Issues

Here’s an overview of where I stand on the issues. If you have feedback, suggestions, questions, or concerns, I want to hear from you! Head on over to the Contact page to get in touch and let me know what’s most important to you.

Build Rural Infrastructure

I really like living outside city limits. There’s a certain degree of grit it requires and the satisfaction of fixing things with my own hands. It might not always be pretty, but we get the job done. What I can’t do with my own two hands, though, is fix a power outage during a winter storm, find a stable internet connection with limited rural Internet Service Providers, or guarantee I’ll always have a cell signal on a long stretch of Texas highway. Rural Texans deserve robust infrastructure support.

Living out in the country requires forfeiting certain luxuries, but as the COVID-19 pandemic has shown us, a fast internet connection and phone signal are crucial for our jobs, our educations, and for connecting to our families. Rural Texans spend a lot of time driving, especially since public transportation options are extremely limited, so proper road maintenance is absolutely critical , especially with regard to bridges, culverts, and other roadway infrastructure impacted by flooding and severe weather.

Severe weather showed all of us how much our electrical grid needs to be modernized during the statewide freeze and blackout that occurred in February 2021. As anyone accustomed to hurricane season knows, severe weather often leads to power outages, and prolonged power outages make recovery efforts even harder. Texans all across the state experienced dire circumstances and massive property damage during the Texas Blackout last February. A modernized grid with better weatherization and energy conservation practices to reduce peak demand could have mitigated that disaster.
  • Build up our Rural High-Speed Internet Infrastructure
  • Ensure high-quality cell signal network redundancy and expand coverage areas
  • Winterize our energy production and delivery systems
  • Determine what regulation and grid improvements are needed for Texas to become interconnected with national power grids for redundancy and to access wider energy markets
  • Support policy to promote greater energy conservation for corporate and industrial consumers
  • Subsidize residential insulation and on-site power production, such as rooftop solar energy
  • Explore expanding passenger train services as mass transportation
  • Protect groundwater resources that feed our wells and water supplies
  • Guarantee workplace protections, cross-industry training resources, and union organizing rights for workers in critical infrastructure careers

Expand Healthcare Access

To state it simply, too many Texans don’t have access to quality healthcare or health insurance. In fact, Texas has the highest rate of uninsured citizens per capita in the country. Operating costs and lack of funding have made it so Texas leads the nation in rural hospital closures, forcing Texans to travel further to access the care they need. This lack of access to healthcare is unacceptable. We need federal Medicaid expansion, making preventative care and mental health resources more affordable and accessible while expanding our healthcare workforce.

I remember avoiding healthcare I needed during college; I’ve even turned down ambulance rides I couldn't afford when I was without health insurance. I have friends, family, and neighbors whose primary healthcare plan is prayer, crossed fingers, and home remedies; they struggle with massive prescription costs, preauthorization procedures, and staggering medical bills. Mental Health care needs often get ignored or deprioritized, due to cost, lack of availability, and stigma against seeking help.

Texans are tough. I'm always proud to see Texans helping each other in times of need, such as sharing pipe fittings after the pipes froze, or giving a ride to a neighbor with car troubles. But when our neighbors need life-saving medications or surgeries, it becomes clear that our southern hospitality can only do so much while our state legislature continues to fail us. We should not be leaving federal Medicaid funding on the table while Texans are rationing medications and having to ignore healthcare needs.

Furthermore, making it accessible and affordable for Texans to have quality healthcare solves a multitude of issues our society faces. During the COVID-19 pandemic, we learned that when our neighbors can’t access healthcare such as screenings, testing, and treatment, it can impact the entire community's public health. When the financial costs of meeting our healthcare needs are too high, it compounds our struggles with the cost of housing, our ability to afford education, and our work attendance. Lack of healthcare access—particularly mental health resources—can contribute to crime in our communities. When we come together to help take care of each other, we all benefit.

