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Welcome to the necessary conversation. Today we are honored, we are humbled to have on the show with us a congressman who represented Texas's 16th district from 2013 to 2019. A Democratic candidate for US Senate who almost beat Ted Cruz in 2018. It was very close. A Democratic presidential candidate in the 2020 election. A 2022 Democratic candidate for the governor of Texas. And the current founder and head of Powered by People, an organization focused on voter registration and mobilization in Texas. a man who has done more perhaps than anyone in the past 10 years to turn Texas from red to purple. Betto oor, thank you for joining us.
Yay. Welcome. Thank you for having me. It's good to be with you all. Yeah, our pleasure. So, let me start here. You have already met my sister once back in 2022, I believe.
So, you might And is that how you're familiar with this podcast? Yeah, I I remember customers of yours uh coming to see me when we were in North Texas and saying, "Hey, you've got to check out Hive. These folks are taking a stand right now. Um get out there, support them, and they make amazing things." And all that happened to be true. That's how I got connected. And um just appreciate you. Um, you know, look, I'm I'm a Democrat and I'm a progressive and and I love when, you know, I have a chance to talk to other Democrats and progressives, but it's even better when
I get a chance to listen to, work with, and talk to folks who don't agree with me on on everything. And [laughter] if there's a problem in our country right now, it is the extraordinary polarization and division that we have, not just red to blue, but in our families. And so, I just think what you all are doing is is so cool, and we need more of that. And so I was really pleased that you were interested in in talking.
No, of course. And you have exactly what you're asking for in my mom, someone who does not agree with you [laughter] politically. Good.
Right. Um, let me start off. I I just have this general question. What was it like running for president in 2020? Just generally speaking, did that take a toll on you?
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. It was nuts. Um, I was totally unprepared. Yeah, for what we walked into. We had just finished this race, as you know, and your viewers probably know, for Senate that had taken two years of our lives. It started early in 2017, finished obviously in November of 2018, traveled to every one of the 254 counties of Texas, as you mentioned earlier. We got very close to defeating Ted Cruz. But what we also helped to produce were these historic victories for Democrats down ballot in the state. 12 state house Democratic insurgents defeated 12 Republicans who are incumbents. We won two congressional seats including Colin
Alred in North Texas and you know Harris County for example 19 black women won election to judicial positions there. We changed the balance of power in the Harris County Commissioner's Courts. It was it was a really big year and and a lot of it really kind of the point of what you all are doing right now is um there were a lot of Republicans about half a million of them who voted for Greg Abbott for governor and on the same ballot voted for me for US senator. So it it showed that we had some you know crosspartisan appeal. We also generated the biggest turnout in Texas history. I
thought and those who were, you know, encouraging me to run thought, well, this is something special that we've been able to produce in Texas, perhaps the way we've been able to bring people together here in our state is what we need to bring people together in this presidential election. The Democratic primary electorate thought otherwise. I respect that. And [laughter] I've been I've been really happy, honestly, ever since to be working in Texas. I mean that's that's you know
you just you just you know God makes some of these choices for us and I think we just have to in my in my experience or in my belief you just you honor that you go with it and and look I am so incredibly lucky with our family with our kids with the volunteer work I'm doing now with powered by people. So I'm really happy it worked out for the best.
Yeah. I mean for what it's worth man I think you really did kind of lay the groundwork for what we're seeing happening with James Telerica right now. I think as well it it is kind of like the echo of what you did back in that Senate race in the governor's race
and uh you know fingers crossed we get a Democratic seat coming out of Texas. I really thought I really thought you were going to beat Greg Abbott. I mean like we put our whole ass into that. We were campaigning for you so hard and I was [laughter] like it's he's gonna win. Um but it it literally was just kind of like a glimpse of like what it could be you know. Um, I I do think like what Chad said, you laid the groundwork for this and now we're seeing James Telerico. Um, you know, who he kind of gives similar vibes. Um, and I think I
really think like this is our chance. This is our chance to turn it blue. Um, and and I do attribute a lot of a lot of what's happening to you. So, thank you for that because I still live in Texas, you know, and like we're enduring all of this and it just cannot happen anymore. Yeah, I can't.
