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Ep. 7: The Elephant in the Room Texas Democrats KEEP Ignoring (Rep. Mihaela Plesa)
46 Plays8 days ago
Note: This episode was recorded before the recent court decision on redistricting.
State Rep. Mihaela Plesa (HD 70 – Collin County) joins Mission: Texas to break down how gerrymandering, mid-decade redistricting, and low turnout are keeping Texas red—and what it really takes to win in a suburban swing district north of Dallas.
Mihaela shares her journey as the daughter of immigrants and a bilingual kid in Collin County, to small business owner, to unpaid Capitol intern at 32, to Vice Chair of the Texas House Democratic Caucus who flipped a gerrymandered district, won by just 800 votes, and made a runoff by only 29 votes. She explains why the Texas House, school boards, and city councils are the real front lines, and why Texas Democrats need to stop running one-size-fits-all campaigns and start running “soul campaigns” rooted in their own communities.
In this episode with Rep. Mihaela Plesa, we cover:
- How redistricting and gerrymandering in Collin County created HD 70—and why there should be more competitive districts
- Why the next census and Texas redistricting fight could decide control of Congress and the White House
- Mihaela’s path from fashion merchandising and small business to policymaking in Austin
- What it took to beat a $4 million Republican campaign in a suburban swing seat
- How voting rules, map changes, and ballot design are used to confuse and discourage voters
- The reality of a “Chamber of Commerce” district and how business and labor both benefit from Medicaid expansion, strong public schools, and economic stability
- Where she actually agrees with Trump (credit card interest caps, taxes on tips, IVF access)—and why Democrats should own the affordability fight
- Why down-ballot races (Texas House, school board, city council) are where Republicans are quietly investing big money
- A call for more Texans to step up and run, especially in tough districts, and to treat taking back the Texas House as a real, achievable goal
Connect with Rep. Mihaela Plesa:
Website & newsletter: plesafortexas.com
Socials: @PlesaForTexas
📲 Follow and share: @MissionTexasPodcast
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction and Podcast Mission
00:00:00
Speaker
Howdy. This is Mission Texas. A political podcast about winning Texas by 2032 or else we may lose the White House for a generation.
00:00:11
Speaker
I'm one of your hosts, Alex Clark. And I am Kate Rumsey. Other podcasts may focus on the day-to-day the next election. But we are keeping the eyes of Texas on the bigger prize.
00:00:23
Speaker
What happens after the next census?
Guest Introduction: Mihaela Flisa
00:00:27
Speaker
All right, really excited about our next guest. She is the vice chair of the Texas House Democratic Caucus. She is one of the few Democrats in Collin County, north of Dallas.
00:00:39
Speaker
ah She is also one of the people that broke quorum, which you may have heard of her on the news. And she just happens to be my old classmate from public schools.
Redistricting Challenges and Fair Representation
00:00:49
Speaker
I've got the yearbook to prove it if anybody sees.
00:00:52
Speaker
Young Mihaela. i still look the same. You do. Welcome, Mihaela, Flisa. We're so excited to have you. Thank you guys so much for having me. Thank you guys. Congratulations on the start of this amazing ah venture you guys are doing. I'm so excited to be on. I'm so excited to connect with y'all's listeners and get everybody excited because we have about a year.
00:01:17
Speaker
to get everybody excited to get to the polls and have their voice heard, we cannot allow the same thing to keep happening. That's right. And we also have another, what, a little four and a half years almost before the the big thing is going to happen. What this podcast is all about is the next census.
00:01:34
Speaker
I mean, we all know that you're supposed to redistrict every 10 years. I mean, you just went through the mid-decade gerrymandering, which is wild, but we know it's coming again just five more years.
00:01:48
Speaker
And with the all the new population growth, Texas has, the stakes could not be higher. We're expecting a four to five new congressional seats. And that's going to have impacts throughout the Texas legislature as well, right?
00:02:00
Speaker
Well, absolutely. And you have to remember that um the legislature is where these maps are drawn, right? Texas doesn't have an independent redistricting commission. um So it's essentially us that draw our maps, our congressional maps, um all the maps, everything that you vote on, whether it's school board or whatever, that's drawn by us as state representatives, right? And so we need to make sure that we're creating maps that resemble the districts that they're supposed to represent.
00:02:29
Speaker
And we constantly in the state of Texas are fighting these maps in court.
Mihaela Flisa's Background and Political Journey
00:02:34
Speaker
What is happening now is that you see legislatures, and it's not just Texas, but all over the nation, going in to do this mid-decade redistricting, essentially moving the goalposts, changing the rules mid-game in order to gain the system.
00:02:50
Speaker
Because, unfortunately, Republicans have been... been governing so horribly that they feel like they need to cheat the system in order to stay in power as we go in into um our next election cycles. Right. And so and Texas isn't the only one, but we see other states, North Carolina just recently um and did mid-decade redistricting without a census. And look, having census data before you do redistricting, before you draw new maps,
00:03:21
Speaker
and This isn't a partisan issue. You have Republicans in California filing the same legislation, like an amendment that I carried and on the House floor, um to say, look, we're not going do mid-decky redistricting without a census.
00:03:35
Speaker
Because at the census level is how we know how much money, how much resources, what all the things that we need to do the things that a state government should do. Keep the lights on, keep the water clean, keep people educated, healthy, and essentially in the workplace, right? And being great citizens of society.
00:03:54
Speaker
And so the census is very, very important and it's being manipulated. I'm sorry for jumping right into the meat of it. I feel like we should back up. I mean... We have this great origin story where y'all get went to the same elementary school. ah I want to hear more about kind of what happened after that picture to get you to where you're at today. yeah Did young Mahala say when she was asked what she wants to be when she grows up that she wants to be state rep?
