How will you work to facilitate higher education to high school graduates, particularly those in financial need?
Every Texas family deserves high-quality education and schools to ensure our recent graduates are prepared for the future. We must protect and invest in our public colleges and universities, create programs for technical training, and ensure that every single student is able to learn in a safe environment.
In Congress, I’ll support canceling student debt, making community college and public universities tuition-free, implementing universal pre-k and universal childcare, and ensuring good pay for all our teachers.
What will you do to improve employment opportunities for college graduates?
Working Texans deserve a champion in Congress who will fight for a $15 minimum wage with benefits, a strong labor movement and a jobs guarantee.
I’ve successfully fought for workers as an organizer and Council Member by raising the minimum wage for Austin City employees and contracts to $15 an hour; stood alongside unions in their fights inside and outside City Hall; and authored the paid sick leave ordinances that passed in Austin, Dallas, and San Antonio.
In Congress, I’ll fight for legislation like the PRO Act, a national paid sick days law, a universal paid family and parental leave policy, the Raise the Wage Act, Public Service Freedom to Negotiate Act, the Protecting the Right to Organize Act and other bills that support good paying jobs and union power.
If elected, what new initiatives will you bring to the district?
Across this congressional district, working families are struggling to make ends meet. To tackle the affordability crisis, I’ll fight to expand funding for the creation and preservation of affordable and sustainable housing, end the Faircloth Limit and expand public housing, expand renters rights and stop predatory mortgage lending, end discriminatory housing practices and fight gentrification and displacement.
Party: Democrat
Occupation: Nonprofit policy director. Austin City Council member.
Campaign website: https://www.casarforcongress.com/
Editor’s note: This story was updated at 4:24 p.m. Nov. 3, 2022, to correct Casar’s last name.
