RAYMONDVILLE, Texas - Raise Your Hand Texas, a nonprofit group that supports public education, recently hosted a forum in Raymondville for the candidates running for Texas House District 37.

Four candidates appeared, all Democrats. They were Ruben Cortez, Jonathan Gracia, Carol Lynn Sanchez, and Alex Dominguez. Incumbent state Rep. Janie Lopez, R-San Benito, did not attend. The moderator was Rio Grande Valley education leader George McShan.

Perhaps the most striking part of the one and a half hours of discussion came when Cortez was asked a question about full state funding for Pre-K education. Cortez, a former member of the State Board of Education, said the reason it has not happened is due to racism.

Cortez said: “The majority population of kids in public school today are Latino. They they are Hispanic kids, the majority of our students, and I continue to believe that some of our top leaders try to create this institutional racism that we have to keep our people down and we need to fight against these things. And universal Pre-K would only help in this.”

In the HD 37 primary election, Sanchez came fourth and Dominguez third. Cortez came in first and Gracia second. As none of the candidates secured more than 50 percent of the vote a runoff was triggered. It will be between Cortez and Gracia.

Now that there is a runoff, the Rio Grande Guardian has edited audio from the forum to only include the opening and closing remarks of Cortez and Gracia, plus the questions posed by McShan and the responses of Cortez and Gracia.

To read the new stories and watch the news videos of the Rio Grande Guardian International News Service go to www.riograndeguardian.com.