In the October 4 episode, find out what President Donald Trump has to say about Republican U.S. Senate candidate Ken Paxton one month before the election, and we ask the President whether he regrets endorsing Paxton over Sen. John Cornyn. And in Dallas County, Commissioners are asking residents to raise taxes to fund homelessness efforts. Commissioner John Wiley Price explains his opposition while families are struggling, while County Judge Clay Lewis Jenkins will tell you why he thinks the permanent tax will help the county grow.
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Straight ahead here, one on one with President Trump. What he told us about Ken Paxton's criticism of the midterm convention last month, plus locked in that close race for Senate. Does Trump regret endorsing Paxton over the incumbent, John Cornyn? Dallas County, with a bold request asking voters next month to increase their own property taxes to get more homeless people off the street.
County judge Clay Jenkins defends the proposition, but veteran Commissioner John Wiley Price argues the timing could not be worse for that proposition, with inflation still squeezing families. Plus, price asks why raise taxes when billions in federal grants are available?
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Plus, Bo French, he is the one Republican running statewide planning something that neither Ken Paxton nor Greg Abbott appear willing to do.
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Inside Texas Politics with Jason Whitely starts now.
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All right. A lot to get to here. Let's begin with the headlines. As always, if you want to vote in the November election, please make sure you are registered to vote by Monday. Even if you think you are registered. Still worth getting online to confirm your status remains active. Some registrations say suspense instead of active.
You'll still be able to vote with that, but you must first prove your residency if that's the case. Early voting two weeks away. Now, October the 19th. Ken Paxton said the Republican's midterm convention last month in Dallas apparently did not help his campaign at all. Paxton reportedly told donors at the RNC convention actually dropped his polling numbers.
The New York Times shared leaked audio of that conversation, the Paxton campaign responding, calling the story manipulated nonsense. And there is only one Texas Republican running statewide, apparently willing to debate both French. There is reportedly going to meet John Rosenthal face to face in Dallas later this month.
It will be a televised debate, but debate between the two nominees running for railroad commission. We plan to stream it October the 22nd. Ken Paxton, Greg Abbott, both in close races themselves. They are breaking precedent and skipping debates with their opponents.
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Let's start right now with President Trump's return to Texas campaigning for Ken Paxton over the past few days here. Trump held a rally with workers at the Peterbilt manufacturing plant in Denton on Thursday. 55 minutes unscripted promoting Paxton a central theme here. But Peterbilt also revealed that Trump's tariffs have actually helped considerably, allowing the company to increase production of trucks and hire more than 1000 additional employees.
But before the president took the stage there in Denton, we got to speak with him backstage. One camera, three questions. Five minutes and top of mind the Paxton Tallarico race. Why didn't Paxton get a polling boost after that midterm convention in Dallas? And as President Trump regret endorsing Paxton over Cornyn?
Here's our brief conversation with President Trump. Mr. president, you won Texas two years ago decisively by 14 points. Here we are two years later, Republicans neck and neck with Democrats. Why do you think Texas voters are looking elsewhere for the first time in decades? Well, because I think they like me because they wanted all three times by a lot, each time more.
And we have the record. But they should like Ken Paxton. I mean, that's the race you're basically talking about. And Ken is and we have some great congresspeople, etc. But Ken has been the best attorney general in the country. And I always say maybe they don't like something about him. But the fact is, as the attorney general and for policy and everything else, you'll never find better.
He was the best attorney general in the country, and that's according to many people. Let me ask you about that, because you said at the mid-term convention we were there also. You said it was successful. Ken Paxton now saying it hurt his campaign. I mean, at the end of the day, a few weeks post convention here, are you surprised that he hasn't gotten a boost in the polls after that?
I mean, you were even teasing him. Well, I think he did know I was teasing him. I always tease him, but he's you know, the bottom line. I tease him, but he's the best attorney general. He's the best attorney general, maybe in the whole country. There's a question as to whether it's one or 2 or 3, but most people think he's the best.
He's tough, he's smart, he's sharp. And I did tease him. Some people don't like him, but they say he's the best attorney general and his opponent is a disaster. I mean, he's a total disaster. His opponent will do terrible things for our country. He'll have open borders again. You'll have all sorts of things that you don't want.
You. I mean, he votes for men and women's sports. He votes for. He's not a he's not a meat guy. Although now he tries to pretend he is in Texas. You have to enjoy your meat. And the fact is that Ken is going to do a great job once he gets in. He'll be. He'll do a great job, just like he does as the attorney general in Texas.