Everybody on this call right now, I would consider us I guess maybe I'm in California now. I've been here longer, but my formative years were in Texas. Mom, you and dad have spent most of your lives in Texas. You're all Texans here. Um, speaking of these upcoming votes, I know that like you're primarily focused now with your work on getting people out to vote, uh, getting people registered, etc., etc.
I have this question for you. Uh, do you think that Donald Trump legitimately won the 2024 election? Yes. Okay. So, all of the stuff, I mean, these things are kind of mounting evidence, but we've got Elon Musk saying, "I basically, I hacked the voting machines." We've got Donald Trump saying, "If we win, you'll never have to vote again." [laughter] We've got uh right now there's a video going around the internet. I I don't know who this lady is, but she has evidence or claims to have evidence that in that election, the Republicans were making fake counties and then swapping the data from those fake counties with
the real ones by an exact number of votes that that county should have had. So, it seems like there's at least um I think in the popular kind of zeitgeist, people question whether that was a legitimate election or not. Why do you think Democrats have not even investigated it?
I I don't I don't know. I can't speak for Democrats. I I just think for me the preponderance of of evidence that I've seen is that Donald Trump won that election. Um now now did Elon Musk uh give him $300 million? Yes. Is it legal? Yes. Should it be legal? No. But you know until [clears throat] we change the law or the Constitution or have a better Supreme Court ruling on that? That's going to be the way going forward. and he's going to spend only more going into the midterm election and the next uh presidential uh on on the the vote counts or or the swapping counties. I I
don't know. I mean, it sounds to me to some degree like the allegations made by Donald Trump after the 2020 election, you know, calling Brad Raffensburgger in Georgia and saying, "Find me this precise number of of votes." I I don't I also probably um you know, haven't done you know, enough research or seen enough evidence.
Um, and and I also don't know that I want to fight 2024 when 2026 is right in our face and and we've got to get ready for for 2028.
But I but I do think if I could just on the spirit of this question, sure, our our politics, our our democracy, our voting, our elections are are so horrifically up right now. And it's not really the fault of of any one party. I think the Citizens United decision that said corporations are people and money is speech and therefore corporations can spend an unlimited amount of money to purchase the outcomes of elections or the legislation that follows or just what happens in our lives in our communities. Republicans are pissed off about that about as much as Democrats are. I'm not saying Republicans in office, but just the rank
and file mom and pop Republicans and Democrats are are really angry about this. And I think James Terico is on to something when he says the divide right now is right is not right versus left nor Republican versus Democrat. It's it's top versus bottom.
This concentration of power and privilege at the very top at the expense of everybody else in this country is what is wrong. And it's manifest in our elections right now. So when you know Trump can ask Abbott to gerrymander five congressional districts and he does when if Pritsker wanted to he could do the same thing in in Illinois as Gavin Newsome asked his voters to do in California they did the same.
I mean [clears throat] no one or no one should be okay with this. Most of us are not this is not a a real democracy. when you can get elected and stay in office for life because the power of incumbency is so great whether you're Mitch McConnell or Chuck Schumer, that's badly up and it deepens the cynicism that people have. And then last thing, I spend almost all my time on college campuses getting people registered to vote. Yesterday we were at the day before at UT Arlington, the day before that UT Dallas. and and these young people wonder whether voting works because they've seen their parents vote
or their older brothers and sisters vote and things don't change and um and so they get frustrated because they see so many politicians bought and paid for and doing the bidding of lobbyists and corporations and billionaires. So getting money out of politics is a big way to restore people's faith in it to get more people voting and I think it would bridge more of the differences that we have whether Republicans and Democrats or just folks who live in different parts of the state or different parts of the country.
