Navigating Texas Political Reality with Jon Rosenthal

When Texas State Representative Jon Rosenthal sits down for a conversation, you're instantly struck by the fascinating contradiction he embodies. "I still identify in my head as an oil field engineer," he admits, despite seven years serving in the Texas legislature. This duality—practical engineer meets progressive politician—powers his unique approach to tackling Texas's most divisive issues.

Representative Rosenthal takes us behind the political curtain, revealing how the Texas legislature actually functions beyond the headlines. The numbers alone are staggering—8,719 bills filed last session with just 1,213 passing both chambers. For minority party members like himself, success is measured differently: "I had 10 bills heard in committee of the 50 that I filed and I passed three off the House floor. One was signed by the governor."

The conversation doesn't shy away from troubling realities. "Gun violence wasn't among the top five leading causes of death for children in Texas when I was first sworn in," Rosenthal reveals, "and now it's the leading cause of death for our citizens between 0 and 18 years old." This stark statistic underscores his frustration with continued weakening of gun regulations despite mounting evidence of harm.

As Vice Chairman of the Redistricting Committee, Rosenthal offers rare insight into gerrymandering's impact on Texas politics. The current system creates increasingly polarized representatives who only worry about primary challenges, not general elections. His solution? Nonpartisan commissions using open-source software to draw districts based on constitutional principles, not preserving incumbency.

Perhaps most compelling is Rosenthal's philosophy on perseverance: "You're only defeated if you have given up." Despite setbacks—like his bill to end child marriage passing the House but dying in the Senate—he remains determined. "It's not a failure," he explains, "it's just a step in the process."

Want to follow Representative Rosenthal's work? Find him on social media at @jon_rosenthalTX or through his campaign website to learn more about his continued fight for public education, healthcare access, and combating bigotry in all its forms.

https://house.texas.gov/members/3635

Chapters

• 0:00 Meet Representative John Rosenthal
• 9:12 Texas Politics: Evolution of an Ally
• 21:02 Battle Against Bigotry and Discrimination
• 34:15 Gun Legislation and School Safety Crisis
• 48:08 Democracy Under Threat: Current Challenges
• 1:02:50 Texas Redistricting and Gerrymandering Reality
• 1:17:21 Legislative Process and Bill Passage
• 1:31:07 Looking Ahead: Priorities and Self-Care

Transcript

Alexis: 0:01

Hi, welcome to 22 Sides. I'm Alexis, I'm here with Robin and and John Rosenthal.

Jon: 0:09

What does John Rosenthal do? So I am the Texas State Representative for House District 135. I'm also an underemployed mechanical engineer.

Robin: 0:20

And how long have you been sitting in your seat that you currently have?

Alexis: 0:25

In the legislature, in the legislature? Yeah, I just thought I'd ask, not today, not this morning.

Robin: 0:31

Yeah, he's like, I mean, it's not even warm yet.

Jon: 0:35

So I was first elected in 2018 and sworn in in 2019. So I'm in my fourth term. I guess that's seven. I'm coming up on seven years. That's a big deal. It is. It is a big. It's a big deal, Although I started when I was over 50 and I'm just about to turn 62.

Alexis: 0:55

So Okay, we aren't going to get into age Since the oldest person here.

Jon: 1:02

I'm not asking you your age.

Robin: 1:03

How old's old Alexis?

Alexis: 1:06

I think it would be around 76.

Robin: 1:15

Okay, good, so now I'm 42. We have a lot of round numbers here, you know. But, john, I remember when you were just first running. I mean, do you recognize that guy anymore, or have you been polished, molded, changed in any good way?

Jon: 1:24

So remember the first time that we recorded together.

Robin: 1:30

Yeah, this isn't even our first podcast together.

Jon: 1:32

Yeah, it's not Well, so I should still say I should say I still identify in my head as an oil field engineer.

Robin: 1:43

Wow.

Jon: 1:43

But I have to admit that I have become more acclimated to politics. I certainly understand a lot more than I did.

Alexis: 1:51

I've now you know, been through four successful campaigns for re-election well, and you've been through a redistricting and a redistricting my view is my view.

Robin: 2:00

My view is you learn a lot during a redistricting you may not like it, and you've been through a few prides. That's where I first met.

Jon: 2:07

You Was that your first pride parade and this last pride parade. I was the ally grand marshal.

Alexis: 2:14

And I was going to bring that up because I looked at the post online. It looked like you all had a great time. I wish I'd been able to join you, but my body says we aren't going out in that heat.

Robin: 2:28

The heat is rough.

Jon: 2:30

It's hot, and then you generally have to do a lot of walking, and walking plus heat can be a whole thing. Exactly, I get it.

Alexis: 2:41

Yep, but it looked like you had a great time. We did Were there, a lot of people there.

Jon: 2:46

There were a lot of people there. That's what it looked like. We were worried that the turnout would be dampened because Beyonce, Cowboy Carter tour.

Robin: 2:53

That's a big deal.

Jon: 2:56

Having their first night coinciding with Houston Pride Parade.

Robin: 3:00

Right yeah.

Jon: 3:01

People were like hands down Bay wins, so right and probably pray, right, yeah, people were like hands down Bay wins, so right, and some of the people that I invited actually told me oh, I'd like to come, but I have Cowboy Carter tickets. Yeah, they plan differently yeah if I wasn't going to be in a once-in-a-lifetime role in this parade already, I might be going to Cowboy Carter, and I look at it this way.

Jon: 3:24

you're gonna lose that argument, so I didn't try to convince anybody not to go, but still, the streets were lined and that's good I was.

Alexis: 3:33

I was worried there wouldn't be that much attendance because of a lot of stuff.

Jon: 3:37

There's a lot of stuff, yeah, but also remember, was it last year, the first year they had two separate pride for a they tried to last year they tried to write and then they recombined them this year.

Robin: 3:47

So I think people were relieved to just have one place to all unify and I think last year they had a heat advisory where we were actually being told to stay inside. So I mean, it was really hard to hear from the mayor to stay inside and then turn around and see people in the parade or at the parade because the show must go on. But how do you make these choices, you know?

Alexis: 4:07

right so it's easy, it's houston, you just do whatever. Yeah, he's, he's not a big deal, yeah, and they have plenty of ambulances to take you to the hospital and rehydrate you like.

Jon: 4:19

We actually walked by all the first responders and the pile, a whole row of ambulances and ems trucks right, just just in case, I'm sure I mean, it's pretty unique to not have heat stroke from houston pride.

Robin: 4:32

So I it's it's. I know too many people who've had, uh, medical emergencies just having to be there to do their job, unfortunately. So I'm glad that you were able to be ally. Grand marshal, did you see any fun rewards from that? I mean, it's one thing to be in the parade, but being a grand marshal, were you highlighted any different way that you appreciated?

Jon: 4:56

So yeah, actually to me the honor, especially for being an ally, right. The honor especially for being an ally, right. So you're talking to someone who's not LGBTQ myself and so the importance right now of having strong allies. You know, with all the political attacks and the spread of misinformation and ignorance, and fear breeds hate, oh that stuff.

Jon: 5:26

And so all that stuff comes at you, it seems like more intensely and more frequently than it has in past, and so I felt like the role was hugely important. I was named. I learned that I was selected as the ally grand marshal while I was working in the legislature. Sitting on the floor of the Texas House, there's a picture of me being all excited about that.

Alexis: 5:58

And did you announce that to the House members?

Jon: 6:01

I told everybody around me I didn't make an announcement on the microphone. I just thought I'd ask. That's a good question.

Alexis: 6:07

You know, Jolanda probably would have.

Robin: 6:11

Are you a part of the representatives that are in an LGBT supportive chapter? I don't know the official name for so the Texas House LGBT Caucus. Are you a part of that? I'm a founding member. Okay, that's what I thought I remembered. I'm a founding member.

Jon: 6:24

Okay, that's what I thought. I remembered so when the caucus formed, I'm not one of the originators but I joined right away.

Robin: 6:28

You got there as quick as you could, I did.

Jon: 6:31

So that part all in a way, of saying I feel like being named ally makes it even more important that I do as much ally stuff as I can and while I already felt like that was important, now like so when we have these bills come up on the House floor and I'm like well, ally, grand Marshal of the Parades, should certainly get up and say something about this. I might have spoken a little more.

Robin: 7:01

You better parade your way there to the mic. Buddy, we're not letting you go now. Oh no, I spoke, and a little more.

Jon: 7:04

You better parade your way there to the mic, buddy, like we're not letting you go now. Oh no, I spoke and I would always yeah.

Alexis: 7:08

And you know I was trying to think of something witty and intelligent to say about that. Except it's sort of like you've been an ally ever since I've known you, which has been quite a while, especially with politics, it's true, I mean.

Robin: 7:21

Well, that's a good thing to say. It's like when did you become an ally, like I mean sometimes for people it's like I've just been this way. There was no. Oh, I discovered I should be a more inclusive person, and that spoke to me Like, or I decided to get these votes, or something.

Alexis: 7:36

I didn't worry about the people that discovered that they needed to be inclusive.

Jon: 7:41

Yeah, that they needed to be inclusive. So if you will recall, I had started going to the Houston GLBT caucus meetings as a political activist, so I wasn't.

Alexis: 7:59

And I think you had a little something to do with one of the Indivisible chapters.

Jon: 8:03

I was that's right, so I had started an Indivisible chapter. That's when I became aware of the political caucus.

Robin: 8:11

I don't know if I remember this history. If I knew it, that's still strong.

Jon: 8:14

This was all 2017 before I decided to run for office and I was regularly attending those meetings at the Montrose Center, I think is where I used to always be, when did you?

Robin: 8:27

catch the bug to run yourself, though it's a contagious bug, so it was actually in the space where we're sitting right now. I was going to say this is not scripted. It really isn't, and it's also not filmed. But both of you just started blushing.

Alexis: 8:42

We know where it's going. I think Marika and I may have encouraged you, that's right.

Jon: 8:47

So we were here at the what did we call ourselves Activist leaders meeting which was basically a wine and cheese sort of thing that would be here.

Alexis: 8:59

Which started when Robin brought 12 random people over here, dropped them off at my house and left. I didn't know.

Robin: 9:04

I didn't know you were one of those people. So I got a call from an activist after the Pantsuit Nation was sort of splintering after Clinton didn't win and she's like what do I do now? I have about 15 to 20 people that want to still keep going and I don't have any meeting space and I said, oh well, when are they meeting? She said, well, they all.

Alexis: 9:26

They're all used to meet on Tuesday night, so they can meet on Tuesday night, and I said well, here's the address, and I gave her, I gave her.

