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Ep. 35 (video): Sarah Eckhardt on the Comptroller Race, One-Party Rule, and How the GOP Is Gutting Your Public Schools
39 Plays6 days ago
Texas State Senator Sarah Eckhardt joins Kate to break down the race for Texas Comptroller — one of the most powerful offices in state government that almost nobody's talking about. Eckhardt, the Democratic nominee, faces Don Huffines, the multimillionaire who purchased the Epstein Ranch and is promising to gut public education and "DOGE" state government. Kate and Senator Eckhardt make the case for why this race could determine the future of Texas.
Plus: Senator Eckhardt heads to an LGBTQ-founded food bank in Amarillo after the interview — a community effort that's grown into a lifeline for Panhandle families struggling with the rising cost of living.
We cover:
- Why the Texas Comptroller is the most powerful office you've never heard of — and why it matters who holds it
- The case against Don Huffines: the Epstein Ranch, a history of buying seats, and a plan to weaponize the comptroller's office
- Public education as the greatest engine of prosperity ever created — and what vouchers are really doing to Texas schools
- What Eckhardt would actually do as Comptroller: transparent voucher audits, economic impact reporting, raising the basic allotment, and indexing it to inflation
- Texas has the highest uninsured rate in the nation — including double-digit uninsured rates for children — and what Medicaid non-expansion is actually costing insured Texans
- No-bid state contracts up fourfold since 2019, TEA takeovers funneling schools to private contractors, and the normalization of corruption
- The "don't California my Texas" myth — and the actual numbers
- Amarillo staring down the world's largest data center next door while 17 of 26 Panhandle counties are maternity deserts
- Why 2026 could outperform 2018 — and what grassroots organizing can do that MAGA millions can't buy
- Last Word: if you don't do politics, politics will do you
Support Senator Eckhardt: SarahEckhardt.com | Volunteer, donate, and follow @SarahEckhardtTX
Support the show: 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 to Texas Comptroller Race
00:00:01
Kate Rumsey
All right, welcome back to Mission Texas. The Texas Comptroller is one of the most powerful offices in state government that I believe not enough people are talking about. That is until now.
00:00:09
Sarah Eckhardt
You said, okay.
00:00:10
Kate Rumsey
Yeah, we are doing it right here on this podcast. We're talking with the Democrat who is facing the multimillionaire who owns the Epstein Ranch. So I think we can call him that he's a part of the Epstein class and wants to cut our education funding. So we're gonna get into that
Sarah Eckhart's Career and Public Service
00:00:25
Kate Rumsey
and more. Welcome to Mission Texas, Senator Sarah Eckhart.
00:00:29
Sarah Eckhardt
Thanks so much, Kate. It is a pleasure to be here with you. And thank you so much for spreading the word all across Texas that we have real choices in these races. We don't have to take this one party rule anymore.
00:00:40
Sarah Eckhardt
We have a great slate of candidates.
00:00:44
Kate Rumsey
Yeah, well, i to compare that to the slate of candidates that are on the other side, especially here in this race with Don Huffines, mean, can we get into that? Because if you compare your background to his, I mean, he's a multimillionaire. He owns the Epstein ranch. He wants to cut the thing that we should not be wanting to cut here in the state of Texas.
00:01:06
Kate Rumsey
The only thing that you guys have in common is that you're both senators and you're running for
Role and Independence of the Comptroller's Office
00:01:10
Kate Rumsey
comptroller. So tell us about your background as it compares to his.
00:01:14
Sarah Eckhardt
Well sure so first off he's not even a senator anymore he purchased that Senate seat and only was able to hold it for a single term. before his constituency realized that he doesn't work for them.
00:01:25
Sarah Eckhardt
So in contrast, so Mr.
00:01:28
Sarah Eckhardt
Huff finds he he bought himself a Senate seat and then he got beat. Then he tried to buy the governor's mansion by running to the right of Greg Abbott and his own party rejected him. And as you stated, he purchased the Epstein ranch in secret, by the way. And then he ran for comptroller and he believes that he has already bought that seat in the primary.
00:01:48
Sarah Eckhardt
In contrast, I'm a lawyer. i have a master's degree in public affairs, including public finance and tax policy. I've been a prosecutor. I've been a county commissioner. After several years as county commissioner, my constituency promoted me rather than sent me packing, promoted me to county judge. I was the first female county judge in Travis County.
00:02:10
Sarah Eckhardt
And then I went to the state Senate where I've been serving for six years now. I've been returned by my constituency time and time again. to fight for them to make sure that Texas serves Texans.
Public Education and Criticism of Opponent's Plans
00:02:23
Kate Rumsey
Yeah, I mean, one of the worries I have about some of these races and statewide is that we have a lot of well-meaning voters who are coming out for us but may not know a lot about the comptroller or some of these other statewide races other than what everyone seems to be paying attention to, which is the Senate race. So give us the case. Like, you're you're a former prosecutor. Like, make the case that we should be paying attention to this comptroller job that you're aspiring to to have.
00:02:51
Sarah Eckhardt
Sure, Kate, you said it. this is The comptroller's office is the the least known, very powerful statewide office. It's a powerful statewide office that most people have never heard of.
00:03:03
Sarah Eckhardt
And to the extent they ever have thought about it, most people have grown up in this one party rule that we've been living under.
00:03:03
Kate Rumsey
you
00:03:10
Sarah Eckhardt
And so living most people think that the comptroller just writes checks and takes orders. But in fact, the comptroller under the Texas Constitution is an independently elected chief financial officer of the state. The comptroller does not work for a party. The comptroller does not work for a governor.
00:03:27
Sarah Eckhardt
The comptroller's office is does not work for a political ideology. It works for the state of Texas. it works for the people of the state of Texas investing public dollars.
00:03:35
Kate Rumsey
you
00:03:37
Sarah Eckhardt
So this is an extremely important position. And in the wrong hands, this position could be weaponized, as we've seen the Attorney General's office be weaponized under Paxton.
00:03:50
Sarah Eckhardt
Huffines has very clearly stated his intention to weaponize the comptroller's office and turn it into basically a one-man wrecking crew.
Background and Financial Governance Experience
00:03:58
Sarah Eckhardt
Even his own party is concerned that he'll go rogue and take a wrecking ball to important state institutions and wreck our economy.
00:04:09
Kate Rumsey
Yeah, so much to unpack there. So as I understand, and going back to your know Travis County judge days, you know you have a pretty big budget, right? Like you are the person in charge of that county.
00:04:21
Kate Rumsey
And so that means that as the comptroller, you'd be doing a lot of the same work. I mean, can you speak a bit about that?
00:04:26
Sarah Eckhardt
Sure.
00:04:27
Kate Rumsey
And I want to get into what you mentioned about Don Huffines and some of the the crazy things that he said.
