What Republicans Are Missing About 2026 (w/ Konni Burton)

Texas Republicans left Houston with a new party chair, new priorities and a familiar challenge: can the party stay united long enough to win in November?

In this episode of Seeing Red, Garrett Fulce breaks down the Republican Party of Texas convention before sitting down with former State Senator and The Texan founder Konni Burton.

Garrett's Op-ed: https://www.houstonchronicle.com/opinion/outlook/article/data-center-texas-execeptionalism-garrett-fulce-22298369.php

They discuss:

• Dorinda Randall's election as Texas GOP Chair
• The calls for party unity from Abbott, Patrick and Burrows
• Why 2018 still haunts Republicans
• Coalition shifts among suburban voters, Latinos and union households
• The future of conservative media
• Why Konni launched The Texan
• The growing problem of activist journalism
• Texas' opportunity to become America's data center capital

Whether you're a grassroots activist, political junkie or simply trying to understand where Texas politics is headed, this conversation provides a candid look at the challenges facing both parties.

Subscribe for weekly Texas political analysis, interviews and commentary.

00:00 Texas GOP convention recap

01:45 Dorinda Randall elected chair

02:15 Burrows boos and party unity

04:20 Why Republicans are worried

05:26 Konni Burton joins the show

06:19 Lessons from the 2018 election

08:43 How Beto changed Texas politics

11:27 Why down-ballot races matter

13:26 The danger for Republicans in 2026

17:07 Matt Talarico and candidate quality

19:24 Coalition shifts in both parties

23:05 Why data centers matter

30:34 Konni Burton's political journey

37:00 Founding The Texan

44:16 Journalism versus activism

53:09 The future of media in Texas

Connect With Our Guest

Konni Burton

The Texan:
https://thetexan.news

X:
https://x.com/KonniBurton

The Texan on X:
https://x.com/TheTexanNews


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YouTube:
https://youtube.com/@SeeingRedPodcast

Substack:
https://seeingredpod.substack.com

X:
https://x.com/GWFulce

Email:
hosts@seeingredpodcast.com

Find us at seeingredpodcast.substack.com for full episodes. Follow us on all socials at @theseeingredpod and online at our website Seeing Red Podcast. x.com/gwfulce 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome back to a new episode of Seeing Red. I'm your host, Garrett Foles. We have a great episode ahead for you. We're going to be talking what happened at the Republican Party of Texas Convention. Got to talk about data centers, and we're talking with the CEO and founder of the Texan, Connie Burton. Stick around. We have a great show. This is seeing Red. The convention is coming gone. We have a new chairperson, chairwoman. Got lots of new SRECs, lots of new platforms and priorities, and just a party of unity and disunity coming into this November election. I'm your host, Garrett Folks. Welcome to Seeing Red. Thank you for watching. Wherever you're watching, if you can subscribe, like, really appreciate it. It does a lot to help us keep this show on the air. So just subscribe, like, share with your friends. Really appreciate it. Let's just jump right into it. Republican Party of Texas Convention was just held this past couple of weeks here in Houston. I was a delegate. I served on the temporary organizing committee. It was a good time. It was a lot of camaraderie among the people who showed up. The numbers were kind of low. And I think I'll get into that a little bit more. But there were a lot of people there. People came to argue about grammar and about what goes on the platform, what doesn't. The work of the party started on Monday, worked through Thursday on the temporary stuff, and then starting Friday, or sorry, through Wednesday on the temporary stuff, and then Thursday, Friday, Saturday, we organized and got the work done. Key thing that came out of this is Abraham George is no longer the chair of the Republican Party of Texas, is former vice chair, now chairwoman Dorinda Randall won, and has assumed a position as chairwoman. So that was the big news that came out of there. Also, really big news. There was an elephant. But big elephant showed up. Governor Abbott had it in his speech to talking about big guests. And, you know, was really talking about the the he and Dan Patrick did a lot to talk about party unity. And it was Governor Abbott spoke a lot about unity. And then Dan Patrick spoke a lot about unity. And then they announced Speaker Burroughs, and the boobirds from the back of the room started booing real loud. For a little bit less than a minute, a lot of people stood up at the front and cheered for Speaker Burroughs. There was a little bit of both, but after about a minute, everyone quieted down. He was able to give his speech where he also talked about unity. That's a key message from these down ballot races, and even statewide and important races, that they have to, the Republicans kind of have to come together. People who don't like Paxton are going to have to vote for Paxton. People who don't like boroughs are going to have to vote for Burroughs, and for say house reps they don't necessarily like if Republicans are going to hold power. That's the message. That's the messaging they're really trying to get across to the party faithful is unity, unity, unity. There's also a lot of messaging about how they can get involved, interconnect, and actually get on the ground and get out and knock. Like I said before, there weren't a lot of this many people as have been there in the past. That's a problem because it just means there's less intensity among the people who are most likely to volunteer. There's just less less interest. I noticed a lot there were a lot of people who would end up being formerly like kind of more pro-Corny-esque type folks. Just didn't show up. They stayed at home, they tweeted about whatever else. Some still showed, but a lot of them just didn't show up. The people who did show up seemed to, you know, get along with one another, even though they typically fight with one another. People who I might sometimes get in disagreements with on Twitter or whatnot, you know, came up to me, I went up to them. We had civil conversations and you know, working towards a common goal in November. But there was a lot of talk about just what was going to happen. There's more consternation among folks about what's going to happen than I've ever seen in the Republican Party of Texas in the 20 plus years I've been involved. People are worried. They probably haven't been as worried since the Obama year when people knew kind of things were going to go bad. And we nearly lost the House that year. And a lot of people are looking at it as a possibility of losing the Texas House or at least losing a lot of seats there. And so that is, you know, top of mind, and people are working to make sure that we hold our majorities. So that's the big takeaway from the Republican Party of Texas Convention. I mean, generally speaking, it was a positive experience. I always enjoy those things. I like enjoy talking with people in the hallway, people I haven't seen in years or in months or however long, and just chatting about what's happening in politics. And like I said before, even those groups that typically don't get along with one another, a lot of folks within those groups still kind of talk to talk to people and get that out. But we'll talk a little bit more about that, the state of the race and kind of what needs to happen with Connie Burton, CEO and founder of the Texan, former state senator from Tarrant County and SD10. Connie Burton is with us today. Connie, thank you so much for joining the show.

