In the November 2 episode, Congresswoman Beth Van Duyne discusses the results of a recent survey she sent out gauging the impact of the shutdown on Texans. State Representative Ramon Romero Jr. tells us why he doesn’t think the state should assume control of an entire school district because of one failing campus. And Nate Sheets on why he wants to make the jump from business owner to Texas Agriculture Commissioner.
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An economic crunch, grocery benefits in jeopardy, health insurance costs rising 4 weeks into a government shutdown.
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This is an avoidable government shutdown. It did not need to happen. New
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numbers show Congresswoman Beth Van Dyne's constituents are feeling it. Who will Texans blame for the pain? The Texas Education Agency starts its takeover of Fort Worth ISD.
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I've made that very clear to Commissioner Marath that I expect nothing but the best from him,
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high expectations from State Representative Ramon Romero Junior and his fear that teachers will flee. Plus a newcomer to politics wants to be Texas's next agriculture commissioner. Why Nate Sheets launched a primary campaign.
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Inside Texas Politics with Jason Whiteley starts now.
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Good Sunday morning everybody. I'm Teresa Woodard in this week for Jason Whiteley. We are going to spend a lot of time this morning talking about the economic pain that Texans are feeling all across the state, but first, a few headlines. Election day is Tuesday. While there are a couple of special elections in Houston and Fort Worth, the ballot includes no statewide candidates, but 17 propositions.
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Here's one thing to keep an eye on Tuesday night outside of Texas California voters will decide whether to redraw California's congressional districts to give Democrats an edge. It is a direct retaliation to the map Texas passed this summer that favored Republicans. Uncertain times ahead for public transportation in North Texas. City councils in Plano.
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Farmers Branch and Highland Park could all vote this week to schedule special elections where voters would decide whether to withdraw from Dallas Area Rapid Transit. That's the light rail and bus system in DFW. The city say taxpayers contribute far more to DART than the agency reinvests. Those elections would be in 2026, and we have a couple of campaign announcements. State Senator Sarah Eckhardt, a Democrat, is running for Congress in the seat Republican Michael Baccaul is leaving.
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It's been redrawn to more heavily favor Republicans, and she admits she's going to be an underdog. Fort Worth pastor and state Representative Nate Shatzley now says he is not running for reelection. He had already been endorsed by President Trump, but instead he is joining the National Faith Advisory Board. Now to those difficult conversations happening in a lot of your homes these days, grocery prices, health care premiums, they are up. Most paychecks are not.
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So how do you make ends meet? Congresswoman Beth Van Dyne was here just as the government shutdown began. We thought it would be good to pick up the conversation again 4 weeks later. Representative Beth Van Dyne, it's good to see you again this morning.
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It's great to see you. Thank you for having me on.
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So I've been speaking with some nonprofits here in Texas that fight poverty, and they tell me they are really worried right now. They say Texans are hurting and they're not 100% sure that the folks in power in Washington understand how bad things are right now. So are you concerned and do you get it?
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So yes, we get it and we are, we are in touch with these folks that are in our district. We sent out a survey to 160,000 people last week. And we asked them if they're being impacted by the government shutdown, and we had about 2600 responses. 55% said they weren't impacted by the shutdown. 26% said they were. That's almost a quarter of all of, of, of North Texas folks that responded to the survey, and 19% had mixed messages, you know.
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Now, now, some of the people that were, that were, uh, impacted by it, it could have been flight delays. It could be people who are trying to get their passport, people who are waiting on SBA loans. But this is, this is an avoidable government shutdown. It did not need to happen, and I will tell you it was a compromise, CR, that the, especially the fiscally fiscal hawks in the Congress sent over.
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This was a bill that for a dozen plus times Democrats had supported when Biden was in office.
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Democrats will say, you know, that they Shut the government down in order to try to extend the subsidies that make health care more affordable through the Affordable Care Act. Prices for 2026 did just come out last week. It looks like overall average increase is going to be 30% higher for people. What do you say to your constituents who say that's going to break the bank and I can't afford 30% more?
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I'd say what we were arguing when we were all against the all the Republicans because none of them voted for it, when we were against the Affordable Care Act that has done nothing to make health care affordable. What it has done is benefit health insurance companies. So I would say my Democrat colleagues, your, your attempt, your experiment, your experiment with the socialist healthcare has completely. Failed. It has increased the cost of healthcare. It has decreased access. It has decreased quality.
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And if you really want to talk about healthcare, come back to the table. Stop holding the entire country hostage. Come back to the table and let's talk about health care. But let's also acknowledge the fact that this has been the ACA was a complete and utter failure
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as we are recording this. Texans, 3.5 million. Texans have received word that they are not going to get SNAP benefits funded on November 1st. This helps them cover the cost of groceries. There could have been, they could have tapped into the emergency reserves in order to fund SNAP. Are you OK with the emergency reserves not being used and are you OK with SNAP not being funded?