00:04:32
Sarah Eckhardt
Yeah, poor dear. As Ann Richards said, poor Don, he was born with a silver foot in his mouth. as chief financial chief executive officer of Travis County, I have already managed a very large crew of lawyers, CPAs, investment professionals.
00:04:51
Sarah Eckhardt
The Travis County personnel was about 5,000 people. We had a budget that was just over just over a billion, and I believe our total assets were around $30 billion.
00:05:07
Sarah Eckhardt
So I have already managed setting setting budgets, setting bond rates, investing dollars until they are ready to be spent on the the the projects that they're intended for, and also making sure that there is no cross-contamination between funding sources.
Defense of Public Education's Importance
00:05:24
Sarah Eckhardt
in order to abide by the law. It's extremely important as the chief executive, or in this case, the chief financial officer of a governmental entity, that you both follow the money and follow the law.
00:05:37
Sarah Eckhardt
Because much of these funds are fiduciary funds, meaning you are holding them for the benefit of somebody else. It is not your money to do with as you choose based on your your political bent. It is the people's money And it comes with significant and important strings attached to assure that it's going to the right people and that it's going to the right cause, the cause for which it was intended.
00:06:05
Sarah Eckhardt
And so I've already done that kind of work. I've spent actually more than two decades doing exactly that kind of work.
00:06:12
Kate Rumsey
Yeah, imagine that someone who knows what to do in their job. But speaking of, i mean, Don Huffines, it's interesting how our government is arranged because you have these independent jobs like what you mentioned, the attorney general and now the comptroller and what we're talking about today and what someone like Don Huffines could do if he's or you left in charge of this office, more importantly. so Let's get into that. Like, I was listening to Yalitix and a couple other interviews that you and Mr. Huffines have done. And Don has very much led with that he's going to doge our state, which I don't know if we look back on the doging of our federal government that that was very successful. But here he is doing the same thing.
00:06:57
Kate Rumsey
And he led in the Yalitix interview, at least that I heard with that he's going to gut education and He wants to, which I wonder your thoughts, like, is he not reading the room right now about what's going on in our public school system? Or is this some super secret strategy that he thinks will rally his base and get him the win?
00:07:16
Sarah Eckhardt
You know, i i don't know what to tell you, Kate. He clearly is not reading the room. As I travel across the state, the biggest issue on people's minds is the fact that their public schools, their neighborhood schools, are in danger of closing or already have closed.
00:07:32
Sarah Eckhardt
Everyone is concerned that the state may take over their beloved local public schools. This is across the board a concern that also is a lens through which we're looking at one party rule more broadly, because one party rule is bringing this to us. There's a desire to dismantle the public education system by this current leadership. which is mind blowing since public education is literally, this isn't hyperbole.
00:08:02
Sarah Eckhardt
Public education is the most effective engine of prosperity that humankind has ever created.
GOP Control and Impact on Texas Education
00:08:09
Sarah Eckhardt
If you want to build prosperity for future generations and you want to build it broadly, not just for the already wealthy, but for everybody,
00:08:19
Sarah Eckhardt
Public education is the greatest engine we've ever created. And this is gutting it. It's interesting to hear an individual who had his wife homeschool all five of their children say that he wants to just gut public education. It's very disturbing.
00:08:37
Sarah Eckhardt
And it robs from our future generation
00:08:38
Kate Rumsey
yeah
00:08:40
Sarah Eckhardt
Our future generations won't have the economic prosperity that we had because they won't have a system of of free and universal public education.
00:08:50
Kate Rumsey
Yeah. I'm a girl of the public school system and I'm also here in my town because of the public. Yeah, same. Okay. That's great. I mean, I would not have gone to, and by the way, I went to and NYU as well. I wanted to get into that. i went to NYU Law School. I know you went there for undergrad, but I would not have gone to like NYU and Notre Dame if it wasn't for the public school system that I had. And every kid should have that chance, in my opinion, as you're saying, and they can have an incredible education and go off to do great things and and benefit our state. But you're right. I'm just anecdotally, I live here in Coppell, incredible public school area, and they were voting to cut one of our schools and to close them. We'd already closed one
00:09:32
Kate Rumsey
And I swear on one, the the night or the day after the vote in our school board where they didn't close the school and it was, i think we won by like one or two votes, everybody in town was talking about it.
00:09:45
Kate Rumsey
i was at a coffee shop, I was at a doctor's appointment, everybody was talking about this. And then in our neighboring school district, Grapevine Colleyville, they did cut more schools there, right?
00:09:54
Sarah Eckhardt
Mm-hmm.
00:09:56
Kate Rumsey
And every incumbent who voted for these things and were up for reelection just lost in that school board election. So you think like, okay, I get it. We're all talking about the Senate race and we're talking about Donald Trump and the war in iran But really the thing that is affecting everyone's day-to-day lives is their public schools in this area. And it's such a treasure. and here we have a guy saying, i want to cut the fat from our public schools and we shouldn't be teaching illegals who shouldn't be here. i mean, this is what Don Huffines has been quoted saying. And so how do we respond to that? Are we really, can we really, there fat here? Like, can we really cut anything in our public schools?
00:10:37
Sarah Eckhardt
You know, I believe that government, all government programs should be put through a four-part test. Whatever program, whatever policy we're considering has to be effective, efficient, fair, and minimally intrusive.
00:10:50
Sarah Eckhardt
I've said this for years and it's boring, but it's a useful metric. And the the proposals that Don Huffines is behind and has been for years meet none of those tests. You're absolutely right. Most people across the state of Texas, their most beloved and constant contact with community and government, frankly, is their public schools.
Controversial Policies and Community Impact
00:11:16
Sarah Eckhardt
A lot of people who are utterly unengaged in politics otherwise are very engaged with the life of their public schools. they are They go to PTA meetings. They join the PTA. Their kids and and and they and their kids and perhaps their parents too went to the same school. They have a generational connection to this amazing apparatus.
00:11:41
Sarah Eckhardt
My own father, my father went to Austin High School and my son graduated from the same high school.
00:11:47
Kate Rumsey
Oh my gosh, I love that.
00:11:48
Sarah Eckhardt
that's just That's just a sense of stability that that is so important and it builds community. And so when we talk about dismantling the public education system and cutting the fat, mean, my question is, you know look at the look at the numbers. The numbers don't lie. The state of Texas has routinely been in the bottom half for investments investments in public education.
00:12:16
Sarah Eckhardt
and it's routinely been among the the bottom 10 in investments in Texans generally. So we have put a public education system together on chewing gum and bailing wire, and this man, Don Huffines, is talking about cutting the fat.
00:12:25
Kate Rumsey
Mm-hmm.
00:12:33
Sarah Eckhardt
So I'm not really sure what he's after. Could we do things better? Sure, we can always improve, but the way we improve is through a really productive partnership between the state government, which has the constitutional duty, by the way, to provide a public education system and to fund it, and the school districts, the local school districts that the state legislature created to help the state accomplish its constitutional mission.
