this morning it is the hottest Congressional race in Texas right now in New York gills Bank did business in communist China tens of millions of dollars dumped into Congressional District 26 but why is it so competitive Vinnie manillo produces Republican campaign ads and is bringing some insight plus a potential political solution to the recent widespread cell phone outage Congressman Tony Gonzalez with a plan to call up digital reservists across the state the final week of early voting and a lot
is on the line super Tuesday School vouchers in Texas the direction of the Republican Party Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick takes our questions and could Colin ored win the Democratic nomination for Senate without a runoff what a new poll shows inside Texas politics with Jason Whitley Starts Now good Sunday morning less than 10 days away now from Super Tuesday here are the political headlines happening new numbers out right now show that Texas taxpayers have spent a lot of money to bust migrant
s across the country the price tag so far $148 million Kut in Austin is reporting this new figure so far 102,000 migrants have hitched aride on Texas taxpayers dime they were riding farther into the us we did the math on this Governor Abbott's program cost Texas taxpayers more than $1,400 for each of those bus tickets well State leaders refuse to tell us though exactly how much it's going to cost for a border base along the Rio Grand Governor Abbott said it would be 80 acres along the Rio Grand
there in Eagle Pass and it would reduce how much that taxpayers are paying right now to put Guardsmen in local hotels there but what is the price tag no one is saying and some lawmakers are questioning why Abbott is doing this without approval from the legislature and a new poll shows some interesting insight about what to expect on super Tuesday the Texas politics project at the University of Texas in Austin did this survey 64% of Republican primary voters said the border is their top concern 2
% said their concern was school vouchers which is what governor Abbott is campaigning hard on here the same UT poll shows Congressman Colin r with a 52% support among eight competitors suggesting he could win the Democratic nomination for Senate without a runoff you know this morning the final week of early voting it ends on Friday and a lot is on the line in this election School vouchers in Texas and more broadly the direction of the Republican Party in the state our first guest Lieutenant Gove
rnor Dan Patrick not running for reelection but heavily involved in what happens on super Tuesday Governor welcome back to the program here a lot is on the line March 5th you know that very well here do you expect enough Republican House Seats are going to flip to get school vouchers pass next session so five of the people who voted against School vouchers retired interestingly enough uh they cast the no vote to kill the vouchers on the way out the door um and the five people running in those se
ats there's three or four in each race all of them are running on school choice so whoever wins uh that's votes we pick up uh we believe that there will be enough turnover of other seats or enough convincing of people uh that they should vote for uh school choice let's say a few house members Jason survive and and some will they'll be surprised on both side but maybe if they're in a close election maybe they'll realize for the first time people are paying attention and maybe that will change the
ir behavior of how they vote because for the most part uh people back home don't know how they vote and what Greg Abbott and I and others are doing this session uh in this cycle rather is we're just letting people know how they're people are voting they can say one thing back in the district and then they go down in there and give the Democrats control and we want to end that Governor if speaker felen does win re-election do you think that that you can find common ground with him next session to
to get some of the is these issues passed well Governor Abbot couldn't find common ground on school choice we couldn't find Common Ground until the very last moment on the $100,000 homeless exemption we couldn't find common ground strong border security bills that he that he tried to kill the strong bill that we finally did pass over his objection when other members in the house said we got to pass this bill that's the one that's going to the Supreme Court to give us power to arrest and send ba
ck people across the border so it got it bottomed out this session Jason and um and so look parties go through this we'll go through this at the end of the day uh whoever wins will come and there'll be some runoffs so some of these won't be decided until May whoever wins will all come together uh and will'll represent the people of Texas but Governor Abbott and I'm not speaking for him but I think his actions speak loudly and myself are elected we got elected with a one almost 800,000 900,000 mi
llion vote majority last time the last election we have an obligation to do what we said we were going to do and if and if D failen and some members in the house are stopping that a handful out of a handful a dozen out of 85 then we're going to fight for for the people of Texas who elected us I think that's what they want us to do we'll work out everything after it's all over on this issue I want to ask you about some chatter I've heard from some lawmakers I'm curious what you think about this t
