By Jade Esteban Estrada - Political Columnist, San Antonio Sentinel

On April 16, Congressional candidate Gina Ortiz Jones hosted a virtual town hall on COVID-19 and its impact on health care in rural and border communities in South and West Texas with medical professionals Dr. Adrian Billings and Marlen Ramirez. This was the third town hall in a weekly series that highlights vital issues in Texas’ 23rd Congressional District, which stretches from San Antonio to El Paso.

Billings practices medicine at Preventative Care Health Services in Alpine, which serves West Texas and Ramirez is a community health care instructor.

Jones, Billings, and Ramirez answered questions submitted by Texans from across the district, covering topics from access to telemedicine and rural broadband to ramifications of the coronavirus for the immigrant community in TX-23. Spanish captions have been applied for viewers.

“COVID-19 has only highlighted the health care challenges that already vulnerable communities face,” said Jones, who served as an intelligence officer in the U.S. Air Force and was deployed in Iraq. “Access to quality, affordable health care is a deeply personal issue for me - it saved my mom’s life when she was diagnosed with cancer. That’s why I’ll keep fighting to ensure that health care is a right and not a privilege, especially for our rural and border communities.”

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In 2018, Jones ran for Congress in Texas’ 23rd District against Republican incumbent Will Hurd, but lost by 926 votes. In March, she sailed to victory in the Democratic primary. She will face the not-yet-determined GOP nominee in November.

Jones’ town hall can be seen on her Facebook page.

Jade Esteban Estrada is a political columnist at the San Antonio Sentinel. He can be reached at jade@sasentinel.com.