Patrick:  Welcome to the Business Spotlight. I’m Pat Dougher. Today we’ve got an excellent show because we’re going to talk about business, but business at a state level – and potentially, I’m sure, at a national level – because of the impact that Texas has on the state of the nation. I heard recently that we have one of the largest economies in the world.  Texas does, not just the US. With that in mind, I have Senator Ken Paxton today with us and I’m so thankful for that.

Senator Ken Paxton:  Thanks. It’s good to be here.
Patrick:  I’m really glad that you’re here. You’re running for Attorney General.
Senator Ken Paxton:  That’s correct.
Patrick:  I know that you were saying that this particular election is going to be decided by very few.
Senator Ken Paxton:  Usually 5% of the registered voters in Texas will vote in the primary, which is March 4th, to pick their candidates (either Democrat or Republican), who’s going to run in the General Election. The reason that’s so important is Texas, since the early 90s, whoever has won in the Republican Primary, has won the General Election. But only 5% of the registered voters are actually voting in that primary and actually making the decision.
Patrick:  You put real numbers in that. A lot of people don’t understand percentages because that’s new math. What does that mean really?
Senator Ken Paxton:  There are 26 million people approximately in Texas, and about 1.4 to 1.2 will actually vote in that primary, so that small number of people are deciding who the Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Attorney General, etc. are. Critical.
Patrick:  You’re the Senator that came through District Eight?
Senator Ken Paxton:  Yeah. I’m Senator, District Eight.
Patrick:  What territory is that?
Senator Ken Paxton:  That covers North Dallas, Richardson, Sachse and then goes up north through Collin County, all the way to McKinney and Frisco, and Allen and Plano.
Patrick:  Very much the area that UAN is all about, which is the station we’re on. You cover that area. I know that you’ve been considered one of the most – I’d say you’re probably pretty conservative.
Senator Ken Paxton:  Correct.
Patrick:  What are some of the things that you stood for? And if you were able to get into Attorney General, what would that mean for the state?
Senator Ken Paxton:  One of the areas that I focused on, because I was on the Ways and Means Committee and we dealt with taxes, I’ve been a big proponent of cutting property taxes in the state because we have one of the highest property tax rates in the country. I actually came very close to eliminating a decent amount of our property taxes. It’s been a real hard thing to do, but it’s something I’ve really focused on. I’ve also been a proponent of reducing business taxes because I believe that will create more jobs, bring more business here and create more wealth for the people that are here.
Taxes and keeping taxes low makes this state competitive versus other states, and allows us to continue to grow. That’s why our economy is one of the top. That’s why one-third of the jobs over the last ten years have been created in Texas. That’s why people are leaving California, and there’s a net loss of people from California and a net gain to Texas. And that’s why people are coming, really from all over the country, to be here.
Patrick:  I heard you recently talk about the difference between the Democrat and Republican areas of the country, and how many of them are suffering financially. Not to bash anybody, it’s just it is what it is.
Senator Ken Paxton:  That’s right. It’s not that I’m trying to bash anybody either. It’s just that if you look at the states that are controlled by Democratic legislature, whether that’s in New York, California, Illinois, Michigan, typically they’re struggling financially. They’re struggling with keeping jobs. Usually not because they’re Democrats, it’s because they have typically gone for higher taxes, more regulation, and made it harder for businesses to survive. So businesses eventually pick up and leave.
That’s why Texas has been more successful. It’s not that we’re perfect. We’re not. But we have encouraged business to come here by having a good legal system, having low taxes and making the regulatory burden bearable.
Patrick:  One of the things that I’m sure that a lot of people want to know is where you came from. You’re a practicing Attorney in McKinney, as I understand. You have a law practice up there.
Senator Ken Paxton:  That’s correct.
Patrick:  But you kind of came out of nowhere. What’s your story?