SPEAKER_01 5:24

Thank you so much for having me. I'm honored to be here.

SPEAKER_00 5:28

Thank you. So let's just dive into it. You were a state senator. You took you took over Wendy Davis's seat. You ran for that seat. That's how I met you when you were running. I was working on a similar campaign, and you always were so great about taking care of all of the field staff or all the people that came through Terrent and the area. I remembered it very fondly at the time. You always made sure we got our food and like we were taking care of ourselves. So it was all I was always rooting for you, even though I never lived in your district. But you know, so you came in, you won a purple seat. It was a seat that went back and forth several times. And then in the next election, I believe it was in 18 or is it in 22?

SPEAKER_01 6:07

I can't even remember the years. 18, I guess. Yeah, 18.

SPEAKER_00 6:11

In 18, you that seats flipped back again. You know, we're in a similar election cycle to 2018, where President Trump is it's a midterm present uh midterm election. President Trump is an office, you know, that usually doesn't bode well for Republicans, just his or the party in power doesn't really do well in the midterms. So, like what lessons did you learn from your two races and like that can be applied to like how the GOP should be running their elections today?

SPEAKER_01 6:40

Yeah, thanks for asking me that because I've been pretty vocal on different podcasts and uh interviews that I've had. It's like, oh, I know a lot about this this kind of election year, you know, just keep, you know, and you never know from year to year. You know, there's all sorts of nuances and different things that happen that change the trajectory of elections. But as you just stated, generally, historically, the party in power during the midterms does not do well. Just that's just historically. And then, you know, when you add other things in on it, it could, you know, be bowed very poorly for the party in power, which of course, right now is the Republican Party. And so just to kind of go back to what I experienced, yes, I did win that seat. It was only Tarrant County at the time, SD 10. Uh, it was previously held by Wendy Davis, could not have been more happy that she was no longer my state senator. People were like, you know, I'm so glad that I don't have Wendy Davis anymore. And I was like, well, I am too. You know, they forget she was the one representing me as well. So I was very happy to, you know, to uh to to represent Senate District 10. Well, then, you know, the midterms came and excuse me, when I ran for re-election, it was a midterm election. It was also the year of veto. And that, you know, it was a veto against Ted Cruz race, women, and I will tell you this is statistically correct. We did a lot of looking into this after the election, but suburban white women were moving away from the Republican Party at that time. They despised Donald Trump, they did not support Donald Trump, and then we had, I guess that was different, weren't the power party in power, but and then they had this Beto come in to run against Ted Cruz. And of course, the media did nothing but put Beto up on this pedestal. It was like the next best thing since sliced bread, right? I mean, I I talked about that throughout my campaign that year, working so hard was about, you know, the Dallas Morning News was running headlines about Beto skateboarding in the Whataburger parking lot, as if that's, you know, the thing, the reason why people want to vote for their next state senator. But it vote it did vote well for him. All this acclamation and, you know, this energy from Democrats because of this fresh new face, even though he had been a congressman, this fresh new face for Texas and, you know, people again, it was this kind of perfect storm because at that time these people were moving away from the Republican Party because of Trump. Now, I'm just going to interject quickly on this story and say that, you know, the next election cycle, when Trump was, you know, after he lost, then okay, he he he won, you know, after he lost and then came back, he was running again. Those people came back home to vote for Trump because, you know, they saw what under Biden what happened with uh immigration and just the, you know, what Biden did with just allowing anyone and everyone into the country without any, you know, and people feared for, you know, their safety and those kinds of things. So, so those of you who are saying, wow, she, you know, she's just bashing on Trump, that's simple simply not true. Those were just the facts at the time of my re-election. So, so we we ran uh circles around my Democratic competitor at the time, because it was not Wendy Davis, obviously, and when I was running for re-election, and you know, she didn't have any money, she didn't have the name recognition, she didn't have the gravitas of a Wendy Davis. And yet she won. She beat us because that's you know how bad of an election year it was for Republicans, while Ted Cruz won by very small margin. What it hurt more than anything was down ballot races. And you're you probably are familiar with, but I don't know how many of your listeners are familiar with. But not only did I lose my Senate race, which at the time it was a 50-50 district. So it's, you know, it's a hard, it was a hard win anyway. But also we won, you know, lost other important, you know, JPs and things like that in Tarrant County, which is the reddest county in the country. But Houston lost 59 Republican judges in that election cycle. So, you know, overall in the in the country, it seemed like a good election year, but in Texas, it was not. And and it was really, you know, hurt down ballot. So I say all that, I dredge all that up to say that this is my concern this year, because it while it's not the same, you know, Donald Trump won. You know, he people, like I said, came back home to the Republican Party the second time he he ran because they thought, okay, you know what? I didn't vote for him before these people who who moved over. I didn't vote for him before, but I'm gonna vote for him now because I see what's happening under, you know, Democrats as far as immigration was concerned. National security is what I the word I was searching for. So, but but you know, we are also in a midterm, which traditionally does not go well for Republicans. We also, you know, there are there are unfortunately things in the economy that are not doing well, you know, and then we have a war that for many people they do not like. So while, you know, so the so the the top of the ticket is so important. And this is what I've been talking about, because even though Ted did beat Beto, you know, it hurt down ballot. And and while I think the Senate race, I I think it'll, I mean, we're a Republican state. We still are. We are still a majority Republican. And I think Paxton will win. What I'm very worried about is down ballot races that, you know, that could get hurt from this kind of little bit of a perfect storm on economy, midterm elections, yada yada, that kind of thing.

