In these times, there is nothing like building people power and prioritizing community care to help us navigate the ever-changing landscape. As our communities are targeted and impacted by the actions taking place at the federal and state level, we look to you, our local leaders for support and strength. We hope that you are able to take care of yourself and your well-being in these times, when your leadership matters more than ever.
Local Progress members and partners have been a force to be reckoned with at the Texas Legislature this year. We may be under attack from every angle, but we keep fighting for our values and communities. Local Progress Texas is over 100 members strong, representing over 50 jurisdictions. We are clear about our potential for impact, and we’ll keep organizing and raising our voices for our communities.
Want to get involved with our chapter? Let’s talk! Local Progress members have access to a slew of policy and strategic resources, but sometimes it can be hard to know where to start, so let’s connect about it. I am based in Laredo and I would love to meet with you online or wherever you are. Schedule a meeting with me!
🏫 Preserve TX Public Schools!
Going into this year, we knew the fight we would have ahead of us to preserve our Texas public schools. We had to gear up for our school board members, district leaders, parents, and teachers– to support them in an uphill battle to stave off private school vouchers as had been done for nearly three decades in Texas.
We organized a local elected sign-on letter that garnered support from over 50 individual elected officials from jurisdictions across the state and brought a coalition of public education advocates together to prepare members for anti-voucher advocacy at the Capitol.
Despite our best efforts and the amazing broad coalition of Texans that fought for our public schools, the voucher bill that creates a discriminatory private school voucher program, effectively excluding students based on citizenship– heads to the governor’s desk for signing. We will not give up until we ensure our public schools are valued for what they are: the heartbeat of our communities.
📣 2025 LPTX Advocacy Day
In March, we held our 89th Texas Legislative Session Advocacy Days at the Capitol in Austin. Over a dozen LPTX members and Organizing Committee leaders came together with Every Texan, IDRA, and TX AFT to oppose private school vouchers, harmful immigration & preemption legislation and advocate for eviction protections & reproductive rights at a press conference held at the steps of the state’s Capitol.
In the Capitol, we held a dozen legislative meetings with key legislators on public education, immigrants justice, and housing to communicate our priorities on bills we are supporting and trying to stop, based on our ongoing collaboration with partners like ACLU of Texas, Texas Housers, and ILRC. The power of our network is seen in these moments, when we come together to lift up our communities’ voices when they themselves cannot be there.
🤝 LPTX Austin Network Social with TX AFL-CIO
Alongside our Advocacy Day, we held space for our members and partners to come together, co-hosting a social with Texas AFL-CIO. We started out our time in Austin with nearly 30 members, partners, and allies gathering for an LPTX Network Social co-hosted by our labor partner, where partners like MOVE Texas, Workers Defense Project, and the Dallas Housing Coalition got to share important legislative updates with our members. We welcomed one new member to the LP network, Bell County Commissioner Louie Minor, recruited by our OC Co-chair El Paso Commissioner David Stout.
This year, we have been focusing on expanding our reach in the North Texas and Gulf Coast regions. We value nothing more than being able to build those in-person connections with members and partners across the state and know how important it is to meet people where they are at.
We had 15 folks come together at a local Ft. Worth joint, including three Ft. Worth City Council Members, our Organizing Committee Co-Chair and Dallas Deputy Mayor Pro Tem Adam Bazaldua, our Ft. Worth School Board Member Roxanne Martinez, and partners like our Texas Working Families Party, SEIU TX, and LP Alumni & former Congressional candidate Candace Valenzuela. Overall, we had a great time getting to know new members and partners, strengthening existing and previous relationships, and increasing LP’s presence in North Texas!
Crystal Chism– DeSoto City Council Member for Place 6– has been serving her community on council since May 2021. Her journey in public service is a testament to her dedication to her constituents and her community.
Born and raised in Dallas, Texas, Crystal is a proud graduate of Dallas Independent School District Skyline High School. After graduating from high school, Crystal spent the next 10 years serving in the military in both active and reservist duty and is a combat war veteran. Crystal earned her Associate of Arts degree from Mountain View Community College and later received her Bachelor of Business Administration in Management from the University of Texas in Arlington.
Crystal currently serves as the DeSoto City Council Liaison for the following committees and boards: DeSoto Citizens Police Advisory Committee, DeSoto Veterans Affairs Committee, North Texas Council of Governments, DeSoto Rotary, North Texas Council of Governments Emergency Preparedness Planning Council.
Crystal also serves in leadership on the following boards: Texas Municipal League Audit and Budget committee, Texas Association of Black City Council Members Treasurer, National League of Cities Federal Advocacy Community and Economic Development Committee, National League of Cities REAL (Race, Equity, and Leadership) Council, and Leadership Southwest Board of Directors.
Crystal has been the recipient of the 2023 Community Service Award from TLOD, Inc. Trinity West Chapter, the 2024 Woman of Year from Zeta Phi Beta Incorporated, and obtained Texas Municipal League Certified Municipal Officers designation.
📝 Share Your Story: How is the Trump Administration Impacting your Community?
