Campaign Issues

 

INFRASTRUCTURE

Texas has seen unprecedented growth in the past decade, and Texas’ Congressional District 21 has bore the brunt of it not only in the Austin/San Antonio corridor, but rural areas like Kerrville, Fredericksburg, Blanco and Leakey/Johnson City. The need for better roads, schools, police stations, fire stations, drainage and water supply, as well as broadband infrastructure is of outmost importance. Most communities do not currently have the tax base to support the needed spending to support that expansion. This is where, as your Congressman, I will work to bring Federal relief and Federal dollars to help our communities move into the future.

Education

The District has a high school graduation rate of 93.5% (2019 U.S. Census figures), but only a 47.4% with a college or university degree. I was blessed to have received substantial support for my Bachelors degree at Texas State University with Pell Grant assistance. We have to support higher education involvement for our children in the district and provide the means for them to pursue higher education or vocational training of their choice. 

 

Our Middle Class

The vast majority of Congressional District 21 is part of the backbone of our country: America’s Middle Class. Everything from skyrocketing educational costs to out of control healthcare cost, as well as increased childcare budgets, have all been working to squeeze our middle class into a smaller and smaller portion of our country’s demographic. That’s why I am a big supporter of the Build Back Better plan making it’s way through Congress: it provides needed relief in all the aforementioned areas to put more money into families’ pockets for them to use and grow our economy from the middle up. 

 

Comprehensive Immigration Reform

I’ve had the privilege to work closely with immigrants from all across the globe through my financial experience in Downtown Austin. People from Australia, Nicaragua, Honduras, Canada, Guatemala, India, Japan, Mexico. Some are DREAMERS, most are asylum seekers or H1 Visa holders. I’ve come across one recurring theme: our immigration and naturalization process is not only broken, but seriously deficient in efficiency. For the past 40 years, there has been a gridlock in Washington that refuses to fix the issue because it fills the coffers of candidates that would rather pay lip service than get down on the mud and the muck to get their elbows dirty and fix the issue once and for all. My comprehensive plan includes all relevant stakeholders in the issue, from our CBP agents on the ground, to the governments and places of origin for most asylum seekers. From Washington’s halls of government to local non-profits who selflessly welcome immigrants looking to achieve their own American Dream. 

The truth of the matter is we NEED immigrants to fill in the jobs that American’s are leaving behind to climb up the economic ladder themselves. There is a shortage of workers in almost every industry in TX21, we need to process, welcome and document immigrants at record pace so we can expand our tax base, keep our economy growing, as well as lowering housing and property taxes by allowing for more housing and construction companies to keep pace with the exponential need for housing options all across the district.  

 

Other areas of concern that we also focus on are Women’s Rights/Autonomy & Equal pay, Healthcare Affordability and reform, and Social Security Reform. 

Women’s issues are humanities’ issues, and we should never take for granted or turn a blind eye when certain segments of our society actively and aggressively try and curtail their rights around healthcare choices, equal pay, and equality under the law. 

Medicare & Medicaid are great programs, and we need to find ways to expand their use so our healthcare systems can cover more people who are in medical need, particularly those who are marginalized (pre-existing conditions) or disadvantaged (lower socio-economic opportunities) when it comes to healthcare availability.

Social Security is in danger of becoming insolvent by 2034 if the status quo is maintained, we need to find ways to make the safety net more robust so that people who have diligently been paying into the system will not be left out in the cold when it comes to their own retirement futures.

 

Let us know what’s important to you.