SPEAKER_00 13:35

I would say that if Talo Rico runs a perfect race, but Paxton just runs a good to great race, Paxton still wins. I think Taller Rico has to run a perfect race or near perfect in order to have a chance, and then Paxton would have to on the campaign fundamental side of thing, screw up somewhere. Yeah. But but but like you're saying, like the the top of the ticket elevates the rest of the ticket.

SPEAKER_01 14:06

That's right.

SPEAKER_00 14:07

That's the that's the marquee draw. It's what brings people in. Now, historically, Democrats have had more of what's called under uh what's it called? When people don't vote all the way down the ticket, undervoting.

SPEAKER_01 14:21

Undervoting, yes.

SPEAKER_00 14:22

Yeah, they have more undervoting than Republicans do, typically, but you can't bank on that, especially in a year where your folks who are turning out, you might not just have as many of your base voters and low propensity voters turning out.

SPEAKER_01 14:36

Right. And so exactly. And and and you know, it's uh what my concerns are, I mean, yes, absolutely. The the top of the ticket matters. It absolutely matters. I think my concerns are more the economy. Um, and you know, what will that cause them to do in in terms of you know, the down ballot races, will they, or excuse me, I lost my train of thought there. Who will it bring in? What was so amazing too during the Beto election is we saw people that we had no idea after the election was like, who are these people? Where did they come from? It was much like Donald Trump's first election nationally. Remember when people were saying, who are these people after Donald Trump won? Because it was kind of a whole new, fresh face of voters who hadn't voted before but wanted Donald Trump to win. That's kind of what we saw during the Beto election for these Beto voters. We're like, who are these people? And and apparently, and what they did is they came in and they did vote all the way down. And they said, you know, I like Beto and I'm gonna vote for all these.

SPEAKER_00 15:53

Well, 2018 was the last year of straight ticket voting. So we've had we was the last year they did.

SPEAKER_01 16:00

That's right, that's right, that's right, that's right, that's right, you're right. You're right, that's right. So they did go down and individually vote for. So, so I don't know, you know, what I don't really know again. So my concerns are the economy, the fact that we the Republicans are in power and during this midterm election. And also, who is Talerico? Is he gonna bring in different voters that were not, you know, that normal might be motivated? I don't see him as that kind of a candidate, not like Beto was. So I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 16:32

He tries hard. He like I I knew him in college, kind of like we were in the he was a year ahead of me at UT, same major, but obviously I was in the more of the college republican world, and he was like an officer in the U Dems. Sometimes those groups got together for like socials, but like I so I didn't really know him. I think we had a couple classes together, but I knew of him because he was involved in student government, and like the people I know him who knew him then was like he was just kind of a socially awkward guy, and you can kind of see it, he's kind of just an awkward guy, and it's coming across as what with the tall tall of freako, tallow weirdo stuff as just kind of being weird. Yeah, I think that's going to resonate. I think that's gonna be the that's clearly the messaging they're pushing from the on the right, like it's clearly going to be what they're gonna push, just because it's the most natural thing to push, and then you can just fall false stuff in there. I don't know how he gets over that because right now he's just trying too hard. It's just like he comes comes across as that way. Whereas Beto just kind of had he's just kind of a cool dude, right? Like he wasn't, you know, like he, but like as a dude, he was just like, um, it's kind of like the laid back skater guy, or like let's throw the water burger and have a beer.

SPEAKER_01 17:44

And that's exactly what the media ran with those kinds of things, right? They knew that he was cool, they knew that they could run with this and and bring in those voters that they you know hadn't voted before. I think you're completely right. I don't think that he has the charisma that Beto had. And yet I just I don't want people to complacent. Sorry, say that again.

