Our recommendation for Texas’ 33rd Congressional District

Democratic U.S. Rep. Marc Veasey was first elected to Congress in 2012. As he closes out a decade of service in Washington, D.C., we expect voters within the 33rd District ought to permit him to proceed on the job.

While the opinions of this editorial board don’t all the time align with these of Veasey, we expect he’s a hard-working congressman who continues to maintain the wants of his constituents entrance and middle.

Those constituents at the moment are totally different than when Veasey, 51, was first elected to the newly created district following the 2010 U.S. Census. Statewide redistricting in 2020 made the already odd, barbell-shaped district much more contorted. The 33rd District now pushes north into Carrollton and Farmers Branch, and nonetheless stretches to Fort Worth and different elements of Tarrant County to the west, then captures elements of Grand Prairie, Arlington and Irving, to the east and ends in Dallas County in parts of southwest Dallas.

Veasey faces Republican challenger Patrick David Gillespie, a UPS entry author from Fort Worth who’s working for workplace for the primary time as a result of he’s “sick and tired of all the lies and backstabbing the current and past politicians have displayed.” But Gillespie, 65, lacks the expertise or well-developed insurance policies to noticeably problem a seasoned legislator.

Veasey has been re-elected by his constituents each two years by vast margins. He defeated activist Carlos Quintanilla within the major with 69% of the vote.

We like that in these extremely divisive political instances, Veasey continues to look for methods to work along with his Republican colleagues to develop bipartisan packages to assist his district. In our dialog with him, for instance, he touted his involvement within the Small Business Payment for Performance Act. Veasey in July launched that invoice, which might assist small companies compete for federal {dollars}, with two Republican representatives.

In March, he locked arms with fellow Fort Worth Rep. Kay Granger, a Republican, to oppose a threatened minimize to the Pentagon’s annual order of Lockheed Martin’s F-35 joint strike fighters.

Veasey mentioned he’s optimistic that Republicans and Democrats will work collectively to cross extra gun management laws past that lately handed within the wake of the Uvalde faculty capturing in May. We additionally assist such efforts.

We have been additionally glad to listen to Veasey clarify the necessity for higher border safety as a part of complete immigration reform. He informed us he favors elevated use of expertise to observe exercise on the border, though he opposes efforts to construct a wall.

Libertarian candidate Ken Ashby of Dallas can be on the poll.