Welcome in his verdict with Center, Teed Cruz, Ben Ferguson with You and Center in his Election Night. We're doing a dual pod right now for our show and my show as well. There's one big takeaway. It was a great election night in general for conservatives all over the country.
Well, we had election night in Texas and it was a big election. It was a consequential election. We had the runoff for the US Senate race, and we now know with absolute certainty that come January I am going to be serving with a new senator from the state of Texas. We had the Republican runoff between my current colleague John Cornyn and his challenger, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton,
and Paxton won decisively, a big double digit victory. We're going to break down what happened in election night and what it means for Texas. We're also going to break down what's next in the general election. Who is the Democrat nominee, This James Tallerrico guy, and I'll warn you it ain't pretty. We're going to get into that in detail right now.
Yeah, he's definitely a radical, and we're going to let all of America understand exactly who he is.
Want to take a moment, though, and talk to.
You about your dog, whether it's old, young, we got a new puppy. There is something that you can give your dog to make sure that your dog has the best life ever, and it's called rough greens.
I tell you.
Moving from the puppy years to old age brings in nostalgia. Remember the day you brought your puppy home, the tiny paws, that wagging tail, the spark in their eyes, and man, that energy that just wouldn't quit. Well, they've gotten older. You wonder where that spark went. They're slower pick here at meal time. Their stomach often seems off, and you find yourself cleaning up those messes, worrying and quietly thinking, is this just what aging looks like. That's not old age,
by the way, that's actually malnutrition. They're missing their probiotics, the enzymes, the omega oils, and the live vitamins and minerals that your dog needs to digest thems or food. When the gut is out of balance, everything's harder for your dog that you love. Square roughcreens really come in. I've seen it firsthand as our dog got older and we got our dog back that happiness in life. And
in fact, Roughcreams is America's number one dog supplement. You just sprinkle it right over their current food and it's packed with all the live nutrients that they need. It's all natural, made in the US of A. And thousands of dogs are feeling younger, more energetic, and healthier than they have in years. Your dog could be one of them. And I want you to get a free Jumpstart trial bag for your dog today and you'll understand exactly why
it's amazing. You just cover the shipping costs, go to Roughcreens dot com and all you have to do is use the discount code Verdict. That's r u ff Greens dot com. Discount code verdict. Roughcreams. They make any dog better, So center this is one of those that is a very interesting case study. In Traditionally, if you are an establishment, if you are an incumbent, you have a massive advantage. You have a lot of fun unraising that comes in.
You've got a lot of Washington money that comes in, you have special interest money like you got a lot of advantages and usually a bigger microphone. What we have learned so far through this whole process around the country is just because you have that. If Donald Trump decides that he wants to go against you and wants to back another America First Kennedy he believes will serve the interest of his agenda better, you could be in serious trouble.
We watched it happen in Louisiana, We've now seen it happen in Texas well.
I think that's right. There was an awful lot going on in this race. Let's let's start off just with the results. So we're sitting here, it's right now eleven forty three pm Tuesday night, Election night, and as of right now, this is with ninety two percent of the results in Ken Paxton is getting sixty four percent of
the vote. John Cornyn is getting thirty six percent. So that is, as of right now, eight hundred and fifty eight, five hundred and forty seven votes for Ken Paxson, Oh just bumped up eight hundred and sixty two, one hundred and fifty votes Ken Paxton to four hundred and eighty four thousand, six hundred and twenty five for John Cornyn. So that is nearly a thirty point victory, a twenty eight point victory. We'll see what the final numbers are
when all the votes are tallied. But that is a massive win.
And yeah, that represents it.
That is that's a blood bath for any incumbent, I don't care if you're a Republican or Democrat. And that's how the media is treating it as well well.
And it represents a sea change. So John Cornyn has been in the Senate for twenty four years. He has been an institution in the Senate. He was the Majority Whip of the Senate, so he was the number two elected Republican in the Senate. He served that position for six years. John Cornyn ran for Majority leader when we took the majority. When Mitch McConnell stepped down as Majority leader, John Cornyn ran against John Thune and it was a
close election. John Cordyen obviously did not prevail, but it was a vote that was decided by just a couple of votes. And and so John Cornyn in a different universe would have been the Majority leader of the United States Senate right now.
Uh.
