A competitive Texas House race in the Dallas suburbs features the first Asian to win Miss Texas and the first Asian woman to serve in the state Legislature.
DFW Chinatown in Richardson on Aug. 19, 2024. The mall is in state House District 112, a largely suburban North Texas district where Democrat Averie Bishop is challenging Republican incumbent Angie Chen Button .GARLAND — Rep. Angie Chen Button , 70, is living the American Dream.
The winner will be the only Asian woman in the Legislature and also one of six members to ever serve in the 150-member Texas House. No Asian American has ever been elected to the Texas Senate. The match up is only the second time in Texas history that two Asian candidates have faced off for a legislative seat, marking a milestone for the state's fastest-growing racial group which is proving to be a small but burgeoning political force.
Early in her career and in subsequent campaigns, Button leaned hard into her unique profile as an immigrant who rose from childhood poverty in Taiwan to a successful career in Texas through school and hard work. “The best way to pass the bill, even a controversial bill, is to work hard, walk the floor, get your votes, make sure they understand what it’s about,” Button said. “The drama doesn’t work.”
Bishop’s own candidacy, she acknowledged, is in part on a path paved by Button, and Bishop recalled meeting her as a teenager performing in local cultural events and taking photos together. The two women have not talked since, however. Bishop is juggling her campaign while working full-time as an IT consultant during the campaign, a common experience for young or first-time candidates without significant personal wealth. On the weekends and after work, she throws on sneakers and hits the doors. The hyperactive schedule is not unlike her time entering pageants while in school, or the marathon of speaking engagements during her year traveling the state as Miss Texas.
Anti-voucher advocates, who say Abbott’s plan would funnel state dollars away from public schools, are hoping to flip seats like HD 112 to retain an anti-voucher coalition after many Republicans who opposed vouchers were ousted in this year’s primaries. Abbott, after the primaries, said he has enough pro-voucher Republican votes to pass his plan as long as allies like Button are reelected.
Politics Texas House Of Representatives Angie Chen Button North Texas Texas Legislature
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