To oversee an expansion of its work in gun-loving Texas, the Giffords gun safety group has chosen a San Antonio native with extensive experience in the state’s Republican-led legislature.
Longtime political operative Roger Garza spent his first legislative session as chief of staff to San Antonio Democrat Joe Farias in 2007, and went on to serve as executive director for the Democratic Caucus in the Texas House — an institution that’s given gun owners more rights in the wake of recent high-profile mass shootings.
Garza’s also worked on a number of tough political campaigns: From helping reelect Democratic U.S. Rep. Chet Edwards in a deeply red central Texas district in 2004, to advising U.S. Rep. Colin Allred’s (D-Dallas) successful race against an 11-term Republican incumbent in 2018.
In February, Garza was named Texas state director and special advisor for the Giffords group, which helps candidates who support gun safety measures and pushes those policies at the state and national level.
The group was co-founded by former Arizona U.S. Rep. Gabby Giffords, who left Congress to recover after she was shot in the head by a gunman at a political event in 2011.
She started the gun safety group shortly after the Sandy Hook Elementary shooting in Newtown, Connecticut in 2013, and its took a major interest in the Uvalde school shooting in 2022.
Traditionally, “you have [national groups] come into Texas, say they’re here, and then they get punched in the face,” Garza said. “That’s not us. We’re going to be here for a while.”
Giffords currently has about a half-dozen Texas staff members and aims to grow its footprint with the possibility of expanding into San Antonio.
Garza, a Central Catholic High School alumnus, has worked on numerous campaigns for San Antonio Democrats, including state House Reps. Trey Martinez Fischer and state Sen. Roland Gutierrez.
He now lives in Austin, where he started his own political consulting company and most recently served as deputy national political director for the National Democratic redistricting committee in Texas.
From those experiences, Garza says he’s clear-eyed about the challenges of promoting gun control in Texas — as well as the opportunities.
“I’ve been here [working in Texas politics] for 20 years. Almost all those years weren’t good for Democrats in Texas,” Garza said.
“We want to start from ground zero and work toward solutions that are workable and we think can happen, not in 2025, but as we get past 2028 into 2029 or 2030,” he added. “We’ve got to be realistic about what we can do.”
This year Giffords has endorsed Democrat Michelle Vallejo, who is running against U.S. Rep. Monica De La Cruz (R-Edinburg) in Texas’ 15th congressional district, and Allred, who is running against Republican U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz.
It’s considering getting involved in some lower-level races.
The San Antonio Report spoke with Garza about the politics of gun safety.
San Antonio Report: Why does the Giffords group see opportunity in Texas?
Roger Garza: The fact of the matter is, Texas has experienced so many mass shootings over the decades: The University of Texas tower incident in the 1960s, Killeen in the 1990s at Luby’s, and El Paso and Uvalde today. And all we’ve seen time and again is inaction from Texas leadership, so we’re here to work to change that.
What we’re going to do is to start working on building coalitions and community intervention efforts in Texas. We’ll establish the gun safety legislative agenda for not only 2025, but beyond.
That means working on building relationships with policymakers at the capitol, as well as within local communities, so we can continue to be a resource for survivors and impacted communities like we’ve done over the last couple of years for other victims of gun violence.
SAR: Do you see potential for new gun safety measures in Texas in the current political environment? Even small or narrow ones?
RG: The short answer is yes. But I think it’s about having a long game, building power to get there over the next few years. We saw the results of the Republican primary just a month ago [in which several moderate incumbents lost to more conservative challengers]. There are a lot of folks who are in shock and awe over it and we might see that continue in this [May 28] runoff, so 2025 will be tough.
We’re also going to dig deeper past the state legislature. What this organization and the resources we have allows us to do is [a combination of] political work and legislative work, [plus] we can get on the ground and put together great reports aimed at avoiding tragedies like Uvalde.
In San Antonio, just these last couple of months, there was a big argument at Bexar County Commissioners Court over using COVID relief money for community violence intervention. I think in the future, we want to be part of those conversations too.
SAR: What kind of nuance does a national group need to take while pushing gun control in a state where guns are so baked into the culture?
RG: Guns are such a cultural institution in Texas. My mom’s from San Antonio, my dad’s side of the family is from the Rio Grande Valley. There are not many guns on my mom’s side of the family. There’s a bunch of shotguns and rifles and handguns on my dad’s side of the family.
It varies by region. But we’re here to look at and try and pass common sense solutions.
In 2023, UT’s Texas Politics Project Poll had a gun question and it said 76% of voters — so more than three quarters of Texas voters — support common sense measures like raising legal age to purchase firearms from 18 to 21. I think all of that gets lost by extremists in the corporate gun lobby who try and drown out what everyday Texans believe, what they see, their fears and the needs they have in their communities.
SAR: Despite that broad support, Texas elections are generally determined by the primary, where at least on the Republican side, stopping any infringement on gun rights is a major priority. How do you get policy to match public opinion in that political climate?
RG: Part of it is taking the long-term view. Texas is growing. We’re not a Midwestern state, which is static or losing population. Something like 250,000 people move into Texas every year, so by the end of every redistricting cycle, 10 years, that’s another 2.5 million to 3 million people who move into this state.
Because of that, Texas, its cities and its metro areas are dynamic. They’re diverse, they’re educated, and these districts start to change from the way they looked in 2021 and 2022. That is part of our long term plan. Could we could we affect this change in 2024? Can we affect it this year? That’s tough. But there’s confidence as we move forward here and do the work.
SAR: On the other end of the political spectrum, some progressives consider gun control a top priority that they want candidates to talk about, while other Democrats worry it alienates too many middle-of-the-road voters. Do Democrats put themselves at risk talking about gun control in Texas?
RG: We live in 2024. In 2004 I could work for a Democratic member of Congress [former U.S. Rep. Chet Edwards] and he could win a district that was 65% Republican. In 2006, 2008 and 2010, when I was heavily involved in state House races, we were trying to get the NRA and Texas State Rifle Association to either issue a no endorsement in these Democratic races, or a dual endorsement.
We don’t live in those times anymore. We’re at a point where crossover votes are minimal, if any. It’s all about exciting your base and registering voters and turning them out. Maybe that changes post-Trump, maybe we go back to what 2004 was like, but we’re not there.
Correction: This story has been updated to correctly refer to Garza’s role on the Allred campaign.