00:13:04
Sarah Eckhardt
So I am all over finding efficiencies, but finding them through partnership, not through threats and intimidation and but basically a content-based discrimination.
00:13:12
Kate Rumsey
you
00:13:18
Sarah Eckhardt
He is interested in discriminating against schools based on racial makeup, national origin of the student body, the the type of religion, the community practices. These are all things that we have been fighting against since the beginning of this nation, actually.
00:13:38
Kate Rumsey
Well, mean, you compare that to what they are doing already, which is taking over school boards or ISDs. They're trying to teach tell us what we can have in our libraries. And so are you saying that he would target areas that he disagrees with? Or like, for example, i live in a heavy South Asian community. There are several mosques around us. Are you saying that he would then maybe target the ISDs in these areas or the areas in which, but you know, by allegedly we're educating the children of individuals who are not naturalized here. Yeah.
00:14:15
Sarah Eckhardt
he His billboards very proudly proclaim
Dangers of One-Party Rule in Texas
00:14:17
Sarah Eckhardt
that he wants to rid Texas of illegals and of Sharia law. So that clearly means that he has a a bias, a very clear bias, against people who were not born here and people of Muslim faith.
00:14:36
Sarah Eckhardt
You know, there's there is, it's interesting to me to hear him continue this playbook that we've seen in this one-party rule. not addressing the things that we really care about, we really need, but instead concentrating pretty heavily on telling us how to think, where to pee, how to pray, what we can eat.
00:14:58
Sarah Eckhardt
this is This is not liberty. i don't know what this is, but it's it's not liberty. Yeah. And meanwhile, refusing any kind of accountability for failing to do the the duties of government that are constitutionally mandated.
00:15:05
Kate Rumsey
I know.
00:15:14
Sarah Eckhardt
There's zero accountability for a state that is routinely underfunding its share of public education and then blaming the local property tax for which, you know, i hate paying property tax too.
00:15:28
Sarah Eckhardt
It sucks. but We don't have an income tax in the state of Texas. So pretty much property tax and sales tax are our primary sources of revenue.
00:15:34
Kate Rumsey
you
00:15:36
Sarah Eckhardt
They are regressive. Absolutely, they're regressive. But that's what the Texas legislature has provided. And that's all the Texas legislature has provided. School boards did not choose their funding source. The state legislature chose the funding source and relies pretty heavily on property tax.
00:15:56
Kate Rumsey
Yeah. I mean, couple of things. One, as I understand it, we're like $4,000 per student behind the national average on what we spend in our public schools.
00:16:07
Kate Rumsey
And then we have the voucher scheme that has come out, which I know you've been in that fight being in the state Senate with Dan Patrick. So what is really the driving force behind this messaging? Do you think it's the West Texas billionaires and this sort of going along with the voucher messaging or is this something else? And I also want to get into the fact that Don Hoffines is now on a slate with a bunch of other people who are against Sharia law.
00:16:37
Sarah Eckhardt
You know, I think it is the big boys behind one party rule. I think that's what's really happening here. Yes, we have some very, very wealthy men who have a perspective that they that they want to be the prevailing perspective in the state of Texas.
00:16:54
Sarah Eckhardt
And public education is a problem for them because public education teaches texans to think for themselves and they don't believe that thinking for oneself is a good idea they want to think for us they want to tell us what to think how to pee you know where to pee and how to pray uh it's interesting that they uh talk about the scourge of communism and wanting to rid
00:17:17
Sarah Eckhardt
the state of Sharia law, I guess it's because they want to be the dictators. They want to tell us what to do.
00:17:23
Kate Rumsey
yes
00:17:26
Sarah Eckhardt
And anyone who is disloyal or doesn't fit the mold needs to be punished. And that's what we're seeing. I want to get back to the one party rule thing, because I think that this is a good lens through which to see this. One party rule isn't good for us, no matter which party it is, Republican, Democrat, something else, whatever.
00:17:48
Sarah Eckhardt
It's not good for us. And the reason it's not good for us is if there is no pushback, if all dissent is is silenced, then the one party rule uses the public wealth to stay in power the rich and powerful pick your pockets to stay rich and powerful.
Voucher System and Comptroller Plans
00:18:09
Sarah Eckhardt
And anybody who challenges their power is swiftly punished. And that's what we're seeing.
00:18:16
Kate Rumsey
Right.
00:18:17
Sarah Eckhardt
We're seeing all of the symptoms of late one party rule with coverups and bribes and swift retribution. And vouchers is a really vivid, perhaps even livid example of it.
00:18:32
Sarah Eckhardt
We saw good Republican legislators who were resisting vouchers because it was decimating to their district's public school system.
00:18:43
Sarah Eckhardt
When they voted their their district's interest, they were shown the door by their own party.
00:18:50
Kate Rumsey
Yeah, I mean, you probably know this better than anyone being in the Senate with Dan Patrick, right? I mean, he seems to be the person that does a lot of the retribution. and I remember, I mean, because now we have, we're living with vouchers, right?
00:18:59
Sarah Eckhardt
Mm-hmm.
00:19:04
Kate Rumsey
But but we were really hoping that the small town representatives would really step up. and And to some degree they did because their public schools are the only thing in town, right?
00:19:16
Kate Rumsey
Like that's the thing that's the driving force.
00:19:17
Sarah Eckhardt
Okay.
00:19:18
Kate Rumsey
Literally, there I heard reports of the principal is also the person driving the bus and is also you know doing multiple things and just because they love and care for their community.
00:19:28
Kate Rumsey
and And now we're seeing the effects of it, right? Because we see what dollars are coming out of the public school system, the the kids that are not in the system anymore. And we also know based on what we believed was going to be the case is that the vouchers are really benefiting the kids that are already in private schools. And that was what we thought was going to happen already. It's basically you're getting a you know, some, a tax break essentially for the people going into the public school system.
00:19:58
Kate Rumsey
But I mean, what could the comptroller do? Like say we, we give the comptroller job into your hands, somebody who actually cares about our public schools. What can we do that is the opposite of what Don Huffines wants to do?
00:20:12
Sarah Eckhardt
Well, first, let can we just frame it up with what Don Huffines wants to do? He says that it is his responsibility.
00:20:16
Kate Rumsey
Yeah.
00:20:19
Sarah Eckhardt
He's totally wrong about this, by the way, but he says that it is his responsibility and he has the authority to demand that we fund every single child on the wait list and exponentially expand the voucher program.
00:20:33
Sarah Eckhardt
And he he, that's what he wants to do. So let's go back to the law for a moment, following the money and following the law. The law, as it was passed, requires an analysis every August of the demography of who's getting vouchers, both which families, which children, and also which schools are getting the voucher.
