Jose For GovernorJose Navarro Balbuena • Texas 2026
"Millionaires represent their Tax Bracket. I represent the rest of us." While my centerpiece for National policy change to the IRS tax code is the Working-Class Standard Deduction ($100k-$175k), my Texas State Centerpiece is expanding Early College High Schools (ECHS) statewide and launching the Texas Educator Masters Certification so teachers onboard directly to ECHS classrooms. We must subsidize public education and offer schools tax exemptions—not Elon Musk, whose "bootstraps are long enough to pull himself up." We will work towards subsidizing an $85,000 minimum salary for public educators, establish statewide subsidized farm-to-market hot school lunches, and put recreational adult THC on the ballot for Texas voters to decide, dedicating 100% of THC sales tax solely to fund public education.
"I live the same economic reality as the 60% of Texans living paycheck to paycheck. Austin doesn't need another millionaire politician; Texas needs a working-class technical problem solver."
Under Federal Law and the Texas Election Code, voters in Harris County have the legal right to ballots, voting instructions, and assistance in English, Spanish (Español), Vietnamese (Tiếng Việt), and Chinese (中文). Fort Bend County additionally supports South Asian voters.
Practical, technical, and constitutional executive action designed to uplift working Texans and eliminate corporate monopolies.
"Only 38% of Americans have a college degree, and 68% of adults cannot afford higher education. Why wasn't our public school system offering every student the chance to graduate high school with an Associate degree? ALIEF Early College does it today. My administration will integrate dual credit and subject mastery statewide — eliminating tuition, housing, and boarding debt for Texas families before their kids even graduate."
— Jose Navarro Balbuena, Candidate for Texas Governor"Texans will no longer rent the picket fence dream. Greg Abbott has sold away the picket fence dream to corporations."
— Jose Navarro Balbuena, Candidate for Texas GovernorStrip Homeowners Associations (HOAs) of home repossession and non-judicial foreclosure powers. No Texas family should ever lose their homestead over unpaid assessment disputes, fines, or cosmetic infractions.
Prohibit institutional corporations, hedge funds, and private equity from purchasing existing 1-to-4 unit single-family homes. Houses are built for Texas families to own, not for Wall Street rental monopolies.
Mandate that institutional corporate landlords divest from existing 1–4 unit single-family rental holdings over a structured timeline, systematically releasing home inventory back to individual Texas home buyers.
Channel corporate capital into genuine supply expansion: Provide fast-track, streamlined state permits so corporations can build high-density apartment communities and new single-family subdivisions from raw ground.
Texas State Centerpiece: Expanding Early College High Schools (ECHS) statewide so every public high school student graduates with an Associate Degree tuition-free. We establish the Texas Educator Masters Certification with state-paid graduate tuition and stipends for teachers onboarding to ECHS instruction. We subsidize public education and offer schools tax exemptions—not Elon Musk, whose bootstraps are long enough to pull himself up. We work towards a subsidized $85,000 minimum base salary for public educators and statewide subsidized farm-to-market hot school lunches. We will put recreational THC on the ballot for Texas voters to decide, with 100% of THC sales tax revenue constitutionally and statutorily dedicated solely and explicitly to fund public school legislation (ECHS college credits, farm lunches, educator salaries, and Masters certifications), paired with $150 flat license fees and retroactive non-violent cannabis record expungement.
Full State Centerpiece • integratecollegeandhighschool.net
Inspired by my mother’s career as a public school cafeteria cashier, my "Hot School Lunches" policy creates a statewide subsidized farm-to-market model connecting Texas farmers directly with school cafeterias. Every child receives free, nutrient-dense hot meals while keeping millions in state food procurement dollars inside Texas family farms, fully backed by our voter-approved THC school funding referendum.
