Tejano Talks

A Texas state representative’s base pay is $600 a month — the same as it was decades ago. These four Texans are running anyway.

At the Texas Democratic Convention in Corpus Christi, Hiram and Domingo sit down with four candidates for the Texas House — three first-time nominees and one incumbent — from four corners of the state: San Antonio, Austin, the Rockwall area, and Dallas. Different districts, different lives, same questions: why run, what’s broken, and what would you actually do in Austin?

MEET THE CANDIDATES (in order of appearance)

ADRIAN REYNA — House District 125, San Antonio (0:28)
A 15-year San Antonio ISD classroom teacher (8th-grade U.S. history), teachers-union leader, and AFL-CIO executive board member. Says he’s ready for the Capitol: "I’ve had 42 eighth graders in a classroom."
Learn More: voteadrianreyna.com

MONTSERRAT GARIBAY — House District 49, Austin (6:56)
Came to the U.S. as an undocumented child, became a citizen in 2012, taught bilingual pre-K for eight years, rose to first Latina secretary-treasurer of the Texas AFL-CIO, and served in the U.S. Department of Education. Now the nominee for the Austin seat Gina Hinojosa is leaving.
Learn More: montserratfortexas.com

ORLANDO LOPEZ — House District 33, Rockwall area (29:53)
A construction project manager from the Rio Grande Valley ("we’re 956") running in a traditionally Republican district, with a wife who’s an educator and a daughter about to turn two. "I’m not pretending to be someone like them. I am someone like them."
Learn More: lopezfortxhd33.com

REP. VENTON JONES — House District 100, Dallas (38:16)
The incumbent, born and raised in Oak Cliff, seeking a third term. Vice chair of the Corrections committee, a leader in the Legislature’s LGBTQ caucus, and one of the members who broke quorum to Illinois in 2025.
Learn More: ventonfor100.com

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CHAPTERS

0:00 Welcome from the Texas Democratic Convention
0:28 ADRIAN REYNA (HD125, San Antonio): the teacher ready for the Capitol
1:55 Vouchers, and what he says classrooms are losing
3:07 A history teacher on how Texas history gets taught
4:13 His first bills: school funding and the consent-law story
5:16 Uninsured Texans and the affordability crisis
6:20 How to join the Reyna campaign
6:56 MONTSERRAT GARIBAY (HD49, Austin): organizer at heart
7:32 An undocumented childhood, and citizenship in 2012
8:38 The pre-K funding fight that taught her to organize
9:51 First Latina secretary-treasurer of the Texas AFL-CIO
10:38 The call from Washington
12:12 Deciding to run for the Austin seat
14:25 4,000 doors and 15 pounds
16:32 "We won. We won more than 60%."
18:20 Her priorities: schools, housing, transportation, health care
21:13 Listening to UT students
22:38 Domingo, the DREAM Act, and what comes next
24:52 Identify, educate, mobilize
26:27 A former state rep’s warning about lobbyists
28:06 How to support the Garibay campaign
29:18 Ad: Domingo Garcia Law Firm
29:53 ORLANDO LOPEZ (HD33, Rockwall area): from the 956
30:47 Why he stepped up — a rally, and a daughter turning two
31:53 His pitch in a traditionally Republican district
33:00 A working family’s math
33:52 "Real Tejano values"
35:21 Schools closing, and what he’d do about it
36:48 How to join the Lopez campaign
37:39 One last question: Selena
38:16 REP. VENTON JONES (HD100, Dallas): the incumbent
38:55 Running for the ignored parts of Dallas
39:35 The quorum break, from inside
40:36 What the next session is really about
41:37 Corrections, immigration enforcement, and public safety
43:13 The 2026 ticket, from where he sits
44:25 Hope, ancestors, and LGBTQ Texans
46:12 "$600 a month": why they do it
46:29 Closing: get involved

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DOMINGO GARCIA is a trial lawyer and one of the most important Latino political figures in Texas. In 2006, he organized the largest march in Texas history, when more than 500,000 people filled downtown Dallas to demand immigration reform. He is a former national president of LULAC and has practiced law for more than 40 years.

HIRAM GILBERTO GARCIA is a journalist, producer, and public affairs strategist based in Austin. His frontline coverage of the 2020 protests drew wide local and national attention.

