Meet The Candidates: Kyle Rable For Texas Congressional District 19
Union strong, kitchen tough, West Texas ready.
This series is called Meet The Candidates. Over the next fourteen 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 working people across Texas.
Who is Kyle Rable?
Kyle Rable is running for Congress out of West Texas and comes from a family of immigrants, workers, and veterans. That tradition shaped him.
He put himself through school with an Army ROTC scholarship at the University of Toledo, earning his commission into the Army Reserves while working restaurant jobs to make ends meet. He went on to complete a Master’s degree at Bowling Green State University and later pursued a PhD at Texas Tech, where he and his wife, Kristen, settled and raised their newborn son. Today, they reside in Lubbock with their two rescue dogs, firmly rooted in the community they have chosen as home.
Rable is a Captain in the US Army Reserves, Secretary of the Lubbock County Democratic Party, and a proud member of the Communications Workers of America Local 6186. His campaign makes it clear where his focus lies with defending workers, family farmers, and rural West Texans.
Whether it’s affordable childcare, housing, rural hospitals, or breaking up corporate monopolies, his platform leans heavily on bread-and-butter issues for working families. He is someone who will fight to ensure West Texans have the same chance at the American Dream that his own family did.
The district.
Think of the High Plains to Big Country. This district includes Lubbock and Abilene, with a vast sweep of rural counties surrounding them. The district comprises roughly 50% Anglo and 50% non-Anglo populations, with approximately 38% of the overall population being Hispanic.
In 2024, approximately 61% of registered voters cast a vote, and the percentage of Spanish-surname voter registration is around 27.7%.
This area is farm, ranch, and energy country, which means rural hospitals, water, broadband, and farm finance are evergreen concerns. With Lubbock and Abilene in the mix, you also encounter big-city-adjacent issues such as housing supply, childcare access, and college-town economies. (And Rable is already leaning into these issues.)
The Republican incumbent.
In late 2020, leading up to January 6th, Jodey Arrington was one of the treasonous seventeen from Texas who attempted to overturn the 2020 election.
Since we’re on the topic, here are the ones still in Congress:
As of today, Arrington still has his announcement from January 5th on his website.
Arrington has also been the architect of budget cuts in Congress. As House Budget Chair, he pushed a FY25 budget blueprint with multi-trillion-dollar cuts over 10 years, which will gut Medicare/Medicaid/Social Security protectors. But, he is a multi-millionaire, so it’s no skin off his back.
As a champion of Trump’s “One Big, Beautiful Bill” agenda and credited as its House architect, reporting in the Texas Observer notes that rural hospitals face risks from the cuts. So, Arrington championed legislation that would directly harm his own constituents. But isn’t that what all Republicans do?
Top 2024-cycle contributors include GRAIL, Inc. (maker of multi-cancer early detection tests), AIPAC, major energy/insurance players, and local firms. That aligns with his push to obtain Medicare coverage for MCED tests through his bill, despite the bill’s significant cuts.
In Kyle Rable’s own words.
Below are some questions I asked Rable, based on previous reader polls, and how he answered:
Q: Should Congress pass a federal $17/hour minimum wage, indexed to inflation?
100%. The federal minimum wage has left the American Working Class in poverty. We must make sure workers are paid a fair wage and that they can feed and clothe their families. We must not continue to ignore the reality that too many people cannot afford the basics.
Q: Would you support major tax reform, including raising taxes on billionaires and large corporations?
Yes. I believe there is no moral way to be a billionaire. You do not make billions without destroying workers and their families. It is insane that some families live off scraps in this country while some other individuals hoard money. It’s important to remember gluttony is a sin.
We should also aim to break up large monopolies. Companies like Tyson, Apple, Disney, and many others have destroyed the market. We must regulate and break up massive corporations to give consumers and employees choices.
Q: Do you support federal student debt cancellation and tuition-free public college?
I believe in cancelling student debt to a large amount, eliminating all interest from the loans, and making community college free. We must break the cycle of debt and allow Americans to use their money to grow, and thus grow our economy.
Friendly reminder that in Exodus, Leviticus, Deuteronomy, Proverbs, Luke, and Matthew, usury is condemned.
Q: Do you support a federal jobs guarantee and large-scale public investment in housing, transit, and care infrastructure?
Yes. I believe we need these public investments because it will stimulate the economy. We are on the brink of another Depression, and we must follow the lead of FDR and use federal public works programs to provide jobs and services to the people of America.
Q: Should Congress ban corporate PAC money and implement public campaign financing?
We must eliminate all big money influence in politics. At no rate should a congressional candidate need to raise over $1 million. We must regulate PACs, regulate the influence of corporations, and bring control of our representatives back to the people.
Bonus Question: Who are your political role models, living or dead?
In no particular order: LBJ, FDR, John Quincy Adams, Ann Richards, and César Chávez
The fight for TX-19 is about whether a working family can keep a roof over their heads, see a doctor without a two-hour drive, and earn enough to stay in the towns they love.
It’s about farm credit that isn’t predatory, water that isn’t disappearing, broadband that actually reaches the back roads, and whether your paycheck keeps up while corporate landlords and monopolies squeeze every last dime.
On one side, you’ve got a career incumbent who pledged to overturn a certified election and built his brand on austerity that lands hardest on rural hospitals, seniors, and working people. He talks fiscal virtue from a cushy perch while West Texas shrinks and services close.
On the other, you’ve got an Army Reserve Captain, union member, and Texas Tech PhD candidate who worked kitchens to pay the bills, put down roots in Lubbock, and says the quiet part out loud, that’s to break up monopolies, cap lifesaving drug prices, fund rural care, expand legal immigration, and build an economy where family farmers and wage workers aren’t roadkill.
If you live in TX-19, check your registration, know your polling place, and bring a friend or two. If you don’t, share this with someone who does. We fix Texas by turning out.
You can learn more about Kyle Rable on his website, Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok.
November 4: Constitutional/TX18/SD09 Election
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Rable's district includes Sweetwater, the 'wind turbine capital of America,' an industry that Republicans want to destroy.
Thanks, Michelle. Just saw this & posted immediately.