Kevin McCormick

Kevin McCormick earned a high school diploma from MacArthur High School. He earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Texas at San Antonio in 1982 and a law degree from the University of Houston Law Center in 1986. His career experience includes teaching math at Jefferson High School in San Antonio.[1][2]

Who are you? Tell us about yourself.

I am the Green Party candidate for Lieutenant Governor. I am a long-term resident of Texas. I have a Law Degree from the University of Houston Law Center and Political Science degree from the University of Texas at San Antonio. I am married, with two adult children, and live in East Texas near Lindale.

I am running to change the focus of state government from serving special interests to serving the public interest. I define the public interest as healthy people, healthy society, and healthy environment. I want to build a public consensus on the basics of the public interest as a way for the public to give continuous direction to state government and to overcome the divisive tribal and identity politics of the establishment parties.

The essential functions of state government should be designed to serve every Texan and should not be designed as monopolistic fiefdoms for special interests. This means that, while the needs of the majority should be served effectively, we should always allow for alternatives and the needs of others who are not in the majority.

I am personally very concerned that Texas is seriously unprepared for the effects of global warming and the people of Texas are at great risk as the scramble to cope with heat, drought, and flooding is beginning.

Please list below 3 key messages of your campaign. What are the main points you want voters to remember about your goals for your time in office?

We need to make major improvements in urban public transportation and alternative transportation infrastructure. I propose allocating 10% of the state transportation budget to increasing the city bus fleets and to creating cycle tracks in Texas cities.We need to make significant investments in the Texas rural economy. These investments should be designed to increase the incomes and money circulation in rural areas. I propose a sole-proprietor greenhouse investment program to help families enter a greenhouse produce business, with a pricing program that will allow local, healthy, food to be available to all Texans at reasonable prices. I propose that Texas begins an educational and research program to encourage farmers and ranchers to develop more sustainable and chemical-free agricultural practices that farmers and ranchers can employ with confidence. I also propose increasing the county road and bridge fund and allowing bicycle paths to be built with these funds.I propose that we reform the electoral process in Texas. Our democracy needs to be strengthened and improved. I propose that we amend the Texas constitution to require that electoral districts be drawn in a way that prevents gerrymandering. Electoral district boundaries would have to meet a mathematical test that makes them mostly rectangular in shape. I believe we should adopt ranked-choice voting in our elections. This will expand the ideas and policy choices that are discussed in elections and reduce divisive campaigns. I also propose a statewide primary for all parties with ballot access and also including independent candidates. This would place the parties on a more equal footing and give independent candidates a chance.

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?

I have proposed a reform of the property tax system which would change the appraisal method from comparable sales to imputed rental value. The concept of property taxes is based on the idea that infrastructure and density creates the value of property. Since the value derives from the public investment in infrastructure -- transportation, utilities, services, etc. -- it is appropriate to tax the lease value of the property to support those services. Texas has gotten away from that basic concept by using speculative value and by giving tax breaks to special interests. To bring the property tax system back to its proper justification will require a lot of work, but I believe it will also bring a lot of benefit.

