Days after flipping a deep-red congressional district, Democrat Katy Padilla Stout is taking heat for joining a club of Capitol Hill’s most progressive members.
Padilla Stout won the massive 23rd Congressional District, which stretches west from blue San Antonio and into more rural parts of the state.
Under its current boundaries, it would have supported President Donald Trump by roughly 15 percentage points two years ago.
But after a blue wave swept even many red seats the other direction last week, Padilla Stout is now among a large new class of Democratic lawmakers attending freshman orientation in D.C. this week.
On Sunday, she appeared alongside leaders of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, whose leaders are laying plans to take on a bigger policy-making role now that Democrats command a sizable majority in the U.S. House.
That includes seeking to end the war in Iran, repealing Trump-era cuts to healthcare and SNAP, opposing the White House’s tariff policies, raising minimum wage,
expanding Social Security and expanding Medicare, according to a strategy memo from Progressive Caucus Chair Greg Casar (D-Austin).
“I am not a politician. I am a mother of four. I still have young children at home. I am a former kindergarten teacher, a current attorney that represents children in foster care,” Padilla Stout said at Sunday’s press conference.
“If I am going to spend time away from my young children, I guarantee you I am going to make that worth it.”
That puts Padilla Stout in the company of progressives like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-New York) — while most of the other Democrats elected in South Texas this year are moderates in the mold of U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Laredo).
They have their own club on Capitol Hill, called the Blue Dog Coalition.
On Sunday that distinction drew quick criticism from Sabinal Mayor Erik Gomez, who said on social media Sunday that Texas’ 23rd isn’t a “progressive” district, and that its voters want secure borders, in addition to affordable living and good rural healthcare.
Padilla Stout responded that she also supports a “secure border,” and has said immigration is a place Democrats need to be working across the aisle.
She said Sunday that her progressive priorities should be no surprise to voters because they’re what she talked about on the campaign trail.
“We ran out on exactly what Chairman Casar said. We talked to people about affordable health care. We talked to them about living wages. We talked to them about ending the corruption.”
Meet Katy Padilla Stout, the former kindergarten teacher running against the ‘manosphere’
Padilla Stout is replacing former U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-San Antonio), a moderate Republican who also had high hopes for bipartisan immigration solutions, but resigned earlier this year after an affair with a staffer.
Democrats took the district off their map several years ago after it was drawn redder following the 2020 Census, but Padilla Stout was recruited to take advantage of the potential GOP turmoil.
She capitalized on a polarizing opponent, gun YouTuber Brandon Herrera, as well as favorable national political winds, and received help from national Democrats sending moneyto the district again for the first time in several cycles.
In a press conference last Wednesday, Padilla Stout said that with Trump still in the White House, a Democrat-controlled House and Senate will still have to look for common ground with Republicans.
“I think we’re going to have to work together,” Padilla Stout said.
“I think that Texans came together in this election last night to really make change, and I think we’re going to continue to work together to promote the values that we know matter to Texans that are not red or blue, that are simply human values.”
Areas of potential overlap, she said, include healthcare and immigration.
Trump signaled after last week’s GOP losses that his aggressive enforcement tacticsmay have gone too far, but he also appointed an immigration hardliner as his new chief of staff.
Padilla Stout has named her former campaign consultant, longtime progressive operative Peter Clerkin, chief of staff for her congressional office.
The district has been without representation since Gonzales resigned in April.
Gov. Greg Abbott declined to call a special election to fill the seat ahead of time, and Padilla Stout won’t be sworn in until Jan. 3 with the rest of the newly elected members.
“For the first time, 800,000 Texans went without representation because our soon-to-be ex-governor chose to pick party over people, and so unfortunately, I cannot be sworn in until January 3rd,” Padilla Stout said at the Nov. 4 press conference.
“We are gathering information and working with others that are already in office to try to see what we can do to help the Texans who have been ignored for months and months.”
This story first appeared in the San Antonio Report.
