October 30, 2020
. . . candidates for Congress from Texas
Democrat Sima Ladje-vardian, the one Iranian-American seeking a seat in the US Congress in this fall’s elections, has been outraised almost 5-to-1 by her opponent.
More than $13 million has already been spent in Houston’s 2nd Congressional District, making it the most expensive battle for the US House of Representatives in Texas and the seventh-most expensive in the entire nation.
The district has been targeted by the Democratic Party as one of its key potential pickups of the fall campaign. But Dan Crenshaw, the incumbent Republican, is tabbed by Texas Republicans as one of its comers and members have been pouring money into the race.
In the financial department, the GOP candidate is far out-pacing Democrat Ladjevardian. Their filings with the Federal Election Commission show that, through September 30, Crenshaw received contributions totaling a whopping $14.2 million while Ladjevardian drew $3.1 million—a large amount for a congressional race but nowhere near the astounding haul brought in by Crenshaw.
In 2016, 52 percent of the district voted for Donald Trump. In 2018, Crenshaw won 52.8 percent of the vote to replace retiring Republican incumbent Rep. Ted Poe in an unusually shaped district that includes Rice University.
The district is seen to be in play because it has been drawing huge numbers of immigrants, especially from Latin America, in recent years and is now 40 percent minority.
Ladjevardian, an attorney, has focused her campaign on issues like health care, gun violence and climate change. She supports expanding the Affordable Care Act and lowering prescription drug costs, a national paid family leave policy, and prohibiting discrimination based on gender identity or sexual orientation.
Crenshaw, a former Navy SEAL with a master’s degree from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, has prioritized issues like border security, gun rights, and disaster recovery and flood mitigation.
The two have also sparred over the government’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. Ladjevardian has accused Crenshaw of not taking the virus seriously, and a group of more than 100 doctors has circulated a letter accusing Crenshaw of spreading misinformation about the coronavirus. Crenshaw has defended himself by saying he has distributed 50,000 masks in Houston — though he himself has not always worn a mask in public.
Ladjevardian hasn’t hidden her origins in Iran. She was about 11 when the revolution happened. “It was chaos and very crazy times and we really, we just had to leave,” she said. “Really when we came here it was for the incredible power and the promise of the American dream that I had looked up to, heard about all my life.”
She said she has been in Houston for the past 30 years trying to give back to the community that has accepted her. Directly after the revolution, Ladjevardian said, she was in Europe for a couple years before moving to California. That’s where she met her husband. “So, I came to Houston for love,” she said.
An interviewer asked her if she supports defunding the police. “I absolutely do not,” Ladjevardian said. “I come from chaos and revolution. That’s not what I want at all. I think we have to look at public safety another way. Budget is not what dollars and cents is, it’s where we put our money.”
Ladjevardian said the biggest concern in the district — even before the pandemic — is health care. She said she doesn’t support Medicare for All, but instead thinks the Affordable Care Act, commonly called Obama-care, needs to be fortified because several components have been stripped away by the current administration. She said people should be allowed to keep their private insurance, have open enrollment, a public option for Medicare and affordable medication.