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Well, a couple of things. One, I think what the legal opinion was is that you can't just tap into it, that the Emergency funds are there for emergencies. I was part of the first Trump administration. I worked for Secretary Carson at HUD when Hurricane Harvey happened. When those, those, those are the types of emergencies that this fund is set aside for. This fund was not set up for a planned government shutdown that Democrats have created.
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Are you surprised that the shutdown has lasted this long?
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I am. I am. When I was first asked about it, I was on, uh, I was on an interview with 1 minute after it started, and somebody asked how long it was gonna, you know, I, I was assuming it was gonna last. My odds were 5 to 7 days, because I figured what was gonna happen was you were gonna see Russ Vote come out with a list of programs and agencies that were gonna get shut down. That has not happened. I think what you've seen is that, an administration.
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Has been very strategic in looking at potential cuts, but has also been very strategic in not wanting this shutdown to affect, you know, the vast number of Americans. Do you
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think there could be a deal anytime soon?
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I think people are going to get sick of it. I think folks are going to start being much more vocal, especially as they're affected by it, and then you're going to see the Democrats come back to their senses, at least I hope, you know, 67 of them, that will agree to do the right thing.
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Congresswoman, thank you for your time.
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Thank you so much. I hope you have a great day.
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All right, it's time to bring in the roundtable. As usual we have Bud Kennedy from the Texas Tribune. We have Ashley Goodow from KU, the political director at Kview TV in Austin, and Ian Mitra from the Texas Tribune. Thank you guys for being with us this morning. I do want to spend some time digging deeper into this economic crisis that we've talked about that Texans are really facing. Right now we talked with the congresswoman about open enrollment starting we talked about SNAP benefits being in jeopardy.
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Ian, politicians are blaming each other instead of working on some sort of compromise that would end the shutdown. Do you think Texans are going to take notice and demand some sort of change at the ballot box?
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Well, obviously we're, we're a long ways away from the primaries and still, but like people are, people are in the races too. And what you're seeing is these are real numbers. 3.5 million Texans are, you know, low income and use SNAP services, you know, millions of people are getting their healthcare through the ACA marketplace, you know, when these things. Come through and people are really starting to feel this.
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There's a lot of, there's a lot that they're going to remember and it will have an impact in some ways and you know how it actually affects races we'll see, but certainly people are going to be hearing it, particularly incumbents.
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Ashley, do you think Texans' memories will be long enough when the election comes around?
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You know, I think it really depends. I think people are very forgiving, and if everything is fine come election day, then everyone will move past it. I don't think they'll necessarily seek retribution and part of that is there was a really interesting study that came out, a poll that came out this week from the Texas Politics Project at UT Austin, and it shows while people don't like.
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This shutdown Democrats support the Democrats, taking the stand for health care, and Republicans support the Republicans, uh, you know, deciding that they're not going to negotiate until the government is back open. So you have voters who are backing their partisans and that just puts us at more of an impasse. All right,
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but real quickly, are you surprised the shutdown has lasted this long and who will. Blame
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Ashley, the most important part of that poll was that, you know, Texans think that the country is on the wrong track. 58%, 54% of voters think Texas is on the wrong track. Republicans may get a message about that in the special elections this week.
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All right, Bud, Ashley, Ian, stay put, and there's a lot more inside Texas politics to come. Texas farmers face uncertain futures. Can this candidate for ad commissioner help? His plan when we come back. And a state representative who graduated from Fort Worth ISD reveals his expectations as a state takeover starts. That's next on Inside Texas Politics.
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The Texas Education Agency is now in the process of taking over Fort Worth ISD. The district can appeal, but a new board of managers will almost certainly be appointed, a superintendent chosen. State Representative Ramon Romero Junior is not only a Fort Worth ISD alum, he also represents the district in Austin. Representative, it's good to see you this morning.
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Good to see you,
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Teresa. Well, let's talk about that state takeover. Do you support what TEA has done?
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No, I think that, you know, that, that decision's already been made. So right now the job is how are we gonna support the families, how are we gonna support the children. Uh, I am not happy that, uh, Karen Moinar, uh, was not able to continue the momentum that she was doing, uh, with the support of the, the board of trustees, uh, under the leadership of Roxanne Martinez, uh, and others who had just joined the board, and we're, I believe for the first time in a long time, we're on board.
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But at the same time, I'm so apologetic to the parents that that's children, whether it's this generation or those that have already graduated or in high school, that Fulworth ISD has failed.
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I've heard from several people who say local control matters, but you just mentioned it. There have been failing grades for the district. So was local control not working? Was there another option besides state intervention?
