In the February 1 episode, Congressman Chip Roy explains why he thinks he can avoid a runoff in a crowded and chaotic Republican race for Texas Attorney General. U.S. Rep. Julie Johnson on the tough questions she says she’ll ask when the leader of ICE testifies before her committee. And acting Texas Comptroller Kelly Hancock provides a checklist for Texas parents days before they can sign up for the school voucher program.
< spk_0 - 00:00:03.0990000 >
Straight ahead, Texas school vouchers go live this week. What parents must have in hand when registration opens on Wednesday. And could private schools with DEI programs get disqualified? Acting Comptroller Kelly Hancock is with us. Chip Roy fires back at attack ads in his race for attorney general, revealing what internal polling shows and whether he still trusts Homeland Security Secretary Christine Nome.
< spk_0 - 00:00:33.0690000 >
Democrats turn up the heat on ice, the changes they are demanding in Congress, and the political risks that come with it. Congresswoman Julie Johnson joins us and is also responding to new questions about stock trading. Plus early voting a little more than 2 weeks away, a brand new poll in the high profile Democratic matchup. What it shows for Jasmine Crockett and James Talarico.
< spk_0 - 00:01:00.8400000 >
Inside Texas Politics with Jason Whitely starts now. Thanks for being here. Let's begin with the headlines, as always. Another week, another new poll in the Democratic race for US Senate. This one shows a tie between Jasmine Crockett and James Talarico. She's at 38%. He's at 37%, but a significant number there remain undecided. Texas Public Opinion Research did this survey with almost 1300 likely Democratic voters.
< spk_0 - 00:01:28.8490000 >
President Trump's immigration crackdown is starting to show up in numbers of the state's population. Texas added 391,000 new residents last year, more than any other state, but it is our lowest number since the pandemic. Fewer immigrants and transplants from other states are coming in. The state's demographer told the Texas Tribune this means our economic growth isn't going to be as hardy as it has been.
< spk_0 - 00:01:53.0400000 >
And the 4 Republicans running for Texas attorney general in Texas will meet for their first debate in Dallas later this month. Joan Huffman, Mays Middleton, Aaron Wrights, and Chip Roy all face to face for the first and only time before the March 3rd primary. The Republican Attorney Generals Association is hosting it February 17th in Dallas. Let's begin right now with the Republican race for Texas attorney general. Our first guest is one of those participants, Chip Roy.
< spk_0 - 00:02:20.6790000 >
He is firing back right now at those attack ads from one of his opponents, and Roy also reveals what his internal polling is showing right now. Congressman, it's good to see you here. Let's start with the campaign. This is a four-person race. Tell us what internal polling shows about where you stand right now.
< spk_1 - 00:02:37.8690000 >
Well, Jason, uh, great to be with you. And, and look, the first thing about politics is, is the only poll that matters is on election day. So we're going around the state doing everything we need to do to, uh, try to make sure people understand why I'm running for attorney general, while I'm also burning both ends of the candle while being a member of Congress and And trying to finish that strong. I haven't missed a vote. Don't intend to miss a vote. Uh, I have a job to do representing Texas 21, but polling looks very good. Both independent polls, our internal polls, uh, they show us pushing 50%, and we need 50% obviously to avoid a runoff.
< spk_1 - 00:03:07.4190000 >
Uh, every poll I've seen has me well north of 40%. And, um, most of my opponents are in single digits and occasionally in the low double digits at 10 to 12 to 15 points. So we feel good about our standing, we're, but, but we're not taking it for granted. We're going around the state trying to earn every vote we can.
< spk_0 - 00:03:21.5890000 >
Congressman, we have seen one of your competitors, Mays Middleton, attack your conservative credentials specifically, uh, about things you said about Donald Trump after January 6th, saying Trump's actions were quote, clearly impeachable, and your comments also called him reckless that day. Curious now that you're running for attorney general looking for the Republican primary vote, do you regret those comments now?
< spk_1 - 00:03:41.6790000 >
Look, I always stand for what I believe in in defending the Constitution and defending the rule of law, and I'm a strong supporter of President Trump. And in fact, if you look at the data, I've got the strongest record in Texas. So I think it's somewhat laughable that David Mays Middleton, who's funding these super PAC ads, would be taking shots at my conservative track record when it's fairly unassailable. And, uh, but I think I'd be doing that too if I was spending $10 million and polling the single digits.
< spk_0 - 00:04:06.9450000 >
You know, for years, at least 4 years, we've watched Democrats ignore the chaos that happened on the border during Joe Biden's term, and it happened to the Democrats' own political peril. Do you think the federal agents are creating chaos in Minnesota that could backfire also on Republicans?