And last question about Mr. Paxton here. You've kind of answered it there, but you endorsed the attorney general over the incumbent Senator John Cornyn. Republicans complaining, hey, we're having to spend a lot of money in Texas. We don't normally spend in Texas. Looking back. Do you still stand by that decision?
So I do, and I like John Cornyn, but he wasn't particularly loyal to me when things were down. And Ken was Ken was extremely loyal. Ken fought the system that was against me and it was against me incorrectly. That's why I'm here. That's why I became president, because we beat them. We beat the deep state or whatever you want to call it.
Ken was very loyal to me, and John wasn't. And that means something to me. Mr. president, thank you. Thank you very much.
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All right. Let's bring in the roundtable to talk about the politics of this. But Kennedy is here from the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Gabby Birnbaum, the Washington correspondent for the Texas Tribune, and Ashley Goudeau, political director at Kvue in Austin. Ashley, we'll start with you as watching your reaction as all of this was playing out there a moment ago.
What was the first reaction, what the president had to say about Ken Paxton?
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Um, well, he's got to be more than the best attorney general in the country. If he's going to be a senator. He's not running for attorney general. He didn't appoint him to be the attorney general of the United States. You're trying to make him a US senator. So we need something more than he's the best attorney general.
You've got to say something more about him to get that message across to to voters. And it's the only thing we've got against Talarico is he doesn't like, meet like, yeah, we're going to he's going to have to come up with something better than that. And of course, Talarico leaning into the name calling as well in his campaign.
Gabby, let me ask you about that story. The New York Times broke. Texas Tribune also covered it with Paxton's private comments to donors in Washington, D.C., that the RNC midterm convention in Dallas actually dropped his numbers. What reaction to that? Because this wasn't a traditional convention, and it was still uncertain to begin with whether this would actually work or not.
Yeah, it's interesting to consider, because Paxton's own internal that he put out recently puts him up. Three so you wonder, is that does that mean his numbers fell and then came back up? Are they fallen from where they were before the midterm convention? Um, and I think you saw it with President Trump's answer to you.
They're about what does he like about Ken Paxton? Loyalty. And Ken Paxton has been loyal and has shown up whenever Trump is in the state. He was just, you know, at the rally in Denton, he was obviously on stage at the midterm convention. And, you know, in his private conversation here, he's acknowledging that maybe appearing with Trump, who is underwater in Texas, hasn't always been the best for his numbers.
But, you know, when you need hundreds of millions of outside help, including tens of millions from the president's political operation, it's a different calculus. And I think as long as Trump is in the state, I will imagine Paxton will continue to appear with him. Likely so. Bud reaction? Well, Ken Paxton's been in trouble long before Donald Trump came on the political scene in Texas, but who would have thought at this point with Paxton actually closing the gap, coming within a point or two, that Trump would rise up now and say something that expressed tepid support.
Paxton's biggest problem is still Ken Paxton. The last few weeks before the election day, you know, when Ted Cruz was reelected in two tough elections, he crisscrossed the state. I believe he did about 40 rallies in Republican markets across the state. Have you seen Ken Paxton in your town at all doing a rally?
He has been out in a few places, I think, in Amarillo the other day. But there aren't any big city rallies that we've seen so far scheduled. Ashley, you know, we talk about the presidential visit. We talk about the mid-term convention and then redistricting, too. People forget redistricting was the beginning of all this effort for Republicans to to win, to maintain majorities in DC.
But now it looks like that that may not even work. The redrawn, redrawn districts are not going to to help Republicans after all.
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You know, you had some folks saying that the way that the districts were redrawn in Texas. They felt like out of those five redrawn districts, three for sure were likely going to flip, but there were two that were questionable. And I think that those two that were questionable. A lot of folks are now looking at that like, okay, that was not the best plan.
And and it's just interesting. It's interesting. I think, Jason, when you try to do this at the system again, they said, you know, point blank we're doing this for political reasons and then we're not going to get the outcome that you wanted. I mean, I think that's going to have Texans, you know, looking at their politicians some kind of way.
And a month from Tuesday we will know that outcome. Guys, back to you in just a moment here. A lot more ahead including this.
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When we come back here, Dallas County wants voters to raise their own property taxes to get more homeless people off the street. County judge Clay Jenkins defends this bold proposition, but veteran Commissioner John Wiley Price says why make residents pay when billions in grants are available Inside Texas politics.
Back in a moment.
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Welcome back to Inside Texas Politics. You know, this state already has the seventh highest property taxes in the nation, and Dallas County has a bold request for voters next month. It wants residents to raise property taxes here even higher to get more homeless people off the street. This will be proposition A on the ballot in Dallas County, and leaders are split over this.