And and instead he has faced an election where he lost by twenty eight points. Now, there were a number of factors at play there, and I will say Donald Trump endorsed and endorsed late, and there's no doubt it had a very significant impact. That that being said, Uh, most of the polling that that was in this race, even before the Trump endorsement, showed that Paxson was going to win and was likely to win with a sizeable victory.
And so I think the Trump endorsement certainly grew that margin of victory and and and made it the dramatic, the nearly thirty point victory that it was. But I think one of the factors that that caused President Trump to endorse is he was looking at the same polling everyone else was looking at that showed showed Paxson with it with a significant lead in the race to begin with. There are a lot of reasons for this, but in many ways, this race played out as a traditional conservative
versus establishment primary, and that's a primary. I know a lot about my race fourteen years ago when I was elected to the Senate, was very much the same dynamic where I was running against David Dewhurst. He was the city lieutenant governor, He had universal name ID, he had over two hundred million dollars, so he wrote a thirty five million dollar check to his own campaign, and I'd never been elected to nothing like literally the last thing
I was elected to was student council. So I was at two percent in the polls.
Ahead of you technically because I did win like I think, class president freshman year in college. So I even had more currencies than you did at that moment. I just want to make sure that the audience understands that right.
Now, it was an impossible race. And yet what we saw when I was elected in twenty twelve is we saw the conservative grass roots come together and we ended up going from two percent in the polls to winning by double digits in the primary and winning by double digits. We won the primary by fourteen points, and we won the general by sixteen points. And so it was an amazing victory of the conservative grass roots against the person everyone thought was the unbeatable front runner. This Cornn Paxton
race had had similar dynamics. The money in this race was massive, So this is now shattered records, Yeah, for the single most expensive Senate race in American history in a primary.
In this race, I mean we're talking more than usually spent in a general election by a lot.
So just in phase one of the primary, over one hundred million dollars was spent. I think when you tally the runoff, it will end up being well north of one hundred and fifty million dollars spent in this primary, and the overwhelming that ninety plus percent of that was spent supporting John Cornyn. So Paxton spent relatively little money and won by an overwhelming margin. Now one of the consequences of this is is the Democrats they are looking to attack Ken Paxton. He is a conservative Kent Both
Ken and John are friends. I've served with John Cornyon fourteen years. He and I are very different senators, but we've worked well together and and we've worked in a cooperative and collegial way. That's part of how you represent your state. And at the same time, Ken Paxton has been been a friend of mine for a long time. Both Paxon and corn and I've supported previously. I've campaigned
with them previously, I have campaigned for them previously. Paxton, objectively, I believe has been the most conservative state attorney general in the country. Is a strong record as a conservative state ag and that was a big part of of why he prevailed, and that was driving his momentum long
before President Trump made his endorsement. That being said, there are a lot of nasty personal attacks that have been leveled at Ken Paxton, and the odds are precisely one hundred point zero percent that we will see millions and millions of dollars of attack ads in the general election, bringing up every one of those personal attacks and going after him viciously. The Democrats are not gonna play nice
because they see a chance. The Democrats believe they have a chance to win the general and I got a message to Republicans in Texas and nationwide, do not take this general election for granted. At that it is easy to say it's Texas, it's red, We're gonna win, and I believe we are gonna win. But I also think the Democrat nominee, James Tallerico, is a dane risk candidate.
There was obviously a massive victory that happened in this country with the overturning of Roe v. Wade, But what it really meant was the issue of abortion would go back to the States, and that is where the real fight has actually begun.
Now.
Over the past fifty years, Americans United for Life has filed more than two hundred legal briefs and also helped create at least four hundred pro life bills in over forty states. By writing model legislation, they are consulting with state legislators and defending their own laws and other pro life statues in court.
Now.