SPEAKER_00 18:08

I said few do have the charisma Beto has. He's a very charismatic person. Let's one of my things that I kind of point to as well is since Trump entered the political scene, we've been undergoing some sort of like party shift, which basically is a fancy way of saying the coalitions that make up the parties are shifting more than they typically do between elections. There's more talk by Republicans according union voters and Latinos, whereas the Democrats have gone more after, like you said before, suburban educated, college-educated white women. And though those two things are kind of shifting the coalitions that make up the two parties to a degree. What do you see that those dividing lines of the kind of current Trump coalition, which seems versus the Democrat coalition? Do you think those hold while Trump is in office and those break later? Do you think they hold for a while? Like, how are you kind of seeing the map of like where how the parties are going after different voters?

SPEAKER_01 19:10

Yeah. I, you know, I think the Trump, let's let's kind of narrow it down to two different sections. I think the Trump coalition is falling apart. You know, there's a lot of frustration from different camps, you know, those who are more isolationists or appeasers, you know, don't like that he's going into Iran or, you know, dealing with those with a terrorist organization that doesn't nothing but want to kill us and, you know, anybody that gets in their way. And now what's what's going on? And I'm not going to delve too deeply in that because I know that we've still got to read what you know the the agreement is, but currently, you know, the foreign policy hawks, which I am one of, are not happy with Trump because now it looks much more like an appeasement. So so you've got, you know, that foreign policy camp that is splitting apart, you know, this Israel thing that's making me crazy. I mean, it's just out of they're just making things up out of whole cloth, as far as I'm concerned, about, you know, regarding Israel. Yes, yes. And it's just like, you know, we've got this coalition on the right now that is acting as if Israel is, you know, the enemy. And, you know, Palestine, Palestine is, you know, good. And it's just like, what is happening? And so they're splitting away from Trump. I think there's a lot of the coalition that he brought together that's falling apart, I think.

SPEAKER_00 20:45

There are a lot of, I would say there are a lot of people in his coalition that are only in it because of Trump. They're not in it because of any ties ideologically to one another or to the party. And because of that, like you said, they're falling apart. I think, I think it's more dangerous for the Republicans in 28 than it is in 26. That said, I think it's a major problem. I mean, it's a it's just it's not, I think we're gonna, whomever is the next president is gonna be some very charismatic person, as the president almost usually well, that's for Joe Biden, but the care presidents often are. I think it's gonna be somebody either on the left or on the right who can somehow create a new coalition. Because for for forever, the Republicans with the conservative one under Reagan created the coalition of that the repo the Democrats responded to, and then under Obama it flipped a little bit, and now you know we're we're flipping back. It's gonna be interesting to see who comes out on top and how that impacts all the stuff down ballot and who like where people align with the given parties.

