<\/p>\n
Johnny Garcia, the Democratic Party candidate for Texas\u2019 35th Congressional District, talks with the media on May 26 during a watch party for the primary runoff at B&N Sports Bar in San Antonio.<\/p>\n
Andrew J. Whitaker\/San Antonio Express-News<\/p>\n
We recommend Johnny Garcia, a Bexar County sheriff\u2019s deputy with more than 20 years in law enforcement, in the general election for Texas\u2019 35th Congressional District.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Garcia<\/a>, who emerged from a spirited Democratic Party primary<\/a>, faces Carlos De La Cruz<\/a> in the general election. But while the choice in November is between blue and red, the shades of those hues matter.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Garcia was one of the two most centrist candidates in his primary. De La Cruz, who did not meet with us during the primary and again recently, is as far right as any candidate in any race.<\/p>\n Garcia is the underdog in the congressional district, which is\u00a0among the ones in Texas redrawn last year after President Donald Trump demanded a mid-decade redistricting. His goal was\u00a0to create a net increase of five districts designed to elect Republicans.<\/p>\n Only a fraction the area that was in the previous District 35 remains in the new one, which includes much of the South Side and far east\u00a0Bexar County, along with all of Guadalupe, Wilson and Karnes counties.<\/p>\n Had the new District 35 been in place for the 2024 election, Trump would have carried it by about 10 percentage points. The previous District 35 was strongly Democratic and favored then-Vice President Kamala Harris over Trump, 66% to 32%.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n But circumstances \u2014 internationally, nationally, locally and individually \u2014 have changed in two years. And some portion of conservatives in District 35 may be looking for an alternative to tariffs, high gas and grocery prices, wars and senseless cruelty.<\/p>\n Garcia espouses pragmatism over party. He is able to see issues from the inside out, rather than from the left or right side.<\/p>\n Case in point\u00a0\u2014 border security and immigration.<\/p>\n Unlike Harris in 2024, Garcia acknowledges that the Biden administration mishandled the wave of immigrants that overwhelmed our southern border during those years.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cI know Democrats got it wrong on the border because I\u2019ve worked in law enforcement, and we have seen the realities of how Democrats failed us here,\u201d Garcia told the Express-News Editorial Board.<\/p>\n And in walk-and-chew-gum fashion, he also said he would seek to stop the overreaching tactics that the Trump administration has employed via Immigration and Customs Enforcement, other Department of Homeland Security agencies and the National Guard from states.<\/p>\n As a sheriff\u2019s deputy, Garcia speaks with credibility when he says Congress needs to exert oversight over ICE as a law enforcement agency that has lost sight of its duty to serve and protect.<\/p>\n \u201cIt makes no sense that your local law enforcement agencies are held to a higher standard than federal law enforcement,\u201d he said. \u201cWhere they used to be the golden standard, now they have no standard.\u201d<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n He cites the lowering of requirements for hiring and training, including reducing the number of weeks in the curriculum, changes that seem to manifest in ICE agents\u2019 lack of professionalism and often questionable use of lethal force. And it\u2019s time for Congress to address those problems.<\/p>\n \u201cThere needs to be some accountability measures,\u201d Garcia said. \u201cThere needs to be major overhaul and reform to the agency.\u201d<\/p>\n Similarly, he sees corruption that warrants attention.<\/p>\n \u201cWe need to hold Trump accountable for all the corruption we\u2019ve gotten to see, for all the self-enrichment his family has earned under the two years that they\u2019ve been in office,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n At the same time, Garcia the pragmatist strongly cautions fellow Democrats against letting themselves be distracted from the affordability crisis.<\/p>\n As for affordability and another key issue, healthcare,\u00a0 Garcia is on the\u00a0correct side. He said it\u2019s critical that the U.S. end the \u201cbroad-based tariffs that are hurting 97% of small businesses and working-class families\u201d and that he supports making the Affordable Care Act subsidies permanent.<\/p>\n For this new district, Garcia\u2019s brand of old-fashioned common sense is in order.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Johnny Garcia, the Democratic Party candidate for Texas\u2019 35th Congressional District, talks with the media on May 26…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":456282,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133,75410,61611,156393,32624],"class_list":["post-456281","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-austin","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news","tag-carlos-de-la-cruz","tag-johnny-garcia","tag-recommend2026","tag-texas-35th-congressional-district"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/456281","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=456281"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/456281\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/456282"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=456281"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=456281"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=456281"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}