About this office
There are only 31 State Senators for all of Texas, and every bill has to get past them. Who you elect as your State Senator can be the difference between a bill becoming a law that changes lives for the better — or being left to die. Yours represents Hays County and the counties around it, and once elected, sits for four years. It's a small club with a lot of quiet power, and this is one of the few times you get a say in who's in it.
Candidates
Riley RodriquezRiley Rodriquez has worked as a ranch cowboy and an oilfield hand, and he now runs his own small business in Abilene while finishing a behavioral science degree.
About Riley
Rodriquez was born in Abilene and grew up across the small towns of the Big Country with a ranch-hand father and a probation-officer mother. He is the first Hispanic Democrat to run for this Senate seat in 30 years, and he's campaigning on rural cost-of-living relief, property taxes, and public education.
Charles PerryCharles Perry co-authored the Texas law that lets police anywhere in the state arrest people for crossing the border illegally, and also helped write the state's near-total abortion ban.
About Charles
Perry is a CPA from Lubbock who owns his own small accounting firm. He was elected to the Texas House in 2008, then to the state Senate in 2014, where he now chairs the Agriculture, Water and Rural Affairs Committee and represents the largest Senate district in Texas.