like – Never, ever. No, I've never seen all red at the capitol. Can you imagine him just like knowing – you know, members by their name and like including them. No, I cannot imagine that. Yeah. And so, and I think that's what makes Oliver different. I just wish he was more engaged with the.

broader scheme of what it means to be a democrat in texas uh if he's going to do this i think it applies to republicans too it's like you got to understand like the size of this state is insane Right. It's like you have to hit so many people and what it means to be a Democrat in the piney woods versus what it means to be out in El Paso are totally different things. Right. It's like there are things that you can't even see coming. And I think his campaign took.

like this playbook that they used in Dallas against a Republican. uh congressman who was an incumbent they took that playbook and they just tried to expand it statewide going see people love this in dallas everybody else will love us if we can just get the message out to everyone well no that's not how this state's democratic party works it's like

people on the south side of San Antonio are different kind of Democrats than you know up in Plano, right? They got to be different. Everything about them is different. Yeah, and you better mind that and not just throw up a TV ad. It's like you just got to do more. Again, we haven't had a lot of successes for Democrats to point to over the years on this topic, but you can see the numbers change in precincts.

based on who candidates are. And you're like, man, there's something to be learned from that. And I just hope this time around, Allred has something different to bring. But I was scared by that. campaign announcement ad. I can tell you, that video that you put out is this well-scripted, carefully worded thing that feels like those are a dime a dozen at the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.

They have these teenagers putting these things together. I'm sorry, y'all. I don't mean to say teenagers. But you have people who don't know anything about Texas going, hey, this is great, Colin. Yeah, Texans will love this. Oh, yeah, Texas love football. They love football in Texas. We'll just run a bunch of stupid hicks down in Texas. We'll just run a football thing, and everybody will love it, and he'll win. It's so cynical, but it's what's happening.

Yeah, it's so frustrating in any state when the outsiders from D.C. go, oh, we got the perfect candidate for you. We're just going to put this cool video together because the same video helped us in Massachusetts. And we think this will be perfect. We'll just change out that candidate for call. already you know and you're like please don't do that please like anybody who at the d triple c or the

Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee or the NRCC, all of y'all. It's like when you look at Texas, please just don't like cut and paste. Don't cut and paste what happened in Minnesota and then say, you know what? Now we got it. This thing is going to rock in Texas. The people in the valley are going to come out in droves because of this video in which we say, you know what? Here's our plan. We're going to roll it out later. You know, it's funny.

Funny you mentioned the Valley, and this is one of those things where the folks in D.C. who are running the All Red campaign, it's the same as it was last year. It's the D.C. people running it. And they will, number one. And here's the reason that I feel so emboldened to kind of say all this now, because I said a lot of it to some of those people last year.

Right. Privately, I would ask these questions and say, why are y'all doing this? Why are y'all doing that? When I would tell them, for example, when I had told these people that, you know, here you have Colin Allred, whose mother lives in the Valley, right? She was from Brownsville.

And you know who didn't know that? But do you know who didn't know that? People in the valley. Yeah, right. No one in the valley knew. They could have said, hey, this is a guy who has these ties in the valley. You know, he's got roots here. People, when I would go to Cameron County. They wouldn't know anything about that. In fact, they wouldn't. It was just unbelievable. But yeah, in D.C., they'll say, yeah, those...

Those hicks down in Texas, they like football. They love their football. We'll just run a football, guy, and this should work. In fact, it was so stupid that at one point, what were they calling it? They were calling it Allred's offense. yeah or his big offensive or whatever it was and um um he's a linebacker he's a defensive linebacker but why are y'all what are y'all doing it made no sense on any level and everything and when when you would try to engage in conversations with these people

Number one, I'll just say this. They weren't interested in the conversation. Okay, now I'm going to get for real, Jeremy. When I would say, let's go get coffee or a drink and talk about the campaign, you know what they would say? Well, we don't want to take up too much of your time. They didn't really want to talk about anything. Here's the thing.

When I approach his campaigns, Jeremy was talking about the way he covers things. Let me tell you about how I try to do some of this, which is I try to understand the... mindset and the planning around a campaign so that I can talk about it accurately. I want to know what they're really trying to do, right? And, you know, I have these conversations with Republicans and with Democrats. I say to them, Give me your theory of the case.

How is it you're going to win this? What are you going to do? What strategies will you employ? What's your message going to be like? What's your budget basically going to be? Just so I have some idea and I can have a real conversation about this and be able to talk about it from a position of authority. And when people just aren't interested in the conversation, well, they shouldn't be pissed at me because I don't know what they're trying to do.

And I'm publicly asking questions about it, but that's what would happen, people being so offended all the time because questions were asked publicly about what the hell they're doing, and then they lose. By nine points to one of the most – I mean you could say that Ken Paxton is a liability for sure for Republicans because of all the baggage that he has. But you know who it is – you know who it's baked in that people just hate him is Ted Cruz.

Because he's a known quantity. He ran for president. Everybody knows who Ted Cruz is. And his negatives are through the roof. And guess what? Y'all still lost to him by nine points. So don't go thinking that just because you get Paxton. that you're going to have the magic sauce. There's no guarantee of that.

Correct. Well, and I will say this about the Colin Albright campaign. Look, when he got on the campaign, they were stiff. They avoided him talking to me for the longest time, which I'm not sure why you would do that. I just had no reason. reasonable conversation with them until much later in the process. At the very end of the campaign, and I dare say on October 25th.

