Claire Reynolds
Claire Reynolds (Democratic Party) is running for election to the U.S. House to represent Texas' 11th Congressional District. She is on the ballot in the Democratic primary on March 3, 2026.[source]
Reynolds completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2025. Click here to read the survey answers.
Biography
Claire Reynolds was born in Indiana and grew up in central Illinois. She moved to Texas in 2007. She earned a bachelor's degree in journalism from Northwestern University and a law degree from the University of San Diego School of Law.[1]
Elections
2026
See also: Texas' 11th Congressional District election, 2026
General election
The primary will occur on March 3, 2026. The general election will occur on November 3, 2026. General election candidates will be added here following the primary.
The candidate list in this election may not be complete.
Democratic primary
The candidate list in this election may not be complete.
Democratic primary for U.S. House Texas District 11
Claire Reynolds (D) and Pedro Ruiz (D) are running in the Democratic primary for U.S. House Texas District 11 on March 3, 2026.
Candidate | ||
 | Claire Reynolds  | |
 | Pedro Ruiz | |
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| = 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. | ||||
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Republican primary
The candidate list in this election may not be complete.
Republican primary for U.S. House Texas District 11
Incumbent August Pfluger (R) is running in the Republican primary for U.S. House Texas District 11 on March 3, 2026.
Candidate | ||
 | August Pfluger | |
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| = 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. | ||||
Withdrawn or disqualified candidates
- James Ussery (R)
Endorsements
Reynolds received the following endorsements. To send us additional endorsements, click here.
Campaign themes
2026
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Claire Reynolds completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2025. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Reynolds' responses.
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- Our representatives should fight back when the President of the United States decides to trample on the U.S. Constitution. Our current representative appears to be happy to let President Trump do whatever he wants, at whatever the cost.
- Progressive values such as affordable healthcare, the right to choose, and treating immigrants with dignity are basic values held by the majority of Americans. I hold those values as well.
- As long as we're not talking about basic human rights, I'm willing and able to compromise when it comes to governing. The sausage has to get made, and the best leaders are willing to work across the aisle. I will do the same.
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.
Campaign website
Reynolds' campaign website stated the following:
Healthcare
Nobody should go bankrupt because they break a hip or get cancer. And the current system of having our jobs associated with our health insurance is both absurd and unique in the developed world.
A single-payer health insurance system may seem out of reach, but Medicare and the VA do just that for millions and millions of Texans.
Like most Americans, I've had loved ones deal with a serious healthcare issue. I will never forget sitting in a hospital, overwhelmed and scared, wondering how I was going to pay for this hospitalization. I also remember thinking that I was incredibly fortunate to have decent health insurance, because I couldn't even imagine how much worse my situation would be without it. When faced with illness and injury, Americans should be focusing on getting better–not on how to pay their medical bills.
America is one of the wealthiest nations in the world. However, according to the Center for Policy Progress, among large, advanced countries, we have the most expensive healthcare system and the highest percentage of uninsured people. As a result, we have one of the lowest life expectancies of large developed countries and the highest maternal mortality rate. This is unacceptable.
When I'm elected to Congress, I will focus on transitioning us to a single-payer healthcare system, such as Medicare for All. This obviously won't happen overnight, so first I'll fight to expand Medicare coverage and reduce the cost of prescription drugs. But I want to be very clear: There is absolutely no reason that we cannot have a single-payer healthcare system in this country. Anyone who tells you otherwise either has a financial stake in our current inoperable system or lacks vision. This is America–we can do big things!
Women's Rights
A woman's right to choose had been settled law since 1973, but the radical right in Texas and the Supreme Court have rolled back almost 50 years of reproductive freedom in 2022. Most Americans do not want this.
Abortion in Texas should be safe, legal, and rare.
I’ll be frank: I absolutely understand why people oppose abortions. Truly! If your religion teaches you that life begins at conception, then the idea of legal abortion must be incredibly distressing to you. I don’t believe this, but I’m capable of empathizing with other people and understanding their point of view.
But here’s the thing: The data shows that banning abortions does not prevent abortions–it just endangers the lives of women. Not only does it endanger their physical well-being, but also their psychological and economic well-being. Since the Dobbs decision overturned Roe v. Wade, the number of abortions in the United States has actually increased. Women are better served when they can reduce unplanned pregnancies by having easy access to sex education, family planning services, and contraception.
