AUSTIN, Texas — This week the United States Senate voted to acquit President Donald Trump on impeachment charges and Jack Daniel Foster Jr., a candidate for the U.S. Senate, sat down with KVUE's Ashley Goudeau to discuss his campaign.
Three things to know in Texas politics
This week, the United States Senate voted to acquit President Trump on impeachment charges. Texas Sens. John Cornyn (R) and Ted Cruz (R) voted not to convict President Trump on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. Throughout the impeachment proceedings, both Republicans repeatedly said the President did nothing wrong. Not all Texas lawmakers agree; most notably, Houston Rep. Sylvia Garcia was one of the House Managers trying the president in the Senate.
Texas Lyceum released the results of a new poll, and Austin renters aren't the only ones struggling to find affordable housing. In the statewide poll, nearly half of Texas adults said it is difficult to find affordable housing in their areas and nearly half of Texas adults think they spend too much of their income on housing.
A school board's decision to suspend a high school senior because of his hair could be met with legislative action. Thursday, members of the Texas Legislative Black Caucus announced plans to file a bill known as the CROWN Act in the 2021 Legislative session. It would ban discrimination based on hairstyles and textures – typically associated with race. Deandre Arnold, a senior in Mont Belvieu, Texas, was suspended and told he would not be able to walk across the graduation stage unless he cut his locs. Arnold has been growing his hair for years and said they represent his father's Trinidadian culture. But over Christmas break, the school district changed its policy and told him he needed to cut his hair. Lawmakers in California, New Jersey and New York have already passed the CROWN Act and dozens of other states are considering it.
U.S. Sen. candidate Jack Daniel Foster Jr. sits down with KVUE to discuss campaign
Early voting in the Texas March primary election is a little more than a week away.
A dozen Democrats are vying to challenge U.S. Sen. Cornyn in 2020, including teacher Jack Daniel Foster Jr. He sat down with KVUE's Goudeau to discuss his campaign.
Goudeau: First and foremost, tell our viewers a little bit about yourself and why you're running for the U.S. Senate.
Foster Jr.: "Well, my name is Jack Daniels Foster, Junior and people kind of poke at that sometime, but that's the truth. I am running for, you know, the United States Senate because of, you know, homeowners and property owners. They need the opportunity to invest in their communities."
Goudeau: And so tell us a little bit about your background.
Foster: "Well, you know, I'm a clinical laboratory scientist and I'm also a teacher. And so, you know, and I have, you know, a master's degree in finance. So I'm kind of like a variety of things. But, you know, I prefer teaching, but you know, it's time to move to something else."
Goudeau: Is there something in particular about Senator John Cornyn, other than the obvious fact that he's a Republican and you're a Democrat, that made you decide you wanted to challenge him?
Foster: "I'm a 21st Century Democrat and a 21st Century Democrat will bring in not only just Democrats, but they'll bring in Republicans, they'll bring in Independents and they'll bring in Greens as well, the Green Party as well. You know, how we do that is to make sure that we take care of the real taxpayers, the property owners and the homeowners. Why? Why them? It is because of the fact that we pay property taxes and school taxes every year. You cannot get out of that. You can get out of sales tax, but you cannot get out of property tax or school tax. It's time to reward those counties, those people in those counties, the communities and rebuild their communities with, to be able to invest in, you know, skilled trades, like welding, electrical, plumbing, and reward themselves and get a reward by, you know, investing in these people. I call it Public Controlled Capitalism. If you're disadvantage, you get 8%, if you're advantage you get 5%, but if anybody fails, you get a risk free rate of 2%. And so we must build up communities, so everybody can have lower taxes instead of taxes going higher."
Goudeau: You mentioned this 8%, this 5%, what is that? Are you talking about a tax break, are you talking about a stipend? What are you talking about?
Foster: "No, no tax break, it's incentive rate. Meaning that I want to, you know if you go to my website, www.votejackdaniel.com you will see that I have a plan for not only Texas, but the rest of the United States. So we have 3,142 counties in the United States, county equivalents and the District of Columbia. But I'm concerned about the 254 that are in Texas. And so I want us to use our Rainy Day Fund, I want 10.2% of that I want $3 million, to go to each county in the State of Texas. Now, at the same time, I'd be in the United States Senate, I will be asking for a skills fund for every county in the United States. And make sure that you know, you understand if you look at my model, my economic model, it's on my on my website, if you look at that, you will see that I want the federal government to use that, that that Green, that Green New Deal, you know, and spread that money out throughout the United States to the counties. The State of Texas has a Rainy Day Fund. They need to be able to put $3 million in every county, that's $762 million, that's 10.2% of that Rainy Day Fund, and allow for property owners and homeowners to get their money back by investing in people in their communities. And what ultimately happens is you lower taxes for everyone. Everyone gets to work. Everyone gets to be involved, such as fight this, you know, this carbon dioxide problem that we have. Everyone gets to have affordable health care insurance. You know, I don't want people to, you know, get free stuff. It's nothing good about that. What you need is to be able to have affordable health care and a decent job and then you can move forward in your life."
Goudeau: Okay, the federal government, you're running for the US Senate, the federal government has no say in the State of Texas' Rainy Day Fund and the State of Texas' business. They can't regulate that. That's the state.
Foster: "That's correct. You're absolutely right. But I will be a United States Senator, that would bring voice, excuse me, that will bring voice to what's needed in the State of Texas. And so I will push the state legislature, the governor and the lieutenant governor to give us that skills fund in every county, in, in in the State of Texas."
Goudeau: You talk about giving money to all of the counties in the country Where are we going to get the money to pay for this?
Foster: "Well, we have no choice but to do that. Why? Because we're facing a $23 trillion deficit already. The problem is is that the same people who pay the taxes are going to be the same people who pay this deficit. So we must bring in more people, have them skilled up and ready to be able to pay their fair share."
Goudeau: To put your plan into place, to get more people in the economy, you're saying we need to create these funds, where are we going to have the money to pay for that?
Foster: "You're going to have to deficit spend again. I mean there's no way, it's nowhere around that. You know, in order to make money, you got to, you know, invest money. And so in order to do that we're going to, we have no choice."
Goudeau: Just go further into debt?
Foster: "We have no choice because look, we got a $1.5 trillion deficit run a fiscal deficit for the year. Now, I believe that money was misplaced. We should resend that billion-dollar tax cut. Well, I'm sorry, a billion, trillion-dollar tax cut that, you know, President Trump has put in into effect. But you know, take that and let's reinvest in our communities, i.e. the counties and let's start over I mean, we have no choice."
Goudeau: There are a lot of candidates in this particular race. There are 12 Democrats vying to challenge Senator Cornyn. Why should our viewers vote for you over the other 11?
Foster: "Well, because I am willing to go all out for the homeowners and property owners. Why? Because they are the most important people in our system. They must be rewarded and be rewarded handsomely. Meaning that if they invest in disadvantaged people, they get 8% if they invest in advantage people to get 5%, but if anybody fails, they get their money back, plus an incentive a 3%. Why? Because I believe in them, and they are the ones that are the key to our existence."
You can hear from Foster and the 10 other Senate Democratic candidates live. On the first day of early voting, Tuesday, Feb. 18, KVUE News is hosting a debate with the 11 Democrats vying to challenge Sen. Cornyn. It will air live on KVUE at 6:30 p.m.
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