Texas Democrat responds to Trump-backed opponent’s ‘transgender agenda' attacks: ‘You can’t teach courage, and you can’t teach class’

If elected, Gina Ortiz Jones will become the first openly-gay women of colour from Texas to serve in Congress. She tells Chris Riotta what it’s like running for office during a historic moment

Gina Ortiz Jones has launched a second bid for Congress in Texas' 23rd district. Can the Democrat break through in a crucial swing district during a historically polarized time in American politics? (Ana I. Martinez Chamorro)

This isn’t Gina Ortiz Jones’ first battle.

Before running for Congress in Texas’ 23rd district, the former Air Force intelligence officer was deployed to Iraq and served under the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy.

In a recent interview, the Democratic candidate recalled how she was forced to hide her identity in order to receive one of the most valuable college scholarships in the country, the Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) military scholarship. In order to qualify for the award, which pays up to full tuition and includes a monthly salary, applicants must commit to serve as officers in the US Army, Navy Air Force or Marines.

“One of the very first things I had to do was sign a piece of paper that said I will not engage in homosexual behaviour,” she said. “It was made very clear to me that my opportunity to get an education, to serve our country, to die for our country if need be, all of that goes away if they find out that I’m gay.”

After serving in the Air Force and later working in the executive office of the president under Barack Obama on economic and national security issues, Jones launched a bid for Congress in 2016 to represent the swing district — a diverse, 800-mile region that includes stretches of the US-Mexico border, as well as rural communities and the city of San Antonio. She secured the Democratic nomination and ran against Rep Will Hurd (R—TX), a two-term incumbent and the only black Republican in the House of Representatives.

It was a hard fought race until the very end: Jones called on her conservative opponent to debate her on live television during an interview with The Independent at the time, saying in a message to the congressman: “Stop running scared and debate me on TV.” The Hurd campaign never responded to multiple requests for comment.

“It was made very clear to me that my opportunity to get an education, to serve our country, to die for our country if need be, all of that goes away if they find out that I’m gay.”

Jones eventually conceded after losing by 926 votes — just 0.4 per cent — a moment she described as difficult for her and her team.

“I don’t think anybody likes losing,” she said.

But the Democrat decided to run a second time, easily securing her party’s nomination in the 2020 primaries as two Republicans became mired in a recount vote that finally ended in August. Tony Gonzales, a US Navy veteran endorsed by President Donald Trump, narrowly won a runoff to take on Jones in the November election.

As for Hurd, the former CIA officer and congressman announced his retirement shortly after Jones launched her second campaign.

She’s now running in an entirely new environment, amid a global pandemic that has forced her campaign to shift almost entirely online — and at a moment when politics has become more polarized than perhaps any time in modern American history.

A familiar territory in an entirely new battleground

Unlike Hurd, who occasionally spoke out against Trump’s style of governance (despite largely supporting his political agenda), Gonzales has seemed to embrace the president’s campaign tactics of hitting his opponents with incendiary claims. Gonzales recently stirred controversy when said Jones has a “transgender agenda” during a podcast interview.

“We’re up against a social Democrat that wants to have a socialist agenda,” Gonzales claimed, “This transgender agenda.”

The terms “gay agenda," “homosexual agenda” and “transgender agenda” were reportedly introduced by Christian religious groups on the right to undermine advocacy efforts for the LGBTQ+ community. The Jones campaign has described Gonzales’ rhetoric as “homophobic,” a charge the Gonzales campaign strongly disputed in an interview with The Independent.

Matt Mackowiak, a representative for the Gonzales campaign, said in a phone call: “It’s not homophobic, and it certainly wasn’t intended to be. If you listen to his comments, what he said was right after that, he explained that her position of having taxpayers pay for the military to cover gender reassignment surgery, that’s Gina — Gina supports that, and Tony does not. That’s what he means by transgender agenda.”

As Gonzales made those claims, the National Republican Campaign Committee was also busy highlighting Jones’ sexuality on its website. The committee later removed references to “Jones and her female partner” and advice for outside groups to include her sexuality as a talking point in attack ads on television and mailers after its instructions surrounding Jones were reported by HuffPost.

Jones told The Independent she was not seeking an apology from Gonzales, saying: “I learned a long time ago that you can’t teach courage, and you can’t teach class.”

“I’m not going to ask him for anything,” she added. “He has to answer to the people of this district about why he’s not interested in ensuring everyone is treated equally under the law.”

The homophobic attacks against Jones and her campaign appear to have failed enormously: within 72 hours of HuffPost’s report on the NRCC’s advisory for conservative groups, the Jones campaign announced it had raised $100,000.

Sharon Yang, communications director for the Jones campaign, said the fundraising haul was “clear evidence of how strongly this effort has backfired” in an email sent to The Independent.

“The outpouring of grassroots support our campaign received after Washington Republicans’ bigoted and homophobic attacks shows just how out of touch they are with Texans in this district,” campaign manager Lacey Morrison also said in a statement.

Staying focused on the mission despite constant attacks

Jones quickly brought the conversation back to health care — one of the top issues for voters, according to recent polls. “Let’s be very clear, my opponent should have to explain why he supports repealing the [Affordable Care Act] … during a pandemic no less,” she continued. “I support protecting and expanding the ACA.”

There are 29 counties across the 23rd district of the Lone Star state: at least 18 of those have just three doctors or less. There are no doctors at all in three counties, making it one of the most medically underserved counties in the entire state. When Jones ran in 2018, health care was high on the ballot in Texas, the uninsured capital of America. That hasn’t changed two years later.

And once again, Jones is now looking forward to debating her opponent. The Democrat said she was willing and open to facing off with Gonzales before Election Day.

“There are some real differences … that voters should hear,” Jones said, adding that she was “committed to making sure” voters had that chance ahead of the crucial vote.

The Gonzales campaign has also supported having a debate, calling on the Jones campaign to accept an invitation to one already scheduled by a local network.

While her second congressional bid comes at a historic moment, none of this is necessarily new to Jones. She’s been here before, demanding a conversation about the issues, fighting for the chance to represent her district and declining to fall for the low blows and misguided attacks. Her commitment to the mission at hand was something she was trained in long before she ran for office, Jones told The Independent.

“We left everything on the field” in 2018, she said. “I’m proud of the campaign we ran then, and I’m very proud of the campaign we’re running now.”

At a time when a record number of women have launched campaigns for elected offices across the country, Jones made the decision to run a second time knowing she’d face another uphill battle. “After seeing [Hurd] still fall short of how I thought this district should be represented, I knew I had to get back in the ring,” she continued, noting how she took some time to reflect on the campaign trail. “We got back in, and I don’t think it’s by coincidence that he shortly after decided he would not run again. So good on him.”

“This has never been about who I’m running against, this is about who I’m running for,” Jones said. “I’m a first-generation American, raised by a single mom and it was an ROTC scholarship that allowed me to serve our country — I’ve lived the American dream … I will work with anybody on any side of the aisle.”