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Ep. 35 (audio): Sarah Eckhardt on the Comptroller Race, One-Party Rule, and How the GOP Is Gutting Your Public Schools
55 Plays5 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 Mission Texas Podcast
00:00:00
Speaker
Howdy. This is Mission Texas. All right. Welcome back to Mission
Role and Power of the Texas Comptroller
00:00:06
Speaker
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.
Political Race and Candidate Backgrounds
00:00:14
Speaker
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 going to get into that and more. Welcome to Mission Texas, Senator Sarah Eckhart.
00:00:32
Speaker
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
Sarah Eckhart's Political Perspectives
00:00:42
Speaker
anymore. We have a great slate of candidates.
00:00:45
Speaker
To compare that to the slate of candidates that are on the other side, especially here in this race with Don Huffines, I 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. The only thing that you guys have in common is that you're both senators and you're running for comptroller. So tell us about your background as it compares to his.
00:01:12
Speaker
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.
00:01:22
Speaker
And 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 primaries.
00:01:39
Speaker
In contrast, I'm a lawyer.
Understanding the Comptroller's Role and Risks
00:01:41
Speaker
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.
00:01:49
Speaker
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.
00:02:00
Speaker
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 Texas.
00:02:12
Speaker
ah 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 have.
00:02:36
Speaker
Sure, Kate, you said it. This is ah 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.
00:02:48
Speaker
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. And so most people think that the comptroller just writes checks and takes orders.
00:03:00
Speaker
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.
00:03:11
Speaker
The comptroller's office does not work for a political ideology. It works for the state of
Education Funding and Public School Advocacy
00:03:16
Speaker
Texas. it works for the people of the state of Texas investing public dollars. So this is an extremely important position.
00:03:23
Speaker
In the wrong hands, this position could be weaponized, as we've seen the attorney general's office be weaponized under Paxton. Huffines has very clearly stated his intention to weaponize the comptroller's office and turn it into ah ah basically a one-man wrecking crew.
00:03:41
Speaker
Even his own party is concerned that he'll go rogue and take a wrecking ball to important state institutions and wreck our economy. Yeah, so much to unpack there. So as I understand, and going back to your Travis County judge days, you you have pretty big budget, right? Like you are the person in charge of that county.
00:04:02
Speaker
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? And I want to get into what you mentioned about Don Huffines and some of the the crazy things that he said.
00:04:13
Speaker
Yeah, poor dear. As Ann Richards said, you know, poor Don, he was born with a silver foot in his mouth. But as chief financial, chief executive officer of Travis County, I have already managed a very large crew of lawyers, CPAs, um investment professionals.
00:04:32
Speaker
um The Travis County personnel was about 5,000 people. We had a budget that was just over a billion And I believe our total assets were around $30 billion.
00:04:45
Speaker
wow So I have already managed setting budgets, setting bond rates, investing ah dollars until they are ready to be spent on projects that they're intended for, and also making sure that there is no cross-contamination between funding sources 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.
00:05:13
Speaker
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.
00:05:27
Speaker
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, cause for which it was intended.
00:05:40
Speaker
And so I've already done that kind of work. I've spent actually more than two decades doing exactly that kind of work. 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 Yalotix 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
00:06:23
Speaker
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. 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?
00:06:50
Speaker
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.
00:07:06
Speaker
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, um 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.
00:07:34
Speaker
Public education is the most effective engine of prosperity that humankind has ever created. 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, public education is the greatest engine we've ever created.
00:07:56
Speaker
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.
00:08:09
Speaker
And It robs from our future generation. 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.
00:08:20
Speaker
Yeah, I'm a girl of the public school system. And I'm also here in my town because of the public. 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. 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 um and benefit our state. um 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.
00:09:00
Speaker
And I swear on one, 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,
00:09:10
Speaker
Everybody in town was talking about it 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.
00:09:23
Speaker
And every incumbent who voted for these things and were up for reelection just lost in that school board election. so you think like, OK, I get it. We're all talking about the Senate race and we're talking about Trump.
00:09:37
Speaker
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 is being quoted saying. And so how do we respond to that? Are we really is there fat here? Like, can we really cut anything in our public schools?
00:10:02
Speaker
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.
00:10:14
Speaker
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 ah 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.
