Inside Texas Politics: Looking Ahead to November

On this week's edition of WFAA-TV's Inside Texas Politics, I talked with host Jason Whitely and the Fort Worth Star-Telegram's Bud Kennedy about the general election in November. With the primary and runoff contests finally over, candidates can now begin making their pitch to all Texas voters. Some statewide runoff races on the GOP side got pretty rough — could that provide any extra ammunition for Democrats? One race to watch in that regard could be the one for attorney general. State Sen. Ken Paxton, the Republican nominee, recently received a reprimand after he was found to have violated the Texas Securities Act. We also talk about the Tea Party's ascendancy in Texas, apparently contrary to the national trend — do Texans just like their tea strong, or were last Tuesday's results more about faith and values voters?

We also talked about the Democratic ticket. Despite having a couple of big names at the top of the ticket, 2014 was always going to be a tough year for Democrats in Texas — even if the parties were on equal ground, midterms with an unpopular Democratic president would put them at a disadvantage. But there may be more GOP infighting to get through. The state Republican convention, which will be held in Fort Worth next weekend, rejected an application for a booth from the Texas chapter of the Log Cabin Republicans, a national association of gay conservatives. That, plus a looming immigration fight, highlights strains in the party between the pull to the right and the sense among others that the GOP must find a more conciliatory tone.

Also: Jason and Bud interview Sens. Dan Patrick and Leticia Van de Putte, the Republican and Democratic nominees for lieutenant governor, respectively. Jason also talks to Gilberto Hinojosa, chairman of the state Democratic Party, about the party's chances come November; and the perils of not voting.