The Hottest Political Races Budding in Texas

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Welcome to The Texas Take. I'm Jeremy Wallace at the Houston Chronicle and San Antonio Express News. And boy, do I have a show for you today. For the first time ever, I'll have Dallas Morning News political reporter Gromer Jeffers and Austin American Statesman political reporter. John Moritz joining me to set up a suddenly wild 2026 election cycle building in Texas.

Plus, we'll talk about the changing media landscape and how we're still standing guard after all these years. And we'll have a little advice for campaign staffers out there and legislative staffers, too, about how do you get into our newspapers, our TV programs? newsletters or a podcast, you get the picture. Y'all, this is like a hundred years of experience reporting in Texas, particularly on politics. This is all coming over your car radio or your earbuds or wherever you're listening right now.

If I may be so bold, I'll tell you this is like the 1971 National League All-Star game when Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, and Willie Starger ran out into the field, at least when it comes to newspaper journalists. Like, there are other big names out there, obviously, but...

just from a newspaper standpoint, you know, folks running at the Houston Chronicle, San Antonio Express News, the Austin American Statesman and Dallas Murray News. This is pretty good. Or maybe if you're a hoops guy, think about this as Dirk Nowitzki. Tim Duncan and Hakeem Olajuwon stepping out onto the court for a game of horse or something, right? Wait, no, this is better. How about Willie Nelson getting to play with B.B. King and Paul McCartney? Oh, that sounds good, right? So buckle up.

Here we go. All right. First, ladies and gentlemen, fighting out of the big D with 25 years of Dallas Morning News. Yep. Gromer Jeffers. Now, if you're in Dallas on a Sunday morning, you always should check out NBC5's Lone Star Politics. Jefferson is on there with our pal Phil Prazen. They dig into all the political headlines. Thanks for joining the show, Gromer. It's fantastic to be here, man. I'm looking forward to this, you know, three of the...

The big names. Wait, here comes John Ritz. Now, there's the guy who's been the backbone of the Austin American Statesman's coverage over the last few years. He's been covering Texas politics and governor since the 1990s. And here he is. A big part of his career, of course, was up in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. You all know him up there. He's there for like 25 years almost, right? And so welcome back to the program, John. Great to have you on.

Honored to be here, Jeremy, and really proud to be alongside Gromer Jeffress, who he and I have worked together on and off for the 25 years you had mentioned. Yeah, it's fun. We've been seeing each other all around the state at various events. We're competitors. We're always kind of looking at each other, trying to beat each other to stuff, but we're also all friendly. So it's kind of like a friendly rivalry, we'll say. Well, so all this music is kind of getting to me.

I love music on the show, of course. I don't have my own walk-up tune. So I got to put one up here too. So I'm going to introduce myself. And now fighting out of the corner, out of this corner, the pride of John Marshall High School from San Antonio, yours truly. Yeah, of course, it's Willie Nelson. Y'all knew Willie Nelson was coming along in this. But anyhow, so this is insane. It's great to have you all on the program. And look.

The reason I wanted everybody on here was because we got a political season that is heating up fast. I'm seeing... signs that this election cycle could be 2018-ish, at least in terms of the number of people running for office. And what I want to start with is that U.S. Senate race. Man, that seems like the...

the stir that that's stirring the entire drink at this point. We got, you know, obviously that action is producing a domino effect and a cascading effect that's affecting other races down the ballot. But, you know, before we kind of get into this, I want to. quickly get to, like, we've got to talk about John Cornyn, obviously. This U.S. Senate race is only competitive because of John Cornyn. He's an incumbent who would normally be safe seeking reelection.

But as we know, he's had a tough early run of this re-election campaign. Polls showed him down. And y'all will remember, I had him on the Texas take a couple of weeks ago, and we talked about exactly where he stands right now in this race. And what he needs to do to kind of fix things. So we need to do two things. One is we need to remind people what I've done and what my record is in the Senate. And secondly, we need to remind people what the Attorney General of Texas has done.

And if we do those two things, Tony Fabrizio, who's our pollster, who's also President Trump's pollster, said, if we do those two things, we win. If I didn't think I could win, I wouldn't run. But I think this job is simply too important. So as you can see, you know, he thinks he has a plan to get this thing straightened out.

Gromer, where are we right now with that race? Has Cornyn done enough at this point this summer to kind of put himself back on track to be favorite in this race? Or is he still in jeopardy going into this primary? He's still in jeopardy. But he has done a lot of good things. He's closed the gap. There are a couple of polls that show him either neck and neck or even in the lead. Most polls, though, show him still like around five points behind.

He's done what he's had to do this summer to sort of get back in this. And now it's a real race. I mean, we'll see what happens. when Attorney General Ken Paxson starts communicating with voters because Cornyn has been pretty much out there by himself. But because of some of the negative headlines on Paxson, including the divorce and all of that,

And Cornyn has been relentless with ads and all other sorts of things, sort of pounding his opponent. I think it's a real race now where before the summer, it looked like Paxton was going to run away with it. But now it's a fight. Yeah, what do you think, John? Is this Cornyn's searching ahead or is this Paxton's baggage bringing him down? The best asset John Cornyn has going for him right this minute is Ken Paxton and his...

personal drama and professional drama that has been well chronicled over the past 10 years or more of Paxton's time as attorney general. It's just now gelling, congealing as voters should be. plugging into this Senate race. So timing has been John Cornyn's best friend, Angela Pacton.

