Copyright The Austin Chronicle
Three of Austin’s best-known political leaders are taking on huge challenges in next year’s election – David vs. Goliath scenarios. Rep. Gina Hinojosa is running for governor against Greg Abbott, the most powerful Republican in Texas. Rep. James Talarico is running against the winner of the Republican primary for the U.S. Senate, either the longtime incumbent John Cornyn or his highly connected challenger Ken Paxton. And Sarah Eckhardt announced last week that she’s running for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives in a district with a strong Republican majority. Eckhardt began her political career by being elected to the Travis County Commissioners Court in 2006 and has served as Austin’s state senator for the past five years. We asked why she would want to step away from her work at the Texas Capitol. “I’m not stepping away from anything,” Eckhardt said. “I’m going deeper. I think that people across the board have grown really disenchanted that we’re not doing big things anymore that actually help people. We don’t even expect our government to serve us. And so I want to take this opportunity to go deeper and say, ‘What common ground do we have?’” The congressional district that Eckhardt is running in – CD 10 – was one of five reconfigured this summer on the orders of Donald Trump. It begins in the suburbs west of Austin, takes in Pflugerville and Elgin, and moves out to East Texas, comprising 13 counties, some urban but most rural. The district includes Texas A&M University in College Station and the state prison system’s death row in Livingston. It is 69% white and 16% Hispanic and would have elected Trump with a 60% margin in the 2024 election. Republican Michael McCaul has represented the district for the last 20 years but is not seeking reelection. Ten Republicans are running to replace him in the March primary. Two Democrats, professor Dawn Marshall and voting rights advocate Tayhlor Coleman, have also gotten into the race. Eckhardt said she is already having conversations with voters in the district. “What I’ve learned is that every single person, regardless of what political jersey you wear, feels that in the richest nation in human history we should be able to have homes, food, and health care within the reach of everybody,” she said. “You don’t need an algorithm to tell you that your eggs have gone to six bucks and that your health insurance just went up by 127%. So I think that personal experience will make people go, ‘Huh – something is not working in my government. It is my government – it’s our government – so what do we need to do differently?’” In CD 10, Eckhardt will need such universal messages. She said she would handle the inevitable criticisms about her progressive voting record – for example, her Senate votes for abortion access – by using her skills as a trained mediator. “When you hit a divisive issue that is not common ground, you step back to a larger subject that is,” Eckhardt said. “And health care is that larger subject. You say, irrespective of how you individually feel about abortion, let’s step back to something we all agree on – that health care should be within the reach of everyone. Let’s fix that. And we can leave the abortion question to a moment after we get everyone health care that they can afford. “But I’m a public servant first, and I’m a policy wonk second. So what I’m going to do is say, ‘What do a majority of my constituents want, and what is in their best interest?’ I’ll have to check with the constituents but, based on poll after poll, I think that a total ban on abortion is not a common ground position. I think that most everyone in CD 10, Republican or Democrat, wants medically advised health care they can afford, including reproductive health care, without government interference.” This article appears in November 7 • 2025.
