Jason Villalba, A Rising Star in Politics and Already on the List of Legislators to Watch

This past Tuesday, the 83rd Legislative Session of Texas began in Austin at the Capitol building. The morning before the State Representatives and State Senators took their oath of office, I attended a Tex Mex breakfast for Republican Hispanic freshman State Representative Jason Villalba (HD-114) at the restaurant Juan in a Million. At the breakfast, Jason Villalba, who is the only Republican Hispanic freshman in the Texas Legislature, thoroughly thanked his family and friends for supporting him throughout his campaign and introduced some of the people on his staff, including his field director Cecile Fernandez.

State Rep. Villalba thanks his supporters

State Rep. Villalba's daughters supporting their father

I spoke with Jason and did a brief interview before I made my way to the Capitol to witness him taking the oath of office alongside his colleagues.

State Rep. Villalba is preparing a bill which will be called “Protection of Texas Children Act” and would give specially-trained school employees access to weapons if an armed intruder threatened their campus. He began to talk about this legislation after the school shootings in Newtown, Connecticut.

During the first week of the legislative session, State Rep. Jason Villalba made the Texas Observer’s list of the Legislators to Watch. There is no doubt that Villaba is one of the rising stars of Texas politics, and we look forward to see and hear more from him soon.

Full Transcript of Interview:

National Director of VOCES Action Adryana Boyne: Hello we are here with TexasGOPVote and freshman State Representative Jason Villalba of District 114 of Dallas. Jason, we’re excited that today is the day that you are about to take the oath of office. Can I ask you what you are anticipating for this session, this upcoming session in Texas?

Texas State Rep. Jason Villaba: Well Adryana, it is a pleasure to be here and thank you TexasGOPvote for the opportunity to talk about the session. I am excited for what’s before us. Texas faces many great challenges, and I look forward to going down to Austin, well we’re here now, but to be sworn in to face the issues that are important. We are going to talk about the budget, we saw yesterday that the budget is going to have a surplus this year. So instead of having to cut greatly in certain programs that matter to all Texans, public education, transportation, water, we will be able to address those issues, at least differently than we did in the last session. So those are the issues that I think we’re going to be focusing on, issues that affect all Texans, So I’m very excited for the opportunity to go down there and really solve some of these problems. We have a public education system that’s broken, and non refunded and it’s important that we get back to work on that issue. We have a water problem here in Texas. We’re losing water in different parts of the state, and we have to do everything we can to fund that water and we’re going to find a way to do that. We have a transportation system here in Texas and is in need of repair, and we hope we can find a way to do that in a way that doesn’t put a unfair burden on all our citizens here in Texas.

Adryana Boyne: Well we really appreciate what you shared with us. In a little while, we are going to be joining you in the Capitol as you take the oath for office, as well as many freshman who are your fellow Republicans, and we appreciate your service to the people of the district and certainly to the great state of Texas.

Jason Villalba: Thank you so much, I appreciate it.

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