00:04:21
Speaker
Look, I knew that I always knew. well look, I'll just back up. um What's really interesting about the yearbook that you hold up is that in that yearbook, the name on on that little girl is Michelle Plisa.
00:04:37
Speaker
It's not my name, my my name on my birth certificate, my God given name by my mama, Mihaela Plisa. And that's because I went to school at a time when immigrant families, it was still pretty new, like English second language was still pretty new.
00:04:52
Speaker
Collin County was becoming more diversified. More families were moving in, but it was still pretty. i mean, there were still farms and ranches in Plano and in Carrollton Farmers Branch and all this area when when we were going to school.
00:05:05
Speaker
And I think what's really important is that, you know, no, I never thought that I would be a state representative, but I always knew that I was um something special about the community because I knew like, you know, I felt the investment that my teachers made in me as a bilingual kid. Right.
00:05:23
Speaker
um I felt the investments that, you know, counselors made in me when my parents were going through a divorce. Right. So I always kind of felt like special within my community.
00:05:33
Speaker
After
Demographic Shifts and Political Landscape in Collin County
00:05:34
Speaker
for college, like after when we graduated, I went to try to go make money and start a small business and, you know, just live the American dream as the first generation daughter of immigrants. My mom told me like,
00:05:46
Speaker
You live in America, anything that you want, you can achieve. And so I always thought maybe I would be something international, some kind of like but buying and selling of goods on an international level. I knew we were doing, you know, fashion merchandising and design. So we were doing import export.
00:06:03
Speaker
But, um, No, I never really thought I was going to run for office until 2016 when I was just kind of what is happening. And I got more involved. um You know, I'd always voted, but I got more involved marching, protesting, volunteering times with um my time with different things around my community.
00:06:22
Speaker
And then that's really when I was like, hey, you know, should figure out how these lawmakers are doing the work that they're doing down in Austin and why it doesn't feel like it's a representative government because I had been voting. I had been doing all the things, contacting my state rep. Like I remember Wendy Davis doing her filibuster on the House floor. Like I had been involved, but yet still didn't feel represented when I came from a community that I always felt very seen, very heard, very nurtured, very cared for.
00:06:55
Speaker
So I just didn't understand the disconnect there. Right. And so, I literally just like quit my job and went and took like an unpaid internship job at 32 in the state Capitol. Cause I'm crazy. ah but I literally worked for state lawmakers for a couple of legislative session, four or five legislative sessions worked for them.
00:07:17
Speaker
And, um, helped them pass their their policy, learned how to be effective, learned how to be effective in that minority party. And then after a redistricting cycle, um where Collin County was kind of forced to create a competitive district because of the growth,
00:07:37
Speaker
because of the diversification, because of just but everything that you're seeing in Collin County, right? It's not just Plano, but Frisco and McKinney and all the new places in a Prosper, right?
00:07:49
Speaker
um They had to redraw a new district um and so and in Collin County. And, you know, There's a lot of members in Collin County that have chairmanships and seniorities, and they had kind of seen some competitive races in 2018. It got very close for comfort. I think one of my colleagues um only won with 300 and something votes.
00:08:10
Speaker
Another one of my colleagues in 2018 only won with 1,500 So they had a choice to make. Do we have more competitive seats or more safe seats?
00:08:21
Speaker
And so that's basically how HD 70 happened. It's a gerrymandered district. If you look at it, we we say it looks like a rabbit, but you can go online and look for yourself as to what you think the district looks like. But there should be more competitive districts in Collin County. Collin County House District 70 should not be the only swing district in Collin County.
00:08:44
Speaker
And so that's that's why gerrymandering is really important. That's why it was worth breaking quorum, because I have seen my district firsthand impacted by us as lawmakers having the power to draw our own maps and not putting it up to an independent redistricting commission.
Importance of Local Elections and Community Outreach
00:09:02
Speaker
no For those keeping track at home on the scoreboard, before the 2020 census, you had one safe Republican seat and two competitive seats.
00:09:14
Speaker
And then after the gerrymander in 2020, they carved out this district where you know now represent to be the competitive district to shore up the two seats that were competitive.
00:09:26
Speaker
So now we've got one competitive one and two safe Republican ones. Yeah. So Collin County is made up of five House districts. um And we have one competitive swing district and four pretty safe and and secure Republican seats.
00:09:43
Speaker
Yeah. Collin County as a whole, if if you're just looking at the county, it's it's become a lot more competitive. And that's why they had to make these changes. And I think that can be really reassuring to people to feel like, well, my vote doesn't really actually matter.
00:09:57
Speaker
But in fact, it does, because the reason why your district exists is because of Joe Biden's performance in 2020. Absolutely. my district, you know, and and also every vote matters because Like when I won, I only won by 800 votes, right? um Initially, but then you've expanded it since then, right? Yes, yes.
00:10:19
Speaker
You know, and we hope to continue doing the work. But in 22, know, we went up against lots of money and we only won by 800 votes, $4 million. dollars And we won by 800 votes.
00:10:30
Speaker
You know, we have more friends on Facebook than 800 people, right? So you can imagine that. And in my runoff, to get into my runoff, i only... got there with 29 votes.
00:10:42
Speaker
but i So I'm sure we have some group chats that have more than 29 people in them, right? So yeah when I went tell you how important it is for everybody to get out to vote and to vote the entire ballot, because like a district mine like mine is a perfect example.