I I agree with you 100%. I am 50 years old. I'm not even one of these young kids and I feel like my vote is meaningless because exactly because of what you talked about. I know who actually controls the whole system. It's the billionaires who own all the tech companies. They are controlling everything. It doesn't matter who you vote for because they're giving money to both parties and whoever get sits whoever gets to sit in the chair is is bought and paid for. But it's like I vote out of obligation because what else can I do even though I don't think it works like it's the only thing afforded
to me. Mom, as we're sitting here talking about all this, you're listening to Beethoven he's saying about the elections about the Betto. It's Betto, guys. Betto
Mr. Betto. Mr. Betto. There you go. But he's saying this stuff about the real fight is between basically the billionaires and everybody else. Does any of this register with you?
I've always thought the more you spend on campaigns, the more votes you get. I've always thought that. I've seen it. I feel it. And that's not right. We know that's not right.
So, do you acknowledge that Donald Trump could potentially be in office because it was paid for? Anybody could be who has the money.
Yes. And that includes Donald Trump, right? Yes, I guess it depends on who's backing everyone. Okay. But now let's take a look at the Save Act, which I'm sure Betto, you have something to say about that. What is your opinion of it? Let me ask. And and how do you think we should navigate it if it uh passes?
Yeah. So, the concept for the of the Save Act is is one that I think is probably in some ways broadly popular. We just want to make sure that only people who are eligible US citizens can cast ballots in elections. I think 100% of Americans would say, "All right, I'm down with that." The problem with the Save Act is that they're using these outdated databases to check US citizens against the voter files in their home counties. And I'll just give you a very recent example. A year ago, the Texas Secretary of State announced that they had 3,000, you know, illegal aliens who were potentially voting in our
elections. I mean, that would concern me if that were true because we don't want people who are ineligible to be voting in our elections. It's not how this democracy should work. It turns out that they use the database that they're proposing to use for the Save Act to check people who had become naturalized citizens. And that just means people who were born in another country, came to the United States, followed our laws, played by the rules, were uh became US citizens, and have all the rights that every other US citizen has. But the database that that they were using in Texas was checking old information that
showed that they were not yet US citizens. So they had these big press releases. All these people got letters saying, "Hey, you've been voting illegally and we are disenfranch disenfranchising you right now." They had to get lawyers and prove that they were actually naturalized US citizens and got their voting rights restored. Same thing happened in Tennessee and a number of other states that have tried this. Now, Donald Trump is trying to nationalize this. In addition to that problem of having outdated uh databases that are primarily going to target naturalized US citizens and for many of us at some point in our family's history, we had a naturalized US
citizen. In my family, it was uh Bernard Oor who immigrated from Ireland in the 19th century, but everyone almost has a story like that. You also have requirements that would force married women um to potentially have to get their birth certificate to prove who they are because they've changed their name through marriage. There are other complications through lensure or certification that just is going to make this a huge hassle. And it's one of the reasons that in the US Constitution it says that elections are going to be left to the states to conduct. So they made that decision, you know, almost 250 years ago. Donald Trump and Republicans
who support the SEAVE Act are trying to upend it right now. And I think the, you know, probably the cynical reason to do that is to deter people from voting, to confuse people about whether they are eligible to vote, and to try to win the election by means other than competing on their ideas, their track record, and their vision. So sorry for the long answer, but that's My problem with it,
the nationalizing of of federal elections though, too, is like, "Mom, you you and dad have always talked about how everything boils down to you guys to states rights." Like when Row vers Wade was overturned. Hey, that's not on the government. That's states rights. Now, every state gets to make their decision about it. But in this case, Trump is trying to say, "No, no, no. The United States government controls all of the elections in every state, which will allow him the power to do what he's already kind of doing in Georgia to send in Cash Patel and the FBI to take the ballots and then do whatever the he
wants with them. So, do you see, Mom, how that can be a problem in this? Well, what's weird is I just put in my application for an absentee ballot and I put my married name on there. I had to put a driver's license, married name, um, and sign it and a little bit of social on there, a social number, and that was it. So, they didn't ask for my maiden name that I had before I got married.
