In the May 31 episode, Republican Party of Texas chair Abraham George and Texas Democratic Party chair Kendall Scudder discuss whether either party can truly unite after bitter primaries and how Ken Paxton and James Talarico can win over independents. And the co-chair of “Say Yes to Downtown,” Tré Black, explains why the group just released a new ad urging younger people to reimagine the future of Dallas City Hall.
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Straight ahead. The road to November. The US Senate showdown is set. Ken Paxton versus James Talarico. Will Paxton's baggage turn off independence? How about Talarico comments on God and gender? Will they become a liability after bruising primaries? Can either party unite the chairs of the Republican Party of Texas and the Texas Democratic Party?
Both answer our questions about what comes next.
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Plus, is Texas moving toward the middle? Election forecasters now out with new predictions and the downturn in downtown Dallas City Council to decide very soon whether to walk away from its iconic city hall. Business leader Trey Black, on the new push for the next generation to take charge. And Texas billionaire Tilman Fertitta has expanded his casino empire.
Could the Caesars Palace deal now move Texas closer to legalized gambling. We asked Governor Greg Abbott.
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Inside Texas politics with Jason Whitely. Starts now.
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I'm Jason Whitely. Thank you for being here. Let's begin the program, as always, with the top political headlines happening across our state. Election forecasters now making new predictions about the U.S. Senate race here this fall. The Cook Political Report is crystal ball and 270 to win have now all moved the Paxton Talarico race from likely Republican to lean Republican Ken Paxton already using that to fundraise.
James Talarico collected $3 million, though, in the first 24 hours after Paxton won. And a number of notable lawmakers will not be back next year to serve after Tuesday's runoff elections in Congress. Democrats. Julie Johnson in Dallas, now Green and Houston, both lost last week from the legislature.
Republicans Briscoe Cain from Houston and John Lujan from San Antonio were both unsuccessful in their congressional campaigns, and in Houston, Leticia Plummer defeated the former mayor Annise Parker for the Democratic nomination for Harris County Judge, and a big business headline is catching some attention in the political world.
The Houston billionaire Tilman Fertitta is buying the Caesars entertainment empire in Las Vegas. Now Fertitta owns the Houston Rockets, along with restaurants Golden Nugget and more. He's now serving as U.S. ambassador to Italy and is close to many state leaders. Question now could this inch Texas closer to legalized gambling?
Governor Abbott told us he isn't betting on it.
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All right, let's begin right now with the road to November. The US Senate race is set, but major questions now remain. How will Ken Paxton and James Talarico win over independents? And after bitter primaries, can either party truly unite? We start with Abraham George, the chair of the Republican Party of Texas, followed by Kendall Scudder, who leads the Texas Democratic Party.
Mr. chairman, good to see you again here. Well, thank you for having me. Ken Paxton dominated with GOP voters on Tuesday night, but the November election is going to be different here. What worries you most about going into November when you're looking at this wide electorate and a lot of independents?
Well, the most concern that we have is the people who are just thinking everything is great. Trumps in white House. You know, Texas is a Republican. I don't need to worry about it. That's our biggest concern. We need to get people to the to the polling locations. That's going to be the hardest thing. We're going to work hard to make sure that we do have enough people showing up.
The Cook Political Report you saw this change is forecast for Texas from likely Republican to lean Republican. Still in your favor there. But Senator Ted Cruz, Lieutenant Governor Patrick, both warning Republicans that, hey, listen, take Talarico seriously. Do you think the state and the party is doing that?
Oh, yeah. We should take him seriously. I mean, he is probably more dangerous than Beto. He was in quoting Bible. He wasn't talking about things that a lot of people, you know, will hear a Bible verse coming out of politician's mouth and say, oh, that guy is a Christian. I'm okay with that, right? We we've got to expose him.
And honestly, the ad that Ken Paxton had a few days ago. Yeah, yeah, it just kills him. It's brutal. Does the state party and do you specifically have a role at all in brokering a peace deal between John Cornyn and Ken Paxton after this primary? A little bit. We've already had a couple of conversations. And with both camps you have.
Yeah. Yeah. How how did it go? Ken Paxton's camp obviously wants to work with everyone because he's he's the winner. He needs everyone's support. John Cornyn camp. Actually, I've talked to a couple of them. They're very supportive of Ken. Uh, they're like, yeah, we had different, different, uh, candidates that we wanted.
But at the end of the day, we don't want Talarico. So they're very open. They're very gracious on how they're dealing with us and Ken Paxton Camp as well. Do you expect John Cornyn is going to physically endorse Ken Paxton? He said he's going to get behind the ticket, but he hasn't specifically answered the question about endorsing Ken Paxton.
