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Ricardo Villarreal
Ricardo Villarreal (Democratic Party) ran for election to the U.S. House to represent Texas' 21st Congressional District. He lost in the Democratic primary runoff on May 24, 2022.
Villarreal completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2021. Click here to read the survey answers.
Biography
Ricardo Villarreal was born in Laredo, Texas. Villarreal served in the U.S. Army from 2008 to 2016. He earned an M.D. from the Universidad Autónoma de Guadalajara in 2000, a graduate degree from Our Lady of the Lake University in 2007, and a graduate degree from the University of California, Berkeley Goldman School of Public Policy in 2021. Villarreal's career experience includes working as a health services administrator for the U.S. Army. Villarreal has been affiliated with the American College of Healthcare Executives.[1]
Elections
2022
See also: Texas' 21st Congressional District election, 2022
General election
General election for U.S. House Texas District 21
Incumbent Chip Roy defeated Claudia Zapata in the general election for U.S. House Texas District 21 on November 8, 2022.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Chip Roy (R) | 62.8 | 207,426 |
 | Claudia Zapata (D)  | 37.2 | 122,655 | |
| Total votes: 330,081 | |||
| = 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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Democratic primary runoff election
Democratic primary runoff for U.S. House Texas District 21
Claudia Zapata defeated Ricardo Villarreal in the Democratic primary runoff for U.S. House Texas District 21 on May 24, 2022.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Claudia Zapata | 63.5 | 13,886 |
 | Ricardo Villarreal | 36.5 | 7,996 | |
| Total votes: 21,882 | |||
| = 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 U.S. House Texas District 21
The following candidates ran in the Democratic primary for U.S. House Texas District 21 on March 1, 2022.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Claudia Zapata | 47.2 | 16,604 |
| ✔ | | Ricardo Villarreal | 27.3 | 9,590 |
 | Coy Branscum | 9.0 | 3,157 | |
 | David Anderson | 8.6 | 3,038 | |
 | Scott Sturm | 5.3 | 1,865 | |
 | Cherif Gacis | 2.6 | 902 | |
| Total votes: 35,156 | |||
| = 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 U.S. House Texas District 21
Incumbent Chip Roy defeated Robert Lowry, Dana Zavorka, and Michael French in the Republican primary for U.S. House Texas District 21 on March 1, 2022.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Chip Roy | 83.2 | 78,087 |
 | Robert Lowry | 8.1 | 7,642 | |
 | Dana Zavorka | 4.5 | 4,206 | |
 | Michael French | 4.1 | 3,886 | |
| Total votes: 93,821 | |||
| = 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 themes
2022
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Ricardo Villarreal completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2021. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Villarreal's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
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- As an Army officer I took an oath and live with the Army values of Loyalty, Duty, Respect, Selfless Service, Honor, Integrity, and Personal Courage. I want to keep serving my country and represent my district with these values.
- Throughout my career I have had the privilege to work for a common purpose and goal with people from different disciplines, backgrounds, and beliefs. I want to continue to work with folks with different perspectives and ideologies because at the end of the day we all want to make things better. I stand for good education, good health care, and good jobs for all Americans. We can have different opinions, but we can have a common goal: we all do better when we all work together.
- The times of cronyism, grandstanding, and complaining rather than working towards solutions are over if I am elected.
As a veteran, I am vested in the way we treat our military members and veterans. I am an ardent supporter of addressing their healthcare, entitlements, expanding their integration into society, and expanding the opportunities to succeed.
Being the son of a Mexican immigrant, immigration reform and justice is a personal issue that I care about. We need to re-assess our immigration policies for relevance, enforcement, and update through immigration reform. Grandstanding, having photo ops at the border and constantly complaining about immigrants is futile if we do not solve the root causes of the problems.
Border security is a complex issue, and a wall is a simple solution to a complicated problem that does not work. I know the border; I was born, raised in Laredo, and my father’s ranch was on the Nuevo Laredo side with access to the Rio Grande. We need to have the infrastructure, technology, and sufficient manpower in law enforcement to inspect what comes into the country and what leaves.
The Common Good by Robert Reich
Exodus from Hunger: We Are Called to Change the Politics of Hunger by David Beckmann
I also open myself to different viewpoints, which allows me to empathize with people and work with them toward a shared purpose or goal.
However, the first historical event that I am consciously aware of is the fall of the Berlin Wall. I was ten years old and remembered a divided country of East and West with a wall standing between them, and they clamored for unification. Then I recall in November of 1989 the moments at the border checkpoints with crowds rushing into the West. The sledgehammers chipped away at their division then the wall started to come down. The joy of the German people was televised on every channel; it left a vivid and unforgettable impression.
