• Known for its deep East-Texas forests and rivers
• Anchored by Lufkin, Texas, a small-town center that carries East-TX heritage and a close-knit community feel.
• A county rooted in resilience and the values that shape the backbone of Texas 17 - family businesses, rural traditions, and strong community ties
• A major agricultural hub - ranked among the top counties in Texas for cattle and grain production.
• The county seat, Marlin, was once known as “The Hot Mineral City of Texas,” thanks to natural mineral springs that gave the town early renown and attracted visitors.
• Blends working‑town roots and farmland with small‑town families and rural heritage - a reflection of the classically hardworking communities I aim to fight for.
• A part of the broader Central Texas rural network, where communities rely on farms, modest incomes, and close-knit neighbor support.
• A place where the rural-town identity still matters, and where residents deserve representation that understands small-town challenges as deeply as urban ones.
• Represents a rural, tight‑knit way of life, with about 22,000 residents spread across 1,231 square miles
• Once powered by timber and agriculture. Today, many still live off logging, farming, small businesses, and service industries.
• A community where neighbors know neighbors, where generations stay close to the land, and where values of hard work, loyalty, and local pride still run deep.
• Known as the “Deerest Place in Texas” - with abundant woods, rivers, and pastureland that speak to its hunting, fishing, and rural‑living roots.
• A county that values simplicity, self‑reliance, and community: long commutes for work, low cost of living, and a lifestyle rooted in hard work and neighbor‑to‑neighbor support
• One of the smaller, rural counties in the region - home to folks who often live quietly, work hard, and carry the kind of values (community, self-reliance, neighborliness) that rarely make headlines.
• A reminder that TX-17 includes more than cities - it includes rural heartlands that need a voice just as much as mainstream suburbs.
• Home to Waco, Texas, a hub city at the heart of Central Texas with a mix of urban energy and small-town grit.
• A county with rich history: from early-settler frontier roots to military service contributions during WWI and WWII.
• Reflects the district’s diversity: from students and educators, to working families and industrial workers, making it a microcosm of the challenges and hopes across TX-17.
• Traditional rural Texas county with farms, ranches, and small towns, embodying the hardworking, land-rooted spirit of the state.
• Represents counties in TX-17 where agriculture, local businesses, and rural way of life still define community bonds and values.
• A landscape that reflects its rural roots and working‑land heritage, with 854 square miles of flat to gently rolling terrain, the county contains a mix of fertile river bottoms, upland prairies, and timberland
• Agriculture, ranching, and small‑town businesses remain part of the county’s backbone - not city-glitz or big corporate factories, but a way of life built on hard work, land, and community.
• lies deep in East Texas timberlands - with lush forests of pine, oak, and cypress shaping its natural character.
• Home to a vibrant mix of small towns and rural communities, blended with history: Nacogdoches is among the oldest settlements in Texas.
• Carries a tradition of resilience and roots, and embodies the mix of working‑class and community‑centered values that make up the heart of TX‑17.
• Home to the state capital, a place with big‑city energy and small‑town heart, where tech, art, government, education, and community all collide.
• A diverse, growing community with more than 1.3 million residents, blending long‑time Texans, newcomers chasing opportunity, students, families, artists, and workers across all walks of life.
• Reflects the push and pull felt by many Texans: ambition, diversity, struggle, and resilience. It’s a county where people work hard, dream big, and fight for fairness.
• Named for the Trinity River, which still defines much of its land, life, and history.
• Once driven by booming lumber mills and logging, Trinity’s working‑class roots remain: many residents still live close to the land, raising cattle, working forests, or building livelihoods tied to rural life and the natural world.
• Where small towns, open woods, and deep community ties matter, families run generations deep, and shared history shapes shared values.
• Part of the broader economic zone that ties rural and small‑town Texans to regional hubs, making it a crucial connecting point in the district.
• Its mix of piney‑woods and small communities embodies the rural‑town spirit of much of Texas 17: strong, tight‑knit, resilient.
• One of the fastest growing areas in Central Texas; its mix of suburbs, towns, and rural edges reflects the changing face of the district.
• Its roots run deep in Texas history, with pioneer, ranching, and early-settlement heritage that still shapes community identity.
• Represents dynamic growth, opportunity, and the challenge of preserving values while managing change — a balance I’m ready to fight for.