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Ep. 36 (audio only): Texas Republicans Ranked From Least to Most Corrupt and Radical
38 Plays2 days ago
The primaries are over. The runoffs are done. What Texas Republicans just sent to the general election ballot may be the most corrupt and radical slate this state has ever seen. This week, Kate and Alex rank all eight GOP statewide nominees — scored on corruption and radicalism — and break down what Democrats need to know before November.
Plus: Alex is back from a week off with a new look and good news to share.
We discuss:
- The Paxton-Cornyn runoff is a postmortem on the Texas GOP establishment. Paxton won by nearly 30 points. Cook Political Report has shifted the Senate race to "Lean Republican" — real signal for the fall.
- The rankings, from least to most corrupt and radical:
#8 Nate Sheets (Agriculture Commissioner nominee)
#7 Dawn Buckingham (Land Commissioner)
#6 Mayes Middleton (Attorney General nominee)
#5 Greg Abbott (Governor)
#4 Bo French (Railroad Commissioner nominee)
#3 Don Huffines (Comptroller nominee)
#2 Dan Patrick (Lieutenant Governor)
#1 Ken Paxton (U.S. Senate nominee)
How did we do? Agree or disagree?
Love what we're doing? Become a member at patreon.com/missiontexaspodcast — just a few dollars a month keeps independent Texas media alive. And if you can't spare the cash, a five-star review goes just as far. God bless Texas. 🤠
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Transcript
Introduction: Texas Elections Overview
00:00:00
Speaker
Howdy. This is Mission Texas. Welcome back to Mission Texas. The primaries are over. The runoffs are done. Thank God. What Texas Republicans just sent to the general election ballot may be the most corrupt and most radical state slate this state has ever seen. and today we're talking about them. We're going to rank them from least to most corrupt and radical and recap everything else you need to know before November.
00:00:27
Speaker
Welcome back to the podcast, Alex. How was your week off? First of all, ah welcome back. Yeah, I know. It's crazy. We're at this point in the podcast where, you know, a statewide candidate, someone who I would have loved to talk to, say Senator Eckhart, was was with you. And ah I just couldn't make it. I just i was i was otherwise engaged.
00:00:47
Speaker
Otherwise engaged, yeah. Yes. And you changed your look. You've done a Clark Kent here. Yeah. ah For those of you who don't know, you're watching this maybe for the first time. I usually have a giant white beard um that makes me look about 20 years older than I actually am. I'm 36. When I have it, I look at Liz 56.
00:01:08
Speaker
And if you hold a picture up, you know side by side with me now versus what I normally look like, I look like I could be my own son. yeah. Yeah. Well, ah speaking of older looking people, ah we before we dive into our rankings, i wanted to chit chat with you a little bit about what happened in the runoff since then.
Impact of Trump's Endorsement on Paxton
00:01:27
Speaker
And we saw Cornyn versus Paxton. now normally we don't talk a ton about the Republicans, but now that we're out of the runoffs, we are now in the season of convincing voters not to vote for for Republicans. so I thought, why not? like Let's just start it off.
00:01:41
Speaker
What did we see? What were your thoughts on Paxton's pretty big win and also Trump's endorsement? Like, did you think that he won because of the endorsement or was there something else going on?
00:01:52
Speaker
Well, no, I think Paxton was going to win either way. And I have receipts I'm sure I could pull from my Robin Hood account that proves that I believed that before the Trump endorsement.
00:02:04
Speaker
I made some money on the contracts there. it doesn't take a political scientist to see the writing on the wall that today's Republican Party has moved on from the old guard, the the George W. Bush, Karl Rove, John Cornyn Republican Party is dead.
00:02:23
Speaker
And if there is any question about it, the runoff on May 26 answered it. i mean, it's the final nail in the coffin there. And it's really a shame too, for if you're a supporter or at least have sympathy for John Cornyn, because He did everything under the sun to try to get that Trump endorsement. and And if he had gotten it, I don't know that he would have won, but it would have been a lot closer than the blowout that we saw.
00:02:48
Speaker
i mean, every moment you saw him, he's like, I vote with him 99% of the time. I'm reading the art of the deal in a social media post. Mr. Trump, would you like a highway named after you?
00:03:00
Speaker
I know in my entire career I've been against getting rid of the filibuster, but if you want it, sir, now that Ken Paxton's brought it up, happy to nuke it. No problem. Yeah. Like he just, whatever spine he had before, I mean, the guy used to be a serious person. Mm-hmm.
00:03:14
Speaker
He was the attorney general. He was ah on the Texas Supreme Court. client He's been in the Senate for four terms. You know, basic civics, right? Senate terms are six years. So he's been in the Senate for 24 years in the Senate.
00:03:28
Speaker
And then you have all that other time as a statewide candidate and elected official before that. It's just it's really kind of incredible to see how the Republican Party is a lot less about stature and substance than it is just like absolute loyalty Donald Trump hu and vibes.
00:03:48
Speaker
Yeah, vibes, consolidation
Texas Republican Party's Shift to Trump Faction
00:03:50
Speaker
of power. Even Ezra Klein was saying with the new York Times that it seems less that Trump wants to win this midterm and more so that he wants to consolidate power and people loyal to him. and I think some folks are feeling that Ken Paxton, he got the endorsement not because he did something to deserve it necessarily, but maybe because Trump saw that he was going to win and Trump wants to pick the winners or be perceived as picking the winners. And so he got that endorsement.
00:04:17
Speaker
in the middle of early vote. So he didn't even do it before the early vote happened. and And what I think is interesting about this race is that Cook, they're the ones that objectively try to rank the states as far as how they lean. And they went from strong Republican to likely Republican to now with Paxton's win, lean Republican. And so if you think of our state as a very solidly red state, then this should give us all hope that we are not and we have a real chance to win come the fall. So I thought that was really interesting. And I guess this was a quote from Cooks. Paxton is a litany of ethical lasses for Democrats to exploit, which we'll talk about in the rankings.
00:04:56
Speaker
From allegations of robbery misuse of his office to marital infidelity, which led his wife to divorce him on biblical grounds. His divorce trial coming up, actually, in Collin County. Breaking news Just got canceled. It got canceled?
