Claudia Ordaz (born January 13, 1986) is an American politician. As a member of the

Democratic Party Democratic Party most often refers to: *Democratic Party (United States) Democratic Party and similar terms may also refer to: Active parties Africa *Botswana Democratic Party *Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea *Gabonese Democratic Party *Demo ...

, she currently serves in the

Texas House of Representatives The Texas House of Representatives is the lower house of the bicameral Texas Legislature. It consists of 150 members who are elected from single-member districts for two-year terms. As of the 2010 United States census, each member represents abou ...

for the 79th District of El Paso’s northeast and eastside, which includes the El Paso International Airport and Fort Bliss, the country’s largest installation in the U.S. Army Forces Command (FORSCOM).

Early life, education, and career

Ordaz is a graduate of local public schools. She graduated from

Montwood High School Montwood High School is a four-year public high school located in the East El Paso area of El Paso, Texas, United States. It is a part of the Socorro Independent School District. The school was completed in 1989, just in time for the 1990/1991 sc ...

. She then went on an attended the

University of Texas at El Paso The University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) is a public research university in El Paso, Texas. It is a member of the University of Texas System. UTEP is the second-largest university in the United States to have a majority Mexican American stud ...

, where she received a BA in Political Science in 2008. Since then she served as the

El Paso El Paso (; "the pass") is a city in and the seat of El Paso County in the western corner of the U.S. state of Texas. The 2020 population of the city from the U.S. Census Bureau was 678,815, making it the 23rd-largest city in the U.S., the s ...

council member for District 6 of the city and was

Mayor pro tempore ''Pro tempore'' (), abbreviated ''pro tem'' or ''p.t.'', is a Latin phrase which best translates to "for the time being" in English. This phrase is often used to describe a person who acts as a ''locum tenens'' (placeholder) in the absence of ...

at one point. She left the city council upon her election to the state legislature. She also was a press secretary for the

United States House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the Lower house, lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the United States Senate, Senate being ...

in the

112th United States Congress The 112th United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, from January 3, 2011, until January 3, 2013. It convened in Washington, D.C. on January 3, 2011, and ended on January 3, 2013, 17 ...

and communications director for the

Texas Senate The Texas Senate ( es, Senado de Texas) is the upper house of the Texas State Legislature. There are 31 members of the Senate, representing single-member districts across the U.S. state of Texas, with populations of approximately 806,000 per cons ...

. She also attended the

Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs The Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs (or LBJ School of Public Affairs) is a graduate school at the University of Texas at Austin that was founded in 1970 to offer training in public policy analysis and administration for students that ar ...

at the

University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...

. Claudia's former husband Vincent Perez was a El Paso County commissioner from 2012 to 2020.

Elections

Ordaz was elected for city council of El Paso in 2014 in a special election for District 6, becoming the youngest elected official in the city of El Paso and resulting in the first-ever majority by female representatives on Council. She was re-elected in 2015 and 2018 with over 72 percent of the vote. Claudia announced in October 2019 to run for the

District 76th seat, that was being held by

Cesar Blanco César Jose Blanco is an American Politician who is currently serving as a member of the Texas Senate. Early life and education Blanco was raised in El Paso by a single mother and graduated from Eastwood High School. Before pursuing a college ...

at the time. Representative Blanco announced he would run for the 29th District in the Texas Senate. By announcing her run, she resigned her council seat. Claudia ran unopposed in the November 2020 election and defeated Elisa Tamayo earlier in the year in the primaries.

Political positions

Education

Ordaz is in favor of increasing funding for public schools, as well as long-term equitable funding. She believes that the state short-changed the local schools of El Paso and crippled the education system.

Health care

Ordaz supports expanding

Medicaid Medicaid in the United States is a federal and state program that helps with healthcare costs for some people with limited income and resources. Medicaid also offers benefits not normally covered by Medicare, including nursing home care and pers ...

to cover more low-income uninsured adults. She states that 1 in 3 adults in the city of El Paso are uninsured and hopes that expanding Medicaid would reduce the cost for tax payers in the long run by paying for uncompensated care.

Parental Leave

Ordaz is in favor of parents spending time at home during the first months of parenting, as well as taking care of the elderly. She passed Parental Leave legislation that provides family leave benefits for state employees, which allows employees to donate unused sick leave to parents at no cost to taxpayers. Ordaz was recognized with the "Legislative Star" award for her legislation.

References

External links

Campaign website

State legislative page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ordaz Perez, Claudia 1986 births Living people Hispanic and Latino American state legislators in Texas Hispanic and Latino American women in politics Democratic Party members of the Texas House of Representatives Women state legislators in Texas 21st-century American politicians 21st-century American women politicians University of Texas at El Paso alumni People from El Paso, Texas