Rural Texans know the importance of healthcare access. When an emergency strikes, the drive to the nearest hospital in the city can be a long way away. To keep up with rapid population growth throughout Texas, we need to expand our healthcare infrastructure and workforce in rural and urban areas across the state. We can enhance rural access to healthcare providers through support for telehealth services. Access to preventative care helps avoid or reduce the higher costs and risks of emergency care for untreated and/or undetected health issues.
  • Support rural healthcare infrastructure by accepting federal Medicaid expansion funds
  • Limit the rising costs of life-saving prescription medications
  • Secure funding and local support for rural hospitals and preventative healthcare services
  • Expand virtual telemedicine services to increase accessibility and availability for rural Texans
  • Fortify our healthcare workforce by recruiting skilled doctors, nurses, technicians, and mental health professionals

Strengthen Public Education

We have a duty to make the world a better place for the next generation. To do that, we have to support our teachers and empower them to educate our young people. We have to ensure our young people have abundant opportunities. This requires that we invest in our education professionals and our public schools. We know that our teachers deserve higher pay, that our schools deserve more funding, and that our kids deserve our best. We owe it to them.

I think it’s safe to say I have an interesting education background. I went to four different public schools by 6th grade, and then I was homeschooled all through highschool until I left for college at Texas A&M University. I had teachers who inspired me to write stories, to speak up, and to have compassion. I know having good teachers can make all the difference, and good teachers deserve good compensation and good benefits. They also deserve all the tools and resources necessary for the job, and these supplies shouldn’t come out of their own pockets. I want to see our public schools and our students thrive.

When my family began to homeschool, we were able to customize our schooling around the educational needs of myself and my siblings as individuals. We were able to spend more time working on difficult topics, and we learned to find the learning opportunities in everything we did and everywhere we went. I want to see our homeschooling families and their students thrive, too. I believe that all Texas students deserve the best possible education, and for that purpose, I believe that the State of Texas has an obligation to ensure our public education system is as strong as it can be.
  • Increase teacher’s pay so that it is competitive enough to attract new qualified educators, and to retain our expert education professionals
  • Protect teacher’s benefits and retirements, and ensure regular cost of living adjustments
  • Improve healthcare plans offered for educators and school staff
  • Provide funding for support staff, needed technology, and in-classroom supplies
  • Fund our schools in an equitable way, so that all kids have a fair chance
  • Work alongside our homeschooling community to create opportunities and resources
  • Guarantee that funding intended for public schools is provided for them, and not funneled to private, for-profit, or charter schools
  • Require that members of the State Board of Education have education experience
  • Prevent tying school funding or teacher pay to standardized testing results
  • Promote trade schools and certification programs for workforce readiness
  • Stop classroom censorship. Trust teachers to teach history and other intricate topics accurately and professionally
  • Support public libraries, especially in rural communities
  • Eliminate student lunch debt

Preserve Our Environment

I believe that Climate Change is real. I also believe that Texas is well-situated to be a bold leader in the Green Energy industry. If we are bold, we can mitigate imminent harm to our communities from dangers such as floods, drought, air pollution from wasteful flaring practices, and damage from winter storms. Texas’ wild spaces are our most precious resources, and we must be dedicated to preserving them.

If I learned anything as an Eagle Scout, it was to be a good steward of our environment. The Boy Scouts of America taught me to “Be conservation minded” and to "Leave No Trace." Natural Disasters have always occurred, and with Climate Change increasing the severity, we need to "Be Prepared," as the Boy Scout Motto goes. These principles can guide us in our environmental protection policies and in our energy sector now.

The oil & gas industry is vital to our economy. I believe that conservation and the energy sector can complement each other, when given the right balance, ensuring that we have a reliable power grid, a robust source of jobs, vast economic growth, and a cleaner world for the next generation of Texans. One way we can achieve these goals is through green energy technology. Texas has a golden opportunity to be an industry leader in the production and innovation of wind and solar energy—if only we would stop holding ourselves back. We stand to benefit greatly if we could sell the excess energy we produce, and we can do this by connecting with the national power grid. I will never advocate that we “shut it all down,” but I do want to make sure that Texas stops carrying all its eggs in one basket with a dependency on fossil fuel and no plan for the future.

