This is policy on purpose. A podcast produced by the LBJ School of Public

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Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin. We take you behind the scenes of policy

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with the people who helped shape it. For more, visit LBJ. Don’t you, Texas?

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Good evening. And thank you all for taking

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the time to be with us for this wonderful awards event that we couldn’t be more excited about.

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I am so grateful to call tonight’s winners fellow alumni, and I appreciate all that

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they have done for public service with their career so far. I know there are even more

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achievements to come for these individuals, so we’ll be keeping up with them as they continue to do great work.

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I would like to introduce the dean of the LBJ School of Public Affairs, Angela Evans. She

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joined the school as a clinical professor of the practice of public policy after 40 years in public service

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to the U.S. Congress and became dean in 2016. Since

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then, she has been pushing the school to achieve higher national rankings, bringing on

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diverse new faculty that expand the scope of policy topics. The school is known for.

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And she has been working to make attending LBJ more accessible for students

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who come from fewer advantages compared to typical grad students. The alumni

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board is looking forward to working with her on the upcoming fiftieth anniversary events, as

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well as other exciting endeavors. It is my pleasure to introduce Dean Evans.

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Hi, everybody. Isn’t this great? Yeah,

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this is what we all it’s just gives us so much energy. I am so, so pleased to be here. And Lauren, thank

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you very much. I appreciate the introduction. And I congratulate Lauren. She

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assumed this position today. So we had a switch over to.

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And I also want to thank our elum, our fabulous family caelum, all of you who are in this room.

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Thank you so much for the support of the school, the energy you bring to to

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all of us throughout these years. And as we’re going into the fiftieth year of the school. I’ve gotten to

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know more and more of you and every. It’s just amazing the spread and the depth of our

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alarm. So give each other a great.

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And I wonder and I want to recognize some of these extraordinary special to me and special

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to the school Dean Max Sherman, there’s me.

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For those of you who can’t see me sitting at this table. He’s he’s I’m telling

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you, he’s a remarkable human being. He’s been. He was Dean at the LBJ school from

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1983 to 1997, the longest serving dean. He’s made

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careers. He’s been super, super supportive of me. He’s been a friend, a colleague, a mentor.

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And he’s worked tirelessly throughout the years to continue to make this school what it is

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and to bring the word of how great the school is to the outside world. He’s an amazing man

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and he has been one of the biggest supporters of Miss Abrams, Stacey Abrams. He’s one of the reasons

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why we have Stacey as an alarm. It’s Max. Max.

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I also want to if there’s other alarm who’ve been awarded outstanding alarm, if you’re

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here, can you just raise your hand? There’s more.

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There we go.

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Here we are. I have to tell you, it’s an honor. Today we were talking about it and

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somebody asked me, you know, what do you think about the LBJ school in terms of your career? I have to say, this is the best

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thing that’s ever happened to me, except for my husband, Gary, and my kids.

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You know, it’s it’s really an honor to serve in this institution. It’s a place

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where we believe in the power of courage. We believe in the art

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of dialog. We believe in the force of an informed citizenry

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and an engaged citizenry. And by God, we believe in the potential of democracy in this

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school. I sometimes

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I sometimes wonder, you know, I pass by the screens and here’s one Mr. Johnson behind and I often wonder

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if he were here, what would he be thinking? And I think and what would he would be feeling? But on this

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occasion, I think I know what he would be feeling and thinking. We have two

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unbelievably wonderful individuals, Stacey Abrams and Rudy Mateja.

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Did I say they’re correct? Correct. OK. I, I, I have I have been mispronouncing

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his name for a long time. And I called President Johnson. This is like I found this

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quote in it’s like really amazing quote. I hope that the future

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public servants who begin their careers in the school will tomorrow

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be serving effectively, not only in the bureaus, in departments of the federal government

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and the Congress, but also in city halls, in courthouses and state capitals,

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not only in Texas, but in every region of the country. Continue to quote, above

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all, I hope that as they master new skills and disciplines to improve the machinery

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of government, they will still build their careers of service around a dedication

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to one of the most cherished principles of our democracy. The greatest

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good for the greatest number. What could be better?

