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Introducing "Mission: Texas"
50 Plays2 days ago
In this episode of Mission: Texas, we dive into the seismic electoral shifts set to change the political landscape by 2032. With new congressional seats projected for Texas and Florida, the balance of power in the Electoral College is tipping. Discover why winning traditional blue states might not be enough and how this shift demands new strategies for securing the White House. Strap in for a deep dive into the electoral future that could disrupt decades of political norms.
We also challenge stereotypes and redefine what it means to be a Democrat. From serving in the military to standing up in court, we explore the patriotic and godly aspects of the Democratic identity. Tune in to see how we're building a coalition that represents the true spirit of Texas.
Are you ready to join the movement?
Transcript
Introduction to Mission Texas
00:00:00
Speaker
Howdy. This is Mission Texas. A political podcast about winning Texas by 2032 or else we may lose the White House for a generation.
00:00:11
Speaker
I'm one of your hosts, Alex Clark. And I am Kate Rumsey. Other podcasts may focus on the day-to-day or the next election, but we are keeping the eyes of Texas on the bigger prize.
00:00:23
Speaker
What happens after the next census? All right. This is our first inaugural episode. Alex, can you believe that we here? ah As we mentioned in our introduction, this is Mission Texas, our introductory episode. And with all of y'all, I hope to talk about what we are as a podcast and what Mission Texas means to us as two hosts, what you can expect from us, from a podcast going forward.
Kate Rumsey's Political Journey
00:00:52
Speaker
Maybe this changes, maybe it doesn't. And then maybe looking forward, what are our goals for this podcast and our maybe predictions about what's going on? So-
00:01:01
Speaker
Alex, that is that an okay roadmap? Oh, that's right. But I think we got to back up even further for those of ah these people who are joining us. Who are we? I mean, i think some of these people going to know who I am. They're following because ah they saw it as coming from me, but they might not know you and and vice versa. People who know you, but they don't they don't know me. So what is it about us? Who are who are we? What do we have in common? Why do we find each other? And why do we want to do this podcast?
00:01:30
Speaker
think they're all wrapped up in and each other, but let's talk about who we are. so why don't you introduce yourself? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Exactly. Who is this podcast? Who are these hosts? i So my name is Kate.
00:01:41
Speaker
I grew up in Texas. I'm an eight-generation Texan. Grew up in Carrollton in the North Texas area. And you know what? Unlike Alex, I grew up thinking I was a Republican.
00:01:51
Speaker
I thought everyone's a Republican. My whole community's a Republican. But as I grew older, I realized I did not subscribe to policies that policies with the Republican party.
00:02:06
Speaker
And I thought my hopes, I believe that my my hopes and dreams for our country and for my family are with the Democratic party. and But in the meantime, I went to Notre Dame ah and I'm Catholic.
00:02:19
Speaker
So I'm a practicing Catholic and I'm also a lawyer. I was in the Department of Justice as a federal prosecutor for seven years about.
00:02:31
Speaker
in the North Texas and then Virginia region. And I'm also a reservist in the United States Air Force. And Alex, as of today, actually, and I don't speak on behalf of the Air Force, i'm not on orders, but today I promoted to major, which is kind of crazy. i yesterday was 9-11, you know, when we're recording this and 9-11 is a huge reason why I became an officer in the Air Force, and I'm a JAG, so i'm an attorney for the JAG Corps. But what got me into politics a long story, but the short version is that I ran for office as a state House member in 2024.
00:03:07
Speaker
I lost in the primary, but I learned a lot, and I hope to talk about that as somebody who came As an outsider in politics, somebody who was nonpolitical in the government and how I got into politics.
00:03:20
Speaker
But it made me invested and made it opened up opportunities for me and also friendships I made from that opportunity. And one of those people.
00:03:30
Speaker
that I made friends with in this process is my co-host, Alex. So I'm gonna let you, plus I'm gonna, I'm a mom. I'm a mom living in the suburbs of North Texas and invested in my kids' future here in Texas and also my family's, as I mentioned, going back eight
Alex Clark's Political Awakening
00:03:50
Speaker
generations.
00:03:50
Speaker
So anyways, Alex, you. Yeah, so high points right off the bat, things we have in common. I was also in the Air Force. I was enlisted. I was a staff sergeant when I got out.
00:04:02
Speaker
I did intelligence, operations intelligence. So I basically build classified PowerPoints and give them to different audiences. um You've heard of Power Rangers growing up, you may maybe? Yeah. They called us PowerPoint Rangers.
00:04:17
Speaker
client so Yeah. So we have that in common. We are both people of faith. um Unlike you, I'm not a Catholic, but I am i married into the Methodist Church. um And I'm one of the leaders of the Modern Worship Service core team of volunteers at First United Methodist Church in Dallas.
00:04:37
Speaker
ah Some other things we have in common. I'm also the parent of some young kids. um I've got a three-year-old and an almost one-year-old. He'll turn one on October first Time flies.
00:04:49
Speaker
it's um So those, I think, are the main things that think make this kind of unique as ah as podcast hosts talking about democratic politics in Texas is that we're veterans.
00:05:04
Speaker
We're we're both lawyers. I didn't mention that. we and And we clerked for federal judges. so Yeah. um Yeah, so veterans, people of faith, young parents, and and attorneys.
00:05:18
Speaker
I think that's kind of a unique ah grouping of of qualities and traits. But to give you kind of a short bio of where I'm from and what I've been doing up until now, I'm from Sherman, Texas.
00:05:31
Speaker
It's about an hour north of Dallas. I stuck around after high school to go to Austin College. For those of you who are watching on YouTube, this is a kangaroo. and We are the kangaroos. Oh, wow. okay um Okay. I'm fighting Irish. quietly It's a classic. Yep.
00:05:47
Speaker
Yep. Go Irish or something. So, you know, hope that ah I don't find anybody. Yeah.
00:06:00
Speaker
After Austin College, my wife and I, we did Teach for America in San Antonio. if you look over for the those of you that have visuals, there's a picture of my wife and I in front of the Alamo.
00:06:12
Speaker
ah We both did Teach for America. i was actually the year after, we were both the year after James Tallarico started in Teach for America San Antonio. um and then i stuck around enlisted in the air force went to basic training um and then i went to law school in austin where i stuck around for two extra years to clerk for that federal judge i was talking about and then after that picture in the back yeah sorry yeah that's the picture of the capital behind us and then we moved to dallas last picture here um
00:06:47
Speaker
when we wanted to start a family. And so we actually need to get that thing updated soon to have our second kid in there. but we love us kate kate Kate mentioned that she she grew up Republican. I didn't really grew up as nothing.
00:06:58
Speaker
um My first foray into politics was as a Sherman high school intern for the Barack Obama presidential primary campaign against Hillary Clinton.
