In the March 22 episode, State Senator Sarah Eckhardt, the Democratic nominee for Texas Comptroller, explains how she would run the voucher program even though she might personally disagree with it and how she would use the office’s auditors differently than her opponent. And Armin Mizani and Cate Brennan discuss their plans to win the seat for Texas House District 98.
00:00 Sarah Eckhardt’s Path to Texas Comptroller
00:28 Tarrant County Legislative Race: Arman Mazani vs Kate Brennan
00:56 May Runoff Election Explained + Key Voting Rules
01:52 Sarah Eckhardt Interview: Why She Wants to Be Comptroller
02:57 Managing School Vouchers & Public School Concerns
03:34 Debate Over State Audits and Government Oversight
04:40 Can Democrats Flip the Texas Comptroller’s Office?
07:37 School Voucher Applications & Who Benefits
09:40 Arman Mazani on Winning the Republican Primary
11:11 Religion, Values, and Representing Diverse Voters
13:19 Kate Brennan’s Strategy to Win a Deep Red District
16:55 Cornyn vs Paxton Runoff & The Battle for Republican Voters
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Straight ahead, insiders say she might be the Democrats' best shot at winning a statewide seat. Sarah Eckhart on her campaign for comptroller, how would she manage school vouchers even if she disagrees with it? And what could public school supporters expect of her? Plus the coming test in Tarrant County, Arman Mazani versus Kate Brennan for a seat in the legislature.
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What the Republican Mazani told us about public education and whether his position on local control might change if he goes to Austin. And can Kate Brennan repeat Democrats' recent success here? She says two things might swing in her favor. And the May runoff election coming sooner than you might realize, plus the one thing to keep in mind if you intend to vote.
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Inside Texas Politics with Jason Whitely starts now. Thank you for being here. I'm Jason Whitely. Here we are closing in on April, meaning the next election likely closer than you might think, 9 weeks away. That's the runoff election, May 26th. This is the next round for the Republicans and Democrats who did not get at least 50% of the vote on March. Third Cornyn versus Ken Paxton is the big race on the right.
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Colin Allred versus Julie Johnson, one to watch on the left, especially in Dallas. Early voting runs through May 18th through the 22nd of May. Campaigns urge voters to cast ballots early and avoid confusion on election day. And one more important note, we're hearing a lot of people asking this question. You must stay with your party. No switching here. If you voted Republican in the primary, you can only vote Republican in the runoff. Same rule for Democrats, no party switching.
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Our first guest right now is looking towards November. Beyond that runoff, the race for state comptroller wide open for the first time in more than a decade. It's the state's chief financial officer, the person also managing school vouchers among many other responsibilities. A couple of weeks ago we heard from the Republican nominee Don Huffines with us now though, the Democrat that he's going to face, State Senator Sarah Eckhart joining us from the campaign trail at the airport in between stops.
< spk_0 - 00:02:21.3000000 >
Senator, welcome to the program here. You have been a county commissioner, a county judge there in Travis County, a state senator. Why in the world do you want to be comptroller, the chief financial officer for the state?
< spk_1 - 00:02:32.6900000 >
The comptroller's office is the least known and most powerful statewide office. It's completely independent. It is a constitutional office charged with following both the law and following the money, and it's a, it's a great place to make sure that the state of Texas is actually in. Investing in Texans and a great place to start taking Texans back for Texans. The,
< spk_0 - 00:02:57.3390000 >
the comptroller manages school vouchers. I want to ask you two questions about this. Could you run the program even if you disagree with it? And, and secondly, what could public school supporters expect from you in this position?
< spk_1 - 00:03:10.3890000 >
Well, as I said before, the comptroller's office is about both following the law and following the money. The comptroller does not change the law and doesn't write the law, but it does implement the law and then report out faithfully how it's operating and who it's benefiting. The people of Texas deserve to know whether their government is working for them, and if it's not, who it's working for.
< spk_0 - 00:03:34.4790000 >
You'll face Don Huffines in November. The Republican, he's pledging in an interview with us to use the office's 600 auditors to investigate, uh, local and, and, you know, city and county budgets to look for waste, fraud, and abuse there if they're asking the state for money. What would you use that audit team for?
