Voters are deciding which candidates they want to see face off for Texas House District 91 in the November election.
In the March 3 primary, Republicans are choosing between one-term incumbent state Rep. David Lowe and Kyle Morris, a small-business owner and political newcomer, for their party’s nomination.
On the Democratic side, college student Yisak Worku is running unopposed.
The district covers Haltom City, North Richland Hills, Richland Hills, Watauga and a small section of northeast Fort Worth.
In 2024, Lowe beat longtime incumbent Stephanie Klick, who faced significant intraparty opposition due to her vote to impeach Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in 2023.
Here is an introduction to the candidates and their stances on the issues.
Incumbent Republican seeks a second term
Lowe is seeking a second, two-year term.
Lowe did not respond to the Report’s request for an interview for this story.
According to his website, Lowe’s platform includes eliminating property taxes, securing the U.S.-Mexico border, ensuring election integrity, ending abortion, banning vaccine mandates, supporting Second Amendment rights and protecting children.
To eliminate property taxes, the state would use excess revenue to pay down property taxes, his website states. This would move the state to a voluntary taxing system.
“You should never be forced to rent your property from the government,” his website reads. “The complete elimination of property taxes might sound like a far-fetched idea, but it’s a simple concept with many different, well-researched plans that have been proposed.”
Regarding Texas’ southern border with Mexico, Lowe’s website says “it is up to the Texas Legislature to finally take charge” after decades of federal failure. The website adds that undocumented immigrants must not be able “to unfairly benefit from the resources” paid for by Texas taxpayers, such as in-state university tuition rates and public education.
Lowe opposed red flag gun laws and sees them as “the gateway to unconstitutional gun confiscation by the government,” per his website. Such laws, also known as extreme risk protection orders, allow judges to rule in favor of seizing an individual’s guns when family members or police assert they are a risk to themselves or others.
The incumbent also believes sex offenders are released from prison too early, endangering communities, according to his website. He supports legislation to address this.
“Specifically, child molesters cannot be reformed. Therefore, any sexual contact with a minor should result in a lifelong sentence,” his website reads.
From July 7 to Jan. 22, Lowe received $278,417 in contributions and spent $224,956. As of Jan. 22, he had $110,407 in cash on hand.
Motivated to protect families, Republican political newcomer seeks office
Morris, 45, is running for office for the first time.
His No. 1 campaign issue is the safety of children and families, he said.
In 2022, his then-15-year-old daughter was kidnapped and trafficked. She was missing for 10 days before she was found in Oklahoma.
He testified before a Texas Senate committee in 2023 in support of a bill that requires police to immediately investigate missing children cases and notify other nearby departments when a child is deemed to be at high risk for trafficking. The bill ultimately passed and went into effect Sept. 1, 2023.
His family’s experience and his firsthand look at how change is effected in Austin motivated him to run, he said.
He believes the penalty for sexual assault of a minor should be at least 25 years in prison, with the possibility for more time added based on the victim’s age and the severity of the crime.
“If you’re going after a child, after a vulnerable part of our population, that’s someone who is going to continue preying on those people, on that population,” he said. “I don’t think they deserve a place out in society, I just don’t. You’re taking advantage of children, and that’s just as low as it gets in my book.”
Morris wants to reduce property taxes and would like to eliminate them altogether. To accomplish the latter would take a collaborative effort at the state, local and county level, he said.
Regarding immigration, Morris said he believes President Donald Trump and Gov. Greg Abbott have done well in closing the border and wants to ensure it remains closed and secure.
“We are a nation of immigrants, we truly are, but there is a right way to do it and a wrong way to do it,” he said. “I believe if you want to come here, if you want to immigrate to America, you have to go by our laws, and you have to follow our immigration policy.”
Morris believes his professional background would be an asset in the Texas House. He is the owner of the small business DeMars & Associates, a dispute resolution firm.
“I am not uncomfortable at all getting in the middle of a dispute,” Morris said. “I’m a proponent that conflict doesn’t have to be bad. A lot of good can come from conflict.”
He strongly believes that elected officials represent all constituents, not just the ones who voted for them, something that would inform his approach to governance, he said.
From Sept. 5 to Jan. 22, Morris received $63,437 in contributions and spent $65,700. As of Jan. 22, he had $11,470 in cash on hand.
In Democratic primary, newcomer runs unopposed
Worku, a University of Texas at Dallas computer science student, is running unopposed in the Democratic Party primary.
His reasons for running trace back to his roots, he said. Worku is an Ethiopian immigrant from a working-class family and first-generation college student. Issues facing families like his — including rising costs of living and difficulty affording homes — as well as a desire to push back against Republican actions at the federal level led him to enter the race, he said.
Worku believes in raising taxes on corporations to fund cheaper energy and better transportation, he said.
“We tax them, we use that money to build the infrastructure that they benefit from, and then they can profit off that,” he said.
Other issues central to the 23-year-old’s campaign are health care, education and immigration.
He believes the state should expand Medicaid. He also opposes private school vouchers.
“Improvements I would like to see for a public education system comes in the form of reduced class sizes and increased teacher counts, but that’s going to require more funding, more taxation. Increased teacher pay — more funding, more taxation,” he said.
Regarding his approach to governance, Worku said he wants to say yes as much as he can because the government has operated too slowly to address problems.
“I want to be a catalyzer,” Worku said. “I want to encourage, I want to push. I want to negotiate when I can, find compromise when I can and pass as much good legislation for people.”
From Oct. 29 to Dec. 31, Worku received $900 in contributions and spent $776. As of Dec. 31, he had $203 in cash on hand.
Early voting runs through Feb. 27. Election Day is March 3.
McKinnon Rice is the higher education reporter for the Fort Worth Report. Contact her at mckinnon.rice@fortworthreport.org.
The Fort Worth Report partners with Open Campus on higher education coverage.
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