A blue wave washed up on the predominantly red Republican shores of Canyon Lake Thursday.
The parking lot was packed and it was standing room only inside St. Francis by the Lake Episcopal Church’s large room for ‘Let’s Talk Canyon Lake,” a candidate forum for Democrats running in the March 3 primary election.
Organizer Russell Marinelli, who chairs Precinct 104 and is a member of the Young Democrats of Greater Comal County, said it was the biggest Comal County Democratic Party event in two years.
“I think the fact that 80% of the people that were there tonight were from Comal County and probably from Canyon Lake just shows how people are feeling about the Trump and Abbott administrations in political policies and how they’ve affected the every day lives of people out here in Canyon Lake,” he said.
“A lot of people, I think, are looking for a viable alternative to what they’ve seen for the last 60 years and tonight I think a lot of people got their first view into what that might possibly look like.”
Kim Farlow with Democrats of Comal County said she’s never seen this many Democrats show up for anything.
Candidate speeches have been edited for clarity and brevity.
Merrie Fox, Ph.D
Running for Texas House District 73
My family moved to Canyon Lake in 1982 when I was in middle school and I got to grow up around the lake working playing, exploring from Cranes Mill to Potter’s Creek and everything in between. It was a great, great time.
I now live in New Braunfels, where my wife and I have had the privilege of raising two amazing kiddos.
I’m a retired school principal with 31 years of experience in public education and now work as the executive director of a nonprofit community theater in New Braunfels.
During my time as a principal I earned my Ph.D in educational leadership and I honed my leadership skills to address issues that often became very complex because people have very long, deep-held beliefs, right?
And arguments for that … you know, what they believe in. And a significant desire to be heard. And so I learned to listen and find common ground, and to help people walk with me to find solutions.
It was an honor to serve students and staff and families in those learning communities. Now I want to serve as your representative. And in Austin I will work to defund vouchers … and appropriately fund public schools because they are the basis of our communities and our Democracy.
I will work to protect our precious water resources through conservation incentives, through increased wastewater-treatment standards, and holding accountable our consumers, commercial consumers that are over-pumping and causing our wells to go dry.
I will also give voice to our communities about growth and development because I believe it is up to us, not the legislature, to determine how and where growth happens.
Kristen Hook, Ph.D
Running for U.S. House District 21
I am not a politician. I am a scientist with a Ph.D, in animal behavior and I’m a former middle school teacher, so I am well prepared to handle Congress.
I’m running to fight for affordability, to demand accountability and to expand the opportunity for the working families in our district. I come from a working-class background … I grew up living paycheck-to-paycheck.
I believe that it’s time that we put working people in charge to build an economy that works for all of us, not billionaires and not special interests. I also know, as a former federal scientist, that our government can and should be a powerful force for good, not a weapon of oppression.
I expanded your taxpayer dollars while working at the U.S. Government Accountability Office. I expanded healthcare for disadvantaged communities at the National Institutes of Health, and I served as an oversight investigator for (U.S.) Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts), where I held the first Trump administration and greedy corporate CEOs who were profiting off of us during the pandemic accountable.
I know how to make our government work for us, and that is exactly what I will do as your first congresswoman. I am a battle-tested Democrat. I was the only Democrat who stood up to run against (incumbent Republican) Chip Roy in the last race … I’m here to finish that job.
Jose Navarro Balbuena
Running for Texas governor
I make $40,000 a year. Between me and my wife together we make under $100,000.
Within my district and across the nation, 60% of Americans are in the same place as me. And I believe the only solutions that need to be presented come from the working class.
So people are in the trenches.
Every single one of you, if there’s one thing that you can take from my candidacy is that this, whatever this imaginary line that you see right here, it’s only imaginary.
Gary Taylor
Running for U.S House District 21
I’m a progressive New Deal Democrat. Progressivism is compassionate, but it is also highly practical.
The theme of my campaign is an economy for a more perfect union, and I want to add loudly that I am a passionate progressive on all issues, not just economics. Civil rights, immigrant rights, LGBTQ rights, women’s rights, human rights.
I am working toward a long-term paradigm shift in the American philosophy, a shift away from unbridled, triple-down economics ad toward progressivism, a philosophy of that has the needs of all at its core.
Regina Vanburg, Ph.D
Running for U.S. House District 21
I am the daughter of an immigrant. Both of my parents are veterans, and in my house, growing up in Bandera, service wasn’t optional. It was the expectation. That’s exactly what I’ve done with my life.
For the past 17 years (as a Veterans Affairs trauma psychologist) from Kyle to Kerrville from Bandera to San Antonio, I have served veterans, homeless populations, women and children recovering from abuse. And all of these things, the trauma psychologist right here, building trust and support for the communities here in this district.
We have an incredible opportunity in front of us. We have an open congressional seat and a blue wave on the horizon. If we take advantage of this opportunity, we can flip this district.
I am here to protect your boat, you water and your wealth.
Michael Lange
Running for Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts
At the end of World War II, my father thought he was going to be killed by an American soldier. But the American soldier, rather than killing him, gave him a Hershey’s chocolate bar. He was 13-years-old. He became an American instead. My mother’s a teacher. I have two sisters who are teachers.
Do you know how much money the comptroller looks after for you? $338 billion. That’s with a b. The comptroller has 3,000 staff, over 30 offices. If you want to be effective on day one, you’d better have some experience doing that. And I worked in Texas, the United States and over 57 countries around the world.
I grew up in Houston, but I grew up in rural Texas.
The comptroller is not just about money, it’s about school vouchers and $1 billion of your money is going to be spent…(on) school vouchers.
That’s the comptroller.
Anybody have problems with internet connections? That’s the comptroller. Broadband is part of the comptroller’s job.
