The Brief: Candidate Forum, Construction & Business Advocacy w/ Wendy Herman

In this episode of The Brief, we sit down with Wendy Herman, President of the Associated Builders and Contractors Texas Coastal Bend–Rio Grande Valley Chapter, to discuss the organization’s work and the upcoming August Luncheon Candidate Forum.

Wendy explains how ABC represents commercial and industrial contractors across South Texas through advocacy, workforce development, free enterprise, and its commitment to the merit shop philosophy. She also shares why ABC partnered with the United Corpus Christi Chamber of Commerce and the Texas Chemistry Alliance to bring candidates and regional business leaders together for a direct conversation about the issues shaping the Coastal Bend.

The Candidate Forum will give attendees an opportunity to hear from candidates seeking to represent the region at the state and federal levels. The discussion will focus on policies that directly affect local businesses, including water, port infrastructure, air quality, windstorm insurance, government contracting, project labor agreements, and the cost of doing business.

Beyond learning where candidates stand, Wendy and Ginny discuss why these conversations matter. Business leaders deserve the opportunity to ask questions, understand candidates’ priorities, and hold elected officials accountable for the commitments they make.

Topics include:

• The mission of Associated Builders and Contractors
• ABC’s merit shop philosophy and support for free enterprise
• The importance of advocacy for commercial and industrial contractors
• The upcoming August Luncheon Candidate Forum
• Congressional District 34 and Texas House District 34
• Water, ports, air quality, and regional infrastructure
• Windstorm insurance and government contracting
• Policies affecting construction companies and local employers
• Why the business community must remain politically engaged
• The importance of accountability from candidates and elected officials

The August Luncheon Candidate Forum will take place Wednesday, August 26, 2026, from 11:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. at the Omni Corpus Christi Hotel. The event is presented in partnership with the Associated Builders and Contractors Texas Coastal Bend–Rio Grande Valley Chapter, the United Corpus Christi Chamber of Commerce, and the Texas Chemistry Alliance.

The Brief is where policy meets business—from City Hall to the State Capitol to Washington, D.C.—with a focus on jobs, infrastructure, growth, and opportunity in Corpus Christi.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

This is the brief, where policy meets business. From City Hall to the state capitol to Washington, D.C., we break down the issues impacting jobs, growth, infrastructure, and opportunity right here in Corpus Christi. Welcome back to the brief, where we break down the issues shaping our business community in the coastal bend. I'm your host, Ginny Cross, the Vice President of Advocacy for the United Corpus Christi Chamber of Commerce. And with me today, I'm joined by Wendy Herman, the president of the Associated Builders and Contractors Coastal Bend Chapter.

SPEAKER_01 0:34

That's a mouthful.

SPEAKER_00 0:35

It is, that's a lot. It is.

SPEAKER_01 0:36

You have to take a deep breath before you say it.

SPEAKER_00 0:38

Yes. Yes. I'm good at breathing.

SPEAKER_01 0:42

Actually, we have to add on Rio Gran Valley Council to it as well. So it's like the whole thing.

SPEAKER_00 0:47

Yeah. I mean, we've suddenly got like you must have the biggest chunk of the state.

SPEAKER_01 0:50

I do. I do. I kind of go from B County all the way over to Laredo and all the way over to um uh Palacious, kind of and all the way down to the tip of Texas. That's a large geographic area. Uh so yeah, we're we're bigger than some states. It really is. And I have a hard time explaining that to some of the other uh presidents uh from around the country because they don't understand the geography of what it what I'm dealing with here. So it's a lot.

SPEAKER_00 1:17

It is a lot.

SPEAKER_01 1:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:19

How many members do you have?

SPEAKER_01 1:20

Um currently, right now, our chapter has about uh about 150 members. We have uh ABC Nationwide has uh 67 chapters all over the country. Um and uh Texas has eight of them. So we have quite a quite a lot of members. Don't ask me how many members, just a lot. It's a lot, trust me. So um, yeah, so um we basically can I tell you a little bit about ABC first? Okay, I want to hear more of that. Um the Associated Builders and Contractors has been around since 1950, and it was started in Maryland by a group of uh general contractors that believed in the merit shop mentality. And you'll probably hear me say merit shop more than once. Uh, we are not anti-union, but we are pro-merit shop. Uh, we believe that you should companies should get the bids, you should be able to hire workers based on their merit, um, and not any government entity telling you what you need to do. And so um we're we're free enterprise, love competition. That's that's how we roll. Uh our chapter was started about 45 years ago by some uh big guys here in the coastal band area, uh Bob Parker with RepCon, uh uh Johnny Davidson with JM Davidson, um Mike Scott. Uh they started this uh uh back in 1982. Wow. Yeah. So we've been around quite a while, and some of those guys are still around. Yes, indeed. We we still we still see them uh uh pretty regularly. Bob still sits on our board, and um um anyway, we have a we're a 501c6, much like you guys. So we're an advocacy group, and our membership is made up of industrial and uh commercial contractors, primarily industrial, uh in this area down in the Rio Grande Valley. It's primarily commercial contractors. And so uh we represent them and the state and local and national level, and uh we do a whole bunch of fun stuff too. We throw a heck of a fish in tournament.

