Southwest texas juniorcollege andso the satellite location here in new valley. I am steve switzer. This is a year like no other. This is an election like no other. S ea and this is a debate like no other. We are here in a mostly empty reauditorium the pandemic is required that. And you might Notice Center stage is at eight by 12 plexiglass wall. A part of what we will do tonight is politics through the lexi glass. We only had our photographers in this auditorium we are following strict protocols the three of us are on stage. The two candidates in myself and we had people from southwest texas juniorcollege. We are thrilled to be bringing this to you as i said off the top from the heart of district 23. I also want to say we havert the time keeper who is to my right. She is going to be keeping time sheoi is from this area to send her im glad we can cut down on your commute. Two people who want to take over the Office Currently held by congressman will hard. The first democratic among her endorsements former Vice President and current president ial nominee joe biden. Her opponent republican Tony Gonzalez who is backed by our current president donald trump. Tonight these two a square off square off for the first time facetoface i want to again fa Tina Ortiz Jones and Tony Gonzalez. Thank you for being here tonight. Y y i will be giving all of the questions but we do had questions submitted online and on camera from viewers right here. For most of the questions the respondents well had one minute to answer and then i as moderator have the option to expand on those answers with 32d allotments for the candidates to answer. We will have a Rapid Response round were each candidate well had 45 seconds to answer i again have discretion to expand on those answers or at any timeto to interrupt if i dont feel like the question is being answered. We dont have Opening Statements but we do head closing statements. Tony gonzalez won the coin toss. You get the first question tonight. We dont have Opening Statements i want to know more about you as a person not just you as a politician so im and ask each in ask each of you the first question. No rebuttal required. What is the biggest personal that you have overcome to be on the stage tonight . First off tales never fails. I am thankful for this debate. Im thankful for dr. Gonzales and president gallego for being a part of this. For me my life has never been easy. At two months old i was abandoned by my father five years old i grew up in a battered womens shelter. I have lived on myy own since i was 15 years old. I joined the navy at 18 years old without a high school diploma. Twenty years later i retired as a master chief. Now im finishing up my phd. This race for me is about the American Dream. No matter where you start in life you can do and you can be anything. It doesnt matter the color of your skin it doesnt matter if you come from a small town or big city. T this is america and here we can do anything. Thank you mr. Gonzalez. Gina ortiz jones you get the same question. What is the biggest personal challenge you have overcome to be on the stage tonight. Thank you for hosting us. Thank you at home for joining us this evening. I want to express my prayers to those of you that are still suffering during the pandemic and economic crisis. 40 my story starts over 40 years ago. My mom came chasing the American Dream. She remains us every single day that we were just so lucky to be born in this country we have to get back to a country that gave us so much. Its white my sister serves in the navy to this day. I amend this fight. That starts with quality Affordable Healthcare. I know the opportunityst. Grow up healthy and get an education and serve our country. Im in this fight to make sure every working family has the same fighting chance that i have were at our best. We invest in the most vulnerable. I see firsthand the importance of American Leadership thats why am in this race to make sure we get our country back on the right track. I want to get right to some questions the viewers have. But issues that have been front and center on both of your advertisements that we see quite often on televisionen for both candidates this question is from the viewer wanda. Where do you live now and how long had you lived there. Im a proud product of 7245. The first communion at saint rose. I am proud to be a product of san antonio. Working to protect our national and economic security. I came back to take care of my mom when she was diagnosed with colon cancer. I live in the home that i grew up in. Part of the community that has invested in me. Ha based on the election. I knew i have to make sure my community was will represented. Protect the opportunities. I came back in 2017 to make sure my community was will represented. Tony same question for you. Where do you live now and how long had you lived there. I spent some time growing up not too far from here. I live in san antonio. I am raising my family there. This district deserves someone who is going to roll up their sleeves and go to work every single day. Av this is an issue where my opponent and i differ. These are the facts. She has property in washington dc. These are the facts she claimed a homestead in washington dc. These are the facts. She does not visit the district. In the past week i had visited. The people of district 23 deserve ade representative that will roll up their sleeves and go to work not a virtual representation. I want to give you some rebuttal time. On the charges he made that you have a propertys not here that you dont really have a homestead exemption here. I am proud to have served our country for almost 15 years. Ie when my country ask me to go to iraq. I went. When they asked me at Fort Leavenworth i went. I am proud to serve our country i look forward to bringing