Roadtripping Roy, Rump Railroading, and BlackRock and Roll - Episode 27

The guys run through a jam-packed slate of topics, including the Railroad Commission brawl, Chip Roy on the trail, BlackRock's redemption with Texas Republicans, and a half-resolution on the summer camp quandary. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

At its greatest refinement, it is just me trying to manipulate you into getting a boat for us. Not happening. It could happen. If you had the courage. If I had the courage. It could happen. You could save democracy.

SPEAKER_02 0:22

Good morning, everybody. It's Brad Johnson here with Jonathan Ritchie for another installment of the Texas Bullpen Podcast. Bry Odd and Bushy Teld. Let me tell you. Yeah, that's definitely a live from you, but hey, uh, fake it till you make it, right?

SPEAKER_01 0:38

Hey, we're grabbing Texas politics by the horns today. Yeah, with this.

SPEAKER_02 0:43

An on our subscriber exclusive mug. Yes. If you buy an annual subscription, you can get this mug delivered to your door.

SPEAKER_01 0:52

I use it all the time. It's the only thing I take it with me everywhere. It's like my sippy cup. I just have to have it. I start crying if I don't have it.

SPEAKER_02 0:58

And right now it's being used for hair of the dog purposes. Coffee. Coffee. Yeah. Sure. I'm sure people are believing you with that. We've got a lot to talk to talk about, actually. This is a gym.

SPEAKER_01 1:10

We have a lot to talk to.

SPEAKER_02 1:11

Talk to. We have a lot to talk to each other about today. First, we're going to touch on the summer camp resolution or like halfway resolution that occurred. We'll touch on uh Richie's uh road trip following Chip Roy across East Texas, I think mostly, but went down to San Antonio as well. Um also uh SD4 special election that occurred last weekend, and Richie also had a good sit-down with incoming state senator Brett Liggan, that will be uh uh an interesting listen, I think. Uh then we've got the Railroad Commission race that is heating up at the moment. A lot of developments that week or this week on that. Uh I went to Waco earlier this week for an event with Governor Abbott in BlackRock that really signals uh quite a political shift and relational change between the two there.

SPEAKER_01 2:05

Uh we'll hit the updating their relationship status.

SPEAKER_02 2:08

Yes. On Facebook specifically. And then last but not least, we'll hit the RPT chair race that will conclude at the June convention in Houston.

SPEAKER_01 2:18

So hitting a lot of people today.

SPEAKER_02 2:20

A lot of stuff to talk about, so let's get to it. Uh Richie, there was a um, I'd say, like I said, a halfway resolution on this summer camp stuff this week. Uh, you know, la last week we ended with uh the Camp Mystic hearings where there was a ton of um just horrible testimony about you know tragedy and grief and uh conflict over the opening of Camp Mystic itself at the end of that week. I don't know if we mentioned on the podcast because it might have come after we recorded, uh, but they decided Camp Mystic decided to withdraw its application for a 2026 summer operating permit. When that happened, that kind of let a lot of the air out of this issue uh in terms of uh the stuff that was driving a lot of the enmity and animosity between various camps, um various factions on this issue. And we got some resolution this week.

SPEAKER_01 3:19

Uh yeah, well the developments are that a lot of these camps, uh beyond just Mystic, were struggling to comply with the redundant internet requirement from the camp bill last year, passed in the immediate aftermath of the floods.

SPEAKER_02 3:37

That was SP2 and HP or S P one and HP one.

SPEAKER_01 3:40

Um, and so it required not only like broadband access but also fiber optic cables. And a number of these camps just did not have the funds or ability in order to to install that prior to their applications for an operational license. Um and there had been a lot of pushback to some of these requirements by people like Wes Ferdell and others who had objected to Brian Harrison Brian Harrison uh during the legislative process, uh, but it still went through anyways. And then several of these camps sued the state, uh specifically DSHS or dishes, um, as it's known. And that litigation was ongoing, but last uh, you know, this week Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick and Speaker of the House, Dustin Burroughs, issued a joint statement basically saying, yes, we passed this law, but uh you don't have to follow this part of it. You can we can kind of look the other way for this session, and you know the fiber thing specific. The fiber thing specific. They said, look, if you don't have fiber, but you have all these other requirements and you do have internet of some sort and a ri maybe even a redundant system, because some of these camps had raised like, look, we might not be able to get fiber optic out to where we are, right? These very rural areas, but we do have, you know, what the the Musk uh star satellink star link, thank you. Uh we have other systems as well beyond just fiber optic. Uh, and so you know, Burroughs and Patrick acknowledge that that exists, and you know, we're like, yeah, okay, we can just kind of look over that section of the statute that they themselves passed.

SPEAKER_02 5:32

Specifically provided that you do have those other it you you will not get an operating permit approved if you have no internet coverage. Gotta have something. But as long as you got something, it doesn't have to be fiber, at least in terms of how they're enforcing this law now. Uh we'll see if it gets revised, if there's an exception added. I don't think it'll get stripped from the bill entirely, but they'll probably add language next year related to uh, you know, if you have Starlink. Yeah, you know. Or you have to have fiber across some portion of your your uh premises, and then the rest can be covered by Starlink or whatever the heck it is. Um, you know, the the reason it's not just monetary, and it is monetary as well. Uh but the logistical reason that this was so difficult to comply with is that particularly in the hill country, it is so difficult over the hilly terrain to dig trenches to lay fiber lines. And um, if you can do it, it is prohibitively expensive to do. And so that is why, you know, camps like Camp Longhorn, I believe if I remember the they sent an email out in this week and said, call your state legislators about this issue. This was before the Speaker and Lieutenant Governor statement. Um and lawmakers were getting phone calls. Westfordell said it on Twitter, but lawmakers all across the uh the spectrum were getting calls about this from uh people who have either children going to the camps or went to the camps themselves, and the uh the rallying cry really worked. Um uh, but for example, Camp Longhorn, I think if I remember correct their email correctly, they had fiber over a portion of their their um their premises, but then had Starlink as well to cover the rest that was not passable by uh laying fiber lines.

SPEAKER_01 7:30

So um and the big development was that Thursday evening, yes, there was a actual legal agreement entered into the court docket between dishes and these camps, uh basically putting some legal reality behind the I'd say more regulatory, uh, because it still is conflicting with the the status of the other.

