This Week in Texas Politics: Power grid, endorsements and... butterflies?

AUSTIN, Texas - Before the bad weather moved in, a political storm was already brewing in Texas.

The week began with fallout from another visit to the Lone Star State by former President Trump, followed by another polarizing political figure getting involved in an already hot Texas campaign. Also, somehow, butterflies got political and dangerous. 

The week wrapped up with questions regarding the electrical grid, and if it would crash the gubernatorial race.

FOX 7 Austin's Rudy Koski takes a look at those issues with a panel of political analysts that includes Scott Braddock with the quorumreport.com. FOX 4 Dallas’s Steven Dial, as well as political consultants Sonia Van Meter and Mark Wiggins.

RUDY KOSKI, FOX 7 AUSTIN: And here we are back in the LBJ Penthouse to talk about another Week in Texas Politics, so let's get right to it with our headlines. And we'll start with Scott Braddock with quorumreport.com, Scott, what's your headline for the week?

SCOTT BRADDOCK, QUORUMREPORT.COM: Rudy, it was Trump-a-palooza in Texas this weekend.

RUDY: Stephen Dial, FOX 4 Dallas. What's your headline for the week?

STEVEN DIAL, FOX 4 DALLAS: Grid survives question mark? 

RUDY: Mark Wiggins, political consultant. What's your headline for the week?

MARK WIGGINS, POLITICAL CONSULTANT: Texans prepare for the worst, hope for the second worst

RUDY: And Sonia Van Meter, our newest member. What's your headline for the week?

SONIA VAN METER, POLITICAL CONSULTANT: Ice ice, baby. Too Cold.

RUDY: Scott, let's get started with how this week kind of began. It began with the fallout from a Saturday big Trump rally. What was your big take from that rally?

BRADDOCK: I think it's a real test, and in Texas, we have the biggest test of the influence of the former President Donald Trump in the Republican Party because we have this primary that's coming up real fast, early voting on the way later this month. And if you think about the kind of incumbents that Trump has endorsed, they would potentially be in some trouble if not for his endorsement and for his big show of support. 

RUDY: The governor got some boos during that rally.

DIAL: He was getting criticism from the more conservative side of the party, of course. And in a primary, that's when you're trying to cater to sometimes the reddest of your red.

RUDY: A lot of the individuals who attended that rally are considered to be extremists, and we're seeing some of that play out at a butterfly sanctuary in South Texas with an individual who owns getting targeted for death threats.

VAN METER: The butterfly sanctuary in question filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration in 2017. I believe, and I think that that is the reason that is being targeted now. When we see entities go up against Trump and his former administration, we see. QAnon turn its guns on them and come up with becoming more and more ludicrous stories every day.

WIGGINS: Absolutely. And it's just more evidence of how ridiculous and dangerous this weaponized misinformation has become.

DIAL: Remember, you know, a couple of weeks ago, we had a bunch of people at the location where JFK was shot and thinking some things were going to happen, that just didn't make sense to a lot of people. And so it really boils down to, you can't mess with President Trump.

BRADDOCK: You'll see it during the primaries. I think the big consequence for our politics is that we're in an ever more fact free environment, and it allows people to attack folks based on really nothing.

RUDY: On the other side, we've had another interesting endorsement from another polarizing individual that was for Greg Casar, local council member running for Congress, getting an endorsement from AOC. Steven, does that make things totally different for this race?

DIAL: The AOC endorsement, I mean, it's big from a, if you're trying to prove that you're, you know, a progressive from a national lens, will it sway votes? I don't know.

WIGGINS: I think it does point to the uphill battle, though, that the other Democratic contenders face in terms of name I.D.

RUDY: Sonia, there's a lot of Republicans running for that seat, also. Do you think that this will energize them?

VAN METER: I think it's certainly possible. But the thing about Greg Casar is that all this does is really cement his sort of progressive bona fides.

RUDY: The winter storm moved through Texas, and it factored in somewhat with the governor's race with Abbott and his perceived Democrat challenger, Beto O'Rourke. Beto seemed to be betting on a great problem, it didn't materialize. So, is this the win that Abbott wanted? Scott?

BRADDOCK: I think he's certainly going to portray it that way. I'm sure the ads are already teed up to say something like mission accomplished on the grid. I think they're getting ahead of themselves.

VAN METER: You know him saying things like, if you lost power, that's a local problem. It's not a grid problem. I'm not sure that's quite the dunk he thinks it is.

DIAL: Democrats, it is risky. Trying to bet on people's power is going out because that's a sore subject for no matter what your political affiliation. Betting on the grid, whether they spin it to say that's not what they're trying to say, it might not be a good look in the long run, but I think the governor is going to tout this as a win.

WIGGINS: Look, Abbott set himself up for all of this when he promised the power would stay on this winter, and he started to walk it back this week when it started to look clear that may not happen, but in politics, if you're explaining you're losing.

RUDY: And with that, let's wrap up our week in Texas politics. Scott Braddock, we'll start with you, your word.

BRADDOCK: Trump-a-palooza.

RUDY: Sonia, your word?

VAN METER: Cold.

RUDY: Steven, your word.

DIAL: Freeze.

RUDY: Mark Wiggins, your word.

WIGGINS: Power.

RUDY: And that ends another Week in Texas Politics.

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