susan: c-span welcomes to "newsmakers" this week, congressman kevin brady. he's a chairman of the key subcommittee and the vice chair of the joint economic committee, and with the new speaker elections this thursday, the day we are taping, he has announced his interest in succeeding paul ryan as the head of the ways and means committee. thank you for being with us. let me start with the new speaker of the house, paul ryan, who announced that he wanted a fresh start to the house of representatives. how long do you think his honeymoon is likely to be?

rep. brady: it may be longer than people believe. paul ryan is a once in a generation leader. he will bring new ideas and new energy to the caucus. it is a fresh start. you have someone who has led to committees who understand you can let legislators be legislators and empower people to bring their ideas forward. some of them may be partisan and some of them may be bipartisan, but he will put in place a process where we can move our legislation and that is something that is very exciting. susan: let me bring in the two reporters who will be joining us. emma dumain covers congress for roll call and richard rubin is with the "wall street journal." emma: susan mentioned at the start of the program that you are interested in succeeding paul ryan as chairman of the ways and means committee. could you talk about what you

would bring to that committee and how your similar to former chairman ryan and how you would be different. rep. brady: we need a progrowth conservative who can advance paul ryan's agenda. he's got a bold vision for the committee, he's got ed idea for fixing the tax code, taking the first steps for saving social security and medicare, opening new trade and customers for american workers. we have a lot of work to do their. i have experience leading to of the subcommittees on ways and including solving the way we pay doctors, medicare, a bicameral solution to help bring republicans, democrats, the house and senate, and physician groups around the country together. also because i have led a committee which i have worked hard revitalizing into a free-market think tank, that experience and the reputation

working through all the ideologies, that can advance the progrowth agenda. richard: you talk about tax reform and that is something that speaker ryan has not had a lot of luck getting through the committee. there was a full draft and it never came through the committee. where does that stand in your mind and what can you do if you become chairman to advance that? rep. brady: fixing the broken tax code, reining in the irs, that's the type of big ideas that come out of the ways and means committee. i'm convinced republicans in the house and some democrats believe this is the big priority for us. former chairman dave camp really created the first top to bottom rewrite of the tax code in three decades. he proved you could make it flatter, fairer, and simpler.

you could grow the economy and encourage new jobs. chairman ryan has taken other steps in the interim to make sure we are advancing it. for example, getting the scoring right so that we know the impact of a future tax code, working with democrats and republicans on international tax reform, and innovation incentives to allow american companies to do more r&d in the united states. every step has moved is closer to tax reform. here is my pledge -- i am going to relentlessly pursue fixing this broken tax code, every day, every week. we are going to take some step toward fixing this broken tax code and thankfully we have a speaker and house paul ryan, who understand how this can grow the economy. that is with the ways and means committee and republicans are all about -- the growth of our families, incomes, the sales of

the u.s. economy. this is our top priority and we are going to push it hard. richard: what is a realistic timeframe for that? should you just go after something international or is this a 2017 project? rep. brady: it could be a 2017 project. historically, comprehensive reform has occurred in the first year of the president's term. in the interim, we have an opportunity to make key parts of the tax code permanent, such as the text development. we are the only country in the world who has a major part of it tax code temporary. that makes no sense at all. i know chairman ryan has been pursuing an agreement with the senate that could make some of these key provisions permanent. i will do the same. we are hopeful we can come together. what we want to and doing are the end of the year temporary extensions that frankly do not do the economy any good.

emma: congressman, you are so far the only official challenger for the position on ways and means. can you talk how your pitch to

colleagues is different from his and how you imagine you would the a different chairman? rep. brady: patsy berry is a good man and has done a good job on ways and means. my experience to leading to the subcommittee is health care and trade. my proven accomplishments both and health and secure and helping solve and bring together all the elements for how we solve medicare and pay our local doctors, the doctor fixes, that is the first significant reform of medicare in decades.

