Texas Bullpen Podcast
Listen to the weekly Texas Bullpen podcast to stay up to date on all things Texas politics with hosts Brad Johnson, Jonathan Richie, and Cassi Schredder, along with special guests.
Texas Bullpen Podcast
Fear and Loathing in Houston - Episode 33
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Ragged and tattered, the guys check in from the 2026 Texas GOP Convention in Houston. They recap the biennial event, the result of the chair's race, and the elephant in the room (literally).
Well maybe, I don't know, be better.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Maybe I should run for chair.
SPEAKER_00You should, yeah. What did that mean? Let's let's start that.
SPEAKER_02Well, well, well, welcome to another episode of the Texas Bullpen Podcast. We're sorry we're a day late. It's because we have been down in Bayou City, down in Houston, for the uh state Republican convention, and man has it been a time and a half, I would say. Um now uh Brad is sitting here, he's going to be mostly just here to look pretty, a little window dressing, because uh we have been burning the candle on both ends and in the middle, and as I think I said the other week on the podcast, you know, hooping is a is a gateway uh drug to hollering. We've been hollering. We have been hooping and hollering. We've been having uh a little uh a few too many late nights, and Brad here lost his voice the first day, and we still we've looked all over. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00It goes in and out. It clearly doesn't sound good, but yeah. We'll see how uh we'll see how I muddle through this.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah. Um, you know, we uh called state authorities, there's a bolo out for Brad's voice. Yep. We've been pumping him full of honey and tea, and it has been doing nothing. And uh you might be hearing some things in the background as we're talking because we're still in the convention hall right now. Yeah. So, but let's go through, I guess, the top lines of convention. So the big three was here. Obviously, Republicans are very nervous and concerned about November this year, energized Democrats, it's a Trump midterm. Last time this happened, 2018, you know, the old song and Dan's. We've all talked about this already. But this convention was really uh if there was going to be a word to be used to describe the messaging, it was unity.
SPEAKER_00Well it that word was probably used a thousand times. A thousand times. And yeah, I mean Republicans are trying to get on the same page going into November, which at least all the electeds know is gonna be very difficult. And basically this was them trying to pitch to the activists, the the ones that are involved in this party heavily the party base. Party base, that this is gonna be difficult. Get with the program and let's uh from the Republican perspective, all get in line behind everybody, whether you elect them or not in the primary, and vote down ticket Republican to avoid as many losses as possible in six months.
SPEAKER_02And they really pulled out all the stops. I mean, uh you know, one of the the I think most viral moments from convention was Governor Abbott at the end of his speech brought out a massive elephant, a live, living elephant that very uh not petite, I guess we could say 9,000 pounds is what I was told. Yeah, in terms of elephant, quite large. Um lot of elephant in the room, and w w as it was walking out, it parked right by the press um cage, the press kennel, and just unloaded. Um it took a big tinkle. It looked like a fire hose. I mean that thing was pouring.
SPEAKER_00Maybe there's some symbolism in that.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, well, that's pissing right by the debate, you know, because the Republicans, I mean the Democrats immediately were like, you know, this is you know the most fitting thing, and then Abbott hit back with uh, you know, little meme of you know, the elephant pissing on Democrat Party, you know, and it's it's been a chat for tat. And then they brought the elephant over here just right behind us. And um everybody took pictures with it and stuff, and it was uh uh you know. It was a big hit. It was a big hit.
SPEAKER_00People loved it. People loved it. And you know, as far as his speech went, Abbott uh received probably the best reception. Um, Ken Baxton notwithstanding back Baxton's speech was a lot shorter, um remarks a lot less detailed. Abbott, as he usually does, goes through basically a bunch of policy points um carefully selected to get applause, and but also doing it while rolling out priorities for him. Yeah. One of the things that stuck out to me was first of all, it came out for closed primaries. I think that was the first uh time publicly he had said that, at least made a big show of it. Uh he also, and they're right now they're going through, I think, the the blo the platform legislative priorities over in the other room. He asked the delegates to put his property tax plan on the list of legislative priorities. Not just property tax reform, his plan. Yeah. So he's laying the groundwork for the fight next year with the with other lawmakers and maybe the lieutenant governor over uh strategies of property tax reform. So uh Abbott was very well received. This was the first time he's spoken at a convention uh on the main stage instead of having a competing event across the street uh since 2018, at least in person. He did a video in 24.
