November 4, 2024
Speaker: Bill McCamley
Bill McCamley is the Executive Director of Transit Forward, an Austin 501c3 with a mission to educate and engage our friends and neighbors about transit with a focus on Project Connect.
We hope you'll join to shake off those election-eve jitters together!
August 5, 2024
Katy Schmader
Currently serves as the Regional Organizing Director for the Texas Democratic Party as part of the 2024 Coordinated Campaign. Her organizing career began as a super volunteer for the Beto for Texas Senate campaign in 2018. Two years later, during the peak of the pandemic, she left teaching special education full-time and jumped into the political arena.
Katy has had the opportunity to fight for Supreme Court expansion at Demand Justice, build voter registration programs at Deeds Not Words, and managed various Texas campaigns – most recently, Luke Warford’s race for Texas Railroad Commissioner in 2022. She's spent the last year as Organizing Director at the Travis County Democratic Party.
Katy lives in Austin, TX, with her husband Andrew and cat Savvy. When she isn’t organizing, you’ll find her curled up with a book and a cup of coffee.
May 6, 2024
Heather Jefts
Heather Jefts was re-elected to Place 6 of the Cedar Park City Council after being elected to serve in Place 6 in November 2020. She previously served on Place 5, after being elected to a two-year term from May 2017 to May 2019. A resident of Cedar Park since 2005, she volunteers with Vista Ridge PTA, Education Connection, Reveal Baby Blessings, and Hill Country Community Ministries, and she sits on the Board of Williamson County Children's Advocacy Center. Heather can often be found in a swimming pool, teaching swim lessons and coaching. In fact, Heather's love of swimming has taken her full circle in her career - from being a collegiate team swimmer for Johns Hopkins University to founding and owning Tempo Swimming.
An avid sports and outdoors person, Heather's favorite things about Cedar Park are the friendly people and the many hike-and-bike trails. She enjoys running, cycling, woodworking, gardening, and reading.
Heather was born at Fort Bragg and grew up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. She and who she lovingly describes as her "awesome husband" Richard live in the Forest Oaks subdivision with their two sons, 21-year-old David, currently in college, and 17-year-old Will, a senior at VRHS, and the family's two big dogs.
January 8, 2024
Dwain Handley Candidate for Texas House of Representatives, District 19
Dwain Handley is running for election to the Texas House of Representatives for District 19.
He is on the ballot in the Democratic primary on March 5, 2024 along with Zach Vance and 3 Republican candidates including Ellen Troxclair, Kyle Biedermann and Manny Campos.
He is currently Chair for Precinct 19 in Burnet County and began his political activism after the Sandy Hook massacre. He became a Neighborhood Team Leader in Richardson with Battleground Texas and eventually Precinct Chair. His efforts contributed to flipping his House District in North Texas which remained Democratic until the 2020 legislative redistricting.
He is a native Texan from Houston and has two degrees in Finance from Texas A&M University.
December 4, 2023
Monique Alcala, Exec Dir of the Texas Democratic Party
Monique Alcala is the Executive Director of the Texas Democratic Party. Prior to this, she served as the Southwest Regional Director for State and Local Campaigns at EMILY's List, the nation's largest resource for pro-choice Democratic women in politics. She has over a decade of experience on campaigns, including competitive Democratic primaries, and in Democratic and Republican strongholds. In 2020, she served as the Coalitions Director for the Biden-Harris campaign in the Commonwealth of Virginia. During this historic election, her team organized hundreds of voter contact, messaging, and GOTV events, which prioritized engaging communities that have been historically excluded in democratic elections.
Monique is a Political Partner at Truman National Security Project. Her area of expertise is on race/ethnicity, inequality, and political participation. She is a national parks enthusiast and a runner.
November 6, 2023
Rocio Fierro-Perez, Texas Freedom Network
Rocío Fierro-Pérez is a Mexican, American, immigrant, queer, woman, first generation college graduate and proud fronteriza from El Paso. Currently, Rocío works in Austin, Texas as the Senior Political Coordinator for the Texas Freedom Network, a statewide progressive grassroots nonprofit. She helps develop and implement the legislative lobbying, policy, and electoral strategy across multiple issues such as– LGBTQ+ equality, voting, immigration, criminal legal reform, climate justice, education, and reproductive rights, at the statewide and local level.
October 8, 2023
Roland Gutierrez for U.S. Senate
Roland Gutierrez was first elected to the Texas House of Representatives in 2008. While serving in the House, Gutierrez chaired the House Committee on Defense and Veterans' Affairs on appointment from Republican House Speaker Joe Straus, also of San Antonio.
In 2020, Gutierrez ran to represent District 19 Texas Senate against incumbent Republican Pete Flores. On November 3, 2020, Gutierrez defeated Flores, winning with 50% of the vote to 47% for Flores. Gutierrez won re-election in 2022.
As part of the Texas Senate, Gutierrez serves on the Local Government, Veteran Affairs, and the Water, Agriculture & Rural Affairs committees.
Gutierrez, whose district encompasses Uvalde, Texas, introduced four gun safety bills following the 2022 Robb Elementary School shooting.
Roland is running for the U.S. Senate in 2024 to defeat incumbent Ted Cruz.
August 7, 2023
Senator Sarah Eckhart: District 14
Senator Eckhardt has deep roots in Central Texas and deep commitment to improving opportunity for all Texans. After receiving an LBJ School Master of Public Affairs and law degree from the University of Texas at Austin in 1998, Eckhardt worked for eight years as an Assistant Travis County Attorney. From 2006-2013 she served as Travis County Commissioner representing 300,000 people. From 2015-2020 she served as the Travis County Judge presiding over the Commissioners Court and representing 1.3 million people.
June 5, 2023 Meeting
