Her daughter was killed in the Robb Elementary shooting. Now she's running for mayor of Uvalde

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Her daughter was killed in the Robb Elementary shooting. Now she's running for mayor of Uvalde
apnews.com

On a sticky Texas morning, Kimberly Mata-Rubio is lacing up her running shoes ahead of two races she is running in Uvalde in tribute to her daughter Lexi, who was killed in the 2022 Robb Elementary School shooting.

First up is a charity run honoring Lexi’s life. Then it’s back to a tougher contest: Campaigning to become mayor of Uvalde, a town still divided after one of America’s deadliest mass shootings and a botched police response that is still under investigation.

“One thing I hear with all of my children, and it echoes my own belief, is that right now Lexi’s legacy is our priority and we just want to honor her with action,” Mata-Rubio said.

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NRA: Look at her, politicizing her daughter’s death!

To quote Skunk Anansie: yes it's fucking political, everything's political!

also: it's small town texas; i wonder if she actually expects to achieve anything.

She might win. Absurd life-altering tragedies have a way of changing the perspectives and opinions of the people they affect.

Uvalde overwhelmingly re-elected the same politicians, judges and sheriffs that led to the shooting and lack of response. Uvalde also voted strongly for Abbott.

That's when my last shred of sympathy for that community evaporated. If they don't care about their own children being killed, why should I? Clearly they want this to continue happening.

Consider that sometimes there are more voters who are unaffected by the people and policies they vote for, than voters who are affected.

I imagine in the case of Uvalde, there are more grumpy senior citizens who don't give a shit about the lives of children than there are parents of school age children -- or at least more voters in the former category than the latter.

Don't forget that voter suppression exists, too. Just because the same shit heels got voted back in doesn't mean that the people who were most hurt didn't try to do something about it. Don't give up your sympathy because of what it looks like to you at a distance.

i've learned first hand that not even the liberals in austin give a rats ass about voter suppression in texas; so she must be doing this for herself because she's not going to have an impact in uvalde and much less for the rest of the state.

Well if it happened in Austin then it must apply to everyone and everywhere else. Makes perfect sense.

How does any of that change what they said?

In case you're legitimately asking:

OP is saying that "they" don't care that "their" kids are being killed. This reads as OP saying the parents of the murdered children don't care about their own murdered children. OP says that because the same bad politicians from before the shooting were voted back into office, this means the parents don't care. OP therefore says they won't bother caring either.

I'm saying the bad politicians may not have been voted back in by the parents of the murdered children, and instead have been voted back in by callous people who don't care about other peoples murdered children. This would mean OP's assertion that the parents don't care is wrong, and their decision to not care about murdered children is wrong.

And that was in reply to:

Uvalde overwhelmingly re-elected the same politicians, judges and sheriffs that led to the shooting and lack of response. Uvalde also voted strongly for Abbott.

That’s when my last shred of sympathy for that community evaporated. If they don’t care about their own children being killed, why should I? Clearly they want this to continue happening.

A comment directed at the community as a whole.

So even if what you say is true, it simply reinforced OP's point that the community is fucking garbage, as the fact there would even be a majority of evil people to override the will of the parents makes the town undeserving of sympathy.

If they don't care about their own children being killed, why should I?

Wow, you sound like such a wonderful person. Jesus fucking christ.

I didn't kill their kids, I didn't stand around refusing to help, and I didn't re-elect cowards who let kids die... Uvalde did though. So as bad and callous as my opinion sounds, it's not as bad as what they did to themselves

She would have my vote, wouldn't even need to think twice about it.

Hope she wins.

The issue is whether she has Uvalde's vote. They reelected abbot in a landslide even after all of the death and incompetence.

No doubt, I don't understand Texas politics. I consider what shithouse fucked up stuff lead to the Alamo and how dearly they hold onto it's legacy... I think it's all I probably need to know.

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Why didn't her daughter go to school with a gun to stop the bad guy with?

God I hate this headline trend of "she/he did this, now she's/he's doing this" as a stupid clickbait title.

This is the best summary I could come up with:


Then it’s back to a tougher contest: Campaigning to become mayor of Uvalde, a town still divided after one of America’s deadliest mass shootings and a botched police response that is still under investigation.

For Mata-Rubio, who would become Uvalde’s first female mayor, part of the challenge in her campaign is convincing the small town of 15,000 people to choose a new direction.

Months later, the Texas Legislature brushed off calls by Mata-Rubio and other Uvalde parents to raise the minimum purchase age for some firearms — which, they say, could have prevented the tragic shooting.

The shooting upended her previous life as a soft-spoken reporter at the Uvalde Leader-News who was content with small-town living alongside her six children and husband, a local sheriff’s deputy.

“Her candidacy may have a little bit more movement because she knows the people in that town and she understands the hurt that this event caused,” said Brandon Rottinghaus, a political science professor at the University of Houston.

“I am never stopping as her mom, as an advocate, but as running for mayor my main focus is bringing the community back together because we cannot move forward, we cannot see progress until we are on the same page,” Mata-Rubio said.


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