Aul's dual front approach of writing and defending legislations proved an effective one that could become even more impactful as pro life state legislators moved to enact protections for preborn babies and their mothers. Now that the legality of abortion has returned to the states, that is where you come in. You and I have the opportunity to overturn pro abortion laws and advance pro life legislation that attacks the most
vulnerable in our society, from the womb to the tomb. Together, we can shape the future of our nation through life affirming legislation in every state. Now, a gift of just twenty five dollars helps hold abortion providers accountable and helps protect women and unborn children across this country, and now through a match, your gift is doubled. Donate securely at
AUL dot org slash verdict. That's a UL dot org slash verdict sponsored by Americans United for life before we get to Before we get to James, I want to just go back and let people understand the basis for why you have that warning. You have been in the same position in many ways that Kins walking into. You have a Democratic party that is very energized, you have
a Democratic party that is well funded. You have a Democratic party that sends massive amounts of cash into Texas against a Conservative and you were the number one target maybe twice in your career. I think it may be fair to say by Democrats wanting to get rid of you, and the majority of the money coming into that race was from outside interest groups outside the state. Massive amounts of money come from place like California and New York.
And the reason why you said your warning the way that you just said it is because they do get better at this over time, not worse, said it. They start to realize where they messed up, where they may be spent money shouldn't have spent, and they get smarter and smarter. That's part of the reason why you're saying this warning, not just in Texas but around the country.
Yeah. Look, I have been there before, both of my reelects. I was Chuck Schumer's number one target in the country. And so they've thrown everything in the kitchen sink trying to take me out, and I've been there. They're getting ready to do that to Ken Paxton. And actually there is potentially a real analogy between twenty twenty six and twenty eighteen. Twenty eighteen was my first reelect. Yeah, twenty eighteen was two years after Donald Trump was first elected president.
In twenty eighteen, you had several things going on. Number one, the left was enraged. They hated Donald Trump, so they were energized and they showed up in massive, massive numbers in twenty eighteen. And also, two years into the administration without Trump on the ticket, there was some complacency and so cross the country, Republican turnout was not nearly as high as it had been. And those two together are
a dangerous combination. What did that mean in twenty eighteen, Let me let me give you just what we faced in that year. The Democrats more than doubled their turnout in Texas. They drove Democrat turnout from one point eight million all the way up to four million, more than two x. Now, my campaign, as you know, and you know my campaign team, well we're obsessively numbers and data driven.
We saw all of that happening. We saw the surge and Democrat turnout, Democrats who had never shown up coming out to vote, and so we set out to drive up Republican turnout. I did a fifty stop bus tour across the state, spent six weeks barnstorming the state, spent a lot of time in rural Texas and deep East Texas, in West Texas, in the Panhandle. You've got conservative voters there who historically don't show up in midterms. They typically
stay home. And I was ringing the bell saying, look, if you stay home, we will lose the state of Texas. We ended up driving was public.
I was around that campaign, and it was we were nervous. By the way, when did you actually feel good in that year about like having a victory that day? If I remember correctly, till the very end, there was not a lot of like swagger in the campaign, like, hey, we got this thing.
Well and there's a reason for that. So we drove Republican turnout from two point eight million all the way up to four point two million. Yeah, so I won by point two I won by two hundred thousand votes out of more than eight million votes cast statewide. The margin was two point six percent. And yeah, look a lot of observers, I'll tell you the Beto o'rourarq campaign. I was running against Beto Ourke, and he was particularly the first time he ran, which was against me. He
was a remarkable candidate, charismatic, became a national phenomenon. That twenty eighteen race, at the time was the single most expensive Senate race in US history. That's how much they wanted to take me out. To give you a sense of the kind of financial mismatch, because I was outspent three to one in that race. In the third quarter of twenty eighteen, I raised to wine.
By the way, in politics, you don't usually win when you're down three to one. Just so people understand how much outside influence money came in.
So let me give you a little bit of the math. Third quarter of twenty eighteen, I raised twelve million dollars in hard money people going to my website contributing money. That was at the time the record for the most hard money any Senate candidate had raised in a single quarter in the history of the state of Texas. Wow, do you know how long my record lasted.
I'm going to guess, like three seconds.
Two hours.
It took two hours. There we go.
So my record was twelve million. It was the most. The old record had been like eight or nine million. So I had beaten the old record by a decent margin. My record was twelve million. Two hours later, Beto O'Rourke reported his numbers. What do you think he raised that quarter?
I see if I remember it was it like almost double what you had.
No, it was thirty eight million. It was more than three x I had twelve. He had thirty eight in one quarter. That was the kind of dynamic we were facing. And I'm gonna tell you the Beto campaign was shocked to lose. They believe they had won that race. They went into election night thinking they'd won. They had confetti cannons on the stage because they're looking at the numbers and they're saying, Okay, we've more than double turnout. Game over, like like.