00:10:58
Speaker
At the top of the ticket, the district looks pretty comfortable. You know, Joe Biden won it by
00:11:06
Speaker
52, 53%. in this district, Beto O'Rourke that's performing. But as you go down the ballot, you know, people start leaving. People start, you know, they've come and they voted for the tops of the ticket, the Kamala Harris's, the James Tallarico's, the Gina Hinojosa's, right?
00:11:23
Speaker
We're so excited about these individuals. But what I try to remind everybody is the bottom of the ballot is closest to your front door. it you know I'm gonna come knock on your door and talk to you about what matters to you. I don't know if James and Gina and Colin have the bandwidth to knock on everyone's door, but that's why it's very important that everybody votes every election and they vote the entire ballot.
00:11:50
Speaker
And you you you've knocked thousands of doors. I guess my question is, and I'm gonna give some attribution here. I reached out to a friend of mine, David De La Fuente, He wanted to ask you this.
00:12:03
Speaker
Collin County is over 50 percent adults with at least a bachelor's degree and very diverse. um If you're looking at comparison to Cobb County, like in Georgia, where it's 50 percent non-white, 50 percent bachelor's,
00:12:19
Speaker
um Collin County is 49% non-white and 55% bachelors. So the question is, even though it has obviously become more and more competitive, like why is it still as GOP as it is?
00:12:33
Speaker
So I think that this is a great question, and I i get asked this question a lot. You need you don't need all the money. you just need some money. Right. You need to be able to have some money to be able to communicate your message. And ah Republicans have become very comfortable. They've got a well oiled machine up here in Collin County as to how they can get the cost per voter.
00:12:58
Speaker
should be lower for them, right? The cost that it takes to have them, a voter come out to the polls because it takes about four touches before someone has made a commitment, I'm gonna go vote.
00:13:12
Speaker
That's just an average campaign thing, right? so I think what we're seeing is that a gerrymandering has helped to suppress the vote, right? But when we have an opportunity, Democrats perform very, very well because of the things that you've said.
00:13:28
Speaker
This is a community that's becoming um not more diverse, just in ethnicity and culture and stuff, but like more diverse because people are coming, they're they're moving from Florida.
00:13:40
Speaker
They're moving from New York. They're moving, you know, so it's diverse. Yes, racially and religious and all that, but it's also diverse just from people from all over the nation that have moved here. Right.
00:13:52
Speaker
And the tying into the educated, right? you When you have higher education, you have higher voter involvement, right? And so those things go hand in hand. I have a very educated electorate. They ask me a lot of questions. They care about education. They care about the economy. They care about the price of insurance and things like that.
00:14:14
Speaker
They want to have those conversations. Part of the issue is it's very hard to vote in Texas, right? We're always changing the rules and Collin County is a perfect example.
00:14:25
Speaker
This cycle, my constituents are hand bubbling in like a scantron in Collin County. We spent over $3 million dollars a couple of years ago to have new technology brought in.
00:14:38
Speaker
We have some of the safest elections in the state of Texas. Collin County has been put on a pedestal as having some of the safest elections, most secure elections in the state. And yet my constituents are going to go vote this election cycle for the constitutional amendments with a pen on a scantron bubbling in.
00:14:57
Speaker
So, right, you see kind of like working against people, making it harder for them to cast a ballot. Lots of people have been taken off the voter rolls. So make sure if you're in Texas, you're checking your voter registration often.
00:15:11
Speaker
Right. So it's kind of like a number of things. But at the end of the day, when we have competitive districts, when we have enough money to communicate our message, our message that, yes, you know, I'm for public safety. I carry the endorsement of the police and fire.
00:15:29
Speaker
I care about education. i carry the endorsement of teachers and social workers. I care about health care. I care about, you know, the workforce. I work with my universities.
00:15:41
Speaker
Then we win. Then we have opportunities. The problem is, is that all these little kinks in the system, those are features. Those are not bugs.
00:15:52
Speaker
And so you as a voter must be committed to having your vote cast because The institution is betting on you to get discouraged and just go, I'm going to stay home. Well, I think that is similar to what i heard in Tarrant County where they're closing polling sites, even for this cycle.
00:16:13
Speaker
And it brings me to, i think a fun comparison because I keep hearing that Tarrant County, like it's on that verge of flipping. uh, just like Colin. And I keep hearing things about Colin County and how it's also on the verge of, as you're saying with all these demographic changes. So, but I guess the problem in what we we were hearing before with Tarrant County is just the, you know fewer resources than other blue areas
Business Interests vs. GOP Policies
00:16:35
Speaker
like Dallas, fewer precinct chairs, maybe not as money coming up.
00:16:39
Speaker
So is there, how would you compare i or maybe not compare, but at least your experience as far as that kind of organizational, uh, infrastructure?
00:16:50
Speaker
Well, I definitely think that the county party ah matter. And I think that, you know, when you see money coming into certain parts, it's kind of like frustrating, right? But I think that overall, people power is really, really important. And what we've seen specifically in Southwest Collin County is when we create networks of um community outreach that isn't Partisan fact.
00:17:16
Speaker
Right. So when you're going to the Rotaries, when you're going to your, you know, whatever the Junior League or all these different events, you're building a, you know, clout and trust and kind of like relationships deeper than just a typical business.
00:17:32
Speaker
campaign would allow you to do. And I think that's really, really important for areas like Collin County. And I think that's why you see the shift that you've seen specifically on school boards and city councils up here, right?