SPEAKER_02But and prior to the convention, there was a lot of discussion and you know, deliberation about who was going to get booed. Yeah. You know, and everybody remembers John Cornyn, uh, you know, R.I.P. uh him getting booed at the state convention, and that really was used to to springboard Paxton's run against him, and really the turn of the party against him, and nobody wanted that type of scene. Abbott, no booze. Uh Lieutenant Governor Patrick, also, no booze, very well received. He announced his uh brand new uh way of campaigning, which uh is just using AI in ads.
SPEAKER_00He like had this time traveler uh leather jacket on and well the you know, one of the reasons this is at least notable enough is that um Patrick has had kind of the same type of ads his entire time running for office, features the red truck that actually he sold off and he got a new fancy muzzle car. But um uh dark green Mustang. He had been very uh uh stuck not you know, stuck in his ways, kind of on the at least the kinds of ads he runs. Well, he's changing it up. Uh he's going with AI, he came out in a leather jacket and a turtleneck, black turtleneck, and he called it his time travel outfit. And coincidentally, he was wearing the same outfit in the ads he played.
SPEAKER_02So And I don't know how he was wearing the same outfit, like in two different places at the same time. He really really must have time travel.
SPEAKER_00He had an ad that he went back to colonial America fighting the British, the Alamo, and then there was one other one, I forget, I forget what it was, but it is it that big?
SPEAKER_02I don't know. Well, he's not the first one to do AI ads, you know. Which is the first time he's doing AI ads. I mean, we saw some abominable AI ads in the Senate primary. You know, you had the one of uh Cornyn that ran, and it was like the B-52's love shack, and it had this character that didn't really look like Ken Paxton. Like partying in his like I and then, you know, Paxton ran one of uh Cornan dancing with Jasmine Crockett based off of comments he had made about Jasmine Crockett being his favorite dance partner in Congress. And uh, you know, we just see we we started to see this a lot more, but now it has the official Dan Patrick stamp of approval. So we're gonna be building more data centers.
SPEAKER_00You know what it kind of reminded me of? The the closing end of Patrick's ad was the old Colbert show intros, where it has the eagle screaming as he put crosses his arms. That's what it reminded me of. Um but you know, while Patrick didn't get booed, you know who did? Uh, not not quite, not the one you're gonna mention. Uh his son. His son. Ryan Patrick, uh now head of TLR, he got um gave a speech. It was like five-minute remarks, and uh he was getting heckled. But I have to be honest. It wasn't like it was nowhere near corn.
SPEAKER_02It was a handful of people, is what it sounded like.
SPEAKER_00And it was kind of an empty room, so the people that were booing stuck out more. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02And he got like a resounding applause, you know. It it wasn't as bad of a reception as I think I was expecting for them. Um and you know, you very f you know, funny dynamics here behind us on the uh pr you know booth convention space floor because you know you have the TLR and you also have Texans against TLR. Rattler. Rattler. Republicans Republicans against TLR, yeah. Um so yeah, they're they're having their little fight going on of different sparring groups out here because you've got the abortion people as well, then you have the lawsuit reform people, and uh, you know, very uh very fun dynamics. They had competing events too.
SPEAKER_00Well, for TLR, this was a a deliberate um, you know, there's a they're trying to r repair their image among uh the section of of the grassroots who A even knows about them, because I guarantee you most of the attendees here have never heard of TLR. They've never heard of Rattler. They don't know about the the tort reform fight that is happening in the legislature. But it it's become enough of a problem for them that they need to combat it, and that this is part of that. Uh Patrick gets his his five minute speech. Also, his mic was cutting in and out, which I could tell was frustrating him. I would it would piss me off too if I'm giving a speech.
