State Representative and congressional hopeful Eddie Rodriguez, D-Austin, has decided to make a political wedge out of a complex issue that’s roiled Texas’ capital since 2019: the city’s back-and-forth battle over whether and how harshly to criminalize homeless camping.
In a recent campaign mailer, Rodriguez, who’s represented a southeastern swath of Travis County for two decades, attacks progressive Austin City Council Member Greg Casar for having “designed the disastrous ordinance lifting the ban on tent cities in Austin … allowing homeless people to set up tents anywhere and making the city less safe.” The mailer also features an ominous picture of an unhoused person’s tent with caution tape in the foreground.
The mailer comes as Rodriguez and Casar, along with former San Antonio City Council Member Rebecca Viagran, are squaring off in the Democratic primary for Congressional District 35, which stretches from Austin to San Antonio and is being vacated by longtime U.S. House Rep. Lloyd Doggett.