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ABOUT TEJANO TALKS

Tejano Talks is a podcast hosted by Domingo Garcia and Hiram Garcia that blends cultural conversation, political analysis, and interviews with notable voices in Texas and beyond.

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Subscribe, and tell us in the comments who you want to see on the show next. We’re on YouTube, Spotify, Instagram, and TikTok.

Views expressed by hosts and guests are their own.

#TejanoTalks #TexasPolitics #TexasHouse #TexasLegislature #2026Elections

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"When Governor Richards was governor, we ranked seventh in the nation in education. Today, we rank 40th." That’s Vikki Goodwin’s case — and she says the fix starts with the most powerful job in Texas most voters never think about.

A four-term state representative from Travis County and a real estate broker by trade, Goodwin flipped a Republican-held seat in 2018 and is now the Democratic nominee for Texas Lieutenant Governor, challenging incumbent Dan Patrick on November 3. She has walked out of the state twice to break quorum — the second time to Chicago — and she’ll tell you exactly why.

Hiram and Domingo sit down with her at the Texas Democratic Convention in Corpus Christi to talk about the school-board mom who got her into politics, what the lieutenant governor actually controls, her case on vouchers and school funding, the quorum breaks, data centers and the grid, and her housing agenda for a state where young people can’t picture owning a home.

Learn more about her campaign: goodwinfortexas.com

🎙️ More Texas politics:
• Nathan Johnson on Running for Texas Attorney General: [PASTE FULL WATCH URL ON THIS LINE]
• Gina Hinojosa on the Fight to Flip Texas: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4KzQWSZMkpo&t=56s


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IN THIS EPISODE

— Why she says the lieutenant governor — not the governor — holds the real power
— The school-board mom whose complaint became her daughter’s campaign
— Two quorum breaks, one bus to Chicago, and what it cost
— Her math on vouchers, charter schools, and your property taxes
— Data centers, water, and the billion dollars she says Texas gave away
— A real estate broker’s answer for the generation that can’t buy a home

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CHAPTERS

0:00 Welcome: Rep. Vikki Goodwin (HD47)
0:53 The school-board mom who started it all
1:17 Flipping a four-term Republican seat
1:57 Why lieutenant governor: "the most powerful position in Texas"
2:30 Her case against Dan Patrick: vouchers and school funding
3:16 From 7th to 40th: her numbers on Texas schools
3:32 Health care: the uninsured and maternal mortality
4:17 Gerrymandering, and quorum break #1
5:12 Quorum break #2: the bus to Chicago
6:17 Vouchers, charters, and your property taxes
7:27 Immigration: "we are not treating people like humans"
9:28 A Texas plan for the uninsured — and telehealth
11:43 Ad: Domingo Garcia Law Firm
12:01 Data centers: water, incentives, and county authority
13:14 The grid, the freeze, and her renewables answer
14:29 A real estate broker’s housing agenda
15:49 Bullock memories, and the signs she sees for 2026
17:15 Winning back Latino voters
17:49 How to get involved
18:12 Closing: why the lieutenant governor matters

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ABOUT THE GUEST

Vikki Goodwin is the Democratic nominee for Texas Lieutenant Governor in the 2026 election. A state representative for House District 47 in Travis County since 2019, she flipped the seat in 2018, defeating a four-term Republican incumbent. A real estate broker and owner of Goodwin & Goodwin Real Estate, she holds a business degree from the University of Texas at Austin and a master’s in public affairs from UT’s LBJ School. Her campaign centers on public school funding, health care coverage, water and infrastructure, and housing affordability. She faces incumbent Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick on November 3, 2026.

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HOSTS

DOMINGO GARCIA is a trial lawyer and one of the most important Latino political figures in Texas. He served on the Dallas City Council and, in 1993, became the first Latino ever elected Mayor Pro Tem of the city. In the Texas Legislature, he co-authored HB 1403 — the Texas DREAM Act. In 2006, he organized the largest march in Texas history, when more than 500,000 people filled downtown Dallas to demand immigration reform. He is a former national president of LULAC and has practiced law for more than 40 years.


HIRAM GILBERTO GARCIA is a journalist, producer, and public affairs strategist based in Austin. His frontline coverage of the 2020 protests drew wide local and national attention.