Campaign websiteMcCormick's campaign website stated the following:Transportation ProposalWe in Texas have a transportation system that is designed for motor vehicles. In practical terms, a Texan must maintain a motor vehicle in order to drive to the places they need to go. Our transportation system is very expensive, inefficient, unsafe, and increasingly uneconomic.We need alternativesTo serve the public interest the transportation system must consist of a variety of modes — motor vehicles, bus systems, bicycle tracks, pedestrian walkways, and rail systems. Each of these modes competes for the same rights of way and access space, and the same transportation infrastructure dollars. The challenge is to make all these modes work together to provide a safe, reliable, accessible, and economical transportation system. This requires some adaptation of roadways, some new construction, some innovations, and continuing focus on public service. There are many examples of success around the world. It will be a long process to achieve the necessary diversity in transportation. There is a public transportation base in Texas cities, but we must expand public transportation more rapidly.Proposal to improve urban transportationI propose that we allocate 10% of state transportation spending to increasing the urban bus fleet with the objective of providing commuter transit and high frequency bus routes, and also to building safe bicycle tracks with practical, useful routes.An effective way to reduce rush hour traffic congestion is to use a commuter bus network, with frequent feeder buses connecting neighborhoods and transit centers where the commuter buses will take passengers to employment centers. Reducing traffic congestion has been a stated goal of Texas transportation policy for decades, yet congestion only increases. This is because expanding highways and widening streets will not reduce congestion. To reduce congestion it is necessary to reduce the number of cars on the road by providing commuters an alternative mode. A well-designed commuter bus system would provide reasonably quick commuting and the ability to do something productive during the trip. It should also be understood that commuter use is only part of the constituency for public transit.[It has been argued that roads are congested because they are free to use — no access charge. This argument might support tolls, congestion fees, and raising fuel taxes. I do not believe the public would support these ideas.]High-frequency bus routes are needed in our urban areas. These are routes where the waiting time for a bus is around 10 minutes or less. These routes should be selected by local transit agencies so there is a high degree of confidence that ridership will be increased.Public transportation offers advantages to the public — option value, transport value, land use value, and enterprise value. Simply having a transportation choice is valuable to the public by reducing the monopoly power of motor vehicle interests. The transportation service itself has value to the many Texans who cannot or do not want to drive. The land use value lies in the possibility of reducing city land coverage by parking lots and freeing space for more valuable uses. The enterprise value lies in the employment and economic activity of the transportation service. Evaluating the Congestion Relief Impacts of Public Transport in Monetary TermsWe need to build bicycle routes in our cities. A well designed bicycle route is called a cycle track. These provide several benefits to city dwellers which makes them a good urban transportation investment. An example cycle track is the Cleveland, Ohio Midway Network. Cycle track design is described in Cycle Tracks.It is necessary for voters to demand action to improve urban transportation. We cannot rely on the Texas Department of Transportation for any help in improving alternatives to motor vehicle transportation.TxDOT creates an expensive single mode systemThe state transportation system is under the direction of the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT). The projected budget for TxDOT is some $40 billion for the 2027-2028 budget cycle; roughly $20 billion per year. In addition to the TxDOT budget, I estimate Texas cities and counties will also spend well over $10 billion per year for roads. In total, this amounts to over $1,000 per year for each person in Texas, just for roads and highways. TxDOT funding is primarily from dedicated funds, sales tax, and federal funding. City and county road budgets are primarily from property taxes. State fuel tax provides about $2.8 billion, or less than 10% of road and highway spending in Texas. Fuel tax would need to be about $2 per gallon for fuel taxes to pay for the roads. There is no revenue justification for TxDOT promoting motor vehicle transportation and excluding other modes.TxDOT’s biennial 2026-2027 Legislative Appropriations Request includes a total funding request of $40.4 billion and dedicates approximately $35.8 billion, or 89 percent, of the total TxDOT budget for … state highway projects. … It also includes seven percent for other purposes (debt service and regional subaccounts), approximately two percent for other modes of transportation (aviation, maritime, rural and small urban public transit, and rail), and two percent for TxDOT administrative services. TxDOT Funding 2027Thus, less than 1% of TxDOT spending is for public transportation or bicycle transportation.TxDOT released a statewide public transportation plan, Texas SMTP 2050, which I interpret to mean exactly what it says — public transportation improvement will arrive, if at all, in 2050 — far in the future. The idea that a transportation agency needs many years to plan public transportation, when all the information has long been known, is patently ridiculous. The plan refers to a survey in which 86% of respondents want improvements in public transportation. The TxDOT strategy is to discuss and plan for as long as possible, maintaining the appearance of public service while continuing to lock Texas into the special interest agenda of a single mode transportation system.TxDOT is a captured agencyThe transportation system has been dedicated to a special interest agenda for many decades. TxDOT is overseen by the Texas Transportation Commission, representing the finance, automotive, fossil fuel, property development, and highway contractor interests. The transportation system is designed to maximize profits for these special interests. Corralling the public into auto dependency is the most effective way to channel economic benefits to these special interests.Consistent with being a captured agency, TxDOT has patterned itself after the federal government Military Industrial Complex. TxDOT promotes a grandiose mission for itself with its $146 billion Unified Transportation Plan, while it places projects in legislative districts around the state to create leverage over elected officials and to direct real estate development. Just as the federal Military Industrial Complex is deeply concerned with global fossil fuel trade, TxDOT places great emphasis on high fossil fuel consumption transportation modes. TxDOT's system is what has been called an "iron triangle" complex of special interests, bureaucracy, and elected officials.A defining feature of these systems is a fundamental conflict of interest, as the complex often profits most when it is least effective at solving the underlying social problem. If the stated goal, such as national security or public health, were fully achieved, the infrastructure and continuous stream of revenue supporting the complex would diminish. Therefore, the system’s economics are rooted in generating continuous demand for its products or services, regardless of whether that demand aligns with the actual public need. This