Meet the Candidate: Kerri Kingsbery for House District 68

Cooke County business woman Kerri Kingsbery is running for the 68th Texas House District seat against incumbent Rep. David Spiller in the March 5 primary. Mrs Kingsbery, who lives in Tioga, founded a community association management company called VCM Texas, which her son and daughter now manage.

Although she has been active in Republican Party politics as poll worker and a state delegate, this is her first time running for office.

Enterprise: What inspired you to run for this seat and what do you believe are the most important issues facing this district?

Mrs. Kingsbery: We are a very rural district. We are made up of 12 rural counties ... which gives us a lot in common. The biggest concerns are that we’re rural and very conservative, and Mr. Spiller is not. Most of his life, he’s voted Democrat, until 2010, and unfortunately, he’s taken those ideologies to the Texas House. He heavily supported [House Speaker] Dade Phelan in appointing Democrats to committee chair positions … he was one of the House managers that led the impeachment of [Attorney General] Ken Paxton … he voted for every corporate welfare tax abatement. We need somebody who will actually represent us and our best interests.

Enterprise: What is your position on school vouchers?

Mrs. Kingsbery: I am not a huge proponent of school vouchers in the first place. What I am a proponent of is parents having the right and the ability to choose the schooling of their children. Now most parents who have the benefit of living in a rural community with a great school district are going to keep their kids in public school. That just makes sense. But if the public school is not serving their child … I believe a parent should have the benefit of keeping some of their own tax dollars to educate their child or to put toward their child’s education. I am not a proponent of the state writing out checks to parents or government bureaucracy being created to oversee this whole huge voucher system. I think that there should be … a child income credit for parents with minor children who are trying to educate their children by other means.

Enterprise: What is your position on illegal immigration through Young County?

Mrs. Kingsbery: This past session, there was a really great bill proposed that allowed Texans to repel immigrants from coming into Texas. We could actually have stopped them at the border. It also mandated E-Verify. I think if we could get rid of all of the incentives for illegals to come over, that would help. We have to stop them from coming in. I even believe that we should stop this birthright citizenship. That should have gone away long ago.

Enterprise: Young County has now suffered multiple fatalities because of our lack of access to mental health care. What is a solution to that problem?

Kingsbery: We need [services] in the rural areas. We have got a huge problem. You can see that with the suicide rates across the board. And, you know what? This would be a money saving solution. If we could put money into mental health care and provide those services We would not be having to jail nearly as many people and pay for that and pay for the additional law enforcement it takes to deal with a mental health situation that could have been dealt with by appropriately trained counselors.