Meet the 26-Year-Old Who Defeated a Veteran Texas Democrat

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You can tell me anything.

I can't say anything.

But somebody listened to this right now knows.

I think it translates literally to that you don't know what.

You can find me on Twitter, exit, at Jason White.

Let me know.

Jit is I.

I don't know what?

Jit, no.

Jit, no.

They just stop, bro.

They just stop.

I don't know what.

They just stop.

That's kind of entitled to this podcast.

Yeah, exactly.

All right.

Election Day has come and gone.

Dude, what a whirlwind week.

That was.

I mean, it still is.

This is still the same week.

Yeah.

It's hard to believe it almost.

It's been a while.

Catch our breath on this thing.

And just now, I think, you know, there's so many big headlines

that popped out of the primary elections here in Texas on the night of.

And then the next day.

And then the next day.

And so it has taken several days to kind of distill some things here

and to see some trends and to go, oh, wait.

That didn't get as much attention as it should have.

Yeah.

Everyone's talking about James Tolerico, his big win for the Democratic

nomination for U.S. Senate.

Everyone's talking about John Cornyn.

Did better than Poles said he was going to do.

Mays Middleton is one of the Republicans running for attorney general.

Same thing there.

Poles said that he was significantly behind chip Roy.

Well, it turns out Mays Middleton ranked way high.

Then you have people who lost their races.

Sid Miller, Texas Agriculture Commissioner, the first time.

And I don't know how long.

That's a strange one when you see an incumbent in Texas.

A city.

A Republican incumbent who lost.

So there are a number of those.

And then you have a Democratic leader, Chris Turner,

a state representative from Grand Prairie,

represents Arlington and Mansfield.

He's the former minority leader in the House of Representatives.

He held a lot of power.

He held a lot of power.

He's a fixture in Democratic politics in the state and in North Texas.

He organized the quorum break to Washington DC in 2021 over voting rights.

This guy was somebody who we weren't even looking at his race.

All of a sudden one of the headlines is I started getting texts.

And 910 PM on Tuesday night saying, oh my gosh,

did you see what happened in the Turner race?

Yeah.

I don't know what he talked about.

Boom.

This guy.

53 to 47%.

Yeah.

He lost.

And I haven't talked to Chris.

One of our reporters did.

And we're going to play what he had to say in just a moment here on this episode.

But it's one of these races almost that you think that maybe he took for granted his opponent.

Who is his opponent?

People are asking, who this guy is?

Junior Isanu.

He's 26.

People who know who he is understand it though.

Exactly.

This guy is 26.

If you know, you know, as they say.

If you know, you know, right?

He's 26.

He's been on the Grand Prairie City Council for five years.

He was elected when he was still a senior at U.T.

Arlington.

It's amazing.

He's a Mayor Pro Temno.

So, he was the youngest person ever elected to counsel in Grand Prairie.

The youngest person to become Mayor Pro Tem in Grand Prairie.

And so, again, if you know, you know, people who have followed this guy knew that, okay, he's on a path.

And it's going straight up.

And he apparently knew it too.

And everybody else kind of slept on that race.

And then the text start coming in and you go, oh, wait.

Let's shift our attention over here.

And this is a new generation now.

Gen Z.

Representative because the Republicans canceled their primary in that district, which is District 101.

101.

And so, he will essentially become the new representative going forward.

And he will be the second Gen Z lawmaker in Austin.

There was a woman named Caroline Fairley, who was a Republican, who was elected to replace four price up in the Panhandle.

And same thing there.

You know, this is playing out.

We're seeing another big high profile runoff, similar circumstances.

This is a congressional seat in Houston, though.

It's Al Green and Christian Minifey.

Al Green is the incumbent.

And he got drawn out of his district, essentially.

Christian Minifey won the special election.

Recently, to replace Sylvester Turner, finally, after Governor Abbott called that election.

So you have Christian Minifey, who's a younger Democrat, up against an experience.

A seasoned.

Seasoned as they say.

A seasoned Democrat like Al Green.

So what happened there?

And this has also played out once before with Lloyd Doggett, who is again a veteran Democrat, who decided to walk away when his seat was redrawn.

And like Greg Kassar had that younger Democrat.

Up and coming, then.

Up in the new generation.

So people are talking about who in the world is Junior Isanu.