I think that I think when it comes to November, he will because Cornyn is a Republican. He is he's been in politics for a long time. I think he is. He understands how dangerous Talarico is, and he said that openly. So he will get behind. Ken. Yeah. Do you expect Texas voters are ever going to see Ken Paxton and James Talarico side by side at a debate at a forum anywhere before November?
I would pay to see that. And I think I think I want to I want to see that and we should. Why not? Do you think it's going to happen, though? I think we should we should push for it. I'm going to push for it and see how that goes. And the last question here, we saw how expensive this runoff was on the Republican side.
How expensive do you think this US Senate race is going to be between Paxton and Talarico? He raised $3 million in 24 hours here. There's a lot of money going to be thrown at this race. Yes. So now that the primaries are over, every Republican donor can say, all right, now I have a ticket that I can get behind.
Right. A lot of people didn't want to get get between these two races. Same thing with the ag race and all the others. Right. So we're going to see a lot of good money coming in. And one of the major things that we're worried about is where we can spend the money. Like South Texas is a place that we need to spend more money on.
Uh, we were told by RNC a couple of days ago. A few days ago, we're expecting about $600 million total spent in in Texas between Democrats and Republicans. That's a lot of money. We haven't done $1 million. That's we haven't done that. That's never happened. That's never happened in the past. So we will see if that's if that's the projections and if it's actually going to happen.
But you never know. Wow. Mr. chairman, thanks for the time. I appreciate it. Mr. chairman, it's good to see you again here. Republicans are urging their own conservatives and colleagues to take Talarico seriously. This remains an uphill climb, though, for Democrats. What do you say to those Democratic voters who always get their hopes up each cycle, only to be disappointed?
Look. States like Texas don't flip overnight. It is the most expensive state to operate in. It's geographically expansive. It's a tough territory to organize them. And so we have to do this one bite at a time. Cycle over cycle. This cycle does seem like it's going to be one that's very favorable to us. And you have a lot of opportunity, but it's building our party in 254 counties around this state from the ground up.
And I think that we have a great opportunity, a fantastic candidate at the top of the ticket against Republicans who are running the the the biggest foot in American politics. It's a great, great, great kind of contrast for Democrats here in Texas. John Cornyn spent $90 million trying to get Republican voters to care about the ethical issues that Ken Paxton had, the divorce, the impeachment on corruption charges.
Those Republican voters didn't care. The independents in this state, as you well know. Lean to the right. Why do you think that they will care? If Cochran couldn't convince his own voters? Well, Republican primary voters may not care. But I do think your average voter in Texas does. And I'll also remind you, there is a large chunk of voters in the Republican primary that even after a Trump endorsement, refused to stand behind Ken Paxton as attorney general, Ken Paxton has never once gotten out of bed and thought about how to make you and your life better.
He only thinks about how to serve himself and Donald Trump. And if you want someone that's going to come to the table with solutions, a common sense person who has proven in the legislature their ability to get things done. James Talarico is really your only choice here. And so that's that's how I think we're going to be able to pull this off.
It's going to be a coalition of people that are looking for good government in Texas, in you. Let me ask you about that very first ad that Ken Paxton's campaign put out against Talarico. Using Talarico past comments. God is non-binary. The American flag is a complicated symbol. Do you think those are going to hurt?
Uh, Tallarico chances when it comes to independent voters, I think it's the only chance that Paxton has. And that's what he's trying to do, right? He's going to lean on those types of things. No one's life is impacted by Ken Paxton drawing these statements out of context. Okay, so he can do that. That's fine.
We and the Democratic Party and James Talarico, his campaign, are focused on solutions for families that are needing us. That's what government is supposed to be. I know everybody thinks it's just Hollywood for ugly people, but the truth is, they're supposed to be solving people's problems and making people's lives better.
And that's what we're going to be focused on here on the Democratic side of the aisle.
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Mr. chairman, the reality on the ground here is this state voted for Donald Trump three times, despite January 6th, despite the president saying grab women in certain areas. Why do you think Texas voters might now look towards a Democrat like Talarico. I think a lot has changed, particularly the fact that Texas has been adversely impacted by the Trump administration.
We are uniquely hurt by the policies, whether it is the import of Argentinian beef or outsourcing the jobs of oilfield workers to Venezuela, or these tariffs, who are the largest trading partner with with Canada is San Antonio, Texas. We are being impacted in Texas in a way that other states are filling it to the same degree, but they're still filling it.
And so I think that Texans are tired of it. They're tired of all the ruckus. They're tired of these politicians just serving the billionaire class, just serving the politically connected and not serving the people who are counting on them.
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All right. That's Kendall Scudder there from the Texas Democratic Party. We want to remind you the road to November is also the focus of this week's episode of Scott Braddock. Editor of the Quorum Report, shared his insights and expectations with us for the next five months. Yellow ticks always available wherever you get your podcasts, but here on this program, let's bring in the roundtable to talk about the politics of what we just saw and what we expect to unfold here.