Paxton has been a good friend to John Cornyn, whether she meant to or not, by filing for divorce. And some of the other things that just did not get any traction early on are suddenly kind of waking up voters, waking up our readers. to who Ken Paxton is, where he's been, why he's running, and what he brings to the table.

Well, it's interesting, too, as you heard in that clip from John Cornyn, the word Trump escaped his lips there. I think with both Paxton and Cornyn, we're going to hear a lot about Trump, but Trump hasn't made a pick in this race still, right? Have y'all heard anything about where Trump is on this? No, he hasn't made a pick. But he said a couple of times that he will. And that's what should be scary to. the person who doesn't get the endorsement. Now, we don't know what Trump's standing will be.

when he makes his endorsement, how the economy will be, what the perceptions of the president will be. But we do know that in Republican primaries, Trump is still mega popular and you want that endorsement. Let's say if he endorses Paxton, that would mean all the momentum, all the strides that Cornyn has made could go out the window. So I think Cornyn wants...

the president at the least to stay out of the race. And of course, he does want his endorsement. Yeah, it's interesting. That's a great segue into Wesley Hunt. Who's Wesley Hunt? You know, it's like a lot of people are watching their TV on their nightly news. He's been on Wheel of Fortune. He's been on ads before college football up in DFW. I'm talking about Wesley Hunt, the huge... Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

has a relationship with Trump that might be able to swing Trump over to him. But let me play you a clip of what Wesley Hunt has been saying in TV ads, at least, in the ads that have been airing all over the state. Trust is President Trump announcing his run for president and me endorsing him that very night. I promised I'd stand with him and I was the first in the nation to prove it. A man with an unlimited future, Wesley Hunt.

Now, I'm not so sure, you know, if he does get in, he's going to have to do it really soon, right? Like, he's got like... Basically a week or two to make a decision whether he's coming in or out of the race. It probably explains why he spent millions of dollars on TV ads around the state trying to let people know who he is. John, if this is a three. person race. Like, does that benefit anybody in particular? Or does this become some sort of, you know, the race to a runoff election?

Well, going back to your intro, which sort of had a boxing feel to it, I think Wesley Hunt is sitting there waiting for those other two to punch themselves out, and he would be the man who's still standing. is heavily damaged, but the conservatives are not yet fully in love with John Corning as they've never been, and that's the lane that he would occupy. It's like, you know, okay, Paxton flamed out. We still don't like Corning.

Morning. Let's take a look at this Wesley Hunt guy who's very dynamic out of Easton, Texas. Well, and Gromer, I'm assuming, you know, the name Wesley Hunt doesn't really register at all in the DFW region at this point, in spite of these ads. I'm assuming he's a pretty new, fresh commodity, and he'd have a long way to go to build up some name identification up there. That's true. And it's funny you should say that because I got calls from folks. Hey, who is this Wesley Hunt?

You know, and why is he on my television? They wanted to know about him. Right. So but he sees weakness in both candidates. So the question is, can he resonate with conservative primary voters? And he's largely unknown, right? It's tough mounting a statewide race in Texas. But the positive would be that he's largely unknown, but his negatives are...

probably aren't there either. They're probably low as well. People can assign whatever they want to them. But yeah, he senses weakness in both candidates, but whether he can make a difference or not, that remains to be seen. And one thing to keep an ear out for. So like in other states, I've seen where other candidates have been thinking about trying to challenge an incumbent somewhere. And the Trump White House has said, don't do it. They've warned them not to get in. As far as I can tell.

Clearly, the Trump White House has not said anything to Wesley Hunt to chill out and tamp down. We're going with one of these two guys. They haven't given them some signal to back off, apparently. It'll be interesting to see where we are a week or two from now. It's like this could get really interesting really fast. If Wesley Hunt gets in the race and thinks he has a shot at an endorsement from Trump, how that changes the whole thing. But that said, we got to flip over to this.

side too, because as exciting and as fun as this Republican primary is going to be, this Democratic primary is getting wild, right? It's like, John, you and I were both up in Round Rock with James Tallarico just a week ago where he was kicking off his... campaign, you know, in your backyard, Colin Alvarez taking another shot. Gromer at, you know, winning the nomination and hoping to take on Cornyn or whoever comes out of that primary. And in my backyard, I got an astronaut.

straight from the space station. For the first time ever, we might have somebody who was on the space station, you know, winning a Democratic nomination. I don't know about that. But you know, Terry Virts has jumped into the race. I had a full interview with him on last week's show. If y'all missed it, certainly go click on. that one but you know groomer i wanted you know we know what these guys are but

I get this fear that like we're going to have more people in this race. It's like I've been keeping an eye on other names out there. You know, what are you hearing about Jasmine Crockett particularly? I was like, she's somebody who seems like has a potential statewide future to her. And she's got a lot of.

of energy and quite honestly, a lot of money in her campaign account right now. I believe that we can get this done. I don't believe that we are a red state. We are a blue state, but you have to believe you have to take a leap of faith. Yeah, that is true. And I think Jasmine Crockett is comfortable with being a competitor in a primary. I think she feels like if there's a Democratic primary...

Senate primary that she gets in, she will win. Her question is, can she win a general election? And she's mindful of the fact that a Democrat hasn't won a statewide race in Texas since 1994. So she wants to see, is there a path to a general election win? What does the data say? Can she really win statewide? If she feels like she can, she may get in this. But if she feels like she doesn't...

I don't think she'll get in. But the fact is that she knows that she can win a Democratic primary. And I think her rivals know that she'll be a tough candidate as well. Yeah. And we saw Jasmine Crockett on the campaign circuit. Not quite the full campaign, but she was touring the state at one point with Beto O'Rourke, Joaquin Castro, and James Tallarico as they were fighting the redistricting maps. I saw them out in Austin. They ended up going down to Houston. They did an event earlier.

in the summer in San Antonio. And so clearly she was in the universe already. And Jeremy, you were at that Austin event. I don't know if you remember who the two candidates that got the biggest applause. It was Beto O'Rourke. and Jasmine Crockett, to my memory, they got the biggest applause. Not to say that the folks didn't like the rest of them, but the energy in the party seems to be, they know how to generate most of it.

And that's what's so interesting about it. But can they win statewide? I mean, Jasmine, she told me in an honest way, she was like, yeah. One of the things about it, I will bring out MAGA in a general election. I will bring out Republicans because she's one of those polarizing figures with Republicans and with MAGA voters that they will come out just to vote against her.

Well, and speaking of energy, it's like and I think that's a really key part for a Democratic primary. Right. There's got to be an energy producing person who kind of gets people fired up in this modern Democratic Party. And John, there's some sign. that James Tallarico could have some of that. This guy, he is all over my social media accounts. I joke when I got on TikTok and Instagram and really started using those, he was one of the first state legislators.

I saw using it, not just a little bit, but really maximizing it and getting a lot of feedback. So you were at his rally up in Round Rock. That seemed like a pretty excited crowd on a short notice. come out for this guy is this a guy who could produce that kind of energy that would be i don't know betto-esque to those who love this state to those who love this country to those who love our neighbors It's time to start clipping tables. He's got the potential of making a generational appeal.

both with the Democratic Party and should he survive in the general election. He's 36 years old. Look at the people who are running on the Republican side. Cornyn is in his middle 70s. Paxson is approaching his middle 60s. The Republican bench is aging. Bring back another sports analysis or analogy, I should say. Compare them to the Atlanta Braves of the 1990s. Great team, but they all got old at the same time. If he can be that voice of energy. energize the Democrats. Democrats...

I think in their DNA, love new things. Look at those who are successful on the national stage. Bill Clinton out of nowhere. Jimmy Carter out of nowhere. John Kennedy out of nowhere. And here in Texas, Beto O'Rourke out of nowhere. So that is a lane that's open to him. All red so far is the familiar face. And, you know, that that cuts two ways in a in a primary where the voters. on the Democratic side, are as restless as they've ever been in my time covering politics.

Yeah, and I would like to add that, like, so when I was at that Round Rock event and some of the early events with Tallarico, one of the things I've been noticing around him is a lot of former Beto O'Rourke campaign staffers. It's like you can see there's been a transition where, you know. The past Beto O'Rourke candidates or campaign workers at least have kind of been gravitating a little bit more towards Tallarico than the rest of the field. Again.

Noting that the field may not be fully set yet, depending on what Jasmine Crockett does. You know, Joaquin Castro still hasn't fully ruled out if he's going to run for this seat or not. Like he was earlier in the summer, he was traveling all over the state, went down to the valley, was hanging out in Houston.

I'm like, what gives here? And he saw an opening in that Senate race at one point, too. The question is whether or not he steps back a little. The other question is, what will Beto do? Because I do get the sense that if Tallarico is in the race, Beto won't. get into the Senate race. That's just my theory. I don't know if it's true or not. But what happens with Beto, one of the biggest stars in the Democratic Party?

Where does he go in this 2026 game of musical chairs? Or does he just, is he just now helping and being on the sidelines cheering? I don't know. What do you think? Well, earlier in the summer, I had him on the Texas Tech where I asked him about like the role he was taking at that point because he was going to do that rally with Tallarico and Castro. And I said, you know, you're doing a rally where you're sharing your audience.

with potential rivals, right? And he kind of laughed it off and he goes, but I'm trying to do something different here. Whether I run for something or not, I want to be helpful. And so what he was doing with these rallies was trying to use them as a way to recruit. recruit more candidates to run for local office. He was trying to share his audience with other Democratic candidates. And so he was almost doing, I dare say, the work of what a regular...

Democratic Party would do. He's almost this, you know, not quite the Democratic Party chairman, but he's almost kind of fitting in this role. And I think if he could get candidates he liked running for all the offices and he could just sit back and be a cheerleader. I'm not so sure he would disagree with that philosophy. You know, we got to remember this guy spent a lot of time campaigning. Like I joke from like basically 2012 to 2022, this guy was on the road.

pretty much every week, and he lost a lot of time with his family. Interestingly enough, since Tallarico did get into the race, that Beto O'Rourke Roadshow has kind of parked its car. We're not seeing these rallies that we were seeing a couple of months ago, and we're not hearing from them all the time because people aren't calling.

us for having to call them to get their attention. So I think both you guys hit on some pretty good points that, you know, maybe Beto has crowned his king. We don't know yet. Yeah, I remember I did that story about how they all met. in May 31st and wanted to sort out who would run for what. You know, the purpose was to develop a statewide ticket and they all wanted to run for Senate. And Tallarico in that meeting was like, hey.

I can go viral. I've proven it. And everybody was giving their reasons why they would be the better Senate candidate. But I don't know. This is an interesting election cycle. John, you pointed it out. There's energy. on the side of Democrats, there's a feeling that is really unique. This sort of environment hasn't existed. It's even different than 2018.

Remember that, guys, when Trump was in office, you know, Republicans were expecting midterm losses and it happened and Democrats gained 12 seats in the Texas House, two congressional seats, Beto almost won. This seems different. a different kind of energy, and I guess more urgency.

