'A political extinction': TX Republican on stunning blue wave in Texas

[0:00] Behind us is the Texas State House. You were the Speaker. You were saying there's one apartment in all of America in the State House. It's for the Speaker of the Texas State. The current guy in there is packing up because he's a Republican. It was every single race on the ballot, every statewide race, every state race. You call it a political extinction. Correct. It was a political extinction for Republicans up and down the ballot. The president said act like I'm on the ballot and voters act like he was on the ballot and they voted out every single [0:30] Republican up and down the ballot. I thought maybe 11 House members in the Texas House would go down. It's maybe 20 right now. Congressional races that we grew in a mid decade redistricting. I don't know if we want any of those seats. The governor all the way down lost. And that's what happens when you cannot run on issues. We cannot talk about issues. We cannot talk about those cost of living issues. We cannot talk about fuel. We cannot talk about [1:00] you know when you go to the grocery store and the price of eggs and price of beef because we own that. We were the party in power, right? Instead, we were running ads about China and girls and boys sports for six straight years. That's all we've been talking about. And it was not resonating with voters. And so when Donald Trump said act like I'm on the ballot, that's exactly what voters did. They act like he was on the ballot and they rejected it. [1:25] Wendy, the thing is, nobody saw this coming, not at the scale. That's right. Right. And maybe it was because there is an understandably so fear about the polls. Oh, the polls must have been overestimating Democrats. You know what? The polls were wrong here in Texas. They were wrong underestimating Democrats massively. Oh, if Tallarico wins, he ekes it out. The guy's going to end up winning by 12 plus points. [1:46] Yes. Yes. Yes. It's just phenomenal. I'm part of Gina's team. And so I was able to see the data as it was modeled every day during early vote. And there were a few days before early vote ended. I walked out of my office and I told my husband with tears in my eyes, Gina's going to win. [2:05] It was clear to us. You did see it. It was clear in the internal data. It was. But the length, the extent to which she won, the resounding victory that she had last night was really a shockwave. I was at her event and everyone was walking around saying, I don't know how to feel. As I was looking at my laptop, I did a lot of work in down ballot races. This cycle, I started a pack. I put a ton of money across many of these races. [2:34] And as Speaker Phelan said, we thought we would pick up maybe 10 or 11 at the best night possible. And it does look like we are going to flip the house. You now have a Democrat. Texas is a Democrat. It's a Democratic state now. I mean, it's every single statewide, the attorney general, the comptroller, the land commissioner, the railroad commissioner, everything, all the judges, all the Supreme Court judges. [3:01] It has completely changed the landscape of Texas overnight. And it's going to take a while to determine how to put this government together because it has to be put together across the entire spectrum. [3:16] So then what do Republicans do? I mean, you're not surprised. You thought Tallarico could win. [3:20] Yeah, and I said that yesterday. [3:21] And Abbott would then eke it out, right? I mean, you didn't quite see. But I mean, this is, you know, you start to wake up as a Republican and you go, I mean, what? How do you even put words around it? [3:33] Well, there's certainly a political earthquake in Texas. Look, Texas isn't purple. Texas is a blue. [3:36] Right. And I think this, you know, increases, you know, Ted Cruz is now the leader of the Texas Republicans, whether he likes it or not. But what I think is going to happen is I think that Trump, I think that Thune needs to go. [3:49] And I think that Rick Scott should run for minority leader. Trump needs somebody more aligned with him in the Senate that's more pugnacious. And, you know, we've got to get used to life in the minority. [4:00] Sorry. Yeah. I mean, I mean, at the least. And how much power Trump even has at this point. I mean, it's going to be a melting ice. [4:07] Yeah. And I will say, Wolf, you know, one thing in the middle of the night, I guess it was one o'clock in the morning here as I was leaving. [4:14] It was just horns going off everywhere in Austin when this was called the celebration. It was, you know, a moment, very rare moment in American politics, but certainly an unprecedented moment, Wolf, here in Texas. [4:25] We're with CNN's Phil Mattingly over here at the magic wall, and you've got a, it looks like you've got a map of Texas. [4:31] I am trying to figure out the absurdity of the margins that we're seeing, not just