00:05:07
Speaker
What? I forward to getting my popcorn out. I know. I going head out Collin County. wouldn't actually have gone out of my way to watch that, but... You know, it would have made for interesting political news and fodder.
00:05:21
Speaker
Yeah, you wonder, okay well, I'm gonna have to look up why that was canceled. But I just think it's interesting how they have changed this race and what that means. But do you think that people are really moved?
00:05:32
Speaker
and Does this... runoff and what happened in the primary show that the base of Republicans don't really care about corruption or radicalism. What do you think they care about? but does it Is it just loyalty to Trump? Is it carrying the flag of MAGA? I'm curious what that means from this race. And we also saw a very low turnout of voters. And what does that mean for us as we get into the fall election about how many Republicans are going to stay out of the race? How many of them are just not going to turn out to vote?
00:05:59
Speaker
And does that help us? Yeah, I mean, gosh, the turnout is always a problem when you're getting to a runoff. It's really a shame that we have runoffs in the first place. We really ought to have like a a ranked choice voting situation so that you can have an instant runoff. You don't have to worry wonder about everybody's second choice would have been. You would just know.
00:06:18
Speaker
You could just tabulate it like that. That would have a more accurate representation of people's preferences. it's really a shame. He's stepping back even further. I mean, i would have supported James Salarico in the primary um regardless.
00:06:32
Speaker
But even then ah on the Democratic side, where we have this tremendous turnout, the idea that the only the people who showed up to vote in either of the two primaries are the ones picking who will ultimately be chosen in November.
00:06:45
Speaker
That's a huge winnowing process that as a percentage of the overall population is not actually all that big. And so when you get down to a runoff like this, this, this Republican runoff, I mean, it's, it's just a vanishingly small number of people as a percentage of the overall electorate who are, are making this decision. And so these are the hardest of the core Republican activists.
00:07:07
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, to answer your question about, do they care about corruption? I mean, Who's the most popular Republican in the party right now? Yeah. Donald Trump. I mean, corruption is not the test for today's party. Obviously, there are Republicans out there who care about it.
00:07:23
Speaker
They're just in the minority. they They aren't the the ruling faction at all. If you were holding on hope that Cornyn was going to be able to to show that that stuff still mattered in the Republican Party, you got your answer. I mean, what, he lost by like 28, maybe 30 points by the by the time this is all said and done. It's a blowout.
00:07:42
Speaker
Well, they were also saying that Cornyn lost in areas that he was leading in in the general primary. And he lost so big in like Denton County here in Dallas. These are big strongholds for him. And so was telling that in this runoff where you have concentration of very base core voters, they overwhelmingly voted for a man that we will see on our ranking scale, whether he's the most corrupt person in our state right now. He's got some serious competition. I'll say
Ranking Texas Candidates: Corruption and Radicalism
00:08:08
Speaker
that. Yeah.
00:08:08
Speaker
Man, let's get into that. Okay. So we got eight people on our list, and I'm just going to list them out before we get into the ranking. But at the top, we'll go from top to bottom of who's on the list. We've got Ken Paxton yeah on the ballot. So I'm going to, and before we rank them, we got Ken Paxton, who's obviously our nominee for US Senate. We have Greg Abbott as governor, Dan Patrick as lieutenant governor.
00:08:30
Speaker
Under him, attorney general is Megamaze Middleton. And then you have Don Huffines running for comptroller, which hopefully you have already listened to our Sarah Eckhart episode. So we talk a lot about him.
00:08:42
Speaker
Then we have Beau French, our railroad commissioner. And then we have Don Buckingham, land commissioner, the only female on this slate, by the way. And Nate Sheets, our agriculture commissioner, which we will get into. we We talked to Clayton Tucker a while back about that race.
00:08:57
Speaker
So curious his thoughts. Okay. So right out of the gate, we have two areas in which to rate these people. So we have corruption, so from a one to 10 point score, and radicalism, also 10 points for a total of 20.
00:09:11
Speaker
So I think each of these people, we can rank them very differently on corruption and radicalism. and I'm wondering your thoughts. I used Claude to help me come up with this just to see its thoughts and And so i'm wondering, Alex, who do you think on this list is the least corrupt and least radical?
00:09:30
Speaker
I think basically because of how little I know about him, I have to agree with Claude's analysis that coming in at the bottom overall score And honestly, on probably in each individual category, least corrupt, least radical of the statewide candidates is probably Nate Sheets. But I'd be really curious about whether Clayton Tucker agrees with that.
00:09:54
Speaker
I think the the biggest problem with this analysis is just he's so unknown. He's a first time candidate. He's got no political record. He's the CEO of a big company.
00:10:05
Speaker
And so... You know, how much of this race genuinely was about the old guard caring about substance and avoiding scandals? Because Sid Miller, the outgoing attorney ah agricultural commissioner, was full of that.
00:10:20
Speaker
Just should not have been there in the first place. Full of scandals, was constantly doing things he shouldn't. It's so rare that, i mean, Greg Abbott, also very serious person, or at least used to be kind of guy, got involved and endorsed someone challenging the incumbent. He endorsed Nate Sheets and put a lot of money behind him.
00:10:38
Speaker
So I think there may actually be a little bit of that going on. Similar to John Cornyn, someone who very oddly had a similar kind of trajectory, was the attorney general and was on the Texas Supreme Court before that.
00:10:54
Speaker
Well, yeah, I think what you're saying is right. So Claude and I rated Nate Sheets as corrupt on out of one out of 10 points, radical four out 10.
00:11:04
Speaker
And really the radicalism comes from just a conservative orthodoxy that he is part of the old guard. He's kind of an establishment pick. And maybe he's like less corrupt than his predecessor, Sid Miller, who we talked about with Clayton Tucker a lot about internal conflicts, so much so that Abbott said, please don't vote for him. And we'd rather have somebody else. But I think it's interesting to compare Nate Sheets to a Clayton Tucker Nate Sheets, apparently former CEO of a national company, he is probably a lot wealthier than Clayton, who Clayton is running on more of a populism, like going after data centers, protecting water, monopoly of our crops and those sort of things. So
00:11:52
Speaker
It's interesting to juxtapose those two people. it's More of like a familiar frame from like the olden days, like big business versus the working man. Yeah. All right. That's number eight, Nate Sheets. Okay.