I got in touch with him.

We sat down and we asked him all of these questions.

How did you do it?

And one thing we learned.

I don't know if he says it in this interview here.

But one thing we learned is when he got out of U.T. Arlington, he was elected and started serving at City Council.

But his paying job, you know, City Council doesn't pay.

State rep, when you get elected there, that pays $7,200 a year.

It doesn't pay anything.

It's not going to pay the bills.

What do you do to pay the bills to keep the lights out of the house, right?

His paying job is a political consultant.

So this guy knows the ins and outs of politics.

He knows strategy.

He knows numbers.

He knows who's vulnerable.

And that's where we started with this interview.

Junior, congratulations.

Thank you.

You just defeated a long time incumbent.

He'd served in the legislature more than a decade.

Why did you look at this race and say, Chris Turner is vulnerable?

What made you think that?

Well, first, thank you for having me, Jason.

It's an honor to be here.

I've always watched a show.

So I'm truly grateful to be here.

Appreciate it.

But I grew up in District 101.

I've lived there since I was two years old.

Once all my schooling there from pre-K to college,

UTA grad, Bui high school, grad as well.

I looked at this at the district and thought that we need to change across the board

and the Democratic Party.

We need a young progressive leaders across the board in Texas, especially to move us forward,

expend our electorate and win really competitive elections.

As we're seeing with the crazy turnout,

do some Jasmine Crockett and James Taleriko begin at the top of the ticket.

Nothing in particular, I guess, was the Turner.

I think it's a good man.

I thought we just need to change.

And I looked at the numbers.

I said, this is winnable.

It's going to be tough.

It's going to require a lot of work.

A lot of work.

A lot of door knocking.

But it's definitely winnable if I put into work.

And I pray to God, and we'll see what happens.

But Turner had done nothing to really have voters throw him out of office.

But you saw something to make you go out there and campaign and door knock and get the vote out.

You know, I'm a numbers guy.

In my profession, as a consultant, I work on numbers.

I'm a political consultant by trade.

I help people get elected all over the country.

And I looked at the numbers just like when I ran for city council.

The guy beats again on city council in Grand Prairie was not a bad person.

But I knew the numbers were there to be competitive and potentially win.

And I saw those same numbers with this election.

I just said, you know, I'm going to raise enough money to be competitive

and run a formidable campaign.

And by the grace of God, we're going to win it.

You have experience with political campaigns as a political consultant

that you're just talking about.

Incomments in Texas, usually when they're legislative primaries.

Democrat or Republican.

How did your campaign break that pattern?

You're looking at the numbers as one thing, but actually executing a plan to break the pattern of something else.

You have to have a very strong field plan.

You definitely have to have a very strong field plan.

Especially that's door knocking, that's showing up at the different events and venues and places like that.

Is that what it is?

I'll tell you this.

I'll tell all the candidates that run, especially those that are, you know, being outspent.

Because Mr. Turner, I'll spend me 10 to 1 if not 11 to 1.

Events are cool, but you're wasting your time if you're spending a lot of time at events.

You need to be at the doors.

You need to have a very targeted door knocking strategy.

You need to send enough mail to be competitive.

I only sent about three mail pieces.

I didn't have enough money to send out five.

But you need to be door knocking, running those digital ads.

If you have some money for TV ads, there's some TV ads on cable and streaming.

You just need to make sure that your message and your name is spread out in a different methods and mediums.

Having signs are good, but signs are not, signs don't decide an election.

But that canvassing component, making sure you're hitting those doors.

Because on average, you're going to talk to one out of every five people that open the door.

Right?

So I would always say canvas, canvas, canvas, especially when you're running states and local campaigns.

As you know, Democrats are the minority in Austin.

How does a freshman legislator from Grand Prairie get anything done?

I think first is taking the time out to listen and learn from the experienced legislators that have been there.

Both those that are currently serving and those that have served in the past.

Like Representative Turner, who I'm sure will give me great advice to help me be a successful freshman in the state legislature.

Will you reach out to him?

Oh, definitely.

And others will.

I have to.

For me to be a good legislator for my community for District 101, I have to have the humility to know that I don't know everything.

And I have to go to those that have been serving prior to me getting there and ask them for their guidance, for their expertise, and for their wisdom.

So I can be able to deliver from my constituents.

