David E. Cozad is a "builder". A leader who mentors and teaches, assists and equips, he blends his dual career path as educator and innovator in the telecommunications industry with common sense practicality and metrics driven research and evaluation.
Anyone who has a cell phone which sends text messages or has voice mail has a device in which David Cozad played an instrumental role. He was the Project Engineer on the software development team at Motorola which developed and implemented service for the first cell phone with text messaging and voice mail capability. He led the "roll-out" of that cellular phone service in the Western part of the USA, Thailand and Argentina. At the time, most people in the industry thought what his team accomplished was "impossible" and "could not be done." David was assigned to lead the team because he was known as someone who could make things happen.
He applied problem-solving, solution-finding skills in leading others to change the telecommunications industry. Those are the same skills which are needed in Congress today.
His love for his country, and more specifically, his deep concern that the policies of many in Congress will harm his grandchildren and their generation, prompts him to continue placing most personal things aside to work diligently in building a campaign organization to win the US 6th Congressional Seat. He is determined to build the infrastructure which will enable logical, problem-solving Democrats who truly care for this nation to win seats from Tea Party GOP incumbents from the "courthouse to the White House."
He's a realist who knows that challenging a 30+ year Republican incumbent for Congress takes more than a two-year investment. He's been building his campaign organization for years. He ran for U.S. Congress in the 6th District against Joe Barton in 2010. He had no intention of running again in 2014. He had been hired as treasurer for another candidate who was forced to drop out due to health problems. David had served on numerous campaigns of other Democrats who had challenged Joe Barton. He knew the district. When he was drafted in late November 2013 to run in 2014, he decided to make that year count by using it to build an organization which can take the seat away from the Republicans in 2016.
Campaigning for David Cozad involves a lot of listening and connecting. He's been steadily building a base of supporters. In 2014, several high profile campaigns were already based in Tarrant County before he declared. Most volunteers and donors were already committed to other campaigns. On March 3rd, 2015, the Congressional candidate who declared last in 2014 was the first U.S. Congressional candidate in to kick off a 2016 U.S. Congressional campaign in Texas. He is encouraged at the response of local activists.
David believes that Democrats will not win unless they support each other up and down the ticket. He sees helping to build the party in the two rural counties in his district as a necessity, and considers it "his campaign's responsibility". He is generous with candidates up and down the ticket. Anytime there is a Cozad for Congress event, other candidates are invited to speak and encouraged to recruit volunteers and to distribute their campaign literature.
In 2014, when preparing for the Texas State Democratic Party Convention, his staff was stretched thin. David said "It was a "no-brainer" for him to decide to stretch a bit further when they were asked to help the Ready for Hillary Super PAc with a booth at the Convention. He committed his team as the local organizers for the Ready for Hillary 2014 Texas State Convention booth. Located in Virginia, the SuperPAC paid for the booth, but lacked local personnel to furnish and staff it. Cozad authorized his chief of staff to be "in charge" of both the Cozad for Congress and the Ready for Hillary booths. David hauled the furnishing for the Hillary booth to the Dallas Convention Center himself in a borrowed pick-up and helped set-up and break-down both booths. It would have been "easier" to have just done his booth, but David and his team saw having the Ready for Hillary presence at the State Democratic Convention as a good thing which could help unite and energize people in preparation for the next presidential election. At the last minute, people stepped forward to help in both booths. Some of them, who were unknown before the State Convention by David or any of his team, became some of David's most loyal volunteers and supporters.
David doesn't do things for other candidates so that they will "scratch his back." During a campaign cycle, those who run and those who are active in campaigns, notice who is "in it just for himself, and who is in there for something "bigger than just himself."
His style of campaigning is to do as much as you can with every dollar you have. Do as much as you can that does not cost money which will expand the progressive base and help energize citizens to support and vote for other candidates running on the Democratic ticket. When Leticia Van de Putte spoke at UTA, Cozad and his team, without being asked, distributed flyers on campus for 5 hours prior to the event. Do what you can do for the best outcome today while building for a good outcome in the future is part of their mission.
