Hardaway gathered with local Republicans at the Taylor County Republican Headquarters Tuesday night, where he shared his gratitude for the votes and his desire to get to work.
Hardaway said that although he’s excited about the results, he has a lot of work to do before he steps into office in January. He said he wants to continue to hear from the voters in House District 71 so he can better serve them.
As he steps into the role, he said his top priority is addressing data center growth.
"But I think this has been the biggest economic boom or impact that’s happened,” Hardaway said. “And so making sure that we’re managing that growth responsibly and that we are looking out for ratepayers, landowners and residents of HD 71.”
Hardaway said that his other top priority while in office is transparency and that he plans to keep conversations going and stay connected with voters and with the media to ensure everyone knows about the work being done in Austin
This year’s election was unprecedented, as a huge wave of blue made its way through Texas and several other states.
Hardaway said this poses an interesting challenge, as many of the Republicans he ran with and incumbents who gave him advice will not be returning to office in Austin.
He said this means he will need to rely on his established relationships with his peers in West Texas to get work done.
"There will be a good West Texas contingent that I’ve got good relationships with,” Hardaway said “So we’ll get to work on those issues that people care about deeply here, whether it’s energy, data centers, public education, things like that.”
Reining in the data-center-boom could just be the issue that helps lay the groundwork for bipartisan cooperation - as a new mix of lawmakers takes their seats in Texas’s 90th legislative session, which is set to begin on January 12th.
Diana Luna joined other Democratic candidates and voters to watch the election returns at the Woman’s club of Abilene. It was a night of celebration as the Democratic party claimed the U.S. house and the U.S. senate…and upended the top of the ticket in Texas.
Rich Lyles is the secretary of the Taylor County Democratic Party. Lyles said he attended because he wants the candidates to know that the democratic party is taking Taylor County by storm.
“I'm just out here to show my support for the candidates and let them know that compared to a couple of years ago, the amount of votes that they've received this time is actually a tremendous, tremendous improvement,” said Lyles.
Taylor County still went for Ken Paxton and Greg Abbott–but with only 64-and-66 percent of the vote respectively. Overall the local Democrats claimed some new ground this year.
While a blue wave washed through Texas, Diana Luna reflected after conceding her race to Jay Hardaway.
“We ran our best race. We knew that we were going to have to punch well above our weight to win this,” said Luna “However, I mean, I am so proud of the work that we did in the last year.”
But as she looks at the big picture, Luna is excited for the Democratic party in the state—and the hopes for local Democrats in the future
“I'm interested to see what happens next with this seat because nobody expected the results from tonight,” said Luna.
And Luna says she is proud of how she ran her race-and the way she listened to vulnerable members of the community.
“I think that we did a great job of that, of really listening to our community and finding out what their concerns and their needs were,” said Luna.
That work isn’t over with the end of the elections. Luna says Democrats need to stay focused on affordability within the rural communities of Texas.
“We need to make people whole as quickly as possible, freezing the rent rates, freezing, or suspending the state gas tax, as well as getting tax reimbursements for the people,” said Luna.
Luna believes this change takes time, and it will take more than the election to help hurting people.
“That doesn't change tomorrow, regardless of the results of this election, the people that are still hurting are still hurting. and the real work is still ongoing,” said Luna.
Like most West Texas Democrats, Luna knew winning was a long shot–She expressed her excitement for - and- continued trust in the democratic party – and hopes for the future of Abilene.
