Our endorsements for Harris County’s education trustees and for District 144.
Democrats should give Perez a chance to take back her old seat.
This primary race gives Democratic voters the chance to interact with a political entity so rare that it might as well join the whooping crane and ocelot on a list of Texas’ endangered species: A legislative district that isn’t a safe seat. Mary Ann Perez won her race for this seat in 2013, but narrowly lost to Republican Gilbert Peña in 2015. Now Perez, a former chair of the Houston Community College board of trustees, wants her seat back. We encourage Democratic voters to give her that shot. The district stretches from Pasadena across the Houston Ship Channel to Baytown. As its elected representative, Perez was an effective freshman who served on five committees and had two bills signed into law — including a bill that helped integrate battery storage into Texas’ electrical grid.
In her interview with the Houston Chronicle editorial board, Perez emphasized jobs, education, pollution and expanding Medicaid as her top priorities if elected.
“I think it is terrible that the states that have expanded Medicaid get to benefit from our federal dollars that we send over and we get absolutely no benefit out of it.”
Of the other two candidates, we were particularly impressed by Cody Ray Wheeler, a Pasadena city councilman who articulated a passion for helping the working class, both in Austin and back home in the district. It is a view that’s not heard enough in Texas politics. Democrats should hope that he stays involved.
Also running is Bernie Aldape III, an attorney and former legislative staffer.