What I'm Fighting For

Issues

I am running for State Representative in District 146 to reclaim a seat at the table for Democrats in my district and for all of us in my community. I am a mom and a union organizer. I’ve spent my entire adult life fighting for the people who Greg Abbott is attacking every day. This is what I am fighting for:

A world-class public education for every Texas child

Restore control of HISD to democratically elected officials and unwind the damage caused by the TEA takeover.
Fully fund a free, public education that enables Texas children “to achieve their potential and fully participate now and in the future in the social, economic, and educational opportunities of our state and nation” – as required by the Texas Constitution and Texas Education code.
Increase wages for teachers and educational support personnel to a level where we can attract and retain quality teachers and staff.
End Texas’ over-reliance on high-stakes standardized testing. Our children are not standardized.
Spend public dollars on public schools, not private schools or voucher schemes.
Repeal laws and policies that amount to government-sanctioned censorship, including the recently passed book ban and ban on teaching critical race theory and other teachings on Black history.
Repeal the law that dismantled diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) offices at Texas colleges and universities.

Universal access to quality, affordable health care and mental health care

Repeal Texas’ abortion ban and remove all medically unnecessary restrictions on abortion access. Abortion is a health care procedure. Health care decisions should be made by patients in consultation with their doctors without government interference.
Repeal Texas’ ban on gender-affirming care for minors and protect the rights of parents to make health care decisions for their children, in consultation with their doctors without government interference.
Accept Medicaid Expansion. Nearly 1.7 million Texans lost Medicaid insurance when pandemic-era subsidies expired last year.
Replace the $300 million in cuts to children’s special education funding announced last month, and provide adequate supports for all people with disabilities.

Economic security and justice for all working people

Increase Texas’ minimum wage to $15/hour and index it for inflation.
Pass paid sick leave and paid family and medical leave for Texas workers.
Restore local control over the regulation of workplace conditions and other Labor issues.
Protect workers at risk of losing their jobs from AI and automation, by mandating retraining to use the technology at no cost to the employees, and no-cost training for any new jobs generated by technology.
Stop attacks on worker’s right to organize.
Protect public sector pension funds and work to provide retirement security for all workers.

An End to Domestic Violence

Enact common-sense gun safety reforms – especially red flag / extreme risk protection orders. For women physically abused by their partners, the risk of homicide increases five-fold when the partner owns a firearm.
Increase stable government funding for domestic violence service providers, including family shelters, rape crisis centers, legal assistance, human trafficking services, housing assistance, mental health services, and more.

Voting Rights

Repeal SB 1 (2021) that outlawed many of the voting reforms implemented in Harris County during the pivotal 2020 elections that led to record voter turnout: 24-hour voting, drive-through voting, and more.
Pass same-day voter registration, universal mail-ballot voting, and protections for people registering voters who now are subject to criminal penalties for not following confusing, unnecessary, and burdensome regulations.
Create a nonpartisan redistricting commission and end the unconstitutional gerrymandering of political districts in Texas.

LGBTQIA+ Rights

Stop the active persecution of trans and nonbinary people and their families.
Pass a statewide nondiscrimination law that protects LGBTQIA+ people and their families in employment, housing, and public accommodations.

Gun Safety

Pass common sense gun safety reforms, including an assault weapons ban, universal background checks, red flag / extreme risk protection orders, higher minimum age to buy a gun, and safe storage requirements
Restore local control over gun regulations in cities and counties

Racial Justice

Pass reforms to minimize the number of people who get trapped in our criminal justice system, including relaxing mandatory minimum sentences, increasing diversion programs, increasing access to mental health services and emphasizing treatment over incarceration.
Improve police accountability, including ending qualified immunity, appointing independent investigators for police-involved shootings that lead to death or serious bodily harm, reforming the rules around releasing body camera footage, and increasing the amount and quality of data collection to uncover patterns of unlawful bias.
Make transformational investments in access to mental health services.
Decriminalize marijuana possession and regulate marijuana in the same way we do alcohol.
Continue efforts to address systemic racism, environmental racism, and economic racism.

Climate Action

Provide responsible supports and incentives to accelerate the energy transition to renewable energy.
Restore local control over projects such as concrete-crushing plants, which are prime examples of environmental racism; completely overhaul the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) to make it responsive to Texas residents, not big, polluting corporations.
Restore the ability of Houston / Harris County to receive a fair share of flood mitigation funds.
Fully seek and leverage the billions of dollars from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act that could be used to provide hundreds of thousands of jobs for our regional economy.

The Border and Immigration

End Greg Abbott’s deadly, heartless, dangerous, and lawless war on immigrants and those seeking asylum.
Stop busing migrants to other cities without their informed and freely given consent.
Remove the razor wire from the Rio Grande.
Stop construction on the border wall.
Stand down the Texas National Guard.
Provide real public safety, both for Texans and migrants, and services to support migrants while the federal government deals with their immigration issues.
Support the passage of comprehensive immigration reform at the federal level, with a pathway to citizenship.

AND SO MUCH MORE

We will continue to build out this page as our campaign progresses.