SPEAKER_02 7:53

Well, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:53

But like right, they're suing over it. So they've entered into a legal agreement saying, like, look, we're gonna put this litigation on pause because we've reached an agreeable um resolution for this time. So it's basically like, you know, there's not gonna be any action on the case except for more camps joining in the litigation if they so desire before I think they said like July or something. So, you know, it it puts a little bit of meat onto the bone of what Patrick and Burroughs uh statement kind of communicated. Um and you know, buys these camps another year of operation and then you know it gets us probably into the next legislative session where they can, you know, maybe make that statute more general instead of saying it's gotta be fiber, you know, whatever. They can make it not so technologically specific or do whatever they want.

SPEAKER_02 8:47

They also might have to do it again uh next year, do this again, because if they do pass a revision, they that is unlikely to come until probably around this time next year, yeah. Right? Because we'll be in the legislative session, there's plenty of stuff that's gonna take a lot of oxygen out of the air. Maybe they get to this really quickly. That's certainly possible. But there is, of course, the 60-day uh 60-day limit uh moratorium on passing anything on the House floor unless you suspend the Constitution. And I suppose it's possible that they have the numbers of whatever those numbers look like next year to do that, but uh that traditionally has only been something the Senate has admitted to the yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:28

Maybe we could have another special session on camp bill and redistricting.

SPEAKER_02 9:33

Yeah. In the middle of camp season. Yeah, that I'm sure that'll go over well. Um so you know, a lot a lot of this is up in the air to be determined.

SPEAKER_01 9:41

But there's movement on the issue, and you know, it was it's very interesting to see like right now that Mystic has pulled its application, how some of the conversation is maybe changing, or more people are more open to being like, okay, let's actually moderate our stances on this, or you know, maybe we did rush into it a little bit. Uh when I was out on the road with Chip Roy, he was in Fredericksburg, which is part of his congressional district, and you know, that's all included that area in the hill country. And uh, you know, he got questions about the camps being open, and he he came out, you know, no uncertain terms. I mean just guns ablaze. Yeah, uh, that the camp should be open. He was always worried about overregulation, that this statement by Burroughs and Patrick basically summed up to them admitting that the bill was crap, his word, um, and that now they're trying to to fix it because they rammed it through for legislative expediency and sacrifice these camps or potentially sacrifice these camps on on that just to score political points and to do something. Uh it was kind of yeah, it hit him with both barrels on it. Um, and uh, you know, he even said like he would send his kids to Camp Mystic and La Hunta tomorrow. Um, which got us got a uh an ovation from the crowd very heart heartily. So it's interesting to see. And then he agreed with uh a lady in the crowd who had said that she felt like you know, the people in Kerrville and Kerr County, the camp families and the Eastland specifically were being steamrolled and raked over the coals, and and uh Roy verbally agreed with that sentiment.

SPEAKER_02 11:25

And Roy is scrapped with uh the legislature before, and particularly when Dade Phelan was speaker, he was I remember seeing him and Jerry Patterson going at it on Twitter. What?

SPEAKER_01 11:36

Were there people who fought with Phelan?

SPEAKER_02 11:39

Must have been a fever dream. Uh it feels like it sometimes. But by the way, have you seen Feelan's tweets of offer?

SPEAKER_01 11:47

Honestly, they've been bangers lately.

SPEAKER_02 11:49

They've been so funny. He doesn't give a rip. He is going out on his own terms. He's like, you know, you guys push me out, screw y'all, screw everybody. Yeah. And uh it's it's funny to watch.

SPEAKER_01 12:01

Yeah, like man, that's a good that's good. Yeah, that's a good joke, dude.

SPEAKER_02 12:05

Yeah, I think he one was uh actually um a tweet of mine. I forget what it was.

SPEAKER_01 12:11

Oh yeah. Oh, I it was actually one of my tweets.

SPEAKER_02 12:14

It was one of your tweets?

SPEAKER_01 12:15

No, I'm I'm making fun of you being like, let me put myself in the center of this.

SPEAKER_02 12:20

I remember uh it stuck out because it was. I was like, holy crap, he he said this uh on whatever it was I tweeted, I forget. Something financial, I can't remember. But he said, this is good news for Third Coast Bank, which is the bank that he got uh that I think he at at one point I think he divested from it, so he doesn't anymore, but it's a Dennis Bon and owned bank that um that he had ownership in, and that was something that was used against him in the speaker fight in the primary. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:54

All the whiteboards.

SPEAKER_02 12:55

Yeah, so he uh he doesn't give a rip. That's pretty funny to watch. But um yeah, Roy has has consistently criticized the legislature, and you know, it kind of does bleed into this attorney general fight. Uh we see Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick this week finally come out for Mays Middleton. Behind he was doing that, he was working for Mays, helping Mays behind the scene.

SPEAKER_01 13:23

You know, but still, it's the first one of the statewide guys to come in and and lean explicitly endorse in the runoff. Yeah. Um Abbott hasn't done it. You know, Paxton endorsed in the first round, but he hasn't endorsed in the runoff. Now, obviously, his orbit is all backing Mays. But um, yeah, it's very but of course you have crews on team ships. Yep, it's very split Austin versus DC circles. Well, you know, that's a lot of the congressmen and even out-of-state congressmen were joining Chip on the Road, Lauren Boebert from Colorado, um, Clay Higgins from Louisiana, who's a hoot and a half. Very funny, very funny guy. That was enjoyable. Um, and uh, you know, other guys, Brandon Herrera, of course, in response today, Mays announced an endorsement from Troy Nels, but Nels has always been kind of more of the Paxton camp. He's endorsed Paxton in the Senate and office. So it's very interesting to see how this stuff's shaking out.

SPEAKER_02 14:22

Well, and you add the consultant factor to this. You've got Jordan Berry running Mays Middleton's campaign. Um, and then you've got uh Jason Johnson is still running Chip Roy's operation, and Jason, of course, is an advisor to Speaker Burroughs, so there is a bit of a uh a crosshatch there, but um Axiom is working for Chip uh on this race as well. So there's a lot of Axiom, who by the way is also Paxton's Paxton's and Cruz's consultant. So there there is the DC versus state theme. There's also some intermingling there as well.

SPEAKER_01 15:04

And it's also very interesting, right? Because didn't Jim Wright pick up Blake Moore after the first round? And now, of course, Pac I mean Patrick has endorsed Wright, of no great surprise, but also then Burroughs came in too.