Reducing our dependence on fossil fuels will help us do our part to combat the impacts of climate change. Together, we can combine these efforts with bold environmental protection to ensure we “Keep Texas Beautiful” for the future. With 14 national parks and 80 state parks in Texas, in addition to millions of acres of city-owned and private lands, we have a wealth of natural places worth protecting.
  • Reduce the number of active flaring and methane venting sites, especially near our communities, and incentivize on-site power conversion
  • Prepare early response plans for natural disasters to ensure Texans are never left in the dark again
  • Protect clean air and water regulations
  • Safeguard our state and national narks from development
  • Diversify our energy production portfolio, ensure redundancy in our infrastructure, and connect with national grids
  • Enforce environmental protections to prevent desalinization along vulnerable coastal ecosystems

Protect Voting Rights

Despite claims to the contrary, the numbers show us that voter fraud is not a prevalent threat to our election process. The biggest threat to our election process is voter suppression and corruption in campaign finance. When I worked as a Volunteer Deputy Voter Registrar and as an election worker in 2020, I saw the obstacles our fellow Texans face, and I’m committed to making sure that every vote counts and every voice is heard. Advocating for voter engagement, improved registration, and increasing turnout are how we achieve this.

Texas has no restrictions against corporate donations to candidates and no maximum contribution limits, meaning ultra-wealthy donors and corporations can fully fund and influence candidates. I commit to taking no corporate donations, and will fight for campaign finance reform in Texas.

I believe we can most effectively combat voter fraud with massive voter turnout; this ensures that when Texans speak at the ballot box, we are heard loud and clear. Texas broke voter turnout records in 2020, and we can't let reactionary suppression tactics create new hurdles between Texas voters and the ballot box. In fact, we should be doing everything we can to make voting as easy as possible for every eligible Texan.

When Texas voters do get to the polls, however, there are still challenges that impact our ability to choose our elected officials. When redistricting occurs every ten years after the Census, the way that districts get drawn can be influenced by partisan manipulation tactics, such as gerrymandering. We must strive for non-partisan solutions for the redistricting process that are transparent to the public. Voters should choose their representatives, rather than representatives using tricks to choose their voters.
  • Support and expand online voter registration across the state
  • Allow same-day registration for qualified voters
  • Expand early voting to include late-night hours, weekends, and additional days
  • Protect vote-by-mail options and implement improved ballot tracking methods
  • Empower our counties to run well-funded and well-staffed elections and voter registration efforts
  • Improve the vote curing process to reduce the number of eligible ballots that are rejected due to errors
  • Support the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact
  • Ensure greater transparency in the vote tallying process
  • Support non-partisan safeguards to prevent partisan gerrymandering in the redistricting process
  • Commit to taking no campaign contributions from corporate PACs
  • Implement campaign finance reform measures that make it easier for first-time, working-class, and lower-income folks to run for office without needing wealthy or corporate donors

Promote Responsible Gun Ownership

If anybody can develop smart and effective ways to protect 2nd Amendment rights while also combating gun violence, it’s Texans. We can identify weak spots in our background check process and loopholes in our gun sales laws, and we can fix these in efficient, well-reasoned ways. As a gun owner myself, I insist on finding effective means to reduce gun-related deaths in our communities and within our homes while supporting responsible gun ownership. 

It’s not an easy task to identify gun-related regulations that all Texans can agree on. That’s why I won’t do this alone; I will continuously learn from and work with activist groups and knowledgeable members of our community. Furthermore, it’s imperative to keep a level head and focus on data for practical and effective solutions, and avoid resorting to emotionally charged rhetoric. Mass shootings are tragic, and we must fight to reduce them. Additionally, we know that many more gun deaths occur in the home due to accidents, suicide, or domestic violence. We can effectively address all of these problems by supporting safe gun storage practices, providing access to mental health resources, and restricting violent offenders from accessing weapons.
  • Defend Texas Castle Laws by ending the practice of “No knock” warrants.
  • Stand against mandatory buybacks.
  • Ensure that gun safety courses are affordable and easily accessible for all Texans
  • Identify ways to promote safe gun and ammunition storage
  • Investigate the impacts of repealing Permitless Carry
  • Place restrictions on convicted domestic violence or stalking offenders.
  • Require background checks for all gun sales, closing gun show and private sale loopholes
  • Minimum 21 age limit for purchase of semi-automatic weapons
  • Implement a mandatory waiting period after purchase of long guns

