Voters increase diversity of Texas House
This month’s election didn’t change much about the Legislature’s partisan divide — Republicans just slightly expanded their majorities.
But the Legislature also saw some turnover, with more than two dozen lawmakers retiring or running for higher office. Texans sent more conservative Republicans to the state Capitol, especially in the Senate. They also significantly diversified the House, doubling the number of GOP women in the chamber, expanding the LGBTQ caucus and electing the state’s first two Muslim lawmakers.
“A state as diverse as Texas deserves representation that reflects its distinctiveness,” House Speaker Dade Phelan said in a statement. “The makeup of the House mirrors our state’s diversity, and I look forward to leading the chamber in a manner that allows all members to utilize their various backgrounds to vote their districts and do what’s best for their communities.”
Men and white people have long been overrepresented in the Legislature, failing to fully reflect the demographics of the state. Those challenges will persist in the 88th session, which begins Jan. 10, but the new members are a step toward a body that more accurately represents Texas’ 29 million residents.
Several Latino members will also start the session in the GOP caucus next year, including Janie Lopez, the first Hispanic GOP woman to represent the Rio Grande Valley. The GOP majority will also include John Lujan, who was re-elected in a
San Antonio-area swing district after winning it in a special election last year, and Ryan Guillen, a former Democrat who changed parties at the end of last year and was re-elected with more than 70 percent of the vote.
“I expect the diversity we’ve seen in our chamber in recent years to continue to grow in the future,” Phelan said.
New class of GOP women
Texans elected 14 Republican women to the House this month, doubling the total number of GOP women in the chamber. At 28, Caroline Harris, the newly elected representative from Round Rock, is the youngest GOP woman ever elected to the House.
“It is important for my generation to have a seat at the table in determining the public policy decisions that will shape the future of our state and nation,” she told Fox News. “For too long, the Democrat Party has claimed to be the voice of young women. I look forward to providing a strong counter-voice on behalf of conservative women of all ages.”
Ellen Troxclair, a former Austin City Council member, was elected to represent House District 19, which includes several Hill Country counties west of the capital. She said the growing representation in the Republican Party will help the majority address a range of issues that primarily affect women, including domestic violence and resources for new moms.
But Troxclair also stressed that she and other female members of the caucus shouldn’t be “pigeonholed” into women’s issues. Her priorities also include securing the Mexican border, lowering property taxes and supporting the police.
“While those issues are incredibly important, and we are going to step up and support women, we need to make sure that our voices are heard on a broad range of issues, because those are the things that are really impacting families around the kitchen table,” she said.
Angelia Orr, who was elected to represent a sprawling district surrounding Waco, expressed a similar sentiment. She’s “proud” to see the diversifying GOP caucus, but “I am even prouder that all of us were elected based on our qualifications and merits.”
She aims to lower property taxes and secure the border, too, but is also advocating for increased funding for public schools and stronger rights for owners of private property.
Expanding LGBTQ caucus
Texas also elected the first two Black LGBTQ men to the Texas House: Christian Manuel, who will represent Port Arthur, and Venton Jones, who won a Dallas district.
Manuel has long served as the chief of staff for state Rep. Joe Deshotel, D-beaumont, and counts about 18 years served in the Capitol overall. His institutional knowledge beats that of many recently elected legislators, and he plans to use that to Democrats’ advantage next year.
His priorities include strengthening special education — a deeply personal issue because Manuel is dyslexic and has several family members on the autism spectrum. He also wants to pursue legislation combating domestic violence and tackling climate change.
“At the end of the day, we need to be protecting people,” Manuel said. “That’s what government is about.”
Jones, the first openly Hivpositive member of the Legislature, said his identity and experiences will help him address issues such as racial inequality and homophobia. He also brings 20 years of public health experience to Austin and says his expertise could help lawmakers craft nuanced legislation on health care policy.
He’s gearing up for a fight in the Legislature this spring, where the entrenched Republican majority is expected to again pursue legislation that would target members of the LGBTQ community, including an effort to outlaw gender-affirming care for transgender children and limit the way public schools address sexuality.
The vast majority of Jones’ soon-to-be constituents are people of color, and he wants to make sure his work addresses their current needs and creates future social and economic opportunities for them.
“I’m very excited to be able to have the opportunity to serve, to help make sure that these communities’ voices are heard,” Jones said. “We’re looking at that from an intersectional perspective.”
First Muslim legislators
Democrats Salman Bhojani and Suleman Lalani became the first two South Asians and Muslims elected to the Legislature after their wins this month. The two are both originally from Karachi, the most populous city in Pakistan, and they belong to the same religious minority group, known as the Shia Ismaili.
Lalani, 55, who first came to the United States as a young medical student, will be the only primary care doctor in the Legislature. He said he hopes to share his medical experience with his fellow lawmakers, including how his specialty of geriatrics has shown him the importance of preventative care and access to care.
“My patients are one of my biggest sources of inspiration,” Lalani said. “We have the world’s largest medical center (in Houston) — the who’s who of the world flies into the U.S. to use it to get the treatment — but our own people cannot cross the street to get it.”
Bhojani, a lawyer and smallbusiness owner, was elected to District 92 in Tarrant County, which became bluer after redistricting last year. In 2018, he became the first Muslim elected to public office in his hometown of Euless.
His drive to get involved in politics came after former President Donald Trump signed an executive order that banned foreign nationals from seven predominantly Muslim countries from visiting the country. Bhojani said he immediately went to the Dallas-fort Worth airport to help push for detainees’ releases.
“I was able to get them out, so I won that fight, but the war was still going on,” he said. “I remembered Mahatma Gandhi’s quote saying, ‘Be the change you want to see in the world.’ I felt that that’s something I want to do — have a seat at the table because Muslims have been on the menu far too long.”