A Cypress-Fairbanks ISD graduate who also served as the youngest chairman of the Harris County Democratic Party is taking his political ambitions to the next level.
Odus Evbagharu announced recently that he’s running for Texas House District 135, which covers northwest Houston, Cypress and Jersey Village. Rep. Jon Rosenthal, D-Houston, who currently holds the seat, announced in September that he’s running for Texas railroad commissioner, a powerful position that oversees the state’s oil and gas industry.
Evbagharu was Rosenthal’s chief of staff and said he knows the district well, having been mentored by the man who held the office for four terms. “Our families spend Christmases together,” Evbagharu said.
With “unpopular Republicans” holding the highest-ranking state offices like governor, lieutenant governor and attorney general, it’s a good time for a Democrat to run for a down-ballot statewide office, and Rosenthal, a mechanical engineer, is “the perfect guy” for railroad commissioner, Evbagharu said. Rosenthal has endorsed Evbagharu to be his successor in the House of Representatives.
If elected, the 33-year-old son of Nigerian immigrants would be the youngest and first Black person to represent District 135. Evbagharu was born in London and is therefore also an immigrant, but he attended elementary, middle school and high school in Cy-Fair ISD and graduated from the University of Houston.
“Folks are excited to see someone who is one of their own run for the legislature,” Evbagharu said. “Part of why we’re in this fight — it’s not just about having grown up in the area — when I’m talking to folks, I talk about how this campaign is powered by a simple idea: for us. I’m running to make sure that our schools are fully funded, that we expand Medicaid in the state that has the highest uninsured rates in the country, that we turn our minimum wage into a livable wage and that we don’t have government interfere in decisions that women and people have to make about their bodies.”
“All of this is to protect the future that we’re trying to build right here in Texas,” he added. “We know that this movement and this moment isn’t about politics. It’s about people. It’s about me and you. It’s about ‘for us.’ Every family, every child, every dream deserves a fair and equitable shot.”
So far, Evbagharu hasn’t drawn a challenger for the Democratic primary, which will be held March 3, with the general election to follow in November 2026. The district has been blue since Rosenthal flipped it in 2018, with Evbagharu as his campaign manager. In 2020, Rosenthal spent millions of dollars in the area and won by 300 votes. After redistricting in 2021, District 135 is now considered a “safe blue seat,”
Democrat Kamala Harris won the district over Republican Donald Trump by about 8 percentage points in last year’s presidential election.
One Republican, Liz Ramos, has entered the race and already has an endorsement from Natalie Blasingame, a Cy-Fair ISD trustee who was ousted in last week’s election by Prairie View A&M professor Cleveland Lane Jr. Evbagharu block-walked and helped organize the campaigns of Lane and his two “teammates,” Lesley Guilmart and Kendra Camarena. All three secured victory.
Jaime Martinez, treasurer of the Harris County Emergency Services District No. 9, is also rumored to be eyeing a bid for the GOP nomination for Texas House District 135.
Evbagharu said he’s confident but he’s still going to run “like it’s a flippable seat.”
“I’m a first-time candidate so you never know,” he said. “We’re going to spend money and we’re going to turn out. That’s important to me, particularly because I was the former chair of the party and the treasurer of the state party. I know what it means when we don’t have state Democrats working their areas. We have to do that and we have to get more people out to vote so we can flip statewide.”
While serving as Harris County Democratic Party Chair from 2021 to 2023, Evbagharu led the effort to flip the Commissioners Court to a Democratic majority.
“It was a great experience and we won,” he said. “I’ll forever be proud of that,” he said. Just 28 years old when elected, he was the youngest and first Black person to hold that position.
The candidate is a small business owner who operates a political and community consulting shop, Onward Strategy Group.
“This is what I know, and this is what I do,” he said. “When we get to the state legislature as a small business owner, we’ll know the needs and what it means to have access to capital and all that.”