SPEAKER_02 15:17

Yeah. Um well and and Burroughs held a fundraiser for Mays Middleton, so I don't think I've seen an explicit endorsement publicly from Burroughs. But he's he's helping Mays on behind the scenes. Yeah. Uh Patrick, like we said, obviously came out for Middleton. Um, you know, the sentiment I think that underpins a lot of this and is specific to the DC versus Austin dynamic, is that a lot of these officials are worried that Roy not just doesn't understand the dynamics in Austin, but doesn't really care about it.

SPEAKER_01 15:55

And which is something he said repeat like that plays into his, he says on the trail, you know, the Austin swamp doesn't want me.

SPEAKER_02 16:04

Yeah. And you know But the Austin Swamp in this case is damn Patrick.

SPEAKER_01 16:09

Yeah, right. Like there's there probably is some uh truth to that. That the the people in Austin probably don't he Chip's viewed as an outsider. Yeah. Um now whether or not Austin can be characterized as a swamp is probably in the eye of the beholder. Um but uh I think it's lovely this time of year. Honestly, the past couple of days have been just pleasant as as hell. Can I say that? Pleasant as well. Yeah, it's our podcast. You can say whatever the heck you want. Well, thank you, Brad. That's a mighty thing. Yeah, it has been nice. You know, the rains, uh it's been very pleasant. We should be on a boat. We should film this on a boat. We should get a boat.

SPEAKER_02 16:47

Richie has been trying to get the the fellows group to buy a boat for like two, three years.

SPEAKER_01 16:54

Three years. Honestly, I've been trying for longer for us to get a boat than for us to start a company. And yeah, and maybe this is all a part of my plan. You know, we're talking about the consultants. I mean, this like five-dimensional chessboard of Texas politics, it at its greatest refinement, it is just me trying to manipulate you into getting a boat for us. Not happening. It could happen. If you had the courage, if I had the courage, it could happen. You could save democracy by buying us a boat.

SPEAKER_02 17:27

If you want to go half if you want to buy a company boat, you should bring in more advertisers, which brings up if anyone would like to advertise us on Texas Bullpen, on our newsletters, on the this year podcast, let us know. We'll be happy to uh take your money and put it into apparently Rishi's boat slush fund.

SPEAKER_01 17:46

It could be huge coming up on the summer. We could have parties on the boat. Uh oh, parties for subscribers on the boats. This is good. It better be a big boat. Uh we have a lot of subscribers. We don't we do Patriots all, beautiful people, most intelligent uh subscriber base in the history of the country. Um that's what they all say. That's not our words. No, that's what we certainly are.

SPEAKER_02 18:08

We're just quoting someone else. The voices in my head.

SPEAKER_01 18:12

Um as I'm using my knee as a very precarious little I'm just waiting for that to fall. It's a very flat surface, it's pretty good.

SPEAKER_02 18:20

Okay. So back to the AG race. Um there is a sentiment in Austin that if Roy becomes A G, he is going to overshadow them and overshadow them in terms of like media. And we've already seen clashes between uh the top state officials and other statewide officials uh over uh actions taken that either did not coincide with what they wanted policy-wise or uh took away the limelight on certain things, a combination of both, probably. Yeah. And so it is really no surprise that Roy, who is a bombastic figure, um he is uh constantly on actually it's kind of odd to see him on Bannon's War Room so much uh in this runoff, but he's never really been a a Bannon type conservative, but he knows he needs that voter base to the extent it exists for this runoff. Um because of course the pretext is that Roy was supposed to finish first and a comfortable first because he had all the name ID. And then he didn't. Middleton finished first, and Roy was second place into the runoff. So um he knows he has to to change things up. He's actually in the state right now campaigning on like during the primary because he was in DC voting some voting on all the bills that that uh House leadership needed.

SPEAKER_01 19:47

Because he missed less than five bills.

SPEAKER_02 19:50

Yeah. Five votes. Yeah. And you know, it's with from his perspective there, it's kind of a damned if you do, damned if you don't, because you get hit if you miss votes, which we saw. But you're also missing time on the campaign trail, which hurts you, which we saw with Leslie Hunt. So um I you know, I guess that uh transitions us into your your road trip. You mentioned it all a bit already, but tell us about this. What was it like following him around?

SPEAKER_01 20:14

You know, I was I had great aspirations of following him for longer, but then I got really tired. It's exhausting, man. These these people running for statewide, especially if they're doing a trip. So I picked up with Roy down in Conroe on Monday. Uh he had a separate event that night at the uh Tea Party group. I didn't go to that because I was interviewing Brett Liggan, which we'll get to as well, and then drove out the next day to San Antonio where he had an event with Brandon Herrera and Lauren Boer Lauren Boebert, and then the next day he had two events, one in Fredericksburg and one in Georgetown. I made it to the Fredericksburg one, and then I said Auah, a river dirty, enjoy your lives, and they went up to Georgetown, and then they went to Longview, and then they were telling me, man, they beyond just the posted schedule, they'd added, I think, four or five more events all across the state. I mean, heading up to DFW, winging out to West Texas, and it I think they're going up through this weekend as well, of just event after event after event, putting hundreds and hundreds of miles. You forget how big Texas is until you start uh campaigning on it. I mean, this place is massive, beautiful, lovely, wonderful. That's kind of why I you know tapped out in the hill country. I was like, you know, because I was looking at it, because we were gonna drive, you know, the hour and change up to Georgetown, and then it would have been four hours out to Longview, the next one, which you know I had wanted to go to because I have family out there. But I would have gotten into Longview probably around midnight, we would have had the event and And I had to come back to Austin for an event we had last night. So it was going to be 10 hours of driving over the next 24 hours, which was just I was staring at it and I was like, I think I've got more if you had the courage. If I had the courage, you're right. I did not have the courage. I had the courage to stay in Fredericksburg and eat some schnitzel, which was very good. And uh hole up at a nice little resort there and you know lick my wounds and write at the hotel bar. Some really good stuff. Really good stuff. It was phenomenal. But um, yeah, you know, he is he is a very I mean, so there were kind of two types of events. One's the smaller, you know, we're talking 40 to 50 people venue, and then you know, he has more of the rally style event with Brandon and Bo Bert, which is you know 200, 300 people. I thought that one was in the elementary school lunchroom, right? Yeah, right. Yeah, somebody your tweet on that was very funny. So I post the picture, you're like, oh, you know, it's it's an evening event. He's like, you know, so happy you're finally logging into work, clocking in. Um I'm like, well, it's in a bar, and then somebody inexplicably like, is us in an elementary school? It's like, brother, there are bottles of liquor in the photo on the wall.

SPEAKER_02 23:25

The absolute state of the American electorate right there, summed up in one comment.

