The run for Texas governor has heated up recently with the announcement that Joy Díaz, a former journalist and educator has entered the 2022 midterm race. “Texas needs joy,” says Díaz in a video where she announced her run.
Díaz is the mother of two kids, both in public school, and is a former journalist with the KUT Radio in Austin where she hosted “Texas Standard.” Díaz is running on three key points in a growing group of fellow gubernatorial candidates. They are immigration, public education, and public preparedness.
Díaz is also the daughter of a Nuyorican father and a Mexican mother. Though she was born in Mexico, she is a citizen since her father was serving as a United States missionary. It is this background, the constant travel to and from Mexico, and her upbringing that Díaz makes her uniquely qualified to deal with immigration issues.
Her being a former educator, she says, also adds to her being qualified to be the next Governor of Texas. With regard to public preparedness, Díaz vowed a life of public service after she herself survived Covid. “I remember the panic of not being able to breathe,” Díaz says in her video. “The state was not prepared. The lack of planning as a state is unacceptable, not just planning for pandemics, but planning for everything else.”
Díaz joins several other Democratic candidates looking to defeat current Governor Greg Abbott who has been serving in the role since 2015. The dem with the most notoriety is former Representative and former Presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke. Abbott and O’Rourke have the most popularity amongst their parties currently but will go up against the primary opponents, including Díaz, before the November general election.
Should Díaz end up with the title of Governor, she takes pride in saying that she will hold the first quinceañera in the governor’s mansion when her now 14-year-old daughter turns 15.
