{"id":184520,"date":"2026-02-28T14:34:12","date_gmt":"2026-02-28T14:34:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/184520\/"},"modified":"2026-02-28T14:34:12","modified_gmt":"2026-02-28T14:34:12","slug":"opinion-will-trumps-failures-cost-the-g-o-p-in-texas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/184520\/","title":{"rendered":"Opinion | Will Trump\u2019s Failures Cost the G.O.P. in Texas?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"css-8hvvyd\">Which gets to the third thing. Oh. And that third thing is \u2013\u2013 I forgot we had a third thing. We have a third thing. That third thing. He\u2019s not Rick Perry. He remembers all three things. Absolutely there\u2019s not going to be an oops moment, I understand. I\u2019m Michelle Cottle, I cover national politics for New York Times Opinion. And this week, We\u2019ve got the band back together. I\u2019ve got my fabulous colleagues, David French, coming to us from Chicago and our man in Charlottesville, Jamelle Bouie. Guys, good to see you as always. Hey, Michelle. Hey, David. All right. Today we\u2019re going to talk about the center of the electoral universe in the coming week. Texas and the emerging cracks in Trump\u2019s coalition. Usual caveat. We are recording this on Thursday, and Trump is set to head to Texas on Friday ahead of the state\u2019s primary elections next week. So anything goes. But as for the current known knowns, Trump is hitting the Lone Star trail to spread his message of economic victory prosperity. Now, of course, this past Tuesday, he had an even bigger platform from which to tout his economic record during the marathon State of the Union. So how did he do on that front. I\u2019m astonished that I managed to sit through the whole two hours. Hey good endurance. Very impressive. But the things that stuck out to me, I mean, the two big things that stuck out to me. The first was really the level of truly lurid and virulent racism, especially against Somali Americans. I think people have gotten desensitized to this kind of public performance of bigotry, and they shouldn\u2019t because it\u2019s truly extraordinary. It\u2019s not as if my all-American past American presidents, or even most American presidents have ever been racial egalitarians. But there is a recognition that public bigotry of that kind was just not acceptable. It\u2019s not a thing that was O.K because the president is supposed to represent all Americans and at best try to represent all Americans at their highest aspirations. And that gets to the second thing that was striking to me about the State of the Union, which is that there are no aspirations here. It\u2019s the most base kind of emotions and attitudes and feelings a crude instinct to dominate others. And that\u2019s all that Trump has to offer to the public. So he was supposed to be going in there to focus on the economy and make America feel like he understands their concerns. Now, he started off with a list, a laundry list of all the magical things he feels that he has done for the country, and that included some plans or moves he\u2019s made, although they were creatively spun, how he has lifted so many people up off of food stamps, by which he means he has slashed the number of people who are receiving food stamps. So I\u2019m not sure that even in that small chunk of time where he talked about the economy and economic achievements, that it would necessarily resonate with a public that clearly doesn\u2019t think that the economic problems have been solved. And I just wanted to get your thoughts on that specific part of this, because that\u2019s so important to the party in November, this is a really important point. And I think it\u2019s something that both parties really they\u2019re doing what they only thing they can do when voters experiences are sour. So what Trump did is boast about things in a completely false way to say, everything\u2019s better now. Everything\u2019s great. But vote. You cannot lie your way out of voters actual experiences. So if voters are experiencing a job crunch, if they\u2019re experiencing higher prices and key goods and services that they want if their interest rates aren\u2019t as low as they want can talk and boast all you want. And it\u2019s going. It\u2019s not going to land. And this is something the Democrats kind of learned in the 2024 race is that even though inflation had come way down, people were still behind where they\u2019d been in 2018, 2019, etc. and saying, here are the statistics, aren\u2019t they great, wasn\u2019t effective to Trump people\u2019s experiences. And now Trump is coming out and he\u2019s upped the ante and saying, well, I\u2019ll make up statistics. I\u2019ll make things up and tell you how great everything is. But again, you just can\u2019t lie your way out of voters actual experiences. So, Jamelle, what do you think in terms of looking at the midterm, they know what he needs to do, or they have a sense of what he needs to do. How did he approach. I mean, I don\u2019t think this was particularly successful. We have actually as David kind of alluded we have an example of a elderly, declining president trying to tell people that things are good when they feel otherwise. Just a disaster didn\u2019t work out well for him Yeah it\u2019s just so in fairness to lawmakers, I\u2019ll say in fairness