PRO-WOMAN’S CHOICe
It is gravely unsettling to me, our state is attacking a woman’s right to choose and her autonomy over her body. I believe women can and should make the private decision to early terminate a pregnancy in consultation with their healthcare provider. Texas anti-abortion law leaves women with no accessible options and poses grave risk to a return of a grim history of dangerous, unqualified, and unregulated abortion providers killing thousands of women in places where safe abortion services are not available or legal. Women should be empowered and supported through a culture of consent, birth control, early term abortions, and reproductive health rather than reduced to property of the state. Every woman needs to have a right to make decisions governing her body and have access to services that support those complex decisions. A society that embraces a medical team and loved ones deciding to pull the plug ending the life of an incapacitated elderly person or adult on life support but strips the right of a woman to make similar decisions with her medical team to end a pregnancy due to health risks, incest, rape, or other complications is one fueled with hypocrisy.
School Choice is Liberation
Since Reconstruction, Democrats have worked to use state sanctioned power to deny African Americans the right to receive the quality public funded education we need and deserve. No matter how much the Democratic Party has advanced its platform over the years to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion and despite African American voters demonstrating nearly full allegiance to the party as a voting bloc, Democrats continue to fall short of adequately addressing the long-term and persistent disparities and inequities plaguing the African American community. I will not only fight for historically oppressed and marginalized communities of all colors, creeds, religions, races, and ethnicities to achieve Educational Freedom, but I will fight for increased public education funding and teacher pay. The narrative that puts School Choice advocates against Public Education advocates was handcrafted to give the best possible chance for financial benefactors and interest groups to sustain the status quo at the expense of vulnerable families, teachers, and public schools. School Choice has been a clarion call of the Black Liberation Movement since I was a child. I heard the call having limited knowledge all so long ago, and I refuse to abandon the movement when I fully understand the dire need and circumstance necessitating more public funded educational options for vulnerable families now more than ever. Students receiving free and reduced lunch; living with unique mental, emotional, and physical abilities; having an adverse experience in the Texas Public Education System deserve an “Underground Railroad” toward Educational Freedom. I will champion School Choice policy that will allows vulnerable families to receive public funds to control their self-determined destiny without system constraints.
Ranked Choice Voting
I have served as the premier advocate and activist in Fort Bend and greater Houston fiercely and unapologetically advancing the Equity Movement for over a decade. I have used data driven strategies, theoretical frameworks and models, and community mobilization to dismantle power structures that systemically oppress vulnerable people. It is no secret that I am a people over party leader, and it is for this reason that I choose to support the Ranked Choice Voting Movement. Capturing the true candidate preferences of THE PEOPLE are long overdue. The political system has abandoned us. It has chosen partisan division over compromise and sensibility to keep us locked in peril. Ranked Choice Voting advances and strengthens the power of democracy. It puts voting power back in the hands of the people. If we are to restore government to its constitutional duty of public service to fellow Texans instead of party allegiance, then making this critical step to incorporate Ranked Choice Voting helps us achieve this end. Not only will Ranked Choice Voting ensure our collective voices are heard, but it will save us money and time. It will ensure our true vote for who represents us matters!
Entrepreneurship and Small Business
I have a sense of urgency to rethink the current
employment framework which encourages us to go find a “good job”. I will shift
the conversation in HD-76 to be about offering “good work” rather than finding a
“good job”. I will advocate for employment policy that creates more employment
options for the 1099 independent contractor to receive benefits such as health
insurance and protection against exploitation for their “good work”. “Good
work” recognizes that we live in a shared economy, and those who participate in
it have ownership of their expertise and marketable skills to sell to a vast
field of employers. It is an outcome-oriented approach that also recognizes our
skills and talents make us free agents with demonstrated capability to provide
“good work” and does not limit us to only finding security in regular fulltime
employment. I will advocate for free vocational training, increased access to
trade schools and 21st century workforce certifications, affordable
hands-on business formation technical support, entrepreneurship workshops,
accountable small business protégé programs, and accessible small business
loans including loans for startup companies. Small businesses and entrepreneurs
are crucial to job creation and wealth building in HD 76.