If they had unlimited spending power against you, because the entire Democrat machine from DC to California was in to take you out. So if you've got unlimited funds and you double the turnout, in theory, you should absolutely win that race.
So twenty twenty six has a lot in common with twenty eighteen. It's two years in to the beginning of another Trump presidency. The left is highly energized. They're raising a ton of money me. They hate Ken Paxton just like they hate me. They're going to raise a mountain of money against him. And I guarantee you leftists are going to be energized and show up to vote. And the challenge is much the same as twenty eighteen. I called Kendnight, I congratulated him. He was obviously very happy,
and I said, listen, I'm all in. You have you have my total support. I'm going to do everything I can to help you, to help you raise money, to help you turn people out, to help you with the grassroots. We've got to win because the races is dangerous and and and the left is coming after him, and their candidate is very reminiscent of Beto O'Rourke now now James Tall Rico. He was a state rep. But and he's
someone whose substantive views are really extreme. You know, last podcast we did, we highlighted Graham Plattner, the the the communist with a Nazi tattoo in Maine, who is the Democrat nominee in Maine. And we talked about just how extra even crazy the Democrat Party is. Well, James Tallerco is absolutely extreme. We're gonna break that down in just a minute. But I will tell you what makes Tallarrico dangerous, and that worries me is he packages it in this
very nice, aw shucks demeanor. Yeah, and he sounds like a preacher. He went to seminary, so he is a licensed preacher, and any much of what he says he quotes Biblical verses. And what worries me is someone who's not paying attention much to politics. Mike turn on the TV and look at him and say, oh, he seems like a nice young man. And for me, I would rather my wolves come in Wolve's clothing rather than look like a sweet, inoffensive, nice young man who happens to
be an extreme radical left winger. I'd rather they be out in the open and let you know exactly.
Who they are.
Into who this guy is here.
Because you go back to twenty twenty two, James Tallerico said it is ex essential, all right to reduce meat consumption.
What was that word again?
Ex essential.
You're gonna mock me on You're gonna mock me on the show to night, aren't you. I've been talking a long time.
Today, Ky, try that word. There's a there's a tad.
Good, I'll take the masterclassroom. You go ahead and say the word that I'm having a problem with the night. I'm just I'm more than happy at midnight for you to say that word on my behalf.
That would be existential, existential.
There we go. Good, I can I can copy the word.
It's not that he has extra sensory abilities. That's something different. If he had esp that, that would be a different story.
The lickings I take. It's unbelievable.
So back to twenty twenty two and James, this is a guy that in Texas. I said this on on Harris Faukner Show on Fox Today, and they were talking about the prime in Texas. We like meat in Texas. We are ranchers, we are farmers. We're not vegans. We don't do this like mystery fake meat stuff like that's just not who we are.
But this is what he doesn't want you to know about him.
Back in twenty twenty two, as a principal by the way, while saying this, he was wearing a mask. The COVID mass for the press conference. Here is in his own words, take a listen.
What we have I think heard more and more issues of animal welfare. I think not just because it's the right thing to do and the moral thing to do, but also it's, as all of you know, necessary to fight climate change. It is now existential that we try to reduce our meat consumption and that we try to respect animals in all aspects of society. And so I am proud to say that our campaign has officially become a non meat campaign. So we we are only buying
vegan products from from our local vegan businesses. Some of you may know big nonas. They were little nonas and then they opened up brick and mortars and their big nonas. But we just got our pizza from there today. And so the point is that I think all of us, not just policymakers, but everyone has to take personal responsibility in this effort.
I've never in my life heard a vegan campaign being like propped up much. I was like, you want to do that in Seattle, that actually may work. You want to do it in San Francisco that it may actually work. You want to do this up in New York City. I'm not even sure it would work there actually, because they actually like normal food there. But saying our campaign as a responsible Canada is a vegan campaign like.
That in Texas. And this goes back to like everyone needs to know who this guy is.
Well, look, and I get that you're taking this very personally because because you owned a barbecue restaurant. And oh yeah, so he's taking a direct assault on your livelihood. Just wait till he comes out for banning guns and banning radio. I mean, I mean, Ben will lose his mind.
I will that as a fact.