00:10:40
Speaker
A lot of people who are utterly unengaged in politics otherwise are very engaged with the life of their public schools. They go to PTA meetings. They join the PTA. Their kids and they and their kids and perhaps their parents, too, went to the same school.
Improving Education Systems
00:10:57
Speaker
They have a generational connection to this amazing apparatus. My father went to Austin High School and my son graduated from the same high school. Oh, my gosh. I love that.
00:11:09
Speaker
that's just That's just a sense of stability that that is so important and it builds community. So when we talk about dismantling the public education system and cutting the fat, mean, my question is, 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.
00:11:34
Speaker
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.
00:11:48
Speaker
And this man, Don Huffines, is talking about cutting the fat. 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.
00:12:02
Speaker
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 missions.
00:12:22
Speaker
I am all over finding efficiencies, but finding them through partnership, not through threats and intimidation and basically a content-based discrimination.
00:12:35
Speaker
He is interested in discriminating against schools based on ah racial makeup, national origin of the student body. um the the type of religion the community practices. These are all things that we have been fighting against since the beginning of this nation.
00:12:53
Speaker
Well, mean, you compare that to what they are doing already, which is taking over school boards or ISDs. and They're trying to take 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 you know, by allegedly we're educating the children of individuals who are not naturalized here.
00:13:28
Speaker
he His billboards very proudly proclaim that he wants to rid Texas of illegals and of Sharia law. So that clearly means that he has a ah bias, a very clear bias against people who were not born here and people of Muslim faith.
00:13:46
Speaker
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.
00:14:06
Speaker
this is This is not liberty. I don't know what this is, but it's it's not liberty. Yeah. And meanwhile, ah refusing any kind of accountability for failing to do the the duties of government that are constitutionally mandated.
00:14:21
Speaker
um There's zero accountability um for a state that is routinely underfunding its share of public education and then blaming the local property tax, which, you know, i hate paying property tax too.
Issues with Texas's Property Tax and Voucher System
00:14:36
Speaker
It sucks. We don't have an income tax in the state of Texas.
00:14:39
Speaker
So pretty much property tax and sales tax are our primary ah sources of revenue. They are regressive. Absolutely, they're regressive. But that's what the Texas legislature has provided.
00:14:50
Speaker
And that's all the Texas legislature has provided. um School boards did not choose their funding source. The state legislature chose their funding source and relies pretty heavily on property tax.
00:15:03
Speaker
a 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. 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 ah messaging, or is this something else? And I also want to get into the fact that Dunhoff Vines is now on a slate with a bunch of other people who are against Sharia law.
00:15:42
Speaker
You know, I think it is ah 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 want to be the prevailing perspective in the state of Texas.
00:15:58
Speaker
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.
00:16:08
Speaker
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. It's interesting that they ah talk about the scourge of communism and wanting to rid the state of Sharia law.
00:16:22
Speaker
I guess it's because they want to be the dictators. yeah um They want to tell us what to do. And anyone who is disloyal or doesn't fit the mold ah needs to be punished.
00:16:37
Speaker
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.
00:16:49
Speaker
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 silenced, then the one party rule uses the public wealth to stay in power.
00:17:03
Speaker
The rich and powerful pick your pockets to stay rich and powerful. And anybody who challenges their power is swiftly punished.
00:17:14
Speaker
And that's what we're seeing. We're seeing all of the symptoms of late one party rule with cover ups and bribes and swift retribution. And vouchers is a really vivid, perhaps even livid example of it.
00:17:31
Speaker
We saw good Republican legislators who were resisting vouchers because it was decimating to their district's public school system.
00:17:41
Speaker
When they voted their their district's interest, they were shown the door by their own party. 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? But and we were really hoping that the small town representatives would really step up. And to some degree, they did because their public schools are the only thing in town, right? Like that's the thing that's the driving force.
00:18:14
Speaker
Literally there, I heard ah reports of the principals, also the person driving the bus and is also, you know, doing multiple things and just because they love and care for their community and, know,
00:18:25
Speaker
And now we're seeing the effects of it, right? Because we see what dollars are coming out of the public school system, the keep the kids that are not in the system anymore. and we also know based on what we believed is 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.
00:18:54
Speaker
But i mean, what could the comptroller do? Like, say we give the comptroller job and into your hands, somebody who actually cares about our public schools. What can we do that is the opposite of what John Huffines wants to do?
