Texas is not going to "turn blue" in Tuesday's primary election or in November, even though Democrats have been energized as the traditionally Republican state kicks off the nation's midterm elections, according to Rep. Jeb Hensarling.
"Texas is ... not about to turn blue, much less turn purple," the Texas Republican lawmaker told CNN's "New Day" about his state's political future.
In addition, he said, the "real election" is in November, and he believes that because of the Tax Cuts and Jobs acts, the United States is seeing a growing economy.
"We're seeing the lowest unemployment in 17 years," he said. "Wages are up. We've seen the highest wage increase in almost a decade. Ultimately, I think that will be reflected in the election in November. So, the only thing I can say, though, personally I'm not running for re-election. I'm not paying quite as close attention to this as I once did. "
Early turnout numbers are showing that twice as many Democrats are coming out than did last midterm, said show co-host Chris Cuomo, but Hensarling said he's going to wait to see what happens in November.
"If some of your point is should we in Congress work on a bipartisan basis, I can only talk about my House Financial Services Committee that I have the privilege of chairing," said Hensarling.
"We passed multiple bipartisan bills and are trying to go to conference or trying to go and work out a bill with the Senate to provide some relief for our community banks, our credit unions, our small growth companies. We have votes that have taken place, so a lot of bipartisan work is taking place. I always try to listen to people and then do what is best."
Hensarling also discussed President Donald Trump's call for tariffs on imported steel and aluminum, saying that Trump has to be "very surgical" with his plans.
"I don't know any tariff trade war that ends well," said Hensarling. "I give him credit for the tax break and jobs rate. . . but my fear is the president is going to walk back a lot of the progress that he's made."
Hensarling also said he does not know if the effects of the tariffs are resonating in the White House.
"I call on the president to pay very careful attention," said Hensarling. "I think I have the numbers roughly correct we may have 100,000 [to] 150,000 people employed directly in the steel industry, but we have millions, millions who take that steel and they fabricate it into something else."
In his own Texas district, Hensarling said he's heard from two factories already who warn that the tariffs will drive their prices up and potentially make them lay off workers.
"We've got 300 million people who consume steel and aluminum," he said."Is this going to send up the price of a six-pack at a grocery store? Well, you know, it very well may, but we all consume this and I'm afraid this is going to hurt consumers. I think it's going to lead to a net loss of jobs."
Hensarling also discussed Republicans' call to rollback controls and restrictions on the banking industry, saying those rules eroded traditional underwriting standards in real estate.
The answer to the nation's banking industry's needs is more capital, not regulation.
"That's one of the reasons our House bill has been opposed by the big banks," said Hensarling. "Many of them were quite happy with the status quo. Here is the bottom line. Frankly, I wish we were looking at a wholesale repeal of Dodd-Frank, but we're not.
"We're looking at a very modest recalibration that's going to help community banks and credit unions and we're losing one a day."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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