In the February 22 episode, Congressman Jake Ellzey explains why he supports the Republican effort to require proof of citizenship before someone can register to vote. He also brings up “imminent regime change” in Iran. U.S. Rep. Wesley Hunt discusses those votes he’s missed on the House floor, now a campaign issue in his run for U.S. Senate. And state Rep. Aicha Davis tells us why she thinks the fight to keep an ICE facility out of her district is far from over.
00:00 Show Open & Headlines Preview
01:06 Record Spending in Texas U.S. Senate Race
01:35 School Vouchers Hit 100,000+ Applications
02:04 Early Voting Deadline & What Voters Need to Know
02:22 Jake Ellzey on SAVE Act & Proof of Citizenship
03:52 Debate Over Evidence of Non-Citizen Voting
04:33 Ellzey on Iran, Cuba, Russia & “Regime Change”
06:41 Roundtable: SAVE Act Political Impact
09:21 Wesley Hunt on Senate Race Strategy
10:48 Hunt on Missed House Votes
13:05 Hunt Reacts to Trump Post About the Obamas
14:10 Aicha Davis on ICE Detention Center in Dallas County
16:47 Davis on School Vouchers & Democratic Strategy
17:43 Roundtable: Supreme Court Strikes Down Tariffs
19:21 Early Voting Turnout — Democrats vs Republicans
21:17 Final Thoughts & Show Close
< spk_0 - 00:00:02.9800000 >
Straight ahead, Congressman Wesley Hunt. Why he's going after Cornyn but giving Paxton a pass. Hunt's answer for those missed votes in DC and his reaction to Trump's post showing the Obamas as monkeys. Texas school vouchers just passed a significant milestone. What that means for parents who apply. Republicans pushing new rules to prove your citizenship before you can vote.
< spk_0 - 00:00:32.9300000 >
Congressman Jake Elsey is defending it and why he says regime change is coming, not just in Iran, but also to other countries. A massive new ICE detention center stopped in Dallas County. Is it a real win or just a temporary pause? State rep Ayesha Davis on what's next there in her district. And time is running out. Early voting ends this week. The countdown is on as Texas heads into the primary.
< spk_0 - 00:01:06.0500000 >
Inside Texas Politics with Jason Whitely starts now. It is great to have you here. Let's begin with the political headlines happening across our state. The US Senate race in Texas is on track to smash records when it comes to money. John Cornyn spending the most and fighting to keep his seat for 6 more years. James Talarico and Wesley Hunt follow behind in ad buys. $98 million spent so far in Texas. The national record $109 million set in Arizona four years ago.
< spk_0 - 00:01:35.2790000 >
Ad Impact Politics is tracking these numbers. The demand for school vouchers here in the state is huge. In the first two weeks since they became available, more than 100,000 applications poured in, the largest launch of a school choice program in American history. Texas lawmakers funded enough slots for about 100,000 students, but this is not first come, first served. Low income families and students with disabilities get priority. The deadline to apply March 17th.
< spk_0 - 00:02:04.3090000 >
And time is running out to vote early. Friday is actually the last day you can do that. Polls are open through the weekend and then all next week from 7 to 7. During early voting, you can vote anywhere in your county, but on election day, March 3rd, you'll need to check with your county to find out where you should go vote.
< spk_0 - 00:02:21.9600000 >
Let's begin right now with all that is happening in Washington from the Supreme Court striking down Trump's tariffs to that developing situation in Iran and in the middle of it all, Republicans in Congress wanting to make new rules about voting. It's called the S Save Act Safeguard American voter eligibility, and Republican Congressman Jake Elsey, he is up first making his case for it. Congressman, welcome back, welcome back to the program here.
< spk_1 - 00:02:46.9190000 >
Thanks, Jason. Good to be back. The,
< spk_0 - 00:02:48.3200000 >
the House passed the Save Act requiring proof of citizenship to vote. You supported this.