00:19:07
Speaker
Well, first, let's frame it up with what Don Huffines wants to do. He says that it is his responsibility. 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.
00:19:27
Speaker
And 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. um The law, as it was passed, requires a analysis every August of the demography of who's getting vouchers, both which families, which children, and also which schools are getting the voucher.
00:19:47
Speaker
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,
00:19:59
Speaker
ah 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 perhaps this is is a little bit wonky, but I think we're all viscerally seeing this in real time, that when you see a significant decline in enrollment in public education in our public schools,
00:20:29
Speaker
You can't keep the lights on in the building 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.
00:20:44
Speaker
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.
00:20:57
Speaker
Actually, the Legislative Budget Board predicted all of these effects when we were debating the bill and all of them are coming to fruition and then some. 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? How do we make, because that's a part of it is retaining teachers. I, myself, my brother was a public school teacher and coach. He left.
00:21:25
Speaker
Mm-hmm. were 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 a way that, as you're saying, is efficient and is following the law?
00:21:37
Speaker
Sure. i was rolling phone calls the other day and I called somebody who I didn't know from Adam. um I got him on the phone. I told him who I was, that I was the Democratic nominee for Comptroller. And he said, you know,
00:21:48
Speaker
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 ah said, well, let's let's talk about this. What's your biggest issue? And like your brother, he said, I'm a retired teacher.
00:22:02
Speaker
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. We spent 20 minutes on the phone together talking about how to make funding and the the regulatory regime around public education better. And we were totally simpatico. we were absolutely on the same page.
00:22:25
Speaker
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 ah doing my master's work at the LBJ school.
00:22:37
Speaker
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.
00:22:55
Speaker
It's incredibly top-down. And also our funding mechanism itself is very Byzantine, hugely complex, and um full of retribution, full of gotcha.
00:23:06
Speaker
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.
00:23:16
Speaker
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.
00:23:28
Speaker
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.
00:23:44
Speaker
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.
00:23:54
Speaker
If we can't fund public education, who can? Well, I think that it seems like things are confusing by design for Republicans so that we can yeah can get away with things. 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. It seems like they're doing great. Like we are in North Texas and we've got this huge stadium in Allen. Right.
00:24:20
Speaker
And people just talk about that. And people like yourself and I've seen Gina, you know, say it like, look, that's not. The funding is different. Like, that's not how it's funded. We are not like diverting money from teachers and students to fund this stadium. It's a completely different funding source.
00:24:38
Speaker
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. um The stadium is one-time money. It's that you need to replace your HVAC in your home. That's a one-time cost.
00:24:52
Speaker
And then it sits there for the next 15 years before you have to replace it again. um But that ongoing money, cost of electricity and water and the cost of teacher payroll and janitorial services, those are your ongoing costs.
00:25:07
Speaker
And for those, um the state is not appropriately funding. um We've got a really, really complex funding formula. And 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.
00:25:21
Speaker
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.
00:25:35
Speaker
And so you should never look to the government for solutions and you should ah elect Republicans so they can prove to you that government is at least incompetent, if not corrupt.
00:25:46
Speaker
And over the last three decades, indeed, the this one-party regime has proven out that they are going to make sure that government is incompetent and corrupt. They've normalized corruption and assured incompetence, or at least lack of effectiveness, through this incredibly complex funding formula that takes retribution on schools ah when they try to exert some local control. I found out just yesterday that my own school district that my kids graduated from ah 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.
00:26:40
Speaker
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.
00:26:53
Speaker
The idea that AISD cannot make the decisions 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.
00:27:13
Speaker
Yeah. Well, they're not the party of small government anymore, right? They're the party of takeovers by a bigger government. But 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...
00:27:35
Speaker
state agencies aren't working. i go to the DMV and it's so efficient. I'm 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 ah that is bigger doing good things for you. But it's interesting to see, yeah people like Zeram Amdani who are saying, look, no, we are going to deliver for you in the smallest ways. We are going to ah fill those potholes and we're going to 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 to show that no government does work. And you and i were prosecutors and
00:28:18
Speaker
I can tell you firsthand, like I worked
Public Concerns and Resource Management
00:28:20
Speaker
with many agencies and many and maybe not today with the DOJ, but we were hardworking and we did our jobs well and we were patriots. And you don't see that, right? We're not the retail side of government. And yet it's a very it was functioning very well, at least when I was there.
