Rochelle Mercedes Garza
Democratic Candidate for Attorney General
Garza/Photo by Campaign
Question: What is your age?
Answer: 37
Q: What is your educational background? Please list any degrees or certificates earned and any institutions attended.
A: University of Houston Law Center, J.D.
Brown University, A.B. with Honors
Q: What is your occupation?
A: Civil Rights Attorney
Q: If you are a business owner, please list the business or businesses that you own. (If this question is not applicable, please note that below.)
A: I ran a small private law practice before joining the ACLU full time in 2019.
Q: Please list any civic boards or commissions (non-profit, government, union, political, etc.) on which you have served as a board member or equivalent.
A: Community organizations
Board Member (February 2019 – Present), Jane’s Due Process
Chair (January 2021 - July 2021), Ethics Advisory Committee, City of Brownsville, Texas
Board Member (January 2018 – January 2020), Moody Clinic
Chair (June 2008 – June 2009), Cultural Affairs Advisory Committee, City of Brownsville, Texas
Professional organizations
Member (June 2020 – Present), Advisory (June 2019-20), Laws Relating to Immigration and Nationality Standing Committee, State Bar of Texas
Director (May 2018 – December 2021), Member (August 2015 - Present), Cameron County Bar Association Program
Director (2013-14), Student Society for Global Health, University of Texas School of Public Health
Q: Have you previously held or do you currently hold any elected office? If so, what office(s)?
A: No
Q: If your campaign has any online campaign resources where voters can learn more about you, such as social media accounts or a website, please list them below.
A: Website: RochelleGarzaforTexas.com
Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter: @RochelleMGarza
Q: Why did you decide to run for this office in 2022?
A: I am running for Texas Attorney General to fight for Texas families.
I have been fighting for civil rights for all of my career - as an immigration attorney for children seeking asylum, as a partner in a small firm as a family and criminal defense attorney, and as a civil rights attorney working on class actions at the ACLU. I know what it’s like to fight for individuals in Texas courts and also how to build a case that reinforces civil rights across the country. My work has had broad impacts, like the “Garza Notice,” a requirement that teens in immigration detention have a right to access abortion care free of federal obstruction or retaliation, and also meaningful individual impacts, like helping Trans clients acquire name and gender marker changes on their documentation to not only affirm who they are but to live a life of safety. I understand that a threat to civil rights anywhere is a threat to civil rights everywhere.
As an expecting mother, I want to ensure that my daughter grows up with the freedom to determine her own course in life, to marry who she loves, to decide if, when or how to become a parent, and to grow up in a clean, safe environment. And I know that if I don’t step up at this moment to run for an office that has such deep impacts on the lives of Texans, we won’t have another opportunity to roll back the harm Ken Paxton has done.
Q: If elected, what will be your top three priorities in office?
A: 1. Health Care
Health care is a human right. Period. Going to the doctor or picking up a prescription should never break the bank. We need to expand access to quality health care in rural areas, lower drug prices, ensure that vision and dental benefits are included in health plans, and expand Medicaid to the nearly 1.5 million people in our state who need it.
As Attorney General, I will put an end to lawsuits from the AG’s office against municipalities and counties that are trying to keep our children safe during COVID-19 — and I’ll use this office to support our communities through any future health care emergency.
The fact is, if we’re going to bring an end to this pandemic, we need to trust the science and follow the advice of qualified experts to keep our people safe.
2. Civil Rights - Voting & Reproductive Rights
Voting Rights
Texas Republicans are trying to hold onto power by choosing which voters are heard and which have their voices silenced.
On day one as Attorney General, I will dismantle Ken Paxton’s “election integrity unit” — which is really about enforcing the GOP’s cruel voter suppression measures, instead of protecting voting rights — and replace it with a voter protection unit.
I will use the power of this office to ensure that voting rights are protected in the courts if there are further attempts to make it harder for any Texan, especially people of color, to cast a ballot.
It’s also past time to bring an end to Texas’ long history of gerrymandering that keeps the majority of Texans from exercising power in our state and federal elections. As Attorney General, I will be an advocate to replace the partisan redistricting process with an independent commission that respects the communities of our state.
Reproductive Rights
Abortion care is health care, and health care is a human right.
Reproductive choice is a moral imperative and an issue of racial, economic, and gender justice. I’m committed to restoring abortion access in Texas and defending the rights of women and pregnant people whenever they’re threatened.
Our state’s cruel six-week abortion ban is not only devastating for all Texans, but it has the potential to negatively impact the rest of the country and opens the door to challenging other constitutional rights like marriage equality, free speech, and second amendment rights. Other states have already followed suit and have enacted laws that challenge Roe v. Wade. As Attorney General, I will refuse to defend laws that infringe on Texans’ reproductive rights and constitutional right to access abortion care.
This isn’t a fight that’s new to me. In the only abortion case he ever heard before sitting on the U.S. Supreme Court, Brett Kavanaugh tried to keep my client, an immigrant teen, from accessing an abortion. We won that case for my client and protected the rights of countless others like her. I’ve defended reproductive rights before and am ready to defend them for all Texans as Attorney General.
3. Consumer protection
Our power grid should not fail in the middle of a deadly winter storm.
No one has been held accountable for the failure of the Texas power grid in early 2021. The Office of Attorney General has the power to investigate and hold those responsible accountable, but our current AG Ken Paxton has failed to take action. He has chosen money and power over the lives of Texans.
As Texas Attorney General, I will make consumer protection a top priority during my administration and investigate what went wrong with our power grid and ensure it never happens again.
But I will not stop there. I will also stand up for rural communities to make sure they have access to the infrastructure they need, like clean water. As a native from the Rio Grande Valley, I know that rural communities often get overlooked and left behind and that will not happen under my administration.
Q: What is an issue you believe has gone overlooked in your race and how will you address it if elected?
A: One concerning issue that all of us should care about is the weakening of our constitutional rights. Our current TX AG, Ken Paxton, is defending laws in federal court and before the Supreme Court like the Texas 6-week abortion ban. Overturning the constitutional right to abortion will put every other constitutional right at risk, like the right to bear arms and marriage equality.
Which is why, as Texas Attorney General, I will stand up for all of our constitutional rights and seek to reinforce them so that our liberties, as Americans, do not go away.
Q: Why are you the best candidate for voters to support for this position?
A: I’ve been fighting for Texas families for all of my career and have experience in immigration, family, criminal, and constitutional law.
I am the only candidate in the Democratic primary who has reinforced constitutional rights across the country through my legal work. One of my most notable cases includes the Garza v. Hargan case in which I was the guardian for Jane Doe, a pregnant 17 year-old denied the right to choose. A month-long legal battle ensued when Donald Trump staged an unprecedented intervention to try to stop Jane from making the decision that was hers alone to make.
As an immigration attorney, I have represented children and single mothers seeking asylum, reunited parents with their children who were separated at the border during Trump's brutal “Zero Tolerance” policy, and litigated against the harmful ‘Remain in Mexico’ program started by the Trump administration.
We need someone in the AG’s office that understands Texas families and what they need, that reflects the lived experiences of Texans and knows what’s at stake. As a woman and a Latina from the border, I recognize we continue to get laws that are harmful to women, people of color, LGBTQIA+, impoverished and rural communities because we don’t have representation that reflects our communities. That’s what I want to change as the next Attorney General of Texas.