it is the first important step to saving medicare for the long-term. i have already begun taking that second important step, so having that experience, having the reputation working across our entire republican party to find the principles that unite us, those are our strengths. having run a committee before, having turned one around, doing it it away as member driven, that will be my strength. susan: we learned fellow texan sam johnson will be the temporary head of ways and means. when will you know what the outcome is? rep. brady: a timetable hasn't been set. it could be early next week or it could be several weeks down the road. whatever it is, we will be ready and the truth is, we will need a chairman who can hit the ground running on day one. the experience i bring to the committee running the committee myself, i can do that. we are excited about the opportunity. we have 24 of the most talented people on ways and means that you can imagine. we reflect the priorities of our republican conference and we are really excited about the work plan. we have been working on these key reforms like social security and welfare reform. this has to do with a speaker in place with the same priorities. it is really exciting. emma: i want to follow up on the question of the timetable. there's a lot of discussion about overhauling the house republican conference, diversifying and changing the

membership of the steering committee, which is the leadership appointed body that helps elect who gets to serve on various committees of the house. there's some discussion about changing that make up. it could happen by thanksgiving or before or after an election. do you think you have the support you would need in the current steering committee? how do you feel about this current configuration or some other configuration we have all yet to see? rep. brady: that's a great question. we intend to win support whether it's during this committee or another one. these discussions about the rules and how the house operates, how the steering committee is composed, these are really healthy discussions. i think every member wants to make sure they have a say and

that their ideas are heard. have representatives at every level, so discussions so far about ideas on new will have been very healthy. i don't know what the timetable is for completing those discussions. but all in all, a new speaker is a fresh start. one of the reasons now speaker ryan has such strong support is that he's open to those ideas because that's the way he ran the ways and means committee. very entrepreneurial. if you did your work, had a good idea, a work through for the cost of it and counted to make sure there was support, those are the bills that moved. that's how i'm going to run this committee. and that is how speaker ryan is going to run the house. richard: you talk about tax reform is a 2017 project. obviously you are hoping for a republican president. we have heard different tax plans from the candidates. senator cruz unveiled his plan for a value-added tax to replace payroll and corporate income taxes. do you have a favorite tax plan from among them and what do you

think of what you are hearing from the candidates? rep. brady: this is exciting. we have candidates running for president with specific pro-growth tax proposals. this hasn't happened in a long time. we have a wide breadth of them, but that is appropriate because in-house republican conference, we have a lot of ideas as well. rather than pick one from among the others is we will both way out the ideas we have heard from members, the camp draft that has been developed. we have a lot of pro growth aspects to it and we are going to lay that out and review them in detail, and courage invite our republican members to weigh in on this. we're also going to lay a foundation for tax reform. i cannot tell you how incredibly complex it is. our members need to have that foundation so they can help us reach the right conclusion. here are the principles i'm looking at -- i want a tax code that is built for growth, for families growth and when that grows our economy.

i want to make sure the printable czar it is fairer, flatter, and simpler. we want to lower exemptions, eliminate loopholes so he can lower the rates for everybody. i want to make sure small businesses don't pay more than large businesses, which is what happens today. i want to make sure our companies are no longer uncompetitive when we compete around the world for profit and at the end of the day, a final printable as we are not going to bailout washington's spending problems through the tax code. this is all about growing the economy and doing it in a way that encourages investment along main street. i can tell you that even since dave camp laid out his draft proposal, the world has become even more competitive on the tax side, so we are going to have to go even bolder. there are a number of ways we can get there.

i think the right approach is to invite everyone into this discussion. richard: do you think the u.s. cannot afford a multi-trillion dollar tax cut of the size your candidates are talking about? rep. brady: at the end of the day, we need a tax code that is not a drag on the economy. we need one that creates the types of jobs and investment that grows washington revenues. i'm convinced spending cuts can get us halfway to a balanced budget. i think we are going to need a much stronger economy to finish the job and finish up the national debt, which congressman ryan has made a clear goal of. we will need a strong, competitive tax code. this is all about growth and we can do this. susan: while we are talking about the gop candidates, a number of them criticized the budget vote and the deal put

together, a deal you voted for. how do you square their criticism with their yes vote? rep. brady: i think it is dangerous to keep holding our military hostage for politics, which this president repeatedly does. we are at war and the opportunity to fully fund our military for two years with stability and no more political gains, i will take that any day. the president wanted a link check for more deficit spending and he was denied it. instead, he got serious entitlement reforms.

