In a North Texas House race, two Asian candidates campaign on their version of the American Dream

  

GARLAND — Rep. Angie Chen Button, 70, is living the American Dream. After immigrating from Taiwan to Texas for graduate school at 24, she improved her English, climbed the corporate ladder and was elected to the state House, where she has served eight terms as the only Asian American woman in the Legislature.

Averie Bishop, 28, is living her own version of the American Dream. Her mother fled poverty in the Philippines and moved to Texas where she worked as a maid and married a bus driver. The two worked hard so Bishop could eventually go to college and law school, and, in 2022, become the first Asian American to be crowned Miss Texas.

These two women — Button a Republican, and Bishop a Democrat — say their stories reflect the opportunity and upward mobility that have drawn so many immigrants to Texas. Now they face off this November in a rare election featuring two Asian candidates, vying for the seat in House District 112, which is poised to be one of the state’s most competitive legislative races.

Button has held on to her seat representing a slice of Dallas’ northern suburbs through several tough elections, since being first elected in 2008. She is a formidable incumbent with strong relationships with state officials, including Gov. Greg Abbott, who is counting on her reelection in part to push through school voucher legislation in the coming session. Bishop, meanwhile, enjoys the name recognition and social media platform associated with her historic beauty pageant win, and could ride the Gen Z wave boosted by Vice President Kamala Harris at the top of the Democratic ticket.

The winner will be the only Asian woman in the Legislature and also one of six members to ever serve in the 150-member Texas House. No Asian American has ever been elected to the Texas Senate. The match up is only the second time in Texas history that two Asian candidates have faced off for a legislative seat, marking a milestone for the state’s fastest-growing racial group which is proving to be a small but burgeoning political force.

Today, Asian Americans make up about 12% of House District 112, and about 6% of the Texas population as a whole. Around two dozen other House districts, mostly in Dallas-Fort Worth and Houston metro areas, have similar or even larger Asian constituencies.

The women’s opposing political views illustrate the generational and ethnic divides of Asian American voters. Filipino Americans, like Bishop, are among the most liberal ethnic groups, while Chinese and Vietnamese voters are most likely among Asians to be registered Republicans. Asians who have lived in the country for decades, as Button has, are more likely to lean conservative compared to newer immigrants.

“The Asian American community’s political power is rising with every election cycle,” said state Rep. Gene Wu, a Democrat from Houston who co-chairs the AAPI Caucus with Button.

In 2007, a longtime House incumbent was planning to retire, and Button, then an executive at Texas Instruments, got a call from former state Sen. Florence Shapiro, a local Republican power broker.

“She wanted me to run for the seat,” Button recalled at an interview at Genroku Sushi & Grill, a Taiwanese restaurant in the area’s historic Chinatown plaza. “I laughed. I said, are you sure this region is ready for an Asian American woman with funny English?”

Button

Button won the primary and went on to handily win the general election, too, defeating a Vietnamese Democrat, Sandra Phuong Vu Le. That race was the first in Texas legislative history to see two Asian candidates as their respective party nominees.

District 112, which includes parts of Richardson, Garland, Rowlett, and Sunnyvale, was heavily Republican when Button’s career began but is now more competitive. It includes the Greenville Avenue Chinatown plaza, a historic symbol of the Chinese community in Dallas-Fort Worth before migration patterns moved the Asian center of gravity of North Texas to Collin County. President Joe Biden won the district by 9 points in 2020 — but Button convinced a significant slice of voters to split their tickets, hanging on by 222 votes.

Early in her career and in subsequent campaigns, Button leaned hard into her unique profile as an immigrant who rose from childhood poverty in Taiwan to a successful career in Texas through school and hard work.

“This country is for freedom, liberty and opportunity,” Button said. “Everybody needs to have an opportunity to pursue a better life for them and for their family. That’s what I’ve had.”

Button has gained a reputation as a no-drama lawmaker, named a top legislator in 2021 and 2023 by Texas Monthly, which lauded her bipartisan approach and influence among colleagues. She was the first woman to chair several state House committees and one of few members to do so under three different speakers. She has close ties to Gov. Abbott and recently joined his economic trip to Taiwan. Button has also largely avoided big rifts in her party that led to scores of GOP colleagues being ousted in primaries; she supported Gov. Abbott’s plan for school vouchers but voted for the effort to impeach Attorney General Ken Paxton .

“Part of what she’s well-respected for is strategic sense, knowing when to keep her head down, knowing what issues to work on and what issues to not be encumbered by, consistent with a purplish, still-red swing district,” said Cal Jillson, a professor of political science at Southern Methodist University.

Button noted she rarely gives public speeches on the floor because she’s uninterested in fanning flames.

“The best way to pass the bill, even a controversial bill, is to work hard, walk the floor, get your votes, make sure they understand what it’s about,” Button said. “The drama doesn’t work.”

Still, her challenger says there is plenty to be desired in Button’s record, calling it “anti-woman” and “against her own people.” Bishop, who as Miss Texas was outspoken on hot-button issues like guns and reproductive rights, is especially hoping to nail Button over her votes on school vouchers, outlawing abortion, and gun rights. Button voted in favor of the 2021 trigger bill that outlawed abortion after the fall of Roe v. Wade and voted “present” — opting not to take a position — on a law that allowed Texans to carry guns without a permit.

