The 88th Texas Legislature is upon us. And as state lawmakers return to Austin with plenty of political promises and priorities, Y’all-itics is here to help you understand what they might actually do to make your life better… or worse, depending on your perspective and political bent. To do that, we went straight to the top and had a sit-down conversation with Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick. The Texas Senate’s top Republican can make or break the legislative agenda inside the state Capitol. And...
Jan 08, 2023•30 min•Ep. 191
Happy 2023! The Y’all-itics team is still on break, spending time with family. But the Jasons wanted to share our top two performing episodes of 2022 with you while they’re out. To start this new year, we’re looking back at the playbook to take down Texas public schools. Conservatives made it a priority in 2022 to attempt to reshape school boards across the state. And this effort will continue in 2023. And as we get closer to the start of the legislative session later in January, expect to hear ...
Jan 01, 2023•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 190
The holiday season is upon us and the Y’all-itics team is taking a break to spend time with family. But the Jasons wanted to share our top two performing episodes of 2022 with you while they’re out. We start with your property taxes, and why 2022 might have been your best year to fight them and save yourself some money in the process. But don’t worry, the same will hold true in 2023 and the tips you pick up in this episode will carry over into the new year. This episode originally released on Ap...
Dec 25, 2022•50 min•Ep. 189
It sounds complicated, confusing, and esoteric. But if the U.S. Supreme Court legitimizes the independent state legislature theory (ISLT), many experts say it would upend hundreds of years of constitutional law and dramatically restructure the relationship between state legislatures and state Supreme Courts. The Justices have already heard oral arguments in Moore v. Harper. Now we await a ruling, expected in June 2023. But we’re impatient here at Y’all-itics. So, the Jasons called up our residen...
Dec 18, 2022•35 min•Ep. 188
It’s the holiday season, so get ready for family, friends, and great food. But are you also ready to talk politics? As we get together over the holiday, many of these conversations are unavoidable… as is the stress and anxiety they can cause. You may have even seen phrases like “political stress syndrome” being thrown around. Well, the struggle is real. In this episode of Y’all-itics , the Jasons turn to a mental health expert for tips on how to keep your holiday stress from spiraling out of con...
Dec 11, 2022•37 min•Ep. 187
The kids did it again. They helped to alter the trajectory of the 2022 midterms for the third election cycle in a row, and helped prevent a predicted Republican “Red Wave.” 27% of eligible voters between the ages of 18 – 29 showed up to cast a ballot and they overwhelmingly backed Democrats, by a nearly 30-point margin. Politicians would be wise to understand why Gen Z is so important, their careers literally depend on it. Some Republicans have even responded to Gen Z’s growing political power b...
Dec 04, 2022•40 min•Ep. 186
Almost as soon as the election ended in Harris County calls to investigate began. Of the 782 voting locations there, 23 of them ran out of paper ballots on election day. Others opened late. But was a crime committed? Texas Republican leaders have called for investigations and even the Democratic District Attorney in Harris County, Kim Ogg, asked the Texas Rangers to get to the bottom of it. On this episode, the Jasons get two perspectives of the problem plaguing Houston and the state’s most popu...
Nov 27, 2022•41 min•Ep. 185
Former congressman Beto O’Rourke is now 0-for-3 in his campaigns for higher office. So, what’s next for this former congressman from El Paso? Jason Lee was O’Rourke’s Deputy Campaign Manager and takes us inside his run for governor on this episode of Y’all-itics, explaining why Texas Democrats should be optimistic despite the loss, what Greg Abbott’s campaign did well, and the lesson for Texas Democrats in it. But what’s next for Beto O’Rourke himself? Would he run for office again? Will he rema...
Nov 20, 2022•34 min•Ep. 184
It wasn’t even close. In this episode, we go inside the Greg Abbott campaign and ask ‘how did you do it?’ Dave Carney, Abbott’s long-time political consultant who also worked for the first President Bush and former Texas governor Rick Perry, pulls back the curtain on Abbott’s winning campaign. Carney tells Y’all-itics why he never worried about Beto O’Rourke, how *he* would have managed Beto’s campaign differently, why there’s only one gubernatorial debate, the good and bad of polling, why the i...
Nov 13, 2022•53 min•Ep. 183
The more things change, the more they stay the same. Texas Republicans swept every statewide office on Tuesday night. Governor Greg Abbott even won by a similar, wide margin as he did four years ago, but this time against an opponent with much better name recognition and fundraising ability. Texas Republicans said they could also sweep three congressional seats in South Texas, but they’re projected to win only one Congressional District there. And after yet another brutal election for Texas Demo...