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One school failing, uh, does that is that doesn't really indicate the entire district. There's so many bright spots around the district, schools that are A rated, some of those are being closed, some of those parents are gonna suffer and struggle, and good teachers are going to leave. That is a struggle that I have. I've made that very clear to Commissioner Marath that I expect nothing but the best from him.
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And now because he's an official with the state, maybe I have a little bit more impact and so do other legislative members in the House and Senate, and it's going to be on us now to listen to our parents where before they were able to speak to their trustees. So while the elected officials may not be the trustee, they still have us. They have myself, they have Nicole Collier, they have Chris Turner, they have, they have Charlie Garin. They have a lot of representatives that can speak directly to Marath.
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Let's talk about the board of managers that will be appointed. What do you think about that process and who would you like to see on that?
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A majority needs to be from Fort Worth ID. They need to be residents. That doesn't mean that everyone is there a thought leader in education in 2025 and 2026 moving forward that whether it be on a national level or a statewide level that can bring the type of input and energy and drive to Fort Worth ISD, if that person's out there and wants to be on this board of managers, I would welcome. that sort of input. I, I, I don't necessarily have any one particular person that I'm pushing for.
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Uh, I, I have put the word out to folks that I know that care about Fort Worth ISD or those that have called me and I've said, you care enough to call me? Submit your name.
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Some of your colleagues have pointed the fingers at the state and said we have not fully funded schools the proper way, and that's what led to this. Do you agree with that?
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We have failed as a state. And we have failed taxpayers because they are paying their hard earned money for a quality education and they have not gotten it. Those dollars should have returned back to our schools, back to the classrooms, and supporting our teachers through teacher pay raises that they deserve.
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Representative, we'll leave it there. Thank you for your time.
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Thank you so much, Teresa.
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Our next guest was a beekeeper and now wants to be the next ag commissioner of Texas. Jason Whiteley spoke with Nate Sheets about his campaign.
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Nate, good to see you. Thanks for
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coming in. Jason. Thanks for having me. Glad to be here. Uh, we appreciate
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you being here. You've had a successful run in Christian ministry, successful run in honey, honey business. Why in the world do you want to get into politics now?
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Well, it was never in the cards. I mean, honestly, um, you know, I was a Nature Nate CEO until November of this past year, and I was just really considering, all right, I spent 12 years in full-time Christian ministry, 12 years doing the honey company, now it's just wondering what I should do next. I was actually with a friend of mine, Rick Santorum, up in, uh, DC during the National Prayer Breakfast and we were at lunch and I was just sharing this thought with him.
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And, uh, and Rick just kind of out of the blue said, well, you know, you cleaned up the honey industry by testing all the honey that you purchased and, and making sure that the food was safe. You should go do the same thing for other agriculture in Texas. Go run for the ag commissioner. I was like, what? So I came back and uh talked to my wife about it and and we actually went and looked at what the job description was of the Texas ag commissioner and it's incredibly impactful of what you could do.
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I mean like feeding 5.5 million kids in the school lunch programs, it's just one of the many things that you can do. So that was just kind of the genesis of realizing that maybe this could be the next phase of life that God's got for us.
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Well, if elected, Nate, what are your top two priorities because it's a wide job?
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Yes, you know, there's two things that I think where we have this intersection of what's going on across the country actually, and Donald Trump is the one who's brought us to this head of realizing that the food that we. Impacts our health, but at the same time we have, you know, farmers and ranchers are going out of business. We lost 7% of all farmers in America last year.
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We've lost since 2018, we've lost 17,000 farmers in Texas, and these are the small farms, the farms that produce local beef and eggs and product and sell them into small communities in rural Texas that's dying, as we all know. And so not only do we need to help farmers and ranchers be successful. In 1980, a farmer made 40 cents of every $1 of food. Today it's 15 cents. So 45 years later they make 60% less than they made 45 years ago.
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What are farmers telling you about the trade war? Everything I've heard from farmers over the years is, listen, we'd rather sell our products than get a handout from Congress. What are farmers telling you when you're campaigning around the state?
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There is some pain that they're feeling, but this isn't just because of the tariffs. I mean, this has been a financial systemic issue that they've had for a long time. I met with the Wheat Growers Association up in Amarillo a couple months ago, and she said, you know, wheat farmers are upside down. Before they even get wheat into the ground, and that's not just from the terrorists. I mean, I could buy honey in Mexico, but I couldn't sell honey in Mexico. I could buy honey from Europe but I couldn't sell honey in Europe.
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Because they have trade policies that protect their producers, you know, our producers have been being shortchanged globally, internationally through trade practices by other countries to help keep competitors out. And so all that President Trump is doing, he's leveling this playing field to be able to make it more fair for all farmers in the United States.
