Q&A: Meet the candidates running for US House District 7

Why are you running for this position?

Representing this district is an honor and privilege. I am proud of the work I have done for our community and country in Congress, but there is much more work to do to address the challenges we face today–financial, constitutional, and structural–while working to ensure liberty and justice for all.

What would your top priorities be if elected?

Bringing the expertise and values of our district to Congress to help make life more affordable–especially in the areas of health care and energy–and to protect against and ensure accountability for the Trump administration’s unlawful and unconstitutional actions and abuses that threaten the rights of all Americans.

What are the biggest challenges facing this district?

Increasing costs for groceries, gas, housing, and more. Lack of access to affordable healthcare. Immigration laws that need major reform and unjust immigration enforcement policies that create chaos and fear across this district, home to many immigrants. Unconstitutional and unethical government actions that restrict our rights and undermine our democracy.

How will you ensure your constituents receive the appropriate aid after natural disasters?

In Congress, I’ve worked with FEMA and SBA to improve disaster response, passed a law to cut red tape in disaster recovery based on our experience in Harvey, and led a bipartisan effort to address flooding while securing significant funding for Harris County Flood Control District projects to reduce risks.

What is needed to balance growth and affordability in Texas?

Affordability and growth go hand in hand. By promoting competition to boost consumer choice, breaking down regulatory barriers across the government, and reversing the Trump Administration’s unaffordable and ineffective policies like tariffs, we can develop and implement concrete policies that help all Americans and grow our economy.

What projects are most important for Congress to focus on for the future of Texas?

Protecting the right and ability of all eligible voters to cast their ballots safely and securely, and ending partisan gerrymandering so those votes make a meaningful impact on government decisions, is essential for the future of Texas. Real accountability to voters is required for all the other work of Congress.

Why are you running for this position?

I'm a fourth-generation Houstonian and energy consultant, running because TX-07 deserves a representative who fights for Houston's interests. After nearly eight years, there are basic, non-partisan issues our neighbors care about that haven’t improved. I'll bring an honest, practical perspective along with an urgency to deliver real results.

What would your top priorities be if elected?

Affordability and Fiscal Responsibility: fix what's driving prices up in the first place, starting with Washington's wasteful deficit spending. Healthcare: lower costs through price transparency and real competition, not more middlemen. Public safety: fund law enforcement, back our local authorities, and support common-sense solutions that keep Houston neighborhoods safe.

What are the biggest challenges facing this district?

Families are being squeezed: groceries, housing, and healthcare all cost more, while crime makes too many neighborhoods feel less safe. These are basic, non-partisan problems. Solving them takes a representative focused on Houston's practical needs—lower costs, funded police, common-sense solutions—rather than a national party agenda.

How will you ensure your constituents receive the appropriate aid after natural disasters?

Houston knows disasters, and my office's first job is aggressive casework: cutting FEMA red tape so families get help fast. Congress should preemptively fund disaster mitigation, not just recovery after storms. And let local flood control districts direct the dollars: Texas knows this district better than Washington ever will.

What is needed to balance growth and affordability in Texas?

Washington's job is to stop making things more expensive: rein in deficit spending that fuels inflation and clear regulations that raise the cost of building homes, generating power, and doing business. Texas grows because it builds. Keep energy cheap, housing abundant, and government out of the way.

What projects are most important for Congress to focus on for the future of Texas?

Fund the Coastal Texas Program to protect the Houston region from storm surge. Pass a highway reauthorization that fixes our most congested corridors. Streamline federal permitting so energy projects get built in years, not decades. And invest in grid reliability and water security before the next crisis hits.

Why are you running for this position?

I came to Houston as a 5-year-old refugee from Congo, and this city gave me a home. Now I'm running to protect it, because Washington keeps choosing corporate donors over working families, and TX-7 deserves a representative who answers to us, not them.

What would your top priorities be if elected?

Making life affordable again: a living wage, universal healthcare, and real housing solutions. Fixing TX-7's flooding and transit crisis with federal dollars that actually reach Alief, Sharpstown, and Gulfton. And getting corporate money out of politics, so Congress finally answers to voters instead of donors.

What are the biggest challenges facing this district?

Flooding that keeps getting worse. Rising costs that outpace wages. Traffic that steals hours from families every week. And a federal government that's ignored all three for decades, funding wars and corporate subsidies instead of the infrastructure and support TX-7 actually needs.

How will you ensure your constituents receive appropriate aid after natural disasters?

I'll fight to speed up FEMA's Individual Assistance so relief reaches families in days, not months, expand Hazard Mitigation funding with match requirements lower-income communities can meet, and direct dollars to the drainage networks in Alief, Sharpstown, and Gulfton before the next storm hits.

What is needed to balance growth and affordability in Texas?

Growth shouldn't mean displacement. We need affordable housing built alongside new development, protections for older apartments, storm-resilient construction to lower insurance costs, and limits on Wall Street landlords buying up starter homes. Growth that only benefits developers isn't growth. It's extraction.

What projects are most important for Congress to focus on for the future of Texas?

Modernizing our power grid so it survives extreme heat and winter freezes without collapsing. Expanding public transit across Houston. Investing in flood infrastructure before the next hurricane, not after. These aren't partisan projects. They're the difference between a Texas that's ready and one that isn't.