< spk_1 - 00:02:52.5380000 >
Tell us why. I'm glad you brought that up because it is time to vote. I think we are long past the point at which you need to prove that you are an American citizen to vote. That's all that anybody asks. Prove that you're an American citizen. And you can vote,
< spk_0 - 00:03:05.1790000 >
but that's already the law from 1996. That's already the law. So what, what is this? It is the law, but this one didn't,
< spk_1 - 00:03:10.1000000 >
but the states have different rules. This, this standardizes it for the entire country. Different states have different rules because we tried this at the state level on in numerous places and in other states where they do, uh, have a significant number. Of immigrant attempts to vote that aren't American citizens, uh, they get away with it. So this is a standardization of that policy.
< spk_0 - 00:03:32.3890000 >
Let's talk about that because the act requires documentary proof of citizenship, a passport, a birth certificate, something that says place of birth or
< spk_1 - 00:03:38.9900000 >
or real ID. So if you can go ahead on an airliner.
< spk_0 - 00:03:42.3500000 >
But, but my driver's license doesn't say where I was born on it. That's, I mean, that's a real ID,
< spk_1 - 00:03:45.6900000 >
right? but it's a real ID. So if you use your driver's license, that's enough. You,
< spk_0 - 00:03:48.9790000 >
you can still use that to, to vote.
< spk_1 - 00:03:51.4190000 >
Yes sir. Well, here,
< spk_0 - 00:03:52.3500000 >
here's the question I always run into on this. There's no evidence of attempt at attempts at voting by non-citizens that would have swayed the outcome of any election here. Why is this even necessary?
< spk_1 - 00:04:04.6690000 >
It is absolutely necessary because you have to have an ID to do anything in this country, and the benefits that you get, any of those kinds of things. And I think voter integrity is still, as we look at the polls on both sides of the aisle. Remember, when, uh, when Hillary Clinton ran for president, she claimed fraud. And then 4 years later it's another attempt at fraud. The American people want this. The American people want to make sure that our, that the sanctity of our elections is not in doubt. So there is support on both sides. It just depends on who's in power. Every 4 years,
< spk_0 - 00:04:33.6900000 >
we, we saw what happened in Venezuela. What's the likelihood though that President Trump would try to decapitate leadership in Iran? It's a much bigger country.
< spk_1 - 00:04:42.4590000 >
It is a much bigger country, but I said again that it's a very well educated populace. They are ready for the regime to go behind closed doors. I'm not there, but I assume that we have classified information that says we've got this, we know where this is, we're going to take that out, and then we're coming for you. We're going to send one of our special teams in and come and get you. So why don't you just go follow Assad from Syria to Moscow and let this nation start to live again? Do you think we'll
< spk_0 - 00:05:06.4880000 >
see leadership change in Iran finally?
< spk_1 - 00:05:08.6190000 >
I think within a year we're going to see imminent regime change because. The regime is already talking about moving the capital from Tehran, a city of 10 million people, because they have mismanaged the water.
< spk_0 - 00:05:20.2000000 >
We see what's going on in Cuba as well too. It, it, it, it's having all kinds of issues because of the, you know, the president blocking the oil from Venezuela, the illegal oil going to Cuba. How close is that country? To toppling that leadership to toppling,
< spk_1 - 00:05:32.7500000 >
I think Cuba is on the precipice. I think Russia is on the precipice. I think you think Russia is on the, I think Russia is about to run out of cash reserves. The military, their economy is based solely on. Military military spending, we are cutting off the oil to all these regimes. India is now playing a role in taking out the shadow fleet. We've taken 4 tankers from the shadow fleet, not just in, and that's in the Atlantic.
< spk_1 - 00:06:00.8800000 >
So I think a number of these regimes are on. The precipice of falling, you think Putin is in jeopardy? I think Putin's always in jeopardy, which is why he sits at the end of the table 30 ft from anybody else. So in all these dictatorships, I think you're on the verge of seeing them fall. Not only Iran, China has a birth problem. China has, China is a foundation. Their economy is a foundation built on sand. Uh, and so then you also look at North Korea.
< spk_1 - 00:06:27.1090000 >
They can only keep control by, by eliminating their opponents in ways that we couldn't possibly fathom. So those four dictatorships that aim to start World War 3, they're weak.