Reduce Unwanted Pregnancies

Abortion legislation is a difficult topic; however, all of us should agree that the prime opportunity for preventing unwanted pregnancies is before the pregnancy occurs. Anyone serious about reducing abortions and defending the autonomy of Texans’ reproductive rights should invest their time and efforts in preventing unwanted pregnancies in the first place; this is a goal we can work toward together.

A key factor we must keep in mind when discussing reproductive health, pregnancies, and abortion is our duty to defend bodily autonomy. We get to decide what to do with our bodies. Period. Just like how we cannot—and must not—require anyone to donate blood or plasma, or even vital organs after they’ve passed away, we cannot require someone to receive a vaccine, undergo a medical procedure, or to carry a pregnancy when they do not consent. We get to be the ones to choose what medical decisions are best for us, not legislators or insurance companies. Abortion services are one of the most heavily restricted and regulated medical practices in Texas, and this imposes greatly on the bodily autonomy of anyone who becomes pregnant. While it’s important to push back against our state’s excessive legislation, there is plenty of room for improvement before pregnancies even occur.

Unfortunately, there is a pervasive culture of shame and stigma regarding unplanned or unwanted pregnancies. Fear of judgment can prevent women from finding and accessing resources that can help them. We pass up opportunities to supply easy access to contraceptives and other family planning needs. We often fail to provide robust, science-based, age-appropriate safe sex education in our public school systems. Many Texas women aren’t eligible for the scarce resources we provide to expecting parents and even fewer resources are available for new mothers. I want to help Texas get ahead of this problem before the question of abortion even comes up.

To be clear, I support safe and legal abortion access. I believe that abortion bans and restrictions cause more harm than good, and that we can and must instead prevent unwanted pregnancies by addressing root cause issues of domestic violence, sexual assault, and poverty.
  • Increase funding for family planning services, and make it affordable for all Texans
  • Make contraceptives widely available for low or no cost
  • Provide robust, science-based, age-appropriate sex education in our public schools
  • Support women’s health services in public colleges and universities
  • Expand telemedicine services for accessible and affordable family planning and women’s health services
  • Expand Medicaid to substantially support parents after childbirth in healthcare and childcare resources
  • Provide employment services and parental leave support for new or soon-to-be parents
  • Defend constitutional abortion access by resisting new legislation that excessively penalizes or burdens Texas women for accessing needed resources
  • Repeal Texas' total abortion ban

Support Personal Freedoms

Sometimes, part of being a good neighbor is just as simple as minding your own business. We should not create or uphold laws that unnecessarily or harmfully restrict the freedoms of Texans. As a proud gay Texan, I get irritated when folks try to tell me how I can and can’t live my own life. We create much more harm than good when we criminalize and incarcerate our fellow Texans for things like cannabis or homelessness, or when we outlaw things like selling liquor before noon on Sundays. 

It’s time that Texas legalizes cannabis for adult recreational and medicinal use. Marijuana-related charges make up a large percentage of arrests and imprisonment—this is not a practical solution, but a costly mistake. Cannabis can be regulated for safe adult use—similarly to alcohol or tobacco products—while providing the state with much needed financial resources for other programs. Decriminalizing marijuana would let us stop burdening our neighbors with unnecessary criminal histories and stop disrupting people’s lives. Such criminal charges heavily impact communities of color. We must begin to fix this injustice by legalizing marijuana, releasing non-violent offenders from prisons, and expunging criminal records for these charges.