But Kennedy is with us from the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Jessica Holzman from Vote Beat, editorial director there, and Gaby Berenbaum, the Washington correspondent for the Texas Tribune. Thanks for being here, guys. But let's start with you. And the focus of both of the interviews is, can't the parties truly unite?
Because I'm talking to a lot of Republicans, John Cornyn supporters who remain sore? Well, I think the Republicans, most of them will unite. I mean, Ken Paxton has to just run a standard Republican campaign, the three legged stool of Republican campaigns. You run on God, guns, oil. You know, those are all areas where he has an advantage over Talarico.
He go for the traditional Republican voter in Texas and, you know, not act too far out there now. It's the it's the general it's time to move back to the middle. We see all this trouble bubbling in the Democratic Party now, with Jasmine Crockett's spokesman saying that the the calling Talarico a long shot, saying that Democrats might have to decide whether they spend their money in Texas or not.
This is still holdover from the primary, from the fact that they believe Talarico had a sense of entitlement and cut in front of Colin Allred, who was really leading the poll, and that is significant. That came out on Friday. Jessica, the statement from Crockett's spokesperson, and I guess the question I have now is whether you think we'll see Talarico physically reach out to Crockett for an endorsement to ask for her support.
I think at some point he's going to have to. I think even though she did lose pretty resoundingly in the general election or in the primary earlier this year, she still has a real hold over black voters in Texas. And that's a huge and important demographic block for the Democratic Party here, especially if they're trying to sweep statewide.
And so I think he's going to have to do some outreach to her campaign. What form that takes? I'm not sure. And, Gabby, you're in D.C. there. We saw the Senate Republicans awkwardly embrace Ken Paxton after his victory on Tuesday night. What are Republicans saying there as they try to adapt to this new political world?
Yeah, I mean, this was a Senate Republican conference that just a week ago, right, was apoplectic when the president endorsed Ken Paxton. And John Cornyn is their longtime friend and colleague. He's raised hundreds of millions of dollars for them. And now you're seeing the pivot, right. So we know that Senate Majority Leader Thune spoke to Ken Paxton.
We know that Paxton's coming to D.C. next week for some fundraising, including with Senator Cruz. But, you know, they can't as much as they'll you know, they're deleting some old posts and some old ads, but it remains a fact that. Right, the Republican establishment was vehemently anti Paxton. And you saw right the race the race rating shift to be a little more friendly to Democrats.
And that's exactly why they know that Paxton is liabilities. And now it's sort of their responsibility to help him. And that might mean hundreds of millions of dollars. Yeah. How this, uh, how this unfolds and especially how people are squirming to get around the new political world is fascinating. All right, guys, sit tight here.
A lot more ahead here in just a moment. Including this.
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When we come back, the new push for the next generation to decide what happens to Dallas City Hall business executive Trey Black. Up next on Inside Texas Politics.
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Welcome back to Inside Texas Politics. Now to the future of Dallas City Hall. Council likely to decide what's next for that iconic building, perhaps as early as June 10th, a week from Wednesday. Our next guest is a local business executive named Trey Black. He's part of the Say Yes to Downtown movement that's out with a brand new ad urging younger people to help reimagine the site.
Mr. black, it's good to see you here. Good to see you. The new ad here is it's a strong ad, but it's aimed specifically at younger folks who live here in the city. But are they even watching what's going on? Absolutely they are. I mean, there's a new generation of people. They're excited about Dallas, they're focused on the future, and they want to see everything take place in this city that they've been promised.
You know, there's people that are coming to Dallas for the first time that are excited about y'all Street, that are excited about our parks, they're excited about our convention center, and they want to see downtown work. If City Council is making the final decision on this sometime in June, this seems like a campaign ad.
Yeah. What's the point of it? Because the young folks it's aimed at are not going to be making the decision here. Well, we want to get people excited, right? We want people to get people engaged. You know, a lot of these folks have never been asked to do anything civically before, right? Maybe their grandparents or their parents have been asked, but they haven't.
So it's an opportunity for people to step forward and actually make a difference in the city. So no matter how this thing goes. The fact of the matter is, there's a new generation of people who are engaged, and the theme of the ad is, you know, the last generation was able to erect its own landmarks. Which City Hall is 100 1500?
Marilla. But the new generation should have the same right to erect its own landmarks. Sure. Is that kind of the theme here? Some of it is, right. I mean, what's the rest of it? What would you do? Well, look, I mean, there are situations in Dallas that have taken place. And, look, a lot of these younger folks wouldn't be here if it wasn't for a previous generation.
A lot of people have never been in City Hall. They don't know who I am. Pei is. I think the question is, who will pay for the future of City Hall? And I don't think a younger generation wants to be encumbered by that cost. There's a lot of other things that we can do with those funds. There are a lot of people who look at this and say, listen, you know, why isn't the same effort focused in the Central West End?
