This series is called Meet the Candidates. Over the next month, I’ll spotlight a handful of Democratic races, mainly in the Legislature and Congress. These aren’t endorsements. They’re introductions, a way to understand who’s running, the districts they hope to represent, and what’s at stake for people across Texas.
Who is Jason Pearce?
Jason Pearce is a Plano kid who started working as a child and spent years stacking jobs, often two at a time, often eighty hours a week, just to keep the lights on. According to his campaign, he became a top national performer in the mortgage industry, passed his federal licensing exam on the first try, and went on to train others. Then came finance and insurance, with every licensing exam again passed on the first attempt. After years of that grind, he paid off his debt and started saving for a house.
Then November 2024 happened.
Pearce says he watched his neighbors struggle while politicians bickered and did nothing. So he quit his job, gave up his benefits, and put his own savings on the line to run for Congress.
His platform is unmistakably Texas progressive. Medicare for All. Housing as a human right. Expand Social Security, don’t cut it. Clean water, clean air, and corporations that answer for poisoning either. He calls endless war “a policy choice” and says both parties have protected the donor class. Pearce is a full-throated progressive running in North Texas, and he isn’t apologizing for it.
The district.
Gerrymandering is doing a lot of heavy lifting in this district. Two-thirds of the district is in Collin County, with a tiny sliver in Denton County. Then one-third of the district covers all of Grayson, Fannin, Lamar, Red River, and part of Bowie Counties.
The VAP (voting-age population) of this district:
This is interesting for a few reasons. This may be the only district in Texas where Asian adults outnumber Hispanic adults. But much of the Anglo population in this district comes from rural counties along the Red River, which have long had a history of Conservatism. Spanish-surname voters in this district are just 6.1% of registered voters.
The composite partisan lean is 60.5% Republican, 37.5% Democratic. That’s a 23-point gap.
The Hispanic vote won’t flip TX04. There was a huge midterm drop-off here in 2022. Pearce should be targeting those voters first and foremost. Two-thirds of the district lives in Collin and Denton. That’s where the margin gets built.
Nobody is flipping those northern counties, but shaving points off the margin will matter in the long run.
We need to see a real wave this year. Closing a 23-point margin means roughly one in nine voters crossing over or a turnout gap the size of a small city. Taylor Rehmet’s +30 swing in SD09 says that’s possible in this environment. But possible doesn’t mean it’s promised.
Pearce needs suburban turnout, Asian American voters, and a midterm electorate that looks a lot more like November 2024 than November 2022.
The incumbent.
Massachusetts-native and spotlight-hanger-oner Pat Fallon has benefited from the Republicans’ gerrymandering almost more than any other carpetbagger in Texas. From the State House to the State Senate, now in Congress. He’s fought hard for the starving children in Texas by making sure state employees won’t be ostracized for saying “Merry Christmas.”
Actually, he opposed feeding hungry children breakfast, even though hunger impacts 1 out of every 4 children in Texas. Fallon’s estimated net worth is $14.2 million.
On January 6, 2021, Fallon, along with 147 fellow congressional Republicans, voted to block certification of the results of President-elect Joe Biden’s 2020 United States presidential election. Then took the picture you see above to pretend he was defending the Capitol from his own people.
In Jason Pearce’s own words.
Below are some questions I asked Pearce, based on previous reader polls, along with his answers.
Q: Do you support a Green New Deal or similar large-scale federal climate action plan?
Yes, climate change is a direct threat to all of us and must be addressed.
Q: Do you support universal, publicly funded healthcare?
Absolutely, healthcare is a human right in my opinion.
Q: Do you support ending qualified immunity and instituting federal police accountability standards?
I do. If you break the law, you should be held accountable regardless of position or power.
Q: Would you support major tax reform, including raising taxes on billionaires and large corporations?
Absolutely, I support an 80-90% tax rate. It would solve almost all of our problems as a country.
Q: Do you support ending U.S. military aid to countries with ongoing human rights abuses, including Israel and Egypt?
I support ending all aid to Israel and banning AIPAC from the country.
Q: Should Congress ban corporate PAC money and implement public campaign financing?
I completely support overturning Citizens United the second we can.
Q: Do you support DC statehood, Puerto Rico self-determination, and expanding voting rights through federal law?
Yes, I do.
Bonus Question: Who are your political role models, living or dead?
Lincoln, Bernie Sanders, AOC, and Zohran Mamdani.
Republicans drew TX04 so they’d never have to think about it.
A 23-point lead buys you an incumbent who can spend his time on Christmas greetings instead of children’s breakfasts.
Pearce is running as a guy who knows what an eighty-hour week feels like, with a platform that would send the donor class reaching for the smelling salts. Whether that plays in Sherman and Paris is an open question. Whether it can drag 2024 voters back to the polls in Collin County is the only question that matters.
Waves don’t flip districts. Voters do. If 2026 is the year Texas finally shows up for a midterm, TX04 is where we find out how far north the water rises.
You can learn more about Jason Pearce from his website, Facebook, Instagram, Bluesky, and TikTok.
30 days until the November election!
Last Day to Register to Vote: October 5, 2026
First Day of Early Voting: October 19, 2026
Last Day to Apply for Ballot by Mail: October 23, 2026
Last Day of Early Voting: October 30, 2026
Election Day: November 3, 2026
Did you know you can find links to all the previous Meet the Candidate articles on these lists?:
Click here to find out what Legislative districts you’re in.
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Jason Pearce is running a very lean campaign and he can sure use our donations. Please go to his website and donate what you can. I am in that little sliver of Collin that used to be in TX03 and I will be voting for Jason! 💙💙💙
Thank you, Michelle!!! This one's very close to me & I hope he wins! Just shared on bsky. I'm rather hopelessly behind.