With 3 Garcias on ballot, Latinos hope for breakthrough
Houston could see its first Hispanic Congress member
There is a pretty good chance that the next member of Congress from east Houston will be a Garcia.
Three candidates with that last name already have qualified to be on the ballot on March 6 to replace U.S. Rep. Gene Green, who has announced he will retire next year. A fourth Garcia kicked around the idea before ultimately deciding not to run.
And while they’ll make for an interesting ballot, the names also show that the district is closer than ever to electing a Hispanic to Congress.
“You’re talking to the real Garcia,” state Sen. Sylvia Garcia said with a laugh.
Attorney Roel Garcia said he already is playing with a slogan to distinguish himself.
“Maybe it’s time for a different Garcia,” he said.
Real estate agent Domi-
nique Garcia also has filed. Former Harris County Sheriff Adrian Garcia had been considering the race before opting to run for Precinct 2 county commissioner. All are Democrats.
“It’s incredible,” Dominique Garcia said. “So many Garcias.”
Then there is the case of schoolteacher Hector Morales, who filed to run for the seat even before Green announced his decision to retire. Morales said he already has a number of issues he thinks makes him the best candidate, but acknowledged, “I’m hoping my name will stand out.”
Morales is not the only non-Garcia in the race. Beaumont-area hospital executive Tahir Javed filed late last week to run for the position as well. No worry of confusion
Longtime congressional watcher Larry Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia, said he cannot recall ever seeing that many people with the same surname on the same ballot in any race. There have been cases where two people with the same last name fought it out, such as the 1996 Virginia U.S. Senate race when Mark Warner, a Democrat, tried to unseat Sen. John Warner, a Republican. In that case, the candidates had to resort to campaigning on their first names.
In 2016, only four people with the last name Garcia ran for U.S. House seats in the entire nation, according to records from the Federal Elections Commission.
To be sure, the last name Garcia has become more familiar in the U.S. According to the Census Bureau, it is the sixth most common surname in the country, after Smith, Johnson, Williams, Brown and Jones.
While the names are the same, longtime Democratic consultant Marc Campos said he does not think there will be much confusion with voters when it comes to picking the Garcia they want in the 29th Congressional District. Primary elections typically have low voter turnout, but those who get out generally are well-informed and not likely to mix up which candidate they want, even if they all have the same last name.
“They will know the difference,” Campos said assuredly.
While the similar names are a quirk, Campos and others in the race say it also shows that something important is happening. All of the candidates in the Democratic primary, except Javed, have Hispanic surnames, meaning that for the first time in Houston’s history, a Hispanic is wellpositioned to represent the area in Congress.
In the 1990s, the district they are all battling over was designed to improve a Hispanic candidates’ chances of winning. It did not work out that way, though. In 1992, then-City Councilman Ben Reyes was the leading vote-getter in a five-candidate primary, but he was forced into a runoff that Green won by 180 votes out of more than 31,000 cast.
About 77 percent of the current 29th District is made up of people who list themselves as Hispanic with the U.S. Census. The district includes much of east Houston and parts of Pasadena.
“We can no longer be the largest Latino community in America without a voice in Washington,” Campos said. “This is not acceptable.”
According to the census, Houston had just under 1 million Hispanic residents, third only to New York and Los Angeles, both of which have members of Congress who are Hispanic. A different voice
Sylvia Garcia said Green has done a good job representing the community in Washington, but said the district is buzzing about the potential to see a Latino or Latina from the community in Congress. Green on Thursday officially endorsed her in the primary.
Sylvia Garcia said a Houston member of Congress needs to be at the table on issues such as immigration reform and the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program because of the importance of those issues to the area’s growing immigrant community.
“I’m going there to be a voice and to stand up to the White House,” she said.
Morales said he also sees himself as someone who can bring a different voice for the community. He said he is particularly concerned about the big differences from school district to school district.
“I decided it was time to do something about it,” Morales said.
Roel Garcia said there was a point where names like Smith and Johnson may have dominated politics in Houston but said it is good to see new surnames proliferating.
“It’s telling of how the community is changing,” he said.
Early on, it looked as though there would be a much more crowded primary field. After Green announced he would not seek re-election, state Reps. Armando Walle and Carol Alvarado, both Houston Democrats, said they were considering running. Both are former staffers for Green. Over the past two weeks, however, both have announced they would not jump into the primary.
The district heavily favors Democrats, though as of Wednesday, two Republicans had qualified to run next year: Robert Schafranek and Phillip Aronoff.
The filing deadline to get on the primary ballot is Monday.