If you really want for the first time to feel that your tax dollars are working for you … vote for Michael Lange.
Vikki Goodwin
Running for Texas lieutenant governor
(Represented by Campaign Manager Allen Biehl)
We are going up against a guy who has been in office for three terms, and he seems to think he needs another one. Same with our governor, same with some other folks, but we’re gonna talk about (incumbent Lt. Gov.) Dan Patrick.
(Name) the top three issues that you think are facing the State of Texas. Ladies and gentlemen, if anywhere on that list was fighting Sharia Law. Not on mine, was yours? Ladies and gentlemen, that’s why we need to get Dan Patrick out of office. That’s his number-one concern.
Vikki Goodwin is a firm proponent of our public schools. When Vikki is lieutenant governor, not a single dollar will be allocated in the budget for private vouchers.
She is a supporter of water for families prioritized over data centers. She is going to support expanding healthcare …we will roll back the horrible and deadly abortion ban in the State of Texas … she will work to destroy the problems we have around our taxation that is making homeownership out of reach for so many young people.
Bobby Cole
Running for Texas governor
I’m from East Texas. I have a cattle ranch out there, and I’m a retired career firefighter. I come from a long line of working-class people. They were blue collar, working class, they were union and they were lifelong Democrats.
(Their) struggles and the values and the character that was instilled in me is what this campaign’s about.
And what the campaign is about is trusting women instead of trying to control them. It’s about LGBTQ being seen and not erased. It’s about investing in our public schools, our teachers, and our kids instead of short-changing them. It’s about immigrants being treated with dignity, decency and respect instead of hunting.
It’s about a state building a state that you can actually afford to live in. And it’s also, if you get sick, you shouldn’t have to go bankrupt.
The economy is you, and you are the economy.
I want to put investment in funding into the middle, into us, the middle class, and let it radiate out instead of at the top and let it trickle down.
Chris Bell
Running for Texas governor
I’m running for governor because I’m outraged by the direction of the state, the direction of our country. Outrage, without substance, doesn’t produce very much change. And voting does.
And in no time, during my lifetime, has an election been more powerful than the one coming up.
The other reason I’m running is because I can’t stand the direction our public schools are going in. I believe that (governor) Greg Abbott has declared war on public schools here in Texas, during his almost 12 years … one positive thing about public school education, and I happen to believe the public schools are the backbone of every community, and certainly the backbone of our state, may have provided the key to the future… and if we throw away that key, I don’t know what Texas is going to look like in the future.
I think it’s time that we treat teachers like the professionals that they are and stop tapping them at an artificial cap and let them continue to advance, just like every other profession. And I don’t think it’s just about money. I think it’s how we are going to invest that money.
And I think we have to modernize public schools and open ourselves up to taking advantage of technology and improving the product. We’ve been operating within a 19th-century model for too long, and we have to change.
Much of what’s driving the wrong direction of our state is corruption. And, you know, created a pay-to-play state, and without campaign-finance reform, that is never going to change. Please check my record on ethics.”
Maggie Ellis
Running for Chief Justice of the Texas Supreme Court
I currently serve as justice on the (Texas) Third Court of Appeals. I am one of six Democratic women that get to serve with Chief Justice Darlene Byrne.
Right now, across our nation, across our state, our separation of powers are eroding. Our rule of law is under attack. I’m running for chief justice of the Texas Supreme Court to bring independence back to our courts.
I grew up very transient, I was homeless as a child. I was in and out of elementary schools. I went to eight elementary schools in three different states.
At 10 years old, my mom stopped taking us to school altogether. At age 11 1/2, I was living in our car in New Mexico. I begged her to put me back in school. She drove me home to Texas, left me at a gas station with $5 about to miles away from my father’s house. She drove away, and I didn’t see her for 12 years.
At 22, I was a single mom with an infant, a two-year-old, and I was raising my baby sister all by myself with no help from anyone. It took me 16 years to get her through high school, to get me through college. I’m the only one of my eight siblings to ever attend a university or graduate from college.
I was a public school teacher, a foster mom, and then I went to law school to advocate for kids and families who were like me and my siblings.
I have handled thousands of matters in the court from all sides of the docket.
As a judge, as a prosecutor, in private practice, I bring so much legal experience to this seat, but I also bring a lived understanding, experience by so many people who come before the court.
My goal is to bring this steadiness, independence back to the court … and expand access to justice.
Darlene Byrne
Running for Reelection as Chief Justice of the Third Court of Appeals
(Editor’s Note: We were unable to tape Justice Byrne’s presentation. The information below is from her campaign website.)
Justice Darlene Byrne is running for re-election as Chief Justice of the Third Court of Appeals. Before being elected to the Court of Appeals in 2020, Justice Byrne served for 20 years as the presiding judge of the 126th District Court of Travis County. During her time on that court, she improved access to justice for children and families, and was a founding member of the Travis County Family Drug Treatment Court and the Dual Status Youth Docket.
An honor graduate of the University of Houston Law Center, Justice Byrne lives in Austin with her husband, Dan, and is the proud mother and mother-in-law of five adult children.
She believes in access to justice for all, regardless of wealth, nationality, gender, race or language. The doors to the courthouse should be open to all. The bench should be a welcoming place for people to have their disputes decided by learned judges and justices working diligently to uphold the rule of law every day.
She believes in making decisions acknowledging that a person’s day in court is one of the most important days of their lives and therefore treating them and that day with dignity and respect.
If re-elected, Justice Byrne will take her almost 25 years of diverse, practical judicial experience in the trial and appellate courts and her 13 years as a trial and appellate attorney, and continue to work hard every day to provide Central Texans with grounded, real world judicial decisions.