< spk_1 - 00:03:53.2200000 >
I would use that auditing actually for state government. It's important that we have a federal, state, and local partnership. These are three different threads of money that need to be braided for appropriate services to the people of Texas, because everyone in Texas is paying at the local level, the state level, and the federal level. What Don Huffines is suggesting is actually a retribution campaign on anyone who dares to try to govern.
< spk_1 - 00:04:17.1040000 >
He would prefer to see government go away and for the survival of the richest to take hold in the state of Texas permanently. And I would suggest that to the extent that we need to weed out fraud, we absolutely must. But can you really trust Republicans who've been in power for 3 decades to do that? In fact, when Republicans have tried, they've been shown the door by their own party.
< spk_0 - 00:04:40.0440000 >
Huff Fine's already defeated the candidate that Governor Abbott wanted, the acting Comptroller Kelly Hancock. Huff Fiennes is gonna have a tremendous amount of money to throw at this. He, he has the, the energy from the MAGA base. How do you intend to overcome that?
< spk_1 - 00:04:55.0590000 >
this Texas is not for sale, and we're already seeing in early results in in the primary but also in the special elections that Texans are not responding to huge wads of personal cash being thrown into races for personal power. So I think actually the gobs of money that the Huffines and his family will throw at this as they did at the governor's race and also at his Senate race actually are kind of a turnoff.
< spk_1 - 00:05:23.4880000 >
We will have an adequately funded campaign and we'll get the message out that there's a real choice here and wouldn't you rather have a watchdog rather than a lapdog for the rich and powerful.
< spk_0 - 00:05:33.6090000 >
Senator, good to see you. Thank you for the time.
< spk_1 - 00:05:35.5700000 >
Thank you for yours.
< spk_0 - 00:05:37.3290000 >
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. Natalie Haddad, political reporter at WFAA in Dallas, and Ashley Goudeau, political director at KVUE in Austin. Bud, let's start with you. You were in this same studio with us March 3rd on primary election night. Vinnie Minchillo, a Republican consultant, said he thinks the comptroller's office might be the Democrats' best chance to pick up a statewide seat in more than 30 years because. He said that Huffines has a ceiling of support among Republican voters.
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What do you think?
< spk_2 - 00:06:07.5720000 >
There are a couple of races like that, you know, maybe a railroad commission or two, where the Republican candidate has some negatives. You know, we saw in 2018 when Bet O'Rourke ran, spent so much money, he didn't win, but he turned out so many Democrats around the state that some of the down ballot Democrats came close. I think Dan Patrick only won by 3 or 4 points. You know, if Talarico has a great year and brings out voters, something down ballot could happen.
< spk_0 - 00:06:33.8460000 >
And Ashley, when we look at Huff Fines and, and Senator Eckhart, you've covered her for, for years down there, she's not gonna have the financial resources that Huff Fines and Republicans have. Can she really make a dent, uh, and, and get out there and, and be known elsewhere outside central Texas and introduce herself to voters?
< spk_3 - 00:06:54.1490000 >
So I mean I, I honestly think she can. I couldn't agree with Bud Moore. I think that the money that Talarico spends in this race is gonna play a really big part for her. I think one of the things that we know about, uh, Senator Eckhart is she's not afraid to work. She's not afraid to get out there. She holds coffees and community talks. She is not going to be, I think, outworked in this race, right? So it's just whether or not her message will resonate with voters. I think the other thing is some people just don't like.
< spk_3 - 00:07:23.1700000 >
Don Huffines, I mean some people see him as, you know, a very wealthy man, um, someone who is an ultra conservative, and we don't know how well his messaging is going to sit with independents, and I think that's gonna play a big role come November.
< spk_0 - 00:07:37.2500000 >
And Natalie, one of the jobs that this office has, of course, is to manage school vouchers. Um, we now know more about who's getting these, who's applying at least for these private school vouchers here, and it's not necessarily the low income kids that, uh, Republicans anticipated.
< spk_4 - 00:07:53.1190000 >
Yeah, no, I don't think this really came as a shock to anyone because we have been talking about it for so many years, and there is a reason why a certain US Senate candidate called this a coupon. We saw more than 160,000 students apply, the majority, and we're talking upwards of 80, more than 80% of those students are already in private schools. We didn't even see 40,000 students apply coming from public schools, so I think uh.
< spk_4 - 00:08:21.7090000 >
Excuse me, Representative James Talarico had a point when he said this was a coupon for those already seeking already in private schools. They're just seeking state help now.