the first significant ones that i have seen in a very long time. those reforms stopped the rampant fraud in the disability program. it helped those who are truly disabled and rewards those who want to go back to work. those are key principles and at the end of the day, we insured america pays its debt in full and on time. from my key priorities -- no blank check, strongly funding our military, and making sure we pay our debt. there were some positive things in that agreement. emma: you were one of only 79 republicans who voted for this budget deal on wednesday night. among those numbers, it was former speaker boehner who barely makes the vote.

there were so few republicans who supported this. why do think more of them didn't feel as you did, that there was a compelling reason to support this? rep. brady: i think we all see a better future for our country. in the past, we have always believed the debt ceiling fight was an opportunity to really change the way this government spends. we have had good success, more than $2 trillion in spending cuts negotiated. we all hoped we would have a president willing to sit down and actually make those reforms. in the end, without many cards to play, speaker boehner put together perhaps the highest priorities for us, which is strongly funding the military, no blank checks, and serious entitlement reforms. i think our members would have loved for that to have gone much further than it has, but at the end of the day, the job got done and we can move forward. we have ideas in tax reforms, trade and welfare reforms, those are the things we want to focus on. richard: switching to trade, you got the ctp deal that will come

up for a vote. you will be in a position to move it or block it. what is your thinking on the deal the administration negotiated, the transpacific partnership, and what is the timetable? rep. brady: we have not had the actual language sent to us. that should start the clock on this and under the new trade rules, the american public will have a full 60 days to review every word in a trade agreement. congress and lawmakers will have time to view it as well. once we start digging through that, you will see opinions form about whether this agreement is good for america.

here's the point i would make. this is all about economic freedom. this is all about buying from around the world. when we try to sell abroad, we find these america need not apply signs. this is about tearing down those signs and insisting that if you are selling to america, we get to sell into your country. when we do that, we win. our sales go up, our exports go up, we create jobs. i'm viewing the transpacific partnership as a huge potential customer base for american workers and companies. i want to make sure not just every commodity ended up in the right place, but that we did the right architecture and made sure there was the right place to take our disputes when we make

investments in other countries and be competitive. did we get the labor and environmental provisions right? did we deal with state-owned enterprises the right way? if we get the architecture right, and oddly works for this agreement, it works for the next one, which we are negotiating with europe as well. emma: there are currently six committee chairman's from the state of texas in the house of representatives. you would be the seventh of you were elected chairman of ways and means. there's some concern that even though texas is the largest republican delegation house that maybe seven texas congressman running committees might be too much. what do you say to those critics? rep. brady: we are they state right about where california was with six and five germans in the recent past and a much larger delegation. term limits, we term limit our chairman, so these things tend

to add and flow. all of our committee chairman are extremely talented. we are chosen by the steering committee and they were elected by the entire public and conference. at the end of the day, the ways and means is so critical, it's not just about one state. it's about the fate and the direction of our country is going. if you have a program of conservative with a proven record of working throughout our conference on health care, trade, a number of these issues that is going to listen and unite us behind common principles, find that common ground and get the country turned back around, those skills and experience will carry the day. richard: for viewers who don't know you, tell us about your district outside of houston and how the particular industries or people affect the way you approach issues. rep. brady: i think all of us are shaped by our lives. i grew up in the black hills of south dakota and there, it was

an economy shaped by agriculture, a military base, and tourism. i chose as a profession chamber of commerce work. i loved it because you could help start small businesses and build the economy. in beaumont, texas, where i served, it was a heavy rust belt type industry. there were problems and refinery type issues where i lived. where i live today is a combination of suburban and rural communities were energy is important, health is important and trade is important. i have always had a blend of a lot of rural counties. having experience in almost nine different types of economies and having that main street perspective, that is what drives my role in the ways and means committee and that's why look at every issue from the standpoint of will this grow main street jobs? whether it is rural iowa, wisconsin, or new york city, what we are trying to do is grow the entire economy. that shaves my views and i think

