Texas House of Representatives District 136

Mike Guevara

Mike Guevara is the Republican Candidate. A small-business owner, Guevara is a community activist, and founder of a community food pantry and William County’s Adoption Day, and a father of two children. Guevera’s top priorities include protecting 2nd amendment rights and “the right to life”, as well as limiting the size and scope of the Texas government and reducing wasteful spending.

Mike Guevara Campaign Website

Criminal Justice & Public Safety

“Mike is an advocate for the right to defend yourself and understands the Second Amendment secures the other amendments. Both Mike and Amy have their License to Carry.”

Education Funding & Teacher Pay

Nothing listed on Campaign website for this issue

Texas Economy & Taxes

“Mike is a small business owner who understands that government regulations, heavy tax burdens, and bureaucratic red tape stop economic growth.”

Healthcare

Nothing listed on Campaign website for this issue

Immigration

Nothing listed on Campaign website for this issue

Reproductive/Women’s Health

“Mike is a leader in the pro-life movement. Mike serves on the Hope Pregnancy Resource Center board and previously served on the Austin Pregnancy Resource Center (now Trotter House).”

Government Transparency & Ethics

“Mike is a movement conservative who believes in limited government, fiscal responsibility, and the right to life.”

Infrastructure & Environment

Nothing listed on Campaign website for this issue

Social Services

“Mike is the founder of Williamson County’s Adoption Day and helps families navigate the legal field during the adoption process.”

John Bucy III

John Bucy III is the current Representative for State House District 136, and the Democratic Candidate. A Travis-County Native, John is a small-business owner, a regional board member for the Special Olympics of Texas, and a new father to one girl. John’s top priorities include increasing state funding for public schools, expanding access to healthcare coverage across the state, lowering property taxes for Texas homeowners, and reforming our criminal justice system.”

John Bucy III Campaign Website

Criminal Justice & Public Safety

Prioritizing community safety means shifting money and resources from prisons to diversion, treatment, and support services.
Evidence-driven reforms should focus on:
keeping low-level, non-violent offenders out of jail
reducing recidivism (such as through re-entry programs)
decriminalizing mental illness
breaking cycles of abuse and neglect
ending the school to prison pipeline

Education Funding & Teacher Pay

To strengthen public education, we must increase the state’s share of funding and focus on special education and Pre-K.
We need to reduce inequality within our education system by implementing Pre-K For All, focusing on early childhood literacy, increasing resources for Special Education, improving mental health support, and breaking the school to prison pipeline.
Our biggest success last session was passing a transformational public education bill (House Bill 3). H.B. 3 includes $11.6 billion more for public education, entailing:
Teacher raises
Focus on K-3 reading
Special education funding
All day Pre-K
Property tax buy downs

Texas Economy & Taxes

Shifting the tax burden looks like appraisal reform, local options for freezing property taxes for seniors, and closed corporate property tax loopholes.
We need:
The state to increase its share of funding to over 50 percent (like it used to do)
Appraisal reform
Local options for freezing property taxes for seniors
Closed corporate property tax loopholes

Healthcare

Medicaid expansion, mental health support, and addiction intervention will provide Texans access to the healthcare they need
Let’s bring our money home to Texas to focus on measures that:
Reduce maternal mortality rates
Prioritize mental health care through therapy for children who are neuro-atypical and increased availability for home and community-based care for adults with disabilities
Focus on harm reduction policies and addressing growing addiction rates through intervention and treatment

Immigration

Nothing listed on Campaign website for this issue

Reproductive/Women’s Health

Nothing listed on Campaign website for this issue

Infrastructure & Environment

Implementation of local water and energy conservation policies, recycling and composting programs, and reduction of single-use plastics
Education and incentives to enable people and businesses to participate in better sustainability practices
Support for public works projects for government agencies such as having buildings transition to xeriscape lots, upgrading HVACs to reduce power usage, and maintaining or replacing water pipe infrastructure (and purple pipe as appropriate)
Investment in and expansion of alternative energy programs

Government Transparency & Ethics

The State Legislature cannot continually be at odds with city, county, and local elected leaders.
Local leaders are crucial to decision-making for the community and must be brought to the table to find innovative solutions to the pressing problems facing our state and local communities.
To maximize our tax dollars and be efficient and fiscally responsible we must work together with our cities, counties, school boards, and other local jurisdictions to ensure core needs and services are being met for our constituents.