< spk_0 - 00:08:31.1090000 >
Yes, Democrats will be talking about that, but let me ask you though about the Muslim parents in private schools suing the state because they were excluded from the voucher program here. They call it religious discrimination, and it seems to me this violates the very law that Republicans pushed to pass for years.
< spk_2 - 00:08:47.5200000 >
Well, Republicans, you know, There were people in the legislature who said, look, this will apply to Muslim schools, to Buddhist schools, to Hindu schools, you know, the difference is that the government, Governor Abbott is trying to say that Muslim schools are somehow linked through care or through other groups to terrorist countries, but the schools themselves have no connection to those countries. It's going to be hard to make that stand up in court. Yes,
< spk_0 - 00:09:12.1190000 >
indeed, so when we were watching, guys, back to you in just a moment. Thanks so much. A lot more ahead here, including this. When we come back, Armin Mizani, Kate Brennan, one seat in the state legislature, he will have the money, her party has the momentum. Inside Texas politics back in a moment. This is Inside Texas Politics with Jason Whitely.
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Welcome back to Inside Texas Politics. Now to the coming test in Tarrant County. Democrats there remain motivated after Taylor Rehmet's surprise win for a seat in the state Senate. The next battleground, House District 98, 1 of the most conservative areas in the state. Republican Arman Mazani, the current mayor of Keller, up first, followed by his Democratic challenger Kate Brennan. Mayor, welcome to the program here. You won the Republican primary, more than 53% of the vote against two different opponents.
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Why, what do you think ultimately separated you and, and prevented this from going into a runoff?
< spk_5 - 00:10:16.6590000 >
Well, first of all, thanks for having me on, Jason, and uh I'll tell you, I think this was a referendum on, on the fact that for the last 6 years as mayors, we have developed uh, a proven record, a conservative record that I think a lot of folks in the district have seen, whether it be taxes or trying to de-incentivize illegal immigration, advocating for public schools, which is so important in my district, uh, people saw that record and, uh, and ultimately, I believe that was, uh, what put us over the edge. It is why we're able to avoid.
< spk_5 - 00:10:43.7290000 >
Uh, that runoff, and we had broad support, uh, from a lot of local leaders, which I think had a direct impact in this race.
< spk_0 - 00:10:50.7290000 >
A lot of folks from outside House District 98 all over North Texas, DFW saw the bitter primary fight between you and Fred Tate. Have you spoken to him since the election, since your primary win? We did.
< spk_5 - 00:11:01.6190000 >
We, we did. We had a cordial, telephone call the day after, and he congratulated me and To his credit, indicated that he would be very supportive of us in the general election.
< spk_0 - 00:11:11.8800000 >
Mayor, let's talk about your time at City Hall. You made news in Keller for banning Sharia law there, and you reportedly canceled an Episcopalian priest from giving an invocation because the priest's church participated. Participated in or hosted an LGBTQ event. I'm curious how you would represent voters in your district who do not share your same religious views.
< spk_5 - 00:11:32.2240000 >
Well, at the end of the day, we're always gonna represent everyone, whether you voted for me or my opponent, whether you agree with me and my policies and my values, but I do believe people elect, uh, leaders to advocate for the values that they ran on. Uh, I am someone who very clearly from the outset said radical Islam, in my opinion, and Sharia law, Sharia courts have no place here in Texas. Uh, voters, uh, very strongly put us in office because of those positions, and I am someone that's gonna be unapologetic in, in, uh, uh, preserving the ideals and the values that I think make Texas great.
< spk_5 - 00:12:02.3490000 >
And, uh, they, they elected us into office. We're gonna be consistent in that regard, and, uh, I believe ultimately that will be something that voters, uh, will have a big say in future elections as well.
< spk_0 - 00:12:12.9400000 >
Mayor, we have all watched the legislature really make it a point to revoke local control in a lot of instances. You will have the unique experience if elected in November to have served as a mayor and now in the state legislature if you get elected there. But, but would you counter efforts to rein in local control or continue that?
< spk_5 - 00:12:34.0490000 >
Listen, I, and I think you, you're right, Jason. I offer that unique perspective having served as mayor for 6 years. Uh, I think sometimes there's legislation down in Austin, that get passed. Uh, they assume that all cities are apples to apples when we're not. Uh, Keller is very different obviously than a Fort Worth or even a South Lake, and ultimately to be able to offer that perspective. I'm someone that will always advocate for local control, uh, but at the same time, I do believe the state has a, has a hand in ensuring that, uh, we are preserving our values and actually advocating for taxpayers and our constituents.