Robin: 9:30

Alexis's address and then hadn't talked to me. And then I called Alexis and I said I mean, if this actually happens, you could have 15 to 20 plus people coming to your house on Tuesday night. She says, well, I guess I'll get the grapes and the brownies and the cheese and the wine, you know, and we show up here and a few of the people were here, I didn't see half of them, I did. You know, marika, I know was a part of the group, maybe even that first night, but it's only two. Two people have gotten here and I said, wait, you're not staying. I had to go teach.

Robin: 9:57

I didn't even know and I was like I don't even know what this group is, but then it kept going and it was people at the tables, people who called in, it was people who zoomed in, and you know that's way cool that you're a part of that. I didn't, I didn't know it was and we were sitting here, yes, having one, yes, good munchies, very southern yes, exactly.

Jon: 10:14

And marika said you know your guy doesn't have any opposition. You would be really good, you should wow, and I was like she's really smart.

Alexis: 10:24

Yeah, no hell no it gives me goosebumps, I'm like no, you really ought to think about it. Where can I talk before that, by the way, did you really? Oh yeah, marika's.

Jon: 10:33

Like you know, I'm thinking it would be really good if john ran I don't know if you know this, but I came out as a politician at a meeting of the glbt caucus.

Robin: 10:43

Wow, so I just got up in front of the crowd and said I'm going to run for office against this horrible person because they're terrible and we need change. Wow. Well, if there's a group who understands about coming out, it's either for political causes, you know, like so that's really great. I didn't know that.

Alexis: 11:03

So I guess the you know fairness to say so. I've known John and supported him for a very long time.

Robin: 11:09

So it all started with your table munchies? No, that's great. Right in the other room there's a lot of good people meeting.

Jon: 11:16

I think I have been welcoming inclusive pretty much my whole life. I grew up in integrated environments and I have, as long as I can remember, always felt like people are just people and we should treat each other with kindness and respect.

Alexis: 11:31

And I think that's a big thing. I don't see how people cannot feel that way, but a lot of them don't a video podcast.

Robin: 11:42

Do you want to say any labels that you hold for yourself besides ally that you know like? Are there any ways that you see yourself besides an advocate and an engineer? Your husband, your, oh, I?

Jon: 11:56

call that? Yeah well, people can't tell from voices well, you might be able to tell from my voice I'm a straight old white man. We were talking about this earlier.

Alexis: 12:07

Straight middle-aged white man. I have the old end of this stuff.

Jon: 12:13

Sorry, actually it's a story I always tell about when we first convened in the Texas house and I had won and we were going to get sworn in for the first time. Although I know your government and this state is made up, it's controlled by old white men. I was surprised by just how old and how white they were.

Robin: 12:31

Seriously, when you see the whiteness up close, it's different.

Alexis: 12:36

There's a lot of people, I don't think, even go out enough to get tanned, and in Texas it doesn't take long it doesn't yeah when you hear the gavel up close.

Jon: 12:45

It's very different from the Capitol During campaign season, I hit a lot of doors.

Robin: 12:50

You're really big at walking yeah.

Jon: 12:52

Yeah, it's a big thing, but I'm also a political activist. I'm a husband, I'm a father, I'm a brother, I'm a cousin. Yeah, you care about education what are some of the topics you get? Behind yeah coffee, definitely pro coffee definitely pro coffee and pro whiskey and cigars, which I think we're not supposed to make a big deal out of, that's okay.

Robin: 13:19

If it's your big deal, it's your big deal.

Jon: 13:22

Coffee first.

Robin: 13:22

Yeah.

Jon: 13:37

So I, when I originally decided to run for office, and there's like one person working on the campaign and it's me, and so I designed the campaign literature and we. My children's best friend is a dreamer and also the person who has the combined best grammar for both. English and Spanish at the same time. So he did all of my Spanish translations. So all my campaign literature is English and Spanish.

Robin: 14:00

Yeah.

Jon: 14:00

And the reason that I bring this up is because I designed it myself. And the reason that I bring this up is because I designed it myself and every time I go to start a new election season, I think okay, I'm going to go either design something new or update the last one, and I read it and. I'm like yeah, this is what I'm still about.

Alexis: 14:24

It's public education, access to health care, equity, justice and combating bigotry and just an inside-onside type thing. When the first design came out, it was encyclopedic in its length and I'm like this is going to take me a week to read, got to be shorter.

Robin: 14:39

This is your short version. Got to be shorter, yes.

Jon: 14:42

Yeah, I got that advice. You have to make it bullet points.

Alexis: 14:44

Yeah, that makes sense. That makes sense. I mean, it was all good stuff, but the novel can come later, you know, after you're known.

Robin: 14:51

Well, I know Alexis has a few things that we want to talk about today, but in this thread that you're saying, do you want to highlight any changes you've seen in those topics since you've actually been in the capital?

Jon: 15:05

so it's um, I think the bigotry and discrimination piece. So if I have a life, you know one of my lifetime commitments is to fight bigotry, bigotry and discrimination in all of its forms. That has really amped up in uh in many ways and it's it's the uh, it's othering anyone who doesn't look like them.

Alexis: 15:27

Yes, I'm nodding.

Robin: 15:28

That's really hard, yeah, hard, nods, hard nods.

Jon: 15:30

And so what we see now is othering to the point of dehumanization which is extremely dangerous to the guy named Rosenthal.

Jon: 15:39

It actually should be to anybody. Should be to anybody, but if you've studied the history of food, you know the jewish culture should be, um, dramatically concerned about an authoritarian movement that dehumanizes people and is now currently building concentration camps in florida and texas. Yeah, so, um. So, in this, really in this last cycle, that has has, uh, amplified, and really at an alarming rate, and the number of anti-LGBT bills multiplied, but also the number of anti-immigrant, anti-dei.

Alexis: 16:16

Yeah, the anti-DEI really really bothers me, you know, and you know, banning books is just not okay with me it's uh.

Jon: 16:27

So what I have said over and over is those who seek to ban books are never on the right side of history, and I've spoken out against that we went from barbara bush's reading list to banning books, like the party has changed a lot and the rhetoric has increased.

Robin: 16:45

But, like you said when you were first writing your missions and what you were out for, those things, those things were going on in Texas and those things from Texas have definitely impacted and increased around the whole nation. And how do you find time to move on to your other topics, if you will Like? I remember that you wanted to support school testing being changed and we were last talking on a podcast about using the rainy day fund for having schools to be a little bit more safe, like, do you think that any of those topics are actually getting listening space, because sometimes they get maybe under acknowledged by all the rhetoric in the news. We may not know if they're actually still getting covered.

Jon: 17:33

So some are in, some are not. Okay, we actually passed a bill out of the Texas house during the 89th session that we've just wrapped up, last month to to replace the STAR test with a nationally normed testing system.

Robin: 17:49

Wow, I hadn't heard. Which would be a big step, yeah.

Jon: 17:52

The bill summarily died in the Senate.

Alexis: 17:54

I was going to say it didn't make it all the way through, though it did not make it all the way through, okay.

Jon: 17:58

But the fact that there is an appetite for it is very encouraging.

Robin: 18:03

That's good.

Jon: 18:04

So it's not all. There's a lot of horrendously bad stuff, but it's not exclusively bad stuff, there's still some positive developments that ideologues from across the spectrum can work together on.

Robin: 18:18

And anything for school safety in the realm of like. You were just coming on into the legislation after the Santa Fe incident mass shooting and we've been through Uvalde and who knows what else I can't name off the top of my head right now. But I mean, is there still an appetite, if you will, for school protection or any new solutions to support that?

Jon: 18:44

if you will, for school protection or any new solutions to support that. So I'll just say that the people in charge in this state talk about that and then do the things that endanger our kids Okay. And so, while they talk about protecting our children, and improving safety in schools, Protecting our children and improving safety in schools. They have, in my time in the legislature, have just successively weakened gun laws. In this last session, they legalized sawed-off shotguns and they made it illegal to have extreme risk protection orders.

Alexis: 19:26

Right.

Jon: 19:27

So those things to me are just crazy stuff.

Alexis: 19:33

I don't understand it. I mean sawed-off shotguns. I don't care one way or the other. I mean it's still a gun, but it just happens to be wider, but the you know no protection orders. I'm sorry, that's wrong.

Jon: 19:47

And then earlier.

Alexis: 19:49

I think they're basically trying to get rid of the judiciary.

Jon: 19:53

Maybe, I don't know. So their extreme risk protection orders banning that is mind-boggling. Yeah, the sort of shotgun fits in a category between other things. So you're right, like oops, in Texas we already and in the country we already allow these high-velocity semi-automatic weapons with large magazines. So sawed-off shotgun, while it's got a bigger spread and maybe easier to hide, you know, which makes it ideal for home defense, I suppose.

Alexis: 20:34

But you know, I guess if I look at it, you know extreme risk. Maybe they're looking at saying there's no extreme risk. I have no idea, but these are. And when I saw the two laws, I sort of saw that they were coming through at the same time. My first thought was well, I might need a sawed-off shotgun, given that I can't get the courts to protect me.

Jon: 20:58

Yeah, no, kidding, right. And then actually it wasn't last session, but the session before was it 2020, when we, when the state legislature, passed the permitless carry stuff. So, when I talk to our local law enforcement. So in my area it's all unincorporated Harris County. So our law enforcement is sheriffs, constables and the school districts. The large school districts have captive police departments and they all think that permitless carry was the most dangerous thing the legislature has done.

Alexis: 21:31

Oh yeah.

Jon: 21:34

For our communities and for our kids.

Alexis: 21:36

I mean, we have had that before and in fact there's an argument that we still had it because we didn't get rid of it when we put in the carry permit type stuff.

Jon: 21:51

So when I was first sworn in in 2019, gun violence was not among the top five leading causes of death for children in Texas, and now it's the leading cause of death for our citizens that are between 0 and 18 years old. So you know, people can say we literally have a gun lobbyist who ran for office and now sits in one of the seats in the chamber right.

Jon: 22:21

So we have a gun lobbyist amongst us who will get on a microphone and insist that more guns make us safer, and my argument is so. How come, as we relax the gun laws and we have more proliferation of guns, more and more children in this state die from gun violence?

Alexis: 22:41

right, right, a hard nod here, yeah and all I can say is more guns in Houston. And that's supposed to make us safer. So far it hasn't worked.

