Go Behind The Ballot

We'd love your support:Join our newsletterLeave us a rating and reviewShare our podcast with a friendClaire and Nichole are so excited to share the trailer for our brand new project titled - The Voucher Scam. The Voucher Scam is an exposé on one of the most critical issues facing public education today - education vouchers.As Texas leadership pushes an aggressive voucher agenda that would privatize and defund public schools, Claire and Nichole give listeners a behind-the-scenes look at what's really at stake.The first episode of The Voucher Scam is available. Subscribe to the show where you listen to podcasts.Also we are still actively creating this show. Want to help us finish it? Donate to our page:https://secure.actblue.com/donate/saynotovouchers

We'd love your support:Join our newsletterLeave us a rating and reviewShare our podcast with a friendThis week’s show is short and sweet. We are working hard on a brand new podcast called The Voucher Scam which will premiere next Thursday October 5th. In the meantime, we encourage y’all to sign up for our newsletter and donate to the new project.https://secure.actblue.com/donate/saynotovouchers

We'd love your support:Join our newsletterLeave us a rating and reviewShare our podcast with a friendTexas Monthly Articles that grounded our conversation:https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/ken-paxton-supporters-gop-civil-war/https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/ken-paxton-acquitted-texas-senate-impeachment-trial/Join us as we break down the acquittal of Attorney General Ken Paxton on all charges. It was quite a trial and had twists and turns up until the end. However, as we’ve done research it seems as if the acquittal was quite predictable. There is no doubt that this was a political trial and the Texas Senate stayed loyal to Paxton and the far-right wing of the Republican Party that is in the pocket of Tim Dunn, a west Texas billionaire. It was a great reminder that democracy is at stake and voting has never been more important. Want to listen to more about Christian nationalism? Listen to our episode with Mendi Tackett:https://gobehindtheballot.com/what-is-christian-nationalism-and-how-is-it-undermining-democracy-with-mendi-tackett-culture-warsWant to read more about Christian nationalism?Read Jesus and John Wayne by Kristin Kobes Du MezSpeaking of democracy…help us do our part by supporting our podcast, The Voucher Scam, which reveals how integral public education is to a healthy democracy. Donate here: https://secure.actblue.com/donate/saynotovouchers

The impeachment trial of Attorney General Ken Paxton has remained full of interesting developments! In fact, by the time you read this, neither of us would be surprised if there’s multiple new developments and this seems like old news. But for this episode, prepare yourself to hear about Paxton’s chief of staff, Missy Cary who knew more about Paxton’s mistress than she ever wanted to know. We’ll fill you in on Brandon Cammack who was the outside counsel hired by Paxton and spoiler alert–was never paid for his services. We will catch you up. We’ve learned that the trial could conclude as early as this week so we may be able to bring you final thoughts next week. However, it also wouldn’t shock us if it goes on for much longer. Who really knows!?! Friends, we’re still fundraising for our podcast and it is really taking shape. Humbly, we ask for your help to get the word out across the state about the danger of education vouchers. If you feel moved to donate, awesome! If you feel moved to share our campaign, also awesome!Donate here: https://secure.actblue.com/donate/saynotovouchersWe'd love your support:Donate on StripeSupport us on PatreonJoin our newsletterLeave us a rating and reviewShare our podcast with a friend

The impeachment trial of Attorney General Ken Paxton began on Tuesday, September 5, 2023. It began with Paxton’s defense lawyers making a motion to dismiss all charges. Just imagine if they’d succeeded–everyone could’ve called it a day! But alas, the 16 charges were all upheld and the trial began in earnest. Ken Paxton, through his attorneys, pleaded not guilty on all charges. If opening statements are a good indicator of how this whole trial will go, it will be quite the fiery event! So far, we’ve heard from Paxton’s top deputy who resigned after concerns with the attorney general’s behavior. We will keep watching and may very well continue to bring updates. In the meantime, the Texas Tribune has great coverage and we’ve linked an article below.Need a great rundown of the major players? Look here:https://www.texastribune.org/2023/09/01/ken-paxton-impeachment-witnesses-parties/And also, got some pennies or energy to spare? We could use your help on our anti-voucher podcast.Donate here: https://secure.actblue.com/donate/saynotovouchersWe'd love your support:Donate on StripeSupport us on PatreonJoin our newsletterLeave us a rating and reviewShare our podcast with a friend

