Winners, Strategy & What’s Next| Battleground Texas

Hello, everyone. Welcome to Battleground, Texas. I'm Rudy Kosky in Austin. Greg Grugen, Stephen Dial, both have the day off. But I'm not all by myself. Charles Blaine, chairman of Urban Reform, he's here with me to walk us through this whole crazy day. And it has been a wild day. We'll be talking with Charles in just a few minutes. First, today is all about setting the tone for the future. The officers elect. For several statewide offices laying out their initiatives. Governor-elect Gina Hinojosa speaking just about an hour ago. This is about my campaign promises, what I ran to create as governor. We are forging a new way forward. People are tired of the divisions, of the fighting, tired of the culture wars. This is a time to come together in a way that is. About just delivering for the people of Texas, Ernest Bales, Representative Ernest Bales and myself were close allies delivering for our public schools. In fact, I count him as one of my best allies for public schools. That is his commitment. There is really little light between our positions. on public education and as such he serves as a tremendous leader in this transition team, on this transition team. And look, there are lots of issues with whom my good allies are Republicans. So I'm just about delivering for people. This is not about being a Democratic administration. I'm not going to be the governor for just Democrats. I'm going to be the governor for all the people of Texas. The people of Texas have spoken. I think it's important that as elected leaders, we respect what the people of Texas have said. They want change. And I would hope that... Elected leaders from both parties don't get in the way of the progress we can make together to deliver for working people. That is our obligation as leaders in this state, and I look forward to working with Republican leaders in the legislature. Greg Abbott has been gracious and made sure to make me understand that they are going to fully cooperate with this transition and be helpful as they can. We are both committed to ensuring there is a smooth transition so that the people of Texas are taken care of. So certainly now the new attorney general elect for Texas is promising a massive shift in how the state's top law enforcement agency will operate. Democrat Nathan Johnson saying he plans to strip partisan politics out of that office, promising to refocus on consumer protection and fighting corruption. He sat down with our Stephen Dial to outline his new vision. What do you hope to do differently in the Attorney General's office? I'm gonna take a whole different approach to run the Attorney General's office. It has been, in the words of the Republican Attorneys General Association, the largest legal power for the conservative movement nationally. Now, I don't know when the Attorney General's Office became a private law firm for a faction of a political party, but it isn't what it's supposed to be. I'm going to return the Attorney General's Office back to what it has been under prior Republican Attorneys General, under prior Democratic Attorneys General. And that is an office that's supposed to act as a check on the abuse of power by anyone anywhere. And I think we've seen instead the facilitation on the abuse of power, the engagement. Of the abuse of power in the Attorney General's office. It is supposed to be there to protect consumers. It's supposed to be there to make markets competitive. You're supposed to work with district and county attorneys to prosecute crimes. You're supposed to make sure there's no corruption in government or in the private sector and that the private sector doesn't have too much control of public power. Those kinds of things have been done to some extent because there are still good people in the Attorney General's office. But the whole face of the office. It has been political partisan warfare. That ends when I'm Attorney General. We're going to do the job of the Attorney General. It's not gonna be a show and we're not working for any political party. Now, the political renovation project will also take place in the state comptroller's office. That includes bringing back some employees who were recently fired by incumbent Don Huffines. I spoke to comptroller-elect Sarah Eckhart this morning about that, her goals, and what the state bank account looks like for next year. We'll be ready to rock and roll very quickly. We've got a great team, a great transition council and transition team. We're in it right now. You said school choice, you wanna make sure that it's running properly, you're gonna audit it. What are your other priorities? My other priorities are to do a deep dive on our 400% increase in no bid contracting. The other part of that is also to take a look at all of our tax exemptions because we are exempting more in sales taxes than we're actually collecting. How are you feeling about 27? In big picture, I'm going to take a picture. we're in good shape. There will be another legislative session of surplus. All right, the Texas political rebuild includes a new political odd couple heading to Capitol Hill and the Senate, James Talarico, Ted Cruz. What are they saying? That's next when Battleground Texas returns. We sent a crystal clear message to the world's first trillionaire. Texas is not for sale. In this state, in this country, power belongs to the people. And I think now that we have a win the size of Texas, we have a mandate the size of Texas. And we gotta get big money out of our politics. We gotta prevent any billionaire, any trillionaire from buying our elections. We gotta make sure that we have a government of by and for the people again. instead of a government of by and for mega donors like Elon Musk. That of course was Senator, Senator-elect James Tielleurico on The View he was taking aim at the outside influence of billionaires and trillionaires in Texas politics. Across the aisle, Republican Senator Ted Cruz. He's already sounding the alarm about the Democrats' new power. Speaking on his podcast, Cruz warned about what he calls a radical agenda from the incoming lawmakers and believes the Democrat promise that business leaders like Elon Musk, are directly in their crosshairs. We can be certain that the Democrats in Austin and in Washington will overshoot in Texas. They will try to raise taxes dramatically. They may even try to adopt a state income tax or even a California wealth tax. They will try to shut down the energy industry, destroying jobs across our state. They will embrace the radical transgender agenda. They will persecute those they perceive to be enemies, especially Elon Musk. Well, certainly we have a lot to slice