In the December 14 episode, Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett discusses the internal polling that helped her decide to enter the race for U.S. Senate, reshaping the 2026 Democratic primary. State Senator Paul Bettencourt explains why a plan to lower the age at which Texans could enjoy senior property tax exemptions from 65 to 55 is “transformative.” And U.S. Senator John Cornyn on why he’s asking for stringent vetting procedures for all Afghan nationals who’ve entered the country since 2021.
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Straight ahead, Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett campaigning in Houston this weekend. What is her plan for earning votes in rural Texas? Will she ask Colin Allred for an endorsement? And what does Crockett have to say about the new Marjorie Taylor Greene? Two weeks away from the cost of health insurance, likely rising for millions of Texans, Democrats and Republicans with very different ideas on how to handle it.
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US Senator John Cornyn with us from DC. And Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick with a bold plan to address property taxes again. State Senator Paul Betancourt lays it out for us.
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Inside Texas Politics with Jason Whiteley starts now.
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Thanks for being here. I'm Jason Whiteley. Let's start the program here with the latest political headlines across the state. The Democratic race for US Senate is set, and it could be an expensive one. It's Jasmine Crockett versus James Tallarico, as you've heard by now, now that Allred is out of the race. Crockett's one of the best fundraisers in Congress with $4.5 million cash on hand right now. Tallarico has a little more, almost $5 million in the bank, but she still leads him in the latest polls.
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For the first time in more than 30 years, Texas Democrats have recruited candidates for every single position in the state legislature and in Congress. The Texas Democratic Party used to let a few dozen of these seats go uncontested. Been that way since '94, the party said, but not this year. Texas Democrats recruited 104 candidates to run for office, the first time in decades that's happened, the chairman said.
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And Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick with another bold plan to address property taxes in this state. Patrick said he wants to reduce the age limit for the homestead exemption, the senior homestead exemption, from 65 down to 55. That's when property taxes would be frozen. He also wants to increase the homestead exemption for everyone else up to $180,000. Let's begin right now with with the Democratic race for US Senate. Jasmine Crockett in Houston this weekend spinning up her statewide campaign.
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She is our first guest taking our questions and everything from her connection in rural Texas to Marjorie Taylor Greene. Congresswoman, welcome back to the program. You told us, uh, last time we spoke that if polls show you can win, then you would run, but there isn't a single public-facing poll that shows you beating any of the three Republicans. So what do the internal polls say and where do you see a path to victory? Yeah,
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so we do have internal polls. I don't like to necessarily show my hand, but Uh, I wouldn't jump into this large of a race just because, uh, so I will say that confidently, uh, we do have polling that shows me ahead, um, but so as to not give, uh, a specific candidate anything to talk about, I'd rather not, it just doesn't make sense. Listen, this is not. Uh, a game of checkers.
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This is a game of chess, and according to our polling, we were able to excite that very coalition that we would need to not only just have what the general poll is saying, but maybe even expand those numbers a little bit in case the general polling is a little off, which we've seen here and there, specifically in the state of Texas.
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You're well known among Democrats, you're popular with progressives. Uh, probably less so though with Texas independents, and those independents, as you know, though, lean conservative here in this state. What's your plan to go meet them?
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Yeah, listen, I think you just talk about the real issues. I mean, you can decide that you're gonna vote for a DRR because it's just kind of what makes sense or you can decide that you're gonna vote for somebody that understands the struggle of the farmer and the rancher or what it is to live in rural Texas because that's actually where I began my political career was in East Texas where I still own property and so I know what it is to Wake up and smell um the paper plants. I know what it is when there's a threat about shutting down the tire plant.
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I know what it is when you don't have those specialists right there in your area and you have to travel to Dallas to go see a specialist. So I understand these things, I always have. The last point that I'll make is that I received an email specifically from a man. I looked at it this morning and I think I'm gonna keep looking at this email from Mark. And this was an email from a man named Mark that lives in Texas, and he was asking me to run for Senate. So this is prior to me getting in the race.
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And Mark told me about the fact that he had historically been a Republican and he just can't bring himself to call himself a Republican now. Days, but that's who he is. And he told me that he doesn't agree with me on a lot of issues, but he said we need your leadership and your clarity in this moment because the Republican Party has lost its way.
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Colin Allred dropped out of the race for Senate. Do you plan to reach out to him to ask for his endorsement?
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I will let you know. I feel like you're trying to get into my conversations. I'm not gonna tell
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you. Did you have a conversation?
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Well, you'll know what you know when you know it is what I'm gonna sell you on that one.