those experience to this district. I opponent knows better. My opponent also owns property out of the state. This is Tony Gonzalez doing and saying whatever he thinks will get him to congress. Im going to move on. This is for you. You will represent a rich and diverse area. Diverse in landscape. And also in race. The next question has to do with the last president ial debate in the story that was in the huntington post. St during an instagram interview i want to give you the opportunity. Do you condemn white supremacist. And it President Trump make a mistake by not clearly doing so in the first president ial debate . I have served c c 20 years in te military. What i have learned is politics is ridiculous. To ask a a mexicanamerican zero by the way the only hispanic in this race if i condemned the kkk of course i condemned them. Of course i condemn terrorist organizations. Can my opponent say the same thing . This is about the district dont get distracted. It varies, rely regardless to earl been. And everything in the between. It focuses on oil and gas. His race an issue . Yes. We should be talking about the people that are dying of a trend to the families that are broken. See make you condemn the white supremacist organization. Im going to ask you that question. The kkk as a terrorist organization and its unfortunate that my opponent struggled to answer that very basic question. This is about Tony Gonzalez doing whatever he thinks will get him to congress. Y he have just on saint unsafe ae very basic fact like that. Where when he says hes actually going to eliminate the aca and the protections with preexisting conditions. Ti during the pandemic. If you want to talk wellbeing at a touch with the district. Taking someones Health Care Healthcare away during a pandemic and then by the wayay when we can have the opportunity to help working families and help them get back on their feet what is tony say we cantay get working families more help. Lets just at home and watch netflix. Single moms trying to take care of their kids. And put food on their table. That was my family. So Tony Gonzalez is out of touch. Hes willing to take away your healthcare. I we are going to get to healthcare. Do you condemn nt for an mf 313. Any organizations that participates in violence like that should be condemned. Heres the thing. A year ago i diedco i struggled with preexisting conditions every day. I will always fight for those that are struggling with preexisting conditions. My opponent will lie, steal and cheat. It took her over a minute to oppose nt for. I support law and order. There will be a lot of differences. Looks get to some of the questions that we heard. I talked to people on campus here to hear from the voters to hear what are the topics that mean the most to them. What are their concerns what keeps them up at night. You will hear concerns throughout tonights debate. We will have the pursuit of scientific truth. All of the many issues affecting the country. Esti this quest for the emerging truth. Nowadays we see that there is denial of Scientific Evidence interest happens even at the highest level of government. That is one thing that keeps me up at night is the attitude towards science and what it seeks to do . I want to give you this question first. Will you follow the science. Is it covidol or Climate Change or pollution and the science that doesnt line up with what your Political Party believes. In this case the president ial party. My entire career has been in service to our country. The Intelligence Officer in the air force. It is always been about putting country above everything else. I look forward to doing this in service to this district. We need to be listening to a medical expert and when they mask minimizer minimize your ex tivoli outside of your home. Practice good hygiene we should absolutely do that. Thats how we get this under control. Unfortunately, my opponent has put his political ambitions over the medical guidance of these experts. Over the last couple of months he has been Holding Indoor activities mask list putting has political conditions about that. But for tony this is just about getting to congress. He is willing to sacrifice anyone in our economy to get there. I want to ask you the same question. Will you follow the science of covid of Climate Change or pollution thank you. My opponent is a liberal left democrat. The first vote in office is going to be elect nancy pelosi as the next speaker of house. That is her first vote. Me on the other hand i believe in this district. This is about the people of district 22. The people of district 23. And yes, i have made my way around this district time and time again. I have done it safely. With a mask and sanitizer. Here is the thing. Our nation needs to get back to work. We need to get back to school. We need to get back to church and we need to open up our border with mexico. For economic purposes. If youre in the district notse being a virtual representative. I want to give you a 32nd rebuttal time for this. If you care about this district that has been hit hard by covid san antonio bear county weve had one of the highest related fatalities of any one. 19 . We will have survival. They need quality Affordable Healthcare. My health care opponent. People need quality Affordable Healthcare. The only thing right now that protects people from Insurance Companies kicking up the coverage. And jacking up the premium as if they have a preexisting condition. N. I have a preexisting condition. Why would i take that away from myself. I believe in protecting people with preexisting conditions. I will always fight for that. This morning i was in eagle pass at a Food Distribution event in the lines were as far as the eye could see people are hurting and they need help. Will get to questions about covid and the