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It's time for the next generation of servant leaders who will take an innovative approach to resolving our lingering challenges, realizing our potential, and who will deliver the results our community deserves. Amanda represents the new generation of servant leaders we desperately need in Washington.
It's time for the next generation of servant leaders who will take an innovative approach to resolving our lingering challenges, realizing our potential, and who will deliver the results our community deserves. Amanda represents the new generation of servant leaders we desperately need in Washington.
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Meet Amanda Edwards
EARLY MOTIVATION
Amanda’s father was diagnosed with cancer when she was a child. By witnessing her father’s battle with cancer (as well as her mother’s much later on), Amanda learned firsthand that public service and policy could be a matter of life or death in many households. Her appreciation that policy matters and can have substantial impacts on families has given her serious purpose in her mission to craft meaningful policy and serve communities with a sense of urgency.
EMPOWERING COMMUNITIES – ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY
As a City Council Member, Amanda has proven herself to be an effective and relentless advocate. With an eye toward the future and a vision of an economy that works for all Houstonians, she has led citywide efforts to cultivate technology, innovation, and public transit. In fact, Houston’s new Innovation District (part of the recommendations stemming from the Tech & Innovation Task Force Amanda initiated and led) is now under construction, with the first phase of it (The Ion) now complete.
Amanda has also led Houston’s efforts to reduce the disparities in accessing capital faced by women and minorities who own small businesses in Houston. Amanda now leads BEAMW (the Business Ecosystem Alliance for Minorities & Women) to provide a wide array of support, including one-on-one financial counseling services for small business owners, among other things.
Amanda’s experience as a municipal finance attorney proved invaluable during her tenure on the City Council as the city grappled with budgetary deficits and pension reform. Amanda served as the Vice Chair of the Budget & Fiscal Affairs Committee, authored numerous measures to ensure more accountability and good stewardship of the city’s limited resources, and helped lead budgetary sessions analyzing the city’s $5.1 billion budget. Amanda also served on the Economic Development Committee.
FROM TRANSPORTATION TO EMPOWERING COMMUNITIES - EXPERIENCE THAT COUNTS
Amanda also served on the Transportation, Technology, and Infrastructure Committee. She initiated and led the High Capacity Transit Task Force for the eight-county region through her service on the Houston-Galveston Area Council Transportation Policy Council.
When Hurricane Harvey resulted in 51 inches of rainfall in Houston in 2017, Amanda organized hundreds of volunteers to provide ongoing relief efforts for Houston’s most vulnerable. Her work focused on hundreds of households in areas with high concentrations of low-income seniors.
STRONG FOUNDATION
Amanda graduated from Eisenhower High School in Aldine ISD. She earned a B.A. in Political Science from Emory University in 2004. While at Emory, Amanda served as a Community Building and Social Change Fellow, and she worked in six Community Development Corporations (CDCs) to achieve comprehensive community-based results. After graduating from Emory, she worked for Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee in Washington, D.C., before earning her J.D. from Harvard Law School, where she was a student attorney for the Criminal Justice Institute.
Compelled by the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Amanda relocated to New Orleans. While in New Orleans, Amanda served as a judicial law clerk for Federal District Court Judge Ivan Lemelle and founded Project NOW: The New Orleans Writing Project, which inspired New Orleans youth to empower themselves and their community through the power of writing.
Amanda returned to Houston with a broadened perspective and interest in impacting her community. Amanda practiced law for years as a municipal finance lawyer, where she solved complex issues relating to tax-exempt bond financings, public-private partnerships, and non-profit organizations. She has practiced law at both Vinson & Elkins LLP and Bracewell LLP.
Amanda resides in the core of Houston and attends St. Monica Catholic Church in Acres Homes. Amanda serves on the Advisory Council of Accelerator for America and has served on boards ranging from the National League of Cities to Houston Exponential and Project Row Houses. She is a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., as well as the Houston Chapter of The Links, Inc. While Amanda has received many accolades for her legal and community work, she finds empowering communities to be her greatest reward.
