What Happens Between Texas Sessions?

The Texas legislature only meets 140 days every two years, so what happens during the interim? In this episode of What’s Going On in the Statehouse, Keiffer Mitchell talks with BGR’s Jerry Strickland and Caitriana Corkill about the Texas legislative interim and how it quietly shapes the next session. They also break down the latest Texas primary elections and what the results signal for the state’s political future. Plus: property taxes, grid reliability, school choice, and the policy battles already taking shape for 2027.

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Welcome to another episode of What's Going On at the State House. I'm Kiever Mitchell at BGR Group. And today's episode we're going to focus on the great state of Texas. Today we're joined by my colleagues here at BGR Group, Jerry Strickland and Katriana Corkel. Jerry, Katriana, welcome. Great to be with Kiefer. First of all, uh Jerry Strickland, he leads our uh Texas office, located in Austin, Texas, the great state capital of Texas. And uh Jerry, tell us a little about your background and how you got the uh BGR office open.

SPEAKER_01 0:42

Well, happy to. It's been a great ride so far. The BGR Austin office has been in existence now for going on eight years, which is great to be able to provide some great on-the-ground support for our clients across the spectrum of our client practices, not just here in Texas, but then also helping Texas companies that are based here in Washington, D.C. So we like to say that Texas is the HQ of HQs. And so it's good to have a good smattering of industries that are here, good smattering of large corporations and companies, but then also the mid-range companies and corporations that are really looking for that connectivity with Washington, D.C. And doing so really with just a feel for Texas and that interplay between the two of them, which is exactly what I was doing before coming to BGR. And so it was with Governor Greg Abbott for 15 years in total. The last four of those years was his federal affairs director in Washington, D.C. And so had the opportunity to work with our current governor for a number of years, first at the Attorney General's office, then at the governor's office, handling just any issue under the sun. If it touched Texas and impacted Texas, we dealt with it at the state Fed office. And it was really an honor to be able to serve our state in that way.

SPEAKER_02 1:51

That's fantastic. Thanks, Jerry. And Katieana, tell us a little bit about yourself.

SPEAKER_00 1:57

Yeah, and I'm actually a BGR newbie. I started back in 17 years.

SPEAKER_02 2:00

You are a rookie.

SPEAKER_00 2:02

I am, yes. Getting getting used to the ropes here. It's been fantastic. It's a great team. State and local practice has been wonderful. But before that, I started my public service career, if you will. Back in 2014, I was an intern in the Texas Senate while I was going to college at the University of Texas and caught the bug, loved it. So I decided going to law school was what I needed to do to finish that up. And so while I was in law school, I did a little work on the hill and then ended back up in the Texas Capitol as general counsel for a West Texas senator. And then most recently, before I came over to BGR, I was the committee director for Senator Brian Hughes for uh the jurisprudence committee and the state affairs committee. So had the immense privilege of getting to be the gatekeeper, if you will, of those two committees and getting to pass and draft legislation for years now. So it's been a great ride.

SPEAKER_02 2:51

That's great. That's why I'm excited about having the both of you on with Jerry's experience in the governor's office and the executive level, blocking and tackling for the governor as a press secretary and Gatriana, you've seen probably almost everything under the sun as it relates to legislation and the inner workings of how the sausage is made, as they like to say, when it comes to legislation. So let's kick it off. And unlike a lot of states, Texas legislature is not in session. And so they call it the interim. So can you walk us through what the interim process is during this year and you know, just an overall take us to school on what Texas state government, how it operates?

