Andrew Morris, running for State House 64, held a town hall meeting this past Sunday. He opened his town hall by claiming he is “invested” in everything before delving into some heavy topics.

“It’s all well and good caring about public education,” Morris said. “But when we still have a school to prison pipeline, that’s not good enough.”

Ensuring that prisons, education and healthcare are not for profit can help leave the school-to-prison pipeline behind, Morris said.

Morris said we can’t have communities of color vote for white representatives if the status quo remains the same.

“The best way we do that; is we make sure that corruption is out of politics,”Morris said.

Morris wants to create a more fair and balanced system so that politicians are not influenced by money.

“We have been overrun by money in politics,” he said. “It’s something that I know Linsey [Fagan] cares about, I know if she were here she would say the exact same thing.”

The town hall was supposed to also feature Fagan (a Democratic candidate for Texas’ 26th Congressional district) but she fell ill and could not attend. Instead, Morris talked on some of her views on corruption in politics on her behalf.

A question from the crowd criticized politicians who “lose touch” and forget about them or end up not improving anything. One of the issues being healthcare.

Morris said he wants to remain in touch on every issue.

“Remaining in touch means holding events like this, town halls,” he said.

Morris said that remaining in touch means being readily available to all his constituents – while he’s running and when he’s in office.

“There’s no such thing as Democratic ideas or Republican ideas, there’s just ideas,” Morris said.

On the issue of healthcare, Morris said it is going to mean having a discussion between federal government, state government and local county government.

Morris wants to bring in healthcare influence from the United Kingdom and Australia and apply elements of them to the United States.

Another question from the crowd asked if Morris was pro-choice.

“It’s more than just abortion,” Morris began. “It’s women’s healthcare, in general.”Morris said it’s all well and good saying he is 100 percent pro-choice, but if it means that women’s health clinics are being shut-down across the state – then that’s not good enough.

After being interrupted by the person who asked the question, Morris said the question was a plant to put words in his mouth by a supporter of his primary opponent, Mat Pruneda.

DISCLAIMER: The Mat Pruneda campaign said they did not send a plant.

“This is a complicated question and I am sick and tired of having women being reduced to just their uterus and their reproductive organs,” Morris said.

Morris said if he can go to any doctor for any health problem, women should be able to do the exact same.

Immediately after Morris answered the question, the man who interrupted left.

One final question came from the crowd about gun control, bringing up the mass school shooting which happened in Parkland, FL this past Wednesday.

“We as Democrats are just as bad as Republicans in responding to gun tragedies,” Morris said.

Morris talked about viable ways to improve gun control so that it makes it harder for people like [Nikolas] Cruz to purchase guns.

“Teachers don’t get their diplomas to become bodyguards,” Morris said.

This article was updated at 3:05 p.m. to include a disclaimer from Mat Pruneda's campaign.

Header image by Zendra Morales.

Header image layout designed by Christopher Rodgers