Okay. So, yeah. And I'm I'm with you, Mary Lou. I think are, you know, some there are some in my party who oppose Texas's current requirements to be able to to vote, the ones that you just described.
I'm okay with them. Uh, when I go to vote, our nearest polling location is the UT El Paso campus. My wife walk and I walk over there. We present a stateisssued ID, driver's license. They check it in their system.
They confirm I am who I am, and then I'm allowed to vote. Some states don't do this. I think even some Republican states like Montana, there's no voter ID requirement. But look, we have voter ID in in Texas, I'm totally cool with it. But for me, Mary Lou, it begs the question, if if we're already doing this the right way, everything that you just described, why add an extra federal layer on top of that that is rife with with errors that may disenfranchise people who who may be Republicans, right? Um, we shouldn't, you know, sometimes people conflate immigration with Democrats. I know from traveling
this state and listening and talking to so many people, there are plenty of immigrants who vote for Republicans. And I think that's great. So that both parties have to compete for their votes. So we could be losing Republican voters as well in this process. So I just want to make sure that if you're a citizen and you're eligible that it's not a hassle for you to vote. What about the belief that I I mean I where I get my information my kids say I'm crazy anyway on Instagram [laughter] and Tik Tok and all kinds of places and chat GBT but anyway
I mean I'm saying it Newsmax is crazy you left out of your list Newsmax that's the primary source of information for you anyway the question is this and they're calling me crazy because I heard that there were voters that did vote that had been deceased so and then I saw a in bravely say he voted five times. He went back in five times and they let him vote. So, is that stuff true? Is that not true?
I I mean, I can't speak to that example because I haven't seen it. Um, there is some really small amount of of voter fraud and any amount is too much and I think it should be vigorously prosecuted and and prosecuted so it deters anybody else from doing this. I think it's interesting the the Brennan Center, which is kind of a left-leaning think tank, [snorts] and then um I can't remember what the the right leaning one was, but they have one on the right.
They both kind of agree that the incidence of voter fraud in America is something like 0.00002% of all ballots cast. You're you're more likely to be struck by lightning, statistically speaking, [clears throat] than you are to run into anybody who's ever fraudulently cast a ballot. So there there's like as close to zero chance as you can get that that any of those incidents out of the hundreds of millions billions of ballots cast over the last 10 years have affected the outcome of any election. So that that is to say that the safeguards that we have in place especially in places like Texas they're doing their job. I think as we
add additional safeguards they then become deterrence and you're going to see a drop in in voter participation and behavior. And look, I want the Republican party to be as strong as possible and to compete for our votes by the ideas they have, the vision that they produce, you know, the track record that they want to point to. And I want Democrats to do the same. But whether it is billionaires, and look, there are Democratic billionaires as well,
buying votes with their money or or swaying the outcomes through corporate spending and packs and all that stuff. or in this current case with Republicans trying to deter people from voting so that they shape the electorate, right?
That's not want there's no no competition there. That's kind of artificial means to produce an outcome. That's that's the problem I have. Is this true, too? I did a little research. Um do you have some Republicans in your family? Yeah. My So, yeah,
my my mom uh and you know, her folks uh were lifelong Republicans, you know, small business owners. Um I I'd kind of say like the the old school um you know, Republicans for for lack of a better word. I think where where many of them changed was after Trump was was elected. And it doesn't mean that they voted for all Democrats all the time, right? I I think that when it was something they felt was so far a field from their values, they just couldn't do it. My mom would never I I mean, my mom unfortunately passed away a couple years ago, but in in her life
after Trump was elected, she never called herself a Democrat um and probably would have described herself as as an independent. But again, part of the reason I'm drawn to you all as a family is that I can't tell you how many times I had really tough conversations at the dinner table with my mom about issues that we disagreed on. Um, you know, you mentioned abortion and states rights and the overturning of Row versus Wade. You know, I was raised uh by a very devout Catholic mother and that was an issue that we just were not going to agree on. But the fact that we had to
have dinner together and still have these conversations, it really helped me understand where she was coming from. And I think she could understand where I was. And we would get to places like I'd say, "Look, mom, uh, if there's no exception for rape or incest or the life of the mother, you're going to have unnecessary loss of life and and suffering. Could could we agree that we at least want to have some exceptions?"
