As Republican Congressman Chip Roy wraps up his tenure in the House of Representatives, Texas’s 21st district is up for grabs in November. Two vastly different candidates are vying for the seat: Democrat Kristin Hook, a former federal scientist, faces off against Republican Mark Teixeira, a former Major League Baseball player.
Dr. Hook spoke with The Contrarian about how her Texas upbringing, federal scholarships, and Government Accountability Office tenure each shaped her priority areas in her congressional campaign.
Dr. Kristin Hook is running for Congress as the Democratic nominee in Texas’s 21st district. She is a former federal scientist and public school teacher, and she has a PhD in animal behavior from Cornell University.
The following transcript has been edited for formatting purposes.
Tim Dickinson
Hey, this is Tim Dickinson for The Contrarian. Today, we have a guest from Texas, Dr. Kristin Hook, who is running for Congress. Kristin, welcome.
Kristin Hook
Thank you. Thank you so much for having me. I’m so excited.
Tim Dickinson
I like to get people who are running for Congress to tell us first what’s great about their district, just as a way of introduction for people who may be watching from all over the country.
Kristin Hook
Oh, sure. So I’m running in Central Texas, which I would argue is the most beautiful part of Texas. We run between San Antonio and Austin. We include Northern San Antonio, which is just such a wonderfully diverse community of amazing people. We also have the Texas Hill Country, which is also a diverse community of amazing people and animals and wildlife with beautiful natural rivers and just a beautiful landscape. So I love our district. I think it’s the best one in Texas.
Tim Dickinson
And as I was sharing with you, my grandparents were there when I was a kid and we went to the Aquarena Springs, is that right, with the mermaid show? Anyhow, it’s wonderful, it’s a wonderful place where you’re from.
Kristin Hook
Absolutely.
Tim Dickinson
Why don’t you tell us a bit about yourself and why you’re running for Congress this year?
Kristin Hook
Sure, so I grew up in South Texas, actually just a few hours south of here, and I was raised in a working class family by a single mom. My mom had to work multiple jobs at times to help pay the bills or to pay all of the bills and support me and my brother. I started working when I was 14 to help out and I watched my family struggle and work really hard, but still, you know, even though they were working hard, they lived paycheck to paycheck, and far too many families live like that. And it’s only as I’ve gotten older and just seen that wealth inequality grow further and further. It seems like we are overworked, and we’re getting less and less for it, and we deserve leaders who understand the struggles of working people. We have way too many people who have no working class background leading us, and I think it’s time that we put working people in charge so that we can build an economy that works for everyone. I also have a little bit of a different you know, background, because I come from a working-class background, but it was through my public education in Texas that I… escaped my background, and I was able to go on to earn a PhD, from an Ivy League. I went to Cornell to get my PhD in animal behavior, so I’m well prepared to handle Congress, that background. But, you know, it’s because of taxpayers that I have to thank for all of those opportunities that I’ve had. Programs like the Pell Grant that allowed me to afford going to college, like the National Science Foundation Awards that helped support me to become the first in my family to earn a PhD. There’s so many wonderful social programs, even the public library, where I loved reading books as a kid and got lost in other worlds and envisioned a different world for myself and a different career. I have a kitty coming to say hi. You know, that is… That’s just such an important thing to me. Sorry. He’s…
Tim Dickinson
Cats are welcome on The Contrarian.
Kristin Hook
Oh, great. He’s a fluffy one too. He is a contrarian, but a contrarian of Zoom, Zoom calls, because he wants to be, he wants to be in the mix. Yeah, no, I mean, these programs are so important, and we’ve seen how much these have been attacked and targeted over the last few years. There’s this push to… get rid of things that I see as just inherent public goods and privatize them. And we need to fight for the common good, for the public good. I believe that’s the role of government. And we’ve seen the destruction of that, and the takeover of our government by extremist ideologists who do not value Public service and the things that our government can and should do for people.
Tim Dickinson
And you have a specific science background. And so the Trump administration’s war on science right now, and particularly NIH grants and the rest of it by Doge and the rest, it’s been really corrosive. And I wonder if you just want to speak to that just a bit.
