Uvalde
Roland Gutierrez is carrying a lot of pain. He will not share too much of what he saw in Uvalde with the parents who lost their children on May 24, 2022, when a teenager with an assault weapon entered Robb Elementary School and murdered 19 fourth-graders and two of their teachers. Gutierrez will not go into gruesome detail about what a military assault weapon can do to a child’s body.
But he shared a glimpse with the Texas Tribune audience of what he saw that day. When he talks about Uvalde, his face darkens. He fights back tears, but his rage and his grief threaten to overcome his composure.
“Children’s bodies were piled together. Those kids were braver than those cops.”
For 77 minutes, no action was taken while children and teachers lay bleeding, dying, while children made whispered calls for help to 911. Officers milled around, down the hallway from the gunman. They feared the power of the assault weapon he wielded.
Robb Elementary is in Gutierrez’s Texas Senate district. He stood with grieving parents, crying with them. And he tried to use the power of his office to make changes that could prevent another mass shooting event. He introduced gun safety laws that would increase the age limit to purchase an assault weapon. He tried to end “qualified immunity” status so that police could be held personally liable for failing to do their duty or if an officer commits a criminal action against a citizen. The GOP majority in the Texas legislature blocked these efforts. Gutierrez is quoted by the San Antonio Express News as saying, “No economic issue, no political issue matters if you don’t have your kid.”
Gutierrez is confrontational. He is not willing to be polite about the need for change.
His anger bubbles up in a predictable way: Gutierrez tends to say aloud what we call “curse words” when he talks about the GOP response to calls for gun control as one mass shooting after another brings grief to Texas. He curses because his emotions are close to the surface. He curses because the powerful people who obstruct efforts to end the killings need to be cursed.
Razor wire buoys in the Rio Grande. It’s sick.
Greg Gutierrez curses when he talks about the killing machines that Governor Ken Paxton has ordered placed into the Rio Grande River, the “criminal, inhumane” razor-wire buoys that force children and women into deep waters, where they risk drowning as they try to flee unimaginable conditions to come to America. To survive. To work. To become citizens. Paxton orders border guards to withhold water in the Texas heat and to push children back into the river.
Abbott’s “crazy Lone Star border program” is costing lives. Stunts. The buoys “pushed migrants into deep water. It’s not conservative. It’s not Republican. It’s just sick.” (For more, see The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/jul/28/texas-governor-condemned-razor-wire-buoy-us-mexico-border )
Running to beat Cruz
Gutierrez is running against Senator Ted Cruz. Another Democrat, U.S. Rep. Colin Allred, is also running against Cruz and, for now, Allred is seen as in the lead. Time will tell. Allred is a centrist and a moderate. Gutierrez is not willing to take it slow.
“I am running against Ted Cruz because I am tired of this bullshit. The GOP leaders say we have a Texas miracle. We are living in a nightmare.”
The so-called “Texas miracle” was coined in 2000 by George W. Bush, resurrected by Rick Perry in 2008 and ten years later, Greg Abbott rolled it out again, with all the associated religiosity of the term “miracle” as he promised to limit government, increase corporate power with the “right to work” laws and roll back regulations.
Now, Texas GOP use terms of warfare to rally their base, instilling fear of bogeymen: immigrants, gangs, LGBTQ people, errant women with rebellious wombs, wicked books that turn people gay or dare to tell the specifics of American history and Texas history.
Gutierrez will force the issues of gun violence and cruelty at the border, and he won’t back down.
“Democrats are being screwed over. Where has the middle got us? We don’t need incrementalism. Texans want someone looking out for them. We need Abbott out of here. And Paxton needs to go to prison.”
Immigration reform, not a border war with Mexico
Gutierrez is fed up with GOP posturing about the “border crisis” while America languishes with needed workers. He says that the U.S. immigration system should be completely restructured to create a pathway to residency, to work programs, and to citizenship.
“We need a country-of-origin program. You apply for a job. Background checks, work visas. Create a system that works.” (For more, see Truth Out.)
Bios (from Tribune)
Roland Gutierrez
Texas State Senator, D-San Antonio; 2024 U.S. Senate Candidate
Gutierrez represents state Senate District 19, which covers parts of San Antonio and the Texas-Mexico border. After 19 children and two teachers were killed in a Uvalde school shooting, Gutierrez fought to pursue new gun restrictions. He previously served in the Texas House of Representatives and is a candidate for the 2024 U.S. Senate race.
James Henson
Director, Texas Politics Project
Henson teaches in the Department of Government at the University of Texas at Austin, where he is the founder and executive director of the Texas Politics Project, a hub of research and public affairs work providing nonpartisan resources for understanding Texas government and politics.
Newosity: future report 