00:07:10
Speaker
And one thing kind of just led to another. i met our congressional candidate who was an Obama guy. name Glenn Melanson. um And I figured out a way around the rules where I could actually do an internship for credit as a first semester college student.
Texas Demographics and Electoral Strategy
00:07:28
Speaker
um That led to me joining the Austin College Young Democrats, becoming the president of Austin College Young Democrats, That took me on to become statewide with the Texas College Democrats. I worked on many other campaigns along the way, the Bill White for governor campaign. i was students for Bill White at the time, right?
00:07:49
Speaker
um It seems like every cycle i've I've been involved, it seems like in one way or another, i always think that maybe I'll take one off, but I just can't seem to stay away.
00:08:00
Speaker
yeah And so... Yeah, I kind of ah came into my democratic identity during the Obama era. I was ah brought in because I liked him. um if this Weirdly enough, I had gone to Texas Boys State. i think there's an Apple documentary about it now. Love it.
00:08:18
Speaker
And that was like my real eye-opening thing. And I just very... very lightly tiptoed into the waters after that and started watching like the daily show. Right. Jon Stewart back when he was full time. Right.
00:08:31
Speaker
ah And oddly enough, my favorite senators at the time were Barack Obama and John McCain. And i I could not have guessed that they were both going end up beating the nominees of their party. yet um They had worked together on campaign finance.
00:08:46
Speaker
And that's why I had become fans of theirs. And so it was actually my experience as an Obama fan, I think you might say, that pushed me further into like a partisan identity.
00:08:59
Speaker
um i haven't found... that the way he was treated by Republicans during his administration, beyond the up and up, it felt like whether you disagreed with him on politics, on any particular issue, he was a great guy, you know, so upstanding role model for young people, good husband, good father, and just the most wild rumors and and kind of malicious attacks would come out against him. And he would even like, i remember, would put forward Republican policy proposals,
00:09:33
Speaker
Just to have Republicans vote them down. Yeah. Yeah. And so I think that's where I started to to to lean into a Democratic identity. I actually assumed that eventually the Texas Republicans would make a play for my vote.
00:09:47
Speaker
And it just hasn't seemed to happen yet. But of course, as we'll talk about here in a little bit, they haven't needed my vote. I know. we need to we need We need more people in our coalition. And that's exactly what this podcast is about.
00:10:02
Speaker
Yeah. And as you mentioned, I don't think people would see us as the quintessential Democrat, maybe the one that they're thinking of, especially these days. We hear a lot of people saying Democrats are anti-God and anti-America and Yeah, you and I have both proudly served our country in uniform where it says the United States on it.
00:10:23
Speaker
I stood up in the courtroom saying Kate Rumsey on behalf of the United States very proudly. And I love my country. I love my my state. And I think that's a theme of our podcast is that there's this Texas mentality of come and take it.
00:10:39
Speaker
And yet we want to bring back and take back ideas about being a Democrat and being a godly Democrat. being a patriotic Democrat and one where we are here to stay to work on our state and make sure that and people would say, Kate, shouldn't you be leaving Texas, leaving the country? and And to that I say, this is my state that I love.
00:11:01
Speaker
You know, and aren't you not, aren't you ashamed of your state about what's going on with our politics? And to that, I also say I'm not ashamed of my state. I love my state. And this is the place I want to raise my children. It's where my ancestors came here, with Stephen F. Austin and the old 300. And I want it to be the place that is for everyone, including me, including my family and for you and for my brother. And and that it's not my state that is enacting these policies.
00:11:31
Speaker
It is the people in charge and who do they represent. And it's a minority of the people who are actually in Texas and it's those people voting.
Podcast's Mission and Unique Content
00:11:42
Speaker
And that is what this podcast to me is about. And maybe we can get into that next, which is what is this podcast? why we yeah Why are we creating this thing? why We're both working parents. Why did we start this?
00:11:55
Speaker
And maybe I can take our listeners back to... Last fall, where it was right after the November 2024 election, it was a huge surprise for me that Donald Trump won and that we lost so badly.
00:12:12
Speaker
and then a few weeks after the election, i was invited to go to a Planned Parenthood event. in Dallas by our mutual friend Yasmin, shout out to her. And I saw you there.
00:12:24
Speaker
And if you can imagine, you know, you're in Texas, which is like ground zero for abortion access and also right after the election. It's not exactly like a happy-go-lucky time. And i you and I were chit-chatting and catching up and you said something that was so profound that it is now almost basically the basis of this entire podcast.
00:12:44
Speaker
So I'm going to let you share what you told me. Well, yeah. So first I would just totally echo that there's no monopoly on God-fearing or patriotic people in in either party.
00:12:59
Speaker
And it is so important that we're loud about that, right? They don't get to own that. I think it's um worth noting too, that in, at least in 2018, there was polling to suggest that, um,
00:13:14
Speaker
If the election had been decided by ah native Texans, we would have had a Senator O'Rourke these last and several years, as opposed to a Senator Cruz. And in fact, it was only because of the new people coming to Texas ah they said that Cruz was able to eke out a ah very narrow victory.
00:13:34
Speaker
I think that is an interesting dynamic that we're going to have to to figure out because in a certain way, Texas is a magnet for kind of disaffected Republicans who want to go somewhere um might be fleeing a blue state to come to Texas so they can feel like, oh I'm part of a winning the winning team now.
00:13:57
Speaker
Do we think that's statistically true? I mean, that's something we should explore, and I would love to think about that. Yeah, I think we've got to dig into it. um And i'm um you know we welcome people on this podcast who are not or you know born and raised in Texas like obviously. Sure.
00:14:12
Speaker
so many people I know, and even in this community in North Texas, moved here. So it all ties back into the larger thesis of the podcast, though, which is that whether we know for sure what their partisan identities are, um they are coming.
00:14:30
Speaker
And that's what this is all about. ah What what why I talked to you about at that event um just after the election is that, OK, everyone is focused so much on the here and now. especially in political news, if you're the kind of person who consumes it, like everyone is so wrapped up in what just happened in the last 24 hours or what happened this week that we're losing the forest for the trees a little bit because if you zoom out, you widen the aperture and you look at what's coming down the pike in the next census and reapportionment, the amount of electoral votes that are going to shift
00:15:10
Speaker
They're going coming from California. They're going to be coming from New York and Illinois and Michigan and Minnesota and Pennsylvania. And they're going to be distributed primarily and South and particularly in Texas and in Florida, as many as four to five new congressional seats will be coming to Texas after the reapportionment in 2030, if all the trends hold up.
00:15:40
Speaker
And so not only and does that mean they're going to have more representation in the House, as I alluded, I said electoral votes, right because that's how that the Electoral College works is every time you get a new House seat, that's another electoral vote you have.
00:15:52
Speaker
And because it's hydraulic in this way where, Blue states are losing votes at the same time red states are gaining them. The kind of coalitions that used to win the White House aren't going to cut it anymore.
