Standing on the steps of our State Capitol with my two adult daughters, Cathy and Dr. Lisa Doggett, and my third-grade granddaughter, Clara, and in front of 50,000 Texans, I had the privilege of addressing last month’s Women’s March. Meanwhile, my wife Libby, who has just completed her responsibilities for early childhood education in the U.S. Department of Education, participated in the huge Washington D.C. march and rally. What an empowering start to our ongoing fight for social justice.

My message to the gathered patriots:  We may be the Lone Star State, but we don’t stand alone in standing up for equality and rejecting efforts by Trump and the Trumpets to drag us backward.  I reject his anti-immigrant, anti-Mexican, anti-woman agenda.  Working together, we can draw strength from one another to resist and overcome the many obstacles.

Rather than attend the inauguration, I chose to support local efforts to tell President Trump that respect, like Pennsylvania Avenue, is a two-way street. Instead of uniting our country, his unprecedented, unpresidential actions are further dividing it. By repeatedly taking the lowest road, he shows little respect for our Nation’s highest office.   

At marches around the world, including San Antonio, it was an inspiration to see so many joining together to express our determination to stand up for what’s right. My San Antonio staff joined the Mujeres Marcharan at the SA to DC Women’s March Against Hate that advanced from the steps of City Hall to Estella’s restaurant on the West Side. Groups that I have a history of working with, like RAICES, the Mission Democrats, Planned Parenthood, Unite Here, and Fuerza Unida, gathered for this community display of opposition to the dangerous Trump agenda. But this involvement can only be the beginning of our march, not the end. If our involvement ended with these events, we would get nowhere. I am encouraged by the continuation of events and the amount of voices that have joined in opposition to these recent executive orders.  My District Director and a UTSA Alum, MaryEllen Veliz, spoke at a recent MOVE San Antonio rally in Main Plaza  that was organized by students, many of them from UTSA.

One way that I am continuing to work for change is by defending families’ access to affordable health care. Soon after the Women’s March, I hosted a gathering with Congressman Joaquin Castro to encourage residents to sign up for health insurance before the deadline. Meanwhile, several women who work in my Washington office protested President Trump’s unconstitutional, un-American anti-Muslim immigration order.

While I will search for any potential areas of agreement with the new Administration, I will never, never back down from defending our values and advancing reasonable alternatives to the policies President Trump has proclaimed.

I welcome your comments. You can reach me downtown just off the sidewalk at 217 W. Travis, at one of the many community gatherings in which I participate in or at [email protected].  If you want to receive email updates from me, you can sign up at https://doggett.house.gov