Why is it focused on the East Quarter next to Deep Ellum? Why isn't focused in the Cedars area? Why suddenly City Hall, you know, being ground zero for this look, over the last 50 years, nothing has happened in that area. It's just a dead zone. So what can we do? And actually, to improve the land value around that area and make that part of town exciting and have it to actually connect to new neighborhoods, right?
I mean, we have an opportunity to re-energize downtown, re-energize the Southeast quarter. You can't do everything all at the same time. And it's just a series of puzzle pieces that we're putting together in order to make sure we have a better city, a better downtown. Mr. black, it's good to see you. Thanks for the time.
Hey, thank you so much. I really appreciate it. The roundtable is ready when we come back here on Inside Texas Politics.
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All right. Back now with the roundtable to put the headlines in perspective. But Jessica and Gabby all back with us. Gabby, let's start with you. And the big question is, what will John Cornyn do next after he lost his Senate primary? Especially because President Trump endorsed Ken Paxton rather than, you know, Cornyn, which he had been lobbying for for a long time.
Is he going to go against the president's agenda for this remaining seven months? Yeah. One of the risks President Trump ran with the endorsement, right, is that Senator Cornyn is in the Senate for the next seven months. And there's a lot of priorities he wants passed. I think we're going to know very quickly, because when the Senate comes back, they still have to deal with their reconciliation bill to fund Ice and Border Patrol, and Democrats are going to throw a lot of amendments at them, difficult votes.
And we've already seen other senators who have been crossed by Trump or who are not running for reelection, be way more willing to sort of vote against the Republican Party. Um, Senator Cornyn has said, you know, he's going to kind of go through his legislative process, as he always does. But I would note that he posted this morning about the fable of the frog and the scorpion, right where the frog is crossing a river.
Scorpion asks for a ride. It stings the frog and sort of sinks them both. That didn't sound to me like someone who is just right at this moment, you know, super pleased with how everything went down. Yeah, I saw that tweet. It was interesting indeed. But Jessica, let me ask you on the same thing here. I mean, Republicans have shown the past 8 to 10 years that once you know, they're on their way out, They don't mind taking a shot at President Trump or going against his agenda.
He says he won't do it, but I don't know.
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You know, I think John Cornyn has held his nose and done a lot of things in the last couple of years that he really didn't want to do. And I think he did that in order to stay on Trump's good side. And so I think in his mind, he may not be throwing, you know, Trump under the bus. He may just be doing what he wanted to do this entire time.
And I think that we're going to have to watch out for that. Right. We are in the middle of Trump doing some pretty interesting stuff, right? We've got a slush fund for his supporters who may or may not have been targeted by the government. We've got this ballroom. These are things that lots of Republicans are not happy about.
And I think anyone who is facing a situation which they don't have to come back to Congress and keep working with everyone else, those are always going to be the people who are freest to vote their conscience. And I will be interested to see if if he does. Yeah, indeed. So we'll be watching that in the next seven months here.
But with the loss of John Cornyn, with the loss of Al Green, with the loss of Julie Johnson, there are some some veterans, you know, walking or not walking away, you know, forced to leave by voters. How will that impact Texas? You know, one third of the congressional delegation will be new. I think I counted 13.
You lose chairmen like McCall and Arrington. You have a whole new team coming in. This is like in sports when the whole teams traded away. You have to call up the team from the minor leagues that we all freshmen in the house and and a new face in the Senate. You have to start over again building seniority. And Gabby, as you, you know, interact with these lawmakers there in D.C. what are what are they saying about kind of what the new delegation looks like?
I mean, Dan Crenshaw is another one is not going to be back. There are a number on both sides that will not be returning. There will be a lot of new faces representing Texas here soon. Yeah. Pete Sessions, who's a congressman from Waco, called it a reload to me, and it's not the first time, but it might end up being some of one of the biggest reloads ever.
Right. And that means loss of seniority. That means loss of senior posts on important committees that where you can direct funds to Texas, you know, on appropriations or advocate for Texas when it needs disaster assistance. Right. Things like that. You have new people coming in. And so you're going to have an opportunity, right, for some people to sort of make their name known to leadership and, you know, build their profile.
But you're having a lot of expertise leave. And for a state like Texas, which sends more than any other state but California to the house, uh, you know, just quantity sometimes isn't enough. You need members who sort of know what they're doing to. And that takes time to build. Yeah, it does take time to build.
And it's going to take time for Texas to rebuild as well. Gabby. Jessica, Bud, thanks so much as always. We appreciate your insight. Thank you for watching as well. We're back next Sunday to take you inside Texas politics. We hope to see you then. Have a great day.
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Thank you.