00:20:54
Sarah Eckhardt
The law itself, as it was passed, did not necessarily require an impact analysis on a public school system from the voucher program. So when I become the comptroller,
00:21:06
Sarah Eckhardt
Not only will I do the the vigorous analysis of who's benefiting most least and not at all from the voucher program itself, but I will also do the economic analysis of the impact on our public school systems and how it is raking out our public school systems. Because, you know, perhaps this is a bit is a little bit wonky, but I think we're all viscerally seeing this in real time.
00:21:31
Sarah Eckhardt
that when you see a significant decline in enrollment in public education, in our public schools, you can't keep the lights on in the building anymore. And you start to close public schools and consolidate them, pushing more students into larger classes, because you literally can't keep the lights on in all the buildings.
00:21:54
Sarah Eckhardt
You can't keep staff in all the buildings. So you start to push and push and push until you've got larger class sizes fewer teachers and fewer services in your public school system and and I the actually the legislative budget board predicted.
00:22:12
Sarah Eckhardt
All of these effects when we were debating the bill and all of them are coming to fruition and then some.
Inefficiencies in Education Funding
00:22:20
Kate Rumsey
Yeah. So, I mean, can you then make sure that there is more money per pupil? Can you make sure that we increase, like, how do we increase teacher salaries? How do we give them better health care?
00:22:31
Kate Rumsey
How do we make, because that's a part of is retaining teachers. I, myself, my brother was a public school teacher and coach. He left and we're worse off because he was an incredible coach and public school teacher So how do we retain, how do we give them more funding, but in in a way that, as you're saying, is efficient and is following the law?
00:22:38
Sarah Eckhardt
who
00:22:51
Sarah Eckhardt
Sure. it's I was rolling phone calls the other day and I called somebody who I didn't know from Adam. I got him on the phone. I told him who I was, that I was the Democratic nominee for CompTroll and he said, you know,
00:23:03
Sarah Eckhardt
until you said Democrat, I was ready to have this conversation, but now i don't want to talk to you anymore because you're a Democrat. I said, well, let's let's talk about this.
00:23:11
Kate Rumsey
Thanks a lot.
00:23:12
Sarah Eckhardt
What's your biggest issue? And like your brother, he said, I'm a retired teacher i and i I was a coach. I was a soccer coach in the public school system. And I have a lot of ideas about how the school could work better.
00:23:26
Sarah Eckhardt
We spent 20 minutes on the phone together talking about how to make funding and the the regulatory regime around public education better.
00:23:36
Sarah Eckhardt
And we were totally simpatico. We were absolutely absolutely on the same page.
00:23:40
Kate Rumsey
yeah
00:23:41
Sarah Eckhardt
And I told him, i think I mentioned to him that I'd written a paper 25 years ago about the effects of vouchers on public education. back when I was doing my master's master's work at the LBJ school.
00:23:55
Sarah Eckhardt
And the same holds true today as then The way we help out our public education system is first by reducing a lot of red tape and top-down regulation And the Texas Education Agency has ballooned in bureaucracy. It's incredibly top down.
00:24:16
Sarah Eckhardt
And also our funding mechanism itself is very Byzantine, hugely complex and full of retribution, full of gotcha. So first, we need to get rid of all of that. That's ineffective, it's inefficient, and it's largely unfair, and it's maximally intrusive on our public schools. And the second thing that we need to do, which has always been the case, we need to raise the basic allotment, the amount the state pays per pupil, and we need to index it to inflation.
00:24:48
Sarah Eckhardt
so that we don't argue about it every single legislative session. It simply is a constitutional obligation of the state, and so the state should just fund it appropriately and put an index on it so that it rises or falls with inflation.
00:25:03
Kate Rumsey
Yeah. Yeah.
00:25:05
Sarah Eckhardt
it And then we don't have to argue about it anymore. Our funding formula is ridiculously complex. We're the second wealthiest state in the wealthiest nation in human history.
00:25:17
Sarah Eckhardt
If we can't fund public education, who can?
00:25:22
Kate Rumsey
Well, I think that it seems like things are confusing by design for Republicans so that we can they can get away with things.
00:25:26
Sarah Eckhardt
All
00:25:27
Kate Rumsey
And I hear this all the time on the Internet. People say, well, look at this big stadium that you're building and look at all the construction we're doing for the schools. And they seem to be doing fine.
00:25:37
Kate Rumsey
It seems like they're doing great. I'm in North Texas and we've got this huge stadium in Allen, right? And people just talk about that.
00:25:44
Sarah Eckhardt
Mm-hmm.
00:25:46
Kate Rumsey
And people like yourself, and I've seen Gina Hinojosa say it, like, look, that's not, the funding's different. Like, that's not how it's funded. we are not, like, diverting money from teachers and students to fund this stadium.
00:25:58
Kate Rumsey
It's a completely different funding source.
00:26:02
Sarah Eckhardt
So think about it this way for for people who are listening. Think about your own budget. There's one-time money and then there's ongoing money. The stadium is one-time money. It's that, you know, you gotta to you need to replace your HVAC.
00:26:14
Sarah Eckhardt
And so you you add you replace your HVAC in your home. That's a one-time cost.
00:26:18
Kate Rumsey
you
00:26:19
Sarah Eckhardt
And then it sits there for the next 15 years before you have to replace it again. But that ongoing money, the cost of electricity and water and the cost of teacher payroll and janitorial services, those are your ongoing costs.
00:26:36
Sarah Eckhardt
And for those, the state is not appropriately funding.
Corruption and Accountability in Texas Government
00:26:40
Sarah Eckhardt
We've got a really, really complex funding formula. and And again, i want to i I hesitate to get too far into the weeds because I want to like come back out to the 40,000 feet for a moment.
00:26:52
Sarah Eckhardt
there's been a prevailing message in the Republican Party for the last 30 years, frankly, maybe 40, since the Reagan revolution, really, that government is at least incompetent, if not corrupt.
00:27:06
Sarah Eckhardt
And so you should never look to the government for solutions, and you should elect Republicans so they can prove to you that government is at least incompetent, if not corrupt.
00:27:18
Sarah Eckhardt
And over the last three decades, indeed, this one-party regime has proven out that they are going to make sure that government is incompetent and corrupt.
00:27:25
Kate Rumsey
right.
00:27:31
Sarah Eckhardt
They've normalized corruption and assured incompetence, or at least lack of effectiveness, through this incredibly complex funding formula that takes retribution on schools when they try to exert some local control.
00:27:49
Sarah Eckhardt
I found out just yesterday that my own school district that my kids graduated from has a turnaround plan for three of its elementary schools utilizing a contractor that TEA has previously approved in other school districts but TEA refused to approve the turnaround plan in AISD, which sets it up for takeover.
00:28:13
Sarah Eckhardt
So AISD, Austin Independent School District, is the largest donor district in the state. It sends more money back to the state from local property tax than any other district in the state.