00:12:05
Speaker
Agriculture commissioner again, Clayton Tucker, you tell us if we're wrong. Number seven, ah we ranked again as someone who doesn't, we don't know a ton about. And the only female on this race, our slate is Don Buckingham running for land commissioner. She is the incumbent for land commissioner ran unopposed in the primary so she has no other primary opponent that ran to her right.
00:12:27
Speaker
we don't know much about her other than she is already currently in that office and she was a physician on the scale of one to 10 she got a two out of 10 out of corrupt because we don't really have she has a pretty clean profile from what we can gather, but y'all tell us if she's wrong. But she radicalism, she got one more point because she carries a bit more of a conservative ranking in a history of votes.
00:12:49
Speaker
Yeah, because she was in the state Senate and she has this, yeah, this this lifetime rating of like what, 96 percent. With conservatives, yeah. And, you know, ah Claude said, the most boring Republican on the ballot. Not a compliment, but not an indictment either. i think that's right. I mean, it's like you're number seven, mostly because of the six people are going to come after you. Yes. I mean, at the other six.
00:13:13
Speaker
Holy smokes. Yeah. dramatic yeah And I just want to reflect that these are all Caucasian males and this is the only woman on the ballot, or least statewide. And so if there was a category for questionable experience for office,
00:13:30
Speaker
I would put her on this because I'm not, other than being the incumbent, I'm not sure what her experience in land commissioning is. But I guess we're trying to talk to Benjamin Flores, who's the Democratic nominee on the other side about this race. So stay tuned. And can I just say before we do number six, it's funny in in political media in Texas specifically, I don't know why it is, but whenever I was doing political science stuff in college, they never described them as Caucasian. it was always...
00:13:57
Speaker
anglo you ever notice that yeah what's that about uh i don't know what is texan about anglo just wanted to put that out there i don't know i'm gonna go with caucasian i guess um okay number six so i'm just gonna recap the people that are left i mean we've got dan patrick ken paxton greg abbott dunn huffines beau french and maga mays middleton who do you think should be next on this list regardless of what claude said See, I think I might disagree with this next placement.
00:14:30
Speaker
I think that Mays Middleton, he might be more radical than Greg Abbott. and The reason why I think that is because for me, Mays Middleton is a true believer.
00:14:45
Speaker
Like for me, when I think of Greg Abbott, I think deep down in his heart of hearts, this isn't who he is. He's just putting on an act. He might actually be as corrupt as he's marked on our sheet. But yeah, I think his radicalism is is mostly performance.
00:15:04
Speaker
Like he knows that that's what the today's modern Republican Party requires of him. And he doesn't want to end up in the same situation John Cornyn. just found himself in. And so he's never been willing to buck party, buck orthodoxy, but out of like obligation.
00:15:20
Speaker
Mays Middleton does it because that's, that's what is in his head. That's what is in his heart of hearts. So I would give him an edge, even if we're just going to give him like a 0.5 or a bump up a point or something like that.
00:15:32
Speaker
I would, I would let Mays take it on the radical front. Yeah. So think we're alluding to the fact that Claude has ranked Mays Middleton next as number six on corruption, five out 10, radicalism, seven out 10. And you're thinking that he should switch with Greg Abbott.
00:15:47
Speaker
And i I don't know, this is the the reason that Claude has given and how I researched it. So Mays Middleton, he calls himself MAGA Mays Middleton. He's a self-funded Galveston oil and gas heir who spent $14 million dollars of his own fortune to, what we like to say, purchase the AG nomination, having used his wealth for years to fund his ah state House Freedom Caucus. So he's currently in the state ah Senate, correct? And he built political alliances across the state. So we went from the House to the Senate, right? And so he campaigned on being MAGA-May's branding. And so the argument is that he's more closely aligned with President Trump and is more radical, as you're saying,
00:16:26
Speaker
But he went up against Chip Roy in the AG's race, which I think is interesting because you'd think of Chip Roy as also somebody who's pretty radical. But Chip Roy at least went up against Ken Paxton when he was in the AG's office and has had a long term, not great relationship with Ken Paxton. So I think that's why he got a pretty great endorsement or support from that.
00:16:46
Speaker
Well, and Chip Roy would also piss off the Trump administration from time to time. Right. He would go up against them. man You know, for having the audacity for having an ah opinion that wasn't tied to who who said it.
00:16:58
Speaker
What I think is interesting about this primary is not the runoff so much as what happened before, which whittled it down to Mays and Chip Roy is that Aaron writes. And i think the other candidate, too, are both Paxton deputies. I mean.
00:17:11
Speaker
Aaron Reitz was like his right-hand man for PAX and then went on to be Ted Cruz's chief of staff and then was in the the Trump DOJ. And like he had all like the right Trump bona fides.
00:17:24
Speaker
So I think that is ah kind of an interesting kind of wrinkle in the whoever is closest to Trump wins. It's not that simple, ah especially when you've got like a significant turnout.
00:17:37
Speaker
But again, when you move from the primary to the runoff and you have such a drop off and the number of people show up, that's when it really matters. Right. I think we can't forget that Maga Mays Middleton also co-authored the bathroom
Spotlight on Mays Middleton: Radical Views
00:17:51
Speaker
bill. So the trans bill ran ads bragging about being protested at the Capitol as the bathroom bigot.
00:17:57
Speaker
And i think as as the attorney general, he's got the least amount of attorney experience is what I'm hearing. So Nathan Johnson's really running on that already saying like, um we need we deserve a good lawyer as the attorney general, who's very much independent from the governor and any other office within our state government. It takes me back to my fifth grade Texas government history days where were reminded why the office of governor is much weaker than others and and especially is weaker than the executive of our federal government. And the governor has no power over really the attorney general or any some of these other offices. And so you're very independent and you've seen what Ken Paxton has done. ah But you're right. Like he beat his other opponents in the primary, including Ken Paxton deputies, So you wonder, is he more radical than them? And should he be outweighing Greg Abbott on the scale?
00:18:48
Speaker
i don't know. so okay. Time time will tell. Time will tell. We'll see how bad he... Hopefully he will not win the AG's office and it will be Nathan Johnson instead. Put it this way, at least to like rhetorically, like... And Nathan Johnson's already pointed this out too. Like he has said that the number one job of the attorney general if he's elected is to defeat the left.