to people in politics, there is a bit of a conundrum here, because macroeconomic indicators up until recently were showing a pretty strong American economy. Like something that was humming along. And even in the midst of that, even in the midst of at least what appeared to be wage growth, what appeared to be high employment growth, people were still very dissatisfied. The vibe was off. People didn\u2019t feel as if they were living in a prosperous society, even though the indicators seem to say that they were. And that\u2019s like a hard problem to solve. So that\u2019s me being fair to the political problem here. But the Trump administration and Donald Trump have done nothing to try to really reach people where they are. Cutting food stamps, cutting A.C.A. subsidies, cutting direct assistance to people. Recent analyses say that the tariffs have cost the typical American household about $1,000. That\u2019s the low end, higher end. The Democratic minority in Congress put out a report higher end, around $1,700. So somewhere between 1,000 and $1,700, between a little less than $100 a month and a little more than $100 a month. Americans have lost due to tariffs. And that\u2019s real money. So the president, the president going before the country and trying to browbeat people into believing that things are all good. I don\u2019t think it\u2019s going to be very effective. And I actually want to make one just quick observation. It\u2019s 2026. We are 10 years removed, just about from when we had a president who could deliver a good to exceptional oratory. Neither Trump nor Biden, even young Biden, not a particularly good public speaker, neither Trump nor Biden have really that kind of rhetorical command. But, politics is rhetoric, and we are living at a time when the high arts of rhetoric are just in such short supply. We got to get to Texas next. But I want to jump on that because I am fascinated by that, because one of the things that Trump\u2019s supporters have always bragged about is that he speaks on a fourth grade level. And so I\u2019m wondering how much of this is that. We have dumbed down society to the point that if you talk at too high a level, you\u2019re just going to lose everybody who is going to think you\u2019re snooty or whatever. And Trump has absolutely kind of embraced this whole Democrats bad. I\u2019m good. Biggest, baddest ever. Whatever so I am fascinated by the idea of what would happen if we did have somebody who actually knew how to give a good old stemwinder anymore. I don\u2019t know. Would it play. It\u2019s a great question. And I think we\u2019ve always had a vulnerability to just the lowest common denominator politics. But I think for me, when I was growing up, if you watched the way people interacted with each other, the arguments and the conversations that they had, it was fundamentally different, and we just didn\u2019t know what we had when we had it. And it really has brought home to me when I teach undergrads. One time asked some of my students to watch the 2012 first debate between Romney and Obama, and I can\u2019t remember if I\u2019ve told this story before. The overwhelming sentiment that these students took from it was, I didn\u2019t realize they were friends, or I didn\u2019t realize how civil this could be. And I remember that 2012 first debate in particular is pretty tense. But you look at it now, it\u2019s just fundamentally different. And I know there are Republicans out there. And he lost. Well, there are lots of examples of Republicans who won without being like Trump. So can we just dispense with the idea that that\u2019s the only way to win. Well, it\u2019s interesting that you have brought up civility and integrity and character, because that is indeed the perfect pivot to Texas. So in the Republican Senate primary. We are seeing very different political models fighting for the nomination down there. I spent some time down there going to various events, talking with people. Always a good time. Love it. What we\u2019re looking at right now in the Senate race, a highly divisive MAGA warrior, state attorney General Ken Paxton, who we have talked much about on this show because what perhaps defines him more than his politics is his huge pile of scandals that he carries around with him. In this corner, we have representative Wesley Hunt, a young, charismatic, conservative military vet who would be Texas\u2019s first Black Senator. And over here, the four term incumbent, John Cornyn, who is seen as too establishment and not nearly Trumpy enough by many in his party\u2019s base. So what kind of champion does the party need this cycle to keep Texas deep red, but also maybe to start moving the party into dare we dream a post-Trump era. I am so all about this primary. I love your enthusiasm, I do. Yeah, some folks reached out to me recently and they were asking, O.K, what races are you paying attention to. And I said, three total like in the primary world and the I\u2019m interested in the overall results. But when you\u2019re talking about the granular results, my own congressional district and then the races in Texas, both primaries because this is such it is American national politics and our choice in a microcosm with Ken Paxton, it might be fair to say that he could be the most corrupt politician in America not named Donald Trump. It\u2019s