Who Is Running for Texas House of Representatives

For the first time in nearly xx years, voters in parts of Austin and southeastern Travis County will select a new representative for Texas House Commune 51. 7 Democrats and one Republican are vying to fill the seat.

Rep. Eddie Rodriguez, D-Austin, who has held the seat since 2003, announced last yr he would not seek reelection, instead launching a entrada for Congress.

Rodriguez has held a number of key positions, including policy chair of the Mexican American Legislative Conclave. He also was a leader in the Firm Democrats' quorum break over the summer to stall a GOP elections neb.

Covering a wide swath of key and southeastern Travis Canton — including Austin'south Bouldin Creek, Travis Heights, Holly and Montopolis neighborhoods, also as the Due east Cesar Chavez Street, Due east Riverside Bulldoze and S Congress Artery commercial districts and Austin-Bergstrom International Airport — District 51 is widely considered a Democratic stronghold. More than than 67% of the district voted for President Joe Biden in the 2022 election, and nearly seventy% of its population consists of people of color.

Because this is 1 of the safest blue seats in the House, the race'south issue is likely to be dictated past the result of the Democratic primary. If none of the vii Democrats wins a bulk of the votes in the primary, the meridian two vote-getters volition advance to a runoff in May. Rodriguez declined to endorse any of the candidates ahead of the primary. Early voting will commencement Monday and run through February. 25. Election twenty-four hours is March 1.

Run across the candidates:

Cody Arn

Originally from Bryan, Cody Arn says he first experienced the directly impact of public policy when his father lost his job in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, and his family unit plunged into poverty. "We were at run a risk of losing our house for near 10 years, and it was only because of welfare programs that we were able to survive," Arn said. "People say, 'Every election is the most important ballot of our lifetimes,' right? And yous're told that constantly, but you lot don't see a lot of the alter until you are in a position where that policy is the difference betwixt life and death for y'all."

Afterward working as a professional person histrion for several years, Arn said, 2022 was a turning point for him with the election of Donald Trump. He decided to get involved in politics, and in 2018 he volunteered with Democrat Beto O'Rourke's Senate campaign. In 2020, he moved to Austin to practice grassroots organizing for local lawmakers and such advocacy groups as Ground Game Texas and Homes Non Handcuffs, promoting progressive policies, while working as an banana general director at two East Austin hotels.

At 25 years one-time, Arn is the youngest candidate in the race, but he said he believes his progressive platform, experience with grassroots engagement efforts and working-form background will resonate with voters. Given his family's personal feel struggling with housing and his identity as a bisexual human, Arn said affordable housing policy and protections for LGBTQ+ Texans are at the tiptop of his legislative priority list.

Learn more nigh Arn at his campaign website.

Bino Cadenas

Born and raised in East Austin, Albino "Bino" Cadenas has deep roots in District 51, which he has served as an Austin police officeholder for the past decade. The 33-yr-old is chairman of Austin Cops for Charities and, for the past four years, participated in the Austin Police Clan Political Action Commission. He said he's become increasingly frustrated with political divisions and partisanship preventing lawmakers from working on solutions that will have a tangible impact on communities.

"I'm definitely going to be reaching my manus across the aisle, and it's foolish to say that you can accomplish anything without Republican back up. It's a majority Republican state, and solutions are in the middle," Cadenas said. "My profession, being a peacemaker, a peacekeeper, this is what I practice — I resolve bug at people'due south homes, I find the middle ground, and nosotros work towards that solution. And if elected as a land representative, I'm going to exercise the exact same matter. I'm going to discover solutions."

Cadenas' top issues are public safety and victim advancement. He said his experience on the police force gives him valuable insight on realistic policy solutions. He as well is passionate about affordable housing, volunteering as a board member of a nonprofit called the Guadalupe Neighborhood Development Corp., which works to make affordable housing more attainable to working families, especially those with generational ties to Austin.

Acquire more than near Cadenas at his campaign website.

