Madeline Eden, the founder and chief executive officer of a nonprofit that runs Bastrop County's COVID-19 vaccines and testing clinics, has announced her Democratic bid to represent Texas House District 17.
Eden, 46, founded COVAC, a nonprofit that has partnered with the county to distribute vaccines and information about COVID-19 throughout the pandemic.
This is Eden's second time to run for this house seat.
In 2020, Eden was the Democratic nominee for House District 17, which then covered Bastrop County along with Lee, Caldwell, Gonzalez and Karnes counties. After the Legislature in October approved its new House district map, District 17 now covers Bastrop, Burleson, Caldwell, Lee and Milam counties.
Rep. John Cyrier, R-Lockhart, currently represents House District 17 and was elected into office during a special election in 2015. Cyrier announced in November he would not seek reelection to a fifth term.
Eden, who has lived in Bastrop for 16 years, said when she first ran for the seat, "environmental protections for things like water out here, and health care and internet access were really some of the biggest reasons that I ran."
Those are the same reasons she has decided to run again.
"I think these are all still very big issues that we have out here in rural areas — outside of the city, and even in the cities," Eden said.
Eden, who grew up in San Antonio, said health care would be her priority as a House representative.
"Health care — that would be at the very top, and I think that includes a lot of things," she said. "Including Medicaid expansion and rural health care, and yeah, things like, you know, pandemic response capability and how the state handles things like vaccine outreach."
Environmental protection laws, Eden said, would be her second priority.
She added that broadband internet is also important to her because "in the middle of a pandemic ... we had half of our county out here without broadband internet.
"So I think when you're talking about what's important, I definitely think that, you know, the broadband internet aspects of it and rural services and environmental protections as well as health care are issues that need to be addressed in the next legislative session."
Eden said the most challenging part of the race will be running for a district that covers five counties.
"Every one of these counties has its own collection of communities and infrastructure," Eden said. "And so running across all five is a lot more difficult than, say, running in one county."
Eden is also the co-founder of Register2Vote, a nonprofit that has helped register millions of voters across the country.
"My intention is to, and it has always been to, work to improve our community here as well as anywhere else that I can have an impact," she said. "And, you know, I think the type of representative that I'm going to be is the type that gets things done."
Election day is March 1, and the first day of early voting is Feb. 14.
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