Texas House District 97 candidates in Democratic primary March 1
Laurin McLaurin
Occupation: Retired Computer Engineer
Age: 72
Campaign website: None yet.
Best way for voters to reach you: Email
Education: Life long learner. Electronics in HS and SAU-Tech. Computers and Electronics in Navy. BS, UH (’86), courses at De Anza College and online via Coursera and Edx.
Have you run for or held elected office before? Precinct Chair, unopposed.
Please list highlights of your civic involvement (for example, service on boards/commissions or leadership positions held): Precinct Chair, HOA board member, Master Gardener, Citizen Forester
Have you ever been arrested, charged with a crime or otherwise been part of a criminal proceeding? If yes, please explain. No.
Have you been involved in a civil lawsuit or bankruptcy proceeding? If yes, please explain. No.
Who are your top three campaign contributors? None, none, and none.
Why are you seeking this office? I want a better Texas.
What are the biggest challenges facing the area you’re seeking to represent?
-Global Warming. If we don’t get that under control nothing else matters - we won’t be here. -Failure of present officeholder to uphold our representative democracy. To wit, not standing up to the Governor’s non-sensual COVID policies. Not demanding that our legislature determine COVID policy. -False information about global warming.-Housing prices rising faster then pay raises means native Texans are being priced out of purchasing a home. -An education curriculum that is not preparing students for jobs in cyber space. -Paradigm shifts that will disrupt the cattle business, the car business, the energy business and, perhaps, even the military industry companies.
What would your top 3 policy priorities be? Modernize the education curriculum to attract more cyber centric businesses. Transportation methods that require less energy along with green energy for everyone.Reducing the pain that automation and innovation has, and will continue to create.
Why should voters choose you over your opponents? Albert Einstein said “The people who created the problem are unable to recognize having done so”. We can not move beyond the problems we present have without new people, with a better vision, in elected office.
What should the Legislature do to reduce local property taxes? Stop spending money on things with low Return On Investment (ROI). Each year Texas spends hundreds of millions on “securing the border”. Over time we have seen that nothing has changed along the border, implying that the return on that investment (ROI) is zero. Accepting ObamaCare would bring more money into Texas for healthcare. Texas taxpayers would have a lower healthcare burden. No need shooting our taxpayers in the pocketbook over some perceived political divide.
Is the Texas power grid prepared for another winter storm? What further measures should the state take to address electricity generation, weatherization and the long-term energy needs of the state? Texas grid is unprepared for another severe winter storm. The changes the state regulators have required have been minimum. Between the blades of a wind turbine and the generator sits a gearbox, which requires seasonal oil. It cost money to change that oil. In general less energy is used in winter, so about half of Texas wind turbine set idled, with summer weight oil. This is why many wind turbines were unavailable in February, 2021. ERCOT, having been created by oil, gas and nuclear power generators, preference dirty energy over clean energy. An analog to corporate created ERCOT is the old communist central planing committee. Once you come to that realization the problem is obvious and the solution is apparent. We need to disband ERCOT and re-join the national grid. This would allow wind generators to sell their excess energy into other parts of the country in winter. It would also take away one of the biggest hurdles to solar panels on roof tops.
Should Texas be building a border wall? Should more or fewer state resources be dedicated to the border? The U.S. funded Border Patrol has stated that federal money being used to build the border wall is de-funding more effective means to control the flow of people back and forth across the border. Walled forts have not been financially viable since the maturation of cannons in the mid-fifteen century. They worked on the American frontier only because the Native Americans did not have cannons or ladders. Clearly, that money can be put to better used elsewhere.
What should the state do to improve access to healthcare and make it more affordable? Every person in Texas that needs it gets access to healthcare from somewhere. Those who can afford it get it through insurance companies. Those who can not afford insurance get healthcare through local government funded hospitals. Simply accepting the American Cares Act will bring money into Texas to help finance healthcare for everyone. More money from outside Texas means Texans pay less.
Texas’ urban areas continue to grow rapidly, what can the Legislature do to reduce the time Texans spend in traffic and address infrastructure needs that come with a booming population? More toll roads is not the answer. Wider, and wider, freeways are not the answer. Light rail in our major cities is the only viable answer. Buses are a drive-by, able to be re-routed at anytime. Light rail is a long term commitment to the areas it traverse drawing developers to those areas, and is needed to provide riders to High Speed Trains. Another low energy form of transportation.
How can state government help ensure Texas has enough affordable housing to accommodate its growth? History has shown that affordable housing can not be left solely to the private sector. In 1970, after most of her kids had left home, my mother and step-dad were able to afford a new home thanks to government mandating affordable housing. Government clearly has a role to play here.
If the Supreme Court opens the door to new abortion restrictions, what should Texas’ policy be? Should abortions be allowed, and under what circumstances? By what level of fetal development, if any, should abortion be permitted? Five years before I was born, one of my mother’s sisters died of an illegal and unsafe abortion forced on her by her husband. Legal abortions are safe, affordable, and saves lives. That is why I fully support Roe v. Wade.We need to move abortion out of the finicky courts by explicitly adding the right to an abortion to the Texas Constitution.
What further changes, if any, in Texas election law do you support? A legal opinion I partially read several decades ago said “voter suppression does not have to be big, it only has to be effective”. Voter ID is a form of pole tax, as the voter has to pay for an ID. If you have to have an ID to vote, it should be a no cost item.There are many other small, but effective, forms of voter suppression that needs to mitigated.