When I am elected, I will make it a priority to push for federal legislation protecting a woman’s right to choose and protecting abortion providers. Currently, providing an abortion in Texas can result in a felony conviction with a penalty of life imprisonment and a $100,000 fine. No wonder women are dying. Doctors are afraid to treat things like ectopic pregnancies and miscarriages. Doctors aren’t lawyers, and honestly, we probably don’t want them to be. Nobody should fear going to jail or losing their livelihoods because someone chose to end a pregnancy.
Family planning shouldn’t stop there. If we are truly trying to show Americans that we value the lives of children, then we need to do more than policing their parents. Let’s reduce our maternal mortality rate, eliminate childhood poverty, implement universal pre-K, and make it easier for families to access affordable childcare.
Immigration Reform
We can have a strong border while reforming our draconian and unwieldy immigration system. If good people want to live and work here legally, it shouldn’t take them decades to make that happen. America, and Texas in particular, was built by and for immigrants.
This should be a point of pride, not shame.
JD Vance recently expressed his fear and distrust of immigrants: "I don't want to live next to four families of strangers." Well, JD, I don't know about you, but I was raised to believe that a smile and an invitation to a neighborhood barbecue is a really easy way of turning a stranger into a friend. Luckily, the only thing standing between me and a delicious international buffet is a little something called Google Translate.
Despite what MAGA Republicans will tell you, immigration is good for American society. According to the Center for Policy Progress, most immigrants come to the U.S. legally, immigration is vital to a strong U.S. economy, and they pay into things like Social Security without using nearly as many benefits as native-born Americans, on average. In fact, the data show that the massive deportation effort by the Trump Administration has done serious long-term damage to our country, as seen by increased food and housing costs.
Does this mean that our immigration system doesn't need to be fixed? Heck no. It needs an overhaul. In fact, one of the reasons for illegal immigration is because it is virtually impossible to obtain legal status for many immigrants. I don’t know about you, but if I’m in a situation in which I literally can’t feed my own children or I’m worried about being killed by drug cartels, I’m going to do whatever it takes to protect my family, including crossing a border illegally. When the Trump Administration tries to justify deportation of undocumented immigrants by calling them “criminals” for merely crossing the border, it is just an excuse to do what he has long wanted to do: empty America of anyone poor and brown or black.
When I'm elected, I'll defund ICE. Period. Instead of funding an unregulated, above-the-law secret police department, I’ll focus on increasing our resources at the border. This will allow us to have a safe and secure border while efficiently screening immigrants seeking asylum (by the way, “seeking asylum” doesn’t mean “escaped from an insane asylum,” as is often confused by some people). I’ll seek to improve the guest worker program, thereby providing the labor we need while reducing the motivation for illegal border crossings, and I’ll create a quick pathway to citizenship for DACA recipients.
Affordability
Inflation has far outstripped salaries over just the past few years, not to mention the past several decades. Jobs that used to allow a family to live comfortably now can’t even keep a single person living above the poverty level.
One in five children live at or below the poverty level in Texas.
Donald Trump called “affordability” a “hoax” and a “con job.” Despite what he may believe, Americans are not stupid. I may not be a math wizard, but I can do basic arithmetic like comparing prices from year to year, and I can see that our paychecks don’t cover basic necessities like housing, food, doctor’s appointments, and childcare.
According to Texas 2036, a nonprofit, nonpartisan policy research organization, “since 2019, median home prices have risen 40%, far outstripping income growth… [and] Texas needs an estimated 320,000 additional units to meet current demand.”
We don’t have to just sit and take this. As your representative, I will do the following:
Housing: restore funding to federal housing programs and get rid of the tariffs on construction materials, thereby making new housing more affordable
Food: reverse Trump’s funding cuts to programs like SNAP and expand access to more people; reduce tariffs on food and agricultural equipment (while still maintaining preference for food grown by American farmers); and restore funding to local programs designed to assist community members with food access, including providing enough funds for free lunch for schoolchildren
Childcare: Fully fund federal programs like the Child Care and Development Fund and Head Start/Early Head Start
Taxpayer money should be spent on things that make life better for us, not on things like ICE goon squads that kidnap people off the street or manufactured wars in Venezuela and Central America.
Energy Production
It’s common knowledge that West Texas runs on oil and gas jobs. But that “common knowledge” is a misconception. Texas now has more green energy jobs than oil and gas combined. This is a good thing, because we need these industries if Texas is to remain competitive as an energy producer.