and dice there. Helping me with that, Charles Blaine, chairman of Urban Reform. Charles, that blue wave also hit the state school board. Looks like Democrats will have a slim 8-7 majority there. Hinojosa making it clear, house cleaning at the top of TEA, that's job one. But the new commissioner and the new board chair appointments with the school board, they have to be approved by the Senate, which is controlled by the Republicans. So Charles, it looks like... Maybe the Texas School Board is going to be the first big political battleground. You agree with that? I think so. And I think it's really going to be education as a whole. I think you have the Texas School Board, but then at the same time, you have the chairs of the board regents for A&M, Texas Tech, and UT, who are up for reappointment in February of 2027. So right when the session starts, also have to get Senate approved as well for those. So she's going to have a lot of education-related battles, it seems, at the start of her tenure. All right, just for fun, since it's just the two of us and nobody else listening, if education leadership is not the first big fight, All right. I think it also could be the use of executive orders. There's a lot of concern about that, that the governor has a lot of power. They tried to clamp it down on Greg Abbott after the COVID breakout. Now we're hearing warnings from lawmakers like Brian Harrison. I told you so and now Democrats involved and has the power of executive order. So do you think that could be a big battleground issue? I think so. I think it can definitely be a big battleground issue. Now, will Republicans have the votes and the numbers to actually get it through? That's the other question. But I do think that they're going to try to go after that because there are a lot of Republicans, particularly on the conservative side, who are frustrated, like you said, post-COVID and during COVID with the kind of abuse that some claim of executive orders. And so I can see them making a play for that, as well as just kind of the general rules of the House. I mean, now that Republicans are going to be in the minority, I know a lot of them are going to be concerned about the rules fight and how they can get power and whatever ways that they can use, like technicalities. and the actual rules of the House to gain and hold on to power. So it's going to be an interesting, very technical, I think, battle at the start of the session. I'm trying to think what kind of executive order fight that we could see, what issue that the governor-elect could use an executive order to do something. Usually it has to be disaster-related or an immediate need. Is there anything on your radar, or is it just way too soon to figure out and look into that back room with the Hinojosa team in regards to... This is the executive order. We're going to do this. Yeah, well, I mean, I know that during the campaign, she flirted with the idea and maybe frankly said it, that she wanted to use an executive order to suspend the gas tax. Now, from my understanding, she says to go through legislative approval for that. But I mean, who knows? There might be an attempt to try that. Or similarly, looking at some of the other legislation that has been passed that kind of target cities, there might be some attempt to just do away with that without having to go through the legislative process. I think it could. And then she also mentioned that she wanted to give a stipend back. I think it was $1,000. $1,000 or $1,500 from the Rainy Day Fund for families because of affordability. So you might make an attempt to do that as well. And with a lot of the courts having flipped, I mean, you know, I don't know who's going to be there to stop her. So it's going to be interesting to see what she chooses to use her pen for. All right. Real quickly, we heard from the new AG, the new comptroller. Both promise accountability, no politics. I'm pretty sure that's going to be with Eckhart. It's just a numbers game with her. Not too sure with Johnson. What's your gut feeling? I mean, that office is just too political in nature. I mean, it gives it such great opportunity to go after the federal government. It gives us a great opportunity to target cities that they dislike or disagree with politically. And so I don't see Nathan Johnson staying away from targeting the Trump, the Trump White House for the next two years while he can build a name for himself by suing them. So I definitely think we're going to see some of that. Similarly, we've seen here in Harris County with our county attorney doing the same. All right, the economy certainly pushed this blue wave, but top Democrats claim this wasn't just being lucky, not timing. Team Blue is showing us their playbook. We'll hear what's in it when Battleground Texas continues. Welcome back to Battleground Texas. Now, it's clear the economy fueled the big blue wave all across the country, but right here in Texas, Democrats apparently caught that wave with a Party chairman Kendall Scudder and the executive director for the party's PAC, Catherine Fisher, went online and recently explained how they did it. We had offices in every major county plus suburban counties in every region of the state. We ran an innovative new program called Rally Texas, where we recruited low propensity voters who they recruited from places like black churches, from college campuses, from all counties across the state. We recruit them to join what are essentially virtual civics classes, where they learn how the legislature works and what Republicans had been doing in the legislature that was affecting their lives and their livelihoods. Who the Democrats are that were running and what they would do to make their lives better. And then they're trained to have conversations and make vote plans with their friends and family, make sure they get out to vote. So through this program, We recruited more than 50,000 Texans who contacted more than 300,000 of their friends and family and organized them to get out and vote. Another thing that we did was we launched a research consortium called 254 Labs. This provides sophisticated, qualitative and quantitative research to candidates across the state at a fraction of the cost. We all split costs and so candidates who Could never afford even one poll, get six or seven or eight instead. We flipped four county seats in Brazoria County and most of the statewide candidates won in Brazoria. This was a Trump plus 20 county in 2024. This was sort of test for us. We filled every single county office in Brazoria. Invested more than $400,000 in full-time staff, voter contact, offices, candidate training, candidate services, and more. We wanted to see