Let's Talk Local Podcast | More Than the Alamo: Inside Dawn Buckingham’s Texas

00:13

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

Commissioner, thank you so much for being here today. I am really looking forward to our interview. There are significant, people in our viewer and listener base who are not just in real estate, but who I believe are quite bright. And I know one in particular who is also in in real estate, and in speaking with them before this, they said, you know, I I don't know what she does, and I donate donated to her campaign. I just told you the story before.

00:40

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

But if you would start, Commissioner Buckingham, with just some insights for our viewers and listeners to what your job as Texas land commissioner actually

00:51

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

entails. Absolutely, because that's our biggest challenge in general. No one knows what we do, and no one knows who I am, and they don't think they care. So we love getting the word out, and we're so excited to be on with you today. Yes, thank you.

01:05

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

But we are literally the last remaining entity or vestige of the Republic of Texas government. So we were founded in 1836, eight years, by the way, before we had a governor, before we were a state. And we were founded as the keepers of maps, the guardians of Texas history, and the steward to our unowned lands. And that is probably the single most important decision that our founding fathers made, was to retain our unowned land. So when the former territories they love it when I call them that at the trust land meetings.

01:33

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

But when the other territories joined the union, they ceded their unowned land to the federal government. It's why so many of the Western states are majority federal land. So that means all that oil and gas production goes straight to the federal government, and we all have opinions about how good they do with that money. So that is not us. So today, that's 13,000,000 acres.

01:53

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

It makes us the largest landowner in the state, but also the largest mineral owner in the state, responsible for the majority of oil and gas. And that is to fund public education. So K through 12 education, dollars 6,000,000,000 in four years of revenue that is staying in the state. The general land office is literally the economic engine that is driving the Texas economy. So between oil and gas, it also gives us the ability to stand up and defend the industry.

02:19

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

So we're the plaintiff with standing when the federal government gets out of control with endangered species issues. So we have nine lawsuits against the federal government on endangered species. Of course, now under Trump, it's a whole lot better, so it's a different day. But under Biden, Ken got a lot of credit we love Ken for suing the federal government. But I'm like, baby, I'm your plaintiff with standing.

02:39

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

If we didn't have standing, you wouldn't have a case. So we get to defend the industry. But then we're also bringing new revenue streams. And I know we're going talk about this in a little bit. We're busting China's monopoly in rare earth minerals.

02:49

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

We're setting the pace on so many things across the state, so that's really exciting. We also do everything coast, so we're starting the biggest beach renourishment project probably in the world in Galveston, putting sand back on our beaches that are eroding. We do habitat restoration. I know you're an outdoors woman like myself, and so the hunting and fishing are really important. And so it's a big component of that.

03:11

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

And then we also do big disaster recovery. So we're currently delivering about $14,000,000,000 in disaster recovery, putting thousands of homes, thousands of families back in their homes for people whose lives have been disrupted by hurricanes, fires, floods, tornadoes. We do this whole thing called the Alamo, which

03:30

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

I'm

03:30

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

sure And we'll run through as we also do veterans programs. So we have lent almost $2,000,000,000 in four years, putting over 7,000 veteran families in the home of their choice or on the property of their choice. And then we run 10 nursing homes across the state and five cemeteries. So I tease that we are literally the agency that rolls up our sleeve every day, makes your life better, and you had no idea that we existed.

03:53

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

Yeah, yeah, and that's a perfect way to describe all that you do. I was quite shocked, and I am grateful to meet you again because I'm constantly remiss that there's not enough bright, brilliant women in leadership roles, and I'm grateful that you as a mother, an MD, you're a doctor, took charge and ran for this elected seat and won. Can you just give us some ideas to why you ran? I mean, from medicine to Right. Yeah, now this.

04:31

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

It's the perfect example of how God opens up doors and shoves you right on through them when that was not your plan.

04:36

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

So you

04:36

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

want to make Him laugh, make a plan for your life, apparently. That's what I keep hearing. So I finished my medical education. I'm a third generation surgeon. I have very strong opinions about government controlled health care and how government and insurance companies mess up health care.

04:51

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

And that put me in an advocacy position to advocate on patient centered health care, which was just that simple idea of, you come to your doctor, they tell you you need this medicine, you actually get that medicine. That is not how our program works right now. The insurance companies want to tell you, no, you have to try this other medicine, all that craziness. So in the advocacy role, then that put me in leadership positions at every state, national, and international medical organization. And then I was testifying all the time in Austin, in Washington DC.

05:18

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

And then I got to know everybody. And then I became the eye doctor during session to all the legislators who came. And then Governor Perry appointed me the State Board of Educator Certification, and Lieutenant Governor Dewhurst put me on the Sunset Commission. I realized then how much stronger your voice is being the elected official with the vote. I call it in the ropes versus outside of the ropes.

05:40

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

And so then at that point, I ran for school board, which I say it with love. I ran for school board before it was cool, before we knew what a problem we really had. And I'm the product of public education, as are my children. But we have some real issues there and still do. And then my Senate seat came open, so I represented Bandera to Temple to Abilene in the Texas Senate.

06:00

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

And I loved that. And really, that next step had to do with the fact that I could help one patient at a time in my office, but I could help millions of Texans at the same time in elected office. And so I went on that path. I still practiced until I won this seat. Oh, I wasn't aware practiced through the Senate.

06:16

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

It got a little crazy, but we made that happen. And then you'll kind of pick up on my personality. I don't have a lot spin, and I have a very independent spirit, which is not always appreciated by the hierarchy. And so I get called into the principal's office a lot. And one of those principals called me one day and said, we need to get together.

06:36

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

And I thought, gosh, I haven't done anything this week. Like, what the heck? Or at least, anyway. And he said, look, here's the deal. George P, who's my predecessor, he's going to run for something else.

06:46

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

We think you should be land commissioner. And I looked at him, and I said, oh, thank you so much for thinking of me. I'm going to pray about that and talk to my husband, which was my way of saying, no, thank you. Yes, yes, yes. And then I went out and tried to recruit every other Republican in the legislature to run for this office, and nobody would run because this office was a mess.

07:04

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

There was a lot of conflict in the Alamo. There was a lot of conflict over the Hurricane Harvey recovery. I mean, it was literally like being dropped in hot grease, and nobody wanted to step in. It's my personal opinion that people should be in the legislature before they're a statewide. There is nothing natural about catching fire from all sides and finding that pathway forward.