< spk_1 - 00:04:24.6300000 >
Well, I think what's going to backfire is the chaos being sowed by the Democrat leadership in, uh, Minnesota and around the country. Like when you are refusing to work with law enforcement, you have to answer for that. And, you know, what we saw here, we had the governor go out and say ICE is quote, not law enforcement. Go get in their face, right? They, they basically are lighting the match to start the fire for the tensions that you're seeing unfold in Minneapolis. This is not terribly different than what we saw unfold in 2020.
< spk_1 - 00:04:50.9100000 >
Uh, look, there is a right way to do things, and, and by the way, I have been vocal in saying that there are things we need to do to change and, and saying that we need to, you know, these guys that were saying, oh well, that guy had made himself a target by having a weapon on him. Like, look, I'm a Texan. I don't think that's true at all. Uh, I think what, what created the problem was his stepping in and interfering with law enforcement carrying out his duty. He's not, he wasn't sitting on the side going, hey, I'm protesting. He inserted himself into a law enforcement situation. Then what transformed, uh, transformed after that.
< spk_1 - 00:05:19.6780000 >
Um, was a direct result of those events. And so my view on this is pretty simple. We need to bring the temperature down. We need to enforce the law. We need to remove people, and the Democrats in Minneapolis and Minnesota need to stop making ICE and Border Patrol the target and work with us to remove bad actors. And then we can all get, get back to doing our job. By the way, that's what's happening in virtually every other place in the country right now.
< spk_0 - 00:05:41.9840000 >
Homeland Security Secretary Christie Nome claimed that Alex Preddy attacked officers and was brandishing a gun. All the videos, as you've seen and we've all seen, contradict that. Do you still have confidence in Secretary Gnome?
< spk_1 - 00:05:54.0890000 >
Yeah, I have full confidence in the administration and confidence in the president. Obviously he's demonstrated leadership by putting Tom Homan on the ground, who has great experience, as I mentioned before, former head of ICE, and I'm confident that he'll be able to work with the secretary, work with the entire Department of Homeland Security to restore order on the ground. I mean, this is a critically important, important moment, and we've got to get it done the right way, uh, but even just now. I'm looking at, uh, you know, traffic on X, and I'm seeing what the Minneapolis mayor is saying.
< spk_1 - 00:06:19.4200000 >
He's already pushing back on the president, saying it's not their job to enforce, uh, federal immigration laws. The fact of the matter is that it is their job to work with federal, uh, immigration enforcement to guarantee that we're getting bad actors off of the streets. So I hope that continued conversation occurs and that we're able to get the job done.
< spk_0 - 00:06:37.0190000 >
Congressman, thanks for the time. We appreciate it. Thanks,
< spk_1 - 00:06:39.2500000 >
Jason. Appreciate it.
< spk_0 - 00:06:41.3900000 >
All right, let's bring in the roundtable to talk about the politics of this. Bud Kennedy is here from the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Natalie Haddad, political reporter at WFAA in Dallas, and Ashley Goode, political director at KVUE in Austin. Uh, Bud, let's start with you. Chip Roy there at the beginning of the interview, he feels very confident about his, uh, campaign for Texas attorney general. Could he win this outright?
< spk_2 - 00:07:01.3390000 >
Well, he needs to win it outright. It would be a lot easier for him. He doesn't want to get into a runoff, the day after Memorial Day with a. With Mays Middleton or particularly with Aaron Wrights in a runoff where Ken Paxton is going to be cranking out a lot of voters. Chip Roy doesn't have a real core vote. He has a lot of conservative vote, but he's kind of an iconoclastic conservative. He doesn't just have one group that he can count on to show up in a runoff, so he wants to win outright if he can.
< spk_0 - 00:07:28.9040000 >
And Ashley, you spoke to Chip Roy also a few, a few days ago. What was your takeaway from this? He does seem confident in this, but I don't know. Can he get to the 50% mark?
< spk_3 - 00:07:39.7300000 >
I mean he seems to think that he can. I mean he has every indication in his opinion that he can get to that mark. I mean, I think if you look at some of the polling numbers, when you see the low, uh, percentages that the other candidates in the race are getting, I think that's why he feels like he can do that. He's certainly hitting the campaign trail. He's going in now. He's talking to voters. He's selling to them. He's the one that they should vote for and we'll just all have to wait and see if it works.
< spk_0 - 00:08:04.7460000 >
Yes, indeed. So, and let's zoom out here, Natalie, just for a moment. You know, we've talked about affordability being an issue for Democrats. Suddenly immigration is an issue for them. Is this going to backfire on Republicans just as we go into the March primary?