Both sides on the program with us. First up, veteran Commissioner John Wiley Price explaining why he says this is a bad idea to raise property taxes. And then my colleague Jason Wheeler interviews County Judge Clay Jenkins, who defends prop eight as necessary for the county to grow. Commissioners, good to see you here.
Good to be here. Supporters say this is going to cost 5 to $10 per household per month here, but it's coming at a time when inflation is persistent. Gas and groceries are more for us to pay for when we go out. Affordability top of mind for for voters of both parties. If this passes, Commissioner, what's the impact going to be on your constituents?
You're going to be talking about real money. And so I have a concern that this is just an extrovert. I understand everybody wants the the the visual optical blemish to disappear. And I think people will vote emotionally to say this is going to disappear almost overnight. I think they're looking for that.
They've looked at the studies, I've seen the street to home studies. I've studied those, uh, you know, with the reduction I see, I've seen the model, the 4500 more homeless individuals. But at the end of the day, it's not going to be that kind of quick fix. Plus, I've got to have landlords. I've got to have providers.
I've got to have, uh, the, the inventory. There's a lot of challenges and, and I just don't want people to blindly go down this road. If this ballot measure fails, what happens to the homeless situation in Dallas County? We'll continue. We'll continue to manage it. You got $4 billion from HUD federal money for federal health?
Yes. And they have. And all they've done is change the model to say you've got to do treatment. Not just housing. Not just housing. You've got to do treatment. You've got to provide so that that thing that's $4 billion. And when people hear you say that, Commissioner, I my first question is why doesn't housing for just use that money.
Why is it some of that money just allocated to them. But they have to apply for this. Sure they did. Yeah, they have to buy and compete. But we comply. We compete for grants all the time. And for, as I am concerned, should the voters decide that this tax rate election, this tree passes. We still we need to put those RFPs to the community and other providers, because there are other people out there who are providing services, not just housing for, not just housing falling.
I mean, you laid out a couple of things here. We shouldn't be paying more taxes when we're already burdened or, you know, 37% of our community is already burdened. Number two here is that. Yeah, we want to clean things up, but there's other money that can be accessed. Right? Sure. And and again, I'm not denigrating the homeless people because you start down this road with homelessness.
And again, this is then what's next. You know, Dallas County deals with about 15 nonprofits. What's the next issue? Because this issue was competing even with the Dallas Chamber, with child care. So it's going to be interesting to see if this passes. You think that other nonprofits might come forward to the commissioners court and say, hey, we want a tax increase to this tree was brought to us before homelessness by child care.
And somehow homelessness went out. Yeah, they they they got together and
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they end of the day. But but I'm saying I don't think this is this, this is the this is the end. Commissioner. Good to see you. Good to see you, Jace. Judge, thanks so much for being here with us. Talk about this big election coming up. This is a big item on there. As you know, inflation is really stubbornly high right now.
Gas and groceries, more expensive voters definitely thinking about costs and and their wallets right now it would seem like it might be a bad time to ask residents to increase their property taxes permanently. What's your thought about that? Well, I'm very sensitive to to taxes. That's why I've always pushed for lower taxes.
But we're in a situation where the city of Dallas lost population. Part of our issue here is the pervasive homeless situation throughout Dallas County. And so we now know what works in downtown Dallas. We've reduced street homelessness by 80%. We've had 25,000 people, um, leave homelessness and get housing, and only 7% of those have returned to homelessness.
We've got to scale that through the county, though, because when you go to other neighborhoods outside of downtown and you still see some homeless downtown, but when you go to other places, you see homelessness as well. You see homelessness in people's neighborhoods, at the schools, in front of the stores where they shop in front of businesses.
And this hurts growth, growth in our tax base, which is how you want to pay for things not by raising taxes, but by growing your tax base. We need to do that. Well, let's talk about some of the math on this because this will be done. Housing forward says it can move 4500 people off the streets with this new tax on Dallas County residents.
So $100 million, 4500 people. If you do math on that, it's $22,000 a person. Is that an oversimplification and does that seem high to you? If not? Yeah, it's somewhat of an oversimplification, but using that same math, we're spending about twice that much now to just continue to cycle them through jail and Parkland Hospital and Baylor and UT, southwestern and all those places.
And they're not getting better. In June of this year, the US Department of Housing and Urban Development increased or released rather $4 billion in grants to pay for homelessness and treatment. Why shouldn't Housing Forward apply for some of that money? They have applied for some of that money and they'll continue to and they've gotten record amounts of those grants.