Nov 09, 2022•34 min•Ep. 182
We are now just days away from the midterms and many Elections Administrators across Texas are asking the same question: where are the voters? Even taking into account this isn’t a Presidential Election driving higher turnout, those running elections just aren’t seeing the numbers they expected. In this early release episode of Y’all-itics , we head all over the state to check the temperatures of those behind the vote. And turnout isn’t the only thing keeping those folks up at night. Because of ...
Nov 04, 2022•33 min•Ep. 181
Halfway through Early Voting and with November 8 now just days aways, Texas is back in the glaring, national political spotlight. And experts all across the country say what happens here will dictate the nation’s future… from Democrats’ untenable hold on South Texas, to the Governor’s mansion, to who will be controlling the levers of government the next time we vote for President. Are we ready for the scrutiny? Texas Secretary of State John Scott joins us to discuss whether the Texas election wi...
Oct 30, 2022•55 min•Ep. 180
LANGUAGE WARNING: This episode has some adult language scattered about as our guest gets fired up about what he worries the Democratic Party is not doing in South Texas. Chuck Rocha, the senior most Democratic Latino political strategist in the country, is sounding the alarm about what his party is - and is not doing - in South Texas. Now that Hispanics are the largest racial demographic group in Texas, winning the Latino vote is the goal of politicians up and down the ballot. Some margins are s...
Oct 23, 2022•53 min•Ep. 179
This episode of Y’all-itics is as close to a second gubernatorial debate as Texas will get. Greg Abbott and Beto O’Rourke both agreed to one-on-one interviews with Y’all-itics as we approach the start of early voting. Just the willingness of the state’s top two candidates to speak to us at length in the final weeks is not lost on us. It shows that both campaigns are acutely aware of how competitive this race remains. Even if you think you have your mind made up in the race for Texas governor, he...
Oct 16, 2022•35 min•Ep. 178
The race for 2024 begins next month – as soon as the polls close in the November midterm. There’s already been lots of speculation about Florida Governor Ron DeSantis potentially running for the White House. But another Republican governor, who neighbors Texas, suggested to the Jasons he might launch his own bid for President. Asa Hutchinson is a former Congressman, the former head of the DEA, and now term-limited out as Governor of Arkansas. And unlike other Republicans today, Gov. Hutchinson i...
Oct 09, 2022•50 min•Ep. 177
Y’all-itics: October 1, 2022 Greg Abbott and Beto O’Rourke spent 57-minutes together in an empty auditorium at U.T. Rio Grande Valley on Friday night in their first and only debate before the November election. There was not a gotcha moment and no memorable soundbite. But the Jasons have some interesting observations about what they watched. They loaded up the Y’all-itics jet and flew down to the border for this one. But why all the attention on South Texas? Politically, this place is more compl...
Oct 01, 2022•35 min•Ep. 176
Y’all-itics: September 25, 2022 It’s a job no one wanted. Restoring reliability in the Texas electric grid. Brad Jones took the governor’s call and agreed to be the interim CEO of ERCOT. Over the last year and a half, he has made significant changes to how ERCOT operates and why we have not had any more energy emergencies. The real test, though, will be another winter. That’s when we’ll find out if the changes really work. While you’ve heard a lot about new “weatherization” requirements for the ...
Sep 25, 2022•47 min•Ep. 175
Y’all-itics: September 18, 2022 You’ve seen the candidates on the ballot, the ones with the “L” by their name. The Libertarian Party has been around for more than 50-years and they hold only around 350 elected offices across the country. And the party has never broken through with a win in a major nationwide race, or even one here in Texas. Why then are Texas Republicans trying to kick Libertarians off the ballot in our state? Libertarians will tell you it’s because they’re scared. Republican of...
Sep 18, 2022•34 min•Ep. 174
Y’all-itics: September 11, 2022 That escalated quickly. In the week since our last podcast, during which we broke the news that Republican Tarrant County Judge Glen Whitley would be voting for Democrat Mike Collier in the race for Lieutenant Governor, another prominent Republican has done the same. State Senator Kel Seliger calls Republican incumbent Dan Patrick an “extremist,” and says state leadership must adapt to the growing diversity in Texas. These cross-over endorsements certainly send a ...
Sep 11, 2022•47 min•Ep. 173
Tarrant County Judge Glen Whitley said he expects some blowback for what he said in this episode. The veteran Republican and long-time chief elected official in Tarrant County revealed that he will back Democrat Mike Collier instead of Republican Dan Patrick in race for lieutenant governor this November. This is Judge Whitley’s tell-all before he retires from politics at the end of the year. Whitley implores people to participate in elections to reduce political polarization, discusses the bruta...