in dim strongholds like, say, Dallas County, obviously the home of Dallas. [4:40] This is where Democrats wanted to run it up, needed to run it up. They ran it up by a margin that looks like it's fake. [4:46] This is Democrats win this county in 2024 by 22 points. This is not fake. This is very real. [4:52] And it is repeated over and over again, county by county by county, not just dim strongholds, but really across the county. [4:58] If you want a full sense of it, Wolf, you look and look over here into the shift from the 2024 presidential, and you can see the scale of it. [5:08] The darker the blue, the bigger the shift. We knew that the Hispanic vote in the Rio Grande Valley was going to be huge, whether or not it would shift back from that dramatic turn. [5:16] It took in favor of Trump in 2024. That absolutely happened. But it also happened in suburban counties around all of the major metro areas and urban areas, which had to happen, but it's happening at a scale. [5:27] I don't think anybody expected. I think more importantly, if you look across the state, every single county with the exception of two or three is blue, which means every, some shade of blue, [5:35] which means every single county with the exception of two or three in the state of Texas didn't just shift. It shifted hard towards Tallarico, even the counties up here in the panhandle, which goes so heavy towards Republicans. [5:47] That's why this looks like this, which even the most optimistic Democrats didn't expect. [5:52] Yeah, with 97% of the vote now in, James Tallarico is ahead of Ken Paxton by a million, 192,000 votes. Did anybody think that was going to happen? [6:02] Trump won this by 13 and a half. Tallarico is winning it by 12. [6:06] Joining me now is Texas Republican Congressman Pete Sessions. Congressman, I'm wondering how you see it. [6:10] If Trump was on the ballot, would Republicans have won in a landside, or did Americans do exactly what Trump told them to do, which is vote as if he were on the ballot? [6:18] Well, I think it's important for us to note that this is a series of decisions that have been made inside the state and outside the state that had a profound influence on whether we were going to win or not and how we would win. [6:36] But I don't think it's really a matter of whether Trump was on the ballot or was not on the ballot. [6:41] I think that everyone was part of the contributory negligence that occurred during this election. [6:50] And I think that there were a lot of decisions that were made, some a year ago, that we never really caught up from. [6:59] So, look, this is the things that happens. [7:02] It is now up to Republicans and Democrats to make the government work. [7:07] I listened to Majority Leader, New Majority Leader Schumer, and he is going to present their agenda. [7:16] He's going to present what they're doing. [7:18] We still have to make the country work. [7:22] He spoke about democracy, but half their candidates, a good number of their candidates, are not even for the Constitution. [7:30] They want to change it. [7:31] So, where we can work together, we will. [7:35] Where we cannot, Republicans will not be a part of changing the Constitution, doing away with the Senate, taking private property. [7:45] We'll see how they handle what their legislation is. [7:49] But I will tell you, we need to work together for the best interests of the country. [7:54] I congratulate them. [7:55] I have been on that winning side before. [7:57] I've been on the side as chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee when we waged a war against them. [8:05] And it causes change within a party. [8:08] It causes reflection. [8:09] But this is about reality. [8:11] And we have to face reality. [8:14] Congratulations to my friends in the Democrat Party. [8:16] And obviously, the gracious, appropriate response, Congressman, I'm curious. [8:23] I mean, I look at your seat. [8:24] Obviously, you won. [8:26] And if I'm right, and we've got final numbers coming in, but you won by seven points. [8:30] You won by 33 points two years ago. [8:33] You survived last night. [8:34] A lot of your peers did not. [8:36] I mean, you could be looking at 250 for Democrats in the House when all is said and done. [8:41] May not go that high, but it possibly could. [8:44] Here in Texas, your former House Speaker, Dade Phelan, who worked in the building behind me, [8:51] he called it an extinction event, what happened here in Texas. [8:55] I mean, so what do you think accounts for? [8:57] I mean, like I said, you managed to survive. [9:00] But even look at the swing in your own district. [9:03] That seems to be, do you think it is, a lot of people who voted for Trump voted for the Democrat? [9:09] Well, let's just put it this way. [9:14] Those are two distinctly different seats. [9:17] I won two years ago off a different seat than I won off of last night. [9:23] A decision was