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Of our two honorees, and they have purpose or purpose driven. They have moved

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from politics to purpose. They aspire to what unites

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us, not what divides us. They seek common ground by connecting to the human soul

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or the essence of us as a people. They have lived the ministry

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of Public Service. They have leverage, their extraordinary talent

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and purpose and an influence. They reflect the better angels of us.

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They reflect you are amazing LBJ community. And they reflect was best

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in this United States of America. The LBJ School bestows two honors, this

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deepening the twenty nineteen distinguished public service award to former Democratic nominee

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for governor of the state of Georgia, Stacey Abrams.

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And the Rising Leader Award to Pflugerville. And much more. City council

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member and community advocate Rudy Métayer.

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So let’s keep going. We will be hearing first from council member Rudy,

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our little buddy here. And I’m so I’m so pleased to introduce him to you today. I met him

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in my office. He came to talk to me about a problem. And from that point forward, he was brave to

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come to me about a concern he had. We listened. He listened to me. And he’s just been really close to

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school ever since. He’s a son of Haitian immigrants. He’s the first generation

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in his family to complete higher education, earning IBSA at the University of Texas College

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of Liberal Arts and executive masters and public leadership at the LBJ School and a law degree from

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Texas law. As a community advocate who has spoken and worked on issues ranging from

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teaching At-Risk Children coauthoring an honor code for the University

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of Texas helping forge a community policing partnership with local law enforcement

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in the state bar of Texas, creating pro bono legal advice

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clinics for U.S. military veterans. He was also recently named an outstanding long young

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lawyer of the year by the Austin Bar Association and a fellow to the Texas

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Bar Foundation. He’s been recognized numerous times, is one of the most influential

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young professionals, not only in the Austin area, but also in Texas. I’m telling this pretty

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remarkable task because Texas and Austin’s got a lot of talent.

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Rudy believes a true collaboration among stakeholders is key to keeping Pflugerville

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the fiscally responsible, economically strong, inclusive and high quality of life place

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as it is today. He’s married to an amazing wife. Well, Tisha.

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And is the deal to three beautiful daughters, Celeste Reelin and Brooklyn,

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a couple down here and. And

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Rudy is a remarkable young man with a beautiful soul,

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a giving heart and an infectious smile. I’m proud of the legacy he has already

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built in the forward to the decades ahead. When, Rudy, you’re going to be making a lot of people very,

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very happy and very comfortable in this country. So thank you very much. Please join me in welcoming

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Rudy.

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Are you kidding me? So do we have to take a. We have to do the ceremony.

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You all.

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Thank you, take. Always.

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That is your Travis County judge right there. Thank

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you, Judge. Wow.

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Someone’s ringing.

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I can start by saying this. It feels really good to be home.

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What’s amazing about tonight is that I can literally look out in the crowd and see people

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who have touched my life. Not only was born

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in Brooklyn, New York, by Janene MTA,

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but people who have looked out for me. Literally, since I stepped

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foot on the 40 acres like Marla Bird over here, Brenda Bird

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Hocking, you know, can’t believe that. You know, you have. You have friends for life and you have someone who’s

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known you since six years old, Brian Sachar, who comes into town just for a specific van to go and say, I

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love you for that brother. And it really does

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humble you and makes you think back about where you’ve been and what you’ve done and what you want

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to do in here. The biggest thing I’d say this is that the University of Texas

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is so unique because it really does give you a cross-section

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of folks in the state to come together, learn from each other, collaborate

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and truly get to be the best person that you can be. It gives you

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that opportunity. Now, make no mistake, you know, as a recent Atlantic

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article that came out earlier today talked about, there is a dark

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history here regarding bigotry and racism and, you know,

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the allowance, this allowance African-American students on here and

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the bravery that folks like the precursors came on campus

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to make sure that I would be able to have a place here, I would be able to make a discernible difference and I’d be able

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to matriculate and be the best that I can be. Couple that with the Hopwood decision,

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and you’re thinking about the top 10 percent and you think about ways and avenues that continuously the University

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of Texas has struggled to make sure that this university is

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not just a university of certain segments of society, but all of society in general.