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ABOUT TEJANO TALKS

Tejano Talks is a podcast hosted by Domingo Garcia and Hiram Garcia that blends cultural conversation, political analysis, and interviews with notable voices in Texas and beyond. The show covers everything from Tejano culture and identity to current events, business, and career development. We’re here for Tejanos like us — to help you build wealth, honor your family, and make well-informed choices for your future.

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Subscribe, and tell us in the comments who you want to see on the show next. We’re on YouTube, Spotify, Instagram, and TikTok.

Views expressed by hosts and guests are their own.

#TejanoTalks #TexasPolitics #VikkiGoodwin #DanPatrick #TexasLtGov #TexasEducation

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Texas is the world’s eighth-largest economy — and last in the nation in health insurance. Three Houston-area Democrats say that gap is exactly why they’re running.

All three of their Texas House districts are currently held by Republicans.

At the Texas Democratic Convention in Corpus Christi, Tejano Talks sits down with three Houston-area challengers — a Baytown mom and small-business owner, a trilingual transactional attorney, and a 26-year-old gun-safety advocate — on schools, health care, jobs, and why they signed up for the hardest cheap job in Texas.

MEET THE CANDIDATES (in order of appearance)

DESIREE KLAUS — House District 128, Baytown (0:20)
Mom, small-business owner, and community advocate from a four-generation refinery family — great-grandfather, grandfather, and mother all worked at Exxon. Running for the seat Briscoe Cain is leaving, in a district she calls a strong Latino community that built the industry around it.
Learn More: desireeklaustx.com

JOSH WALLENSTEIN — House District 133, west Houston (12:07)
A transactional attorney raised by a single mom after losing his dad at seven — "public schools saved my life." Trilingual (English, Spanish, Portuguese) in one of the most diverse districts in Texas, running on schools, health care, and what he calls bringing the adults back to Austin.
Campaign: josh4texas.com

TYLER SMITH — House District 138, Spring Branch (26:52)
A 26-year-old Texas Southern University graduate who worked in Washington for Kamala Harris and Jon Ossoff, now a gun-safety advocate at Everytown and an Obama Foundation fellow — and a dues-paying member of the Harris County Tejano Democrats.
Learn More: tylerfortx.com

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IN THIS EPISODE

— Why three very different Houstonians are challenging Republican-held seats
— Schools, from three angles: closures, takeovers, and the free-lunch math
— The health care question in the state with the most uninsured residents
— Child care bills that match the mortgage — the affordability stories behind the campaigns
— Winning back Latino voters: three different answers to the same hard question
— Generators in the energy capital, and the case each makes for change

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CHAPTERS

0:00 Welcome from the Texas Democratic Convention
0:20 DESIREE KLAUS (HD128, Baytown): mom, business owner, advocate
1:32 Why now: redistricting, and a 10-hour wait to testify
2:31 The open seat, and who Baytown is
3:15 Four generations at Exxon
5:04 Day one: jobs, workforce training, small business
6:39 Child care math, and a 21-year-old barbecue joint closing
8:03 Her community network, and National Latina Day
10:40 How to find Desiree
12:07 JOSH WALLENSTEIN (HD133, west Houston): the transactional attorney
12:51 "Public schools saved my life"
14:18 Country before party: his answer on Latino voters
15:15 Knocking doors in one of Texas’s most diverse districts
16:26 The uninsured state: his health care answer
17:47 Losing his dad at seven, and the teachers who stepped in
18:43 HISD, Spring Branch, and the free-lunch math
20:04 One-party control: who he says is accountable
21:29 Unfunded mandates, and six math teachers in nine months
22:16 His case against vouchers
23:12 Reaching Houston’s Latino community — en español too
25:48 How to reach Josh
26:18 Ad: Domingo Garcia Law Firm
26:52 TYLER SMITH (HD138, Spring Branch): the 26-year-old
27:14 From TSU to Beto to Washington
28:26 Two parents at home — and the friends who had it harder
29:35 Immigration, and what he’d sponsor day one
30:33 Gun violence beyond the headlines
33:34 Winning back Latino voters, his way
35:20 A Black Tejano in Harris County
36:03 His closing pitch
37:40 Where to find Tyler (and where he eats)
38:26 Closing: subscribe

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DOMINGO GARCIA is a trial lawyer and one of the most important Latino political figures in Texas. In 2006, he organized the largest march in Texas history, when more than 500,000 people filled downtown Dallas to demand immigration reform. He is a former national president of LULAC and has practiced law for more than 40 years.