00:16:04
Speaker
You can be the Democratic nominee for president in 2032 win all of the blue wall states that we all talked so much about during the last presidential cycle. You could win all three, clean sweep, and still lose the White House.
00:16:21
Speaker
Yeah. So the the math doesn't math anymore. So something has to change. yeah And if anyone has heard me talk about politics ever, yeah they know my favorite rant is to talk about how Texas Democrats, and I count myself as a proud one, we have lost statewide, whether that's a presidential election, a governor election, Senate, any of these races that you can't blame on gerrymandering,
00:16:51
Speaker
because the state is the shape of the state. You can't redraw what a statewide race looks like. Texas Democrats have lost more consistently than any state party in the country.
00:17:04
Speaker
Every other red state has elected a Democrat more recently than we have. And every other blue state has elected a Republican statewide more recently than we have elected a Democrat. And so we have to break this curse We have to be mission mindset locked in on this bigger picture or else we're going to lose the White House for not only, you know, this, this, these next four years, i can't believe we're not even through the first Trump year. It feels like it's been years already, but imagine that feeling for the next decade plus.
00:17:44
Speaker
Yeah. And it should be, well, what, and it should be what So I think what happened next is that i think we all reflected on what we needed to do better. And one of those is that we need more messaging, more content from Democrats.
00:17:59
Speaker
And I thought there's not a lot of there are some podcasts out there in Texas, one of whom is from our very dear friend at Progress Texas. So shout out to them, Kathleen Thompson. and and thought, well we could do something different, you know maybe a little bit different as far as content. And I ah contacted you I thought, why don't we do a podcast? and you said what?
Challenges and Strategies for Flipping Texas
00:18:22
Speaker
Yeah, I think that was that was primarily the idea is that we have to figure out how we're going to differentiate ourselves because I didn't want to just add to a cacophony of voices all talking about the same stuff.
00:18:33
Speaker
yeah So what I think is really interesting about What we're trying to do here is one, I was just talking about, we're going focused on the big picture. Yeah. The second thing we're going to do is we're not going to limit ourselves to the kind of traditional, um,
00:18:51
Speaker
like kind of Democratic coalition, right? We are going to be expressly focused on building out and inviting new people in Right.
00:19:02
Speaker
I think sometimes, and and I love them. i I listen to Pod Save America like everybody else. Right. But sometimes it feels a little um inside baseball. Those spaces are important.
00:19:14
Speaker
Yeah. But I want to be really intentional about thinking, how do we grow the tent and bringing people on the show even that, you know, You wouldn't necessarily imagine being on ah on a democratic show.
00:19:27
Speaker
Well, so we when I contacted you, what was crazy is that you said, Kate, I have a mic I just bought, and I've been thinking about doing a podcast too. And I'm like, wow, we are both thinking the same thing, not having talked to each other, and we both are having these ideas of we need to do something.
00:19:47
Speaker
Maybe this is part of that and bringing that to people. Because I think both of us as young as people with young kids – It's hard for us to always engage in the political process and always feel like we're plugged in. We're not always available on a Tuesday night, 7 p.m. Dallas County meeting or whatever time it is. And and it's so funny because at any time, sometimes I've seen you at events and you have your kid and I've got my kid and we're the only people with kids.
00:20:13
Speaker
yeah And we're of like running around. And so what my hope is, and this gets into kind of our goals, but it's meeting people where they are. with yeah Maybe it's they're running errands and they're trying to listen to about Texas politics and and they're learning something from this.
00:20:28
Speaker
And maybe they're at night after they put their kids down and they're on their phone looking at this at TikTok. But I'm hoping to meet people where they are. And that's sort of why I wanted to do a podcast.
00:20:38
Speaker
But and The next thing that happened for me in creating this after November and December, when we were talking about this last year, was that I went to a town hall with that was supposed to be in lieu of my congressperson, who's Beth Van Dyne, who doesn't hold in-person town halls.
00:20:55
Speaker
And Colin Allred and Clay Jenkins were there, which are two North Texan politicians. And we had a huge crowd and it was about just the state of the world. And we're all just hungry for answers.
00:21:07
Speaker
And you could hear we were asking for people were asking, what is the plan? How can we help? What what are we doing? What can I do at home? And and I'm not trying to put them on blast, but the answer that they gave, which is what everyone gives, which is.
00:21:23
Speaker
Get involved, lock doors and get organized. And you could just hear people going, because this was, this is a group of like precinct chairs and activists and people who regularly attend meetings. And it's, so you could hear the kind of like collective groan of, we need more, we need more answers.
00:21:41
Speaker
And that's why I thought when we're thinking about what is this podcast, not only for you, it's this coalition building, but for me, it's also providing, introspection and maybe a behind the scenes look at what is happening in politics. Like what's, what the plan by some of these stakeholders and then specific items that we can do going forward. So if you were at home and you can't make meetings, but you want to do something, then I hope that this is ah an avenue and a medium that will help provide you those answers. So that we as a community that I'm hoping we build,
00:22:13
Speaker
can contribute to the cause. And so this led to our idea that this is going to be a podcast about going back to your original thought, which was flipping Texas before 2032, before it's too late for all of us. And then that got into our name, which kind gets back to our biography and the things that we represent. So yeah, have to be clear eyed, right? About what we have doing right about why what we have been doing hasn't worked.
00:22:44
Speaker
And it's why there were those collective groans in the room. It's like, I've heard that before. huh If you're not offering anything new, it's dispiriting.
00:22:55
Speaker
Right. Right. Like there has to be a recognition of like, okay, so what we did last time didn't cut it. yeah and And until you're willing to admit that and then pivot and say, so here's what we need to do differently.
00:23:08
Speaker
yeah Sometimes that means we have to ah adopt strategies of people who have been successful. Like it it was not a uniform story on election night, 2024.
00:23:22
Speaker
um Right. In this, in the same election where Donald Trump wins this, even like this squeaks out a popular vote victory, even You know, Senator Ruben Gallego is now a thing from Arizona. And I think we also picked up a Senate seat and in Michigan. Is that right? And and so states that Trump are is winning...
00:23:46
Speaker
There have been Democratic politicians who figured out how to who succeed despite that. yeah And so, yeah, going back to what you were saying, like that comes to our our name, which is Mission Texas.
00:23:58
Speaker
We have to be laser focused on what is the actual mission. You know, we don't have time. We really don't to just be so gentle with everybody's egos.
00:24:11
Speaker
oh You know, Whether it's someone in the party apparatus or if you're an elected official or you're a consultant, ah you know we're we're gonna have these people on and we're gonna ask them tough questions because what has come before hasn't worked.
00:24:30
Speaker
And so yeah, Mission Texas, our name, we are both veterans and we're both people of faith. I'm still service member, just to be clear. so Yeah, you're still a service member. Speaking of behalf the DOD or the Air Force, I'll be clear. I'm not in orders.
