Hi, this is Alex Cantrowitz. I'm the host of Big Technology podcast, a longtime reporter and an on-air contributor to CNBC. And if you're like me, you're trying to figure out how artificial intelligence is changing the business world and our lives. So each week on Big Technology, I bring on key actors from companies building AI tech and outsiders trying to influence it. Asking where this is all going. They come from places like Nvidia, Microsoft, Amazon and plenty more. So if you wanna be smart with your wallet, your career choices, in meetings with your colleagues and at dinner parties, listen to Big Technology podcast wherever you get your podcasts. Every day the world gets a little weirder and a lot more awesome. Cool Stuff Daily takes a look at everything from mining in space to the latest in the fight against cancer to how AI is basically changing everything. It's all the cool stuff you didn't know you needed to know. Join us for Cool Stuff Daily as we take a quick look at science, tech and the wait what stories that make you sound way smarter at dinner. Subscribe to Cool Stuff Daily now because the future's happening fast and it's way too fun to miss. She covered gerrymandering and what's happening with that. The Texas redistricting that kicked off the entire redistricting wars that we are currently living in. Two, we talk a lot of Texas politics, which is Texas in play for the first time. Maybe we had James Talrico at the Dallas show and so we talked about just sort of what's going on in Texas politics, both in the Republican side and the Democratic side. Then we also talked a little bit about why Congress isn't doing anything, why it's not able to actually engage in its role, its article one role. So a lot of good stuff in there. I think you're gonna enjoy it. Also, she went to Kenyon, so obviously she's awesome. Check it out. Hello, Lizzie. Hello, Sarah. Lizzie, you're from Houston. Yes, I am. Woohoo! We got a lot of Houston people tonight. We got H10 in the house. Yes, we do. So you guys may not know about this. I don't know if you've ever heard me mention it. I don't talk about it a lot. It's not something I like to put out there, but I went to Kenyon College. Did you know that? Yeah, very proud of that. So did Lizzie Fletcher. She also went to Kenyon College. Yeah, you don't have to, it's fine. I know, it's like, I don't care about Kenyon College. It's okay. But I will say we met because we were at an alumni event. I'm not gonna say which one of us is older, but we were at an alumni event and they put us on a panel together at the school and it was like a real highlight for me to have Kenyon be like, you're important now. Like be on the stage with this Congress and it was great. And we were supposed to be the opposite viewpoints, right? You were the Republican, I was the Democrat and yet we agreed on so many things. We did, although I will say I do remember because I didn't know you at all then, but I had words for how I felt like Democrats were not meeting the moment. And so I remember being like, I'm sorry, Democrats are failing right now as I remember doing something like that in the audience. That's quite free tonight. Yes, it is, it is. Okay, because that's the fail part. You're right. We're gonna start with... I mean not Democrats, Congress. Congress is failing right now. Democrats, we're gonna turn things around. Yeah, okay. Well, let's see, let's see. Okay, let's... All right, so I wanna start with fight because here is a thing that Texas did that has been interesting where I would say, Texas has modeled the fighting back that is actually blowing up Republicans. What they started here, which is the redistricting war that they launched in Texas, which is right now blowing up in their face. Yes, it is. Yeah. But I know that obviously when we do our podcasts and everything, you're like, God, these guys sound so smart. They sound like they know all of these things. We don't know anything. We're just calling people who know more about it. And we're saying, can you explain Texas gerrymandering to us, like explain redistricting? You're my person who does that for me. So tell us what's happening with the redistricting right now. Okay, I'm gonna try to do it quickly, but just with a little overview, I think there are three phases to the redistricting and they tie into all of the themes that you outlined before. But basically, as we all know here, unfortunately last summer at President Trump's behest, Governor Abbott surrendered the state of Texas and just said, we're gonna have the legislature redraw the maps. Right, that, yeah, that was it. President Trump said, I want five more Republican seats from Texas, not because he was worried they were gonna lose Republican races in Texas, though they are, but because he was worried they were gonna lose them elsewhere in the country and so wanted to pick them up in Texas and thought they could just redraw the map and they thought the Democrats would just kind of take it. And that is not what has happened and Texas Democrats showed so much fight, responding strategically, right? And so lots of things to push back in the legislature. That was phase one, including our Texas House