< spk_0 - 00:06:38.5400000 >
Congressman,
< spk_1 - 00:06:38.8290000 >
good to see you. Good to see you, Jason.
< spk_0 - 00:06:41.9880000 >
Alright, 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. Natalie, let's start with you and go back to the beginning of that interview with the Save Act. Uh, I'm, I'm. Curious, it's passed the House but it hasn't passed the Senate. There's questions whether it will pass the Senate here, but would it change the calculus more for Democrats or Republicans?
< spk_2 - 00:07:06.4400000 >
This is an interesting question and one I was looking into before we got on Inside Texas politics. Typically when it comes to. Making it harder for people to vote, these tend to hurt demographics that tend to lean Democratic. We have young voters, low income voters, voters of color, those who also don't have passports. So I think what is going to make this harder is not necessarily just for Democrats. Surely there will be Republicans who run into hurdles too, I imagine, but.
< spk_2 - 00:07:34.0590000 >
Historically, when there are things that come up that try to make things harder for when it comes to putting in a vote, this tends to hurt the Democratic Party more. And
< spk_0 - 00:07:42.7390000 >
but there's a question whether it's even going to pass.
< spk_3 - 00:07:45.1400000 >
Jason, I don't think I would agree with that. I think you go to any retirement center and go door to door and say, let me see your passport or your birth certificate. You know how many people are going to have their passport or birth certificate in hand. You know, the older people that I know would have to go back to the courthouse and get a new copy of their birth certificate. I think it's going to hurt those older Republican voters just as much.
< spk_0 - 00:08:03.1350000 >
And Ashley, Congressman Elsey said that that nothing changes in Texas if you already have one of those real IDs, your driver's license with a little star on it, because that has the, the, the information embedded in it and the state knows, uh, where you're from. How big of a deal is this for Texans if it becomes law?
< spk_4 - 00:08:19.6490000 >
Well I mean I think that there's confusion about it, right? Like there's confusion he says that, but I think there's still confusion, especially among senators that I've talked to about how it's gonna impact people, especially how it's gonna impact married women who have changed their names and regardless this kind of sounds like a logistical nightmare, no, having to go.
< spk_4 - 00:08:38.4840000 >
To register and re-register and prove your citizenship opposed to being able to just fill out your form and mail it in, I think I question how is it actually going to work in person and just how hard it's going to make it for voters and administrators alike. Yeah,
< spk_0 - 00:08:53.4430000 >
if it happens right in the middle of an election year. All right, a lot more ahead here, guys, including this. When we come back, Congressman Wesley Hunt on where he stands in the Senate race, why he's centering his attacks on Cornyn and not Paxton, and his reaction to Trump's post about the Obamas. Plus, is the fight to stop a massive new ICE detention center in Dallas actually over?
< spk_0 - 00:09:21.0990000 >
State Rep Ayesha Davis up next on Inside Texas Politics. Welcome back to Inside Texas Politics. Our next guest now is Congressman Wesley Hunt, defending his campaign for US Senate against John Cornyn and Ken Paxton. Congressman, welcome to the program here.
< spk_5 - 00:09:46.9600000 >
Thank you for having me. Appreciate it.
< spk_0 - 00:09:48.4600000 >
Polls show anywhere from 3rd place to statistical tie. Where do you think you realistically are right now in this competitive and combative race?
< spk_5 - 00:09:56.6090000 >
Well, I think realistically now I think I must be in 2nd place or close to 1st place because just in the last couple of weeks, both of my opponents are spending about $3 million hitting me across statewide. And so I feel like if I were in 3rd place, like some polls. Might suggest they wouldn't be spending this kind of money and as a former Apache helicopter pilot, as a West Point grad, as a guy that flew 55 combatator missions in Baghdad, here's what I realized I am right over the target zone and doing exactly what I need to do.
< spk_5 - 00:10:25.3670000 >
I am the only candidate that's actually running a campaign. I'm the only one that's actually traveling around Texas and actually answering the questions of the people on the ground, and clearly it's working because they wouldn't be. Spending millions of dollars hitting me.
