Emily Ramshaw, editor of The Texas Tribune, joins us weekly to talk about what’s new in politics.
Ramshaw’s take on Trump calling out Perry over differing opinions on immigration:
“This is an interesting dynamic. Perry is trying to sort of walk this line between being hard on immigration, but also sort of reaching out to a Hispanic base who really sort of feels alienated by some of the things Donald Trump has said,” she says. “I think [Perry] really did come out and get a lot of positive national attention for the way he went after Donald Trump. Not all GOP candidates in this big wide field have done that.”
On current national polling position:
“He’s pretty low in the polling numbers. I think he’s still high enough that he would make the first round of debates, which of course we know is not a place where Rick Perry shined a lot in the last presidential go-around,” she says. “There’s still a chance that he could have a surge and sort of rise up in the numbers. But right now, Donald Trump — despite some of these racist comments — is polling way higher than Perry.”
On Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s legal trouble and his strong stance on same-sex marriage:
“There are special prosecutors basically looking to potentially bring charges against him in North Texas, around what we believe are some security violations,” she says. “He really has been a culture warrior on this issue [of same-sex marriage], and the far right is loving this. He’s the one that they sort of think is giving them the loudest message that they want to hear — not [Gov. Greg] Abbott, not [Lt. Gov.] Dan Patrick.”