And I think I could kind of bring her over to that common ground. And you know, maybe that's a path forward for Texas going forward. I I I don't know. But um but yeah, we we've got Republicans in the family. For sure.
Everybody does. I thought Yeah. Um well, let me ask you this. You you brought up that some of these states are using these uh you know, metrics, this data, basically saying that these are undocumented or illegal aliens voting in these elections, but it turns out they're actually naturalized citizens. and you seem to be claiming that's just an error in the way they're presenting it. Do you think it's possibly a little more malicious that they're looking for data that can illustrate this viewpoint so it goes on Newsmax makes people like my mom scared, support the SAVE Act, give Donald Trump money, etc., etc.
Yeah, absolutely. And and again, I think we got to be clear. I mean, there there are instances of real voter fraud out there. There also instances of mistakes that have been made. Most notably, and I'm sure this was featured on Newsmax, in New Jersey under the previous governor, they accidentally I mean, nobody no Democrat did this on purpose. I think it was their um Department of Public Safety as um people who were legally in this country but were not citizens, so legal permanent residents or green card holders were getting their driver's licenses. They were erroneously automatically added to the voter roles and some of them erroneously voted. As
soon as the current governor caught wind of that, what I'm really proud of is she announced it and she could have tried to hide it because she would have been worried it would be on Fox or Newsmax. We'd be talking about it on this podcast, but she did the right thing and and I hopefully that restores a little bit of confidence that the people at the state level who are in charge of these elections are trying to do the right thing. But Chad, to your point, I mean, yes, there there may be some some governors who in the other direction are trying to find that one case that they
want to represent every immigrant in this country, every Democrat. What one of the funny theories out there that I've that I've heard leveled against Democrats is that under the Biden administration, they were waving in millions of undocumented immigrants so that they could turn them into Democratic voters. And then if you say, you know what, in Texas, we have such strict voter ID, they would never be able to vote. They say, okay, maybe they're not going to vote, but they're going to have kids and in 20 years, those kids are going to vote for Democrats. And what I find so hilarious about that is imagine the Democratic
party having it together enough to plan [laughter] 20 years in advance that they're win elections in like, you know, [laughter] I mean, we can't get our act together for the election sometimes that's right in front of us, much less for real. And mom, you believe that? You've said that many times on this show that you thought Biden was just like opening the gates to bring in Yes. undocumented voters basically.
Yes, I did believe that in the beginning. Do you do you believe Betto when he says that like it's a Z a0002% uh voter fraud? Do you believe that? Because that is one of your claims always is that all these you call them illegal aliens are voting and they're finding dead people voting five times. Do you believe Betto when he tells you that it's like a minuscule amount of voter fraud? Do you believe that?
I don't know him that well yet to totally believe him. Okay. I do want to be honest. Yeah. Um and I want to bring this up real quick and I we could talk for hours but I know you don't have time about this. the school shootings and the first time that I really realized who you kind of uh were is when you jumped up on the stage with Governor Abbott and that you know incident occurred. I thought who the hell is that and what's going on? I really didn't understand what was going on.
Then as I researched and read into that I understood um you know that was just a terrible thing that happened but I wish they would have let you speak too. Why didn't you get to speak on that day? You know, instead of running up there and kind of going crazy crazy a little bit, but [laughter] that's okay. That's okay because that's how you felt when I got that. And we all hated that day. We hated everything [clears throat] about it. I wished [snorts] you could have spoke up there after him or I wished I don't know. Yeah,
that's how I kind of knew how who you were and with the AKs and and the ARs and I'm going to come after them all and all that. That's how I knew who you were.