You know, it's actually ironic that in twenty eighteen, when I was running against Beto of our fifty stop bus tour, my guess is a third of those stops were barbecue restaurants. If you're traveling little towns around the state, a lot of times barbecue restaurants are where you'll do a rally. And we were at one barbecue restaurant I think it was in Columbus, Texas, a little town kind of halfway between Houston and Austin. And we're there and Peta was there,
protesting me. They had signs out and they were protesting people of the ethical treatment of animals. They were protesting against me. And I joked at the time, I said, look, thank you, I'm really glad Pete is here. And then they've underscored the stakes of this campaign, which is, if you elect Beto O'Rourke, he's going to ban barbecue. Yeah, and look, it was a laugh line there. I didn't realize that. Fast forward to twenty twenty six, you're going
to have someone who literally believes barb is immoral. And and listen, if someone chooses to be vegetarian or vegan or what have you looked To be clear, my wife, Heidi is vegetarian. That's a choice you could make. I am an enthusiastic carnivore, but.
I had barbecue tonight. Literally, that's like we had a campaign event.
Had a sausage. It was it was good stuff, halapena cheddar uh, and there was some sort of I don't know what was the vengue. Was that like celery or something. It was holopena, chadar or something else. It was in the It was in the sausage. Did you not eat the sausage?
It?
Oh, I have the sausage, but I also had the chicken. I had some of the brisket. You know, I was like carnivore all like everything else. Us salad part, you went with it. Did you look at the salad part? There was the nice creams there for you, sir.
Okay, so you went with the girly meats like like you said, I went to the barbecue restaurant and I have turkey.
It was there and I ate it. I feel good about it too.
Look, I think you're prepared to volunteer for Telerico's campaign if you're boycotting the sausage. That that's not no.
I at the sausage. It was good.
I just didn't notice the green in there. I look over that stuff. I look for just pure.
Is that meat? Is that cheese? I'm all in, all right.
So look, it's the self righteous way in which he lectures that. Yes, and it's saying, you know, all of you are morally inferior to me, and and and I'm gonna give you an example. We're gonna play some of these, but I'm gonna give you an example of some of the things he said. He has said God is non binary. Yeah, now, that's pretty out there. He has also said, we've.
Got the montage on that you want to play that real quick because we will it.
We will in a second, but we will in a second. But but I want to just walk through some of it. He has also said they're not just just two sexes, there are actually six biological sexes six What day?
What day in creation did God do the six sexes? I'm just curious, is that.
On like the eighth day in the Bible? We just add that in there. I just want to know when that happened.
And by the way, your former employer, CNN, when they were covering a story about I couldn't resist that about about Pastor hetting him for saying they're six biological sexes, CNN put a chiron in the bottom of the screen. Paxton falsely claims Tallarico said they're six biological sexes. He's on video. We're going to play it for you, and are you going to believe, CNN? Are your own lying years He has said that the Bible justifies abortion, that he is pro abortioned because of the Bible.
He said, Pastor so he's got to be right right because he's a pastor.
So so therefore he would never lie about what the Bible says.
He has said Jesus was a radical feminist. He has said white men are the greatest domestic terrorist threat in our country.
He is six, so you don't have to worry about being I'm the one that's the target there.
Well.
He has said that illegal immigrants are his quote constituents. He has posted tips to evade ice, and he said we should approach the southern border like our front door and put a welcome mat on it. Yes, when he was a school teacher, he made his sixth graders write Obama memoirs. And he has said fascism will be wrapped in the flag and carrying the cross. Listen to some of the greatest hits from James tall Rico.
This is the guy you voted for. Our southern border should be like our front porch. There should be a giant welcome mat out front. There are many more than two biological sexes. In fact, there are six. God is both masculine and feminine and everything in between. God is non binary.
Oh really, God is non binary. And by the way, the sixth sexes dis for seeing in clarity. As you mentioned, you're exactly right we have the tape, so your headline you might want to, like, you know, fix it, alter it, change it, whatever it is.
But these are just some of the highlights of what this.
Guy believes, and again they are trying to make him and I do think it's the most dangerous part. As you mentioned earlier, he looks like he's a really nice guy who's a pastor, soft spoken, he's very charismatic. That's what makes him so dangerous until you actually go to his own words and his own posts and his own speeches center that's when you find out what a radical he actually is.