hey're curious come January whether you would block legislation uh from Republicans who supported the Attorney General's impeachment should those Republicans of course in the house be concerned about this Jason of course not uh we've never done that in the Senate they play that game in the house I can assure you we don't don't play that game uh in the Senate um if a if a House member has a good bill and it's good for the people in Texas we're going to pass and the governor is going to sign it th
ere's no there's no oh we're going to kill those bills that doesn't that doesn't happen on our side because my number one job as lieutenant governor and as president of the Senate you know I I'm in control of that legislation What flows what passes um our job is to pass a legislation that the people of Texas watching right now expect us to pass who voted for us and at the same time represent all Texans you know our budget I'll give you an example Jason we passed a budget last session 31 to nothi
ng that's getting the most farle Democrat and the most far right Republican together um 98% of the bills we pass in the Texas senate pass with bipartisan support last question election night what specifically are you watching for in the state which races well there's about 30 or 40 I know but I'm sure you have a couple that you're just well look I'm going to be looking at the Barry Warick race in uh Meer I'll be looking at that race you everyone thought Morgan would win that you know 80 to 20 I
don't think that's going to happen I'll be looking of course at the speaker race going be looking at all of the races where incumbents killed school choice again there were 13 out of 85 I mean there were 21 votes but we needed 13 more 13 Republicans killed school choice that half of democrat families want two-thirds of Independents want and 80% of Republican families want for their children just the right Jason I already gave you the numbers you know 50,000 to 5 and a half million 500 million co
mpared to 39 billion it's not undermining public education it's giving parents the right to look out for their children for what they think is best and so I'm looking at all those races Governor we always appreciate the time thank you sir thank you Jason all right let's bring in the round table now to discuss the politic itics of this bug Kennedy is here from the Fort Worth Star Telegram Ashley gdau is with us she is the managing editor of political content at K in Austin and of course Bernardin
e stepto political producer at WFAA in Dallas but let's start with you this is a bruising Republican primary here in fighting like we've never really seen before well you know when the lieutenant governor says that if the house members win at least he will have gotten across the message to the people in the district you know if they win it means the people in their District love them and want to keep them they'll be stronger than ever before and that's what happens you see the house members who
aren't in touch with their District who aren't at the Civic clubs who aren't at the chamber who aren't you know getting out and meeting the people they get beat by some of these maer wild accusation campaigns but the the house members who really know their districts and are close to the people go back over and over the the school people the business people will reelect them Ashley what are you what are you seeing thinking hearing on this here too our you know as governor Abbott lieutenant govern
or Patrick Ken Paxton are they going to get enough people to actually flip School vouchers and get that pass come January you know I think they will be able to flip certainly a few seats but I do not think it's going to be clean sweeps across the board like you know some might think or hope that it's going to be I think the fact that former president Donald Trump is now also getting involved and endorsing some of these candidates that little liutenant Governor Dan Patrick has endorsed it's certa
inly interesting and they're going to really put to the test just how much their basee is and just how much people want to support what they see as those rural values versus the governor and what he sees is what's best for Texas Bernardine I don't think that there's going to be a clean sweep either and uh it's interesting that the lieutenant governor says that they were elected and they should hold these uh state representatives accountable but he misses the point that these representatives were
elected in these districts and they are accountable to their constituents and obviously their constituents don't want to the vouchers or they're voting the way that their constituents want them to vote and it's going to be interesting and and quickly I think that the lieutenant governor is sort of lessening and and bringing down expectation because they realize that they're not going to get a suep and and we shall see what happens come nine days from now a week from Tuesday here's what's coming
up next coming up here the State's new military base on the border it's in Congressman Tony Gonzalez's District he's with us from San Antonio in just a moment plus the hottest Congressional race in Texas right now why are Republicans fighting so hard to replace Michael Burgess Vinnie manillo produces political ads and explains what's happening when inside Texas politics returns welcome back to inside Texas politics you've likely been bombarded with political text messages tv ads and candidate m