07:26

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

And so you kind of have to do it a little bit to be able to stand on your own. And I think having the relationships in legislature and understanding the process is a big value add. It makes you more effective. So I gave a completely safe Senate seat that I really loved and had no intention of doing this. But I gave all that up because I really felt like, at the time, this office was the tip of the spear for our history, for our border, and for oil and gas.

07:52

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

And we needed somebody strong in here. And so we ran, and then we got dropped in that Greece, and we just charged hard into every controversy. I mean, right out of the gate, I get a letter from the Department of Public Safety, and they say, hey, there's islands in the Rio Grande. They haven't been declared Texas. This is a problem because they're cartel safe havens, so Mexican law enforcement, American law enforcement, nobody can step foot in them.

08:15

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

Literally, only place the cartels can sleep well at night. And so it took me forty eight hours. The ask had been in for ten years. I tease. Just get a woman to do it.

08:24

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

Like, busy woman, we kind of get it done and move on. And that whole being a surgeon and a mom thing, I'm used to see it, fix it, do it, Fantastic.

08:32

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

Next thing.

08:33

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

And so we got them declared, then we got complete operational control. Same thing when there was another piece of property, the Facilities Commission, who was this is, of course, under Biden was building the wall at the time. And they called me up and said, hey, we have a real problem with this ranch owner. She will not allow law enforcement on her property. And when the bad guys know they have a free pass, they do worse things.

08:54

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

It's where the original rape trees were found.

08:56

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

That's right.

08:57

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

And so she had mentioned that she would sell it for fair market value. So we made her an offer and bought her ranch. And within twenty four hours, I had personally gotten a bulldozer and bulldozed a bunch of the trees, saying we're never doing this again. One in stiletto, rhinestone, American flag heels, just to be funny. And then we had the wall up functionally in a couple of weeks.

09:18

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

And again, we took this most violent place on the border. And then some people questioned, what is the General Land Office doing? Why are you doing border security? I was like, one, because we need it, and we're going to do everything we can to secure our border. But two, was the General Land Office that built the first section of wall decades ago.

09:34

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

And I was not aware of that.

09:35

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

Yes. And so it was a big flood control levy that just happened to get a 30 foot fence on top of it. So, you know, where there's a will, there's a way. We will have a secure border.

09:43

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

I appreciate that backstory, and I want to hear a little bit more about the metaphorical oil or grease that you were dipped into. But before that, let's kind of scale it to a 50,000 foot view if we can, because I want people watching this to understand how does that benefit me. Right. Right? So for the people who let's speak to some of the people who have their kids in public education, and then perhaps some of the families who live in great public school areas but have opted to send their kids to private school.

10:21

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

Give me something to chew on in terms of how it immediately impacts your role immediately impacts my life.

10:30

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

Absolutely. So the Permanent School Fund, the oldest and largest sovereign wealth fund for public education, at roughly $60,000,000,000 right now is built off our state lands. So that $6,000,000,000 that we have given them in oil and gas revenue and real estate revenue we also do master planned communities and industrial developments is directly benefiting them and helping lower their property taxes, because that money goes into the available school fund, which is where the legislators appropriate money for public education. We've delivered community safety, helping with border security. We have fundamentally brought completely new revenue streams into the state with rare earth minerals.

11:11

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

We also led the world in carbon pore space leases. Now, I'm not a big carbon pore space fan, but our companies needed neutrality to be able to operate internationally. And so we did the largest lease. We generated $130,000,000 in one day for public education, and we think it'll be $10,000,000,000 over the next ten years. And it also gives our companies the ability to operate overseas.

11:32

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

So we look at transformational ways to be helpful. We're also working on water. In my opinion, when you look at the biggest issues facing the state, it's water and power. Water produced water is the water that comes up with oil and gas. In some, depending on where you're pumping, it can be 10 barrels of water for every barrel of oil.

11:51

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

And that produced water comes up kind of dirty, hydrocarbons and salt. So it's not really usable right now. It's a big problem. But we're getting that water to agricultural levels. We're already growing crops on state land to increase browse.

12:02

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

ITs, we're going to turn West Texas into a garden oasis. But we are, because what we're talking about is millions of barrels a day of clean, usable water that can be used for industrial use. It could be eventually put back in our rivers. We could do intra aquifer storage and retrieval, so many exciting things. And so not only are we driving the economy, not only are we helping to make communities safer, we're helping to fund education for our children, which, by the way, helps with property taxes, because the more the state can deliver, the less the homeowners have to deliver through their property taxes.

12:34

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

We are just really a value add. And then everything we're doing on the coast is protecting all of Texas from floods and keeping our waters clean to keep our fish great. So not only the recreational benefit of that, but the fact that we are not just feeding Texas, we're fueling Texas. And that we look at agriculture, which is one of my big concerns, because I come from a farming and ranching family. Farming, ranching, and medical family, it's kind of an interesting mix.

13:01

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

But when you look at this next generation of farmers and ranchers, and when you look at the current situation of our small family farms that are going away so rapidly, we have a problem.

13:10

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

We do.

13:11

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

And we do not want to be dependent on a foreign entity for anything not our food, not our energy, not our rare earth minerals, not our manufacturing, nothing. We want to stand on our own two feet. And so we're looking at unique ways to figure out, how do we help this next generation of farmers and ranchers be able to do that? And we have the surface leases to be able to do that. So we have we're 95% agriculturally leased on all of our surface.

13:38

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

And so how do we create this pipeline? How do we pair up whether it's veterans coming out of military service is one option or our young future farmers and ranchers. How do we get them the experience they need? And then how do we give them access to a lease that is reasonable for them? Happens to also create revenue for the schoolchildren of Texas, but gives them a place to be sure that we are food secure.

14:00

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

Beautiful. Thank you so much. There was so much there for me to digest. And I'm originally from Juarez and El Paso, so I can't wait to get into the nuances of these areas that we're discussing. I'm now gonna tell over to what you mentioned about China.

14:15

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

So anytime Americans hear foreign adversary, they think about China. And me, my prior industry, I'm a fixed income trader. I'm a bond trader. So I love the economics, the math behind the system of the office that you hold. But can you speak specifically to this?

14:36

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

Because China, buying farmland outright, like they once were allowed to do, that's changed. But isn't foreign influence broader than those whose name appears on a deed? There's many ways to hide assets, as we know. And now that I'm sitting across from you, I'm so grateful and eager to hear about how you have surgically opened this space and found the cancer that was within and are helping to extract and gut that. Can you speak to both the economics behind it and how you have radically transformed this space?