quite possible the charges against him. Look, there are personal friends of mine who used to work in his AG\u2019s office and quit in protest as a result, because of the conduct in this office. It was insiders. And when I tell you insiders, I\u2019m not talking like squishy Republicans or whatever, but people are very thoughtful senior hardcore staffers, senior very thoughtful, very conservative Texans said no. I mean, he almost was. He was impeached, almost convicted. And then you have John Cornyn, who I don\u2019t think anyone would call him a squish. I mean, there\u2019s some resentment that he signed onto a gun control bill, but he signed on to measures that were extremely popular, just extremely popular. And so, the idea that John Cornyn says squish and he needs to be supplanted by the most corrupt politician not named Donald Trump in America. It\u2019s absurd. And then I think with the Democrats, you almost have. It\u2019s like the platonic form of the choice. How do you fight Trumpism. Is it going to be the populist, pugilistic the Jasmine Crockett. I\u2019m going to walk out there and punch you in the face rhetorically, or is it going to be like the walking TED Talk. James Talarico, who is \u2013 A seminarian, no less. They\u2019re very contrasting styles, very contrasting. And here\u2019s the interesting thing. If Ken Paxton wins, I think Talarico could probably beat him. And I think Jasmine Crockett might be able to beat him. I think if Cornyn wins, then the dynamic shifts very dramatically. But it really is one of it\u2019s just what. Which way. Primary voter. Which way. Jamelle, what are you thinking. Ultimately, what happens in the Texas Senate race in terms of who wins the actual Senate seat in November is going to be shaped by national conditions. If Trump is just hideously unpopular, if they\u2019ve done something terrible and egregious that got national attention, then I would very much agree that even if it\u2019s Cornyn and Crockett, then I would say Jasmine Crockett has a decent chance of winning that race. It\u2019s all national conditions. You raised this question, Michelle, of whether there would be like for the Republicans is to the extent that this race might chart a post-Trump course forward. And I come to the view that first, as long as Donald Trump is alive, there will not be a post-ztrump Republican Party. I think he\u2019s like a gravity well, and there\u2019s no real escaping. There\u2019s no real escaping his influence in that way. So I\u2019m not certain that there is any way for Republican to truly distance themselves from Trump, even in the interest of trying to win elections. And this gets back to our previous discussion, which is this, which is just what Republican primary voters seem to believe is necessary to win elections. And they seem to believe that what is necessary is a level of aggression and contempt for decency that really does advantage a guy like Paxton. So one of the things we\u2019re looking at with Texas in particular, is how the party is holding on to or not holding on to the gains that it has made among Hispanic voters who make up about a third of the electorate in the state. So in 2024, with Trump on the ballot, we saw a significant shift of Latino men specifically toward the G.O.P. Now that support seems to be slipping away. And again, it\u2019s always different when Trump is not on the ballot. And I know that I\u2019ve done reporting at the border about the Republican Party trying to woo Latino voters up and down the ballot. Even in years when Trump wasn\u2019t there. But observers in the state note that the Trump policies have not been all that Latino voters were hoping for. So one question in this race, what does the party do to stop the slippage among this demographic, or is there anything. I don\u2019t think there\u2019s anything that can be done. So after the 2024 election and after, Trump more or less replicated George W. Bush\u2019s 2004 performance with Latinos and even Black Americans, it should have begun to reconstitute that Bush coalition. There was a lot of I would say, crowing among Republicans like, oh, we are now this multiracial, working class coalition. But it\u2019s important to distinguish between an electoral coalition and a durable party coalition. A durable party coalition is pieced together through all kinds of moves, through all kinds of actions over time. So the Roosevelt F.D.R. New Deal coalition wasn\u2019t just the 1932 election or the 1936 election. It was a product of the New Deal. It was a product of a set of policies, a set of political approaches that didn\u2019t just win votes, but that binded a number of different communities and different groups of Americans to a particular political order. Trump was able to assemble an electoral coalition that put him over the top. But the administration equated that, equated that with having bound those voters to the political project. And that\u2019s not what happened. It could have happened. There was a path to do that. But what happened instead was operating under the assumption that the battle had been won. The Trump administration and the Republican allies in Congress just began to pursue every single ideological hobbyhorse and bugaboo that they have. And the result has been that this nascent coalition immediately began to fall apart because a bunch of