00:24:48
Speaker
um But I don't have veteran status yet, so we'll see. but But mission mindset, mission both in the sense of a kind of a military-esque approach mission, you know, should you choose to accept it, ah mission impossible type mission, but also the missions of Texas, the people who came to Texas to, um,
00:25:13
Speaker
for lack of a better word, ah evangelize, right? to To spread the good word, to spread, like for them, it was to share the gospel. How do we take that same concept as Texas Democrats trying to build a coalition and share our own version, our our our political gospel, if you will?
00:25:33
Speaker
Because- um You know, we can't be shy about it. The other side isn't. And too many parts of our state, including places like where I grew up in Sherman, they're only getting one side of the story. I mean, that's one of the things I've always admired so much. Whatever you have to say against better work, he came and he showed up.
00:25:56
Speaker
Yeah. And so I think we have to have that kind of just relentless relationship ah commitment to talking to every voter, not writing anybody off by saying, if you're a Democrat, great.
00:26:12
Speaker
Obviously you're already part of the team, but that's not, if it that, if that was enough, we wouldn't be having this podcast,
Audience Engagement and Community Building
00:26:19
Speaker
right? Yeah. If you're an independent, great.
00:26:23
Speaker
We want your vote. If you're a Republican, we still want your vote. Yep. Kendall Scudder, who will be our first guest on the podcast. we loyal art We didn't talk about this on our episode, but he ran for Huntsville City Council ah twice. So I've known her i've i've known Kendall Scudder since we were both ah East Texas Obama boys.
00:26:47
Speaker
We were both high schoolers working on that Obama primary. And I was just so fun to watch his political career take off even while he was in college at Sam Houston State and he was running for city council.
00:26:59
Speaker
And he very nearly won both times. It was so close. And one of the things he would tell me is that he's not trying to win a debate.
00:27:12
Speaker
He's trying to win an election. Yeah. And I think too often Democrats are trying to win a debate, like they're going to win some sort of magical, invisible academic prize.
00:27:24
Speaker
Meanwhile, Republicans are going to go win the election because they're focused on winning power. And we're seeing the consequences of that. But anyways, what Kendall told me is that people would come up to him and just say just the wildest off the wall stuff.
00:27:44
Speaker
And whether they knew this or not about him, he he has, he grew up with two moms and people will come up to him and say so something like, you know, the gays cause hurricanes.
00:27:58
Speaker
And yeah, you know, it'd be very easy to have a, knee jerk. Yeah, yeah, antagonistic attitudes like don't you ever talk to me out of I got and just write them off and, and curse them out. Right?
00:28:13
Speaker
Instead, what Kendall would, would do, which I think is brilliant, is he'd put his hand over his heart. He'd lean in and say, you know, and I'm trying to do my best Kindle accent.
00:28:26
Speaker
You know, gosh, a lot of people feel that way. Yeah. And then he would pull his hand off his heart. He'd open it up like he's about to shake shake his hand almost and say, let me talk to you about public education.
00:28:41
Speaker
yeah Because even if you disagree on all sorts of issues, if you can find an area of common ground that really resonates to somebody, they might give you their vote.
00:28:54
Speaker
yeah And I'm willing to have a lot of people who disagree with me vote for my candidate. If it means my candidate is going to win. Yeah, well, I think you're you're getting back to the laser-focusedness of this.
00:29:07
Speaker
And again, this is Mission Texas, so we are mission-oriented. We have a goal. we You may hear us talk a little bit about movies and pop culture. or That's why might think of this as a Mission Impossible, as you mentioned, vibe. um and then But it also goes back to, as you mentioned, the Texas history and our pride in our state and the most well-known history well-known Spanish mission ever is the Alamo.
00:29:34
Speaker
And so we couldn't be called the Alamo podcast. ah week all there's Copyright problems there, right? There's some trademark lawyers. No, I mean, caught whatever it was, but I'm not a criminal old defense lawyer.
00:29:49
Speaker
ah But it's this idea that we have a confluence of all these interests, and that's why we're called Mission Texas. which is about flipping Texas.
00:30:00
Speaker
By the way, I saw Beto O'Rourke on Hasan Minhaj recently. Yes, yeah. Hasan called him out for not knowing the words to Texas are Texas.
00:30:11
Speaker
And when I was a little disappointed, Beto. I'm sorry. i love you. um love you, Beto. You got to get on here. mean, that's a bit of a but, you know, ah I know the Notre Dame fight song. Mm-hmm.
00:30:25
Speaker
I could probably still sing Texas R. Texas. It was one of the things we had to learn while we were at ah Boy State, actually. that's about us. I mean, this is about the podcast, what our mission is, what are podcast name is about, who we are. But and you heard a little bit about who what you kind can expect from us, from the types of people we want to talk to But what you can logistically expect from us is that every month, every week, we're going to talk to somebody. We're going to interview folks.
00:30:54
Speaker
And then Once a month, we're going to talk about what we learned and kind of do a synthesis of what what do we think we need to accomplish? What do we need to be doing here? and But more importantly, and we want to hear from y'all.
00:31:06
Speaker
And we have an email. You can also message or leave us comments on our social media. But MissionTexasPodcast at gmail.com. And we would love to hear from you because this is a community and we're going to this together. And if you have thoughts or feelings or maybe a reaction, we would love to hear from you and discuss that with your permission on this podcast.
In-depth Look at Texas Politics
00:31:27
Speaker
So we hope to hear from you and maybe we can all come together with some action items where we think, OK, this is exactly what we need to be doing. And then maybe ah going forward, I hope to also incorporate behind the scenes access at things like maybe I'll bring you along on a block walk so you know what that's looking like.
00:31:44
Speaker
We want to take to the road and get to our friends in San Antonio and Austin and all over the state, like you're talking about, Alex. um My dad's from Hill Country, and I'd love to get down there, especially after what happened over the summer and see how they're doing.
00:32:01
Speaker
But that's where you can expect from us. And you can also expect, as we mentioned, that we're going to talk to who you think. You know, we're going to try to talk to elected state party leaders like Kendall.
00:32:13
Speaker
But we also want to talk to maybe unlikely allies. And also just people who we should hear from as to why they didn't vote but as for Democrats in the last cycle. And I think that gets into something that i know you want to accomplish in the podcast.
00:32:30
Speaker
Yeah. So you're kind of hinting out one of the things I really hope we're able to do once we... ah We learned this podcasting thing and we have our skills developed and ah we're learning it on the go, on the job training as we call it. OJT. I want to a series of episodes.
00:32:47
Speaker
um but but is i want to do ah series of episodes um ah basically looking at Venn diagrams where someone voted for a Republican and a Democrat. And we know just mathematically, there are a large number of these people in the state of Texas.