Nutrition Policy • hotschoollunches.netGovernment mandates should not crush mom-and-pop entrepreneurs. As an independent solopreneur who files individual and small business taxes, I see firsthand how payroll tax liabilities and expensive software subscriptions paralyze solo operators and micro-businesses from hiring their first worker. My policy creates the Solopreneur-to-Employer Runway: an 18-month partnership where TWC covers and directly files 100% of employer payroll taxes (FICA, FUTA, SUTA) for the first 12 months, paired with a $7.50/hr state wage subsidy ($15/hr living wage floor) and permanent free lifetime access to a state digital filing platform. Includes the Permanent Single-Member LLC Charter Protection Act, granting perpetual active standing under the franchise tax threshold without Comptroller forfeiture traps or surprise $50 paperwork fees.
Wage Subsidy • livablewage.netA national economic revolution for working families and solopreneurs: Advocating for a standard deduction of $100,000 for single filers, $150,000 for Head of Household, and $175,000 for married couples, paired with an affordable $150 flat annual fee on Schedule C business income. This abolishes the punitive 15.3% Self-Employment Tax drag on solopreneurs, freelancers, and independent contractors, shielding the first $100,000 of solo hustle from federal income tax. Net income between $100K and $250K receives a reduced 1% transition rate before normal brackets resume at $250K.
Tax Equity • standarddeduction.netEstablishes an official County Renter Registry to verify lawful lease agreements, ending squatter fraud while giving lawful tenants certified legal standing. Enforces binding ITIL-modeled Service Level Agreements (SLAs) holding landlords legally accountable for 24-to-48-hour repairs on HVAC, mold, and pests, backed by state-funded Tenant Eviction Protection Services.
View Renter Registry & SLA DetailsIntegrating state sponsorship through the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement (TCOLE) directly with local neighborhood watch groups. Provides accredited community safety training, standardized de-escalation certification, direct verified communication channels with local police and county sheriffs, and community-led safety accountability.
Deploying remote live telemetry monitoring on dams, levees, and critical ERCOT grid nodes with Texas National Guard logistical support. Utility providers will be held to strict Service Level Agreements (SLAs) with non-negotiable financial penalties for outages, alongside a Grid Resilience Fund for decentralized residential solar + storage.
As a licensed Texas health insurance agent, I crafted a comprehensive patient protection platform: (1) Outlaw surprise medical bills across all emergency and hospital care, holding patients 100% harmless; (2) Mandate insurance companies cover whatever tests and medicine your doctor prescribes—banning predatory step therapy; (3) Cap prescription drugs at $25/mo for insulin and $30/mo for asthma inhalers and EpiPens; (4) Expand off-label care for drug shortages and mandate tandem non-dependency drug manufacturing for habit-forming pharmaceuticals; (5) Reclaim $5.4B in federal Medicaid expansion to reopen 26 closed rural hospitals; and (6) Charter the Texas Solopreneur Health Insurance Cooperative (TDI), allowing independent contractors, freelancers, and solo LLCs to pool together to purchase comprehensive group health coverage at large-employer discount rates.
Patient Bill of Rights • healthcare.htmlReplacing fear with verified due process. Partnering with foreign consulates to verify identity, issuing a Texas Provisional Identification tied to ITINs. Brings immigrant workers into the formal banking and auto insurance system, lowering car insurance premiums for all Texas drivers while creating real-time employment status tracking.
Identity & Inclusion • representate.orgAbolish monetary filing fees ($375 to $5,000) that serve as a wealth "cover charge" protecting rich incumbents. Mandate 100% petition signature ("sweat equity") qualification for every candidate. Codify the Dark Money Disclosure Act for expenditures over $10,000, enact DPS Automatic Voter Registration, and establish automatic Certificates of Civic Restoration upon release.
Candidate Checklist • howtorunforoffice.netMimicking California’s landmark child marriage ban to establish an absolute, unconditional minimum age of 18 years to marry in Texas with zero exceptions. We will repeal the court-ordered emancipation loopholes under Texas Family Code §§ 2.003 and 2.101, declare all marriages involving a minor under 18 void ab initio under Texas public policy (§ 6.205), and prohibit out-of-state comity recognition of child marriages. This closes dangerous legal backdoors that have enabled forced marriages, statutory rape cover-ups, and domestic abuse of Texas minors—ensuring Texas youth reach full legal adulthood before entering into legally binding marriage contracts.
Statutory Bill Brief • HB-2032 DetailsEngaged in active questionnaire screenings and candidate forums across Texas democratic organizations.