HIRAM GILBERTO GARCIA is a journalist, producer, and public affairs strategist based in Austin. His frontline coverage of the 2020 protests drew wide local and national attention.

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ABOUT TEJANO TALKS

Tejano Talks is a podcast hosted by Domingo Garcia and Hiram Garcia that blends cultural conversation, political analysis, and interviews with notable voices in Texas and beyond. The show covers everything from Tejano culture and identity to current events, business, and career development. We’re here for Tejanos like us — to help you build wealth, honor your family, and make well-informed choices for your future.

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Subscribe, and tell us in the comments who you want to see on the show next. We’re on YouTube, Spotify, Instagram, and TikTok.

Views expressed by hosts and guests are their own.

#TejanoTalks #TexasPolitics #Houston #TexasHouse #2026Elections

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"The border crossed us again." His family has ranched the same stretch of Rio Grande river bottom since the early 1900s — and the planned Big Bend border wall would run through their land, between their house and the cemetery where their grandparents are buried.

Tejano Talks goes on location to Pilares, in Presidio County, West Texas — inside the Border Patrol sector that recorded the fewest crossings on the entire southwest border last year — to hear from landowners Octavio Alvarado and Yolanda Alvarado, whose families are in the path of a federally funded barrier project now planned across Hudspeth, Jeff Davis, and Presidio counties. As of late August, construction near Big Bend National Park is under a temporary CBP pause while the fight over the rest of the region continues.

They talk about the emergency declaration they woke up to, what they told Border Patrol on their own ranch, the technology they say would actually work out here, and the coalition — from Fort Hancock to Lake Amistad — organizing under one message: no wall in the Big Bend.

Learn more about the coalition: nobigbendwall.org

🎙️ More Tejano Talks:
• Clayton Tucker on Saving the Texas Family Farm: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4Jf2o2rKwQ&t=14s
• Gina Hinojosa on the Fight to Flip Texas: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4KzQWSZMkpo&t=63s

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IN THIS EPISODE

— A family on the same river bottomland for more than 120 years
— The wall line they say would separate their home from their family cemetery
— The emergency declaration — in the border’s least-active sector
— Their math on the project: "$14 million a mile" against a $4 million county budget
— Sensors, not steel: what the landowners say would actually work
— 600 miles of organized neighbors: the No Big Bend Wall Coalition

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CHAPTERS

00:00 On the border in Pilares, Texas
00:57 A family on this land since the early 1900s
01:43 "The border crossed us again": 1919 to 2026
01:56 The day they learned the wall would lock them in
02:27 The line between the house and the cemetery
02:49 The emergency declaration that made it possible
03:22 "Do you see any emergency here?"
03:54 Ad: Domingo Garcia Law Firm
04:10 The pause, and what they’ve told Border Patrol
05:19 Sensors, not steel: what they say would work
05:40 Their math: "$14 million a mile"
06:22 What you can do: the No Big Bend Wall Coalition
07:17 Closing: make your phone calls

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ABOUT OUR GUESTS

Octavio Alvarado and Yolanda Alvarado are West Texas landowners at Pilares, in Presidio County, where the Alvarado and Sanchez family has ranched the same stretch of Rio Grande river bottom since the early 1900s. They are organizing with the No Big Bend Wall Coalition, which represents landowners and communities along roughly 600 miles of the border, from Fort Hancock to Lake Amistad.

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HOSTS

DOMINGO GARCIA is a trial lawyer and one of the most important Latino political figures in Texas. He served on the Dallas City Council and, in 1993, became the first Latino ever elected Mayor Pro Tem of the city. In the Texas Legislature, he co-authored HB 1403 — the Texas DREAM Act. In 2006, he organized the largest march in Texas history, when more than 500,000 people filled downtown Dallas to demand immigration reform. He is a former national president of LULAC and has practiced law for more than 40 years.