SPEAKER_01 3:39

Well, I'll start us off and just say that Texas really, when the state was established back in the 1800s, they had an idea that they didn't want a full-time legislature. So they wanted their members to be back in the district. And so because of that, also because of the size of our state, it was just difficult to get here on horse and buggy. And so because of that, they said, we're gonna we're gonna make everyone come every other year. So on odd number years, we have a session. On the even number years, that's called the interim. And so that allows for the chance that all of our members are really living in their communities. They're, you know, going to going to church with folks in their communities and their constituents. They're living amongst those businesses that are operating within their communities and really have an ear for what's happening. And so that has continued on over a century later into Texas, and the Texas that we know now. And even though it's a lot easier to get to Austin, Texas, we still just have 140-day sessions. And so on odd years, it starts in January. It's a 140-day sprint all the way up until Memorial Day, or just right after Memorial Day, and that ends our legislative session. But that does not mean that there's not work that's happening continually. In fact, sometimes there's more work that happens in the interim because you're really deploying all of the packages of legislation that were just passed. And then also you're dealing with the budgeting issues. Um, we do biennial budgeting. So a lot of folks, whenever you're talking about how the state operates, they think, well, how do you do it? Because you have to pass a budget every year. What happens is they pass a biennial budget, a two-year budget, and then the really the three legs of the stool with the governor, the speaker, and the lieutenant governor have budget execution authority. And so from that standpoint, they're able to have a little bit of flexibility in those even number years when they're not in session to be able to handle those issues. But um it really is a process that's worked. And for all of us, it's it's good to have all the members of the legislature in town in Austin. And it's also good when they go back home. And so we're always happy when that happens.

SPEAKER_02 5:34

So Katriana, talking about the interim. From a legislative point of view, when you were a staffer and and the legislature, what are the constituents doing well during the interim? Are they asking for certain pieces of legislation to be introduced? And what is the senator or the member of the house doing during that interim period? Are there committees, are there work groups, policy proposals being developed? What happens?

SPEAKER_00 6:05

A little bit of everything, actually. I think that's a common misconception that if the legislature is not in Austin, then nothing's happening. But that couldn't be further from the truth. Senators and reps will go back to their districts and there's casework that they're doing. They're doing town halls to get feedback from their constituents. Um, and on top of that, the legislature will hold interim hearings. And so those will be generated for interim charges that are solicited by the lieutenant governor, by the speaker, to their members, asking, hey, do y'all want to study the effects of social media on minors? Or do you want to look at monitoring the effects of SB25, which was a Make America Healthy Again initiative, those types of things. And so they will take those charges, if you will, and then eventually they will assign them to the relevant committees, which will then hold hearings, usually it's invited testimony, which is resource witnesses, or anyone that the senator really wants to have make a point on a specific charge or study. Um, and then by the end of the year, the committees will draft reports to the legislature with recommendations that will either shape what an agency does per se or possible legislation or even finance for the budget. So it's a really exciting time.

SPEAKER_02 7:19

That's great. So so in other words, there's no year off for legislature, your work. Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 7:26

No vacations.

unknown 7:26

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:27

The other thing, you know, no year off, and this is really the time that clients of BGR are having those conversations with the members, having the conversations with the staffers, because this is when they're really talking about their legislative package for 2027, which is the odd year, which is our next legislative session in January of 2027. So now is a critical time whenever that happens. Because, you know, as you very well know, Kiefer, from your time being in the legislative body, also being on the city council and being elected official, it's those conversations that lead up to getting to the start line. And if you just start when the race starts in January, then you're too late. And so, you know, there's a lot of spade work and a lot of work that's starting to happen and it's already been happening here in Texas with our clients, that we're having those conversations and making sure that the issues that are important to our clients that we believe that we can inform the governmental process, that we're in there early.

SPEAKER_02 8:20

And and Jerry, you made a point earlier that during the interim, members are at church, they're at the little league practices, they're at the community meetings. And again, your point is well taken that you get ideas from sitting next to someone at a ball game or at church, and they start talking to you, bending the legislators' ear about a certain issue, and you get those ideas and you have time to formulate them. And as Katriana said, you start coming up to ideas, having work groups, and holding hearings. So the interim, maybe other legislature, state legislators can learn from that process. Speaking of process, recently we just had the uh Texas primary elections. I want to like start talking about that a little bit, about the outcomes, what are the tea leaves saying from your point of view as we move into the midterm elections, and how redistricting really played a role in this primary election. Texas really kicked things off in terms of the the redistricting battles between the Democrats and Republicans that you're seeing nationwide. So touch on uh the elections and the redistricting and how it played an effect in those elections.