SPEAKER_02But um it's you know, honestly, uh you know, we we say it was Ryan, but how do we know that's not Dan Patrick time traveling to do it? You know, I gotta say, they look I mean spitting image and they sound the same too. S sounds very similar to how, you know, you would think Dan Patrick would talk, you know, if he was thirty years younger. Um so it was very interesting. Now we've talked about two out of three of the big three so-called three. Yep. Um not big in terms of elephant, but you know, terms of power. Um that's what they say, at least. You know, we're just reporting the news. Yeah. We're just reporting the news. And Burroughs, however, House Speaker Burroughs, he did get booed a more considerable amount than probably anybody else.
SPEAKER_00Oh, yeah, certainly. But it also did not reach cordon levels, not even close. Um they also okay, so I was in the front middle section listening to this speech. And Brad, not a back row baptist, he's a front and center. Um First of all, that was the section there was strategically placed because that was his home Senate district. So that had to be deliberate. There's no way that wasn't. There's no way that was happenstance. Um and then Burroughs plays a video, an intro, that's really just five minutes, or maybe it wasn't even that long, but uh a few minutes of him uh touting his his maganus and touting the Trump endorsement of him. And I thought it was particularly uh notable and and I thought kind of funny. Um they they had clips from Texas Scorecards, Brandon Walton's his uh daily show he does, where he runs through the news, about Burroughs getting endorsed by Trump. Uh, you know, here, um, especially among the crowd that does not like Burroughs for the reason that of his election being elected by majority Democrats, um, and for for whom that is the original sin still, uh, a lot of those people read and follow Texas scorecard. And so he has uh poor Brandon was sitting right next to us uh in the the media row and uh he's like, Yeah, I couldn't believe that uh believe that when I saw it. He said I wasn't even in there to see it, but I heard about it. Um it's pretty funny the the level of strateger that went into this.
SPEAKER_02Yes. A lot big big strateger.
SPEAKER_00Yes, and Burroughs he he starts talking, which, you know, first of all, this is the first speaker since Craddock to speak at Republican Party Convention. And so I you know, he he knew he was gonna get booed. He said as much in a tweet afterward, he acknowledged it.
SPEAKER_02Uh the question was how much we know for sure that they were booing him because of the speaker thing, or is it because of the uh what he's doing with Texas Tech? You keep trying to make that happen. No, I don't think so. Um I mean, how do we know?
SPEAKER_00How do we know? I I guess you I guess we don't know.
SPEAKER_02It's you know, that's becoming uh Unfalsifiable because you know, to summarize, right? Burroughs is on the legal team, Brin Sorsby, the quarterback who was gambling and got, you know, uh uh suspended by the NCAA and recently got reinstated with two-game suspension by the the district court. Uh that's going to appeals. Speaker Burroughs is on the legal team representing him, and then now everybody's like, what's going on? Blah, blah, blah. This is ruining uh college sports. Ken Paxton sends a letter to the Big 12 being like, hands off our schools, or I'm gonna like take you in the back alley and like nice. Shoot you. Yeah. And then Oklahoma's attorney general now sends a letter to the Big 12 being like, I'm gonna be on y'all's side if old Kenny P tries to do something. And now we have a true Red River rivalry.
SPEAKER_00Um you know it's it's funny that perhaps the thing that takes down this grand GOP unity push is college football. It's college football. The the thing that's actually more partisan than politics.
SPEAKER_02The only thing more partisan than politics is college football in the South.
SPEAKER_00I mean, this is we're not just the South, it's a the entire country, but But we're special. I'm from Big Ten Country. I'm not saying it's it's as uh you know uh vicious, but it's cool. It's almost up there. I mean born and bred in the Michigan Ohio State rivalry, that's pure hatred. Biggest rivalry in the country in all of sports. I don't give a dang what you say about Red River rivalry. It is. And uh I'm gonna take you out back and cheese you. You know what? With with how my voice is feeling right now, I wish you would do that.
SPEAKER_02It sounds like you're shooting my ears the more I talk to you. And listeners. And I mean, you know, yeah. So okay. We're getting distracted from Burroughs.
SPEAKER_00Burroughs. So um, you know, I I think it's for someone to willingly go into a, you know, uh possibly hostile environment knowingly, uh it takes courage. And so I think um, you know, tip your hat to them because I think we need more we need to see more of that. Yeah, what is that? We need to see the medal of politicians when they are in an unfriendly environment.