< spk_0 - 00:10:38.6140000 >
I, I've talked to you before and I've heard you on TV and in other interviews attack Senator Cornyn a lot. I haven't heard you say as much about Ken Paxton. Why should Republican primary voters vote for Ken Paxton?
< spk_5 - 00:10:48.5230000 >
Well, the thing is, I'm not going for Ken Paxton's job. I don't want to be the Attorney General. I, I want to be the next senator from Texas, and currently that person is John Cornyn, and that's exactly what I am trying to articulate to the people, and I'm not going to go after ad homic. attacks or personal attacks or go after people's personal lives. I want to talk about policy. What I heard from a young lady as I've been on the trail and comparing me and General Paxton was this. They said, look, you know, we know Ken's a true conservative.
< spk_5 - 00:11:17 >
We know you are a real conservative given your voting record being one of the most conservative in all of Texas, but he said in a couple of years Ken Paxton is going to require Social Security. And then after 6 years, 1 term, we're gonna be having the exact same conversation that we're having about John Cornyn right now. And if you didn't exist, I would choose Ken, but because you do, I wanna choose the young conservative option for the future. There's a reason why our vice president is 41 years old. There's a reason why our Secretary of State is in his early 50s.
< spk_5 - 00:11:46.2990000 >
There's a reason why our Secretary of War is in his mid-40s. I think it's time to turn the page on career politicians, and that's exactly what Ken and John.
< spk_0 - 00:11:54.5490000 >
We started the interview talking about uh how much spending there is against you right now. I think $3 million in attack ads against you right now, and some of those ads, especially from Senator Cornyn, really focus on you missing votes in Washington DC. is the campaign for Senate taking your attention away from your responsibilities in the House?
< spk_5 - 00:12:11.1790000 >
Absolutely not. Anytime,
< spk_0 - 00:12:12.7500000 >
how, how do you justify those? Oh,
< spk_5 - 00:12:14.0590000 >
very, it's a great question. Uh, any time the president or the Speaker of the House has needed my vote on a consequential vote. Um, I was there. I got on the plane, canceled my events, and I got up there and I got there immediately. Um, how many votes did JD Vance miss when he was tapped to be the VP for President Trump? All of them. And do you know why? Because you can't be in two places at one time and the people of Texas want to term limit John Cornyn.
< spk_5 - 00:12:37.9000000 >
In order to do that, I have to travel around and be in as many counties and as many media markets as possible so they could hear my message that I want to take the Texans to be their next senator. Do you know how many times I've been asked about this when I'm talking to people in small groups across, across the state of Texas? Never. You know what they don't want? They don't want a senator that's going to co-author gun control legislation. And if it means that I'm missing some votes in order to continue to ensure that that doesn't happen again in Texas, I think they're OK with it.
< spk_0 - 00:13:05.9500000 >
I want to ask you about the social media post from President Trump that depicted President Obama and the First Lady as monkeys. Did you find that racist at all?
< spk_5 - 00:13:13.4290000 >
Actually I watched the entire video and if you watch the entire video, it was depicting many Democrats in the in the in the vein of Lion King and the fact that they were just going to take one snippet of that and then try to paint a brush and say that all of a sudden President Trump is a racist guy I think is ridiculous. I think people stopped listening to legacy media a long time ago and stopped trusting that fact. Here's what I know the president has invited me to travel with him multiple times. He's been nothing but kind to my.
< spk_5 - 00:13:41.5340000 >
Family, he's been nothing but good to me. He's nothing. He, he has been nothing but kind to my wife and even on one campaign stop, stopped in my wife's hometown of Makokoa, Iowa. Does that sound like somebody who's racist? And last I checked, I've been black for my entire life. What I do is I take how people treat me personally, and I don't really care what people say about them online. I know President Trump and he's been very good to me.
< spk_0 - 00:14:05.9340000 >
Congressman, good to see you. Thanks for the time. Of course,
< spk_5 - 00:14:07.4140000 >
God bless you. Thank you for having me, sir, as always.