SPEAKER_01 9:39

It's interesting that we're recording the podcast the day after our primary. And so just for context, that's kind of where we are in the cycle and kind of in the calendar. And for the first time in a long time in Texas, you know, the deck chairs have been pretty static and pretty stationary because we've had longtime governors. You know, Governor Abbott is running for his fourth term as governor in the state of Texas. And it's if he finishes out that term and if he succeeds in the election come November and finishes the term, he'll be the longest serving governor in Texas history. Before that, you had the current longest term governor in Texas history, Rick Perry, who served for 14 years. So you've had this real consistency in Texas at the top. You've had consistency in the AG races. You go back to the attorneys general and you look at the history of that. Right now, Attorney General Paxton, before Paxton was Attorney General Abbott, before Attorney General Abbott was Attorney General John Cornyn. And so you've had this long stretch of a lot of statewide elected offices that have not been up and have not been competitive because the incumbent has stayed in there and there's really been no competition. So this was really the first election in decades where we've had offices at the top that are in play. And so, really, last night's primary election night was really unique and something that, you know, especially on the Republican side of things, we haven't seen in a long time. And so you also go back to realize that redistricting is something in Texas we do decade redistricting. We've also done mid-decade redistricting in the state of Texas. So that's just something that's always part of a normal cycle. It's become a part of a normal cycle in terms of how you look at that. There's no doubt about it that after redistricting, a lot of the seats have become more Republican. Also, when you look at Texas, because of the number of people who move to Texas every day, it's creating changes in districts, not just in kind of how they're how they're formed, but then also just the people that are coming in there. So about 1,200 people a day moved to the state of Texas. So they're moving somewhere. They're moving to the four largest cities primarily. And so those are changing the makeup of those districts. It's also changing the shape of those districts. But I will say there were some surprises in terms of what happened. You know, quickly, I think the surge in Senator John Cornyn last night was notable because he was down double digits in several polls going into last night. And so the fact that he that he won the primary last night did not get 50%. So now we go into what is expected to be a pretty challenging runoff. However, just you know, breaking news. I know breaking news on a podcast is not always the way to do it, but Senator Senator Cornyn last night, after the win, put out a memo saying, This is why I've got a better chance at winning. But just in the last couple of minutes, President Trump has come out saying he will endorse one of the Senate candidates, either Senator Cornyn or Attorney General Paxton, and he's going to ask the other one to drop out of the race.

SPEAKER_02 12:35

And so he hasn't made that decision.

SPEAKER_01 12:37

He's going to made that decision as of the recording right now, as we're talking. So there are so many things and so many factors that are happening, not just in the Senate race, but in other races. But this clearly is top-of-the-ticket race here in the state of Texas. There will be a race for governor, no doubt. But you look at the interest in that race versus the interest in the U.S. Senate race, and they're just two very different races in terms of how that looks. That was really where a lot of the attention has gone. And then on the Democratic side, with Representative Jasmine Crockett and then Texas House Representative James Tallerico, very different candidates in that Democratic primary, but both of those candidates really energized the base and the Democratic block of voters. In fact, for the second time since 2008, there were more folks that voted in the Democratic primary than the Republican primary in Texas. And so let that sink in for a little bit. Predominantly a Republican-leaning state, but more Democrats came out to the primary than Republicans. Only the second time that's happened since 2008. That's very notable just because these two candidates energized the base. Also, you look previously, Representative Beto Rourke was not able to energize the base like that before. And so those are really interesting points to make. Now, James Tallerico, Representative Taller Rico, did prevail and got the outright win last night. So he beat Representative Jasmine Crockett, which really sets up an interesting race, whether it's against Senate Attorney General Ken Paxton or Senator Corner. Very different races there. A lot of folks say that if Ken Paxton comes out of the Republican side of the primary, it's going to be a closer race because Representative Talerico has a really strong faith-filled message in Texas that resonates with some voters. It has really started to move moderate, really started to move to the independence in Texas, and also trying to look at some of the Republicans and say, hey, if you're not happy with what's happening, here's your option. Which a lot of people thought, why is he going on the Joe Rogan show? Turned out to be one of the best moves that he'd made, also capitalizing on the controversy about Colbert and whether or not he could, you know, go on the Colbert show. So he really utilized social media, utilized podcasts, utilized some non-traditional media. And like you said, his really unique message that is not generally a part of Democratic politics in Texas to really appeal to a more moderate voter, and you know, didn't just beat Representative Crockett by a few points, but you know, really, you know, made a dent in what was a very energized base for Representative Crockett.

SPEAKER_02 15:37

Right. Katriana, did you see anything at the local level? You all had state local races, any surprises coming out of the state house elections that you saw?

SPEAKER_00 15:50

Well, we had a few uh Senate seats that were up for grabs, and so no surprises there. And of course, all 150 members of the House were up for re-election because they're up for re-election every two years, just to keep it interesting for them. So no huge issues or maybe not issues is not the right word. There were some.