David and his team try to help new candidates not have to learn everything the hard way. The first time David ran, few people helped him. He had to learn almost everything by "the seat of the pants while campaigning." He remembers how hard it was to be a first time candidate. Last year he instructed his Chief of Staff to find out from the F.E.C. everything that is legal for federal campaigns to do in cooperation with state and local campaigns. The F.E.C. confirmed that there are many more things which campaigns can do together than was being done cooperatively. David is determined to eliminate as many of the "incumbent advantage" which Republicans enjoy in Texas as possible. Knowing the law and developing strategies to work together legal is how he believes progressives have the best change of reclaiming Texas.
The Sixth District used to be much larger and much "redder". It stretched from the DFW Metroplex southward, almost to College Station. When redistricted before the 2012 election, the district became much more compact. Now it is comprised of all of Navarro and Ellis Counties and part of Tarrant. The majority of voters are in Arlington, but Meadowbrook and Hanley in Fort Worth have become very blue parts of the District. In 2014 he carried every precinct in Meadowbrook and Handley, and all the precincts in SE Tarrant County. There are even a few precincts which previously had voted majority Republican north of I-30 in Arlington which were carried by Cozad in 2014. He did not have the volunteers to block walk every precinct. When his team walked, they not only distributed his literature, they also passed out literature on every candidate in that precinct from the top to the bottom of the ticket. The majority of those who voted in the Tarrant County precincts his team walked chose David Cozad for Congress over the Republican incumbent in the General Election. Having other candidates, such as State Representative Nicole Collier and East Side Fort Worth Battleground Texas volunteers also walking in those precincts helped enormously. In 2016 there will not be many other campaigns on the ground. He needs resources to be able to expand his team and saturate much more of the district with the Democratic message.
He operated on a shoestring in 2014. He is expert at making every campaign dollar count. However, without enough to spread around, much of the district did not get his message in 2014. He is hoping to change that this year. That is why was the first U.S. Congressional Democrat to declare for 2016. He is steadily recruiting and training volunteers. Intense party building is a way of life for the Cozad Team for the two rural counties in the district (Navarro and Ellis).
Navarro's Democratic Party had to be reorganized from the ground up. County Chair Linda Mertz was appointed by the State Chair and won re-election after the previous County Chair became incapacitated. There were no precinct chairs or County Executive Committee. Cozad and his team spent considerable time in Navarro in 2014 helping to recruit and train precinct chairs.
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Navarro County Chair, Linda Mertz, and Navarro County Democratic Precinct Chairs meet with David Cozad and Faith Chatham at a County Executive Committee Planning Retreat in early 2015. This link allows donors to contribute directly to the campaigns of Veterans David Cozad and Shirley McKellar who are Democratic Congressional Candidates in 2016 and the Federal PAC which supports progressive challengers running against GOP /Tea Party incumbents for seats from Texas to Congress.
https://secure.actblue.com/...
Every decision he makes includes weighing its impact on the more vulnerable members of
the community and future generations. He is firmly committed to applying logic and common sense to public policy planning. As a businessman, he knows that destroying the planet for short-term profiteering is not sound business. He knows that many businesses will operate responsibly, but there are always a few actors who refuse to employ best practices. Voluntary compliance would work if everyone was responsible. They aren't. Therefore, business needs sensible, fair regulations. There is a difference between choosing "winners and losers" and applying sound guidelines and fair enforcement. He sees what Joe Barton, and others who grant large tax subsidies to the fossil fuel industry and impose regulations on the solar and wind power industries which inhibit their development, as interference in the free market system. He definitely differs with Joe Barton on the role of government.
