Houston power politics, big changes in 2024 race: This Week in Texas Politics

AUSTIN, Texas – This week saw big changes in the 2024 presidential race with President Joe Biden dropping out and endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris, as well as the continued impact on the Houston area from Hurricane Beryl.

FOX 7 Austin’s Chief Political Reporter Rudy Koski and our panel of analysts take a look at This Week in Texas Politics.

RUDY KOSKI:  This week in Texas politics, got presidential and also kind of got into the dirt, literally. Let’s get the headlines from our panel and we’ll start first with Brad Johnson with the Texan News. Brad, what’s your headline for the week? 

BRAD JOHNSON/ TEXAN NEWS: How many more game changing events are on the horizon? 

RUDY KOSKI: Annie Spielman with MainStreet Relations. What’s your headline? 

ANNIE SPILEMAN/ MAINSTREET RELATIONS: Austin’s DECA announces historic $1 million small business loan fund. 

RUDY KOSKI: Patrick Svitek with the Washington Post. What’s your headline? 

PATRICK SVITEK/ WASHINGTON POST: Democrats have a likely new presidential nominee.

RUDY KOSKI: Top officials with CenterPoint went before the PUC Thursday and issued an apology. More hearings are promised. So do you think that this crisis remains an issue when the session starts? 

ANNIE SPILEMAN/ MAINSTREET RELATIONS: I want to note two things here. You know, I don’t just think that the power companies will be front and center at the chopping block. We’re going to see leaders bring in the property and casualty insurance companies, front and center as well. Secondarily, I want to mention in 2021, the business community worked with the Texas Legislature to create a program that would create a temporary emergency loan program for small business owners. But the problem is, is that program was never funded.

RUDY KOSKI: A statehouse hearing was held this week on how to prevent hostile nations from buying Texas land. Brad, this was supposed to be more of a reboot of legislation that failed to pass in the past session. Then all of a sudden, it kind of morphed into a much broader issue on cyberattacks. 

BRAD JOHNSON/ TEXAN NEWS: These issues all meld into one. It starts with the land purchases. It’s not surprising at all that it’s going to take that route. The biggest thing for me, though, is it’s this question of, on the land front, competing interests between national security and private property rights, the ability to sell your property to whom you want for how much you want. How do you find that balance? I really don’t know. That’s going to be a tough task for lawmakers. 

RUDY KOSKI: Vice President Harris brought her presidential campaign to Texas, speaking to a teacher union group there in Houston. But just before [her] going on and speaking, on Capitol Hill, House members passed a resolution condemning her work dealing with legal immigration. Regardless of how you know, you want to describe it, was she a border czar or not? And Patrick, even a few Democrats voted for that resolution, Henry Cuellar among them. 

PATRICK SVITEK/ WASHINGTON POST:  No, I wasn’t surprised to see some Democratic crossover support for that resolution. That issue is no doubt going to be one of Kamala Harris’s biggest political liabilities as she takes over the Democratic presidential ticket.

RUDY KOSKI: Earlier in the week, Texas Democrats, who are delegates to the party’s convention, that’s going to happen, later on in August, up in Chicago, jumped on the Harris bandwagon. And was it what does the business community want to hear when the DNC starts up? 

ANNIE SPILEMAN/ MAINSTREET RELATIONS: You know, business owners want to hear if anything has or will change in regard to her talking points from 2020, when she ran for president and during her time in the Senate in regard to economic politics. Will she be Biden 2.0 or make her way economically? 

RUDY KOSKI: Brad, Texas Democrats think that maybe, just maybe, all this energy that Harris is generating could help them flip some statehouse seats and be a defense against school choice. What are you hearing? 

BRAD JOHNSON/ TEXAN NEWS: I heard Republicans say yesterday, they think it’s possible they lose three seats in the House. That’ll be a problem for Republicans on the school choice front. Probably not the death knell, but it would be a difficulty.  Also, that would significantly impact the Speaker’s race. 

RUDY KOSKI: As for school choice, Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick accused House Speaker Dade Phelan of not listing that topic as a top priority in a budget document leading up to the session. Feeling on Friday swung back, claiming there are hearings on education, have already begun. Annie, clearly, what we’re seeing, there’s not going to be a cooldown in August regarding this issue, right? 

ANNIE SPILEMAN/ MAINSTREET RELATIONS: This is all kind of new territory. And I think this goes to show that when we go into next session, you know, it’s going to be really hard for, for groups to be trying to move their legislation forward. 

RUDY KOSKI: Now, a congressional seat is up for grabs. One that was held by, Representative Sheila Jackson Lee, who recently passed away. Former Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner is among the names being tossed around right now as a possible successor. Patrick, what are you hearing up on Capitol Hill as who’s going to throw their hat in the ring on this one? 

PATRICK SVITEK/ WASHINGTON POST: What’s fascinating here is it’s going to be, you know, the way that this election is going to be handled is is rather unique. We’ve seen it happen before in Texas, but it doesn’t happen all the time. But what’s going to happen is that the Democratic Party Precinct Chairs in Harris County are going to meet, likely in mid August, and select a replacement nominee. The governor does have the power to call a special election. But why give  the Democrats won more seats that they currently now don’t have.

RUDY KOSKI: You can catch our longer discussion on the Fox7 YouTube page, but let’s wrap things up right now with one word, and we’ll start with Annie. What’s your one word for the week?

ANNIE SPILEMAN/ MAINSTREET RELATIONS: Deluge? 

PATRICK SVITEK/ WASHINGTON POST: Kamala.

BRAD JOHNSON/ TEXAN NEWS: Patrick stole mine. I was gonna say Kamala, too. I’ll go with Feuding. 

RUDY KOSKI: And that is This Week in Texas Politics.