Local Progress is rolling out a new tool to measure how the Trump Administration is impacting our communities. Our new storybank form is collecting on-the-ground accounts from local officials across the country to accurately map the impact of the federal government’s actions on local communities. These stories will help our network illustrate how federal policy actions are shaping people’s day to day lives and strategize how to fight back against the Trump administration’s divisive agenda, as well as assist our press work in telling the story of our collective resistance. We’re interested in everything from how teachers may have been shut out from Head Start programs to proactive actions your legislative body has taken to affirm the rights of immigrants in your community. Check out the form here and don’t hesitate to reach out with questions!
🧰 Tools to Interrupt Criminalization
The federal administration has escalated its use of criminalization to target immigrant communities and suppress dissent. In the past few weeks alone, over 300 student visas have been revoked on political grounds, and more than 200 immigrants—like Maryland father Abrego Garcia—have been deported to a notorious torture facility in El Salvador in defiance of court orders. These acts are part of a broader strategy: using criminalization to silence opposition and enforce policies that consolidate right-wing power. Local governments have the ability—and responsibility—to push back.
Here’s how we can act:
- Anchor our messaging. Use LP’s updated guides–Protecting Immigrant Rights Under a Hostile Federal Administration and Let’s Talk Real Safety–to align around a strong, consistent narrative. New content includes Best Practices for messaging on immigration and guidance on Responding to a Raid in your Community; and Addressing Public Suffering and Ending Harm and Surveillance, emphasizing the urgent need to move away from carceral solutions and toward real investments that address the root causes of harm.
- Interrupt policies that criminalize residents. Reach out to Interrupting Criminalization’s Help Desk for 1:1 assistance with any organizing, policy, budget, or litigation strategies.
- Strengthen community defense. Invite a local partner organization to sign up for National Immigration Project’s “Removal Defense for Community Defenders” training from May 15 through July 17.
📚 Calls to Action for Public Education
The federal government is poised to pass a billionaire-backed national voucher program that would defund our public schools and harm our students. It’s key that federal officials hear from folks on the ground about the harmful impact this defunding mechanism would have on students and the public education system. This toolkit from our friends at the Alliance to Reclaim Our Schools and NYU Metro Center will help you join the ranks of fellow LP members reaching out to their representatives in Washington — it’s powerful for elected officials in D.C. to hear from local electeds!
Do you want to pass a resolution in your district about protecting public education? Do you want to connect with organizers who could work with you to advocate for this? Fill out this form and we’ll be in touch to support with a draft resolution and an organizing toolkit from our partners at Public School Strong.
Our partners at Popular Democracy are convening Hands Off Our Schools organizing calls – the next two are May 14 and June 11. Want to sign up? More here.
🌍 How to Protect Communities Before and After Climate Disasters
Local elected officials need to know how to protect the communities they serve in the lead up to and before a climate disaster. Hurricanes, wildfires, and floods not only destroy people’s physical and emotional well-being but also can cause families to get to the brink of financial crisis. Working with community disaster recovery organizers, insurance consumer protection advocates, disaster response attorneys, and housing counselors, the Equitable and Just Insurance Initiative released a report that details how state and local governments can protect people’s financial well-being before and after climate disasters. The report details policy recommendations state and local governments can implement from protecting renters and homeowners to helping people avoid scams and holding fossil fuel companies accountable. Read the report here!
🏡Apply by June 9: Advance Tenant Screening Protections
Every year, approximately 3.6 million individuals facing eviction assume an additional concern for their future: the challenge of finding a new home with an eviction on their record.
Results for America, in partnership with PolicyLink, National Housing Law Project, National Consumer Law Center, TechEquity and Upturn, invites place-based teams to apply for an 8-week Solutions Sprint, Unlocked: Opening the Door to Housing Access Through Tenant Screening Protections. This free learning series will provide teams with the knowledge, tools and strategies needed to design and implement policies that prevent the harms of eviction records and tenant screening practices—and expand access to affordable housing.
🏡 Stay Connected to our Caucuses
Your one stop shop for caucus resources! Trying to remember when that next Women’s Caucus meeting is? Looking for the link to complete your Pride Caucus Survey? Want to join a caucus signal chat? Look no further! This link will continuously be updated with all upcoming Caucus events and asks so that you can constantly refer to it and make sure you’re up to date on when your next caucus meetings are.
Also, Local Progress is seeking a Healing Justice Consultant (or a team of consultants) to curate and facilitate healing spaces for our members in-person and remote spaces. The consultant will work in collaboration with LP staff and LP members to design and lead grounding and healing experiences rooted in trauma-informed practice, with an emphasis on multiple modalities, such as but not limited to, journaling, somatics, breathwork, verbal processing, sound, and movement. Please share with your network.
⚡️️ 2025 National Convening
We have less than 10 days until registration closes for our 2025 National Convening and we are almost at capacity! In July, we will gather local elected officials, movement partners, and donors who believe in the strength of bringing together people from different backgrounds and communities to build a country – city by city, county by county – where each of us can thrive. Join us in Chicago on July 10-12 to strategize toward this vision with a community of values-aligned peers and partners! Check your email for your invite and register by our May 21 deadline!