< spk_4 - 00:08:17.6260000 >
I'm almost hopeful that this is where we begin to see eye to eye between these two. Parties because there are Republicans that we have seen that normally support Secretary Nome and ICE and the rest of the Trump administration come out and say we need a temperature check. Things need to cool down. So I'm almost hopeful that this is where we're going to see again eye to eye. Yes,
< spk_0 - 00:08:34.8810000 >
a lot of people would welcome that, me included on that. Natalie, thanks so much. Back to you guys in just a moment. A lot more ahead here, including this. When we come back, Congresswoman Julie Johnson on the political risks of taking on ICE and her response to new questions on stock trading. Plus school vouchers go live this week.
< spk_0 - 00:08:56.8490000 >
Acting Comptroller Kelly Hancock on what parents will need to register and whether private schools with DEI programs could get disqualified. All that and more next on Inside Texas Politics. Welcome back to Inside Texas Politics. We'll be watching closely this month as Congress tries to make sense of the chaos that we've all watched unfold for weeks in Minneapolis. Hearings are set later this month in DC, and the question now who will pay a political price?
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Our next guest is Congresswoman Julie John. A Democrat from Dallas who is on the House Homeland Security Committee, Representative, good to see you again here. Let's start with the cooling of tensions in Minneapolis. Tom Homan, the border czar for President Trump, announced that a plan to reduce the number of immigration agents there in Minneapolis. Do you expect this to work because everyone seems to welcome it?
< spk_5 - 00:09:46.2190000 >
Well, they have to do something in Minneapolis. You know what's been happening, this escalation of tensions by ICE terrorizing the citizenry of Minnesota is just unacceptable. You can't have these rogue gangs of masked men going into daycares and just shooting and killing and executing American citizens on the streets of this country. So something needs to happen. I don't know if it's, we'll see what they actually do if they have a material de-escalation. I hope that they do.
< spk_0 - 00:10:11.2190000 >
Let's talk about funding for DHS, Department of Homeland Security. You know, Democrats in the Senate say, listen, we're not going to approve funding for them until changes happen. What specific changes are Democrats looking to carve out of the budget at DHS?
< spk_5 - 00:10:27.8900000 >
Well, I think there's probably some different perspectives from the Senate and the House, you know, according to what was reported from the Senate yesterday, they want, you know, unmasking, they want body cameras, they want stuff like that, I think. At least from my perspective, I want a complete de-escalation of these of this personnel to get out of these roaming gangs of people just driving around in random pickup trucks through cities in some vigilante mission. I think this whole effort needs to be descaled back.
< spk_5 - 00:10:55.7390000 >
These people need to be terminated from ICE, and we need to cease these types. Programs immediately and they need to focus back on the core mission of our actual ports of entry and that sort of thing.
< spk_0 - 00:11:07.5650000 >
When we're talking about funding DHS, let's talk about the politics of this for a moment. Republicans have been very successful, as you know, in the past about accusing Democrats of wanting to defund the police. Does it concern you that Democrats might be setting themselves up for this in an election year?
< spk_5 - 00:11:24.1790000 >
You know, these words defunded and stuff, those are hot button words, but at the end of the day, you know, I think Democrats have a moral compass and the moral clarity on this issue. People are outraged at what is happening with these Gestapo raids of ICE agents, these clusters of people who have these just willful, this abuse towards the American people, this arrogance that they can come in and say, You can't film me. You know, you can't exercise your right, and I'm going to torture you if you do.
< spk_5 - 00:11:53.9190000 >
These intimidations, these, these, these brutal, excessive uses of force. The American people are over it and they're not happy with it. This is not what people want. This is not how our government should function, and I think that the, you know, we're on the right side of this issue.
< spk_0 - 00:12:09.6790000 >
I want to ask you about a story in the Texas Tribune the other day, and Politico had it as well too. You used to trade a lot of stocks as a member of Congress. A lot of members of Congress do this as well. Last summer though, you decided to sell much of that. Now you are proposing requiring members to divest all of their stocks while in Congress. Why the sudden change on this issue?
< spk_5 - 00:12:30.4600000 >
And there's not, there's not, I would hardly say that's a sudden change, you know, when I get to Congress, uh, you know, I signed on to a stock ban. I do believe in that. I think transparency in public service is important. There's no secret that I had, you know, a successful career before coming to Congress, and I absolutely had investable assets just like many people do. You have 401k. Plants you have people that manage that. I've instructed my folks to, you know, do that divesting process, and they've been doing that all year long.