00:17:45
Speaker
Candidates that run very partisan platforms in these nonpartisan elections tend to not perform very well. Right. And so we want to make sure that politics and politicians stick to the core, which is the people. And, you know, I i think that that's what's shown by, you know, winning by 800 votes.
00:18:07
Speaker
Right. That's that's that's your, you know, small network of friends at the Junior League of Calling County. Something I heard in my district when I ran was that it's a Chamber of Commerce district and we're pretty leaning heavily blue district more so than it sounds like yours.
00:18:26
Speaker
And yet it was a very heavily, because we have a lot of Chambers of Commerce, a lot of small businesses, a lot of people who come here and work here. So do you have that as well in your area? Because I know you run on a very economic development platform.
00:18:40
Speaker
Yeah, you know, i i hate to say this, but I think Chamber of Commerce um is kind of like ah a dog whistle or a soft way of saying these are Republicans that don't buy into this craziness that we've seen becoming the policy priorities of the Republican Party of Texas. Look, at the end of the day, our state still stands at the highest rate when it comes to uninsured people.
00:19:07
Speaker
We have... Vast popularity on both sides for expansion of health care options, whether you want to talk about Medicaid or Medicare or whatever. Those are Chamber of Commerce priorities, right? Expansion of health care. That's something that our business community wants.
00:19:24
Speaker
I remember that from when I was a small business owner, right? If my workforce wasn't healthy, if their families weren't healthy, if my worker had a sick kid, my worker's not coming into work.
Transparency, Debate, and Political Engagement
00:19:35
Speaker
Right. So health care really is the foundation, health care and education. And what we see is that those chamber of commerces, they tend to be against the voucher programs. They tend to be against bills like the bathroom bill.
00:19:50
Speaker
Right. I mean, these are not. Nobody cares about that. We care about, do we are we going to get FIFA? Are we goingnna get Universal Studios building their theme park in Frisco? Right? that That's what we're trying to work on.
00:20:04
Speaker
I'm not trying to create the potty police. And I don't think the Chamber of Commerce is trying to do that either. And so I think that it's what I think we need to have right now is just kind of an emperor's clothes, doesn't have clothes moment in politics.
00:20:20
Speaker
And I think that's what the quorum break essentially was for me is that, look, you guys, y'all aren't even giving an opportunity for debate. Y'all aren't even having an opportunity from these constituents to be heard by you.
00:20:35
Speaker
A lot of times in these committees, members won't even look up from their phones. Right. A lot of times when I'm giving, not all the time, because I'm not one of those members, i don't give a lot of like speeches on the floor. I'd much rather like get the amendments passed and the bills we passed.
00:20:51
Speaker
You know, talk to you at your desk. You're a process girl. I'll get you at your desk. Right. But sometimes, you know, when we're when we're giving these speeches, a lot of times members aren't even looking up from their phones because, like I said, their districts are so gerrymandered. And if you are you are not on their page on everything, they don't even feel like they to talk to you.
00:21:14
Speaker
And that is where we've lost our power. I believe, you know, we should all have more competitive districts. We'd have a lot more conversation. i was just going to say, you know, in the in the suburbs, especially in Collin County, where we have so many businesses and and increasingly more business headquarters coming.
00:21:33
Speaker
Based on what you just said, it sounds like. There's not even the distinction between business and labor that there used to be when we think of like the old days of politics. that a lot A lot of these issues, it sounds like they're aligned because just how far right the Republicans have moved. like It is pro-business and pro-labor to be in favor of Medicaid expansion, right?
00:21:55
Speaker
um So I just think, what what do you what have you noticed that the playbook is different in a district like yours where there are such a concentration of businesses versus a rural area of the state or maybe even ah more highly urbanized place like Dallas?
00:22:14
Speaker
Well, I don't want to give away my secret recipe to the opposition, oh but I will tell you this. Look, I was born and raised in a mixed household. And by that, I mean, my mom tended to be more conservative and my dad tended to be more ah progressive.
00:22:32
Speaker
And they still very much communicated to each other. They still very much hung out with each other's friends. They very much still went into the same social circles as their friends, even though they might not have been politically aligned.
00:22:48
Speaker
I think that what we need to do as electeds or people that want to run for office is to show up in spaces that maybe um we haven't before and have conversations that maybe um we haven't been as forthcoming with before.
00:23:08
Speaker
I ah don't tend to hide behind the bush. I'm very forward about who is pushing you know these vouchers. who is putting forward these bills that tend to close down our libraries, close down our schools, make healthcare care you know more expensive. um and And I always try to meet my colleagues where they're at or stakeholders that have an opposite you know perspective.
00:23:33
Speaker
I think conversation is very important, but I think what we've seen right now is that there's a it's just mostly the party of Trump. Right. And it's like whatever Trump wants, you know, and and you just got to make a decision in yourself whether or not you're representing your district, whether it's Senate district, House district, whatever, or you're just a Trump person just for Trump.
00:23:59
Speaker
And there's completely different there because Trump's priorities are not necessarily going to be the priorities of Collin County or the priorities of my 200,000 people that I represent in Collin County. And so There some things that I'll admit I agree with Trump on, right?
00:24:16
Speaker
And that's okay to say that. It's also okay to say, i disagree with this. And that's the beauty of democracy. That's the beauty of the Republic of America. I think that's what's scary is that The people who are for Trump, they want to bypass the judicial system. They want to bypass the legislative branch. They want to bypass the voters.
