H. Denise Wooten
H. Denise Wooten (Democratic Party) ran for election to the Texas House of Representatives to represent District 63. She lost in the Democratic primary on March 5, 2024.
Biography
H. Denise Wooten was born in Independence, Missouri. She earned a bachelor's degree from William Jewell College in 1982 and a graduate degree from Baylor University in 1989. Her career experience includes working as a psychologist, specializing in developmental disorders, and as an adjunct professor in psychology at North Central Texas Community College.[1]
Elections
2024
See also: Texas House of Representatives elections, 2024
General election
The candidate list in this election may not be complete.
General election for Texas House of Representatives District 63
Incumbent Ben Bumgarner and Michelle Beckley are running in the general election for Texas House of Representatives District 63 on November 5, 2024.
Candidate | ||
 | Ben Bumgarner (R) | |
 | Michelle Beckley (D) | |
| ||||
 = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
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Democratic primary election
Democratic primary for Texas House of Representatives District 63
Michelle Beckley defeated H. Denise Wooten in the Democratic primary for Texas House of Representatives District 63 on March 5, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Michelle Beckley | 66.4 | 3,985 |
 | H. Denise Wooten | 33.6 | 2,019 | |
| Total votes: 6,004 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
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Republican primary election
Republican primary for Texas House of Representatives District 63
Incumbent Ben Bumgarner defeated Vincent Gallo and Carlos Andino Jr. in the Republican primary for Texas House of Representatives District 63 on March 5, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Ben Bumgarner | 59.3 | 9,762 |
 | Vincent Gallo | 35.3 | 5,816 | |
 | Carlos Andino Jr. | 5.4 | 894 | |
| Total votes: 16,472 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
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Campaign finance
Endorsements
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2022
See also: Texas House of Representatives elections, 2022
General election
General election for Texas House of Representatives District 63
Ben Bumgarner defeated H. Denise Wooten in the general election for Texas House of Representatives District 63 on November 8, 2022.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Ben Bumgarner (R) | 55.9 | 35,965 |
| H. Denise Wooten (D) | 44.1 | 28,342 | |
| Total votes: 64,307 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
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Republican primary runoff election
Republican primary runoff for Texas House of Representatives District 63
Ben Bumgarner defeated Jeff Younger in the Republican primary runoff for Texas House of Representatives District 63 on May 24, 2022.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Ben Bumgarner | 62.2 | 4,948 |
| Jeff Younger | 37.8 | 3,003 | |
| Total votes: 7,951 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Democratic primary election
Democratic primary for Texas House of Representatives District 63
H. Denise Wooten advanced from the Democratic primary for Texas House of Representatives District 63 on March 1, 2022.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | H. Denise Wooten | 100.0 | 4,867 |
| Total votes: 4,867 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Republican primary election
Republican primary for Texas House of Representatives District 63
Ben Bumgarner and Jeff Younger advanced to a runoff. They defeated Nick Sanders and Jacob Collier in the Republican primary for Texas House of Representatives District 63 on March 1, 2022.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Ben Bumgarner | 29.0 | 3,725 |
| ✔ | | Jeff Younger | 27.5 | 3,534 |
| Nick Sanders | 24.5 | 3,145 | |
 | Jacob Collier | 19.0 | 2,443 | |
| Total votes: 12,847 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Withdrawn or disqualified candidates
- Scott Smith (R)
Campaign finance
Campaign themes
2024
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
H. Denise Wooten did not complete Ballotpedia's 2024 Candidate Connection survey.
2022
H. Denise Wooten completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2022. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Wooten's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
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Having served for over 30 years as a licensed clinical psychologist, and for almost 5 years as an adjunct community college professor, I have been in the trenches with people struggling with health, education, economic disadvantage, and disabilities. In Texas, human services of all kinds are woefully underfunded and understaffed, thereby leaving many people unaided or without equitable opportunity. In fact, Texas is 45th out of 50 states in per capita expenditure for human services (health, education, welfare, and civic infrastructure), while Texas is 2nd highest in Gross Domestic Product. We have a wealthy state that is spending meager amounts on less resourced people, while the rich get richer. Due to my ethical belief that all people deserve quality health care, for years I operated a sliding fee scale and took multiple insurances at a decreased fee. Teaching at a community college has to be for the love of psychology and students, as it certainly does not recompense well, but these students deserve professors who care.