Kristin Hook
Corrosive is a good term, absolutely destructive and destructive. is another way to frame it. I… it’s been horrifying to watch this attack on science that’s been happening for de… for… honestly, since the first Trump administration, but it’s… it’s been taken to an entirely new level by this new administration. Yeah. I actually was a federal scientist before running. I left my academic career behind in 2020 when the pandemic hit. I had lived in D.C. under the Trump administration, and I had seen, firsthand the horrors of what they were doing, attacking… attacking science, attacking evidence-based policymaking, attacking women, immigrants, things that I, I have fought for. throughout my life, and that’s when I decided to leave academia behind and, jumped into the federal government as a public servant in science and tech issues. And over the past year, we’ve watched these incredibly harmful attacks on scientists in our workforce in the federal government. I believe it’s over 95,000 science… people with science in their title have been removed from our federal government. Over the past year, we’ve seen over 10,000 PhD scientists. Lost from our federal government as well because of the Trump administration’s policies, so. that does nothing to serve… serve the U.S. I think it’s unfortunate that so many people have bought into the lies that, you know, of this, like, government waste. That’s not government waste. That’s people… that’s helping keep our air clean, our water clean, our, social security checks coming on time, and there’s just so many benefits that we derive from all of the different programs of our government. Yeah, it is sprawling. But we have mechanisms in place to detect and prevent waste, fraud, and abuse. I actually used to work at that agency, the U.S. Government Accountability Office. that’s the job of the government… the GAO. They… they detect waste, fraud, and abuse, and they’ve been doing it for over 100 years. And for every dollar we invest in that agency, they save us $127. So I… I’m not on their payroll anymore. I… I jokingly say I should be, because I sing their praises so much. If you care about government efficiency. you know, let’s bulk up the GAO that uses evidence to ensure that our government is working efficiently the way that it should, not creating some fake task force that did not, you know, they were there to scrape our data. They weren’t there to actually do the thing they’re claiming that they did.
Tim Dickinson
And your district is conservative. Chip Roy is the outgoing member, one of the most conservative guys in Congress. And so I wonder, for a person from a more liberal background, what is the communication challenge? What are the issues that you’re bringing to the table, and how do you win over people who might be on the other side of the aisle?
Kristin Hook
It’s a great question. So, we do live in a conservative district. Chip Roy is out. This is an open seat. We have an opportunity to flip it, and I’m… I’m working really hard to do that. This is the second time I’m running, actually, so… I, need help to finish the job, that we started in 2023. I quit my job in the federal government to run for this seat. I thought, why am I trying to educate members of Congress on science and tech issues when I could just become one myself? And it’s been such an eye-opening experience. I actually really hate politics as a scientist. I, I want policies based on facts and evidence, not ideology. And. You know, Chip Roy is one of the most anti-science… folks, I liken him to an anarchist in government, or he’s a… he’s really an arsonist. I mean, he’s trying to burn it down, as so many others are. It’s… it’s quaint in retrospect, the things that he was talking about in 2024 that we’ve now seen enacted on a whole new level because of Project 2025. And the new administration that has just decimated so many things, like the Department of Education. But, you know, when I talk to voters in our district, we have a pretty diverse community. We’ve got urban populations of folks, and we’ve got rural populations of folks. And the rural part of our district, I would say, is the more conservative-leaning. And so many of the issues that they care about are issues that I am an expert in and can speak to and can help problem solve and fix. So one of those being our water shortage. We are in a drought and AI data centers as a something that Greg Abbott has allowed here in the state of Texas isn’t doing anyone any favors. And so. That’s a very bipartisan issue that people are really riled up about because of the impacts that it has. I would say the environment is a huge, a huge wedge issue here, and who better to speak to that than a scientist who takes