Legislative Priorities

Lower Property Taxes

Property Taxes unfairly hurt lower income families as property taxes typically represent a higher percentage of their income and renters often pay a higher effective property tax rate due to the lack of a homestead exemption on rental properties. As a result, my top priority during these challenging times is to increase the financial freedom of our working families and retirees by fighting to cut property taxes.

In contrast, my opponent voted against property tax reform twice while also being delinquent over $50k on their own property taxes.

Better Schools

Our campaign’s commitment to improving our schools is being supported by dozens of local public educators including many teachers, a current principal, a current board member, a former superintendent and a former president of the Texas Association of School Boards.

I will fight for our teachers and students by voting to:

  • replace the STAAR test with localized solutions
  • cut wasteful spending on expensive football stadiums and fancy office space so that we can put more money into the classroom, improve our special education programs, and enhance our teacher’s retirement and medical insurance programs
  • empower teachers to protect themselves and their students against violence in schools

In contrast, my opponent has been a shill for wasteful spending, was sued by a school district last year, and has not supported STAAR test reform.

Safer Communities

I will always stand for law-and-order in the face of violent riots and will work hard to keep our families safe by supporting our law enforcement.

In contrast, my opponent has refused to condemn violence in our cities when asked to, is backed by Antifa activists and defund-the-police PACs, and has been arrested for a DWI while in office.

More Jobs

I am a small business owner who will champion our economic recovery by fighting for small business owners and entrepreneurs and continue to attract high-tech cutting edge companies like Tesla to our state. This “Texas Miracle” is bringing billions of dollars in additional revenue to fund our schools, healthcare programs, and infrastructure and makes us the economic envy of the nation and world.

In contrast, my opponent has one of the most anti-small business and anti-jobs records in Texas according to NFIB and TAB.

Criminal Justice Reform

I will advocate tirelessly to reduce our overcrowded prison population by giving non-aggressive offenders with demonstrated improved behavior a second chance at a productive, fulfilling life.
America should be the land of second chances and our status as the most incarcerated nation on earth places a heavy burden on taxpayers.

Fiscal Responsibility

Fiscal Responsibility is absolutely essential if the legislature is to successfully fulfill its constitutional mandate to provide a system of free public schools as well as quality infrastructure to fuel the state’s current and future prosperity. I will never vote for a budget that increases public debt as I believe that public debt is stealing from future generations to pay for current overconsumption and will fight to cut wasteful spending across the state budget.

In contrast, my opponent has a career “F” fiscal responsibility rating and is calling for even greater spending at a time when our state faces a projected $4.6 billion budget deficit.

Parental and Children’s Rights

Parental and Children’s Rights are also areas that need to be reformed. Whether it’s family court laws that need to be reformed to ensure more equitable child custody case outcomes, giving parents more clout in ensuring their special needs children receive the education and care they need, or safeguarding against CPS over-intrusiveness, I will fight to protect parental rights. Children also need protections and proper care. I am pro-life and will fight to defend the right to life of unborn children as well as work to eliminate the 10-day rule that has put the lives of children at risk. We also need to ensure our foster care and adoption systems are effective, efficient, and well-funded in order to ensure that the children in these systems find loving, supportive homes where they can thrive and achieve their full potential.

In contrast, my opponent has a radically pro-abortion voting record and is in favor of taxpayer-funded abortion until birth without the consent of the father.

Core

Principles

First and foremost, our state and nation were founded as a place of religious diversity and refuge: a land where anyone could practice their religion free from persecution or fear of being forced to practice the tenants of another religion. Given my experience growing up as a Christian in a Muslim-majority country, I am especially sensitive to religious freedoms for minority religious groups and will never abuse legislative authority to force my Christian faith on others.

With that in mind, it is also true that our nation and state were founded on the belief that God is the one who designed and empowers government as His servant, that He ordained government for the sole purpose of serving the taxpayers as a rewarder of good and a punisher of evil, and that governing officials are to acknowledge and fear Him.

