Dennis Sherrard's Issue Positions (Political Courage Test)
Key
Official Position: Candidate addressed this issue directly by taking the Political Courage Test.
Inferred Position: Candidate refused to address this issue, but Vote Smart inferred this issue based on the candidate's public record, including statements, voting record, and special interest group endorsements.
Unknown Position: Candidate refused to address this issue, or we could not infer an answer for this candidate despite exhaustive research of their public record.
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Dennis Sherrard has provided voters with clear stances on key issues by responding to the 2022 Political Courage Test.
Texas State Legislative Election 2022 Political Courage Test
| Pro-choice | a) Do you generally support pro-choice or pro-life legislation? | ||
| Yes | b) Do you support legalizing abortion when the pregnancy resulted from incest or rape? | ||
| No | c) Do you support the prohibition of public funds for organizations that perform abortions? | ||
| The right to an abortion is a fundamental right to privacy of the woman. The decision to overturn Roe v Wade was wrong and based on bad logic. | |||
| No | a) In order to balance the budget, do you support reducing state employee salaries AND/OR pensions? | ||
| Yes | b) Do you support raising taxes on any income or on any entity, to promote economic growth? | ||
| Raising Taxes, along with expense reduction is not a sledgehammer exercise. It is something that must be done with precision and care. Raise taxes too much, it curbs growth, raise it too little, and we drive debt because of non-discretionary spending requirements. So, it takes balance and care. The same is true with cutting expenses. Cutting too much, renders services sub-optimal, not cutting enough when there is an opportunity is wasteful. | |||
| Yes | a) Do you support capital punishment for certain crimes? | ||
| No | b) Should an individual under 18 accused of a violent crime be prosecuted as an adult? | ||
| No | c) Do you support the enforcement of federal immigration laws by state and local police? | ||
| No | d) Do you support the use of private prisons? | ||
| No | e) Do you support mandatory minimum sentences for non-violent drug offenders? | ||
| f) Other or expanded principles: | |||
| Yes | a) Do you support state government spending as a means of promoting economic growth? | ||
| Yes | b) Do you support reducing government regulations on the private sector? | ||
| Yes | c) Do you support an increase of the minimum wage of Texas? | ||
| Yes | d) Do you support providing financial relief to businesses AND/OR corporations negatively impacted by the state of national emergency for COVID-19? | ||
| Support of any expenditure should be targeted towards where it provides the most help for the people in the jurisdiction or area where the expenditure will be made. Reducing regulations that will not have a resulting negative impact as determined by an objective party should be promoted. Increasing regulations on areas not sufficiently managed should also be promoted. | |||
| No | a) Do you support adopting federal education standards in Texas? | ||
| No | b) Do you support state funding for charter schools? | ||
| Yes | c) Do you support increasing teacher salaries AND/OR benefits in Texas? | ||
| Yes | d) Should immigrants unlawfully present in the United States who graduate from Texas's high schools be eligible for in-state tuition at public universities? | ||
| e) Other or expanded principles: | |||
| Yes | a) Do you support state funding for the development of renewable energy (e.g. solar, wind, geo-thermal)? | ||
| Yes | b) Do you support government regulations of greenhouse gas emissions? | ||
| Yes | c) Do you support increasing state funding for clean drinking water initiatives? | ||
| d) Do you support state government regulation of the energy grid in Texas? | |||
| e) Other or expanded principles: | |||
| Yes | a) Do you support the regulation of campaign contributions from corporations, unions, and individuals? | ||
| Yes | b) Do you support the use of an independent AND/OR bipartisan commission for redistricting? | ||
| Yes | c) Do you support requiring a government-issued photo identification in order to vote at the polls? | ||
| Yes | d) Do you support automatic voter registration? | ||
| No | e) Do you support limiting local counties' ability to expand voting options in state and local elections in Texas? | ||
| f) Other or expanded principles: | |||
| Yes | a) Do you generally support gun-control legislation? | ||
| Yes | b) Should background checks be required on gun sales between private citizens at gun shows? | ||
| Yes | c) Should a license be required for gun ownership? | ||
| d) Other or expanded principles: | |||
| Yes | a) Should the state government increase funding for treatment facilities to combat opioid abuse? | ||
| Yes | b) Do you support a government-run (single-payer) healthcare program such as Medicare-for All? | ||
| Yes | c) Should an individual have the right to choose to die through euthanasia? | ||
| No | d) Do you support eliminating religious exemptions for vaccinations? | ||
| Yes | e) Do you support expanding paid family AND/OR medical leave opportunities? | ||
| Yes | f) Do you support lowering the cost of prescription drugs? | ||
| g) Other or expanded principles: | |||
| Yes | a) Do you support the inclusion of sexual orientation in Texas's anti-discrimination laws? | ||
| Yes | b) Do you support the inclusion of gender identity in Texas's anti-discrimination laws? | ||
| Yes | c) Do you support greater efforts by Texas's state government in closing gender, racial and other wage gaps? | ||
| No | d) Do ou support requiring transgender athletes to compete intramural and interscholastic sports that match their sex assigned at birth in Texas? | ||
| e) Other or expanded principles: | |||
| A gaping hole in the questionnaire was around ending poverty in Texas. There should be considerable attention from both state and local governments on this issue. We have consistently run at 10-12% poverty overall and as high as 25% in some economically distressed areas in Texas. That should be unacceptable in a state as wealthy as ours. Reducing poverty has ancillary benefits: Crime rates drop, abortion rates drop, health care outcomes improve, and school attendance increases. Why this doesn't garner more attention is bewildering. | |||
| Reverse the egregious bill banning abortion in this state. Funding is not an issue here. |
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