< spk_5 - 00:12:57.3720000 >
These attacks are just a blatant regard because, you know, my opponent in this race is trying to take some cheap political shots because he refused to lead on this issue. He had opportunities to sign on stock trading bans when he was in Congress and failed to do that, and we have the receipts. To prove it and he's losing in this race, you know, and so he's trying to desperately, you know, attack me on an issue that's, that has, there's no there. The reality of it is I have been divesting my stocks. I've been trying to do the right thing. I've signed on to the stock trading ban.
< spk_5 - 00:13:24.8460000 >
I'm leading on this issue, and I think that's what my people see and I've heard that from my constituents, and they're proud of what I'm doing.
< spk_0 - 00:13:31.2700000 >
Representative, good to see you again. Thanks for the time.
< spk_5 - 00:13:33.4290000 >
Absolutely, thank you.
< spk_0 - 00:13:35.2700000 >
School vouchers go live on Wednesday, and that's when parents can begin registering their student. Acting Comptroller Kelly Hancock is up next here with what families need to prepare and whether a brand new opinion from Attorney General Ken Paxton could complicate this rollout. Kelly, it's good to see you again here.
< spk_6 - 00:13:51.8200000 >
Yeah,
< spk_0 - 00:13:52.1900000 >
great to be here. On Wednesday, Texans can finally begin signing up for school vouchers. What do parents need to have handy? What do you expect them to do? What's this going to look like?
< spk_6 - 00:14:00.6790000 >
Literally 9 o'clock on February 4th, and they'll need an, an ID, you know, if there's, um, you know, special needs, they'll need those that identification that what we call in public schools they call an IEP, but to show us that they have, they have to have proof of that.
< spk_6 - 00:14:16.8590000 >
You know, proof of citizenship, and then one of the things we need because we don't have an income tax in the state of Texas which I don't want, voted to make sure we don't have, uh, that income that we will need your tax returns because of the criteria is involved, uh, that the legislature adopted for prioritizing, um, the, the financial resources
< spk_0 - 00:14:35.2700000 >
so they'll have to upload their 1040 or whatever, whatever it is just to show how much they make and, and.
< spk_6 - 00:14:41.1590000 >
Yes, because there is criteria there. What we wanna do is prioritize low income and those with special needs and so those are documents that prove that will need to be available along with an ID to make sure you're a US citizen, you know, um, resident in
< spk_0 - 00:14:54.8490000 >
Texas. The money doesn't have to just be used for private school education. This, this is one thing that you guys like to talk about here, but, but can a parent apply for the money. Use it for dyslexia tutoring and still send that student to public school, so
< spk_6 - 00:15:09.3400000 >
it's going to be a lower portion. So you're talking about the $2000 range where if you need tutorial services or others and so it is gonna be at that lower level it wouldn't be the full $10,000 correct? No, no, because you're already getting service there. It, it would just be kind of a subsidized $2000. It is with home school, you know, home school gets that $2000 level.
< spk_0 - 00:15:29 >
Attorney General Paxton came out with an opinion the other day saying private entities that have DEI programs should not receive any state money. Have, have any schools dropped out? Has this disqualified anybody?
< spk_6 - 00:15:39.2390000 >
Not, not that we're aware. We have not seen that at all within the schools, uh, you know, that what, where we've seen is that in the courts have ruled on that in higher education. Areas, um, but in the private schools typically we're not seeing that in a private school arena.
< spk_0 - 00:15:53.9090000 >
I've seen and I know a number of private schools that have diversity and inclusion practices and programs in their schools. They're private schools they can have that, right? But, but the, the opinion from the AG says no state money is gonna go to these places. Is that going to muddy up the voucher program just as you guys really kick it off here?
< spk_6 - 00:16:10.5100000 >
I don't believe so. I mean, we're looking out for that and so literally from day one we were looking at where there was conflict. Conflicts with other statutes even with DEI and so yeah I mean we've we've sought his opinion on that we we appreciate his support for what we're doing and the job we're doing um and you know gave us the comfort to continue doing what we had already started doing is looking at those issues that could be conflict with existing statutes
< spk_0 - 00:16:38.4740000 >
and no schools have dropped out or been disqualified because of that so far, correct? OK, Kelly, good
< spk_6 - 00:16:43.3040000 >
to see you. Great seeing you.
< spk_0 - 00:16:45.3690000 >
The roundtable is ready when we come back here on Inside Texas Politics. And keep up with Texas politics during the week with our podcast. It is called Y'allitics. New content, fresh interviews and episodes drop every Sunday wherever you get your podcasts. This is Inside Texas Politics with Jason Whitely. All right, time now for reporters roundtable to put the headlines in perspective. Bud, Ashley, and Natalie all back with us here.
