What's next for Texas?

The rebuilding project under the Texas Capitol Dome is fully underway. Democrats putting up the help wanted sign and Republicans looking for help recovering from the November 3rd blue wave. Fox 7 Austin's chief political reporter, Rudy Kosky, joining us now from the newsroom with the details. Rudy. Yeah, Alec, it certainly is a political rebuild that's underway for both sides, essentially, the winners and the losers. Now, under the Capitol Dome, the dust starting to settle after this midterm election, starting to clear out, getting some clear pictures, the political stage now being set for the upcoming legislative session and eventually a rematch in 2028. Today on Battleground Texas, we talked with Mark Jones from Rice University about all the planning that's underway. For example, Governor-elect Gina Hinojosa and her transition team putting out a request for applications to hire staff. Republican Brian Harrison today continuing his attempt to reduce the emergency powers of the governor. He now has a petition urging for the call of a special session with the coalition supporting that idea. Now, as Harrison makes no apologies for pushing out moderates in the party, outgoing Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick today noted how losing independence was a major factor in this big blue wave. I think it came down to two new people, time for a change. It's a midterm. I can't fill up my gas tank and I can't buy all the groceries I need for my family. And I'm going to give them a chance. I think this election showed very clearly that when you veer too far to the right and then simultaneously don't perform in terms of economic policies, you get the rejection of voters. So for Republicans, I think they need to adopt a very different strategy. But they're, I think, going to be hurt or at least hamstrung by a contingent that agrees with Representative Harrison. And if that group continues to dominate, then that's good news for Democrats going into 2028. Representative Harrison, his strategy is basically a back-to-basics strategy, and he believes in it. Meanwhile, Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, in his personality over policy argument, he noted the majority of school bonds all across the state of Texas failed. And beefing up funding for public schools, that was a key part of the Democrat messaging. He also noted how down the ballot, that vote count percentage looked pretty much the same all the way down the ballot, suggesting that many Democrat voters essentially did a party-line vote, Alec. Rudy, earlier this week, Senator Ted Cruz announced the startup of a special election think tank here in Austin. Any word on when that will open? Yeah, no date has been announced just yet. It's called Saving Texas, the Saving Texas group. Now, this idea to recruit and reelect Republicans sounds very familiar to that playbook that we profiled earlier that the Democrats talked about and how they used it to win the midterm.