is a strength as we lead this committee. richard: this past week, the federal reserve decided not to raise interest rates and hold that decision for later in the year. what is your view on what the fed should be doing and whether the economy is strong enough at this point to sustain an interest rate hike? rep. brady: the fed needs to be normalizing it monetary policy sooner rather than later. they have in out of bullets for a long time. the impact of stimulus has long faded. everyone knows the fed needs to begin, clearly communicating its step, taking those steps to

build confidence because i worry there is confidence in the fed to begin normalizing. i worry they might not only delay it but do a one and done strategy, make a minor change and then go back to what they are doing today. they could begin normalizing monetary policy by the security they haven't lowering their balance sheet. i think the fed, while it played a key role in stabilizing the economy, i think it has been trying to do too much for too long and over the long-term, i think it has held back investment in the united states. emma: you are the ranking member of the ways and means committee. sandy levin has been the chairman and ranking member and him sure you've worked with him in various capacities. how do you think you are working relationship would be if you became chairman and mr. leven says he is running for reelection. there could be another two and a half years working together. rep. brady: we had a chance to work together on the trade

subcommittee both as ranking and leader and i have a terrific relationship with him. we also, through how we solved how medicare pays its doctors, had many months of negotiations, working together to come to that bipartisan agreement. as leader of the health subcommittee, we moved a number of fraud pieces, significant improvements to medicare. we continue to build those bipartisan issues and i see the relationship as very good. we are going to go to our corners on the affordable care act. we see a much different vision for how health ought to be delivered, but on saving medicare and social security for the long-term, in trade issues, i think there are parts of tax reform that if sandy levin or any member of the democrat part of the ways and means committee can agree with.

we are going to take the same approach, find is common principles, respect and listen to each other and try to do a we can do to move this country in a better direction. richard: you mentioned some of the tax extenders and tried to make those permanent. which once stand the best chance and fight for to make sure they are permanent? rep. brady: the temporary provisions that grow the economy ought to be made permanent go to innovation and provisions that encourage a local business to invest in equipment and software, all of those drives the economy and that ought to be priority number one. i cannot enforce how important that is. tackling this issue is another serious step toward competence of tax reform. susan: mr. brady, thank you for

being our guest. if you are successful in your bid as chairman, hope you will continue to join us and ask these questions about the big issues of tax reform. thank you for your time. at the beginning, mr. brady was optimistic about paul ryan's success, thinking his honeymoon might be longer than some predict. what do you know about the freedom caucus, which has been a thorn in the side of mr. boehner and how likely they are to cooperate? emma: the freedom caucus was at one point prepared to vote for florida republican congressman daniel webster on the floor. speaker ryan -- that's funny to say instead of speaker boehner -- the pitch to member that he run as a consensus candidate caused freedom caucus members to

regroup a little bit and decided not to formally endorse him but give him a super majority of support. ryan was able to make the case to him that he would be a different kind of speaker and be more inclusive and collaborative, that he would bring different voices in and change the makeup of the steering committees and do a bottom-up approach to legislating instead of a top-down. that appeals to a lot of members of the freedom caucus and they decided they were going to get on board for the time being. they made it clear that this is perhaps a trial run, that they are giving him the benefit of the doubt, but if he does not live up to promises to be this new, inclusive speaker the way they thought daniel webster could be, i don't think you will see a hesitation for them to make that known as they made it known to then speaker boehner

that they were not happy with his job performance. susan: in the candidates debate last night, there were a number of candidates -- they see this as business as usual and not republicans coming to washington to change. richard: i think we will see that manifest itself, not the next time there's a republican priority on the floor, but the next time there is a deadline driven, bipartisan deal that has to get out with. susan: what is the next one? richard: you have a highway bill that maybe sometime in november or december, you have tax extenders mr. brady was talking about, you have the need to do an omnibus appropriations bill sometime in december. all of those can or might be places where there's an