these voters weren\u2019t voting for snatch and grabs of Brown people off the streets. They were voting for maybe another stimulus check. I mean, in the polling shows this among Black voters, among Latino voters, among young voters, young men in particular. Every gain Trump made in 2024 hasn\u2019t just reversed itself, but has gone basically fleeing in the other direction. David so when you think about the Trump coalition, if you looked at the commercials that Trump was blanketing the airwaves with they were inflation, the economy, too much immigration, just very mainstream messages. But if you went to the rallies, if you saw the rallies, it was wild just wild down every conspiracy rabbit hole you can imagine. And so the question was, who\u2019s going to govern commercial Trump or rally Trump. Well, it wasn\u2019t even really a question. It was going to be rally Trump. And so you put the wildest, most extreme people in charge of some of the most delicate and important policies in the United States of America. And what you\u2019re going to see is you\u2019re going to see extremism and you\u2019re going to see brutality. And when you combine extremism and brutality, especially when you overlay that with the reality that a lot of Black and Hispanic Americans, depending on where they are in this country, can\u2019t feel like they can walk down the street without necessarily having to show me your papers. And even if they show, their papers can sometimes be seized anyway. And when you do that are you can\u2019t build a multiracial coalition around that. That is just not possible. And so he just took he\u2019s taken a sledgehammer to his coalition literally from day one. Well, I had been wondering, when you are focusing so much on low propensity voters and obviously the Trump administration went. I mean, the Trump campaign went all in on whipping voters to the polls who don\u2019t like politics, who don\u2019t pay. I remember watching people from the campaign or related to the campaign going out and interviewing folks on college campuses, and you\u2019d see these young guys in particular. They were just so excited about the vibe of this campaign. They were expecting it to be so much fun and whatever else got accomplished, it was just this pro wrestling, let\u2019s get out there and do this. Well, but Trump didn\u2019t get out there and do the things that people were really interested in with the economy. And I do think to Jamelle\u2019s point, if he had really dug in and made changes to how people\u2019s lives were going, then he could have gotten more of a pass on some of his other crazy, most extreme policies. But he didn\u2019t deliver on what people cared about. And they see him focused on stuff that they\u2019re really. This is what we got. So you remove all those low propensity voters from the equation and suddenly you have a very different landscape. And I\u2019m not and I\u2019m not sure that the party can do much to change that between now and November. It\u2019s just my thought. I mean, the other thing is that these voters weren\u2019t voting for the Republican Party. They were voting for Donald Trump. And so if Donald Trump is not on the ballot, the electoral problem the Republican Party has always had in the age of Trump is this that Trump has built a strange cult of personality around himself. People, low propensity voters come out in 2016 and 2020 and 24 to vote for the Trump vibe. They don\u2019t know anything about what a Trump administration might look like. They\u2019re not. I remember saying to people, in the 2024, hey, you\u2019re not just voting for Donald Trump, you\u2019re voting for Stephen Miller. And these are people who don\u2019t care about this. It means nothing to them. They\u2019re voting for Trump. The fun uncle or Trump, the star of the \u201cApprentice,\u201d the lively dancer, the lively dancer. They\u2019re voting for Trump. Kind of the big. It\u2019d be funny to have a big joke in office. Like, that\u2019s the whole Trump deal, a big joke. Who is a good businessman or something. And very manly. So manly. And somehow people think he\u2019s like, very masculine. I find I still find that very strange, but that\u2019s what they\u2019re voting for. And so the challenge for Republicans has always been to how can they convert people who vote for Trump into reliable Republicans. And they just haven\u2019t been able to do it. And so what happens was Democrats who have converted activated a bunch of high propensity voters, college educated voters, moderate to high income voters who would have voted for Republicans, who voted for George W. Bush, right. Who voted who, if they\u2019re old enough and voted for Bob Dole and John McCain. So many suburban moms, people who would have voted for Republicans are like, I don\u2019t like all this chaos. You could call them anti-chaos voters. I don\u2019t like chaos. All I want to do is make my money, raise my family not have to think about this shit. Those people have started voting for Democrats. You have everywhere in the country these voters who just like, don\u2019t. It\u2019s exhausting to have to pay attention to this stuff all the time. It\u2019s exhausting for us. And this is our job. The New York Times pays us money to do this. And I\u2019m still tired, and I don\u2019t feel like \u2013\u2013 We\u2019re all tired. We\u2019re