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Have you had a conversation with him?
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I, I, I will tell you that Colin Allred and I have been friends for quite some time and so we've had multiple conversations as things have played out in general. I'm gonna leave it at that because one thing that I, I don't ever do, so when there's reports about things that have happened, um, unless they can cite myself or the other person on the other line, chances are the reports are false, um, but I don't. Go against someone and betray their confidences.
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So I'll just say that I've had multiple conversations with Colin Allred about various things.
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Before I let you go, I want to ask your thoughts on Marjorie Taylor Greene. She's had a mea culpa. She has, uh, you know, not, she's not running again. She's been critical of President Trump, something that a lot of people thought they'd never see. Uh, you famously clashed with her multiple times. What are your thoughts on this?
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Yeah, maybe we can team up. Maybe I can get her to Texas, um, since we seem to be on the same team now. No, I think it's really telling, you know, I think what we see is that the, um, walls are crumbling around the president. Um, we know that Marjorie has been one of the fiercest. His most loyal supporters of the president in all ways and for her to feel as if she should go against him, it has to be really, really bad.
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So I think that it is important no matter if you are red or blue or independent, I think it is important that we understand that when Marjorie and Jasmine Crockett are saying the same thing about what happens when you're on the other side of Donald Trump.
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You should probably believe us because there's not much that we actually agree upon, and I think it's important that while the tone is set at the top, I think it's important because of the tone that has been set at the top that we down here start to set an example for him to follow.
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Congresswoman, it's good to see you. Thank you for the time.
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Thanks, Jason.
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All right, let's bring in the round table to talk about the politics of this. Bud Kennedy is here from the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Ashley Goode is political director at Caveview in Austin, and Natalie Haddad is political reporter at WFAA in Dallas. Bud, the latest poll shows Crockett ahead. The Texas Southern University, put this out on Friday morning. How do you expect this to play out between her and Tallarico in the coming months? Well,
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I think that Crockett is the popular with the Democrats because she will raise the most money. The Democrats overall tend to like the national Democrats tend to pour more money. Money into whoever it looks like they'll become the biggest piggy bank, the biggest ATM for Democratic consultants, Democratic workers. Uh, I, I think overall though, the Democratic Party in Texas is just completely unrealistic about their prospects. It's been 32 years since a Democrat won a statewide race. It's very unlikely a Democrat will win.
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It's even less likely a Democratic civil, civil rights lawyer
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and nationally there there hasn't been a single statewide public poll that shows. Congresswoman Crockett beating any of the three Republicans running here. She says her own internal polls show something else though.
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Yeah, I mean, so I think that polling is, we all know polling is interesting, right, um, and the numbers kind of sway and we also know internal polls can show different things than some of the, the public ones that we see but here's the thing, Jasmine Crockett, whether you like her or not, is a very smart woman, and I just don't think that she would essentially give up a seat in the US House of Representatives where she is.
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You know, doing things that she believes is good work if she didn't have some data somewhere that showed she could be successful with this. I just don't think she would do that.
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And Natalie, I've heard a lot of Democrats say, listen, this is ridiculous to put two of our most popular Democrats running for the same position, James Tallarico and Jasmine Crockett.
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You know, they both make waves, especially with a new group of voters. It's been. Uh, you know, they have a lot of viral moments. They've got name recognition, especially with those who are coming to the ballot box for the first time. If you're on TikTok or Instagram, you see them everywhere. And so it is interesting that they have these two up against each other. I'm very curious to see how their viral moments and their name ID is going to benefit them when it comes to the primaries, and,
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and how much they'll use that indeed. Back to you guys in just a moment. A lot more ahead here, including this. When we come back here, the plan to give property tax relief to 3 million more Texans. State Senator Paul Betancourt on who all would benefit. And the cost of health insurance about to rise dramatically for millions of Texans. US Senator John Cornyn with us from DC when Inside Texas Politics returns. Welcome back to Inside Texas Politics.
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Now to the newest plan to address property taxes here in Texas. It's called Operation Double Nickel. Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick wants to lower the age for senior citizen homestead exemption from 65 down to 55. That's where the double nickel comes in and also raise the exemption for everyone else up to $180,000. State Senator Paul Betancourt, a Houston Republican, takes our questions about this plan. Senator, welcome back to the program here.
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The Operation Double Nickel caught everyone off guard. I mean, I'm not too far from the stage myself, so it looks appealing here. How much support do you think there's actually going to be for this?