00:28:39
Speaker
Not anymore. Putting this together. And if we can shift gears a little to political side of and your campaign, Democrats have an abysmal polling. We are not polling well as a party.
00:28:52
Speaker
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 ah for the runoffs. And someone called me a communist and a socialist and was like yelling at me. So how do we improve our party's image? Like, what can we be doing better as we gear up for the general election?
00:29:12
Speaker
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. Let's talk about it. What's working and what's not working? And how do we solve this together?
00:29:26
Speaker
ah 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.
00:29:40
Speaker
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.
00:29:51
Speaker
um Or some people are saying, you know, my biggest issue is water. We are running out of water. How is it that ah in ah in a state that is experiencing what we call a Texas miracle,
00:30:04
Speaker
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 ah 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. What what is happening here? ah Isn't this exactly what government is for, is um creating, striking the right balance so that we can hold each other accountable?
00:30:43
Speaker
I understand that people really are turned off by the idea of the party. I think that people are turned off by the idea of party because we've been under one party rule for so long. When I talk to folks and say, do you think that we should have a two party system or a one party system?
00:30:59
Speaker
across the board. They're like, oh God, no, we should not have a one party system. We should absolutely have a two party system. We function best when there are at least two points of view, at least two.
00:31:12
Speaker
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. And for the last 30 years, it's it's been a Republicans only game.
00:31:27
Speaker
And the idea of Republicans coming in and saying, government is is corrupt, and so I'm going to fix it. 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 administration,
00:31:46
Speaker
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? 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?
00:32:08
Speaker
yeah Ken Paxton was impeached for using your money to advance his political career and to continue his affair. ye And you heard the evidence of it.
00:32:19
Speaker
Yeah. 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 ah ah behind one party rule. If you impeach our guy, you will pay the price in the primary.
00:32:40
Speaker
And my my Republican colleagues just they they saved their own skin. itulated They capitulated. And I want to i wanted you know give a shout out to the House Republicans. It was House Republicans who tried to hold this man accountable.
00:32:58
Speaker
And they paid the price. State Republicans were unable to gin up the courage for it, except for a couple of them. And that is what we're dealing with. Accountability in the face of this normalized corruption is not going to come from Republicans, y'all.
00:33:12
Speaker
It's just not. We've seen some try and they've been shown the door by their own party. Yeah, or at least by the MAGA part of the party and Donald Trump, right?
00:33:23
Speaker
Speaking about that, like we've got Don Hothines, we have Ken Paxton, we have Beau French, we have all these other MAGA, Agamaze Middleton. 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, ah you and I, Senator.
00:33:42
Speaker
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
Anti-Corruption and Economic Priorities
00:33:53
Speaker
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?
00:34:07
Speaker
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 revolutionize government. It was going to take the burden off of them. It was going to make government smaller um and and more efficient and that the bureaucracy, you know, the the swamp would be drained.
00:34:31
Speaker
And the swamp was drained. It was drained of a lot of brain power and replaced with a lot of alligators who were in it for themselves. I mean, when we see Donald Trump reach into the U.S. Treasury and pull out $1.7 one point seven billion dollars to give gifts to his friends, that's that's astounding, right?
00:34:49
Speaker
and And we're seeing the same in state politics. I mean, the number of no-bid contracts has gone up in the state of Texas fourfold since 2019, fourfold.
00:35:00
Speaker
fourfold No bid contracts means that there's no competition for the contract and your friends get to know get the state contract worth a lot of money. 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.
00:35:21
Speaker
It's contractors who take over those schools. The TEA selects. We are privatizing our schools through takeover. This is incredibly corrupt, and people know it.
00:35:33
Speaker
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.
00:35:46
Speaker
And those who are acolytes of Trump's form of government, like Huffine's, it's really the survival of the richest, It has nothing to do with helping you out.
00:35:59
Speaker
It's about survival of the richest. It's about picking your pockets to make them richer. And really nothing more than that. but something I hear a lot 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. It's, you know, they believe that it's, ah 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.
00:36:26
Speaker
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? ah My response to that is take a look at the numbers. California is the most economically powerful state in the nation. We are the second most economically powerful nation ah state in the nation.
00:36:45
Speaker
California actually is doing some things quite well. If you go to California, you will have health insurance. um Texas is the most uninsured in the United States.
