At an office tucked in the corner of the Universal Shopping Center in Houston’s Alief area, among Vietnamese restaurants and immigration service offices, I met Democratic state Representative Hubert Vo to talk about the runoff election for House District 149. Instead of meeting at his district office a few streets away, we met at the office from which manages the shopping center. Nearing 70, he wore a light blue suit that seemed to engulf his small frame; he stooped slightly when he stood.
Vo leafed back and forth through a prepared memo with talking points about his record. “I continue to keep the district growing in terms of the economy. … You can see it’s had a lot of changes from many years ago,” Vo said.
Twenty-two years ago, Vo drove from office Talmadge Heflin, a powerful Republican incumbent who had voted against anti-hate crime bills and a proposal to make Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday a state holiday. After 20 years in office, Talmadge had become increasingly out of touch with his rapidly diversifying district while Vo made a targeted effort to court immigrant voters—and won by just 33 votes.