15:20

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

Yes. So first out of the gate and I'll back up a smidge, because I'm sure your watchers know this. But when I was in the Senate, we had that Chinese general that bought that large piece of property adjacent to the Air Force Base, built a wind farm on it, and built a landing strip that could land any military jet. And they wanted to tie into our grid, and we all figured that out, and we passed a bill at that time to deny him allowing to tie into our grid, because once you tie into the grid, you can control it to a certain level. And that would be a very big problem.

15:51

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

Then when I first took office, there was another very large strategic piece of property happened to be the largest land sale in The United States, 354,000 acres in West Texas. It had a border component to it, and the only disrupt that sale was to step in and buy it, which we did, which, by the way, in girl math, I got it at half off. It was a great deal for the state, and we're generating some amazing revenue, doing some super cool things there. But we had my only option was to step in and disrupt the sale. Also about that time, we had a, quote, Australian company that wanted to bid on one of our big oil and gas leases.

16:26

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

But we happened to notice that everybody had a Chinese surname, a Chinese accent, and they were all educated in China. So then we sleuthed it a little harder, and of course, that Australian company was just a Chinese shell company. So you have to be super vigilant. So our guys, we really stepped it up. There are lots of state laws against doing business with foreign entities.

16:51

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

For example, the permanent school fund can invest in certain things a Russian company, for example, or partner up with a Chinese company, for example. And so we're pretty vigilant about that. And one of the things that people don't know is that to do business in Texas, pretty much, you have to register with the Secretary of State. So that's our method right now. Jane Nelson, of course, is our current or just about to be.

17:19

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

I'm sure we are in the transition. But we're in contact with them on a pretty regular basis to understand, who is this business, really? Because we want to be as careful as possible, because they're sneaky as possible. But what concerns me the most is the influence in social media. Because this idea of social driving, this idea that the algorithms can tell people when you're suggestible and what message makes you change your mind, and we're seeing it drive public opinion.

17:48

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

We saw it first when Lois Kolkorst introduced her bill about banning foreign ownership of state land. We saw a big influx from the Chinese Communist Party posing as Americans and bots and all these things trying to drive our public opinion. I I think we're seeing it now with data centers. I have a lot of concerns about data centers.

18:08

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

I was going to ask you.

18:09

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

But I also want to say that the race for AI is national security race. That's right. And China does not want us to win it. And I think we're really seeing a lot of foreign influence in our public opinion. I think we all really need to be cognizant of that and be watching for it.

18:26

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

For people who might know that that threat exists, but still log on every day and read and view and digest information that is brainwashing on both sides of the political spectrum. How are we able to speak truth to that particular scenario? And beyond just speaking truth to it, what do you hope to eventually be able to do about it? Well, I believe you have

19:00

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

to begin with the end in sight. So when you're seeing an issue, you have to look ahead and say, in a perfect world, what would this situation be? And then work backwards, how do we get there? That's right. So our system is based on an engaged and educated electorate.

19:13

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

But I will tell you, if you're in politics, there is no truth out there almost none.

19:18

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

That's right.

19:19

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

And so it's sure not on the legacy media side of things. I mean, I felt like when I first ran for office a little over ten years ago, they sort of started in a truth, then they twisted it. Now I don't even think they're worried about truth. I think it's just pure propaganda.

19:33

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

That's right.

19:34

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

And so until we get truth in media, you can't figure out what's going on, even if you want to figure out what's going on, because you just can't get the accurate information, especially coming into an election.

19:47

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

That's right.

19:47

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

And I find that incredibly frustrating, and I think it undermines our whole system. And then I do think the foreign influence is to try and drive chaos. If you haven't read I think it's the one hundred Year Marathon. It's something close to that. It's basically the Chinese plot to overthrow The United States as the number one world power.

20:03

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

And everything you're seeing in that, which is over 50 years old, is 100% what they're doing. And the subtle lies that they tell, and the oh, woe is me, come save us, and hey, we're your friends, and all this kind of stuff. And we're seeing it actually with our rare earth minerals. China has actually sanctioned nine of our business partners. They are very unhappy that we have these rare earth minerals and that we're developing them.

20:25

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

And when I first took office, there was no processing except for in China. And one of our lessees said, Okay, well, we'll just send all the rock to China. I said, oh, no, no, not one single piece of Texas soil under my control is going to China. So we'll talk about mining it when you have domestic manufacturing the manufacturing of it. So that mine to magnet process, we hope to be producing those magnets in the next two years.

20:48

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

But without truth in the media, we have a real problem. Without justice in the justice system, we have a real problem. And in this age of information, the fact that you can't get accurate information is incredibly annoying. And I think it's why we're seeing that disengagement of so many people from politics. That's They just throw up their hands, and they're tired of everybody spitting, and they can't tell what's true, and they just turn away.

21:10

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

And I think that's a path to destruction if we're not really careful.

21:13

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

That's right. And I'll speak with you later about I'll circle back to what you could possibly do in your future or future life, plans politically possibly about how to combat this, but I'll save that for the end. Does China still control more than 90% of all global processing of rare earth minerals?

21:36

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

Yes, they will until we develop this mine.

21:38

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

Okay. And also, half of the known reserves, right?

21:43

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

They have everything.

21:44

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

At this point?

21:45

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

They have everything that's produced. Everything. Now, have a deposit, and then USA Rare Earth, who's one of our partners we have a couple partners That's right. In different areas because they're rare earth minerals all over that part of the state, which ironically I'm going to digress for one second there are some people who think we should sell all of our surface. That's what the territories did when they joined the union.

22:06

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

It didn't work out so well for them because that dollar an acre that they got in the day sounded like a lot of money then, but it's not now.

22:11

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

It's not.

22:12

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

So this property, the Rare Earth Minerals on, is the perfect example. The General Land Office a couple decades ago was trying to basically give it away, all the minerals, all the groundwater included, because there's no oil and gas there. And they didn't think that there were other minerals that they would need or be interested in. And they couldn't give it away. So after they literally tried and tried and tried to sell it for pennies I mean, crazy low in and the numbers they couldn't sell it.

22:35

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

And then here, it's going to be tens of billions of dollars, one hundred year supply of rare earth minerals, probably the most valuable deposit in the world right now. And this is the perfect example of why I'm just like, guys, we need to keep our surface, and then we need to figure out how to make our surface more valuable. There was an article a couple years ago about one of the hottest trading stocks on the New York Stock Exchange is a defunct 1,800 Texas railroad. But they kept the surface, and they did surface plays various leases, groundwater, wind, solar, whatever. And now it's one of the hottest trading stocks on the New York Stock Exchange.

23:09

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

And so I'm like, guys, we need to have surface. We need to think how to make our surface more valuable, and we need to be sure that we're in there, both feet, doing great things as a diversification for the portfolio and the permanent school fund.