00:28:25
Sarah Eckhardt
The idea that AISD cannot make the decisions that that are in the best interest of the children within AISD and instead must be taken over by the state's bureaucracy is deeply troubling. There is something so wrong with this picture.
00:28:48
Kate Rumsey
Yeah. Well, they're not the party of small government anymore, right? They're the party of takeovers by a bigger government. But you know talking about the normalization of corruption and how I see it all the time. You see these Republicans saying, like we're going to take back Texas. and And I also have family members who say, like, oh, I'm a Republican. And I ask why? Well, because state agencies Agencies aren't working. I go to the DMV and it's so efficient. like, well, who's been in charge of that agency? Who's been in charge of that DMV for the past 30 years? And they're creating the dysfunction to then point at it and say, look, it's dysfunctional and you shouldn't have a government that is bigger doing good things for you.
00:29:27
Kate Rumsey
But it's interesting to see
00:29:27
Sarah Eckhardt
Exactly.
00:29:29
Kate Rumsey
Yeah. People like Zoram Amdani who are saying, look, no, we are going to deliver for you in the smallest ways. We are going to fill those potholes and we're gonna show you that we're doing it. We're going to make sure those sidewalks are clear with snow. And i feel like at some point we have to get better as Democrats of the retail side of the government that is forward facing with people.
00:29:49
Kate Rumsey
to show that no government does work. And you and i were prosecutors and i can tell you firsthand, like I worked with many agencies and many and maybe not today with the DOJ, but we were hardworking and we did our jobs well.
00:29:59
Sarah Eckhardt
Right.
00:30:04
Kate Rumsey
And we were patriots and you don't see that, right? Like we were not the retail side of government and yet it's a very, it was functioning very well, at least when I was there, not anymore. But putting this together, and if we can swift shift gears a little to the political side of, and your campaign, Democrats have an abysmal polling. We are not polling well as a party,
00:30:29
Kate Rumsey
And the person who you talked to who said, oh, well, I was on board until you said you were a Democrat. I was just poll greeting and for the runoffs. And someone called me a communist and a socialist and was like yelling at me.
00:30:40
Sarah Eckhardt
Thank you.
00:30:41
Kate Rumsey
And so how do we improve our party's image? Like, what can we be doing better as we gear up for the general election?
00:30:50
Sarah Eckhardt
I think you said it with regard to you know actually getting out there and showing folks, demonstrating, like being in the community and saying, here's what's working.
00:30:59
Kate Rumsey
you
00:30:59
Sarah Eckhardt
Let's talk about it. What's working and what's not working? And how do we solve this together? We don't talk enough about success stories. And I think that a lot of people all across the nation, and particularly in Texas, don't want to align themselves with the party at all, Republican or Democrat.
Healthcare and Economic Challenges
00:31:17
Sarah Eckhardt
I'm hearing as I go around the state, a lot of people say I'm not a Republican or a Democrat anymore. I'm an issues voter. And right now my biggest issue is that my public schools are closing.
00:31:29
Sarah Eckhardt
Or some people are saying, you know, my biggest issue is water. We are running out of water.
00:31:33
Kate Rumsey
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
00:31:34
Sarah Eckhardt
How is it that in in a state that is experiencing what we call a Texas miracle with a rainy day fund, a so-called rainy day fund on track to hit $28 billion, dollars how is it that we are running out of water And where is the accountability when a developer comes in that is a super user, a large load user like data centers, and there's no there's no system for holding them accountable for their water usage?
00:32:07
Kate Rumsey
Yes. Yeah.
00:32:08
Sarah Eckhardt
what What is happening here? Isn't this exactly what government is for, is creating, striking the right balance so that we can hold each other accountable?
00:32:20
Sarah Eckhardt
So I understand that people really are turned off by the idea of party. I think that people are turned off by the idea of party because we've been under one party rule for so long.
00:32:31
Sarah Eckhardt
I think that people, when I talk to folks and say, do you think that we should have a two party system or a one party system? Across the board, they're like, oh, God, no, we should not have a one party system.
00:32:43
Sarah Eckhardt
We should absolutely have a two party system. We function best when there are at least two points of view, at least two.
00:32:51
Kate Rumsey
Yeah.
00:32:52
Sarah Eckhardt
And so I think that's what's happening here. I think that we are seeing people people's desire to have more than the choice that they've been given.
00:33:04
Sarah Eckhardt
And for the last 30 years, it's been a it's been a Republicans only game. and the idea of Republicans coming in and saying, you know, government is is corrupt, and so I'm going to fix it.
00:33:17
Sarah Eckhardt
Well, you've been in power for 30 years. You're the ones who normalized corruption. So what is the likelihood that Don Huffines, who purchased the Epstein ranch and then his son got a job at the trump in the Trump administration, do you honestly think he's the guy who's going to go after a billion dollars worth of no-bid contracts in the governor's office?
00:33:23
Kate Rumsey
Right. Yeah.
00:33:37
Sarah Eckhardt
Do you honestly think that he's the guy who is going to make sure that the Attorney General's office isn't misappropriating state funds for political purposes, which is what Ken Paxton was impeached for?
00:33:53
Kate Rumsey
Yeah.
00:33:53
Sarah Eckhardt
Ken Paxton was impeached for using your money to advance his political career and to continue his affair.
00:34:01
Kate Rumsey
Yeah. And you heard the evidence of it.
00:34:03
Sarah Eckhardt
That's what he was impeached for.
00:34:04
Kate Rumsey
Yeah.
00:34:05
Sarah Eckhardt
Heard all that evidence and also was up there up close and personal as my Republican colleagues who saw all the same evidence and wanted desperately to impeach this guy were told in no uncertain terms by the big boys behind one party rule. If you impeach our guy, you will pay the price in the primary.
00:34:26
Sarah Eckhardt
And my my Republican colleagues just they they saved their own skin.
00:34:31
Kate Rumsey
Yeah, they capitulated.
00:34:33
Sarah Eckhardt
They capitulated. And I want to i want you know give a shout out to the House Republicans. It was House Republicans who tried to hold this man accountable.
00:34:43
Sarah Eckhardt
And they paid the price. State Republicans were unable to to gin up the courage for it, except for a couple of them. and And that is what we're dealing with.
00:34:55
Sarah Eckhardt
Accountability in the face of this normalized corruption is not going to come from Republicans, y'all. It's just not.
00:35:02
Kate Rumsey
Yeah.
00:35:04
Sarah Eckhardt
We've seen some try and they've been shown the door by their own parties.
00:35:08
Kate Rumsey
Yeah. Or at least by the MAGA part of the party and Donald Trump. Right. And speaking about that, like we've got Don Hoffines, we have Ken Paxton, we have Beau French, we have all these other MAGA, MAGA Mays Middleton.
