WASHINGTON Gina Ortiz Jones believed she might work for President Donald Trump .

When he won the presidency in November 2016, Jones, a profession civil servant who served in the Air Force in Iraq under George W. Bush and as an intelligence officer under Barack Obama , remained in her task as a director in the Office of the United States Trade Representative. By June, she couldn’ t do it any longer. Trump’ s prepares to gut education and real estate help struck too near house for Jones, as somebody who count on reduced-cost school lunches and subsidized real estate when she was a kid being raised by a single mama in San Antonio. She was likewise horrified by the president’ s employs for leading tasks.

“ The kind of individuals that were generated to be public servants had an interest in neither the general public nor the service, ” Jones, 36, stated in an interview. “ That, to me, was an indication that I ’ m going to need to serve in a various method. ”

She discovered a brand-new method to serve: She’ s running for Congress. Jones has actually never ever run for workplace previously, and if she wins, she would make history as the very first lesbian, Iraq War veteran and first-generation Filipina-American to hold a U.S. House seat in Texas. Her home town district, Texas ’ 23rd, has actually likewise never ever been represented by a lady.

Jones wouldn’ t have actually had the ability to mature healthy or get an education without the chances she received from the federal government, she stated. The only factor she might pay for college, she included, was that she got a four-year Air Force ROTC scholarship — and it exasperates her to see political leaders aim to remove those possibilities for others.

“ Talent is universal. Chance is not, ” she stated. “ Folks in Congress, they do 3 things. They produce chances, they secure chances and they remove chances. That’ s how we need to be considering this really clearly.”

Jones, a Democrat, is aiming to unseat two-term Rep. Will Hurd (R). It won’ t be simple. She needs to beat 3 other Democrats in the March 6 main, consisting of Jay Hulings, a widely known previous federal district attorney. If she can pull that off, she’ ll face Hurd, who has the benefit of being the well-financed and incumbent. Since Sept. 30, Hurd had $870,000 in money on hand compared to Jones’ $74,000 .

But Jones is definitely feasible. She ’ s got recommendations from significant nationwide groups consisting of EMILY ’ s List, VoteVets and Victory Fund. Former Texas Democratic state senator and gubernatorial prospect Wendy Davis backed her. A few weeks earlier, Khizr Khan , the Gold Star dad who offered an enthusiastic speech at the 2016 Democratic National Convention, revealed his assistance for her project, too.

“ With leaders like Gina, our country ’ s affairs remain in great hands, ” Khan stated in a video revealing his recommendation. “ I am supporting her for Congress since of her generous, bold management. She’ s the leader we require for a synergistic world.”

If she can win the main, Jones has some benefits over Hurd. This district, which extends midway throughout the state thanks to crazy gerrymandering , has flip-flopped in between Democratic and GOP representation for several years, with no one holding it for more than 2 terms considering that 2007. Hurd won his very first term in 2014 by 2,400 votes versus Democratic Rep. Pete Gallego. In 2016, Hurd won by 3,000 votes. Those are quite close races in a district where approximately 115,000 individuals enacted the midterm and 229,000 enacted the governmental election.

This race is likewise occurring in the middle of a wave of Democratic success around the nation, with some top-level GOP operatives currently bracing for a possible bloodbath in 2018.

Jones revealed aggravation that Hurd regularly votes versus his constituents ’ interests however appears to obtain away with it since of his track record for being “ the good person. ” Last year, Hurd offered individuals warm fuzzies about bipartisanship by live-streaming a 1,600-mile journey with Texas Democratic Rep. Beto O’ Rourke. HuffPost believed it looked enjoyable (even if it was a political computation by O’ Rourke, who proposed the journey and revealed a Senate run weeks later on). Jones scoffed.

“ When bipartisanship implies 2 guys get in a cars and truck and assist each other get chosen, we’ re all fucking screwed, ” she stated.

Instead, Jones went through Hurd ’ s record. He voted to postpone the execution of smog decrease procedures by 8 years, regardless of 1 in 13 Texans having asthma (with even greater rates in neighborhoods of color, like his). He voted 9 times to rescind the Affordable Care Act. He chose the GOP’ s tax expense, which benefits the abundant and raises taxes on middle-class households gradually. He’ s been peaceful about Congress ’ failure to restore financing for the Children’ s Health Insurance Program, which is set to end and would impact 400,000 kids in Texas.