We'll see how it plays out. This is still Texas. Yeah, at this point in the 2018 cycle, the Democrats looked at Beto O'Rourke as somebody who was going to take one for the team because Democrats never won. But he kind of changed that paradigm, even though he didn't.

When those 12 house seats did flip, a few other things happened for them at the county level. And now they're not going to be happy or satisfied, or they don't seem to be, with that sacrificial lamb. They don't want somebody to take one for the team. They want somebody. to take the team over the line. They want to win.

And here's the thing. It's like, you know, talk about a great flashback to 2018 at the right time, because, you know, now let's shift this over to the governor's race. The governor's race, just like in 2018, isn't really producing that much energy at this point. It's like, obviously, earlier this week, I reported.

that Andrew White is jumping to the race. Of course, he's the son of former Governor Mark White. He ran in 2018 and was in that primary where he actually ended up losing to Lupe Valdez. But so he's filed paperwork. And we've had a couple of other like... not your usual suspect type people file. We have this one guy, Bobby Cole from up in North Texas, who ended up filing. He's a farmer, firefighter type of guy who's trying to do this outsider campaign. But no big names at this point. What gives?

Do y'all hear like any energy kind of, you know, will eventually kind of push somebody into this race that is a little bit more well-known? The way I look at it, there are 100 million reasons why not to run as a Democrat against Greg Abbott, and they all have dollar signs next to him, and those dollar signs belong to the sitting governor of Texas. Yeah, 100 million and growing.

As we speak now, it may be 105, right? Who knows? But I don't think you'll see a big name. You may see a state rep or two or something like that. But look, that's a problem. Because those $100 million will go somewhere. And one theory is run a strong candidate against the governor to pin him down, to have him worried about his own campaign.

and not helping Ted Cruz across the finish line, which he helped do in 2018, right? Because he was running against Lupe Valdez, the former Dallas County Sheriff. But there's also a problem with that because... Abbott, even spending on his own race, still brings out Republican voters who will help Republican candidates. So he's just a problem for Democrats. And I don't know what, you know, remember, Tallarico.

was mentioned as a potential candidate against Abbott. And he was like, no, you know, I don't think so. Well, it's interesting, too, because I get very different from when Rick Perry was trying to break the seal on running for a third term. Right. He was going to do something. that Texas governors typically don't do, which is run for a third term in this modern era where you have a four-year term, right? So he's a...

about to go for this record term, essentially. But he had a Republican primary challenge. He had a serious Democratic rival who kind of pushed him. And the message of we're not electing kings here, that whole kind of concept was part of...

the campaign he prevailed on both ends but they were like legitimate races like he had to really fight to win that primary and then you know had a legitimate challenge but so far this year i'm just not hearing that same thing even though you know abbott is approaching going to be going for his fourth term.

Yeah. Interesting. We're not hearing a whole lot of noise out of the light govs race either. And Patrick has taken on a little bit of baggage from his right with the whole THC band. But again, both he and the governor. Very well funded, and money can be a way to discourage would-be opponents. Yeah, Vicki Goodwin, the state rep out of Austin, right, is running for lieutenant governor. on the Democratic side. But Patrick has, what, 45 or so million dollars? That's a lot.

Yeah, and I think a lot of people thought he maybe he might not seek reelection. There was one point where like he had told people like years ago that he wouldn't be doing, you know, making another run. But of course, he changed that decision and now is like going full born. I think by my account, it feels like.

He's announced 46 times this year that he's running for re-election, almost to tamp down any thought that he could still back out of this thing. So he's clearly buckled in. I thought he was going to not seek another term, but what do I know? Are you crazy, Jeremy? Are you crazy? For folks who don't know that, tell them. I've been called crazy and stupid at some point. Tell them what I mean by are you crazy. Yeah, everybody on this show.

Yeah, everybody on this show will remember earlier this summer, like, you know, Dan Patrick, you know, looking straight at me and my nice handy dandy camera and asking me if I was both crazy and stupid for suggesting that there were adults who still wanted. as to THC products. It's like, I'll play a clip of that so y'all can get a memory of what that was all about.

I understand wanting to protect children, but you have grown adults who are using these products too. Is there a way to do this where grown adults could still have access to these products? We don't want adults having this either. What are you, crazy? You want to go home and eat a bag of this tonight? See if you're here tomorrow? This is what we focus on, kids, because that's where they built the shops. But adults are buying this stuff, too. Make no mistake.

We want to protect the 20 and the 30 and the 40 and the 50 year olds too. We don't want anybody buying anything off the shelf that could kill them or ruin their mental state for the rest of their lives. The young man who was 22, who stepped in front of a train after he ate some of this junk. He wasn't a kid. He was an adult. That's crazy talk. That's the kind of talk, the reason why we're here. Media that would say something as stupid as that.

All right. Well, now I want to really shift over to this. My second favorite race is the attorney general's race. You know, because Ken Paxson is running for the U.S. Senate. He's opened the door to a wide open field running for attorney general. I always love to steal a joke that John Cornyn told me years ago. He told me when the Association of Attorney Generals. You know, group meets.

Kind of joke that the almost governors of America is what their real name should be. You know, it's like because, you know, that's such a springboard. And particularly in Texas, since 1970, every single attorney general candidate or every single attorney general. has either run for the U.S. Senate or for governor.