< spk_5 - 00:13:03.6300000 >
And so, that balance is gonna be important and that perspective that I can offer to the members and uh the legislative branch down in Austin, I think is gonna be critical.
< spk_0 - 00:13:13.8590000 >
Mayor, congratulations again. Thank you for the time.
< spk_5 - 00:13:16.5800000 >
Thanks for having me on, Jason.
< spk_0 - 00:13:19.2100000 >
Kate, congratulations and welcome to the program here. Thank you. House District 98 is probably the most Republican district in the United States. Where do you see an opening? For a victory as a progressive Democrat,
< spk_6 - 00:13:32.6090000 >
I am progressive, but I also want to get things done. So yes, House District 98 has been reliably Republican, and I knew that when I got into the race, but between the bag of fatigue, the wonderful overperformance of Democrats voting almost 3 times, 3 to 1 Republicans in this past primary.
< spk_6 - 00:13:57.4690000 >
Um, and you know, a female advantage and the real concern about the public schools, which is a, a great reason why people moved to House District 98. So all of that tied up, I think will bring me within the margin of error of winning. So I'm in it to win it.
< spk_0 - 00:14:16.6300000 >
You will face Arman Mazani in the November general election. He has shown that he can raise money and put money behind TV ads and get people out there. How do you counter that?
< spk_6 - 00:14:25.7500000 >
Yes, that's a tough one. My campaign is probably not going to have access to that kind of political action committee money, but I think Taylor Rehmet showed us that money can't buy elections.
< spk_0 - 00:14:40.4690000 >
He's a Democrat that won state Senate District 9.
< spk_6 - 00:14:42.5900000 >
He is, he is, and his SD 9 district overlaps about 50% with House District 98, so that bodes. Well for me,
< spk_0 - 00:14:51.8640000 >
but have you spoken to him about any lessons and gotten any advice from Taylor Rehmet?
< spk_6 - 00:14:57.3350000 >
He's been so busy, you know, getting, getting into office. I have not spoken with him directly, but I did campaign for him and speak with him before, and, you know, we share a lot of the same issues. It's kitchen table issues. It's schools, it's affordability. It's health care. I have a background in healthcare management. And so you know those are the types of things that really concern people no matter what district you're in.
< spk_0 - 00:15:22.0100000 >
Even with motivated Democrats this year showing up at the polls here, Mazani still won more in the Republican primary than you did. How do you overcome a deficit like that just in the primary alone?
< spk_6 - 00:15:34.9290000 >
Yes, well, I, I, uh, I have to admit I was campaigning more for Taylor Rehmet than I was myself in the lead up, so it didn't leave a lot of time for me to do door knocking. However, I've been a precinct chair and a committee chair with the Tarrant County Democratic Party. For about 4 years and so the precinct chairs are ready to help me door knock.
< spk_6 - 00:15:55.6500000 >
I think I can raise the money that's necessary to get my name recognition out there with a lot of social media, of course, and earned media, so I'm looking forward to that and working on the real grassroots, having coffees at people's houses and just trying to talk to everyone, whether that's an independent or a disgruntled Republican people who are just concerned about. Um, their schools and their neighborhoods.
< spk_0 - 00:16:23.0990000 >
Kate, congratulations. Good
< spk_6 - 00:16:24.1790000 >
luck. Thank you so much.
< spk_0 - 00:16:26.7600000 >
The roundtable is ready when we come back here on Inside Texas Politics. And keep up with Texas politics all week long as well by subscribing to our podcast. It is called Y'all-itics. 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.
< spk_0 - 00:16:55.2290000 >
Bud Kennedy is back from the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Natalie Haddad, political reporter at WFAA in Dallas, and Ashley Goode, our friend. From KU in Austin, political director there, but let's start with you and the first two polls in the John Cornyn Ken Paxton runoff race for May 26th showed both guys still close there. What was interesting here though is that Paxton picked up more of Wesley Hunt's voters. If they didn't vote for Paxton the first time, why would they vote for him the second time? Well,
< spk_2 - 00:17:22.2700000 >
they, they are movement conservatives. Wesley Hunt's voters wanted a change. They wanted somebody younger than. Paxton or maybe they objected to some of the downside of Paxton, but they went ahead and went with Hunt. But if given the choice, they still want to choose a movement conservative, not the establishment. The differences like the runoff itself, a few more are for Paxton than for Cornyn.
