Texas primary elections will take place in Tuesday, March 1, including the primaries for local House District 108.
House District 108 covers the Park Cities, Preston Hollow and downtown Dallas. Voters will choose between Democrats Elizabeth Ginsberg and Freda Heald who both hope to run against the Republican incumbent Rep. Morgan Meyer in the Nov. 8 general election. Meyer will be running unopposed in the Republican primary.
Ginsberg, an attorney, has lived in the district for over 25 years, where she raised her now college-aged daughters. She is Democratic precinct chair, a local representative for the political party, and the vice president of Preston Hollow Democrats.
“I’ve been a Democratic precinct chair in my neighborhood the last six years, but I had to resign that position to run for office,” Ginsberg said. “I’ve also been working to get Democrats elected in Dallas County since 2006 and that involves working on different campaigns.”
She’s worked on the campaigns of state Rep. John Turner and state Sen. Nathan Johnson, as well as several judicial campaigns and a congressional campaign.
Ginsberg’s opponent, Heald, has experience on political campaigns as well. Heald worked on the 2018 and 2020 campaigns of Joanna Cattanach against Morgan Meyer. She was also the precinct chair in her neighborhood, and volunteered in the political organizations Funky East Dallas Democrats and the Women of Dallas United for Action.
Heald grew up in the Park Cities and graduated from the high school in 1981.
“[I] worked in the retail business for 20 years and raised my family here,” Heald said. “After working in retail, I went back to school at 45 to become a teacher, and I taught pre-K at Temple Emanu-El for 13 years.”
As a former educator, Heald wants to make the education system better. Along with improving education, she said she’s running to protect women’s reproductive rights.
“I also feel very strongly about making it easier to vote, not harder, and protecting the LGBTQ community and transgender children,” Heald said.
Ginsberg was motivated to run because she believes Meyer does not carry out the values of the district he represents.
“When you look at his voting record, it’s not the vote of a moderate,” she said, “He has been a consistent vote for some of the most right wing extremist policies that have been coming out of Austin.”
Because Ginsberg works to create moderate solutions for her clients as an attorney, she believes she has the skills to do the same in the state legislature.
“[We need] somebody who is not afraid to work in front of the aisle or work within the Democratic Party to try and reach some sort of compromise that’s going to reach the needs of as many Texans as possible,” she said.
The greatest challenge in the district that must be overcome, in Heald’s view, is polarization and division between Republicans and Democrats.
“I think we need to come back together because we have the same values of making Texas the best place it can be,” Heald said.
Heald thinks her unique strength is how hard she plans to work for the community, which she feels she has demonstrated by her door-knocking and phone-calling in past political organization efforts.
“I’m going to be that person that if you call, whether you are a Republican or Democrat, and have concerns, I’m going to listen to you and take advice from you and make sure that I’m going to be your voice in Austin,” she said.