Not necessarily always successful, but it's clearly a springboard to something else. So that brings us to like this crazy field that's developed on the Republican side. We have former top Paxson aide, Aaron Wright's in the race, State Senator Joan Hunt. Huffman, U.S. Rep. Chip Roy, and State Senator Mays Middleton are all in that Republican primary.

Gromer, is this a toss up at this point? It feels like all three of them have some value and they can make their case that they're the Trump guy. But I don't see a pure favorite here in this race yet. I don't either. It's really fascinating. It's one of the better races that we've had in a long time in terms of competition. And they all bring, you know, unique strengths to the table. You know, even...

You know, from your neck of the woods, Joan Hoffman, the senator. What will Patrick do? Because they're pretty close, right? And I've always wondered, will she get his endorsement? And would that help in this process? But Middleton and his money and, you know, he'll be strong in a conservative field. Rights will try to get in that MAGA lane. And Chip Roy probably has better name recognition.

than any of them may be. So fascinating race. I don't know how it goes, but I think as we get closer to the primary, things will start to stand out for some of them. And just, I think...

People run differently when they have a lot on the line. So we'll see those who have something to lose, whether they run harder. Yeah, it's interesting because I think, you know, I have this... untested theory about texas republican primary so in governor's years we'll have about 1.9 million you know republican vote in the primary and so but of that you know 1.9 million a whopping 186

thousand of those votes are going to come out of Harris County. And so and when I look at this race, I don't see a home court advantage. It's clearly either for Mays Middleton or Huffman. If either one of them can start developing, then that then they would have a lot to kind of bring to the. the table if they can kind of

bring their voters in a statewide primary where, again, Harris County brings a lot of weight. But here's the key thing. And this goes to, you know, you can explain this more to us, Gromer, than I can. The Dallas-Fort Worth, you know, Metroplex mentality. it was like if you add up

Tarrant County with Dallas County and Collin County and Denton County, there's more voters there. There's almost 370,000 voters in the primary will come from those four counties. That's a huge hunk of votes. And as far as I can tell, nobody. this race has a pure lane to capitalize on that. So it just seems like that's going to be a big factor in this race. Absolutely. And it makes you wonder why wasn't there a DFW?

a North Texas candidate in the race like Paxton. You know, last time you had, well, go back to 2014, right? You had Ken Paxton and Dan Branch running from North Texas, but you're right. It'll be pivotal. And I think right now they just they're dividing it all up. But if a candidate can get the lion's share of the North Texas vote, wow, that would be huge. Yeah. Republicans out of Montgomery County and Collin County.

pack a punch, right? All you regular citizens of Texas take note, those two places are red, red solid, and they turn out. They have the double thing. You know, Collin County's got more competitive over the year, but within the Republican Party, those people...

still turn out in big numbers in every election cycle and maybe have stopped that county from flipping more purplish, you know, when it should have like other places around the state. But they've come in and held the ground because of how aggressive they've been.

And John, like in the primary, like it doesn't just apply to like Travis County clearly doesn't have as big of a Republican vote. But you toss in, you know, Williamson County in the hill country and I can start seeing where Chip Roy might think he could start. developing, you know, a following in along I-35 that could help him in this race. He has some clear advantages in this race going into it just from, you know, a pretty decent national brand, at least known a little bit more.

Yeah, of all the candidates that we've mentioned so far on the Republican side, Chip Roy is the one who's probably best positioned to get attention by virtue of being in Congress, getting on C-SPAN, having those viral moments where... does from time to time. And also with so much attention going to be spent on that Senate race, the AG's race, I wouldn't say it's an afterthought.

But it could end up being a real grassroots test as much as anything else, because voters only have so much time to give their attention to. And it's unclear if anybody's going to be able to break through that. noise that the Senate primary has the ability to generate. So, I mean, I look for somebody like Chip Roy with his national platform. Name ID. You know, when you go into that race, if you're not real sure, say, oh, yeah, I've heard of this guy. I'll vote for him. And where does Trump go?

That's the other question. Yeah. And I think we can almost put that on repeat for every race. Where does Trump go? It's amazing how much weight that endorsement carries, more so than maybe any other president. in the United States history, maybe going back to FDR, right? It's like when that guy jumps into a race, it really moves the entire electorate, at least within a GOP primary. Do you guys see Trump weighing in on behalf of somebody who's running third in the polls? No.

He does. He's smarter than that. He doesn't want that loss either. You know, well, of course, on the Democratic side in that race, you know, keep an eye out. We know we have former Galveston.

Mayor Joe Jaworski is in that race and Senator Nathan Johnson are both in that race. We'll talk about more of that, you know, down the road here. But I want to get into how these two races particularly have created this domino effect in the Texas take.

Earlier this week, I talked about how our congressional delegation is undergoing a massive reconstruction right now, y'all. It's like about a third of our members could be new coming out of this midterm election between the retirements that we're seeing. with Chip Roy and Morgan Luttrell and Michael McCall leaving. We have Al Green, Mark Vesey, and Lloyd Doggett all at the whim of whatever the redistricting maps are going to be. And we got still others thinking about running for office.

with Joaquin Castro, Wesley Hunt, and Jasmine Crockett all thinking about, right, we can have a lot of open seats out here. And so what it's done, like, and even... Let's not forget, there's a couple of really good primaries, you know, the Dan Crenshaw re-election campaign and the Tony Gonzalez campaign down in South Texas. They have legitimate Republican primary challengers who are going to push that. I'm not going to say they're underdogs in that race, but they're.

going to have to fight to win their seats if they want to get back to Congress. So anyway, that's a long way to say. Our delegation could have a lot of change happening. As you look at all these congressional races out there, what are some races that you're looking at that are most interesting to you or that you're keeping your eye on as we go into either the... primer or into the general action. Let's start with you, John.

