Maureen Galindo, 38, is a marriage and family therapist. She’s also a housing advocate who fought the razing of her downtown apartment complex to build a baseball stadium, and ran unsuccessfully for City Council in 2025. She’s seeking the Democratic nomination in Texas’ 35th Congressional District.
Hear from the candidate
1. Please tell voters about yourself.
I’m a single mom of three, and like many families in San Antonio, I’ve lived the consequences of policy decisions made without community voice– rising housing costs, displacement, and systems that protect profit over people. My career background is in community psychology and marriage and family therapy, grounded in participatory and liberation-based practices.
As a housing justice activist, I helped design San Antonio’s rent relief program in response to my neighbors displacement at SoapWorks Apartments downtown, now being demolished by billionaire Graham Weston for a baseball stadium.
Because I ensured the city used community-driven policymaking, the rent relief program eventually brought hundreds of millions of dollars into San Antonio during and after covid. That experience shaped my belief that real democracy is the most effective when it includes shared power. My campaign is about building durable power with everyday people so policy reflects lived reality, not investor priorities.
2. Briefly describe your top policy priorities.
My top priorities are lowering the cost of living, making housing and health care affordable, strengthening workers’ power, and restoring real accountability in our democracy. Families in Texas are struggling not because of personal failure, but because federal policy allows corporations to extract profit from systems people rely on every day.
People are working longer hours while falling further behind, choosing between rent and medical care, and watching wages stand still as prices soar. They are told the economy is “strong” even as their bills pile up, they face housing instability, and basic needs like gas and food are stretched thin. Democracy must deliver real, material outcomes for these families. An affordable economy and a healthy democracy require a government that responds to the struggles of everyday people, not the profits of powerful interests.
I also support holding Donald Trump accountable for tyranny and obstruction of justice. We cannot allow another three years of lawlessness that undermines our institutions and threatens democracy itself. No one is above the law. Congress needs bold leaders who will protect the country and its people, not in symbolic words, but in real action.
3. What should Congress be doing to rein in inflation and/or stabilize/boost the economy?
Congress needs to build an economy that works for people, not corporations. Inflation and high costs are driven by systems that allow millionaires and billionaires to extract wealth while shaping policy in their favor. When we fail to address these root causes and instead rely on the government to patch problems through social services, we are subsidizing corporate welfare and taking agency from people who then must rely on the government.
Real economic growth comes from strong competition, high-quality public goods, and consumer protections. Well-funded public systems–healthcare, education, transit, and infrastructure– staffed with well-paid workers, raise standards across the economy, create jobs, and give people real choice. Congress must prevent monopolistic practices, enforce anti-trust laws, and protect consumers from predatory or exploitative business practices that consolidate wealth, inflate prices, and limit options. In order to make this happen, we need politicians who refuse corporate and billionaire money, reclaiming policymaking for the public.
4. What should Congress be doing to reform immigration laws?
From its creation, ICE has operated as a for-profit trafficking agency that relies on fear, militarized tactics, and mass surveillance, terrorizing our immigrant communities and eroding civil liberties FOR US ALL. Its record includes due process violations, family separation, abuse in detention, and coordination with private, for‑profit detention contractors. This is primarily being done for profit!!
ICE should be eradicated and replaced with a non‑militarized immigration system rooted in due process and Constitutional standards. Any officials who have committed crimes, including civil rights violations or crimes under U.S. or international law, must be prosecuted through the courts, for us all to see their faces.
Immigration reform must also actively protect migrants from trafficking and exploitation, whether by cartels, smugglers, private contractors, or government actors, by expanding legal pathways, worker protections, asylum access, and strong government oversight. A just system protects human dignity and public safety without terrorizing communities.
5. At a time when the White House is asserting more control over national security and spending without Congress’ input, how would you handle disagreements over the division of power?
When a White House asserts control over national security and spending without congressional authorization, that is not a policy disagreement– it is a constitutional crisis. Congress has a clear duty to act. Allowing any administration to bypass the law sets a dangerous precedent that concentrates power in the executive branch and erodes democratic governance.
I believe Congress must aggressively reassert its authority through hearings, subpoenas, budgetary control, and impeachment. When laws are broken, especially ones that send our soldiers into harm’s way for billionaire profit, accountability cannot stop at political consequences; it must include prosecution. No president is above the law.
Failure to act invites further abuse. We cannot normalize executive lawlessness or allow fear of political backlash to override constitutional responsibility. I will not hesitate to use every tool Congress has to defend the rule of law and prevent another three years of unchecked power.
6. The past year has brought tremendous uncertainty to many Americans surrounding rising health insurance premiums and lack of access to medical care near their homes. What do you believe Congress should be doing to make health care affordable and accessible to residents in your state?
I believe healthcare is a human right, not a profit haven for investors. Congress must ensure everyone has access to high-quality, affordable care, without being at the mercy of private equity firms or insurance investors who prioritize profit over patients. When investors own hospitals, nursing homes, or healthcare chains, costs rise, staffing suffers, and patient care is compromised.
We need strong public options, price transparency, and consumer protections to limit the influence of investors on essential services. Prescription drugs, insurance premiums, and hospital bills should reflect health needs, not shareholder returns.
Investing in preventive care, mental health, and community-based health programs is crucial, as is ensuring public systems are well-funded and staffed with fairly compensated workers.
By ending investor-driven incentives and creating competition around public goods and jobs, Congress can bring down costs, improve care, and ensure that healthcare serves people, not investment portfolios.
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