SPEAKER_02 16:10

Were there any flips from Republican to Democrat or Democrat to Republican?

SPEAKER_00 16:15

There was one not in this primary, but in a special election a little while ago in North Texas. So the current acting comptroller, Kelly Hancock, uh left to go run for comptroller. He was a state senator prior, and his seat was up for a special election. And that seat did get flipped to a Democrat. I think Remett, if I'm pronouncing that correctly, is who was sworn in uh just not too long ago with the Senate. So that was definitely an upset in that seat. But some things that we noticed, at least on a statewide race, was the Commissioner of Agriculture. So Sid Miller has been the incumbent for quite a long time in that seat. And then Abbott put his weight behind Nate Sheets, who did walk away and doesn't have to go to a runoff with that. And interesting on that one too, Trump threw his weight behind Sid Miller, and that didn't seem to get him across the finish line.

SPEAKER_02 17:04

So that one was definitely so it's a mixed bag, so to speak.

SPEAKER_00 17:07

Exactly. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 17:08

Ah, gotcha. It is a mixed bag. And there were some statewide elected officials that Trump endorsed that didn't make it. Some statewide elected officials that Abbott endorsed that were separate from Trump. So they went a different direction. And Abbott had some mixed results in terms of kind of the candidates that he was able to put across the finish line. You know, the uh Catron had just talked about longtime state senator Kelly Hancock, who was named the interim comptroller. That's our state treasurer in the state of Texas. He ran um and ran a strong campaign largely because he got a lot of money from uh from Greg Abbott and from Governor Abbott to be able to run that campaign and still was not able to beat um Don Huffines, who's a former state senator um for the state of Texas and was endorsed by not only Trump, but also by Senator Ted Cruz. And so you have these interesting kind of fissures, I would say, within the Republican Party in terms of endorsements and what that looks like. And so a little bit of a mixed bag. Some of the Trump endorsed nominees prevailed. Um, some of the Abbott nominees that were not Trump's nominees prevailed, and so it really was a mixed bag.

SPEAKER_02 18:12

So let's uh switch to some policy issues in Texas. The first one, property taxes, the reliability of infrastructure, particularly as it relates to energy and grid reliance. So what are you seeing policy-wise as it relates to those two issues? Everyone doesn't like their taxes to go up, and particularly property taxes, they want to see it get cut, but with the explosion of AI and data centers and grid reliability, what are those policy initiatives looking like in Texas?

SPEAKER_01 18:50

There's no doubt that property taxes are as as common of an issue in the state of Texas as Texas Pride is, and and it will continue to be so. Every legislative session starts with a promise of reform and property tax reform. And they've made large strides in terms of what that looks like and really controlling the property taxes. So remember, we have no state income tax. And so property taxes are how you're paying for your services in the state of Texas, how you're paying for public safety, it's how you're paying for education, it's how you're paying for some of the Medicaid dollars. And so that's the type of message that's always there, especially for Republican voters, is trying to figure that piece out. Now, with all of the talk about affordability, that becomes a part of the property tax discussion. Um, it's been around for decades and it will continue to be around for decades, unless they get rid of property tax. And at that point, they got to figure out how to pay for everything. And so that'll be a big challenge. I would say on the infrastructure piece too, um, and Patreon has worked very closely in this world just with reliability and just with our grid. You know, remember, Texas is not part of the national grid. We have our own grid in Texas called ERCOT, and it's the Electric Reliability Council of Texas. They really manage most of Texas's infrastructure when it comes to that. A lot of the focus on that was post-Winterstorm Uri back in 2021. Really a cataclysmic event, which led to widespread outages in the state of Texas, just because it was a not just a once-in-a-lifetime event, but really was a once-in-two-lifetime event in terms of what happened and really the cascading effect of the cold weather that blanketed a large part of our country, which led to a lot of reform, especially around the size of Texas, population coming to Texas, really talking about some of the water resources that are out there and scarcity of water, um, and not just in the large metropolitan areas, but then also out in rural Texas. And so, water infrastructure, they made a big investment in water infrastructure last year, um, expecting the same to happen this year. So, just all of those types of things that you're starting to hear are not going away. It won't be long. I remember one of the first meetings that we had when attorney or when Governor Abbott was elected and then sworn in, the state demographer came and talked to us about the size of Texas and how Texas was going to grow. And he made the comment at the time, which was, you know, 2015. He said our state is going to double in size by 2055. And so when you talk about the population increase and what's happening, 1,200 new people a day, they all have needs. They all have electricity needs. The companies that they're bringing to Texas that are relocated in Texas, some of them have a large load needs when it comes to electricity. And so you need all of the electricity, all of the power, um, you need all of the gasoline, you need transportation corridors, you need health care, you need education. And so all of those things are only going to continue to be more of a challenge in the state of Texas and something that leaders are going to have to really look at, which is um is exactly the kind of work that Katriana did before joining us just a couple of months ago.