Robin: 22:51

Well, one of the reasons why I highlight Santa Fe is because I know people who were lost there. But I also know that the teachers were armed and are ex-vets and, you know, were actually pro-gun in a safe, user-friendly sort of Texas carry sort of way, not in a, you know, overly in-your-face gun sort of way. And so it has a lot of examples that people end up going to like well, if the teachers just had firearms or if they were trained or whatever. Like you know, they're not paying attention to where these things are already occurring and that case is still not closed, and so a lot of the families have had to move on and do what they need to do for themselves. But I wonder, as we are just closing one legislation session and we're going into a special session maybe a few, depending on what Abbott chooses to a special session maybe a few, depending on what Abbott chooses you are an ally.

Robin: 23:49

You came in with good missions that a lot of people can get behind very necessary things, and they are increasing. You have now learned how to work the political calendar, which is different when you're in legislation how to get things done, how to have conversations, how to move things through. How do you deal with those moments where the needle is not being moved in a direction that is safer for people on, on any of your, on any of your agendas, whether it's bigotry, gun violence, you know, I know a few more we haven't even talked about. But how do you stay in the game, stay motivated, not get defeated.

Jon: 24:27

So it's incredibly stressful it's, it's emotionally gut-wrenching at times, for sure. I just um, I just personally believe you're only defeated if you have given up.

Alexis: 24:38

Okay, so as long as you're breathing and still have the fight in you.

Jon: 24:41

That makes sense there are opportunities. Yeah, you know, my favorite little parable that may or may not be true is the story about Thomas Edison being interviewed by a young reporter, as he was very old, and the reporter asked him about the light bulb deal and how the experiment failed 3,000 times before it actually worked. And he said how did it feel to fail 3,000 times? And Edison's response was well, I didn't fail any times, it was just a 3,000-step process.

Alexis: 25:20

Well, and I keep telling our community something like oh, we've lost everything. I'm like not unless you quit, not unless you quit.

Jon: 25:26

So you're never, defeated until you give up.

Robin: 25:28

Yeah, I mean, I get inspired by that. We're still here, but thank you for that, because it is hard and I get so many people saying I just can't watch the headlines anymore and I'm like probably shouldn't do that. That's not where all the facts really are. I do that. That's not where all the the facts really are. I just read all the articles or I just live streamed in and I I did my best, or I even went to the capital. I even witnessed on you know however, many different topics and spent my savings and lost my job because I was there too much, because it wasn't my job, like I've seen so many things happen.

Alexis: 26:00

but you know, I mean, I actually find enjoyment in reading the headlines and then the article, because it's like how did they get this out of?

Robin: 26:09

this article. They're not the same.

Alexis: 26:10

They're not the same, and you know about half the headlines have nothing whatsoever to do with what the article says. I know right.

Jon: 26:16

We kind of live in a clickbait world.

Alexis: 26:18

Yeah, and then I go look at what the facts were behind it.

Robin: 26:30

And it's like, yeah, okay, so these are three totally different things. Yeah, so this this sinks. You're talking about it Cause it's it's not every day Everyone gets to actually hear their representative or people have gone from. I never thought I would run to running and you're doing it and like speaking on like the real daily struggle of I wanted to make a difference and I'm doing it, but there's a lot of people in that legislature that are taking the mic in a different direction.

Jon: 26:49

That's true.

Alexis: 26:50

Well, I had a question for you that this is the point I should ask you. Yeah, it may get you in trouble, so you don't have to answer if you don't want to. You don't have to answer anything if you don't want to, obviously.

Robin: 26:59

You don't have to.

Alexis: 27:00

See, is this a good enough setup now?

Jon: 27:03

And in the entire time you've known me, how often do I actually? Care about getting into trouble.

Alexis: 27:08

I've never known you to care about it at all. We're here to make trouble.

Robin: 27:14

Yeah, good trouble.

Alexis: 27:16

Why do you think so many people are suddenly against equality, equity, diversity, inclusiveness and all that? I mean they've come out and I think you know, maybe they've always been there and they've just now felt like they can come out. But it amazes me how the you know the thrust of it is oh, I don't want anybody that's not exactly like me, and the problem is nobody's exactly like anybody else.

Jon: 27:45

So when did diversity and equity and inclusion become bad words? Yeah, like they literally use that, and liberal too, you know. If you look up the definition, it pretty much suits my sensibilities liberal, and and the, the people who think that diversity is bad. Is that the question?

Alexis: 28:07

Yeah, I mean, I look at it this way Unless you're Native American, we're all immigrants, exactly, and you hear people talk bad about immigrants. It's like, wait a minute, who in the room is Native American? Okay, nobody. So we're all immigrants.

Jon: 28:24

So what's funny about that? What's ironic is that the brown people that they're trying to get rid of are closer to being Native Americans than people that look like you and me Right. But I think a lot of this is a product of the infosphere propaganda, the pervasive messaging. So it's no longer you're seeing an advertisement or two or somebody speaking out in a stump speech.

Jon: 28:56

Now people exist in an ocean of information and so it comes at you on your phone yeah, email in your daily so many different directions and it just becomes the most massive of echo chambers and so the folks who stoke these so fires of of, uh, hate and divisiveness, ignorance, you know, and fear, are doing that on purpose. Oh yeah, and you know some. Maybe I'm sure some of the leaders have, you know, personal vendettas, whatever, whatever. Or maybe they're self-haters in some cases.

Alexis: 29:35

Yeah, I mean personal vendettas I'm sort of okay with, because at least there's some reason, right, you know.

Jon: 29:41

But I think a lot of it is um the pursuit of political power. So it's it's pursuing, amassing and maintaining political power, and so I, uh, am extremely disappointed by the whole thing, because because the only reason they do it is because it works for them oh, yeah, and it does you watched the cruise uh ted cruz versus colin allred campaign in this last cycle Cruz on TV talking about transgender sport, transgender women in sports, and like that's the whole campaign.

Alexis: 30:14

Yes, and it worked and it's all bullshit.

Jon: 30:17

To be really blunt, it's super bullshit, but it's one of the most egregious hated politicians in the country wins by doing this. And you can expect that, so I'll just predict there's a strong possibility that our Attorney General, ken Paxton, is going to defeat John Cornyn in the primary for United States Senator. It's going to be a culture war campaign.

Alexis: 30:44

Oh yeah, it's all to be a culture war campaign. Oh yeah, it's all about that. And you know, I think that's not a hard prediction to make. Neither one of those, and I totally agree with it. And you know, my biggest thing is that this has come about very heavily since, you know, we elected the president and you know the current one, whose name I tend to not say too often, but but anyway, you know it. It seems like that's become okay. But I have a question for you.

Alexis: 31:16

Let's say, somebody goes and makes up something about me or my community, which they do all the time. I'm a transgender person. In case people didn't know, if this is the first one podcast of these they've listened to, they might not know, but I am, I'm a transgender woman. So let's say that there's somebody out there that you know starts posting all sorts of lies. If it were posted in something in print, I can go after them in court for money. It's online.

Alexis: 31:44

Nobody seems to be able to do that. There doesn't seem to be any law that protects them because they're like well, I was just quoting what someone else said, and it's always someone else. I don't think we should care. You should have to check your sources because you know you're being a news outlet, if you're one of the quote influencers or someone that has a widespread, and you got to check your sources and you should be responsible for that. But supposedly and I say supposedly because I've been told this by a couple of lawyers that may or may not know Supposedly there's nothing that legally lets me go after them and say I want all your money because you've defamed me, and it's a lie.

Jon: 32:24

Well, that should be true. I agree with you. So I agree with that. It should be true. You should be able to go after someone who let's just use the word tweet or post, yeah, who posts about you or just repost something that someone else posted they are still defaming you by doing that.

Alexis: 32:42

Exactly, and that's the way I see it. But you know we don't ever do that. Now I happen to think it would slow down a lot if there were a couple of massive judgments that nobody could pay and you wouldn't expect them to pay. That says you know, you've cost me this much and these problems, and so you know. I mean, it's something that I think may need to be looked at. We probably have current laws that let you do it. It's just that you have to find lawyers who are willing to do it.

Jon: 33:07

Unfortunately, and judges who are.

Alexis: 33:10

Yeah, well, that's the second part.

Jon: 33:11

Fairly so.

Alexis: 33:13

Yeah, we've had a, and that's always a problem too. But you know, there's something else too, and that is that filing a suit and getting it into court can be a win because it'll back so many people off who are like, wait a minute, I may not want to get into the middle of this mess. I agree with that and you know, win, lose, whatever. I mean. There's a couple of things recently that I've explained to people. I'm like don't wait till you've done it. Announce it to the press that you're doing it and you'll get as much coverage and maybe more. And that has worked, actually, really well, I think that's true.

Alexis: 33:52

I agree with that, and so many people don't do that, and so I think that's something we've got to start looking at.

Jon: 33:57

I think we should and it's interesting that. So one of the things about being in politics and being the office holder and running for office is that campaign speech has a wide carve out for this. So people, what I'm saying is people can say whatever they want to about me. It's very difficult for me to bring defamation to a libel lawsuit.

Alexis: 34:20

I'm okay. You raised your hand and ran.

Jon: 34:22

Yeah, I'm not complaining about that, I'm just saying it's one of those things.

Robin: 34:26

It opens you up to a lot.

Jon: 34:27

It does, and so I can't worry about what people say about me, because people say all kinds of stuff about me.

Alexis: 34:33

It's wild. Basically I'm not a public figure, so if they say something about me, I'm sorry you don't have a right to do that.

Jon: 34:47

There's no big, huge carve-out for you, and I was a public figure for a little while but I resigned, so you should try to find someone who will forward legislation along those lines.

Robin: 34:55

I know a couple of people.

Jon: 34:56

You might know a couple of people I might be willing to file a bill like that.

Alexis: 34:59

And that's my biggest thing. It's like I see all these people saying it's horrible Okay, that's fine. Saying it's horrible, okay, that's fine. Saying it's horrible is great, but there may be something we can do about it.

Jon: 35:08

There may actually be appetite to pass a bill like that. In this session, we passed bills through the House specifically concerning AI. So artificial intelligence, deep fakes and the like in campaign speech. So artificial intelligence, deep fakes and the like in campaign speech, and so if we can make it illegal for that, without a disclaimer. So it wasn't that they made it illegal, which was what the far right was messaging on during the session. They were saying oh, you're not allowed to make a meme about the Speaker of the House or the President of the United States. It's like no, it's that if you use artificial intelligence, you just have to say it incredibly realistic image.

Jon: 35:52

You can just say this image was created using AI. Yeah, Just have to have a disclaimer on it. Huh, you know the people know. So people know.

Alexis: 36:01

Yeah, because AI is way too good these days already.

Jon: 36:04

And with the amount of money being spent, even in these House races. So we set records on this last cycle for the amount being spent. There was like a $20 million race out at Beaumont. Wow To unseat the one who was, at that time, the current Speaker of the House.