00:35:23
Kate Rumsey
There has to be a name for this team of horribles that we have on the Republican side. Like we're going to come up with one, you and I, Senator. But how do you what do you make of that? How do you square that with What's going to happen in the fall? Because it seems to me that voters don't seem to care about the corruption and of the people that be elected. i mean, look at Donald Trump, as long as they're siding with them on what they want policy wise. So are we gearing up for an anti-corruption general election? And how do we like how do we persuade the voters who are already voting for people who are corrupt?
00:35:59
Sarah Eckhardt
We absolutely are ginning up for an anti-corruption election. I think that a lot of people voted for this MAGA movement, believing that it was going to you know revolutionized government it was going to take the burden off of them it was going to make government smaller and and more efficient and that the bureaucracy you know the the swamp would be drained and and swamp was drained it was drained of of a lot of brain power and replaced with a lot of alligators who were who were in it for themselves
00:36:34
Sarah Eckhardt
I mean, when we see Donald Trump reach into the U.S.
00:36:34
Kate Rumsey
Right.
00:36:36
Sarah Eckhardt
Treasury and pull out $1.7 billion yeah one point seven billion dollars to to give gifts to his friends, that's that's astounding, right?
00:36:45
Kate Rumsey
Right.
00:36:46
Sarah Eckhardt
and And we're seeing the same in in state politics. I mean, the number of no-bid contracts has gone up in the state of Texas fourfold since 2019, fourfold.
00:36:58
Sarah Eckhardt
No bid contracts means that there's no competition for the contract and your friends get the you know get the state contract worth a lot of money.
00:37:08
Kate Rumsey
Yeah. Yeah.
00:37:09
Sarah Eckhardt
And that's what's happening with TEA taking over schools. When TEA takes over schools, it's not state employees who take over those schools. It's contractors.
Effects of Privatization on Public Services
00:37:19
Sarah Eckhardt
It's contractors who take over those schools.
00:37:21
Sarah Eckhardt
The TEA selects. We are privatizing our schools through takeover. This is incredibly corrupt and people know it.
00:37:34
Sarah Eckhardt
Even if somebody voted for Trump last time, they are, so many of them are seeing that the corruption did not end with Trump. It actually increased.
00:37:46
Sarah Eckhardt
And those who are acolytes of Trump's form of government, like Huffine's, It's really the survival of the richest.
00:37:57
Sarah Eckhardt
It has nothing to do with helping you out.
00:37:58
Kate Rumsey
Right.
00:38:01
Sarah Eckhardt
It's about survival of the richest. It's about picking your pockets to make them richer. And really nothing more than that.
00:38:10
Kate Rumsey
as we gear up for something I hear a lot but by a lot of folks who are conservative or maybe independent is, well, look at what's happening in California. I don't want that to happen here. They believe that we're better here for business, that we're better for our economy. And you hear the phrase, don't California my Texas. And I hear that a lot.
00:38:29
Kate Rumsey
And they believe that if we elect Democrats, that we're going to be a highly regulated anti-business state. Like what what is your response to that?
00:38:37
Sarah Eckhardt
My response to that is take a look at the numbers. California is is the is the first, the the most economically powerful state in the nation. We are the second most economically powerful nation state in the nation.
00:38:52
Sarah Eckhardt
California actually is doing some things quite well. If you go to California, you will have health insurance. Texas is the most uninsured in the United States.
00:39:04
Sarah Eckhardt
In contrast to California, Texas, even though it has a smaller population than California, it has a the the largest raw number of business bankruptcies of any state in the nation, including California.
00:39:11
Kate Rumsey
you
00:39:18
Sarah Eckhardt
So instead of setting up these these false comparisons that aren't based on the actual facts, I think we really need to take a look at the true economic indicators of health in the state of Texas. and address them.
00:39:33
Sarah Eckhardt
and And we've got some pretty significant challenges ahead that we are experiencing right now. We are the most uninsured population in the in the nation.
00:39:44
Sarah Eckhardt
We're the only state where our children, we have double digit uninsured rates for our children.
00:39:48
Kate Rumsey
Thank you.
00:39:52
Sarah Eckhardt
The only state with double digit uninsured rates for children. And our business climate, while we talk about being wide open for business, we're actually wide open for businesses that can write huge checks in to campaigns. But for those other businesses, we are terribly hard on them.
00:40:12
Sarah Eckhardt
We've got a large number of bankruptcies. It's very difficult to maintain insurance here for your business because we do have extreme weather here and we're doing very, very little to combat our extreme weather.
00:40:27
Sarah Eckhardt
And we're also struggling as we see, i'm in Amarillo right now. And Amarillo is is looking down the barrel of the largest data center in the world being right next door.
00:40:39
Sarah Eckhardt
This is a subdivision for computers, basically. And this subdivision for computers will use a very large amount of water, a very large amount of energy, and must be protected against fire and any other kind of threat.
00:40:53
Sarah Eckhardt
And what this community is struggling with is how is it that a city of computers could have more secure water, energy,
00:41:00
Kate Rumsey
All right.
00:41:18
Kate Rumsey
Yeah, well, you're speaking my language with regard to health care, my dad's a pharmacist. Most of his practice was with Medicaid and for kids on Medicaid. And what did the Texas government do?
00:41:30
Kate Rumsey
he got involved in politics because they were threatening to cut the reimbursement rates, which meant that pharmacists couldn't make any money.
00:41:34
Sarah Eckhardt
Yeah.
00:41:36
Kate Rumsey
They were losing money every time they filled a prescription, much like lot a lot of doctors who have Medicaid. clients. and And then what did they do? They gave over the Medicaid program to a pharmacy benefit manager, which is, in other words, a contractor, CVS Caremark.
Grassroots Movements vs. Wealthy Donors
00:41:52
Kate Rumsey
And it meant that they made these big promises saying, we're going to cut the spending for Medicaid on pharmacy benefits.
00:41:59
Kate Rumsey
And it really drove my dad's business into bankruptcy. Well, not bankruptcy, but he he actually sold it before that. And he wasn't making a salary. He wasn't even paying himself because it was the reimbursement rates were so low. And this is a a small, very efficient pharmacy in Southeast Dallas that was serving a community that was no longer there. Right. And now we only see pharmacies like Walgreens and CVS that are doing well because they're they're these big chains and they're the ones that benefit.
00:42:27
Kate Rumsey
But it just seems to me that that there's that pattern. And you're right. like We're not actually servicing individuals. you You hear from people like Clayton Tucker, who was on our podcast, and he he's really dialed into the data centers and how we have a lack of water and what's that's going to be happening in our our state. And most of his messaging is on that and also going up against the big monopolies and that we have huge issues with antitrust in our state and price gouging and not having what you're saying as as competition. And so, you're putting these things together. We're gearing up for an anti-corruption election, but also trying to remind people that we are a party that is delivering or going to deliver for them. And so, like, what is that message for you as the comptroller? Like, what what specifically do you want to deliver for everyday Texans?