00:19:08
Speaker
Yeah. whatever Whatever that means. Own the libs. Own the libs is not like a strategy for running the the state's largest law firm, right? Yeah, you have to help protect the border. You have to work with other law enforcement agencies. You're also running the child support division. So you're running a lot. you One of the largest employees. Consumer protection. Like there's very real just like public service. Yeah.
00:19:32
Speaker
I worked with them on Medicaid fraud. So you deal with that. And that's one of the biggest fraud sources in our country. So they have a big job to do. And the fact that he's wanting to use it not to help with saving money or protecting children or a border, but just to own the libs.
00:19:49
Speaker
yeah Okay, so number five, we've got Greg Abbott, which we all alerted to. So you tell us at MissionTexasPodcast at gmail.com.
Greg Abbott: Opportunist or Radical?
00:19:58
Speaker
Do you agree with this? So the next in this line of rankings is Greg Abbott, our current governor seeking his fourth term. He got a seven out of 10 corrupt, seven out of 10 radical with a total of 14 points. For the casual political like observer and the idea that there are four people ahead of Greg Abbott seems like a lot. But yeah I think it's absolutely right in this case. And we'll talk more about it in a little bit. But let's talk about why Greg Abbott did not make it up any further.
00:20:26
Speaker
Yeah, I think it's to your point that he is not maybe the he does seem like a Trump lackey, but it also doesn't seem like he is doing this the overtly corrupt things that Paxton and Patrick have done.
00:20:40
Speaker
he entered he also will just say going up against Gina Hinojosa, has two hundred and six million dollars in campaign cash. which apparently he uses to reward allies and run attack ads against Republican rivals he dislikes.
00:20:52
Speaker
You have to be reminded that in the anniversary of Uvalde, he praised law enforcement at a press conference before later admitting that he was misled. This was all while he was at fundraiser the night before the shooting.
00:21:04
Speaker
And then the Texas Supreme Court ruled he does not have to release the years of Uvalde in January 6th emails. Not before the shooting, the very night of the shooting. Of the shooting. And then he was at a fundraiser that same day.
00:21:15
Speaker
Yeah, my apologies. I got that wrong. No problem. And so he, with Watt Dogg, calling his claim of no NRA communications after you validly not credible. So we there has to have been communications, especially when we're talking about gun safety.
00:21:28
Speaker
And we should be reminded that in the legislature that we had session afterwards, they were trying to raise the age of the assault rifle. purchases, and that did not get passed. If you look at his radicalism, i mean, this is where I think that he might not score as high as the others, but he did declare CARE as a terrorist organization, mandated the Ten Commandments be displayed in every public school classroom, called for a state takeover of school boards and the Harris County elections. So I think as to your point, he's more of an opportunist than a true believer. Yeah, but I mean, even with that said, I mean, in any other state, he's in the top slot or he's in the top three. But like the fact that there are four people above him just speaks to how nutty we're about to get. But i would I would also just add, elaborate on like, instead of just like rewarding allies and and attacking people he doesn't like, which is true, there are like real serious consequences to whether you get on board with the governor's agenda.
00:22:26
Speaker
Like one of the the key examples of that, I think, is the school voucher bill. Rural Republicans and Democrats for decades have joined forces to stop the school voucher bill until A multi-term governor started using his massive war chest to punish specific legislators who wouldn't go his way.
00:22:48
Speaker
And so he's like, you're either going to vote with me or I'll get someone who will. Right. Which is what happened. And I think you saw that with the Speaker of the House race. And then also now Dustin Burroughs, some people are saying that he shouldn't win the speaker again.
00:23:03
Speaker
so we'll see what happens in the next ledge. And also, yeah, and just redistricting the voucher being funded by the West Texas billionaires. So I think that schools is going to be a big play here with Gina versus him. and though she may not have the biggest war chest, if any, please go donate to her. Please support her. at on all costs, but i think that's going to be a big piece of all of this. I don't think, think he's underestimated how big of a deal that is. Didn't Gina's political career start on like the the school board, her local school board?
00:23:33
Speaker
Yeah. I think that's why in one of our episodes, we talked about how she was one of the biggest champions of public schools. She's very anti-charter schools, which we see as a kind of a drain in our school system.
00:23:46
Speaker
All right, top four out of eight. Let's remind ourselves we've got Kim Paxton, Dan Patrick, Don Huffines, and Beau French.
Beau French's Extreme Views
00:23:54
Speaker
So what ah what say you, Alex? This this one is interesting to me as well. I think I could go the other way on the radical score, but I understand kind of like the Magames and Greg Abbott. Really what's getting their ranking switched is the corruption score. I could see Beau French as being the most radical out of all of them.
00:24:18
Speaker
So a 10 out of 10 or an 11 out of 10. And I think people really don't understand I mean, we're tired of hearing the word unprecedented, like how just yeah incredibly out of the mainstream Beau French is as an individual, even for other people who are ranked higher than him on this list.
00:24:37
Speaker
Dan Patrick asked him to step aside from his role as the chair of the Tarrant County Republican Party because he was so extreme. Dan Patrick, who is himself very extreme. Very yeah.
00:24:51
Speaker
I mean, should we we rally off the the greatest hits there? Like people need to know this man might be a statewide elected official. Yeah, go for it. I think you're alluding that Beau French is now like next on our list. Beau French. Let's talk about Beau. Say no to Beau, everybody. That's why we as a podcast held a fundraiser for our nominee, John Rosenthal. I mean, we saw the writing on the wall. We knew it was going to be Beau French.
00:25:15
Speaker
Because again, that's just the direction the Republican Party has moved. But I mean, the the most stark example, the one that got Dan Patrick to ask him to step aside was him going on social media and having a public poll asking whether Jews or Muslims were the greater threat to America.
00:25:33
Speaker
Insane. Yeah. I mean, he's been very anti-Sharia law. He, what else did he you say? like Let's deport 100 million people. Okay. how you Including Native Americans.
00:25:45
Speaker
I know. Where are you going to send Native Americans? The word deportation and Native Americans, it's in the same sentence. How does that work? Beau Fringe running for railroad commissioner. He got, I think this is, he's now on this list, according to this research, because he has leased corruption of the the remaining four, which says a lot, but he has a nine out of 10, maybe 10 out of 10 on radicalism. I mean, I went back and forth with Claude on this one and he's fighting DEI, Sharia law.