At an age, kids learn to ride bicycles; I learned to ride horses instead. Though I was bucked off the horses several times, I always got back on. As I got older, I learned to take care of the livestock. I also vividly recall the knocking sounds and the smell of a diesel engine on the tractor. Just like the horse, I learned to drive a tractor at a young age. Depending on the year, there was corn, watermelon, cantaloupes, or sorghum in the fields. The work was hard, but I learned so many life lessons. I stopped working when I got into high school; my father wanted me to focus on school.
However, some areas are non-negotiable or non-starters for both sides. In my experience facilitating performance improvement projects, getting these out in the open is necessary to understand ground rules and rules of engagement. Once we know what is off the table, then we can navigate towards a standard compromised solution.
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
Villarreal's campaign website stated the following:
| “ |
Public Policies COVID-19 I believe that getting vaccinated and wearing masks is the only way to end the COVID-19 pandemic. My family is vaccinated, and I'm proud to say it; I don't need to hide it. Marked By COVID (MBC) is a nonprofit grassroots organization led by those most impacted by COVID. They convene families and victims to grieve, organize, train, and support action through policy and advocacy. https://markedbycovid.com/ Earlier this year, I had the privilege to work with MBC for my degree's capstone project while at Berkeley's Goldman School of Public Policy. I conducted a community needs assessment to prioritize MBC's 5Rs (Response, Recovery, Restitution, Resiliency, Recognition) policy platform. As a result, I learned about the level and extent of hardships experienced by those that lost someone to COVID. The group expressed financial, legal, physical, and emotional hardships, yet their primary goal and focus have been to stop the spread of the disease to prevent others from losing their loved ones to the virus. That is why I join them and support their cause. Access to Health and Insurance Healthcare access is not merely about having health insurance; it also includes improving access to medical facilities through transit options, reducing costs of prescription drugs and out-of-pocket expenses related to health care, as well as the cost of insurance overarchingly. Some of the drivers to obtaining health insurance are the lack of employer-sponsored plans and the high cost of insurance, which create barriers for working populations. The failure to expand Medicaid is why Texas is the state with the highest uninsured. Through expansion, enrollment eligibility is extended to nearly all low-income individuals with incomes at or below 138 percent of poverty. If Texas expanded Medicaid, it would mean that approximately 1.2 million more uninsured people would become eligible for the program. Therefore, I support expansion to Medicaid in Texas as the first step to improving access to universal healthcare. Reproductive Health I believe Roe v. Wade protects a pregnant woman's liberty to choose to have an abortion without excessive government restriction. Texas SB8 is a deliberate attempt to circumvent that protection with unconventional restrictions. I support the right to a women's choice and funding planned parenthood because reproductive health is access to care. Voting Rights I believe the John Lewis Voting Rights Act needs to be passed to restore federal pre-clearance. The bill would expand oversight into election seats and jurisdiction boundary changes, redistricting, voter ID requirements, multi-lingual voting materials, voter roll maintenance, voting locations, and voting opportunities. We have already observed that states can manipulate these areas without oversight to maintain power and systematically decrease the participation of certain voters. We want to have more people participate in the voting process, not less. In addition, there should be pathways for automatic voter registration, like when obtaining a (REAL) ID, driver's license, passport, filing an income tax return, or submitting a FAFSA application. Health Inequities I am passionate about addressing health inequities. There are differences in health resulting from systemic, avoidable, and unjust social and economic policies and practices. The key drivers of health inequities are economic, physical environment, social, education, and healthcare system conditions. Each driver has independent aspects where gaps in the population exist, and there are ways to reduce and mitigate the disparities. Where we live or work should not dictate how long we live. Affordable Housing Affordable housing is a problem that has grown and not just for the urban cities but also that is affecting rural towns and communities. When I worked in Fredericksburg at Hill Country Memorial Hospital seven years ago, I looked into moving my family out there. I searched homes and found that the cost of houses was substantially higher than in San Antonio. Commuting more than 60 miles one way from my home in San Antonio made it unsustainable to keep working there. I was not the only one commuting to work, people drove from Kerrville, Comfort, and all the way from Austin to work in Fredericksburg. I can't imagine how people working in the service industry, retail, teachers, police, fire fighters have to sacrifice to be able to work there. Fredericksburg is not the only city with a lack of affordable housing, it is everywhere in TX21. We can point to different reasons like short-term rentals (STR), residential zoning restrictions, wage stagnation (minimum wage), and home building costs for this problem but that doesn't fix it. The San Antonio Housing Authority (SAHA) provides assistance through its Public Housing, Housing Choice Voucher, and Mixed-Income housing programs. The Texas Housing Foundation is a nonprofit that provides houses and apartments that rent for based on the community's median income. The