HIRAM GILBERTO GARCIA is a journalist, producer, and public affairs strategist based in Austin. His frontline coverage of the 2020 protests drew wide local and national attention.

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ABOUT TEJANO TALKS

Tejano Talks is a podcast hosted by Domingo Garcia and Hiram Garcia that blends cultural conversation, political analysis, and interviews with notable voices in Texas and beyond. The show covers everything from Tejano culture and identity to current events, business, and career development. We’re here for Tejanos like us — to help you build wealth, honor your family, and make well-informed choices for your future.

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Subscribe, and tell us in the comments who you want to see on the show next. We’re on YouTube, Spotify, Instagram, TikTok, and anywhere you enjoy your podcasts.

Views expressed by hosts and guests are their own.

#TejanoTalks #BigBend #BorderWall #WestTexas #TexasPolitics

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Abel "El Zorro" Mendoza is 44-0 with 32 knockouts — six wins from matching Floyd Mayweather’s 50-0 — and most fight fans still haven’t heard his name. That’s about to change.

A West Texas fighter who came up between Pecos and El Paso, he built boxing’s quietest perfect record the hard way: a 15-year-old who lied to his mom to get to a Vegas tournament, then years of pro bouts in small venues across Mexico with no promoter behind him — until Premier Boxing Champions came calling.

Hiram and Domingo sit down with him ahead of what he says is next — a fight night in Albuquerque on October 3 — to talk about staying calm when the perfect record was on the line, the math on Mayweather’s 50-0, and why, when the gloves come off for good, he plans to follow the Manny Pacquiao playbook: home to West Texas, and onto the ballot.

🎙️ More Texas politics:
• The full conversation with Abel, in Spanish:

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IN THIS EPISODE

— Why one of the best records in boxing belongs to a name most fans don’t know
— The lie he told his mom at 15 — and what he was willing to sleep on to fight
— The night his perfect record almost ended, and what it taught him about staying calm
— "A perfect record doesn’t mean a perfect journey"
— The math on Mayweather’s 50-0, in his own words
— Why he plans to trade the ring for a ballot in 2028

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CHAPTERS

0:00 Welcome: Abel Mendoza, 44-0, 32 knockouts
0:51 October 3 in Albuquerque: the next fight
1:23 From Pecos to the pros: how it started
2:43 The lie that got a 15-year-old to Vegas
3:53 The hardest fight: an Argentine Olympian
4:35 Getting knocked down — in the ring and in life
5:24 A perfect record is not a perfect journey
6:14 The goal: Mayweather’s 50-0
6:39 Ad: Domingo Garcia Law Firm
6:53 The fighter he looks up to: Manny Pacquiao
7:28 After boxing: a run for office in 2028
8:12 Why politics — looking out for his community
8:44 Tickets, October 3, and the next GOAT
9:21 Signing with PBC: from bars in Mexico to the big stage
9:36 Closing: the fighting spirit

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ABOUT THE GUEST

Abel "El Zorro" Mendoza is an undefeated professional boxer — 44-0 with 32 knockouts. A West Texas fighter who came up between Pecos and El Paso, he turned pro in 2016 with almost no amateur pedigree and built his record the hard way, including early bouts fought in small venues across Mexico without a promoter behind him. He signed with Premier Boxing Champions in late 2025. In May 2026 he won the NABA lightweight title in Dallas. He says his goal is to match — and pass — Floyd Mayweather’s 50-0, and that in 2028 he plans to run for county commissioner back home in West Texas.

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HOSTS

DOMINGO GARCIA is a trial lawyer and one of the most important Latino political figures in Texas. He served on the Dallas City Council and, in 1993, became the first Latino ever elected Mayor Pro Tem of the city. In the Texas Legislature, he co-authored HB 1403 — the Texas DREAM Act. In 2006, he organized the largest march in Texas history, when more than 500,000 people filled downtown Dallas to demand immigration reform. He is a former national president of LULAC and has practiced law for more than 40 years.

HIRAM GILBERTO GARCIA is a journalist, producer, and public affairs strategist based in Austin. His frontline coverage of the 2020 protests drew wide local and national attention.

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ABOUT TEJANO TALKS

Tejano Talks is a podcast that empowers Tejanos with the knowledge, mindset, and voice to build wealth, lead with purpose, and shape their future.