00:26:14
Speaker
The railroad commissioner's job is to regulate the Texas oil and gas infrastructure, I think he gets more points for corruption, and maybe he should have more on this list because he's backed by a PAC that is funded by billionaire Tim Dunn, whose company was simultaneously suing the Railroad Commission over environmental rulemaking, meaning Beau French, his biggest donor, had a direct financial interest and who ran the agency. French is about to join, though he hasn't done anything with the office yet. So maybe he will have a bigger corruption score yeah if he wins, which hopefully he will not.
00:26:49
Speaker
He hasn't had the opportunity to earn more corruption points because he's not to know if there's anybody who's a chair of a state or a county party, but he's only been the chair of a county party so far. He hasn't wielded any elected office yet.
00:27:03
Speaker
but Yeah, he was the chair of the Tarrant County GOP, which is an office in itself that has got a lot of pretty bad people, including the current Tarrant County judge who we've talked a lot about. Tim O'Hara, yeah.
00:27:17
Speaker
Tim O'Hare came from that chair position as well. So and so I don't know. There's a pipeline of radicals and corruption coming from that area. More reason to support Allison Campolo as the Tarrant County Democratic chair and all the efforts that they're doing in that area.
00:27:35
Speaker
I don't know. This is this is hard because people were i think you hear a lot of the mainstream Republicans coming out against him. and i wonder if it's because he it was they were able to do so. And he doesn't wield as much power as the other people on this list because they either were Ken Paxton or some of the other folks, you know, maybe richer, have more backed people with money. But I don't know.
00:28:01
Speaker
So now we got the top three. this This is getting hard, okay, on who's more corrupt, who's more radical. Dan Patrick, Ken Paxton, or Don Huffines.
00:28:12
Speaker
Don Huffines running for comptroller, who I think a lot of us in the North Texas area are familiar with. And so, Alex, make the case. What should we know about him and why is he next on our list? Well, yeah, well, I would just start by saying the reason why those of us in the North Texas area are familiar with Donahott Bynes or have heard the name is because he was a state senator up here until 2018, which is a very happy and joyous year for those of us on the Mission Texas podcast.
Don Huffines: Epstein Connection and Conservatism
00:28:40
Speaker
Our very own nominee for Attorney General, Nathan Johnson, was the one to unseat him, flipped that district. So Don Huffines, what can you say about this guy? Let's first just get it it out of the way. I mean, isn't it kind of weird that he has one of Epstein's branches?
00:28:58
Speaker
Yes, i think that's the biggest one. he owns the ranch in New Mexico, the site of alleged child sex crimes. He bought it through an LLC.
00:29:09
Speaker
He created the LLC a month before the purchase to probably hide the fact that he owns it. So that in itself shows you some level of corruption. his wife is listed as the trustee. His son is the manager of that LLC.
00:29:22
Speaker
There's investigations into whether there's And I don't want to talk about it on the podcast, but just there's evidence of the criminal acts on that property.
00:29:34
Speaker
And so you wonder, why does somebody buy that ranch? i mean, this is a multimillionaire real estate developer who challenged Abbott from the right in 2022 on immigration, property taxes. So I think he gets higher of a score on radicalism than Abbott because of that.
00:29:50
Speaker
And he won the comptroller race with Trump's endorsement over Abbott's chosen candidate. And so you have somebody who might control our state budget running to the right of Abbott, owns one of the Epstein ranches. so I think we can safely say that he's in the Epstein class.
00:30:08
Speaker
of people. And what was his response to talk about the Epstein wrench? Yeah. So I think that's, this is my favorite part is, and it's a callback to one of our former episodes with ah Olivia, her, her history with Matt Gaetz, right? So ah Don Huffins goes on OAN, One American News. Matt Gaetz is one of these talking heads there at this point. He has no other job. He's not attorney general like ah Trump hoped he would be. And the two of them,
00:30:32
Speaker
They announced plans for a Christian retreat at the Epstein Ranch. He said, this is obviously a dark place, but we're going to put light in a dark place.
00:30:44
Speaker
Yeah. Okay. That's where I want to go pray. It's where Epstein committed to his sex crimes. That's, yeah. Yeah, I mean. Really. The next time you're in Waco, we'll all go pray at the cult that the house burned down or whatever. Yeah. Davidian, the branch Davidians. Yeah. Exactly. Let's go do that. i i really feel close to God in those places. So. We'll have a worship service at the 9-11. Yeah.
00:31:08
Speaker
yeah Yeah, I don't know. It's I mean, so you have a man who runs to the right of Abbott. He owns the Epstein Ranch. He's wealthy. Yeah, there's a lot to unpack there So he's running for comptroller. He would try to be in charge of our state's budget, which but to be.
00:31:26
Speaker
To remind us, if you've listened to the Sarah Eckhart episode, is largely we talked about our state's education funding and how little of it we have at the moment. And he's saying things like he wants to doge the entire state government. And the first place he said he wanted to doge was our education funding. i mean, can you believe that? We already are one of the least funded. have the voucher program and you want to take more money out of this place. That's insane. Yeah, I mean, the the Texas state budget is already very lean. And that's like you mentioned, especially when it comes to education funding. We're so far behind, you know, comparable states or really any state. We're in the I think we're in the bottom 10. Yeah.
00:32:08
Speaker
yeah So, yeah, we just got cut more. Everyone needs to be as conservative as me. We just got to cut it to the bone, you know. Yeah, a question also whether Doge in our federal government was so good and led by another very wealthy person who is out of touch with reality. So and then also just not reading the room of how important our school boards are and how we need people who aren't going to just close schools and because of funding and low enrollment and the voucher scheme. So.
00:32:37
Speaker
All right, Alex, what do we think of our list so far? I mean... odd exhausting just to climb up this tower of radicalism and corruption. Yeah. And we're not even to the top yet. we got two more.
00:32:51
Speaker
Well, so Don Huffine's got eight out of 10 on corrupt, nine out of 10 at a radical. i think that's largely different by the Epstein ranch and all the things that he's trying to do with the government. So now we got Dan Patrick and then we've got Ken Paxton.
