Democrat from The Woodlands kicks off campaign for House District 15 seat

Lorena Perez McGill, of The Woodlands is running as a Democrat in the hopes of representing District 15 in the Texas House of Representatives. It's been years since a Democrat has held the District 15 seat. Lorena Perez McGill, of The Woodlands is running as a Democrat in the hopes of representing District 15 in the Texas House of Representatives. It's been years since a Democrat has held the District 15 seat. Photo: Handout: Perez McGill Campaign Photo: Handout: Perez McGill Campaign Image 1 of / 6 Caption Close Democrat from The Woodlands kicks off campaign for House District 15 seat 1 / 6 Back to Gallery

A woman from The Woodlands who describes herself as a "professor, a lawyer, a wife and a mom" is running as a Democrat in the hopes of representing District 15 in the Texas House of Representatives.

Lorena Perez McGill, a 48-year-old mother of two, is the first Democrat to run for the district seat in 12 years. The district, entrenched in deep red Republican territory, covers The Woodlands, Oak Ridge North and other areas of south Montgomery County.

Marc Meyer, the chairman of the Montgomery County Democratic Party, said he believes the District 15 seat has been in the hands of Republicans since "at least" 1990, when Kevin Brady, now a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, held the seat. The seat is currently held by Mark Keough, who is vacating the seat in a bid for Montgomery County judge in the March Republican Party primary election.

Perez McGill said of her decision to run, which is her first try at political office, "I'm tired of just unproductive fighting going on in Austin."

Beside getting her fledgling campaign off the ground, Perez McGill also performs pro bono work for various groups, including for an organization called Kids in Need of Defense, an advocacy group for unaccompanied minors and refugee children, where she provides her expertise on immigration issues. Over at Lone Star Legal Aid, Perez McGill helps Hurricane Harvey victims find their way through the "ocean" of paperwork required by the Federal Emergency Management Agency in filing assistance claims. The lone Democrat in the District 15 race also provides legal help at the Montgomery County Women's Center, which provides support and services for abused women, and she teaches law at the University of Houston Law Center.

Before she and her family moved to The Woodlands in 2015 Perez McGill had worked as a lawyer at the Organization of American States in Washington, D.C., then previously at Baker Botts L.L.P., an international law firm. Perez McGill holds a L.L.M. from Georgetown University Law Center and a J.D. from Pontificia Universidad Catolica Madre y Maestra in the Dominican Republic. She is not a member of the Texas bar because, according to Perez McGill, she obtained her J.D. from a Dominican Republic law school and Texas requires the degree be issued by a U.S. university.

"So I have to sit and pass the Texas Bar," she said. "That's on my to-do list."

Saying she's not a politician, but acknowledging she "just became one," Perez McGill said she is focusing on flooding concerns in The Woodlands, education matters and taxes, as well as what she terms "common sense" immigration matters.

"I was here for the Tax Day floods back in 2016, and then last year we got hit again by Harvey," she said. "What's going to happen this year? You and I know it's going to start raining again."

Although she acknowledges flood studies and evaluations currently being performed are part of future mitigation efforts, she also wants to ensure responsible development policies to reduce flooding risks. She also wants to see the pace pick up in efforts to reduce future flooding.

"In the meantime we should be doing something more than what we're doing right now," she said.

Perez McGill also shares the concerns that she says she's hearing from her neighbors and other local residents-that taxes have been rising, but schools in the district are underfunded.

"Education is profoundly important to a child's ability to rise to a happy and healthy adulthood," she said. "My kids attend a great public school in the Conroe Independent School District, but many districts beyond The Woodlands need more help. We must make sure we have top talent and that teachers are compensated appropriately. I also want to ensure that kids with disabilities have the access to education they deserve. Improvements like these will attract new families to our area-securing even better funding long-term."

As far is immigration and how it relates to the economy of the district she wants to represent, Perez McGill said the large immigrant community in the area is helping to boost the economy.

"We need to reach out to the immigrant community instead of demonizing them," she said. "At the same time I do understand that we need to be mindful of all the risks of having borders that are not secured entails. But we need to find a balance."

PEREZ MCGILL ONLY DEMOCRAT ON DISTRICT 15 BALLOT

Being the lone Democrat on the ballot in the March primary election for the District 15 seat, Perez McGill will eventually find herself up against either Steve Toth-who held the post for one term before stepping down to run in a special election for District 4 state senator-or Jackie Waters, the founding president of The Woodlands Republican Women's Club, in the general election in November.

"I'm not a known quantity here, not many people know who I am," Perez McGill told The Villager. "So what I'm doing is reaching out to people who know me directly, or may know me through mutual friends."

TOTH PREVIOUSLY HELD DISTRICT 15 SEAT

Toth is well known locally, having won the 2012 District 15 election in a landslide, getting nearly 87 percent of the votes cast while running against a Libertarian candidate. Toth held the seat until 2014 when he ran in a special election in the hopes of replacing longtime State Sen. Tommy Williams, who had left his post to take a job with the Texas A&M University system. Toth lost that race in a runoff against Brandon Creighton, R-Conroe, who had vacated his District 16 House seat to run for the state Senate. Toth had also challenged District 8 U.S. Rep. Kevin Brady, R-The Woodlands, in 2016, but lost in a runoff with Brady, who won the four-person race.

Despite facing tough odds in an admittedly Republican-dominated district, Perez McGill is unwavering in her response to the question of how a Democrat is going to beat a Republican in a Montgomery County election.

"(I can win) By appealing to the people who are in the middle and who feel, just like me that...that both parties have become so polarized that they are not paying attention to the people who are in the middle," she said. "People who feel just like me that both parties are so polarized that they are not paying attention to the critical issues, and the practical solutions to those critical issues of everyday people just like you and me."

Although she hasn't held political office before, Perez McGill, who describes herself as fiscally conservative and moderate, argued her training as an attorney and her work negotiating disputes and seeking resolutions would make her a skilled lawmaker.

Perez McGill, Toth and Waters all appeared at a candidate forum held in The Woodlands on Feb. 2, where they and candidates for other offices were given a fixed and limited period of time to address the nearly 200 people who turned out at the event.

"Our representatives need to stop fighting and start fixing," Perez McGill told the gathering, again citing political conflicts in Austin and elsewhere.

When it was his turn to speak, Toth spent the bulk of his allotted time talking about the Texas Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, a bill that then-Gov. Rick Perry vetoed in 2013. The law would have extended the time frame women would have to sue in state court over wage discrimination. In vetoing the bill Perry said it duplicated an existing federal law.

"We have federal legislation protecting women to make sure that they are paid equitably with men," Toth said during the forum. "At the federal level and Texas also has a bill at the state level protecting women, ensuring they will not be paid less than men."

During the Feb. 2 candidate forum, Waters urged the gathering not to vote for a candidate who "just uses the statehouse seat as a stepping stone to go other places."

"We deserve a representative that will stand up and fight for the issues that are important to us and our families," Waters said. "And I promise to be that person."

Primary election day is March 6, with early voting beginning Feb. 20 and running through March 2.