In announcing her candidacy, Gina Ortiz Jones said, “I’m running to make sure everyone gets the opportunities that I have had. I’ve seen from my work representing U.S. interests around the world what happens when people don’t get the opportunity to succeed. Our national security starts at home, and it starts with the opportunities that allow for our most vulnerable to become our most promising.” Jones has never run for office before, and if she wins, she would make history as the first lesbian, Iraq War veteran and first-generation Filipina-American to hold a U.S. House seat in Texas.