Subscribe, and tell us in the comments who you want to see on the show next. We’re on YouTube, Spotify, Instagram, TikTok and wherever you enjoy your podcast.

Views expressed by hosts and guests are their own.

#TejanoTalks #AbelMendoza #Boxing #Mayweather #WestTexas

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He scored 67 episodes of Dragon Ball Z. Now he wants to be Texas’s top lawyer.

Before the law and before the Texas Senate, Nathan Johnson was a working composer — if you ever watched Dragon Ball Z in English, you’ve heard his work. Today he’s the Democratic nominee for Texas Attorney General, the Democrat who flipped a Senate district Republicans had held for three decades, running against Republican Mayes Middleton for the office Ken Paxton is leaving behind.

Hiram and Domingo sit down with Nathan at the Texas Democratic Convention to talk about the day his music career vanished overnight, what eight years in the Senate taught him about power, his answer to "aren’t you afraid of your opponent’s money?" — and the Paxton impeachment trial he sat through as a juror. He has thoughts.

Learn more about his campaign: nathanfortexas.com

🎙️ More Nathan Johnson & Texas politics:
• Gina Hinojosa on the Fight to Flip Texas:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4KzQWSZMkpo&t=56s
• Clayton Tucker on Saving the Texas Family Farm: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4Jf2o2rKwQ&t=14s

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CHAPTERS

0:00 Welcome: Nathan Johnson in the house
0:33 The Dragon Ball Z résumé
1:26 Music, law, and the road into politics
2:00 The day the music income vanished
2:27 Deciding to take on Don Huffines
3:32 Flipping a 30-year Republican district
3:50 Eight years in the Senate: what changed
4:21 One-party control and how bills get passed now
5:23 Jane Nelson’s exit and election worries
6:19 "They declared me dead two months ago"
7:48 Running for attorney general
8:12 "The first thing we do is stop being corrupt"
8:20 The Paxton impeachment, from the jury box
9:14 The public servants waiting to come back
9:46 Ad: Domingo Garcia Law Firm
10:01 Sizing up Mayes Middleton
10:48 "Aren’t you afraid of the money?"
11:27 The delivery-guy campaign ad
13:12 Day one: changing the ethos of the office
13:19 Earning back trust from the communities he says were targeted
14:52 What his conversations with Republicans sound like
16:10 Child support: the AG job nobody talks about
17:54 The AG as a check on power
18:18 Clean air, sick kids, and school funding
18:55 No-bid contracts and AI data centers
19:32 Teaming up with Sarah Eckhardt
20:06 Why vote for Nathan — and where to find him
21:39 Final words: replacing an iconic name
22:27 "The attorney general is the people’s lawyer"
23:13 Closing: su voto vale

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ABOUT THE GUEST

Nathan Johnson is the Democratic nominee for Texas Attorney General in the 2026 election. A state senator representing District 16 in Dallas since 2019, he defeated Republican incumbent Don Huffines in 2018 by eight points, becoming the first Democrat to hold the seat in over three decades. A commercial litigation attorney with a physics degree from the University of Arizona and a law degree from the University of Texas, he spent years between stints at law as a working composer — including scoring the Funimation English dub of Dragon Ball Z. He sat as a juror in the 2023 impeachment trial of Attorney General Ken Paxton. He faces Republican nominee Mayes Middleton on November 3, 2026.

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HOSTS

DOMINGO GARCIA is a trial lawyer and one of the most important Latino political figures in Texas. He served on the Dallas City Council and, in 1993, became the first Latino ever elected Mayor Pro Tem of the city. In the Texas Legislature, he co-authored HB 1403 — the Texas DREAM Act. In 2006, he organized the largest march in Texas history, when more than 500,000 people filled downtown Dallas to demand immigration reform. He is a former national president of LULAC and has practiced law for more than 40 years.

HIRAM GILBERTO GARCIA is a journalist, producer, and public affairs strategist based in Austin. His frontline coverage of the 2020 protests drew wide local and national attention.

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ABOUT TEJANO TALKS

Tejano Talks is a podcast that blends cultural conversation, political analysis, and interviews with notable voices in Texas and beyond. The show covers everything from Tejano culture and identity to current events, business, and career development. We’re here for Tejanos like us — to help you build wealth, honor your family, and make well-informed choices for your future.

