Last year’s meetings of the Texas Legislature must have done something to Austin’s elected representatives. After the last special session ended in September, half of our city’s six House members announced they would give up their safe seats, where they might have aged in place for decades, to confront the Republican leaders who foisted school vouchers, the bathroom bill, and a mid-decade redistricting on the state.
Rep. Gina Hinojosa declared that she would challenge Greg Abbott for governor. Rep. Vikki Goodwin said she would run against Dan Patrick for lieutenant governor. James Talarico announced that he would run for a seat in the U.S. Senate, hoping to go head-to-head with Ken Paxton, a man he calls “the most corrupt politician in America.”
Sixteen political hopefuls are competing for these seats in March’s Democratic primary. In this week’s issue, we take a closer look at the candidates jockeying to represent House Districts 47, 49, and 50. – Brant Bingamon
HD 50: How to Fill Talarico’s Shoes?
Six of those 16 political hopefuls are running in Talarico’s District 50, which straddles Northeast Austin and Pflugerville: Samantha Lopez-Resendez, Jeremy Hendricks, Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch, John Hash, Nathan Boynton, and William Rannefeld. The Chronicle was unable to reach Hash, Boynton, and Rannefeld before press deadline, but spoke with the other candidates about their priorities and backgrounds.
The 30-year-old Lopez-Resendez said she is running as a woman of reproductive age, a former public school librarian, and a daughter of immigrants – all communities that Republicans have attacked in recent sessions. She said, despite her relative youth, she knows how business is done at the Capitol, having worked for Austin House Rep. Donna Howard since 2019, serving four of those years as Howard’s chief of staff. She emphasized that having connections at the Capitol is important, with Talarico, Hinojosa, and Goodwin gone.
“That’s 50% of our delegation, so institutional knowledge is imperative,” Lopez-Resendez said. “In addition to that, Reps. Talarico, Hinojosa, and Goodwin have been public education champions in a time where we are facing 12 school closures and a consolidation plan within Austin ISD. It’s imperative that the person that we choose to put in House District 50 is prioritizing public education to the utmost ability that they can.”
Jeremy Hendricks argues that he’s the candidate with the institutional knowledge. Hendricks is a labor organizer who has represented working people in Texas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas since 2008. He told the Chronicle he has worked to establish living wages in Austin and to connect young people with good-paying union jobs. He is also active in Austin’s civic life, serving as president of the Windsor Hills Neighborhood Association and volunteering with the Travis County Democratic Party.
Hendricks said he got into the HD 50 race at the urging of Austin U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett. He added that he has nailed down many of the available endorsements in the race, including those from labor organizations like AFSCME Local 1624, the Texas AFL-CIO, and the Austin EMS Association, along with groups as different as the Austin Board of Realtors and Equity Action.
Hendricks estimates that he has already knocked on 12,000 doors. “When I’m on the doors, what I’m hearing from people is that folks are struggling,” he said. “They’re facing affordability crises when it comes to food, health care, rents, mortgages, everything that you can add on that list. And somebody that actually wakes up thinking about working folks is sorely lacking in the Capitol. So I think it’s high time we’ve got someone from labor that understands what working folks are going through.”
Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch has also represented working people for two decades, but as an immigration attorney. Lincoln-Goldfinch has built a successful practice and become a nationally recognized advocate for immigrants, even debating Stephen Miller on Fox News. She described how she came to realize that helping immigrants would be her life’s work.
“My first assignment as a student attorney was to go to a detention center for families. And my first client interview was with a mom and a dad and a little baby, and they were all in prison uniforms – The baby had a little onesie. And her mom asked me if I would take her, sneak her out, and take care of her until they could get out. I remember that night just feeling like everything changed for me.”
Each of the candidates said that, if elected, they would defend public education, promote affordability for working people, and stand up to ICE. They praised Talarico’s respectful but uncompromising engagement with Republicans. “I think one of the things that he does so well is that he is simultaneously standing up against Christian Nationalism in the schools while also not alienating the other side,” Lincoln-Goldfinch said.
“I would definitely take the Donna Howard, James Talarico approach,” Lopez-Resendez agreed. “You can stand on your principles, never turn back on your communities and your priorities, and still ensure that you are being an effective legislator. Central Texas, I wholeheartedly believe, deserves more than just noisemakers.” – Brant Bingamon
HD 47: The Foreseen Successor and the Late Entry to the Race
“Dan Patrick has a lot to say,” Texas House District 47 Rep. Vikki Goodwin said on the campaign trail for Texas lieutenant governor. “The problem is he just can’t stop lying.” Contingent on winning the Democratic primary, Goodwin will be able to confront Patrick’s lies in November’s general election head-on.