SPEAKER_00 21:52

And I would add to that too, both of those things are actually going to be studied in the interim. They have been announced, at least in the Senate, maybe not a Limiting property taxes, but seeing how they could relieve the burden of property taxes has already been announced as an interim of charge and protecting the grid or critical infrastructure, if you will. So those are things that, of course, that the legislature will continue to look at this interim.

SPEAKER_02 22:14

So you touched on education a bit, and I sort of want to pivot toward education policy. Texas has had debates regarding education curriculum, what's taught in the classroom, and then also school choice and funding and those types of issues. During the interim period, are you seeing legislation or a lot of policy initiatives coming out around education and take us through what that looks like? And then also, what do you see as you go into the session of 2027? What do you see as it relates to the big education policy initiative in Texas? Go ahead, Katriana.

SPEAKER_00 23:00

Right. So last session the legislature passed SB2, which was the big school funding, school choice initiative. Um, and so the state has been rolling out that program currently. So that's been the big, the big fight in the legislature for years now. And that finally got across the finish line last session. So I think that will be something that they're looking towards next session is okay, this we've kind of rolled out a pilot program, if you will, on this. Can we expand it next session? How much money do we need to put towards this program next session? So that will be something that the legislature looks at and will likely also be something that that the legislature studies during the interim as well, always trying to ping back to the interim and how important that is. And curriculum-wise, the blue bonnet uh curriculum has been having some issues, if you will, at least for correction issues. And so I think that the legislature will also look at that to see, you know, what the cost is to that and how they can fix it moving forward. So curriculum as well is playing blank role in that. But I think the education savings account is where the focus is mostly.

SPEAKER_02 24:04

And that tends to have bipartisan support in terms of I know that the teacher unions and some of the folks that want us to keep public education funding separate and not mingle it, co-mingle it with any savings accounts or scholarships. But from my experience and looking around the country, there seems to be Democrats and Republicans saying that we've got to get kids out of bad performing schools or at least have them a fighting chance to go to a school where they can get a world-class education.

SPEAKER_00 24:44

Yes. I I think so. School choice in particular has been mostly, I would say, a partisan issue in Texas. It was because I think Democrats and some Republicans too, especially rural Republicans, wanted to make sure that, hey, we don't want money to leave our public school system. But yes, uh, I think it's definitely a bipartisan issue in the way of trying to make sure our kids have a good education.

SPEAKER_02 25:05

Gotcha. So that was all I had here on this episode of what's going on in the state house. And a last question I'll ask is the Dallas Cowboys going to make the playoffs this year? And uh who's gonna win the national championship? Texas AM or for Jerry's sake, Mississippi.

SPEAKER_01 25:27

Oh my goodness. You know, the I always say the great thing about working in in Texas politics as long as I have been working for the governor was the fact that I didn't go to a Texas school because then I just get to enjoy all of them. And so being a longhorn, Katriana has some different ideas about that. You know, we've got the we've got the UT Ole Miss game that's coming up a little bit later this year circle. And so we're looking forward to that one. But I will tell you this, you know, Governor Barber always says something and and has a couple of funny quips, but I will just I will just rely on his advice and say that anybody who can tell you whether or not the Dallas Cowboys are gonna make the playoffs this year, they'll probably willing to lie to you about something else too. So I'll just say that. Amen.

SPEAKER_02 26:10

Oh and for the listeners, if you ever visit uh Austin and you want to stop by the BGR Austin office and it's football season and Texas is in town, Jerry and Katriana host a great tailgate right there in the office courtyard. We'd love to have everyone. Exactly. All right, well, thanks a lot, guys, and have a great day.