There are only 31 State Senators for all of Texas, and every bill has to get past them. Who you elect as your State Senator can be the difference between a bill becoming a law that changes lives for the better — or being left to die. Yours represents Hays County and the counties around it, and once elected, sits for four years. It's a small club with a lot of quiet power, and this is one of the few times you get a say in who's in it.
The Democratic candidate
Judith Zaffirini
Democrat IncumbentAbout Judith
Zaffirini has not missed a single vote in the Texas Senate since January 1987 — thirty-nine years, tens of thousands of votes, a record no one in America has matched — and she has passed more bills than any legislator in Texas history.
She was born in Laredo, supporting herself from 17 and married at 18, and worked three part-time jobs at once to earn a bachelor's, a master's and a doctorate from UT — no financial aid. She taught college for 13 years and volunteered teaching students with intellectual disabilities, and that's the through-line of her career: schools, health care, the people the system forgets. In 1987 she became the first Hispanic woman ever elected to the Texas Senate; in 2023, the first woman to serve as its Dean. This is a rematch — she beat Julie Dahlberg by a landslide in 2022.
Also on the ballot
Every candidate who filed for this office appears here. Tap a name to read more.
Julie DahlbergAbout Julie
An Army veteran and glass-company owner taking on the longest-serving member of the Texas Senate.
Dahlberg, of La Vernia, is a U.S. Army veteran who ran a San Antonio sober-living nonprofit and now owns a glass business. She describes herself as a Christian conservative making her first run for the Legislature.
Where to vote
Hays County uses vote centers — any registered Hays County voter can vote at any open location in the county. Locations and hours by city: