She Quit Working For Trump. Now Gina Ortiz Jones Running For Congress To Fight Him

POLITICS 01/05/2018 01:52 pm ET Updated 4 hours ago


She Quit Working For Trump. Now She’s Running For Congress To Fight Him.
Democrat Gina Ortiz Jones would be the first lesbian, Iraq War vet and Filipina-American to fill a U.S. House seat in Texas.


By Jennifer Bendery
She sounds very promising and lots of important endorsements. see below




WASHINGTON ― Gina Ortiz Jones thought she could work for President Donald Trump.

When he won the presidency in November 2016, Jones, a career civil servant who served in the Air Force in Iraq under George W. Bush and as an intelligence officer under Barack Obama, stayed in her job as a director in the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative. But by June, she couldn’t do it anymore. Trump’s plans to gut education and housing aid hit too close to home for Jones, as someone who relied on reduced-cost school lunches and subsidized housing when she was a kid being raised by a single mom in San Antonio. She was also appalled by the president’s hires for top jobs.

“The type of people that were brought in to be public servants were interested in neither the public nor the service,” Jones, 36, said in an interview. “That, to me, was a sign that I’m going to have to serve in a different way.”

She found a new way to serve: She’s running for Congress. Jones has never run for office before, and if she wins, she would make history as the first lesbian, Iraq War veteran and first-generation Filipina-American to hold a U.S. House seat in Texas. Her hometown district, Texas’ 23rd, has also never been represented by a woman.

Jones wouldn’t have been able to grow up healthy or get an education without the opportunities she got from the federal government, she said. The only reason she could afford college, she added, was that she got a four-year Air Force ROTC scholarship — and it infuriates her to see politicians try to take away those chances for others.

“Talent is universal. Opportunity is not,” she said. “Folks in Congress, they do three things. They create opportunities, they protect opportunities and they erase opportunities. That’s how we have to be thinking about this very plainly.”
Gina Ortiz Jones campaign
Jones talks to supporters at a event. She has endorsements from groups including EMILY’s List, VoteVets and Victory Fund.

Jones, a Democrat, is trying to unseat two-term Rep. Will Hurd (R). It won’t be easy. She has to beat three other Democrats in the March 6 primary, including Jay Hulings, a well-known former federal prosecutor. If she can pull that off, she’ll face Hurd, who has the advantage of being the incumbent and well-financed. As of Sept. 30, Hurd had $870,000 in cash on hand compared with Jones’ $74,000.

But Jones is certainly viable. She’s picked up endorsements from major national groups including EMILY’s List, VoteVets and Victory Fund. Former Texas Democratic state senator and gubernatorial candidate Wendy Davis endorsed her. A couple of weeks ago, Khizr Khan, the Gold Star father who gave a passionate speech at the 2016 Democratic National Convention, announced his support for her campaign, too..........................





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Gina Ortiz Jones campaign
At 36, Gina Ortiz Jones has served in the Air Force, deployed to Iraq, worked as an intelligence officer and is now running for Congress. What an underachiever.

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Gina Ortiz Jones
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Candidate for TX-23. USAF Vet, served under DADT. Fmr IC. First-generation American. FilAm.

San Antonio, TX • ginaortizjones.com

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