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That legacy, that heart, that understanding, that commitment.

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It gets you excited. It makes you proud. And it makes

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you want to make sure that you have the same thing happen for the generations to come.

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I feel blessed. I feel completely blessed. You know, I feel that,

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you know, you have a plan in life, you have an idea of what you want to do,

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and then God really gets you prepared for what’s going to happen to you and work from that. You know?

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You know, going back to I better get back on what the remarks were excuse me, sort of go and offer offered and some of these

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things. I do want to go ahead and say thanks because

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my parents this is the first time you’ve ever been at an event where I ever received an award. And it

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makes a big difference for you to fly in and be.

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I can’t tell you how big of a difference it had in my life, having a strong

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Republican mother and a strong Democratic father.

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I could imagine the kitchen debates and everything else that goes on from that as well.

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But it allowed for me to have a perspective that,

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you know, sadly, I don’t think we do enough in this country right before I came over here. I got to speak to

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a group of about 60 young people, young professionals, who are going to a program called Leadership

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Austin, where, in fact, they’re going to dove into a lot of the main issues that are happening in the region and trying to find their

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own path and try to see what they can see with that. And one of the things I made

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a point to them to know and realize is that take the opportunity to get to know

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one another, take the opportunity to go ahead and understand those different viewpoints and ideas

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and goals. Because in life, we don’t do that enough anymore. We don’t

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take the opportunity to go ahead and truly understand what another person’s trying to say.

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We don’t truly try to understand that perspective. When someone is telling you their viewpoint,

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that’s their truth. That’s the life that they lived. And so if you have something

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that buttresses against that, of course, they’re going to be shocked and say, wait a minute, this is

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the life I live. You can’t tell me I’m wrong here. I live this life. And

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so if you’re telling me the alternative that blows everything that I’ve had to learn from that.

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And we really, truly need to try to understand and reach out to those viewpoints

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and understand those goals. Incorporate doesn’t mean that you have to agree, doesn’t mean know about that. But

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you have to understand and not just sympathize, but empathize. And that’s what makes, you know,

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places like the LBJ school so vital in our society, so important to

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have that opportunity to have those kind of discussions. Because guess what? When you

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matriculate mean when you leave here, those discussions, those ideas, they’re not going anywhere. They’re still

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the same debates and goals and concepts that we’re gonna have out there in society. And it’s important for you to

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be able to be engaged and equipped to go ahead and deal with those things, to not just be

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quick to cast aspersions, but to make sure that you’re talking to folks and understanding manner in

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a manner that can go hand relate with one another. And, you know, when you do things

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like that, good things happen to you. Here’s a perfect example.

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A couple of years ago, the wonderful Lucy Baines Johnson

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decided that she would have a couple of up and rising leaders in the ice area

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over her house, just conversations. She wanted to see what was going on, see what her viewpoints are. You know,

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the everything up is system with that. She had planned that about a month ahead, her cell, we really excited

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as we get to go over there. Lucy Baines Johnson. I just see what happens from there.

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And then Charlottesville’s happens.

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And we went to her house the Tuesday following the.

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And I can’t say enough about her car orthotic,

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that was how embracing it was, how emotional it was to be able to sit

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there and just talk about what we had seen, what was going on

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in our country. And they think, wait a minute. Have things

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always been this way? Are they just out in the open right now? Do people

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agree with these thoughts and ideas? What are we going to do about that? And at that

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moment and that concept, that idea was pivotal to so many of us

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to build, to just have that bond, to have you speak to us and truly understand that and made a difference

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to us. He actually launched several political careers after that,

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including myself. I’ve run for office myself.