Alexis: 36:19

Wow, I was going to say and that was ridiculous the amount of money.

Jon: 36:23

So remember when I first got elected, you know I had a tight campaign budget, but that budget was $50,000, $60,000. And the next session, when it became a heated competitive race, that campaign budget was a million dollars and my opponent spent $2 million trying to unseat me in 2020. Yeah, and you know, if you keep going up to unseat me in?

Alexis: 36:45

2020. Yeah, and you know, if you keep going up, you'll have real money.

Jon: 36:47

Yeah, a million here, a million there. Pretty soon you're talking about real money. But, when you have $20 million being spent, you know, in a house race. In Beaumont, texas, house districts are 195,000 to 205,000 residents.

Alexis: 37:02

Yeah.

Jon: 37:05

And so if you're spending $20 million, what is that? $10,000 a person?

Alexis: 37:07

And my view is just go buy them. In Beaumont you can buy most of the votes you need for that. I believe.

Jon: 37:15

Technically that's illegal.

Alexis: 37:16

It is, but at least it's correct.

Jon: 37:20

But I can tell you that the people of Orange County, where all that, oh, jefferson County, where, all that went down, got sick of the television advertising.

Alexis: 37:28

Oh, no kidding. Yeah, yeah, it was ridiculous In a house race.

Robin: 37:31

Yeah, people just start tuning it out.

Alexis: 37:33

Well, and you think about that much money. It only has two television markets out there, so you have to saturate them with that much money. And that is the deal you have to saturate them with that much money.

Jon: 37:43

And that is the deal. And so, in an environment where it used to be, you could win a house race $50,000, $60,000. Now it's $250,000 to $500,000,. Right to unseat an incumbent.

Alexis: 37:58

And basically let's go back to the $20 million. Yeah, what about having that seat is worth $20 million to you?

Jon: 38:11

So there's a question. The person who was in the seat at the time was the Speaker of the Texas House.

Alexis: 38:16

Yes, I'm well aware of that. Right, so one of the big three, the three most powerful people on the state of Texas, who, by the way, in my opinion, wasn't bad, wasn't I mean he was okay.

Jon: 38:26

He was bad, he wasn't awful and he's actually as it goes. He's actually a pretty nice person. Yeah, you know, he's not an outrageous far-right ideologue, right.

Robin: 38:39

Like the folks who were going after him were, but it was a power position.

Jon: 38:41

It's a power position, so it's the Speaker of the House and it's not that the person who defeats that person in a race will be the Speaker of the House.

Alexis: 38:51

It doesn't work that way. The House still has to vote for the Speaker. Right, that's right.

Jon: 38:55

We elect the Speaker from the membership.

Alexis: 38:57

Yeah.

Jon: 38:58

But they were going after him.

Alexis: 38:59

They wanted to get rid of him because he was fairly nice.

Jon: 39:04

There were a couple of things. He's you know, in today's environment, a moderate Republican and he impeached the Attorney General. So I should say he led an effort that had the Texas House of Representatives overwhelmingly impeach the Attorney General.

Alexis: 39:23

And the Senate, of course, said no.

Jon: 39:27

That's a whole other. Yeah, I quit it in the Senate. Of course said no, that's a whole nother, yeah, I quit it in the Senate. And then the end of the story is that the attorney general would not contest those charges in a federal court, because everything they said in the. Senate not everything. A lot of what was used to defend him in the Senate would have resulted in federal charges for perjury.

Alexis: 39:50

But that's okay, he's still running.

Jon: 39:53

And now, this person is very likely to be the next United States Senator from Texas.

Alexis: 40:00

Wow, and the corruption was.

Jon: 40:05

The evidence is bold.

Alexis: 40:06

It's like black letter evidence.

Jon: 40:08

It's in your face, obvious, and people cheer him for that, just like the president. People cheer him.

Robin: 40:17

Yeah, they're cheering him for very inhumane things. If we had, and not a very rough part of our humanity? You know, it's always been around, it's not new. What decade did bigotry and divisiveness come about? Well, I mean, I think it's always kind of been there, but that doesn't mean that we have to move forward with it. But it's really telling when there's a group of people still cheering for it outright in the streets, online, in your face, as your employer, as your representative.

Alexis: 40:51

Yeah, I mean I've only been around politics since the mid-50s, and I mean really around politics. My father ran the Republican Party in southern half of Illinois and his best friend, who lived three houses down the street, ran the Democratic Party in the southern half of Illinois. They were at our house all the time and I sat there and listened a lot, you know. I mean I thought it was normal for senators and representatives to drop over for lunch every weekend.

Jon: 41:23

So here's what I find interesting, if we look back.

Alexis: 41:28

Let me finish my thought, the thing that is different there was lots of corruption, there was lots of other things, but it was to take care of people, not to harm them. I mean Daley in Chicago, major corruption. I mean I'm talking the original Daley, but he took care of the citizens. The crime rate was very low because he controlled it all. The social services were perfectly good, they came right out of his budget and you know, that was sort of the thing. It was like okay, I may be corrupt, I may be sticking a bunch of money in my pocket, but I'm doing the stuff for the people at the same time. I don't see that now. I just see the money going in their pocket.

Jon: 42:15

I'll tell you what I see is around the same time. So I was a teenager in Champaign, illinois, before we moved here in Urbana, where the University of Illinois is. My father was teaching there when I was in early high school, and I was in Champaign when the Nazis got the permit to march on campus.

Alexis: 42:34

Right.

Jon: 42:35

And so that's like a whole thing. Like there were protests but at that time the Nazis and the KKK, when they would march they would cover their faces and law enforcement would be out there without covering their faces.

Alexis: 42:54

Exactly.

Jon: 42:54

Because they're supposed to be the good guys. And now, 40 years later, we're in a place where the Nazis and the KKK don't cover their face, but the law enforcement people do, which really bothers me, which really bothers me.

Alexis: 43:12

I mean, I think basically law enforcement should have to show their badges. They should have to show their faces and they're doing anything. And they don't do that anymore. That's right. And you know when somebody runs in and says they're law enforcement and they don't have a badge on, you know when somebody runs in and says they're law enforcement and they don't have a badge on, I'm not sure that if I was on a jury that I convict somebody who said I didn't think he was law enforcement, I thought it was somebody attacking me.

Robin: 43:36

Well, even before that, though, we are recording July 3rd, you know, post-Pride before the 4th of July, and nightly, whatever news you're watching, some will maybe not cover it as much, but some are covering it. Every single day, around the hour, there are people taking people off the streets with no symbolism on their sleeves, no badges, no name, and they do have face coverings and people are having a hard time stopping this from happening, including governors and mayors saying like we do not know if these are actually police or ICE or Homeland Security.

Robin: 44:19

I mean, they're speculating but they don't know. And so I mean, before you even get to a court case, these people are being grabbed and taken, or they're being and you don't know where they're going and there's no warrants and you know all of the above.

Alexis: 44:34

And they're grabbing US citizens recently. I think it's accidental, but it doesn't matter. If you're a US citizen and you get grabbed like that, there's no question about your rights. I think everybody else has the rights too, about your rights.

Jon: 44:46

I think everybody else has the rights too. I think it's often accidental, but this creates an environment where you have a modern day Gestapo.

Alexis: 44:56

Well, it's more like brown shirts. Brown shirts.

Robin: 45:00

What's brown shirts?

Alexis: 45:02

That was the Nazi youth group that basically weren't really normal police, shall we say, that went out and did Hitler's bidding.

Robin: 45:14

Yeah, I guess so.

Jon: 45:16

They're the ones that burned the books, so yeah, the precursor to the, as the Nazi regime was rising. Right, it was before they had the power to do anything else, so now, they call themselves true patriots and they wear face coverings that look like American flags Right and they are heavily armed and they wear body armor, but they are not necessarily part of any law enforcement.

Robin: 45:42

And in those situations supposedly I mean I'm just guessing it would be cops that stop those people, but I'm not seeing that it would be Well but the police, if they do intercede, tend to get attacked by federal officers.

Alexis: 46:00

Yeah, they're seen. They're supposedly federal officers. Nobody knows. They don't identify themselves as such. They identify themselves sometimes as Homeland Security. They have no identifying documents. If you ask for a warrant, they say they have one. They don't. Usually they have an immigration warrant that is pretty fictitious and the courts have never seen it. The other part of it is, if they have gotten something from a court, it's an immigration magistrate, which is not a judge. Other than that, it's all fine.

Jon: 46:34

Yeah Well, and I'm seeing news reports daily. So we're in Houston, Texas, and I see news reports daily about Houston police calling ICE on folks they have pulled over. So this is at traffic stops. Right, these aren't the worst and the nastiest criminals.

Alexis: 46:53

Right, this is somebody who was speeding because they didn't want to get run over, and in Houston, if you go, the speed limit you can get run over, not even necessarily a traffic infraction. Right.

Jon: 47:06

They could pull people over for any reason.

Robin: 47:09

Well driving for not being white.

Jon: 47:12

Like.

Robin: 47:13

I mean, let's just be honest and I yeah. So I just wanted to presence the fact that this has been. You two were saying there have been times in your life where you've seen this and it has changed and altered. And then I do want to bring us back to today, because we are in a state where this is happening.

Robin: 47:32

But even if I was sitting, I'm born in California Even if I was sitting in California, I would be in a state where it's happening. So the states who have had privileges of ignoring some of these things or thinking that they were not going to have to go through some of these things while watching that they were not going to have to go through some of these things while watching Texas go through it all along, they're really grappling with it in the moment as well.

Alexis: 47:54

So I saw a news report where somebody in Montana was saying well, they haven't really had this problem, they don't have people. I mean not to joke about it but that wouldn't be any place that you're going to have a whole lot of people that ICE could pick up. I mean, they might find a Canadian or two, but that's pretty much it. But yeah, because this is 2025. You know, it's going pretty bad as far as personal freedoms and those sorts of things.

Robin: 48:23

Yeah, yeah, I just I don't know, We'll see. We'll see where we go with this, but it's, it's. I think it's hard to know what to do based upon the current happenings and not everyone has the same accessibility and actions that other people do. It just it depends on, depends on what you're doing you know, I could say, well, get out there and push back, get into the streets. Well, not everyone has that privilege, not everyone has that availability and I don't think that works. And some people do, but here we are.

Alexis: 49:01

A lot of people think it works. I don't. I'll just, I'll be really blunt. I think we need to be more intelligent than that. We need to be more intelligent than that. We need to be better planned than that. We need to do a lot of other things.

