Rochelle Garza Announces Bid for Texas 34 Seat

By Diego Garcia III ★ Editor of The Brownsville Beacon

Democrat Filemon Vela will not seek reelection to his seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. Vela currently represents the Texas 34th Congressional District in Washington. The Vela family has served the country, Texas, the Rio Grande Valley, and Brownsville faithfully for years. Filemon's mother served as Brownsville's mayor and his father was a federal judge.

Vela's firebrand style will be missed in our nation's capital. One local Brownsville civil rights lawyer has decided to enter the fray and wants to take over in Congress after Vela leaves office.

The Brownsville Herald recently published an article (written by a McAllen Monitor reporter) with Rochelle Garza's announcement of her intention to seek election to the House.

Garza also took to Twitter to announce her candidacy. Garza Tweeted:

"No matter what they say, South Texas isn't about building walls or pitting people against each other. For us, it's always been about community. Familias fuertes. 

Now I'm running for Congress to stick up for our South Texan values and nuestra comunidad."

Garza credits her parents for her motivation to serve the citizenry as a "community lawyer." Her parents advocated for health care reform. McAllen Monitor reporter Valerie Gonzalez quotes Garza who said, "One of my earliest memories is of my mom, going with my mom to testify in the capital. She was testifying against a bill that would have negatively impacted people with disabilities like my brother."

Garza attended law school at the University of Houston. The former Cougar received her law degree in 2013. After passing the Bar exam, she hung out her shingle in Brownsville and began taking cases dealing with civil rights violations and immigration issues. Garza has also worked with the ACLU of Texas.

Garza has already proven her campaign is not just a publicity stunt or a politician just looking to get elected to office regardless of the position; she has already discussed some of the issues she plans to take on if elected. She plans to remedy some of the things she believes Deep South Texas needs, including access to qualify health care. She also wants to stimulate economic development and help shrink the region's unemployment rate. Going hand-in-glove with economic development, she's hoping South Texas' best and brightest won't leave the region once they graduate from college — she wants to prevent the "brain drain" trend the Rio Grande Valley suffers from.

The Herald article also quotes Garza as saying, "Really what we have to do is focus on the policies that are going to make people’s lives better. And that means health care for everyone. That means access to good schools, to good infrastructure, to all of these things that are going to make our lives better and easier and happier."

I'm sure Miss Garza will have to deal with other Democrats vying for the Texas 34 seat. She sounds like she'd be a good candidate for the seat, a far cry from some of the silly circus performer candidates Brownsville usually sees running for office.

It's refreshing to see new candudates with a vision and platform rather than the usual suspects.

Hopefully the voters of Deep South Texas will choose a candidate worthy of a seat in the hallowed House chamber. It looks like Miss Garza might just have what the people of District 34 needs.

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