Texas Rep. Mihaela Presa (D-Dallas) won a close 2022 election by fewer than 900 votes. For the first time in decades, a Democrat won a Collin County Texas House seat. Her district covers parts of Allen, Plano and Richardson. She will now face one of the state’s most competitive races in November.
Republican candidate Steve Kinnaird, an active member of the cryptocurrency community and oil and gas financier, is seeking to defeat first-time Congressman Rep.
Presa has also come under attack from Gov. Greg Abbott and a national organization that advocates for education savings accounts, a policy backed by Governor Abbott that would allow families to use public school tax money for private or homeschooling. The proposal died last year when a coalition of Democrats and local Republicans rejected it in the Texas Legislature. Abbott, who defeated several Republicans in the March primary, said he received the 76 votes needed to pass the measure, but only by a hair. The Collin County seat, along with a handful of others in Texas, could determine whether school choice vouchers pass.
“The idea of parent choice or school choice is simply a fallacy and a lie,” Rep. Presa said in an interview with NBC5.
Presa has been working hard to block the policy and has said her top priority is funding public education: The three major school districts in her area are Plano, Frisco and Allen Independent School Districts, all of which give money back to the state through the controversial “Robin Hood” school finance system.
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“I’m not saying you can’t send your kids to private school,” Presa said, “but the majority of parents who move to Plano are moving here because of our public schools, our state champion schools. They’re coming here because they don’t have to send their kids to an expensive private school.”
Supporters of Abbott’s plan say it would allow families with children with special needs or who want a more religious education to choose a school that aligns with their values and goals. Kinnard argues the policy gives parents an escape route if they’re not happy with federal changes to Title IX requirements regarding transgender issues in public schools.
“While that hasn’t happened yet in Plano Independent School District, Allen or Frisco, the reality is that there are efforts underway, particularly at the federal level, to completely repeal Title IX,” Kinard said.
That means Kinard believes it’s unfair to tie families to a particular school when they could potentially attend a private school with state funding.
“I don’t think you can say if you don’t like it you have to move to another zip code,” Kinard said.
Regarding funding concerns, Kinnard said, “We plan to do both.”
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Gov. Abbott’s 2023 plan calls for billions of dollars in funding for public schools to ease concerns that school choice vouchers would siphon future revenue, with critics pointing to a recent situation in Arizona where a similar program ballooned far beyond what lawmakers originally anticipated.
Prior to running for Congress, Rep. Presa spent six years as a legislative staffer in the General Assembly. In an interview with NBC 5, she emphasized that experience helped her contribute to the 90 bills Governor Abbott signed into law.
Kinnaird criticized her for voting against a human trafficking bill that would have made trafficking in persons more punishable by law, to which Presa responded, “He has no choice but to do so because he doesn’t have much to show for his record.”
On immigration issues in general, Presa told NBC5 that he supports border patrol efforts like Operation Lone Star, but believes they can be carried out in a “more humane” way and that they are placing an undue strain on the state’s National Guard.
“If you’re trying to build a humane system, then yes. What I don’t like is the fact that our National Guard members had to leave their families. They had to leave their jobs,” Presa said.
Kinnard, the son of Panamanian immigrants, supports legal immigration and believes the state can generally do more to stop illegal immigration. While much of that is left in the hands of federal agents, he supports a proposal that failed last year to create a Texas border task force dedicated to investigating crimes committed by illegal immigrants.
“The reality is that Collin County has a major highway. We’ve had a ton of drugs seized. It’s a major corridor for both drug trafficking and human trafficking,” Kinnard said. “Every community is now a border community.”
The state’s strict abortion laws are also a key issue in the election.
Presa opposes a near-total ban on abortion and supports expanding access to abortion. Kinnard supports the current law but told NBC 5 that he supports making it clear that doctors can perform abortions if the mother’s life is at risk. The debate has unfolded around the high-profile case of Kate Cox, who fled the state to obtain an abortion because her doctor believed it would save her life.
Early voting begins October 21st. Election Day is November 5th.