Dan Patrick: Corruption and Trial Involvement
00:33:04
Speaker
So Claude, just to, i think we all know who's number one. i mean, it's Ken Paxton, right? So we'll talk about Dan Patrick first, but I think it's interesting that we ranked Dan Patrick nine out of 10 on corrupt, nine out of 10 on radical,
00:33:18
Speaker
And Ken Paxton got a perfect score. He got 10 out of 10 on both. We'll talk about that. But what are your thoughts on Dan Patrick and some of his greatest hits? Well, first, I would just say, feel like Dan Patrick and Ken Paxton are birds of the same feather. And the reason why, and we've talked about this on our former episodes, is that You know, when Ken Paxton was impeached by his own party and Dan Patrick was responsible for presiding over the Senate during that trial, i don't think it's all that coincidental that when Dan Patrick gets a $3 million dollars check from the Paxton people, suddenly the trial starts looking a lot better for Ken Paxton.
00:34:02
Speaker
So if think Ken Paxton's corrupt, I mean, Dan Patrick is his number one enabler at this point because he could have been removed from office. But yeah, I mean, Dan Patrick has got ah a rap sheet of his own. He's got a very interesting background. And Patrick has been running the Texas Senate with an iron fist, right? Like as as the lieutenant governor, if you don't know, you are basically the president of the Senate.
00:34:30
Speaker
You get to set the agenda. So if you don't want there to even be a vote on something, If you don't put it on the agenda, it's not happening. And that is a very powerful power. He knows how to wield it.
00:34:44
Speaker
So, I mean, i already mentioned the the trial, $3 million. dollars It was a million-dollar contribution and a $2 million dollars loan from the Defend Texas Liberty PAC. And again, that was a Paxton group. It was the group that was campaigning against Paxton's removal.
00:35:00
Speaker
And again, money talks. Yeah. Well, it seems like you had all that evidence that everyone saw. He's sitting there watching it himself. And instead of saying, yeah, vote your conscience and get this person out of this office, he said, yeah sure, I'll take $3 million dollars and then we'll make this impeachment go away which is all over the news. Everyone saw it. The House, i mean, he had such an out, right? Like House Republicans voted in favor of impeachment and he did it to what?
00:35:28
Speaker
Save himself and to continue to have power. as lieutenant governor. I think that speaks volumes. But I think it's interesting to rank Dean Patrick versus Don Huffines. And also, if you're looking back on Beau French, like he's actually used his office. I mean, he is in the position and used it while he's sitting there with the gavel in the Senate chamber to better himself and also the attorney current attorney general. So I think that that is what weighs and tips the scales here. And it's an interesting one, too, right? Because he's not just corrupt.
00:35:59
Speaker
He is genuinely radical as well, because some of the stuff, it doesn't even make a clear case for why it benefits him other than he just deeply believes he has these really hardcore, inflexible beliefs that he is going to mandate and push down on everybody else.
00:36:16
Speaker
For example, um medical marijuana of any kind. I mean, I know in the veteran community, having access to different treatments is ah is a very popular thing. and in and And in fact, if you look at polling in the state in general, both Republicans and Democrats are ready to move on stuff like that. I think every state that borders us has some sort of policy that's more open than ours.
00:36:40
Speaker
Oklahoma is not a liberal state. Neither is Louisiana, right? like But they both have some form of marijuana that can be accessible to people. Meanwhile, Patrick's trying to like you know lock down snacks and and the drinks that have THC in them and stuff. yeah um Stuff like that. ah Casino-style gambling, he's got like this moral opposition to it that's like,
00:37:06
Speaker
I guess from this deeply religious place. And he's not gonna, he doesn't really care whether there's a majority of support within the Texas Senate or not. He's like, if I don't want it, it's not happening.
00:37:18
Speaker
Yeah, I think his legacy of radicalism predates him with running the Senate, as you said, because he he is known that if you go up against him, he will punish you. That is his his style of leadership. And maybe by us even saying this, he'll try to punish us one day. But this is, that's his style of leadership. And I think that shows how radical he is, especially if you compare it to the person who Dustin Burroughs, who was running the House as the speaker and somebody who ran trying to have support from Democrats and Republicans. So it's very interesting person on this list. And i think if you think of who's got more relative power in the government versus Greg Abbott, you know, he might be wielding that power in a way to benefit people within the party as well as himself and to push his agenda. So yeah. And you also see some disagreement between him and Greg Abbott. You see that with real estate, like our property taxes and other issues. So they seem to be not in line.
00:38:16
Speaker
And who's winning the day? it seems to be Dan Patrick. All right.
Ken Paxton: The Pinnacle of Corruption and Radicalism
00:38:20
Speaker
Number one, the guy with the most corruption and radicalism. Was this a surprise, Alex? No.
00:38:26
Speaker
I think to me, this was not a surprise. It is Ken Paxton. He has won the number one spot. The undisputed chicken of world champion. Yeah, well, it's interesting. I went back and forth with Claude on this because Claude gave him a 9 out of 10 radical and i add and a 10 out of 10 corrupt.
00:38:42
Speaker
And I said, why? And because I thought, why hasn't he got a perfect score? He seems to be high on both. And Claude said, you know, I thought that I'd give a hedge that maybe there's someone somewhere out there. who would be more radical, but no there is no floor. This is it.
00:38:58
Speaker
He takes the cake. He gets a perfect 20. Yeah, that's a good question. Who in Texas politics is to the to the right of Ken Paxton? I don't think there is one. Maybe like a brisk cocaine or someone who's just desperate for attention.
00:39:16
Speaker
Yeah, but I think that's different. Like somebody who's desperate for attention to say something radical is different than actually using the AG's office to sue. He can accomplish radical results. Yeah. Yeah, that's Even here in Coppell, he sued our state, our school board, still going on, about some alleged DEI program that we secretly had. So he's obviously wielding the office. But let's go down just the rap sheet of corruption. sheet is apt. Yeah. Yeah, he's got a lot of it. So he was impeached, as we already mentioned, in a Republican. Take deep breath. Yeah, he's got a lot. Yeah.
00:39:53
Speaker
20 articles alleging bribery, abuse of power, and obstruction of justice. Only the third impeachment in Texas history. he had ah previously been indicted on securities fraud, which was dropped after he, and this this was state charges, $300,000 in restitution and 100 hours of community service. I forgot about that. He got that trial pushed and pushed and pushed for years, like multiple election cycles.
