Yisak Worku
DemocraticQ1 In June 2026, USDA confirmed New World screwworm in Texas livestock for the first time in decades; as of early July, dozens of infestations have been confirmed across South Texas (USDA APHIS , 2026). USDA estimates a full-scale outbreak comparable to past infestations could cost the regional economy billions of dollars (USDA APHIS). What policies, if any, would you support to respond to the current outbreak and improve Texas’s agricultural biosecurity (practices and safeguards that prevent pests and diseases from spreading through livestock populations), and what evidence or considerations would inform that approach?
If we’re going to take this outbreak seriously, we must engage in cattle quarantines stop the spread of the infection as soon as possible. Additionally, we should restart the sterile fly program that we had been engaging in for decades to keep the infection at bay. This is going to require multi national cooperation. If we intend to push the outbreak back across the darien gap.
Keywords: Strict quarantines and a redeployment of our sterile fly program, along with serious multinational collaboration.
Q2 Texas is on track to become the nation’s leading data center market within the next three years (Bloom Energy, 2026). The state’s grid operator has more than doubled its 2030 forecast for data center power demand over the past year (ERCOT, 2025). Such growth brings economic opportunity while placing significant demands on water, land, and energy systems, raising questions about tax incentives, utility costs, and local community impacts. What policies, if any, would you support around water/energy allocation, tax incentives, or utility costs for data center development in Texas, and what evidence informs that position?
I personally am incredibly skeptical of much of the recent data center development happening across our state. In my opinion, most of this ai, and crypto related development will prove incredibly pointless in the long term. I believe that the future of ai is more efficient models , not more compute. And the future and present of crypto seems to be tax evasion and financial malfeasance. So I believe the policy of the state should be to be incredibly restrictive on data centers requesting high sums of power. The state should implement Power and water consumption per area caps on data centers. Limiting and cutting off the hungriest developments that plan from the beginning to be high energy , high water , use hyperscalers.
Keywords: Hyperscalers aren’t a necessary form of data center and should be legislated out of existence, data centers must have reasonable power and water usage from the beginning no exceptions required by the state.
Q3 Texas faces flooding while simultaneously experiencing water scarcity driven by drought, groundwater depletion, and population growth (TWDB, 2024). Hundreds of Texas waterways are listed as impaired for bacteria, mercury, and other pollutants, threatening water quality for communities across the state (TCEQ, 2024). Agriculture is the largest consumer of the state’s groundwater, yet it is also well positioned to be a valuable partner in conservation efforts. What policies, if any, would you support to improve Texas’s water infrastructure, and what considerations would guide your approach to the state’s agricultural economy?
We have to radically [address] the desertification of Texas land. It increases the chance of flooding and makes it so it is more difficult for the ground to absorb water and recharge our groundwater reserves. We must invest more in water purification and tighten up regulations on both water use laws and waste and runoff (ie. Industrial runoff, pesticides, etc.) laws across the state. If agriculture is going to play a meaningful portion, of stabilizing our water access we have to understand the different roles agricultural players play in the market. Many of the larger commodity croppers are much less concerned with water or land conservation and we must encourage and require that they shift away from water intensive crops and towards more sustainable forms of agriculture production. For the smaller players running on thin margins we need to incentivize and invest in easing the transition into more sustainable agriculture. Working to bring this industry away from monocropping to more holistic agriculture like Agroforestry.
Keywords: Fight desertification, tighten up water rights laws and invest in transitioning our farmers to a water efficient agriculture.
Q4 The Texas power grid continues to face strain from extreme heat and increasing demand, including from data centers. What policies, if any, would you support to improve grid reliability for Texas consumers and businesses?
Oppose and put a stop to data centers. Encourage increased battery deployment along with incentives for more local grid and residential/communal solar battery deployment across texas to increase local backup and redundancy. Increased investment in transmission lines and transformers to allow more deployment of our incredibly cheap and abundant solar energy across more of our state.
Keywords: Less data centers, more batteries and solar, invest in local microgrids and transmission lines for increased deployment of cheap solar.