The legislative session next year could reignite a fight over foreign land ownership laws, another issue of importance to Asian Americans. Sen. Lois Kolkhorst, R-Brenham, filed a bill last year to ban citizens of China, North Korea, Russia and Iran from buying land in Texas. The bill died and never came to a vote in the House, though Button in response introduced a narrower bill targeting foreign governments rather than citizens.

“Angie’s party continues to push legislation that is divisive and that unfairly targets people of color in this state,” Bishop’s campaign said in a statement.

Bishop’s own candidacy, she acknowledged, is in part on a path paved by Button, and Bishop recalled meeting her as a teenager performing in local cultural events and taking photos together. The two women have not talked since, however.

“When I met her for the first time, I was excited to see representation, to see an Asian woman in a position which I aspired to be one day,” Bishop said. “But representation far exceeds physical appearance.”

Bishop

In 2016, Bishop was a freshmen theater major at Texas State University, working on her vocal and acting skills. Then Trump was elected, prompting her to switch gears and transfer to Southern Methodist University, where she majored in human rights. Advocating for her progressive values under an increasingly conservative government became her priority.

Most pageant contestants, especially those in Texas, have avoided making political statements. But Bishop not only explained her progressive views on abortion, guns and sex education on social media but pushed back against laws being passed by the state’s Republican leaders, including those banning college diversity programs. The activism earned her the title “unlikely provocateur” and made a compelling launchpad for a state House bid.

“My American Dream really takes into consideration everyone, not just the current present, alive people in Texas, but the next generations that come after,” Bishop said in an interview. “She’s not thinking far enough with her American Dream. She’s already living it.”

Bishop is juggling her campaign while working full-time as an IT consultant during the campaign, a common experience for young or first-time candidates without significant personal wealth. On the weekends and after work, she throws on sneakers and hits the doors. The hyperactive schedule is not unlike her time entering pageants while in school, or the marathon of speaking engagements during her year traveling the state as Miss Texas.

Button, for her part, pointed to legislation she authored that created workforce grants and required insurers to cover fertility preservation for young people with cancer. She largely avoided criticizing her opponent but sought to highlight a difference in style, influenced by the generational split between first- and second-generation Americans.

“The most major difference between her and me is that I am full of gratitude, and she seems full of anger,” Button said.

Bishop said her anger is an asset, representative of the mood of her Gen Z peers.

“I’m done with waiting,” Bishop said. “I’m running for office because in order for laws to pass that work for everyone, everyone needs a seat at the table. I’m done with being told that it’s time for me to sit, look pretty and keep my mouth shut until it’s time for the baby boomers to retire.”

Voucher fight

The race is shaping up to be among the more competitive races in the Legislature this cycle; each candidate raised $200,000 in the last quarter, according to July filings. But Button has a large cash-on-hand advantage with $740,000 in the bank compared to Bishop’s $100,000.

Perhaps the biggest flashpoint in this race is the role its winner could play in the fight over school vouchers — the use of public money to pay for private schools — expected to play out next year. Vouchers were one of Abbott’s top priorities in the last legislative session, but he was thwarted by a coalition of Republicans who sided with Democrats to prevent them from being passed.

Anti-voucher advocates, who say Abbott’s plan would funnel state dollars away from public schools, are hoping to flip seats like HD 112 to retain an anti-voucher coalition after many Republicans who opposed vouchers were ousted in this year’s primaries. Abbott, after the primaries, said he has enough pro-voucher Republican votes to pass his plan as long as allies like Button are reelected.

Bishop’s campaign says education has been its top talking point in door-knocking efforts in the district, which includes portions of Richardson, Garland and Sunnyvale school districts. Asian Americans in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex have long been motivated by education, settling within well-regarded public school districts such as Richardson, Irving, Plano, and more recently Frisco, Allen and others.

Bishop, who grew up in McKinney, is drawing on her experience as a public school graduate and time spent as a substitute teacher in two elementary schools in the district. Richardson’s school district, she notes, has seen heavy enrollment losses and moved to close four campuses as part of sweeping budget cuts.

She said she’d love to be a teacher but sees the path as financially unfeasible while paying off her student loans.

“I fell in love with teaching so much, and saw how teachers were struggling in the state of Texas, the lack of funding, the overcrowded classrooms,” Bishop said.

Button, meanwhile, argues that the voucher program would support students with special education needs and push public schools to do better through competition. She has generally enjoyed support from teachers and school administrators throughout her tenure and says she has consistently voted for more public school funding throughout her career. Her own child graduated from Richardson High School.

The voucher bill in the last legislative school was also coupled with a boost for teacher pay, she noted. The teacher pay raises went away when the voucher provision was stripped, as Abbott said he would not sign an education bill that did not include vouchers.

“I believe in the free market, and we need to give parents choice so they will get the best education for their kids,” Button said.

This reporting was supported by a grant from the Gordon Journalism Fellowship through Yale University and the Yale Journalism Initiative.

Disclosure: Southern Methodist University, Texas Instruments and Texas Monthly have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune’s journalism. Find a complete list of them here.