SPEAKER_02The uh It was definitely a unified front from all of the major players in Texas politics to you know kind of do a you know direct advance on this party apparatus and be like, we're here, we're doing it, we're using it. And we have we're going to remind you, very forcefully, that we're all on the same team and you're on our team. Yeah. You know? And by and large that worked. The one place that didn't work though was at the chair race.
SPEAKER_00Well, hold on, let's not get to that point because I want to I have more uh stuff to say about the Burrow speech. Okay, go ahead. Sorry to go ahead. It was a good that was a good uh transition. Well done. It was a good second. Um so a couple interesting things that I saw and heard. There were booze, particularly at the back, uh where it was a lot louder, but you couldn't really hear it up in the front. Also had to be strategic. Uh putting the uh quote problem children in the back. Um so that's where I grew up. Yes, in the back. Uh because you are a problem child. Obviously. So there were a couple points where there were some hecklers on the flanks up in the front, and I thought it was very interesting how he raised his voice when you started hearing some of the heckling, and it drowned it out. You couldn't couldn't really hear it. Um and then one other point about it, a lot of the House members, House Republicans, were standing on the side, and as the heckle started, they all like deployed throughout the front area applauding, trying, you know, gin up some some applause. And he did get some applause lines. Like there was a clear mix of jeers and cheers i during this speech.
SPEAKER_02Anything else you want to rhyme with that?
SPEAKER_00Beers?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00I've had too many of those this week. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02Maybe while we have not gone to sleep before 2 a.m. each night.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. I mean it's amazing we got all of our newsletters in.
SPEAKER_02Ah, there were some that were very close. Very close to not making it. But you know, our motto here is the boys won again, you know.
SPEAKER_00And we have. We have. We might have lived across the finish line, but we won.
SPEAKER_02Man, we might have been carrying each other across the finish line like it was Omaha Beach or something. But we made it.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and so the the stuff I've seen online about getting him getting boo off the stage, it's just flat out not true. His speech ended and he walked off. Um it's like it's just the lunacy of some of the stuff I've seen. To applause. Um so I'm you know went probably about as he expected it would. Yeah. And about as well as they could hope for. It did not go off the rails. And I think that says a lot about where things have gone from a Republican-only perspective. Of course, all of this may be hurting him with the other side, but from a Republican-only perspective shows how much work's been done by all the big officials to everybody get on the same page and kind of wrap their arms around one and another. Like Dan Patrick, in his speech, he uses his speech, part of it, to uh compliment and tout Burroughs, who he knows is gonna come right after him and get booed. So um it's it's been a team effort for them. Um I think they all they're all pretty happy. Uh, even the the elephant pissing on the floor, as symbolic as that may be for whatever, uh, you know, it it caused laughs and they say they all seem very happy. And you know, the other thing about this, and this kind of leads us into the chair race. This whole thing, maybe until yesterday with the elephant, but from a drama perspective, it's been very underwhelming.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And now, of course, I'm comparing it to 24 when it was nothing but freaking drama. Whether it was the chair race or all the other fights going on, or the fact that it was literally right after that very contentious primary. Um it's uh it's just been rather quiet, I'd say. Uh there was one fight that popped off in an SD committee about two Muslim delegates who were accused of having care tie ties to care. Um there some of the delegates were attempting to boot them out of the delegate pool. Didn't happen. Um there was an attempt to broaden the reach of Rule 44, which is the censure. That was voted down both in committee and I think on the floor. Uh so you know, from a legislative perspective, things have not changed on that front. Um it it's it's pretty much exactly where it was.
SPEAKER_02And there's still time for drama, but by and large, it's been much more of a coom by all.