Personally, I am married with two daughters who are themselves married. One daughter is a special education teacher in the public school system, while the other is a ballroom dance instructor who loves Fine Arts. My husband works with small-business owners and individuals as a CPA.
- Human services are underfunded, leading to gaps in care and opportunity for less advantaged people. This is true in education and health.
- Medical policy decisions should not be made by untrained politicians. Reproductive rights, transgender rights, pandemic response, and other health decisions should be made in tandem with qualified professionals.
- Bipartisanship on behalf of people should be attainable, if the focus is on helping those who cannot help themselves and equipping those who can benefit to become productive contributors to the economy and society.
Funding for education and special education, Social Security Disability Income, Medicare and Medicaid, Disability Services post high school, Child Protective Services, employment and training opportunities in school and post high school, Early Childhood Development programs, and medical response to adverse health events (such as the pandemic).
Abraham Lincoln has always been a favorite, as he did what was right even when it was unpopular with many--that is moral courage and integrity. Also, I must share my enthusiasm for Jane Austen, as she had a wry and dry take on human nature that is very appealing to me.
Integrity in trying to ascertain the best course of action to benefit the most people, especially the less resourced, is vital to the job of governing on behalf of the people. Integrity is made of of ethics and morality, rational reasoning, use of science and medical knowledge, and hearing from people themselves about their concerns in their everyday lives.
Several of the most important qualities I bring to any of my endeavors are a firm commitment to justice and fairness, willingness to listen to alternative perspectives and experts, dedication to the well-being of others, ability to admit when I am wrong and grow from feedback, intellectual search for accurate information before committing to opinions or decisions, and making my career choices based on how I can benefit others instead of monetary value.
My legacy, whether elected or not, is that I want people to be better off than before after I had the opportunity to touch their lives.
The assassination of Martin Luther King Jr--found out about it in 7th grade history class when I was 12 years of age by watching a reel-to-reel film of his life, with a special emphasis on his "I Have a Dream" speech.
My first job was waitressing, beginning at age 15 years and continuing at various restaurants until I finished putting myself through college.
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen has long been my favorite book, as Jane Austen uses delicious verbiage and irony to roast people or show them in their foibles.
Elizabeth Bennet from Pride and Prejudice.
The latest song from my favorite acapella group, Home Free, always gets stuck in my head, because I repeat the song so much. That means, at this moment, their cover of "Amazed" that was just released has been reverberating in my mind.
Growing up in a family with limited means required much hard work as a member of the family (including a half-acre garden on which we depended for sustenance), along with working multiple jobs to put myself through college.
Ideally, the governor and the state legislature should take care of the responsibilities of their branch, instead of limiting or handicapping each other.
Of course, in line with my passion about people's needs, Texas needs to beef up the funding and resources for human services, especially health and education.
No, it is not necessary for state legislators to have experience in politics. Political experience is no substitute for life experience and expertise.
Absolutely it is beneficial to build relationships with other legislators, especially if the others also sought the office in order to benefit people and not themselves.
Bipartisan committees in every state should do the redistricting, because each party takes advantage of their control to redistrict in their favor unless it is bipartisan.
Health and education committees are those in which I am qualified to consult as a specialist due to my profession.
This is not a joke from a comedian, but rather represents the accidental jokes my clients with Autism make when they are being literal, but if someone said it on purpose, it would be dry humor. One of my favorite such sayings came after a boy asked me why I purchased a Hot Wheels toilet car. When I said, "It caught my eye in the store," he responded in all seriousness, "Did that hurt when it caught your eye?"
When there are solid Democratic and Republican platforms (unlike the last 5 years or so), compromise between positions is how to achieve solutions. Partisanship results in little being accomplished on behalf of the people.
Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.
Campaign finance summary
Note: The finance data shown here comes from the disclosures required of candidates and parties. Depending on the election or state, this may represent only a portion of all the funds spent on their behalf. Satellite spending groups may or may not have expended funds related to the candidate or politician on whose page you are reading this disclaimer. Campaign finance data from elections may be incomplete. For elections to federal offices, complete data can be found at the FEC website. Click here for more on federal campaign finance law and here for more on state campaign finance law.
See also
2024 Elections
External links
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Candidate Texas House of Representatives District 63 |
Personal |
Footnotes
- ↑ Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on January 31, 2022