SPEAKER_01 23:30

At those small events, I mean, Roy will stand there and talk for over an hour, going through you know, his stomp speech, but it's really less of it. Like you'll he'll hit the same notes, you know. I've done this in Congress, this in Congress, I'm being attacked over this, this, this. Uh, Mays Middleton is using his quote granddaddy's money to quote buy Texas. Um, we're not gonna let him do that. He's lying about my record, you know. Uh he defends kind of his back and forth with Trump, being like, that's how you make deals. He respects that, even if he gets mad at me, you know. Uh he tells the story about you know, waiting to announce because of the Kerrville floods and why he's deciding to run and stuff like that. But then on those smaller events, he'll just stop and take questions from the crowd. And I mean, he'll go for uh as long as it takes to get to basically everybody's questions and stuff. And uh he's he's a very good campaigner on the trail, very uh effective communicator. So it's it's always fun to watch, you know, because like we'll have interactions with politicians, you know, if they come on the show, which you know, Chip Roy has, um, and stuff like that, but then you see them when they flip that switch. Uh and you know, it's just a it's a very specific campaigning is a very specific type of skill that is always fun to watch a like good practitioner do. And uh uh so yeah, it it was pretty enjoyable.

SPEAKER_02 25:00

The best person I ever saw on the stump in person was state senator Lois Colkhorst in it was in Brenham, so this was her hometown, but she was campaigning for Ted Cruz, and she was introing, I think Tom Cotton was also there, but she had that crowd eating out of the palm of her hand. I've never seen anything like it in person. It was uh quite impressive, and um I have seen Chip, and he is close to that, like he he does a very good job on the city.

SPEAKER_01 25:31

Everybody has their different style, you know, and it's it's just fun to see. That's what's enjoyable about like trailing people for multiple events instead of just one and done, because you see kind of more of their thought process and how they put together a speech, how they engage with different sizes of crowds, how they, you know, like uh right before the San Antonio event is when Lieutenant Governor's endorsement of Mays came out. And uh you could definitely tell at that next event in Fredericksburg, he did not equivocate or was very worried about, you know, calling out and going after Lieutenant Governor over the Campbell stuff, you know, which probably for a guy like Roy, he probably wouldn't have been either. He tends to, I think, say more or less what he thinks. But uh, you know, it's just interest it's always enjoyable to to watch and trail along. The driving though, not so much. Not so much.

SPEAKER_02 26:37

Now you know how these uh campaign details feel. Yeah. Driving all around this massive state. Lord bless him. Keep doing what you know, I'm not gonna. Um, you know, on this on this AG race, one thing that is true is that in the primary, Chip almost got a Trump endorsement. It was very close to happening, but it never ended up happening. And it certainly, I don't think at this point is going to happen. I think if Trump jumps in, particularly with the lieutenant governor jumping in, uh, it'll be for Middleton. Of course, the usual caveat applies of who the hell knows what's gonna happen. Um, but my gut says uh the the potential for a Trump endorsement for Roy has passed, uh particularly with how he underperformed expectations in the primary. Uh and so I still kind of lean that he's just not gonna get involved. Uh but if we're betting on if we're oh sorry, if we're buying contracts on Calchy, the uh percent chance of a Trump endorsement for Middleton is significantly higher than one for for Roy.

SPEAKER_01 27:45

Which should you see I think it was the Calchi numbers for a Paxton endorsement from Trump also skyrocketing. Um I don't know. Which means the good the smart bet sorry, the smart con contract, future contract market, not bet would be to sh to sh I think it's called to short that. So because it's probably not happening, and if it's is happening, it's probably not happening for Paxman because Paxson underperformed in the first round. That would be the general thinking, unless team Paxson has done a really good job, and they have done a really good job of keeping the endorsement from going to Cornyn, but have they done a good enough job to get Trump then to endorse them? I don't know. Totally different equation there. But it it's interesting.

SPEAKER_02 28:37

There's got to be a way to make money off of this. I believe that's called insider trading.

SPEAKER_01 28:42

Is it insider trading for us if we're I don't know. Maybe we can tie uh our Is it trading because it's not stocks, it's future contracts. But aren't stocks a con I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 28:55

I think it's regulated under the same thing as stocks. Well, isn't that the legal question that's happening? Yeah. We need to investigate this more. We should. Certainly. Maybe we tie out uh a Roth IRA for each of us or something to uh calcive future bets. Uh sorry, contracts. Uh we can lay a foundation, a financial foundation for our company on that. Sounds like we're getting a boat. Uh one more thing I'll say about the AG race that I've noticed is that Roy is is buying a lot of television headtime.

SPEAKER_01 29:29

Well, and he was saying on the trail that he is going to hit spending parity with Mayes, which is a big claim. Overall. Wow. Well, at least in this thing. In the runoff. In the runoff.

SPEAKER_02 29:41

Well, he's ahead in the runoff, at least in far as what we can track.

SPEAKER_01 29:44

Because we don't we haven't seen their newest reports, but he's been saying like he's been raising a lot of a lot of money's come in late and they're gonna spend it.

SPEAKER_02 29:52

Well, also, you know, when we're when we talk campaign spending, it's impartial because you can't really track how much uh the campaign is spent on a mailer unless the campaign tells you. There's no there's no television tracking uh resource but for mailings. So Middleton did a lot of mail during the primary. I actually have not seen any come to my house yet in the runoff.

SPEAKER_01 30:17

Reminds me, I have not checked my mailbox in a few weeks.

SPEAKER_02 30:21

Wow, you should probably do that.

SPEAKER_01 30:22

There we there could be stories in there.

SPEAKER_02 30:24

Good thing all of the financial documents for a company come to my place and not yours, since you clearly Well, we did that intentionally. Oh yes.

SPEAKER_01 30:33

You just you're just a boy. Yeah. On the road, you send me it hither and tither and to ten buck two and sometimes three, you know. Yeah. Ten buck four next. Hi, everyone. We'd like to thank the sponsor of today's podcast, the Lowy Law Firm. For over twenty years, Adam Lowy has helped injured Texans recover and heal. From car accidents to dog bites, Adam Lowy is there to help and gets results. Go to LowyLawfirm.com to find out more and get a free consultation. Adam, of course, is very well known on Twitter for his commentary and observations on Texas politics, so be sure to give him a follow as well. Thanks to our sponsor, the Lowy Law Firm.

SPEAKER_02 31:17

We'll see.

SPEAKER_01 31:18

If we have the courage.