foundation has housing units in small towns across the state and they are looking to expand. I support public, private, and non-profit solutions to address affordable housing in both rural and urban cities. I will work to expand affordable housing projects because we need to think about the long-term effects this housing disparity causes to our community. Veterans As a veteran, I am vested in how we treat our members of the military and veterans. I am an ardent supporter of addressing their healthcare, entitlements, expanding their integration into society, and expanding the opportunities to succeed. I am concerned about access to mental and behavioral care and services. I believe that no veteran should be homeless; we need to ensure that we can offer social work services and ensure that they have a stable home environment. Diversity, Equity and Inclusion What is and isn't Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI)? DEI is not Critical Race Theory or making others feel bad about who they are. On the contrary, it treats others with respect and dignity that they deserve. A way to think of it is like the golden rule, Matthew (7:12): “In everything, do to others what you would have them do to you. . . .” Diversity is the presence of differences that may include race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, ethnicity, nationality, socioeconomic status, language, (dis)ability, age, religious commitment, or political perspective. Equity promotes justice, impartiality and fairness within the procedures, processes, and distribution of resources by institutions or systems. Tackling equity issues requires understanding the root causes of outcome disparities within our society. Inclusion is an outcome to ensure those that are diverse feel and/or are welcomed. Inclusion outcomes are met when you, your institution, and your program are genuinely inviting to all. To the degree to which diverse individuals can participate fully in the decision-making processes and development opportunities within an organization or group. I received training and was an Equal Opportunity Officer in the Army, where we operated with DEI in mind and addressed instances of -isms. I continue to support and fight for DEI to eliminate the propagation of -isms. Immigration Being the son of a Mexican immigrant, immigration reform and justice is a personal issue that I care about. People eligible for DACA need to have a pathway towards residency and citizenship. We need to re-assess our immigration policies for relevance, enforcement and update them through immigration reform. We can’t have an immigration process designed to discriminate and favor some. Grandstanding, having photo ops at the border and constantly complaining about immigrants is futile if we do not solve the root causes of the problems. Border Security A public policy that often gets lumped together with immigration is border security, even though they are distinct. I know the border; I was born, raised in Laredo, and my father’s ranch was on the Nuevo Laredo side with riverfront access to the Rio Grande. Border security is a complex issue, and a wall is a simple solution to a complicated problem that does not work. We have drug and human trafficking into the country while guns and money are leaving in the opposite direction. We need to have the infrastructure, technology, and sufficient manpower in law enforcement to inspect what comes into the country and what leaves. 2nd Amendment and Reasonable Gun Control I grew up hunting, I own weapons, and I am responsible for keeping them locked up, unloaded, and out of the reach of children. I believe in the need to protect the 2nd amendment, but I also believe in reasonable gun control. So passing background checks that cover the sales of new and used guns to make sure known and suspected terrorists, domestic abusers, and those who can be a danger to themselves or others can’t get their hands on guns make sense. Just as holding gun owners responsible for the storage and safekeeping of their weapons so we can avoid their unauthorized use in committing atrocities. All I am saying is that it shouldn’t be easier to buy or get a gun than registering and voting in Texas. Environment and Energy My dad was the first green advocate I knew; he was adamant about keeping our ranch clean from littering, not wasting water and other resources on the land. He instilled in me as a child that we needed to leave the place better than we found it for future generations. The country needs energy independence from OPEC, and the way to get there is by transitioning from fossil fuels into renewables. We are not going to shut off oil and gas without thinking about the people this affects. This transition needs to lead by creating higher-paying jobs in the renewable energy industry where oil and jobs are. We have to show ERCOT is accountable with the Texas grid, that it can ramp up to our energy needs and not fail ever again. I support energy independence and renewables in Texas to reduce carbon emissions and greenhouse gases. Taxes I believe in fair taxation; a teacher should never pay more taxes than a millionaire. Everyone should pay their fair share and not be allowed to shelter their fortune from taxes. Public School I am a product of public education, and my children attend public school. Over the past year, we have learned the difficulty of virtual learning. Some of us finally understand how hard teachers work to get our children ahead. Yet, despite their dedication, we keep short-changing teachers. Teachers need to have the correct class sizes and resources. Most important, teachers need the pay they deserve as they strive to provide a good education.[2] |
” |
| —Ricardo Villarreal's campaign website (2022)[3] | ||
See also
2022 Elections
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on November 21, 2021
- ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ Ricardo Villarreal Texas 21st Congressional District, “Ricardo Villarreal On the Issues,” accessed January 20, 2022
