We hope everyone’s hanging in there today after Texans came out in record-setting numbers for yesterday’s election.
As the results continue to trickle in from across the country, we wanted to offer a few initial takeaways from the elections for folks who are interested in children’s policy issues in Texas:
- Of course, the most important thing is that we take a breath and wait for election officials to count all the votes.
- Ballot measures in Dallas, San Antonio, Colorado, St. Louis, Portland, and elsewhere showed that voters strongly support investing in kids and families. Take a look at Stephanie Rubin’s Twitter posts for a quick rundown.
- Chair Sarah Davis, one of the strongest supporters of child and maternal health at the Texas Legislature in recent years, will not be back next session. We truly appreciate all of her hard work and wish her the best of luck in her next chapter.
- There will be some new state legislators for all of us to congratulate and get to know. There will be a couple familiar faces — Roland Gutierrez and Cesar Blanco — moving over from the Texas House to the Texas Senate. And there will be a new Speaker of the Texas House — possibly lined up very soon — as the balance of power remains largely unchanged in the House.
- Regardless of the election results, this campaign season made clear that reducing the uninsured rate is on the Legislature’s agenda for the upcoming session. During the last few weeks, we’ve seen many Texas Republicans — such as Reps. Morgan Meyer, Lyle Larson, and Angie Chen Button; former Speaker Joe Straus; the office of the Texas Comptroller; and others — talk about expanding health coverage as COVID-19 adds greater urgency to the issue. Policy options on the table this session include Medicaid expansion, 12 months continuous coverage in Children’s Medicaid, 12 months of postpartum coverage for new moms, better outreach about children's health coverage options, and more.
In the coming days, we look forward to learning more about what the voters had to say yesterday, urging Congress to quickly pass a robust pandemic relief package that helps address the Texas revenue shortfall, and working with you to make sure that Texas kids are a priority during the upcoming legislative session!
