overwhelmingly populated by latino voters that president biden under performed in last fall and helped hand texas to donald trump. there s a special election in state house district 118 in and around san antonio which is almost 75% latino and that district might give us a window of what is to come next year. one of the candidates in that race, democrat frank ramirez, joins us now a former zoning and planning director in that area, and one of five candidates, three democrats, two republicans, that are vying for that seat. good morning, frank. we appreciate you getting up early to chat with us. let s talk about what could be a trend here. voters in your district delivered president biden a 13-point victory over former president trump in 2020, but you re in a region where biden under performed. he underperformed hillary clinton s 2016 margins and donald trump made significant gains in traditionally democratic parts of south texas,
challenges that exist in this district and throughout a lot of texas, the state of texas, is we need more robust infrastructure. i m talking about public transportation, i m talking about pedestrian mobility transportation that allows for people to cross the road without being hit where we are seeing a higher influx of this type of activity happen here in district 118, on the south side of san antonio. we re bridging that gap with voters by talking to them at their doors. we hear from them directly what some of their concerns are, and the heartbeat bill, the permit carry bill and the voting rights bill that went through the texas legislature, are items that we re talking about out the doors. those are huge policy priorities for me. ensure that we re talking to our residents and letting them know we are going to take care of you when we get to austin, whenever we have to work with our republican legislators we have to bridge that gap with them as well.
all right. frank ramirez, the election for house district 118, happening september 28th, thanks for taking time for us this morning. we appreciate it. thank you, boris. i appreciate it. tonight, be sure to watch the new cnn film the lost sons. here s a preview. michael reese is on the lake. there s an l there in the train station and the airport. she had every means of transportation to leave chicago within five minutes of taking the baby. this was premeditated on the part of this woman. an interview with the cab driver, he said, she wanted to go to the area of 35th and
you are correct, we are working under the gun in the sense that we are not going to bes the majority going into this legislature, however we need 11 seats to flip in 2022 to make that happen. frank, one final quick question, on the issue of voting rights, that legislation of that passed earlier this year, do you think it s going to affect your campaign at all? do you think voters might be afraid or intimidated in voting this week? i think that the people of san antonio, specifically the people of district 118, are resilient. they will go out and vote and do what s necessary to ensure that we keep this seat democratic. i ll be working every day to ensure that that happens. if we make it into the runoff we ll be walking and talking with these residents to ensure that their vote does count and matter in this election to ensure that we keep or push for a democratic majority here in the texas legislature.
hey, you have a voice with us, we care about you. so my candidacy in this race is bridging that gap as well, going door to door, talking to as many residents in district 118 to get them out and to make sure that they re at the polls so we can combat this trend where it really matters at their doors. frank, let s talk about some of the issues on the table. i don t need to tell you there have been a lot of controversial bills passed in texas recently on abortion, voting rights, et cetera. the policy page of your campaign website, though, doesn t mention some of those. instead, you talk about issues like infrastructure, health care access and school funding. i m curious about what voters have shared with you regarding those bills being passed in austin and given even if you win, republicans will still hold a majority. how do you plan to address those? right. and to talk about the policy priorities that my campaign has, you know, the issues and the