Lisa Seger is one of our favorite stories from the 2017-2018 election cycle. Recruited via FB groups and with her filing fees paid by a precinct chair, Seger threw her hat into the ring in a central Texas Legislature district, HD3, that had never before seen a Democratic challenger. She is an initial member of House Team Purple, a tandem fundraising effort for first-time outsider candidates challenging traditionally red swathes of Texas countryside.
Seger is co-owner of Blue Heron Farm in Waller County, where she and her husband raise goats on 10 acres, make and sell cheese and foster a parade of rescue dogs through a nonprofit, 4 Paws Farm. Her most recent foster, Harriet, arrived pregnant and has since delivered five healthy pups. More about the puppies in a moment!
Nobody, even Lisa herself, expects her to win:
“It’s impossible for a Democrat to win HD-3,” says Mark Jones, leader of the Texas Politics Program at the Baker Institute and a Kinder Fellow. “It’s like playing football where the other team starts with five touchdowns.”
But the run isn’t for nothing. “This is exactly what the Democratic Party needs if it’s going to return to the majority status,”says Jones. A Democratic candidate gives voters an alternative and political analysts say that’s better than leaving a race uncontested
That hasn’t stopped her from proudly carrying the Democratic banner for rural education, healthcare, flood management and her raison d'être, redistricting reform:
Nothing is more undemocratic than treating the apportionment of representation as the spoils of war. Districts should be drawn impartially and compactly in a way that ensures all voices are heard equally. What this means, legislatively, is implementing a non-partisan, citizen-led redistricting commission. This basic change, already being used in other states, gets us closer to the representative democracy we all deserve.
Seger’s presence hasn’t gone unnoticed by the political community. After a staffer for Mike Siegel (running in the “Safe Republican” TX10 that sprawls from Austin to Houston) got arrested for delivering a letter to the Waller County Courthouse challenging the new change-of-address forms being required of Prairie View A&M University, Seger was there as a surrogate and media contact to put pressure on the Texas Secretary of State to stop the disenfranchisement of student voters.
Impressed by Lisa’s tenacity and vision and underwhelmed by the track record of incumbent State Rep. Cecil Bell Jr., the Houston Chronicle recently gave the longshot goat farmer its endorsement.
But here’s the most important endorsement: PUPPIES
Under Lisa’s care, Harriet the dog gave birth to five pups, each bearing the name of a fellow Texas legislature candidate: Alec (for Alec Johnson, HD11-Nacogdoches), Sam (for Sam Hatton, HD71-Abilene), Dr. Fred (for Fred Infortunio, HD130-Cypress), Claire (for Claire Barnett, HD122-San Antonio) and Josh (for Josh Wilkinson, HD14-Bryan). Inbetween campaigning, Seger has been making Halloween costumes and posting them daily, much to the delight of the Internet.
TXLege Puppies
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Lisa Seger and Sam Hatton are original members of House Team Purple, tandem fundraising for Texas State House of Representative candidates in traditionally uncontested rural districts.
Claire Barnett and Alec Johnson are included in the tandem fundraising page House Team Purple, Part 2. More about them can be found HERE.
Josh Wilkinson is a member of House Team Purple, Part 3.