You know, before the election, I think he started getting good at what he was doing. I think he started finding his voice. Unfortunately, it was October 25th, right? Early voting was underway. But I think he was just really starting to kind of understand the gravity and the size.

his honest, authentic part was starting to come out a little bit more frequently. And I hope that as they get into this cycle, I hope there's an authentic part of him that is put out there. Because you know what? Okay, I'm going to say, I think... This applies for both parties and even people who aren't even involved in politics. We in Texas, we don't like inauthentic. I don't care what party you are. It's like you got to at least.

pretend to be authentic which is impossible right but like gotta be authentic you know it's it's the root of why willie nelson sounded so much better in texas than he did with all that damn nashville sound stuff right once they took all the garbage out and you just got the authentic

part, he took off. And that's the kind of thing. It's the same thing with politics. Let's give us the authentic you. And I think Allred's camp, whatever that original camp was, they protected that. They kind of made sure that the authentic... part of Colin Allred, would not come out.

until october 25th you know which is like i don't know what that thinking was it's like make him human he's a high you know he was a high school football kid like put him on a high school football field show that he went to baylor can he relate them With people, right? It's like he actually has a pretty decent story to tell if they would authentically let him tell it.

But in fact, instead, they go with, oh, let's do this polished thing, get the violins going in the back and whatever. It's like, come on, just... Use your own script. Don't. It reminds me of. Yeah. Use your own. You know, use your own voice. Find your own voice. When you are someone who, you know, is a public figure, which at this point.

You and I combined have been public figures, if you will, for decades and decades. You spend a lot of time trying to find your voice and be able to talk in a way that is just your authentic self. And I'm reminded of the way one of our colleagues... described george p bush when he was running for land commissioner and then for attorney general because he was the scion of the bush family and all of that was on his shoulders the way that bush went about his career was you remember

how in school they would give you the egg and that was your baby and you're supposed to take care of the baby and you would walk around with the egg in your hands and you're walking around with that egg just saying, don't drop the egg, don't drop the egg, don't drop the egg, don't drop the egg.

And that was George P. Bush, right? He's just constantly trying not to mess up. And it's the same thing with Allred. So, you know, I'm sure they'll put plenty of energy into refuting a lot of what we just said rather than just trying to win the election. They'd be so offended. And now...

that we have guaranteed that I will spend my 4th of July weekend answering angry messages from both journalists and Democrats running for office. Let's do the up and down of the week. Something I learned many years ago, Jeremy, in broadcasting is that what you want to do is be compelling. You want people to, you know, really connect with what you're talking. So it doesn't matter. I would say this to Colin Allred. I would say this to anybody. It doesn't matter if you have an um or an ah.

you stumble over this word or that. People don't care about that at the end of the day. I mean, you'll focus on it and you'll drive yourself crazy because you're trying to read that script, but no one cares about that. Bring the energy. You know, just, I mean, when you do a TV interview, just imagine there are three things that you need everyone to remember that you said, and then make them remember those things. That's how you have to think about it. All right. Okay. So up and down of the week.

is where we break it down where jeremy does his weekly version of what he does on a daily basis in his newsletter which is the up and down of the day it's sort of a stock market report about who's up and who's down in politics who's up this week jeremy

You know, it's like, I think I'm going to give this one to Ted Cruz this week. You know, tucked into the big, beautiful bill are three maybe of his biggest legislative victories, like in his entire time in the Senate. The guy just got, you know, this big school choice pack.

in there these massive tax cuts uh that are basically going to go to help expand school choice nationwide uh he got that in there and remember i talked to y'all about this before where like he set up this program where every newborn in america will be

getting a thousand dollars that they can invest in on Wall Street. That is a Ted Cruz thing, right? Like he got it in the bill that the president is about to sign. It's like we are literally going to have this program in place, you know, all because of Ted Cruz.

Ultimately, he scratched this out on a piece of paper, you know, and he convinced, you know, Trump to go with him. So he's got these two major victories there. And he was also the author of the no tax on tip thing that, of course, obviously Trump really was way behind that. But these other two items are just really longstanding, you know, Ted Cruz pieces that he was able to navigate. I might say effectively.

you know to get into this big bill and now he has some massive accomplishments so i'm going to give ted cruz a an up on this one because he was able to see how he could use this big beautiful bill to his advantage You know, because of the way that he's been performing lately, you know, on various issues, whether you agree with him or not, he's been able to accomplish some things in a way that he wasn't able to previously. Because he spent all his time protesting, I'm ready to promote him.

Just a little bit from a very junior senator to junior senator from Texas. All right. Who's down this week? Who's down, Jeremy?

Okay, well, down this week, I'm just going to go with people who are on food stamps. I'm going to go back. The other part of this big, beautiful bill, I just had a piece yesterday in the newsletter about how... Look, you know, food, you know, particularly parents with children are going to have to do a lot more work. And, you know.

Adults over 55 are going to have to work more to get their food stamp benefits. It's crazy, right? It's like right now, if you're over 55 or you have children under 18, you can be exempted from the work requirements to get your food stamps. because you may not have access to childcare, right? And so, or you may be...

old and having struggled to work a 20-hour work week even. It's like those people used to have exemptions. That's gone. It's like now single moms, if you have a kid 14 or older, you're going to have to work that same... you know, 20 hour work requirement as everybody else, even if you have two, you know, adults working in a home, people over 55, you're going to have to now all go, you know. get work in order to get food stamps so we're going to cut food off to people who just don't work enough

All right. You should check out Jeremy's newsletter where he does the up and down of the day each Monday through Friday, not on the weekends, although I think he should start. You can find his link for that to sign up for the newsletter on his social media and on Twitter.

for example, that's at Jeremy S. Wallace. You can follow me for the latest on what's happening at the Capitol, at Scott Braddock. You should be a subscriber at quorumreport.com and houstonchronicle.com, and we'll see you next time. America, where have you gone? Can't you see what's going on? Be gone Save a daughter, save a son. Our bullets dress them up in blood. America, where have you gone? There was a dream you gave us once. Oh, is it not forever?