Republican Midterm Convention co-Chair Ray Washburne Talks Midterms

0:00For Begrim, one of Thailand's oldest established companies, growth does not begin with a deal. It begins with trust. Later in this podcast, here how that approach has taken the company from Thailand to South Korea and the United States. Bloomberg Audio Studios Podcasts, Radio, News We're going to speak with the co-chair of this convention in just a moment, but first, I want to bring in my colleague Julie Fein, who of course is our Texas bureau chief. She's always faced here in Dallas and has been in charge of running things for us here at Bloomberg in the run-up to this event. So Julie, obviously this is a big deal that this is happening, that it's happening here. Walk us through just quickly. What we can expect to see over the course of the next two days. Well you can expect to see programming from four until 10 each night. Republicans have many members of their leadership. They are really trying to hammer the message home that things are in good shape and they want to talk a little bit about what they are hoping to do in the next two years.

1:02It's a big night. You're going to see a lot of President Trump. He will be speaking both evenings. And again, Republicans are really trying to energize their base here in Texas. Indeed, they are and they're trying to raise some money while they do so. Julie's going to be sticking with me because on the money side of the equation and a number of other subjects, we turn now to Ray Washburn, who is here with us in our Dallas studio. He's co-chair of the RNC Midterm Convention. He also is on top of the board at Senaco and his co-founder of the N-Crowd Restaurant Group, which owns 46 restaurants as well. So there's a lot to discuss with Ray. Thank you for being here. I'm from the Bertivian Radio. Appreciate you joining us. You will have to raise what, $45 million to put this convention on a very short amount of time. How much more money are you expecting can be raised for Republicans over the next couple of days? Well, I'm chairman of the HOST Committee here. So raising money for candidates is not in my will house, but there's a lot of networking going on. There are major donors from all over the country here, candidates from all over.

2:03So I'm sure there's going to be a lot of handshaking in the next couple of days. Well, one thing that there will be a lot of handshaking with Republicans over is the Senate race here in Texas. It is a critical race and is a dead heat right now. What does Attorney General Ken Paxson have to say to voters to get them in the box for him? Well, I'm saying Ken Paxson won by 28 points in the primary. And so the summer has been kind of quiet in Texas and Talleriko started his ag campaign in August. And Labor Day is kind of the kickoff time not only for the football season, but also for political season. And so Trump dropped about $10 million in those campaign last week. Elon Musk has committed $1 million to the campaign as well. And so you're going to start seeing World of All ads from Ken Paxson from now through the end of the election day. Well, of course, Maggie Inc. has committed $10 million to Ken Paxson. I wonder if you expect that the ultimate price tag, at least the checks that are being written need to be a lot greater than that, considering the fundraising prowess that James Talleriko has proven he has. Yeah, please had it so far.

3:03I don't know how much more the Democrats want to put in because much like Beto or Winnie Davis or others, I mean, they've always gone down a rabbit hole every time on this candidate. Do you think it's funny? It's funny. I do. I mean, Republicans, we haven't lost a race in the states since 1994. And so statewide race. But Ken Paxson, the Magga is going to come in with more money in addition to $10 million and we're going to now start seeing Talleriko being framed up for the type candidate that he is. Ray, you were co-chair in 2016 of Victory Fund. So you obviously know how important the state of Texas is to keeping both the House in the Senate, the Rio Grande Valley. That has redistricted. You have the candidates running for that speaking at this convention. But are you confident that Republicans did the right thing by redistricting? By redistricting the state? Yes, absolutely. You know, the Valley voted for Trump last time. The first time we started the win away from the Democrats down there. So redistricting was the right thing to do there. I'm sorry.

4:03Go ahead. You're confident what ended up happening, though, Ray, as you well know, is that they redistricted it in Texas and then there went the map. So do you think that it will work out for Republicans? Well, I'm focused on Texas and also Greg Abbott are very popular governors running it again. So it's turning out to vote. You were talking with Paxson and in the Valley and so Abbott is very, very popular down in the Valley. So I think that's going to help up and down the ballot for us. Well, let's talk about the popularity of the president because you mentioned that these are areas that win for Trump in 2024. And his approval rating is now, depending on what poll you're looking at, at a record low across his two terms. So is your danger in centering the events in Dallas this week around the president who is not on the ballot, who is unpopular? Well, you remember, he was elected president just two years ago, 18 months ago, really. And so he's still a very popular guy in a lot of places. And he's a showman. I think this convention is going to show that. We're going to be out with blooms dropping and all kinds of ceremony going on.

