Editor's note: Candidate Sara Stapleton-Barrera did not return a questionnaire.
Alex Dominguez
What is/was your profession? Are you now retired?
Attorney
What relevant experience can you bring to office?
4 years as a Texas State Representative sitting as the Vice-Chair of Environmental Regulations, Vice-Chair of Local & Consent Calendars, and the only House member south of San Antonio sitting on Appropriations as well as being appointed to the State Water Implementation Fund for Texas Advisory Committee and the Texas Infrastructure Resiliency Fund Advisory Committee. 4 years as a county commissioner. Public school teacher for 3 years.
How have your life experiences prepared you for this position?
Having grown up in a large, working class family, I have always been sensitive to the needs of the working poor, the challenges their children face, and finding solutions to elevate everyone’s quality of life. My younger brother was disabled since birth so I have always championed the needs of the disability community. I have been a board member of a non-profit organization since 1996 that raises money to give scholarships to first generation college students. My oldest brother is a veteran so I devote a portion of my legislative duties to promote pro-veteran legislation.
Which problems would you address on your first day in office?
With a growing percentage of educators considering leaving the profession, we are at a crisis point where the State Legislature needs to re-address the needs of our public education system and consider allowing retired educators to return to the classroom with no penalty for their public service.
What do you see as long-term issues which need to be addressed throughout your time in office?
Workforce training throughout the senate district should focus on bringing state resources to provide vocational training for the trades (e.g. plumbers, electricians, roofers, welders, etc.) to alleviate what will be a generation of blue-collar workers retiring. Additionally, the state needs to be prepared to interact with federal infrastructure demands to facilitate transport needs, housing developments, and reduce traffic in congested areas. Lastly, the state needs to re-evaluate the reliability of our electric grid.
What is local government doing well right now that needs to be expanded further?
With an ever increasing micro-management by state agencies, we should recognize that most of our public education institutions are doing a phenomenal job and the state needs to provide them the resources they need to continue their mission. Similarly, county and municipal governments have done a tremendous job of providing information and services during the pandemic. The state should support their services by not giving contradictory orders or information.
Morgan Lamantia
What is/was your profession? Are you now retired?
Attorney and In-House Counsel for L&F Distributors.
What relevant experience can you bring to office?
I’m the only candidate with real business experience who knows what it takes to support 1200 jobs. In my leadership role with the family business, I’ve dealt with supply chain issues, improved health care benefits, reducing absenteeism and lowering costs, and used data and analytics to increase efficiencies, reduce workplace injuries, and make more informed decisions.
How have your life experiences prepared you for this position?
I’m blessed to have been raised with the values of faith, family and hard work. Today, I’m part of the next generation of leadership running the family business that supports over 1200 jobs, with a long a history of community involvement. I’m running for State Senate to again provide the next generation of leadership to stand up for South Texas families, grow our economy, increase educational opportunities, and expand health care.
Which problems would you address on your first day in office?
Health care is critical to the security of every family, but in South Texas we have a crisis with among the highest percentages of uninsured in the state. I believe we can devise a Medicaid expansion plan tailored to Texas, that incentivizes working, extends coverage, and helps bring back billions in federal tax dollars to Texas.
What do you see as long-term issues which need to be addressed throughout your time in office?
1. Public school funding, including raising teacher salaries to address burnout
2. Improving access to health care, which could be dramatically addressed by the expansion of Medicaid as well initiatives to build the pipeline of front line health care workers
3. Supporting small business and economic development that supports local job creators
What is local government doing well right now that needs to be expanded further?
Our local governments and officials have done an excellent job in being an advocate for all of those dealing with an extremely difficult situation in regards to COVID-19. Local government officials are the leaders that our community turns to first when they have a problem or a community issue that needs to be addressed. We need leaders in Austin that will continue to lift up and support our local government officials, and I plan on being that advocate who will always have an open door policy, not only for our local officials, but for all constituents of SD 27.
Salomon Torres
What is/was your profession? Are you now retired?
