My Platform

LIFE

Every human being is made in the image of God and has inherent dignity and immeasurable worth from the moment of conception. I believe acts like abortion and euthanasia are an affront to the dignity of human life. I passed legislation to abolish abortion in Texas, and I will always vote to defend innocent human life.

term limits

I do not believe we should be governed by career partisan politicians. The longer politicians serve in office, the more likely it is that they will fall sway to corrupt influences. While the best term limit is an election, we know that an entrenched incumbent has an advantage at election time. I have authored, and will continue to author, legislation to put 12-year term limits in place for all executive and legislative offices in the State of Texas. Even if such legislation does not pass, I will not serve in the Texas House of Representatives longer than 12 years.

local control

As a former city councilman, I believe in local control over local issues. I oppose the abuse of local control to infringe on the private property rights of Texans or to enact overly burdensome regulations on businesses.

unfunded mandates

I oppose unfunded mandates. The State of Texas should provide adequate funding to cities, counties, school districts, and other taxing entities to cover the costs of special programs and services mandated by state law like the cost of indigent criminal defense.

FISCAL POLICY

I am a fiscal conservative. I will only vote for a balanced budget. I strongly believe government should limit the growth of its tax revenues to the sum of inflation and population growth, subject only to addressing disasters and historical under-funding of critical government services like education, infrastructure and public safety.

education

I believe parents are primarily responsible for the education of their children and their fiercest advocates. I support further empowering Texas parents with meaningful choice about where to send their child to school, whether through tax credits or otherwise. I also support a robust public education system in Texas. I support giving greater flexibility to our local school districts, indexing public education funding for inflation, eliminating the current accountability system and abolishing the STAAR test, and continuing to increase the state’s share of public education funding to eventually eliminate our school district M&O property taxes.

property taxes

I support replacing the Texas property tax system with a consumption tax system if the consumption tax is revenue-neutral and not unduly burdensome to the poor.

taxpayer funded lobbying

I support a ban on taxpayer-funded lobbying. While I believe local governments should be able to join organizations like TML and TAC to pool resources to track, monitor, and provide subject-matter expertise on legislation, our tax dollars should not be used to hire lobbyists.

second amendment rights

We all want our children to be safe, and we all want to prevent criminals from harming our fellow citizens. Gun-control proposals that seek to take away firearms from law-abiding citizens, however, do not make our children safer or prevent crime. Instead, they deprive law-abiding citizens of their inherent right to keep and bear arms. I passed constitutional carry. I oppose raising the age to purchase firearms, red flag laws, and any other measure that violates the second amendment rights of my constituents.

border security

It is critical for the federal government to secure the southern border to stem the tide of illegal immigration, to disrupt human trafficking and cartel activity, to protect national security, and to ensure our national sovereignty. Congress needs to stop playing politics and provide adequate funding and resources to secure the border, humanely house detainees, and expeditiously process asylum applications. Until Congress does its job, Texas must stand in the gap to protect our people. I support the construction of border barriers by the State of Texas and increasing state law enforcement powers to the maximum extent allowed by the United States Constitution to secure our border. I further oppose sanctuary cities and support mandatory e-verify for Texas employers.

healthcare

The regulation of healthcare should be a primary concern of the states, not the federal government. Obamacare is unconstitutional. I support and have voted for common-sense proposals to lower the costs of healthcare, including: allowing health insurance to be sold across state-lines, providing individuals access to healthcare prices so they can shop for healthcare before receiving it like any other service, and encouraging the use of urgent care and other lower cost facilities.