made to do redistricting that was going to diminish necessarily the success of big numbers in our party. [9:36] I picked up the same area that James Tallarico served. [9:43] And so there was a change. [9:45] And then the profound decisions, including about the decision of redistricting, including the decision was made about Ken Paxton. [9:55] And so all of these things came to play. [9:58] And James Tallarico was the person who ran against Ken. [10:01] So that is what happened. [10:02] But I think our members of Congress, Roger Williams, a number of other people, Craig Goldman, survived an onslaught in other areas. [10:13] I think we performed better than statewide people. [10:17] And I think we performed because we went and sold who we were. [10:22] People knew who we were. [10:24] And we talked about common sense. [10:25] And interestingly, you talk about that redistricting. [10:29] It obviously started right here in the statehouse behind me, right, when President Trump worked on that with Governor Abbott. [10:37] Then you had the Governor Newsom, California response, and it all went on from there. [10:41] But four of the five seats here in Texas, I understand, Congressman, that the Republicans redistricted, thinking it would help Republicans, flipped. [10:48] Flipped. [10:49] So it backfired in many ways. [10:51] As I said, you managed to be the one to withstand that. [10:55] Back here now with the panel. [10:57] And this also, when you think about it and what he was talking about with his message, the most expensive Senate race ever. [11:04] I mean, the money pouring in. [11:05] And his message tonight, part of it was the real fight in this country is not left versus right. [11:10] It's top versus bottom. [11:12] What is his mandate? [11:14] I mean, he won by double digits, Bakari. [11:16] So James Tallarico is an interesting candidate because of the simple fact that for a very long period of time, something I've told Democrats about, particularly in the South, is you cannot cede GOP, meaning God's only party, right? [11:30] And there has been this interesting demarcation about Democrats not having religion or being able to articulate their religious views or being able to talk about it, which is necessary in the Deep South. [11:44] It's more than running for president and standing on the, you know, sitting on the front two pews of the church. [11:50] It's being able to articulate the fact that there is a woman in there who wears a big hat, who when you hug her, you smell like white diamonds for the rest of the day. [11:58] But she's worrying about whether or not she has to pay her prescription drugs or pay her utility bills. [12:02] Tyler Rico got to the heart of that, and he was able to do that through scripture, his religion. [12:09] And for many people in Texas, that was refreshing because he sounded like and looked like one of them. [12:16] And so when they tried the Telefrico thing or they found out he was following IG Instagram models, I had to go back and clean my Instagram page up after that. [12:26] But like all of these things, they didn't necessarily, they didn't necessarily resonate because James Tyler Rico was something that I talked about earlier, which is that Democrats found people from communities that represented those communities. [12:41] It wasn't a glass house on high. [12:44] And when you think about who he was up against, who was someone who. [12:48] Oh, terrible candidate. [12:49] Terrible candidate. [12:49] That also helps. [12:50] But someone that Donald Trump picked and backed, and one big thing we're seeing as a result tonight is Donald Trump, the president, not, I don't think anyone would expect him to have any self-reflection, but just blaming everyone for what has unfolded this evening rather than what Republicans, including himself, have said over and over again, which is run like he's on the ballot. [13:16] Just listen to what he said in the interview, in an interview tonight about Ken Paxton. [13:20] I had no choice. [13:24] Ken Paxton was a good guy. [13:26] And I just wasn't a fan of Cornyn. [13:28] You know, I just wasn't a fan. [13:30] I found him to be a disloyal guy. [13:33] He was not a fan of mine when, you know, to be honest, when it wasn't fashionable, he wasn't there. [13:40] And I could say that about a lot of people, could say that about you. [13:44] When it wasn't fashionable to be with Trump, he wasn't there. [13:48] When it was fashionable, he kissed my ass. [13:50] All right. [13:51] But, you know, I remember the, I remember the other days and I just felt I couldn't endorse him. [13:59] President Trump had no choice but to endorse Ken Paxton. [14:01] I mean, really? [14:02] Well, he made a choice, right? [14:04] I obviously, I disagree. [14:05] He did have a choice. [14:06] I don't know, though, if tonight, John Cornyn on the ballot wins against James Tallarico based on just the natural mood of this country. [14:13] And