climate change seriously and who sees, the need for us to have infrastructure and, the need for a government that’s actually paying attention to those problems down the line so we can prevent them. It’s cheaper to prevent than to act out of a crisis. The other things I hear folks talking about, include education, which This past year, Governor Abbott enacted a voucher scam in the state of Texas with zero evidence that these are effective for student learning. We are ranked like 44th in the country for public education outcomes for students, and that’s not because of the teachers. They’re underpaid and underserved. It’s because they’ve been underfunding public schools here in the state of Texas, trying to enact a Christian national agenda, nationalist agenda. So… education is huge, especially in the rural parts of our district, where they don’t have private school options, and those vouchers just subsidize the education for the wealthiest Texas kids at the expense of the poorest Texas kids, and I think anyone who, is educated on this issue knows that that’s not the right way for us to go to, make sure that every family in Texas can thrive regardless of their zip code. So, you know, I think the economy as well, like, that’s obviously a huge issue that’s impacting people, the cost of living, and I am the only candidate in this race who can speak to that, because I live it, and I have lived it, So, I think, you know, I think that this district is ready for change. I think there are a lot of independents who have, unfortunately, you know, fell for the lies of Donald Trump. And they really believed him when he said that he was going to fight corruption in our government, and what we’re seeing is the most corrupt administration in the history of our country. And, yeah. I… I actually… I… I’m also a great candidate for this reason, because I fought government corruption, working for Senator Elizabeth Warren when I left academia. My first job in the federal government was as an oversight investigator in the U.S. Senate in Senator Warren’s office, so I learned from the best, got a really good overview of federal policy, and I held that first Trump administration accountable, and greedy corporate CEOs who were trying to profit off of us during that pandemic, and… we have the tools, we just need the right people in place to make sure that we pull those levers, and that powerful entities, whether it’s within our federal government or in the private sector, are held accountable.
Tim Dickinson
I should probably mention that your opponent in this race, I believe, is a famous former baseball player, Mark Teixeira, very wealthy individual, I’m sure, but I can’t imagine that he’s got kind of the the chops that you do when it comes to policymaking. Can you just contrast yourself a bit to your opponent?
Kristin Hook
Sure, yeah. So he’s a former pro baseball player. He used to play his first gig, I think, was with the Texas Rangers. As far as I can tell, that is his only connection to Texas. He traded us for the Yankees, and the majority of his career was spent playing for the New York Yankees. So I’m just envisioning. the response of, you know, folks in the Hill Country here seeing a picture of him with a New York shirt on, because I just don’t feel like that’s going to go over very well for them. And… Yeah, I would… I mean, listen, I… this is not a person who’s dedicated his life to public service, so, he also doesn’t actually live in our district, so I’m not sure how you argue that you’re here to serve our community when you don’t even live in it, and in order to, you know, be present here, you’d have to travel to it. So I, I definitely challenge him to a debate. I welcome a debate and, definitely think that the voters will. see that, you know, there’s one person in this race who actually cares about our community, who actually lives in our community, and who’s here to serve our community. I’d like to imagine him, like. practicing with, like, little note cards, like, trying to study up on, like, keeping up with what’s going on in politics and in policy and stuff. But who knows? Who knows what he’s doing with his time? He does think he can buy the seat, and I don’t think anyone should be allowed to buy the seat. hoping that with me and many other changes happening across this country, we can get people in who are ready to end Citizens United and get money out of politics.
Tim Dickinson
I wanted to ask you about how immigration plays in your district, and obviously there’s this… it’s not your part of the state, this horrible ICE killing in Houston. I wondered if you wanted to just talk about, you know, the way in which people want a humane, immigration policy that’s got some common sense to it.
