Seven people lined up to speak on the stage of the theater. Six of them were Democrats. One of them had graduated from LASA. And all of them are running for the same seat.
That Feb. 19 evening, the candidates for Texas’ 49th State House District, most of whom are contending for the Democratic primary on March 3, presented their positions on public education in a forum organized by Raise Your Hand Texas (RYHT). Mario Piña, RYHT’s Senior Regional Advocacy Director for Greater Austin, put together the event when he saw the opportunity to bring candidates to a school he was already familiar with.
“Last school year, I came in and did the advocacy cycle presentations for going to the Capitol,” Piña said. “This is something I’ve been doing with LASA for two or three years now, so having a connection with them made it really easy to say, ‘Hey, I’m hosting this candidate forum for House District 49.’”
Texas House District 49 came into play after sitting Representative Gina Hinojosa launched a campaign for governor. It covers the western portion of Austin, encompassing 200,000 people who, according to candidate and LASA alumnus Daniel Wang, distinguish it from other Texas districts.
“This is the urban core of Austin,” Wang said. “In District 49, we have a very, very engaged electorate. If you look at the statistics, about 10% of the district is high school education or less. Of the remaining 90%, more people have a graduate degree than only an undergraduate degree.”
Wang has served as a board member for the Travis County Appraisal District since 2024, when he won an election to the advisory body. He intended the position to be a gateway into higher offices. He didn’t know one would become available to him so soon.
“When Gina Hinojosa announced that she was running for governor, I decided, ‘It really is now or never,’” Wang said. “I thought, ‘This is where I want to be. These are the fights I want to dedicate my life to.’”
Wang graduated from LASA in 2015. When preparing to finish his undergraduate degree in math at MIT, he realized he wanted a job where he could affect more change for his community and enrolled at Harvard Law School. He returned to Austin to continue his career in law and forge a new one in politics.
“I had identified the state legislature as where I thought I could make the most difference,” Wang said. “Things that I want to do like fixing the grid, like Medicaid expansion, those are state-level decisions. And the state department also controls voter registration and drawing districts. There are a lot of ways in which state governments set the playing field.”
For the benefits of Medicaid, a federal policy, to become fully available to people living in a state, their government must opt into it. Texas Republicans have repeatedly blocked this expansion, citing cost concerns. Wang isn’t the only candidate pushing for expansion of public healthcare: Kimmie Ellison is also a proponent of the policy, informed by her career as a nurse practitioner.
“Constituents are going to see how their lives are affected and sometimes even threatened by horrible healthcare policy,” Ellison said. “I think now is the time to seriously talk about Medicaid expansion in the state, and there is no one better than me in this race to have those conversations. I have faces and names of women who have died burned on my heart, and beyond that I have data to back up why this is the sound thing to do.”
Arshia Papari is the only candidate not running as a Democrat. The 21-year-old UT junior is registered with the Green Party, an alternative to the two-party system that advocates for environmental and social policies. Majoring in government, he is the youngest candidate for a state-level office in Texas. He was also the first to enter the race, before Hinojosa withdrew.
“Everyone thinks you have to be 50 and above to get into politics,” Papari said. “As a youth candidate, you’re much more in tune with your constituents. Being a university student, I’m with my community all the time.”
In addition to Ellison and Wang, the six other candidates for the Democratic nomination are Montserrat Garibay, Robin Lerner, Gigs Hodges, Kathie Tovo, Josh Reyna, and Sam Slade. If no candidate gets more than 50% of the votes, the most successful two will enter a runoff decided on May 26. The winner of the runoff will vie with Papari in the general election on Nov. 3.
“I certainly do believe that there will be a runoff in this election,” Wang said. “All of us deeply care about Austin and the communities that we’re seeking to represent.”