SPEAKER_00Well, and you know, one of the reasons, one of the big reasons that there's been a lot less trauma is because of the chair race. Yeah, it ended like that. I mean, it uh Durinda Randall will be the next, or is now as this goes out, is the next Republican Party of Texas chair defeating Abraham George in a landslide in the Senate caucuses. Um, I was bouncing around between them trying to uh get the votes, and people were texting me the results of of ones I wasn't in, and it was just Randall blowing up the scoreboard. Um, there was one point I I tweeted it out, uh, it was actually probably 20 minutes before George conceded, and um it was ten di Senate districts for Randall, one for George, like it wasn't even close. Whereas last time we went to the floor and it was a heated contest. Um didn't really know which way it was gonna go. George had the advantage going onto the floor, but Myers still had a shot, and Dana Myers, who was the second place candidate back in uh two years ago, uh it wasn't it wasn't the same this time, it was a blowout. Uh and now Durinda Randall and David Covey, who is her vice chair, take over the party, which is an interesting turn of events uh for David Covey, um uh particularly With where the the alliances fell in this chair race. You know, the George had all the big endorsements. He had Ken Paxton, he had literally everybody Dan Patrick. Um I don't know if Abbott, I don't think Abbott picked a side in it, but he had all the big ones. And uh it it didn't work. And I think the biggest reason why is that those people were not whipping votes for Abraham George and caucuses, whereas the people that were endorsing Durinda Randall were. Yeah. Like Robin Armstrong, the longtime RNC committee man for the party. It worked. They had whereas in 24, George had the better operation, uh uh the better vote whipping operation. This time it seemed to be Randall and it paid off.
SPEAKER_02Elections are mechanical things. And if you're not doing the mechanics, then it's not necessarily surprising when when you lose.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. So um, you know, a couple other observations about the chair race. I think there was uh there was a bit of one of the lower played components of this, of the result. I think there was a bit of revenge taken by some of these house reps who were quietly behind the scenes working their Senate caucuses against George as uh revenge for the censure situation. Now, Durinda Randall, I don't think I think I'm pretty sure she would agree with the censure stuff, but she didn't do it. And so there was a bit of that. Um that was not one of the bigger components, but it was an interesting dynamic that I saw hat play out. Also, there was just a lot of uh some disorganization. You know, anytime you have this big of an event, it's really hard to get keep everything the trains on time, keep things moving smoothly. I heard complaints though from people, and Tony Ortiz, uh, shout out current revolt, um, he uh put out a video and he was talking, he was doing man on the street things, uh discussions with people, and one woman was she's he asked her who she was supporting, she said Randall, and he asked why, and she goes, Well, it it took too long for me to register online. Apparently there were some problems with that. Is that a technological competency problem or is that a setup problem? I don't know for sure, but regardless, that got into the bloodstream. There were frustrations. There were, yeah, frustrations. Yeah. Yeah. Frustrations, yeah.
SPEAKER_02Frustrations.
SPEAKER_00And uh that that kind of thing, that hurts you. You know, look back at James Dickey when he lost to Alan West in 20. And uh the the biggest reason why is because it was a crap show of a convention because it was online.
SPEAKER_02Because of COVID.
SPEAKER_00Because of COVID. And so um it that sunk him, and then this is uh one part of it that sunk George. And um, you know, we saw him at the at the hotel bar last night, and looked very relaxed. Yep, he seemed like for the first time in a long while he was relieved. Um it it's not fun being the party chair. It's one of those thankless jobs. Yeah. Frankly, I don't know why anyone wants to do it, but hey, God bless the people that do because it gives us something to cover. Yeah. It's all about us.
SPEAKER_02It is. And and that's what, you know, brings me back to a point I like to really highlight is, you know, as all this stuff's happening, people really don't take us into consideration enough. No. You know, they really don't orient their their ways around like what would be nice and helpful for us. You know, the fact that things are starting before 11, 12 o'clock at these things is really, I mean, it's I don't know. It's more of a you probably think once in the planning of the Texas uh GOP convention, they thought, how will this impact Jonathan Ritchie?
SPEAKER_00No, they certainly did not take that in notice.
SPEAKER_02It shows, I think. It shows.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah. Well, maybe, I don't know, be better. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Maybe I should run for chair.
SPEAKER_00You should, yeah.
SPEAKER_01What did that mean?
SPEAKER_00Let's let's start that. Um everyone.
