BOERNE, Texas – With its parks, green scenery, and rolling hills, Boerne is a popular tourist destination.

But it’s much more special for locals who call the place home. When KSAT met with people at the Free Roam Brewing Company on South Main Street, unsurprisingly, words like “community” kept coming up during discussions about the upcoming election.

After all, Boerne is the city that rallied around its Little League baseball team as they competed in the Little League World Series. When the team returned from the games in Williamsport, Pa., Boerne held a downtown celebration and parade for the players.

The locals who spoke with KSAT were very concerned with how issues are affecting their community.

Candace Affeldt said she’s worried about the types of jobs that attract people about to enter the workforce.

“We’re so short on any of our blue-collar jobs like plumbers, electricians, mechanics. If you try to build anything, it’s nearly impossible,” said Affeldt.

Affeldt has a point. A recent report showed that the United States is projected to be short 550,000 plumbers by 2027.

Affeldt is a small business owner who runs the brewery with her husband, Jeremy Affeldt. He told KSAT that he’s concerned about the middle class.

“The working class supports us. We want the working class in here. I want them to be able to come in and enjoy the community. Is there going to be an opportunity where they can thrive enough to be able to do that?” asked Jeremy Affeldt.

A retired engineer, B.J. Bridges, said he’s mindful of higher tuition rates and how heavy debt might stifle opportunities for younger generations.

According to the National Center for Education Statistics, the annual cost to attend a four-year college full-time was $10,231 in 1980. By 2018-2020, that amount increased to $28,775.

“I feel for them now having to pay that tuition. Hopefully, they choose the right profession,” said Bridges.

Bridges also told KSAT he prefers Donald Trump to win November’s presidential election.

“On the foreign policy side, I think we’re just so weak now. That worries me. I don’t want to see my grandkids going to war, but you’ve also got to be careful because you can’t be too far-right,” said Bridges.

Another man spoke about the need for bipartisanship.

“Both sides have to work together. Even when one side wins, you still have to work together, right? So, it’s really about coming together and finding a middle ground and making it work for families that work hard,” said John Grof.

“Your Voice, South Texas” aims to elevate a diversity of voices and drown out some of the hyper-partisanship that keeps people fighting on social media.

So far, KSAT has recorded episodes in Uvalde, Seguin, Pleasanton, Kerrville, New Braunfels, and La Vernia.

Texas Republican Ted Cruz has said he’s being “viciously outspent” and “pounded every day” as he seeks to retain his Senate seat against a challenge from Democratic Representative Colin Allred.

Cruz made the remarks during an appearance on Sean Hannity’s Fox News show on Monday, in which he urged viewers to donate to his campaign to combat what he called “wild-eyed liberals that wanna buy Texas.”

According to the latest figures published by their respective campaigns, Allred raised $30.3 million for his Senate campaign during the third quarter of 2024, substantially ahead of Cruz, who received $21 million across three accounts. Cruz’s figure included money raised by his leadership PAC, which is unable to spend directly on his reelection campaign and a fundraising committee that gives money to the Texas senator’s main account and leadership PAC.

In the race before the third quarter, Allred raised $38 million to his main campaign account, significantly ahead of Cruz at $23 million. However, the scales were evened somewhat when affiliated PACs were included, boosting Cruz’s total before the third quarter to $40 million versus Allred’s $41.2 million.

Combined, Cruz and Allred have raised $132.5 million since the start of the campaign, a figure greater than the combined final figure of $119 million Cruz and Democrat Beto O’Rourke received when they battled for the seat in 2018.

Cruz successfully defended his Senate seat in 2018 with 50.9 percent of the vote against 48.3 percent for O’Rourke.

During his Fox News appearance on Monday, Cruz said: “Chuck Schumer and George Soros are flooding over $100 million into the state of Texas. I’m getting pounded every day. We had a poll that came out yesterday—showed it is a one-point race. And we’re getting viciously outspent.”

The senator then asked viewers to visit his website and contribute “25 bucks, 50, 100, maybe somebody giving $500 or $1,000” to combat what he termed “wild-eyed liberals that wanna buy Texas.”

In a statement sent to Newsweek about Allred’s third-quarter fundraising total his campaign manager Paige Hutchinson said: “From the $5 grassroots donors to the families knocking doors together each weekend, this campaign is about bringing Texans together and holding Ted Cruz accountable for only caring about himself. This November, Colin Allred will send Ted Cruz packing for good.”

Newsweek reached out to Cruz via email for comment on Tuesday outside of regular office hours.

Earlier this week, Politico reported that an October poll from the GOP-affiliated Senate Leadership Fund (SLP), cited in a memo produced by the PAC, put Cruz ahead by just 1 percent compared to a 3 percent lead in September.

In better news for Cruz, a Marist Poll of 1,186 Texan likely voters, conducted from October 3 to 7, put the Republican incumbent at 51 percent, five points ahead of Allred at 46 percent. The survey had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.6 percent.

On Monday, former President Donald Trump gave Cruz, who he defeated in the bitterly contested 2016 presidential primary, an enthusiastic endorsement on his Truth Social website.

The Republican presidential candidate wrote: “While I have endorsed Ted, on numerous occasions, verbally, because of the importance of the race, and Ted’s importance to the future of our Country, I thought the endorsement should be memorialized in writing.

“Senator Ted Cruz is doing a tremendous job representing the Great People of Texas, a State I love and WON BIG in 2016 and 2020, and, based on the Polls, will win even bigger in November. To the people of Texas, I greatly appreciate your support, and, as you know, I HAVE NEVER LET YOU DOWN!”

