Paran Balakrishnan

Erin Burnett: “texas republicans are making a last-ditch effort to limit the power of the governorship, and of course they're trying to do it really fast because they want to do it before the democrat, gina hinojosa, is sworn in. she will be the first democrat to win governor there in 36 years before she and a democratic state house is sworn into office. so hinojosa responding with this message to republicans.” Gina Hinojosa: “the people of texas have spoken, and i think it's important that as elected leaders we respect what the people of texas have said. they want change.” Erin Burnett: “okay, that comes after democrats scored the seismic political victory in texas, winning major races up and down the ballot, three-decade losing streak over. harry enten out front with me at the magic wall. harry, i was in texas that night when the results started, they couldn't even process it. it was kind of like a little cheer, and then like a holy, and then there literally were people screaming that and dancing around, and that was when tallarico was called. then hinojosa was called right after, and then it didn't even sink in that, oh my, my, you know what, it's this, and it's this, and it's this, and it's every statewide race, and it's the state house, and it's, oh my gosh.” Harry Enten: “mind blown. i mean, everyone was coming in before the election, oh, we don't believe the polling, you know, every few cycles were promised a blue texas, you know, finally coming true. well, this time it came true up and down the ballot. you know, there was all this attention to the senate race, and look at that, james tallarico, an absolute blah, winning by 12 points, beating every poll expectation, but it wasn't just the senate race, right? it was the gov race, and hinojosa, look at that, seven point margin, blah, but it wasn't just the gov race. why don't we go to the ag race, the attorney general race? look at this, another, what is that, seven point margin, six and a half point margin. it wasn't just the ag race. why don't we go down? why don't we look at the lieutenant governor's race? vicki goodwin, who, someone on their staff, they've been emailing me for months. i was like, who the heck is this? well, i'll tell you who it is. it's the next lieutenant governor of the great state of texas, a state that had not elected a democrat statewide since bob bullock in 1994, and now up and down the ballot, you are seeing a blue texas.” Erin Burnett: “i mean, so then, you know what happened after? they started to realize it. okay, this was around one o'clock in the morning. i'm still up. i don't, you know, kind of maybe took a little hour long nap at some point, and the horns started beeping. it was like we were somewhere else on the planet, and there was a celebration going on overnight, and everyone's coming out in their horns, and they were beeping their horn. that was austin, texas, obviously democratic. they were happy with how things went, but it was up and down the ballot. this is, again, before they realized that it was not just a few big races.” Harry Enten: “it wasn't just a few big races. how about this? we don't even have these in the wall, so we pop it out here. ag commissioner, land commissioner, railroad commissioner, state comptroller, state house, as you mentioned, up and down the ballot, texas, the dream for generations for democrats. it came true. lucy did not take the football away this time from charlie brown.” Erin Burnett: “okay, so railroad commissioner. it may sound esoteric if you don't live in texas, but it's not for anyone in this country because railroad commissioner controls oil and gas in texas, which is at the heart of america's energy industry, and we spoke to the democrat who won the railroad commissioner job. we're going to hear more from him in just a moment, and he's important because he is the first democrat to win railroad commissioner in 36 years, and he got national attention after bo french. does anyone remember bo french? bo french is the man who drew widespread condemnation from his own party, from people like karl rove, his own state, who at that point started to say, i'm not going to vote for the republicans in my state for a racist social media set of posts decrying south asian students. so they went to university of texas football game. someone took a picture. there were a lot of kids whose skin was brown, and bo french tweets it and says, i heard ut graduation this year looked like this. i didn't believe it. the problem is now obviously far worse than anyone imagined. he gets slammed. he doubles down, calling the students foreigners. so tell me something i don't know about the railroad commissioner race.” Harry Enten: “i'll tell you something you don't know about the railroad commissioner race. how about this? look at the university of texas main campus precinct. bo french not very well liked here. these were the kids in the picture. these were the kids in the picture. yeah. 95% to 4%. it turns out that words have consequences. bo french got absolutely annihilated in the university of texas main campus precinct. rosenthal swept them there, swept them statewide.” Erin Burnett: “i mean, that is incredible.” Harry Enten: “91-point margin. i think it's pretty clear.” Erin Burnett: “yeah. yes, it is. and one of texas's most famous republican political operas, karl rove, i just mentioned him, he blames the extent of the losses in texas on one guy. it's not actually bo french. it's ken paxton. here he is.” Ken Paxton: “we lost every statewide office. we lost the texas house. we kept the texas senate. you know, people turned out in traditionally republican counties like collin county in north of dallas, suburban county, and voted straight democrat. and it was because our ticket was