00:36:56
Speaker
ah in contrast to California, um Texas, even though it has smaller population than California, it has the largest raw number of business bankruptcies of any state in the nation, including California.
00:37:10
Speaker
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 ah indicators of health in the state of Texas and address them.
00:37:24
Speaker
and And we've got some pretty significant challenges ahead that we are experiencing right now. We are the most uninsured population in the nation. We have double digit uninsured rates for our children.
00:37:38
Speaker
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 and to campaigns.
00:37:52
Speaker
But for those other businesses, um we are terribly hard on them. We've got a large number of bankruptcies. It's very difficult to maintain insurance here. um for your business because we do have um extreme weather here and we're doing very, very little to combat our extreme weather.
00:38:12
Speaker
And we're also struggling as we see, i'm in Amarillo right now. And Amarillo is looking down the barrel of the largest data center in the world being right next door.
00:38:23
Speaker
This is a subdivision for computer reasons. And this subdivision for computers will use a very large amount of water, a very large amount of energy, and must be protected against ah fire and any other kind of threat.
00:38:36
Speaker
And what this community is struggling with is how is it that a city of computers could have more secure water, energy, and fire suppression than the city of people right next to it?
00:38:49
Speaker
This is something we've got to address. We are wide open for certain businesses while we are not covering the basics for actual Texans.
00:39:02
Speaker
Speaking my language with regard to health care, my dad's a pharmacist. he Most of his practice was with Medicaid and for kids on Medicaid. And what did the Texas government do? He got involved in politics because they were threatening to cut the reimbursement rates, which meant that Pharmacists couldn't make any money. They're losing money every time they filled a prescription, much like like a lot of doctors who have Medicaid clients.
00:39:25
Speaker
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. And it meant that they made these big promises saying we're going to cut the spending for Medicaid on pharmacy benefits.
00:39:42
Speaker
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 you know 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 ah pharmacies like Walgreens and CVS that are doing well because they're they' these big chains and they're the ones that benefit.
00:40:11
Speaker
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 is on our podcast, and he he's really dialed into the data centers and how we have a lack of water and what's ah 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 know, 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 but specifically do you want to deliver for everyday Texans?
Healthcare Access and Transparency Initiatives
00:40:59
Speaker
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 so that everyone can see it in advance of their legislators making decisions about this program.
00:41:15
Speaker
I want to honestly um report out and expose to everyday Texans how your health 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.
00:41:33
Speaker
yes We take federal income taxes and then we get those federal income taxes back in the form of formula ah formula funding for Medicaid. The state of Texas has refused its formula funding.
00:41:47
Speaker
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.
00:42:04
Speaker
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.
00:42:23
Speaker
well 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.
00:42:36
Speaker
Less than half of them are actual obstetrical professionals. They're GPs. That's insane. Yeah. So do you feel like speaking to these people that you're feeling positive about this election in 2026? 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.
00:43:02
Speaker
We are we did enormously well in that Trump midterm. So how are you feeling as we get into this Trump midterm? 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.
00:43:22
Speaker
But I think that the grassroots is now waking up and the MAGA millions would be no match.
Optimism and Grassroots Organizing
00:43:29
Speaker
for grassroots swell of person-to-person organizing.
00:43:36
Speaker
um 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, we're seeing less and less people getting their news from major television news outlets, caring less about the campaign advertising that's that's coming through the television and caring far more about conversations peer to peer about issues that really affect them.
00:44:08
Speaker
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? yeah We've got to vote for a change. We have got to vote for h a change.
00:44:23
Speaker
And the change is going to be with what I'm calling ah the clean slate. We have a very clean slate over on the Democratic side. Some squeaky clean people who are highly qualified for their jobs, in contrast to a pretty rotten slate on the other side.
00:44:39
Speaker
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 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 ah your neck of the woods running. I'm 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?
00:45:24
Speaker
So right after this, I am going to volunteer at a food bank up here in Amarillo that was started by the LGBTQ community here in Amarillo. And it has snowballed into this wonderful effort that is feeding so many people in the Amarillo area and helping ease the economic economic turmoil that people are facing.
00:45:44
Speaker
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. So this food bank helps with that food on the table piece. And so I'm really excited to go spend the rest of the morning and into the afternoon with some some great folks helping out some great folks.