Yeah. Yeah. You know, interesting for for me. Um really this began in in the most powerful way in 2019. You you probably remember this in August of that year. um troubled young man drove from Allen, Texas to El Paso with an AK-47. Yes.
And walked into a Walmart and killed 23 people. And and he had posted this manifesto online prior to that massacre where he was echoing a lot of the things that Trump was saying about people coming in from Mexico. He said there was an invasion and he had to repel that invasion. And this was his way of of doing that. He he went into that Walmart attempting to kill anyone who looked Mexican to him. And I was at the press conference uh that Greg Abbott did after that. And uh I think I was still a member of of Congress at that time. know I this is after I was in Congress, but I
went to the press conference and I respectfully listened and I just knew like look, we may have different views on on guns and, you know, whether someone should be able to buy an AK-47 or an AR-15, but certainly we're going to do something after 23 people were slaughtered here in El Paso. And nothing happened. They they didn't do anything. And so, you know, couple years later, we have this shooting in UVA where where 19 children are slaughtered at close range by an 18-year-old who was able to legally purchase an AR-15. And
two teachers were killed as well. And I'm here I am at the same press conference. They're doing the same thoughts and prayers. And Greg Abbott said something that really just got me burning. He said, "It could have been worse."
And I said, "Jesus Christ, tell that to the families that I just spent time with who just lost their their, you know, baby daughter. not even 24 hours ago, tell them that this could have been this could have been worse. And I just couldn't take it anymore. And I just felt like this this record's gonna play on repeat until someone jumps up and and stops it. And so to the degree there was any thinking behind it, that's that's where it came from. But Mary Lou, here's here's the the sad truth and an indictment on all of us. In the four years since Yu Valdi, not a
single thing has been done, not a law has been passed to make it any less likely that any kid meets the same fate as those 19. And I bet if if I had to guess, we could probably find some common ground on this issue. Like, you may not agree that we should ban the sale of AR-15s and AK-47s. That's what I'd like to do. But maybe you would agree that if someone's talking about shooting up their school, that we have the law passed to intervene. The the the friends of the Uvaldi shooter before he ever walked into Rob Elementary, his nickname was the school shooter. So,
this kid had problems. And if we had a red flag law, somebody could have called the cops and said, "Hey, my buddy's not doing okay. Can you come take his guns until we can get him to a better place?" Having a universal background check. Uh,
absolutely. Yeah. Midland shootings, no universal background check. Someone was able to buy a weapon. I do I do agree. Yeah, I agree on all of that. I do agree. I do want one more thing. I know that school uh locked the school down. one way in, one way out the front door. Apparently, there was the teacher that saw him and she had the rock that opened the door, but then when she closed it, they weren't for sure if the that door was closed all the way. If if we could secure those schools, one way in, one way out. And I'm all for this, too. I'm
for drones. If if our officers can't get in there quick enough to help, get that drone, open the unlock box and get that drone and take them down.
Listen, you realize there are all other industrialized countries. They don't encounter this. It is only America. They don't need to lock their schools because nobody has these weapons. There is a problem with gun violence because guns are rampant. anyone can get one. No one should own an AR-15.
I think background checks have got to be better. Trump's not doing that. We know this. No one should have those big daddy guns. That's ridiculous. But then the bad guys are always going to have them. But I totally believe it's I mean with AI and drones, get the drone out. Get that shooter within the first 10 seconds. Get them. Get them out.
You want a palunteer murder drone in every school in America, right? Yes, I do. Yeah. Okay. Holy I mean, our officers on that day when those beautiful children lost their lives, they didn't go in to help immediately. How many minutes later?
