Ray Washburne told Bloomberg that Republicans have not lost a statewide race in Texas since 1994, and that the money Democrats are putting behind their Senate candidate this year is going the same way.
Almost every affordability question put to him that morning was about prices going up. The man who chairs Sunoco's board answered each one by explaining why they are about to come down.
"In the 1970s, it took about 5% of your paycheck for energy costs. Today, it's about 2%."
Washburne is chairman of the host committee for the Republican Party's first-ever midterm convention, chairs the board at fuel distributor Sunoco, co-founded the M Crowd Restaurant Group, and was a co-chair of the party's Victory fund in 2016.
I listened to the full segment so you can skip it.
Here are the 9 takeaways that matter.
👤 Guest: Ray Washburne, Co-Chair of the Republican Midterm Convention and Chairman of its Host Committee, who chairs the board at Sunoco and co-founded the M Crowd Restaurant Group
🎙️ Host: Kailey Leinz, Bloomberg's Washington Correspondent
👥 Also on: Julie Fine, Bloomberg's Texas Bureau Chief
📰 Published: 9 September 2026
🔴 YouTube | 🟢 Spotify | 🟣 Apple Podcasts | 🔗 Episode page | ⏱️ 11 min
Key Takeaways
He says Democratic spending on the Texas Senate race is money wasted, because Republicans have not lost a statewide race there since 1994
He named Beto O'Rourke and Wendy Davis as the precedent, and said Democrats have "always gone down a rabbit hole every time"
Gasoline demand has been flat for a year even as prices rose, so he expects pump prices to drift down through the fall
His reasoning is seasonal: peak demand passed "about two or three weeks ago"
Energy takes a far smaller share of a paycheck than it did in the 1970s, which is his answer to the affordability question
Data centers are a press story rather than a voting issue, because the voters who live near them are outnumbered
He conceded rural Texans are Republican voters, but said "they're not in mass numbers"
Building new US refineries needs permitting reform and a Republican House and Senate, and it is a multi-year fix, not a 60-day one
He put current US refinery utilization at "about 98% capacity"
Trump's record-low approval is not a problem for a convention built around him, in his account, because Trump is a showman
The 2028 field will not be settled until next spring, and he twice declined to say whether it is J.D. Vance or Marco Rubio
1. Not His Money to Raise
The segment opened with Bloomberg's Texas bureau chief, Julie Fine, previewing the two-day event before Washburne came to the microphone.
Fine set out the schedule and the intent: "Republicans have many members of their leadership. They are really trying to hammer the message home that things are in good shape." She said programming ran "from 4 until 10 each night"
She flagged the headline act twice over: "You're going to see a lot of President Trump. He will be speaking both evenings." Her read on the purpose was that "Republicans are really trying to energize their base here in Texas"
The host put the convention's own budget to Washburne: "You had to raise, what, $45 million to put this convention on in a very short amount of time." She then asked how much more could be raised for Republican candidates over the two days
Washburne drew a line between paying for the event and paying for campaigns, and said only the first is his job. "Well, I'm chairman of the host committee here, so raising money for candidates is not in my wheelhouse"
What he did claim for the event was proximity: "There are major donors from all over the country here, candidates from all over. So I'm sure there's going to be a lot of handshaking in the next couple days"
2. Democrats' Money Is Wasted
The host moved to the Texas Senate race between Attorney General Ken Paxton and Democratic state representative James Talarico, framing it as a race that matters: "It is a critical race. It is a dead heat right now."
Washburne argued the race has barely started, because the summer was quiet and the Democrat moved first: "Ken Paxton won by 28 points in the primary." Talarico, he said, began advertising in August: "And Labor Day is kind of the kickoff time, not only for the football season, but also for political season"
He named two sources of outside money on the Republican side: "And so Trump dropped about $10 million into his campaign last week. Elon Musk has committed millions of dollars to the campaign as well." His forecast for the run-in: "And so you're going to start seeing wall-to-wall ads from Ken Paxton from now through the end of the election day"
The host's own framing added the vehicle and pressed on whether it would be enough: "Well, of course, MAGA Inc. has committed $10 million to Ken Paxton." She asked whether the checks would have to be bigger, given Talarico's fundraising: "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"
Washburne answered by putting Talarico in a line of Democratic candidates who raised heavily and lost: "I don't know how much more the Democrats want to put in, because much like Beto or Wendy Davis or others, I mean, they've always gone down a rabbit hole every time"
Asked directly whether that spending is money wasted, he said it is, and gave the record as his reason. The host: "Do you think it's money wasted?" Washburne: "I do. I mean, the Republicans, we haven't lost a race in this state since 1994, and so a statewide race"
He expects the negative half of the campaign to start now: "But Ken Paxton, the MAGA, is going to come in with more money in addition to that $10 million, and we're going to now start seeing Talarico being framed up for the type of candidate that he is"
3. Redistricting Was Right
The host noted Washburne had been a co-chair of the party's Victory fund in 2016 before asking whether Texas Republicans were right to redraw the state's congressional map, with the redistricted Rio Grande Valley candidates speaking at the convention.
He backed the redraw without qualification, and grounded it in the 2024 result in the Valley. "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"
Julie Fine pushed back on the national consequence — that Texas redistricted and other states then redrew their own maps in response — and asked whether it would still work out for Republicans
Washburne declined the national question and stayed inside the state line: "Well, I'm focused on Texas"
He redirected to the governor's race and turnout instead, arguing the incumbent carries the same voters down the ballot: "Abbott is very, very popular down in the Valley. So I think that's going to help up and down the ballot for us"
4. A Showman, Not a Poll
The host raised the president's approval rating, which she said is at a record low across his two terms depending on the poll, and asked whether centering the Dallas event on a man who is unpopular and not on the ballot carries a risk.