Well, yes, but look at least the guy loves America, loves the American flag, and well wait, wait no, let's actually listen to his own words. I want you to listen to what he said about the American flag. This again is his own words. Give a listen.
I often think when reclaiming symbols, I think about the American flag. I think the Confederate flag is a symbol of treason and terrorism. But the American flag is such a complicated symbol for most of us. In many ways, like Jesus, like the cross, it's been co opted and in some ways that's true meeting has been betrayed.
By the way he said that center in a church, that the American flag is a complicated symbol for most of us. The American flag has never been complicated for me. I don't know, maybe you look kind of differently.
Well, And he says the American flag is a complicated symbol, like Jesus and like the cross. Those are the three examples he gives of complicated symbols. I don't think any of the three are complicated. And the idea that you're running to be a US senator and you look at the American flag and think it's a complicated symbol, you know, yes,
if you are a leftist, yes. If you are a Marxist, yes, if you are someone who is his body into cultural Marxism and believes America is irredeemably racist, believes that we are a nation of oppressors oppressing victims, and that his goal is to overthrow the oppressors. And and that is Listen, great of platiner In in Maine.
Is more exciting.
The s s sad too, right, Just to remind people who we're talking about right now, this is the guy that that actually mocked and made fun of an American soldier being shot, saying he should have died. Uh, and then refused, doubled down on it. And the same guy that has an SS tattoo.
Yes, and and and look and and who is also an open racist. I mean he he is mocked African Americans. He he is, he wears a Nazi tattoo, and and and and is is demeaning to Jews. He's demeaning to women. He says women rape victims are asking for it. Platner is at least out in the open about who he is. But tallar Rica, let's take the racism of the Democrat Party and and and and listen here, here's here's something Tall Rico said in another church about his own race,
about being white. Give a listen for me.
Prophetic voices like Jesus have helped me reckon with my own whiteness, my own masculinity, my own certainty, my own ego. It's a never ending process, and it's a painful process.
I got to give him self awareness credit there center, Like when he says it's helped him deal with his masculinity, I think he's nipped that problem in the bud. Going vegan and talking the way he does, like by the Lord heard those prayers. I mean, if he was working on the masculinity issue, he has nailed it.
That There's no doubt about that. If you listen to what he's saying. He's in a church. He behind him, if you're watching the video, he has a giant cross behind him. What he calls that? That that that?
What is it?
Complicated image of the cross, like the American flag and like Jesus, and he said the prophetic voices like Jesus helped him deal. Let's take the racist aspect his own whiteness, which is a hard thing to reckon with. You know, look, I'm sorry. In my book, being white is not a something to be a shamed of, is not a symbol that you are a bad human being. But in the leftist world, white equals evil. This is the Marxist dichotomy. It's why I'm saying he's a wolf in sheep's clothing.
What he's saying there, everyone white is an oppressor. You're all evil, you're all illegitimate. That is the same thing everyone who is black, you're you're all oppressed, and you should overthrow your evil oppressors. That is the same garbage that says America is a racist history from day one. That is who we are as irredeemably racist. It is a lie. Now play the second clip of him talking about his masculinity.
Right, no need to sit and cry over you know, your whiteness or your masculinity, right, use it, use it to do something. Yeah, let's be productive.
Wait which one is it?
Now?
I'm a little confused.
Are we masculine on Monday, Wednesday, Friday? But Tuesday, Thursday, Sunday where we just we just like turn that completely off?
Which one is it? I just want to know?
And this is where you really ought to be watching this in video, because look, tall Rico is a little dude. Yes, you know, he may be the least likely person on planet Earth to be complaining about his overwhelming masculinity. Look, Ben, you're a big dude. I'm pretty sure you could hip check this guy into the next zip code. He also, in another clip that I don't have, explained that he never played sports at all growing up. I believe that.
I believe that, Yes, yes, I believe that as well.
I will say, if you were listening to him speak and you were assembling one thousand adjectives to describe him. Masculine would not be one of.
Them, would not be on that list.
I'm just saying I don't think anyone would. And yet he described that he was crying over his masculinity, that he was too too masculine. It made him cry.
By the way, he wasn't fair to everybody else.
If you're crying over your masculinity, it may not be your masculinity you're crying over. Like I'm just saying that, there's almost something definitionally false. Yeah, but this guy is extreme, which means the Democrats love him.