Alexis: 49:10

Because the problem is in my mind, and this is my mind we had a fair election, trump won. Trump is doing what Trump said he would do. Now he's doing it in ways that I don't think any of us dreamed he might do it. And you know, I happen to believe in democracy. I don't like the way it sometimes turns out Like this one. I really don't like the way it turns out.

Alexis: 49:37

But let's see what the midterm does. Hopefully it will correct some of it. That's a hope, you know, and hope's one of those things. That's sort of weird. But I mean, he did win and all the people are like well, it wasn't a fair election, it was as fair as any election. I mean, I don't think there was a whole lot of corruption. Now, you know, do? I think there was a whole lot of misinformation that went out from who knows where? Yeah, probably from all sorts of our enemies around the world, et cetera. But that's what we have today, of our enemies around the world, etc. But that's what we have today and since we have no way to combat it, really we're stuck with it. Well, that's kind of the landscape.

Jon: 50:19

That's the environment that we operate in, and so we just have to adapt to that. So I would hope that, whether they're conservative or liberal-minded, anybody of good conscience cannot witness what's happening.

Alexis: 50:34

That's my hope.

Jon: 50:37

And you expect to see a backlash in the midterms. Let's see if that happens, but I think we're already seeing encouraging signs of that.

Alexis: 50:44

And you know, one of the problems from my point of view is that we have a two-party system and the two parties have spent a lot of effort and time making sure it's impossible to get a third one.

Alexis: 50:56

It's true. I mean, it is so hard to create another party that it's ridiculous. And the two-party system right now the Republicans are extreme, to be really blunt and everybody's scared to death of the president, and you know it's the type of thing where that's not good. The Democrats are disorganized. They don't seem to be coming up with any plan. It's sort of a woe, is me we'll defend like crazy. Well, that's not going to help change things, if you will. I mean, the last election, in my opinion, was done extremely poorly. They didn't get buy-in for Kamala in any way, shape, form or fashion, and they picked an issue that half the people in the country don't care about. Who picked an issue? The Democrats?

Jon: 51:47

And what issue did they pick? Abortion?

Alexis: 51:51

Huh, you know.

Robin: 51:52

Well, going back further and when I say half the people don't care about it.

Alexis: 51:55

Most of the males don't care about it.

Robin: 51:58

Going back further, biden was, you know, basically a Hail Mary, like he didn't want to run himself. He did, based upon whoever was backing him or pushing him. But I mean, at that point we had what? 11 different types of options, from Pete Buttigieg to Amy Kulvishar to Yang, and I don't see a lot of those options still in existence. I agree with Alexis. I don't see a huge Democratic plan to counter some of the things that are happening with Alexis.

Alexis: 52:28

Like I don't see a huge Democratic plan to counter some of the things that are happening. I will say it's getting better at the national level. They figured out that people who are going to be able to make change is a good idea and hopefully we don't get somebody in the Carolinas that decides OK, I get to pick who it is, otherwise you don't get any of the votes in our community.

Jon: 52:57

That was the Biden pick, in my opinion, and then you know I will state that I do have opinions, which is all fine, you know, I mean in 2020, that worked out? Yes, and I do feel like the Biden presidency was historically effective, just based on what actually happened and not what people say about it.

Alexis: 53:21

Well, it was effective in some areas.

Jon: 53:26

So granted.

Alexis: 53:28

It did nothing for diversity.

Robin: 53:30

Let him give his opinion.

Jon: 53:32

The issue about what happened in 2024, that's just, you know what I would politely call a Charlie Foxtrot, yes, where you're trying to reelect 80, a 80 something, you know, an octogenarian, and then you know you have a choice between two really demonized, hated politicians.

Jon: 53:56

So in my mind, the democrats need to do more than just get organized. They have to um re-embrace core philosophies that are, that are the, the democrat um ideals. You know, I think I embody those things, but I'm also an old white guy. So the republicans do a very good job not only of messaging and staying on message and harping the same points over and over again once they find something effective, but they also do a very good job of developing their bench and bringing up young up-and-comers through the ranks and getting them acclimated to winning elections in local races, school boards, city council, that sort of thing. And Democrats tend to get old and die in office and so they're not developing the bench or succession plans. And, uh, if we, if you subscribe to the notion that it has to be the younger generation that saves us because I kind of believe this you have to have those people coming up and you gotta have a younger generation their voices have to be heard.

Jon: 55:09

They have to more than just exist. They have to be promoted and elevated and helped along the way. Right.

Alexis: 55:17

I mean federally. The Democrats could have a pretty good bench right now. The problem is that they've beat them up like you wouldn't believe and have not endorsed them.

Robin: 55:31

Well, locally we had an opportunity to elect Amanda Edwards, who was younger and viable, and the caucus in Greater Houston was warned that we have an elder in this seat, that we have an elder in this seat. What happens if Sheila Jackson Lee who did look quite sickly at the time, you know goes in and gets sick and passes away? Well, it was brought to their attention that if you know civics, that means Abbott gets to say when the next election happens or not. So you could be having an empty seat. And right now they have an empty seat because not only did they elect Sheila, they elect Turner, who also was a cancer survivor, and I'm not in that district. But here's the thing I could be like. Well, that's their choice. I'm not in their district, I have no say in that. But then you look at a federal level where right now the big bill could be using those votes for a representative to be there, and it's an empty seat.

Alexis: 56:38

There are several things that have passed by one vote. It affects the nation.

Robin: 56:43

And then, in this time where people are told, do what you can call your representatives. Okay, who do they call? What do they do? And I mean, sometimes we have to just stop and say, look, yes, these actions can make a difference, but some of these actions are ineffective and a waste of people's time, labor and emotions, because it is really tough and people are dealing with a lot right now.

Robin: 57:12

For instance, I really want to know, like, which party has accountability, you know? Like, do we have accountability for all the times we fumble on the democratic side? Do we have accountability for all the illegal things? I don't give a shit. If he was rightfully elected, he's elected. He's in the seat. Okay, great, we're still talking about December. I'm talking about people being taken off the streets now. So our current president and our houses, whether that's at a federal place or a state place or even a city place, are still like well, this other side, you know, are still like. Well, this other side, you know, has the majority, or well, I guess I'll do what I do and like, who actually holds these people accountable? I don't see it.

Alexis: 58:01

I mean it has to be the voters, but some way or other we have to figure out how to get that to the voters.

Jon: 58:07

It's true it has to be the voters, but the part about having engagement and involvement and activism is how that happens depressed, dejected, or feel like they have no voice or their voice doesn't make a difference. That kind of apathy really feeds the whole cycle. For sure, and then the voter suppression, and there's another word that I'm seeking. But when we gerrymander our districts or it seems like elections don't matter because Right Like.

Robin: 58:52

Your vote doesn't matter, Even if you're somebody who shows up chronically and you're getting voter fatigue like you're voting out the wazoo because you show up for every Like. Harris County has a lot of voting.

Alexis: 59:03

You know I mean we vote frequently. There's a lot of voting.

Jon: 59:06

So the same as any given Tuesday.

Alexis: 59:08

Yeah, pretty much. You can go down and vote, just because.

Robin: 59:11

Yeah, you know, I mean you're doing that, but it does have some side effects of. Is it enough? Does it matter? Does my voice make a difference? And some people get sort of numb to it or dull to it or they keep going, and some people get reactive to it, right, so it just depends.

Jon: 59:30

I agree with that and what we saw in 2016, 2017 into 2018, the wave that I got elected in I think we're seeing the sparks of that kind of activism now. We just had a monster, historic, nationwide protest. We had a thousand people show up in my area Cyprus With the no Kings?

Robin: 59:54

or is that what you're talking about? With the no Kings? Okay, all right.

Jon: 59:56

So and so, people, at some point there will be a backlash to, to the feeling that that your vote is suppressed or doesn't matter. There's, there's like hey, I'm, I'm done with feeling like we cannot affect change. And that's when you see, uh, people turn out by the thousands, vote margins I think so.

Alexis: 1:00:22

I mean these races are pretty narrow oh, the vote margins have been very narrow and that's what we have to keep saying.

Robin: 1:00:27

We have to keep telling people like no, really, like I say it so many times, there's been elections after this, but one of my city council members lost her seat by 16 votes.

Robin: 1:00:39

She's in the near North side and the Heights. Those people pride themselves on showing up, but the truth is is a lot of those polls are probably going to be shut down because they're so they're not frequented anymore. But you know, 16 votes is most of us can do. That, you know. And then a lot of, like the big bill like it's only losing by one, one vote, two votes. I mean it's still being rehashed right now, but it's important to keep in that reality.

Alexis: 1:01:07

And then Pasadena they had to do a coin toss because it was tied. I remember this. Yeah, I mean this was like two weeks ago, oh, okay.

Jon: 1:01:15

That they did the coin toss.

Alexis: 1:01:17

It was Pasadena City Council.

Jon: 1:01:19

Yeah, in 2020, with 74,000 votes cast, I won by 300 votes.

Alexis: 1:01:25

Right, so it's a tiny little margin. And that's the big thing 300,. Wow, it's closer than people think. A lot of times, mm-hmm, and it seemed like it.

Robin: 1:01:36

Okay, go ahead.

Alexis: 1:01:37

So I'm going to point us a different direction.

Robin: 1:01:39

Please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please. We've been going.

Alexis: 1:01:44

The woe is me direction, from my point of view.

Robin: 1:01:50

No, I don't think so so what things do you think?

Alexis: 1:01:53

well, we have a special session coming up and then, of course, right on the heels of the special session, there'll be a general session coming up soon. I mean, y'all are not in session all the time, but the two weeks you get off in between I think you're not much. So what positive things do you think might happen in the special session and the next general session?

Jon: 1:02:13

So first, I think we just need to stop calling them special sessions.

Alexis: 1:02:17

I know they're just sort of like number two.

Jon: 1:02:33

It's a called session, so the governor has to call a session, and this in the very first place, and this in the very first place, creates the argument for amending our state of the state. 140 days every other year is, in my mind, ridiculous.

Alexis: 1:02:57

Well, but, as you well know, we don't think that. But the governor likes to be able to run things with a couple other statewide officials.

Jon: 1:03:06

Exactly so. The governor has indicated that he will call a special session, a called session starting on July 21st, and there's a few bills that deal with legal type of issues, like actually sort of jurisprudence law stuff, the creation of some new courts and that sort of thing. Also, he vetoed the lieutenant governor's hemp ban.

Alexis: 1:03:35

Yeah, which I thought was great. Actually, which is good. Yeah, I mean, banning is a bad word, in my opinion. Regulate and go with it.

Jon: 1:03:44

Regulate and tax it.

Alexis: 1:03:45

Yes, exactly Regulate and go with it because Regulate and tax it. So this is Exactly.