Small business owner and consultant. I am not retired. I have owned and operated Soluciones Consulting in downtown Harlingen since 2012. I offer 27 years of professional experience in Washington, DC (7 years) and the Rio Grande Valley (20 years). My specialty is securing federal or state funding for public or private projects that increase economic opportunity and improve our public assets and infrastructure for the betterment of our region.
What relevant experience can you bring to office?
I worked for 13 years for the U.S. House of Representatives doing legislative work for individual Members of Congress and serving as Professional Staff for a congressional committee. For almost a decade, I served as congressional district director for a retired Member of Congress from the Rio Grande Valley.
I have created and led economic development projects as a city economic development director and through my consulting business. I have been pleased to secure funding for projects throughout the Rio Grande Valley that have led to new job creation and improvement of public facilities for our local population. Through my recent work in public health with the UTHealth School of Public Health, I led community engagement and public awareness to prevent diabetes among youth. The focus was in reducing the consumption of sugary drinks to prevent obesity and improve health through more water drinking. This experience led to my formation of public health policy initiatives that I plan to pursue as the next State Senator for District 27.
I have provided services to nonprofit entities that are providing critical community services. This has included securing federal funds to enable them to operate, such as recruiting more individuals to do small-scale farming to grow their own healthy food and create more income.
How have your life experiences prepared you for this position?
My personal history demonstrates how much I value the power of education to empower ANY child to rise from poverty. When my family emigrated from Matamoros, Mexico to the Rio Grande Valley, I was only 4 years old, the youngest of eight children. A local farmer allowed my family to live for almost two years on a farmhouse along an irrigation canal. We then traveled up north every year to do migrant work and settled in La Feria, Texas. I started working in the fields at the age of 14. With this family background, you can see why I want to increase resources for school districts and teachers to prepare children for better lives for themselves and their families.
Despite this challenging upbringing, I graduated 4th in my class from La Feria High School. I then earned undergraduate (St. Edward’s University) and graduate degrees (LBJ School of Public Affairs) and a law degree (Columbia Law School).
Which problems would you address on your first day in office?
Prevention. I would sponsor legislation to fund community projects that improve the health and wellness of Texas communities. We expend millions in medical care when we could have invested more in prevention to reduce obesity, diabetes, heart-related ailments, and other conditions that families can avoid with more education and support. Our public health investments overspend in treating medical problems and not enough in preventing them in the first place.
Preparedness. I would sponsor legislation to connect the Texas electric grid to other grids so that Texas has a constant source of electricity whenever gaps in supply are caused by natural disasters, extreme weather conditions, and perhaps human error in the operation of the electric and transmission system. We should use the 2021 freeze as a lesson to never be caught unprepared and put at risk the lives and livelihoods of people throughout the state. Other public assets, such as water, require similar preparedness and planning to ensure it is always available and to diversify the sources of water for the Rio Grande Valley and the Coastal Bend.
Prosperity. I would convene the economic and business leaders of District 27 to evaluate strategies to recruit large companies. Most new large corporations are moving to or expanding in the triangle urban power centers of Dallas-Houston-Austin/San Antonio. District 27 offers powerful assets such as multiple ports, interstates, fiscally strong cities, outstanding colleges and universities, and a workforce determined to prepare itself for new challenges if we bring the larger employers here.
What do you see as long-term issues which need to be addressed throughout your time in office?
The condition and safety of our public assets and resources are of paramount interest to me. That includes the safety and diversity of our water sources, the environmental safety of our coast and lakes, the reliability of our ports to prepare for new large companies that seek to locate in District 27, and the quality of public schools as they educate and prepare our youth so they are not forced to move away for good jobs and careers. The brain drain experienced by small communities and even larger cities in District 27 creates more wealth for big cities where our young people go to attend college and never return to their communities.
What is local government doing well right now that needs to be expanded further?
Local governments are keeping communities safe but they require a senator that will continue to push for more funding to increase police personnel, training, and equipment. Local governments know their communities best and should be consulted. I would consult with each city in District 27 to assess how the state needs to enhance their ability to enhance public services such as law enforcement, parks, recycling services, and improvements to infrastructure to reduce flooding and improve local streets.
Answers to KRIS 6 News questionnaires were written by the candidates in their own words and received little-to-no editing from KRIS 6 News employees.