That's on those cops, though. A murder drone is not going to help that. Who's going to fly the murder drone? Or do you just want it to be fully
teacher? Apparently, if they have a lock box in there with one in each room, the teacher just hits it, it goes out, and it can go get them. I swear that's what I've read. That's kind of what I've read.
Until it doesn't. Until one gets loose and it slaughters a whole school. You're like wanting military ops in all schools. Can you imagine? I would never send my kids to public school again.
100%. You're like send the drones through the hallway. If it could save one child's life, yes, I would want. You know, it could save a lot of kids. I taught school gun control.
I taught school when we had the drug dogs sniffing way back in the 80s. We had drug dogs in and out. We had police officers at the front of the high school. You're skirting around the actual problem. It's not locks on doors. It's the guns.
We need gun control. Take the guns away. I believe some of it is gun control. I believe some of it is mental illness and kids need help these days. Oh my god, our children need help.
And like um Mr. Beto said, Betto Betto God, [laughter] I tried so hard. I'm so sorry. like like he said. Um yeah, we need better background checks. Um he said something else that hit home. What was it? Now I forgot because I said
Mary, let me ask you from your your years in the classroom, what do you think about what social media and young people's exposure to it is is doing to them. Whether it is inciting them to harm themselves, to harm others, to just be sad about like their life compared to everybody else. are are I'm imagining you would have preferred not to have phones in the classroom and have those students focused on one another, focused on you. Um and just being there, right?
And being present. Yes. Focused on education. I think technology and phones in school terrible. Just terrible. Yeah. And social media just gets is terrible too sometimes for kids like that. That's where I was going where you said on social media he was called that name. The kids knew it. Everybody knew it. Red flag. Someone call him in and get him some help.
Yes. Yeah. That's right. That's right. Yeah. So, I mean, I do think there are common sense things we can do and I and I do think I mean, even just listening to you talk about this, we want to get to the same place. We we want to make sure that no kid, no family has to go through what they went through in in UVA. UVA is just the name that we know that this happens all across the country every single day. Texas leads the nation in school shootings
still. None of us want this. None of us are okay with this. But there's just been this paralysis. And I do think money is a big part of the problem. I think when the NRA, the gun manufacturers, those lobbies can pour in unlimited amounts of money into the campaigns of those who are in office. And it's not just Republicans, by the way. They do it with Democrats as well.
you you get this paralysis and for young people that I'm meeting on these campuses, they just don't understand. Young people have the most acute sense of right or wrong and they have zero patience for us explaining why we haven't prosecuted those who raped and trafficked the young girls and women through the Epstein, you know, crime organization. Um, they have zero tolerance for why we haven't done anything to make them safer in these schools. They're like, just do it. And it does help sometimes when I explain, look, I want to do it. Um, the folks I just talked to on this podcast today want to do it, but the people in office
are responding to other pressures. And a lot of that is driven by money. Let's get that money out. And I bet you we get better outcomes going forward. And I think even if you or I couldn't get everything that we want, there's enough common ground there that we could make things better. So I I just try to hold on to that. And the political work I do is to make it possible that we actually do make progress. Do you like his politics, Mom? Do you like what he's saying?
Hang on one second. Hang on one second because I have this exact question. But first, as we're closing here for just a second, I want to play a clip that I pulled. It's 14 seconds long. This is from an episode, our fifth episode that we did in September of 2022.
Betto, you were running, I believe, for governor of Texas at that point. Are you going to embarrass me? Is that what you're going to do? Because paybacks are hell, Chad. But go ahead. [laughter] I don't think it's embarrassing at all. There were some embarrassing clips I could have pulled, but I I don't think this is embarrassing. It's audio only because we weren't doing video. I just want to play it and then I want to ask you a question about it, Mom. Here we go.
What was your reaction to seeing a picture posted on Haley's Instagram of her with Beta Oor? I couldn't believe that she's that stupid to back a candidate [laughter] like that. I was like, what the hell?
