Meet The Candidates: Merrie Fox For Texas House District 73
The principal who wants to fix what Carrie Isaac broke.
This series is called Meet The Candidates. Over the next five 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 Merrie Fox?
Merrie Fox is a woman who spent 31 years inside public schools, teaching, coaching, running buildings, fixing problems, and watching what happens to kids when the adults in charge actually give a damn. She earned her undergraduate degree in Exercise and Sports Science from Southwest Texas State, came back for a master’s in Education Administration from Texas State, and eventually earned a Ph.D. in Educational Leadership from Northcentral University. She knows what good schools look like from the inside, and she knows what happens to them when the Legislature decides they’re a line item instead of a cornerstone.
Her story in this part of Texas starts in 1982, when her family moved to Canyon Lake so her father could escape the air pollution that was killing him. That’s how she first came to understand what this land means and what it costs to protect it. She never left. She lives in New Braunfels now with her wife, Lisa, and their two dogs. They raised two kids here. One became a teacher. One became a paramedic. Both still serve their communities nearby.
After retiring from public education in 2023, Merrie became Executive Director of Circle Arts Theatre in New Braunfels because, apparently, 31 years of public service wasn’t enough and she needed something else to pour herself into. Along the way, she’s volunteered with Habitat for Humanity, First Footing, Family Promise, New Braunfels Angels, and Riverside Pride. She sings in her church choir. She kayaks the Hill Country rivers she’s been fighting to protect her whole adult life.
The district.
Let’s start with the map in this district, because we need to be honest about where we’re starting from.
In 2024, Carrie Isaac beat Sally Duval 71.5% to 28.5%, a 43-point shellacking. Trump carried the district at 69.3% to Harris’s 29.6%. Ted Cruz pulled 66.6%. The SBOE race went 74.2% Republican. There is no gentle way to say this, but HD73 is a deep-red district. Comal County, which makes up the bulk of the district, has been Republican bedrock for decades, and the 16% of western Hays County included here skews Anglo and suburban, not the progressive Hays precincts that have been trending blue.
The district’s population profile tells a related story. It’s 67.4% Anglo, with a Hispanic population of 25.3%, but that 25.3% does not translate to 25.3% of the electorate. Spanish-surname voters account for just 15% of the total registered voters. That gap is where organizing work has to happen.
The district skews older and wealthier than Texas as a whole. Nearly 20% of residents are 65 or older, compared to 13.2% statewide. The per capita income is $52,738, compared with a state average of $39,446. More than half of owner-occupied homes are valued above $500,000. This is not a district of economic anxiety voters who might be peeled off with kitchen-table messaging. This is a district of people who, materially speaking, are doing fine, and who have been voting accordingly.
New Braunfels was the third-fastest-growing city in the United States from 2010 to 2020. That growth has continued. The city currently has a population of 102,000 and is projected to double by 2040, according to Texas Water Development Board projections. That’s a lot of new residents, and new residents, particularly transplants from purple or blue metros, represent a genuine but unproven voting opportunity. Whether those newcomers are Austin liberals who moved for affordability or San Antonio Republicans who moved up the I-35 corridor matters enormously.
Here’s where it gets genuinely interesting, and where Merrie Fox’s biography intersects with local politics in a way that isn’t just a campaign talking point.
Canyon Lake is currently at 59% capacity and dropping. The Hill Country is in extreme drought, and development pressure is only intensifying water demand across Bexar, Comal, Hays, and Travis counties. The tourism economy that Canyon Lake and the Guadalupe River support is taking a hit right now, and the people feeling it are voters.
This is where a Republican legislator who has spent her short tenure in the Texas Freedom Caucus, voting to defund public schools via vouchers and fighting culture war proxy battles, has a real exposure problem. The people who live on or near that lake don’t care about critical race theory. They care about whether there’s going to be water in it. Carrie Isaac is a Texas Freedom Caucus member who ran on “Faith, Family, and Freedom,” and she has no meaningful answer for constituents whose marinas are bone-dry.
I’m not going to tell you this race is a layup. It isn’t. A 43-point margin doesn’t evaporate in a one-wave election, even a good one. But here’s what a plausible path looks like:
The national environment has to hold. If Democrats are running D+5 or better on the generic ballot into October, that wave will shave margins across the board, including in districts like this one, where the floor starts to shift.
New resident activation is real but underworked. A district that’s adding population at this rate is not a static electorate. The 2024 registration data show 181,220 total registered voters, but with New Braunfels projected to double by 2040, the composition of that file is changing with each cycle.
