Robert “Bob” Mihara is a U.S. Army veteran and attorney who works for San Antonio Legal Services Association’s Housing and Homelessness Program. He’s challenging state Rep. Philip Cortez (D-San Antonio) in the Democratic primary for Texas House District 117.
Hear from the candidate
1. Please tell voters about yourself.
My name is Robert Mihara, and I retired from the US Army as a lieutenant colonel from Fort Sam Houston, after tours in Afghanistan and Iraq, commanding both air defense and reconnaissance units. And I earned history degrees from West Point and Texas A&M University before returning to teach military history at West Point.
After my military retirement, I graduated from St. Mary’s University School of Law in and worked as a pro bono attorney as well as serving on the board of directors for Disability Rights Texas. I have seen the impact of failed policies on my clients and through my advocacy work, and that insight motivated me to run for office.
I have lived in Far West San Antonio since 2015 with my wife, Mary, also a West Point graduate, and our two adult children—Maria and Vincent.
I am 49 years old.
2. Briefly describe your top policy priorities.
My priorities are public education, infrastructure, and affordability. If we focus on the people living here rather than on investors or political insiders, those priorities provide the fundamentals for sustainable and equitable growth.
Public schools are cornerstones for their communities. Allowing schools to fail—through neglect of both the schools themselves and the neighborhoods around them—is bad policy. I want to rescue public schools and reverse the hollowing out of neighborhoods by providing supplemental funding for schools negatively impacted by charter school enrollment. Many of those schools retain value as neighborhood institutions, and rebuilding Southside communities begins with the schools.
For years, our roads, transportation, and land use planning have been out of sync. The cost has been enormous: lost productivity, worsening public health, and greater environmental harm. Texas must catch up to the real needs of our communities by building resilient, community-centered infrastructure for our state’s future.
Wages and public benefits are more inadequate than ever, and these gaps are driving the affordability crisis. We must raise the minimum wage and strengthen access to the social safety net to meet the challenges of automation and a rapidly changing economy. And I support targeted wage subsidies to assist true small businesses get off the ground and fuel local economies.
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 want the Texas Legislature to increase state funding for essential services and public education to ease upward pressure on property taxes. The state has shifted too many responsibilities onto counties without providing adequate support, creating an unsustainable and inequitable system.
Authority and oversight should be returned to local governments so communities can address their needs according to local priorities and remain accountable to local voters. There are immediate opportunities—especially in education and infrastructure—to deliver better outcomes for Texans.
TEA interventions often fail to recognize that state neglect of education and economic development is a major factor in struggling schools. Creating county-level oversight of underperforming districts would make the process more responsive to community concerns and voter accountability.
Similarly, the state’s narrow focus on road expansion in transportation spending is counterproductive and inefficient. We should prioritize multimodal transportation solutions that reduce demand for new roads and accelerate delayed projects through stronger, time-bound contracts. Giving greater authority to regional metropolitan planning organizations, such as AAMPO, would ensure that transportation priorities are set by leaders who best understand local needs.
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 oppose school vouchers or Education Savings Accounts (ESAs). But any institution that receives public funds should be held to the same standards as traditional public schools. Obligations such as providing transportation and special education services should be universal requirements for anyone accepting taxpayer dollars.
Strong oversight of ESAs alone will not guarantee that every student gets the education they need. Even so, it is essential to elect a diligent state comptroller who will regulate ESA implementation to maximize student outcomes while ensuring accountability to the public.
The students who are most at risk are those who may be excluded from private schools and simultaneously underserved by underfunded public schools. Defunding public schools stands to punish kids in special education classrooms the most. Addressing this failure begins with fully funding education based on student need, rather than continuing the rationed system currently in place.
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?
Property taxes are meant to give property owners a stake in the communities they live in. But they can also turn homeowners into virtual tenants.
As property values have risen, the state has retreated from funding essential services. And now, property taxes are pushing many families into housing insecurity and putting homeownership out of reach for young families. Fortunately, there are solutions we can act on now.
Texas must rethink both how it allocates revenue and which taxes and fees it relies on. The state needs a clear strategy to reduce local governments’ dependence on property taxes to pay for essential services such as public schools and first responders. The state already holds substantial reserves and collects ongoing revenue that could meet many local needs without raising taxes.
A sound fiscal strategy would rely on the state acting like a true partner to local governments. A genuine state–local partnership would refocus government on results, not political favors. It would also allow for an honest conversation about how much revenue Texas needs for fair and sustainable growth. That conversation should lead to a fairer distribution of burdens, such as requiring large corporations to contribute more toward roads and other public goods they depend on.
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