history, again, is just not on the side of the party in power. [14:17] You guys have been saying on the left for a very long time, right, that Texas is finally going to turn blue and it never happens. [14:23] And so, finally, it happened. [14:24] Congratulations. [14:25] It happened. [14:25] And we'll see what goes next. [14:27] Let's go right to CNN's Brianna Keillor in Fort Worth, Texas. [14:30] So big, I wonder if the scope of it has even sunk in yet there, Brianna. [14:34] Yeah, I don't think so, John. [14:39] This is beyond the wildest dreams of Democrats here in Texas. [14:43] And they're waking up this morning to still fully absorb what happened last night and overnight here. [14:49] I spoke with a longtime Democrat in Tarrant County. [14:52] We're here in Tarrant County. [14:53] Has been for decades reliably read for the most part. [14:57] That person told me that it's been a long time in the wilderness. [15:00] And as you noted, when it came to that Senate seat, yes, almost 40 years, [15:04] that same person had been involved in the bipartisan review of write-in ballots. [15:08] And they noted that as they were doing that, in at least one case, [15:12] there was a voter who had cast a ballot for governor for Greg Abbott [15:16] and had written in Jesus Christ for Senate. [15:20] So this is biblical in proportion, apocalyptic feeling for Republicans. [15:26] And you have Democrats here celebrating. [15:27] You see where I'm going with this. [15:29] And perhaps fitting the Presbyterian seminarian, now senator-elect, [15:33] choosing a biblical narrative with which to celebrate with his supporters last night, [15:40] his big victory here in Texas. [15:42] David, David wasn't as big or as strong as Goliath. [15:49] He didn't have as many weapons, but he had hope. [15:52] He had faith and he had a slingshot. [15:58] You were my slingshot. [16:00] The people of Texas were my slingshot. [16:12] And tonight, and tonight, we defeated Goliath. [16:17] The down-ballot effect that we are seeing is just incredible here. [16:25] This blue wave, this Tallarico tide, lifting all Democratic boats here in Texas. [16:31] Of course, from governor to lieutenant governor to attorney general, [16:37] four Texas Supreme Court seats, all appearing at this point to be four Democrats. [16:43] So what was a 9-0 Republican majority there, now looking to be a narrow, [16:47] though still meaningful, 5-4 Republican majority. [16:51] The railroad commissioner, who, of course, actually isn't involved so much in the railroads, [16:55] but in regulating oil and gas here in a state where oil is king, [16:59] even the county leadership here in Tarrant County, which, as I said, was reliably red, [17:03] that now shifting to Democrats. [17:06] Even, John, looking at school district races, which were so interesting. [17:11] In northeast Tarrant County, we kept an eye on that. [17:14] These were races where, on the ballot, they did not even have the party affiliation [17:19] of that person running for the school district. [17:22] They still won significantly and were pulled along in all three cases [17:27] in one of the school districts here. [17:29] It's really incredible to watch. [17:30] From the highest highs to the lowest lows, a complete sweep, really, for Democrats in Texas. [17:36] Breonna Keillor, great to see you this morning in Fort Worth. [17:38] Thanks so much for sharing your reporting there. [17:40] Now I want to bring in our excellent panel, Essie Kump. [17:43] You heard James Tallarico just tell our Aaron Burnett that he wants to work with President Trump [17:48] to get things done. [17:49] And the president told Politico last night that he wants to work with Democrats [17:53] after earlier insisting he'd become Mr. Vito, Vito, if the Democrats won control of Congress. [18:00] What are you expecting? [18:02] It's going to be rough. [18:03] It's going to be a rough two years. [18:05] The president's going in as Mr. Vito. [18:07] We heard the incoming House Oversight Chair, Robert Garcia, saying, lawyer up. [18:13] So I think, you know, there is going to be some sense of defensive crouches and digging in. [18:21] But James Tallarico's right. [18:22] What he said to Aaron was people are not sending us, meaning these newbies, to Washington for retribution. [18:30] They're sending us to solve their problems. [18:32] And I think that's what people expect them to do. [18:34] Now, does that mean they should ignore the corruption? [18:37] No, I think there's a difference, and I think voters make this distinction, too, [18:41] between addressing the corruption and then the performance of impeachment. [18:47] And I think a lot of voters see the impeachment efforts as a performance [18:50] that doesn't really solve a problem. [18:52] They want the corruption held accountable. [18:55] They want that tackled. [18:56] But they also want, finally, for lawmakers to be addressing their very