Jon: 1:03:47

Eight billion dollar a year industry in Texas that lieutenant governor thinks we should just end and if you make it illegal then it just disappears overnight. Apparently that's what he thinks. I think an eight billion dollar a year industry. If you suddenly make the product illegal, it just goes underground.

Alexis: 1:04:06

Yeah, you just stop getting any taxes from it.

Jon: 1:04:09

And your ability to control. It is gone, your ability to regulate or tax it or manage it in any kind of reasonable way just evaporates.

Alexis: 1:04:19

I mean, we have figured out multiple times that something that's illegal we can't regulate.

Jon: 1:04:24

You can regulate legal things, go figure, but we seem to forget if you just suddenly make the hemp industry illegal, all the CBD shops and all those products and all that stuff, 8 billion dollar a year industry, that's just a gift to organized crime and cartels, because they'll be the ones that market these things. So the senate, controlled by lieutenant governor um dan patrick, passed a ban and then we turned it. It came in the house and it became a regulatory structure which was strict but still it was sensible. And then it went back and they passed it as a ban again. So it went. It ended up going to the governor's desk as a complete ban and the governor vetoed that.

Jon: 1:05:10

It has called the special session ostensibly to enact controls, because if you can't get a bill passed, you can't actually change or make a law. That's kind of how it works. And to get a bill passed, to change a law or make a new law, you need the governor, the lieutenant governor and the speaker of the house kind of on board. I think the speaker of the house is um agnostic when it comes to hemp policy. I don't think he actually feels strongly about it like emotionally, like the the governor and lieutenant governor do.

Jon: 1:05:50

If they can't agree you cannot make a new law Right. So we're going to convene on the 21st, subject to the call of the governor. So he hasn't issued his proclamation calling us in, but he's announced it in the news and given the list of bills that he wants us to take up. So we'll see if that actually happens. I feel confident that I will be in Austin on the 21st. Yeah, pretty confident. A new session and there will be this six bills or whatever the number is. He can add whatever he wants.

Alexis: 1:06:22

Yeah, which I expect he will. I expect he will.

Jon: 1:06:24

I have no idea what they're going to be, so the speculation is that he'll add a redistricting to the call. Oh yeah, I want to draw new district lines. We're talking about the, the change in the federal government body makeup because of the midterm elections, and so the trump administration has called on the red states to re-gerrymander, to pick up a few extra seats to try to protect their majority in the house.

Robin: 1:06:51

And as somebody who's been through a redistricting process, and for those who have no idea what this takes there's like a whole presentation on redistricting, but I mean do? You think that there's any more squeezing that they can do with these lines. You know that they're going to draw or do you think? It's a potential danger or so it is potential danger.

Jon: 1:07:10

So we're um already gerrymandered um out the wazoo.

Alexis: 1:07:15

Yeah, I mean the senate. There's stuff they can do. Maybe the state senate, no, the uh federal us senate district, but those are really clearly defined. I mean there's not much they can do with them. So if they're redistricting the House, the US House, yeah, that's the only thing you can actually do.

Jon: 1:07:36

You can do that.

Alexis: 1:07:37

You can do the state, but what you're going to have to do because of their previous redistricting, anything they do is going to dilute their current absolute districts. That is correct, because they've done it so much that there aren't extra Republican districts around.

Jon: 1:07:54

The state is artfully.

Robin: 1:07:56

Yeah, yeah, it's really serious. I mean, I've screened with the political caucus and when people sit at the table for different seats and whatnot, they'll hand a picture or a card with their actual district on there. It's the most wackiest shape you can't even imagine. You know, like you might be running for what you consider in houston. I remember fran watson, but then like she's having to go all the way out to the ship channel for some of her people too. I mean it's, it's, it's really, it's really a big there's large, large, weird areas.

Jon: 1:08:28

It is true, while they might be able to pick up a couple of seats, the only way to do that is by diluting the Republican majority in some of those districts.

Robin: 1:08:38

Okay, so what's the potential danger? Is it that?

Jon: 1:08:44

Well, it can't, it's not sustainable long term. So that you know my the, the whisper, the rumors that I hear is that, uh, our congressional delegation in texas, the republican congressional delegation, is against doing it.

Jon: 1:09:01

Yeah, because they don't want to weaken their positions yeah, sure, I can see that the democrats obviously are against it because they don't want to lose seats, which is what they think. Sure, there is the um, the possibility that the whole exercise becomes ironic, in that they draw maps seeking to win an extra seat or two, but lose two or three seats because you're diluting your majority in a year where activism is on the rise and any seat that's mildly competitive is winnable in that environment. That's literally how I won.

Alexis: 1:09:39

And we do have some people coming in from other states to Texas, still with a lot of the business that's coming in. So some of the seats or some of the districts that look like they would be heavily republican may not be that way by the time they finish that's true.

Robin: 1:09:54

Population increase has been dramatic yeah, well, and with all this hospital needs out in the rural area and things like this, like there might be a lot of shift of heart depending on if they actually get resources or lose resources.

Jon: 1:10:07

We'll see so hospital closings, school campus closings, public schools in some areas went to four-day instruction weeks. It's a big deal, it's a big deal, and so, uh, the leadership in the state may be hesitant to do that. So we'll see, I am the vice chairman of the redistricting committee in the Texas.

Robin: 1:10:31

I like how you like. Save that title.

Jon: 1:10:34

So like right now if that gets added to the call, you'll be busy, I'll be busy. So it's funny because I get the title. I got a cool gavel with a little nameplate for my service During this session. During the regular session that committee did not convene so we didn't even meet once. But because your office budget gets increased when you're a chair or a vice chairman, I gave everybody in the office a raise. We spent the money on the people at work who actually do the heavy lifting.

Alexis: 1:11:11

I mean, I'm sort of glad they didn't meet.

Jon: 1:11:16

I wanted to forward a bill to require the state to so, actually a bill and a constitutional amendment that will work together to require that the state does redistricting using a nonpartisan commission, using open source computer software.

Alexis: 1:11:33

Yeah, I have a question. Yeah, no, I like that actually, but I have a question. Is there such a thing as nonpartisan with politics? I mean, I hear nonpartisan commissions and I look at half the people on it and I'm like they're so partisan you wouldn't believe.

Jon: 1:11:51

So don't bother me with semantics. Oh okay, let's not let facts get in the way of our ideals, but the states that have done this when it's technically nonpartisan. So finding people who are actually not partisans in Texas might be difficult If the commission has appointees from specific places, so that you've at least got a good mix. Yeah, the open source software to draw the districts based on the principles of the constitutional principle it's a novel concept.

Robin: 1:12:33

Right the constitutional principle.

Alexis: 1:12:35

Oh that thing. It just gets in the way, doesn't it?

Jon: 1:12:37

Collecting communities of common interest along geographic boundaries. That's the sort of thing that you can make an argument about.

Robin: 1:12:44

And would this be the Texas Constitution?

Jon: 1:12:46

Okay, yeah, yeah. And so that's what it's supposed to be. They have allowed the legal argument to draw districts to quote unquote, preserve incumbency, which is completely different from collecting communities of common interest along geographic boundaries. And why you so? All the districts should be kind of blobby blobs, without a lot of fingers or tentacles, or it shouldn't wrap around the city and come in the other side.

Jon: 1:13:16

So what they do now is they take a slice of the city, which is more Democrat-leaning, and connect it to a huge swath of rural area, which is more Republican-leaning, and so you just negate slice of the city to be balanced out by the huge chunk in the country. And you see that in Austin a lot they don't have, you know.

Alexis: 1:13:42

Oh, you see that all over Texas. You see it all over Texas. Yeah.

Jon: 1:13:46

So yeah, I wanted to advance a bill like that.

Robin: 1:13:50

And have you heard of new strategy about placing bills going into the next opening for bills coming out of this last stretch? I mean the people that you're connected with. Are they presenting different ideas at this point or they're just sort of resting because it's been a long legislation?

Jon: 1:14:10

session no no, whenever the rumors about this type of subject matter come out there's a whole lot of conversation behind the scenes about strategizing the best way to go about it. Sure, have the votes, and even if there are some folks who may not agree on their side, they're unwilling to cross the line, and we saw that on the school voucher. So that was one of the big products of this legislative session, where your public tax dollar is going to subsidize private school education for a small number of students in the state.

Alexis: 1:14:49

Yeah, and homeschooling.

Jon: 1:14:53

And while a number of Republicans opposed that ideologically, almost none of them were willing to vote against it when it came to voting against Abbott and Trump. And that's a problem actually, and so it's also a problem for the gerrymandering thing. Yeah, because it creates when you draw only safe seats. It creates an environment where the representatives are ever more polarized, because their electorate is more polarized and the only thing that matters is your primary election. The general is not competitive.

Alexis: 1:15:24

Yep and a lot of them aren't heavily primaried.

Jon: 1:15:30

It's true, I don't understand why, but that is that well I do. I couldn't say.

Alexis: 1:15:37

Because people want to go into politics and continue.

Jon: 1:15:41

It's influence, it's money and it's incumbency. Longevity, all those things stack up against a primary challenge.

Alexis: 1:15:50

So it sounds like you have enough to keep you busy for the rest of the year.

Jon: 1:15:55

Okay, so I plan to be in Austin starting on the 21st for however long we have to do what we have to do. I'm planning on having a safety forum in concert with local law enforcement. Harris county sheriff's office has agreed to do it with me and that will probably be early in august. Middle of august is my birthday. I have a big birthday fundraiser party that it's a fun time.

Alexis: 1:16:20

Yeah, which is a fun time it is invited to yeah, we went last year.

Robin: 1:16:25

It was a fun time yeah.

Jon: 1:16:27

Same place, same lady is hosting us this year Nice. And then, coming right out of that, I actually have to raise money for not just for re-election, but I'm incredibly active in the school board races in our area.

Robin: 1:16:43

So Sci-Fair.

Jon: 1:16:43

Independent School District and Katy Independent School District and Sci Independent School District and Cy Fair, which is most of the area I represent, has a school board dominated by right-wing Christian nationalists, and so we are looking to regain a sane majority, and so I'm heavily invested emotionally, personally and financially. My campaign is going to contribute heavily in that race.

Robin: 1:17:10

And it seems like Katie is also stacked with that as well. Right, they're stacked, but they're actually more moderate. Okay.

Jon: 1:17:15

Yeah, I mean the Sci-Fair school board at this point has become.

Alexis: 1:17:21

Very their. Last election one person sort of switched the school board side because the majority, I think, is against banning books and is against banning everything A lot of people move to suburbia, where these really good school districts are for the schools, and so it becomes a hot topic.