AMANDA’S STORY
Amanda Edwards is a native Houstonian and a former At-Large City Council Member with a passion for empowering our community. Her hands-on, results-oriented servant leadership is focused on empowering residents and obtaining results with impact.
Amanda is an accomplished attorney with extensive municipal finance experience, a grassroots public servant, and an effective community advocate. Amanda is also the founder of a community non-profit that empowers various groups ranging from seniors to women. Amanda is now running to serve the historic 18th Congressional District in the United States Congress.
Amanda's Mission
Amanda is dedicated to building a community where EVERYONE can thrive.
Amanda is running for U.S. Congress to ensure that everyone in the community (no matter what their zip code or background) has the opportunity to thrive in the community. From health care access, economic opportunity, housing, safe communities & education, Amanda will deliver transformative results that residents deserve.
Amanda has the skills and experience needed to not only tackling the lingering challenges of those in the 18th Congressional District, but she can also help ensure that everyone in the 18th Congressional District can reach their full potential.
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Key Endorsements
Former Council Member for District I
Robert Gallegos
City Council Member for District B
Tarsha Jackson
Fort Bent County Judge
KP George
Harris County Commisioner, Precinct 4
Lesley Briones
Amanda Edwards On The Issues
A Thriving 18th Congressional District
Amanda has a long track record of fighting for an economy where everyone can thrive. As a Houston City Council Member, she created the City of Houston Women and Minority-Owned Business Task Force to facilitate fair access to capital and supportive resources. She also supported the adoption of higher wages and improved protections for workers on City of Houston construction projects. And as a proud graduate of Eisenhower High School who went on to some of the top universities in the country, she knows that a high-quality public school education can open doors, and she believes higher education should be accessible to everyone.
As a member of Congress, Amanda will:
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Expand access to capital, training, and other resources for small business owners.
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Strengthen the rights of workers to unionize and collectively bargain.
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Fight for a true living wage for American workers.
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Create opportunities for workers by expanding apprenticeship programs and introduce innovative and modern approaches to job training.
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Tackle the soaring costs of higher education, champion initiatives to support community colleges, and fund innovative education initiatives in our neighborhood schools.
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Ensure that we are prepared for the future of work by providing support for job training for activities tied to carbon capture, etc., amid the Energy Transition.
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Encourage our students to be prepared for the workforce of tomorrow by incentivizing innovation in schools.
A Healthy 18th Congressional District
Having lost both of her parents to cancer, Amanda knows first-hand that healthcare access is a matter of life or death in many households. Yet Texas has the most uninsured people in the country, in part because our state leadership has refused to expand Medicaid under the ACA. Texans also live with bans on reproductive health care – and experience some of the biggest health disparities in the country.
As a member of Congress, Amanda will:
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Increase access to health care by supporting the improvement and expansion of the Affordable Care Act coverage.
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Work to preserve Medicare, Social Security, and other benefits that our seniors rely on to survive.
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Protect health privacy by expanding HIPAA to ensure that private medical decisions, especially decisions about women’s reproductive health, truly stay private.
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Work to codify the protections of Roe v. Wade at the federal level.
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Fight against bounty-style abortion bans by pursuing protections that would prevent the stalking or hunting of people seeking abortion care.
A Resilient 18th Congressional District
When Amanda served on H-GAC, our regional planning body, she learned that our eight-county region will grow by 4.2 million people within 20 years. With this type of anticipated growth, ensuring resiliency by investing in our transportation and flood mitigation infrastructure, housing stock, and the systems that power our region is mission critical. As the community grows, we must be prepared to lead on the energy transition, and to combat the impacts of climate change.
As a member of Congress, Amanda will:
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Champion an improved, efficient, long-term funding system to address the unique infrastructure needs of the Houston region.
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Work across industries and communities to ensure Houston will lead the energy transition – and be the energy capital of the world of today and tomorrow
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Invest in multi-modal transportation infrastructure to support the anticipated 4 million people joining our region.
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Work to right-size our housing supply by expanding federal support for housing planning for cities and using federal resources to incentivize the building of new housing.
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Develop innovative solutions to protect our residents from gentrification and displacement, and champion increased resources for CDBG programs.