< spk_0 - 00:14:10.8490000 >
Texas Democrats took a victory lap last week after successfully blocking the Department of Homeland Security from opening a huge new detention facility in Dallas County, but that victory could be short-lived. Sticker up Ayesha Davis represents the Dallas County district where ICE wants to open a 9500 bed facility. Representative, good to see you again here. Thank you for having me. The owner of that warehouse in Hutchins says it's not going to sell or lease to DHS for that ICE detention center. Is this over now?
< spk_6 - 00:14:40.0990000 >
You know, I really appreciate Majestic for thinking about the community. That's
< spk_0 - 00:14:43.9500000 >
the landlord there, yes,
< spk_6 - 00:14:44.9790000 >
yes, and putting them first, and his idea is that he wants to grow the economic opportunities in the area and this wasn't it. So I do appreciate that, but that's not the end. There are lots of warehouses that are available for lease or sale in House District 109. So you know we have our mayors of different areas thinking, OK, are we next? So the possibility of them looking for another building in my district is, is very real.
< spk_0 - 00:15:12.2000000 >
Let me ask this if ICE comes back with a different property in your district and says, Listen, we'll bring in good paying jobs, we, we have the rest of this logistics figured out where people would go to the hospital, the, the water and sewer, etc. is there any version of an immigrant detention center in District 109 that you would, that you would support?
< spk_6 - 00:15:29.5590000 >
Absolutely not. Absolutely not. And the people of House District 109 have said they don't support that either, so I'm not going to support that. I don't support putting people in these detention centers with so many unknowns. We see what's happening in other detention centers like in Dilley where you have folks that are just saying no. There are uprisings, there are different illnesses that are being spread throughout those facilities. So the majority of people in House District 109 have said no, and I'm saying no.
< spk_0 - 00:15:58.2650000 >
There's a policy versus politics question here too. National Democrats strike a deal on immigration that includes more detention beds. If the national party strikes this deal and says, listen, we'll give you more detention beds for something else, but those detention beds are closer to the border, would you back that at all?
< spk_6 - 00:16:13.6510000 >
No, I govern and make decisions based on what's best for our community and what's best for our constituents. So even if the national Democrats say, hey, let's make a bargain and we're going to put more of them in another area, I still don't want that area around the border to go through any of this as well. So it's, it's bigger than just House District 109. It's, it's about Texas. It's about this country.
< spk_6 - 00:16:36.6090000 >
Until we come together to figure out a humane way to address, um, immigration, we don't need to be putting these facilities all across anywhere regardless of what party wants us to.
< spk_0 - 00:16:47.0490000 >
With your public education background, let me ask you another question, different topic here. What's your reaction to the huge interest in school vouchers, more than 100,000 applications in the first two weeks? There seems to be a lot of interest in this, more than I anticipated. With this kind of interest though, do you think Democrats might have misread this issue?
< spk_6 - 00:17:03.0590000 >
No, we predicted this would happen. I mean, this is a state with one of the largest student populations in the country, so of course we're going to have huge numbers of people who are applying for these vouchers because they're either already in private schools and it softens that a little bit. So we, we knew this was going to happen. The whole purpose of vouchers were for low income families to have this new opportunity at private schools. Whether or not that's happening now, that's what I want to see.
< spk_6 - 00:17:29.7290000 >
So even though it's a lot of people, I'm wondering what the demographics are and if it's really intended the way that the legislature wanted to when we passed the voucher bill.
< spk_0 - 00:17:39.6880000 >
Representative, good to see you. Thank
< spk_6 - 00:17:41.1290000 >
you again.
< spk_0 - 00:17:43.3690000 >
The roundtable is ready when we come back here on Inside Texas Politics. This is Inside Texas Politics with Jason Whiteley. All right, time now for reporters roundtable to put the headlines in perspective. Bud, Ashley, and Natalie all back with us here. Bud, let's start with you. The Supreme Court ruled that the tariffs that President Trump, most of the tariffs that President Trump has initiated are illegal. How significant is this, and will these countries actually see any refunds?