Robin: 1:17:42

Oh, it absolutely does, I'm going to be.

Jon: 1:17:45

That's one of the reasons I live where I live. Oh, it absolutely does, and so I'm going to be. That's one of the reasons I live where I live. You know my wife and I getting engaged and combining a family, and she wants the children in SciFair schools and that's where we live.

Robin: 1:17:55

And how old are your kids now?

Jon: 1:17:58

My little ones are 32 and 37. Okay, so they're about to turn 33 and 38. Okay, wow, about to turn 33 and, uh, 38, okay, wow, yeah, that's something. So what else? Sorry, 30, they're 30, 33 and 38 now, so they're going to be 34 and oh, okay at what point in planning for the next legislature do you start writing these bills?

Robin: 1:18:28

do you just sort of uh, go about it as they come up, or do you have like a time where you're like, okay, no, it's, it's about to be the month before we present it.

Jon: 1:18:36

We really gotta get the verbiage down on what we want to present for a bill so one of the advantages of incumbency is I can use those resources to draft my bills now.

Robin: 1:18:47

Okay.

Jon: 1:18:47

So I can notwithstanding the fact that a special session will come up and I will have the opportunity to file bills that are part of the subject of the call. So during a special session, we can only file bills that are related to the call of the session, related to the to the call of the session. But I also work pretty much year round with uh constituents, advocates and folks on crafting my legislative state for slate for the next session, and so, while it's the quiet time during the interim between sessions is the time to get these bills drafted, because the folks that do the drafting work in the capital are less busy.

Jon: 1:19:30

And so, like this session that we just finished, I walked in with probably 30 bills already drafted, and so, on the day when you can start, filing during early filing I can file everything I want to in the first week or so.

Robin: 1:19:46

Do you know what are and maybe you don't, but I'm just curious because, as a person who observes the legislation session for a couple of sessions now, you are in community groups and a lot of the community groups watch what kind of bills are coming up and they speak to this oh, there's five for this, there's 10 for this. This one looks really bad. This one looks potentially good. Lotty, lotty, lotty. Some people have trackers for these things, depending on the topics that they like. Do you know what are sort of the average amount of bills that a representative brings to the legislature? Is there such a number like? Is 30 a lot for you or is that a small number?

Jon: 1:20:31

I'm not sure so it's a good question and it varies greatly okay so, uh, last session I know reps that filed like five bills okay and I filed 50. Okay so and I know reps that filed 100 or more. There's. You know you can file. There's no limit other than the functional limit of the people who do the work. There's a limit to how much stuff you can drive on. So it takes a huge amount of effort just to get a bill through committee and onto a house calendar.

Jon: 1:21:11

It's a huge amount of effort just to get a bill through committee and onto a House calendar, especially for a member of the minority party. You know I had 10 bills heard, so I had 10 bills heard in committee of the 50 that I filed and I passed three off the House floor. One was signed by the governor.

Alexis: 1:21:27

So for me that's actually a pretty successful thing. I was about to say that sounds like success.

Robin: 1:21:29

Which one was that? Did you already say that? I'm not sure.

Jon: 1:21:31

The bill that I passed. Yeah, it was around public education and it's a bill so that children with chronic or life-threatening illnesses cannot be penalized for the absences associated with those illnesses. Wow, that's very important, so pretty good stuff.

Robin: 1:21:47

Chronic or life-threatening illnesses cannot be penalized for the absences associated with those illnesses.

Jon: 1:21:49

Wow, that's very important yeah.

Robin: 1:21:50

This session.

Jon: 1:21:51

actually I passed a bill off the House floor to end child marriage in Texas, which is very near and dear to my heart, would not get a hearing in the Senate. So go figure Right, but it got a majority vote off the House floor to just raise the age to 18, no exceptions.

Robin: 1:22:10

Thank you for doing that. So now the age is 18 and above to be able to be married. Nope, no, bill died in the Senate.

Jon: 1:22:17

Oh, it died, okay, you can get married in the state if you're 16 or 17, if you're emancipated.

Robin: 1:22:22

Okay, okay, or in the family, and when you submit bills are Okay. And when you submit bills, are they always heard or thought of or put on a calendar, or no? They just sit there until somebody puts it on the calendar and wants to hear it. In a committee, what's the? What's the, what's the process after everyone submits and they have like a, a cutoff time for?

Jon: 1:22:42

all this submission. That's right. So there, the calendar includes deadlines and cutoffs and all that sort of thing, but the basic process is you file a bill, the bill is referred by the Speaker's Office to one of the substantive committees, and then that committee is not required to hold a hearing, so you have to ask for a hearing.

Robin: 1:23:03

Okay.

Jon: 1:23:04

Once you get that, if you get heard, because it's at the discretion of the chair or the committee once you get a hearing, you try to whip the votes If you think the majority of the members of the committee will vote for it. And you find that out by I find that out by actually talking to them.

Robin: 1:23:23

Sure sure to them.

Jon: 1:23:31

Sure, sure, If you can get it voted out of committee, then it gets sent to the House Calendars Committee and then you have to lobby the members of that committee to get it placed on a calendar.

Robin: 1:23:37

So you're submitting the bills. There's a cutoff time for all bills submitted, and then someone. What I'm wondering is does someone say all the bills that were submitted, so every bill has an option to go to committee or no? They get to pick which ones they want to bring to committees. Does that make sense?

Jon: 1:23:56

So the way it works is every bill that's filed is referred to a committee.

Robin: 1:24:00

It is. That's the process, okay.

Jon: 1:24:02

Now it doesn't have to be heard. It's up to the chairman of each committee whether or not they wish to entertain a bill in that committee hearing.

Robin: 1:24:09

Do you know, either one of you, how many bills are submitted per legislature each year, roughly?

Jon: 1:24:16

No or we have no idea. It varies widely this last session was something like 9,000 bills.

Robin: 1:24:24

Okay, so that's a lot. Yeah, that's a lot, I mean it seems like it Because our legislation season it's not very long.

Jon: 1:24:33

It's 140 days, and the first 60 days you can't actually hear a bill.

Alexis: 1:24:39

I mean, that's what's interesting. There's all these cutoffs where 140 days seems short but you have to knock 60 days off the front for doing work on it other than just whipping it. I guess. There you go.

Jon: 1:24:50

So I actually have these numbers handy, because I got asked this question recently.

Robin: 1:24:56

Okay, let's restate the question.

Jon: 1:24:58

All right. So the question is about the number of bills that get filed in a session. So I don't know what an average is, but this was a heated session with a lot of bills filed. Okay, so the total bills filed House bill and Senate bill 8,719. Wow, Past House and Senate 1,213. And then the total that were vetoed was something like 28. Wow, and so the rest of the bills became laws.

Robin: 1:25:30

Wow, thank you for those numbers because you know, as you're just observing these legislations, you hear oh well, there was a furries bill, or oh well, there was a hate bill, or oh well, there was actually this important let's raise the salary for teachers bill. There was actually this important let's raise the salary for teachers bill, but you're not tracking in like 8,000 bills, you're not tracking in 28 vetoes, you're not tracking in what actually got passed.

Alexis: 1:26:00

And I often wonder what are the real numbers, you know, behind all this stuff? And my question always, when we look at numbers like that because I have looked at them before is do we really need that many new laws? Because I have looked at them before is do we really need that many new laws? And you know there's some that I like, that I think, yes, we need those, but then there's a whole lot of others that I'm like is this really?

Jon: 1:26:15

necessary. It's funny that many people in the state feel the way that you feel, but everybody has different stuff. Of course there needs to be laws for or against, or improved, or you know.

Robin: 1:26:31

So it's complicated, the law stretches into all sorts of things and sometimes we need to go back and take the laws off the books. I mean, that takes time too, and I think this last legislation was the time and I hope this is right, because I read Texas Tribune and I follow them a little bit was the first time that they actually took some of the anti-gay laws off the books. Um, is that?

Jon: 1:26:54

ring a bell. No, if it like the sodomy laws yeah, so I don't know if that passed the senate okay, okay, see it's hard the house okay, jones, out of dallas okay passed that bill off the house okay because see it could be hard.

Robin: 1:27:08

I could read it past one thing and then I forgot there's this whole other passing process and keeps going. Okay, pass the bill to repeal the anti-sodomy law okay, because it's not off the books yet, or before this legislation it wasn't.

Jon: 1:27:21

So yeah, that was a historic accomplishment, just like my child marriage ban was, and just because it didn't become a law, this session advanced the effort past where it's ever gone before. So it's only a matter of time.

Robin: 1:27:37

It's only a matter of time. I really thought that if people knew what was happening, could live stream in or actually keep up with the truth, what was happening could live stream in or actually keep up with the truth. Their mind would be blown on the fact that these are still on the books or that these still need to be laws. You know, like I don't know, if you surveyed, like, 20 people walking into McDonald's, are you aware that this is still on the books? Like I don't think that they know, that you know, or what would you guess the legal age is to get married? Like I don't. You know, like I think the modern perspective may be more aligned with what you're pitching than what is actually happening.

Robin: 1:28:15

So I'm glad that you're bringing the spotlight to it, because I think there's a lot of people walked on and was like this is handled already.

Alexis: 1:28:21

Well, legal age to get married. All I can say is ours is better than Kentucky.

Jon: 1:28:25

It's true. You know, in this state we still have a constitutional provision in our state constitution that requires anyone to affirm that they believe in God in order to serve in your legislature. Which is boldly unconstitutional and violates the First Amendment of the United States Constitution. But there's no appetite to repeal the provision.

Alexis: 1:28:48

Not when you're trying to get commandments put back into schools and things, but does it say which God?

Jon: 1:28:57

Just thought I'd ask, and there's a piece of paperwork to fill out where you can actually say, I'd rather not say, and they won't stop you.

Alexis: 1:29:03

Right.

Jon: 1:29:05

But remember, I registered as agnostic and I may be the first one to ever do that.

Alexis: 1:29:10

Wow.

Jon: 1:29:12

In real life I identify more as multi-religious, but I think agnostic fits yeah, and we've had this conversation before and I got a lot of attention for that. And the question is why do you keep this provision in your state constitution? Well, it would take a whole effort with a, with a two-thirds majority of both the house and the senate, and then a statewide referendum. And the argument is well, we don't try to enforce it, so it's, it's not harmful yeah, until it is I was going say until someone does enforce it.

Jon: 1:29:48

Exactly, and so in an environment where, like you said, they passed Senate Bill 10, which requires public schools in the state to display the Ten Commandments in every classroom if they are donated. It's boldly unconstitutional.