23:22

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

Perfect. And can you speak specifically to like, what that chokehold actually looks like for with China having over 90% of this ownership and what that means for manufacturers, defense, technology Mhmm. Our everyday lives?

23:37

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

Well, your cell phones need rare earth minerals to work, and jets require tons of them to fly. So it is 100% our national security and our day to day functioning. And the problem is the processing of these minerals is not environmentally friendly. It creates a Superfund site wherever they're processed. So that was kind of the holdback, is how do we do it in an environmentally sensitive way, as good as possible?

24:00

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

China does not care about their environment, if you look or human rights, while we're talking about

24:04

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

it. And

24:06

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

so how do we get there on American soil? But I think we have that figured out. So they're going to be processed mostly in Colorado, and then the magnets are going to be made in Texas. So it's going to be a little transfer of here and there. But that's all right.

24:19

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

We can do that. But I think we have a really good path with the help of the Trump administration, and we'll be bringing this online as quickly as we can.

24:26

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

Yep, and it's expected to come online in 2028, right?

24:31

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

Mhmm.

24:31

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

Can you tell us what steps you took to secure this future revenue stream.

24:40

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

Sure. So I first take office, and they said, send your rock to China. And I was like, absolutely not. And then we had several people prospecting, seeing what the deposit was going to be. And I believe competition is good.

24:52

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

So we just made sure that everybody was in competition and racing. And then the people who proved up first were the people who got the biggest first lease. But we have some other groups prospecting in the adjacent areas, so we'll work with them, too. I mean, they already have prospecting leases with us. But competition is good.

25:09

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

You light a little fire. You tell them you're not going to go the easy way. You set your requirements. And somehow, magically, they step up and do it, just like when you're raising your children. It's kind of funny how consistent that is.

25:19

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

You set the rails, you set expectations, you set them high, and then you hold your ground.

25:24

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

Perfect. Because I do know that before you took office, at least based on what I've read and studied, there were no conversations

25:32

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

about this. Is correct? They had started some prospecting leases. Like I said, I'm a full steam ahead kind of girl. I really love the executive branch, because the legislature sets our rails, and then we just go.

25:47

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

When I was in the Senate, I would have to get the majority of the 181 legislators to agree with me on something before we could take a step. And so often, when you're taking that step, it wasn't what you wanted, but it was what you could get the agreement on to pass. And I was pretty good at it, and I loved doing that, but I like this even better, where I'm like, I've got my rails. I'm a pedal to the metal kind of girl. Let's just go.

26:07

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

And we're just pretty unapologetic and full steam ahead about what we think we need to do for Texas.

26:13

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

Yep, that's exciting. And so this commercial production, like I said, is expected in 2028, but royalties and bonus payments are constitutionally dedicated to the permanent school fund.

26:27

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

Yes.

26:28

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

How much more money exactly will We that

26:30

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

think it'll be tens of billions of dollars. We think it's a one hundred year deposit. And then the other thing that we're going to do, which is also going to benefit the schoolchildren of Texas because this is a county that doesn't have a grocery store. That's right. So it sure doesn't have a doctor's office or anything else that these hundreds to thousands of workers are going to need.

26:50

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

So one of the things we do, of course, are master plan communities. So we're in the process right now about how do we build a community there to be sure that that county grows like it wants to grow, and that we're sure that we're a value add to that area, not just because we're bringing revenue to the school children of Texas, but because we're supplying good homes, and bringing families in and responsible development and just enriching the area. So we're working with those local officials to get that accomplished as well.

27:18

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

Perfect. Round Top. So tell us about this place, if you can.

27:25

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

It's a mountain. Yep. And there are a lot of adjacent mountains. It is literally God's art. Yep.

27:31

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

These rare earth minerals, the way they come up through the rock, they're in these black patterns that look like God painted them. Wow. It's amazing. They're phenomenally beautiful. I'll see if I can get you some pictures of that.

27:41

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

Please, I actually have, maybe, a big block of her earth minerals on my fireplace my goodness. At heart, but because they're just so gorgeous. And I'm sorry, I totally lost track of your question, because I started thinking about God's art.

27:53

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

No, said, tell us about Round Top, because That's right. Yeah.

27:57

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

So this deposit, usually rare earth minerals are in really hard deposits. This one is pretty friable, and it's all above ground, so they're pretty easy to get. So we actually have a rhyolite mine right adjacent to it that has rare earth minerals all in it as well. And this is road based. Rhyolite's road based.

28:15

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

So all of a sudden, that mine is now going to be not road based, but now rare earth minerals as well. But it's really exciting. So we're going to do the preliminary steps when the rock is pulled, and then the reduced amount will get sent to Colorado for further processing. And then that ore will be sent for the magnet production back in Texas. Perfect.

28:37

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

But it's really exciting. And then, of course, there are rare earth minerals all over The United States. Our deposit is very unique, and we've got almost all of them, and we have the heavies. The heavies are kind of the most rare ones. So it's really pretty exciting.

28:50

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

So that was going to be my next question. So there are different spaces in our own country that can facilitate this type of revenue for their respective states. Just talk about why and how this is particularly special for our state, because this is different. This is very different than what they

29:10

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

have. This deposit is different. It is the largest, most complete set of rare earth minerals not under China's control. And it's incredibly important to recognize that. What I love and I think a lot of people ask me, Okay, you were a doctor, now you're a politician.

29:26

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

We kind of went there early in the interview. But explain that. How does that transfer? How does that correlate? And honestly, when you're a physician, you're going to sleep when you go be with Jesus.

29:37

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

Yes, Because I you're working all the time, but you're a dedicated lifelong learner. And so I believe in boots on the ground. So at this campaign right now, I call it a shoe leather and tire tread campaign, because I don't have $180,000,000 We're out there, so my best bet is to just meet a bunch of people. Sure. But being that lifelong learner, having a science background, being able to hear things from disparate places and then put them together.

30:01

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

So we're a little sneak peek, we're going to be launching some initiatives here pretty quick, because not only are we a driver of the economic engine and the power engine for Texas, but I think we need to get into power production. I think we can be a value add to getting dispatchable power on the grid. We have a ton of availability for geothermal. That's also something we can do with some of these orphaned wells. They can become, all of a sudden, geothermal power production.

30:27

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

That's right. Boy, what a deal is that. So we're just looking at we're also talking to a lab at A and M, which is amazing. So when you think about produced water and the hydrogen technologies, because we're literally standing on the precipice of an energy revolution, it's so exciting. And if you really want to nerd out on salt cooled nuclear, we can do that, too.