SPEAKER_02 31:18

If we have the courage. Um so Roy has been spending buying a lot of ad space. I I don't have the the number off the top of my head, but it's it's probably like I'd say two million at this point collectively. Uh and that's just real quick, uh rough figure prediction for me. Um I could look it up. I probably should have looked it up before this. But uh Middleton, this entire time that Roy's been booking ad space, Middleton has booked nothing new. You gotta think it's coming soon.

SPEAKER_01 31:48

Yeah. Because I remember during the first round, everybody was wondering you know, when is Mays gonna start spending? And then it came. And then he got first. So it's it's the whole campaign. It's gonna have to stuff is is so fascinating. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 32:06

Well, because in the primary, Middleton's strategy was first lay a base of support by getting all of these local uh local um group endorsements, then get on all these slate cards, which were very effective, as we talked about back after the primary, and then dump a buttload of money on television. And it worked, obviously. But this time it's been significantly different strategy so far. We may still see the money flood come on television in the next week or so, but that the ad space is gonna start to get taken up here soon.

SPEAKER_01 32:45

Because we see in the Senate race both parties buying quite a bit, and uh yeah.

SPEAKER_02 32:53

We'll see. Only uh few weeks left. Let's move to a special election that happened last weekend. Uh Republican Brett Ligan won the SD4 special election by a wide margin. I think it ended up being what 75, 25. Um and he actually overperformed the uh the previous Republican performance, uh, I think Trump performance in in the district by almost double digits. I think it ended up. I think it was like eight to nine points.

SPEAKER_01 33:27

And of course, we did not hear as many national Twitter pundits talking about this overperformance as we did the SD9 overperformance.

SPEAKER_02 33:37

Now these two contests were substantially different. Uh first of all, the partisan rating for this seat was R70. The partisan rating for SD9 was R60. So there was a 10-point difference there. Um it was a much friendlier display.

SPEAKER_01 33:56

That wasn't just a special election. That was a super special election. That's the good one.

SPEAKER_02 34:01

Yeah, the the runoff, yes. Uh so Ligan wins this. The Democratic candidates uh did uh Ron Angeletti did not get much support like Taylor Remett did uh in terms of national money coming in. So, you know, on the one hand, it is fair for Republicans to say, hey, Ligan overperformed here. Um it just wasn't the same dynamics, of course. And also a big difference in uh what's contained within the districts is SD9, all Terrant County, which is you know getting purpler. I wouldn't I don't know if it I'd call it purple yet, but it's at least a question, unlike Montgomery County, which is about as ruby red as you can possibly get.

SPEAKER_01 34:52

Yeah, and Chambers, and yeah, I think Jeff. It has a part of Harris and a little yeah, a part of Harris, and the like suburbs, a red suburbs part of Harris. I learned. And he has 1% of the island of Galveston, he was telling me.

SPEAKER_02 35:10

Interesting. Um so Brett Ligan will I assume be sworn in here soon uh to to fill the remainder of the term. Uh but he's also on the ballot in November.

SPEAKER_01 35:25

We have to talk redistricting as well. The big rolling at a time. Sorry, I'm just now reading Jasmine Crockett's statement on it. Oh, which is good.

SPEAKER_02 35:35

Okay, I'll hold that in uh in abeyance a bit. Um Ligan will take office. He will, unless something insane happens, he will win in November and he will be a senator come January for SD4. And you spoke to him, you sat down with him and had a pretty long, interesting interview. Oh, yeah. Give us the upshot.

SPEAKER_01 35:53

Yeah, so the background on Liggan is that he has been uh the Montgomery County DA since he got elected in 2008, took office in 2009. I think he was the longest serving district attorney in Texas at the time of his retirement, uh to at least among I think Republicans, uh, to take uh to run for Creighton's old seat. Um he was telling me about that conversation he had with Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, who gave him a call while he was in the middle of a meeting about a capital murder case. Uh Ligan in Montgomery County is you know really made a uh brand for himself of being tough on crime. Crime has consequences, goes after, you know, drunk driving fatalities, goes after capital murder. You know, he uh had started more or less his prosecutorial career underneath very are you reading that.

SPEAKER_02 36:54

Can I can I pause you for one second? I just got an email alert that Maze Middleton is starting to buy a TV. So there's actually this is uh it looks like it's radio, but there we go. We're starting to see the the money flood come. We'll see how what it amounts to in the end. But um there you go. Sorry, sorry to cut you off.

SPEAKER_01 37:12

Continue. So um he uh started more or less his prosecutorial career underneath very famous uh or you know very well known Harris County DA Johnny Holmes. Johnny Holmes, for a long time, I think, led the country in you know, getting death or pursuing death sentences for capital murder cases. Uh he had this these very def you know unique handlebar mustaches, was every bit the picture of like what if you asked AI to like come up with a picture of a Texas district attorney, it would be Johnny Holmes. So he's very much carried on a lot of that legacy in Montgomery County, has done it one every time. Um Dan Patrick calls him up, I think, during last legislative session as Creighton is exploring this opportunity of becoming the Chancellor of Texas Tech and asks uh Ligan to run. He you know, considers it, likes what he's doing in CA, ultimately decides to do it. But it was a very fun and interesting uh conversation with him, wrote it up for my fault line this week, so you can go read that if you want to kind of see exactly what he's talking about and saying on these things. And, you know, he's a criminal justice guy, and when I was talking to him about what his priorities are gonna be, you know, he said that a old high school coach had told him you you dance with what brung you, and so he's gonna be focusing on that a lot. Um, and he's he he's a very sharp, fun guy to talk to. He was telling me some of the stories of cases he had worked on, and uh man, if I didn't have to pick my job off the floor after he was done, I mean it's just crazy stuff. Like, you know, my dad was uh in law enforcement, so it's always interesting. Um and you know, like the true crime podcast stuff is a big boom, but man, when you really start hearing about how this stuff works and you know, going to crime scenes and finding bodies and all of that type of stuff, it's it's uh it's brutal, it's grisly, it's real. Um, and uh I think he's definitely gonna be somebody to watch this upcoming legislative session, especially on anything criminal justice. I would obviously expect him to get on some of those committees for sure. But uh yeah, it was a very, very fun, enjoyable conversation.

SPEAKER_02 39:43

So there was uh one case the um that you wrote about in there, the prosecution of the the Catholic, was it a bishop?

