Charles Mercer is a financial advisor and former educator. He’s seeking the Republican nomination in the race to replace retiring state Rep. Ray Lopez (D-San Antonio).
Hear from the candidate
1. Please tell voters about yourself.
I am Chuck Mercer, running as a Republican for Texas House District 125 to bring responsibility and real representation back to San Antonio. I am 35 years old. I am former educator and currently working as a financial advisor.
I have spent 2 years teaching, and afterward 11 years in finance. I’ve lived in San Antonio since 2003. My CV includes my Bachelor’s from the University of Michigan, and a Master’s Degree from the University of Texas at San Antonio.
I have seen firsthand how state policies impact classrooms, families, taxpayers, and local businesses. I believe my district and the city of San Antonio deserves a leader grounded in service, faith, and conservative principles—not career politicians. As a devout Christian, as an educator, and community advocate, I seek to act with a moral clarity needed to represent us in Austin.
2. Briefly describe your top policy priorities.
My top priorities are education and finance for the state of Texas. To reform Texas education, I would prioritize expanding school choice through vouchers and education savings accounts to empower parents and break public school monopolies, while shifting funding from property taxes to performance-based state allocations that follow the student. I would restore local control by decentralizing the Texas Education Agency, enhancing accountability through parental involvement and an improved A-F grading system. I would eliminate ideological indoctrination by banning Critical Race Theory and similar divisive concepts. I would focus on education related to American history, and civic values
I would pursue narrowly tailored approaches to increase Texas state revenue without raising tax rates, focusing on enhance tax enforcement through targeted audits and digital compliance tools for underreported sales and franchise taxes, potentially recapturing $500 million to $1 billion yearly from non-compliance in high-volume industries like e-commerce and energy, without new burdens on compliant businesses.
3. What would you like to see the legislature do to make Texas cities better places to live? In what ways could state officials work better with local officials?
I’d like to see our legislature reach out to the mayor and our city on a more regular basis to make sure that state resources are being allocated to our community appropriately. One particular policy I’d push for is to ensure Texas conducts comprehensive audits and establish efficiency task forces: creating dedicated offices or commissions, similar to the DOGE model, to review and streamline state agencies, cutting redundant programs and bureaucratic overhead while ensuring accountability in spending. This is vital especially as the city grows, because we do dearly need a focus on developing infrastructure and our new schools efficiently; we must be precise in what we’re spending on.
4. Texas has taken major steps to reshape its public education system, including allowing taxpayer dollars to fund private school tuition. What do you believe needs to happen to monitor the success of Education Savings Accounts, and to ensure every student still receives a quality education?
I think our reforms have done well, but to ensure continued to success I’d ask from the state and our house committees for more focus on digital tools; namely public tools showing school performance and outcomes, to make it clear to the public and to parents how schools are performing and how funds are being spent. Also, I’d ask for an annual progress report where this data can be shared publicly. The data may be collected by participating schools using norm-referenced testing and financial transparency; keeping rules light and parent-driven.
5. Reducing the burden of property taxes is expected to be a major focus of the next legislative session. Describe your ideas for balancing the needs of a growing state with state leaders’ desire to rein in that major revenue source?
I would review and enforce the recommendations Texas Sunset Advisory Commission findings to eliminate redundant agencies and programs. I also would ask our budgeting committees to focus on policies that incentivize business growth in Texas via fast-track approvals, and credits to high growth industries so we may capture capital growth as a revenue source. Similarly, I’d push to use our economic surpluses to specifically as prior Texas sessions have done to pay maintenance and operation costs for schools. Finally, strict spending controls must be enforced; focusing on zero-based budgeting which other party members have advocated for.
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Meet the candidates running for the Texas Legislature
State Rep. Ray Lopez won’t seek reelection in Texas House District 125