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Everything that we do in life, we have people out there who are supporters, cheerleaders, people

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are truly embracing to see you succeed. I’ve been lucky because

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it hasn’t just been my wonderful parents. It’s been people like

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Commissioner Trevillian working out for me like a big brother. Pastor Parker, Joseph

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Parker. You know, you I still remember the first time Bill Powers told

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me. Do you know Pastor Parker? I said, what does Pastor have to do anything with law? I was like, wait. I mean, I’m very

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confused about here to gantlet and how you just changed my life. Your policies and goals with

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that aspect. Jeremy, I wouldn’t

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be here right now if not for you. Barry Bailes and Craig Paterson.

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You told me. Yes, you have a law degree, Rudy, but you know what?

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You’re destined for bigger things. You’re gonna be in the policy realm. You need to go

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ahead and understand these concepts. Ideas be embraced in goals and that they’re. And this is the place to do that.

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And you’re right. At least once,

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my wife, Leticia, my rock.

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You allow for me to be the best version of me that I can be. And there’s nothing

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in this world I could have done without your support.

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Sweetie.

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Mama, Burt, you watched out for us on campus here

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when the L you know, when you have the statues, get an aid.

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We had people defacing MLK. We had the blackface parties, the

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fliers on campus saying don’t date black men. They’ll give you AIDS. You were there for

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us. He created a space over there. DDC. And you made

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a difference for us. I can’t thank you enough for your support

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and your guidance. And we really are truly your children, and I hope we make you proud, your legacy

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here at the University of Texas.

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Well, nothing I said was written. But

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I do want to wrap up in closing to say this. It feels really

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strange to sit up here and talk about things that you’re accomplished when you’re really trying to

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think about how you truly can make a difference in this world and what more you can do.

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And I’d say that to each and every one of you

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look to what aspects and goals you truly want. Look at what values that

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you encourage. Talk to people that are different from yourselves. Try to truly understand

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what the significance that comes from that. They just came out. A new documentary from the great

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Ken Burns on country music. And one of the best quotes that came from

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him from that is that, yes, each of us belong to an ethnic group.

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But we also belong to one specific group, the human race. And we need to

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get back to that. Now, back to those goals and concepts and what the vibrancy and the people that

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I see here at this school. I know they’re going to make that happen.

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And that’s the legacy this man has left for us to go and encompass over here with that.

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Thank you. God bless. Always welcome.

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Thank you, Rudy. Soon, we’ll hear from Stacey Abrams. But first,

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let me share with you some of her accomplishments. I mean, I think you all have been following this amazing

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young woman during an interview. She was the after she saw her nomination

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at the time as the Democratic candidate for governor of the state of Georgia. Is history making

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how she responded to their question really defined Stacy and the force

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she brings to the American political arena. She said, quote, It is not

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just history for me. It is changing the face of what leadership looks like

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in America. And I’m excited to be part of the vanguard and quote,

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indeed, not only is she part of the vanguard, she’s one of its leaders.

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But Stevens was the first black woman in the United States history, become a gubernatorial nominee

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for a major party, and she won more votes.

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I mean, think about that. That’s profound. She won more votes

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than any other Democrat in Georgia’s history.

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She served eleven years in the Georgia House of Representatives, including seven

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is minority leader. Again, a vote of confidence.

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And in twenty nineteen, she became the first black woman to deliver

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the Democratic response to the State of the Union address.

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Following her gubernatorial campaign, Miss Abrams has been focusing her efforts on preventing

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voter voter suppression by founding Fair Fight.

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An organization dedicated to election reform. Today, we were talking about being in the arena.

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The Teddy Roosevelt 1910 speech that he wrote, it’s like 18 pages of speech. He has one paragraph

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in there that talks about being in the arena and he says, you get in that arena, it matters.

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You get bloodied, you get you fall down and you get back up. And everybody who doesn’t

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go into the arena has no right to say anything. She epitomizes that.

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Stacy has founded multiple organizations devoted to protecting voter rights, training and hiring

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young people of color and tackling social issues at both the state and national levels.

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She has including She’s Got Fair Count, a nonprofit whose aim is to ensure that the 2020

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census is fair and accurate people to understand how important that is.

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Her tireless in her fearless work to secure and defend voting rights

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has energized our nation and our politics. You need a person who epitomizes

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what we need to be doing. And she’s it. Please join me in welcoming

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Stacey Abrams.

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I’m gonna give this to you because it is going to fall at some. Likely on

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my foot and they’ll say something inappropriate in this whole thing will be done

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to Dean. Angela Evans, who I may hire to be my PR person

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to Dean. Max Sherman, who let me in and let me out.

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Lucy Baines Johnson, who flew down to Georgia to remind all of us of the legacy

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of her father, but most importantly, of the possibility of our nation. Thank you.

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And to my co wardi, Mayor Rudy, I’m sorry I’m promoting you.

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Council member already met here. So

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my little placard over there says on the class of ninety eight.

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And there’s a story behind it because I actually got here in ninety five. I came

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to the LBJ school having attended Spelman College where I went. Thank

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you, Spelman. For those who don’t know, is a black women’s college in

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Georgia, in Atlanta. It’s an amazing school. And there I was pretty cool. I

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got stuff done. I was present student body. I was a big fish in a small pond.

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And I decided to swim a little upstream and applied for a fellowship that

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no one in the history of my school had ever won, that no black woman in the history of my state

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had ever won. But everyone told me, if you apply for it, if you work at it, if you can get through Mississippi,

27:42

which is my home state, you can win. And after a lot of soul searching

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and prayer, I believe them. I applied and I won in Mississippi. I became

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the Mississippi nominee for the Rhodes Scholarship and.

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Did not have a happy ending because, you see, I believe that

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when they told me all you had to do was overcome this major hurdle, if you overcame this hurdle,

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the rest would be easy. Only I’d forgotten that racism and sexism don’t

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have a timeline and they don’t have a geography. And for various reasons, I did

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not become a Rhodes Scholar. My approach to life, having been raised by

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Robert and Carolyn Abram’s, was when you faced adversity and you were not successful.

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Your first responsibility is to look inside. What could you have done differently? Could you have been better?

28:38

Did you make a mistake? And my answer to all those things, I could have been better. I didn’t make

28:43

a mistake. I should just kept myself where I was. And so when I was applying

28:48

to graduate schools during the process of the Rhodes Scholarship, I applied to seven

28:54

law schools and six grad schools. I also like to lay my odds out pretty far.

28:59

I only pick top schools, but I looked at geography. I looked at ranking. I looked at whether

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because I’m from the South and I looked at Ivy League schools

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because having gone to Spelman, the Ivy League was what I was told to try for. And I was admitted

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to Harvard University, to the law school and to the graduate program, to the University of Chicago,

29:21

to the University of Texas, to a number of schools. But after losing

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the roads, I decided that I was probably not equipped for these larger

29:32

opportunities. And despite my admission letters, despite their financial aid,

29:37

I wanted to figure out what was the safest place I could go to, where I could challenge myself but not challenge

29:42

myself too much. Where could I work towards a degree I wanted, but not worry

29:48

about failing in public. And I wanted to be warm because I hate

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the North. And so I chose the University of Texas. I chose

29:58

the LBJ School and the University of Texas Law School. You see, I had made the misconception

30:03

that because it wasn’t Harvard that it would be easier. My God, was I wrong?

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I decided that it was going to be a safe space for me to just coast, that

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I wasn’t going to have to challenge myself as much. And that if I failed, if I stumbled, they wouldn’t notice

30:21

here. And so I came to the LBJ school and I

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met Dean Sherman. I met Bob Wilson, who made me his research assistant.

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I met Ellsworth’s Brastow. Yeah, exactly.

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Who once told me with great, great patrician air that she had that

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I was capable of greatness. If only I would bother to show up.