00:40:19
Speaker
Yeah. If that doesn't tell you a little bit about the corruption alone. Right. I mean, i look, i'm a criminal defense attorney, and so I appreciate that sometimes when you make these plea deals, you're not necessarily admitting guilt. But look, he's paying restitution and 100 hours of community service on these securities fraud issues. Come on. Okay.
00:40:38
Speaker
He refused to disclose multiple out-of-state properties, including a $1.6 million dollars luxury hideaway. I think there's reports that he's made a lot of money while in office. And this is it's not an office that you're making millions of dollars on We heard about his many mistresses, which I think most people have put behind them as something that has disqualified people from office.
00:40:59
Speaker
But he used a fake Uber account under an alias to visit his mistress. ah with his former chief of staff testifying to the affair. Travis County judge awarded $6.6 million dollars to a former aide he fired for blowing the whistle. I mean, his internal people are not even loyal to him. They've blown the whistle on this guy.
00:41:21
Speaker
yeah and it it has nothing to do with like how conservative or not these former staffers are. Honestly, these staffers, I remember watching the trial. They're like, yeah these are bona fide Federalist society, hard core, deeply believed.
00:41:34
Speaker
conservative ideals, conservative principles. So it wasn't like these libs coming after him for not being sufficiently conservative. just they wouldn't They weren't loyal to him as a person because they believe in things Yeah, well, going back to Chip Roy, he was asked to leave or did leave because I think there was some allegation of not being loyal to Paxton. So ah here he also, the state bar sued Paxton for professional misconduct over the 2020 election lawsuit dismissed by the all Republican Texas Supreme Court on separation of power grounds. Going back to our episode with the ladies running to be on the Supreme Court about how a lot of them on the Supreme Court are appointed.
00:42:15
Speaker
And not elected. So they are loyal to this man and to Abbott. So no wonder they're dismissing these cases. The DOJ did decline to prosecute Ken Paxton.
00:42:28
Speaker
and think if you look at so that's a lot of corruption. He's got 10 out of 10. He used his office for personal gain on like real estate transactions. He's got people blowing the whistle on him. But then you switch to radicalism. What do we think there? Because I think that's mostly driven by what he's used the AG's office to do, right? Yeah. And and I mean, look, we kind of glaze over it, but filing a lawsuit to try to overturn ah free and fair presidential election is about as radical as you can get. Basically, try to claim standing for someone else's electoral votes.
00:43:05
Speaker
no It's so bananas. I mean, that's that's why the state bar took the extraordinary step to sue him to be like, you shouldn't have a law license. You're not acting like a real lawyer.
00:43:18
Speaker
Yeah. Well, then, yeah, he he's also sued. I think he said that his job is to sue Obama at one point. That's what he wanted to do. He's sued abortion providers. He's tried to have people hand over records on families seeking gender affirming care. um They're trying to block it He's subpoenaed hospitals for records on Texas patients being treated out of state.
00:43:42
Speaker
He forced a hospital to create a detransition clinic. So I think it is in line with his messaging that you already are hearing about Tallarico, right? Like he's still in the culture war lane.
00:43:54
Speaker
he still wants to drive that. He's trying to call what, Tala Frico and he's a vegan. and like, what do you make of that as a long supporter of James Tallarico? Yeah.
00:44:07
Speaker
Well, you know, I take Talafrico over plea deal Paxton any day. People are now learning about the google the Google searches are off the charts. People looking up what's what's this plea deal he he gave to Adam Hoffman.
00:44:19
Speaker
Yes, talk about that. They wanted him to spend a day, a day, one day, 24 hours in jail for mo lot of mile for yeah molesting this child, his son's, I think, best friend for like Yeah.
00:44:35
Speaker
Yeah. deal so For someone who's molesting a boy. i mean, that's insane. And then you have at the same time, a Republican Party that doesn't want to do anything about the Epstein files. Right. And here. It's the juxtaposition that is just so crazy. Right. Because like on the one hand, he's Mr. Righteous Radical. I'm shutting down Pornhub in the state of Texas.
00:44:55
Speaker
But on the other hand. You know, Elon Musk's AI, Grok, is doing all sorts of crazy AI deepfake pornography on anybody who you want it to.
00:45:07
Speaker
And where where is the enforcement action there? He's very selective. he's He's out to punish his enemies or perceived enemies of the right. And he's going to look the other way when it comes to Epstein, when it comes to Elon Musk. He's going to look the other way when it comes to Donald Trump and anybody else.
00:45:25
Speaker
I mean, and that's, you saw this with the redistricting fight and people breaking quorum and them getting fines. And then now he's suing Beto O'Rourke's organization that we talked about with Powered by People. And he's tried to sue Act Blue and all these other groups. And so I think that's why he deserves most radical, most corrupt Texas Republican in 2026. Maybe there will be someone else who will be topping this list in the future, but hopefully we will vote them out of office. James Valarico calling him he was recently in Plano, the most corrupt politician in America, whose mugshot was recently taken in the in the area because he's from North Texas, right? So he we got to vote him out out of office. And I think if there's any year, Alex, that we can do that,
00:46:10
Speaker
But I'm wondering, what are your thoughts?
2026 Election Strategy: Affordability and Anti-Corruption
00:46:12
Speaker
Because I know we're leading, obviously, with corruption and radicalism. Is that the messaging that's going to win in a 2026 election? cause I was talking about that with Sarah Eckhart. we' We're gearing up for an anti-corruption election cycle.
00:46:24
Speaker
And you saw this in the other runoffs with Democrats, because they're... trading stocks and some of the other things that they did were used against them. And so do you think that we are gearing up for that kind of election cycle where we can say proudly, look, we're not corrupt, we're not as radical, vote for us, but also we can provide you a better way of life? I mean, how do you think that's going to play out?
00:46:46
Speaker
I think what you said is right, but it just needs a little bit of reorganization. i think the way I've heard James Alarico say it recently is is the right way to do it. I mean, we'll see.
00:46:57
Speaker
What he said is the reason why we have an affordability crisis, and I think we have to lead with affordability. Can't get distracted into doing these things that might feel more intuitive or satisfying to us as Democrats. But we have to remember, like, what do voters care about? Because that's the name the game. We got to win.
