John Lujan, the Republican Texas House Representative for District 118, and Kristian Carranza, his Democratic opponent, faced off during an Oct. 8 debate hosted by the San Antonio Report, a nonprofit news organization based out of San Antonio.
Lujan and Carranza are both vying for the district seat during this year’s general election Nov. 5. Texas District 118 includes parts of San Antonio and Bexar County; Texas A&M University-San Antonio falls within the district’s lines.
Here is a recap from Oct. 8’s debate:
Education and School Vouchers
Q (To Lujan): You’ve consistently campaigned as a supporter of public education. More recently you’ve also expressed support for education savings accounts. The last session made it really difficult to do both of those things. When it was clear that support for the ESAs wasn’t there in the house, Governor Greg Abbott decided that the only way public schools could have the $5.2 billion that the legislature allocated for school budgets was to tack on the voucher program. There was an effort to try and unravel those two things so public schools could have their funding, but you voted against it. Explain how you came to that decision.
“I am a strong supporter of public schools–I have been my whole life,” Lujan said.
However, if public schools are failing or not meeting “requirements,” parents should have the option of enrolling their students in private schools.
Education savings accounts, also known as the Texas voucher program, would allow parents to enroll their kids in private schools and use public funds to do so. Vouchers are Abbott’s pet project, but the plan was rejected during the regular Texas legislative session and during a special session.
During the special session in November, Lujan voted against an amendment to cut ESA language from a large public education funding bill.
Q (Follow up for Lujan): If there is no new funding for public schools in the next session again without vouchers, are you willing to leave Austin without additional funding for public schools?
“Schools need to be fully funded: one hundred percent, we can’t leave it the way it is now,” Lujan said. “We need to do our job in Austin. We need to get our schools funded, and we need to do that immediately.”
Lujan said school vouchers and education savings accounts don’t bother him because a successful school district that “wants to uplift the children” already has the infrastructure in place to provide quality education.
What bothers Lujan is when public schools and private schools are not held to the same state standards.
“We have to measure it the same, so that the parents can make the right decision,” Lujan said.
Q (To Carranza): You’ve stated that your intention this session would be “holding the line against private school vouchers.” You’ve argued that private schools aren’t held to the same standards for transparency and accountability as public schools, but the Southside’s public schools are statistically lagging behind San Antonio as a whole. The Southwest and Southeast portions of the city are between 15% and 18% worse than the state average when it comes to math and reading proficiency. Without any programs or vouchers to help parents get their kids out of public schools, how do you think the state should hold public schools accountable so students can get a fair shot at a quality education?
“Public schools are the heart of our communities, and they are under attack right now,” Carranza said.
Carranza also accused Lujan of having voted four times against public funding of schools and has voted against increasing teachers’ pay.
However, Lujan voted in favor of House Bill 1, Amendment 37 which proposed to take $8 billion from a property tax relief fund to increase teacher salaries.
“Vouchers are a scam. They pull tax dollars from already underfunded public schools, and they use that money to subsidize private school tuition.”
Carranza also said the voucher issue isn’t about denying school choice because school choice already exists.
Q (Follow up for Carranza): Do you consider the educational outcomes for the Southside’s public schools right now to be acceptable. If not, what are you going to do to offer some immediate solution?
“The conversation needs to start at fully funding our public schools,” Carranza said.
Because public schools offer community “safety nets” and programs, Carranza said the failing schools should not be shut down. Rather, the state should provide funding to hire more teachers and increase their salaries by at least $4,000.
Carranza drew a hard line in the sand: she said she wouldn’t compromise on vouchers because of out-of-state lobbyists who fund the campaigns of Republican candidates in exchange for voucher support.
The School Freedom Fund is a conservative organization and super political action committee that funded and supported pro-voucher Republican candidates and incumbents in the Texas legislature. The PAC did this mainly by funding advertisements targeting anti-voucher candidates during runoff and primary elections. Leading up to the March primaries, the School Freedom Fund spent $4 million in advertisements in support of Abbott and his supporters and against anti-vouchers representatives.
“There’s been too much money from these pro-voucher supporters to have a real conversation about how to move forward.”
Women’s Health and Reproductive Rights
Q (To Carranza): As somebody who’s campaigning hard on improving outcomes for women’s reproductive health, what is a reasonable expectation of what you might be able to achieve in the next session?
“There’s a lot of common ground,” Carranza said. “Keeping women safe and healthy–we all want that. So I think that’s where we start.”
Carranza said she wants to include provisions in state law surrounding reproductive rights “that prioritize the life of the mother,” and constituents should be electing advocates who care about the safety and health of women.
The Democratic candidate also cited comments from Lujan made during a Texas Public Radio candidate forum Sept. 26.
During the forum, Lujan said if he had a daughter who was a victim of rape he would say “No, we’re going to have the baby.”
Lujan clarified during the Oct. 8 debate that he never said he would “force” his hypothetical daughter to carry a pregnancy to term after being raped.