< spk_3 - 00:18:13.0200000 >
Well, let's see how significant it is to Texas. I mean this is tremendously important for Texas. Great news. You know, Texas, leads the nation in exports. Our economy is tied so closely to Mexico. It's our number one trade partner. You know, Texas stood to lose tens of thousands of jobs if these tariffs were upheld. Ted Cruz was right. The president can't do this, but Ted Cruz was also wrong. He predicted on his podcast the Supreme Court would uphold. And
< spk_0 - 00:18:37.6960000 >
Natalie, a lot of people are watching this. How surprised are people that the Supreme Court, the conservative Supreme Court, ruled against the president here?
< spk_2 - 00:18:43.8160000 >
Yes, 6 to 3 conservative majority on the Supreme Court said basically you need Congress approval to do this. And so I know that President Trump was at a White House breakfast. Morning that the news came down and so he called it disappointing and I know that we were expecting to hear him talk about it, waiting on that response right now so just interesting to see that he's certainly surprised, but as far as everyone else, I would agree with Bud I think this is probably good news for Texans, especially small business owners
< spk_0 - 00:19:11.7320000 >
and Ashley, let's switch off now to early voting. There are huge numbers of Democrats showing up to vote, less Republicans showing up. It's only the primary though. Does this tell us anything, give us any indication about what we might see later this year?
< spk_4 - 00:19:25.8190000 >
Yeah, I mean, I think it does. I think as long as the Democratic Party in Texas can keep its foot on the grass gas and keep people motivated, um, they could see a really big turnout in November if we just look at Travis County alone in the 1st 3 days of early voting, there were more than 32,000 ballots cast, 25,000 of those were Democrats. I mean, I, and obviously people are like, whoa, whoa, whoa, Ashley, you're in a blue.
< spk_4 - 00:19:50.3130000 >
County, I get it, but there are a lot of Republicans here too, and they're just, as far as right now, they're not turning out in the numbers that Democrats are.
< spk_0 - 00:19:58.1930000 >
Natalie, what do you make of this? more Democrats
< spk_2 - 00:20:00.1930000 >
showing up? Yeah, I think this could have been predicted by some of the recent polls that we've talked about. Take the one out of University of Houston Hobby School. We have seen races such as the governor's race and the lieutenant governor's race closer than it has historically been, only single digits keeping Abbott. Away from Gina Hinojosa, Dan Patrick away from Vicky Goodwin, I mean 7% and 5% respectively. I think this was predictable given some of the polls that we've seen.
< spk_0 - 00:20:25.8870000 >
And then, but when it comes to the primary numbers though, these huge turnout numbers, what does this suggest with more Democrats showing up? Does it give us any indication of what might happen in the Democratic race for US Senate, Talarico and
< spk_3 - 00:20:35.6470000 >
Crockett? Jason, I don't understand the big fuss at all, you know, the Democrats. Have an important race for the first time in 36 years. The Republicans are deciding nothing in their primary except Agriculture commissioner. All their other races are probably going to a runoff, and the Republican vote is up heavily too. There's really intense voting in both parties. The Democrats have got a little bit more to vote for.
< spk_0 - 00:20:55.7220000 >
So at the end of the day, Bud, what, what do you predict here? I mean, you've seen a number of these elections. Do, do Democrats continue this robust turnout?
< spk_3 - 00:21:02.7510000 >
Well, I think Democrats. Are continuing to pour in, and I think that those numbers bode well for Democrats in places like Tarrant County that are purple, but the Republicans are not having any kind of bad showing. The numbers are way up over all previous primaries.
< spk_0 - 00:21:17.0760000 >
Yeah, that's a good point. Uh, at the end of the day, so and at the end of the day too, this is still the primary when we're deciding nominees. We're not deciding who's going to actually sit in, uh, each of the offices.
< spk_3 - 00:21:26.9840000 >
Let's see who comes back in May.
< spk_0 - 00:21:28.8390000 >
Absolutely for the runoffs guys thanks so much we appreciate it as always and thank you for watching as well we're back next Sunday to take you inside Texas politics. We hope you will join us then take care.