ailers the last few weeks but the Republican race for for a congressional seat in north Texas is the hottest one in the state right now this is the seat that Michael Burgess is vacating District 26 Vinnie manillo produces political ads for Republican candidates and he is watching this one closely Vinnie welcome back to the program here 11 candidates running for congress in Congressional District 26 in northeast or north Texas here why so much interest in this race it's the one that that Burgess
is leaving yeah hey look open Congress congressional seats don't come open you know very very often so you know this is a great opportunity but yeah 11 candidates you need a program and the money that has flown into this race it's mindboggling really is and and more coming put that in perspective for us what how big of a deal is this because we we see in North Texas here a lot of ads already on TV a lot of mailers and mailboxes right so we've got you you've got the 11 candidates the probably the
top three who are who are on TV right now I've got a I've got my cheat sheet here because there's so many candidates I can I can't keep them but we've got Brandon Gil uh John Huffman and then Doug Robinson is also on TV but but not only are they on TV but third parties are pouring the money in I mean millions of dollars coming into this race uh it's a really a hot race kind of a proxy war I guess you know between some of the magga type Republicans and and maybe the some what less conservative R
epublicans who who wins out in the end this this almost certainly goes to a runoff um which you know I'm a little surprised at the money coming in right now so everybody wants to get one of those top two slots uh to transfer the runoff I think it's Brandon Gil and John Huffman um but we still got a ways to go the other big race we're we're all watching across the state is a democratic race for US Senate Colin AED clearly has way more money than than all the other Democrats who are running agains
t him does that mean he can avoid a runoff though Vinnie well I think he I think he's got to you know and he is spending a lot of money he is spending millions and millions of dollars against you know no no disrespect to to uh you know uh to Roland Gutierrez from from you know down state but you know he's kind of a backbencher uh you know all red should really be cruising to Victory here so the question is is all red spending all this money uh just to pump up his name ID because we're all thinki
ng about politics right now or is he really trouble uh nobody's issued any polls um so you know you have to wonder what's really going on in the all red campaign what do you think's going on you know what I I I I feel like he's spending money to be opportunistic I mean his brand is sort of blah you know people know him in Dallas but outside of Dallas people really don't know him so I think he's being opportunistic trying to raise His Name ID um I don't really think gueras is going to get with wi
thin double digits of him to be honest we're obviously going to get a break this the spring and this summer after the March 5th primary and after any runoffs here but do you expect we're going to see as much activity in November certainly not there's really there's really only one big race we're only going be watching in Texas when we get to the general and that's going to be the uh you know all red we assume he's going to win the primary all red versus Cruz and we'll we'll see plenty of that bu
t that's really just about any the only thing that's on the menu for us and the challenge for that campaign is you know will the the we assume it'll be Trump versus Biden in the presidential election will they suck all the oxygen out of the room uh will will Cruz and alled actually have to fight for attention so should be interesting to watch that that was Vinnie manillo there a software upgrade at dallas-based AT&T took down part of the cellular network last Thursday it wasn't a Cyber attack bu
t Congressman Tony Gonzalez says it is still a situation to prepare for he represents San Antonio in a wide swath of the Texas border with Mexico Congressman welcome back to the program here you're calling on Congress to to pass your bill the national digital Reserve Corps act tell us exactly what this would do and where it stands uh Jason I'm thank you again for having me on I'm a retired Navy Master Chief cryptologist I spent my whole life working in this space and what the bill does is pretty
simple it's a national digital Reserve Corp and when the power goes out or in this case cell cover uh you know water something deal with your infrastructure who is going to turn the power back on well my bill essentially says we already have that expertise in our communities let's Empower them in a in a federal capacity for a limited amount of time because who's going to determine who gets their lights turned on first does Dallas go before Houston does San Antonio go before Dallas where does Fo
rt Worth filling the deal where's Austin what if you're a little low U vality so this is the premise behind the bill is we already have talent in our local communities let's have an ability that federalizes them for a short duration to help turn the lights back on so this deputize essentially like the It teams at these different companies and different cities so let's say let's say I'm an IT professional for a uh for a large company at pick your city right uh Fort Worth and let's say I I want to