agreement between mitch mcconnell -- [no audio] emma: a major deal with the president, whoever the president is. ultimately, he's the one who's going to have to make certain decisions. it's going to be fascinating to see how he navigates that space with these deadlines coming up. the next two months are going to be huge in setting the tone for how he can handle that. richard: we talk about the big four. they've changed jobs among them. those four have been together -- the same for people negotiating everything and being in those same for jobs, from the public's perspective, when they see those photos of the white house or the

president meeting with the leaders from congress, there's no different face at the tables and 2007. they negotiated in 2008 -- there has just been this shift as it's the first time it's happened a long time and ryan will inject a different voice. susan: paul ryan does have experience as a negotiator, so he understands how to craft a deal that can go forward. richard: i wrote a story this week about that.

basically i've talked to democrat to have negotiated with him and they say we find he is accommodating and approachable and knows his stuff but is completely inflexible. i think what democrats are watching is how he's going to approach that and negotiate. is he the inflexible paul ryan of the conservative vision or is speaker ryan a different kind of animal? emma: what do you think if it was speaker ryan -- the majority of public instant not vote for that budget agreement. richard: that's exactly right. he still leads a very fractured and fractious republican conference. welcome to a really challenging job. there's a reason john boehner left.

the job at this particular moment is a really tough one. susan: thanks to both of you. we are recording this on thursday, a momentous day when there is a new speaker and lots of smiles and back patting all around. we will see how long it lasts. thank you for being with us. on the next "washington journal," heather mcdonald looks at whether law enforcement has become more difficult since the riots in ferguson and baltimore. becky pringle talks about standardized testing. tom scully discusses the increase in the number of

retirees. as always, we take your calls and you can join the conversation on facebook and twitter. >> all persons having his this before the honorable the supreme court are admonished to draw near and give their attention. >> this week on c-span's "landmark cases," we will discuss the historic case of schenck versus the notice states. in 1917, the united states entered world war i, patriotism was high, and some forms of criticism of the federal government were a federal offense. schenck handed out flyers against the draft. of this wereies

produced and the point was to encourage men reliable for the draft not to register. the language is particularly fiery. he equates conscription with slavery and calls on every citizen in the note states to resist -- in the united states to resist conscription laws. he was arrested and convicted under the espionage act. he appealed and it went to the supreme court. find out how the court ruled. thomassts include goldstein and beverly gage. that is coming up on the next "landmark cases," on c-span, c-span3, and c-span radio. for background on each case, order your copy of the "landmark cases" companion book. >> a group of texas legislators

and officials recently talked about the impact of the hispanic vote and looked at voting rights and voter turnout around the country. this is about an hour. >> good morning. i'm a reporter with the "texas tribune." i'm happy to welcome you to the fifth annual texas tribune festival. we are happy you decided to spend your saturday with us and you were here at 8:30 a.m. for the panel on unlocking the hispanic vote. we have a great panel. just a couple of quick housekeeping things. we will be on here for about one hour. we will be 40 to 45 minutes of discussion and then open it up to q&a. i will give you the go-ahead when you can start lining up. please have all your questions

ready. we are excited to have give you an opportunity to ask them. we do not ask you turn off your cell phones, but please put them on vibrate. the hashtag for the festival is #ttf. we have juan hernandez, one of the founders of the hispanic republicans group who helps republicans run for office. he is a longtime political advisor to many folks, including senator mccain and the presidential candidates in latin america. thank you for being here. next is senator rodney ellis who dubbed himself the honorary latino on this panel. he was elected in 1990 and serves in the transportation committee. before that, he served several terms and city council. next to him is representative

jason. he is a republican from dallas where he was first elected in 2012. he served on the business and industry of economic small business development committees in the house. next to him is a state representative. israel was elected in 2014. she is had about four elections since then. she won the special election in her district. she has a long history with texas politics. she worked with former governor ann richards. she is on the elections committee. last but not least, we have the secretary of state. he is the current secretary of state. he was one of governor abbott's first selections when first elected. he was a former democrat, but then switched to the republican side. he later became the county judge. thank you for being here.

