Rep. Mihaela Plesa survived a heated GOP problem. Right here’s how she thinks Democrats can prevail.

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Lower than per week earlier than Election Day, Gov. Greg Abbott dropped $19,000 on promoting to spice up Republican Steve Kinard in what gave the impression to be an more and more aggressive race for a North Texas Home seat.

Ultimately, it didn’t work. Rep. Mihaela Plesa, D-Dallas, stored her seat.

“Ya missed one,” she gloated in a social media submit taunting Abbott. She was responding to the governor’s personal submit on X, claiming that all the Republicans he backed for the Home had received.

In whole, Abbott spent almost $37,000 to unseat Plesa — one in every of 4 Home seats he tried in earnest to flip from blue to purple this cycle.

Not solely did she win her seat focused by Republicans, however she grew her win margin this election in comparison with her race in 2022 when she ran towards Kinard the primary time and have become the primary Home Democrat to characterize part of Collin County in a long time. She credit her victory with emphasizing bipartisanship on financial points and listening to constituents who may not agree together with her — one thing Plesa thinks Democrats ought to do extra usually.

Now, the first-generation daughter of Romanian immigrants may play a much bigger position in what’s in retailer for Texas Democrats within the legislative session that begins this month. Democratic Home lawmakers unanimously voted Plesa vice chair of the Texas Home Democratic Caucus. The sophomore lawmaker joins management ranks as Democrats are poised to have even much less energy than they did within the final legislative session, with two fewer Democrats and as Republicans are emboldened by a robust electoral displaying up and down the poll.

“The Texas Democratic Party needs to remind the state of Texas and the nation what it means to be a Texas Democrat,” Plesa stated in an interview.

Plesa stated Texas Democrats must go on the offensive and make the case that they’re the occasion attempting to raised the lives of on a regular basis Texans. On the similar time, she stated Democrats needn’t get distracted by tradition warfare points.

“I don’t think that [voters] really cared about some of the stuff that we’ve been hearing,” Plesa stated. “They care about: Can I pay my car insurance? Can I go to the doctor and it be affordable?”

Plesa stated she ran a marketing campaign that attempted to attach with voters on points that mattered to them, like public training and the rising value of utilities. She stated Democrats have been in any other case overconfident about their polling and the optimistic “vibes” they loved after Vice President Kamala Harris turned the nominee.

“I tried to explain not only to my county party, but to the state party as a whole,” Plesa stated. “They call it political science, not political vibes.”

Plesa stated she did a whole lot of block strolling and will see the tide turning for Democrats forward of Election Day, which made the outcomes much less surprising to her.

“I knew what people felt like because I was knocking on their door every day, asking them,” Plesa stated. “[Democrats] need to knock on more doors and start having more of those hard conversations and not so many internal conversations with ourselves because Texas is so much bigger than the conversations we’re having internally.”

UT-Dallas pupil Pranav Gehlot, a volunteer block walker for Plesa, stated voters need extra politicians who’re keen to compromise, hearken to their constituents’ wants, and tackle points that assist their constituents’ wallets.

“Other [Democrats] should learn from her charisma to inspire and draw people,” Gehlot stated.

Plesa stated Democrats down poll should cease counting on nationwide speaking factors and as an alternative speak to their very own constituents.

“The bottom of the ballot is closer to the front doors of our constituents,” Plesa stated.

Throughout the aisle

Plesa wasn’t all the time politically concerned.

She helped run a swimsuit firm with a pal within the early 2010s. However that modified after she watched President-elect Donald Trump win his first time period in 2016. Plesa felt “empty.” She stated protesting and activism weren’t sufficient. So, she stop her job and have become a legislative director for Rep. Ray Lopez, D-San Antonio, for roughly 4 years.

Then in 2022, she ran towards Kinard for Home District 70, a yr after it had been redrawn by the Legislature to make it simpler for a Democrat to win. It went from a district that favored Donald Trump to 1 the place Joe Biden would have received the district by 11 proportion factors in 2020. Plesa received by a slim 900 votes.

However this yr, she expanded her lead and received by 3,100 votes, at the same time as Collin County general went additional for Trump this yr.

Collin County has seen a rise in Asian and Black individuals over the previous decade, in keeping with census information, however the county continues to be majority white. Derek Ryan, a veteran advisor and adviser to GOP campaigns, stated it isn’t surprising that Plesa was in a position to win since her district leans Democrat.

The Home districts that Republicans have been in a position to flip have been majority Hispanic ones in South Texas. Ryan additionally famous that roughly 17% of all votes within the district got here from voters who had registered to vote within the final two years.

“A lot of new voters helped make the difference,” Ryan stated.

Whereas Plesa was a goal of Republicans this election cycle, Abbott was spending extra sources in these South Texas races which have been seen as extra aggressive. Plesa in the end outraised Kinard in whole fundraising. Plesa, in her first freshman time period, filed round 55 payments, starting from ​​subjects on state well being providers to public training. Two of them turned legal guidelines.

One of many payments that she handed made it simpler to impound a car utilized in unlawful avenue racing or sure reckless driving exhibitions, which Abbott signed into legislation in 2023. It was sponsored within the Senate by Sen. Bob Corridor, R-Edgewood, one of many extra conservative Republicans within the Senate over the last session.

“I think that we have to understand and respect each other’s chambers,” Plesa stated. “When you understand that, I think you can get some really great legislation out.”

Plesa joined the Republican governor for the invoice signing ceremony, the place he thanked her and different lawmakers for carrying the payments. For her freshman efforts, the Texas Legislative Examine Group, a policy-focused group, named her the “freshman of the year.”

Plesa thinks Republicans and Democrats can work collectively on points corresponding to water infrastructure and taxes throughout this upcoming session.

“I hope to be able to put campaigns in the past and move forward with my colleagues,” Plesa stated. “I really want to work together.”

On the similar time, she has loads of criticisms in regards to the GOP. She stated Texas Republicans have been efficient at distracting the general public with debates about trans kids in sports activities, when Democrats ought to have been hammering them about their very own failures — like when Texas opted out of a federal summer time faculty lunch program as a result of “the state would not have enough time to organize the program before summertime begins.”

“These are failures of the Texas Republican Party,” Plesa stated. “They’re using a very small population of people to distract us from the fact that lots of Texans are suffering,”

Within the coming session, Plesa stated she is targeted on getting more cash for public faculties.

Plano ISD, which is in her district, has closed 4 faculties this yr. Lawmakers tabled a invoice that will have elevated public faculty funding as a result of a provision to fund non-public faculty vouchers was spiked.

Abbott stated he would veto any training funding laws that didn’t embrace vouchers over the last session.

“When I would knock in that neighborhood where that school is shutting down, parents were upset and afraid because they love their schools,” Plesa stated.

The governor has repeatedly stated he had sufficient votes within the Texas Home to cross a college voucher program, which might enable mother and father to make use of public cash to subsidize non-public faculty tuition. Plesa stated her No. 1 precedence within the session is so as to add as many guardrails as doable to any faculty voucher laws.“I’m always going to stand for public education,” Plesa added.

Jasper Scherer contributed to this report.