He’s been working on Harris County Attorney Christian Menefee’s campaign for U.S. Congressional District 18. Menefee was the top vote-getter in the November 4 election and will be in a January runoff with former Houston City Council member Amanda Edwards.
The Cy-Fair school board campaigns that Evbagharu worked on, although nonpartisan, were hailed as victories for Democrats in the debate over the separation of church and state in public schools.
The race caught the attention of Gov. Greg Abbott, who attended a rally with the GOP-backed candidates, and the progressive wins were highlighted by Democrats at a recent rally featuring California’s Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom and Texas gubernatorial candidate Gina Hinojosa.
“On [November 4], all across this country, Americans held [Republican leadership] accountable,” Hinojosa said. “Texas was no different. Right next door in Cy-Fair, y’all flipped three school board seats for the pro-public education candidates who went up against big, mighty vote-getters, and you won.”
Evbagharu said he encouraged the Cy-Fair school board candidates to raise money and campaign vigorously, especially because it would be a low-turnout election.
“We put a coalition together of not just Democrats but Republicans, independents and pro-public education folks,” he said. “As soon as the 2023 elections happened, we got to work. We had some hard conversations and we said if we’re going to win, we’ve got to be able to raise money, and we did.”
Fundraising is key in any race, Evbagharu said.
“You can’t do this without money,” he said. “Candidates should be honest about that. I told the Cy-Fair slate that we created that it’s not enough to just say [the opposition] is terrible on the school board. You’ve got to raise money. I’m the same way, constantly on the phone and building out events. The other thing is getting support and making sure the community knows who I am, that I grew up with them; I graduated from public schools here. I want the same things that they want.”
Texas Democrats should stop referring to themselves as the minority party and instead use the term “opposition party,” Evbagharu said.
“Yes, we can get things done. We have to,” he said. “In the state House, it’s 88-62, so you have to find 16 Republicans to vote for your legislation. We can still fight for our values. We’ve got to start putting the Republicans in conflict. We’ve got to get people to vote. If you want change, you’ve got to win elections. We’ve got to get better messengers. We’ve got to make sure we’re meeting the moment. The message resonates better when it comes from someone who looks like you or is the same age as you.”
The representatives in the Texas House got a national platform when they walked out of the state Capitol over the summer and broke quorum to avoid voting on a mid-decade redistricting proposal orchestrated by Donald Trump to secure five GOP seats in the U.S. Congress. Among the Democrats who fled the state was Rosenthal, who was appointed to serve as vice chair of the Select Committee on Redistricting and spoke to the Houston Press in August from Chicago while breaking quorum.
The Democrats eventually returned and the map ultimately passed and is now being challenged in federal court, but California passed Proposition 50 last week which will allow state legislators to redistrict their own Congressional seats to counter what they say are racially gerrymandered lines in Texas.
Evbagharu said he hopes the recent re-energizing of Texas Democrats will influence good policy nationally.
“We have an administration now in D.C. that is failing people,” he said. “The government is shut down right now and instead of helping the people who will lose SNAP benefits, their social security is being delayed. Medicaid and Medicare services are being delayed. These folks are sending $40 billion to Argentina, and you have federal employees that are furloughed right now.”
“To make matters worse, leadership here in Texas isn’t helping,” he added. “We used to be a state that didn’t capitulate and answer to every whim of D.C., but that’s what they’re doing. You saw it with redistricting. Donald Trump called the state of Texas and said, ‘Hey, give me five more seats,’ and these guys did.”
Evbagharu said Governor Abbott, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and Attorney General Ken Paxton have neglected to fully fund schools and create an affordable pathway for Texans.
“Instead they focused on culture wars,” he said. “A big part of this for me is that I want to serve the people. When working families are thriving, Texas is thriving. We need leadership in Texas. We’ve been 30 years in the wilderness and enough is enough. So I put my name in the ring to make sure we win, finally, in Texas.”
The post Odus Evbagharu Hopes to Keep Texas House Seat Blue appeared first on Houston Press.
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