The candidates in two of South Texas’ most anticipated state House races sparred Tuesday on education and school vouchers, as well as issues like state vs. local control, abortion and possible future votes on the House speakership as well as hemp products and casino gambling.
More than 200 people gathered to hear Texas House District 121 candidates Marc LaHood (R) and Laurel Jordan Swift (D), face off in a debate moderated by San Antonio Report editor-in-chief Leigh Munsil first, followed by the debate between District 118 incumbent Rep. John Lujan (R-San Antonio) and challenger Kristian Carranza (D), moderated by politics reporter Andrea Drusch.
The San Antonio Report hosted the candidate debates in partnership with the Greater San Antonio Chamber of Commerce.
Watch the full debates:
Texas House District 121
LaHood, who ousted current Rep. Steve Allison in the Republican primary, strongly expressed support for a legislative package on school vouchers that would create education savings accounts to let families use state funds to pay for private school tuition. Swift said she strongly opposes vouchers, referencing a similar program in Arizona, which contributed to a $1.4 billion state budget shortfall this year mostly due to vouchers.
“This is a budget buster,” Swift said. “The radical idea is choosing the voucher plan. The smarter idea is to fully fund our public schools right now,” she said.
LaHood said more competition through a voucher program would create better education and teacher pay. “It’s going to largely depend on the speaker of the house,” LaHood said, adding he’ll follow the House GOP caucus. “What I want in a speaker is someone that’s not going to derail the power, is not going to undercut the priorities and to put the power back in the representatives and not hold it hostage in calendars and kill bills that would help us and our families.”
Political newcomer Swift’s pitch to voters in the debate was supporting the public education system, women’s reproductive health, access to health care, abortion and the economy.
“When it’s my way or the highway, that disregards such an enormous part of the constituency of the state, and that’s not what this district wants. We need to work together,” she said.
LaHood said his top priorities are funding law enforcement, securing the border and economic issues like property taxes.
Swift said she supported regulating consumable hemp products as well as putting it to ballot initiative, and LaHood said he supported setting an 18-year-old age requirement to purchase such products.
“This is personal to me,” LaHood said. “There are beneficial uses for people suffering from PTSD and trauma. Every 22 minutes, a veteran kill themselves.”
Both candidates said they aren’t opposed to legalizing casino gambling in Texas, and described the district’s water supply as a major concern this legislative session.
Texas House District 118
School vouchers were also a focal point of the second debate, which included more punches from Carranza. As the only incumbent in Tuesday’s debates, Lujan, defended his record.
Lujan said he wouldn’t vote for a school voucher plan if it doesn’t include better accountability for private schools.
“I don’t want people to choose for a public school or a private school if they’re measured differently. We have to measure it all the same if we want parents to make the right decision,” he said.
Carranza said she’ll focus on fully funding public schools instead of giving ground on school vouchers.
Carranza brought up Lujan’s hypothetical remarks in a Texas Public Radio interview in September about how he would urge his daughter to have a baby if she had been raped. Lujan doesn’t have a daughter, and after those remarks his campaign clarified that he supports exemptions to Texas’ near-total abortion ban in the case of rape, incest and if the life of the mother is at risk.
Lujan denied ever saying he would “force” his daughter to carry to term. He clarified, saying he’s a pro-life candidate and that he supports exceptions for rape and incest, which Texas doesn’t have.
“In that interview what I wanted to say, if I did have a daughter that was raped, I would encourage her to choose life,” Lujan said Tuesday, adding that he will work to add abortion exceptions for rape and incest.
Carranza also knocked Lujan for not having a district field office, adding that it would be her first priority.
“We haven’t had a district office since Lujan took office,” she said. Lujan said he is the “most accessible” representative in Austin, and that he is reachable personally and through staff.
Carranza said she’ll advocate to expand Medicaid statewide and in her district, where she’s running to represent a lot of people without health insurance and little access to hospitals. But what’s achievable next session is women’s health care, she said, and requiring doctors to prioritize the life of the mother.
“Health care scares me because the border crisis is really bad,” Lujan said. “These people are allowed in, they’re bringing a lot of sick people with them, they’re going to the hospitals, it’s taxing our system tremendously.”
Lujan, who co-sponsored the so-called “Death Star bill,” was also criticized for aiming to stop local governments from enacting progressive-leaning policies by barring cities and counties from passing certain local ordinances.
“What we’ve been having here lately is city government go beyond progressive laws, and for business, it’s really tough. … We stop economic growth, and Texas is successful because of our economy and because we’re pro-small business,” Lujan said.
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