Democrats leaving the state, breaking quorum and telling the whole country the crazy things that were going on here and how bad it is and how it was coming across the country, which of course it is. So that was kind of phase one, they pushed through the maps. Not, well I have a lot to say on that, but we'll just summarize by saying, then we went on to phase two, which was the litigation phase, right? Challenge those maps in court. And I do wanna remind everyone that there were plaintiffs who were already suing over the existing Texas congressional map for being racially discriminatory and they were already in court. They got an injunction against this map from a three judge panel and the judge who wrote the opinion was appointed by President Trump, who said this map discriminates against Texans and so they won and then the Supreme Court stayed that. But that case is not over, there will be more to come in the litigation. So you guys are still fighting that, it's not over. Yes, it is not over, but we know that for the next election, the map that they drew last year is in place and so we're in phase three, which is making sure we win these elections and fighting back at the ballot box. Yeah. Yeah. So let me ask you about that because the part of the reason it's blown up in their face is really because of what it set off in other states. I mean Abigail Spanberger right now is showing no mercy in Virginia and Republicans, it is fun. Class of 2018, what to say? I love that class of 2018. A lot of great women in that class of 2018. Yes, there are. But she's out there with no Fs to give and they are whining, I'm watching Republicans being like, it's so unfair what they're doing on the jury and you're like, they started it, I'm sorry. Yeah, if you're gonna dishe, you gotta take it, right? And this was their idea and we need to make sure that they see what a bad idea it was. So you had Prop 50 in California, you have this fight back in Texas, you're seeing it in Virginia and Democrats I think surprised them by fighting back. But let me assure you that was a strategy and I'm really grateful, like leader Jeffries has been there saying like, we're not giving an inch, like we're fighting this and we had conversations early last summer when there were rumors that there would be this special session to redraw the maps and the House Democrats have been all over it making sure that this strategy fails in every possible way and so my focus now that we're in the spring is to make sure that of the five seats they wanna pick up that that fails to here in Texas and I know everybody here wants to do that. Okay, but I wanna ask just about the election part here because part of where it might fail is like, okay, they redrew it and they still might not go through seats, right? Exactly. Because they're being abandoned by Hispanics, like what do you, because this is, I'm gonna move into the hope part, this is my segue into the hope part. What do you think is gonna happen with the seats that they gerrymandered? Like is it gonna work out for them? Are they gonna be able to pick those up? No, they're not. They're not gonna be able to pick up five seats and you can mark my words now. And our job is to make sure they pick up as few as possible, hopefully pick up zero, maybe even lose one. So that's the plan, right? And I think there are a couple of things that happened just in the basic framework they tried to shore up Republican votes and make the districts more Republicans in the Valley. And to your point, that strategy is gonna fail. I think that our incumbent members, Henry Quayar and Vicente Gonzalez are gonna hold onto their seats. That's two of the five. I also think we have an incredible pickup opportunity in Texas 15 with Bobby Polito, who is running an awesome campaign. I mean, the Kinsenera thing, like genius, genius. So he is running a great campaign and he's a real person that people are responding to. I also think we have a good chance of holding on to Texas 35, which is on the east side of San Antonio. It's Greg Casar's currency reconfigured. And I think there's a runoff in that race, but I think that we have a great chance of holding that. And there are a couple of other seats we're obviously looking at. We've got a candidate in Texas 23, which is Tony Gonzalez's seat. We also have some great candidates in other places. But I think that what we are gonna do is make sure that we have a strategy statewide. And I wanna make this plea to Texans everywhere. No matter what district you live in, it is absolutely essential that we turn out every Democratic vote that we can in every single district. Whether it's solid blue or not, because there are important reasons, including they're gonna draw these maps again. And we wanna show them that they can't find the votes anywhere. And so we wanna do it by winning and we wanna do it by turning out. And look, that can have some other benefits like electing a Democratic senator from Texas. Oh, okay. There's a lot. Thank you. Maybe a governor. You did my transition for me. Okay, so we had James Del Rico at the show last night in Dallas. We hung out with him in the green room. He's a bulwark guy, which was awesome. Aren't