School choice, Paxton impeachment, Holland-Pierson frame race in Texas HD 33

NORTH TEXAS – Early voting is underway for the primary election on Tuesday, May 28th.

One of the most interesting races in North Texas is in House District 33, where Katrina Pierson, a former spokeswoman for former President Donald Trump, is trying to unseat incumbent Justin Holland.

Pierson is supported by Gov. Greg Abbott, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and Attorney General Ken Paxton.

Both Pierson and Holland are far apart on some key issues, including school choice and Paxton's impeachment.

Located in downtown Plano, Rockwall and Heath, the conservative district is now on the political radar of Republicans from across the Lone Star State.

In the campaign, incumbent Justin Holland is highlighting his experience and leadership in the Republican majority in the House of Representatives, as well as his 40-year connection to the community.

“Someone who owns and runs a business, who belongs to a local church here, who was involved in local politics before taking office in the Legislature,” Holland said. “Someone who gives back to the community.”

His challenger, Katrina Pierson, emphasizes her conservative values ​​and says voters in the district asked her to run.

“Many of them have watched me fight for conservative values ​​on national television for almost 15 years, and unfortunately the incumbent has left the district over the years,” Pierson said.

If elected, Pierson says her top three priorities will include election integrity, border security and school choice, as well as taxpayer-funded education savings accounts, or ESAs, also known as school vouchers.

Holland says his top three priorities if re-elected are property tax reductions, border security and public education.

Last fall, he was one of 21 House Republicans who joined Democrats to vote against Gov. Abbott's school choice plan.

After the March 5 primary, when Pierson and Holland ended up in the runoff, Governor Abbott endorsed them and began campaigning for them.

When asked if he would still vote against school choice given the governor's endorsement of Pierson, Holland told CBS News Texas, “Yes, yes.” Because I've always felt that way. I've never seen an ESA.” I don't think it's conservative to write a blank check for a few billion dollars for a political issue, somewhere between $500 million and $2 billion, that can only benefit 50,000 children. Virtually no one in my district could have benefited from it.

Pierson told CBS News Texas that she supports taxpayer-funded education savings accounts.

“The one thing we know: The true path out of poverty is a quality education,” Pierson said. “We know that education in Texas is very good in some areas and not so good in others. This gives a low-income family or a single parent like me the opportunity to send their child to their child's school. Choice, whether it's a denominational school, a charter school, and I just think that's amazing, so many families want that have an opportunity and in my district 85 percent of voters wanted it.”

In the March 5 primary, Abbott supported 14 Republican challengers, seven of which defeated the incumbent and five of which ended in a runoff.

Holland is also fighting for his political career.

“A lot of my colleagues have been taken out and they’re trying to take us out,” Holland said.

Asked what he thought about it, Holland said: “It's terrible because we're losing democracy because you can buy a seat in the House of Representatives. I had $300,000 spent against me by a DC PAC just because of this issue.”

In response, Pierson said: “He spent $1.3 million just against me, and all that money was of special interest. The PACS who support me absolutely agree with our values ​​in the district.”

Pierson said she supports raises for teachers.

“Absolutely, I think our teachers are very underpaid,” Pierson said. “Teachers in this district are at the lower end of the scale and these are the people who spend the most time with our children throughout the day and they should be paid accordingly.”

She was noncommittal on whether school districts should receive more money per student, also known as the base allotment.

“I would have to look at the whole finance area because what's coming in the next legislative session is a school choice measure as we see how this is all going to work, and I would be happy to support it if it's the right thing to do,” Pierson said.

Holland said he fully supports increasing tax dollars for public education and raising salaries for teachers.

“I can tell you right now, we need an increase in the base allocation,” Holland said. “We need pay raises for teachers. We need bonuses for teachers that are based on student performance. We don't need to punish teachers who do good work in districts that do good work. If a child is trapped in a failing school, then we should fix that school.

Pierson said another reason she entered the race was that Holland joined a majority of Republicans and Democrats in the House of Representatives in voting to impeach Attorney General Ken Paxton.

After a trial, the Republican majority in the Texas Senate acquitted Paxton of all charges.

Pierson criticized the vote in the House of Representatives.

“I thought it was wrong for a number of reasons,” Pierson said. “There was no due process and I think the Senate trial exposed a lot of the haste and haste of the process. That’s the only thing we as conservatives believe is due process, and that was denied to the attorney general.”

Holland said that even though the Senate acquitted Paxton, it did not question his decision to impeach the attorney general.

“No, because I believe we have to do the right thing when it comes to politics and party affiliation,” Holland said. “I don’t regret my vote.”

Last year, the families of the deadly mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde pushed to raise the age to purchase an AR rifle from 18 to 21.

The bill ultimately died, but Holland, who had previously voted for constitutional carry, was among the Republicans who joined Democrats in pushing for an out-of-committee vote on the bill before the full House.

“I felt like it was the right thing to do,” Holland said. “I am a gun owner myself, I own a lot of guns, I carry a gun. You have to be 21 to drink, you have to be 21 to gamble, you have to be 21 to buy a gun.” . I felt like I was ready to join the conversation.

“The district does not support any gun control measures,” Pierson said. “The district is constitutionally very conservative.”

Early voting runs until Friday at 7 p.m.

Watch both candidates' full interviews below:

Watch Eye On Politics on air and streaming Sunday at 7:30 p.m.

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