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Yes, I listened to Jamie Galbraith explain

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economics in a way that actually made sense and completely confused me.

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But at the same time, I was wondering about the decision I’d made being at the LBJ

31:05

school exposed me to ideas and opportunities I’d never imagined. It challenged me

31:10

to think differently about policy and about the work I wanted to do. It charged me up

31:16

because of its legacy and its namesake. That my responsibility was larger than any ignominy

31:21

I may face and that the work that was begun by the Great Society remained

31:26

to be done. Because during the first of my days here, Barbara Jordan was down

31:32

the hall, shouldn’t let first year in her classroom, but she was down the hall.

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But at the same time, I had a dear friend who was the secretary of a fellowship

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that I’d won in college, the Truman Scholarship, and his name was

31:48

Lewis Blair. He was dear friends with Max Sherman. Mr. Blair called me on this

31:53

and he said, Stacie, why are you at the University of Texas? And he said, if you’re there, because that is

31:58

where you want to be good. But if you’re there because you’re afraid, I’m ashamed

32:04

of you. And I’m disappointed. Now, by that point, I could admit that I was at the LBJ

32:09

school because it was the place for me, because it challenged my ideas, but it gave me space

32:14

to try things that sometimes you need a little safety in your challenge. Sometimes you need

32:19

a little bit of a haven to press and test yourself. But at the

32:25

same time, the Hopwood decision came down and I went from being one of 100 black

32:30

students at the University of Texas Law School to being one of eight. And if I figured if I was gonna be one of eight

32:35

black people, I might as well do that at Yale. And so.

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I I applied to the Yale Law School.

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I didn’t think they would let me in. So I wrote this weird essay and I filled out my paperwork

32:51

and sent it off. And I mentioned in passing to the administration that I’d made this application

32:56

because there had never been a student who went to the University of Texas LBJ School and

33:01

went somewhere else for law school out to out-of-state. Everyone knew I was doing it.

33:06

And as Lee Bosk reminded me the day I got in, I may have Kirst and I was

33:11

very excited. I used an expletive and suggested it was odd that they let me

33:16

in. But I was going to go. And then the hammer came down.

33:21

I was told that I was not permitted to complete my degree if I left Texas.

33:26

That because of the rules of the state, because of the number of hours I would have to

33:33

receive while at the LBJ school, that I would have to either for forfeit this

33:38

degree here or forfeit the opportunity to go to Yale. Now, I come from a

33:43

family that my mother likes to call the genteel poor. We had no money, but we watched PBS and

33:48

we read books and the opportunity

33:53

to be the first in my family to go to law school, to be the first in my family, to go to Yale

33:59

Law School was not lost on me. The fact that the Hopwood decision

34:04

had in the state of Texas diminished the possibilities for so many

34:09

made me angry about that law school and maybe burn to show them.

34:14

And so I decided to go to Yale. But by the time I was doing that, I had a problem.

34:19

I was in love with the LBJ school. I was in love with professors

34:25

who saw their students not as charges, but as opportunities for greatness.

34:30

I was in love with a place that believed that the work of the Great Society could be made whole and made manifest

34:35

in their lifetime. I was surrounded by people who didn’t like each other all the time

34:40

and were not ashamed of saying so, but who did so with respect and with credibility

34:47

and with numbers and with a deep admiration for the possibility.

34:52

And I did not want to lose the opportunity to say that I was a graduate of the LBJ

34:58

School. But part of growing up is you have to make tough choices. And I chose to go to

35:03

Yale. I said goodbye to Dean Sherman, who had appointed me to committees, who explained to

35:08

Dean Ross Douthat, I wasn’t as shiftless as I seemed,

35:14

who believed in my possibility, encouraged me to take that opportunity.

35:19

And so I left the environs of Austin and went to that Cold Hill that is New Haven.