economy. Hopefully if we have enough time. Xi we want to get to the next question from campus. My biggest concern is probably this balancing act that needs to be performed between the safety of our citizens and the economic consequences of those safety measures. So what keeps me up at night is is it going to go off the rails one way or another. I know it is an extremely tough in difficult position for politicians to be in. I think both of those sites had to be considered as opposed to just one side or another. The question is all about covid. How do we balance the safety of people in the district versus the Economic Impact of covid closures. How do we not put people at risk but still open up and grow the economy. Thank you for that question. Everybody is hurting and we have to get back to work, it is the way we solve our economic problems. The way we do that is we come together this isnt about being republican or democrat or independent. We are americans. We are all hurting. Covid doesnt just pick a party it picks everybody. I was in el paso a couple weeks ago. She works as an executive assistant in el paso she lives there. Every morning she has to get up two hours early to make it over the bridge she works a full day has to make it home and it takes her a next or two hours to get home. That is wrong. We have to safely reopen our borders for economic purposes for places like el paso, that is one community. This is about americansns not a party. How do you balance the safety of people in the district versus the Economic Impact. How do we not put people at risk but still open up and grow the economy. They have said time and time again the way that we open up the economy is by addressing this pandemic. We still dont have a National Testing strategy. We dont have enough contact tracers. We need to start there so we can safely open up the economy. We need to get help to working families and business owners. When you have an opponent like i do. It shows you who has true loyalty is. You are hearing tonight two very different visions. They need quality Affordable Healthcare. Its protections for people withrt preexisting conditions. During a pandemic. My loyalty is to this district i love district 23. They have lost 260 million of retail revenue. Because of that border. That opponent would know that. But she doesnt. Oe he doesnt have an answer. All he does is attacked me. Thats ridiculous. We need quality Affordable Health care. Lets move on because well get into healthcare i i hope ie keep the time to a minimum. Lets go to our next campus question from a student here southwest texas juniorcollege. My mom is a teacher at morale is junior high and she has diabetes so she is not especially the high risk if she catches covid, like earth mortality rate is higher than the average population so ive been worried about reopening schoolsec specifically. I know from her talking about, they are doing like flex classes for substance in person and some students are online. She talked about it being a mess so far. Im concerned about the reopening of schools. Caitlyn is a student here southwest texas juniorcollege. She asks, whatio about education in the pandemic . Are we doing enough to protect teachers and students . Do they have the proper resources . Should schools even be open right now . Thank you for the question and Public Education is personal for me. Not only am i proud product of the Public Education im a daughter of a public educator. Public education is a a great equalizer in our country and its so important that we get our Young Students and her teachers back into the classroom as safely as possible and its unfortunate that from the administration to the state level that we have had leaders denying stumbling and distracting. My opponent in fact, enable said President Trump was doing a fantastic job, and we see what that has gotten us. Tony will say and do whatever he thinks will get him to congress. We need to make sure with adequate testing, Contact Tracing systems can get back in the classroom and make sure we safely open up our economy and ensure kids are receiving the quality education they deserve. What about education and the pandemic . I was doing enough to protect teachers and students . To the have the proper resources . Should schools be open right of . Education is everything to our country. We need to invest in education. Im a proud part of the public school. I have six children. My children have gone to public school, private school, home school, religious schools and charter schools. We have done it all and we have to do it safely. A sixyearold emanuel just had a birthday last week. He went to school in prek. Aay did his first date earlier this week and we were as excited as can be. Why . Because school is exciting. Our children need to go to school because its more than just education. Its social interaction. Its development. Its nutrition. Its healthcare. Its all of it and went to get back to school. We can do it safely progress to do it together. We have to listen to experts paragraph respect one another. And our next campus question. What is something you are worried about . Something that may keep you up at night . Veterans getting disability they need. My husband and myself are veterans. He does have Service Related injuries he cannot get the disability he needs. I have just billed as well. I have disability as well. My brotherinlaw has had eight surgeries, sixpack and two hip, one hip replacement, he has been trying to get this ability since 2012 and has been denied three times. She is a veteran and so is her husband and theyre having trouble getting disability. Mr. Gonzales . We received a similar question from a viewer, utterance yourselves, and as veterans yourself veterans yourselves, and as a military brat and veteran, i see veterans that if its getti