5:04So I think this is going to showcase the successes that the Trump administration has had and also pushing a forward for the next two years with the administration, with a house and a Senate that are aligned with Republican values to go forward. When you talk about, you say that the president is a showman. Okay, what message do you want voters to take from this? What is the goal here for something you've never done before? Yeah, well, one is to showcase the success that we've had, that all the different activities he's done. And one of the important rates at 4.1%, it's stayed at an all time low. You're seeing all kinds of success with inflationary being kept down. So he just needs to get out and celebrate that. Well, of course, the inflation rate has ticked back up in recent metrics, or at least in recent months, due to the higher energy costs emanating from the war with Iran. I don't have to tell you about the prices that are being seen at the pump. From your view at Sanico, you know what's happening at retail gasoline stations, whether it is just regular unleaded that you're putting in your car, whether it's diesel? That is powering the economy. Those prices are going or have been high relative to historical norms and you have Brent

6:09Crude back above $100. Sure, but what you're missing in that equation is demand hasn't gone down. So prices could? Priced have gone down. Demand over this in the last year has been basically flat. So even though prices have gone up, people are still driving. And in inflation and just their price between the 1970s and today is still much lower than it would be, just keeping up with inflation. In the 1970s, it took about 5% of your paycheck for energy costs today. It's about 2%. So even though it is hurtful, you see it every day because everyone uses gas to drive around, demand hasn't gone down. But can you tell a consumer that has been withstanding these higher prices, hoping that they won't have to for long, that they have a reason to believe prices will go down in the near turn? Sure. Well, we reached peak demand about two or three weeks ago, which is traditionally when peak demand goes down. And so we just see prices should be drifting down through the fall as demand goes down. Another issue that voters are talking about a lot is data centers.

7:11You have the president in full force saying that they are great for the areas that they're in. But then you even have people like Governor Abbott, somewhat pulling back on them saying, putting restrictions on what they must do in order to build here. How much do you think that will affect voters in this cycle? Well, look, a lot of people see the economic advantage having a data center in their backyard. All that noise you're hearing is from people that are nimbism, don't want in their backyard. But there are a lot of people in those same communities that do want them there for the taxes, the economic growth that they bring to their communities. So do you think that will outnumber the people that are saying not in my backyard? Do you think there's enough other voters that will kind of count out the ones that are saying, I'm really going to vote on this issue? I don't know if it's a, remember most voters are in urban areas where data centers aren't. They're in their rural areas. And so, well, those people, there's a good chance a lot of them might vote a different way, but the ones in the urban areas, they're looking at other issues. The data center is not a big issue. It's a big issue in the press, but it's not really a big issue in urban areas.

8:13But here in the state of Texas, a lot of red vote, a lot of Republican voters are in the rural areas. Yeah, they are. They are, but they're not mass numbers. I mean, do we want to win them? Obviously, but there are a lot of other things on the ballot other than data centers that people are concerned about. Okay, well, so let's get back to some of those concerns that center around affordability and including prices at the pump. I hear what you're saying on a seasonal demand going to shift just because of the time of year, but if you're still having crude prices go higher in the Middle East, you have Russian oil refineries offline due to Ukrainian attacks. That war is ongoing. Does the geopolitical situation not mean that at least structurally for some time, there is going to still be an issue and a refining issue in particular. Yeah, well, look, we're running our refineries in the United States. We're running about 98% capacity. That's been a long time since we built a new one. Yeah, it's been a long, I think, 1977, it was the last time a new refineries built. Can we build more with the Trump administration? If we hold in the House Senate, get away with regulation, we can build more refineries in the US. So there were so handcuffed with regulations to get new ones built.

9:16So yes, but is that a short term fix in the next 60 days? No. So the multi-year fix? So that's permitting reform you're getting at? Permitting reform, yes. Got it. Ray, if we talk in two weeks, what is the best success you hope comes from? What happens in the next? Yeah, well, a lot of enthusiasm, we have a lot of candidates coming out, especially new young people running for office that haven't run before or running for a higher office, hopefully we can showcase and it's their chance to shine. So I mean, as in anything, this is prom night. They got to roll out and they've got to give them a chance. So the show they're best foot forward. Is there a chance to shine dim just a little bit by timing? You mentioned earlier that it's September, we're getting in now to the start of football season. Football season starts tonight with a super ball rematch that is going to be counter-programming. Sure, this convention. Is that not slightly a problem? No, you know, some people might be, but was streaming today and used to be, you turn on the TV and if you missed it, you missed it.

10:17Today, that's not the way at all. You can record things. So I don't think it's going to hurt. You know, 2020 to some 2028 hopefuls will be speaking at this convention. I'd love to know your early thoughts on 2028 as someone who's worked with President Trump for a long time. Yeah, well, you know, a lot of the midterms is going to set things up and next spring is when people are going to start announcing and looking at it. So, you know, we're going to have a lot of quality candidates in the Republican Party going up against the AOCs and Gavin Newsom's on the Democratic side. So I've got no worry. We're going to have a great slate of candidates in 2028. But you do expect it could be candidates plural and not the President saying JD Vance or Marco Rubio is my guy. Well, we'll see at the time. Do you think it could be one of those two? We'll see at the time. Mm-hmm. All right. Indeed, we will. Hopefully we can talk to you when it is that time. Okay. Right. And we can get a little more in detail on 2028. Here are five reasons to subscribe to Bloomberg News now. 5. You get the latest news from around the world instantly. 4. It saves you time.

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