Running Start
STATE OF TEXAS
2019
An unprecedented number of first-time female candidates ran for office in Texas in 2018—and lost. Now, many of those women are running again.
EARLY ON NOVEMBER 7, 2018, GINA ORTIZ JONES drove home after conceding to U.S. Representative Will Hurd, a Republican from Texas’ 23rd Congressional District. A first-time candidate, Jones had outraised the sitting congressman by more than $1 million, but it hadn’t been enough to sway the swing district, which sprawls from San Antonio to El Paso along 820 miles of the U.S.-Mexico border. At 2 a.m., she got a call from her campaign manager—maybe she hadn’t lost. With all precincts reporting, Jones was up by nearly 300 votes. Although Hurd declared victory the next morning, she withdrew her concession and went about making sure that every provisional, military, and mail-in ballot was counted.
Nearly two weeks later, down by 926 votes, Jones conceded again.
“Nine hundred and twenty-six votes. I got the tattoo right here,” she says, joking, when we meet for coffee at El Rodeo de Jalisco, a colorful taqueria on San Antonio’s far West Side. A first-generation American, Jones was raised in this neighborhood by a single mom, attended public school down the street, and went to Boston University on an ROTC scholarship, eventually serving in Iraq with an Air Force intelligence unit.
“As a product of this neighborhood, I’ve been able to serve my country and get a great education only because my community and the country invested in me,” she says. In January, she told supporters she would likely run again. “There’s so much at stake. Knowing that, you can’t not be in the fight.” (In August, Hurd announced he would not seek re-election.)
She’s not the only woman who’s back for a