So that's the first step.

And the next step is being bold and believing in a vision where we can not just unite residents across the state of Texas, but deliver on policies that impact their daily life.

And that's what I'm going to focus on, those kitchen table issues.

You support raising the minimum wage, ending school vouchers.

The give voters a realistic answer here, though, when you're in a Republican-controlled legislature, how much can you actually accomplish?

You can't accomplish everything all at once.

It's going to take time.

Those are policies that I support, and I will fight for it.

But being realistic, I know I can't do it all on day one.

But we can build tours that we can find common ground.

An issue that I spoke about that people don't even realize has bipartisan support is banning private equity and large corporations from buying single-family homes.

President Trump talked about it recently, and many Republicans are supporting it now.

It's a national issue.

You want to bring it to the state, though?

Exactly.

Because housing is an issue that affects all of us, especially in Terran County.

Back in 2021, 52% of all the single-family homes that were bought were sold to private equity or large institutional investors, which price out regular people from home ownership.

So this is an issue that affects everybody, whether you're a Republican or a Democrat, and that's an issue where we can find common ground and solve that to make housing affordable for all.

Junior Texas politics often revolves around budget fights.

What are some spending priorities that you would fight for?

Definitely increasing funding for public education.

We have to increase the per pupil allotment and get it to where it's at least meeting the national average from where it is right now.

That's a major priority for me.

Finding opportunities to support local and small businesses, creating more grants and loan opportunities for small business owners across the state, especially those in my district.

Those are two areas that I think are very important.

Working to support local communities when it comes to more grocery stores.

Folks that the polls are asking, what are you going to do to lower grocery prices?

I think an idea is having the state provide incentives, work with local governments, cities, city councils, county governments, to, you know, in areas that our food deserts provide incentives, whether it's tax abayments, tax, you know, different forms of support to help drive more economic development and drive more grocery stores.

You're 26 years old?

Yes, sir.

Mayor Pro Tem and Grand Prairie.

Yes, sir.

Critics are going to look at this and say, well, he's 26.

He's going to the legislature.

I mean, it's vicious down there sometimes.

People might think you'd like experience for that.

What do you tell them?

You know, I don't have as much experience as those that have been there for longer than me.

But I've been a council member for almost five years.

I've been a mayor of Pro Temp for a year now.

And I have enough experience to go and make an impact and make a difference.

But I have the humility and the understanding that I have to take out the time to learn, to meet with those that have been there longer than I have.

So I can be an effective legislator.

Rome wasn't built in a day.

But you build, you grow and you build a brick by brick step by step.

And then we'll be able to really accomplish a lot of things.

So I just know that I won't be the best legislator on day one.

But I will grow into that over time with the support of my colleagues and the voters and by the grace of God.

What's one issue you faced at City Council that really tested you?

Ooh, that's a great question.

That's a great question.

When I ran for City Council, I was 21 going on 22 years old.

I was at UC Arlington while I was running for council.

You were still in college when you ran for council and got elected?

I got elected two weeks after I graduated from UTA.

So one major issue was just gaining the trust of my constituents and having them believe in me and trust that I could deliver for them and be a good council member.

So I spent a lot of time just being out there in the community, educating people, but also being transparent.

Whatever I was doing in the community, I was sharing on Facebook, Instagram, social media, I have town hall meetings.

And I would welcome the community into the city.

Well, welcome, basically bring the city to the community.

And for people about what we're doing, what can be done and how the city government affects them.

And as a state representative, that's what I want to do as well.

Because a lot of people hear about the state, hear about the state government, but they don't know what does the state do.

What does the state have power over? How does it impact my day-to-day life?

That's what we're going to do. We're going to bring the state to the community.

Would you describe yourself as a progressive, where are you in the Democratic Party?

I call myself a populist progressive. That's what I am.

I believe in populist economic policies and I support social progressivism.

And when we talk about the Democratic Party today in Texas, what do you think it needs?

I think it needs, I think it needs young folks across the board.

I think it needs a mixture of experienced leadership but also young people that balance it out.

I think we need diversity across the board.

Diversity can't just be in race and ethnicity.

We need diversity in the race and ethnicity.

We also need diversity in age. We need diversity in profession.

We need people from all over all different walks of life.

Because what that does, it provides different perspectives.