Claire Campos-O'Neal

In the 10 years that she's called Austin home, Claire Campos-O'Neal has become a passionate public education abet and volunteer in the Del Valle school district, where she lives, engaging with parent community liaisons and leading the Nutrient in Tummies and Coats for Kids programs. She said she realized the power of borough engagement when she led a successful grassroots effort to oppose a charter schoolhouse moving into her neighborhood when a new public elementary school had recently opened nearby.

The 36-twelvemonth-erstwhile existent estate agent has been a member of the Inferior League of Austin for the past 6 years, and she said her experience equally a working mom and primary caregiver gives her perspectives that are non fairly represented in the Legislature.

"I'd like to encounter new kinds of leaders at the Legislature. I don't call up you lot meet a lot of people similar me working at the Capitol because in that location's then many barriers, and it'south so hard for us to pause through," Campos-O'Neal said. "Because this is an open race, I think information technology'due south a large opportunity for united states to pick a dissimilar kind of leader, and I promise that voters do that. This is our chance to perhaps take some risks and go with someone who's not the typical mold. I'yard not the typical mold. I'thousand non an attorney. I'chiliad non, you know, a white human being. I'm non independently wealthy. I'g a mom who simply wants to make my community ameliorate."

Larn more about Campos-O'Neal at her entrada website.

Lulu Flores

Maria Luisa "Lulu" Flores has a 40-plus-year track record of interest in Texas politics on both the local and country levels. She credits her dedication to public service to her father, who was an elected official in Webb County for 20 years and a founding member of the League of United Latin American Citizens. Flores spent the get-go eight years of her career working equally chief of staff for her mentor and role model, the tardily Rep. Irma Rangel, D-Kingsville, the outset Mexican American woman elected to the Legislature. Flores went on to get the get-go Latina department head at the Land Bar of Texas and later on worked on culling and make clean fuel policies at the Railroad Commission.

Flores is especially passionate about women'due south rights problems, having served on the board of Planned Parenthood in the early 1990s; having been a former president of the National Women'south Political Caucus, which supports progressive women running for role; and having worked with the Texas Advancement Project, which provides services for survivors of domestic and sexual assault.

The 66-year-old chaser said the passage of the vi-week abortion ban, as well equally laws limiting transgender athletes and increasing election restrictions, were infuriating attacks on the rights she has spent her entire career fighting for.

"I'yard running for women'due south autonomy and continuing up for the rights of every Texan and the nobility of every Texan," Flores said. "I'k passionate. I'k experienced. I am a stiff voice for the constituents. I will work hard — my work ethic is clear because of my track record, and anything that I put my mind to doing, I do and I accomplish it."

Flores has lived in Austin for more than 40 years and has run for state representative iii previous times. She has been endorsed by several elected officials and community leaders, including state Sen. Sarah Eckhardt and country Reps. Donna Howard and Gina Hinojosa, all Austin Democrats.

Learn more nigh Flores at her campaign website.

Mike Hendrix

Mike Hendrix has spent more than 20 years working in Austin and Washington as a grassroots organizer and an activist for progressive causes and campaigns, including marijuana policy reform with the ACLU, abortion rights and wellness care access with Planned Parenthood and Texas criminal justice reform. As an openly gay man who grew upwardly with Baptist missionary parents, fighting for LGBTQ+ rights is especially personal for him.

"I went through conversion therapy. I know what it's like to exist told that you're less than. I also know what it's like to be a 7-year-old kid who had easily laid on him because I was possessed with the 'homosexual spirit,'" Hendrix said. "Because of those experiences, I'one thousand a fighter, and I e'er end up on the side of the little guy, which is where I want to exist and what I believe in."

The 43-year-former activist said he believes it's important to have LGBTQ representation in the Texas House, especially considering the passage of the anti-transgender student-athlete legislation, a GOP priority in the 2021 special sessions. Holding tax relief, a higher minimum wage and increased availability of affordable housing are besides problems Hendrix wants to address.

Learn more most Hendrix at his campaign website.