00:46:04
Speaker
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. 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 you know a really good like package of food that we're getting. have a really great one here. It's called the North Texas Food Bank. So we're put a plug in for them. My good news, I would say, that today we are going to hear about my daughter's pre-K at the public schools. 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 ah school that they were trying to close. So it's called Town Center in here. Oh, wow.
00:46:44
Speaker
Yeah. So we wouldn't have had that. 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.
00:46:56
Speaker
Yep. ah Yeah. I'm speaking of speaking to all the ladies out there, everybody who has a kid, um when they go into pre-K and kindergarten, it is like the world opens up for you again. First of all, you get big fat raise because you're not having to pay ah daycare anymore.
00:47:15
Speaker
And also you have this wonderful institution that is now going to help you with your kid. It's so awesome. This this this ready-made community that has their arms wide open for your child. And it is such a relief as a mother.
00:47:31
Speaker
So ah hats off to you. I'm so glad that your daughter's going into pre-K and that it's there for you. Yeah, well, I'm lucky my husband and I are in the military. And so we qualified for a 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 ah 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.
00:48:06
Speaker
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 and that it's available for her and that she will be going to an incredible public school that is open. it is open.
00:48:24
Speaker
is not closed. yeah All right, well, I want to, we're going to get into our last segment, but I want to give a plug to our patrons.
Call to Political Action and Support
00:48:32
Speaker
If you would like to support us as independent media and help us to prefer the cost of our podcast, you can become a main a member or you can support us for free with a five-star review and share us on social media. We'll 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.
00:48:50
Speaker
Okay, so this is our last segment, Senator, and we call it the last word. 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.
00:49:09
Speaker
We're going to 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 ah that is leaving our ah stronghold blue states now 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, and as individuals that we need to be doing to actually flip this, not just in this election cycle, but long term?
00:49:38
Speaker
So you're absolutely right. We must flip the state. We must get back to two-party system in the state of Texas before the 2030 census. Because you're absolutely right.
00:49:49
Speaker
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.
00:50:02
Speaker
That's that you're absolutely right. And with this recent Georgia decision, we're going to see redistricting, re redistricting again, this next legislative session. 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, telling them this is an important election cycle.
00:50:25
Speaker
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 rules.
00:50:37
Speaker
They will take our our present from us and steal from our future. We must stop them. um We must stop them.
00:50:47
Speaker
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. So give them space to speak their mind.
00:51:00
Speaker
And I think we will we will all be surprised that a vast majority of Texans are ready to end one party rule and give Texas back to hardworking Texans.
00:51:11
Speaker
And that's crucial. 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.
00:51:26
Speaker
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. 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?
00:51:42
Speaker
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. If you don't like block walking, do some phone banking.
00:51:58
Speaker
If you don't want to phone bank for a party, um then find a cause and go phone bank for the cause. ah ah Check out Texas Blue Action. they They will help you with the Reach app so that you can just talk to people you know.
00:52:13
Speaker
Talking to people you know through your own contacts on your own phone is hugely powerful. 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.
00:52:31
Speaker
If we contribute to good candidates, they will win. 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.
00:52:44
Speaker
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. So increase the odds all the way down the ticket.
00:52:56
Speaker
Find candidates and causes that you really believe in and send in a contribution. Make some phone calls for them. Shoot out some emails to friends. And don't be afraid to talk politics.
00:53:09
Speaker
It is, it's community building. It's paying it forward for our kids. We've got to leave something for them. And it should be something better than we had.
00:53:20
Speaker
And right now, I can't say with confidence that we will be leaving them something better than we had. Well, speaking of how can we support you, Senator, in your race? And as you mentioned, James Tallarico, he's got plenty of money. I'm not saying don't donate to him, but ah how can we donate or support you?
00:53:38
Speaker
So you can go to my website, which is saraheckhart.com. Um, it's Sarah with an H and Eckhart is E C K h A R D T. I'm pretty easy to find.
00:53:48
Speaker
Go to Sarah Eckhart.com and you can contribute there. You can also sign up to volunteer there and, uh, check out my socials, which are all, you know, Sarah Eckhart TX. I'm out there for you. Just um shoot me an email.
00:54:01
Speaker
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. It's I've been doing for more than 20 years and looking forward to to many more. Amazing.
00:54:22
Speaker
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. You can follow us on all socials at Mission Texas Podcast.
00:54:33
Speaker
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 Sohn.
00:54:48
Speaker
you