real problems. [19:02] It feels like lawmakers for the past decade have been going to Congress to get famous, [19:07] to grift, to make money, to win favor with the president. [19:12] It's time for people to do their job and remember that they are, first and foremost, public servants. [19:18] Good point, indeed. [19:19] You know, David, it's interesting. [19:21] The breaking news, we're following the outgoing, now outgoing, House Speaker Mike Johnson [19:25] telling his staff a little while ago he's not going to run for Senate minority leader [19:30] because the Republicans are going to be in the minority, the GOP leader in the Senate. [19:36] But it does look like Steve Scalise and Jim Jordan will be candidates for that job. [19:41] Who do you think should lead the House caucus? [19:43] Someone from Ohio, for sure, right? [19:45] Far be it for me to tell the House members to do. [19:49] But listen, both men are very talented. [19:52] They both bring different skill sets. [19:53] Jim Jordan is very combative. [19:55] I think probably, you know, if you're asking me who I think is going to win, [19:58] I think Jim Jordan is probably going to be, end up being the minority leader. [20:02] Why do you think he'll win? [20:03] Maybe because, you know, he led that oversight. [20:05] He's a fighter. [20:06] The caucus likes him, I think, more in that role. [20:09] Steve Scalise is a little bit better in terms of, you know, [20:13] he's more of a consensus builder. [20:15] Lighter touch. [20:15] Yeah, he's a lighter touch. [20:16] He's not a boxer. [20:17] He's not a wrestler. [20:18] He's not a grappler. [20:19] He's not there to do that. [20:20] You know, to Essie's point about, does the president want to vetoes? [20:23] Is he going to work with things? I think it'll be an interesting mix. [20:25] You know, I think there's a world in which he could work with Chuck Schumer [20:29] and Hakeem Jeffries to get things done. [20:31] But, you know, there's, to her point about oversight, [20:34] if they are continually up there investigating his family [20:37] and the thing, the perceived grift, [20:41] he's going to be less inclined to cut deals if he feels he's under siege. [20:45] That's interesting. [20:45] You know, Jamie, President Trump spent the last several weeks out there [20:49] on the campaign trail, stumping for Republican candidates. [20:52] Overnight, he said this, and I'm quoting him now, [20:55] I wasn't on the ballot, and if I was, we would have won in a landslide. [21:00] After last night, what does the president's role look like moving ahead in the coming year? [21:06] So, first of all, let's just fact check the president, [21:08] and I want to quote my friend and one of our colleagues, [21:12] Peter Baker of The New York Times, [21:14] who actually counted the number of times [21:17] that President Trump pleaded with voters [21:21] to vote, to pretend he's on the ballot, [21:24] and the answer is 47 times at least. [21:29] Peter counted so we don't have to. [21:32] Just to go back for a minute [21:34] to who's going to be the next minority leader, [21:37] I would add one thing to what David said. [21:40] Donald Trump wants Jim Jordan to be the next minority leader. [21:45] He wants someone who's going to be combative, to be... [21:48] But don't you think, don't you think that Trump's credibility [21:51] has really gone down as a result of what happened yesterday? [21:55] I mean, it's hard to say credibility. [21:57] People believed him, right? [21:58] But a lot of Republicans lost because of him. [22:00] They did, but everyone believed him. [22:02] Everybody experienced the policies, promises kept. [22:05] All of those things are true. [22:06] The problem is nobody enjoyed them in their execution, [22:10] and now they are reaping the fruits of that, [22:13] and I think that's really difficult. [22:15] To your point about Hakeem Jeffries [22:16] and what to work on in the future, [22:18] keep in mind there are all kinds of issues [22:19] that have surfaced. [22:20] Data centers is one. [22:21] Huge. [22:22] Where there is a bipartisan sense of, [22:24] oh boy, should we do something? [22:25] Yeah. [22:26] And Trump, who had been palling around with big tech, [22:28] telling people they were backwards [22:30] for not wanting data centers, [22:31] again, he was tone deaf to an issue [22:34] that had grown in a bipartisan way [22:36] in terms of its backlash. [22:38] Right now I'm looking at ballot measures, [22:40] something like 40 of them are moratoriums [22:42] or restrictions on data centers, [22:44] and most of them pass. [22:45] So I do think housing data centers, [22:48] we heard them also talking about health care. [22:51] Those are things Democrats can act on [22:52] and possibly draw Republicans with them. [22:55] Where it gets harder is stuff like gas prices, right? [22:57] Like things that we know fundamentally policy-wise, [23:01] that's a lot harder.