35:24

And I began my time there. And a few months into

35:31

my second year, a letter appeared

35:36

and it was it was a FedEx. And I opened this letter and it was

35:42

from Max Sherman. And in it, he told me that he was going to be retiring

35:47

from the LBJ school in 1997. And he said, if you can get

35:53

your stuff done, if you can write a thesis and if you could arrange to take these two courses,

35:58

I will make certain that you receive a degree from the LBJ school.

36:04

And so with the help of Bob Wilson and Pat Wong, I wrote a thesis

36:17

on the operational dissonance of the unrelated business income tax exemption, and I’m certain only Pat

36:22

Long read. I took a stat’s

36:28

course at Yale. It was really hard. I took the courses

36:33

I needed to take and I submitted my information and I became a graduate of the LBJ

36:38

School in 1998.

36:43

And what I owe to Dean Sherman, what I owe to the seat of the school is more than my

36:54

gratitude for this degree. What I owe is a sense of purpose

36:59

that allowed me to stand for office. And once again, not succeed.

37:04

You see, I tested myself with the roads and not quite made it. I tested myself

37:10

here at the LBJ school. I tested myself again and again. And what I learned

37:15

again and again is that what we are called to do is not to be the victors.

37:21

We are called to be the valiant. We are called to be the ones who will try again and

37:27

again knowing that success is not guaranteed, but knowing that the requirement is that we fight any

37:32

way that, yes, I am not the governor of Texas or of Georgia.

37:37

I’m only going to try for one, maybe again. But I know that

37:49

the legacy created by Lyndon Baines Johnson. A complicated legacy

37:54

that believed in grace and evolution and redemption, that believed in the perfection

38:00

of humanity, if not the perfection of the human, that believed in

38:06

the possibility of now and the promise of tomorrow that lives

38:11

here in the space that when I did not become governor,

38:16

my job was not to wallow or to weep. My job was not to do the dance

38:21

of concession that says that everything was okay. My job was to do what LBJ said

38:26

we do and that is call out wrong and demand right and fight for justice.

38:31

And I stand here before you looking at a quote that says, if the society today

38:48

allows wrongs to go unchallenged, the impression is created that those wrongs have the approval

38:53

of the majority and voter suppression does not have the approval of the majority because the majority has been

38:59

silent.

39:04

And whether it is the words of Barbara Jordan or the namesake of Lyndon

39:13

Baines Johnson, we are all inheritors of an extraordinary and remarkable covenant,

39:18

and that is that each day when we ply our trade, whether we are in the bureaucracy

39:24

or in the political space, whether we’ve escaped altogether and gone to academia,

39:30

that our responsibility remains core and unchallenged.

39:36

And that is that we do right, that we fight for justice

39:42

and that we serve humanity. I paraphrase Lyndon Johnson because he shouldn’t just said, man,

39:48

but I quote his ethic and his ethos when I say that this is a college

39:57

and I mean small C college, a place of learning, a place of erudition,

40:02

but also a place of grace that will lead us all forward. And I thank you for having me on.

40:08

That was incredible. Thank you all so much for being with us tonight. I hope you

40:43

are as inspired by Miss Abrams and Mr. Mateja as I am.

40:48

That was just so wonderful. Be sure to stay in touch through alumni fire and

40:54

the LBJ events page at LBJ, your Texas to do flash

40:59

events. And we hope to see everyone at the tailgate here in the breezeway tomorrow

41:04

at two 30. You can find the details and purchase tickets ahead of time on the

41:09

LBJ Great Tailgate Society Facebook page. And for those who aren’t going to the game,

41:14

will have an official alumni watch party at Haymaker immediately following the tailgate.

41:19

So just want to thank you again and get home safely. This was a wonderful evening and we’re so

41:25

grateful to share it with everybody.

41:30

This is policy on purpose. A podcast produced by the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University

41:41

of Texas at Austin. We take you behind the scenes of policy with the people who help shape

41:46

it. To learn more, visit LBJ, you, Texas daddy to you and follow

41:52

us on Twitter or Facebook at the LBJ School. Thank you for

41:57

listening.

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