00:47:15
Speaker
And affordability is still everyone's top concern. And so I think the reason why we have an affordability crisis, as he says, is because we have a corruption crisis. And and we have to we have to do the work of connecting those dots.
00:47:30
Speaker
The reason why things are getting more expensive, the reason why you can't get ahead, the reason why the average age for the first time home buyer keeps going up. All this stuff is happening because the rich and the powerful and the well-connected are rigging the system.
00:47:49
Speaker
Mm-hmm. I know it's not a government for everyone. It's a government for the people who can purchase their way or buy a pardon or somehow get a no big contract from the government like Sarah Eckhart was talking about. And this that's what the comptroller might be part of. They might be helping award these no big contracts, meaning they don't have any any other competition. They just get awarded some big contract by our government.
00:48:14
Speaker
And they make a lot of money. And it's usually going to people who are loyal or are aligned with these Republicans. so it's not for the little guy. It's not for the working class. And i i agree with you.
00:48:25
Speaker
have to somehow tie the dots because it did not work in 2016. did not work in 2024 against Donald Trump. And however much we can say, look at how corrupt they are don't vote for them. it's just not winning the day. And somehow we have to turn out our base, turn out our voters, and also convince people not to vote for them because it's in their interests. Yeah. too it's going to affect them every day. We have to have there be a certain level of awareness and understanding that Democrats are going to make the material conditions of your life better. It's not some esoteric yeah democracy, which is important.
00:49:00
Speaker
It's not some esoteric morality versus corruption. It's because you want to get ahead, that you want things to be more affordable, that you want to have more opportunity, economic prospects.
00:49:13
Speaker
Like for you and your family at your home to actually get improved conditions, right? yeah it's It's not a game. People in 2024, they were looking around and across the world, they were voting out the party in power because all they saw was after COVID, all this inflation was happening and people were pissed.
00:49:40
Speaker
We didn't have a good enough message on that. We didn't. And Trump was the undeserving beneficiary of this idea that we got to try something new. And I think i think that's the main reason why Trump won in 2024 is because people thought that things could be less expensive.
00:49:57
Speaker
And now he doesn't even care. He was just, he'll say, like, I'm not concerned about people's No, I know. like Can you believe he said that? Yeah. He says, yeah what is his time being fixated on? I think it was the Senator Ossoff out of Georgia was saying he spent six hours on Truth Social just railing against people.
00:50:16
Speaker
Meanwhile, we've got a crisis here. Iran and is causing our gas prices to increase. We have you fixated on the ballroom and the reflecting pond and all these things that aren't really improving people's lives, right? Yeah. so But I think if there's any hope to be had here before we end our our episode, it's that this is the year, right? Like this is the slate. the seat We have an incredible group of people running on the left and we have a really big opportunity.
00:50:44
Speaker
As we stated at the beginning, this is a state that is now only leaning Republican. And so if we can do the work to get these people elected, then we might win and actually flip the state. So,
00:50:55
Speaker
With that, Alex, since you were out last week, I wanted to ask you, what is some good news? What's that something so good that's happening in your life that you have to share? You're the one normally asking that, so i wanted to ask you. Well, today i was invited to come and speak to the Dallas Bar Association's important Insurance Practice Section.
00:51:13
Speaker
on Insurance 101. It's very exciting to go and and talk to a room full of, there was a lot of summer clerks there and people who were genuinely learning about the very basics of insurance law. It was it was fun to talk to them and let them ask their questions.
00:51:26
Speaker
And tomorrow morning, I get to drive all the way to San Antonio to more or less do the same thing. but The full day tomorrow is is billed as Insurance Law 101. And it's like things every new insurance lawyer needs to know is the name of my panel tomorrow.
00:51:42
Speaker
That's very exciting. Nice. Yeah, last time I shared that my daughter is starting pre-K in our public school. So we went to like a fair. And now today, actually, ah as of yesterday, my stepson is joining us for the summer.
00:51:55
Speaker
so we have a lot of stuff planned with him. He normally lives in El Paso where we have a house and we split our time. But he's with us in Dallas and north Texas. So we're really excited about having him and we're leaving for the beach in a few days to go spend some time with family. So I'm really excited about that. So hope.
00:52:11
Speaker
Hope our listeners are having a great summer so far and having some family time and going out there and doing some fun stuff. We we also hope to be lounging by the water. the The San Antonio conference is at the Hyatt Hill Country.
00:52:23
Speaker
Oh, yeah. It's very family friendly. It's got like a lazy river and like these little kiddie poles that they can kind of walk into. Right. Yeah. I'm excited. I've been wanting to try that out.
00:52:34
Speaker
Yeah. Okay. Well, Alex, any last word from you on this? Anything else you want to leave our listeners as we gear up for the general election? Yeah, here's my last word. I'll keep it brief.
00:52:45
Speaker
Now is not the time be high and mighty. Now is not the time to be petty keeper of a score. Now is the time to come together. and Because it yeah it takes all of us.
00:52:57
Speaker
And even with this parade of horribles we just went through, these really terrible candidates, it's our job to to take them out. And we haven't done it yet. I think we can.
00:53:08
Speaker
think we will. But it's going to take all of us. So one team, one fight. And, you know, let everybody into this tent who wants to be in it. Let's be welcoming. Let's be warm.
00:53:19
Speaker
Let's be inviting. I know I'm definitely guilty of being combative sometimes. And I need to be reminded that sometimes, Alex. So thank you for that reminder.
Conclusion and Contact Information
00:53:28
Speaker
i want to put a plug for our Patreon. If you want to support us for and independent media, you can go there. Or if you cannot afford that, you can leave us a five-star review or so share our social media. We'll put clips out.
00:53:39
Speaker
You can follow us at MissionTexasPodcast or email us at MissionTexasPodcast at gmail.com. right. We'll see our listeners next week. And we'll sign off by saying God bless Texas.
00:53:51
Speaker
You can follow us on all socials at Mission Texas Podcast. Email us at missiontexaspodcast at gmail.com. This episode is edited by Juan Jose Flores.
00:54:02
Speaker
Our music bumper is by Adam Pickerel, and our cover art is by Tino Sohn.