if we put a lot of work and money into one of these rapidly shifting suburban counties that would eventually go blue. Could we speed up the process of making it go blue, turn what is normally a 10-year process into what we thought might be four or six years? We did it in two. They sure did. Charles Blaine is back with me to talk political X's and O's. You know, Charles, to do a little bit more football speak, you don't have to have the best game plan, but you've got to execute. that game plan and the Democrats sure did. Are you surprised the Democrats are being so open right now about their strategy, their playbook? What do you think about what you heard? What do you think about that playbook? I mean, yeah, I'm very surprised. You know, you mentioned to me before that they were talking about it. I didn't realize they went into so much detail. I didn't realize that. But it's remarkable that they are putting it out there. I mean, I think some of the stuff that they built, the infrastructure, it takes years to build. And so they're kind of ahead of the game and it's going to take anyone a while to catch up. But other things like the 254 lab, I think is what they called it, where candidates instead of getting One poll, if they can even afford that, can get six. That kind of stuff doesn't take too long or too many resources to replicate, not that the Republican Party doesn't have those resources. And so to put all of that out there, I think, might help Republicans a bit in terms of how they're going to rebuild and regain some of the seats that they lost. And, you know, I think Republicans need to take this opportunity as an introspection event and really kind of look at themselves and understand that they need to separate from a national identity and they need a state identity and brand and a local identity and brand. brand that reflects the communities that they represent and then have the candidates from those communities be in those communities working with folks and I think they can start to kind of regain some of those losses but it's going to take a lot of work. You know, on this show with Stephen and Greg, I have said multiple times that I thought Republicans mismanaged the midterm. They got out late, they lost the messaging battle, and on top of all that, they had all that early infighting, the cannibalism, the rhinos, and all that mess. You know, Charles, as this debate over our party rebuild heats up, should the Texas GOP just copy that Democrat playbook, move completely away from the MAGA movement? But can they rebuild without the Tim Dunn's and the Elon Musk donors? It's a daunting task. Well, I think the folks in the party who know the ground, who are in these counties and who are working them daily, getting city council candidates elected and even appraisal district candidates elected, those are the folks that people need to start listening to. And the money can stay in politics, but it just needs to be directed in places that are actually going to be more effective. And I think that's been part of the problem, is that a lot of the consultants on top who may not be in the areas try to dictate what those areas think and feel and how they should be communicated to. And so they really need to be listening to the folks at the bottom of the ballot, really. Because they know best. I mean, in Harris County, two of the appraisal district candidates went into runoffs. Republicans went into runoffs and won one outright. Those are the only Republicans who won in the county. And so there's something to that, and I think people need to really listen to those folks and invest in the strategies that they think might be successful. Yeah, let's build off of that. Scudder and Fisher both, you know, very proud parents of their big baby playbook. You know, they're sharing that playbook with Democrats and other states, they said. Expanding what they did in Brazoria County, that experiment, to other Texas counties now across. And they're getting ready to start doing it, you know, for the next cycle. For the Texas GOP, do you think it's about fence mending in South Texas first? Is that where the... Republicans should go. I mean, I think it needs to be everything all at once. Yeah, there should be some fence mending in South Texas. They need to be in urban communities talking about the affordability issue there. They need to be in the suburbs talking about on the housing reforms that Republicans have pushed last legislative session and how that's going to keep encouraging growth out there. I think it's really interesting that they targeted that those those quick changing or decade changing suburban counties to try to expedite the change there, because that's where Republicans have been seeing the losses. I mean, we saw the cities lose Now it's becoming the Suburban counties and so that's where the fight needs to be, I think. Yeah, clearly the Democrats built up and it's showing that they built up. But all right, we're not quite done yet. Our parting shots are next on Battleground Texas. Welcome back to the Battleground. We're closing out the show with what else is on our minds, our parting shots. Charles, Stephen's not here, so if you wanna do sports, you can do that. We're gonna start with you, fire away. Well, thank you. I'm just going to repeat something I said before, which is that Republicans moving forward really need to double down. Actually, they need to start. They haven't even doubled down. They need to start focusing on the local level, but also focusing on building a new brand and identity that represents the communities that they're in. Harris County needs to do that. Brazoria County, every county around the state needs to do that so that when these trends and these ebbs and flows come from the national level, they're able to withstand them because the communities know who represents them and know who's in their community. And so I really hope that Republicans take this as an opportunity to really learn something and build a brand that represents. The Senate has the Sunshine Protection Act, which the House has already passed to make daylight savings time permanent. And in the House, there's that Protect College Sports Act. It cleared the Senate way back in September. Doesn't it seem like a long time ago? Facing fourth and long because the two chambers expected to wrap things up for the holiday in mid-December. All right, for us, the clock already approaching zero. So you can see more of our interviews and segments by going to our YouTube pages and keep the conversation going with us on social media. Greg Grugan will be back tomorrow. So make sure to join us at three as we wrap up an exciting and historic week in Texas politics.