When I’m out in the community knocking on doors and talking to voters it often seems like I’m giving a civics quiz. When I tell voters I’m running to represent State House District 47 they often say “I’m not in your district, I’m in 25” or “Oh no, I’m in 21.” They are thinking of Congressional districts, and within my state district, there are four! The 47th district encompasses a portion of congressional districts 10, 21, 25 and 35.
When voters talk about government they often jump right to Congress, helped in part by a media that tends to focus on Congress and big glitzy national issues. What happens here, in Austin has as great an impact on voter’s lives-even if it gets less attention.
One issue getting a lot of attention is gerrymandering. It’s at the state level where our representatives decide on congressional district boundaries and if we’re going to have boundaries that make sense and keep communities together we need to focus on the Legislature where the redistricting takes place. When I’m elected to the Texas house, I will work with my colleagues, in both parties, to ensure the process is done fairly by pushing for an independent redistricting commission.
Bottom line, we the people should be choosing our Congressional representatives, not the other way around. In the legislature I will always fight for fairness in political representation we deserve."