we appreciate it. we have done several iterations of this panel. last year, we were doing it leading up to the 2014 gubernatorial elections. this year, we have a very crowded field. on the republican side, if you asked me a year ago when we started talking about the panel if my first question would be about donald trump, i would not have believed you. we have a very crowded republican field where a front runner is at the front of the field. he says mexico is not sending its best to the u.s. they are rapists and drug dealers. do the republicans on this panel struggle -- how do you look ahead to the election in which

you can gain more hispanic support after dismal turnout in the last election? how do you reconcile those statements by the leader of the party? >> you're looking at me. pass it on. that is a difficult question. by the way, he is not only of national interest. he is of international interest. i have been to several countries recently and people come up to me and say i hope you are not supporting trump. because it is insulting what he has said about hispanics, women, my family members, my friends. but, it is also -- internationally, we were talking about mexico. from out of nowhere appears a gentleman. he is offensive. a showman. someone argued it was the most powerful state. the most educated state.

the state with the most finances. bronco beats the pri party for the first time in the history of mexico. there is an independent government. it happened in costa rica last year. it also happened in panama. this year, we have a comedian winning in guatemala, jimmy morales. people are tired of politics as usual. in this nation, republicans and democrats -- they love there is

a trump guy out there swearing, kicking everybody and making things rough. but, if you also look at the research and do not ask who you would vote for or if you like trump, but show what trump stands for and believes in, americans will say i will not vote for anybody like that. the good thing is we tend to vote with our emotions and not our mind. that is also international. in this case, we have more than a year for his ideas to come forth. i think we will be missing him on panels very soon. >> i will say if there is a cultural connection i will remind everybody of. if any of our kid's have a birthday party, you have a piñata. you will beat on it. it is a celebration. a hot item in austin right now is a donald trump piñata. that is an indicator. as a democrat, donald trump is a gift that keeps on giving. [laughter] >> look, donald trump gives voice to frustration in the

party today. i think the people that are following him, people most enthusiastic about him are those that are disenfranchised from the current political system. so, he is one of these outsiders we can attach ourselves to. that being said, his policies are just offensive. they are deeply troubling. i think anyone republican that is thoughtful about these issues are horrified that somebody in the party has even said those things. i think that is very troubling. i think most republicans will have their summer affairs with candidates while we are enjoying the process and entertainment of politics. i think as we go into the fall and into the spring, we can really begin to discern who our next presidential nominee will be.

it is the carnival barkers of the republican party. if you look at history, the last election cycle, we have people like michele bachmann and herman cain all had their moment in the sun. it is entertainment, but in the end, we nominated a somber individual who ultimately did not do what we hoped. at least the american people, american electorate came together and said we need a serious minded individual to be the next president. i would also mention trump is not a republican. if you look at the issues he cares about and spouts, he is clearly not a republican. he's certainly not a conservative. people who have begun to gravitate towards him because he is conservative, they just don't

look at his record. he has wanted to continue funding for planned parenthood. he has supported single-payer universal obama style health care. he has been a person that went on the news this week and said george w. bush was the reason we had 9/11. he was only there for two months. these are not orthodox positions in the republican party. for someone to spout those positions and maintain a good portion of the early polling suggest we are lurking right now. we are not serious yet. once we get serious and sober after the summer of trump, we will see republicans go away from him. >> at the end of the day, he is running in the republican primary. is there a silver lining to what you also described as -- does it put more pressure on candidates on both sides to step up and defend hispanic voters and energize them? will the candidate at the end be

able to cut through the noise and will it put more pressure to benefit voters? >> i think it provides an alternative for people like jeb bush and marco rubio and even senator cruz to be that other. i think senator cruz is banking on the fact that the people that are thinking will gravitate towards him. i think people like marco rubio. articulate, fresh new voices. and is also latino. he's brown skinned and one of us. i think that will begin to resonate with people who are saying we have to be better about reaching hispanics. we saw those numbers in the last presidential cycle when romney got 32% of the hispanic vote nationwide. that will not cut it. george w. bush was in the 40's. we have to get back up into the 40's if we expect to have a chance.