00:43:15
Sarah Eckhardt
Sure. What I want to deliver for everyday Texans is a comptroller who will honestly and vigorously audit the voucher program and then put it up on the website and it so that everyone can see it in advance of
00:43:27
Kate Rumsey
Yes.
00:43:28
Sarah Eckhardt
of their legislators making decisions about this program. I want to honestly report out and expose to everyday Texans how your healthcare care costs, your costs are going up. Even if you're insured, your costs are going up because the legislature did not expand Medicaid, did not repatriate your money.
00:43:51
Kate Rumsey
yes
00:43:51
Sarah Eckhardt
We pay federal income taxes and then we get those federal income taxes back in the form of formula formula funding for Medicaid. The state of Texas has refused its formula funding.
00:44:05
Sarah Eckhardt
It's refused to bring back your money. And consequently, the costs of health care are going up for you, even if you are insured. Because we have the largest uninsured population. And when they get sick, they go to the nearest hospital.
00:44:21
Sarah Eckhardt
And in some cases, the nearest hospital is hundreds of miles away from them. I'm in the panhandle right now and of the 26 panhandle counties 17 of them are considered maternity deserts meaning that there is no obstetrician gynecologist that they can access in their county.
00:44:42
Kate Rumsey
Wow.
00:44:42
Sarah Eckhardt
a I was speaking with a nurse yesterday who was saying of the, I can't remember the exact number, but it was, you know, let's say roughly 30 providers who deliver babies.
00:44:57
Sarah Eckhardt
Less than half of them are actual obstetrical professionals. They're GPs.
00:45:04
Kate Rumsey
That's insane. Yeah. Well, So do you feel like speaking to these people that you're feeling positive about this election in 2026?
00:45:07
Sarah Eckhardt
you feel like
00:45:13
Kate Rumsey
We compare a lot on this podcast to the 2018 election where Beto got within two or three points and how we also flipped 12 House seats.
00:45:20
Sarah Eckhardt
Mm-hmm.
00:45:23
Kate Rumsey
We are we did enormously well in that Trump midterm. So how are you feeling as we get into this Trump midterm?
00:45:32
Sarah Eckhardt
I think that we'll do even better this time, and this is why. I think that the MAGA millions have been effective in the past at just drowning out any opposition, but I think that the grassroots is now waking up and the MAGA millions are going to be no match for a grassroots swell
00:45:46
Kate Rumsey
you
00:45:54
Sarah Eckhardt
of person-to-person organizing. We're seeing this through Indivisible, we're seeing it through a number of other organizing efforts where people are getting together based on issues and talking to one another about the actual facts, not what Fox News says.
Campaign Strategies and Democratic Efforts in Texas
00:46:12
Sarah Eckhardt
We're seeing less and less people getting their news from major television news outlets, caring less about the campaign advertising that that's coming through the television, and caring far more about conversations peer-to-peer about issues that really affect them.
00:46:26
Kate Rumsey
Mm-hmm.
00:46:30
Sarah Eckhardt
And time and time again, they're coming up with the answer is, how are these people who are currently in charge screwing us so badly?
00:46:40
Kate Rumsey
yes yeah
00:46:40
Sarah Eckhardt
We've got to vote for a change. We have got to vote for a change. And the change is going to be with what I'm calling the clean slate. We have a very clean slate over on the Democratic side.
00:46:53
Sarah Eckhardt
some squeaky clean people who are highly qualified for their jobs, in contrast to a pretty rotten slate on the other side.
00:47:01
Kate Rumsey
Yeah, I mean, that's giving me hope. And also, as far as I know, the top of the ticket, James Tallarico is doing much better at this stage than Beto was doing when he was running, right, in 2018. And I'm sure you love the fact that so many of the statewide people that are on our slate are from the state House and state Senate. So we're seeing a lot of people from your neck of the woods running. But I think this is a great time for us to get into our good news segment. So we like to evangelize our party and talk about the good things that are happening with our party and our and our lives because we think we should be doing it a bit better as a party. Normally, Alex is the one that starts us off on this good news segment. But he would say, Senator, what's something that's happening in your life that's so good that you just got to share it?
00:47:46
Sarah Eckhardt
So right after this, I am going to, uh, volunteer at a food bank up here in Amarillo that was started by the LGBTQ community here in Amarillo. Uh, and it has snowballed into this wonderful, uh,
00:47:59
Sarah Eckhardt
This wonderful effort that is feeding so many people in the Amarillo area and helping ease the economic economic turmoil that people are facing. You know, we're just seeing so many people having so many hardworking people having to work so much harder just to keep gas in the tank and food on the table.
00:48:16
Sarah Eckhardt
So this food bank helps with that food on the table piece. And so I'm really excited to go spend the the rest of the morning and into the afternoon with some some great folks, helping out some great folks.
00:48:29
Kate Rumsey
Yes, I love volunteering at the food bank because you're putting together packages for people and you're grabbing different cans and everybody's just so positive.
00:48:29
Sarah Eckhardt
Thank you.
00:48:36
Kate Rumsey
It's not about politics. It's just about feeding people. And we usually as a family, we've done that around Thanksgiving and making sure people have a really good like package of food that we're getting. we have a really great one here.
00:48:46
Kate Rumsey
It's called the North Texas Food Bank. So put a plug in for them. My good news, I would say, is that today we are going to hear about my daughter's pre-K at the public schools.
00:48:57
Kate Rumsey
So she's four, we're coming up on four, and so she'll be going to pre-K in our public schools here. And speaking of the school closures, it was the school that they were trying to close. So it's called Town Center in here in Capel.
00:49:08
Sarah Eckhardt
Oh, wow.
00:49:09
Kate Rumsey
Yeah, so we wouldn't have had that.
00:49:10
Sarah Eckhardt
Well, Kate, such good news for you because, you know, public school, not only is it the greatest engine of prosperity, it's also the best thing that ever happened to women.
00:49:21
Kate Rumsey
Yep.
00:49:23
Sarah Eckhardt
Because i'm speaking I'm speaking to all the ladies out there, everybody who has a kid, when they go into pre-K and kindergarten, it is like you have a just like the world opens up for you again.
00:49:23
Kate Rumsey
Amen, yeah. Yes.
00:49:37
Sarah Eckhardt
First of all, you get a fat raise because you're not having to pay daycare anymore.
00:49:37
Kate Rumsey
Yes.
00:49:42
Sarah Eckhardt
And also you have this wonderful institution that is now going to help you with your kid. It's so awesome.
00:49:48
Kate Rumsey
Yeah.
00:49:49
Sarah Eckhardt
This, this, this ready-made community that has their arms wide open for your child.
00:49:52
Kate Rumsey
Yes.
00:49:55
Sarah Eckhardt
And it is such a relief as a mother. So hats off to you.
00:49:58
Kate Rumsey
Yeah.
00:50:00
Sarah Eckhardt
I'm so glad that your daughter's going into pre-K and that it's there for you.