< spk_0 - 00:17:14.6800000 >
Bud, let's start with you, and we began the program with the, the new poll in the Democratic race for, uh, US Senate. James Talarico. And Jasmine Crockett, this is the 3rd poll we've seen in recent weeks. What are we to believe? Because one says Talarico's up, one says Crockett's up, and this one says they're
< spk_2 - 00:17:31.6880000 >
tied, you know, and this poll was by a very Talarico friendly polling agency, Luke Metzger. So I think the Talarico people want to show that it's a close race. They want to present it as a close race. I think it's even. I don't know if it's as close as they.
< spk_0 - 00:17:49.0420000
And uh you know, Natalie, the, the debate that maybe a lot of people in North Texas didn't see between Talarico and Crockett because of the uh the winter storm did that move the needle at all because it seems like that Congresswoman Crockett was pretty dialed back.
< spk_4 - 00:18:04.1230000 >
You know, I watched that debate from the hotel treadmill as we were doing winter weather coverage, and my biggest takeaway between the two is not so much where they stand on policy. It's quite. Similar, but it's their delivery, and I believe that when voters go to the polls they're going to think about who can I trust to best get the message across and try and get these policies that I support done.
< spk_0 - 00:18:26.3550000 >
And Ashley, the takeaway from the poll that I had was that Democratic primary voters like the fact that Jasmine Crockett will stand up and fight, but they also think that Talarico might be the one who can defeat a Republican come November.
< spk_3 - 00:18:41.4890000 >
I think that this race is particularly interesting, Jason. I think you really hit, hit the nail on the head there. I mean, when it comes to policy, these are two Democrats, Democrats, right? They are not gonna steer away from the policies of the party, but it's all about how they plan to go about it and how they plan to do it. And so I think that Democrats, Democratic voters, primary voters are gonna have to pick their fighter, and they're gonna have to pick which one who they think is going to, to move.
< spk_3 - 00:19:07.3210000 >
Things the most and, and frankly I think that voters are not hearing enough from either one of the candidates and that's why such a large number of people in that poll are undecided. They don't know who they wanna vote for because they just haven't heard enough from them and if you look at that debate, I mean, the AFL-CIO, which hosted it, they didn't endorse either one of the candidates, you know, so I think it didn't move the needle, frankly. I think that people. Need to hear more from them.
< spk_0 - 00:19:33.7630000 >
And but if Democratic primary voters are looking for a fighter, we didn't see that from Jasmine Crockett in the debate. Why not? Where was she? Where was the Jasmine that we see on cable news and in committee hearings?
< spk_2 - 00:19:43.7130000 >
Well, you didn't see that, but I think her goal of the debate was to be, I don't want to say low key, she wanted to seem like she was strong and courageous, but she didn't want to come on as this bombastic commentator. I mean, people tuned in to see if this was going to be the famous. Ms. Crockett, they saw on television, what they saw was a fairly calm person who looked like she might be a senator.
< spk_0 - 00:20:04.5050000 >
And Natalie, on the Republican side of this too, we've seen plenty of ads, and we all have seen plenty of ads from John Cornyn and Wesley Hunt running for US Senate. Ken Paxton is said to be, you know, one of the top contenders here. We haven't seen him on TV at all. Any idea
< spk_4 - 00:20:18.8260000 >
why? I think the lack of ads show his confidence. I think he is holding on to that. Funding and he is going to wait to blast his ads at a time when he feels it is most impactful. In a January Emerson poll, Paxson is up by 1% point, 27% to Cornyn's 26% among likely GOP voters. Now neither is enough to avoid a runoff, but I think he is showing his confidence here. I think we're going to see these ads soon, but we'll just have to wait and
< spk_0 - 00:20:47.3380000 >
see. What's your take on that, Ashley.
< spk_3 - 00:20:50.2190000 >
I mean, look, that race is probably headed to a runoff, right, because Wesley Hunt has been enough of a disruptor to lead us to potentially a runoff. And because of that, I'm with Nelly. He's got to save his money and spend it where he can spend it. This shows he doesn't think he needs to spend right now and so he's not going to.
< spk_0 - 00:21:04.6190000 >
But Bud, what is his messaging? What is Paxton's message since people know so much about him right now?
< spk_2 - 00:21:10.3390000 >
Well, Paxton is just. Rocking back right now and he's going to load it all up in May and let us know then, but then he's going to come after Cornyn hard just like Cornyn's going to come after him. We're going to see all this money unloaded in the in the months of April and May. Yes,
< spk_0 - 00:21:24.4740000 >
still a lot to come, guys. Thanks so much for it. We appreciate the insight as always and 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.