This viewpoint is reflected in our state’s pledge (“one state under God, one and indivisible”), constitution (it invokes “the blessings of Almighty God” in the Preamble and states in the Bill of Rights that none shall be excluded from holding public office on account of their religious sentiments, provided that they acknowledge the existence of a Supreme Being), the Declaration of Independence (naming the Creator as the source of our unalienable rights and government as the one responsible to God for protecting them), the Founding Fathers’ most cited source (the Bible – especially Psalm 2 and Romans 13), and the remarks of our nation’s founders (for example, Samuel Adams declared as the Declaration of Independence was being signed, “We have this day restored the Sovereign to Whom all men ought to be obedient. He reigns in heaven and from the rising to the setting of the sun, let His kingdom come”).

This principle is ultimately important because it attaches moral significance to keeping the oath of office, serving the best interests of constituents rather than pursuing selfish or corrupt ends, and passing moral and ethical legislation.

God is the one who creates and defines human life. His word makes clear that each life brings glory to Him and deserves to be treated with the utmost care and respect. The Bible also teaches that life begins in the womb from the moment of fertilization. Psalm 139 states that God knows us in the womb before our bodies are even formed. Luke 1:41 and Matthew 1:20 refer to a fetus as a baby and child equivalent with one already born. God’s moral law found in the ten commandments also forbids taking innocent human life.

Scientists also overwhelmingly agree with this definition of a human life’s beginning. A recent academic study of over 5,500 biologists revealed that 95% of them affirmed the biological view that a human’s life begins at fertilization. The Declaration of Independence unequivocally states that since all men are created equal by God, we have an unalienable right to life and government’s purpose is to protect that right. If government fails to protect this right, it will be unable to protect our other rights.

At the same time, we must realize that many pregnant women suffer from poverty, abuse, and assault, leaving them in desperate situations that often drive them to seek abortions. My wife’s service as a counselor at a faith-based pregnancy center opened our eyes to how many women are in desperate need of help with their pregnancies. Therefore, we must do everything we can to promote adoption, foster parenting, and care for women in crisis pregnancies.

However, we need to remember that ending an innocent life is never the just solution for another life’s troubles. The founder of Planned Parenthood (Margaret Sanger) reaffirmed this principle when she stated that “abortion is an alternative to birth control that I cannot too strongly condemn.”

As Texans and Americans, we believe in the fundamental principle of personal responsibility. Our society is based on the belief that rights and responsibilities are inseparable and that God gives us rights in order to fulfill our responsibilities to Him. Therefore, our government must protect individual liberty rather than restrain it in order to allow each of us to flourish and achieve the full potential and purpose that God created us for.

Defending liberty begins with asserting the Bills of Rights found in the U.S. and Texas Constitutions. These include the right to free speech, the freedom of religion, the right to bear arms, the right to privacy against warrantless government spying and searches, as well as the restraint on Federal Government powers beyond those explicitly granted in the Constitution.

With the highest incarceration rate in the world, the United States is spending far too many resources on imprisoning non-violent offenders and saddling individuals with criminal records for the rest of their lives despite a clear demonstration of improved behavior. Even worse, the current criminal justice system appears to unjustly target some ethnic groups over others. I believe that we need to make significant changes to this system in order to properly protect all Americans’ God-given right to liberty. At a minimum, we must provide an opportunity for those with non-violent crimes in their past to work towards getting their criminal records expunged through a period of good behavior.

Decentralization of government power is fundamental to protecting liberty, so we must preserve and increase local control. A big part of this is opposing unfunded mandates. It is also important for representation in the legislature to have regular communication and positive working relationships with the elected city and school board officials in our district in order to best understand, represent, and serve the needs of our communities.

I also believe strongly in protecting economic liberty because it is individuals and businesses that create wealth and maximize productivity, not the government. Free markets have provided the citizens of our state with the liberty to create tremendous prosperity. Since God is a good Creator, we can confidently trust in His design, knowing that it is for our benefit. Founding father Benjamin Franklin echoed this sentiment when he wrote: “Whenever we attempt to amend the scheme of Providence, and to interfere with the government of the world, we had need be very circumspect, lest we do more harm than good.”

