Meet The Candidates: Joe Mayes For Texas House District 106
He's a bookstore owner, now he's taking on one of Texas' biggest enemies of books.
This series is called Meet The Candidates. Over the next four months, I’ll spotlight a handful of Democratic races each month, mainly in the Legislature and in 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 Joe Mayes?
Joe Mayes spent twenty years in the Air Force. He came up through the ranks to Master Sergeant, and after he got back from Desert Storm in 1991, Air Force Special Operations Command came calling and kept him for the next nine years.
Then he did what many veterans do and started over. Legal Administration degree, years running nonprofits across the South, and eventually a second career in cybersecurity that took him all the way up to Director of Cybersecurity Strategy at one of the biggest tech companies on the planet.
Somewhere in there, he married Diane, his high school sweetheart, and followed her to Texas after she wrapped up a career teaching in Texas public schools. And then, because apparently a military career and a corporate cybersecurity career weren’t enough, the two of them went and opened an independent bookstore in Denton in 2021. Anybody who’s tried to keep a small bookstore alive in this economy knows that’s not a vanity project. That’s a couple who actually believe what they say about reading and education, putting their own money behind it.
So that’s Joe Mayes, a career Air Force, corporate cybersecurity executive, small business owner, and now running to unseat Jared Patterson in HD106 up in Denton County. He’s running on the theory that the Texas government should actually deliver on real public education, an economy regular people can survive in, and the freedom to be left alone by people who want to run your life for you.
The district.
In 2024, Jared Patterson beat Hava Johnston 60.6% to 39.4%, a 22-point spread in a presidential year where Trump was carrying the district by a comfortable 17 points. But Democrats largely stayed home in 2024. That’s a district Republicans have been able to take for granted.
But look at what’s actually sitting underneath those numbers. HD106 is Denton County, and it is not the Denton County of fifteen years ago. The median household here pulls in well above the state average, more than a third of households clear six figures, and over half the adult population holds a bachelor’s degree or better, nearly double the statewide rate. Nearly half the housing stock was built after 2010. This is a fast-growing, well-educated suburban district, and suburban, well-educated districts are exactly the kind of place that has been moving away from the modern Republican Party for the better part of a decade now, since the Trump era. Patterson’s margin is a relic of the district’s recent past, not a guarantee about its future.
And this isn’t a normal year. Nationally, Democrats are running ahead on the generic congressional ballot, Trump’s approval numbers are underwater by double digits, and that combination is exactly the environment that turns “safe” suburban Republican seats into nail-biters. Texas Democrats fielded a record number of legislative candidates this cycle, and Republicans know it. When the wind is at your back like that, you don’t need a 22-point swing to flip a seat. You need a fraction of it, concentrated in the right precincts, and a candidate who can actually capitalize on the opening.
That’s where Joe Mayes comes in. You beat a 22-point deficit by being the kind of candidate who can pull crossover votes in a district full of military veterans, small business owners, and homeowners who care a great deal about their kids’ schools and not very much about culture-war noise out of Austin. Mayes is running on twenty years of military service, a small business he and his wife built with their own money, and a wife who spent her career in Texas classrooms. That’s a profile built for exactly this kind of district, in exactly this kind of year.
Flipping HD106 outright might still be a reach. But “might be a reach” is precisely the kind of race that wave years make winnable, and precisely the kind of race down-ballot Democrats need to be competitive in if Texas is ever going to stop being a one-party state by default.
The incumbent.
Lordy, where do we start with this one? Incumbent Jared Patterson calls himself a family man, but has faced multiple rumors of affairs with his legislative co-workers circulating around the Capitol. Allegedly, in his first session, a man was shopping around pictures of him and another Republican legislator canoodling in a bar in Austin. But that’s not the worst of it.
In 2021, when Beto held a rally in Denton, Patterson put out a call to violence on Facebook, and a local group of ruffians he often schmoozes with, who went by “DFW Deplorables,” showed up with their live streams and their long guns and harassed and assaulted several of their neighbors. At least two of the assaults from that day were caught on video.
His voting record isn’t any better. Patterson authored the first book-burning bill in Texas, which was so extreme that the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals blocked it.
When Patterson had the chance to vote for pay raises for teachers, he proudly boasted that he wouldn’t do it:
The thing is, though, Patterson isn’t actually that safe. Hard-liner Republicans actually hate his guts. They even started calling him a RINO this last year, as extreme as he is, because you know, the whole group-cult-think-thing.
It’s deep, and I don’t remember all of the exact details of what happened at this point. (Leave a comment below if you remember.) In Texas Republican politics, the Tim Dunn/Ken Paxton faction controlled everything last year. In the House, that was led by the Brainworm Brigade: Brian Harrison, Tony Tinderholt, Steve Toth, Mitch Little, and Brent Money.