I want you to pause what you're doing for just one minute, and I want you to hear about Alejandra. She lives in a remote community with very few resources and little to no healthcare. So when Alexandra gets sick, her parents have no real options, no doctors in their community, and no money for real medical care. By the third day, her body was shutting down. She woke up and just long enough to tell her mom, I can't take the
pain anymore. I can't keep going. Her parents drove hours to find a doctor who tried everything, but she needed a private hospital and that was impossible for her family.
To afford.
And that is when Compassion International stepped in. Now, through Compassion, Alejandra was treated and against all odds, she survived. She lived because someone just like you took action. Right now, Unfortunately, there are children just like Alejandra who won't survive unless someone like you steps in. Compassion International partners with local churches, providing children with the support that they need, critical medical care, plus food, education and the hope of the gospel, all
in Jesus' name. So help a child just like Alejandra. Today you can visit Compassion dot com. That's Compassion dot com. And I gotta say, sataer I want as we wrap up the show, I do want to ask and when I look at this race and I look at tell Rico, and I look at everything you and I have just talked about quickly, and we're gonna keep talking about him throughout now until until November, I can promise you, because there's more that's gonna come out. There's more crazy things
going to say. But I do like the fact that I feel like there is a little bit of sanity coming back into the political world where you now can just talk about this individual and what he believes and you can look at voters in Texas and you can just say, this is not what we believe in. We do not believe in mutilating children. He's obsessed, by the way, with transgenderism.
And transgender children in particular. He is he is described I forget the exact phrase, but people near his heart or most near his heart are transgender children. Yes, and look, if you think you ought to be sterilizing and mutilating little boys and little girls, that is an extreme out there position. That's not where most Texans are, but it is where Tallarico is.
It is, and I do find a little bit of comfort in knowing that, Like, how do you run against a guy like this in a place like I get Texas? And I think the other Republicans around the country should should actually look at this. Sometimes winning is just saying this is not who we are. We're not for that. We don't We're not a bunch of vegans. Okay, we're normal people that eat meat, and we're not gonna shame you for that. There's not six genders in the world.
Certainly Jesus is not advocating for that either. And even if you can quote scripture, if you take it out of context in this way, and you take I think part of just being a Christian. I find so offensive about tall Rico is the fact that he's sitting there saying he's an expert, and yet he seems to be taking the Bible and using it for evil instead of for good, and all these radical ideals that clearly God
is not in favor of. God is not in favor of mutilating children, He's not in favor of there being six different genders like, that's not what he's about.
And remember, even the devil can quote Scripture. If you look back to when the devil was tempting Jesus in the garden right before he was crucified, the devil repeatedly quoted Chris Scripture at him, and Jesus rebuked him. And so the fact that he quotes Scripture does not means he is being truthful about what the Bible is saying. And if he's twisting it and using it for evil ends that are precisely the opposite of what the Bible is saying, that that is not honorable or righteous or truthful.
And you know, listen, I'll say the Paxton campaign has started calling him low t Tall Rico, which I think is pretty turned funny. Yeah, but I want to give a caution. It's a caution I gave at the beginning. Do not take this general election for granted. Here's what Tall Rico tweeted tonight right after the primary results. Quote, I want to thank Senator John Cornyn for his years representing our state. We don't agree on everything, but were
we both still believe in public service. To Senator Cornyn's supporters, you have a place in our campaign. Yeah, that's very savvy. He's making a very open pitch. Two more moderate Republicans vote for me. Look, I'm a nice, sweet, gentle inoffensive guy, wouldn't hurt a fly. And if you're not paying attention, if you don't know his record, if you're not listening
to what he said, you can be deceived. And so we need to I think this campaign, an awful lot of it is going to be putting his own words in front of the voters, because they do reveal who he is. But he's really good at being slick and pretending to be something he's not. That in politics is dangerous.
Yeah, no doubt. I love when we get to do it, do a pod like this don't forget. You can down with Verdict with Ted Cruz wherever you get your podcast three days a week. You can also grab my podcast and Ben Ferguson podcasts as well, each and every day wherever you get your podcasts and the Senat and I will see you back here on Verdict on Friday. And to all the Republican candiates had a big night, congratulations.
Running for office is hard
And it's really fun when you get some ws on the board, so that is fun, and we'll see you back here Friday morning.