The water issue could break through the partisan wall in a way that education and abortion can’t, because it’s tangible, it’s local, and it’s happening right now. Republican homeowners who have watched Canyon Lake drop to half capacity while their property values depend on river tourism are having conversations that aren’t partisan.
HD-73 is a stretch in 2026. But it’s a stretch worth making, and Merrie Fox is exactly the kind of candidate who makes stretches viable.
The incumbent.
Incumbent Carrie Issac (R) is the wife of former legislator turned lobbyist, Jason Isaac. Isaac is anti-abortion and a charter school advocate who has described efforts toward inclusive education as critical race theory. She’s been a voucher advocate since before she had a seat, having served as executive director of the Digital Education & Work Initiative of Texas.
Now, the funny thing about Carrie Isaac is that she’s one of the dumbest Republicans in the Texas House, and I don’t say that to be mean or out of Democratic callousness. She’s repeatedly proven that she introduces and votes on bills, which she cannot defend and doesn’t understand. And when it comes to basic legislation, she often needs other Republicans to stand with her and instruct her on how to respond to questions. Case in point:
And that wasn’t a one-off situation:
Maybe she’s a nice person who wants women in Texas to die from ectopic pregnancies and for taxpayer dollars to be funneled into the pockets of the wealthy under the guise of vouchers, but legislating is not for her. And every time she tries, the Democrats humiliate her.
In Merri Fox’s own words.
Below are some questions I asked Fox, based on previous reader polls, along with her answers.
Q: Do you support a statewide minimum wage increase to at least $15/hour?
Yes. Minimum wage jobs aren’t only for young people who want some extra spending money. Working 40 hours per week at the current minimum wage yields a whopping $290. That’s $1,160 a month - before taxes. No one deserves to work a full-time job and still not make enough money to cover basic necessities.
Q: Should Texas end tax subsidies and abatements for large corporations?
Tax subsidies and abatements for large corporations are rarely needed to stimulate economic growth in Texas. Therefore, tax incentives should be used sparingly, have limited terms (2-3 years), and require minimum standards for employee and community benefits.
Q: Do you oppose school vouchers and efforts to privatize public education?
I strongly oppose vouchers and will make it a priority to defund them in the 90th legislative session. Privatizing any common good redirects outcome expectations from a focus on people to a focus on financial gain. Because public education promotes individual advancement, community well-being, and social equality… and because the recipients of public funds must account for how the use of those funds benefits the public, vouchers must go!
Q: Should Texas guarantee free school meals to all K–12 students, regardless of income?
Yes! The value of ensuring that every child at school has access to food greatly outweighs the cost to the state because students can’t focus on learning when they’re hungry. Additionally, I believe the state has an obligation to provide meals to students since attendance is compulsory.
Q: Do you support closing or downsizing state prisons and redirecting that funding to community-based alternatives like mental health care, housing, and youth programs?
Yes, I support reducing our reliance on incarceration and investing more in community-based solutions. Funding proactive measures to support people before they are in crisis will create stronger, healthier communities while making more effective use of taxpayer dollars.
Bonus Question: What does being a Democrat mean to you in 2026?
To me, being a Democrat in 2026 means serving people first and staying focused on the everyday needs of Texans. It means empowering communities and amplifying voices that are too often overlooked in the decisions that shape their lives. At my core, being a Democrat is about making life better for Texans regardless of income, zip code, experience, or ability.
The thing about mountains is that someone has to start climbing them.
Carrie Isaac is a Texas Freedom Caucus freshman who ran on “Faith, Family, and Freedom,” voted to drain money from the same public schools her opponent spent 31 years building, and whose most memorable floor appearances have involved other Republicans having to rescue her from her own legislation. She is not a formidable incumbent. She’s a seat warmer who got lucky on the draw.
And Merrie Fox is not a placeholder. She’s a woman who has spent a lifetime in this community, who knows every corner of the Comal ISD from the inside, who moved to Canyon Lake because her father needed cleaner air and never left, and who went from the principal’s office to a Ph.D. to running a community arts organization, because she can’t seem to stop showing up.
That’s the kind of candidate who can make a mountain look smaller. Help her climb it.
You can find out more about Merrie Fox on her website, Facebook, Instagram, Bluesky, and TikTok.
Click here to find out what Legislative districts you’re in.
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Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!!!!!
We love Merrie Fox!
She is whip smart, kind, compassionate and extremely capable.
Just shared on bsky, Michelle. This one's another 'no brainer' if all is fair, which unfortunately it's not likely to be.