AUSTIN — While the nation continues to watch the presidential election, two important state positions were given to Democrats with harmful voting records.
While Democrats statewide failed on Tuesday to gain power in the Texas House of Representatives, with Republicans holding their same margin, radical Central Texas Democrat State Reps. Erin Zwiener (Driftwood) and Vikki Goodwin (Austin) narrowly won re-election in their respective battleground House Districts 45 and 47 (areas that span from west Austin down through Hays and Blanco counties).
The representatives, who were first elected in 2018 as part of the voting surge caused by Robert Francis “Beto” O’Rourke’s statewide campaign, barely held on to their seats this year: Zwiener won by 1,200 votes, less than half of her 2018 margin, and Goodwin won by 1,300, a margin shrunk from 5,000 votes in 2018. Both districts had over 100,000 total votes cast.
Though both representatives have only been at the capitol for a short time, they have constantly voted against their constituents. In the last legislative session, both Zwiener and Goodwin earned a dismal 20/100 on the Fiscal Responsibility Index, repeatedly voting to raise taxes on citizens, strip away protections for preborn children, and silence free speech on college campuses.
Zwiener was rated by a Rice University analysis as the sixth-most liberal member in the Texas House, and Goodwin ranked even further left as the fourth-most liberal member.
Zwiener defeated Republican challenger Carrie Isaac, a nonprofit director and wife of former State Rep. Jason Isaac, while Goodwin prevailed over former 12-year Austin police officer Justin Berry.
“Would you like to guess how many times my opponent voted to raise taxes? Nine times. Yes, NINE!” Berry wrote in a Facebook post last month.
“[Zwiener] has this slogan: ‘Let’s put the all in y’all.’ Well, I like to say she means ‘all’ unless you’re a taxpayer, student, gun owner, Christian, or an unborn child,” said Isaac during the campaign. “She’s voted against all of those.”
As the Democrats head back to the capitol to make decisions on a slew of important issues, HD 45 and 47 citizens can watch and contact Zwiener and Goodwin if they try to continue raising local property taxes and advocating for local preborn children to be killed.