One afternoon, Jared Patterson and Tony Tinderholt nearly came to fisticuffs.
After that, the core Republican base in Texas has hated Patterson, calling him a RINO. He barely made it through his primary.
Needless to say, no one likes Jared Patterson anymore. On either side of the aisle.
In Joe Mayes’ own words.
Below are some questions I asked Mayes, based on previous reader polls, along with his answers.
Q: Do you support a statewide minimum wage increase to at least $15/hour?
Yes. However, I still do not believe that $15/hour is a livable wage. Or even $20.
There is a rule of thumb -- influenced by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) -- that states that housing costs should not exceed 30% of your gross income. More than this is considered to be “cost-burdened.”
For someone working full-time (40 hours per week) at $15/hr, 30% of gross income (not take-home) is $780/month. At $20/hr, 30% of gross would be $1,040/month.
Notwithstanding the fact that housing at those rates is difficult, if not impossible to find, the point is that a minimum wage alone does not fix the problem of affordability in Texas. While addressing the issue of minimum wage, which has not been adjusted since 2009, is essential, we have more work to do beyond that.
Q: Should Texas end tax subsidies and abatements for large corporations?
Yes, as the tax subsidies and abatements are utilized today. I do believe there is room for tax incentives and other financial incentives for businesses, but only if the benefits of the business success are shared with the community in the form of long-term salary stability and growth, and other financial benefits.
Q: Do you oppose school vouchers and efforts to privatize public education?
I 100%, absolutely oppose any use of public dollars to fund private education. Additionally, Texas funds 10% less of the cost of public education than other states do (the national average is 44%; Texas funds just 34% of the cost of public education).
A world-class, fully-funded public education is a foundational component of a healthy Texas.
Q: Should Texas end tax breaks and regulatory loopholes for oil and gas companies, including exemptions from emissions reporting and waste disposal standards?
I believe that oil and gas companies have long had their way with the state of Texas, with little (if any) resistance provided by the legislature to hold companies accountable. I am in favor of ensuring accountability, including financial justification of tax breaks, for oil and gas companies.
Q: Do you support publicly financed elections to reduce corporate and PAC influence?
Absolutely. The time has come to overturn the ruling in CITIZENS UNITED v. FEDERAL ELECTION COMMISSION that created the huge loophole that allows the wealthiest to influence, if not fully control, public elections.
Q: Should local police be barred from enforcing federal immigration law?
Yes. The lines of jurisdiction have become blurred, with the Federal government exerting undue (and unjust) pressure on state and local law enforcement agencies to carry out the federal agenda, rather than enforcing the laws within the jurisdiction that commissions those law enforcement agencies.
Bonus Question: Who are your political role models, living or dead?
Assuming fictional politicians such as Jed Bartlet are not options, I would say my political role models are:
- Nelson Mandela: He maintained unwavering support of the ideal of eliminating apartheid and, once elected, focused on unifying South Africa rather than on retribution against those whose positions imprisoned him.
- Mahatma Gandhi: His adoption of mass nonviolent civil disobedience resulted in India attaining freedom from Britain.
- Barack Obama: He exemplified statesmanship and, as the first African-American to be elected President of the United States, he carried himself with grace and dignity befitting the office.
- Pete Buttigieg: His mastery of issues and of the art of discourse enables him to present himself, seemingly fearlessly, to what most would consider hostile audiences.
- Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: She does the homework necessary to speak intelligently on a wide range of topics, while still providing room for opposing views to be heard. She is masterful at creating alliances, though not all are visible to the public.
Joe Mayes is going to need a real wave, a serious turnout operation in a fast-growing county, and enough crossover appeal.
But look at what he’s running against. Jared Patterson is a guy whose own base wants him gone, who’s spent his time in Austin authoring book bans that got slapped down by federal courts instead of doing literally anything for the people of Denton County, and who can’t even keep his colleagues from wanting to fight him on the House floor. That’s a seat that’s been coasting on inertia and a bad turnout year.
And Joe Mayes is exactly the candidate built to exploit that. Twenty years of military service. A small business that he and Diane built with their own money in their own town. A wife who spent her career in Texas classrooms. A guy who answers policy questions with actual policy, not bumper stickers. He’s offering Denton County a known quantity with a record of showing up, against an incumbent that even his own party can’t stand.
Wave years are how seats like this flip. Somebody has to be the candidate ready when the wave hits. In HD106, that’s Joe Mayes.
You can learn more about Joe Mayes from his website, Facebook, Instagram, Threads, and Bluesky.
Click here to find out what Legislative districts you’re in.
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Thank you, Michelle! If I lived up there I'd vote for Joe in a heartbeat! Just shared on bsky.