Representing HD 47 – made up of Southwest Austin, Bee Cave, Lakeway, and some of Lake Travis – since 2018, Goodwin has advocated for affordable housing, public schools, gun safety, and other critical issues. Some of the more notable bills that she has passed include the Natalia Cox Act, increasing support for victims of domestic violence, and Cati’s Act, aimed at improving drowning prevention in child care centers.
As Rep. Goodwin heads for a more challenging battle, two Democratic candidates have filed to take over responsibility of overseeing the district: Pooja Sethi and Joseph Kopser.
With background as an immigration attorney, Sethi enters the race having also served as Goodwin’s chief of staff for over four years and as the Travis County Democratic Party chair since 2024 before stepping down this past June to run in HD 47. In 2020, she was unsuccessful in her bid to represent City Council District 10. Now, she hopes to fill the shoes of her former boss, Goodwin. “This is all I want to do,” Sethi told the Chronicle. “I have no other aspirations.”
From public safety to climate initiatives, Sethi has high aspirations if she were to be elected to represent HD 47. One of the first bills that she plans to reintroduce if elected would be House Bill 2744, also known as the “raise the age” bill, which would require individuals to be 21 years of age to purchase a semiautomatic rifle. The bill was first proposed in 2023, following the Uvalde school shooting. After a House committee voted to advance the legislation, the bill missed the deadline to be added to the House’s calendar, ultimately killing it.
Supporting and fully funding public schools is also a top priority for Sethi. In the midst of AISD closures, a potential TEA takeover, and the rollout of private school vouchers, she said that uplifting public education is crucial. “We’re about 10 years behind on fully funding our public schools, which is crazy,” she said. “So we need to keep talking about this. We also need to look at recapture.”
Sethi is also hoping to confront climate challenges that HD 47 faces, specifically looking into the dwindling amount of available water. In regard to artificial intelligence data centers in particular, Sethi said that she is interested in introducing policy that regulates companies from draining the state’s natural resources. “I don’t want all these AI data centers here,” she said. I don’t think they need to be here. I think we need to sit down and really think about [it] and regulate not having more.”
The only other Democratic candidate on the primary ballot, Joseph Kopser, is an Army veteran and tech entrepreneur. This will be his second time gunning for office, having previously run in an extremely competitive 2018 U.S. House District 21 race where he lost to Chip Roy. Since losing in 2018, Kopser said that he has been eyeing the ideal time to take another stab at running for public office, having filed for the HD 47 race on deadline day, stating that the district is the right fit.
Kopser has built his campaign on breaking away from the “status quo” and shifting the message that the Democratic party has built in recent years. The issues that he and his campaign have outlined as top priorities to address in office center around public education, health care, and the economy.
With one of his three daughters previously serving as a kindergarten teacher in the state, Kopser said that he has seen, firsthand, the shape that the state’s public school system is in. He stated that high schoolers aren’t adequately prepared for college or careers when they reach graduation, and, leaning on his entrepreneurial background, said that getting members of the business community involved is necessary. “We are not going to be able to make major changes in our education ’til the business community understands its impact,” he told the Chronicle.
In speaking with Kopser and simply looking at his campaign trail, much of his ambitions are business-driven, in fact. This is no different for his stance on AI. Kopser stated that as the sector continues to boom, the potential for job creation continues to rise. “While I know there are a lot of concerns about AI and data centers, we have to look towards the opportunities to smartly regulate without stifling innovation,” he said.
With one candidate expecting to fill her predecessor’s shoes and the other making an unanticipated push for the HD 47 seat, voters will soon decide which of the two will go on to represent the party in the general election. – Joe Ellett
HD 49: Eight Candidates, One Seat for the Heart of Austin
Back in October, at a rally in Brownsville, Gina Hinojosa announced her run for governor. In the weeks that followed, her bid to unseat Gov. Greg Abbott proved a call to action for eight Austin Democrats, now campaigning to take her seat to represent House District 49.
HD 49 runs right through the heart of Austin, nestled between MoPac and I-35, running from Duval Road in North Austin to just past William Cannon Drive in South Austin. It’s the district that contains the Texas Capitol and the University of Texas at Austin. The seat is historically held by a Democrat, and the race decided in the primary election on March 3. (No Republicans filed to run in the primary, and Arshia Papari, a UT-Austin student and co-chair of the Green Party U.S. steering committee, is running as a Green Party candidate.)
Austinites will see both familiar and new names on the ballot: Kathie Tovo, a former City Council member (2015-2023) and 2024 Austin mayoral candidate; Montserrat Garibay, a former teacher and union leader who served in the U.S. Department of Education; Robin Lerner, a former diplomat overseas who served in the U.S. Department of State and on the city of Austin’s Ethics Review Commission; Josh Reyna, local attorney and chief of staff and general counsel for state Sen. César Blanco.