Update 10/15/24, 11:08 a.m. ET: This article was updated with comment from Colin Allred’s campaign chief, Paige Hutchinson.

Texas A&M football charges into the second half of the season sporting a 5-1 record and a No. 14 national ranking after winning its last five games. The Aggies look to build upon their 3-0 mark in conference play when they hit the road to face SEC cellar-dweller Mississippi State Saturday at 3:15 p.m.

Starkville, Miss. hasn’t been a kind place to A&M, though, with the Aggies dropping four of their last five games at Davis Wade Stadium. Here are a few takeaways from Monday’s weekly press conference as coach Mike Elko previewed the matchup.

Aggies not taking Bulldogs likely

Mississippi State’s unassuming 1-5 record and 0-3 mark in SEC action may lead one to think that A&M shouldn’t have its hands full on Saturday. However, one doesn’t need to look far back for evidence of what the Bulldogs are capable of. The same team that got blown out by Toledo at home hung tough with No. 5 Georgia on the road this past weekend in a 41-31 defeat.

Elko understands the parity between teams in the conference this season and the weekly potential for upsets, as seen with then-No. 6 Ole Miss’ loss to Kentucky on Sept. 28 and Vanderbilt’s stunning upset of No. 1 Alabama a week later. Beyond the talent of other programs, Elko challenged his team to reflect on its own recent struggles against its SEC foes, pointing to the Aggies’ 42-24 loss in StarkVegas in 2022.

“This group of kids, the last time they went down to Starkville, it wasn’t pretty,” Elko said. “I don’t even know that we need to look at other people. I think we just need to be aware of our own history and understand what it takes to be successful, why we’re doing things to give ourselves a chance to have success and understanding that if we stop for any second, we’re going to put all of that at risk.”

The Bulldogs are battle-tested, though, with top-5 road matchups in their past two games against No. 1 Texas and Georgia. They’ve entered both games with freshman quarterback Michael Van Buren under center, who threw for three touchdowns at Georgia.

“They’re a solid team,” sophomore linebacker Taurean York said. “You’d be a fool to look at their record and think that they were a bad team. They played some stout teams as well. My hat goes off to the true freshman quarterback. … You’ve got to have some guts to be a kid fresh out of high school going against those two top-5 teams, so my hat’s off to him, for sure.”

A&M will have to prepare for the constant din of cowbells ringing when it reaches Davis Wade Stadium, and Elko said the Aggies are preparing for the road atmosphere with speakers blaring at practice. Playing cowbell noise over the speakers is a line he won’t cross, though.

“I swore I would never do that to our guys,” Elko said with a laugh.

A&M seeing buy-in to team culture

Developing a quality on-field product is only part of a head coach’s job when he takes over a program. He’s also expected to install a winning culture in the locker room, a task that Elko has taken upon himself by instilling hard work, effort and discipline. Halfway through the season, he said he’s already seeing the players embrace this mindset and jump in head-first.

“I think the culture in terms of togetherness, trying to do things the right way, trying to do things for each other, I’m extremely proud of our guys and how they’ve taken to that,” Elko said. “I tell them this all the time, when a new coach comes in and he’s talking a different way, kids have a choice. … They can just kind of let it go in one ear and out the other and [say], ‘Yeah, I’m not really interested in this, this is not my thing.’ These kids haven’t done that.

“I think they’ve bought in to everything that we believe a football program should be about. You see that continually show up in how they fight for each other, and that part is really, really cool to see. Really proud of that and I think that plays a huge part of it.

Six games remain on the schedule, though, and Elko realizes the job isn’t finished. Rather, it’s a daily process that he said needs to be brought to the facility throughout the week as the Aggies look to make a push for the College Football Playoff.

“Now, it’s, can we continue to have the right frame of mind?” Elko said. “Can we continue to have that championship mindset? Can we continue to have that growth [and] focus every single day as we go into this back half of the season? That’s a whole other challenge in and of itself, but in terms of the togetherness, I’m really happy with where we are.”

Conner Weigman works his way back under center

Redshirt sophomore QB Conner Weigman didn’t miss a beat when he returned to the field for the first time since Sept. 7 against then-No. 9 Missouri on Oct. 5. Don’t be fooled by the lack of touchdowns next to his name in the box score, as Weigman completed 18 of 22 passes for 276 yards and picked up 33 yards on five rushes in a decisive 41-10 A&M victory.

“If I get backed in a corner, I come out swinging,” Weigman said. “I’m not going to go down without a fight. That’s just how I am, that’s how I was raised. Just being able to come out there, stick to the gameplan coach [Collin] Klein had and just the trust he had in me to go out there and spin the ball around, I mean, we had a good game. It was fun.”

Weigman said his time sidelined from action with an AC joint sprain in his throwing shoulder allowed him to reevaluate how he approaches the game. Not being on the field for three games didn’t stop him from improving his chemistry with the Aggies’ offense.

“Just sitting there watching film, watching the games from a different point of view,” Weigman said. “Not being behind the center and just taking things in. Watching how some of my guys work, what makes them click, what makes them go and how to get some of my playmakers, get the ball into their hands as quick as possible. I felt like it was a good three weeks.”

Weigman also said he saw his relationship with QB Marcel Reed strengthen after the redshirt freshman was 3-0 in his place as starting quarterback. Weigman said the pair has a sense of reliance on one another with support for their accomplishments.

“That’s my brother, I love him to death,” Weigman said. “Whenever I’m out there, whatever I need done, whether it’s watching a safety or watching the iPad and vice versa, whatever he needs me to help with, I’m right there for him.”

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