00:33:09
Speaker
Um, as recently as the election with Colin Allred, uh, and ah Donald Trump in 2024, there were a ah a lot more people who voted for Donald Trump than voted for Ted Cruz.
00:33:25
Speaker
And so just based on how numbers work, we can then assume there are people who on the same ballot selected Donald Trump, but also picked Colin Allred.
00:33:36
Speaker
I wanna know about these people. um i think that'd be really interesting. and I think we'd have a lot to learn from them. and By the same token, we know there were a lot of people in the 2018 election who voted for Greg Abbott, but also voted for Beto O'Rourke.
00:33:52
Speaker
yeah but Those are the types of sort of ordinary people, just regular voters, not trying to get any kind of flashy names up there. I want to talk to real people. And I'm going to call these episodes Deeper in the Heart of Texans.
00:34:06
Speaker
um For those of you who familiar with another famous song, The the Stars at Night, are big and bright, I know that one deep in the heart of Texas, right? We're gonna get deeper in the heart of Texans.
00:34:17
Speaker
and And just see what was going on in their minds. um We're not going to leave it to just the kind of split ticket or types. um Obviously, there are a lot of people who are just waiting on the sidelines.
00:34:31
Speaker
We know for a fact there are there are a ton of people who are registered to vote, who don't always make it off the sidelines. And so we get more we don't get more vote power from someone who switches from from red to blue as we get someone who just comes off the the couch right yeah so it's going to take everything all the above strategy we want to persuade but we also want to energize i think you have to do both yeah and so those are the kinds of things i imagine doing in in those particular types of episodes yeah
00:35:06
Speaker
I know. And I want to do unlikely allies, people that maybe are public school advocates, but traditionally very conservative. Maybe they believe in small government and their city councils having more power, but now they're being taken away from the state government.
00:35:24
Speaker
Maybe they're gun owners, but they believe in gun safety, you know, and they believe in the cause of what's going on. in protecting our kids against gun safety. So I want to talk to those people and see what are your thoughts? How can we bring you into this coalition?
00:35:38
Speaker
But I think also going back to who we are people who are of faith, and I want to talk to keep faith leaders and people who are, I don't want to say that we're only for people who are Christian, but think there's a ton of faith leaders in this community And for example, here near Coppell, we've got lot of mosques and i would love to talk to them them and see what's going on in their community.
00:36:04
Speaker
How can we convince them to vote and hopefully vote for us and that this is a place for them to. I will say that I hope to also convince people outside of Texas to pay attention to the community and also invest in Texas, because think this is going to be something that they need to invest in, as we mentioned, that we should we're on the case, you know, this is.
00:36:31
Speaker
we're here to make the case for Texas and move. harm We're their lawyers. yeah We were going to be on their side and we're going to try to convince you to be with us.
00:36:43
Speaker
yeah But one of the things that we have, uh, you've heard our intro music. And I think one of the things I thought of was that it kind sounds like a true crime podcast, which I know everyone loves.
00:36:54
Speaker
And I think of it that way. I was an investigator by trade, and I kind of do that still as a defense counsel, and I'm discovering the facts, trying to figure out what happened in the past. And I think of it that way, that this podcast is like that. Like, we're not really here to report on the news.
00:37:10
Speaker
Maybe there's some statewide things we're going to talk about. that affect us, like redistricting and the candidates. But we're really just a deep dive. If you like a true crime podcast, I think you might like this because it's just it's kind of delving into the facts of what's happened and what's going what we're going to do going forward.
00:37:27
Speaker
And I think if you like that kind of vibe, you're going to like this. So. And then it's kind of self-perpetuating. and It's going to move us forward to where we are. And I hope to have reflection episodes where we heard from, for example, Kendall. And he said, these are the five things we're trying to do.
00:37:43
Speaker
And then maybe check in with him or his staff. And in six months and say, OK, how did we do? like Did you accomplish the things that you're wanting to do? So we can show for the investment that people are using, either with their time or their money,
00:37:55
Speaker
to to say that Texas is worth it. And i think that that will give some transparency for our donors, for our voters, for the people that want to invest here. So yeah whether they like it or not, the rest of the country has to to get wise to the just the facts, right? yeah That after 2030, like, I think it's 42 electoral votes that were and we're looking to get.
00:38:23
Speaker
I think it's 42. Yeah, well, yeah, that's more than Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania combined. um So if we win Texas, that opens up a lot more paths to victory.
00:38:40
Speaker
And if we don't win Texas, we're almost guaranteed not to win. ah There are other ways to go about it, but they're all going to go through the South one way or another.
00:38:51
Speaker
And so the kind of things that need to happen, ah need to happen. and we need rethink fundamentally how we're doing things. And so Texas is the place to come and do it because it's the biggest prize.
00:39:04
Speaker
And in the same the same manner that we have to do it so that we can win, if we can figure it out, we've almost guaranteed that they will lose. Yeah. And what I think is that I think that I've heard just from my own race that the National Party really doesn't put much resources here. And if they did, it was at the end of Colin Allwright's last race.
00:39:25
Speaker
And it was just a lot of money for advertisements. That's what I heard. I don't know if that's true. I'd love to explore that. Too late to spend it effectively, right? Yeah. Yeah, like non-infrastructure that lasts year to year. And i would love to learn more about that.
00:39:36
Speaker
How do they perceive us? Why are they not investing in our state? And what have we not gotten together? What do we need we need to do? and you know, if they're listening, we'd love to have you on the podcast.
00:39:49
Speaker
Yeah. Because that's something we have to hear. We need to have these hard conversations about it. but Yeah, I'm happy to critique National Democrats in using us as a piggy bank, but I'm also first to admit that I think we as party – as a party um Texas Democrats have the kind of just most pessimistic, losing-ist attitude sometimes that even at the very beginning of a race before anything has even happened, we've decided that, well, we're not going to win this cycle.
00:40:18
Speaker
I don't think it's going to happen this time. It's like, how can you be so sure this early? Yeah. Right? Like, we have a Democratic governor in Kentucky right now. And he's very popular.
00:40:30
Speaker
yeah if they can win a race in Kentucky, we can win a race in Texas. Texas is not as conservative as Kentucky. Yeah. We have two Democratic senators from Georgia right now. I know if Stacey Abrams is listening, girl, we would love to have you on this podcast.
00:40:44
Speaker
I would love to hear from you. ah so we talked little bit about our, what you can expect and a little bit about our goals. you have any other like aspirations for this podcast as far as just how it, you know, it's going to do or what things you want to accomplish?
00:41:01
Speaker
My goal is that Texas awards its electoral college votes to the Democratic nominee for president in 2032. That's really kicking the can down the road, though because we're not going to know for seven years.
00:41:14
Speaker
um I think in the immediate term, ah i would like to see us be able to um move the conversation.