00:24:37
Speaker
They would do it. They'll just willing to do anything. mean, look at the demolition of the White House. Yeah. why yeah You know, it's like, look, you want to remodel? That's fine. I want to remodel. And there have been lots of and presidents before that that have made, right you know,
00:24:55
Speaker
They've done, yeah, redone the White House, but it's like the process, right? And that's, I think, where we as elected officials need to respect the integrity of the House, the integrity of the judicial system, the integrity of our Supreme Court. i mean, look at Kim Paxson, you know, the abuse of his office.
00:25:14
Speaker
But then what happened? I guess, you know, we try to impeach Kim Paxson and do the right thing. And then it's just once again. and so I think, you know, look, I just hope that my colleagues realize that the decisions that they're making, even when they know and they tell me I'm against that, but I'm really scared of my primary voter. I'm really scared. I'm not going get this Trump endorsement. It's just got to be more than that. At some point, it's just got to be bigger.
00:25:43
Speaker
Lightning around. what You know, let's let's be controversial as Democrats. yeah What are the things we agree with Trump on? i I hope he remembers what talked about on the campaign trail about ah capping interest rates for credit cards at 10 percent.
00:26:01
Speaker
I would love that. I think that would be huge. I have seen firsthand in my own family how credit card debt can can be really spiraling. 100, and I'll go one further. I'll say i when I first was like in high school and in college, I worked as a waitress.
00:26:18
Speaker
you know that No tax on tips, man. When you're making $2.75 an hour, Where were you server? Oh my God, all over the place. I worked at a blue fin ah Bluefin Tuna. There's a sushi place right up here ah that was like a tuna a sushi place.
00:26:38
Speaker
And just all over, just little, you know, think Super Salad, I think was one of my dogs. Oh, Super Salad,
Affordability and Political Resonance
00:26:44
Speaker
yeah, yeah. So it was I, Mahila. I was a Super Salad waitress. Okay, and you remember, we made like no money there. Olive Garden and Cracker Barrel.
00:26:54
Speaker
Very different experiences. Yeah. So I think, you know, when you're working for $2 an hour, i'm totally for that. Right. Trump, when he came out and he was like, we should make IVF um something that is affordable, affordable,
00:27:11
Speaker
You know, i was all for that, right? Because I've been very open with my infertility journey and, you know, how hard it's been not only to go through the IVF cycles, but to pay for them.
00:27:23
Speaker
And then once you get your, you know, eggs or embryos or whatever, to keep them frozen is an extra cost, right? So, I was all for that as well. I was looking forward for for that policy. Yeah.
00:27:37
Speaker
Well, I haven't mentioned this on the podcast, but you know this, Mahila. I went through IVF and had my beautiful baby girl who's in the background here. and I was for that too, because I had an insurance that didn't take, ah it wouldn't cover IVF. And so that was all out of pocket. I mean, all out of pocket. So I was for that as well.
00:27:55
Speaker
But so look, the tax on tips thing, and they got passed in the Big, beautiful bill ah is not as advertised. It's pretty limited. um That shouldn't stop us as Democrats from saying, you know, what if we actually did it?
00:28:11
Speaker
um I think it might not actually materialize. I hope it does. We should we should take take the issue if he doesn't. If Trump doesn't fulfill the promise on credit card interest, we should.
00:28:22
Speaker
I 100 percent agree. But look, you know, i like my like some of my family tell me and and Todd tells me, too, he's like, you know, a stop clock can be right twice a day, too.
00:28:34
Speaker
So, like, I don't want give Trump too much credit. But, you know, what i I do mean by that is that I do think it's important for us as Democrats or as elected officials, whether you're a Republican in a 60 plus Republican district, I think it's important for them to, to hear and speak to constituents that don't always agree with them.
00:28:56
Speaker
I have to, I have to do that. I represent a swing district. It's, it's good for me. I enjoy the conversations. Um, so That's kind of, I think my goal at the end of the day is just to show that we can still be strong Dems. We can still be, you know, progressive fighters fighting for the right things.
00:29:14
Speaker
But I'm not going to like, at the end of the day, I want to serve my constituencies and I want to make sure that I'm effective, not only getting elected in the House. and
Encouragement to Run for Office and Tailoring Campaigns
00:29:23
Speaker
If there was one issue, I think that stood out more than any other in the last presidential election was,
00:29:27
Speaker
ah us of living and inflation. um Whether it was fair to peg all Democrats as responsible for that or not, I think but what we saw worldwide was if you were the party in power, voters were mad and they wanted to take it out on you, whether you were a conservative party or a liberal party.
00:29:45
Speaker
It didn't really matter. If you were in charge, you were going to lose seats in your respective legislature right around the world. But we're seeing now, I mean, with tariffs and everything, I don't think the Trump administration has kept their eye on the ball for affordability at all.
00:30:00
Speaker
I think that's why you see candidates like Mamdani in New York who are relentlessly focused on affordability, who are really upending a lot of expectations. Like we see conservatives and self-identified Republicans saying, I'm going to vote for Mamdani because he's going to make my life better.
00:30:18
Speaker
So I'm not I'm not trying to say ah let's all run as Zoran Madami in Texas. What I'm saying is there is something to this idea of issues that can transcend the categories we think of.
00:30:32
Speaker
And so I want to ask ask you, as someone who has done the work to flip a seat, like where do you see the effort needing to move to get us out of this long curse of winning ah right losing stateide where are those issues that can transcend?