Should Texas legalize marijuana? Why or why not and to what extent should the state’s marijuana laws be changed, if at all? My mother, sister, her ex-husband, and another brother-in-law all died early, and ugly, of tobacco addiction. If we can have tobacco legal in this country we can certainly have marijuana legal. I’m for selling marijuana and tobacco only through liquor stores.I would like for Willie Nelson, a Texan famous for using marijuana, not to die an outlaw.
What steps should Texas take to continue to address COVID-19 in Texas, including North Texas? Mask save lives! Vaccines save lives!We should seek a way to punish the spewers of medical dis-information. They have cost thousands of Texans their lives. Japan, a county where everyone wears a mask, has kept their per capital COVID infection much, much lower than Americas’. We should take medical problems out of the hands of Texas governor and put it in the hands of our medical community - Texas has one of the best in the world. You can not succeed with the argument that doing so will damage the economy. I have never heard of a doctor that did not want to make money on their investments.
Christopher Rector
Occupation: Retired Military/ Author
Age: 59
Campaign website: rectorfortexas97.com
Best way for voters to reach you: email: cdrector@yahoo.com
Education: Criminal Justice
Have you run for or held elected office before? Fort Worth Mayor 2021
Please list highlights of your civic involvement (for example, service on boards/commissions or leadership positions held): N/A
Have you ever been arrested, charged with a crime or otherwise been part of a criminal proceeding? If yes, please explain. No
Have you been involved in a civil lawsuit or bankruptcy proceeding? If yes, please explain. No
Who are your top three campaign contributors? Myself
Why are you seeking this office? I feel the citizens of District 97 under the current representative have lost their voice and I’m running to give it back to them.
What are the biggest challenges facing the area you’re seeking to represent? We are in need of major infrastructure repair, more affordable housing, jobs, and the biggest part is we need a State Representative that is in tune with the citizens of District 97. The voices of the struggling citizens of District 97 are not being heard.
What would your top 3 policy priorities be? Power Grid, Voting Rights, Repealing/stopping SB8, and constitutional carry law.
Why should voters choose you over your opponents? I’m a fighter and fighters fight! I will fight for all citizens of District 97 equally no matter their race, creed, sexual orientation. I will give the citizens their voices back even if I have to have a town hall type meeting once a week.
What should the Legislature do to reduce local property taxes? The legislature needs to fully fund education and expand homestead exemptions. More than half of funding for education comes from property taxes. The legislature should focus on fully funding education to reduce the burden on homeowners and pass sensible property tax relief for Texas families instead of spending taxpayer dollars on an ineffective border wall.
Is the Texas power grid prepared for another winter storm? What further measures should the state take to address electricity generation, weatherization and the long-term energy needs of the state? No. We must take urgent and substantive action to address the climate crisis by investing in alternative sources and sustainable infrastructure to meet the energy demands of the 21st century, while also creating green jobs that can help transition our economy into emerging energy industries and provide good-paying jobs for hard-working Texans. Investing in wind, solar, and hydro energy not only will provide our grid with more sustainable power, but these investments will create thousands of new jobs in the short and long term.
Should Texas be building a border wall? Should more or fewer state resources be dedicated to the border? No!!! We need to take the resources from building the wall to invest in public education and the power grid these are more pressing issues than building a wall.
What should the state do to improve access to healthcare and make it more affordable? Our healthcare system is broken, and we will have to work hard and fast to fix it. The first step is to expand Medicaid and bring our federal tax dollars back home to work for us. From addressing rising prescription drug costs to keeping hospitals open, we must take action to ensure that everyone has access to affordable healthcare and the ability to see a doctor when they need to.
Texas’ urban areas continue to grow rapidly, what can the Legislature do to reduce the time Texans spend in traffic and address infrastructure needs that come with a booming population? A short answer is we need to be proactive in addressing infrastructure to growing areas as they develop and not after it becomes a problem.
How can state government help ensure Texas has enough affordable housing to accommodate its growth? We need widespread investment in public housing, national rent control, and a Tenants Bill of Rights. We have to ensure affordable housing is made available to all.
If the Supreme Court opens the door to new abortion restrictions, what should Texas’ policy be? Should abortions be allowed, and under what circumstances? By what level of fetal development, if any, should abortion be permitted? Abortion is health care and should not be restricted in anyway. I will fight to repeal these extreme attacks on women, restore the ability of every Texan to make their own health care decisions, and stand up to protect reproductive health and rights for all Texans. I proudly stand with Planned Parenthood and all Texas health care providers.
What further changes, if any, in Texas election law do you support? Republicans in Austin senselessly injured our democracy with the passage of SB1 in 2021, making it harder than ever for everyone, including disabled, minority, and elderly Texans, to vote. And it was all based on Trump’s Big Lie about the 2020 election. I will fight to repeal the recent attacks on our voting rights and work to expand access to the ballot box with increased vote by mail and early voting options so that all our neighbors can have their voices heard. We must also establish a bipartisan redistricting commission to stop partisan gerrymandering.
Should Texas legalize marijuana? Why or why not and to what extent should the state’s marijuana laws be changed, if at all? Cannabis should be legalized for all Texans and be removed as a Schedule 1 drug. Cannabis use and possession should be governed in a similar fashion to alcohol and non-violent offenders for possession should be released from custody. As we’ve seen with Colorado and other states who have overturned Cannabis prohibition, we have a unique opportunity to fund healthcare, education, and social initiatives with the licensing and taxation of Cannabis products without any detrimental effect on our society.
What steps should Texas take to continue to address COVID-19 in Texas, including North Texas? We have to keep up to date on current recommendations by the CDC, get vaccinated, and continue to wear masks as needed.