We'd love your support:Join our newsletterLeave us a rating and reviewShare our podcast with a friendA big component of a healthy democracy is accountability. Are our elected leaders abiding by their oath of office? Do we, as their constituency, trust them? Join us as we discuss the upcoming impeachment trial of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton set to begin on September 5, 2023. Y’all it’s a case that’s full of drama and cloak and dagger twists and turns! We will be watching and on the edges of our seats to see how it all turns out. In a nutshell, he’s charged with abuse of office. This all took center stage when he came before the House in February 2023 to ask for $3.3 million dollars to settle a lawsuit brought against him by former staff members who were whistleblowers. That request launched a secret investigation that led the Texas House to impeach him by a 121-23 vote. Now it’s the Texas Senate’s turn to hear all the evidence and decide on his guilt or innocence. It’s a nail-biter for sure! Texas Tribune articles:https://www.texastribune.org/2023/05/24/ken-paxton-attorney-general-investigations-lawsuits/https://www.texastribune.org/2023/08/18/ken-paxton-impeachment-evidence/While we’ve got your attention… we remain working hard on our investigative podcast to expose the education voucher scam. We’d love your help to continue–or share it with others if that’s what you can do right now. Thanks, everyone!Donate here: https://secure.actblue.com/donate/saynotovouchers

Bently Paiz, 18-year-old candidate for County Commissioner in Comal County, joins us to talk about his historic candidacy and to discuss youth and democracy. Bently confirms that many young people do feel apathetic about voting because they are disappointed in the candidates they have to choose from and their lackluster platforms. We learn about Bently’s work on Claudia Zapata’s campaign and how that inspired him to make serving others a core principle of his own campaign. Bently is truly inspiring for everyone to see that we are all capable of making a difference and that it all starts within each of us. We hope you will donate to Bently’s campaign or even volunteer! Email Bently at:bently4countycommissioner@gmail.comFind Bently on social media platforms as: @bently_4_comal_countyAlso, consider supporting another audacious 18-year-old county commissioner candidate running in Guadalupe County, Nahomie Alanis. Email Nahomie at: nahomie4guadalupe@gmail.comFind Nahomie on Instagram as: @nahomiealanis_ And, yes, we are still fundraising for our podcast about education vouchers and exposing them as the scam that they are. Please help us bring this important information to the public so we can build an informed coalition to fight back and reject them once and for all! Donate here: https://secure.actblue.com/donate/saynotovouchersWe'd love your support:Donate on StripeSupport us on PatreonJoin our newsletterLeave us a rating and reviewShare our podcast with a friend

So you’ve heard of the regular Texas legislative session. You know it ended already. So what’s up with these special sessions? We’re here to answer. We’ll give you all the quick facts you need to know especially because we hear from reliable sources that Governor Abbott is very likely to call another special session in October for a singular issue: education vouchers. Speaking of education vouchers…did you hear that we’ve been deep into research? Did you know that we’ve discovered they’re a scam? Listen to this latest episode for all the facts about special sessions and know that we want to arm you with all the information you need to prepare for October! If you want to help us in this fight to defeat vouchers and fully fund public schools, please consider donating.Donate here: https://secure.actblue.com/donate/saynotovouchersWe'd love your support:Donate on StripeSupport us on PatreonJoin our newsletterLeave us a rating and reviewShare our podcast with a friend

Caroline Duble and Nneka Iheanacho of Avow, an unapologetic abortion advocacy organization, speak to us about the state of abortion care. In Texas, abortion is completely banned with the exception of a life or death scenario with the pregnant person and there is no rape or incest exception. To be clear, providers are criminalized, and the charge could be a first-degree felony. Beyond these concerns, there are also the less obvious effects of increased surveillance and the general fear created by the current laws.  A reminder: an abortion is a procedure you can have when you no longer want to be pregnant and there are two kinds: medication and procedural.  Good bills: HB12 which extends Medicaid to one-year post pregnancy and HB300 which removed sales tax on menstrual care items and adult diapers.  Nneka gives a great rundown of the empowered work happening on the local level to support vulnerable communities.  Bad bills: Came in the form of budget items. For instance, an increase was given to crisis pregnancy centers that are fake clinics and this funding now stands at $140 million of our state budget. SB24 codifies alternatives to abortion, and it’s now called Texas Thriving Families. HB17 reduces the local control of district attorneys. HB1575 establishes a screening process for collecting data from pregnant people. Finally, all the anti-LGBTQ legislation was bad and more can be heard in an earlier episode from Ricardo Martinez of Equality Texas. If you’re wondering how to help, plug into local groups. It can be as simple as signing up for updates so you are aware of what’s happening. Resource:https://needabortion.org/We'd love your support:Donate on StripeSupport us on PatreonJoin our newsletterLeave us a rating and reviewShare our podcast with a friend