Revisit the highlights and top interviews from the 2024 Texas Tribune Festival

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The Texas Tribune Festival wrapped up Saturday night after three days of conversations with politicians, newsmakers, journalists and authors. Here are some highlights from the event.

Liz Cheney reveals her father’s vote

Days after saying she’d vote for Kamala Harris this November, GOP former U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney dropped another bombshell: so will her dad, former Vice President Dick Cheney.

“Dick Cheney will be voting for Kamala Harris,” she said of her father, who served as vice president under President George W. Bush from 2001 to 2009. “If you think about the moment we’re in, and you think about how serious this moment is, my dad believes — and he said publicly — there has never been an individual in our country who is as grave a threat to our democracy as Donald Trump is.”

The former vice president later confirmed the news in a statement.

Liz Cheney also endorsed Colin Allred, the Democratic nominee challenging Ted Cruz for U.S. Senate in Texas.

Watch the full interview here.

U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-San Antonio, predicts the GOP will lose the House

The relatively centrist Republican who has routinely spoken out against his own party suggested the GOP majority has failed to address people’s everyday concerns.

“What is frustrating me is, I firmly believe that House Republicans are going to lose the majority. And we're going to lose it because of ourselves,” he said in an interview with Punchbowl News’ Jake Sherman. “We’re getting outraised. We’re getting outspent.” He added that the messaging from Democrats “is at a different level than where we’re at.”

Read more here.

U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas blasts Texas’ immigration policies

“This is the first time in my 20 to 22 years of government service that I see a state act in direct contravention of national interests,” Mayorkas told Laura Barrón-López, the White House Correspondent for PBS News Hour.

Read more here and watch the full interview here.

Challengers to House Speaker Dade Phelan present a united front

Reps. Tom Oliverson and Shelby Slawson, both members of House Republican leadership, became the first two candidates to challenge Phelan’s speakership this election cycle. They argued that the speaker’s race is about reforming the House after bruising battles with the state’s top Republicans and the conservative grassroots.

“It’s time for change in the Texas House and not little change,” Oliverson told the Tribune’s Zach Despart. “It’s time for big change.”

Read more here.

Glenn Youngkin says inflation will decide the 2024 presidential election 

The Republican governor from Virginia said Saturday that inflation will be the top issue for voters this November and his state could be winnable for former President Donald Trump.

“Is it going to be a lift?” he said. “Yes, but it is competitive.”

Youngkin said Vice President Kamala Harris, now the Democratic presidential nominee, would be bad for the economy because she would not renew the tax cuts made under Trump’s previous administration.

“We've watched an economy where the brakes come on,” Youngkin said. “The reality, of course, is that the Biden-Harris administration unleashed unfettered spending that drives inflation.”

Read more and watch the full interview here.

Colin Allred defends his campaign from worried progressives

Speaking at The Texas Tribune Festival with The Bulwark’s Tim Miller, Allred’s comments were in response to a recent assessment by Beto O’Rourke that Allred should have “more unscripted moments, more connecting with people.”

“We’ve got a great state and a massive state, and last month, we've done 50 stops in 22 cities,” Allred said. “We also have to have resources to make sure we communicate in the biggest media markets in the country, and also in markets in places that are completely siloed from each other.”

Allred said “it is a challenge in terms of making sure you can get the message out” due to the state’s size.

“What happens in Houston, nobody knows about Dallas, by and large. What happens in Austin, it's unknown to El Paso,” Allred said.

Watch the full interview here and read more here.

Gretchen Whitmer decries political violence against both parties

The Michigan governor blamed former President Donald Trump for fomenting the divisiveness that led to the 2020 kidnapping plot against her. But after an assassination attempt on Trump earlier this year, Whitmer said it was on members of both parties to call out political violence.

“When I saw the shooting in Pennsylvania, I was so grateful that he was not killed or hurt beyond the ear,” Whitmer said Thursday at The Texas Tribune Festival. “But it's not okay all of a sudden to take on political violence and claim that it's your opponent that's stoking it. This has been fomenting in this country for too long, and it's on every one of us for us to hold one another accountable, not just people across the aisle, but within our own parties, too.”

“Whether it’s against [Supreme Court Justice] Brett Kavanaugh or it is against Donald Trump or me and my colleagues, we all should be taking a stand and calling it out and demanding that there are repercussions for people that play those games,” Whitmer continued.

Watch the full interview and read more here.

Nancy Pelosi warns of the stakes in the presidential election

Speaking about the upcoming presidential debate, Pelosi asked journalist Kara Swisher, “Do you think he’s gonna show up?”

“You know something I don’t know?” Swisher asked.

“I know cowardice when I see it,” she said.

Watch the full interview here.

Here are other Tribfest interviews or panels you can rewatch:

• A conversation with three leading progressive politicians: U.S. Rep. Greg Casar, U.S. Rep. Pramila Jayapal and Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison.
• A discussion with the staff of The Bulwark.
• An interview with Maryland Gov. Wes Moore.

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The Texas Tribune's signature event of the year, The Texas Tribune Festival, brings Texans closer to politics, policy and the day’s news from Texas and beyond. On Sept. 7, we wrapped our 2024 Festival — three unforgettable days packed with 100+ sessions and events.

Browse on-demand recordings and catch up on the biggest headlines from Festival events on the Tribune’s Festival news page.