00:30:51
Speaker
Well, I think first and foremost, we have to create a space where people want to run for office, right? um I will tell you with the political rhetoric that has been happening lately with the horrible assassinations that we have seen in our state and attempted assassinations and you know, um I can see why people don't want to run for office and I can see why people want to retire at now we see that. So I just encourage everybody, whatever your passion is, if you've ever thought, if you've ever thought I should run for office, in look into it, get, do your research and and do it right. Because it's the most rewarding thing I've been able to do with my life is talk to a constituent that we've
00:31:43
Speaker
you know been able to make their life better whether it was helping them get their kid um on you know the medicare waiver right or helping a small business recover recover monies that they lost right so that's super rewarding I think that what happens in Texas is we run as a block, like Texas Democrats, and it's like all the same messaging, right? And it's like,
00:32:14
Speaker
The same messaging in Collin County and the same messaging in Bexar County and the same messaging in Williamson County. and We're all running on you know abortion and health care and um education and guns. Right. We're all in. It's the same thing. Right.
00:32:30
Speaker
And I think that we all have some core issues like that, but that top line isn't going to work in everybody's district. I think what Mnami is doing in New York is fantastic because I think it's awesome when people are excited about going out and voting.
00:32:47
Speaker
right i I think that should be important on either side. and the you know As someone who has been a a student of history, I think it's really fascinating the ebbs and flow of our political system. right It's supposed to be, you know we have this dance, this tango between the Republicans and the Democrats.
00:33:04
Speaker
What I think is and not talked about, and I'm going to say something really controversial right now. Oh, drumroll. I've been kind of thinking how I'm going to bring this up because I had kind of made a comment on a Facebook post.
00:33:21
Speaker
And I think that we're not really talking about the elephant in the room. I think Kendall touches on this a little bit. um But look, when I decided to run for House District 70, I had a very strong foundation as to why I was running.
00:33:35
Speaker
I had so many conversations with my community that I didn't need a poll to tell me what my mailer should say because I was talking, the poll was at the door when I was knocking a hundred doors a day.
00:33:51
Speaker
the conversations I was having on the phone when I was you know asking people to please contribute to my campaign and I was doing so on the grassroots level, so local donors, hundred bucks right here in my community.
00:34:06
Speaker
I think what happens is people get into these places as candidates and they're super overwhelmed, especially in a competitive district. When you're a socialist, when you're converting all the kids to whatever, furries, I don't even know. know musician Yeah.
00:34:22
Speaker
You know, when they're putting the black and white picture of you hugging Nancy Pelosi or whatever it is that they're doing to like... come at you, it's very overwhelming. And if you don't have a strong conviction, and if you don't have a strong sense of your own district, then it's very easy to be influenced by people who come in with magic beans and say, if you put out 27 mailers, if you fundraise this much, if you get this digital firm, um you don't need to block walk, we're going to hire a bunch of people to block walk for you.
00:34:57
Speaker
And then you kind of lose what it's supposed to be about, which is like you're representing your district and you're hiring these people and saying, no, it's not just public education that my district cares about. It's a very specific thing. It's recapture.
00:35:13
Speaker
right? That is, that is affects my district. So when they get a mailer or they get a text from me or they get a volunteer that is out there, we're talking, it's not your typical top lines. It's, Hey, you know, most of your property taxes go back to the state and recapture that's governor Abbott taking your money and not fully funding our schools, right? and going to some charter school that you have no idea what they're doing with the money. Yeah.
00:35:43
Speaker
yeah So as Democrats, we have to not only allow candidates like yourself to run a more specific campaign for your specific district we should be encouraging them too because that's what's going to work Yeah. And the consultants and the vendors and all those people that are supposed to help amplify our message should be there to help do just that.
00:36:05
Speaker
Figure out what that message is. And that's to take a little bit more time. Yeah. You know what? You might not be able to do 10 campaigns as a mail house. You might only have to time to do five, but guess what? You're gonna win all those five.
00:36:20
Speaker
The problem is, is that, you know, it's just like the Republicans, like the Republicans are currently buying bots and comments and and influencers online to shape their narrative. They're investing. So it's kind of like, where are we gonna invest our money? How are we gonna spend the money?
00:36:39
Speaker
In 22, had half a million dollars and an army of people behind me willing to, you know, give this district to the people. You know, my opponent had four million dollars and, you know, relied on consultants and relied on, you know, a lot of people kind of telling them what to do.
00:37:02
Speaker
i just think that when we win the when we run those soul campaigns, we have a better tendency of winning. So is the controversy there though, that you think that maybe we're running two like one size fits all races across the state and we're allowing outside maybe consultants to dictate what we're doing here within our own communities that we know better?
00:37:24
Speaker
Yeah, I think it's look, that they call it political science for a reason. It's a science, right? And so I think it can get ah really overwhelming when you're a new candidate. Like if you're a mom or you're just like a normal person and you don't have really a background in what you're doing and you come in and people are telling you, okay,
00:37:43
Speaker
We're going to a poll. The poll is $25,000, right? These are your questions, blah, blah, blah. And it's kind of like the same poll and it's kind of done everywhere. And it's the same framing of the questions. And then you kind of get these numbers back and you're kind of like, what do they mean?
00:37:58
Speaker
And so then you're trying to figure out kind of like, what what is this poll telling me? And it can be very daunting for an individual, right? And, you know, I was very hardheaded when it came to things like that for my campaign.
00:38:12
Speaker
You know I was very welcoming and knowing the information. But at the end of the day, you know, i was not going to put out a message that I did not think that my constituents cared about.
00:38:23
Speaker
and that you know didn't resonate with them. And you know maybe maybe we can still care about um healthcare care access, but maybe that's not the number one issue in some of these areas. Maybe if you live in a medical district,
00:38:38
Speaker
Right. That's not the thing that you're necessarily caring about. Maybe it's your insurance costs that are the thing that should be the top line of that mailer. Right. Maybe maybe you have a specific issue in your district that's around water.