Senator Ken Paxton:  You know, I really was just interested initially in just helping good people get elected.  I started off when I moved back from Virginia after law school an started getting involved in campaigns.  I actually met my congressman. He was particularly rude to me, so I worked on a campaign against him. That’s how I got involved in politics – my own congressman treating me like I didn’t matter. I think there’s a lot of that in politics.
I was inspired by that treatment to make sure that we had people that actually cared about their constituents, and that would do the right thing. I’ve been involved in helping people run for judicial positions, State Rep, Senate, Congress and I try to make a difference by helping other people. That led me into running.
Patrick:  If you were to look at some of the things you’ve done in the last few years, what do you think has been the most notable, and people should really go, “Whoa! That’s awesome”?
Senator Ken Paxton:  When Obama came into office we lost. We have 150 House members in the House; we had 88 of them as Republicans. When Obama came in, that number dropped to 76. So we had a 76/74 majority. When that happened, there was a coalition put together of all the 65 Democrats and 11 Republicans more moderate, and they put a coalition together and they took over the House.
Two years later, I ran against the then speaker who had a lot of connections to Democrats and tried to unseat them, so a lot of people knew about me because I was willing to stand up and take on my own party and try to move the house away from Democratically controlled to more Republican legislature.
Patrick:  But some of the things that you even stood for, you seem to me like you’ve been the David and Goliath syndrome. As we move forward through this, I want to know more about what you’re really bringing to the table as the future AG, and how that’s going to affect not just Texas, but everywhere. This show airs in the DFW and Houston. It’s actually expanding out. We have over 100,000 views on YouTube and over 50,000 video links out there. This is the Business Spotlight. We’ll be right back.
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Patrick:  Welcome back to the Business Spotlight.  I’m Pat Dougher. Today I’ve got Senator Ken Paxton. I believe he’s our future Attorney General in the state of Texas. You might think, “Business Spotlight, future Attorney General. What’s up with that? Why would you even do that?” Well, if you understand Ken’s platform, it’s pro-business, it’s lower taxes, it’s “let’s get more people into Texas that are bright and want to participate in the success that’s here and create more of it for the country as a whole.” Senator, thanks so much.
Senator Ken Paxton:  It’s good to be here.
Patrick:  I want to get a little bit more into the future Attorney General. What is it going to mean to have you in office? What do you want to do with that position?
Senator Ken Paxton:  I’ve been in legislation for eleven years, and the change that I’ve noticed most is that we’ve gone from focusing on state issues to federal issues since Obama came into office. We have had this constant intrusion into business, into individual liberties and the Attorney General in Texas has become more and more a focal point of having to stand up and say, “No, we’re going to stand up against this. We’re going to fight you so that our businesses can continue to operate and create jobs and wealth, and our individuals still have their liberties, and we still have control of our legislature.”
The Attorney General in Texas is going to have to have the courage to stand up to the Obama administration and say, “No, we’re going to fight you, and we’re going to keep our sovereignty, and we’re going to keep our ability to have opportunity, and liberty, and freedom.” It’s going to be critical that that person is willing to take that stand.
Patrick:  How can people connect to you?
Senator Ken Paxton:  HYPERLINK “http://www.kenpaxton.com” www.kenpaxton.com is probably the easiest way, through our website. We’d love for people to sign up so we can stay in touch, because the election isn’t until March 4th. Early voting would start middle of February. We want to be able to stay in touch with people. It’s six months away, which seems like a long way, but really considering how big the state is, we really don’t have a lot of time to campaign. We need to stay in touch with people through that website.
Patrick:  They go and fill their name and e-mail address. You’re not going to spam them. You’re going to just give them the information to keep them informed, right?
Senator Ken Paxton:  That’s correct.
Patrick:  The idea there is, just to try to get people to raise their hand and say “I like what you’re saying.”