Alexis: 1:30:04

Right, so it's aimed at a Supreme.

Jon: 1:30:05

Court challenge. Okay, I mean, that's just what it is. But in the meantime, those will be displayed in all classrooms of the state where they're donated.

Alexis: 1:30:16

And the real question is exactly what discussion will be held around them.

Jon: 1:30:21

So are you going to tell kindergartners what adultery is?

Alexis: 1:30:28

Obviously, except that would be banned because you can't have any books to explain it to them.

Robin: 1:30:32

There you go.

Robin: 1:30:34

I don't know. I think some of these things that get passed, the practicality of them are really rough. And then you kind of like what Alexis said you'll see these headlines and you think it gets passed. You'll see these headlines and you think it gets passed. And last legislature, when they were trying to do the drag bans, I myself didn't even know which spaces have been pressed on by these laws. Is it public libraries? Is it 18 and below? Is it 18 and above? What actually happened? 18 and below? Is it 18 and above? Like what, like what, what actually happened? And you know it's like sometimes you have to go up and actually ask the, the bar owners, like what? What actually happened? You know?

Alexis: 1:31:15

how long did it last? The newspapers are in a big hurry to get to be the first ones to report it, so they report that someone filed a bill about and they report it as though it's a done deal, and I'm sort of like there's a lot of bills filed. Right, right, and you know, I think that's the really big difference.

Robin: 1:31:34

So are you looking forward to any other new bills this next legislature that you're going to work on, or maybe not? Maybe now's not the time to talk about it. I'm not sure if that's something people are excited about or they keep under wraps before they actually get it done. I'm not sure if that's something people are excited about or they keep under wraps before they actually get it done.

Jon: 1:31:49

I'm not sure no, there's uh priority items that that I would continue to carry or or newly file. Um, you want to build on the effort that you've already. You know like sometimes it takes more than one try to get somebody passed, obviously.

Robin: 1:32:06

Sure sure.

Jon: 1:32:07

And so, four sessions in, I finally passed this bill off the House floor to end child marriage. I filed that bill again in a heartbeat, along with a slew of others. So, and then there are a few. When we get into these conversations and debates, I'm like, oh, you know what? Somebody should make a law Nice.

Robin: 1:32:26

Or change a law Nice, or change a law Nice. And so we have this we have a weekly team meeting with my staff, so you're keeping some tabs on the things that need to get done.

Jon: 1:32:35

My whole staff, which is two humans.

Alexis: 1:32:38

I was about to say it's a huge staff, yeah.

Jon: 1:32:40

Actually it's, three.

Alexis: 1:32:41

Three.

Jon: 1:32:42

I got one in the district and two in Austin. I got one in the district and two in Austin.

Robin: 1:32:46

Nice.

Jon: 1:32:46

But we have, you know, weekly conversations where we get on Zoom together and we talk about what things to get drafted or, of course, nothing. It's all confidential until you actually file it.

Robin: 1:32:59

Okay, good to know.

Jon: 1:33:01

We can draft hundreds of pieces, sure. And then coming into the session like this last time, in the early days, just in the weeks before we were allowed to file, we had a series of meetings thinking about what we want to file, what we want to file first, what are our priority items that we really want to push on and try to actually pass Wonderful.

Robin: 1:33:25

And so what do you do for your self-care in between all these things?

Jon: 1:33:28

what is that?

Alexis: 1:33:30

okay, how to phrase it, you just took my question that I had coming up.

Jon: 1:33:34

Actually I've become so uh more focused on that as the as the work gets more immersive and and more taxing on my uh emotional well because it's intense, it's intense, it really is, it's intense. And it's a dramatically unhealthy lifestyle.

Robin: 1:33:50

It's very fluid.

Jon: 1:33:51

It's a lot of long hours, a lot of long hours. You don't eat at regular times the stuff that I mean. If you are trying to eat healthy, which, as I get to a certain age, becomes increasingly important for my ability to function normally, you have to plan that. Sure, for my ability to function normally, you have to plan that because what's available to you, like the truth is, there's food provided in all the spaces and you can. There's food in the committee rooms, okay, and there are lobbyists who will bring lunch to the offices. Sure, to get some of the face time.

Jon: 1:34:24

That makes sense, and so the staff never has to pay for their own meals during a session which I think is fine, which is good yeah um, but if I go with that, then, uh, every session before this one I have like what kind of food are we talking?

Robin: 1:34:37

like donuts, or you're like I'm not gonna see anyone unless they're bringing salads. Like what are we talking about?

Jon: 1:34:42

like, sometimes we have a choice and sometimes we don't Smoothies or bust.

Robin: 1:34:48

That's it Exactly.

Jon: 1:34:50

So no, this time I made a real effort to eat healthier, exercise more as much for my body well-being as for my personal sanity, sure and uh. And then also to spend, to to actually calendar schedule time when I get to spend with my wife, my kids, my dogs. You know all that is good for me Good.

Robin: 1:35:15

I'm glad that you're doing that and I I don't think I'm overstepping here to say that you look like you have more vitality, like you look like you don't look as uh, as exhausted as some people coming out of the legislature. And and maybe that's because you're mastering your calendaring in a better way and you're prioritizing in a better way.

Jon: 1:35:29

I hope so and I've had a couple of weeks you know, yeah, the last few weeks of the session were really tough, difficult yeah, very long hours and, uh, it's like an experiment in sleep deprivation right, really this is not good people.

Jon: 1:35:44

People think we don't work because early in the session, the calendar is light, you're not taking up legislation, you might only be in the chamber, you know, three days during the week and we got a lot of folks making noise about how these people just don't do anything and they're grifters, that, yeah, that, uh, six hundred dollars a month or that we get paid. That's uh, that's a thing, apparently.

Robin: 1:36:08

It's making people mad, it's too much, oh no, yeah, crazy to me yeah, I mean to me representatives.

Alexis: 1:36:16

That doesn't even cover gas money. I was going to say representatives, and I mean anybody that represents us. I've always felt we should pay massive amounts of money, but they don't get to earn anything or accept any donations. Once things start session-wise, sure, I mean like somebody's like. Well, what do you mean? I'm like US Congress and Senate. A million dollars a year.

Jon: 1:36:39

That would be a lot, why not?

Alexis: 1:36:43

I mean, how much of the defense budget do you have to save to get that? Not very much.

Robin: 1:36:49

Well, and haven't you also said it would be easy to remedy a lot of things if we tax lobbyists, or something like this?

Alexis: 1:36:57

That's my most unpopular thing. What?

Robin: 1:36:59

is it?

Alexis: 1:37:01

The best source for more income is to tax political donations 50%. It just cuts down the amount of time that people can buy airtime. And we tax the money that's raised in.

Jon: 1:37:14

Texas. So in concept, in theory, it sounds fine.

Alexis: 1:37:21

I know.

Jon: 1:37:22

The real world result of that, I would fear, would just elevate the most wealthy and extreme voices, who don't care if 50% goes to nothing.

Alexis: 1:37:32

Right.

Jon: 1:37:32

Because, the people who are spending $20 million in Jefferson County in a house race. Don't care if they have to spend $40 to get their $20. Right, that makes sense, because they're billionaires, and what it actually means is the people who can contribute $100 or $1,000 or $200,. Half of that money goes away, and so the people that I advocate most strongly for are the people that don't have money to have a high dollar lobbying presence in the capital.

Alexis: 1:38:02

Right, but basically, if it's done reasonably, it would take everybody down by 50%. As you said, there's some people who don't care, they'll just double what they're doing. I sort of feel like that's okay, because we can use more of their money.

Robin: 1:38:19

She's ready to make money.

Alexis: 1:38:20

Well, but the nice thing about it is I don't ever have to worry about it passing, because it wouldn't even get close.

Jon: 1:38:29

Why don't you just levy an income tax on anyone?

Alexis: 1:38:30

who makes more than a million dollars a year in this state. I'm sort of okay with that, except you said the word income tax and it's texas exactly, you know so you worried about getting me in trouble.

Jon: 1:38:40

Talking about gay people like that didn't get me in trouble. I could talk about tax and rich people.

Alexis: 1:38:45

Exactly, I mean the word income tax and Texas do not go together.

Jon: 1:38:51

Although without it we pay more in overall tax than the citizens of California. So Texas has surpassed California in what our citizens are taxed, so people can say, oh, I don't want to have an income tax.

Robin: 1:39:07

Here it's like, yeah, look at the real money, look at where it's going.

Jon: 1:39:13

Look at your property tax and your sales tax in this state.

Robin: 1:39:16

And look at how much we're having to shoulder per hurricane season, per grid season, like every individual, for their own selves, having to get what a generator of this, of this, of this, of this, of this, like it's a lot.

Jon: 1:39:29

I don't have a generator. I feel like I need one. It's a lot.

Alexis: 1:39:31

I haven't bought one, but I'm trying to decide between generator or solar.

Robin: 1:39:37

I don't have any options. I don't have any like financial options for either one of those things. So I mean, it's, it's a, I hope it all goes well. And back to that hope thing, you know.

Alexis: 1:39:48

Yeah, you know, hope is one of the words I don't like.

Jon: 1:39:52

So hope is an incredibly powerful thing, but it doesn't help you with the weather.

Alexis: 1:39:56

Or anything else.

Robin: 1:39:57

usually Well, john, we always have a seat here for you at this table, and we're glad to interview you once again and see you before you get back out there. Is there any way that we could offer other support? Is there any way that people can connect with you to reach out, to get to keep up with you?

Jon: 1:40:18

sure, so um, you can find me on uh on social media, and I have presence on on the site formerly known as Twitter, instagram, facebook. Good, and if you just find John Rosenthal, it's usually me It'll pop up now. So the actual hash, the actual at J-O-N. So my name is John J-O-N, john J-O-N. Underscore Rosenthal T-X Perfect. So, you can find me that way. I respond to personal messages.

Alexis: 1:40:49

And if people want to donate to your campaign, same place they can go to John Rosenthal.

Jon: 1:40:53

TX.

Alexis: 1:40:54

Okay.

Jon: 1:40:57

Or just if you find the presence on social media. Usually those pages are linked there.

Alexis: 1:41:04

And would it cause you a problem if we happen to list your campaign information with our website? Sometimes it would not give me any heartache at all.

Jon: 1:41:14

I would appreciate that very much.

Robin: 1:41:15

Yeah Well, we are always happy to share a cup of coffee and some chats, and we hope that everyone out there is taking care, because it is intense. It is intense and if you'd like to subscribe or send us a message, go to 22sidescom. You can listen to us on any major platform and we appreciate your suggestions, your thoughts, your comments, bridge building, and we look forward to hearing from you. So take care.