serve I want to serve my country but let's say I don't want to join the Marines and do 100 push-ups well this is your way where you can join your country as a reservice a digital reservice and then you can enter that way if and when your country needs your help I think this is this is the future of combat it's combat it's already here and we're already seeing it Congressman let me switch gears here Governor Abbott announced that the state of Texas is going to build a a permanent military base u
h in Eagle Pass along the Rio Grand there for the National Guard first reaction to that is this a good idea the state is essentially filling the go the federal government's role because the Federal government is is void and here as Texans we're basically getting taxed twice to have something done and so I want this to end the people in my district people in Texas we've had enough we're tired we've had enough and we want this to end and I I'm encouraged to see President Biden start to think throu
gh some of these things this is what I've advocated for Jason and I think you're going to hear more of this on the Congressional level I've advocated for deportation flights raising credible fear standards giving money to ice and then surging immigration judges to the Border those are some real tangible solutions that I that I think can get bipartisan support and just to make sure I'm clear on this you do support the governor's move to to open this forward operating base I do support the governo
r's move to bring all the resources it can to help us keep our head above water along the border jman always appreciate the time thank you all right thanks Jason the round table is ready when we come back all right back now here with the round table Bud Kennedy is from the fort Worldstar telegram Ashley gdau political director at KW in Austin and Bernardine stepto political uh producer at WFA in Dallas bud let start with you here on this the campaigns we we have seen are being waged on on TV new
s but also online more than ever before well just as much on streaming now on YouTube what's happened we used to see all these Facebook campaigns Facebook has played down politics and you know more people watch YouTube now than any other social media it's about the same as television they found in Iowa for example 40 50% gets their political information from either TV or YouTube so it's useful you cross from one County to another in Texas the U ads that come up when you go on YouTube are for tha
t race they switch races as you cross the county line so it it's targeted it's local you see on YouTube now and on TV these ads that have changed message and they've spun because it turned out vouchers wasn't such a effective ad so now Those ads by the way Jason they emphasize the border and Ashley I guess the question is if it works in Iowa you know you can reach those same Texas voters here in this state as well online and these streaming services yeah and I think that one of the things that c
ampaigns are really getting hip to by choosing to use those Services instead is that you have to go to where the voters are particularly when we look at young voters and young Democratic voters they have cut the cord they're not watching TV they're not watching cable so you need to meet them where they are if you're going to get your message across to them to try to get them motivated to show up to the polls I think that's why you're seeing campaigns put more of an emphasis on on those platforms
and Bernardine let's talk now about the first real test of the crown act here in Texas a judge down in Southeast Texas outside Houston and barber Hills is or ruled rather that Barbara Hills ISD did not violate the crown act by uh punishing a black student for the length of his locks the student had his hair up but still uh said that he couldn't show up to school or had to get a cut right well you know what quite frankly Jason I think that the judge made the right ruling in the sense that his ha
ir was too long even if they were they were uh locks if the locks did not reach the length or or or uh was was passed at the um School District's policy he was not in the policy but here's what I my problem with this okay what was wrong with allowing the student to style it on his hair on his head that's the problem I had which how would they know how long his hair was if uh it's on top of his head unless they forc him to take it down and and measure it which could be harassment but I don't thin
k that the school in terms of uh suspending him or doing whatever they did with the length of it I just wonder why they wouldn't let him restyle it Ashley does this mean the crown act doesn't have as much teeth as once thought well I think this is one ruling you know I want to take a step back Jason because I did not expect myself to disagree with Bernardine we usually uh find ourselves on the same page but and I know this is probably going to sound very Austin of me I think it is a little sexis
t to require boys and girls to have different rules when it comes to their hair in 2024 what are we trying to say about the length of a child's hair I also think that you know Bernardine and I are on the same page in that how he wears his hair was his hair was never down as full his hair was always up it was always tied up it always was um constricted to what the rules of the district are and so it's a really surprising ring yeah but quickly quickly the gender is not the issue here we we are out
of time thanks so much guys I appreciate that thanks for watching as well we're back next Sunday to take you inside Texas politics hope to see you there take care
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