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Dev Merugumala
Dev Merugumala (Democratic Party) ran for election to the Texas House of Representatives to represent District 23. Merugumala lost in the general election on November 5, 2024.
Merugumala completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. Click here to read the survey answers.
Biography
Dev Merugumala earned an M.D. from the Texas Tech University School of Medicine. Merugumala's career experience includes working as a physician.[1]
Elections
2024
See also: Texas House of Representatives elections, 2024
General election
General election for Texas House of Representatives District 23
Incumbent Terri Leo-Wilson defeated Dev Merugumala in the general election for Texas House of Representatives District 23 on November 5, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Terri Leo-Wilson (R) | 66.9 | 53,841 |
 | Dev Merugumala (D)  | 33.1 | 26,680 | |
| Total votes: 80,521 | |||
| = 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 Texas House of Representatives District 23
Dev Merugumala advanced from the Democratic primary for Texas House of Representatives District 23 on March 5, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Dev Merugumala | 100.0 | 4,385 |
| Total votes: 4,385 | |||
| = 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Withdrawn or disqualified candidates
- Keith Henry (D)
Republican primary election
Republican primary for Texas House of Representatives District 23
Incumbent Terri Leo-Wilson advanced from the Republican primary for Texas House of Representatives District 23 on March 5, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Terri Leo-Wilson | 100.0 | 16,093 |
| Total votes: 16,093 | |||
| = 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. | ||||
Campaign finance
Endorsements
Ballotpedia did not identify endorsements for Merugumala in this election.
Campaign themes
2024
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Dev Merugumala completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Merugumala's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
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I’m blessed to have received 100% of my education in Texas, from preschool to medical school. Now, as a pediatrician at Texas Children's, I hold the privilege of working directly with families to promote children’s health.
I come from a working Texan family with my mom who was a daycare worker and my dad who works at the VA. Growing up, I saw them work long and hard hours to get the bills paid while navigating life’s unexpected challenges and surprise costs.
I recognize that my personal professional success today is only thanks to my parents’ hard work and sacrifices.
I will never forget how needlessly backbreaking that working Texans can have it simply to provide a comfortable life for themselves and their families.
My campaign slogan—"Fighting for Working Texans!”—reflects my strong commitment to my working class roots.
Today, I’m proud to campaign on behalf of working Texan families, like the one I come from, to deliver increased economic opportunities that will enable folks to pull themselves up.
If you also strive for a Texas government that puts working Texans first over wealthy corporate special interests, then join the fight today!- I fight against corporate greed to champion pro-worker reforms.
Texan lawmakers who cowardly protect corporate interests have allowed a handful of giant corporations to dominate multiple industries.
This corporate takeover has devastated the competitive landscape, stifling innovative small businesses and paving the way for corporate price-gouging that inflates the cost of essential goods.
While others may side with CEOs, I stand with everyday Texans, focusing on addressing the kitchen table issues that impact their financial well-being.
I fight for fair wages, safe working conditions, good benefits like robust retirements, and the unimpeded ability to unionize.
All Texans deserve the opportunity to get ahead—not just a wealthy few. - I strive for more affordable and accessible healthcare for all Texans. As a pediatrician, I've seen the devastating impact of skyrocketing medical costs on Texan families. Healthcare giants exploit their role as corporate middlemen, inflating prices at nearly every step of patient care—let’s hold them accountable and build a fairer system. I support Medicaid expansion to ensure struggling workers and all children receive the essential coverage they desperately need and deserve. I also aim to reform Medicare to protect vulnerable seniors from predatory practices. I proudly defend reproductive freedom! My platform allows for termination up to 22 weeks with reasonable exceptions afterward—a stance that unites a broad voter coalition.
- I oppose the school voucher scam that urgently threatens to upend Texas public schools. If proponents succeed in ramming this unpopular voucher plan through, taxpayer dollars will be diverted from underfunded public schools to wealthy private schools. Public funds shouldn't subsidize private schools that aren't obligated to admit all students or demonstrate student progress with standardized testing. These public schools funding cuts will exacerbate our already poor educational outcomes, undermining Texas's future workforce and economy. True education reform requires long-term investments in local schools and communities, so let’s reject the school voucher scam and rise up to defend education for all Texans.
The availability of good-paying jobs with robust benefits and reasonable time off is crucial for a thriving economy. When working families have more disposable income and the time to enjoy it, they reinvest back into their communities, bolstering local businesses and supporting local jobs in turn.
I cannot overstate the transformative power of good jobs—they incentivize individuals to take a vested interest in their community’s success and safety, even eliminating much of the root cause of violent crime.
Rocky Balboa faces grueling training and overwhelming odds to emerge victorious against a powerful and unscrupulous foe. His victory illustrates the value of hard work and determination even in the face of considerable adversity.
Following Rocky’s win, the film offers additional depth in a poignant and thematically-powerful finale with Rocky’s speech to the Russian crowd.
Having miraculously won over the initially hostile Russian crowd during the fight, Rocky concludes with a heartfelt victory speech advocating for unity—an especially noteworthy sentiment given the Cold War era tensions at the time of the film’s release.
Rocky’s conciliatory attitude towards the crowd demonstrates humility and grace in victory, defining strength as building bridges with those who are different from us, rather than otherizing or attempting to dominate them. The film contends that true strength lies in fostering understanding, even across seemingly insurmountable divides.
Despite the obvious importance of making public investments that put Texans first, many current Texan leaders instead prioritize tax giveaways to powerful big money interests or squander public dollars to advance their own social agendas.
A major example of the reckless waste promoted by those leaders is their ridiculous, pointless, and continued push for tax cuts for the ultra-wealthy, the central component of their economic strategy, which inevitably leads to disastrous budget shortfalls and deficits.
Another egregious example of wasteful spending is the school voucher scam, which threatens to divert Texas public school funds to subsidize wealthy private schools, undermining already poor education outcomes for Texan children.
In a similar vein, Texas budgets $140 million annually for crisis pregnancy centers—scam clinics deemed medically unethical and lacking adequate oversight by health professionals—which represents a callous misuse of state funds that undermines both fiscal responsibility and public health.
I find these kinds of blatant disregard for prudent budget management to be deeply unsettling. As someone from a working class family, I recognize the serious and sacred responsibility involved in allocating taxpayer dollars that come from the labor of my fellow Texans.
In the days that followed, Americans united in an extraordinary display of solidarity and patriotism. We supported one another and rebuilt with resilience, showing the world the indomitable spirit of our nation.
However, even amid this unity, there were regrettable examples in which we fell short of our highest ideals—like the rise in xenophobia as well as the misguided invasion of Iraq.
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 finance summary
Note: The finance data shown here comes from the disclosures required of candidates and parties. Depending on the election or state, this may represent only a portion of all the funds spent on their behalf. Satellite spending groups may or may not have expended funds related to the candidate or politician on whose page you are reading this disclaimer. Campaign finance data from elections may be incomplete. For elections to federal offices, complete data can be found at the FEC website. Click here for more on federal campaign finance law and here for more on state campaign finance law.
See also
2024 Elections
External links
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Candidate Texas House of Representatives District 23 |
Personal |
Footnotes
- ↑ Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on September 20, 2024