SPEAKER_01 39:52

Uh priest. Priest. Priest, yeah. Well that was one of the big biggest, you know, Ligan is himself Catholic, and one of the priests in Montgomery County had uh, you know, been uh molesting children. And so he actually goes and raids the Galveston Houston uh uh Catholic office for records and things of that stuff. It was a huge, huge issue. This is back in gosh, I think 2018 that this occurs. Um and uh it was a massive case, and eventually that that priest pleads guilty and got sentenced to ten years uh in prison. Um and during those press conferences, you know, he was uh saying he would go all the way to the Vatican if need be to bring people to justice on this stuff. So he's he's uh kind of cut from an older cloth when it comes to hard charging kind of prosecutors. So um and it'll be fun to see on in on the Senate floor.

SPEAKER_02 41:03

Yeah, yeah. He's not gonna be pushed around on something that he doesn't want to do.

SPEAKER_01 41:07

Uh such as legalized gambling. I didn't even bring that up. He brought that up. And he was telling me that whenever the card rooms from Harris County, you know, would come in and try to get into South Montgomery County and stuff, they would come and talk to him and they'll be like, you know, man, we do this in in Harris, we do this in Bear, we do this in Travis, we do it in Dallas, four counties, which he repeatedly brought up as issues on the state that he would be looking to fix, you know. Um, and he goes, he tells him, Well, you better just keep doing it there, because if you do it here, um, he would, to quote Jerry McGuire, you know, take your hopes and dreams and everything in between. And so that, you know, none of those card rooms ever opened up. But it was very funny when on the trail with uh uh Roy at that um stop in San Antonio, there were, you know, those games of chance in the bar right behind me from where I was taking pictures, uh, and then right next door was a card room. But um I when I asked Roy about his views on gambling, he very much came off as, you know, I'm against gambling as a concept. I have to look and study the law more on if these card houses effectively are in a loophole or if they are illegal. So I think his jury is still out on that specific question on the card houses, but definitely did not seem like he would be a fa a a friend to to gambling either.

SPEAKER_02 42:44

Well, and one more thing about Ligan, uh as it was told to me, you know, he's a devout Catholic. Um, you know, I heard he goes to mass every day or close to it. And after he prosecuted that priest, there were actually uh efforts to kick him out of the church, uh, or at least uh spurn him from coming anymore. And um wild stuff. Wild stuff.

SPEAKER_01 43:09

Um I could listen to him tell stories about cases all day.

SPEAKER_02 43:14

Okay, let's move on to another uh election-related item. The railroad commission race heated up quite a bit this week. Uh we saw a lot of officials publicly get off the sidelines on this race, and of course, it's incumbent railroad commissioner Jim Wright against uh former Tarrant County GOP chair Bo French. Uh Wright is very much the quieter, uh more uh regulatory, fo focused candidate. Bo French wants to come in and you know blow things up. That is that is his nature. And um he uh he has made the stopping the uh Islamification of Texas his top campaign priority. As oddly, Railroad Commission candidate. It doesn't really have much to do, although he has some answers about, some responses about how that plays in. But clearly he's playing into a bright red cultural issue that is playing heavily in the Republican primary. We've seen the Senate candidates talk about this. Of course, the uh the AG candidates, Chip Roy has now decided to start calling uh MAGA maze Mecca Maze. And um we'll see if that sticks, like MAGA Maze has stuck uh in the primary. But French is making this about much more than just an oil and gas regulatory agency. Yeah. Um and that scares the bejesus out of the oil and gas industry.

SPEAKER_01 44:46

Which, you know, to be fair, has a lot of connections with companies in the in the Middle East and stuff. So there's, you know, it's not just like, oh, I'm gonna like there's there's some industrial implications on that.

SPEAKER_02 44:59

Absolutely. And uh the state officials, uh, Greg Gabbott had already endorsed Jim Wright. We saw Dustin Burroughs and Dan Patrick publicly endorse him to uh this week. Uh we've seen the two other railroad commissioners, Wayne Christian and Christy Craddock, which I thought they had already endorsed, but apparently they had not, which is seems kind of odd. They didn't endorse their colleague in the primary. Um but they are now endorsing.

SPEAKER_01 45:28

And of course, Craddock was in a different race, and if you're you know, sure, that's true.

SPEAKER_02 45:32

That is true. Uh fair point. Um but the reason they're doing this now is the five alarm fire is kind of being sounded. And they um they clearly do not want French in there more than anything because he is a wild card. There's no telling what he's gonna do when he gets in there, uh, which is exactly how he likes it. And um they them in the industry very much do not want uh Bo French on the railroad commission. Um you know, they're looking for stability. Yes. There is um uh there is a kind of a donor fight happening on this where you have French, he's backed by Tim Dunn and and the Dunn apparatus. Uh one of Dunn's packs put in, I think, almost $400,000 into Wright's campaign, including ping for him to be on the link letter in the primary, which again, very effective strategy and use of money. Um But the reason they're going after Wright lies in a lawsuit that was filed, and even more so in a r uh oil and oil waste uh environmental regulation that was passed by the commission that that Wright spearheaded on the agency. Um after they passed that, there was a lawsuit uh against the the commission by uh I think it was a few companies, including CrownQuest, which is Tim Dunn's company. Uh it wasn't just him. I think Stasny's were involved as well, a couple others, but uh they did not like that rule. And they see an opportunity to get one of their guys on the commission. And French's family owns oil and gas interests, and and I think a company. Um, so it's not like he's a total stranger to the oil and gas industry. Um, but it's not like it, you know, Wayne Christian originally was a gospel singer. That doesn't qualify you to run for railroad commission, but he was a legislator for years dealing with these issues. So it's not like you have to be in the industry in order to serve on this agency. Um right, even he he has a non-traditional past in the industry dealing with uh oil and gas waste, the side of things there versus just you know a typical producer. So um it's a you don't have to just like you don't have to be an attorney to be the attorney general, you don't have to be an expert in the oil and gas industry to to serve on this.

SPEAKER_01 48:11

And so um you're telling me you don't have to be an expert in something that become a politician.

SPEAKER_02 48:17

I know, right?

SPEAKER_01 48:17

I'm hearing this now for the first time.