00:41:25
Speaker
I think it is so easy to get wrapped up in the dayto day to day. i want to see conversations happening within the party infrastructure from the state party leaders to the elected officials, to the activists and the kind of allied organizations.
00:41:43
Speaker
Yeah. I want to hear more about what it is that they're going to do differently for the bigger picture. and I'm not going to be shy about when i think there are people who could do more that aren't because they don't have, i guess, a direct incentive to.
00:42:07
Speaker
What I mean by that is, you know, we we were a gerrymandered state before this most recent round that was just so egregious and done mid-decade.
00:42:18
Speaker
um One of the unfortunate... byproducts of that is for the people who do hold office and very popular people, a lot of them, they don't really have much of an incentive to work their turf, to use an organizer term, to to maximize the turnout of their of their district um because all they have to do to get reelected is win their primary.
00:42:52
Speaker
And so if you have a big campaign war chest and you have the the the great benefit of having a platform of an elected office and you're not doing everything in your power to help move the needle so that we can get people elected statewide and be able to win a statewide election come 2032, then we need to replace the furniture.
00:43:17
Speaker
Well, so think we're getting into maybe our predictions of what we're goingnna learn. And I think that's definitely a big one is that, and for me, the
Defining the Democratic Identity
00:43:25
Speaker
goals are similar. i want to, another one is that I hope we can define ourselves as a party and what we are about and convince people what we are and not let Republicans define us.
00:43:36
Speaker
As we mentioned at the beginning, we are not anti-God. We're not anti our country. And I hope that we can show that as a podcast and also a community And just, you know, i hope this is a self-sustaining podcast in the future. we can keep this going a year from now. And that's sort of a personal goal, ah which I hope and we're reporting on the general election. And I hope that we are hosting block walks and we're getting people who are not.
00:44:00
Speaker
otherwise active and showing them that what they're doing matters and it's possible to move the needle. But as far as predictions, I'm with you because ah think that we are overly gerrymandered. I think we have a lot of voter apathy and I want to explore what that is and why. And I think part of that is what you're saying, which is that we are not asking them for their vote.
00:44:23
Speaker
We're not convincing them of that vote. Maybe they think that they aren't, their vote doesn't matter because it's going to not change their local race. Maybe they have people who are ah you know safe seats, Republicans or Democrats. and because of that, money's not flowing into that area. And because of that, there's not as many knock people knocking on their doors or mailers going into their mail or text messages.
00:44:46
Speaker
and And also, like there are people, I'll say, like Jasmine Crockett. I don't think she had a challenger in her election, but we saw her going all over the country helping other Democrats. and But because of that, she isn't in her own...
00:45:01
Speaker
district, but I don't follow her um for that. So I think there's a lot to be said in those kind of areas. And those are my kind of predictions. We can talk a lot about voter laws, how we ah how we register people to vote and how we have to have identity and does that deter people? But we can't control that.
00:45:20
Speaker
You know, we can't control that issue. and think we have to prove that we're going to abide by the rules. We're going to get everybody convincing them that their vote matters. And I want to figure out somehow to convince folks that, yes, we're gerrymandered, but you can't gerrymander a statewide race.
00:45:38
Speaker
And if you are a blue dot and a very red sea, your vote matters in the statewide and we need it. And we are going to try to convince you to vote with us better than what we did.
00:45:49
Speaker
because we have to convince people, as our friend Kendall was telling us, and that you will hear, that we have to have the messaging too. And one of my goals is to not even really talk about the president. you know like i hope that we can have a whole conversation about this party and about this state without even referencing the president, because we have to be able to define ourselves outside of that we're the contra him.
00:46:16
Speaker
and like We aren't just the non-Donald Trump party. We are a party unto ourselves that is has meaning and promise and value. And i hope to show that to you. So those are my goals so and predictions.
Future Guests and Diverse Perspectives
00:46:30
Speaker
um I also think there's something else. like We have to elect people and get people as candidates that people are excited about. And one of the things I want to explore and ask more about is how do we get working class people together more elected, you know, cause as a candidate who worked and campaigned and has a kid, will tell you it was, it was real hard.
00:46:52
Speaker
Uh, so how do we get folks in a position they can run and can, especially in our state government where, you know, you're only going to make like $7,200 a year. Um, most, and most people working people can't take off for several months at a time to go be in the legislature.
00:47:09
Speaker
God forbid if governor Abbott wants to call a special session or two or three or 10, right? Like, so those are predictions and our sort of our goals. And I hope that we can maybe test those in a year. Maybe we'll hear something else and we're just totally surprised about what we're going to be doing. And, um, but can you tell our listeners a little bit about who they might hear from in our next couple episodes?
00:47:33
Speaker
Sure. So we we already gave away the game on episode one. We're going be talking to Kendall Scudder. He's the state chairman of the Texas Democratic Party. Very exciting. ah Like I said, i've known it for a long time.
00:47:46
Speaker
35 years old. um one of very few young state party chairs in the country. He's fired up, um talks about working class values. Our second episode going to be another tie back to someone I know, ah Christian Carranza.
00:48:02
Speaker
She is running in what a lot of people think of as the most flippable seat in this Texas house down in San Antonio. um Even more flippable now that ah it sounds like the incumbent is now going to be running for one of the new ah gerrymandered congressional seats.
00:48:20
Speaker
um And then um we're going to try to hop around geographically. We're going hop around from whether you're a state party person, whether you're a candidate for office, whether you're an elected official, whether you're an elected official running for another office. Mm-hmm. Foreshadowing, we're also going to have on Dallas State Senator Nathan Johnson, who is a candidate for attorney general.
00:48:41
Speaker
Mm-hmm. We're going have consultants. We're going have campaign people, people you may never have heard of. I hope to talk to even donors because they have a perspective in all of this.
00:48:53
Speaker
you know They're the ones raising money for that a lot of candidates know, but you may not have heard of. And yet they're so well known in these circles that it's like, I've heard so much of the fact that there's donor fatigue and we're sending our money elsewhere.
00:49:08
Speaker
Like we're investing in other races in the United States. Why are we not bringing money here? So those are some types of people that we're gonna talk to over the course of this podcast. And maybe things will change, maybe the format will change, but that the mission we're be focused on flipping Texas.
00:49:25
Speaker
you had a reach for the stars, if you imagine you your dream guests for Mission Texas in the next year. and again, we're going to keep this thing going until we declare mission accomplished in November, 2032. This could be going on for quite some time.
00:49:46
Speaker
um But in this next year, who are your top dream guests? Yeah. Well, I think our statewide candidates are definitely dream guests like James Tallarico and Colin Allred because I think they have a perspective that we don't across the state of what we need to get done, especially Colin Allred having done it before. I'd love to hear from him on what happened and what he wants to do to do differently.
