Lauren Ashley Simmons represents District 149 on the Texas Home of Representatives.
When Lauren Ashley Simmons found she was pregnant, she was in her freshman 12 months on the College of Texas at Austin. This was not the long run she (or her dad and mom) had envisioned. This may additionally not be the one time she could be in a state of affairs she hadn’t deliberate for—however one she would rise to satisfy anyway.
Simmons grew up in Houston’s Third Ward and admits she was one thing of a “bougie Jack and Jill child” earlier than leaving dwelling for school. Nonetheless, discovering out she was anticipating at UT Austin pressured her to adapt shortly, balancing courses with new motherhood. She remembers taking her child to classes along with her when she had no assist, going to mattress with a hungry abdomen as a result of she might solely afford to feed her baby, and leaning on the help of older neighbors who grew to become a makeshift household. That early lesson in resilience and understanding the wants of individuals making an attempt to make ends meet shaped the spine of her community-focused advocacy and her dream of turning into a lawyer. Years later, it will additionally gasoline her dedication to run for public workplace.
In Could 2024, Rep. Simmons acquired elected to symbolize District 146 within the Texas Home of Representatives, beating five-term incumbent Shawn Thierry in a bruising major runoff full of heated rhetoric, then securing victory within the common.
“It was a really, very powerful major,” Rep. Simmons says. “It wasn’t enjoyable. I don’t love speaking about it rather a lot, as a result of I hate that it grew to become this massive blow-up between two Black girls.”
Working for workplace wasn’t a straightforward alternative. She was elevating two kids, together with a daughter with sickle cell illness, and nonetheless aspired to attend legislation college. Her background was in union organizing, not politicking. But, her frustration with votes she felt disregarded group values pushed her towards the capitol.
“I felt a necessity for our district to have higher illustration, and wasn’t completely satisfied as a constituent,” Rep. Simmons says. “I needed to ensure folks had an understanding that this can be a democracy and folks have the best to have their voices heard. It’s best to symbolize your district by its values.”
That perception had guided her for years as a labor organizer, preventing for lecturers, home employees, and public workers. However stepping right into a candidate’s function was totally different. And all of it started with a video.
In June 2023, the Houston Unbiased College District was taken over by the state, a transfer that she, as each a father or mother and a former lecturers’ union organizer, had fought towards. She spoke up at a group assembly, voicing the considerations of oldsters and educators who felt powerless towards the takeover. Somebody recorded her speech, and earlier than she knew it, the video had gone viral, reaching thousands and thousands of viewers.
“I do know what public training does for our group and the chance it gives for individuals who appear like me,” says Rep. Simmons, whose grandparents and mom had been lecturers. “I need the youngsters in Third Ward and Sunnyside, and Black and brown neighborhoods all through this metropolis, to have entry to high quality training. I knew the takeover was not the best solution to handle the problems numerous us have been calling the alarm on for years.”
Quickly after the assembly, a mentor challenged her to think about working for workplace as a substitute of ready for another person to step up. She weighed her causes to not do it—her daughter’s well being, her son nearing high-school commencement, the looming LSAT she had lengthy been learning for—and determined the way forward for her district mattered an excessive amount of to remain within the background.
Her opponent, Shawn Thierry, had drawn criticism for supporting a number of anti-LGBTQ+ payments, together with one which restricted sure medical remedies for transgender youth. Some constituents felt that positioned weak households in danger and ran counter to the progressive platform sometimes embraced by the district, which covers elements of south and southwest Houston. Simmons felt they wanted a voice in Austin that wouldn’t align with the far-right agenda of Republicans within the legislature.
In the course of the marketing campaign, Simmons was hit with a barrage of advertisements and social media posts distorting her views or depicting her as an excessive menace to Black households. She nervous in regards to the toll on her family members and nonetheless feels uneasy speaking in regards to the marketing campaign’s ugliest moments.
“We had folks placing indicators within the neighborhood saying I supported castrating Black boys and sterilizing Black women,” Rep Simmons remembers. “This Black fathers group had a rally. They’d name me like a lesbian. It was rather a lot. I feel I wasn’t as bothered by it personally, however it was watching my household having to witness what I used to be going by means of and never have the ability to reply.”
Lauren Ashley Simmons has handed a number of payments since being elected into the Texas Home of Representatives.
After being elected final November, she jumped into the fray of the 89th Texas Legislature in January. She has launched 15 payments so far, specializing in points that felt private and pressing. One measure goals to increase collective bargaining rights to public employees; one other revives a invoice selling higher look after Texans with sickle cell illness, an sickness her daughter manages day by day.
Her district workplace is at present concentrating on getting folks reconnected with native sources—from dad and mom nervous about college staffing to households anxious about immigration raids. She plans to maintain the momentum going all 12 months, as a substitute of vanishing till the following marketing campaign season.
As for her goals of turning into a lawyer, they is perhaps on the again burner, however they’re not fading away. She’s nonetheless contemplating taking the LSAT as soon as her legislative schedule eases, and exploring methods to observe labor legislation. She feels her frontline expertise as an organizer might have an actual affect within the courtroom. For now, she’s content material forging a brand new path within the legislature, grounded in every little thing that makes her who she is—a “very common” particular person unconcerned with the same old polish of politics.
“I need folks to know you simply can’t put me in a field,” Rep. Simmons says. “Folks see the tattoos…or they know I’m an excellent left progressive. However I additionally go to church and train Trip Bible College. I’m additionally a comic book e book and Harry Potter nerd, however I like me some Cardi B and Meg Thee Stallion. I’m all over however these totally different features of me give me a really distinctive perspective. And that’s what’s going to maintain me grounded.”