One of the ones I like is the CD21 where Chip Roy is vacating. And again, let's go back to that sports theme. We've got former Texas Rangers player. I think he played with the New York Yankees as well, Mark Teixeira. I've got a name. His nickname is Tex. So that kind of gives him a bit of cachet that he might not otherwise have. But star power can be important, especially down ballot, you know, where you're struggling to get your message.

through. I think that's what I'm most interested in. I also think the Gonzalez race is going to be fascinating with the AK guy going after Gonzalez, who's generally considered one of the more pragmatic middle-of-the-road Republicans. You're talking about Brandon Herrera. He's a big name on YouTube. He's a very gun-oriented dude and has a huge following. I don't want to put him on the same level as Joe Rogan, but he brings a social media.

component to this thing that pushed Gonzalez and Herrera into a runoff that last time. So it's like, again, this is no gimme for Tony Gonzalez. He's going to have a fight on his hand. His district was redistricted some, but I don't know. know if it's necessarily a benefit or not it's like he picked up more of the uh the money

on I-10 going out to the Dominion where our buddy George Strait and other folks live. So he's got a little bit more like mainstream Republican money areas that might help Tony Gonzalez. Who knows where that goes? What about you, Gromer? What are we seeing up in DFW? Are there any other races up there that you're kind of looking at as like, this is one to watch?

I'm watching the fallout over redistricting. So if you go to North Texas, let's look at the Democrats, Mark Vesey, Julie Johnson, and Jasmine Crockett. Three of them, one of them will be out. There are some options there. Jasmine Crockett is trying to determine. We've talked about her with a potential Senate run, but she's also looking at where do I run? Do I run for reelection in District 30? The one I.

serve now, the district I serve now, even though I don't live there, I can win there? Or do I go to the new 33? That's a Democratic leaning district. Run there and allow Mark Vesey to run in 30. which is a heavily Black district and also has 200,000 voters from Tarrant County, that would give him a better chance of surviving and staying in Congress.

And then there's Julie Johnson who wants to run in the new 33. That could pair her against Crockett if Crockett decides to run in 33. So you have all of that going on. And, of course. 32, the new 32, is Republican leaning now. It goes all the way out almost to the Louisiana border. They're like seven or eight Republicans.

Looking at running there, that will be interesting. That will be a Republican seat now for the first time since Pete Sessions held it. And of course, Colin Allred took it from Pete Sessions. So I'm looking at that. And Jeremy and John also. I'm not convinced that Republicans can pick up what they want in the Valley, in South Texas, in those districts out there. So I'm really curious to see what Cuellar and company. what they do down there. I'm not so sure those are pickups for Republicans.

The District Require looks a lot like the one heading into the 2021 redistricting. A little bit red, but red is not a color that's typically been fatal to Henry Quire by any stretch of the imagination. It's the most conservative Democrat, perhaps in Congress, but certainly in the Texas delegation. One of the ones we overlooked is the new one that's opened up. It is the McCall District, CD10. And its balance of power now shifts out to College Station and minimizes.

This is the Austin influence that helped keep McCall safe for the 11 or so terms that he had won, or maybe it's just 10. So that's an interesting one there. We're not seeing anybody except a Democrat so far stepping up to take a look at that. But my guess is there's a lot of phone calls being made out of our earshots right now among Republican would-be Congress members.

I want to go back to what you were saying on the Valley there. Actually, let's talk about Laredo because Cuellar is an interesting character in and of itself. That guy is a survivor. I don't have any data to back up what I'm about to say, but I made a rule a long time ago.

when I was in Laredo and saw how he kind of managed his community down there and how present he is. I'm never betting against a Cuellar in a re-election campaign in Webb County. That's definitely not the case. He clearly has an ability to...

figure out how to get elected, even when he's feeling it from the left and the right. And so I'm not so sure, like you mentioned Gromer, I'm not so sure he can't win that district still, even though they think they're going to kind of draw him out. The one race that I've always seen...

been really paying attention to a lot is Al Green. You know, Al Green currently represents the 9th Congressional District. He is the dean of the Black Democrats in the United States Congress right now from Texas. And he's obviously a loud voice, right? And it's like he is a guy who his career might be over. They took the ninth congressional district and they drew it to go way out into Liberty County. He can't win that. So now he's left with the decision. Does he seek reelection in the newly?

configured 18th congressional district. That's the old Sheila Jackson Lee district. But remember, there's going to be a special election in November where there's going to be an incumbent that gets elected then. It's going to be like a one month incumbent. But so there could be somebody in that race. And so Al Green's going to have to decide whether or not he wants to take on whoever that is for the 2026 cycle. So lots to kind of watch from on all.

this level we could go on for another three hours on the show but we don't want to do that to y'all but i do want to like i want to kind of close on something here it's like when you're hearing the three of us go it was like again this is a lot of

political journalism history in our state. And, you know, obviously we all, you know, combined, we have a lot of readership out there and not just through the print editions, right? Like we're on TV, we're in newsletters, you know, you're hearing us on, you know, radio shows.

the podcast, what have you, right? And so I kind of want to ask you guys a little bit about how you got started in this and tell people out in the crowd, how have you survived over the years? We've seen a lot of change in this industry. You know, it's like, so first, what made you get into this business in the first place, Gromer? Well, I'm from Chicago. I grew up in Chicago. We got all the newspapers, you know, the Chicago Sun Times. That was the preferred paper.

of the family. But I liked the Tribune and we got the Chicago Defender, which operated on the South side. And also the Daily News was the evening paper. And so I love journalism. even if I was just opening up to read stories about the Chicago Cubs. But politics in Chicago, spectator sport, almost a sport like the, you know, baseball, football, basketball, hockey, politics, right? And so I was really intrigued with that. And when I realized I couldn't be the next center fielder for the Cubs.