SPEAKER_00 3:25

Well, I'm so glad I don't have to do that.

SPEAKER_01 3:27

Wait, you know what? It's it's it's not bad. I mean, like this event that we have that coming up that we're gonna be talking about. There's there's a lot of it's one of the four pillars of our of our association. One of them is we want our our members to do business with members. So just like you guys.

SPEAKER_00 3:42

Exactly. So very good. Well um you reached out to me about what, a month ago? Something like that. Yeah, a couple months ago. And um with this great idea. Hey.

SPEAKER_01 3:54

It was kind of brilliant, not gonna lie. It was.

SPEAKER_00 3:56

Why don't we do an event together? Yeah, do a candidate forum. Yeah, I'm I said yes, slip.

SPEAKER_01 4:04

I know, silly you. Um, I'm really looking forward to this. You know, what I was thinking about this is I had originally invited all the congressional candidates from District 27 and District 34 because you know, we have a unique opportunity here right now because District 34 is back to what it was when Blake won it back in 2010. So it encompasses the Rio Grande Valley and part of Corpus Christi. So it's all of my territory. And I thought, you know what, the business leaders in this area really need to know what these candidates think about. Well, the candidates for 27 were unavailable. They had prior commitments, but the candidates for 34 didn't. And then I thought, wow, this would be a great opportunity to reach out to the state rep that are running for state district 34. So I got 34 and 34. The idea behind it, and why I really wanted to partner with you and with Texas Chemical Alliance, is we have a lot of the same membership. We share membership, and um, but we also have a lot of different membership. I wanted to give exposure to our associations, but I also wanted the Congress critters to come in and sit down in a room with, you know, 400 people from this area and let them know, hey, we're we're watching you guys. And um, that was really important to me. And I I guess I told you in a way that was magnetic enough that you decided, hey, we should be part of that.

SPEAKER_00 5:33

Well, I mean, it it it makes sense for us to do it together because why reinvent the wheel?

SPEAKER_01 5:40

Right, right. That way, you know, I mean, like I said, we share membership, so we might as well we might as well incl incl include everybody in that. So I'm really I'm really excited about this. We're gonna do it over at the Omni. I mean, I guess we'll get to the particulars in a minute.

SPEAKER_00 5:53

You well, um, yeah, well, let's let's do the when and the and the where.

SPEAKER_01 5:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:58

Um August 26th.

SPEAKER_01 6:01

August the 26th. A couple of weeks from now.

SPEAKER_00 6:03

Yes. Doors open at 11.

SPEAKER_01 6:05

Yes, and we at the Omni. At the Omni, and we are going to be starting promptly at 11:30. Politicians like to talk. You don't sit. They they're little, they like to talk. So um, we're actually um our state association uh lobbyist uh uh is going to be there, and he is bringing the big uh with the light and the timer and the buzzers and the so we we have a schedule that we've kind of mapped out about how we're gonna we're gonna do this, the format. And you know, this is an opportunity for them to answer our questions. And by the way, if you have any questions, you can email them to me or to Jenny because we're looking to know what do you want us to ask them. I've actually asked each of the campaigns, what would you like for me to ask your opponent? Because why not?

SPEAKER_00 6:55

Yeah, I mean, if this as long as it's within the bounds of civility.

SPEAKER_01 6:59

Right. I don't care what color socks they're wearing. That's that's that's not what I'm interested in. But uh um I I I thought it would be interesting, it could spark some conversation. So each candidate will get about 15 minutes uh in addition to their three-minute elevator speech. So um that's excellent.

SPEAKER_00 7:16

So we haven't said who the who the people are. Okay. So at the congressional level, I think this is particularly important because as you said, this it's not a completely new district, but it needs to be reintroduced. It's new to a lot of people. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:33

It it hasn't been this way for 14 years.

SPEAKER_00 7:36

Yeah. So and so people need to get to know um Vicente Gonzalez, who is the incumbent, um, and also Eric Flores, who's the challenger. Um, so it's gonna be very interesting hearing from both of them. Um you know, our federal issues are kind of uh pretty obvious. I mean, port, port, water, yeah, water, yeah, water, water, water.

SPEAKER_01 8:04

Uh and I have in my district, I have two. In my in my uh chapter boundaries, I have two ports. And so um it's gonna be very interesting to hear what they have to say about about that because they're very different ports and they have very different needs. Right. So it'll be very interesting to see. But I also want to see what they have to say. I mean, everybody wants to know what you gonna do about Wada, how you gonna help us? Because we used to hip.

SPEAKER_00 8:29

Yeah, and there's uh another issue that is sort of flies under the radar with most people, but it's critically important for our region is air quality. Yes, and keeping that at top of mind when whoever gets elected, for them to be paying attention to that, I think, is uh an important part of our mission with this event.

SPEAKER_01 8:52

Well, you know, i as much industry as we have down here, we've always we've always had really good air quality.

SPEAKER_00 8:58

We have a great story to tell. Oh we do, you know, because we did it on our own. We didn't wait for the government to tell us to do it. So um our industry self-regulates in that area. So it's it's a pretty cool thing.