SPEAKER_02 48:19

Shocking. This shattering worldview from that. Yes. Uh so more on the donor fight, we're seeing um, you know, Dunn is on French's side. Kelsey Warren, who runs uh who owns energy transfer partners, one of the biggest natural gas companies, I think, in the in the country. And I think it's a might be a global company too, but uh headquartered here in Texas, he's a big donor, especially particularly to Greg Abbott. And he um he has funded along with Chevron the a group called the Texas Now Pack, which so far is the only group in the runoff that has purchased television advertising. I think it's upwards of half a million dollars that they purchased so far. Uh media advertising, I should say. One interesting wrinkle to the the buy that I saw on uh Ad Impact is that almost half of that chunk is in a radio buy for non-metro areas, specifically focusing on rural Republicans in this race. Apparently, that's where they think the um the rubber's gonna meet the road on who's gonna win this and who's not. So uh interesting, I thought, strategy there. And that was for which candidate? That was Texas Now Pack, which is supporting Jim Wright. Jim Wright, yeah. Uh I have not seen Bo French come up on the television or radio spending so far, but I you know he sent a bunch of mailers during the primary. He was on all these slate cards. If those slate cards run again, you can bet he's gonna be on those. Um there's more than just buying television, although it is the best way to reach the most number of people for the cheapest amount of money, which is why it's used so much. So um that race is is heating up and um it's fascinating, fascinating to watch. Uh as I have said previously, these are always the weirdest contests on the ballot for Railroad Commission. Uh, we talked about that in the primary, the field was odd, and you know, this this feels odd too. And you know, Bo French has a lot of quirks and and oddities. Well, Jim Wright, the reason he's in the a big reason he's in this uh seat to begin with is in 2020 he upset Ryan Sitton, and one of the the best advantages he had electorally was that he shared shares the name of a long-dead US House Speaker, and that gave him some name ID that he hadn't earned himself. Um so take it if you can get it, right?

SPEAKER_01 50:57

But um It's like that guy, what was it, Sam Houston that ran for was it Democrat lieutenant governor or something a few seconds back? There was a guy pretty recently his name was Sam Houston. Well, he didn't win, obviously. No, no, he didn't. It didn't win. But right did. You know, well name ID cuts both away.

SPEAKER_02 51:19

There's a lot of Sam Houston haters out there. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 51:21

Um he had a very turbulent career, very turbulent. Got kicked out as governor.

SPEAKER_02 51:26

He did. He did. I think his image is recovered though. Probably. I mean, the Sam Houston Bible was used at the Scotch's investiture uh this week. So I think it's the the cooties that occurred after the Civil War are uh are gone. Um okay, let's go to I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 51:47

If you read some of the uh reactions to the Virginia Supreme Court, oh yeah, let's talk that real quick ruling what came down today. So what happened today, as of Friday, is that the Virginia Supreme Court shot down the Democratic redistricting uh on the grounds that it violated the Virginia Constitution. Uh the details of that can be found in their ruling. Um but this is a massive blow in the national battle on who can redistrict more, quicker, better. Um, you know, obviously Democrats blame Texas for starting it. We've talked about this ad nauseum before, but it would have been a four-seat pickup for um national Dems, and now that's been obliterated, which means that as of right now, the Republicans are on the up nationally for the redistricting fight. And this is before uh a lot more of these southern states, Republican states, have been able to redraw and solidify their maps following this the US Supreme Court's ruling in Cala. And so uh things are moving fast, things are moving quick, and things are cutting Republicans' way, which they'll desperately need in this midterm if they're going to even come close to retaining the House representatives, which I think a lot of people have more or less uh you know, abandoned all hope of that. Um but very major development uh in the national battle there. And I know a lot of people in Texas probably in the Republican side breathed a a sigh of relief on that because it was looking like things are backfiring on Republicans pretty massively.

SPEAKER_02 53:44

And they were until they weren't. Until they weren't.

SPEAKER_01 53:47

It was all over until it was so bad. Yes. You know? Um the uh Cassie came in and she's rolling her eyes at our I say our my commentary. She it's always two people saying exactly to each other.

SPEAKER_02 54:02

Two people, yeah, that's the that's the meme. Um this is a family show, Brad. Yes, you're right. So after the you know, the the Virginia referendum narrowly passed, it almost failed, but it did pass. And then um then you have the ruling come down with the Supreme Court, also Texas's map f uh finally upheld, um, you know, it had been upheld temporarily until after this. Permanently upheld.

SPEAKER_01 54:33

Permanently upheld temporarily.

SPEAKER_02 54:35

Yes. Can you follow that? Uh and then you had this ruling come down where the Virginia Supreme Court said that in getting in passing this map, they violated the const the Virginia Constitution.

SPEAKER_01 54:47

Yeah, and I think the specific thing was because they did it during a special session in which that wasn't on the original call or something like that. I don't know. I think that was the There was also something about the timeline.

SPEAKER_02 54:59

I haven't been able to read it yet, but um what was supposed to be apparently a multi-year timeline was shrunk down to like six months.

SPEAKER_01 55:08

Because the referendum was in order to basically, you know, violate their rules sort of.

SPEAKER_02 55:16

Yeah, the top of Virginia, like other states, including Florida, had passed a uh anti-partisan gerrymandering amendment saying that you cannot draw districts for the sake of partisan gain. Texas has not done that, and that's why the map passed and was upheld. And so in order to get around that, Virginia tried to amend the Constitution to, just like California, to say, hey, this one time it's okay. And they did not adhere to the timeline. Uh the process on that. It was a process related to shit.

SPEAKER_01 55:47

You know, it all goes back to like this idea idea of like, oh, we're gonna click our heels and ban part like political partisanship from the most partisan thing. Yeah, we're gonna ban partisanship and partisan politics. Like, okay. How's George Washington how that went the first time around? Everybody has a bias. Everybody has one. So even on these non-partisan committees, like how like where does the And a lot of these non nonpartisan committees are made up of partisans? Yeah, they all nominally balanced turtles all the way down.

SPEAKER_02 56:23

Turtles all the way down. Uh partisanship all the way down. Um so where does that leave the GOP versus the Democratic Party? I think uh right now uh California is the only state that Democratic state that has redrawn to gain some seats back, and you might still see I think there was one more.

unknown 56:44

I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 56:44

Was there one more? I thought so. I I thought it was Virginia.

SPEAKER_01 56:48

No, there's like a small one. You know, because a lot of these, like especially in the Northeast, the Democrats don't have any more seats they can squeeze out.

SPEAKER_02 56:55

Like, well, yeah, that's well, that's an that's another part of this, is that the VRA had looking at this purely from a partisan perspective, the VRA affected the Republicans more than Democrats because the Republicans control more Southern states. Yeah. And Democrats control more northern states. And so where the VRA's limits were in place were in those states where Republicans control things and could, if they wanted to.