30:48

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

But when you think about so produced water comes up with hydrocarbons in it. You can pass that natural gas through a plasma ray. You can cut off the hydrogens that then you burn that drive the desalinization process, and you precipitate the carbon out in graphene. So graphene is a single atom or as thin as you can get to single atom layer thick of carbon molecules. And right now, it's worth $1,000 an ounce.

31:13

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

It makes concrete super strong, which our concrete strength is a real issue now that we're Just running out of coal ask anybody with a 10 or fifteen year old swimming pool. Yeah. But it also is great for transmission and great for energy storage, and there's no risk of catching on fire like a lithium battery. So we might see, coming out of this with produced water, here are the cures to the battery storage facilities that catch on fire. Here's a new transmission line that's not subject to EMPs.

31:45

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

So we learn, we travel the state, we're present in as many communities as we can. We talk to people, and then we put that together in how we can better serve the state of Texas. And it's really fun to be able to do that, put all those puzzle pieces together.

32:03

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

Exactly. And this puzzle piece of us finding this on Texas soil, I think it's a gift from God.

32:11

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

It is.

32:12

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

It has to be. Because I constantly speak about how Texas is going to be the tip of the spear with respect to the economic revolution in The United States, everything faith related, and I am willing to fight that fight as much as I possibly can. And I'm grateful that you are heading this, for the state at this point. It it makes me very, very happy. If we can kind of fly over to West Texas, kind of where where I'm from and the surrounding West Texas border region, for federal immigration enforcement programs, you directed your staff to invest time, resources, and aerial drone technology.

32:54

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

And correct me if I'm wrong. Wasn't it you who insisted on exploring these regions to ensure that we expose the cartel and for infiltration

33:05

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

Mhmm.

33:05

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

In our state. Can you talk to us about your steps and what caused you to actually

33:11

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

Well, I mean, obviously, I'm a huge border security fan, and we need complete operational control of that. I will say, under Biden, one of our main talking points, while the state was trying to stand in the gap when the federal government was advocating its constitutional duty to protect our borders, that it was the federal policies that really serve as the magnet. And I think that was shown to be absolutely true, because Trump came into office and the border was pretty much instantly better.

33:37

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

Like

33:37

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

that. So the number one thing to keep our borders secure are federal policies. That's right. And then and we could talk a lot about that. But in the meantime, now that it's harder on the cartels, they're getting more and more crafty.

33:51

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

And now that they're not making billions of dollars selling women and children more than they were making on drugs

33:57

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

That's right.

33:58

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

Which I saw the most obnoxious quote in a liberal legacy media piece about the last known chattel slavery was blah, blah, blah in Texas. And I was like, no, the last known chattel slavery was under Biden and continues now, because people are buying and selling women and children all day long, every day. And when we had that mass migration of compromised people who were then forced to live in the shadows, it just created this mass of vulnerable population to be completely abused, which we are completely against. The things they do to those women and children is beyond.

34:29

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

Yeah, they deserve to burn in hell, unfortunately.

34:31

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

100%. And so we want to do everything we can to stop that. So that's part of why think it's the mom in me. I think it's the surgery in me. It's that fundamental need for justice and liberty.

34:41

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

And it's that fundamental idea of what is government's role. And so occasionally, I have somebody ask me, Dawn, am I a Republican or a Democrat? I don't know how to decide. Because they might have one issue they agree with one side on Sure. One issue they agree with the other side, and they're confused.

34:57

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

I was like, this is easy. The Bible talks a lot about government. And in the Bible, government is a base from which to spring. It is not the promise that you're going to be taken care of from cradle to grave. And so the Republican, the conservative approach to government is we are that base from which to spring.

35:15

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

You need a safe community. You have to protect the weak individual from the evil intentions of their neighbor, so to speak, and provide opportunity. It's why education is so incredibly important. It is the most important thing we do, is to have our children discover their God given talent, perfect that, and enjoy the prosperity that comes from that, whatever that talent is, whether it's being a welder, whether it's being an artist, whatever that is. And so that top down approach, which is the Democrat approach, is the government is going to magically take care of you from cradle to grave, it's all going to be fine.

35:47

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

It's been completely disproved in every government across the world. So for all those people who think they don't like our constitutional republic, which, by the way, is the only one that exists in the world, they're like, please move somewhere else. Pick anywhere else in the world and see how that works out for you. But we want to still keep having those conversations and then bring those perspectives, whether it's education, whether it's land ownership. And then so the safety is of paramount importance.

36:11

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

And so when the cartels start digging big tunnels, we're going to go tunnel bust them. And we already have hundreds of thousands of acres on the border, and so we already do both boots on the ground surveillance as well as drone surveillance. And we already have thousands of leases with border patrol for surveillance towers and all of these types of things. And so we just want to be sure we're a value add. And if they're building tunnels, we want to find them.

36:39

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

If they're finding sneaky ways into this country, we want to find them.

36:42

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

Yep. How much cartel activity are you actually seeing now versus under the last administration?

36:48

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

It's way less way, way less, but it's not absent. And like I said, there are billions of dollars at stake for the cartels.

36:56

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

There

36:57

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

are a lot of cartel members who sleep at night in their American homes and go to Mexico during the day. My understanding is that we have towns on the border that are curtail owned entirely. Totally. And so we have a long ways to go still.

37:13

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

Yeah. Is the public aware of what you found?

37:17

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

You know, we try and push it out there, but I think in general, there's so much noise out there. You know, when we were starting to talk about the rape trees, and Ali Bradley is one of my favorite Oh, yes. She and I were talking, and she goes, oh, if you say it, I can say it too. My neighbor won't let me talk about it. And I said, no, this property literally is proven.

37:36

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

Like, this is where the first rape trees are. Talk to law enforcement. This is real. This is not made up baloney. And the fact that they would abuse women and children there and then hang fragments of their clothing as trophies.

37:47

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

That's right.

37:47

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

As trophies.

37:49

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

Mm-mm. Not happening on my watch.

37:52

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

And this actually was suppressed in Juarez. This information is alive and well. And I have a cousin who is an immigration judge in El Paso, and then I have anyway, so there's we're privy to a lot of a lot of information for different reasons, not because of my cousin, but this is disgusting. Mhmm. And no one is pushing it out.

38:17

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

Is your office ever publishing your wins?

38:21

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

We are.

38:22

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

We Where can we find that? Where can we

38:25

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

Lots find news releases just put out by the general land office. We do a lot of interviews on it. We've been on national news a lot. That's right. But there's something in our society that is feeding that appetite.