Senator Ken Paxton:  Right. The reason we want them to sign up is we want to be able to remind them to vote. Very few people vote in a primary election, when the elections are decided in Texas. It’s a relatively small percentage, probably 5-6%. We want to remind people to vote because it’s so important to do that, and then we want them to tell their friends. You can make a huge difference by bringing a few people to the polls with you, because the numbers are so low on voting.
Patrick:  You have been known to be very conservative on other issues as well. I know you were on Lee Sherrell’s show. I love Lee. He’s a great guy here at UAN. Pro-life – you’ve done some real inroads in that area. I know that may not seem like a big business in that area, but there’s a lot of conservatives that are part of the state and part of this nation. Wouldn’t you agree?
Senator Ken Paxton:  Yeah. I’ve been one of the most pro-life legislators in my eleven years. You probably saw a lot about this in the media, with a certain Senator standing up and filibustering our pro-life bill, that obviously the Governor calls back. We passed a bill that does two things. It basically protects the unborn, and it protects women. It protects women by upgrading standards of abortion clinics to what surgical centers have to do now.
Secondly, it requires that doctors have admitting privileges with a hospital that’s relatively close so that we can keep these women safe if they’re going to go through that procedure. Finally, it protects the unborn, so you can not do an abortion after 20 weeks. In my opinion, I’d like to see abortion outlawed all the way. But that, to me, seems relatively reasonable because these babies are, for the most part, at five months viable. They can feel pain and they have a heartbeat.
Patrick:  I’ve done a lot of work in that area as far as self-improvement and actually led up a number of workshops in that area, something like almost ten years of them. Over and over again, I saw the pain that women had years afterwards that they were having to recuperate from. Think about the financial impact. I have to use that, because when someone’s broken like that, how many business people because of their own brokenness have literally hindered their own success?
Senator Ken Paxton:  Absolutely. You also look at the opportunity for adoption. How many people want children? My wife was adopted, and she was fortunate to be adopted by a wonderful family that could have no children, and she had a great childhood. She later had the opportunity to meet her birth mother, and reunite with her birth mother and her four siblings, and her aunts and uncles.
It’s a really wonderful story of somebody who was willing to sacrifice, give up their baby for adoption, let the baby live and give her a wonderful life. The result of that is that I got to marry her, and we have four children that otherwise would not be around as well. It’s exciting to have the opportunity to give these kids life.
Patrick:  What do you want people to do in the next few months? We said to go to  HYPERLINK “http://www.kenpaxton.com” www.kenpaxton.com. What else can they do to support you?
Senator Ken Paxton:  There are two things really. Obviously it costs money to run a campaign. We’d love for them to contribute to our campaign. As important as that, is spread the word. Tell your friends. It is so amazing how few people will know about this race. Most people don’t know much about Attorney General. They won’t know anybody running. So, if you can encourage your friends, if people can encourage their friends, then they will make a tremendous difference in helping me win the race.
Patrick:  What are the dates?
Senator Ken Paxton:  March 4th is the election, and then early voting is basically two weeks prior to that. I think it starts February 17th and runs for two weeks, and then the election day is Tuesday, March 4th.
Patrick:  You’re saying that, literally, a million people can make the difference.
Senator Ken Paxton:  Absolutely. Actually, because there are three people in the race, it’s very likely 400,000 will get you in a run-off.
Patrick:  Wow. Folks, Senator Ken Paxton is running for Attorney General. If you want somebody that’s pro-business, wants lower taxes, is pro-life and really wants to do you good, go and vote for him. Goodness gracious,  HYPERLINK “http://www.kenpaxton.com” www.kenpaxton.com. This is Business Spotlight. We’ll be right back.
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Patrick:  Welcome back to the Business Spotlight. We’re talking about the future Attorney General’s run-off – or I should say, election – with Senator Ken Paxton, who’s running. That’s important to the business community because he is for lower taxes and pro-business. He’s literally for you as a business owner in the Texas area. It would mean a lot for the rest of the country if he was Attorney General because Texas has a huge impact on the rest of the nation.