00:38:52
Speaker
Right. and And that's the thing that people are paying attention to. So. Like I said, Texas a very big, beautiful state and I'm very proud. And I just don't think that the race that I'm running in HC70 in Collin County is the same race that we should be running in House District 118 in Bexar County.
00:39:12
Speaker
We are both competitive districts, right? We are both 52% whatever at the whatever at the top That does not mean that the Democrat running in 118 should be running the same message as the Democrat in 170.
00:39:28
Speaker
That's our incentive. I think if we stop thinking about ourselves as ah a state with one identity as a party, that would be helpful.
00:39:38
Speaker
I mean, Texans love to brag that geographically we're bigger than France, right?
00:39:46
Speaker
We would not expect... ah politician in one part of France to have the exact same message as a politician another part of France. But for some reason, because we're in the same state, that we expect the candidate in Austin or San Antonio or Houston or El Paso or Dallas or up in Collin County to have the same sheet of music. And that doesn't make any sense.
00:40:06
Speaker
No, and I think it also takes away from the diversity of our party and what makes us as Texas Democrats really so unique, right? Because we can take from all over the state and our experiences and really craft meaningful legislation for for Texans, right?
00:40:23
Speaker
um But I think that us as candidates, we got to become more sure of ourselves why we decided to run kind of like, you know, the internal whisper and and stay too true to that and not be you know, pushed one way or the other by who you've hired to help you win. And I also think us as donors, us as activists, us as the ones that are going out and contributing to campaigns and stuff, we got remember that, look, and I'm just going to really frank right now.
00:40:53
Speaker
When voting rights were under attack, it was the Texas legislature. It was the House of Representatives, Texas Democrats that broke for them the first time.
00:41:05
Speaker
And then the second time, and now this third time, right? It was us in the state house that built the bipartisan coalition to kill the voucher scam in the eighty eighth session.
00:41:18
Speaker
Right. So it's it's the legislative branch in the House where the buck essentially stops, where the fight is. You know, I get really, really um defensive when I see people only care about the top of the ticket and investing their time and treasure in the top of the ticket.
00:41:39
Speaker
I think that we are doing a huge disservice. I think the Republicans have caught on to this. That's why you see these expensive school board races and city council races and million dollar house races like the one I ran in 22. Right.
00:41:55
Speaker
They are ready and they know where to lean in. and we just kind of like sometimes run on vibes. And it's very frustrating because. Our down-ballot candidates, those those House members in 2018 that ran like Reda Bowers and Anna Maria Ramos and John ah Rosenthal that nobody thought they would ever win their races in 2018, imagine if we would have invested just a little bit more in those races, right?
00:42:26
Speaker
And it's just lucky that we... hit that beautiful marker in 2018 and had this big, you know, opportunity so that they couldn't gerrymander us out of those wins in 2020 because they sure tried. Let's not forget what they did when they redrew the maps is they paired a bunch of Democrats together and they did all kinds of shenanigans and they did what they did in House District 70. So I just say, look,
00:42:56
Speaker
We have to invest in our House races because the Republicans have invested in these races. They're taking out their own. Greg Abbott took fifth. They're primary each other. Yeah.
00:43:09
Speaker
And if we're going to be a serious, self-respecting party, we have to have a plan to take back the legislature. Right. Like we can't say all the Republicans do bad policy and there's they're making life bad for Texans without trying to take it back from them. Right. Like, it's like, well, we're not going to run enough candidates to to where we'll have the majority, even if we win. It's like, well, then are you actually upset with the Republican legislature?
00:43:40
Speaker
i mean, there's I'm not. laying that on you because your job is to win your district. My point is, going back to your point, we need people to step up and run for office and now is the best time you could because this is the cycle, right?
00:43:53
Speaker
I 100% agree. And I get frustrated with that too because it's kind of like we go in every year and we have to elect a speaker and we know this is the guy who's going to sit up there with the gavel and he's going to put you on a committee and he's going to make sure that your bill dies or fails.
00:44:08
Speaker
And you' like you're sitting there and you're like, damn it, I really want to pass Everly's law for the Talman family. Right? Like I've knocked on their door. We've been working on this. So you for lawmakers, it's a really hard decision. You know, why are you there? Are you there to, you know, and what is your play going to be? And I've told this to my colleagues.
00:44:28
Speaker
We can't all run the same play. We can't all be the quarterback. Right. We can't all be. i don't know. This works very well. I'm just going to say it's starting because I'm like, i in I don't know. But like um we can't all be. So we have to have an understanding of what our part is and how we can be most effective. Right.
00:44:48
Speaker
There are candidates, there are lawmakers that they're in 70 plus districts. You know, they can be out there having conversations that maybe I it's not very it's not because I represent my district for me to do that.
00:45:01
Speaker
So, I mean, our podcast ultimately is about flipping the entire state. And I would think one of the questions we have is low voter turnout. And one of the kind of hypotheses we have is that in a district like yours, where you are doing four touches a door or you're out there hundred doors a day, like you are getting people out, like you are getting a lot of like probably a higher voter turnout than say the districts that are so overly gerrymandered that people are just like, whatever.
00:45:24
Speaker
Is that a sense that you have in, And how do we turn
Voter Turnout Challenges and Engagement Strategies
00:45:28
Speaker
out? It sounds like to me, from what you're saying, it is as it it is messaging. It's people stepping up in those hard races. Is there anything else that you think that we should be doing as Texans to turn out that vote Yeah.