38:38

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

And until that appetite goes away, somebody's going to figure out a way to meet that appetite. Of course. Way before Biden took office, we would have when I was still in the Senate, we would have sheriffs post an ad on the dark web for a six year old girl, a nine year old boy, and a 16 year old girl. And they'd posted about 09:00 at night. The Waco sheriff was the one who really started this beginning.

39:04

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

And within twelve, fifteen hours, they would arrest 30 plus men. And the men were like, I want to buy your six year old girl. I need to come and try her first, and then I want to buy her. I want that little boy. No, the 16 year old is too old for us.

39:18

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

That appetite was here before. The cartels have monetized it significantly. And as long as there's money in it, somebody's going to do it. And so it's kind of at that underlying principle, what is happening that feeds the appetite? My understanding is there's an escalation to internet porn that makes you all of a sudden want that.

39:40

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

That's what I hear. And so I'm like, we have to go with the appetite. Because until the appetite's gone, somebody's going to meet that need.

39:46

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

That's right. And that ties us back to the social media space again. I know right now that is not your role. That's not what you're doing. Do you have any plans to eventually run for any office that would give you the ability to spearhead that?

40:05

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

You know, you never know what happens. But if there's a winnable path in 30, and there's some other statewide positions open, we just might take a run at it. We'll see.

40:14

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

Yeah, I would love to see you

40:16

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

in one of these positions.

40:18

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

I know it. I it. I I just had

40:21

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

to ask.

40:22

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

I I like you so much. And so, Star County, we haven't really spoken much about that. So if we fly, whatever it is Southeast nine hours from that El Paso border area and region, talk to us about what work you've done out there with Border Patrol and

40:42

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

A lot. So they're I mean, really over the last couple of decades, down all in that region,

40:50

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

the

40:50

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

General Land Office has been really active in Border Patrol. That one ranch that we talked about, there's another ranch that predates me by many, many years that the General Land Office bought for the sole purpose of putting the wall up on it. And we also are still doing agricultural leases on those, so they're still generating revenue for the school children of Texas. But we've been super active in that. Between our surveillance of our state properties or acquiring properties that need to be acquired to give everybody better position.

41:18

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

We've also you might remember down in the valley, had the Biden administration had blocked off the park, they were hosting a whole lot of illegal immigrants on it. So we've had a lot of things to say about a lot of that stuff. And because we determine the center of the river, we've been a part of where the buoys are placed. Declaring islands in the Rio Grande has been a big deal five so far, but there are 20 more we're about to declare, because we're just going to take away every cartel safe haven we can. We're going to make it as difficult as we can for the cartels to operate in anywhere we can be a value add with Border Patrol, with local law enforcement, with DPS, with Texas Military Department.

42:00

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

We want to do it.

42:02

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

I believe that you have a mind like mine. We try and understand why someone or some entity would do something, what creates that.

42:15

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

Do you

42:15

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

have any idea how or can you speak to your perception and understanding of why the Biden administration would actually have condoned that type of activity?

42:32

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

You wonder if they weren't in league with the cartels benefiting some way, maybe the same with China, because the stream of illegals across the border would turn off like a spigot when various congress members would show up, or various press incidences happened.

42:54

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

That's right.

42:54

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

And the federal government was moving these migrants all over The United States.

43:00

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

And they were ahead of it all, at all times.

43:02

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

They were. And so you just wonder. There was enough evidence in the day that you just wonder if there wasn't some kind of a coordination.

43:11

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

I always was able to tie it back to China and Qatari monetary influence with respect to that with the Biden administration. And that was where I landed. So I didn't know if you had done comparable research and landed on the same thing, but it was very interesting how that was permitted. Condoned. And encouraged.

43:39

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

Yes, condoned and encouraged as a way to benefit humanity, and they're trying to escape difficult spaces, so we are harboring them here, and all through the lens of this suicidal empathy.

43:54

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

And a complete absence of acknowledgment that these are abused women and children Drifically abused. I would argue there were probably not a free person who came across that border

44:06

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

That's right.

44:06

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

Because they're owned. That's right. And if they don't produce, whether it was they were selling drugs or selling sex or work or whatever it was that they were enslaved in The United States, if they didn't fall in line and stay in line, my understanding is the cartel would kill their families at home. And we heard those stories over and over and over and over again. And so I just can't understand.

44:29

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

And that was so enraging about the liberal talking points in that era, about how mean the conservatives are about I know it. Border security.

44:39

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

That we have no heart. Right.

44:40

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

And it was the biggest expansion of slavery in the world ever Ever. In world history.

44:46

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

In the history of the world. And for me, someone who comes from very humble beginnings, nothing like your upbringing. My birth mother was so poor she couldn't afford to keep me, gave me up for adoption, and then she and my siblings eventually came into The United States legally from Jimenez Chihuahua. So we were raised separately. I was not raised with my siblings, and so we lived it.

45:14

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

I have lived that type of difficult life story to say, sacrifices have to be made if you want to do things right, and it's difficult. It's difficult for everyone involved. The trauma that we all have experienced because of those difficulties is it's hard. You wish that it didn't happen, but then we can stand here today and say, no, there is a way to do it, and it doesn't have to be illegal. So, yeah, thank you for that.

45:46

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

And you are someone who has radically reformed a lot of the immigration systems that once existed. But recently, I mean, because you are such a strong advocate for strong borders, it was recent, I think, that you had to issue a cease and desist for, customs and border protection. Tell us about that. What happened?

46:08

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

Well, they trespassed on our property, so they had no permission. And then they plowed a 200 foot wide, mile and long swath through the property, devaluing my agricultural lease, taking a lot of acreage out of the grazing that it was, and we just can't let that happen. Whether I agree with them or not

46:26

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

That's right.

46:27

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

In philosophy That's right. You can't just let somebody step on state land and do whatever the heck they want, because they're trust lands. They're there to generate revenue That's right. For the School of Children of Texas. And we have two responsibilities there.

46:39

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

We have a stewardship responsibility, because just like when I was a doctor and I took care of my patient, I knew my practice would be Okay if I did the right thing by my patient. Same thing. If you take care of your land, your land will take care of you. And so we had to come up pretty strong. But that's Okay.

46:56

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

I'll unapologetically stand my ground and defend property owner rights, because property owner rights are more important. Federal administrations come and go. There are people you agree and don't agree with, and their policies shift. And you have to be really careful while it's somebody that you agree with. If all of a sudden you let a bunch of stuff happen, then you've set a precedent, and then somebody you don't agree with, and the last thing we want is a hostile federal administration, like the Biden administration coming in and saying, oh, you let us do whatever we wanted on state land before.