SPEAKER_01 9:10

It is. It is. Are you going to the the luncheon this week? Yes, I am. I'll be see you there. All right, excellent. Yeah, I know. I haven't been able to go to one in a while because it usually falls on my a board meeting day, but this one didn't. So I'm excited. Yes, excellent.

SPEAKER_00 9:22

Sharon does a remarkable job.

SPEAKER_01 9:24

She does a remarkable job with a very tiny staff. I mean, I think I have a tiny staff. She's it's her, basically, one other person. And a half and a half, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:33

She does a great job. Um, and then on for the on the state side, we have water. Well, Representative Yolobo, yes, our incumbent who had a very successful first session.

SPEAKER_01 9:46

She did. She's a busy girl.

SPEAKER_00 9:48

Yes, and she has a challenger who I'm not familiar with at all, Stephanie Guerrero Signs. Do you know much about her?

SPEAKER_01 9:55

You know, I don't. I haven't had an opportunity. I speak, I spoke with her on the phone, uh, and we've exchanged a couple of emails just talking about you know different things. And and you know, what I explained to the candidates is this is not an opportunity for gotcha of anything. Right. What we really want is for the candidates. I'm gonna give all the questions that we have to the candidates beforehand. Now we may not get to all the can the questions, but I want them to be prepared. The idea behind it was everybody needs to put their best foot forward. Right. That's what we really want to see here. So I'm very interested to see how she's gonna answer some of the questions that that we might have. And um so I I really don't know that much about her.

SPEAKER_00 10:33

So yeah, it's gonna be an experienced uh just getting to know her.

SPEAKER_01 10:37

But to be honest, I don't know that much about d Denise either. Uh Representative Vill Lobos is very new to the position. I was not in this position the last election cycle, so I was kind of out of the loop on that. And so um just just watching her and just reading about it, and and she's been front and center on the uh water release stuff.

SPEAKER_00 10:57

Right.

SPEAKER_01 10:57

So that I mean that's kind of my uh knowledge of her.

SPEAKER_00 11:00

So and so our topics for the state side will be again water, water, water, water. Um Texas windstorm insurance, always. Always. Um, what else do you think that will be? I know that you have some specific issues.

SPEAKER_01 11:18

We do for the we do. We're looking at uh um because the um of the climate of what's happening in not just here but in Washington, D.C. and stuff, we're looking at uh are there gonna be project labor agreements gonna be included uh in any kind of governmental contracting? You know, we want to discourage that. Um so there's a lot of different things that we're taking a look at to see um um what we're gonna do. All right, in fact, I'm going next week to a meeting for the Texas State chapters, and we're going to finalize our legislative agenda.

SPEAKER_00 11:51

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_01 11:51

So we'll have that done before we go to this luncheon. So we can ask a lot of really pertinent questions.

SPEAKER_00 11:59

All right.

SPEAKER_01 12:00

Well, um, hmm. Okay, so we talked at it's uh it's at the Omni on August on August 26th. 26th, and we are extending to your members the same discount that we give to our members, and uh lunch tickets are $50. If you want the super secret code, you can call Jenny because this is goes out to your members, right?

SPEAKER_00 12:22

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 12:22

So if you want the super secret code, you can you can call or email Jenny and she'll give it to you so you get it for $50. Otherwise, it's gonna be $75 for non-members to attend. There are some tables available. I think there's like two more tables that are available. So if you're interested in that, you can get a table of eight. So why are we putting this on? I think it's really important on both ends. I think it's important that our members hear uh about issues that are relevant to them. Um, these are people that are going to make laws that we all have to live under and live by, and that's going to affect your business. And some of it's gonna affect your business in a really big way. Um, but you know, even in small ways. Um, anything that makes your business more expensive or more difficult to do, you definitely want to pay attention to. Conversely, I think it's also important that the people that are elected know that we are here, we are watching, and we are going to hold you accountable for the things that you say. And I think that that accountability probably not having to come home and talk to you and me uh about something they said they were gonna do or said they weren't gonna do, and then they suddenly decided to do, I think that makes the decisions like that harder. So just like you know, they they have to do it in front of your in front of your face, and that's always harder to do. Absolutely. So um I think it's I think it's important for them to see us and for us to see them.

SPEAKER_00 13:52

Agree. I agree. I think it's gonna be a fantastic event. Um, hopefully we will um get some more participation.

SPEAKER_01 14:01

We're we're we're we're it's filling up. I sent out some more uh to my membership, you've sent out to your membership, and I probably maybe have a hundred seats left.

SPEAKER_00 14:11

Okay, so going fast.

SPEAKER_01 14:14

It's going, it's starting to really pick up. It's gonna it will sell out. Uh I know this one's gonna sell out, so if you have not gotten your tickets, you can go to abctcb.org and click on our events tab, and that will take you over to where you can sign up.

SPEAKER_00 14:30

Very good, excellent. And if for some reason you are unable to attend the event, um just please remember that early voting starts on October 19th, and election day is November 3. So um with that, thank you for tuning tuning into the brief. Until next time, stay informed and stay engaged.