Houston area officials to speak at Texas Democratic Convention in El Paso
Houston Public Media: Houston area officials to speak at Texas Democratic Convention in El Paso
Day 2 of the Texas Democratic Convention in El Paso is underway.
The convention kicked off Thursday night and continues through Saturday morning. Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo and newly elected Senator Molly Cook will be among the local officials in attendance.
Texas Senator Carol Alvarado says the energy is high and democrats are motivated and united against the Republican party policies she calls, "draconian policies" when discussing the hottest topic at the debate: women's rights.
"It is not just about whether you are pro-choice or pro-life or your personal position on abortion, it is about the simple fact that in Texas we have taken away that liberty and freedom for women,” Alvarado said. “It is very hypocritical when you have Republicans who beat their chest and they say they want less government, but they turn around and pass policies, I call it, draconian policies on women's health.”
Other topics on the table include immigration, gun reform and public school funding.
Alvarado says the Democrats are also gearing up to support statewide candidate, U.S. Congressman, Colin Allred, who aims to defeat Senator Ted Cruz, in the November election.
“I think he would take care of the issues that are important to Texas. He has defended policies that the Biden administration has put forth,” Alvarado said.
She says Abbott has claimed he is gaining ground in support of the voucher program because he only needed a couple more seats, which he says he has.
"There are going to be horrible extreme policies that Republicans will push and pass, because they have the numbers, and the governor will sign it. Our only recourse is going to be in court." Alvarado said.
The convention ends Saturday morning.
Houston area officials call for end of Texas Education Agency’s takeover of Houston ISD
Speaking from the steps of the Houston chapter of the NAACP in the Third Ward Thursday morning, a gauntlet of people demanded an end to the occupation of the Houston Independent School District by the Texas Education Agency and its appointed Superintendent F. Mike Miles.
Speakers included NAACP Chapter President James Dixon, Congressman Al Green, newly elected State Senator Molly Cook, Houston Federation of Teachers President Jacqueline Anderson and Johnny Mata of the Greater Houston Coalition for Justice. All railed against the takeover of HISD by the state and the non-elected installation of Mike Miles.
Each speaker filed their own complaint against Miles. From dismissals of award-winning school principals and teachers to the closure of school libraries and subsequent layoffs of librarians and custodians, a litany of allegations of chaos and fallout from Miles’s actions. All focused on stopping Miles’s latest scheme: a five-billion-dollar bond issue for the district.
Congressman Green has called for an independent federal investigation into Mike Miles and the Texas Education Agency's takeover of HISD. He said the funneling of Texas education money to a pair of voucher-funded charter schools in Colorado warrants the investigation. Miles founded Third Future Schools and was a paid consultant for the charter school system last year.
"This is enough probable cause in the court of public opinion for me to seek an opportunity for the Justice Department and the Department of Education to investigate this and find out what is happening to our tax dollars," Green proclaimed.
As HISD struggles to close a $450-million deficit by the reductions in workforce and closure of education and support programs, Green says Third Future Schools of Texas, a charter school network, sent money to its cash-strapped Colorado schools from a general fund, which includes money from Texas.
Green is furious at the idea of Texas money being shipped out of state to help a struggling pair of charter schools in Colorado—which were founded and run by Miles until he was tapped by Governor Greg Abbott to run HISD. Green says the takeover is just another way Abbott is trying to force school vouchers on the public:
"There have been efforts to voucherize our schools and our school systems. We have resisted that; the courts have resisted that," Green said. "But the governor in the state of Texas is persisting with that. If we allow the voucher system to succeed, we will lose the public school system that has benefited this society."
Green quoted from history telling the crowd that vouchers were created in 1956 in the wake of the Supreme Court ruling in Brown v Board of Education. Nobel Laureate Economist Milton Friedman proposed defunding public education and giving the money to parents as a voucher to send their kids to charter schools as a way of keeping school segregation going.
As a finishing statement, each speaker offered a slogan that served as a rallying cry repeated by the enthusiastic crowd gathered to discuss and support the HISD independence movement.
Green's words during his time at the lectern certainly set the scene for the press event: "Currently we have government of, by, and for the Governor. So, Governor, you have made your choice. We will make our choice. You are not going to be Governor forever and we will make sure how you have treated Harris County, Houston, Texas in the future."
“Everything went exactly as we expected it to.”
State Sen. Molly Cook narrowly won the Democratic race for the Texas Senate District 15 seat against state Rep. Jarvis Johnson. Tuesday’s primary runoff for Houston Mayor John Whitmire’s former senate seat was a nail-biter, with Cook beating Johnson by 74 votes, according to results released by the Harris County Clerk’s Office.
Cook trailed Johnson by 364 votes before Election Day, based on early voting and ballot-by-mail tallies, but said she and her campaign remained confident during a race in which a total of nearly 18,800 votes were cast. Cook received 50.2% of the vote compared to 49.8% for Johnson, who has represented part of the district while serving since 2017 in the Texas House of Representatives.