SPEAKER_01We'd like to thank the sponsor of today's podcast, the Lowy Law Firm. For over 20 years, Adam Lowy has helped injured Texans recover and heal. From car accidents to dog bites, Adam Lowy is there to help and get 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_00But now you have let's talk about Randall for a bit. You have her taking over this party. Who is the current vice chair? Current vice chair, yep. Or was, I guess. You have a a leadership change in the middle of a contentious election. Is that gonna affect anything? Can Randall raise money? Now, there's a lot of people who said that George couldn't raise money. I don't think any party chair, the way things currently are, is gonna be able to effectively raise money because the donors don't want to give the party money. They give it to they don't trust them. They give the candidates the money, they give PACs the money, and that's it. They're not giving the party money. Um it I just I don't see how that changes with this. So what's the the national guys, they give the money to the victory committee.
SPEAKER_02Yep.
SPEAKER_00They don't give it to the party itself. What can what is the party trusted with, or what is it useful for at all at this point, other than just hosting a uh biennial convention. Yeah. Um put that on a t-shirt. So uh you know, we've got the Democratic one coming up in two weeks. Down in Corpus. I think we're gonna see You better not lose your voice to that one. I know, it's God willing. Um I think we'll see a lot more energy at that one than we've seen in a long time. Um it won't it still won't reach the level of numbers of attendance, probably, that we have here.
SPEAKER_02But I will say, I I think the general vibe and energy has been pretty good at this conference. Like, I don't know, I'm I'm comparing this a lot to like CPAC when I went up there. And that's a little bit of a different thing, right? That's like a political outside group. But I remember the vibes there being very off and weird. Uh and it wasn't as like packed in. Like people seem excited to be here, I think. You know, and there's obviously like people, like there's functions happening, and you know, we were walking down the hall listening to people, and one guy goes, If I hear unity one more time, I'm gonna friggin' smack them across their face. Like he was over it. Well, yeah, what'd he say after that? He said, uh, we've been unified, it's you that are the problem, talking about like the party leadership. Um maybe it's a little skewed because a lot of our time has been spent at the hotel bars, uh, and the vibes are always good there.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Um I mean it well it's it's been great the reception here for us. It's been great. Great to see all the people.
SPEAKER_02We've gotten to meet a lot of subscribers and followers, and that's been lovely and wonderful. Um, and uh everybody's been super nice to us, which is a lot of different things.
SPEAKER_00It's nice to put faces to names that you know we see we haven't we haven't seen before um or haven't seen in a long time, and good chatting with a lot, especially at the hotel bar, but even just in the halls here, um chatting with people that's uh probably why you lost your voice, you're too busy saying hi. I know, gosh. This never happened to me before. I'm I'm down bad.
SPEAKER_02Down bad baddie down.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it is the vibes are are are low right now.
SPEAKER_02Vibes are high. The the the spirit is willing, the flesh is weak. There you go. You know, can I get an amen?
SPEAKER_00Amen. There was I thought it was hilarious that um before Abbott, this gospel choir. You know, keep in mind, this is the Republican Party of Texas Convention. It is probably 75% old white people. Uh they're not regulars at black churches, but it looked like a Sunday service at a black church on stage before Greg Abbott spoke. Um and it was just it was hilarious, I thought. Um and then you had, I forget his name, but he's a uh a frequent character with the Abbott's uh Abbott Allies. He uh runs a uh a school, a private school, I b I believe, I think out in East Texas. He's been a big face for the uh education savings account stuff. He did the same thing, uh almost the same thing. He wasn't singing, but he was basically he was pounding the pulpit about Abbott, and uh it was just it was it was hilarious, I thought. Um especially if you look back at look at the crowd. But they were they were loving it. Yeah, a lot of people were loving it. So um yeah, another successful pilgrimage to the hallways of politics for us, I'd say.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, deep into the heart of the Texas GOP in search of the American dream and the Texas miracle.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, anything else we gotta talk about? Uh there was an interesting development on the data centers. I'll just quickly mention that. Yeah. Abbott put out guidance. Um really it was just political cover for the agencies to uh who are taking it from both sides um of this of this bruising fight, and um directed ERCOT PUC to uh set rules that require data centers to pay for their own power, pay for the cost of infrastructure and connecting to the grid, yeah, and um to set up a system that reduces rate pay, well, ratepayers pay. Yeah. How what's that gonna look like? I have no freaking idea. I don't think anybody has any idea at the moment, but they're gonna start thinking about that as we build up to next session, when that is clearly gonna be the red-hot political issue that the legislature has to tackle.