“I am a pro-life candidate, and I do have the exceptions of life of the mother, rape or incest,” Lujan said.
Currently, Texas does not have legal exceptions for abortion in the case of rape or incest. The law is also unclear about exceptions for the life of the mother.
Q (To Lujan): We hear repeatedly from Texas women who were denied healthcare when they faced a life threatening situation, because the law wasn’t clear about how close to death they needed to be before a doctor could help them. Should we expect to see you leading the charge to make changes in the provisions in the next session?
Lujan again clarified his comments from the TPR candidate forum.
“If I did have a daughter that was raped, I would encourage her to choose life, but I don’t feel comfortable doing that to everybody, because I don’t know their family situation,” Lujan said.
In response to the question, Lujan said he would work with other legislators to make exceptions for abortion in the case of rape and incest.
Healthcare
Q (To Carranza and Lujan): Texas has the highest rate of uninsured residents in the country, and South Texas is home to some of the most underinsured people in the state. You’re running to represent a lot of uninsured people in a region where the last large hospital shut down in 2023 and a replacement won’t be open until 2027. When you factor in those inequities and others, like a new study from UT Southwestern Medical Center suggesting there’s a 20 year life expectancy gap between Southside residents and those living in Northside communities. What are your plans to address the vast health inequities in your district?
Carranza answered first.
“The single biggest thing that we can do to raise healthcare access in Texas is to expand Medicaid,” Carranza said, along with building more hospitals on the Southside.
If the state doesn’t expand Medicaid in the next legislative session, which it hasn’t done so 10 years, Carranza said she would focus on creating more provisions for the life of the mother in cases of medically necessary abortions.
Lujan followed.
“I’m working very closely with Texas A&M University-San Antonio: we’re building a new hospital out there,” Lujan said.
Additional funds would need to be appropriated for the hospital, but the education and training that future students would receive once the hospital is complete would be a “game changer.”
Last year, University Health broke ground on Vida, “a multi-specialty healthcare center and headquarters for the University Health Institute for Public Health.” Construction is underway, and the hospital is set to open in January of 2026.
“But everything costs money,” Lujan said.
Lujan blamed the ineffectiveness of Medicaid in the state on the illegal immigrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border through Texas and the financial strain they put on state resources and funds.
“These people are allowed in, and they bring a lot of sick people with them,” Lujan said. “It’s taxing our system tremendously.”
Medicaid is funded by the federal government and the states.
Q (Follow-up for Lujan): If resources are the problem, expanding Medicaid sounds like a good way to tap into some federal funds. Why not do that?
Lujan said he has voted in favor of some proposals that would expand Medicaid for mothers and children, against the advice of his colleagues.
“I will evaluate each [proposal] that comes, and then vote on it on its merit,” Lujan said.
Local and Small Business
Q (For Lujan): You cosponsored House Bill 2127 aimed at preventing local governments from regulating a number of industries beyond what the state explicitly allows. The bill was nicknamed the “Death Star” bill because San Antonio joined other cities in suing the state to stop the bill from going into effect. A state district judge agreed with the cities. Can you tell us what it was you were hoping to accomplish with this bill?
“We’ve been having city governments go beyond with some really progressive laws and things like that. For business, it’s really tough,” Lujan explained.
Lujan said that having different city ordinances and laws across the state would stop economic growth for businesses wanting to expand across the state. He added that having so much local control exerted over businesses would be counterproductive.
“I’m for local control, but stay within the boundaries [of the state].”
Q (For Carranza): Your background is working as a progressive organizer, which includes working with some labor-focused groups including the Texas Organizing Project which has endorsed you in this race. You said you haven’t accepted money from utilities and insurance companies. How do you plan to forge relationships with businesses and learn about their needs?
“It’s really important that we’re building relationships with businesses all across District 118,” Carranza said. “I’m a pro-business person, and we have to make sure that we’re working with them and pulling more jobs into District 118.”
Affordable housing and property taxes
Q (For both Lujan and Carranza): Many parts of the Southside are seeing massive growth driving up property values and property taxes for those purchasing new houses as well as those living in homes their families bought generations ago. As Texas continues to see transplants coming into the community and limited affordable housing options, how do you balance the need for investment in revitalization with the large number of Southside residents who’d be priced out of their neighborhoods?
Lujan answered first.
The incumbent said he was most concerned with elderly residents who can’t afford the property taxes for homes they own, even though the state has lowered taxes in past legislative sessions.
“We really have to do something about reigning in the county and the city to lower their taxes,” Lujan said.
Carranza said the property tax cut from the 2023 Texas legislative session didn’t go far enough, and tied it back to public school funding and vouchers.
“Passing vouchers will increase property taxes,” Carranza said. “What we need to do is fully fund our public schools, so we can stop passing the burden onto property tax-payers.”
The general election will take place Nov. 5, but early voting starts Oct. 21 and ends Nov. 1 in Texas. To check if you’re registered to vote in Texas visit My Voter Portal.