Project 2025: The Threat That Could Tear Houston Apart

A dire warning for our city’s future and its most vulnerable.

Donald Trump’s Project 2025 is an abomination—a destructive plan that spits in the face of everything Houston stands for. Developed by over 140 former Trump staffers, including six Cabinet secretaries, this blueprint is nothing less than a nightmare, turning back the clock to a darker, more divisive era in our country’s history. It not only prioritizes the ultra-rich but also works to actively disenfranchise the hardworking folks who are the true engine of our city.

Imagine our downtown streets—which in 2020 overflowed with over 60,000 voices crying out for justice after George Floyd’s murder—now patrolled by military vehicles after the Insurrection Act is invoked to stamp out political dissent. Under Project 2025 and Trump, those seeking to peacefully exercise their American freedom to protest would be met, not with understanding or dialogue, but with brute force and intimidation. 

If that isn’t enough, recent Supreme Court decisions would give Trump absolute immunity for any actions taken as part of his official presidential duties, giving us no recourse if he invokes the military to repress his political enemies.

The invasive reach of Project 2025 also spells disaster for Houston area women. Nearly 1.5 million of our mothers, daughters, and sisters would live under the constant surveillance of a government that dares to dictate what they can and cannot do with their own bodies. Project 2025 calls for White House operatives to monitor and report on women’s periods. Seriously. 

This draconian policy treats women’s health as a political plaything rather than a personal right—eroding their autonomy and dignity. Specifically, Project 2025 calls on the invocation of the Comstock Act to effectively ban medication abortions, which, according to the Guttmacher Institute, account for 63% of all abortions. This ban would not only strip women of safe and private healthcare options but is a direct and grave threat to their lives. The absence of accessible medication abortions will inevitably lead to an increase in maternal mortality and unsafe procedures. Women are dying now from restrictive abortion laws, and under Project 2025, the body count will only rise, casting a dark shadow over Houston and Texas, places already grappling without reproductive freedom.

Furthermore, the sick and vulnerable among us would find no refuge. Stripping away protections for pre-existing conditions in the Affordable Care Act, as Project 2025 proposes, would leave over 1.1 million Houstonians—a child recovering from leukemia, a mother battling breast cancer, an elderly father with heart disease—without essential and affordable health coverage. This isn’t just a rollback of rights; it’s a death sentence for those who can least afford to fight back.

And what of our city’s workers? Trump’s regressive labor policies could strip tens of thousands of our workers of their overtime pay—the very pay that keeps their families afloat.

Finally, over 900,000 elderly Houstonians would be crushed under the soaring costs of medications. After all, Project 2025 seeks to end Medicare’s ability to negotiate drug prices after the Biden-Harris Administration worked to cap the price of life-saving drugs like insulin at $35 per month. Our seniors aren’t just numbers; these are our grandmothers and grandfathers struggling with the cost of blood pressure medication, our nanas and abuelos who worked countless hours just to provide for their families, and who deserve to retire with dignity. 

We cannot—must not—stand idly by as Trump and Vance’s agenda threatens to rip apart the fabric of our Houston community. This is a call to every Houstonian to stop it, especially our Republican members in Congress, who we ask to publicly forswear Project 2025 and all of its policies. Your silence is seen as tacit toleration. 

Houston is a city built on diversity, resilience, and compassion. We must unite, with one resolute voice, to reject the divisiveness of Project 2025. We must fight to protect the rights and dignities of all who call this great city home. We are better than this plan. We are stronger than these policies. And together, we will prevail.

Stand up and vote in 2024 Houston. The greatest city in the nation depends on it.

Authors: Karthik Soora, Representative Christina Morales, Representative Ron Reynolds

• November 1: Last day to early vote.

• November 5: Election day!

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