Incarceration is an ineffective solution for crimes that shouldn’t be crimes. Our neighbors experiencing extreme poverty or homelessness often incur criminal charges that lead to fees or imprisonment, neither of which effectively address the situation. Laws criminalizing sex work and drug use can perpetuate a cycle of incarceration and abuse, and can even further harm victims of human trafficking. Our current bail system leads to innocent Texans sitting in prisons without even being convicted of a crime. We need to drastically reduce the number of incarcerated people in Texas and reduce the penalties for many non-violent crimes. Doing so will save lives and reduce the shameful amount of money our state spends on prosecuting and imprisoning our neighbors.
  • Legalize marijuana for recreational and medicinal adult use and expunge records for non-violent offenders
  • Regulate cannabis growth and sales to provide new sources of tax revenue
  • Identify and repeal unnecessary, outdated laws, like the prohibition against selling liquor on Sundays
  • Improve our bail system so that justice is not “pay to play”
  • Divest from and end the practice of using private prisons in Texas
  • Support rehabilitative services and reduce arrests, prosecution, and incarceration for non-violent offenders
  • Remove barriers to re-entry for our formerly incarcerated neighbors, so that a past conviction does not prohibit access to housing, education, or employment
  • End over-policing in communities of color and lower-income communities

Fight for Equality

Every single one of our fellow Texans deserve the chance to build their lives without additional hardships and obstacles because of their race, gender, faith, or sexual orientation. Unfortunately, that’s not the reality for many of our neighbors who experience discrimination today. Today in Texas, the gender pay gap In Texas is worse than the national average, with women earning less than $0.80 for every $1.00 earned by their male counterparts. Today in Texas, our transgender neighbors face hostility and violence as politicians target them as a distraction again and again. Today in Texas, communities of color face disproportionate rates of arrests and police violence. We have to demand better. I will fight for equality.

I commit to Equality Texas’ Pledge for LGBTQ+ Equality: “As a candidate seeking public office in the state of Texas, I pledge to represent all of my constituents, and to work for a Texas in which everyone has the freedoms to work hard, earn a living, provide for their families, and participate fully in their communities - including lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, non-binary and queer (LGBTQ+) Texans. As an LGBTQ+ activist and non-profit leader, I speak up loudly for my community and advocate for learning our history. I recognize that the mantle of leadership is passed down from elders to younger generations, and that we must carry that torch forward and continue the fight for equality and dignity. I recognize the lawful power wielded by early gay rights activists such as Frank Kameny in political action and being the “respectable homosexual”, and also recognize the righteous fury of the AIDS era activists that demand we “Stand Up, Fight Back”. I hope to make my elders proud and fulfill the promise to future generations of queer Texans that “It Gets Better”.
  • Pass state-level workplace protections to prevent discrimination based on gender expression, gender identity, or sexual orientation
  • Remove language from the Texas Constitution that defines marriage to the exclusion of same-sex relationships
  • Advocate for and defend our transgender, intersex, and non-binary communities in the face of gendered laws, harmful legislation, and hateful rhetoric in the state legislature
  • Outlaw “gay panic” defense for hate crimes
  • Modify procedures for amending state identification documents to reduce barriers for transgender and non-binary Texans
  • Promote legislation to allow same-sex couples’ and LGBTQ+ individuals’ adoption rights
  • Protect LGBTQ+ parental rights
  • Ban conversion therapy in Texas

Working-Class Solidarity

Working Texans deserve financial security. This isn’t a revolutionary idea, but unfortunately, it’s not the reality we currently face. Right now, we are witnessing a major renaissance of the labor movement, and when we recognize that the workers fighting for their rights are our neighbors, there’s no doubt that this is the time when we should stand together in solidarity. I’m proud to be a member of the Texas State Employees Union CWA 6186, and I will make sure to heed the advice and organizing needs of unions advocating for workers in Texas.

  • Increase the state minimum wage to $15 an hour
  • Allow cities, counties, and local municipalities to increase the minimum wage within their jurisdiction to exceed the state minimum wage
  • Support union organizing efforts seeking equal pay for equal work
  • Advocate for mandatory sick leave, parental leave, and bereavement leave
  • Protect the retirement benefits of state agency employees and advocate for regular cost-of-living increases
  • Resist attempts to privatize state agencies that provide critical public services and that need in-depth governmental oversight
  • Aggressively pursue reforms for DFPS and CPS
The Texas Flag and LGBT Pride Flag flying on the same flagpole


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