Benjamin Chou (Texas)

This page was current at the end of the individual's last campaign covered by Ballotpedia. Please contact us with any updates.

Benjamin Chou

Democratic Party

Elections and appointments

Last election

May 24, 2022

Education

Bachelor's

Rice University, 2013

Graduate

Northwestern University, 2020

Law

Northwestern University, 2020

Personal

Birthplace

Houston, Texas

Contact

Campaign website

Campaign Facebook

Campaign Twitter

Campaign Instagram

Benjamin Chou (Democratic Party) (also known as Ben) ran for election to the Harris County Commissioners Court to represent District 4 in Texas. He lost in the Democratic primary runoff on May 24, 2022.

Chou completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2022. Click here to read the survey answers.

Biography

Benjamin Chou was born in Houston, Texas. He earned a bachelor's degree from Rice University in 2013 and both a graduate degree and a law degree from Northwestern University in 2020.

Elections

2022

See also: Municipal elections in Harris County, Texas (2022)

General election

General election for Harris County Commissioners Court Precinct 4

Lesley Briones defeated incumbent R. Jack Cagle in the general election for Harris County Commissioners Court Precinct 4 on November 8, 2022.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Lesley Briones (D)	51.7	122,644
	Submit photo	R. Jack Cagle (R)	48.3	114,718

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	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 237,362
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Democratic primary runoff election

Democratic primary runoff for Harris County Commissioners Court Precinct 4

Lesley Briones defeated Benjamin Chou in the Democratic primary runoff for Harris County Commissioners Court Precinct 4 on May 24, 2022.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Lesley Briones	53.9	8,139
		Benjamin Chou	46.1	6,958

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	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 15,097
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

Democratic primary election

Democratic primary for Harris County Commissioners Court Precinct 4

The following candidates ran in the Democratic primary for Harris County Commissioners Court Precinct 4 on March 1, 2022.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Lesley Briones	33.9	9,893
✔		Benjamin Chou	24.6	7,167
		Ann Williams	13.7	3,999
	Submit photo	Clarence Miller	11.0	3,211
		Gina Calanni	9.0	2,619
	Submit photo	Sandra Pelmore	5.6	1,624
	Submit photo	Jeff Stauber	2.2	650

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	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 29,163
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

Republican primary election

Republican primary for Harris County Commissioners Court Precinct 4

Incumbent R. Jack Cagle advanced from the Republican primary for Harris County Commissioners Court Precinct 4 on March 1, 2022.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔	Submit photo	R. Jack Cagle	100.0	29,864

---

	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 29,864
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

Endorsements

To view Chou's endorsements in the 2022 election, please click here.

Campaign themes

2022

Ballotpedia survey responses

See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection

Benjamin Chou completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2022. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Chou's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.

Expand all | Collapse all

Who are you? Tell us about yourself.

Ben is an attorney and civil rights advocate. As the Director of Innovation for the Harris County Elections Office, he helped lead the team that created drive thru voting in Texas, resulting in record turnout during the 2020 election. He’s running to represent Harris County Commissioner Precinct 4, which has over 1.2 million people, and fighting to fix our roads, prevent flooding, and tackle violent crime.

Ben has a record of getting things done in government. As an aide for Speaker Nancy Pelosi, he helped to create what became known as the Future Forum, a group of members of Congress who advocate for policies benefiting young Americans. He co-founded a nonprofit voter registration organization that registered thousands of Texans to vote. He most recently served as the Director of Innovation at the Harris County Elections Office where he helped to lead the team that created drive-thru voting.

Ben is a lifelong Houstonian and a proud graduate of Rice University. He earned his JD and MBA from Northwestern University.

Please list below 3 key messages of your campaign. What are the main points you want voters to remember about your goals for your time in office?

• Fully fund flood prevention projects and protect our green spaces so our neighborhoods do not flood. We also need a comprehensive disaster playbook so people are prepared when the next one hits.
• Improve our neighborhood infrastructure by providing a 72 hour guarantee to fix our roads, sidewalks, and bike paths.
• Keep our communities safe by fighting violent crime and working to reduce gun violence.

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?

Expansion of voting rights is something that I hold dear to my heart. Before I was a candidate, I worked as the Director of Innovation at the Harris County Elections Office where I helped create voting innovations such as drive thru voting. As County Commissioner, I intend to have a team of paid full-time organizers on staff who will go to community events and door-to-door to register voters as a part of their role. We must also partner with high schools so that we register every student who is 17 years and 10 months old. As the only Democrat in the race who has publicly rejected county vendor dollars, I am eager to reform our campaign finance structure as well. Our Elections Office can do more to make our campaign finance system more transparent so that the public can hold candidates and elected officials accountable for their actions.

Throughout 2021, I worked to bring light on how the voter suppression law would harm Harris County residents, particularly people of color. I organized and led protests in front of the Greater Houston Partnership to call out their refusal to condemn the voter suppression bill. I marched 33 miles with Beto from Round Rock to Austin in July heat to protest the law. I will always keep fighting to protect our right to vote.

Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.

See also

2022 Elections

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Government

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Candidate

Harris County Commissioners Court Precinct 4

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