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In campaign flyers and digital ads ahead of the Democratic Primary, Liz Campos, the incumbent state representative for House District 119, made broad, bold claims about her opponent Ryan Ayala’s position on public schools.
The digital ad claimed Ayala “opposes public school funding for student safety and teacher pay just like (Gov.) Abbott.”
The campaign mailer claimed Ayala “betrayed public schools just like MAGA Republicans.”
But the evidence the Campos campaign used in the ad and the mailer to support those claims is misleading and much narrower in scope.
As proof, both the digital ad and the mailer used the profile photo from Ayala’s campaign Facebook page alongside a date and what appears to be a quote or an excerpt from a Facebook post opposing a bond election for the East Central Independent School District.
“Facebook Ryan Ayala for State Rep October 29,” the digital ad said. “I don’t usually post on Facebook but today is the last day of early voting. VOTE NO on the East Central ISD Bond (Public School Funding.)”
“Facebook Ryan Ayala July 28: ‘VOTE NO’ on East Central Public School Bond Election,” the mailer said.
East Central ISD held a bond election in May 2025 and a Voter-Approval Tax Rate Election in November 2025. But Ayala’s campaign Facebook page has no reference to either election.
The dates and excerpted Facebook posts are actually from Ayala’s personal Facebook page from July 28, 2022 and October 29, 2021. The full post from October 29, 2021, and others from that same time period, make it clear that Ayala did want East Central’s November 2021 bond to fail, but for a very specific reason.
“This bond is bad for our community,” Ayala wrote in the October 29, 2021 post. “It disproportionately helps only one side of the district versus the other. We’re asking for a FAIRER bond that helps every student in the district!”
In an interview with Texas Public Radio, Ayala said he’s not against bonds in general, and has supported all of East Central’s more recent bond and tax elections.
“East Central's always been kind of divided between rural versus city. And I lived on the city side, and during that bond, it had a lot of money going to our country schools,” Ayala said. “I wanted an equitable bond that helped both the country side and the city side of East Central.”
Ayala graduated from East Central High School in 2018. After the district’s November 2021 bond failed, Ayala said the superintendent reached out to him and invited him to join the bond committee.
“I was on the bond committee for that new bond that passed in ’22,” Ayala said. “I tell people all the time, I'm not against bonds. I want to help my school, especially what's happening now (with funding not keeping up with inflation).”
Ayala posted notes from the bond committee on his personal Facebook page on August 3, 2022.
And on September 29, 2024, Ayala posted in favor of East Central’s November 2024 bond.
Liz Campos did not make herself available for an interview on this story despite multiple requests. When Texas Public Radio finally reached her campaign manager Manuel Medina by phone on Friday, Medina said the campaign didn’t see the email sent to her campaign account the week before, or the message sent to the phone number posted on his public Facebook page.
In a statement, Campos’ campaign doubled down on the message in their flyers.
“Ryan Ayala is a threat to public school children. He betrayed public schools once and he’s ready to do it again,” the statement said. “His ‘special interests’ didn’t align with what kids needed, therefore he led efforts to kill the bond.”
In a brief phone call with Medina, TPR said the campaign flyers lacked nuance. The statement Medina sent several hours later latched onto that phrase.
“With regards to ‘nuance’ and mailers, I’ve attached one of Ayala’s recent mailers titled ‘Like a Good Soldier, Liz Campos stands with Greg Abbott,” the statement said, adding that the photo in Ayala’s mailer is from the State of the State address attended by all state lawmakers.
“(Campos was) Not there as a special guest or Greg Abbott ‘soldier’ as implied,” the statement said. “There is ‘nuance’ across the board.”
If Campos had made herself available for an interview, TPR would have asked her about her flyer’s claim that Ayala’s “politics led to cuts in teacher pay, special education, & student safety initiatives.”
School districts can only use bonds for construction and infrastructure projects. They can’t be used to pay teachers or support academic programming like special education.
Another digital ad posted by the Campos campaign highlights that Campos was a “Texas AFL-CIO Labor Champion for the 89th Legislative Session.” However, the San Antonio chapter of the AFL-CIO endorsed Ayala, not Campos, for the primary election.
Two of San Antonio’s biggest teacher unions, Northside AFT and the San Antonio Alliance, also endorsed Ayala for House District 119. Both unions are affiliated with the AFL-CIO.
