Texans deserve more reproductive rights. They deserve good jobs, affordable housing, and medicare for all. They deserve a strong democracy and a better Texas. These are democratic Austin City Council member Gregorio Casar’s beliefs, and he plans to make these changes by running for the Texas Congress.

Casar is currently serving his third term as an Austin City Council member, where he’s done work to defend abortion rights, expand shelters for survivors of family violence, and stop immigrant families from being separated. He’s also brought new investments into his district’s parks, infrastructure, and transportation systems.

“He’s progressive, and that’s bad for his campaign because Texas is mostly Republican,” sophomore Kate Sur said. “However, the areas of Austin and Travis county are pretty democratic, so he might gain popularity there.”

Casar is running to represent Texas’ 35th Congressional District (TX35), which covers the area from East Austin to San Antonio, containing four counties: Bexar, Comal, Hays, and Travis. He’ll be competing against U.S. Representative Lloyd Doggett and State Representative Eduardo Rodriguez in the Democratic primary, which is scheduled for March of 2022.

“The fact that he’s on City Council has shown that he can win an election,” government teacher Ruth Narvaiz said. “As a member of Congress, his constituency, the people he represents, are going to be a lot broader because those barriers go outside of Austin, where his progressive ideas aren’t quite as popular. That may make things more difficult for him.”

The congressman currently holding the seat for TX-35 is democrat Lloyd Doggett, who has been described as “middle-of-the-road,” according to his biography on BallotPedia, meaning he doesn’t lean far left or far right. By electing Casar, the communities under his jurisdiction would be represented in a more liberal light, due to Casar’s public liberal beliefs.

“He’s running for the seat that Lloyd Doggett sits in, which means he doesn’t have a chance to get elected,” Narvaiz said. “[Doggett] has been in office for a long time so people recognize his name. Typically, what gets someone elected is name recognition.”

Doggett’s job is to oversee and decide on the city budget, local taxes, amendment of laws, and creation of ordinances and provinces. As a congressman, he would represent district TX-35 residents and serve on state committees.

“Their primary job is to make laws,” Narvaiz said. “They make laws and represent us in Congress, and because they’re our representatives, they should be voting the way that we would like them to. They should vote in a way that’s going to be beneficial for us and represent us.”

As he stated in his campaign video, his goals are to make living in Texas cheaper and based upon equality. He’s also suggested that he wants to undo many of the decisions made by Texas Republican Governor Greg Abbott. Some of the changes Casar would like to make concern Abbott’s laws about abortion and discrimination against LGBTQ+ students.

“In the richest country in the world, we should be able to provide everyone a decent life,” Casar said in an interview conducted by the Texas Signal. “In an area that’s growing as quickly as our neighborhoods, we should be able to make sure that growth benefits everyday people. But with Republican leadership at the state capital, we continue to see corporate interest prevail over working people. ”

In November of this year, Austin voters rejected Prop A, a proposition put forth by the Political Action Community (PAC) Save Austin Now, to expand the budget of the Austin Police Department. Although Casar is accepting donations, he stated that he will rejecting corporate PAC money, as well as the money from donors of the Save Austin Now PAC.

“I will fight for Medicare for All, good jobs, and affordable housing for working people and not corporate interests,” Casar said in his campaign video.

Many progressive Democrats are in support of Casar’s campaign, as they feel he has done numerous things for underrepresented communities; for instance, he voted for a recently pass law that raised the minimum wage of City of Austin employees, expanded abortion access, as well as acted as an ally to undocumented immigrants.

“I think it’s good to have balance,” Sur said. “Texans are mostly Republican, so [if he’s elected] we’ll get opinions from both sides, and we can make choices that reflect what everyone needs.”

Because electing certain people into office has the potential to have a large impact on students and their surroundings, many teachers believe it’s important for students to vote in elections such as this one.

“It’s everybody’s obligation to vote when there’s an election,” Narvaiz said. “When you turn 18, you should register to vote. You need to know what’s going on with our government. Voting is a lifelong obligation that all students should be devoted to participating in.”