This Week in Texas Politics

Austin, Texas – This week has seen some big changes in the 2024 presidential election, with President Joe Biden dropping out of the race and endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris, as well as the continued impact of Hurricane Beryl on the Houston area.

FOX 7 Austin Chief Political Correspondent Rudy Koski and a panel of analysts cover this week in Texas politics.

Rudy Koski: Texas politics have been mired in the presidential election this week, literally. Let’s take some headlines from our panel. We’ll start with Brad Johnson from The Texan News. Brad, what are the headlines this week?

Brad Johnson/Texan News: How many more game-changing events are likely to happen in the future?

RUDY KOSKIN: This is Annie Spielman with Main Street Relations. What’s the headline?

Annie Spielman/Main Street Relations: Austin DECA Announces Historic $1 Million Small Business Loan Fund.

RUDY KOSKIN: Patrick Svitek from The Washington Post. What’s the headline?

Patrick Svitek/The Washington Post: Democrats are likely to field a new presidential candidate.

RUDY KOSKIN: CenterPoint executives appeared at the hearing Thursday and apologized, and more hearings have been promised. So do you think the crisis will remain an issue as the session begins?

Annie Spielman/Main Street Relations: I want to point out two things here. You know, I don’t think that power companies will be the only ones on the front lines being cut down. Leaders will bring property and casualty insurers to the front lines as well. Second, I want to mention that in 2021, the business community worked with the Texas Legislature to create a temporary emergency loan program for small business owners. But the problem is, that program was never funded.

Rudy Koski: There was a state legislative hearing this week about how to stop hostile countries from buying land in Texas. Brad, this was supposed to be kind of a reboot of a bill that didn’t pass in the previous session. But all of a sudden it turned into a much broader issue about cyber attacks.

BRAD JOHNSON/Texan News: All of these issues are coming together. It starts with land buying. It’s not surprising to see it go down that path at all. But the biggest issue for me is the conflict of interest in the land issue between national security and private property rights, whether you can sell your land to whoever you want, at whatever price you want. How do you balance that? I have no idea. It’s going to be a challenge for lawmakers.

Rudy Koski: Vice President Harris brought her presidential campaign to Texas, where she addressed a group of teachers unions in Houston. But just before she was to speak on Capitol Hill, members of the House of Representatives passed a resolution condemning her for her work on legal immigration. Was she a border czar, whatever you want to portray it as? Patrick, several Democrats voted for that resolution, including Henry Cuellar.

PATRICK SWITEK/THE WASHINGTON POST: No, I wasn’t surprised that there were some Democratic supporters of this resolution, and the issue will undoubtedly be one of the biggest political charges for Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris.

RUDY KOSKIN: Earlier this week, Texas Democrats who are delegates to the party’s convention in Chicago in late August jumped in to endorse Harris. What does the business community want to hear when the Democratic National Convention gets underway?

ANNIE SPILMAN/MAINTESTREET RELATIONS: You know, business owners want to know if anything has changed or will change in terms of what she advocated for on economic policy when she ran for president and when she was a senator in 2020. Will she be Biden 2.0 or will she go her own way economically?

Rudy Koski: Brad, it seems like Texas Democrats are thinking that this energy that Harris is generating might help them win state legislative seats and defend school choice. What are you hearing?

Brad Johnson/Texan News: Yesterday, I heard a Republican say they could lose three seats in the House. That would be problematic for the Republicans on school choice. It probably wouldn’t be a death knell, but it would be difficult. And it would have a big impact on the speaker race.

RUDY KOSKIN: On school choice, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick criticized House Speaker Dade Phelan for not listing school choice as a top priority in budget documents ahead of the Legislature session. On Friday, he reversed course, claiming that hearings on education have already begun. Annie, clearly, what we’re seeing is that there’s no cooling off in August on this issue, right?

ANNIE SPILMAN/MAINTESTREET RELATED: This is all new territory, and I think it indicates that groups are going to have a very hard time trying to move bills forward in the next session.

Rudy Koski: There’s a congressional seat up for grabs right now. It’s the seat that was held by the recently deceased Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee. One of the names currently being mentioned as a possible successor is former Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner. Patrick, what rumors are you hearing in Congress about who might be running for this seat?

Patrick Svitek/The Washington Post: What’s interesting is that the way this election is being handled is pretty unique. It’s happened before in Texas, but it doesn’t always happen. But the Harris County Democratic district chairs will meet, probably in mid-August, to choose a replacement candidate. The governor has the power to call a special election. But why let Democrats win more seats that they don’t currently hold?

Rudy Koski: You can watch our extended discussion on the Fox7 YouTube page, but I want to wrap things up with a word for now, and I’ll start with Annie. What’s your word of the week?

Annie Spielman/Main Street Relations: A deluge?

Patrick Svitek/The Washington Post: Kamala.

Brad Johnson/Texan News: Patrick stole my name. I was going to say Kamala. I’m going to say Fuding.

RUDY KOSKIN: That’s it for this week in Texas politics.