led by a guy who was plagued by scandals and surrounded by controversy.” Erin Burnett: “all right. everyone is back with me now. so it started obviously that bo french post was there, but ken paxton already existed. trump had already gotten behind him instead of john cornyn. it was texas as what it is. so big in the american mind, something so deep in terms of this wave. if ken paxton wasn't on the ballot, would it have looked like this?” A person: “i don't think it would have looked exactly like this, but again, ken paxton is a product of donald trump. and i traded notes on tuesday before the polls closed with a longtime texas political gop operative. and i said, you know, the same thing we always say on election day, what are you hearing? what are you thinking? and he responded, burn it all down. and this was, this was against trump, against paxton, against all of it. and it all stems from the same thing. so we can talk about pete hegseth. we can talk about ken paxton. we can talk about anybody. the two words that matter are donald trump.” A person: “i agree with ken paxton. it was a terrible choice. i still think these two win and the outcome looks like this in texas because of a couple of things. i was just in houston this morning and i was in houston twice before in san antonio and i was talking to voters and the coalition that they were able to build latino voters, only about 53% of latino voters, latino men voted for gina hinojosa and james talarico. but that was about a 20 point swing. black voters. when i was in houston or san antonio, a couple of weeks before the election, a black woman told me she had never voted. she only, the last time she voted was 2008. so you're talking about one of the most reliable democratic base. and i said, well, how many more of you out there? like, you know, like there, and she said, there's a lot of us, which is why you see this increase in black voter turnout, public schools. so then you get moms who are outraged that their kids are only going to school four times. if you remember the redistricting fight before the kalei decision started in texas, they tried to strip away aggravated latino voters, aggregated black voters. how dare you come in and overreach. and i'll say that was one of my final examples that i actually forgot about this before the election. i was with a young woman before the election and i was with her today. and she told me the story of her miscarriage today, but she didn't talk about it before because now they think that the abortion ban that is in texas might go away and people forget about that. but when you think about just general reproductive care and you have to leave and doctors, you get that even without ken paxton, people were pissed. you know, it is, it is incredible.” Erin Burnett: “and i will say, now you look at it and you say, well, gosh, james tallarico won it on the early vote. the tallarico campaign had their suspicions early in the day. they were telling me, we think you can maybe call it at nine o'clock, nine o'clock. now that would be 10 o'clock eastern, but even so an unprecedented situation. and it really, they were not far off. so they, they were pretty close. texas railroad commissioner. when we spoke to the commissioner elect, mr. rosenthal, the one who won 95% vote at the university of texas, he talked about bo french and the racist post, and here's what he said about it.” Rosenthal: “and my opponent was pretty bad and, and actually an albatross for the rest of the republican slate. so anybody who refused to disavow his really blatant racism, that just became a kind of a litmus test. so the republicans ended up putting forward a slate of really terrible candidates. i mean, ken paxton, definitely the most corrupt politician in texas and impeached by his own party, used his office to enrich himself and definitely violated the law as far as i can tell. and then you have bo french who said, move over ken paxton, hold my beer because i'm going to add a blatant racism on top of all that kind of corruption stuff.” Erin Burnett: “okay. there was a lot in there. i liked, i liked the understatement. my opponent was pretty bad. but, but you know, this isn't pat hold my beer, ken paxton. hold my beer.” A person: “look, i do think that ken paxton set the tone though, right? i mean, you know, you'll know a tree by its fruit and, and this was just rotten fruit, but donald trump picked him, right? cornyn could have won that seat, i believe, because people will just rally around. but paxton symbolized that corruption and cruelty, chaos and rising costs that sunk republicans. and then bo french was sort of the, you know, doubled down on that. and so republicans, they overreached, they got the backlash. it's just, we haven't seen anything like this after so many years of people talking about texas and republicans acting like, you know, the demographic changes in the state don't matter at all. and we should say also it was also laredo flipped. you know, a lot of those folks who, you know, hispanic voters who've been in our country for centuries, who voted for donald trump last time, cause they were angry about the border this time said, well, wait, they're not going after the criminals and the worst of us. they're going after my neighbors. and what do you hear from them from republicans today in texas? now they've had a day. they're shell shocked because so many people lost and so many republican house members lost as well. but you know, you still are dealing with maga world and everything that sort of goes around that. and the finger pointing is massive. so i'd predict to you that come thanksgiving mar-a-lago the gop is jonestown. it's going to be a much smaller place.” Erin Burnett: “all right. i appreciate all of you very much. and thank you.”