In contrast, Socialism discourages personal responsibility and dependence on God, setting up the state as the source of rights and prosperity. The truth, however, is that life, liberty, and property do not exist because men have made laws. On the contrary, we create laws because life, liberty, and property exist.

I believe in the fundamental principles that a person’s home is their castle and the property which they have accumulated through honest work is theirs to use to accomplish God’s purpose for their life.

Property taxes violate these principles by essentially making us all permanent tenants of the government’s property rather than property owners ourselves. Due to surging property taxes, home ownership is becoming less achievable for working families while rental rates are also rising as landlords pass on the rising property tax costs to their tenants. Property taxes not only violate the principle of private property ownership, they also oppress lower income families by making it harder for them to pay their bills each month.

The government should also not have any primary claim on our honestly earned income, otherwise we are essentially slaves of the government and only keep the fruits of our labor that the state allows us to. The only just taxes in a free society are consumption and/or excise taxes as they allow us to retain full control over our money and property.

It is also grossly immoral for us to saddle future generations with debt as this forces them to sacrifice their standard of living in order to pay off our overconsumption. At a minimum, zero based budgeting should be adopted in Texas along with increased transparency and strict spending limits based on population and inflation growth. Any surplus revenue received from economic growth should be returned to Texans through permanent property tax reductions.

The free movement of people as part of free market forces is a good thing that creates the maximum amount of wealth and prosperity for mankind. The Bible also emphasizes the importance of treating foreigners with kindness and respect. Our state and nation have benefited tremendously from the contributions of millions of immigrants. I have had the opportunity to minister to refugees and my sister currently ministers to refugees on a full-time basis in Garland.

God has told His people to not oppress or mistreat foreigners, but to in fact love them. As someone who has spent a large portion of his life as a foreigner and minority overseas and who has ministered to refugees, I have a soft spot in my heart for those seeking refuge and a better life in our country and am pro-immigrant. I also believe that we should treat all people humanely and with respect, regardless of the legality of their residency.

That being said, government’s God-given purpose is to protect the life, liberty, and property of legal residents and to serve as a bulwark against globalism. One of the most fundamental ways it can do this is by securing the borders of its jurisdiction against those who refuse to follow the law.

Furthermore, given our current social safety net policies in which law-abiding residents of Texas are taxed in order to provide education, healthcare, and other assistance to all, it is unjust and a violation of the right to private property for people to be in the state illegally.

The two clearest ways that government can support strong families are by protecting the institution of marriage and empowering parents and teachers to provide children with the best possible moral and academic foundation.

Marriage: When government gets involved in something that it was not designed by God to regulate, it inevitably messes it up. Given that God established the institution of marriage before government, I believe the best way that government can protect marriage is by not being involved in defining or regulating it. Since government is designed and empowered by God, it has no authority to redefine or interfere with what God has already established as a covenant between a husband, a wife, and Himself.

Education: As the son of a career educator and one who has taught elementary school classes for refugees, I have a deep passion for education and its importance in enabling anyone – regardless of their beginning – to achieve their full potential in life.

Furthermore, education is critical for the long-term well-being of our society and the preservation of our liberty. Our state constitution reads: “A general diffusion of knowledge being essential to the preservation of the liberties and rights of the people, it shall be the duty of the Legislature of the State to establish and make suitable provision for the support and maintenance of an efficient system of public free schools.”

However, we must include moral education alongside a rigorous program of academics. Otherwise, we will end up with a society full of people with intelligence and initiative, but without integrity. I believe that removing the acknowledgement of God from our public schools has been a significant contributing factor to the academic and social problems plaguing our nation.

Governor Morris – penman and signer of the U.S. Constitution – stated, “I believe that religion is the only solid base of morals and that morals are the only possible support of free governments. Therefore education should teach the precepts of religion and the duties of man towards God.”

A great way that government can support an education system that provides both an academic and moral foundation for our children is by fulfilling its constitutional mandate regarding funding free public schools, allowing and encouraging extracurricular and elective religious and character classes and activities, and eliminating school district property taxes in order to preserve parents’ financial capacity to give their children the education of their choice.