📜 Post with us on Reddit
📝 Create a new article
🏭 Create a company page
🇬🇧 - in English
🇫🇷 - en Français (FR)
🇵🇹 - em Português (PT)
🇩🇪 - auf Deutsch (DE)
🇯🇵 - 日本語で (JA)
Sponsored articles

You can edit almost every page by Creating an account and confirming your email.

Gina Ortiz Jones

From EverybodyWiki Bios & Wiki

Gina Ortiz Jones
Born1980/1981 (age 45–46)[1]
🏡 ResidenceSan Antonio, Texas
🏫 EducationBoston University (BA, MA)
University of Kansas, Lawrence (MA)
💼 Occupation
Intelligence officer, politician
🏛️ Political partyDemocratic

Gina Ortiz Jones (born 1980/1981) is a Filipina-American Iraq War veteran, intelligence officer, and politician. She is the 2018 Democratic nominee for U.S. Representative from Texas's 23rd congressional district. Her opponent in the 2018 elections is incumbent Republican Will Hurd.

Raised in San Antonio, Texas, Ortiz Jones attended college on an ROTC scholarship, after which she became a United States Air Force intelligence officer.

Early life and education

Ortiz Jones grew up in Texas as the first-generation American daughter of a single mother born in the Philippines. Her mother, Victorina Ortiz, worked menial jobs in the US despite having graduate degrees from her native country.[2][3] Her mother later became a teacher and they lived in Laredo, then San Antonio in a predominantly minority neighborhood.[4]

Ortiz Jones attended John Jay High School, serving on the student council. She earned a four-year Air Force ROTC scholarship,[5][3] allowing her to enroll at Boston University where in four years she earned a BA and MA in economics as well as a BA in East Asian studies.[5] A lesbian who came out to her mother at 15, Ortiz Jones served under the US military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, dealing with the daily threat of losing her scholarship if her sexual orientation became public knowledge.[6]

Ortiz Jones's younger sister is in the Navy.[7]

Career

After graduating from college, Ortiz Jones joined the US Air Force as an intelligence officer and deployed to Iraq.[5] After three years of active duty, she returned to Texas in 2006 to care for her mother, who had colon cancer (from which she eventually recovered).[3][8]

Ortiz Jones then returned to working as an intelligence analyst for US Africa Command in Germany. In 2008, she joined the Defense Intelligence Agency, where she specialized in Latin American topics;[3] ultimately she became a special adviser to the deputy director. In November 2016 she moved to the Executive Office of the President (then Barack Obama) to serve under the U.S. Trade Representative. Having previously served under presidents of both parties, Ortiz Jones continued in her role during the Trump Administration until June 2017, but her outlook changed as she encountered the administration's policies as well as the new staff. She told HuffPost, "The type of people that were brought in to be public servants were interested in neither the public nor the service...That, to me, was a sign that I’m going to have to serve in a different way."[9] She returned to San Antonio to run for Congress,[10][3] living in the house where she grew up.[4]

In 2017, Ortiz Jones was the first Democrat to announce a challenge[10] to Republican Representative Will Hurd in Texas's predominantly Hispanic 23rd Congressional District, which includes much of the border between Texas and Mexico.[11] Democrat Hillary Clinton won the district by three points[12] in the 2016 U.S. presidential election[13] and neither party has controlled the congressional seat for more than two consecutive terms since 2007.[14]

In the March 6, 2018 Democratic primary, Ortiz Jones faced a field of four other Democrats. Ortiz Jones won 41% of the vote, with her closest Democratic rival Rick Treviño winning 17.5%.[15] Because no candidate received a majority of the vote, a runoff election was held on May 22, which Ortiz Jones won.[16]

A March 2018 article in Teen Vogue magazine noted that if elected, Ortiz Jones would be "the first openly gay woman of color from Texas elected to Congress, as well as the first Iraq War veteran to represent Texas in Congress. She’d also be the first woman to represent Texas’s 23rd Congressional district.[17]