SPEAKER_01 21:50

Absolutely, absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 21:52

So let's so thank you so much for jumping on. We're gonna get back to talking with Connie in a little bit, but for now we're gonna we're gonna To talk another topic and then we'll come back to her here a little bit later in the show. So once again, we're re redoing the formatting, kind of cutting the interviews up a little bit, and we're gonna finish talking with or having our conversation with Connie here in a little bit. One of the other things that happened last week was I had an op-ed release in the Houston Chronicle talking about data centers. I also had a podcast, previously recorded podcast on it, and just had a lot of stuff coming out about data centers. Let's just talk about where I stand on data centers. I think data is the next major utility and resource that we are going to have to figure out how to create more of or find more of in our modern economy. Beyond AI, everything that our computers and stuff we rely on technology technology-wise relies on data centers to process that information. And they do tend to be at this point resource intensive to create and maintain. But I think that overall we're gonna have to figure out how to do that because we're in an arms race against China and other hostile foreign actors who are more than committed to utilizing that technology to the fullest extent. And America needs to be at the forefront of that industry as it has been and needs to continue doing so. So we have to figure it out. And inside of the United States, I want Texas to be that leader so that you can have that influence over that key thing. The argument I go to is that Texas has been at a crossroads in the United States for years, whether it was cattle drives or just trade routes or railroads, and then the oil boom that used those railroads, which used those cattle paths to get that oil to market. In the same way, the data centers are going to have to use that oil that's here and that natural gas and the water we have here, both fresh and non-potable, to then create the data so that we can have the resources needed to fight this like almost existential fight against China and other hospital foreign actors. And so right now it's an absolute boom for taxes. As of 2024, nearly $3.2 billion in tax revenue came into state and local government governments, split about equally between half local and half state. By projected from 2024 numbers, that number was expected to be closer to eight or eight or nine billion a year in property tax revenues brought in from these organizations or from these data centers. That's as much as the severance tax brings in for from the oil and gas industry. Now, oil and gas is also taxed on other things, but it's quickly becoming one of the state's biggest industries from a from a tax point of view. And it's also and it's also a critical industry for national security and defense. And so we have lots of space and we have lots of energy, and we need to make sure that the industry acts responsibly and that it uses the resources we currently have responsibly, but also encourage that industry to look for other sources of power and water. One of the things that we have in Texas that doesn't get talked about because we haven't found a way to use it, are we have lots of non-freshwater aquifers. So aquifers are large, large, large bodies of effectively bodies of water that are subterranean several miles underneath underneath that we tap into. Famously, we have the Edwards Aquifer in United in Texas as well as many others. Sometimes underneath those aquifers or in other places, based off of the geology of the area, there are aquifers that people find that have too much salinity. They're called either briny or brackish or salt water aquifers. If a data center can figure out how to use that salt or salt, salty water or other sources of non-potable, which is non-drinkable water, in their process. And then they can then use that water in their to instead of other water. There are ways to cool data centers that don't require water at all. They require using some types of other like oil or something. Those are things that can be looked at as that should be looked at when it comes to data centers. We should also be looking at making it easier for data centers to produce their own power and put excess power back on our grid. That way, a data center can create all the power it needs and has it ready to go for its own purposes, and have extra for the rest of us that goes onto our grid that we can use and pay as a normal ratepayer. That's something that's critical if we want to make this happen. And then there's also, of course, the development of more types of energy beyond fossil fuels like nuclear. There's a lot of technology that's been developed in making nuclear as safe as ever, far safer than any other any other type of energy, and you know, can be used smaller reactors and larger reactors to you know power more and more stuff. So these are all things that need to be talked about. It's not as if we just need to put data centers and not have any thought about where they should go, how they should be implemented. But we don't need to stop. People who just want to stop it now have a moratorium. Anyone who wants a moratorium, like who's pushing for that really big, just doesn't want data centers, and they're hoping a moratorium just kills it. This isn't gonna die, this isn't gonna go out of fashion, this is gonna be the next, this is the next thing. And we need to get on board with it and we need to figure out how to be how Texas decides to do the Texas style of regulation on it, which is typically something that's consistent, well thought out, and that can be implemented work predictably so that people who are coming in to build data centers will know that in five, ten, fifteen years that the regulatory framework won't change a ton between those two things, and that they can expect that they can they don't have to worry about the government changing a ton of other rules on them down the road. And so I think you need I'm I'm very much on the pro-data center side of things. Generally speaking, I think it's too important for Texas to let go to Virginia or California or Oklahoma or anywhere else. Texas is perfectly situated for it, and we need to we should reap the benefits and reap the rewards of such a great opportunity. So that's my thought on that. That you can link, I'm linking to it. I'll show it that we do have the the the Houston Chronicle article is also my appearance on Powered by America that you can go watch after the show and listen to, I should say, that I think would be that have more and more of my thoughts on data centers more eloquently put than right here. So with that, let's go talk to Connie a little bit more about the Texan and the Texan dot news and how she started it and why. All right, welcome back, Connie. We were talking before about like your time in office and kind of the 2026, what year is it? 2026 elections.

SPEAKER_01 29:36

As we get older, it goes so much faster, doesn't it?

SPEAKER_00 29:38

Hi man, ain't that the truth? But when you left office, you went and founded and are now CEO of the Texan. Tell me a little bit about your was there how much time was there in the wilderness before you found what you were gonna do? I know a lot of politicians go try to make some money off their their public service by like going into the lobby or something. How did you land on creating a new media outlet? And what makes your company different than other media outlets in the state?