There are two things I want to get into on this one, Ken. One is the idea that it’s really important that we have a Republican this time. I heard you talking about that recently. Why is that important? And the second thing I want to talk about after that is about Obamacare and how it’s affecting taxes.
Senator Ken Paxton:  The Republican issue is huge because there’s a balance of power right now, very close between the Republicans and Democrats. Most of the large states are Democrat.
Patrick:  You’re talking nationally?
Senator Ken Paxton:  Nationally. If Texas goes Democrat, if it becomes a Democratic state, a reliably Democratic state, then the balance of power shifts to the Democratic Party maybe for good. We don’t know. But very likely you would always have a Democratic President and you would have a Democratic congress. You’d have a one-party system. Whether you’re Republican or Democrat, you don’t want a one-party system because you want competition and you want accountability.
That’s why it’s so important that Texas remain a voice on the other side, to bring accountability. Detroit is an example of a city for the last 60 years has had a one-party rule. The Democrats have controlled that. The result is no accountability and bad policy with nobody shining the light of day on what’s going on. That city went from being the fourth largest city in the United States, one of the most economically prosperous with the vehicles being produced there, one of the most prosperous cities in the country, in the world…to bankruptcy.
We don’t want that to happen to our country, and I think we have that possibility if we move to a one-party system, which I think is likely if Texas turns Democrat.
Patrick: Isn’t the Obama engine (the only word to describe it) trying to run you guys over in Texas?
Senator Ken Paxton:  That’s correct. They have a group called Battleground Texas. They’ve moved resources into Texas. They’re trying to register more Democrats. They clearly understand this too. If they win Texas, they win the game, at least for the foreseeable…
Patrick:  In the Game of Risk…
Senator Ken Paxton: Yes, they take over the world!
Patrick:  They take over the US.
Senator Ken Paxton:  Right. Obviously, we are going to do everything we can to stop that, but I don’t think people are aware of how serious that game is, and how much money is being spent by the Obama administration, and people that are close to the Obama Administration, to make that happen.
Patrick:  But doesn’t it come back to that statement earlier that this time, more than probably any other, your vote counts.
Senator Ken Paxton:  Absolutely. Every state-wide position up for grabs this time. It’s totally open, or there’s lots of competition for it. We have the opportunity to elect the right kind of Republicans who are willing to step up the lead and take on these really difficult issues with the federal government.
Just voting for a Republican, we’re all Republicans running, and one of those Republicans is going to lead this state in whatever area it is (Governor Lieutenant, Governor or Attorney General). But if we don’t elect the right Republicans who have a history, a record of standing up, who have a conservative record, then we are going to be in trouble.
Patrick:  And that’s really important when I look at your record, as far as you really have been somebody that is going after the bully and standing up to them in every area.
Senator Ken Paxton:  That’s correct, and that’s one of my arguments. In campaigns, typically you get a lot of rhetoric about what somebody’s going to do. Everybody in a Republican primary runs as Ronald Reagan. The reality is they didn’t necessarily govern as Ronald Reagan. All I tell people is, “Don’t listen to the rhetoric, look at the record.”
That’s one thing I can point to, having been in legislature for eleven years, having one of the most conservative legislative records in the state. Secondly, being willing to stand up and fight, even my own party, when it comes to issues that I disagree with.
Patrick:  Now, what about this issue I know is on your website today – it may not be tomorrow. “Obama threatens voter ID.” What’s the issue with voter ID?
Senator Ken Paxton:  Critical. We passed legislation, I think it was two years ago, that requires that when you vote, you show up with a photo ID so they can identify you as that person. Prior to that you could walk in with a utility bill and it might not be you or it might be you. We were worried about voter fraud. All we want to do is identify our voters and make sure the right person is voting. So we passed a law that said you have to have photo ID.