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Support policies that combat climate change, which continues to pose severe threats to the longevity of our community.
An Equitable 18th Congressional District
Amanda is inspired in her work by the deep civil rights legacy of the 18th Congressional District. The late, legendary Congresswoman Barbara Jordan and Congressman Mickey Leland made our region an important hub in the fight for democracy and civil rights for everyone. Yet today, our basic civil rights are under attack. In 2020, voting in Texas was harder than anywhere else in the country, and it has gotten even more restrictive since.
As a Member of Congress, Amanda will:
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Champion a comprehensive approach to securing our democracy, including expanding and protecting voting rights and addressing the extreme gerrymandering that suppresses the votes of Black and Latino communities.
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Fight to ensure LGBTQIA+ people are federally protected from discriminatory policies that states including Texas are increasingly enacting.
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Fight for environmental justice. Develop comprehensive equitable solutions for communities impacted by environmental injustice and resulting health issues, like the Fifth Ward cancer cluster.
It’s Time. It’s Time for a Healthier 18th Congressional District, It's Time for a Safer 18th Congressional District, It’s Time for a More Resilient 18th Congressional District. It’s time for a More Equitable 18th Congressional District. It’s Time for an 18th Congressional District Where Everyone Can Thrive.
A Safe 18th Congressional District
Having lost her own cousin at an early age to gun violence, Amanda knows real solutions are needed to keep more families from losing their loved ones to senseless gun violence. Amanda will fight for a common-sense gun safety regime, as well as a law enforcement and justice system that treats us all fairly. Amanda believes that everyone deserves to be safe, both from crime and from police violence.
As a Member of Congress, Amanda will:
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Advocate for community-led training and resources to support true community policing practices that build trust and collaboration between law enforcement and our communities.
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Support reforms included in the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act.
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Fight for common-sense gun control measures, including mandatory background checks and a federal red flag law.
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Support the expansion of community violence intervention programs, which are proven to make a difference in the safety of our communities.
Amanda's Mission
Amanda is dedicated to building a community where EVERYONE can thrive.
Amanda is running for U.S. Congress to ensure that everyone in the community (no matter what their zip code or background) has the opportunity to thrive in the community. From health care access, economic opportunity, housing, safe communities & education, Amanda will deliver transformative results that residents deserve.
Amanda has the skills and experience needed to not only tackle the lingering challenges of the 18th Congressional District, but to help ensure that everyone in the 18th Congressional District can reach their full potential.
It's time for a next generation of servant leaders who can take an innovative approach resolving to our lngering challenges and who can get to work and deliver the results our community needs.
It's time for a next generation of servant leaders who can take an innovative approach resolving to our lngering challenges and who can get to work and deliver the results our community needs.
Business Leader
Bill Baldwin
Acres Homes Community Leader
Diane Shepard
Business & Community Leader
Thomas Jones
Community Leader
Jacqueline Bostic
Senior Pastor, Lilly Grove Missionary Baptist Church
Terry Anderson
Fmr. Houston LGBTQ+ Caucus President
Noel Freeman
Fmr. At-Large Houston City Council Member
Carroll Robinson
Former Port Commissioner
Theldon Branch
Former Congressman & Houston City Council Member
Chris Bell
Contemporary Artist
Katharine Ligon
Educator
Sherrie Matula
Precinct Chair 0009
Gloria Moreno
Founder, African American News & Issues
Roy Douglas Malonson
Community Leader
Lenora
Sorola-Pohlman
Fort Bend County Democratic Party Chairwoman
Cynthia Ginyard
Community Leader
Alexis Melvin
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Community Leader
Antonio Maldonado
Business Leader
Mike Slaughter
Long Time Community Volunteer & Retired Nonprofit Executive
Sylvia Brooks
Professor & Author
Michael Eric Dyson
Democratic Activist, Attorney and Community & Business Leader
Zaf Tahir
Community Leader
Rufi Natarajan
Community Leader
Reverend Max Miller
Entrepreneur, Public Speaker, & Author
Denise Hamilton