00:45:40
Speaker
So i have a lot of opinions on this too. um if mi go If you go and look at where we have these competitive races, um you tend to see a higher turnout rate because we've made large investments in those races, right? We're spending tens of thousands of dollars on texting, hundreds of thousands of dollars on mail.
00:45:58
Speaker
If you're, you know, representative in a cheaper media market, you might even have commercials out there, right? People always like, you have commercials? I'm like, I'm in DFW. It's a million dollars for a six second bit, right? can't even say my name in six seconds.
00:46:15
Speaker
So I think that, you know, for us, what we need to do, if we want to be serious about flipping Texas, if you're in one of these super blue districts, you still need to be working your district.
00:46:33
Speaker
You still, I mean, we see a lot of the low voter turnout in blue counties and blue areas and blue cities. Right. And we can go back and look at the patterns and we can see years that like Dallas County has dropped or Bexar County has dropped or Harris County.
00:46:50
Speaker
County is drawn. The reason they mess with Harris County so much is because an election can essentially be won on the state's level in Harris County if we could just get our together.
00:47:01
Speaker
Right. But the problem is, is that, like I said, look, this is a gig that doesn't pay. It pays $7,000 a year. So I totally understand, like, you got to get back to your district and you got to get to work and you got to raise money so that you can do your side gig, which is being a state representative.
00:47:22
Speaker
But if we want to win on a statewide ballot, if James wants to win, if Gina wants to win, we need to turn out our dens. We need to turn out our moderates.
00:47:35
Speaker
We need to register new voters. And we need to have candid conversations with Republicans who don't see themselves as MAGA. And that's how we will have a blue Texas. I believe that I will see it in my lifetime.
00:47:51
Speaker
I really do. I really do. i I see them in my interns that are coming in that are super inspired by what they're seeing. um i hear all the time when I go and speak, people are super inspired by you know our story here, the win that we were able to achieve.
00:48:07
Speaker
And it's not partisan. It really isn't. it I get a lot of Republicans, moderates, independents, libertarians.
Focus on People-Centric Policies and Public Engagement
00:48:16
Speaker
I have a lot of libertarian buddies, you know, that come to me and they're like, hey, I really appreciate it you You voted for this or that. You know, cannabis was a big one.
00:48:30
Speaker
Right. um There's other little things here are there. And I think, look, we have We have to win. We have to win because the the legislature, we're spending 140 days and we are not, we're we are talking about crazy stuff.
00:48:47
Speaker
Bathrooms, yeah. Well, I mean, even like So when you start the day, you go through prayer, you go through you know invocation, you're going through the Pledge of Allegiance, you know you're doing resolutions, congratulatory memorial resolution.
00:49:04
Speaker
We have fights over that. People aren't standing on a on a memorial resolution. We're fighting over just fight.
00:49:17
Speaker
And I think that we have forgotten as lawmakers that we should be fighting for the people, not fighting against each other. And it's just, I think once we start having those conversations, people, they are tired of it.
00:49:31
Speaker
they are They are tired of it. They are losing their benefits. I have i have two food banks in my district that are, I have the North Texas Food Bank in my district that are freaking out right now. well Yeah.
00:49:44
Speaker
Well, i mean, and then we're about to have SNAP benefits go away with the the closure and we're going to experience millions of Americans without food. um So right now is the day. like we there's That's why we created this podcast is so that we can flip the state and hopefully hear more from people like you to do that. And you gave us a lot here today, Mahila, my, my Rosemead roadrunner colleague and alumni, former alumni. um So just to wrap up, we have a one final closing question, which is if people want to support you, which they should having heard you, ah where can they go to support you?
00:50:20
Speaker
Well, um we have our website, obviously it's polisafortexas.com. And you can sign up for our newsletter and um all that good stuff. Keep up with us on all of our social media. It's the same. Please look for Texas. But we're going to be having a campaign kickoff here in a couple of weeks. So stay tuned for that.
00:50:40
Speaker
I encourage everybody to show up. And like I said, look, um The way we win is two things. You pick a cause, like pick a candidate, you know, who's your who's your candidate and stay consistent in helping that candidate out. We've got 365 days almost until the election of 2026. It's gonna be a really critical, important election for our state. It's an opportunity for us to pick up more seats in the state house, we have all seen how important our state legislature is.
00:51:11
Speaker
I'm so proud to be a Texas Democrat. When I tell like the the pride I have, the movement that we have started on a national level as a Texas Democrat, everybody should be proud to be a Texas Democrat. If you identify as one, you should be really proud of your party right now because this fight that you're seeing for health care in Congress That was because of Texas Democrats showing what a fight should look like.
00:51:38
Speaker
Right. All these other legislature, Missouri had a sleep in. They had lawmakers in Missouri that slept on their floor of their house. That was because of Texas Democrats.
00:51:51
Speaker
California Prop 50. Texas Democrat. So look, if there's been any moment, now is the time to show up, to put out your yard sign um because people are paying attention and they're seeing that this isn't about a woke liberal agenda.
00:52:12
Speaker
This is about social security. This is about nutritional SNAP benefits. This is about health care. Right? This is about our schools.
Conclusion and Credits
00:52:23
Speaker
So I'm going to stop there, but I'm just so excited to have the opportunity to talk to you guys and look forward to seeing you'all on the campaign trail. We will come knock doors.
00:52:35
Speaker
Thank you, Mahala. We will see y'all next week and God bless Texas. You can follow us on all socials at Mission Texas Podcast. Email us at missiontexaspodcast at gmail.com.
00:52:47
Speaker
This episode is edited by Juan Jose Flores. Our music bumper is by Adam Pickerel, and our cover art is by Tino So.