SPEAKER_01 30:08

Yeah, so I mean, I always say to people, you know, I never thought I was gonna run for office and I did. And I certainly never thought I was gonna start and own a media company, and I did. I think it's you know all about what the need at the moment was. But, you know, more specifically than that, my husband and I had been frustrated with the mainstream media for so long. As you heard me talk earlier, I particularly got frustrated with them. Well, I I shouldn't say particularly, because I I was about to say during the election and how they just held Beto up on this, you know, podium. It was much like we all saw during the Obama, you know, election years, right? I mean, my goodness, the man could do no wrong, according to the media. And it was much the same with Beto, but but it was before that. I was, you know, somebody that was very frustrated with Republican politics, the growth in terms of just the growth of government. I am a conservative who truly, truly believes in limited government and less spending and and letting the free market work. I mean, those are my principles. They've always been my principles. And and, you know, so when I got involved in politics to talk about those policy issues, you know, you I would get involved in, I don't know, different meetings or different, let's say, rallies, things like that that would be on the news. And so I would read the next day in the paper. That's how long ago it was. And actually it wasn't that long ago. This is how quickly technology has evolved is since it's front, it's frightening sometimes, but it wasn't that long ago. And you'd read the paper and it'd be like, okay, that is not at all what we were doing. You know, like we were, we were, what do you call it, rallying against Obamacare at the time because we didn't believe that the government should take on one-sixth of the society by getting itself involved in healthcare. I mean, it's all about policy. And of course, how the media uh reported it was racists against Obama type of thing, right? You know, like, what are you talking about? We're just a bunch of old people out here that don't want our government to get involved in this policy. And of course, we've seen where it's landed us, right? We were correct in everything we said, but regardless, so it was even just as an activist, I was like, what are y'all talking about? This is not being portrayed the way that we are coming at it. And then, of course, when I ran for office and, you know, saw the, you know, adulation that Wendy Davis got, and you know, certainly those kind words were not reserved for me. And uh, and then once in office, and I think this is really important for people on both sides of the aisle to understand, you know, when you're in office, things are very much more nuanced than the way the media wants to portray it. And these days, very much how the many activist media wants to portray it too, right? And it's just, you know, it's like, okay, you know, let's take the bathroom bill, for instance. That's how it was, you know, I was in office, and that was, you know, just when the first thing that happened and it was in my district, it was Fort Worth ISD, and it was Obama doing a trial balloon by, you know, allowing, you know, that district basically decided to allow those who were transgender to use the same bathroom as, you know, I don't even know how the transgender really worked exactly, but somebody, a boy pretending to be a girl could go into the girls' bathroom. And that was based on language that Obama stuck into, you know, things that could allow that to happen. Oh, Title IX, it was right. And so, you know, it was like, wait a minute, always before, when I talked to the superintendents in the district, they were like, Well, you know, when we had issues, you know, for different privacy reasons. A parent and a child would come to them and say, you know, my child is going through something, you know, and it feels uncomfortable in this bathroom, they would always be allowed to go to schools, have like little bathrooms that are just one, you know, one bathroom. And that's how they would deal with it before, which is an acceptable way to deal with privacy type issues, right? But this, but this time it was, oh no, we're, you know, because now they're pretending to be a girl, we're gonna let these boys in the girls' bathroom. And so we had, you know, and this was just like how many years ago now? And you know, we're like, this can't go. We can't we can't do this, you know, until we were trying to get this bill passed. And I mean, to tell, oh my God, the media was like, what are they doing? This isn't happening, this isn't an issue. And oh, lo and behold, look where we are today, right? Um, and we were absolutely right. So that's just one, that's kind of a one-sided, you know, view of of a particular issue. But I saw things like this reported then when I was in office, I'm like, you have no idea. You're not willing to listen to what I'm actually seeing in the school district and what I'm seeing, you know, talking to superintendents about. And my my husband, who had been as equally frustrated by the media for years, always said, Why in a state as large as Texas do we not have a media that just reports and doesn't push these left at the time, left-wing narratives all the time. And always wanted, thought, why isn't somebody starting this? So we always said that, you know, and then I lost the election during that veto wave. And immediately, and I wouldn't have done it, trust me. I would have just gone and like, I just need to go and rest for a while, you know. I don't know if this is right for me. And immediately my husband said, we're gonna do it. We're gonna start in order, we're gonna do it. And basically our goal was to start to to be the Texas Tribune, which I don't know how many of your of your uh listeners are familiar with, but they're an Austin-based media organization. And, you know, while I respect Evan Smith, who founded the Tribune and was certainly on some of their panels and things, they were clearly, clearly and are clearly a left-wing media organization, although they'll tell you that they are not. And so we wanted to reproduce and create a mainstream media organization based in Austin, statewide news organization, that just did what the media no longer does in our mind. And that is just report the dang news. You know, I'm not even, we don't even push right-wing narratives because I I think it's I think it insults the intelligence of people by constantly acting like the media has to tell you how to think about an issue, particularly as nuanced as they get. You know, things are not as black and white as people like to put out there and talk about it. And and so, you know, that's what we did. We started very quickly. I lost in November and we started like in December. I did not let my campaign manager go. She transitioned to somebody that helped us to start this organization, knowing full well what our mission was to report the news so that you can make up your own mind about issues. And frankly, I think, you know, I you know, I I I don't like to say this a lot, but I think I think once we can do that, we actually have more people on the Republican side because nobody gets to hear the truth from that perspective. So few get to, right? And so um we launched in April. Sorry, go ahead.

SPEAKER_00 38:33

Uh no, it's all good. E so you are active on X, you know, whatever else. You have your own thoughts that you share. And I know as a as a subscriber to the Texan, as in folks should should go. Is it it's the Texan.com, right?

SPEAKER_01 38:50

No, it is the Texan.news.

SPEAKER_00 38:53

Oh, the Texan.news. I'm so sorry. Texan.news.

SPEAKER_01 38:57

Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 38:58

To and subscribe and check out what they have. Well, Connie has a newsletter, and that newsletter may be something they can sign up for regardless. But you know, you have your hot take. Isn't it Connie called Connie's hot takes?

SPEAKER_01 39:09

It is. KB's hot takes.

SPEAKER_00 39:12

So you have you have that on there. But for the most part, I mean, like you have, I guess that's the extent usually of your opinion section. You don't have a lot of opinion, you don't do op-ex and stuff.

SPEAKER_01 39:24

No, we don't. And frankly, I just to let your listeners know, we don't even have the hot take on the website, or excuse me, on our site, on our news site. So it is nowhere on the news site. That is just kind of an additional thing that if you want to get my hot take, it's free. I get every other week I send it out and it just comes into people's email box uh boxes. So there is literally zero, zero, what did you just say?

SPEAKER_00 39:53

Opinion.

