Why does it matter? I think some listeners may be asking themselves, why does it matter who these people are? Why should this be of interest to everyday voters?

How would you answer them? That's a very good question.

In a lot of ways, we judge people on their associates, you know, who they are, who are their friends.

In some of these cases, we have recognizable names like the one I just mentioned, Mr. Henry.

And in others, we just try to sort of help readers understand where this money is coming from and what possible point of view some of these people might have.

What sort of an agenda might they be pushing for? You know, obviously the stock answer to politicians, I'm not influenced by all of that money, but it's a lot of money.

You know, I think the public has a right to know where it's coming from, you know, and why it's coming in.

He's been

What was, you know, Tallarico talking about? And was there a counterpunch at all to, you know, Ken Paxson and him trying to talk about affordability issues and economics?

Yeah, his appearance up in Arlington was basically so he could roll out what he's calling the new American dream, which is pretty much a liberal version of the economics message that you would expect from a candidate at this stage of the game.

You know, tax breaks for child care.

Let's raise the minimum wage for the first time since 2009.

Let's give a break to first-time homebuyers because homeownership, which used to be a rite of passage for a young married couple, is now out of reach for a lot of Americans until they're in their 40s and even into their 50s.

So he was trying to capitalize on that.

As we both know, Arlington sits in the middle of Dallas and Fort Worth in Tarrant County, which is the only purplish urban county left in the state of Texas.

You getting the same read?

But, John, he wanted to make sure he wasn't on board with the Graham Plattner situation either, right?

Right.

After Kassar made his announcement, James Tallarico put out a press statement saying that Plattner needs to drop out of the race immediately.

And circling back to your Texas connection, Maine and Texas are two of the building blocks in the Democrats' desire to win the U.S. Senate in November.

Right.

Obviously, those two are running separately.

You know, they're not coordinating with each other.

Right.

What was some of what was what did Todd Hunter have to say to you about all of this?

Yeah.

And be reminded that in in the in the Republicans counter protest.

Raleigh, for lack of a better term.

Hunter is a creature of the Coastal Band.

He's represented that area longer than you and I have both been covering Texas politics.

But their message, and he was joined by a few others from the Texas House, was not just aimed at Tallarico, though he was the biggest target, but the Democrats writ large, they say, are still too focused on the social and cultural issues that conservatives like to bring up.

But did you get a did you feel the tension that was in the room on some of this?

Tell us, what did you think when you're seeing all this messaging out there and how easily he's leaning into this?

Well, basically, it kind of takes the power of the insult and turns it back against whoever would have leveled that thing.

You know, let's take Jasmine Crockett at her word.

She said she meant no offense about the governor's physical limitations due to the accident.

But you are correct.

It was, oh, my God, how could anybody talk that way about our governor? And the governor says, yeah, absolutely.

And not only did he have those other visuals, he had like a checkered flag with the Hot Wheels symbol in there as if, you know, what they play at the Indianapolis 500 or the Daytona 500 to signify the winning car crossing over the finish line.

What did they end up adopting?

John, you were over at, you know, John Cornyn's event, you know, on Tuesday night, right? And so tell us a little bit about what wa- uh, what you were seeing there, and what was the feel as we watched John Cornyn have to say kinda goodbye to a really long political career?

Yeah, it, it's interesting.

It was at, at a nice hotel in, uh, in downtown Austin, and we get to the room and the, uh, you know, the little sign on the door says, "John Cornyn's, uh, Election Night Celebration." It was not a celebration even from the start and well past the finish.

Uh, and, and no, uh, you know, uh, cheap white wine, uh, no lo- [coughs] no, uh, you know, party loyalists hanging around.

It was reporters, uh, TV cameras, uh, a couple of campaign hands, um, just basically, uh, and just sort of waiting for what we all sensed was gonna happen, a- although I don't think any of us sensed the, just the magnitude.

Near two to one, uh, uh, became the margin.

And, uh, you know, uh, uh, Cornyn, uh, in all the years I've covered him, and I go all the way back to 1998 with Jo- uh, John Cornyn, the, uh, the year of, uh, his, uh, first run for atto- or only run for attorney general.

It's like, does Talarico have the bones to do that, to get out of just politics and reach beyond into becoming a cultural thing that can win those independents and moderates?