Kristin Hook
Absolutely, actually. I mean, immigration is an issue for all of Texas. It doesn’t matter what part of Texas you’re in. This is actually an issue that came up a lot, because I do hear a lot of people in my district that are concerned about border security and what was happening after the pandemic. So this is something that I think is incredibly important for us to solve. I think that we’ve had, on both political sides of the aisle. policymakers who’ve used this as a political football instead of actually addressing the issue. And unfortunately, we have a party that is so demoralized, the Republican Party is so demoralized that they have gone to the lengths of criticizing and dehumanizing immigrants to the point that we had a federal agent murder a hardworking small business owner and father on the streets in Houston a few days ago. That’s horrific. It’s horrific. Lorenzo Salgado Araujo should still be alive today. And you know, to me, his story is the story of so many immigrants in Texas. They came here to live a better life. They are contributors to our society and our community. They give. They give to our communities, and I know that better than anyone, because I grew up a few hours north of the border in a very mixed community. And San Antonio is also a very mixed community, so it’s incredibly saddening that there’s this you know, narrative that immigrants are taking from people. When if you look at the facts, again, facts and evidence matter, and when you look at the facts, they actually give, they give more to our community than they receive. They, they pay taxes, they don’t derive the same benefits that, that we do as American citizens. So we really need to address this issue of the backlog of the folks who are living here, and… you know, actually increase the number of judges that are hearing these asylum cases. They deserve the same legal rights that are written in our Constitution, that American citizens derive, the right to due process, and It really needs to stop being a political football that’s used, that’s… allowing the dehumanization and stripping of civil rights of people in our communities, including children, including children that are in detention facilities, here in the state of Texas. I liken this to… honestly, being very wrapped up in the, in the fact that this is a very corrupt administration and what they’re doing is. creating a pipeline for funding for the private prison operators of these detention facilities. We could spend so much less money doing something like an alternative to detention using technology, deploying technology instead of imprisoning people who did not commit a crime. There’s just so many alternatives here that clearly aren’t in the interest of this administration, because they would rather allow their donors to profit than protect human rights. And that is wrong, and they need to be held accountable. The ICE agent needs to be held accountable. I know a lot of people in my district, I’ve heard… I’ve heard both ends of the spectrum. I’ve heard people say abolish ICE, I’ve heard people say, you know, that they… that this is what they voted for. ICE should never have become a militarized weapon against the people in this country. Like, that is just not the role that it has. So what it has become is something very different from what it should be. it should be there to do, right? We do need to be able to track drug traffickers. We do need to be able to track immigration, and handle… enforce immigration the same way other countries do. It doesn’t have to look like this. So I think we can all agree this is not it. But I will say, something that might surprise people is when I talk to conservative voters. they are also very concerned about the lack of human rights. They see… they… especially here in Texas, we live in a very integrated community, and… I mean, 1 in 10 workers here in the state of Texas are immigrants, and… I think, you know, I’m recalling one of the first stories that I heard on my first campaign a few years ago was the story of this guy who was a business owner, who would hire illegal immigrants. And then two weeks into the job on payday, he would call ICE to get them deported. And I talked to an… I talked to an immigration lawyer who told me that’s common, that’s a common tactic, but when I shared that story with people, it didn’t matter their political ideology. They were pissed, because they understood how unfair that is. And so, the humanity, as much as this administration and Stephen Miller are trying to dehumanize these people. Most people understand that. immigrant… most immigrants are here to work, they’re here to do good things, they are not criminals. And despite the administration’s best efforts to make up lies about them. Immigrants make America great, and we need to fix the broken immigration system. In order to just make sure that we can balance our immigrant, you know, the immigrant population with with the resources that we have. I think we can come to a solution that does that in a humane, sensible way.
Tim Dickinson
Well, I’m conscious of our time. I’ve enjoyed our conversation. Do you have any other thoughts that you want to make sure that our listenership and viewership come away with?
Kristin Hook
I guess don’t forget about us in Texas. I know we really are the pathway to, to changing the country, and some terrible ideas come out of Texas. My opponent of last cycle, who’s no longer running here. He’s the author of the SAVE Act. He’s the author who tried to disenfranchise millions of voters, and luckily. Luckily, Congress and the Senate never passed that, even though, you know, despite Trump’s best efforts, but this is LBJ country. This was the origin story of the Great Society and wonderful programs that helped lift people out of poverty, like Social Security and Medicare and Medicaid. We have a legacy that is… so much better than the SAVE Act, and I’m trying to… to change what’s happening here. I am a boots-on-the-ground, scrappy candidate who’s grassroots funded. you know, I would greatly appreciate any support folks are able to provide. You can learn more at www.hookthecrooks.com, and yeah, I just would say, let’s give these crooks the hook. I’m so excited to be in this fight. I cannot imagine a better use of my time and skill set right now than fighting for a country I love and fighting fascism.
Tim Dickinson
Well, on that note, thank you so much for joining The Contrarian today. It’s been great.
Kristin Hook
Thank you, Tim. Nice to join you too. Bye-bye.