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What are people asking you as you campaign across the state right now? What do farmers want to know?
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They want to know how they can survive, you know, how can, what can we do to help them financially be able to continue into the future, you know, and so I go back to, it's a revenue issue, whether it's going in and revamping the Go Texas program, which I was a part of for many years as a honey producer. I used to go put honey on the shelf myself and I was a Go Texan member, but being a Go Texan member had no benefit to me to practically be able to sell.
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I think low hanging fruit that if we become, if I become the Texas ag commissioner, we're going to go in and we're going to revamp the Go Texan program and make it a viable opportunity for small producers to be able to go sell and direct into retail. And so that takes out a lot of layers of margin and then we're going to take that very same idea and we're going to bring a digital version. Now we give it direct to consumer. So if you live in West Texas, you can access consumer.
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All over the state and the country for that matter, to be able to go and sell your beef, but we've got to be able to even, you know, have more capacity for them to be able to go and have their their animals processed at a much cheaper level and try to figure out how we can make it more affordable for them to go sell themselves. But the more we can create more market share opportunity for them to go sell, then we're going to get back to that from 15 cents, hopefully back up to 40 cents.
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Nate, good luck to you.
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Thank you. Appreciate it.
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There's more Roundtable when we return. All right, it is time for more roundtable. We have Bud, Ashley, and Ian still with us, and Bud, I have to start with an apology. Earlier I misspoke and I said Bud was with the Texas Tribune. Of course not. Bud has a long career with the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, our partners, and I apologize for that. I wish you just would have cut me off and told me I was wrong,
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but I apologize to the Texas Tribune.
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All right, actually this first question goes to you. We do have a special state Senate election Tuesday in Fort Worth. It's really become a $5 million race between candidates for and against casinos. Why is so much money being spent? Well,
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this is a race about the future, Teresa. This is about how the casino gambling votes will go, uh, inevitably someday, maybe when. Dan Patrick is no longer a lieutenant governor. The Adelson's Las Vegas Sands are backing John Huffman. They've put $3 million behind him in this special election, and then the Dan Patrick is backing Lee Wambsks, who is the kind of the mega candidate. Then you have the Democrat Taylor Remmett. It's not a Democratic district, but the Democrats are very motivated this year.
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I expect it'll divide about. Three ways top two go to a runoff after the holidays and it'll become a $10 million race.
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All right, uh, Ashley, let's talk about the fact that election day is just a couple of days away, but everybody's already looking, of course, at 2026, and we still don't know exactly which map is going to be used here in Texas when it comes to the congressional districts. Do you think we're gonna have an answer in time and how does this impact the candidates?
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You know, I, I don't think that the judges are worried about the, the clock ticking right and that the filing is gonna open in about a week. In fact, they kind of suggested that, well, you could just push back that election even if they were to say that the new map is. Constitutional, we know there will be an appeal, and typically the Fifth Circuit tends to agree with Republicans. So I think the writing is a little bit on the wall even though we're still waiting for the official judgment to come down.
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Yeah, Ian, what do you think candidates are doing right now as they wait?
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I mean, candidates are kind of just kind of running on the assumption probably that the new maps will go through. I think, uh, you know, for an injunction to happen, that's, you know, the, the, the panel would really have to feel strongly that they're seeing some potentially serious harm here and that's just a, and that's just a big jump. And obviously they're still working on the 20, they were still working on the 2021 case too for the previous maps. So, you know, this is not a panel that works fast. So, you know, I think a lot of folks are just kind of preparing as if the new maps are gonna move forward.
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I do want to talk to you about this lawsuit that's been filed by 3 Dallas residents. Uh, they're looking to overturn 83 city ordinances having to do with things like recycling, gas drilling, protections for sexual orientation because they say these local ordinances go further than state law, and this is being filed under that 2023 Death Star law. Does this signal that Republicans are sort of not in favor of local control anymore? They were the ones who pushed this through.
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And they were, and then, and, and legislators when they passed this through, uh, basically were saying that they just wanted to stop the patchworks of local ordinances that were across the state with, and this is largely with bigger cities too. And so, you know, cities are saying, you know, they, they, the state is kind of interfering with their ability to control, you know, and, and state, you know, state legislators. Particularly Republicans have said this is really just about kind of creating some consistency across the path. So this is likely to continue.
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There will be other cities that will probably face similar kind of cases. We're just seeing the beginning of this.
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All right, we're going to leave it there this morning. Ian, Ashley, Budd, thank you all so much. Bud, one more time, I'm sorry, but we appreciate you hanging with us. And thank you so much for watching. I hope you have a wonderful week ahead. Don't forget election day is Tuesday.