the only candidate that can do that are candidates that are more open-minded. i'm not saying to be less conservative, but we have to be much more thoughtful and engaged in this particular issue in order to attract the electorate we are seeking to attract which is pretty important for us to be victorious. >> our panel is called unlocking the hispanic vote. hispanics cannot turnout in the numbers they represent in the state. i want to go back to the opening one-on-one with the lieutenant governor. he was asking about voting in texas. the lieutenant governor said he does not think texas needs to make it easier to vote. he said, "if people do not show up and vote, they are either happy or they don't care." is there anyone on this panel

that agrees to that approach to get more hispanic voters out? >> let me interject real quick. good morning. no, i don't think that should be the premise. what we have done, at least in my office, we have been reaching out to campuses. there's a generational gap in voting right now. you have a lot of first-time voters that are very cynical. they don't trust -- that is the word i'm getting not just from hispanics. everybody across the board. i think we have to focus on how we can get the hispanic vote. i think it's somewhat disingenuous. my role is to get everybody's vote out. i think it is great being nonpartisan now. i think if you go back to mr. trump, i agree with what the panel said.

he is not a republican. he may be an independent. i think what is somewhat concerning aside from the negative rhetoric is the fact there is actually a following. his message is resonating. i think -- i look at most of you when you are watching, i look at who was in the background and who is there. the ethnicity of the background and it is predominantly anglo-saxon protestant type. you will see an african-american, asian american or hispanic, but i think the concern is here. let me deviate a little bit. everybody talks about the hispanic population and how it is growing. then, you have an asian constituency as well that is growing. if i'm speaking to first-time voters whether it is tcu or baylor or acc, whatever it is,

the growth of the hispanic population really -- i hate to say this -- it is somewhat meaningless if we cannot generate and excite and engage people to go out and vote. it doesn't matter how fast any particular segment is growing if we don't exercise that right to vote. but, the message that came across from the college campuses is that of trust. they don't trust elected officials. there is a reason for that. it is kind of ironic. if you pull congress, the poll numbers are very low. then, when you go to any particular congressional district and you poll their particular congressperson, their numbers are much higher. there is something that is just not resonating. i got people that i'm trying to convince to go out and vote.

we are not going to vote for the lesser of two evils. they will go out and vote and cast a blank ballot. all votes do matter. as far as reaching out to the hispanic population, the asian-americans, the african-americans, it is incumbent on everybody here to make sure those votes go out. >> i would like to speak as the only member of this panel who actually have the ability to do something about the fact we were not voting well. one of the ways we can do that is to change the laws. i was disappointed to hear dan patrick's comments because i worked very hard to pass voting registration. it got a very late hearing despite having support from the senior republicans on the floor. 76 co-authors in a very late hearing. the hearing turned into a partisan attack to suggest that if you pass this bill, my

republican colleagues would be in danger. my suggestion is taxes is already in grave danger because only 34% went out to vote last year. that should because for alarm and concern. what can we do? can we do same day registration? there are other dynamics for why people are not voting. but there are mechanical things that are in our control and i ran head first into what seemed to be a cement wall. we must do more. >> i respectfully and very strongly disagree. we forgot how we got here. this country, you had to be free, white, male and own property to vote. it took a while before people realize something was wrong with that. [laughter] in the beginning of our great democracy, people thought that

was ok. maybe one day i'll get property. you might be white. i think there is a tendency for people in government to look at life where they are. if you won in a low turnout election, high turnout election -- we should change the way we have been doing it. i happened to be the voter of a law. bill green but the bill into law. he was a democratic legislature. there was an amendment on the sunset bill. as a result of the bill, i registered more republicans than anybody else in the history of texas. we are against it. i think they are responding to a knee-jerk reaction of a question of california's new system of automatic registration.

