Candidate for Texas State Senate - District 15 in 2024 Texas Primary Election.
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Get StartedAs State Senator, Todd will fight to restore women’s rights to make their own healthcare decisions and to improve their healthcare options across Texas including: The right to access abortion care and reproductive care, including birth control in SD 15 and across Texas should be restored to pre-Dobbs standards. Significantly improve maternal mortality rates for Texas women with widely available and accessible prenatal care, abortion care, and postpartum care. Ensure these services are available and accessible across Texas, particularly in communities of color and communities with accessibility challenges due to a lack of providers. Ensure these rights and services are available to all non-binary and transgender Texans, too. Learn more
Todd believes our government should stay the hell out of people’s bedrooms and bathrooms, and that the unconstitutional assault on the LGBTQIA+ community by Texas has brought shame to our state and threatens the lives of many Texans. Learn more
Fighting for the liberty and freedom of all people to make fundamental, personal healthcare decisions, in particular, for transgender children and families and gaining access to gender-affirming care, and for pregnant persons and gaining access to abortions. Learn more
Get the TEA out of whole district takeovers and Houston ISD. Todd will work to repeal the law that led to the takeover of Houston ISD. We can’t afford for our students to be stuck in struggling schools, but we should develop and implement a school-specific turnaround model that doesn’t create disruptive and counterproductive uncertainty and stress throughout entire districts like the whole district takeover model has in HISD. Todd believes a community schools model and funding stream (like 21st Century Community Learning Centers) can serve as a turnaround model for struggling and/or underserved communities to make schools a pipeline for lifelong learning and engagement in communities. Learn more
Increase current teacher pay and protect teacher training and certifications, keep the TRS as a defined benefit plan, and implement an annual COLA for retired teachers to cover rising inflation (including healthcare-related inflation). Learn more
Highlight, track, and dismantle the school to prison pipeline and over disciplining of young students of color in our public schools, from Pre-K-12. Learn more
Keep public dollars in public schools and stop vouchers. Todd will build a coalition in the Senate that includes Senators who represent a large number of the House Districts that have stood up to vouchers and engage and embolden them to stand up for their school districts, administrators, teachers, students, and families, too. Learn more
Repeal the limitation on discussion of diversity and race in classrooms in Texas. Learn more
The foundation for higher test scores, lower dropout rates, and college graduation begins with strong early childhood and Pre-K programs and includes high quality afterschool care programs and programs that support student growth and development in the summer, too. Learn more
Revamp the state accountability rating system to stop making the test the sole measure of performance and create a whole-child focused accountability system. Learn more
Continue to diversify and expand our energy generation portfolio (with increased sustainable energy, including solar, wind, geothermal, and green hydrogen) and more efficient and larger energy storage capacity to smooth out the times when renewable energy might not generate as much power as needed. Learn more
Todd believes that the bipartisan partnership between local, state, and federal officials to tackle the Poor Farm Ditch infrastructure project in the southern part of our district was a great model for how we can bring multiple funding streams and jurisdictions together to tackle an infrastructure investment that affects a region of the district, and he will work to model that partnership in many of the other regions of SD 15 where flooding is still a significant issue, including the nearby Cypress Ditch. Learn more
Invest heavily in securing and protecting water resources for communities (for living, farming, industry, etc.). Learn more
Todd believes we need to build a coalition of local, state, and federal partners and constituents to analyze and invest in a suite of significant projects to mitigate the threats of increased flooding in our region and in SD 15 including: Bayou and channel improvements, increased detention, refortifying and expanding natural habitats and prairies, stopping development in flood zones, and much more. Learn more
Create a fund similar to CPRIT, the state fund that supports cancer research, for climatetech and economic development in Texas. Similar to CPRIT, the state could issue bonds to raise funds and invest them in efforts and companies that combat climate change and create jobs in Texas. These efforts would likely have global impact in combating climate change. Learn more
Red flag laws so people who are an extreme risk of harm to themselves or others can have their guns properly secured. Learn more
Revocation of permitless (open or concealed) carry. Learn more
A universal background check for all gun purchases, including from unlicensed dealers, and the implementation of safe storage and locking laws to keep Texans’ guns secure. Learn more
Raise the age to purchase an AR-15 or similar assault rifle to 21 and allow counties to regulate the use or possession of assault rifles in their county. Learn more
Todd believes military-style weapons have no place in our society because they are made solely to murder and injure people as quickly as possible. Todd doesn’t believe the 2nd amendment protections were ever meant to protect the right of private citizens to own weapons that would kill in this way. For example, it is illegal to own automatic weapons, hand grenades, rocket launchers, and armor piercing ammo in Texas for this very reason. Learn more
Ensure mental health parity for health insurance in Texas and work to increase the number of mental health and recovery care providers across Texas to provide better mental healthcare for Texans. Learn more
In Texas, Todd believes we need healthcare reform to expand Medicaid, expand access to abortion care, and make healthcare more affordable for all Texans. Todd believes that access to healthcare is a fundamental human right. Ensuring our people have access to healthcare provides them the opportunity to lead healthier lives which then enables them to be more present and constructive in their homes and families, and also allows them to be more productive and innovative in their jobs and communities. Learn more
Fighting for equality for LGBTQIA+ students in Texas, particularly for access to healthcare, including gender-affirming care and puberty blockers, against government restrictions in UIL sports and collegiate sports, and against book bans and censorship. Learn more
Invest in capping orphan wells and leveraging federally available dollars to do so. Learn more
Make significant infrastructure investments to make our communities more resilient and flexible for the formerly extreme climate events that are now more the norm (see “Ike Dike” from 2008). This includes hardening our grid and either linking to the grid in other regions or building or acquiring more power generating and storage assets in Texas. Texans should not have to consider buying their own personal home generators to ensure the lights come on when they flip the switch—that’s not befitting of the 8th largest economy in the world. Learn more
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