Others come to the race with perhaps less name recognition, but with histories of organizing in their communities: Gigs Hodges, a Democratic Socialist and former legislative staffer; Daniel Wang, an electricity lawyer serving on the Travis Central Appraisal District Board; Kimmie Ellison, a practicing nurse with campaign experience; and Sam Slade, a local actor and former Travis County Democrats precinct chair.
The Chronicle chatted with all eight Democratic candidates about their policy positions and priorities if elected. At the forefront were issues all eight candidates identified as important to HD 49 constituents: quality public education, and affordable housing and health care.
All candidates denounced the violent procedures of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement authorities in Austin and across the country. “We’ve seen this rogue ICE agency be held unaccountable for their actions,” Reyna said.
All candidates believe public education is inadequately funded in Texas. All intend to protect access to reproductive health care. All assert that water and energy resources in the state must be better protected, and AI and data centers better regulated. “Unless we have a sane, rational, well-informed policy decision about how to preserve, maintain, and protect our water resources, we’re going to run out of water,” Wang emphasized.
While all of the candidates share much common ground on policy issues, what distinguishes them is the experiences they’re bringing to the House seat.
“We all share similar values, good values,” Tovo said. “The voters, though, can see my values in action through my votes, through my initiatives, through the things I stood up for.” She pointed to her record of almost 12 years of service on City Council: raising the minimum wage for city workers, setting utility rates, and expanding the Affordable Housing Trust Fund, among other initiatives.
Garibay came to the U.S. 33 years ago from Mexico with her mother and sister, learning English as a student in Austin ISD. “When we were undocumented, our mom would say things like, ‘Ponte Vicks.’ We weren’t allowed to get sick. … We didn’t have insurance,” Garibay remembered.
As a teacher in AISD, Garibay fought for full-day pre-K3 funding as an Education Austin union member, and held citizenship clinics as the secretary-treasurer of Texas AFL-CIO. In the U.S. DoE, Garibay led the Office of English Language Acquisition to build upon dual-language programs, and learned to use data “like a flashlight” to push for bipartisanship on polarizing issues. “When Gina and Talarico are leaving, we really need a fighter,” Garibay emphasized.
On the topic of education, UT-Austin is at the heart of the district, at a moment when its administration is closing and consolidating departments, student programs, and grants associated with gender, race, and sexuality. “I taught classes that would probably fall under scrutiny in this environment,” said Tovo, a former UT-Austin faculty member. “The University of Texas is not honoring the rich, inclusive academic experience that we owe our students.”
As a nurse practitioner, Ellison has seen women arrive “sicker and sicker” with breast cancer diagnoses at her clinic – a symptom of worsening uninsured rates and rising health care costs, especially post-Big Beautiful Bill. “I am tired of telling women at their first appointment, you have Stage 4 disease,” Ellison said. “I do feel like there is common ground with [health care] right now.”
“We need regular people in the state House,” Ellison added with a smile, arguing that not being a “professional politician” is a strength to her candidacy, not a weakness – as did Slade and Garibay.
What are a few of their specific policy ideas? Garibay: Utilizing unused public school campuses to build affordable housing, investing in more hospitals, and taxing hemp and gambling for public school revenue. Hodges: “At least double the minimum wage,” create grant programs to incentivize homeownership, and a “comprehensive” renter protections bill.
Tovo: Change the school district recapture system, “repeal the [TEA’s] accountability system,” and raise the state age requirement to buy an automatic weapon. Wang: Free breakfast and lunch in schools, and restrict Tesla tax breaks. Reyna: Invest in denser housing by transit and universities. Lerner: Expand legal exceptions for abortions, and free tuition to Texas universities.
Reyna, Tovo, Garibay, Hodges, and Wang all explicitly vocalized their goals to increase the state’s student allotment, and repeal and resist expansion of the Texas private school voucher program passed last year. “Fully funding education, ending the voucher scam, ending the recapture scam, and keeping our local tax dollars for public education are big priorities,” Reyna said.
As Hinojosa leaves behind a seat from which she championed public education, health care, and anti-corruption, the HD 49 candidates all intend to build on what she’s started in the Texas House. “I think it’s going to be really important that you have someone that understands education like the back of their hand,” Garibay reflected.
When asked how they plan to get things done within a Republican-majority Legislature, Wang replied, “I’m willing to research, to understand, to listen to people … and I’ll do what I can inside the building to make bad policy better, to make good policy better, to kill bad bills and advance good ones.”
“I’ve learned this concept of ‘three cups of tea’ – really you’ve got to make a relationship before you start,” Lerner said. “It’s almost like we have two different cultures in the House. I’ve worked in intercultural competencies my whole career, so I’m going to have to listen.” – Sammie Seamon
This article appears in February 6 • 2026.