Sep 04, 2022•44 min•Ep. 172
Y’all-itics: August 28, 2022 After nearly 50-years, America is finally returning to the Moon, as Artemis 1 is scheduled to launch Monday, August 29, 2022. The ambitious, 42-day-long mission will be the first time NASA uses Orion, the new spacecraft built to take humans back to the moon. While no astronauts will be on board this mission, it is step one in getting Americans back on the moon by 2024. And the ultimate goal is Mars, moving far beyond the flags and footprints from the original Apollo ...
Aug 29, 2022•39 min•Ep. 171
Y'all-itics: Tuesday, August 23rd The Jasons don’t often do sequels, but Whitely got a call that two elected officials wanted to give their first-ever news interviews and Y’all-itics responded. In this episode, for the first time, top school board members at Keller ISD and Grapevine Colleyville ISD take questions from a journalist. GCISD Vice President Shannon Braun and KISD President Dr. Charles Randklev discuss the new policies that conservatives majorities on each board just passed this week....
Aug 24, 2022•53 min•Ep. 170
Y’all-itics: August 21, 2022 41 library books have come off the shelves inside one school district in North Texas. Why? Parents challenged why their children should be exposed to them. Among the titles are “Anne Frank’s Diary: The Graphic Adaptation” and – wait for it – the Bible. Public school libraries are now the frontlines in the ongoing culture wars. In this episode of Y’all-itics , a fired up Keller ISD mom joins the Jasons with a strong warning for parents in other school districts about ...
Aug 22, 2022•54 min•Ep. 169
Texas is rolling in it! A strong economy and soaring inflation have spurred extraordinary tax and fee collections, swelling the state’s coffers by up to $27 Billion more than was budgeted. So the first question that comes to mind is: How is the surplus going to be spent? Rest assured there will be a Texas-sized wishlist from politicians, especially incumbents who can afford to make big promises now as we barrel toward the November election and a legislative session that starts two months after t...
Aug 14, 2022•39 min•Ep. 168
Y’all-itics: August This episode is about the two most influential men in Texas politics that you’ve likely never heard of. They’re billionaire oil men from West Texas who also preach at their local churches. Tim Dunn and Farris Wilks are now the focus of a new CNN documentary titled “Deep in the Pockets of Texas.” In talking to experts and fellow conservatives, veteran Texas journalist Ed Lavandera shows how Dunn and Wilks have successfully pushed Texas politics – and that of the nation – to th...
Aug 08, 2022•42 min•Ep. 167
SYNOPSIS: This past year has taught us not to take electricity for granted. Better be careful with water, too. Texas needs more of it to keep up with all the residents and businesses moving here. One small town along the Red River is already running low on the resource. The plan for Dallas / Fort Worth alone calls for five new reservoirs. One, proposed in northeast Texas, would flood 66,000 acres of land, move out families, and take property off the tax rolls. But not acting soon enough could al...
Jul 31, 2022•43 min•Ep. 166
Y’all-itics: July 24, 2022 It has become one of the most pressing debates in the life of a modern parent: when to allow their children access to social media and once they have it, how best to limit it. A Texas Republican wants to eliminate the guesswork for parents and ban any child under 18 from using social media. And in this episode of Y’all-itics, state Representative Jared Patterson joins the Jasons to discuss everything from First Amendment and parental rights, to why he thinks parents st...
Jul 25, 2022•36 min•Ep. 165
The lights…and thankfully the A-C…stayed on in Texas last week. But as the state baked in triple digit temps, the electric grid operator pleaded with Texans on multiple days to hike up the thermostat and conserve power as much as possible, because the state was uncomfortably close to not having enough electricity to meet demand. And it could happen again in the week ahead, with forecasts showing another string of sweltering days. But going into the summer, Governor Abbott touted the strength of ...
Jul 18, 2022•32 min•Ep. 164
Y’all-itics: July 10, 2022 In their official party platform, Texas Republicans now call homosexuality “an abnormal lifestyle choice.” The party goes even further and states that it opposes any criminal or civil penalties against “those who oppose homosexuality out of faith, conviction, or belief in traditional values.” And the Texas GOP still refused to allow Log Cabin Republicans, which represents LGBTQ conservatives, to have a booth at the state convention last month. Despite this hostility, s...
Jul 11, 2022•42 min•Ep. 163
Think you’re paying a lot for gas this July 4th holiday? As hard as it is to believe, you should actually enjoy it now, because you’ll likely be buying $6 gas by the time the next federal holiday rolls around. Many experts believe these skyrocketing gas prices will only accelerate the electric vehicle (EV) revolution. But that could lead to huge problems in Texas. Experts says the power grid in our state is in no way ready for EVs to comprise the bulk of our fleet, much less EV charging stations...
Jul 04, 2022•51 min•Ep. 162
