{"id":117524,"date":"2026-01-10T00:19:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-10T00:19:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/117524\/"},"modified":"2026-01-10T00:19:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-10T00:19:07","slug":"opal-lees-granddaughter-dione-sims-enters-race-for-congress","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/117524\/","title":{"rendered":"Opal Lee’s granddaughter, Dione Sims, enters race for Congress"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

FORT WORTH, Texas – The granddaughter of Fort Worth’s Opal Lee, who was by her side on the journey to make Juneteenth a federal holiday, is running for Congress.<\/p>\n

Even if she wins the March primary, however, Dione Sims faces an uphill battle against the District 25 incumbent.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Dione Sims for Congress \"\" <\/p>\n

From her days at Southwest High School in Fort Worth, to earning a business degree at Texas Wesleyan University, to starting a non-profit in 2000 called Unity Unlimited, Sims has been active in her community for some time.<\/p>\n

“When I started that nonprofit, it was based on a youth event, getting young people together,” said Sims.<\/p>\n

Now, she’s on the verge of a campaign to represent that community in Washington.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The kickoff for that campaign is set for Saturday, Jan. 10., in Forest Hill at 4 p.m.<\/p>\n

Sims says she\u2019s focused on fundraising and building a strong team of supporters.<\/p>\n

Key campaign issues <\/p>\n

Some of the issues she calls key to her campaign:<\/p>\n

“Having a living and prevailing wage; being able to have healthcare that you can afford; to be able to buy food and fuel; and then education. We can\u2019t run away from technology. Our kids’ education is going to be really important,” Sims said.<\/p>\n

Her candidacy, she says, was borne out of her concern for families and people in general.<\/p>\n

“We\u2019re seeing our freedoms being stripped left and right, and people who are supposed to be standing up and protecting those freedoms are causing problems,” Sims said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\" Battle for District 25 <\/p>\n

In the newly redrawn District 25, Sims and retired Navy veteran William Marks will face off in the Democratic primary.\u00a0The winner will take on longtime Republican incumbent Rep. Roger Williams.<\/p>\n

The district was reshaped after a Republican-led effort earlier this year to garner five additional seats in Congress.\u00a0The maneuvering led to Democratic Rep. Marc Veasey\u2019s decision to not seek re-election.<\/p>\n

History supporting Opal Lee <\/p>\n

As for her own life, Sims says something she never expected was the years-long venture assisting her grandmother, Dr. Opal Lee, on a journey that ultimately saw Juneteenth become a national holiday.<\/p>\n

“The world, of course, wants to know what Miss Opal\u2019s reaction was. So I\u2019m telling her, just sitting at her table, and I\u2019m talking to her. I said, \u2018grandmother dear, I want to run for Congress. I\u2019ve decided to run for Congress.\u2019 And she said, \u2018ok, where\u2019s your stuff for me to hand out?\u2019 I said, \u2018well we haven\u2019t printed anything yet,\u2019” Sims recalled.<\/p>\n

“That touched my heart,” Sims continued, “because this is something she saw for me a long time ago.”<\/p>\n

The Source: Information in this article comes from FOX 4 coverage with Dione Sims.<\/p>\n

Fort Worth<\/a>Texas Politics<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FORT WORTH, Texas – The granddaughter of Fort Worth’s Opal Lee, who was by her side on the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":117525,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[116,118,117,223,122,216,395,393],"class_list":{"0":"post-117524","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fort-worth","8":"tag-fort-worth","9":"tag-fort-worth-headlines","10":"tag-fort-worth-news","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-tarrant-county","13":"tag-tx","14":"tag-tx-politics","15":"tag-us"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117524","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=117524"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117524\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/117525"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=117524"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=117524"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=117524"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}