Texas Democrat Running for Governor Rejects Culture Wars, Prioritizes Economy

Democratic elected leaders have been spending a lot of time responding to allegations in the culture war, and we have taken the bait.

And look, I will always defend Texans who are being punched down upon by Greg Abbott or whomever, right?

We gotta lift up Texans, not punch down.

And because we spent so much time responding to culture war issues, people didn't know what else we stood for.

And that's why this campaign has, uh, been about really economic opportunity for Texans.

This campaign is a back to basics. We're not doing the culture wars.

We are talking about how we're gonna deliver for Texans, how we're gonna make life easier for working families.

And so in that sense, I think that has to be the way forward for Democrats, to focus on the economic issues and not take the bait when it comes to the culture wars.

Because in Texas in 2026, that's all Greg Abbott's got.

Yeah, I mean, to that point, one of your recent ads included the line, "My pronouns are mom, Texan, and soon to be governor."

Now, that did draw some criticism from some LGBTQ advocates, but what were you trying to communicate with that?

What I was trying to communicate is to both Greg Abbott and to the culture wars, you can shove it with your culture wars.

He had just accused me of working with teachers to try to trans kids.

It's just ridiculous, right? It's an insult to teachers, first of all, who are working against the odds, against Greg Abbott, against the state, to provide a good education for our teachers, a quality education for our teachers.

And so that was to say, "Look, we're not doing your culture wars."