Social Services

We need to make it easier for all Texans to vote and have confidence in the electoral process.
We must increase equal access to the ballot box by passing legislation that:
Permits Texans who will be 18 by Election Day to vote in that year’s Primary Election
Allows Texans to register to vote easily, such as by online and same-day registration
Improves vote by mail and in-person voting for voters with disabilities
Ensures polling places are countywide vote centers by need so a voter can cast their vote at any location during early voting or on Election Day
Restores mobile voting to serve students, seniors, and rural voters
Increases funding and training for cybersecurity upgrades
I’ve helped increase equal access to the ballot box by passing legislation that:
Consolidates required election notices on the Secretary of State or the Counties’ Elections websites, where the vast majority of voters will seek it out (House Bill 933)
Requires street addresses to be included as part of polling place notices so it’s easier for voters to find voting locations (House Bill 1241)
Moves existing laws around political signs to a newly-created section of the Elections Code to easily see how to engage in protected political speech (House Bill 2554)
Uses Voter Unique ID numbers to put up lists of who has voted on Secretary of State’s website for primary and general elections, and those ordered by the governor to fill a vacancy so this cuts down on local governments to respond to repetitive open records requests (House Bill 3350)

Brian Elliott

Brian Elliott is the Libertarian Candidate running for election to the Texas House of Representatives to represent District 136. Elliott is both a corporate lawyer and business executive.Elliot’s top priorities include ending the two-party political system, strengthening government accountability and transparency, eliminating hidden property taxes and gross margin taxes, and providing access to affordable healthcare for all Texans.

Brian Elliott Campaign Website

Criminal Justice & Public Safety

“I am a strong supporter of ending marijuana prohibition.”
“I believe that a person has the right to ingest whatever he chooses, even if it is harmful and that people should not be put in cages for possessing a plant”
“I support the legalization of marijuana in the state of Texas”
“I will advocate in favor of the right of all persons to defend and arm themselves, their schools and places of worship.”
“Texas should pass statewide bail reform and immediately abolish unconstitutional debtors prisons – bail is intended to ensure people appear for their scheduled court date, it should not be used as a punishment”
“Texas Courts can immediately halt the practice of suspending driver’s licenses – suspended licenses cause income interruption, job loss and homelessness – additionally the charge of Driving While License Invalid should be abolished, or be limited to a Class C misdemeanor and should never involve jail time.”
“Repeal of all laws creating “crimes” without victims, such as gambling, the possession or use of drugs for medicinal or recreational purposes, and consensual transactions involving sexual services
Community based treatment instead of incarceration to address the connection between substance abuse and the criminal justice system
Expand Second Chance policies to emphasize education, counselling and mental health treatment over incarceration”

Education Funding & Teacher Pay

“Property taxes need to be separated from school finance [...] use of property taxes to fund education leads to racial discrimination, inequality and is resoundingly inefficient.”
“Texas should embrace a competitive education market including school choice, vouchers and homeschooling. Texas should focus more on how money is spent rather than how much, and education dollars should be primarily focused on attracting and retaining great teachers.”
“Common Core and all other federal mandates on public education should be eliminated. Standards and objectives for Texas students should be determined by Texas parents and educators, not bureaucrats in Washington or in Austin.”

Texas Economy & Taxes

“I am a strong supporter of the elimination of hidden taxes”
“I believe that property taxes assessed on an arbitrary determination of value are morally unjust and inequitably harms the working poor who see their tax expense increase with no increase in income or voluntary consumption.
I believe that margin taxes are economically misguided, inequitable and unfairly place the burden on certain manufacturing sectors while virtually exempting the services sector that makes up an increasing percentage of the Texas economy.
I agree with the Texas Policy Foundation the Tax Foundation and others who have called for an elimination of property taxes and gross margin taxes
I support the elimination of all property and margin taxes.”

Healthcare

“I am a strong supporter of a low cost, high quality healthcare system accessible to all.”
“I believe that market-based health care systems will provide the cheapest cost and highest quality services for all Texans.”
“I will aggressively advocate for:
transparency in medical services pricing
elimination of occupational licensing restrictions for health industry workers
ability to purchase health insurance across state lines
clean needle exchange programs, and
reforms that will reduce costs and increase quality and access of health care.”

Immigration

Nothing listed on Campaign website for this issue

Reproductive Health

Nothing listed on Campaign website for this issue

Infrastructure & Environment

Nothing listed on Campaign website for this issue

Government Transparency & Ethics

“I support electoral reforms like term limits and ranked-choice voting to properly represent the will of the people and allow multiple third parties to gain support.”
“I believe that government at all levels needs to be limited, humble and fully accountable to the people it serves.”
“I support of fiscally responsible balanced budgets, zero increase in government debt without express consent, elimination of unnecessary taxes, and real-time full disclosure of every penny spent on the people’s behalf.”

Social Services

Nothing listed on Campaign website for this issue

Reform Austin