we all? Listen to the Focus Group pod every Saturday. Just like all of you should. Listen to the people, guys. I listen to the Focus Group. You know, cause I send you my notes. Yes, I know. And I appreciate that. We got a lot of congressional members that listen. I would say sometimes like people who just live in the world are like, I'm gonna murder them. If I listen to one more of these episodes, I'm gonna kill some of these people. So, you know. But here's the thing. So, Tal Rico, I have been somebody who has long kind of been on the pessimistic side about Texas, about Democrats really pulling off big federal wins in Texas. For the first time right now, there's a couple things happening. You have got Paxton, who I think is a uniquely horrible candidate for Texas, who I wanna ask you about. Cause in my opinion, I wanna know if you agree. I think he's very likely to win this runoff unless Trump endorses Cornyn. So that's one piece of the puzzle. The second piece of the puzzle is you've got Tal Rico, who I think is quite a good candidate. But I'm interested. I agree. He's got some woke stuff between 2018 and 2022. It's coming back to haunt him. But when I listen to him now, he sounds like a guy trying to win this state. So, those are two components. Then the third component is things are really bad. Economically, the war, things like that. And it is possible that turnout just falls off a cliff for Republicans and there's a lot of opportunity for persuasion. So, what is your assessment of the current political fortunes of Democrats in Texas? Hi, this is Alex Cantrowitz. I'm the host of Big Technology podcast, a long time reporter and an on air contributor to CNBC. And if you're like me, you're trying to figure out how artificial intelligence is changing the business world and our lives. So each week on Big Technology, I bring on key actors from companies building AI tech and outsiders trying to influence it. Asking where this is all going. They come from places like Nvidia, Microsoft, Amazon and plenty more. So if you wanna be smart with your wallet, your career choices and meetings with your colleagues and at dinner parties, listen to Big Technology podcast wherever you get your podcasts. Rural Britain, you've suffered too long. Your days of sluggish broadband are over. We're connecting rural homes to full fiber with thousands more joining every month. T minus five. The gigaverse is expanding before my very eyes. Giga clear, faster broadband for rural Britain from only 19 pounds per month. We have lived off. T's and C's apply, 18 month contract. Prices may rise during contract. Check availability at gigaclear.com. So I think that this election cycle is the best election cycle we've had definitely since 2018 and maybe even better than 2018 right now in terms of the prospects for Democrats. And there are a couple of reasons for that. But obviously I was a member of the class of 2018 and that was an incredible year in that midterm. And so we're in the same dynamics, but to your point, things are even worse for most people than they were in 2018. I mean, this administration is so much more extreme than I think anyone imagined was possible. Oh, we imagined it, the bulwark. We were on top of it, but yeah. But I think that, so things are bad. The other thing is what we've seen is that Texas Republicans, I've been thinking about this kind of this way. For a long time, Texas Republicans have become like the default for Texans because they have this brand of like small government, individual liberty, kind of local government, right? Like the best government is the closest to home. I'm so interested in this party. That would be so interesting to me. But that's been the thing, right? And what they have shown, especially in the last year, especially in the context of redistricting, is that that is not who they are. They are 100% subservient to Donald Trump and Maga Republicans and Washington Republicans telling them what to do. And they put Donald Trump ahead of Texans and Texans know it. They saw it in redistricting. They saw it, right? I mean, we all saw it. They didn't even draw the map, right? I wasn't in the legislature. I don't know how that gets done, but typically when legislators draw the map, you know, everyone's sort of picking the things that they want in their future congressional districts, stuff like that. And there's some guy sitting in a basement in Washington drawing the Texas map. Texans just governor Abbott and the legislature just seated the whole territory. And we know it. We know who they value and it's not us. So those votes are up for grabs. And that's the thing is what we have seen in recent elections in Texas really endorses that view. A, we saw it in the primaries with incredible turnout from Democrats. That was amazing. Highest 2008. Highest Democratic primary turnout since 2008. So lots of enthusiasm, but what you also saw is a lot of those people vote in the general, but hadn't voted in primaries before. But you also saw like, we had this special election in Tarrant County, where for the first time in years in a Trump plus 32 district, a Democratic senator was elected in this special election. And right? I mean, that