Well, the Obama administration challenged that. We ultimately, through the court process, have won the victory to be able to implement that photo ID for the first time this election. And now they’re challenging us again. Obama and his AG, Eric Holder, have challenged it and are threatening to sue us again, trying to strip that out of our ability to do as a state.
Patrick:  I don’t get that, though. There’s something real wrong with that issue. Correct me if I’m wrong, but what I’m hearing is, “We just want everybody’s vote to really count.”
Senator Ken Paxton:  That’s correct.
Patrick:  And for it to be a real vote, not cooking the books.
Senator Ken Paxton:  Exactly. That’s all we’re trying to do. We’re not trying to help any party.
Patrick:  And that’s being fought by somebody else.
Senator Ken Paxton:  Correct. It makes no sense, but unless you think there is some voter fraud going on, that somebody gets an advantage from voter fraud, if they get an advantage then you can see maybe why photo ID would be a bad idea. Otherwise, common sense tells you that photo ID makes sense.
Patrick:  Right. You’ve got a picture, it’s a real person, you’ve got a record of it.
Senator Ken Paxton:  It’s mystifying, unless there’s something wrong.
Patrick:  I don’t know. There’s history that I look at in the world that, let’s just say, they used to tell lies frequently until everybody just believed it. But that’s a different state, I think. This is the Business Spotlight. I’m here with Senator Ken Paxton, the future Attorney General for Texas – pro-business, all about you. This is Business Spotlight. We’ll be right back.
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Patrick:  Welcome back to the Business Spotlight. I’m Pat Dougher. Today we’ve got Senator Ken Paxton at  HYPERLINK “http://www.kenpaxton.com” www.kenpaxton.com. You can go and visit his site to learn more about what he’s doing in his bid for Attorney General in the state of Texas. Why am I having Ken Paxton on the show? Quite honestly, it’s a pro-business proposition.
If Ken Paxton is the future Attorney General, and he’s out to lower taxes, and property taxes and such, and he’s out to help encourage business from all over the country to come to Texas and be a part of this success that we’re having since we’ve got one of the largest economies in the nation, why wouldn’t you want him to for your Attorney General? Thank you so much.
Senator Ken Paxton:  It’s good to be here.
Patrick:  I want to encourage you to tell people why they should connect with you right away, how they can, what they can do support you, and how they can get in line to vote for you as quickly as possible.
Senator Ken Paxton:  Well, let me just say this. I’ve been traveling the state ever since we finished our legislative session, and I’ve met with numerous business leaders – lots of small business leaders – around this state. The refrain that I keep hearing is, “The Washington bureaucracy is intruding in my ability to run my business, whether it’s the EPA, whether it’s the IRS, whether it’s OSHA. Sometimes it’s all of them.” It’s a constant battle for these business owners to continue to operate and to continue to employ people.
So unless we have an Attorney General who’s willing to fight that and help these business owners survive and continue to provide jobs, it’s going to affect all of us. It’s going to affect all of our abilities to generate income and take care of our families. That’s why we encourage people, we change our issues, we go along and as issues come up, we put them on our website. We like to keep in touch with people so that we can remind people to vote and encourage them to be a part of this election in March.
Patrick:  And they should go to?
Senator Ken Paxton:   HYPERLINK “http://www.kenpaxton.com” www.kenpaxton.com.
Patrick:  I noticed that on there you basically are just asking for enough information to keep in touch.
Senator Ken Paxton:  That’s exactly right.
Patrick:  It’s nothing really beyond that. It’s really just about you being able to continue to push information out as it becomes necessary to keep them informed.
Senator Ken Paxton:  That’s all we’re trying to do. Our goal is to get people to show up on Election Day. As we already discussed, very few people do that, so it’s critical that your viewers show up and vote and that they tell their friends to vote.
Patrick:  For those that can participate in helping fund your election, how do they do that?
Senator Ken Paxton:  They can sign up on our website, and they can contribute online. It’s a relatively easy, painless process.
Patrick:  Some of them actually might want to invite friends together. Would you come to their meeting, if they were to have something like that?