External links

References

  1. ↑ Esteban Estrada, Jade (May 9, 2018). "Keeping Up with Gina Ortiz Jones, Who Wants to Unseat Congressman Will Hurd". San Antonio Current. Retrieved May 25, 2018. Within the Texas Democratic Party, Jones, 37, says she is attempting to change the conversation of “who can enter into politics and who cannot.”
  2. ↑ "Gina Ortiz Jones". Emily's List. Retrieved March 31, 2018.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 Malloy, Daniel (February 14, 2018). "This Lesbian Air Force Veteran is Setting Her Eyes on Congress". Ozy. Archived from the original on April 2, 2018. Retrieved March 31, 2018. Her three years of active duty included a tour in Iraq as an intelligence officer for close air support missions in 2005. She left the Air Force to care for her cancer-stricken mother, who recovered. Eschewing law school, Jones then moved to Germany to work as an intelligence analyst for U.S.-Africa Command. She continued on to the Defense Intelligence Agency, where she advised on operations in Latin America.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Bendery, Jennifer (January 6, 2018). "She Quit Working For Trump. Now She's Running For Congress To Fight Him". Huffington Post. Retrieved April 1, 2018.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Gomez, Buddy (February 9, 2018). "Opinion: Gina Ortiz Jones' American journey". ABS-CBN. Retrieved March 31, 2018.
  6. ↑ Teeman, Tim (2018-05-24). "Woman, Lesbian, Filipina-American, Iraq Veteran: How Gina Ortiz Jones Could Make Texas Political History". The Daily Beast. Retrieved 2018-05-29.
  7. ↑ Gustin, Marene (3 May 2018). "COVER STORY: Breaking Down Borders". OutSmart Magazine. Retrieved 28 May 2018.
  8. ↑ Rossi, Matt (December 8, 2017). "Female Veterans Lead 2018 Charge". Harvard Political Review. Retrieved April 1, 2018.
  9. ↑ Bendery, Jennifer (5 January 2018). "She Quit Working For Trump. Now She's Running For Congress To Fight Him". Huffington Post. Retrieved 28 May 2018.
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 Svitek, Patrick (August 2, 2017). "U.S. Rep. Will Hurd gets first major Democratic challenger for 2018". The Texas Tribune. Retrieved March 31, 2018.
  11. ↑ "Women candidates dominated at the polls". CNN. 2018-05-25. Retrieved 2018-05-29.
  12. ↑ Bruni, Frank (April 13, 2018). "Will Democrats Win the House? Ask Texas". NY Times. Retrieved May 23, 2018. “I don’t know what it’s like to be a Dreamer,” she told me. “But I do know what it’s like to have worked hard for something and to live in fear that it can be ripped away from you."
  13. ↑ Alter, Charlotte (January 29, 2018). "A Year Ago, They Marched. Now a Record Number of Women Are Running for Office". Time Magazine. Retrieved March 31, 2018.
  14. ↑ Bendery, Jennifer (23 May 2018). "Gina Ortiz Jones Wins Democratic Runoff In Texas Congressional Race". Huffington Post. Retrieved 28 May 2018.
  15. ↑ "Gina Ortiz Jones". Ballotpedia. Retrieved March 31, 2018.
  16. ↑ "Former Air Force intelligence officer wins runoff for Texas seat". Washington Post. Retrieved 2018-05-29.
  17. ↑ Young, Lauren (March 5, 2018). "Gina Ortiz Jones is Running for Texas's 23rd District in March 6 Texas Primary". Teen Vogue. Retrieved March 31, 2018.


This article "Gina Ortiz Jones" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical and/or the page Edithistory:Gina Ortiz Jones. Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.

Page kept on Wikipedia This page exists already on Wikipedia.

Retrieved from "https://en.everybodywiki.com/index.php?title=Gina_Ortiz_Jones&oldid=6330491"
License CC BY-SA 3.0
Powered by MediaWiki