was incredible. I mean, people were so surprised. And people I knew going into it were like, well, you know, if it's a close win, we'll feel, I mean, close loss will feel great. Well, he won. And he did, because we had an A plus candidate, A plus candidate who was a real person talking about real things that mattered. And so people knew he cared about his constituents and the people in Tarrant County, not Trump, but also that the Republicans have lost this whole group of people in Texas. And so there was sort of the sense that nobody was unaligned. And it's not true, right? There are votes up for grabs in Texas. And I think to your point, James Tallarico is talking to everyone. And this is the last thing I'm gonna say before you ask me another question. We haven't won statewide in a long time. And for those of us who grew up with Ann Richards as our governor, that is frustrating, right? We love her. We haven't won statewide in a long time, but we have beaten Republicans in elections. And we know how to do it. I did it, Colin Allred did it, James Tallarico did it, Ann Johnson did it. A lot of great people have, well, I just put myself in that category, sorry, but a lot of people have beaten Republicans. Hey, thanks. But you know, we have had a lot of great campaigns and a lot of great people who worked on campaigns for candidates who have won, who've beaten Republicans. And there's a way that you do it. And it's by talking to everybody, going to everybody for their vote, and being true to Texas, and what our real values are as Texans. And the Republicans have helped us by showing that they're not prioritizing Texans, they're prioritizing Trump. So I think those votes are up for grabs, and we're gonna get them in 2026. Okay, I love that. I love that. This is good. This is hopeful. This is hopeful. Here's one of my concerns. One of my concerns is like, you guys just had a pretty bloody Democratic primary, though, between Jasmine Crockett and James Talarico. It was interesting to talk to him last night because I feel like he's really working hard to mend that. My advice on the stage last night, and I actually wanna put it out there again, because I think it's important, is my hope is that Jasmine Crockett will start to campaign for James Talarico with tremendous energy. And I think that Texans who urge her to do that, you know, we live in a really divided country, not just across the political parties, but also inside the political parties, right? We're like dealing with what it means to do coalition politics at a time when people are desperate for something new, and so they're looking at these new models, and both Jasmine and Talarico represent kind of different new models of how Democrats could be. And I think that Democrats sometimes, I hear Democrats are so well-meaning, they're always like, oh, I wanna reach across the aisle for Republicans, and I'm always like, stop it now, now's not the time. I want you guys to reach across to each other and show people what a community looks like together as Democrats, but do you feel like that can happen? Do you feel like there's the divide that happened during the primary can be healed? I do, I absolutely think that it can be healed. Look, I had a tough seven-way primary and a runoff election back in 2018, and one of the best things that happened was that every single person in that race got together once I had won and had a unity event, and really just talked about how important it was to beat John Culberson in 2018 and to take back the House, and Democrats know it, and I think that, Jasmine put out a statement congratulating James, and I think that she will support him and support the effort, because we all see how bad it is. I wanna see her like be a road dog with him. I want them to travel together. I want them to do a buddy comedy together. I'm not saying a statement is where you stop. Believe me, I get enough comments about how people are tired of strongly worded letters and fiercely written statements, and they wanna see a little bit more than that, so I hear you, it resonates, but I do think, A, I think that we're all capable of it, and frankly, we all need it, and that probably goes to your third topic. I know I'm just segueing right over there, but- Your segues are awesome, actually. I try, I try. I did go to Kenyon. Yeah, that's true. This is a liberal arts education at work up here, ladies and gentlemen. All right, so I wanna talk quickly. Well, actually, you segue me to Congress, and I do wanna get there, and we don't have a lot of time, but just really quickly. On the Ken Paxson, John Cornyn thing, because you ran against Wesley Hunt. Here, he ran against you. He tried to- Thank you for that correction. He ran against you. You beat him. Then, and like he took then after that, he went, because you told me this backstage, that he went into a different district. He got Super Maga, but my contention, or I would assume that Wesley Hunt, got a decent amount of votes in the primary. I think those go to Paxton. Like, do you think Paxton's gonna win? If Trump stays out, do you think Paxton wins? I mean, if I had to pick right now, my money's on Paxton. I think he will win the