I have signed a solemn pledge rejecting all corporate PAC contributions to maintain my absolute independence for working families. I am actively participating in endorsement screenings and candidate dialogues across the state:
Standing in Democratic solidarity with Leader Gina Hinojosa. Either of us offers an urgent, pro-worker future that will dismantle Greg Abbott’s 12-year corporate monopoly over the Governor's Mansion.
"Whether it is Representative Gina Hinojosa fiercely holding the line on the Texas House floor to block Greg Abbott’s billionaire-funded private school vouchers, or my campaign organizing working families across Texas for Statewide Early College (HB-2027) and a $100,000 standard deduction, our mission is united: breaking the corporate donor monopoly in Austin and returning power to everyday working Texans. Either of us on the Democratic ticket represents an immediate, transformational leap forward compared to Greg Abbott’s 12 years of corporate cronyism and public school neglect."
| Policy Battleground | Greg Abbott (12 Years of Status Quo) | Democratic Horizon (Jose Navarro Balbuena Platform) |
|---|---|---|
| Public Education & School Vouchers | Forced 4 consecutive legislative special sessions to ram through private school vouchers funded by West Texas oil billionaires; withheld billions in state surplus from public schools; triggered catastrophic teacher shortages across 1,200+ Texas ISDs. | 100% Defense of Texas Public Schools: Defeating private vouchers once and for all; fully funding public schools; enacting Statewide Early College High Schools (HB-2027) to graduate students with tuition-free Associate Degrees; raising Texas teacher base pay to $85,000. |
| Healthcare & Rural Hospitals | Refused over $54 billion in cumulative federal Medicaid expansion funds over a decade purely for partisan posturing; forced 26 rural hospitals across Texas to shut their doors forever; left Texas with the #1 highest uninsured rate in the nation (over 21%). | Reclaiming Federal Healthcare Funds on Day One: Drawing down $5.4B annually to reopen shuttered rural hospitals and clinics; codifying a Texas Patient Bill of Rights to outlaw surprise medical bills; capping insulin at $25 and asthma inhalers at $30. |
| Taxes, Housing & Cost of Living | Pushed massive Chapter 312 and 313 corporate tax abatements giving billions to multinational petrochemical conglomerates while single-family home prices, county property appraisal values, and monthly apartment rents reached historic, crushing highs. | Direct Working-Class Tax Relief: The $100,000 Standard Deduction exempting the first $100K of household income; renter property tax circuit breakers providing direct annual relief; ending the corporate tax loophole shift onto working homeowners and renters. |
| Workers' Wages & Small Business | Kept Texas minimum wage frozen at $7.25/hr for 17 straight years; signed House Bill 2127 ("Death Star Bill") eliminating local paid sick leave and actively stripping mandatory 10-minute water break ordinances for Texas construction workers in 105° heat. | $15/hr Livable Wage Co-Funded Partnership: 18-month TWC bridge subsidy with the state covering employer payroll taxes (FICA, FUTA, SUTA) for the first 12 months to lower hiring risks for mom-and-pop shops; restoring local worker health and safety protections. |
| Physician Authority & Bodily Autonomy | Signed extreme statutes criminalizing physicians with life sentences and felony charges for delivering emergency reproductive medical care; caused OB-GYN doctors to flee Texas; created unprecedented maternal mortality risks for expectant mothers. | Restoring Medical Freedom & Physician Authority: Full bodily autonomy for Texas women; legal protections for OB-GYNs and emergency medical teams; codifying the statutory rule that doctor's medical judgment takes legal precedence over politicians and corporate clerks. |
| Child Protection & Marriage Age | Preserved Texas Family Code loopholes (§ 2.003, § 2.101) allowing 16- and 17-year-olds to marry under judicial emancipation; refused to pass an unconditional child marriage ban, leaving Texas among states that still permit child marriage. | Zero-Exception Minimum Age of 18 (HB-2032): Mimics California's landmark statute to establish an absolute minimum age of 18 to marry with zero exceptions; repeals all judicial emancipation loopholes and declares any underage marriage void under Texas public policy. |
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