SPEAKER_01 57:23

Because when the VRA was passed, it very much was limiting Southern Democrats. Yes.

SPEAKER_02 57:29

Um there's just simply a lot more room left to gain for Republicans in this.

SPEAKER_01 57:35

And man, let me tell you, it was like the next day after that ruling pass.

SPEAKER_02 57:39

I thought like Florida had already Florida passed the map. Yep.

SPEAKER_01 57:43

I mean, these places moved quick.

SPEAKER_02 57:44

We'll see if that withstands judicial scrutiny, but I'm I I'm not hearing any of the objections that were occurring in Virginia after theirs. So there's got to be a difference process-wise there that Florida is not running afoul of. Uh, there is uh, of course, gonna be a lawsuit from Democrats on this, but it's just not the same documentary.

SPEAKER_01 58:05

It's a great time to be a lawyer.

SPEAKER_02 58:07

Yes. Okay, let's hit a couple last topics. Um I went to Waco this week and uh joined uh an event at Texas State Technical College. Uh it'd been planned in in the works for a while. Uh it was Governor Greg Abbott sitting next to Larry Fink of BlackRock, and they were announcing a $30 million uh gift from BlackRock's foundation for uh skilled trades education in Texas. And the first tranche was being given to TSTC in Waco. Um the that's of course a good thing the state is lacking these skilled trades, particularly electricians. There's a growing deficit for these this type of workforce, um, particularly as the state expands so rapidly. A lot of businesses are having trouble hiring. Um it's just there's a dearth of it. And so BlackRock's coming in with a big investment. This isn't the first time that they've done big things, big deals with Texas. You know, the back after the power grid collapse, Dan Patrick was on stage with Larry Fink talking about investing in uh thermal gas power plants uh because the state lacked enough dispatchable energy. You had Blackrock as one of the main components of the Texas Stock Exchange, and now this. And so financially and workforce-wise, those things stand on their own. But the most interesting part of this, in my mind, is that three or four years ago, this never would have happened because BlackRock was blacklisted by the state. And from a Republican's perspective, for very good reason. You know, BlackRock is the world's largest asset manager, and they had been put on uh the SB13 list of alleged fossil fuel boycotters. Now, BlackRock always maintained that they weren't boycotting fossil fuels, and they did maintain a massive investment uh both in money they manage and investment themselves in oil and gas companies in Texas. But the flip side of that is Republicans were accusing them of uh through saying one thing and in through the back door uh ushering in more ESG progressive type policies. Um of course the Attorney General's office is suing BlackRock over uh uh allegedly conspiring to close coal power plants. BlackRock denies any wrongdoing in that. The case is still ongoing. We have not seen any any developments uh uh BlackRock related. They are fighting it. We saw one, was it Vanguard, I think, settled with the AG's office on this. I thought it was State Street on the street. State Street, one of the other things.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:05

They sued three, they sued Vanguard, State Street, and BlackRock for conspiring uh because together they own a majority of like the coal and with their climate agreement stuff, they were saying they were going to slash coal production over you know X amount of years and et cetera, et cetera, which would have driven up coal.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:26

And we'll see where the court falls on that. But it goes well beyond that. You know, the you know BlackRock is a multinational company, they're trying to uh appease policies in all countries so they can operate and make money, you know, over in these very progressive left uh European countries that have these mandates about signing a climate pledge, uh, about uh not taking uh not investing in any uh fossil fuel um uh companies, you know, all this stuff, they they also have to try and not have run afoul of state laws, state laws that are drafted and passed by Republicans. So it's a tricky balance. Well, they also probably rake it in. Um I have to imagine they get paid a pretty penny in order to do their job.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:21

Um I guess we'll have to change that term now that we don't have pennies anymore.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:25

Oh yeah. R.I.P. pennies. Rip. It's a shame. So this event in Waco was kind of a culmination of a nifty nickel, perhaps.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:39

Doesn't have the same ring.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:40

No.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:42

I'm sorry, I'm not gonna be able to pay. I hate anything else that you talk about, because I'm just gonna be thinking about the loss of Pretty Penny.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:50

Well, you think about that while I finish this segment. It is a culmination of a real PR effort, a relationship repair effort with lawmakers uh on part of BlackRock, and also it takes two to tango on part of uh elected officials like Greg Abbott, who at one point, I think it was in 22, celebrated the fact that BlackRock got put on this uh fossil fuel boycotters list. And so um it's a wild comeback story from a company that had about as sordid a name as you could have in Republican politics in Texas. Um, you know, they're off the list. They are uh that was one of the last things that Glenn Hager did as Comptroller was take them off the list. Um they're now having events with Greg Abbott, with Dan Patrick. Um, you know, it's a it's a marked political shift, I think. And one of the things in judging that that you cannot overlook is that when the breaks between state leaders and BlackRock occurred, the Biden administration was running the federal government and setting policy that BlackRock then had to comply with in order to maintain good standing in whatever it is they were uh operating. And so the um now the dynamic has changed, and you have the Trump administration uh much less hostile to oil and gas. Um and it just we'll see if you get a dumb democratic administration that pushes the issue on this. What happens then? Are we right back at that uh Marshall, the December 22 Marshall hearing um where the Senate Senate State Affairs Committee just brought BlackRock and others forward and just lambasted them for hours on end um over their ESG policies. Will we return to that? Maybe, maybe not. We'll see. But it is a remarkable shift, I think, um looking back at because I've been covering this this whole time. Uh back when I was at the Texan, it started with SB13, continued on, and now everyone's singing kumbaya and holding hands. It's pretty interesting, I think.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:11

So true.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:12

Yeah. You're Richie's fading. Uh we're not gonna, I think we're well over time, so we're not gonna talk the RPT chair race. We'll get that next week. Um It's not going anywhere. That's no, no, and if anything, it'll probably get more interesting, I think. We'll have more material to work with.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:27

And we'll be down there live on the ground.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:29

We will. So if you're there, come say hi. Um pull us aside, buy us a drink, hopefully.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:36

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:38

And it's the best idea you've had all day.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:40

And make sure you go to the Texas Bullpen.com forward slash subscribe for the price of one martini a month or one steak dinner a year. You're buying really expensive martinis. Well, let me tell you, man, ever since the straight closed.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:54

The straight. Oh. I think isn't it reopened now? I have no idea. I have no idea it. Changes by the day. It changes by the truth, social posts. It's not in Texas, so that's true. So it doesn't matter. It has no bearing on us whatsoever. Zero. Zero. Thanks y'all for listening. We'll catch you next week.