I was like, that's what I want to do. I didn't want to go into politics, but I wanted to write about it. And so I knew at an early age that that's what I wanted to do. So I sort of like... you know, plan on doing that. And you guys know how it is. You don't automatically start writing about politics. My first job was working nights.

you know, in Kansas City, a night cops reporter and doing not just stabbings and cuttings and all of that kind of stuff, the gore, but the rubber chicken dinners and everything like that. And you kind of work your way up. And believe it or not, there were more at the time folks who wanted to go into political writing, but not a whole lot. So once you specialized in that, there was all kinds of opportunity.

And that's what I tapped into. Well, why you, John, what got you started up in this business on the first place? I wasn't born in Texas, but I got here as a teenager and no sooner did I get here. And again, using... Cromer's example, I've started reading the Dallas Times-Herald, the Dallas Morning News, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, because we lived in Dallas.

Garland, Texas, a suburb of Dallas at the time. And for whatever the reason, Texas politics just sort of grabbed me a little bit. The characters, the things they could get away with. the money that they could spend, the backstories about some of the shenanigans that went on. And so as my career developed, like Gromer, I started out as a baby reporter. little ladies.

covering those same sorts of stabbings and traffic wrecks, and then finally city council. And then the opportunity for me to come to Austin occurred in the middle 1990s. And I like to tell the story as my editor came over. John, they're thinking about sending you to Austin. What do you think about that? And I answered the question by the time I got to Waco because that's how excited I was. to get where I am now. I survived the Star-Telegrams downsizing in the latter part of the 2000s.

Worked for the political newsletter known as the Quorum Report. Dabbled in TV news a little bit behind the scenes. But when the opportunity presented itself in 2016 to get back into the Daily Mix. Again, I got a call, and again, I answered it from under the dome in the Texas Capitol. Yeah, I'm your guy. Do the paperwork. Get me on the payroll. This is what I want to do.

No, I like it because both of you have the same similar theme there, which is like, you don't necessarily start off as a political writer, right? It's like, but those experiences that we all had, you know, it's like those late nights, you know, heading out to the fire on the Hudson.

river when i was up in new york or like you know covering you know a shooting in you know wake county you know north carolina it's like all those little like experiences and stories kind of like help you become ultimately a better reporter anyhow so if they're younger people listen in the profession. Listen to this. Know that whatever you're doing right now does add into whatever you ultimately do in political reporting. And like you, Gromer, I thought I was going to be a sports guy.

You know, it's like, you know, the sports was my thing. But but then I had this problem in my JV year at John Marshall High School. I scored one basket. The whole year, the whole year. So I was like, you know, I think I might have to try something else. And that's when Kevin O'Keefe at the San Antonio Express News, he was a sports columnist there for a long time. Kevin O'Keefe was speaking to our class one day and he says, hey, you should.

You know, if you get into journalism, you can meet the players. It's like, oh, this is great. It's like, I want to go meet George Gervin. And so I started on that route, having no idea that eventually, you know, like when I went off to North Texas with my first year, I met Jim Lehrer.

that year. And Jim Lehrer, who had been a South Texas kid, went to Victoria, but ultimately transferred to Mizzou. He said, hey, you should go to Mizzou. Go learn to be a reporter and look at politics and government reporting.

Voila, here we are all. We're all sitting in the same room, at least virtually, talking about how we are. And one final note. I want to do this for, I know there's a lot of campaign staffers and legislative aides out there. What advice do you have for them? and working with the media. A lot of these folks are just tapped on the shoulder and may not have a lot of background and may not know the nuances of how to get to us.

Right. And so so give me a thought on something that you would tell young reporters like young people in campaigns. What are some good ways to kind of get to you and get into your thinking and trying to communicate with you? The one thing to remember is reporters, before they are reporters or anything else, we're human beings. We're not necessarily your enemy. We're certainly not your friend, but we can be not necessarily, you know, frenemies, but get to know us.

Learn a little bit about us. Before you make that first phone call to a reporter, do a little bit of a Google search. See what he's written. See what his take is. See if he sounds smart and all that. And also, you've got to be aware. of the fact that you are not the only person seeking the little bit of real estate in the papers and online that we have the ability to occupy. So don't take it personally if your pitch is either backbenched or... Don Holt a little bit as other things come up.

And also, banish from your lexicon, what is your deadline? My deadline is as soon as I know what I've got, I'm going to go with it. Deadlines in the modern world are now. And so understand. that. And also know your boss and know your state. If you're going to work in Texas, even if you're from Chicago like Gromer was or I came from New Jersey before I came to Texas, know your state. Get to know the people.

assume it's like the state or city that you had come from before. Texas is a very different place. It's unique. Texas politicians kind of take pride in that. And Texas reporters. can kind of smell through somebody who is trying to, we'll just use the polite word, mislead us on something that's political.

And I got to interrupt you there because there was one point where I had, and I'll name the Biden campaign as the culprit. The Biden campaign had somebody call me up and say, hey, Jeremy, we have an event going on in Bexar County. Would you like to attend? And immediately I knew who I was talking to had never set foot in my beautiful San Antonio that he would call me up and ask me about Bexar County. Gromer, what about you? What would you tell the folks out there?