it's easy in texas. california did? i'm against it. i hope we take a deep breath and sit back and think about it. we were in the lounge earlier. in the 1960's, the hispanic vote -- this is 1965, 1966. going to a catholic church, increase the minimum wage which was $1.25. the vote did not come out. the black vote didn't either. we ought to change the dynamic and not be doing stuff the way we always done. everybody is spending all of this money, the limited resources we have, an trying to register people to vote. i think we should change it. we should look at what oregon, california did. we should look at same day registration. technology lets us eliminate issues related to fraud. we should operate the same

mentality that our founding fathers operated under. >> if i could add that on the one hand, yes, we need to make it easier for people to vote. i love the use of technology. i think we should be able to register the same day. we also should make it attractive. one thing that i don't agree with respectfully is that we put all of this on votes. since we hispanic do not come out and vote how can we expect to change our nation? we decided let's to go for candidates. let's find young people, hispanics and invite them to run for office. yes, as republicans, but especially run for office.

hispanics run for office. individuals like jason that will represent us, vote to the middle in many respects and represent the community. if you find a good candidate, you will come out and vote. i hope somebody is thinking about running for office. we need more good people running for office, not staying home and just watching what is going on. we need to cultivate hispanics that are flirting a little bit with running for office. make sure they get money, an education and know what it means to run an office and then get the numbers. i'm sorry, but most of the candidates out there are not that interesting to hispanics. they don't offer anything for us. we should go out and have more responsibility. we need to be like israel over here where she did her campaign in her living room. she made it clear to them that she was interested in their

life. it is not just going to be hispanics not running for office or african-americans. you had obama and african-americans came out in incredible numbers. historic numbers. we as hispanics tend to vote for the person, much more than the issues unfortunately. >> go ahead. >> i agree with juan. you get so frustrated as a candidate. what is so rewarding as a latina, being able to connect with someone at their front door and whether it was an

african-american voter where you can talk about their moms, or teachers or a latino voter. talking about that we are both from el paso. you make a connection and you get to know this is a woman at my door who has the ability to say she wants my vote. that is going to weigh much more heavily with any latino voter. the polls show latino voters are neither left or right. they are really up for grabs. anyone who overlooks them. >> i can pretty much -- i used to be a democrat and a republican. i ran three times as a democrat for county commissioner. three times for county judge as a republican. i think you touched on it. you are right. it is up to the candidates versus the sos office to generate that interest. it is about the person. i think part of it -- when you have a county like cameron that is overwhelmingly democrat. 65% democrat.

i was able to win three times against a pretty strong democrat where the straight ticket vote in cameron is 2.5 times of that of a republican. on election day, i'm down 8000 votes, but i think it is important to recognize it is about the candidate. speaking nonpartisanally, there was a lot of good r's and d's that have good ideas. neither party is a monopoly on good government or great ideas or bad ideas. i think that is the message -- i did my door to door. i did my standing on the street corner by myself with a sign. in order for any candidate to get that vote and engage, they have to be able to connect. connect with the voter because everybody votes based on a personal impact or issue. what is important to them personally? that is what i have found.

if you can get that message to resonate. to me, you know what? my goal is not to get out the vote. i don't think that is my role. i think the role of that is the candidate, the individual parties, nonprofits, whatever it is. our role is the provide information, educate voters, make it information that is readily available. today is not like the 1960's. you did not have twitter, facebook, instagram or cell phones. it is important that all of us here keep stay in our swimming lanes. what is it we want to do? it is to get the vote out to make sure the hispanic vote gets out, the african-american vote gets out, everybody. that is the role.

you have to connect. >> i would reverse the question a little bit. in texas, we have such a low voting participation. what state in the country that is predominantly -- we are fourth. have we done things that make it more difficult to vote? have we done things that make it more difficult for people to vote? carlos: people want to vote, aside from online -- let's go back. i don't know a lot of folks that have more than two weeks to vote. a different mobile voting site, different locations, whether it is a school, a church, whatever. we are given two weeks. can you get more? absolutely. will thacr