< spk_0 - 00:17:47.5900000 >
And Natalie, President Trump did not seem in any rush to endorse in this race like he said he would without a Endorsement. I don't see any way this doesn't become a bloodbath.
< spk_4 - 00:17:57.9330000 >
I absolutely agree with you. These candidates have already spent presidential campaign levels of money in advertisements and everything that goes into that, including the AI, to absolutely trash each other, and I think one of the big takeaways from the primary was that money talks because they are now headed to a runoff. And I, you know, when you look at the polls, some polls showed that one candidate may have swept and that just like wasn't the case. And so, I am surprised. I'm going to take that back.
< spk_4 - 00:18:23.9460000 >
I'm not surprised to see that President Trump is taking his time and is instead saying I want to see the S Save Act passed. And what do you know, we have Cornyn making decisions on the filibuster, having a different mindset on that, and promoting the SAVE Act now.
< spk_0 - 00:18:37.7860000 >
And Ashley, if they thrash each other, that's just more of an opportunity, I presume, for Democrat James Talarico to get out there and eat up as much earned media as he can.
< spk_3 - 00:18:49.3900000 >
I mean to some degree I think look it's only gonna last until May. When was the last time we had a fight this juicy? I can't tell you one but we've seen the ads, the level of ads that we're seeing now with the attacks and so I think that yes, you know, it could get nasty and you could maybe have state representative Talarico try to take some advantage of that, but it will be short.
< spk_3 - 00:19:11.9870000 >
Lived because between June and November that's a lot of time for you know him and the Republican to be attacking each other
< spk_0 - 00:19:21.2660000 >
and bud, you know with these attack ads that Natalie mentioned a moment ago and the amount of money spent on those, you know, one theme that we see from John Cornyn is this morality theme. The, the most recent attack ad he has against Ken Paxton talks about the 10 Commandments and accuse. that Paxton has violated the 10 Commandments. It's kind of a he's had another one similar to this before the March 3rd primary. Are these effective?
< spk_2 - 00:19:44.3430000 >
Well, you know, the morality ads work with the people who are already for John Cornyn, the older voters are already for Cornyn, the college educated voters. I think we've seen that morality is no longer an issue in politics. I think, you know what the voters want, the voters are against someone who's elite. They want to stop someone who's elite. Cornyn has to show all of Ken Paxton's property, his wealth, his homes, and, and show that he's actually the elitist in this race.
< spk_0 - 00:20:10.4610000 >
That's a good point, Natalie. I mean, the voters have shown that multiple times in the past 10 years. They, they want to, you know, not afraid to burn things down and bust up the, uh, the elite and the establishment.
< spk_4 - 00:20:20.2900000 >
Yeah, I think Bud makes excellent points. I do wonder what certain, you know, certain Paxton voters are certainly thinking now, especially because, you know, to Bud's point, he is really the elitist here, and if they're not afraid of burning things down, as you put it, Jason, I'm, I'm interested to see does Paxton actually pull this off.
< spk_0 - 00:20:37.9000000 >
Yeah, Natalie, I mean, Ashley, what, what, what do you think about that because it's, you know, you talked about what how rough, how rough this could be, and, and Paxton didn't live up to polls and didn't place as high on March 3rd as polls said he would.
< spk_3 - 00:20:51.4300000 >
Yeah, and I think that you know when it comes to ads, of course we all, right, the four of us see all the ads that come in, we're very in tune. The ads for, you know, your average Texan are hit and miss, and that's why he has to continue running these ads and he has to continue bringing up these issues with Paxton to show, you know, his, his elite status and the issues, the flaws in his character, and I think.
< spk_3 - 00:21:15.6500000 >
If you're not only talking to Republican primary runoff voters, but you're also talking to those independents who maybe don't want to support someone who they think is not a good guy.
< spk_0 - 00:21:26.9690000 >
Yeah, and, and of course Paxton has plenty of his own attack ads out there as well too. His most recent one just released, uh, in the past few days. Guys, thanks so much. We're out of time for that. Thank you for watching as well. We're back next Sunday to take you inside Texas politics. We hope you can join us then. Take care.