And why have they done that? Because the work that they're doing is is working. We have reduced homelessness through the work that we've partnered with the City of Dallas and Housing Forward on about 25% in Dallas County. And we need to scale that. What you need to understand, though, is those 4500 people that we're talking about are the most expensive, hardest to reach people.
And so the only way we're going to be able to do this, um, in that holistic way that can ultimately be better for all of us is to is, you know, to pass this tax ratification election. I hope voters will. I've never asked them to do this before. I've always pushed for lower taxes. But I know a problem when I see it.
I know a good investment when I see it, and I'm asking people to to make that investment in improving the quality of life of their neighborhoods, their businesses. Um, I think it's the right thing to do. Judge Jenkins, thanks so much for taking the time with us. Thank you. The roundtable is ready when we come back here on Inside Texas Politics and our podcast this week.
Ten Ways to Lose an Election. There are a million ways to win it, but ten sure ways to lose an election. Republican political consultant Vinny Marcelo gives us a peek behind the political curtain, sharing insight on where candidates and campaigns often go wrong. We're talking about negative ads, debates, endorsements, polling, even yard signs.
Vinnie Angelo with his newest book, Ten Ways to Lose an Election. On this week's episode of politics. Available to download right now wherever you get your podcasts.
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This is Inside Texas Politics with Jason Whitely. All right. Back now with the roundtable. But Gabby Ashley, all back with us here. But let's start with you. President Trump threatening to ban exports of diesel fuel here. Prices soared. Europe responded by releasing some reserves. But how is this going to impact Texas?
And diesel affects everything. This really could could impact pocketbooks too. Well this is something Texans don't want to see. It's something the leaders of Texas Governor Abbott will want to see. You know, one fourth of the diesel in Texas is exported. He's cutting off one fourth of the sales of diesel to other countries.
He basically he's he's cutting off Texas from our customers. And, Gaby, how does this land, do you think? Yeah. I mean, I think it's fair to say industry was very alarmed by this proposal. Like Bud mentioned, uh, you know, refineries might have to cut back on production if they didn't have access to those foreign markets.
It seems like potentially they've avoided that outcome with this G-7 deal that you mentioned. Um, but price of diesel, you know, top issue in this election. So even minuscule movements, if it can drop a quarter of a gallon or whatnot, might matter. And Ashley, let's shift off to what we began the program with.
Monday is the deadline to register to vote. DPS a few weeks ago delayed sending all those voter applications to counties. A lot of the big counties say, listen, we've been able to work through these. We've got it done. Small counties though, say we haven't gotten it done and we might not be done by Election Day.
We think everyone is still going to be able to vote, though with provisional ballots. How do you think this is going to play out?
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I mean, I think the bigger problem with all of this is just it doesn't look good for the state of Texas, right? We as a state talked so much about voter integrity. And for this problem to persist. And there's new reporting out this week from Volbeat. They broke the story that found out DPS knew that there were issues in March, and that State Senator Donna Campbell is the one who raised the flag, a Republican.
And so I just think that this makes people doubt the system. They want to be able to vote. They want to be part of the process. And considering how low our voter turnout is in Texas, we need to be doing more to get people engaged, rather than making them feel like they might not be able to vote. I just please hope everybody go out and, you know, cast your ballot.
And it is striking to to think that maybe DPS did know months ago about this. Gabby, let's talk about something that happened in DC here recently. You know, the legislature responded after the Hill Country flooding to the disaster there, too. But Congress now making changes to federal law. What's this about?
Yeah. So this was, you know, a bit of positive news, a bipartisan group of members in Congress led by Texans August Pfluger, um, who's from San Angelo and Lizzie Fletcher's from Houston. And then Senator Cornyn in the Senate worked on this bill to sort of change the way that the emergency alert system infrastructure works.
They're going to modernize it. That just passed through both chambers, you know, with no dispute, and headed to the president's desk. So a rare bit of bipartisan, um, movement happening to respond to an issue that we saw last year in Texas. And, Bud, that is indeed rare. Well, it's good news. You know, this means that emergency alerts now will go out by satellite, not only by by cell phones, so that, you know, if your phone's out, if you're if you've got a cell phone that's not connected to the network, if you have that satellite connection, you'll still get the alert.
It'll help in places like the Hill Country. It'll really help on fires in West Texas. That's a good idea, too. Yeah, and hopefully this will help prevent another disaster like we saw last year. Guys, thanks so much. We appreciate it. As always. Thank you for watching as well. We're back next Sunday to take you inside Texas politics and hope you can join us then.
Take care.