In nearby Welasco, Catalina Ozuna says her daughter works an understaffed kindergarten classroom for little pay while covering daycare costs for her own child. South of Austin, Meredith Keller, who spent over a decade on a local school board, calls the state's new voucher program, which lets parents use public dollars for private school, "a slap in the face to everyone who went to public school." All three women have backed Republicans in the past, but they're now frustrated with how the party has handled public education.
That frustration is exactly what state Rep. Gina Hinojosa sees as an opening. These mothers span the Rio Grande Valley to the Austin suburbs, and their complaints cut across different issues, understaffed classrooms, low pay for school workers, and a voucher system some feel undercuts the public schools they grew up trusting. For Democrats looking to make inroads in traditionally conservative areas, disillusioned Republican moms could be a rare foothold.
None of these women identify as Democrats. But their shared irritation with how Texas funds and runs its schools shows cracks in support that once looked solid, and it's an opening someone in Austin is already watching closely.