So, Jeremy, John, you guys remember back in the old days, folks like David Axelrod, Cameron Hughes, and so many others would make the transition and actually... worked for campaigns and the media departments and campaigns. And the reason they were successful is because they understood what we all wanted.

And what we did, our deadlines and all of that kind of stuff. And so that phenomena doesn't exist so much anymore. You go up to the campaign ranks. You don't necessarily have to be a former media member. But the lesson there is. Try to learn what we're all about, understand what we want, understand how it works, study it, what we need and all of that. And then try not to be so like...

programmed or mechanical. And I know that they have their jobs to do not to step in it or everything has to be examined. We go back to a lot of times folks that we know if we call them or message them that they're going to get back to us and they're going to get us what we need in a timely manner.

How many times do you reach out to people and it just takes hours or days because it has to go up and down the chain as to what they want to say and then it comes back to you and they don't say anything? It's focus groups and it's flat. Yeah. Exactly. And so if you can get back to, like, there are operatives and folks that the three of us can call right now. And to the chagrin of their bosses, these guys will talk to us.

tell us everything, give us great, great quotes and all of that. And I can see the head of the media department saying, why did this consultant say this? Well, because they understand it and they know what we need. Well, and I love this perspective because, look, I love our people who are in only digital media. I love our broadcasting people out there in TV and radio. And, of course, there's all those magazine people, you know, the monthly.

is still king among magazines for a lot of people. I understand that. But from our perspective, there's still a really important value to talking to us in these newspapers. We may seem like old times to you in some way, but we all... have digital platforms that are producing millions of views on any given day. We all have TV, podcasts, and radio. duties that also can get a message out. But it's really important to know that a lot of radio...

A lot of TV people, a lot of other media are reading what's in the Dallas Morning News, the Austin American Statesman, the Houston Chronicle and the San Antonio Express. A lot of TV stations have a shoestring budget these days. You know, it's like they don't have a lot of people. And so they will. often read what we're writing and that will then help them. So you may not be sending a press release to Longview, Texas and to El Paso and to Tyler. But guess what? The producers in those stations.

are seeing our stuff they're reading the texas tech newsletter i hope they're checking you out on you know the on you know nbc you know when you do the show it's like you know so there's a lot to be like i think there's a lot of value in still talking to us and i hope you know People like understand that there's still a way to kind of build a rapport with us that helps get you message not just into our publications, but beyond that. And let me just say one more thing for the.

political science departments and the media folks there. When you have your list and when you send us emails about all your experts and stuff like that, Don't just send us the office numbers that no one answers. It's not working. We have to try to track down these folks. I mean, it's again, make it easier. I mean, we we have a role that.

Well, I say Rolodex, right? For those people who still know where Rolodex is, we have a list exact of contacts that would sell numbers that we can call. So if you want your expert. considered right, make it easier to get in contact with them. That's a great point. And it goes to what you were saying with the campaigns, too. And both of y'all made this point to some degree. Feel free to reach out early.

Like, you know, it's like you don't want the first time you're kind of communicating us to be when your campaign's on fire. And like you're trying to figure out who's at the Houston Chronicle, who writes the newsletter. It's like you don't want today to be the day you have to learn it. Start building a rapport ahead of.

time if you see us at events you know like feel free to say hello to us i see a lot of people like you know like i get people come up to me and go hey wait like you know i read your story the other day it's like

do that you know it's like that helps build us that rapport you know i've met a lot of campaign staffers that way i kind of filed them away i may forget your name it's not personal it's just like i got thousands of names i'm trying to remember but but but feel free to reach out to us early and like build

a rapport with us, even if it's just like to say hello in the Capitol or while we're out in the field covering an event or something. It's like, just build that rapport before you get to the point where you really need to dial us up.

I know. I think that kind of covers a lot of ground, y'all. It's like this is a this is almost I always kid when we go long. It's a double platinum edition, you know, from my old days as a headbanger kid listening to Kiss albums. But so this is definitely a double platinum edition. But this one is.

packed. I cannot thank you guys enough for being on the program. Of course, you've got to follow Gromer Jeffers. He's at the Dallas Morning News. You want to check him out. Obviously, like I said, he's on NBC5 on Sunday mornings. You want to check that out. John Moritz, of course, you know, Austin American statesman. And now you're seeing a lot of his material show up and also the Houston Chronicle and San Antonio Express News. So you definitely want to check out all that. Guys.

Thanks a lot for making this my favorite show so far. And I hope we get to do this again. Let's do it again. Yes, let's do it again. All right, y'all, that's enough show for me. I got to hit the road. I got to get down to Houston. Actually, I'm going to go to the Woodlands where I'm going to check out the Texas Youth Summit. That's going to have a lot of tributes to the late Charlie Kirk. I'll definitely be getting a lot of audio from that and hopefully have it.

on a future show. But certainly if you're out there, you know, look me up, check me out. I'll certainly want to chat with you. But beyond that, thanks again for listening to the Texas Take. Also, you want to check out the Texas Take newsletter, which comes out

every weekday free of charge all you have to do is sign up you don't have to be a subscriber to either the Houston Chronicle or San Antonio Express News or any of our publications you can just sign up on check out the top of my X page I have a post pin there where you can just click on that I'll take you right to the signup page. Thanks a lot for listening, and I'll talk to you all soon. The thrill is gone, baby. The thrill is gone away. And you'll be sorry someday.