Especially when it's legislation that affects educators or affects people within the workforce or affects local governments.

On the city council level, we have been preempted so many times by the state government.

And largely that's due to the fact that many state legislators, especially on the Republican side,

did not serve on the local level to know what the impacts are and how that grossly affects us.

But me being someone that has been there, I can come in with this perspective and say, hey guys,

thank you for your service but we need to make sure that we give cities and local governments a latitude

that they need to do the work that they need to do.

So I think we just need diversity across the board of profession and race and age.

We need people that look like our state.

Why is that absent in the party today?

I think a lot of it is money because think about it.

Who can run is the people that have the money.

People that are able to raise the money.

Usually young folks aren't able to raise the money.

Usually teachers or nurses aren't able to afford to go and serve in the legislature and make what is $7,000 a year.

You see what I'm saying?

So money affects both on the fundraising side but also on the sacrifice spending time away from your job

that funds your livelihood allows you to afford to live and then also be there.

So I think money plays a big part in keeping a lot of good people out of politics on all levels, especially local and state.

You do not have a Republican opponent in November so you're heading to the legislature now after this primary win.

Congratulations on that.

What's priority one though once you get there in the legislature opens next year?

I think it starts right now.

It's already meeting with other state legislators, taking in the wisdom and the information and the value that they have for me as people that are experienced.

Meeting with different members in our community across the board in Arlington, Grand Prairie and Mansfield because I'm going to be representing three cities.

No longer just the city of Grand Prairie.

Meeting with different interest groups and seeing what issues are important to them.

Just being present across the board, both in Austin and here in District 101.

That's how I get effective in day one running, hit the ground running.

But legislatively though, what's top priority for you in the new session?

Definitely, public school funding is top priority for me.

Public school funding.

Our public schools in Texas are, they don't receive the kind of funding that other schools do across the nation.

So definitely increasing the funding for public schools is very important to me.

Making home ownership affordable is so important to me.

In Texas, the average age for a first time home buyer is 40 years old.

20 years ago, it was 31 years of age.

We have a humongous problem.

And we don't want Gen Z millennials and some Gen Xers to be the generations of just renters.

We don't want that.

We want people to be able to own something.

Build equity in their home and be able to pass on to their children one day or their grandchildren

as their grandparents or their parents did for them.

So those are two issues that are very crucial, very important to me.

And that I will fight for and work on day one.

And I believe we'll find common ground to tackle those challenges.

Junior congratulations.

Thank you so much, Jason.

I appreciate you.

So again, you know, there's no Republican opponent here, Wheeler.

And so he's going to be the state representative elect for District 101.

Representing Arlington, Grand Prairie, and Mansfield.

This guy, here's what I'll say about juniories honor.

I interview a lot of Republicans, Democrats, Independents, a lot of people with ambition.

Yeah.

Juniories honor is somebody to keep an eye on.

He's a rising Democratic star.

And I promise you, if he follows through with what he says, tapping into the veterans,

tapping into people like Chris Turner who he defeated, asking for best practices and things like that,

he will go far in politics.

You can always tell, you know, as you say, you talk to a lot of people,

you can always tell those people who have the it.

That special something that is in a Sequoia.

And that's pretty good, huh?

And that's how they say it.

Is that all the French you know?

That is all the French.

Well, I know a few other words.

But, all right.

So, I mean, you can always-

What does Genesequat mean?

Translate.

That's something, right?

I don't know.

I don't know.

We love to prove Wheeler wrong.

So if you speak French and you hear this right now-

I just figured it out.

It's the, you don't know what.

I don't think you're right.

Yeah.

He doesn't know.

I don't know.

You can tell me anything.

You can tell me anything.

But somebody listen to this right now, knows.

And I want you-

I think it translates literally to the, you don't know what.

You can find me on Twitter, exit, at Jason White.

So, let me know.

Shit is I.

I don't know what?

Jinnah.

Jinnah.

They just stop, bro.

They just stop.

I don't know what.

They just stop.

That's kind of entitled to this podcast.

Yeah, exactly.

So, the thing is though, is that you can always tell when somebody is a rising star.

Sure.

And that they're headed places.

We don't know quite where that is yet.

But I mean, you know, a lot of people wouldn't have, you know, thought that a 26 year old would do the things that he has already done there.

So it's-

He's one to watch for sure.