47:27

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

Now we can do whatever we want now. And I'm like, uh-uh, no. No, that's not happening. Definite line in the sand on that one.

47:33

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

See, but I really enjoy that story about you, because despite the fact that they're working under the current administration, the Trump administration, you are able to say, uh-uh, you will not tread on Texas here. This is wrong. This is where I stand. You hold people to account, and you it doesn't matter what they represent, what administration they're working with. You fought for what was right.

47:58

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

I stand on principle. Sometimes that's amazingly inconvenient

48:01

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

and Exactly.

48:03

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

It is. But it's a principle.

48:04

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

Exactly. And it's not something that people, we don't enjoy doing it. When the Dallas Express broke the Kate Granger story and

48:13

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

Mhmm.

48:13

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

Right? I mean, she was a Republican. It doesn't matter. It does not matter. You still have to speak truth when you're called to, and as chair of the Dallas Express, I was very excited that that was broken, and it's the unfortunate part of of doing what is right.

48:30

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

Right? Yep. Making people uncomfortable. Can you break down a little bit for us? So across all land acquisition, rare earth work, border security, you're constantly working on this kind of on that narrow seam between federal authority and state authority.

48:48

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

Can you just kind of give a an understanding to everyone that's listening or watching how that partnership works, and who and which offices you're frequently interacting with to accomplish that?

49:00

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

Well, Border Patrol is the main one. Yep. And our relationship with Border Patrol, even in the Biden administration, was good. Yes. I mean, bless their hearts.

49:10

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

Yes, they're wonderful They were people

49:11

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

to turn and look the other way. Yes. They were given orders inconsistent, in my opinion, with our constitution and laws of our country and state. And they were in a tough spot.

49:21

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

Yep.

49:22

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

But we still had a good relationship with them. Good. Because we wanted to help them any way that we could, knowing that their hands were tied behind their backs, and trying to not beat them up too much about it. But we want good relationships, but we also want to be sure that we stand on state sovereignty. We don't let them cross a line that lets them turn around all those intelligence gathering surveillance towers.

49:48

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

I mean, in a tinfoil hat world, if the federal government decided they wanted to be adversarial to Texas, they could turn that around and use that to monitor Texans. So we want to be really careful on that, and we want to draw that bright line. Like, we're friendly, and we want to work together, but we're going to stand on state sovereignty every single day. And I think part being a ninth generation Texan and my family being the British consulate to the Republic Of Texas we came in 1813 and ironically, you'll laugh, the first case or one of the first cases the General Land Office settled was against my family. Because the keepers of maps, right?

50:27

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

We lived under all those flags. We had overlapping land grants. Plus surveying wasn't what it was then as it is now. And so they acknowledged this guy named Austin's Mexican grant and not our Spanish grant from before that. So the Austin Colony, I would just say, should probably be the Bailey Colony.

50:45

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

But that's all right. We might just revisit that case. No, I'm teasing, of course. But that just shows you how complicated and how hard our history has been from the beginning. But yes, original settlers, bloodshed in the by Texas my family.

51:02

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

In my heart, still believe we're a sovereign nation. And we kind of act like it on occasion. I was speaking at a big energy conference yesterday, and I said and there was a lot of Texans, but a lot of people from out of state, too. And I said, I'm just going to apologize ahead of time, because I do think that the universe revolves around Texas. We lead that country, and our country leads the world, so we're leading you.

51:22

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

And they all kind of laughed, sort of. And then we went on with our speech, but you just kind of have to lean into it and have fun with it.

51:29

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

You do. You do. And you clearly do a terrific job of that. Speaking Texas, right, let's touch on the Alamo. What did you inherit with respect to that situation, and how has that shifted and changed over the time that you've been in charge?

51:45

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

You know, everything we do is so important, but I truly, in my heart, think the most important thing we're doing is the Alamo. Because being sure that that building stands for five hundred more years and teaches our kids our story and when I say our story, I mean our real story. Our liberty or death, line in the sand story.

52:08

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

That's right.

52:09

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

And Sumeet, the story of the Alamo comes from a man of African descent. There were two people who walked out that saw everything. And their stories matched over time and distance. And it was an African American man who was injured defending the Alamo. That's right.

52:23

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

And it was one of the wives.

52:25

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

Oh, Okay. And

52:28

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

so again, that's our story of the Alamo. So everybody else who wants to come up with a different story, they're full of baloney, because there are only two people who saw everything. So our story is our story, and we stand on that principle. The first fight I had to lead was this idea of preservation in place within American history or historical preservation, the idea of preservation in place means let it fall to ruin. So we have limestone walls that have been wicking saltwater up out of the ground for three hundred years.

52:57

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

That's how old the building is. We had a roof that was causing active damage to the building, and everybody was fighting me on repairing the roof. I'm going to say that maybe nobody had the balls to do it, because this is not a new revelation. So making sure that that building is standing, because it's a living building, it is not a dying building. And being able to walk into it is just a different experience than seeing it in ruin.

53:22

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

It is.

53:23

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

And so now what we're going to do and it's going to raise my name ID, and thank you for the opportunity to tell everybody, because they're going to lose their minds when we put to get all this done, we have to put a temporary protective structure over the Alamo. So it's going to look kind of like a barn or kind of like a carport.

53:38

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

It's fine.

53:38

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

It's going to have sides that go up and down. If there's a storm, we can protect it. And if not, then it's up. But the roof is going to have to be off a year, year and a half. Everything goes so on time with the renovation on a 300 year old building.

53:51

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

So we're not 100% sure what we're going to find. We have some good ideas when we take that roof off. But we need to get that old roof off, the new roof on, and we need to be sure that those walls have structural integrity so that that building stands. And to do that, it takes that temporary protective structure. So I'd say, come get your once in a lifetime picture with that.

54:08

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

And then when the construction is done, that goes down. But we've also closed the busy street in front of the Alamo. We want to be sure that we have a reverent remembrance experience, because that soil is sacred. It is stained by the blood of our defenders. There is a reason that story is known all over the world.

54:29

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

Our vacations don't come with roofs, ITs, because we're hunting, fishing, rafting. It takes us to the hinterlands of South America, Africa, all that kind of stuff. And it doesn't matter where I am. When I say I'm from Texas because, of course, we never say we're Americans when we travel, we say we're Texans the answer back is, remember the Alamo. There are lots of places where everybody died defending their principles.