“Everything went exactly as we expected it to,” Cook said Wednesday. “We worked really, really hard and we were confident in the turnout on Election Day.”
Johnson, who served on the Houston City Council before being elected to the Texas House, was not ready to concede defeat Wednesday because “the margin in this race is so small.” He also said he wanted to “ensure that each and every ballot is included in the final count,” since some mail-in ballots and provisional ballots can be tallied after Election Day.
“Our goal is not to further delay the official results. We are allowing the behind-the-scenes process to run its course,” Johnson said in a statement. “This exercise could move margins in our favor, or simply present an outcome that may not end favorably for us. We are in ongoing conversations with our legal team and political advisors.”
The Senate District 15 seat representing a portion of Houston was vacated for the first time since 1978 this year when Whitmire was elected as Houston’s mayor.
It was the second election win in a month for Cook, who beat Johnson by a much larger margin of 14 points in a May 4 special election to finish out Whitmire’s current term in the Texas Legislature. Tuesday’s primary was related to a full, four-year term that begins in 2025.
Cook, an emergency room nurse, activist and community organizer who is part of the LGBTQ+ community, must still face Republican Joseph L. Trahan, who ran unopposed in the primary, in the November general election. But the seat is considered safely Democratic.
Cook entered the political arena in 2022, when she challenged Whitmire in the Democratic primary and received about 42% of the vote. Her come-from-behind win Tuesday was an extension of that campaign, she said.
It also came on a day when many Houston-area residents lost electricity during a deadly afternoon storm that resulted in temporary power outages at more than a dozen voting locations. After winning, Cook said she was focused on responding to “the constituents who have again lost power or are still out of power and have needs on the ground.”
“You know, it was another Houston day with a surprising turn of events with the weather,” Cook said. “But we’ve done work over the last two-and-a-half years running for this seat. It culminates on Election Day, but there was quite a bit of foundation and bedrock we were operating from. And we did see pop in the afternoon. People turned out after the storm. There is so much hope and determination in our district and in Harris County, voters found a way to make their voices heard.”
Cook's margin of victory indicates her strength heading into the Democratic primary runoff later this month.
Voters in Senate District 15 have elected ER nurse and political activist Molly Cook to fill the unexpired term of Houston Mayor John Whitmire. Cook's margin of victory indicates her strength heading into the Democratic primary runoff later this month.
Molly Cook jumped out to a sizable lead over State Representative Jarvis Johnson when Harris County released the early voting numbers in the special election Saturday evening. By the time the unofficial final results came out early Sunday morning, Cook led by more than 2,000 votes out of about 16,000 cast — more than 14 percentage points.
During the campaign, Cook emphasized her experience as a medical professional and focused on issues such as energy affordability, abortion rights, gun safety, protecting public education, and LGBTQ+ rights. Her victory in the special election makes her the first openly LGBTQ+ state senator in Texas.
Molly Cook previously challenged John Whitmire for the Democratic nomination for Senate District 15 in 2022. She lost that race by 58.4% to 41.6% but gained name recognition.
Cook will face Jarvis Johnson one more time in the Democratic primary runoff May 28 to determine who will represent the party against Republican candidate Joseph L. Trahan in the general election. The winner of the November contest will represent SD 15 in next year's legislative session. The last time a Republican won SD 15 was more than 50 years ago, making the winner of the Democratic primary runoff the heavy favorite in the general election.
Cook’s victory in the special election will count towards her seniority in the Senate if she wins the primary runoff and general elections. In the meanwhile, it means SD 15 will have representation in the Senate if Governor Greg Abbott summons the Legislature back for a special session this year.
"Each one of these races is a brand-new race," she said. "We're very excited."
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"It's not every day that Texans get a choice between good Democrats."
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“This seat is extremely special,” said Molly Cook, another one of the candidates. “We have a safe Democratic seat that is in the heart of Harris County, and it's open for the first time in 40 years. So Democrats in Texas get to choose the person who represents them and the style that they prefer.”
“It's not every day that Texans get a choice between good Democrats,” Cook added. “I'm really excited about this primary.”
— Former Whitmire opponent Molly Cook
“I want to die in Houston. I don't want to be a climate refugee.”
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"It is very clear that there are two sides to this issue.”
“One side stands to benefit financially, and one side stands to lose their homes, or stands to lose major parts of their city that they know and love.”
“I want to reject a yes-no vote on something that is this important, that is this expensive, that is this monumental for generations to come.”
“I want to die in Houston. I don't want to be a climate refugee. I don't want to have to work on my car, own a car, drive a car every single place that I go for the rest of my entire life. I want to live here happily with walkability, with a concern for the climate, with a concern for those who cannot afford to own cars.”
“TxDOT is…trying to pit the Texas cities against each other,
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“It’s very clear that TxDOT is, A, giving us a false binary, and B, trying to pit the Texas cities against each other, and it’s not going to work.”