nomination. Yeah, Paxton's bad, but like- I'm not think I'm voting for him. I can't vote in that. Don't get confused. But I think, I do think that he is most likely to win, because those are all protest votes, right? Those are the people who don't wanna vote for Cornyn. But the good thing, I will say, is I also saw somebody recently who said he's voted for Cornyn in every general election that he's run in, and there's no way he's voting for him this November, if he's the candidate, because he's sold out to Trump. And it goes back to the same idea. Like, he was a good, well, he was a Texas senator, who understood that his job was to serve the state. And now he's just showing that he's serving Trump. It's the same thing Governor Abbott's doing. It's the same thing our legislature's done. They're all serving Trump. And Texans aren't gonna take it anymore. That's not what we stand for. It's not who we are. And we're gonna show everybody in November. People are gonna be so surprised and so delighted. God, I kinda wanna end there, because that's such an upbeat thing. But you just can't. I just, I gotta ask, you're in Congress, which is a interesting institution at the moment. Tim was like, before he came out, Tim was like, ask her who she hates the most on the Republican side. And I was like, I'm not gonna do that. I mean, he asked James Talrico, if God, about God's penis size. So, that's just- I'm so glad I'm with you, Sarah. Yeah, I'm a safer space than Tim. But here's the thing I just wanna know about Congress. Forget who you hate or whatever. But Congress is an important branch of government, I was told. One of three. One civics class, my political science major. I was like, that was Checks and Balances were a thing. It's the first branch. I know. It's the one that, it's the people's branch. So what you guys doing these days over there? Anything happen? Not a whole lot. I think we voted seven times on the capacity of your shower heads. Okay. I mean, that is seriously, y'all, it's what Congress is doing. So, Sarah knows I've entered sort of my radical protest phase of my red to blue frontline career has sort of come full circle to screaming that the house is on fire and that the arsonists are in charge in Congress. Things are bad. Things are bad in Congress. And I try to tell my constituents every week, kind of why I'm voting against everything. Partially it's because they're not bringing the right things to the floor. And partially it's that it's a farce. Like they are pretending like they're governing and legislating when they have seated all of their authority to the White House and to Donald Trump. And if that's what they wanna do, they shouldn't be there, right? There's a reason we have three branches of government. And as I said, Congress, thank you, right? Congress is the article one branch of government. And it, like when you read the constitution, which I'm sure everyone here has their pocket constitution and is doing that every day, I know you have many from your years at various institutes because I listened so often. But right, they're all of these rights and responsibilities delegated to Congress and the constitution. And then there's like this tiny little bit on the executive bridge. Their job is to faithfully execute the laws. It's Congress's job to write the laws. Instead, you've got the Republicans saying nothing. I'm gonna wrap this up, because I can tell we need to. Saying absolutely nothing when the president declares war on Iran and doesn't come to Congress to seek its permission, nor does he come to Congress to explain it really after the fact, nor does he come to the people. Where's the Oval Office address? Where's making the case to the people? Hasn't happened. The other thing Congress is not doing is talking about the fact that our immigration enforcement policies have people killing American citizens in the streets, masked federal agents are killing Americans in the streets. And we are voting on the capacity of your showerhead. Congress, and I used to say this, I was saying this is like a do nothing Congress. Under Mike Johnson's leadership, Congress is doing nothing. But unfortunately, and I don't wanna end on this note, this Congress is doing harm, right? And that's the problem. They're doing harm to the constitutional system, to the sense of checks and balances, and to these institutions that are gonna need a massive amount of repair. So because I know we're wrapping up, I just see it on your face. I'm gonna go to the hopeful part, which is the system I think can be fixed. Because all it takes is sending different people to Washington and putting different people in charge. We need Speaker Hakeem Jeffries and not Speaker Mike Johnson. And that is within all of our power. All of us in Texas, we're gonna do it. We can take back the house just in Texas, y'all. Go get them, go get them. So that's the plan. Okay, well look, I love good water pressure as much as the next person. Hey, me too, me too. But what I really want is for you guys to put some real fucking pressure on these guys. The second you take control, and you guys are in charge, all right? It's a plan. All right, thank you, Lizzie Blutcher. Thank you so much.