tired of it. So if you\u2019re not being paid money to do it, I can imagine that it\u2019s very frustrating to experience. And I don\u2019t see the Republican Party having any real strategy for dealing with that. All right. So last thing before we end. So what message do you think is most useful for Democrats in this cycle and in Texas. Let me just say that we focus on the top of the ticket. But as my eternal hobbyhorse is that\u2019s not all that\u2019s at stake, especially this year, where Trump has tried to rig the system to get himself more house votes. I think all up and down the ballot, you\u2019re fighting for something important in Texas. So I just want people to think about that. This is not just about one Senate race, but going forward, kind of. What message do you think is most important for the Democratic Party in this cycle. I mean, I\u2019m very much of the view that I don\u2019t people should tailor messages to their particular states and communities and circumstances. But one thing that does seem to resonate, in part because it kind of reflects the two sides of where Trump has become very unpopular is. And I saw Ruben Gallego on CNN or something a couple of days ago say something to the effect of they took $75 billion from Medicaid to give to ICE, So I think that actually is the message. It\u2019s both people are angry about the health care cuts. They\u2019re angry about the ways that the administration has been kind of indifferent to their material circumstance. And they don\u2019t like ICE agents shooting people in the streets. So that to me, is the message the broad generic message that would probably resonate in every single congressional district in the country. They took $75 billion from Medicaid to give to ICE and to give to people who are violating your rights. All right. David O.K. So have you all seen the Netflix movie \u201cThe Rip\u201c? Ben Affleck, Matt Damon. Yes really good. Yes, I do highly recommend. Remember how Matt Damon has the two tattoos which are acronyms for are we the good guys. And we are, and we always will be. It\u2019s a cool part of the movie. Yep but I\u2019m thinking of different tattoos Michelle. So I\u2019m thinking on the left hand the Democrats should have S.T.M. \u2013 stop the madness and on the right hand it should be F.O.Y. Focus on you. So there are the two elements here. We have to stop the madness. Stop Trump from wrecking our society. Wrecking the Constitution so that we can do what both parties should have been doing for a long time. Which is why focus on you. So I think of it that way. It\u2019s two things at once. And I feel like to stop the madness pulls in both the Talarico, super polished mainstream Democrat and the more pugilistic Jasmine Crockett. Because to stop the madness, you got to be somewhat pugilistic. You\u2019re going to have to stand up. You\u2019re going to have to have courage to stop the madness. But it\u2019s got to be also focused on you, because we\u2019ve got to break out of this thermostatic cycle where everybody\u2019s being elected every two to four years to stop the other side. And so who\u2019s going to break this logjam. Stop the other side and then actually deliver. That\u2019s going to be the person who starts to deliver an enduring coalition and enduring governing structure Yeah that strikes me as right. And it\u2019s what I\u2019ve heard from Democratic lawmakers, including Chuck Schumer, the Senate minority leader, which is that you\u2019ve got to connect those dots between the issues that are keeping people up at night and the chaos and madness and corruption of the current administration, which is that because they\u2019re doing X, your health care costs more, your schools are worse. housing is more unstable. They did illegal tariffs. And now if there are refunds you\u2019re not going to get them back. You\u2019re not going to you\u2019ll never see that money again. Like the tariff thing I find fascinating because as we\u2019ve talked about, people don\u2019t pay a lot of attention to economic details and policies and macro trends. But at some point in time and tariffs can be complicated. It\u2019s not entirely clear that Trump understands tariffs a lot of the time he doesn\u2019t know what they are. But the American people at some point decided they really hate tariffs. If you look in the polls and that\u2019s it. It doesn\u2019t matter what Trump says, which is why it\u2019s fascinating and probably gave a few Republican lawmakers a migraine that he just drilled down on that during the State of the Union and intends to just keep doubling and tripling down. I\u2019d like to land this plane there so that we can get time for everyone\u2019s favorite piece of the show. And what that is. Recommendations. Jamelle, go first. What do I need to know. Sure thing. And this has been the theme for my recommendations this month. Just like watching Black history movies, movies from Black directors, movies about the subjects related to Black History. So I watched a 2021 documentary, \u201cMLK\/FBI,\u201d which is more or less about the F.B.I.