00:50:01
Kate Rumsey
Yeah.
00:50:03
Kate Rumsey
Well, it's... Yeah, well, I'm lucky my husband and I are in the military and so we qualified for free pre-K in Coppell ISD. But as I understand it, Dallas ISD is trying to provide free pre-K to everybody if they want it. And that's something that I hope that we can do in our state if we increase funding, speaking of all of our education talks. So we're lucky that we get to access this in our school district, but not everybody gets free pre-K here. And you're right, she's in a daycare right now.
00:50:33
Kate Rumsey
And it'll be sad that she gets to say goodbye to her friends there, but she'll see them soon in kindergarten. And so we're excited to hear about what they have to offer at the fair that we're going to today. So I'm very excited that it's available for her and that she will be going to an incredible public school that is open.
00:50:44
Sarah Eckhardt
yeah
00:50:50
Kate Rumsey
It is open. it is not closed. Yeah.
00:50:54
Sarah Eckhardt
that's
00:50:55
Kate Rumsey
All right. Well, I want to we're going to get into our last segment, but I want to give a plug to our
Community Engagement and Volunteerism
00:50:58
Kate Rumsey
patrons. If you would like to support us as independent media and help us defray the cost of our podcast, you can become a a member or you can support us for free with a five star review and share us on social media. We will be sharing some clips with Sarah and all of our guests. So you can go over there at Mission Texas podcast on all social media platforms. OK, so this is our last segment, Senator, and we call it the last word.
00:51:21
Kate Rumsey
So it's kind of like the last stand at the Alamo. You're our general and we're your soldiers. And our mission, as we call it on Mission Texas, is to flip the state before the next census because we really need to because We're going to get five new congressional seats. We're going to have a lot more electoral votes. And we believe that if we don't flip Texas, then we may lose the White House for a generation because we have a lot more power that is leaving our stronghold blue states because of the population changes. So what do you believe that we need to be doing? What are your marching orders as a state, as a party, state? and as individuals that we need to be doing to actually flip this, not just in this election cycle, but long term.
00:52:05
Sarah Eckhardt
So you're absolutely right. it's it is We must flip the state. We must get back to a two-party system in the state of Texas before the 2030 census. Because you're absolutely right.
00:52:19
Sarah Eckhardt
If we don't get back to back to a two-party system instead of this one-party rule, we will lose control of the state and the White House until 2040. That's that you're absolutely right.
00:52:34
Sarah Eckhardt
And with this recent Georgia decision, we're going to see redistricting, re redistricting again, this next legislative session.
00:52:40
Kate Rumsey
Mm-hmm.
00:52:41
Sarah Eckhardt
So what we need to do is all of us need to get on the phone and text all of our friends, email all of our friends, use social media with all of our friends,
00:52:53
Sarah Eckhardt
telling them this is an important election cycle. Every election cycle is important. We must elect people who will actually represent our interests instead of the interests of the big boys behind one party rule.
00:53:07
Sarah Eckhardt
They will take our our present from us and steal from our future. We must stop them. We must stop them.
00:53:15
Kate Rumsey
Yes. Right.
00:53:18
Sarah Eckhardt
and And don't be afraid to talk to your Republican friends, because your Republican friends, in some cases, are feeling this even more keenly because they feel like they can't speak their mind.
00:53:28
Sarah Eckhardt
So give them space to speak their mind. And I think we will all be surprised that a a vast majority of Texans are ready to end one party rule and give Texas back to hardworking Texans. And that's crucial.
00:53:44
Sarah Eckhardt
Otherwise, we will see this one party rule solidify not only in Texas, but all across the nation and take our freedoms away. There will be no accountability and our freedom will be diminished.
00:54:00
Kate Rumsey
You know, there's a lot of people I think that would be listening or out there that don't like to go knock on doors.
00:54:01
Sarah Eckhardt
who
00:54:06
Kate Rumsey
They don't like to go talking to their neighbors. They don't want to talk politics. So what is the, what can you say to those folks to give them courage?
00:54:15
Sarah Eckhardt
Sure. What I tell folks is when somebody says I don't do politics, I say if you don't do politics, then politics will do you and it is doing you right now. So go ahead and sign up to do some block walking.
00:54:24
Kate Rumsey
Absolutely.
00:54:28
Sarah Eckhardt
If you don't like block walking, do some phone banking. If you don't want to phone bank for a party, then find a cause and go phone bank for the cause.
00:54:40
Sarah Eckhardt
Check out Texas Blue Action. they They will help you with the Reach app so that you can just talk to people you know. Talking to people you know through your own contacts on your own phone is hugely powerful.
00:54:53
Sarah Eckhardt
Contribute to candidates. I know that a lot of people say there's too much money in politics, and I completely agree. There are no campaign finance limits in the state of Texas, and that's obscene.
00:55:04
Sarah Eckhardt
But if we contribute to good candidates, they will win. and i'm not And I love our slate, but we also can't rely on one person at the top of the ticket to do all of the heavy lifting for everyone else.
00:55:18
Sarah Eckhardt
So it's just like in all things, if you if you put down some money on several people, it's more likely that several people will win.
00:55:18
Kate Rumsey
Yeah.
00:55:27
Kate Rumsey
yeah
00:55:28
Sarah Eckhardt
So, increase the odds all the way down the ticket. Find candidates and causes that you really believe in and send in a contribution. Make some phone calls for them.
00:55:39
Sarah Eckhardt
Shoot out some emails to friends. And don't be afraid to talk politics. It is, it's community building. it it it's a it's a It's paying it forward for our kids.
00:55:55
Sarah Eckhardt
We've got to leave something for them. And it should be something better than we had. and right now, I can't say with confidence that we will be leaving them something better than we had.
00:56:06
Kate Rumsey
Right. Well, speaking of how can we support you, Senator, and your race? And as you mentioned, James Tallarico, he's got plenty of money. I'm not saying don't donate to him, but how can we donate or support you?
00:56:19
Sarah Eckhardt
So you can go to my website, which is Sarah Eckhart.com. It's Sarah with an H and Eckhart is E C K H A R D T. I'm pretty easy to find.
00:56:29
Sarah Eckhardt
Go to Sarah Eckhart.com and you can contribute there. You can also sign up to volunteer there and check out my socials, which are all, you know, Sarah Eckhart TX. I am, I'm, I'm out there for you. Just to,
00:56:44
Sarah Eckhardt
Shoot me an email. I'm happy to tell you what's going on in whatever issue area is interesting to you and help plug you in with organizations that you might find really powerful. So SarahEckhart.com, I'll do my best to serve you. that's That's what I do. That's what I've been doing for more than 20 years and looking forward to to many more.
00:57:05
Kate Rumsey
Amazing. Well, thank you so much, Senator, for making time for us and for our listeners. We will see our listeners next week and I'll say god bless Texas.