SPEAKER_01 39:54

Opinion, thank you. Opinion on the text and site. Now, you're correct. On X, I am pretty vocal. And sometimes I'm just saying, sometimes I'm saying sharing my thoughts, sometimes I'm just retweeting information because I think it's good for people to know to make up their own minds about things. But we did we did decide when we huddled together with a team, a small team, when we were launching, you know, everybody said, Listen, Connie's been in elected office. She is a conservative Republican, she's always been a conservative Republican, she's always been somewhat outspoken, which I don't take no pride in that. I'm sorry, but you know, and and they said, you know, it would be dumb not to allow her all of a sudden to act like she's not who she is, right? And so they said, you know, they they said Connie can just be Connie, but our our site, the Texan.news, is absolutely just the news. It's just now, now, do we report on things that we think you know others don't report on enough? Heck yeah. I mean, you know, this one of them is, I'm sure you're familiar with, but the the life issue, you know, how that's kind of become more of a a local issue. Got, you know, particular gentleman that's going around and and you know, uh pushing uh pro-life like sanctuary cities. And and and so, you know, does the left-wing media ever cover this? No, they did the very, very first one, and then the the bulk of their reporting was about how it was all old white men who were on the council who declared their city a sanctuary city for the unborn. I mean, that's how they reported it. It was about old white men, you know. It's like, what does that have to do with anything? Right. You know, so we talked about it from a strictly policy perspective and what it meant. And since then, there's been, you know, I don't know how many, there's I think close to 30, and we report on every one. And this is what I always say I don't care if you take that. And and frankly, we've had, you know, left-wing organizations that have posted our articles about that and talked about how they want to fight it. And then we have pro-life groups that post our article and say, this is awesome. Let's work to continue this. And that to me shows that we're doing it right, right? We're just giving the information. Now you take it and do with it what you want. The media is not here to to to to be you know activists, even though they've become that. That's not the media's role. The the active, you know, we're to report the news and then let people decide which where where they stand, and then they can active, you know, be the activist in which whichever way they want. So so anyway, that's you know, we don't have any opinion on our site. I am vocal on X and do have a hot take, but again, that's not on my site, on our site.

SPEAKER_00 42:54

Okay. Well, what are you seeing is the future of media? And you it isn't, it is a media organization, whether you're you're not a traditional media, where do you see the future of media heading and how is it sustainable long-term? Yeah. What are you saying on the ground?

SPEAKER_01 43:15

It's worrisome. I don't like it at all, at all, with the trajectory of media. It's only gotten worse. You know, at the time that we launched, all we cared about was the left-wing media and stopping the narratives that are like, that's, you know, that's not what this was about. And now I'm just as worried about the right wing, so-called, and I don't mean I'm because I'm a conservative, always will be conservative, always will push for conservative policies as an individual. But again, some of these, I mean, now that they consider themselves, they they claim they're a journalist. And, you know, I'm like, that is not at all what happened. And it's just, it's, it's so they're they're not a journalist. Journalist, they're an activist. And I don't care if you be, if you want to be an activist or if you want to be a journalist, but to me, they're not the same thing and they shouldn't be. And it's just what I'm seeing and in the media world, not only with traditional media, but now, you know, so-called people who claim they're, you know, a journalist, which are nothing more than activists. And it doesn't do our our our electorate any good at all. It's just not. People should just have facts, decide for themselves, and then move, you know, decide how they want to move on with that information. But this, you know, activism that I'm seeing all over the place by every media outlet is got me very concerned. I just don't like it. I don't like it at all.

SPEAKER_00 44:54

I I think it's interesting because like you have a couple of interesting models that have popped up. Excuse me. Wherein you have the kind of the non-profit subscription model that both you and similarly, I think, the Tribune have. You also have the more hyper-local kind of mail-to-everyone community impact style, on top of the legacy media's, like and how they're still trying to figure out how their ads work with whatever else, and they're still failing at figuring that out for the most part, but have somewhat stabilized, just was far smaller than they used to be. But what concerns me is just where do the professionals in those industries grow, right? Like the one of the problems with the media is having now is it's just the people who were who are in it are aging out of it, and you have fewer people to pull from to go into to fill those positions. I know you probably have a hard time, or maybe you don't, but like the will have a hard time finding people like what are like they're not coming from some they're not probably not coming from small news from some small newsroom to the big city or anything. They're probably just coming out of college or coming from a different industry entirely. And then you have organizations that well, I mean, I guess we're not gonna name it, but like you have organizations that claim to be media to a certain extent, but like you said, are effectively just the messaging arm of a particular political affiliate, politically affiliated group and donors. And you know, I don't think fighting the liberal media with PR, effectively just PR press releases as as articles is the most effective long term, but they've had some electoral success, so maybe I'm wrong. I do think that there's looking at the state of play, I am I'm also concerned with how that landscape looks. Do you have any prognostications on how things are gonna go over the next few years or just I don't because I never look worse or what's going to be better?

