Southeast Travis County’s Precinct 4 — home to some of the county’s poorest residents and the Tesla Gigafactory tied to the world’s richest man — faces a generational change in leadership. Commissioner Margaret Gómez’s retirement after 32 years in office has drawn four longtime advocates into the race to replace her.
Precinct 4 voters can’t go wrong with any of the candidates in the March 3 Democratic primary. Out of this highly qualified field, we recommend Susanna Ledesma-Woody, who has deep community roots plus 15 years of scrutinizing budgets and setting policies as a member of the Del Valle school board.
“Precinct 4 is home to some of the hardest working families in all of Travis County, yet we’re some of the most neglected,” said Ledesma-Woody, who grew up near the Travis/Bastrop county line in a mobile home with limited access to electricity and water.
Building a career in project management with Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), Ledesma-Woody also stepped up to help her neighbors as a founding member of the Del Valle Community Coalition. The group provides resources ranging from a food pantry and scholarships to COVID vaccine outreach and home delivery of Plan B emergency contraception.
“While the rest of Travis County is moving forward, we’re still waiting — waiting for our roads to be fixed, waiting for grocery stores, waiting for hospitals and investments in our infrastructure. It’s unacceptable,” she told us in an Editorial Board meeting with all four candidates for the seat.
Ledesma-Woody struck us as a pragmatic enforcer, someone who will read the fine print and ensure budget line items reflect policy priorities. That includes holding Tesla to the terms of its 2020 tax incentives deal for its Gigafactory — which she voted against as a school board member — and pushing to limit county cooperation with ICE to the bare minimum required by law, as she said many immigrant families in Precinct 4 now live in fear.
Ledesma-Woody is making her third bid for this position, having come within 250 votes of unseating Gómez four years ago — a narrow margin that highlighted her sizable support. Unless third-party candidates later join the race, the seat will be decided in the Democratic primary, as no Republicans have filed to run for it.
The other contenders also bring admirable records of service: George Morales III, who was the precinct’s constable for the past decade, spearheads annual events providing school supplies and Thanksgiving meals through the Dove Springs Recreation Advisory Board.
Former Austin school board member Ofelia Maldonado Zapata has worked for years on education, voter registration and health care advocacy. And Gavino Fernandez Jr., who served as chief of staff for Gómez’s predecessor in the 1990s, has advocated on East Austin issues ranging from policing to housing as a leader with the League of United Latin American Citizens, or LULAC.
All bring deep knowledge of the area’s needs. But voters can pick only one. In our view, Ledesma-Woody has the edge as the candidate with the strongest governing experience to turn promises into priorities.