Subscribe, and tell us in the comments who you want to see on the show next. We’re on YouTube, Spotify, Instagram, TikTok and anywhere you listen to podcasts.

Views expressed by hosts and guests are their own.

#TejanoTalks #TexasPolitics #NathanJohnson #TexasAG #KenPaxton #DragonBallZ

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Nydia Cárdenas grew up in Fort Worth on the lesson her parents lived: when someone in the community was struggling, you did something — "let's do a lotia for them, make some food."

Today she is the Democratic nominee for Tarrant County Commissioner, Precinct 4, and if she wins in November, she would be the first Latina ever to sit on the Commissioners Court — replacing the first Latino ever elected to it.

Hiram and Domingo sit down with her to talk about the fight to flip the seat: why she left a national career to come home to Fort Worth's northside, the county's ICE partnership and the state takeover of her hometown schools, and what "ponte a hacer algo" means for the community that raised her.

More from Tejano Talks:
This conversation was recorded at the Texas Democratic Convention — the same event where we sat down with other Texas voices:

Gina Hinojosa on the Fight to Flip Texas: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4KzQWSZMkpo▶
Dolores Huerta on a Lifetime of Activism: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hv_gdY2jWMI▶
Clayton Tucker on the Fight for Texas Farms: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4Jf2o2rKwQ&t=5s▶
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IN THIS EPISODE

— Why she's poised to make history as the first Latina on the Commissioners Court
— How the county's partnership with ICE is affecting her community
— Fort Worth ISD under state takeover — and why parents should be worried
— Property taxes squeezing families out of a booming precinct
— Taking on Tim O'Hare and backing Alisa Simmons
— The 817 Gather: how she turned grassroots organizing into a run for office

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CHAPTERS

0:28 — Nydia introduces herself
0:39 — Running for County Commissioner Precinct 4
0:46 — Background: Fort Worth, North Side High School
1:08 — Stanford & UMich MBA / Why she's running
1:52 — Connecting with constituents / what she's hearing
2:09 — Replacing the first Latino / his ICE partnership vote
2:42 — Organizing background / Co-founded 817 Gather
3:08 — County government: a "black box"
3:21 — Fort Worth ISD under state takeover
3:38 — Property taxes & affordability
4:06 — Ad: Domingo Garcia Law Firm (EN)
4:22 — Tim O'Hare / Supporting Alisa Simmons
5:08 — Election dates & how to vote

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ABOUT NYDIA CÁRDENAS

Nydia Cárdenas is a first-generation Mexican-American from Fort Worth. She is valedictorian of North Side High School, earned her mechanical engineering degree from Stanford, and her MBA from the University of Michigan. She is a leadership coach, grassroots organizer, and co-founder of the 817 Gather. She won the Democratic primary for Tarrant County Commissioner Precinct 4 on March 3, 2026, with 58.6% of the vote, and will face Republican incumbent Manny Ramirez on November 3, 2026.

Learn more about her campaign: https://www.vote4nydia.com/

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HOSTS

DOMINGO GARCIA is a trial lawyer and one of the most important Latino political figures in Texas. He served on the Dallas City Council and, in 1993, became the first Latino ever elected Mayor Pro Tem of the city. In the Texas Legislature, he co-authored HB 1403 — the Texas DREAM Act. In 2006, he organized the largest march in Texas history, when more than 500,000 people filled downtown Dallas to demand immigration reform. He is a former national president of LULAC and has practiced law for more than 40 years.

HIRAM GARCIA is a journalist, producer, and public affairs strategist based in Austin. His frontline coverage of the 2020 protests drew wide local and national attention.

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ABOUT TEJANO TALKS

Tejano Talks is a podcast hosted by Domingo Garcia and Hiram Garcia that blends cultural
conversation, political analysis, and interviews with notable voices in Texas and beyond. The show covers everything from Tejano culture and identity to current events, business, and career development. We're here for Tejanos like us — to help you build wealth, honor your family, and make well-informed choices for your future.

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Views expressed by hosts and guests are their own.

#TejanoTalks #TexasPolitics #NydiaCárdenas #TarrantCounty #FortWorth

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