Senator Ken Paxton:  Yes, absolutely. We’re all over the state. We have basically six months to campaign, so we’re trying to get to as many pockets of the state as we can in a relatively short period of time. I think it’s 188 days or something like that left. Not that I’m counting!
Patrick:  Around the state in 180 days, huh?
Senator Ken Paxton:  That’s right, which is challenging.
Patrick:  I wouldn’t doubt. And if somebody was trying to put a party like that, what do you call it – fundraising?
Senator Ken Paxton:  Meet and greets or a fundraising effort. Depending on what you want to do, we do all kinds of different things.
Patrick:  But it’s just getting some people together. You come in, tell your story of what you’re looking to do, they pass the hat or something and then people drop in big checks.
Senator Ken Paxton:  That’s right. I like that, big checks!
Patrick:  As we’re wrapping this show up, what do you want people to do right now? Go to  HYPERLINK “http://www.kenpaxton.com” www.kenpaxton.com. What else should we be looking forward from you over the next six to nine months?
Senator Ken Paxton:  Well, I want them to tell their friends, because the number of people that we can actually get to is relatively small. We just don’t have enough time in such a large state. We’re not Oklahoma or Rhode Island. This is a massive state. There are 254 counties in Texas, and there are 188 days left before the election. I can’t get to every county, so it’s really important that people tell their friends because most people are not going to know who’s running for Attorney General. It’s critical that people tell their friends about this election and encourage them to show up and vote for us when March rolls around.
Patrick:  Social media and things of that nature are pretty big for you?
Senator Ken Paxton:  Yeah.  We’re on Facebook. We Tweet. Obviously running these days, it’s a very easy way for us to connect to our voters.
Patrick:  Not that you would spend a lot of time on your Facebook page, but is it your personal or the business page that people are going to connect to? The business, right?
Senator Ken Paxton:  Right. The campaign.
Patrick:  Yeah, the campaign. And is that Ken Paxton?
Senator Ken Paxton:  Yes.
Patrick:  And for Twitter and stuff like that it would be same thing?
Senator Ken Paxton:  Yes.
Patrick:  The only reason I’m asking is because some people like to play on that zone. I know you want to try to reach the people that are the below-30 crowd, pretty massively.
Senator Ken Paxton:  Absolutely, we do.
Patrick:  What do you have to offer them?
Senator Ken Paxton:  This country, if things are not turned around, they’re the ones that are going to pay for this. It’s their standard of living that’s going to be lower.  Their opportunities are going to be limited. For people my age and older, it’s not going to affect us as much. If you’ve accumulated something, you may be able to keep some of it.
For people trying to build, the youngest people are going to be most impacted if there’s no opportunity, or if there’s limited opportunity. So for me, this is actually more important if you’re under 30. It may not seem like it, but it’s actually more important if you’re younger, because this debt and taxation is severely limiting their ability to have a life that they might have worked forward to.
Patrick:  I think that’s the enigma of the future. They’re trying to find a way to even handle it. I don’t even know how they’re going to do it. We’ve really left a mess, and you’re trying to say, “Look, let’s think about our children.” Isn’t that correct?
Senator Ken Paxton:  That’s exactly right. We’ve got to start now cutting our spending, making sure that we get our fiscal house in order because it’s unfair for us to spend money for our kids and leave them basically with the bill.
Patrick:  Awesome.. Ken, thank you again.
Senator Ken Paxton:  Thank you, I appreciate it.
Patrick:  Folks, if you want a conservative Attorney General, go to  HYPERLINK “http://www.kenpaxton.com” www.kenpaxton.com. Keep informed, and then vote, because it’s going to make a difference. They’re talking a million or million-and-a-half people, going to make all the difference in Texas’s future, and potentially, the nation’s future because if we flop the coin and go the other side, it might be bad. This is the Business Spotlight. We’ll talk again next time.