00:50:09
Speaker
yeah kindi i think there's a lot of people really... hungry to hear that answer and and have a recognition of what maybe what happened last time. I don't know. I would love to hear from him. To the same point, I would love to have on the candidates who ran statewide who have gotten the closest.
00:50:25
Speaker
I'm talking about Beto O'Rourke. Love to have him on the podcast. I was just going to say Mike Collier and Justin Nelson. yeah Justin Nelson in particular, a big fan of his. I had volunteered on his campaign.
00:50:38
Speaker
Texas, man, we blew it. We we could have had a former Supreme Court clerk as our Texas attorney general, a guy who is ah ah just an incredible advocate and partner at Sussman Godfrey who handled the Dominion voting case. Do you remember that one against Fox News? Yeah, well, a Supreme Court clerk that's not Ted Cruz.
00:51:03
Speaker
ah Any other dream guests? Yeah, I would love to have on, we kind of alluded to them earlier. um want to have ah Senator Ruben Gallego from Arizona. I would love to have on Senators Warnock and Ossoff from Georgia.
00:51:20
Speaker
People like um Governor Beshear, governor ah in Kentucky. um Anytime someone has bucked their state's trend,
00:51:31
Speaker
I want to know what they're doing differently and what lessons Texans cant can draw from it. I mean, if we're shooting for the stars, let's go for the presidents. I mean, Obama, let's go. let's get on down. Where were y'all in Texas? I'd love to hear that.
00:51:43
Speaker
um get on down where were we all in texas and love to hear that but yeah That was my start in this whole thing. I mentioned I was an apolitical person until I was an Obama high school intern. So that would be a huge dream contribution. Or George Bush. I mean, gosh, where's that guy?
00:51:59
Speaker
He's so local. He has to have an opinion on this. I would love to hear from him. I doubt that'll ever happen, given the fact that he has never really mentioned whatever I think is going. it's It's a dream guest. I think I voted for George W. Bush in a like a school poll. Right. When I was a kid, just because, you know, was Texan. And I was again, i grew up apolitical. And I think that's an interesting thing to remind ourselves. If you're a political person, if you're a politico,
00:52:29
Speaker
you are the kind of like oddball who's consuming this kind of content. yeah right you You are not the average voter. Unfortunately, a lot of it is, I don't know what it is. Maybe and I need to talk to these people more, but my sense is that it's like vibes.
00:52:44
Speaker
When I was a kid voting for George W. Bush versus Al Gore and like a, like a middle school poll or whatever it was, um you know, like what was I even basing that off of? Like,
00:52:56
Speaker
the the Texas swagger, right? and You know? And there are those kind of intangible things that people pick up on. Like even non-political people can just kind of tell like, and I don't like that Ted Cruz.
00:53:08
Speaker
yeah Is this something he said on a particular policy? No, I just don't like him. and So what it what is it about them that they don't like? And for the people who they do like, I think Barack Obama is a great example actually.
00:53:22
Speaker
brought a lot of people off off the couch, you didn't necessarily think of themselves as Democrats, but they were Obama voters. What is it about a candidate that can separate them um from the pack?
00:53:37
Speaker
Yeah, Well, I think on that, i want to talk to people who break through to audiences on a regular basis, like Joe Rogan or everyone knows Mark Cuban. Like, how do you message better and get our points across? Because clearly it's not we're not doing it.
00:53:53
Speaker
So we got to figure that out. This podcast can't just be preaching to the choir. If if yeah only Democrats are listening to us, we have failed. Right. how want to figure that out.
00:54:03
Speaker
Yeah. How do we message? Who do we get across? And maybe of like James Valarico. He's i think he's gotten a point across to people that are not normal Democratic voters.
00:54:14
Speaker
I'm getting texts from friends that are like, who's this guy? So and they're people I would never have guessed as someone that's political at all. And yet they're texting me about him. So I'm 100 percent biased, but I mean this sincerely. I think he's the best communicator in the party right now.
00:54:30
Speaker
and yeah least At least in Texas, I think he's the best communicator we've got. Absolutely. Yeah. Any other final thoughts on the start of this podcast? i can't believe this is going to be our odyssey. Yeah. I mean, it'll be fun when we win in 2032 because we kept our eyes on the prize.
00:54:49
Speaker
Yeah. It was a fun little little piece of history. We called it right here. Well, it's 2025. So I guess that's a little over seven years years to the election ish.
00:55:00
Speaker
Seven years. Yeah. ah so sorry yeah Seven and two months. Seven and two months. Yeah, there we go. All right. Future selves. You guys got it. We're going go. to go I mean, winning elections along the way would also be great.
00:55:15
Speaker
Like, I would love to win this Senate seat against Ken Paxton. I mean, let's just let's just say it. i don't Sorry, John Cornyn. I'm sure you're going to spend a lot of money and you're going to try really hard. But I think your party's moved on and Ken Paxton is likely going to be the nominee for Senate.
00:55:31
Speaker
Yeah. So would love for us not to have a Senator Paxton. even Even if we win this election, my point is that this podcast should still continue because winning one election is not going to cut it if we can't also win a presidential.
00:55:49
Speaker
So predictions wise, I hope we win in 2026, some statewide office. We've got a lot of contenders that we hope to talk to but also in 2028, just looking forward to that.
00:56:00
Speaker
We have no real statewide races. And so if we are going to run a good ground campaign and talk about talk about issues with voters it has to be led by organizers and by the party apparatus and so i we i'm hoping future kate and alex are talking about what that means and how we're going to help because we don't have like 13 million dollars invested in one candidate to kind of get that race off those races off the ground and if we're gonna elect
00:56:31
Speaker
you know, hopefully not JD Vance then or whoever else is going run. and we can add our electoral votes, then we have to have some unifying force.
00:56:43
Speaker
And that can't be which from a just the candidate at the top of the ticket here statewide. So ah that makes me nervous. And that is a prediction I hope that we can can solve by then. And we're going put in a lot of work. And I hope my prediction by then is that we're going to convince people to invest in the infrastructure here because we need it.
00:57:04
Speaker
Yeah, we we realized in 2024 that we just got smoked in the podcast space, right? Like, Republicans are being very thoughtful about building out the kind of communications infrastructure that we are trying to now create.
00:57:22
Speaker
And so if you want to hear more Democratic voices, and people just with that another point of view, other than what you currently think of as the the Manosphere podcast bro network, right?
00:57:35
Speaker
yeah We got lift up different kind of perspectives. And there are not a lot of Texas Democratic podcasts in general. But even if you widen it out to the nation, you know, how many Democratic podcasts are hosted by veterans of faith who are former federal clerks and young parents?
00:57:56
Speaker
and think yeah I think we're going to be unique. So we're going to be able to provide a different perspective. And so I don't think we're in competition with anybody. We're going to be doing something new.