Q5 Texas universities and hospitals receive approximately $1.9 billion annually in NIH funding across 118 research sites, supporting tens of thousands of jobs and driving medical and scientific innovation (FASEB, 2025). NIH grants reimburse institutions for both direct research costs and indirect costs, the facilities, administration, and support infrastructure that make research possible. A 15% indirect cost cap proposed by NIH in 2025, currently blocked by federal courts, would sharply reduce this reimbursement below the rates Texas institutions have negotiated, cutting an estimated $300 million in annual support that institutions would need to absorb or backfill (Kamerlin & Elias, 2025). What policies, if any, would you support at the state or federal level to protect the long-term stability of Texas’s research infrastructure, and why?
If this funding falls through, the first thing I would like to see is an increased tax on the incredibly profitable pharmaceutical and supplement industry and their product sales in Texas. With the proceeds going immediately back in to the same research institutions that so many of their products are derived from closing fully 300 million or gap or even increasing funding for our vital medical research. America has been at the front line of cutting-edge medical research, and it’s been an incredible asset for the people and this nation to know that we have access to some of the best care in the whole world and this isn’t something that we should ever allow to be lost or cut.
Keywords: Tax supplements and pharmaceuticals close three hundred million gap, fight to stay at the cutting-edge of medical research
Q6 Texas kindergartners’ measles vaccination rate fell to 93.24% in the 2024-2025 school year, a decline from prior years amid a national resurgence (Texas Department of State Health Services, 2025). That year, Texas recorded 762 confirmed measles cases, including the deaths of two unvaccinated school-age children, in the state’s largest outbreak since 1992 (Texas DSHS, 2025). Measles can cause serious complications: roughly 1 in 5 unvaccinated people who contract it are hospitalized, and it can lead to pneumonia, brain swelling, or death (CDC). As a policymaker, how do you approach engaging with communities that have concerns about infectious disease outbreaks and vaccine safety, and what policies, if any, would you support related to these issues, and why?
One of the biggest issues we’ve seen in the rise of vaccine and medical skepticism in this nation is that there is an increase in anxiety around health at the same time that there is decreased access to actual medical professionals. Our healthcare system has pushed and pushed and pushed for doctors to be more productive and to get through more patients in a day, forcing them to spend less time with each individual patient. Combined, this would be high cost of healthcare and medical visits. There is a nationwide reticence for people with concerns or curiosities to reach out to the local medical experts that they trust. Our system, as it currently exists, is not designed to build an ongoing dialogue and relationship between doctors and patients, and so it has become very easy for concerned citizens to get there perspectives from online influencers with questionable credibility, given the ease of building a parasocial relationship with someone with hours and hours of online social media content. So I think at the heart of addressing this issue needs to be a reestablishment of local access to information and ongoing relationships with the medical experts on the ground in a lot of these communities. This means more doctors and making time for check ins not just checkups.
Keywords: Healthcare system focused on patient throughput, reestablish local relationships, medical experts
Q7 Scientific evidence is generated through the systematic testing and evaluation of ideas. It provides knowledge the helps us understand the world and predict the likely consequences of different choices, such policy making related to public health, energy, agriculture, and environmental regulation. What role, if any, should scientific evidence and expert input play in your policymaking process, and how would you evaluate competing or uncertain scientific claims when making policy decisions? What role, if any, should that process play when scientific consensus and public opinion diverge?
It is very important to me that accurate scientific evidence plays a strong role in our policy-making process. As for discerning between uncertain claims or competing claims I always believe that we should err on the side of consensus and replication. I believe that good science isn’t merely an experiment or a single piece of evidence, but a full comprehensive body of work that has been elaborated and expanded upon and tested rigorously over and over again. As for the divergence between public opinion and scientific consensus, the role of a politician and a leader is to help expand understanding and bring public opinion and sentiment in line with the evidence and the reality as it shifts. That is precisely the job that we as responsible leaders should be engaging in.
Keywords: Accurate scientific evidence, replication, comprehensive body of work, expand understanding, responsible leaders