Latest / The Jeff Crilley Show / Councilman Dan Barrios, Candidate for Texas' 32nd Congressional District | The Jeff Crilley Show
Transcript
- Coming up next on the Jeff Crilley Show, you're gonna meet Dan Barrios. He is running for congress in Texas' 32nd District. We'll learn his journey next. I have so much respect for people who dedicate their life to public service, and Dan Barrios is in the studio right now. He is currently serving on the Richardson City Council, and he's got a great track record there. And now he's taken the bold step of running for congress. Dan Barrios, thanks for coming on the show. Thank you. Thank you for the opportunity. Okay. So why don't we start with your background? So you're a lifelong Texan? I am. Grew born and raised in Brownsville, Texas, but I've been here in North Texas for over twenty years now. Okay. What what caused you to move to North Texas? Well, I think like many people who are finding their way, you graduate from high school, came up here to study originally and stuck around, met my wife, and settled down in Richardson. And there's something magic about Richardson. I know I've had your mayor on before. It's really a melting pot, isn't it? Absolutely. Richardson's a city of about a 123,000 residents, extremely diverse. Politically, it's fairly solid purple, but we have, I'd like to say, every food, every culture, every religion in the sun in Richardson. Yeah. What are some of your proudest accomplishments since you've served? Well, I think it's about access. One of the things that's important to me that's I think important to our community is access to government. One of the first questions I asked when I joined the city council is how do I get something on the agenda? And I was told, well, you had to ask the mayor. My response was, well, how what if the mayor doesn't like it? What if the mayor doesn't agree? And so we created a process in which a city council member can can, put something on the agenda. Yes. So that's definitely something I'm very proud of. I also started something for my own personal campaign funds called Breakfast with Barrios where I would somebody would offer up their front yard and I would cook breakfast on a Saturday morning and it's just simple breakfast tacos, some kind of egg scrambled and tortilla and it was an opportunity for people who normally don't come to council meetings, who normally aren't engaging with the city to engage with an elected representative. Yes. We're gonna pull up your website and as we scroll down the website, why don't you talk about some things that you stand for? Absolutely. I stand for access of government. I stand for supporting small and local businesses. I stand for supporting people. I think one of the larger I guess the bigger challenges we have in our nation right now is a lot of people feel disconnected. We can look at that by looking at the voter numbers. I think people are disconnected because they feel government is working for them. I think throughout my service, whether it was on a local level, the local PTA, whether it was on the Richardson City Council as chair of the business committee, I what I stand for, it's about access and people get involved in this experiment, in this the process of democracy. I wanna show the the congressional map because I was blown away by how large this has gotta be one of the largest districts in the state. It it is. It definitely is. It covers eight counties. It starts in Northwest Dallas County, and basically covers everything from Bush to 635. They cut out Farmers Branch, and it goes east almost to the Louisiana stamp the state line. So all of Rockwall County, Southern Hunt County, Wood, Vraines, Upshur, Camp Counties. It's a large area, and you have urban, you have suburban, and you have rural. Yeah. And there's no secret that there was redistricting. So did the Republicans gerrymander it so that Democrats aren't supposed to win? Absolutely. I think they that that was their hopes, and they definitely gerrymandered it. There's no secret this is one of the five districts that the president Trump wanted to get out of Texas. But I think anybody that has seen this district and truly understands the numbers says, look, not only is this is a very winnable district. President Biden got 45% of the vote in this district when you overlap the data. Colin already when he ran for senate the first time, got same amount. Bethel, when he ran for senate, got similar amount. So it's about a 45, 46% district. Add on top of that, there's no incumbent. Congresswoman Julie Johnson, as we all know, is running for a different district at this time, and that adds another 3% bump. So but on top of that, I think every time that those on the far right, the extreme Republicans and I I make a differential. There's there's Republicans and there's the extremists. I think when extremists, no longer represent what the majority of the Republican party want, and every day I'm meeting people who say, Dan, you'll be the first Democrat that I'm gonna vote for. I think people are unengaged because they feel that, that the government doesn't work for them. And when they see somebody that, one, has