Healthcare for All
If ever there was a time in modern history that Texas needs healthcare for all Texans, it’s now. Unfortunately, the correlation between health and wealth is all too real in Texas. Texas remains to be the state with the highest rate of uninsured persons in the nation according to U.S. data released in 2019 which was twice the national average. Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) data shows Texas having rates of maternal mortality at 18.5 deaths per 100,000 which is higher than the national average. Health insurance premiums are too high, out of pocket medical expenses are expensive, and medical procedures’ cost remains a mystery until the shocking bill arrives. I will advocate to expand Medicaid and establish auto enrollment for the uninsured. All Texans should have immediate access to preventative care, prescription drugs, dental, vision, hearing, mental health, neonatal and postnatal care.
Environmental Justice
I believe in the science. Air and water quality and pollution are real problems in Texas. The Parish coal plant is releasing poisonous toxic pollutants contaminating our air and water in Fort Bend County. Polluters are destroying our environment, damaging our health, and negatively altering our climate patterns. Fossil fuel combustion is a major contributor to this crisis, and our children will be left in dire circumstances if we continue to do nothing. Texas got a wake-up call when the winter ice storm of 2021 compromised our power grid and left us with overly extended electrical resources, damaged property, and loss of life. As your Representative of HD 76, I will work with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to transition Texas toward increased utilization of clean and efficient energy sources and reduced carbon emissions.
Punitive Texas Systems
Texas juvenile justice, criminal justice, public education, and foster care systems fail to uphold civil rights, timely and fair due process, and equal protection under the law. Racial injustice and class disparities persist in these systems resulting in poor outcomes for historically oppressed and marginalized citizens. Juvenile justice fast tracks youth involved in nonviolent crimes into detention centers across the state for extended periods of time and continues to use a three-strikes rule approach to justify escalating punishment. The need for criminal justice reform to improve policing, prosecution, and sentencing continues. Diverting non-violent and victimless crimes to alternative restorative programs would save massive costs to Texas and end the destruction of lives caused by mass incarceration. I firmly believe that punishment in a civilized society must respect the human dignity of people detained in jails and prisons. Excluding persons convicted of gruesome violent crimes, successful re-entry to society after incarceration is important to both the returning citizen and the public. Texas must make a shift to respond to addiction, mental illness, and poverty with appropriate social services, intervention, and specialized programs instead of using criminal enforcement. The misguided and excessive use of criminal enforcement has contributed to mass incarceration of our most vulnerable citizens. While I recognize the extensive need for criminal justice reform, I believe it’s important to support law enforcement efforts to crack down on sex trafficking and organized crime in Texas.
Inequality starts in our education system. Texas schools continue to excessively discipline students of color at alarming rates compared to their white counterpart for the same infractions despite the public’s outcry. During the 2018-2019 academic school year, 20.7% of the state’s 685,775 Black students, 7.7% of its 2.9 million Latino students and just 4.1% of its 1.5 million white students were suspended per data available through the Texas Education Agency. In 2022, An Examination of Public-School Discipline Policies and Implications for African American Students within a Texas School District (tsu.edu) revealed that Black students were more likely tor receive harsher discipline than students of other ethnic and racial groups for same or similar infractions. Community wealth continues to be an indicator of the funding available for its public schools. Students in low income and majority black and brown communities receive less programming options, social program supports, and access to accelerated learning opportunities compared to schools located in affluent areas. To improve the quality of primary and secondary education, teachers need increased pay but also better support from parents and school administration.
Texas foster care system was declared unconstitutional. Children are trafficked into foster care and subjected to greater risk of child abuse and unsafe living conditions than their home of origin. Males of color involved in foster care and juvenile justice systems face high risk of sexual abuse while in custody and neglect in detention centers with no parent, legal guardian, or loved one to ensure their protection. Texas children have the deck stacked against them when interacting with punitive systems in this state. I will boldly advocate and propose policy changes to restore trust and hope in our social systems and ensure they fulfill their original mission of service to fellow Texans.
Racial Hate and Attacks
As a proud African American woman with a rich ancestral past in the Deep South, I know all too well the agony of living in and loving a homeland with a longstanding history of racial and ethnic hate and violence toward people different from the dominant culture. HD-76 is a diverse community comprised of people from all racial and ethnic backgrounds and walks of life. I will fight to ensure every resident is safely able to pursue their individualized American Dream and actively participate in our democracy free of fear. I support strict policies that hold perpetrators of racial harassment and hate crimes accountable. I will work to secure our border with Mexico, ensure humane treatment of immigrants fleeing from violence, and advocate for humane treatment of others in war-torn countries abroad. I will never tolerate persecution of native-born Americans and foreign-born visitors within our state’s borders because of their racial and ethnic differences.