Since Lebanon Times Magazine is at an equal distance from all and since Lebanon Times Magazine values loyalty to friends, the news of all is followed far from the politics of Republican and Democratic. Instead, the Magazine cares about who will serve the citizen better? Who will serve America and Houston especially? Who will care about the worries of our city and who will best represent us and be our voice in Washington, DC? For this reason, Lebanon Times Magazine interviewed Former Sheriff Adrian Garcia as he is on the campaign trail running for Congress. The interview of our good friend to find out more about his race towards Texas’ 29th Congressional District seat took place at the Lebanon Times office. The interview was conducted by Hiba I. Elroz and Julia Nader:
You have been fighting battle after battle. The first was your battle to make sure that Harris County was safe, the second was your battle towards becoming the Mayor, and today your battle is towards becoming a Congressman. You must be exhausted by now. Is that correct?
When you do what you love to do and that is to serve the people of the community, you do not get tired. If you just have a job, you get tired. However, if you are doing what you really care about and what you believe in, then it is easy to stay energetic and motivated.
Which do you consider to be harder: making sure that safety is maintained or a role in politics?
I kept the city safe as a police officer. I kept the city safe as a member of City Council when I was the Chairman of the Public Safety & Homeland Security Committee. I did it as the Director of the city’s Anti-Gang Office. Obviously, I did it as the Sheriff and I look forward to contribute to everyone’s regional safety whether it is the city, the county, the state, or the country. Sometimes, because I have had to maintain safety as an elected official as a Council Member and as Sheriff, there have been some politics involved. Yet, I have always seen and believed that when you are doing the right thing for the right reason for the right people it becomes less about politics and more about the things that everyone benefits from. Keeping the city safe and the county safe is tough because law and order is a very complicated, difficult, and sometimes dangerous thing but I have enjoyed it. Being a politician, sometimes people have different perceptions of politicians. I think that my success has been that I focus on what matters most to most and I focus on bringing people together versus creating division and separation.
So I think in those two ways, it has been fairly easy for me in either role to be an elected official and to be someone in charge of public safety because I work with people, I listen to what people worry about, and then I try to build the best possible policies and responses to those issues.
When did you decide to run for Congress?
The reality is that I have thought of being a member of Congress for many, many years. I have been married for 24 years. My wife interviewed me for a college class she was taking when we were just friends. We found that paper a few years ago in the garage. That paper is literally a blueprint for where I am at today. In that paper, I talked about seeking elected office. I remember mentioning that one day I would like to be a member of Congress. I did not know the process, how long it would take, or how to get there. I just invested myself in public service and it has created this opportunity to be here today. What I learned from the mayor’s race was that people wanted to see me continue in public service. After the mayor’s race and after we were not as successful as we had hoped, people were just urging me not to stop and to continue to serve and to aim higher and specifically, to run for Congress. This helped make this tough decision a very easy one.
What is your slogan for your campaign for Congress? Why should people vote for you?
“Your Voice in Washington”. The reality of it is that Houston is the most culturally rich and diverse community in America. We speak over 100 languages every single day. When you have individuals like Donald Trump who talk disparagingly about immigrants and freely insult individuals who come from different walks of life, this is not what America is about so there needs to be a voice in Washington that is willing to say “Hey you may want to tone that down because all you are doing is creating hate and divisiveness and that is going to tear our country apart”. I want to be a voice of reason. I want to be a voice of support and advocacy to the international community that I belong to. Members of Congress, including my opponent, voted against the Syrian refugees and I do not think that is how you should approach international matters especially when they are afflicting families and individuals. I think that an answer to stop people from coming is too easy and lazy. Rather, embracing people, building bridges, and building relationships helps make our country safe and the world safe.
What is your plan of action if you succeed in the elections for Congress?
To be loud, to be energetic, to be active, and to represent the people that are part of this community. The congressional district that I am looking to represent is on the East side of Houston. It represents a very humble community. 80% of the people in the district are Hispanic. 91% of the people in the district do not have a college degree. 50% of the children in the district are dropping out of school. 54% of the people do not own their own homes. 20% of the district lives below poverty. So, this community needs a voice and needs an advocate. It needs someone who is going to be loud and demand that attention, resources, and services be invested in the community. The median income is $39,000 and so that is not enough for people to own a dignified and respectable home.
Too often people find it easy to point the finger at immigrants, and the Hispanic community in particular, and say that they are not literate, they do not vote, they do not live in good communities, they do not take care of their neighborhoods. When you live under these circumstances, how do you expect the community to contribute to the economy? I am tired of seeing that go on year to year to year. I grew up in the district and I have lived there my entire life. I just do not believe that we should allow these conditions to continue. That being said, this district is also part of the greater region. It includes the multicultural communities that are part of Houston.
Being the son of immigrants, I believe that immigrants as a whole need an advocate in Washington, DC. Too often, as I mentioned earlier, individuals like Trump try to paint a broad brush to all immigrants no matter where you come from, making us all seem to be terrible and horrible people. I think that our country needs to know the value that we all bring to the table and all the good things we are contributing to our society and to this great country. Yet, if nobody is telling that story then people like Trump are able to trample on the successes and contributions that everyone is making.
What lesson did you learn from running to become Mayor?
I learned that it is important to have a comprehensive plan for how you are going to engage all the people across the city and it is also more important to execute that plan timely and effectively. It is also important to recognize the fact that you have to encourage people to recognize that they have a voice in the process. Too many people that I met during my campaign for Mayor felt that it was someone else’s responsibility to vote and make a decision on who the next Mayor was going to be. Learning from that experience, we are going to be much more directed to the people of the district in this race. We are going to communicate in a much more personal manner than just TV and radio because I believe that when you are personally engaging the community they tend to be much more responsive. What I learned is that you need to be in the neighborhoods, you need to be in the living rooms, you need to be in the businesses talking to folks. That is how I started my day this morning. I went to go have breakfast and stopped at all the tables to say hello to people to let them know that I am asking to be their candidate to serve them in Congress. The response was phenomenal. The execution of the plan is precisely that…to be in the community executing the plan that we know will get us elected to serve in Congress.
You have to give people something to vote for. Regretfully, in the last election, people had something to vote against more than to vote for something. My focus is to vote for changing the circumstances that the people in the 29th Congressional District have been living under for so many years. In fact, I met a couple yesterday. The woman talked about how she made mistakes in her early years…dropped out of school, got in trouble. Her spouse talked about how life was difficult for them. Now, as matured individuals, they recognize that the environment can consume you and if we do not change the environment, then young people grow up believing that this is normal and this is acceptable and so what if it is what it is. This is the motivation behind this race. I am proposing my plan of action to the community that we are going to invest in education. Education will be the number one priority of my administration. Everything else is going to be important. I want to bring jobs and I want to strengthen the economy of course but bringing jobs with an ill-prepared workforce does nothing for the community. I will do what I have done in the past. I am going to support early childhood education. I will work to hold the school districts accountable and then I will make sure to work with the President to make sure that college education is affordable for everyone.
Plus, my commitment is to visit Lebanon as your Member of Congress!
We are so glad to have you as our friend and we are also very happy to have you as an Honorary Son of Lebanon. We really wish you the best of luck throughout this race!