SPEAKER_01 47:01

Yeah, I don't, I don't because I don't think I thought we were gonna be where we are right now. Like I said, I was much more concerned about activist media on the left. And now you know, I'm seeing it so much on the right as well. And I I'm not even talking, I'm talking generalities here. I'm not talking anybody specific right now. I'm just talking when you watch Twitter, I'm like, holy cow, you know, people are just, you know, and and they're, you know, and and while some are good, I don't mean to, I shouldn't do the broad brush thing. And my apologies for that, because there's some good things that happen from these from independent people that the mainstream media wouldn't have covered. So I am grateful for that. I don't, I don't mind them covering something. What I do mind is when it's you know, they're claiming to be one thing and there's something else, which is all over social media, all over social media. So I don't really know where we're headed. I don't, I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 48:02

Well, I'll I'll I'll make the the camera right now. Like, I don't claim to be a journalist. And then and I still told you and every guest that's ever called my show, I'm not a journalist. This is just a show, this is an interview to talk about what's going on. I am an if anything, I'm an opinion journalist. I'm an opinion writer, I'm an opinion holder and communicator. That is where that's the world I live in. So I'm not trying to.

SPEAKER_01 48:28

You guys generally are, you know. I mean, that's what has to be different. That's what you do, you know.

SPEAKER_00 48:32

Yeah, it's what it is. So, like that's kind of where I fit on it. So it's I fit sometimes. I get like lumped in as kind of a journo type, whatever, but because I have a media platform and I publish stuff in the chronicles like that, but still on opinion piece as an opinion.

SPEAKER_01 48:50

I see. Yeah, I'm not even talking that it's good for you to distinguish that because I'm talking about more, you know, pe I I I again, I'm I'm talking about people who are proclaiming themselves to be more in, you know, reporters, right? Reporting stuff. That's what I don't know why I have to do that. But I'm just yeah, I don't know, I don't know why I needed to do that, but I'm talking about people who are, you know, consider themselves a reporter. And and yet it is as biased as it can be. And, you know, it just well, here, let me now that I'm thinking about it more thoroughly, it's not even the I guess what I'm talking about is more than just bias, it's it's fear-mongering. That's where it's demagoguery. Yes, yes. So it's I I uh now that I'm kind of clearing my head and thinking it m more thoroughly, it's it's you know, people like to get the cli, you know, we've all talked about it. It's you know, the clicks and the you know, responses, and and that's where my my worry is with those who think they're media or acting like they're reporters, but they're just they're fear mongerers. And so they jump on anything quickly to make people angry. And that's my concern, I guess, more than anything, because not, I mean, not everything should make us this angry all the time. And yet here we are, right? I mean, there's plenty of things to be angry about. I was angry, it's why I ran for office. But I think when it gets to the level that it is now with these people that jump on everything to make you angry, it all it it causes people to not make good decisions. And it causes people not to see that there's nuance and no, they weren't doing it for this reason, you know, it was because of this. You can still disagree with it, but you know, you need to understand it better, right? So I think that's really it's more that than anything that that worries me because not everything is needs to be this level of horrificness that the media is making it out to be.

SPEAKER_00 51:05

Absolutely. Well, Senator Founder, CEO, Connie Burton, thank you so much for coming on the show today. Tell the folks back, you know, watching this or listening to this on audio platforms, where can they find you? Like where can they find your outlet and where can they find stuff directly from you?

SPEAKER_01 51:23

Yeah, thank you. So it is the Texan.news. We report statewide and national and local information. It has to do with political information and it and it has to do with Texas. So if we're reporting on the national news, it's something that's related to Texas only. So we're not people that are just looking out out here looking for, you know, to write articles about AOC. We don't care what AOC things, frankly. So, and you know, we get as local as we can for as small as we are, because we are a small organization. But I hope that people will go to the Texan.news and take a look at us. We've got fabulous reporters, and then I have a hot take that I send out. It is not sit on our site, but I send it out and it comes to your email inbox every other Sunday. And it's just kind of my thoughts on political happenings or issues, policies, things like that. And you can subscribe to that. I think I've got a way to it's I say subscribe, but it's free. After each one of our articles, there's a little form there that you can send out if you wanted to receive my hot take. But we are going through a transition right now. We're kind of reforming the Texan, and so we're not behind a paywall. So everybody go and take a look. Anyone can go and take a look and get our content, and I'll have more information in the next couple of months about that.

SPEAKER_00 52:45

Oh, fantastic. Well, we look forward to hearing more about it. Thank you so much for coming on, and I hope we'll get you back on here down the road. Uh, maybe closer to the election or after the election, we can talk about the state of place some more. But thank you so much for joining us, and thank you for your service to the state and the senate and for founding the great great media institution you founded with the Texan. Thanks so much. Thanks, and you have a good one.

SPEAKER_01 53:08

You too. Thanks so much for having me. Bye-bye.

SPEAKER_00 53:10

Thanks, Cotton. Thanks again to Connie Burton for coming on the show today. Definitely go check out the Texan.news, and that's really cool that they dropped the paywall. Go see their excellent reporting, follow her hot takes. You know, this is the first episode we're using some new or new equipment. Hopefully, it's looking a little bit better. We've got more and more improvements on the way. So thank you for being along the ride with us. And you know, we'll be seeing you more and more. And it's always good to like it was so it was so nice to have so many of you come up and say hi to me at the convention. And I appreciate all the love and support I felt from from y'all. Please reach out to us at hosts at seeingredpodcast.com. If you have any any questions, leave a comment. And always just feel free to get involved or drop us a note on the DMs on Twitter or something. We really appreciate you. And but you know, for now, I'll leave you at that and I'll see you next week. Bye.