The Story of Rhonda Hart
Rhonda Hart will be the first to tell you that life is entirely of tragedy. Hart, like many other families in the South, lives paycheck to paycheck. She worries every day for her family’s well-being and ability to access food. Hart is also an Army veteran and sadly has not had access to doctors and healthcare. Futhermore, in 2018, she experienced the loss of her 14-year-old daughter in a Santa Fe school shooting.
Rhonda Hart’s lobbying work
Fueled by the anger and frustration that comes with such a loss, Hart started lobbying in support of Kimberly Vaughan’s Safe Storage of Firearms. This bill supports educating people about the safe storage of firearms and forces gun manufacturers to include that information when selling guns to others. Safe storage of guns will decrease the likelihood of little kids or teenagers accessing guns from parents, etc. Hart also lobbied for the Protect Our Kids Act a bill created in response to the Uvalde school shooting. However, when she tried to speak with then congressmen Weber, she was ignored.
Rhonda Hart’s bid for Congress
Hart, concerned with other parents who were also ignored, decided to run for Texas’s 14th congressional district. Hart first plans to use her personal experience with a school shooting to advocate for and create legislation that creates safer storage for guns and requires universal background checks. She also plans to improve the economy because, as someone who lives paycheck to paycheck, she gets it. Finally, she plans to change the experience she has had as a veteran and make veterans’ and women’s issues a priority.
Conclusion
Rhonda Hart is the embodiment of democracy, using her unique experiences to fight on behalf of the people. And, given the time society is living in, that is precisely the type of representative it needs.