Okay. [laughter] So there's the clip. Yeah, I owe you two paybacks. He made another little clip of me saying, "F Trump. F Trump. F Trump. [laughter]
Paybacks, Chad." Okay. So that's that's how you felt about Betto back in September of 2022 and Haley taking a picture with him. Now you've had a roughly halfhour conversation with him about some topics that obviously you feel strongly about. You've heard his opinions. You've gotten to see him face to face in this uh Zoom environment. Do you feel differently?
Yes, I do. I like him. Oh, look at that. All right. Well, uh, you made my day. Yeah, Mary Lou, I like you, too. I I like you, too. I just feel like, and look, this is going to sound as corny as hell, but it's true. I I just feel like if more of us were were hanging out together, um, and and not online,
um, I I just we we would get there. We We really would. We're not as opposed and and divided as they want us to think that we are. But but because you and I were just talking about screens in the classroom, but we also have screens in our adult lives and we're so consumed by these things and we're looking into that screen instead of looking into the eyes of the person who's in the same space that we're in or going out and finding those people. Going to town hall meetings, going to amazing bakeries and cafes. just connecting with people regardless of their beliefs, regardless
of where they're from. Man, I I want us to get back there. And I and sometimes I'm so freaking depressed. I'm like, you know what? We're we're just irrevocably hurtling towards some singularity where we're just no longer going to engage at this level. And then other times, like just even talking to you here, even though we're we're on these screens, we're we're about as close as we can be short of being physically present together. I just feel so much better.
I'm like, we're gonna make it. And and I felt that way on those campuses that I was working on this week in North Texas. You know, it was really hot. You're sweating through your shirt all day long. Um you're you're like, man, this how am I going to make it through the day? But by the end of it, you're like, you know what? I'm so freaking inspired.
These young people are so amazing. I've learned their stories. I've gotten to hear what their dreams are. They've just gotten registered to vote. They're going to be participating in this election. I feel so much better after a day spent with people than I ever do in the comfort of my home, even with all the air conditioning and the TV and, you know, the comforts of of this house. So, I love what you all are doing and and please keep it up. It's awesome.
Yeah. Thank you so much. I'm so mad that you're not my governor. [laughter] I'm not even in Texas and I am too, by the way. mad about it. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. Might she run again someday? maybe um you know doing this work with Powered by People now is is really fulfilling. I'm a full-time volunteer for as long as we can afford to to do that at least through this election
and I get to work with all these other great volunteers and um it's nice. I haven't been on the ballot since 2022 and I I can just go out there and and be with people uh under a different kind of pressure. So, but if I'm ever useful in that way as as a candidate or if I'm ever lucky enough to hold office um that would be a great thing, too. So, who knows? We'll see.
Yeah. May I could see some version of a decadel long Terrio ascension and you wind up as somebody in his cabinet. There you go. Let's see what happens.
Let's see something like that. Um, but thank you so much, Beto, for joining us for this conversation, everything. Uh, as we end our show, we end every show this way. Despite our political differences, despite standing on opposite sides of the divide in America, we always say that we love each other. So, Haley, thank you for showing up today. I love you, Mom. Thank you for showing up today and having this conversation. I love you, Betto. Thank you for coming here and being a part of our family for at least half an hour today. I love you as well.
I love you guys. Keep it up. Thank you. Thank you, Mom. Chad, thank you. I love you guys. Thank you, Betto. And please just run for anything. I'll take anything.
She wants to make more cookies. Come back to Come back to politics in Texas and and run for office. I like we need you desperately.
I love you, Chad. I love you, Haley. And thank you for coming on the show. Let me see if I say it right.
Betto, thank you. Did I say it? All right. And even though we're ending on a on a happy note, we love each other. We have to love and remember the families that died today 25 years ago, 2,977 family uh people um died and then their families. And there's we have sympathy in our hearts and love for each and every one of you. September 11th, 25 years ago.
Thanks everybody for joining us. Thank you. Byebye. Thank you. That was fun.