lived in the district for over twenty years, that served on the PTA boards, that has served in local office on the city council, and it's a full time volunteer job unlike our neighbor to the south. I do forty, forty five hours a week on the city council, and it's Wow. Basically a volunteer. And I think that speaks to what people want. I think that speaks to the kind of person I am, what I stand for, my heart of service. And that combined with policies that aren't working for the average American, definitely not working for congressional thirty two and the residents of Congressional 32, this is very winnable. Mhmm. And I think that's important message to get out and people are feeling it. We were talking before the show, this is a great country Awesome. You were telling me kind of like your your parents migrated here? Well, my family has been in South Texas since Texas was Mexico. Well, Oh, Tejano is on my mom's side. My father is Cajun, so my father is But yes, we've lived in South Texas forever. And on my mom's side, I was born 1.2 miles from Mexico down in Brownsville, Texas. And one of the things I've grown up learning growing up on the border is while I'm a first generation high school graduate, first generation college graduate, I've had those opportunities in this beautiful country because of 1.2 miles. If my life if I would have been born 1.2 miles to the west in Mexico, my life perhaps would have turned out very different. That's because I was able to see the opportunity available to me as an American citizen. I was able to see the opportunity available jobs as a country. I was able to see people in my life that allowed me to look outside of my box that I was was dealt in life. And I think it's important that people now, young adults, young children have that opportunity so that they too can can live their own version of the American dream. And we're seeing that buy in into the middle class becoming more and more difficult, the the thought of homeownership. I assure you, when my wife and I bought the house we live in now ten years ago, we couldn't afford that today. With the pricing going up, the food going up, costs are serious concern for many Americans, and especially in congressional thirty two. And so I think what people are looking for is somebody who's gonna represent them, who they will have access to, somebody who will fight for them in Washington DC and that is me. We've some video off of a Facebook reel that you posted, so it shows you out and about. When you're looking in the eyes of the constituents, what kind of things are they telling you? Absolutely. They are telling me that one, thank you so much for running. They and I'm hearing that from D's and R's and they're they're excited because there is somebody running who truly who truly wants to serve people. Two, they are concerned about the costs. The costs, everyday costs are becoming more and more expensive, and that is stressing a lot most American families. Here in Dallas County, the average two bedroom apartment, I believe, is right around $2,800, a cost most of us just struggle to comprehend. Food is going up. Gas is going up. Now here in in Dallas County in Richardson, when we look at infrastructure, we're thinking about things like intersections and have have great technology to help with the flow of traffic. When they people in rural Texas are also concerned about for infrastructure. But in rural Texas, infrastructure means having that access to the gas pipeline so that businesses come to town so that the the tax base is diverse. When they want hospitals, they're concerned about the local pharmacy shutting down. They're concerned about the local hospital shutting down. They're concerned that if something were to happen, that even in the back of an ambulance, they can't get to the hospital in time prior to something worse happening or possibly death. These are real concerns that people in 32 have. The lack of jobs, the the business is shutting down because of this concentration of wealth that's happening. We are seeing a lot of small businesses shut down throughout the district, throughout the nation, and this is a major concern. Alright, Dan. We have about two minutes left, so look into the camera on the left and make your call to action. Look, if you are concerned about prices, if you're concerned about access to health care, we need you. Not just my campaign, but we as a community, we as a nation need you. We really want, we I strongly believe that our nation is great because everyday residents vote and everyday residents are engaged. But without you, we end up in situations similar to what we have now. So in order to make to continue to see our great nation last another two hundred fifty years, in order for us to continue to improve and see the best that America is, we need you to vote. We need you to speak out. We need you to be involved in this beautiful democracy. Thank you so much for sharing your heart and your wisdom with us. We're gonna end with his website, which is, danbarriosforcongress.com. Thank you so much for coming on the show. Thank you. Thank you. That's it for now. We'll see you next time.