Texas Rising hosted a “One-on-One” with democratic hopeful for the Texas senate and Brownsville resident Sara Stapleton-Barrera on Thursday for an opportunity aimed at students to voice their concerns with the senate hopeful.
The practicing lawyer answered questions the students and public had on her plans to improve immigration laws, education, health care, abortion laws, gun laws, the environment and increasing the minimum wage.
Stapleton-Barrera has been practicing law for 10 years and said she decided to run for office because, “I started studying and looking up on our current senator and the legislation that he had voted on in the past and I was shocked. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing, and so the more digging that I did, the more research that I did, I was like, look, nobody’s gonna run against this guy, so I’m gonna do it and I’m gonna give everything I’ve got and I’m gonna win.”
She is running against Texas Sen. Eddie Lucio Jr. (D-Brownsville).
The democratic hopeful said there are many ways that Texas is not advancing like other states in the country and she wants to change that.
Stapleton-Barrera argues that other states, “They are expanding Medicaid, they’ve got paid sick leave and pregnancy leave, they’re increasing their minimum wage, they’re protecting their environment, legalizing marijuana, lowering or erasing all college tuition, you know, [and] we’re not.”
For as large of a state as it is, she believes Texas is far behind on these very important issues.
Out of the 50 states, Texas is 37 on education, 38 on health care, 46 on quality of life and 47 on opportunity, according to Stapleton-Barrera.
Her thoughts on immigration are, “In the perfect world, open borders would be the ideal situation.” However, in the meantime, she said the government needs to work harder to make it easier for immigrants to come to the United States, easier to become a citizen, easier for the Dreamers to stay here and continue their education and easier for children to survive and thrive in a country that may be new to them.
Students asked Stapleton-Barrera for her take on Senate Bill 9, which would target Latinos.
“In its current form, SB9 would dismantle voting rights and access to the ballot box by impeding assistance to voters who need physical curbside, or language assistance; further criminalizing innocent mistakes made by voters; loosening safeguards on voter privacy; and making voter registration even more difficult,” according to texascivilrightsproject.org.
They voiced their concerns on how Lucio did not speak out against the bill.
Stapleton-Barrera replied, “If I’m elected as your senator … I don’t expect to be the most popular because I’m gonna have these ideas that, you know, either the more moderate democrats or republicans aren’t gonna like, but that’s not why we elect a progressive democrat.”
She shared her views on free education and spoke to the students about the realities of debt and the hindrance this generation of college students has in comparison to other generations.
The most important things that are needed in the United States are health care and education, according to Stapleton-Barrera.
The lawyer says there are plans that are being implemented by other countries to have universal health care and, in her opinion, it is all about allocating funds properly. The only thing standing in the way of that, according to Stapleton-Barrera, is legislators’ lack of transparency and governmental ethics.
“That’s what it sims down to, that’s why these changes aren’t being made … one of the main central issues is government ethics and transparency,” she said. “If we had more transparency and more ethics at our governmental level then, I think, everything else would clear up.”
Stapleton-Barrera is pro-choice and said that if the government can “beef up healthcare,” then the number of abortions would go down. She also said that the current legislation has been putting up road blocks for women to get abortions and that is not the way to bring down the numbers.
“If we can amp up the healthcare beforehand then I think the number of abortions will go down,” Stapleton-Barrera said.
The democratic hopeful said regarding guns, there needs to be some reform. She said that background checks are not enough but that they definitely need to be more thorough.
“You get these kids with mental health issues that don’t have a background and then get their hands on a gun and do these school shootings,” Stapleton-Barrera said. “So, we say better background checks but it’s gotta be more than that … There’s no reason anybody should have an [assault rifle], you know, I understand hunting and fishing, that’s fine. We’re Texans, people like to hunt and fish, fine, but nobody needs an AR.”
In regard to environmental issues, Stapleton-Barrera said that there should be a three strike rules for corporations that cross the line on environmental laws.
Student Denisce Palacios, an international business and political science senior, asked the democratic hopeful, “Do you look towards your religion or your faith or your spirituality to take stances on issues?”
To which Stapleton-Barrera replied, “If I’m elected as senator … by the legislation that I write, you should have no clue whether I’m a Christian or a Buddhist or a Muslim or a scientologist because that won’t reflect in what it is that I’m writing. Because what’s written is not for me and how I think everybody else should be, it’s for you.”
Next week, Texas Rising will be holding another “One-on-One” with democratic hopeful Ruben Cortez from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. Thursday on the Brownsville campus in Music, Science & Learning Center 1.115.
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