Race & Immigration

Saturday, 8:30 AM – The Future of Texas Politics

Julián Castro

Mayor, San Antonio

San Antonio Mayor Julián Castro is the youngest leader of a major American city. Castro, 37, earned his undergraduate degree from Stanford University in 1996 and a juris doctorate from Harvard Law School in 2000. In 2001, at the age of 26, Castro became the youngest elected city councilman in San Antonio history.

Ted Cruz

Republican candidate for U.S. Senate

Ted Cruz is the Republican candidate running to succeed Kay Bailey Hutchison in the U.S. Senate. Cruz previously served as the state's solicitor general, the associate deputy attorney general at the U.S. Department of Justice and a domestic policy adviser for the 2000 Bush-Cheney presidential campaign.

Saturday, 9:45 AM – An 83rd Legislative Session Preview

Larry Gonzales

State Representative, R-Round Rock

Larry Gonzales is a Republican member of the Texas House from Round Rock. Gonzales most recently served as assistant vice chancellor for governmental relations for the Texas State University System, working as a liaison to the Legislature and other state agencies for the system and its eight component institutions.

Debbie Riddle

State Representative, R-Tomball

State Rep. Debbie Riddle, R-Tomball, was first elected to represent HD-150 in 2002. Riddle has served as the Harris County Republican Party’s Finance Committee vice chairwoman and as the Texas Federation of Republican Women’s chairwoman. She is also a past president of the Texas Tea Party of Republican Women.

José R. Rodríguez

State Senator, D-El Paso

State Sen. José Rodríguez, D-El Paso, was elected in 2010 to represent District 29. Rodríguez previously served as the El Paso County attorney for 17 years. Rodríguez began his 37-year legal career as a staff attorney with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development in Washington, D.C.

Leticia Van De Putte

State Senator, D-San Antonio; Chairwoman, House Veteran Affairs & Military Installations Committee

State Sen. Leticia Van de Putte, a pharmacist for more than 32 years, represents a large portion of San Antonio and Bexar County. A former-five term state representative, she is now serving her fifth term as a Democratic state senator for District 26. From 2003 to 2011, she served as the chairwoman of the Texas Senate Democratic Caucus.

Saturday, 11:00 AM – How Safe is the Border
(and What Should We Do About It) ?

Henry Cuellar

U.S. Representative, D-Laredo; Vice Chairman, House Steering and Policy Committee

U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo, is currently serving his fourth term in Congress. Cuellar sits on the Homeland Security and Agriculture committees and serves as vice chairman of the Democratic Steering and Policy Committee. Cuellar previously served as a state representative for 14 years.

Todd Staples

Texas Agriculture Commissioner

Todd Staples currently serves as the Texas Commissioner of Agriculture. Currently serving in his second term, Staples was re-elected in to the post in 2010. In 1995 he was elected state representative and served three terms in the Texas House before being elected to the Texas Senate in 2000, where he served two terms.

Saturday, 1:15 PM – Is the President Right About the DREAM Act?

Joaquin Castro

State Representative, D-San Antonio; Candidate for U.S. Congress

State Rep. Joaquin Castro represents District 125 in the Texas House, which includes the cities of San Antonio and Leon Valley in Bexar County. Castro, now a Democratic candidate for Congress, has worked in the Legislature for four terms and currently serves as vice chairman of the Higher Education Committee and as a member of the Judiciary and Civil Jurisprudence Committee.

Ana Hernandez Luna

State Representative, D-Houston; Vice-Chair, House Elections Committee

State Rep. Ana Hernandez Luna, D-Houston, was elected in 2005 to represent District 143 in the Texas House. She serves as vice chairwoman of the House Elections Committee and sits on the Pensions, Investments and Financial Services Committee.

Raul Torres

R-Corpus Christi

State Representative Raul Torres is a member of the House Committee on Insurance and the House Appropriations Committee. Torres grew up in Nueces County where he attended Ray High School and later Del Mar College. He received his MBA from Texas A&M Corpus Christi in 1994, and is a CPA and small business owner. He previously served on the Loan Review Board and the Traffic Advisory Board for the City of Corpus Christi.

Joshua Treviño

Former Vice President for Communications at the Texas Public Policy Foundation

Joshua S. Treviño is the former vice president for communications at the Texas Public Policy Foundation. Previously, Treviño was the founder and president of Treviño Strategies and Media. His experience includes work in more than thirty countries, speechwriting in the George W. Bush administration and service in the U.S. Army.

Saturday, 2:30 PM – Does Texas Still Need The Voting Rights Act?

Chad Dunn

Attorney, Brazil & Dunn

Chad Dunn, partner at Brazil & Dunn Attorneys At Law, was recently successful in obtaining a federal court injunction against state restrictions on voter registration programs in the Galveston case of Voting for America vs Andrade. Dunn also represented several challengers to Texas' recently enacted photo voter I.D. bill and examined many of the witness in the recent trial that resulted in the photo ID law being struck down under the Voting Rights Act. Chad, in 2008, won an agreed settlement against Harris County for illegal voter registration practices and also successfully argued before the 5th circuit affirmance of a district court decision to prevent Tom DeLay from handpicking his successor on the ballot for election to Congress.

Aaron Peña

State Representative, R-Edinburg

Representative Aaron Peña is currently serving his fifth term in the Texas House of Representatives for District 40 in Hidalgo County, Texas. He presently serves as the chairman of the House Committee on Technology, the Redistricting Committee, the Homeland Security and Public Safety Committee, and the Select Committee on Voter Identification & Voter Fraud.

Nina Perales

Vice President of Litigation, MALDEF

Nina Perales is a leading civil rights litigator and an expert on a range of issues, including immigrants' rights, voting rights, and redistricting litigation. For the past 8 years, she has been MALDEF's Southwest Regional Counsel and has also served as National Senior Counsel and Staff Attorney. Ms. Perales' voting rights work has included representing Latino intervenors in the defense of the federal Voting Rights Act in 2009 and successful statewide redistricting cases in Texas and Arizona.

Burt Solomons

State Representative, R-Carrollton

State Rep. Burt Solomons is an attorney in North Texas who was first elected to represent District 65 in 1994. He currently serves as the chairman of the House Redistricting Committee. In 2001, Solomons authored and passed the telemarketing Texas No-Call List and the first countywide transit system bill in Texas.

Saturday, 3:45 PM – Voter ID: The Great Debate

Jose Aliseda

State Representative, R-Beeville; Candidate for Bee County District Attorney

State Rep. Jose Aliseda, R-Beeville, was elected to the Texas House in 2010. He has served on the House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee and the Environmental Regulations Committee and was voted House Republican Caucus Freshman of the Year by fellow legislators in the 82nd session. Previously, Gov. Rick Perry appointed Aliseda to the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles in 2003.

Trey Martinez Fischer

State Representative, D-San Antonio; Vice-Chair, House State Sovereignty Committee

State Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer, D-San Antonio, is the chairman of the Mexican American Legislative Caucus, the oldest and largest Latino legislative caucus in the U.S. Martinez Fischer recently led the Mexican American Legislative Caucus in court battles against the state's voter ID law.