Yes, it’s true! The green energy sector now employs more West Texans than oil and gas combined. Texas remains America’s top producer of oil and gas, with the majority of that coming from the Permian Basin, a huge part of which is in District 11, our district. According to Texas 2036, a nonprofit, nonpartisan policy research organization, Texas currently accounts for 42% of U.S. oil production, 27% of natural gas production, 22% of wind energy generation, and 17% of solar energy production. I am a progressive Democrat who believes that climate change is real, but let me be frank: I will not endanger the jobs of the people in my district. Period.
However, my interest is in protecting the jobs of my constituents, not catering to the oil and gas billionaires. This means that oil and gas executives (all happily funding the current District 11 Representative) are going to tell you that I’m dangerous and will push for a bunch of impractical regulations that will endanger your jobs. This is a lie.
Am I concerned about the use of fossil fuels? Absolutely–for a variety of reasons. The fact is that not only is our heavy reliance on fossil fuels certainly contributing to climate change, but they will run out, and sooner than you think. The industry’s refusal to acknowledge that last part is what always blows my mind. I was a Girl Scout as a kid, and our motto was “Be Prepared.” Just because something won’t happen tomorrow doesn’t mean we don’t prepare for it today. Increasing production of alternative energies will bring more jobs–and jobs that will still be around for generations to come!
Scientific Research
I want to restore the funding that’s been cut from critical scientific and philanthropic programs. Texas in particular should be a leader in research to cure disease, fight hunger, and maintain local energy independence.
Texas is home to NASA and SpaceX for crying out loud.
For the past year, I’ve been volunteering as a pro bono attorney for Lawyers for Good Government’s Fund Protection Clinic. In that role, I advised organizations that had been devastated by the Trump administration’s heavy handed chainsaw cuts to federal grants. I saw amazing organizations wiped out of existence because they dared to care about reducing maternal mortality, mitigate the effects of pollution on communities of color, or perform any climate science at all.
DOGE didn’t just decimate grants to outside agencies–it annihilated government research targeting weather, disease, and space exploration. Even CISA, the Cybersecurity and Information Security Agency (and my husband’s former employer), saw massive reductions in personnel in 2025, at a time when our international adversaries are actively arming up.
Those government research positions are gone, and it’s not like we can just easily bring those people back. What was once considered a stable, fulfilling career is now known to be a job that can easily be eliminated based on the whims of the current President, a member of his Cabinet, or even a very weird flunky.
I don’t know about you, but watching decades of work and research being gleefully wiped away has infuriated me. When I’m elected to Congress, I will not only work to restore funding to these very important institutions, but I’ll spearhead investigation into how and why DOGE was allowed to cut funding that Congress had authorized. Furthermore, I’ll seek additional protections for federal workers against these kinds of cuts.
We can be good stewards of the taxpayers’ money without taking a chainsaw to vitally important programs.
AI
Artificial intelligence is here and it isn’t going away–but that doesn’t mean we have to accept whatever is thrown at us by a few billionaires racing to cash in. It's possible to embrace scientific advances while still ensuring that they proceed in a responsible way that will do the least harm to Americans.
Sensible regulation is sensible.
According to a recent Gallup poll, Americans want their government to regulate AI, even if it means “progress” will be slower. Why? Well, AI output is only as good as the models it’s trained on. In other words, “garbage in, garbage out.”
A prime example: When I was working at the State Bar of Texas, in the Office of the Chief Disciplinary Counsel, I saw a number of cases in which attorneys used artificial intelligence to write their legal briefs, only to be found out once the judge realized they cited hallucinated cases in those briefs. Why is this? Well, AI platforms like ChatGPT do not have access to the full universe of legal research, nor can they understand the complicated-yet-subtle differences between case outcomes. Siri is not a trained paralegal.
In addition, bad actors can easily manipulate AI platforms into producing racist diatribes, giving terrible medical advice, or even causing fatalities. Alexa is not a registered nurse. Yet the Trump administration is trying to stop states from implementing even the most basic, low-level regulations on artificial intelligence.
This doesn’t mean outlawing AI or blocking scientific progress, but there are practical steps we can take to keep pace with China while minimizing the very real risks and costs highlighted by experts.
For example, we can pass laws regarding the use of AI to create deepfakes or to impersonate real people; we can require that companies use independent experts (and I mean truly independent experts) to evaluate the safety of AI protocols and new implementations; and we can collaborate with other nations to develop an international regulatory framework for AI research.
When I’m elected to Congress, I will make Sarah Connor proud and fight like hell.
— Claire Reynolds' campaign website (February 10, 2026)
Campaign finance summary
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See also
2026 Elections
External links
Footnotes