Joe wants to abolish OSHA and the EPA. David sees their role as necessary. Workers should not be subject to preventable harm. Those who exploit "the natural resources" should not be allowed to exploit the people who live and work and study nearby. Those who profit from developing natural resources should not be allowed to pocket the profits and pass the cost along to adjacent property owners and the public through higher health costs and lower property values. Barton's protectionism of the fossil fuel industry inhibits development and inhibits the implementation of sounder business practices.
David is frequently seen at EPA and TCEQ hearing on Air and Water Quality. Much of his team are active in Transportation, Energy, Health Care, Civil Rights, Women's Rights activism. He attracts and keeps volunteers who have college degrees and campaign experience. There are no attempts to construct a persona from polling data. Instead, his campaign is based on authenticity. He is consistent. He campaigns on issues which he believes in. He doesn't adopt positions just to try to favorably impress votes. Instead, he attempts to discover the best course of action for the people who live in the region and advocates for that position. He wants to win the election. He cares more about making the world better, especially for the children.
He is popular with labor. He was endorsed by the State AFLCIO in 2014 and was one of only three Texas Democratic Congressional non-incumbents to receive the endorsement of the National American Federal Governmental Workers.
When Joe Barton, during the governmental shut-down of 2013, said that American could pay the Chinese interest on the loans and other lenders (America's veterans and peple on Social Security) could wait, David was livid. He knew that the largest holder of American debt is the Social Security Trust Fund, not the Chinese. Reagan was the first to borrow from the SS Trust Fund. George W. Bush borrowed heavily from it to help finance his Middle Eastern war. Cozad sees it as part of our nation's honor to respect the American workers who have contributed throughout their working careers to the Social Security Trust Fund.
David examines policy from every direction before making a decision. When examining the XL Pipeline, he discovered that the corrosive nature of the oil and the lack of adequate processes to prevent spills, or to clean-up from pipeline ruptures, would endanger the land and people along the pipeline's path. The oil is not intended to be used domestically in the USA. The risk outweighed the benefit. Logic showed that the jobs generated by pipeline construction would not exceed those which could be generated in other infrastructure projects. Reason dictates that sound American policy should be focused on creating jobs through investing in projects which do not endanger the lives, long-term health and safety of the American people, and the land we depend upon for our domestic economic survival. It is not a popular position with some people. However, David knows that being responsible does not always make you popular with those who hope to profit.
A Win by Cozad in 2016 would turn all of Arlington,Navarro and Ellis Counties Blue
Cozad is running in the US-TX 6th Congressional District. It comprises all of Arlington which is not in Congressman Marc Veasey's TX 33rd District. Veasey represents a small sliver of Arlington, When the 33rd was created, Republicans in the Legislature oversaw a process which surgically cut Democrats out of a few Arlington precincts. Some speculate that it was a process designed to make the 6th a safer district for Republicans. Veasey was a former staffer of Congressman Martin Frost, who represented part of Arlington for years. When Frost became a "probable contender" for Speaker of the House, the GOP dominated State Legislature acted to weaken Frost's re-election prospects through gerrymandering.
Frost had to choose between districts with constituents in Dallas or abandoning much of his Tarrant County base. He chose the part of the district farther east and his Democratic seat when to the Republicans. Marc Veasey was elected to the Texas Legislature from Fort Worth, frequenting working closely with Wendy Davis who represented a Tarrant County Senatorial District which included Fort Worth and the western half of Arlington.
C
ongressman Marc Veasey and David Cozad
When asked why he is running, David Cozad tells folks honestly that "It has always been about my grandchildren." He believes he can do more to improve the world for them and for their generation as a member of Congress than as a private citizen. Seeing missed opportunities to make things better frustrates him. Grandstanding and unnecessary waste while those initiatives and projects which should be national priorities go unfunded is a betrayal of the faith and trust of the American people. Knowing that too little is being done to return opportunities for upward mobility to the American middle class spurs him forward.
He sacrifices time with his grandchildren, but ultimately, they are what motivates him to not stop, to continue building, to continue communicating, to continue working, to continue mentoring and training others. to continue campaigning.