\u2018s long surveillance of M.L.K. during his life. It\u2019s fascinating stuff, has a lot of great commentary from historians and people who knew King who are still living. So I really recommend it. And you can actually do a double feature with another documentary that\u2019s a little older than that from 2018 called \u201cKing in the wilderness,\u201d which is about King\u2019s last years alive, the year 66 to 68. So both two great documentaries on maybe the darker parts of King\u2019s experience in King\u2019s life during those years. And I\u2019ve also read a book by the historian Thomas Ricks, \u201cWaging a Good War,\u201d about the Civil Rights movement. And one thing I\u2019ve taken away from this somewhat immersion in all of this is just how extraordinary that struggle was the people involved in that struggle. And how I do think that in addition to how our national mythologizing of the movement and its participants kind of sands away the radicalism, I think it also sands away the really extraordinary heroism at great cost to health and lives. And many, many movement veterans did not go on to live long lives because of the stress they endured in those years. So are worth watching. Excellent aforementioned documentaries and worth just thinking about the period less in terms of again, mythology and more in terms of the level of not just organization and dedication, but internal strength it took to stand against an entire social system. All right. David? O.K. So Jamelle really should have gone after me because I\u2019m going to be so trite compared to that. I\u2019m here for it. I\u2019m here for it. O.K, so. One of the great things about every New Year is you restart the nerd cycle, which means that you have a series of fantasy and sci-fi, new seasons, new series that restart every year. And for those of us who ride that nerd cycle with glee, there was much anticipation and nervousness about this show. New \u201cGame of Thrones\u201d show, \u201cKnight of the Seven Kingdoms,\u201d and it freaking delivers. I\u2019m still not caught up with the finale, so don\u2019t say anything, listeners, but it\u2019s really good. And this is going to be weird to say in connection with anything related to \u201cGame of Thrones,\u201d but this actually has lots of moments of delight and fun. It\u2019s a fun show to watch now it\u2019s still \u201cGame of Thrones,\u201d it\u2019s still HBO. Some people might have to avert their eyes at some points, but it is. There is blood very well. There\u2019s lots of blood. There is lots of blood. And the two lead actors. The whole thing. So I\u2019m not going to say anything. You\u2019re behind. And the two main actors, Duncan the Tall and Egg are just great. They\u2019re just great together. And how old is the child actor. I don\u2019t but 9 or 10 kid performance is hard. And this is a very, very hard performance. I have to say. Yes very hard. Absolutely all right. Michelle, I\u2019m glad you\u2019re picking up what I\u2019m laying down. O.K absolutely. I\u2019m going to go with a book. I will periodically go to the recommendations from the times for fiction, nonfiction, whatever I picked up \u201cThere Is No Place for Us,\u201d which is a book about the working homeless by Brian Goldstone. And what it does is it charts five families living in Atlanta, lanta. We\u2019re talking about Covid era, so very contemporary, and it\u2019s just kind of looking at this very particular subset, this subculture of people who they\u2019re not like on the street you think of when you talk about the homeless population, it\u2019s more people who couch surf from relatives floors to sometimes they\u2019re in their cars. But a lot of times they\u2019re at these extended stay hotels, which is just another way to exploit the poor and working class. And I actually I had a friend who passed away a couple of years ago, but her family got caught in this cycle with these extended stay hotels. And it\u2019s really appalling. So they paint this with so much compassion and just the different families all have these different challenges that they\u2019re working with. And I\u2019m only about halfway through so already I think. Highly recommend. So both of you guys: Justice, mercy, courage, sacrifice. Me: Swords, dragons. That has to be a piece of this. David you \u2013\u2013 You have to have swords and you\u2019ve got to have an occasional dragon. Occasional dragon. The occasional dragon. I have questions we\u2019ll talk about these offline about the targaryens in this. But we\u2019re going to say goodbye for the week. Thank you so much, as always, for helping me solve the world\u2019s troubles. Always a pleasure. Thanks, Michelle.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Which gets to the third thing. Oh. And that third thing is \u2013\u2013 I forgot we had a&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":184521,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[59873,27,29,28,4040],"class_list":["post-184520","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-primaries","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news","tag-us-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184520","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=184520"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184520\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/184521"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=184520"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=184520"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=184520"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}