00:58:07
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. We're going the podcast you listen to when you're doing errands and yard work like me, you know, ah well or when you're lifting weights or going on a long run
Personal Interests and Connecting with Audience
00:58:18
Speaker
or. Yeah, exactly. i know I do that too.
00:58:21
Speaker
yeah Just like how Republicans don't have a monopoly on faith or patriotism, they don't have and a monopoly on exercise. I don't like this idea that is being propagated out there. Yeah.
00:58:33
Speaker
yeah hope Can I end with this? i think every episode we want to talk a little bit about obviously, we're going to talk about politics. But I want to ask our guests a little bit what they got going on outside of politics, because it's not all about that.
00:58:45
Speaker
And if you want to follow us on our journey here, it's Mission Texas podcast on all social media platforms. And you can also find me at Kate for Texas. But Alex, where can people find you?
00:58:57
Speaker
And also, what do you got going on? Because I know there's something that you got going on exercise wise be outside of politics. ah You can find me on ah Instagram at ah teacher, veteran, lawyer, dad, all one word.
00:59:15
Speaker
And ah you can find me on Facebook and LinkedIn. I'm not on TikTok yet. I'm sure Kate will convince me to join eventually. yeah What I have going on outside of politics is I am training for the 50th Marine Corps Marathon.
00:59:31
Speaker
Uh, it's my first marathon where I'll have to like stay somewhere overnight. Um, but it'll be my sixth marathon overall. And I'm partnering with an organization called wear blue run to remember. And what this organization does is they help, uh, the families of fallen service members train for their first half or full marathon as a way to honor their loved one. Um, and so I'm in the process of raising.
00:59:57
Speaker
the money to support those ah gold star athletes is what they call I love that. If I were to ever do another marathon, it would be the Marine Corps. Yeah. I definitely have regrets not doing that one. I have done a couple, but or these days if I can just get outside and do go for a walk, it's miracle.
01:00:14
Speaker
So I recently learned that the Marine Corps Marathon website has a famous finishers page. No way. Okay. Yeah, like like celebrities and politicians and things who have done it.
01:00:26
Speaker
Who do you think is the fastest famous finisher?
01:00:30
Speaker
don't
01:00:33
Speaker
Lance Armstrong, maybe? Or George Bush? Yes. Justice Clarence Thomas. No way. Are you kidding me? Clarence Thomas? at I had like a 32 year old Clarence Thomas ran the Marine Corps marathon and was, was pretty fast.
01:00:47
Speaker
Like sub four? Sub four for sure. Yeah. He has a, he had ah better, uh, than any of the races I've done so far. So it was, so it was sub three 30.
01:01:00
Speaker
Uh, yeah. Yeah. He was, he was fast. Okay. Well, ah i would love to just get outside, so that would be great. But um de we're going to definitely root you on.
01:01:14
Speaker
And for me, I just started Bible in a year podcast, which is a Catholic podcast. based Bible reading. And if anybody's doing that, please let me know because I would love to go on this journey with you. I think I'm on day five.
01:01:29
Speaker
So it's really great. I do it on my way to work and I'm listening. What they do is they actually read the Bible to you and then discuss Father Mike does. I'm really into it. And, uh, should I like, there's a lot of people parts of the old Testament that I don't often go back to or read tread because we, in our church, we always have gospel readings. And, um, so I like there's a lot in the old Testament that I just need to revisit and I'm really looking forward to that.
01:01:56
Speaker
So we'll probably get into it in a later episode, but, um, when I got, whenever I was in Austin, i was a part of a group called wanderings, um, where we would kind of reenact how people would, uh,
01:02:10
Speaker
basically do a scripture orally because, you know, a town might only have one manuscript. So there'd be one person who would kind of have it memorized and would, or read it to everybody um and kind of recreate that around the fire ah kind of dynamic.
01:02:29
Speaker
And we would listen to the the story. We would retell it together and then we could discuss it And it was really interesting because in Austin, we had a bunch of members of the like journalist journalists in the group.
01:02:41
Speaker
And they would come at it in this very interesting perspective as to what is the narrator including as a detail? What is being left out? What kind of themes, what kind of echoes? are we hearing like Literally, we'd be hearing it because we wouldn't be reading Like when you think of a Bible study, you think of people reading books.
01:02:58
Speaker
Anyways, I have a hot take, which is that I think the book of Genesis and Exodus should be flipped in order. We can either get into it now or we can get into it later. but Let's get into something I'd love to do, which is to maybe incorporate Bible study into this podcast. If that's interesting to people, like maybe do an episode on the deep dive of all the texts that people cite to for gay marriage or abortion or, you know,
01:03:25
Speaker
protecting and helping the poor whatever. So if you're interested in that, let us know. Cause I think that's my and i think i think that's ah a really great idea. I mean, my, my church, the first i Methodist church Dallas, they're doing a Bible study right now, I think called 1946, which is the year that the word homosexuality was actually added to scripture.
01:03:46
Speaker
ah The English word homosexuality had never been in biblical texts up until that point. Yeah. think there's so much. theres lot things People just don't know. And I think this is for someone that just wants to learn about the Bible. You don't religious. And we can talk about, like okay, what are the talking points that our counterpoints are saying about the Bible? Because a lot of of us don't really maybe know or have the lexicon at our are ah at the tips of our tongue. And maybe we need to talk about it more and talk, you know, maybe if that's of interest to you, message us, missiontexaspodcasts at gmail.com.
01:04:20
Speaker
And I think that's it for now, Alex. Yeah, I would just say one more thing and then we can we can close it out, which is love him or hate him. ah The Tucker Carlson interview of Ted Cruz. It's good. i haven't If you haven't seen it, you should you should watch it. Yeah.
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01:04:35
Speaker
I don't know how often going hear me say, go watch a ah Tucker Carlson interview, but I am recommending 100% you go watch that that interview because he is able to really push and dig in on I think a lot of times these politicians can get kind of comfortable with their talking points, especially on faith stuff, because they know no one's going to push back on it.
01:05:01
Speaker
And so when Ted Cruz is offering his defense of why ah he just kind of supports whatever the Netanyahu government in Israel wants to do Tucker Carlson asks him very pointed questions as to why. and When Ted Cruz is confronted with someone who's not going to take a surface level answer, he kind of flounders.
01:05:29
Speaker
And so I'm actually going to be very interested to see how someone like a James Tallarico, a seminary student, is able to to give the opposite viewpoint.
01:05:40
Speaker
Because I think too often the conversation has been dominated. And I'm just so excited to jump in and be be in the arena, as ah as Teddy Roosevelt would say.
01:05:51
Speaker
Man in the arena. Yep. Well, that's it for now, y'all. Next week, as we mentioned, we got Kendall Scudder. And then after that, we'll have Christian Carranza. You'll y'all next week.
01:06:04
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. Our music bumper is by Adam Pickerel, and our cover art is by Tino So.