Houston haircare mogul Farouk Shami made his first campaign stop in Austin on Wednesday and offered his take on a variety of issues facing Texas. We let the candidate speak for himself on the economy, environment and taxes in Texas.

In the audio component to this piece, Ben Philpott, who’s reporting on the governor’s race for KUT News and the Tribune, explores Shami’s unpolished performance when it comes to explaining how he’d create the jobs he loves to talk about.

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Elise Hu was a political reporter at the Tribune, focusing on multimedia projects, from 2009 to 2011. She previously worked as the state political reporter for Austin's ABC affiliate, KVUE-TV, from 2006...

Ben Philpott is a senior reporter for KUT-FM, Austin’s National Public Radio affiliate. He has been covering state politics and dozens of other topics for the station since 2002, during which time he...