Washburne's answer was that the mandate is recent and the personality still sells. "Well, 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"
He described the production values as the proof: "We're going to be out with balloons dropping and all kinds of ceremony going on"
The purpose, in his account, is retrospective and forward-looking at once: "So I think this is going to showcase the successes that the Trump administration has had and also pushing it forward for the next two years with the administration, with a House and a Senate that are aligned with Republican values to go forward"
5. The 4.1% Message
Asked what he wants voters to take from an event the party has never staged before, Washburne answered with two economic numbers.
His message is the labor market and the inflation rate, and he wants the president to sell them personally. "You remember, unemployment rate's at 4.1%. It's stayed at an all-time low. You're seeing all kinds of success with the inflation rate being kept down. So he just needs to get out and celebrate that"
He put that inside a wider list: "Yeah, well, one is to showcase the success that we've had, all the different activities that he's done"
6. Pump Prices Drift Down
The host challenged the inflation claim directly, and used Washburne's own industry against it. She noted the direction of travel — "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" — pointed to what he sees "from your view at Sunoco" at retail gasoline stations, and put Brent crude "back above $100 a barrel" to him.
His counter was that demand never fell, which he treats as evidence the price is bearable. "Prices have gone down. Demand in the last year has been basically flat. So even though prices have gone up, people are still driving"
He then reframed the affordability question in inflation-adjusted terms. "In the 1970s, it took about 5% of your paycheck for energy costs. Today, it's about 2%." He allowed the pain is visible: "So even though it is hurtful, you see it every day because everyone uses gas to drive around, demand hasn't gone down"
Asked whether a consumer has reason to expect relief in the near term, he gave a seasonal answer: "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"
7. Data Centers Won't Swing It
The host raised data centers as an issue voters are talking about, noting the split between the president and Governor Greg Abbott: "You 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," putting restrictions on what a builder must do.
Washburne cast the opposition as local objection rather than broad sentiment, and the support as economic. "Well, look, a lot of people see the economic advantage of having a data center in their backyard. All the noise you're hearing is from people that are nimbyism, don't want it in their backyard." He said the same communities want them: "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"
His electoral argument is geographic: the people who live near data centers are not where most votes are. "But the ones in the urban areas, they're looking at other issues. A 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"
He conceded some rural voters "might vote a different way" over it
The host pressed the obvious problem with that — a lot of Republican voters in Texas are rural. Washburne granted the point and then dismissed its scale: "Yeah, they are. They are, but they're not in mass numbers." He added: "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"
8. Refineries at 98% Capacity
The host returned to fuel prices to test the seasonal answer against the geopolitics, and asked whether there is a structural refining problem that outlasts the season: "But if you're still having crude prices go higher in the Middle East, you have Russian oil refineries offline due to Ukrainian attacks."
Washburne accepted the refining constraint and put a utilization number on it. "Yeah, well, look, we're running, our refineries in the United States are running about 98% capacity. It's been a long time since we built a new one"
The host supplied the date and the follow-up: "Yeah, it's been a long, I think 1977 was the last time a new refinery was built. Can we build more with the Trump administration?"
His answer tied new refining capacity to the midterm result and to deregulation. "If we hold in the House and Senate, get away with regulation, we can build more refineries in the U.S. We're so handcuffed with regulations to get new ones built"
Asked whether that helps in the next 60 days, he did not pretend it would. The host: "But is that a short-term fix in the next 60 days?" Washburne: "No. It's a multi-year fix." He confirmed when the host named it: "Permitting reform, yes"
9. 2028 Starts Next Spring
With 2028 hopefuls on the convention's speaking list, the host asked for his early read on the next presidential race.
He put the starting gun in the spring, after the midterms have set the field. "Yeah, well, 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"
He named the Democrats he expects to run against rather than the Republicans he expects to run: "So, 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"
The host asked twice whether the president will anoint someone, and twice got the same non-answer. She put it as a question of a field rather than an anointment: "But you do expect it could be candidates, plural, and not the president saying J.D. Vance or Marco Rubio is my guy." Washburne: "Well, we'll see at the time." Asked again whether it could be one of those two, he repeated: "We'll see at the time"
Bonus Insights
Asked what would count as success if the two of them spoke again in two weeks, Washburne answered with candidate recruitment rather than polling or money: "We have a lot of candidates coming out, especially new young people running for office that hadn't run before or running for higher office that hopefully we can showcase and it's their chance to shine." His summary of the whole event: "So, I mean, as in anything, this is, this is prom night"
The host raised the scheduling collision — "Football season starts tonight with a Super Bowl rematch that is going to be counter-programming this convention" — and asked whether that dims the candidates' chance to shine. Washburne said streaming has made the clash irrelevant: "Today, that's not the way at all. You can record and things. So I don't think it's going to hurt"
Washburne's bottom line is that the Republican case in Texas does not need to win the argument on prices — it needs to survive the season, because in his telling demand has held up, the pump is about to get cheaper, and, by his count, Republicans have not lost a statewide race in Texas since 1994.
Products, Companies & Tools Mentioned
Sunoco (The fuel distributor whose board he chairs, and the basis for his read that gasoline demand has been flat for a year even as prices rose)
M Crowd Restaurant Group (The restaurant business he co-founded, named by the host as part of his introduction)
MAGA Inc. (The pro-Trump group the host said has committed $10 million to Ken Paxton's Senate campaign)
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