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I think Operation Double Nickel, OK, is going to do really well, and I think it's based upon a lot of good policy changes that we've made, and I have been everywhere across the state, and I get thanked by over 65. You know, homeowners because they've saved $1000 they're paying no school tax at all.
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They're just like astonished and Lieutenant Governor Patrick said, Well, you know, why don't we extend this from 65 down to 55? Great idea. And I threw in the double nickel because I think it's an easy way to explain to the public what it means.
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So we've seen this plan from the lieutenant governor. Governor Abbott said he wants to get rid of school property taxes altogether though. Can Texas afford to do that?
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Look, I'm, I'm here to talk about the double nickel, but I'll make a sidebar comment about all this. All of this is money, OK? It's a question of how much money you have. There's always people that say, hey, you know, you can do away with all property taxes.
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Well, I think everybody agrees now that would take over $86 billion a year and that's $192 billion a biennium that wipes out the state's discretionary budget, but more importantly, if you shifted that to sales tax, it's about a 25% sales tax on the existing items we tax, and that would blow apart the working class, middle class, and probably even the lower upper class.
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So that looks like that's something that we've always talked about on this program and again Senator, I mean, Lieutenant Governor Patrick did because you hear this, oh, it's real easy, it takes a point or two, it's not, it's real money and to replace all school taxes, it's $42 million a year times 2, a billion dollars a year times 2, it's $84 billion and that would take a 15% sales tax. So these are real dollars.
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And I think everybody, I think in both, both the governor's and the governor's statements, they're looking to try to do as much as they can, and it's just a question of how many tens of billions of dollars you have to throw up the problem because that's what it takes to solve these problems in macro.
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Critics argue the homestead exemptions only benefit homeowners. They have a point there because homeowners like myself, like you, we're getting the benefit. from these people who are renting are not getting the benefit. Do you expect the legislature to try to take up any, any benefits at all for renters?
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We already have. See,
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did that pass last session? I thought that didn't pass.
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Well, no, we did. It's called rate compression, see. We've had tremendous success with cutting property taxes. We've cut the tax rate for schools on M&O by 37.5% since 2019.
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Isn't that up to, you know, you're counting on trickle down though for landlords to give the savings to the renters though, aren't you? Well,
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you have to because in a slow economic time they'll definitely send it because they're losing renters and they need to attract them, OK. You have to understand that we're helping everybody, all businesses, all homes, everybody's getting that rate compression. And the other thing that's not happening because this is the latest rumor, the younger generation is not paying for the older generation's tax cuts.
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The state budget buys it down for schools, and nobody else pays for it. That's why it's a cut.
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Senator, we appreciate the time as always. Thank you.
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No, thank you.
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Health insurance, health insurance purchased on the marketplace is going to rise substantially at the beginning of the year for 4 million Texans. The US Senate could not agree on whether to subsidize insurance companies or give up to $1500 to policyholders themselves. Senator John Cornyn is our next guest, and we started though with the new rush to vet Afghan refugees after that deadly shooting of a. National Guardsman in Washington DC, Senator, welcome back to the program here.
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You're calling on the Secretary of State to implement, to finally implement these stringent vetting procedures for all Afghan evacuees from back in 2021. These are procedures that the Office of Inspector General for the Department of Homeland Security. They, they recommended these back in 2022 during the Biden administration. Have you heard back yet from Secretary Rubio?
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What happened is there were, there were some programs that were passed by Congress, but the particular shooter in Washington DC and some of these others were admitted by the Biden administration using humanitarian parole, is what it's called, and they were not vetted at all, and uh unfortunately with deadly consequences. So we're going back to make sure that we understand exactly what was done, what was not done.
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But to make sure that the vetting program, which we assume would be a part of any sort of admission of any foreign national, is fully implemented.
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Senator, how tricky is this to, to avoid the rhetoric that might fuel suspicion and endanger those Afghan refugees who are here doing things by the book, but also root out any potential threats that never were vetted in the first place.
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Well, of course, Jason, we were all sympathetic, or as I would say the vast majority of Americans and Texans certainly are sympathetic to people who helped the United States and our soldiers and our allies in Afghanistan and who will be, if they had stayed in Afghanistan, would be murdered by the Taliban. And so we tried to provide some access for those people who actually truly were partners with us who helped save American lives.
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But we, we assumed that there would be a vetting process which has now apparently been virtually nonexistent. That's a danger to folks here at home, and that's our first responsibility.
