Survivor. Mother of six. Austin native. Lauren is running to make sure every child has a great school, every small business has a fair shot, and every Austin family can afford to stay.
Texas Senate District 14 is about to be an open seat. The district's senator is moving on to statewide office, and for the first time in years, the people of Austin and Travis County get to decide who speaks for them in the Texas Senate.
Lauren B. Peña isn't a career politician. She grew up in Austin, went to school here, and is raising her six children here. She has watched the city she loves become a place where working families, small business owners and parents can barely keep up.
The Texas Senate is where school funding, business rules and property taxes get decided. Lauren is running to bring a practical, family-first voice into that room.
Lauren's agenda for the Texas Senate is simple and practical. Here is where she stands.
Every Texas child deserves a great education. Lauren will fight to fully fund our public schools and to give low-income families and children with disabilities real choices that fit their needs.
Local businesses are the backbone of Austin. Starting and growing one should be easier and cheaper, not buried in paperwork and fees.
If families can't afford to live here, nothing else matters. Lauren will attack the cost of living where it hurts most: housing and property taxes.
Lauren didn't learn about broken systems from a policy brief. She lived through them, and she has spent her life making sure other families don't have to.
As a survivor of human trafficking, Lauren knows how predators operate and how easily children fall through the cracks. She turned that experience into a lifelong mission to protect others.
Raising six children in Austin, Lauren knows the daily reality of school pickups, grocery bills and rising rent. Her priorities come straight from her kitchen table.
Lauren grew up here, and she wants her kids to be able to build their lives here too. She is running because Austin deserves leaders who actually live the life its families live.
Traffickers operate in plain sight: in hotel rooms, short-term rentals and venues that look the other way. The SAFE NIGHTS Act ends that culture of willful ignorance, and Lauren will bring it to the Texas Senate.
Chip in, sign up to volunteer, or invite Lauren to a meet-and-greet in your neighborhood.