Putting aside partisanship: North Texas legislators unite for bigger voice in Austin

“Is Dallas-Fort Worth getting our fair share of transportation, funding of water funding, infrastructure, economic development?” asked state Rep. Jared Patterson.

DALLAS — State lawmakers from North Texas plan to organize into a new caucus called ONE DFW, pledging to put aside partisanship on issues that affect the region at large.

“We’re at a disadvantage already,” said state Rep. Jared Patterson, R-Frisco, on this week’s Inside Texas Politics. “If you look at the state budget, for example, both budget writers are from the Houston area. They do a great job… but they’re both in the Houston region. And so that’s just one example where we need to have a little bit bigger voice in the process and there’s strength in numbers.”

In addition to Patterson as chair, Democrats Ramon Romero from Fort Worth and Toni Rose from Dallas joined ONE DFW as Vice Chair and Secretary along with Republican Matt Shaheen from Prosper as Treasurer.

“We’ve got some serious legislators that have banded together to say, we’re going to be more intentional about this move forward. Is Dallas-Fort Worth getting our fair share of transportation, funding of water funding, infrastructure, economic development, those sorts of things,” Patterson added.

Harris County Democrats have their own unified delegation but ONE DFW, representing the five most populous counties in the Metroplex, appears to be the first such formal caucus to focus on a region of the state.

“We’re the largest inland population in the United States. We have more suburbs of 100,000 plus population than any area in the United States. You know, we’re number three in job creation. We’re a big exporter from the Dallas region. We are every bit as much as the economic powerhouse that Harris County and Houston is,” Patterson explained. “As a region, we ought to be able to compete better against some of these.”

The mission of the new caucus is to “strengthen infrastructure, economic development, public safety, workforce growth, education, and other issues critical to North Texas’ continued prosperity,” the group said in a statement.

Patterson said ONE DFW plans a kickoff event in October with the Texas Stock Exchange.

But not every legislator in North Texas decided to join the new caucus. Patterson explains why in the unedited video interview above.