Texas Take

Texas Take is built around the idea that Texas politics rarely stays local for long. Jeremy Wallace follows the state’s campaigns, Capitol fights, party grudges, and national ambitions with a reporter’s ear for detail and a conversational pace. The show spends real time on Republican power struggles. John Cornyn, Ken Paxton, Wesley Hunt, Ted Cruz, Greg Abbott, Dan Crenshaw, and Donald Trump all move through recent episodes as figures in larger contests over money, influence, and timing. The U.S. Senate primary receives especially close attention. So does the question of when a Trump endorsement changes a race and when it merely changes the fundraising math. Episodes also look beyond campaign scorekeeping. THC regulations, social studies fights, redistricting penalties, quorum breaks, and deep-sea mining hearings all become ways to explain how policy, courts, and party discipline collide. The format is brisk. Openings often stack several stories before settling into interviews and reporter conversations. Guests give the show range, from Justin Davis discussing the NRA’s finances and internal controls to Joe Gruters talking about Republican National Committee planning in Texas. Reporters such as Isaac Yu, John Moritz, and Benjamin Worman help fill in courthouse, Capitol, and Washington context. Brandon Rottinghaus adds political analysis from the University of Houston. Ruben Gallego appears in a segment about early presidential-cycle organizing and Democratic hopes in Texas. The tone is informed but not sterile. Wallace uses jokes, analogies, and the occasional pop-culture turn to keep procedural politics from sounding remote. That can mean comparing endorsement suspense to a reality-show rose ceremony. It can also mean sliding from ocean-floor policy into Godzilla and Dragon Ball Z without dropping the political thread. The show is strongest when it treats Texas as a stage where donors, voters, candidates, and national committees are all watching one another. It favors concrete stakes over abstract ideology. Money matters. Turnout matters. Personal penalties, committee hearings, convention logistics, and airport confrontations matter too. For listeners tracking Texas Republicans, Democratic comeback attempts, and the early shape of national races, Texas Take offers a lively weekly read on who is gaining ground and who is being forced to answer.