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We're just a few weeks away to the to the new year here, and Democrats want to extend. Those uh subsidies to health insurance companies to keep health insurance premiums down. Republicans want to give some of that money to the most needy and, and let them actually have the money to pay for these healthcare premiums. There's still a lot of folks who are concerned that nothing is going to get done before the end of the year, that they will see healthcare premiums rise. What do you tell those Texans who, who are watching this?
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Well, first of all, I would say that, uh, and you're right, those premiums under the Affordable Care Act, the Obamacare, uh, or unaffordable Care Act, are going to go up 18% next year. Uh, we may not be able to, to, uh, do, uh, pass anything uh in time for them, uh, these new policies to kick into effect in January. But look, we can't sustain year after year, 18% increases.
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In insurance premiums for for Obamacare system that just flatly doesn't work and was sold under false pretenses, so we've got to do better whether or not we can work out something on a bipartisan basis remains to be seen, but I'm sure going to do my part to try.
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Senator, thank you for the time. We appreciate it.
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You bet.
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The roundtable is ready when we come back here on Inside Texas Politics. All right, time now for reporters roundtable to put the headlines in perspective. Bud, Ashley, and Natalie all back with us here for this. Let's start with, uh, Operation Double Nickel, Bud. You have Lieutenant Governor Patrick, you have Governor Abbott both recognizing that affordability is going to be a massive issue come 2026.
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Well, first of all, you can't do away with school property taxes, so Dan Patrick's right about that. But if we continue in Texas to give all these tax breaks to the people who are older, then who has to make up and pay the bill? The people who are younger, so people who are under 55 who have to pay more money if we give the older. Over 55 is more tax breaks. The reason for this, people over 55 are the voters.
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If if younger people start voting as heavily as those older, over 55, they won't be giving away any more of this money to the people who live in River Oaks, Alamo Heights, Highland Park, Westover Hills, people who don't really need that tax break.
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And, and, you know what, Matt, uh, Ashley, it does seem like a, a, a play for votes here because Bud's right, those are the people who actually show up and vote.
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I mean, well, you've got to do what the voters want, right? I think that we consistently see the Republican Party and Republicans in Texas talk about these types of things and then they proceed to go into the legislature and do exactly what they say they want to do. That resonates with voters, right? This idea of even more property tax breaks, that resonates with people. And so if you want to get your base fired up and get them to the polls, that's the kind of stuff you gotta tell them. Yeah,
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and you know, you know what's fascinating to me. Natalie, is the fact that Governor Abbott announces his reelection. He says, Listen, let, let's get rid of school property taxes altogether. You know, property taxpayers like you and I are like, that sounds great. Let's do it, right? And then you have a few weeks passed. Now you have Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick saying, let's just lower the age limit for the senior homestead exemption. is this, should we read any friction into this? Um,
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should we have read any friction between the two at the end of the, the regular legislative session? I don't. I'm a little surprised to see him, you know, kind of push back on this with Governor Abbott, but we saw that in the regular legislative session as well with other different ideas. And so THC especially, THC especially with that veto, that was a shock. I was certainly one of the shocked people to see that happen. So maybe, maybe there is some reading between the lines here between. The governor and the lieutenant governor,
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what do you think, bud? Well, he's just showing who runs the state, and it's not the governor, and we know all along that lieutenant governor is the most powerful figure in the Speaker. They run the budget. They make the decisions. The lieutenant governor has shown that nothing that he doesn't like passes his way, period. And
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then Abbott, of course, still. Has the power of the veto which is the the final say on all of it, uh, I guess at the end of the day, uh, uh, Ashley, let me, uh, let me ask you about Governor Abbott here talking about putting Club America Turning Point USA clubs into every high school, not saying that's mandated but saying listen if any high school tries to deny them we're coming after you here.
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Yeah, and then say exactly what that means, right? Like we don't know what we're coming after you. There will be consequences. We don't know what that exactly means. Um, we just know that the governor threw this out there. We know that the lieutenant governor is very supportive. He threw money behind it, right, saying he felt led to do this. Um, and, and what I thought was interesting is this is happening in a time where you also have SB 12 that passed that says students can't have LGBTQ+ groups, uh, on.
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Campus and yet we're going to allow them to have these very conservative groups on campus. Another thing I thought was interesting, a reporter said, Well, what about if a liberal organization wanted to have, you know, a group on campus, governor saying, I'm not going to stop it. I don't like it, but I'm not going to stop it. So it's
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interesting. It is interesting. It's obvious it's an election year as well too, guys, thanks so much for the input. We appreciate that. Thank you for watching as well. We're back next Sunday to take you inside Texas politics. We hope to see you then. Take care.