Passionate, tenacious, and persevering are three words to describe Elizabeth Hernandez – a Latinx woman candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives in Texas’ 8th Congressional District. Born in Dallas, Texas from a large family, Elizabeth was inspired to make a change in her community. Growing up, her father was self-employed, and her parents didn’t have enough funds to send her to school. After graduating high school, she felt fortunate to have met the right person at the right time – her employer – because they took a chance on her skills despite the odds that she did not have the degree and experience at the time. From this experience, she learned that one should never feel lucky to have the experience but should have to work hard to gain it. As a result, it led to 20 years of working in the accounting field and an accounting degree that she diligently pursued (and recently received) since 2002 from Sam Houston University.
Her accounting background shaped her perspective on issues that we face today as it is her passion to take her education and accounting experience to Congress. She firmly believes that more accountants should be represented in Congress to hold each other accountable as the nation’s current debt exceeds 23 trillion dollars. The debt is alarming to many because the nation’s debt was at 19 trillion dollars when President Trump came into office. Therefore, Elizabeth wants to bring her accounting experience to Congress to reduce the significant amount of debt we are currently facing. Furthermore, besides her accounting background, Elizabeth also wants to focus on the importance of education as it molded her to become the woman that she is today. She believes that everyone should have access to education and be given the opportunity to pursue it. These are a few platforms that she wants to prioritize when she steps into Congress. When she gets into the office, Elizabeth wants to be involved in the Ways and Means Committee to reverse the tax sets for the top 10% of the country’s population and corporations because they need to be held accountable by not allowing them to not pay anything.
Aside from Elizabeth’s professional and political backgrounds, she also volunteers at the food bank in The Woodlands area because many of our citizens are engulfed in food insecurity. With the COVID-19 pandemic affecting our daily lives, Elizabeth ensures that she reaches out to more people in her community by volunteering at the food bank, engaging in virtual conference calls through platforms like Zoom, connecting with different organizations, doing literature drops, and practicing precautionary measures like social distancing, washing hands, and wearing gloves.
As a woman running for office, Elizabeth is a firm believer that it takes a leap of faith to pursue a leadership position. In fact, her favorite life motto is, “when there’s a will, there’s a way” because if we do not try, we will never be able to obtain the leadership roles. Whenever we fall, we need to get back up and to never let self-doubt consume us. Elizabeth also believes that it’s not possible to be in leadership if we are stuck in our own comfort zones as this will never help us grow.
Elizabeth Hernandez exudes passion, tenacity, and perseverance despite the challenges that get in the way. She is passionate about prioritizing the issues that are often overlooked. She is tenacious because she firmly believes that things can be done when we put the effort in. She is persevering because she was able to obtain her accounting degree after many years and pursue her passion. This was all done by having her friends and family by her side throughout her life. One of her biggest sources for support and guidance is her fiancé, Nasim, a civil rights attorney and her campaign manager as he helps her put things in legal perspective and inform her about the laws in our country.
What is next for Elizabeth? Well, she will first head to Congress. If she doesn’t win, then she will run again and work towards her CPA certification as she is seven hours away from sitting through the exam. Lastly, she will get married next year to her fiancé, Nasim.
For more information on Elizabeth Hernandez, click here.
