Texas Monthly names ‘political class of 2025’ as ‘Bum Steer of the Year’

TEXAS, USA — Texas politicians are the focus of an award that most people wouldn’t want to receive. 

The “political class of 2025” earned the title of 2026 “Bum Steer of the Year” from Texas Monthly. Each year, the magazine highlights those “who disgraced our state,” from politicians to institutions and even cities. 

This year’s award is calling out Texas leaders on both sides of the aisle, from Texas House Speaker Dustin Burrows (R-Burrows) to Democratic Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo.

Previous “winners” of the award include Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and the city of Austin as a whole.

While multiple people received this year’s award, Texas Monthly wrote that if its team had to choose just one person, “It’s gotta be Ken Paxton.”  

Texas Monthly editor-in-chief Ross McCammon joined KVUE Daybreak in studio Monday morning to discuss this year’s award.

Adam Bennett: Walk us through how you decide who the Bum Steer will be each year. What is that selection process like?

McCammon: Well, we, first of all, we get ready. We get prepared to go through a lot of news and a lot of stuff that we, you know, have forgotten about. I mean, so much has happened this year, so we have a lot of people, throughout the year, you know, collecting all of this news that we may use for Bum Steers. And we go through it with a committee. So it’s all of our political reporters, our political editors – because a lot of, you know, the Bum Steer is politics. That’s the history of the Bum Steer, it’s been very much a political thing, but other things too. And I’m involved a little; I kind of oversee things before I check in. But it’s led by a great team. 

Bennett: How far out do they start the process of picking the next year’s Bum Steer? 

McCammon: It’s about, I’d say – well, it’s really a year because we’re talking about it as we go along. We can’t do something this big without spending basically the whole year cataloging things and checking in on it. But it really gets started in earnest about, I’d say about four months ahead. 

Bennett: And … my goodness, what a year it’s been. It’s hard to remember all the big stories that have happened this year just at kind of first glance. But this year, you labeled it as “the political class of 2025.” Now, it’s important to know this includes both Republicans and Democrats who represent Texas. Why such a large category there?

McCammon: Yeah, well, I mean, think about the last time a politician in Texas – and I have to say, even nationally – did something that you admire, right? Politicians, and a lot of that comes from work, right? It comes from work and statesmanship is when you admire a politician, right? These days, politicians are celebrities first. It’s a media operation, right? 

You know, in Texas, the Republicans are in power. Democrats haven’t won a statewide office in three decades. But so, yes, we try to spread it around, but there are more Republicans than Democrats simply because – and we get criticized a lot for this – but there are more Republicans than Democrats simply because there are more Republicans in power than Democrats. 

But think about the last time, you know, there was someone on the news, a politician on the news, doing something great and doing, you know, great, even great oratory. Now, great oratory is a viral moment, you know? “How are you gonna get that, how are you going to own somebody with a viral moment?” We have politicians who are so good at that. It used to be the soundbite. Now it’s what’s going to travel on TikTok.

Bennett: The environment has certainly changed in a very short amount of time. As you were choosing this selection, was there a single most defining action or event that made you choose the entire political class?

McCammon: No. I mean it was, it was from, it’s really Jan. 1, all the way through, waiting for someone to step up and emerge as a voice for Texans, primarily, right? What you see is people who seem to be beholden to special interests, lobbyists, donors, and, like I said, the internet, right? We want to celebrate – and we do, we celebrate the best things that Texas has to offer. But when it comes to Bum Steers, we look at, you know, who emerged as the, you know, the dopiest, the most villainous, right? 

And it’s funny: you could go with, you could go with the Dallas Mavericks for the Luka trade; you could go with all of Elon Musk and what, you know, how he’s just stayed in the news, you know, for doing all sorts of crazy stuff. We’re not sure he’s officially a Texan. We’re going to give him a few more years, but he certainly qualified. But I think that, all of what he did was amazing. 

I mean, and then you have Ken Paxton who, if, you know, I think he really, at the very end of our article we say like, “If we had to choose, it would be Paxton,” if only because of all the frivolous – what we say are frivolous – lawsuits. I mean, he sued Tylenol, you know? So we, if we had to name one, it would probably be Paxton. But this year, it was so difficult. It was just so, so many different things to look at.

Bennett: … I did want to mention some runner-ups. Usually, you’ll name runner-ups. Who made the cut this year?

McCammon: Well, like I said, Elon. You know, [U.S. Rep.] Jasmine Crockett, who is now running for Senate as a Democrat, just had a couple of viral moments that were, you know, I think not, not the best. I mean, referring to, [Gov.] Greg Abbott in a derogatory way about his wheelchair. I think that was not a good moment and certainly one she probably regrets. 

I think that, you know, like I said, I said the Mavs, you know. As a Dallas native, that one – it still stings. But yeah, those are, those are the runners-up. And I think Greg Abbott had a tough year as well, and some of his responses to some tragedy, yeah, it was, it was, you know, just some gaffes.

Bennett: Yeah, as you mentioned, politics and sports. I think I saw Arch Manning on there as well.

McCammon: It’s Texas: politics and sports, you know?

Bennett: Runs the gamut.

McCammon: Arch Manning, yes, that’s right.