Indeed so.

And then the question was the following day, we wanted to reach out to Chris Turner after the election.

So we reached out to him last Wednesday.

One of our reporters went to interview him.

And one of the questions, you know, she asked was, what did you think about the results of the race?

And here's what he had to say.

I knew it was going to be a close race.

It was a very tough race.

It was a hard fought race.

I had a formidable opponent.

So I knew it was going to be a close race.

And we were in it to the very end.

And it was close.

We came out on the wrong end of the close race.

But it wasn't a shock.

But I thought we had every opportunity to win going into last night.

But it didn't work out that way.

But listen, I'm, again, just so grateful to the voters for giving me the opportunity to represent the eight terms.

It's a long time.

Yeah.

And I've no regrets.

I'm very grateful for the opportunity to serve.

So that's what he had to say for that question.

But then the other question, every reporter wants to know.

And likely you listening right now want to know as well too, is why does he think it happened?

And this was interesting what Turner told us.

You know, I think that right now people are unhappy with what's going on in our country.

And our state right now.

And I understand that.

I'm one of them.

I'm unhappy with what Trump is doing to our country, what the Republican leadership in Texas is doing to our state.

But I think that blood over and affected some Democratic incumbents, such as myself, because I think that people want to see Democrats doing something different.

And what I try to do is explain how we were fighting back against all the crazy stuff we're seeing out of Trump and other Republicans.

But I also recognize that voters can easily conflate someone like me with what's going on in Washington, B.C.

And I understand the frustration I really do.

And that was the theme.

That was one of the themes on election night that we noticed when we were talking about all of those different things that were happening in one night and even the next day is that we saw again.

Some of these entrenched like, you know, you brought up Sid Miller at the beginning, the Commissioner of Agriculture here in Texas.

Republican had been there a while, had name recognition, got picked off.

We hadn't seen that in executive government with a Republican in Texas.

And we don't remember how long.

And this was a change election.

And people on both sides came out looking for change.

And they found it there in 101, District 101 too.

And whether you're Republican or Democrat, if you're in a incumbent, you're likely seen as the establishment in some of these races.

You're actually being the incumbent is the good thing.

It's the good thing, which is what surprised us about this.

But, you know, Chris Turner really summed it up well there.

I could have been seen as the incumbent and you have this younger guy.

So I think you have the incumbent see, perhaps seen as the establishment.

I think you have a generational thing happening to a lot of these races.

Yeah.

And how these turn out will be interesting to see.

I go back to thinking about the Kennedy Nixon race.

If you put Menophe and Al Green, what are people going to think about there?

Have you have those guys side by side?

What will they think in Houston?

Well, same thing with Taloriko, you know, next to potentially a John Cornyn.

Exactly.

How's that going to pan out?

At the end of the day, though, you have a number of new, likely new lawmakers heading to Austin who are younger, Caroline.

Fairly we mentioned from a Republican from the Panhandle.

You have Junerizanu from Grand Prairie.

Remember.

And remember, though, Taloriko was only 29 years old when he got elected after, you know, teaching social studies in San Antonio.

So it's not unusual to have them.

But I think you're going to see a lot of a lot of energy momentum from these younger lawmakers.

Well, I think Juner here is making even that freshman legislator, Taloriko, look old.

He is.

How old is Taloriko?

31, 32?

Yeah, but I mean, even at 29, he would be old compared to this guy.

What were you doing at 26, Jason?

I don't know.

I wasn't running for office.

I wasn't doing anything as substantial as these.

Running from something, probably, but not running for office.

What are you doing?

I'm not going to discuss it.

Exactly.

We need to call around and find out about this.

Guys, thanks so much for listening.

Juner is out of one to keep an eye on.

Can't wait to talk to Caroline Fairly from the Panhandle.

There's a lot more to go with the May 26th runoff coming up, the November general election.

There's a lot of storylines, a lot of threads to pull.

Yeah, we felt like we made it to the finish line on Tuesday night.

It was actually just the starting line.

Indeed so.

Until next time, I'll revolve.

You know what that means, right?

Goodbye.

Yeah, you're teasing me.

You're two phrases, you know.

How do you say hello in French?

Bonjour.

Bonjour.

Yeah.

Surprise you were slow on that.

Merci.

Thanks for listening.

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