Social worker challenges Hughes for Texas Senate

Democratic candidate for Texas State Senate District 1, Audrey Spanko, isn’t a career politician. With two degrees in social work, both from the University of Texas, she has made her career as a licensed social worker. Working for approximately ten years with nonprofits, she helped families find basic needs and medical care. Between 2016 and 2019, Spanko spent time working child abuse prevention for the Department of Family and Protective Services. Her experience in these areas are what have shaped her campaign platform.

Her number one priority is healthcare. In Senate District 1, the population was 819,976 as of the 2010 census. Of that population, Spanko says that there are currently 134,000 residents who are without health coverage. She also says that the district has the highest infant mortality rate in the state. If elected, Spanko plans to work to expand Medicaid coverage. In doing so, she says this will not only improve access to health care, but also reduce expenses to taxpayers.

Spanko’s second priority is public education. Both her mother and sister are teachers in the public school system. As such, Spanko believes that teachers are the heart of every classroom and would work to increase not only their salaries, but also provide them and students with better technologies and access to safer, more inclusive environments in public schools by increasing public school funding.

Currently, Texas has minimum wage set at $7.25 an hour. In district 1, 54% of the households make less than $50,000 a year. Spanko would like to see the minimum wage raised to $10, what she considers a living wage. She says Texas residents shouldn’t have to make diffcult financial decisions and deserve to be paid fairly.

When asked about the recent shut down and its effect on small businesses, bars, and in particular, Veterans of Foreign Wars posts, Spanko says the Governor Abbott has a pandemic team made up of mostly men who are in big business that did not consult with small business owners or take into consideration population density or usage of location. Small business owners are struggling to stay afloat while big businesses are reaping the benefits of government funding. She also brings her platform full circle by noting that Texas has the highest number of uninsured veterans in the country. With the VFWs closed until recently, many veterans have been unable to access much needed service information. This, she says, is unacceptable. “You served us.” Spanko says. Currently, many veterans do have access to a program called Telehealth; however that program may not be fully accessible once the state shut down is completely lifted.

Spanko is running against Republican candidate Bryan Hughes in the General Election, Nov. 3 and has one piece of advice for readers, “Get out and vote.”