Houston Chronicle recommends Ryan McConnico in Republican primary for Texas House District 134

Ryan McConnico isn’t afraid to run. In 2018, McConnico ran for office in House District 148, challenging Rep. Jessica Farrar. Then 28, he told this board he was running in that deep-blue district because voters deserve a choice in a democracy. He didn’t win, but he gained supporters. He also ran in the special election there in 2019 once Farrar retired; he finished fourth in a packed 15-person race with 10.8 percent. Now 32, McConnico has sharpened his positions on key issues. His platform is long on education priorities. He wants to deemphasize standardized testing, expand access to the best in pre-K education and expand community college offerings. McConnico said he wants every high school senior to take a required personal finance and money management course.

Professionally, McConnico has worked as an energy company employee, management consultant and as a vice president at a commodity certification company. With his energy background, McConnico said he’d do all he could in office to further strengthen the state’s power grid and build on reforms to ensure nothing like the 2021 winter storm blackouts happen again. “We need to invest in diversified sources of energy,” McConnico said, adding he supports both offshore drilling and renewable energy as a means of reducing carbon emissions. His platform is clear and detailed, and it seems to us he has the energy and passion to effectively make his case to voters in the fall general election. His education background includes a master’s degree in business administration from the University of Texas at Austin, and he’s a former precinct chair with the Harris County Republican Party. A.A. Dominguez, a 52-year-old businessman, doesn’t appear to have an active campaign, and didn’t respond to editorial board interview requests. The winner of the HD 134 Republican primary will face off in the general election against incumbent Democratic Rep. Ann Johnson. District 134 consists of parts of west and southwest Houston, including Bellaire and the Texas Medical Center. Three years after his most recent run for office, McConnico is a more mature candidate with specific ideas of the kind of legislator he’d like to be. We recommend Republican voters advance him to the general election.