Cynthia Valadez-Mata

Cynthia Valadez-Mata began working in public service when she took a job as a messenger at the country Capitol while she was in college. After graduating, she spent 15 years working in the Victim Services Division of the Texas attorney general's role doing direct case management work with victims and their families before joining the staff of country Sen. Nathan Johnson, D-Dallas, as an office manager and scheduler in 2019. Valadez-Mata, xl, lives in the Holly neighborhood, which has been her home since her family moved to East Austinfrom McAllen when she was three years old.

"This is my community. I have literally experienced firsthand a lot of the struggles that the community has experienced. … I've been able to cultivate those relationships with different organizations, unlike businesses, also as customs members and community leaders," Valadez-Mata said. "I desire the customs to know that they are existence heard."

Valadez-Mata has worked extensively with Austin Tejano Democrats and LULAC. She said at the top of her priority list are expanding Medicaid under the Affordable Intendance Human action and improving the public education system through pay raises for teachers and increased funding for special instruction services, an upshot her family dealt with while struggling to get her sister with special needs the support she required.

Acquire more about Valadez-Mata at her campaign website.

Matt Worthington

Matt Worthington said he decided to brand helping people his driving purpose afterward his teachers and San Antonio community members stepped up to provide stability and back up when his begetter left his family, plunging them into poverty. Worthington began that pursuit by working as a special teaching teacher through the Teach for America programme earlier attention the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas, focusing on data assay, in the hopes of tackling more systemic-level problems. Now as a information scientist, the 36-year-old specializes in analyzing school finance data and applying those insights in public education policy.

"If we cannot take a stable workforce of teachers and educators, we've got 5.3 million students, and those v.3 million students are either going to grow up and they are going to do astonishing things, or they're going to grow upwards and we will have not fabricated the investments in their lives that volition enable them to do all of the things that they are capable of and that their families want for them. And that is very concerning for me, peculiarly as a parent. I want to make sure that we are making those investments," Worthington said.

Worthington likewise is heavily involved as a volunteer with the Del Valle Community Coalition, a civil rights nonprofit that advocates for underprivileged communities in East and Southeast Austin. He said as a representative his priorities would include addressing central infrastructure gaps that persist in the district, such every bit the lack of affordable child care, health care clinics and grocery stores.

Learn more almost Worthington at his campaign website.

Robert Reynolds

As the sole Republican candidate, Robert Reynolds is guaranteed a spot on the Nov ballot. Reynolds ran against Rodriguez in 2020, garnering just over 17% of the vote. The 51-twelvemonth-old automotive supervisor was built-in overseas into a military family but grew upwardly more often than not in Victoria. Reynolds served every bit an Army sergeant and moved to Austin in 1995. Running for role is an opportunity to continue his public service, give back to his community and brand a difference, he said.

"I remember I'm the all-time fit because I actually come from the working class. … I know the everyday struggles of the working class and people that are actually out hither trying to go far in everyday life. I don't go to a loftier skyrise, I don't have a multimillion-dollar mansion. I don't drive in an expensive car. I become to piece of work and, you know, try to make information technology just like the everyday class people," Reynolds said. "I think a lot of our politicians have lost grasp of what the existent working people are out here doing, and so who better else to brand policy than i of u.s.a.?"

Reynolds said he'due south running as a Republican because he believes in stiff family values. The issues at the elevation of his priority list are advocating for working-grade people and keeping Austin affordable.

Larn more nigh Reynolds at his campaign website.

Fundraising

Co-ordinate to the about recent entrada finance reports, here's how much cash on hand each candidate's campaign has:

• $0 to $3,000: Arn, Reynolds
• $three,001 to $5,000: Cadenas, Valadez-Mata
• $5,001 to $10,000: Campos-O'Neal
• $10,001 to $20,000: Hendrix
• $20,001 to $50,001: Worthington
• $50,0001 to $100,000+: Flores

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Source: https://www.statesman.com/story/news/2022/02/12/meet-candidates-running-represent-district-51-texas-house/9247269002/

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