54:52

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

But for some reason, the Alamo is known around the world. And we want to preserve that. And the other thing is we want all of our everybody, but especially our children who visit the Alamo, to know that there was someone of their ethnicity that defended the Alamo That's right. That made that stand, because we had every ethnicity represented. Every ethnicity.

55:11

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

And idea that it was just northern European white men. It's baloney.

55:17

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

Fallacy. A

55:17

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

ton of Latinos, African Americans, the Indian descent brought in the Asian

55:22

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

Wasn't there almost, I think, 35% Latinos?

55:25

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

Yes. And so actually, commissioner gets a map. And I was at my first battle remembrance just taking office, And the local superintendent gets up and says, well, my people won at the Alamo, but lost at San Jacinto. And that struck me the wrong way. Yeah, And so but it would my be map is actually the ethnic origin of all the defenders, and then where their families received their land grants, so that people could see.

55:51

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

Can you send a picture to us?

55:53

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

Yes, we'll send you one. We'll give you one. Please, please. We're really pretty excited about it. But then aside, so we'll get the Alamo all ready to stand.

56:02

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

From a how it's going to look standpoint, it's going to look exactly like everybody's used to. So we're not changing anything there. We're not replacing anything big. We're just fixing the structural integrity issues. And then, of course, the collection center for the Phil Collins Collection opened up a few years ago.

56:19

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

We just opened our children's education center. So for the first time ever, we have dedicated curriculum, early childhood all the way through high school. And again, I'm talking that loud and proud Texas history. And we're going to have hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of students coming through, because we finally have a place where they can eat their lunch. We have a steam lab that they can get their hands dirty and get all in it.

56:38

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

We're going to teach them a little bit about agriculture, too, because understanding the battle, you do kind of have to understand, why did the Native Americans settle there? Why was the mission built? Because it was a mission. Then what happened that it became a site for a battle that was so critical to the Texas Revolution? And then what happened after?

56:56

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

And then how does the Alamo continue to affect pop culture today? Which is the exciting part when we get to the museum that we're building, which is where the lovely and I'm teasing on lovely wax museum was. Oh, yeah. So we've acquired those buildings, and that's going be 160,000 square foot museum. It's going have all those components in it, of course, be battle centric.

57:15

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

We're very clear on the fact that's why people came to the Alamo. But in the center of that is going to be a four d theater, and that means that when the cannonballs hit, you feel it, and you smell the gunpowder and the smoke. And you're standing in the center of the fort, because of course, the Alamo is a fort, not just a building. And you really understand the siege and what it took to hold that line, being so outnumbered. And Taylor Sheridan is doing that movie.

57:44

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

Oh, yes. That's right. That's That's

57:46

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

That's That's right. And then my hope is, honestly, that one, I get a cameo on Landman, so whoever knows Taylor, give him a shout out about that. But two, maybe he does an Alamo series, like he did Yellowstone. Yeah. Because there's a lot of story to tell there.

58:01

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

There is.

58:02

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

And we just want that idea that our defenders laid their lives on the Shrine Of Texas Liberty to defend their ideals, families, and fledgling nation, it's a strong story. And I think that's why we're so strong. I think the people who settled Texas were different than the people who settled other places. They were coming to Texas. They weren't running from anything.

58:29

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

And they were rowdy as heck. So they were rowdy. They were strong because they had to deal with incredibly harsh environments and incredibly harsh Indians. And that fierce spirit is what continues to today. And I think because they stood taller, they stood tougher, we need to stand taller, and we need to stand tougher.

58:50

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

Amen for that. And as a woman who becomes infuriated by people constantly telling me, you're white passing, it doesn't matter that you have 30 something percent Native American, you know, over 10 Jewish ancestry, you know, it doesn't matter that you're 50 something percent Spanish. My voice doesn't count because I am white passing, and I understand history the same way you understand history. I'm very well read, all the things. So I fight against that narrative constantly, as do my children.

59:24

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

And I'm grateful to you for being here and for sharing all of this remarkable, work that you've been doing. How can we learn about upcoming events relating to the Alamo or anything that it is that you're doing or planning? We'd love to be in the know there, and I want everyone else to be as well.

59:43

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

Absolutely. Well, on the state side of things, the General Land Office, we have a great website with all the tabs to everything we do, and announcements and press releases out all the time. On the political side, donbuckingham.com kind of keep you caught up on what we're doing, and how we're moving and shaking, and kicking up some dust, and having fun all across the state.

60:03

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

Mhmm. Thank you for your time. I am so glad we were able to do this interview. I like you so much. I can't wait to see more of you.

60:11

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

You're you're a fighter. And I I wanna ask one question. Do we can I ask just one more thing? Because I I received this sort of feedback from myself, and I'm Mhmm. Confident you do as well.

60:26

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

For women who are are frustrated by, let's say, women like you, women like me, who are mothers who fight for what we believe in and are called to maybe things like abrasive or cold or domineering, or these things. What can you say to those people? Because I believe I'm an extremely loving human, Warm, compassionate, fair. And I feel just sort of called to ask you about that. What words can you share from your perspective about who you are and how they might be sorely confused about that?

61:16

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

Well, God calls us to put on His armor and charge forth and trust in the fact that He will protect us. And the world definitely has a double standard, especially when, in your case, beautiful, articulate ladies are incredibly threatening to the rest of the world. And the devil is alive and well. So wherever you see hate and division, that's the devil. And he's alive and well.

61:39

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

So I do a lot of mentoring to young ladies. And I just tell them, don't look for external validation. You have to in your heart.

61:46

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

In your heart.

61:47

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

And just if you ever feel bad about it, like you're being tortured, just think about what Jesus went through. He saved mankind, and it ended in a very painful and terrible way. And so suck it up. It'll be all right. But to those, I think we just stand forth, and we hold our ground.

62:03

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

Because this idea that you somehow have to be demure, and you somehow have to be subservient, and you somehow have to be let me put it this way. Note, if you took a woman who said something and a man who said something, the man would be strong and dynamic and a leader. The woman gets the

62:21

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

That's right.

62:22

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

Witch or whore tag pick. Yeah. So we just stand forth. And the other thing I would say is that women propagate the most hate amongst women.

62:31

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

That's right.

62:32

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

And then we should stop beating up our That's own right. And start finding a way to really bolster

62:36

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

That's up and support each right. Thank you so much for being here, Commissioner. I appreciate your time, and I look forward to seeing you again.

62:44

Dr. Dawn Buckingham

It's great being on with you. Thank you.

62:46

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

Thank you.

Episode Timeline

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Episode Timeline

Full Transcript

Fight for The Truth

The Dallas Express reports what Legacy Media won’t.