SPEAKER_02Another thing, uh after their speeches, both the governor and lieutenant governor swung by, got to talk to them for a little while, and during Patrick's speech, probably should have brought this up, but it just came to mind because there's been developments on this, he referred to two Republicans who haven't gotten on team since the primary, two guys that lost. And he and he referenced Sid Miller on stage. Yep. Um, and then I asked him about it afterwards, and he, you know, confirmed he was talking specifically about Sid Miller and John Cornyn. And he called them sore losers. And specifically on Miller, he said it was sad, and he highlighted that Miller has done at least one event with the Democratic nominee for ad commissioner over data center stuff. Um, and so he's like, he's out there campaigning with Democrats. Last night, uh Patrick and Miller had a phone call and basically patched it up, is what Patrick said this morning. Umity. Yeah, unity. Unity. Um bringing in Sid back in from from you know off the off the reservation. Back onto the reservation? Back onto the reservation. Um Corning, however, I uh you know tweeted out some of Patrick's statement.
SPEAKER_00You starting some some stuff.
SPEAKER_02Oh man, we love some pot starting, you know. Just starting that chili pot. Um how long did it take you to type that tweet out since your thumbs are? A long time. A long time. It was a long tweet. It was, and I had to go back, and I mean, uh for those of you who don't know, this is actually way too much personal information. Have we talked? We've talked about this on the show. And I'm sure we've referenced it, but my um my uh thumbs don't bend all the way. I don't have the joints here and here, like at the end. So as I'm like trying, if you ever see me at an event, and a lot of people have seen it today, where I'm standing there scowling at my phone, like starting to mutter to myself, and like you know, you start seeing steam come out of my ears, it's because I'm trying to tweet something and I can't spell the words correctly. And people are like, well, Jonathan, just do voice text. Have you listened to the podcast? I can't speak normal anyway. And then if I try to voice text it, it gets it wrong, and then I have to go back, and it's more difficult to fix it. It's it's horrible. It makes me crash out. Um people don't understand. Breaking news.
SPEAKER_00Jonathan Rich does have a defect.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I'll stop. You're gonna make me blush. Um, so yeah, anyways, I get that tweet out. Cornyn doubles down. He says Patrick's just scared uh that he's gonna lose November and he should be. Cornyn has had pretty sour grapes and he's kind of big, been like negative Nelly on the Republicans. He is upset, obviously, that he got smoked by Paxton in the primary, 27 points. And he's not letting them forget that, and he's continuing to stand by his both criticisms of Paxton, he's now starting to criticize uh President Trump a little bit more. Um, and he is continuing to say that the nomination of Paxton threatens Republicans' chances in Texas. That's been his case that was one of his big cases during the primary itself. And he hasn't he hasn't let it go. So while Sid Miller and Patrick have made up, Cornyn is still the outlaw outcast of the Republican Party of Texas right now.
SPEAKER_00You've been thinking about that one for a while, haven't you?
SPEAKER_02Well, it's in the newsletter this morning.
SPEAKER_00Oh, okay. I didn't read that section, apparently. Um this stuff about unity, after how much infighting there's been for the last, let's say, four or five years, there's gonna be a limit to the the amount of unity you can speak into existence. And of course there are gonna be, you know, there are a lot of bad things, horrible things said about Corny. Corn's side said a lot of horrible things about Paxton. Of course they all hate each other. Of course. And so breaking news. Yeah, and it's no surprise, really. Um, we'll see. Can they can they remain on the wagon together? Or does somebody get pushed off? I don't know. With that, I mean my my voice is going, so we shouldn't.
SPEAKER_02I don't know. So, well, it's been good. Uh we're sorry about Brad's uh voice, but um we I think it was pretty good through most of it. Oh yeah, yeah. I I I was sitting here thinking that it almost sounds like it's getting better. So, you know, the spirit is moving. God willing. God willing. Uh we're uh wish everybody safe travels back from uh convention wherever you're going. Safe travels, everybody going out to uh Corpus in a few weeks, and we will catch you guys next time.