Yolanda Garza For State Rep of TX-74: Can She Unseat a Democratic Incumbent of 20 Years?

Out on the border, there is another race that is not as high-profile as the race to reclaim Congressional District 23 but is equally important. The race I am speaking of is Yolanda Sotelo Garza's race for the Republican nomination for Texas House District 74. Currently Yolanda Garza is in a primary battle against Thomas Kincaid Jr., a rancher from the Fort Stockton area, and the 2008 GOP nominee for the seat. Both Yolanda Garza and Thomas Kincaid are competing for the chance to challenge 20-year incumbent State Rep Pete Gallego (D-Alpine), this will only be the third time in his career that Representative Gallego is challenged and in my opinion, I am glad that he is frightened because he knows that there is a very serious challenger in Yolanda Garza.

First off, let me give you some background on our House District 74. House District 74 is the largest state district in Texas, it covers 13 counties in West Texas from Uvalde county (a little over an hour west of San Antonio) all the way to Hudspeth county near El Paso. Though the district is primarily Hispanic and Democrats control most of the local elections, it has been carried by Republicans in state-wide and national races, John McCain even carried our district in 2008. The largest city in the district is Del Rio, my hometown, with an approximated polulation of 46,000 (this is what we expect the 2010 census to say). Even though Del Rio is by far the largest city in the district, we have never had a representative from our hometown, but that is all about to change with Yolanda Garza's candidacy.

Yolanda Garza is a lifelong resident and native of Del Rio, most everyone in our city knows her either from her adult daycare business, her time as a school board member, her time as a nurse, or just from the fact that there isn't much in Del Rio. Ms. Garza has raised her children and started her business in Del Rio (she now has a branch in Uvalde), and has always been involved in local politics in one way or another. Most notably she served as a school board member on the San Felipe Del Rio-CISD school board from 2003-2006 and is currently a member of the City of Del Rio International Bridge Board which oversees interaction between Del Rio and Ciudad Acuna, Mexico. Yolanda Garza does not only have the experience needed to serve the people of House District 74, but she also has the ties to the community that our current state rep severely lacks. Ms. Garza also has a very positive outlook on how to solve the problems facing our district and our state. Rather than dwell on what others have done wrong, Ms. Garza will keep us moving forward and trying to improve our state for future generations. This means creating an education system that encourages success, an environment favorable to new businesses with higher paying jobs, keeping Texas the #1 state to raise a family, and lowering taxes for all Texans. With Yolanda Garza as our State Representative, the people of House District 74 will get the voice we deserve in Austin with the experience to solve our problems while setting up a better, brighter tomorrow for future generations.

Our current state rep is Democrat Pete Gallego as I stated before, he is from Alpine, Texas and claims his residency there even though his children have been schooled in Austin. While I have no problem with sending your children to the best schools possible, I do have a problem with the fact that our state legislature meets for about 5 months every 2 years and Mr. Gallego pretty much lives in Austin full time with the exception of the days that he comes down to participate in parades. As I have been joking back home, we have seen "Pete Gallego" signs more often in our district than we've actually seen Pete Gallego in our district, which is sad because so far I've only seen about 5 of his signs in Del Rio. This isn't so much a joke because it goes to show how severely neglected we are and the people of Del Rio are ready for true representation from one of their own and not a career politician. Even the Democrats are turning on our incumbent, my family included! My dad was one of the first to endorse Mr. Gallego back in the 90s when my dad was President of the Del Rio Board of Realtors, and while my family has always been supportive of Mr. Gallego, they will not be this time with someone from our hometown, someone who really is one of us, challenging this 20-year incumbent career politician.

Ms. Garza's primary opponent is Thomas Kincaid Jr., he ran against Mr. Gallego in 2008 and was beat badly because he did not take it seriously. I do not feel comfortable supporting him because I want to know that our nominee will be someone who will literally fight for us and beat the incumbent in November. Recently Mr. Kincaid sent out a "RINO Alert" regarding Ms. Garza. For those of you who do not know, a RINO is a Republican-in-name-only. This attack was based on the fact that Ms. Garza has voted in the Democratic primary before. If you know anything about the politics on the border, you would understand that this is necessary from time to time. Local politics are dominated by the Democratic Party, Repubicans are not always on the ballot for important local seats, and in order to represent that the best person gets the job (or at least the lesser of two evils does) it is sometimes necessary to vote in a Democratic Primary on the border. Most of the Hispanic Democrats on the border are actually pretty conservative anyway, they are the type that would be ignored by the national party leaders, so in actuality, it is not a terrible crime for her to have voted Democrat at the local level, especially since she has voted Republican at the state and national level.

So because of Yolanda Garza's experiences as a small-business owner, former school board member, and nurse, and because of Mr. Gallego's arrogant incompetence, Texas House District 74 is one of those seats that will prove to be an upset that will allow the Republican Party of Texas to regain lost majorities in the Texas House. This seat is more than prime for the taking, but what we most need is your help. Whether that means monetary donations to the campaign or just spreading the word about this race to family members in or very near to House District 74, it does not matter, we need your help. Though Yolanda Garza has the right message and experience for our district, she will be fighting an uphill battle against an entrenched incumbent. Luckily the incumbent will be fighting this fight alone, but we still need all the help we can get to ensure that the people of Del Rio and House District 74 get the voice they deserve. As I stated earlier, this is my hometown and it is very important to me and I would never support a candidate just because of their party affiliation, I want someone who will best represent and serve my family. Thankfully that person is Yolanda Sotel Garza, a Republican for House District 74.

If you would like more information, or would like to help, please visit GarzaForTexas.com. We'd greatly appreciate any help that you can provide.