David is determined that his daughters and granddaughters should have every opportunity to excel and to be rewarded on par with their brothers or other boys and men they encounter. He is solidly in support of passage of the Pay Day Fairness Act. He witnessed his wife experience gender discrimination in pay during some of her previous jobs. He points out to people on the campaign trail that gender pay discrimination hurts every member of a family A woman who is underpaid during her career, receives less retirement income. When one member of a family is under compensated, they are less able to send their children (both male and female) to college. Even though Pay Day Fairness appears to be a "woman's issue", Cozad says that is only how it is on the surface. When you really examine it, even though men may receive more than women in the workplace, having a woman experience pay discrimination impacts the standard of living of every member of the family.
Some of his issues and biography are on his 2014 Push Card:
• We must create jobs in competitive, moe sustainable industries which provide a career path and more than “just a living wage.”
• Education cannot be considered a luxury. It is the foundation for economic survival for the individual, for families and our nation.
• Immigration reform which allows people to come out of the shadows and acquire legal status without returning to their country of origin is vital to our national security.
• Rapid transition to renewable energy is essential for the stability of the nation and cannot be delayed.
• The tax code should encourage investment in the USA and discourage offshore manufacturing and moving jobs overseas.
• I am committed to Net Neutrality.
• I support the Pay Day Fairness Act and will work to make our nation’s policies fair to women and girls.
TRICKLE-DOWN ECONOMICS is a failed political experiment.
Now there must be a path to the future for ALL Americans
PERSONAL:
• Thirty+ year resident of Arlington
• A former U.S. Marine Corps officer, David grew up in or near Army bases in the U.S. and abroad.
• Married over 40 years to college sweetheart Jolene Glenn. Together they have two daughters, two sons and three grandchildren.
EDUCATION:
• Bachelor of Arts in Physics and Mathematics, University of Nebraska, 1967-1972.
• Basic School, U.S. Marine Corps, Quantico, VA, 1972
• Artillery School, Ft. Sill, OK, 1973
• Bachelor of Science, Computer Science with minor in Accounting, Youngstown State University, 1978-1982.
• Graduate Study Software Engineering, UT Arlington.
• Teaching Certificate, University of North Texas, 2006.
• Graduated from High School in El Paso, TX.
EMPLOYMENT:
• General Motors in Warren, OH (5 years)
• Software Engineer 23 years: Software Project Leader for first cell phone to send texts and voice-mail.
• TD Ameritrade, Series 7 and 63 licenses
• Taught High School Math in Grand Prairie ISD and at West Side High School, Fort Worth ISD
Congressman Marc Veasey and David E. Cozad will make a good team working for the people of North Texas. With only 11 Democrats out of 37 House and Senate members from Texas, Democrats are at a big disadvantage until more progressive Texans are elected to replace the obstructionist elements in the U.S. House and Senate. Your contribution to the David Cozad campaign can help turn this purple Texas Congressional District Blue.
http://www.cozadforcongress.org
Twitter: @CozadTX6
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/....
E-mail: cozadforcongress@gmail.com
Press: presscozadforcongress@gmail.com
Telephone: 817 909-2360
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https://secure.actblue.com/...
Website:
http://www.cozadforcongress.org
Twitter:
@CozadTX6
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/....
E-mail:
cozadforcongress@gmail.com
Press:
presscozadforcongress@gmail.com
Telephone: 817 909-2360
To contribute to the two veterans, Cozad and McKellar and to the Federal PAC which supports progressive challengers running against Tea Party/GOP Congressional Incumbents from Texas with one click: https://secure.actblue.com/...
Edited and expanded on 10/6/2015 at 4:56 a.m.
Faith Chatham served as Chief of Staff for Cozad for Congress from Nov. 2013 through March 2015. She is currently CFO and Developmental Director for the Texas Federal Blue Seed PAC.