dynamic ensures that the complex remains self-sustaining by prioritizing perpetual growth and spending. What Is an Industrial Complex? Definition and Examples (emphasis added)TxDOT is obsoleteA recent report by the International Energy Agency provides insight into the transformational change in transportation that is happening worldwide.Electric car sales topped 17 million worldwide in 2024, rising by more than 25%. Just the additional 3.5 million cars sold in 2024 compared to 2023 outnumber total electric car sales in the whole of 2020. China maintained its lead among major markets, with electric car sales exceeding 11 million — more than were sold worldwide just 2 years earlier. Global sales were slightly tempered by stagnating growth in Europe, … continued to increase in the United States … Significantly, outside of these three major markets, there was a record increase in sales of nearly 40% to reach 1.3 million, closing in on the United States’ sales of 1.6 million electric cars.It is not simply sales growth of electric cars (EV’s). In Great Britain Octopus Energy has a program to integrate EV's into the electrical grid system, Octopus EV. In Europe there is growing development of EV integration in the electric grid. These developments foreshadow new directions of innovation, technology, and economic alignments. The TxDOT single mode transportation system and its iron triangle political structure are not well suited to these changes. We are throwing good money after bad unless we make significant changes in transportation policy to create a multi-modal system.As EV’s and renewable energy reduce fossil fuel dependence worldwide, the fossil fuel industry will continue to decline and its intimate connection to Texas transportation will drag the state down unless we take effective measures to disentangle our systems from fossil fuel dependence.The cost to the publicThe cost to the public is unsafe, stressful transportation, excessive cost of roadways, poor transportation economics, fossil fuel and auto dependency, and the unfairness of a single-mode transportation system. Besides very high roadway spending, TxDOT also has significant bond debt which compounds the expense. In addition, TxDOT’s single mode design of the transportation system has forced the use of toll roads, which have huge bond debts and represent an unfunded liability to the state.Other countries have beautiful cities with well designed bicycle tracks, efficient and accessible public transportation, and useful passenger rail systems. We in Texas do not have these things because the TxDOT agenda is to cause cities to be built for cars instead of people and assure special interest profits over a truly functional transportation system.It is time to change directionI believe we must pursue a transportation policy of creating alternative modes that are available to the public. It will be a long process, but I want visible tangible actions by the legislature in 2027. I do not believe it will be more expensive than the the transportation status quo and may even mean less spending. We simply shift spending from monumental highway projects to other transportation modes. Improving public transportation and bicycle infrastructure are two of the most important and beneficial policy changes we can make.Use your vote to make a differenceThe establishment political parties will not implement meaningful transportation policy changes. Rather than serving the public interest they will continue to protect and preserve the establishment status quo and favored special interests. Voters must prove they require change by voting for third-party candidates. The more votes for Kevin McCormick for Lieutenant Goveror the more likely it becomes that the Texas Legislature will make positive improvements in transportation policy.Rural Investment ProposalTexas needs significant investment in the rural agricultural economy. Many urban dwellers may not realize that agriculture is a foundation pillar of the Texas economy. Yes, our food comes from the grocery store, but it is grown and prepared on farms and in a large processing and distribution network. A healthy agricultural sector will add to the diversity, resilience, and stability of the Texas economy. It is also very important to public health that our food and water be safe and of high quality, and agriculture has a major effect on water availability and quality.Farmers and ranchers need more and better information about land management strategies and methods to protect water resources and increase water availability and quality. We know about permaculture strategies — water catchment berms, specific planting patterns, and growing perennials and food producing trees, for example. We also know about practices of regenerative agriculture — focus on soil microbiology, keeping land covered, rotational grazing, new methods of fertilization, and crop rotation plans. These are appealing ideas and they show great promise. They also require investment in the resources to support these innovations and improvements.The USDA has announced a “Regenerative Pilot Program” to help American farmers adopt regenerative agriculture. Texas needs to do the same. We need to provide the necessary resources to help Texas agriculture transform into a sustainable, soil building, water conserving, and toxic chemical free foundation of our economy. I believe the State of Texas can help farmers with a research assistance program in which farmers singly or in cooperation with other farmers, agronomists, or researchers, conduct documented experiments with regenerative agriculture practices. The participants would design the experiment and document the process and the expenses. The farmers would submit their documentation to the Agriculture Department and be reimbursed for their expenses. The farmers would report their results and discuss problems and successes. The documentation would be published as public domain literature. It is vitally important that farmers and ranchers have the knowledge and confidence that regenerative agriculture practices will work for them and their operations.Texas also needs agricultural resilience. We need the jobs and economic activity that locally produced healthy food will create. We cannot rely on global trade to assure our food supply. Global trade is subject to geopolitical events and is vulnerable to financial crisis. There is no way to assure Texans that imported foods are not contaminated by toxic pesticides, herbicides, preservatives, and processing chemicals. This is why I will include a major program to establish family farm greenhouse production of vegetables in my rural investment program.Greenhouse ProposalMy greenhouse proposal is a program of grants and low interest loans to fund greenhouse operations for family farmers and sole-proprietor growers — no corporations. The goal is for each grower to produce enough to feed twenty people. Greenhouses would be limited to 10,000 square feet in total for any one grower. The land for the greenhouses could be owned or leased. Growers would be encouraged to form cooperatives so as to be able to reliably offer a variety of vegetables throughout the year. Cooperatives could also include field grown produce so long as the grower is eligible for the program. Participating grocery stores would pay the retail price for vegetables to the growers and grocery stores would receive a remittance of 5% of their purchases from the state. The use of synthetic chemicals would be strongly discouraged and organic practices strongly encouraged. There would be an ongoing, open-source, research and educational program to develop and improve methods and practices. I believe this program would enable thousands of people to make a living doing something they love and significantly improve food quality for all Texans.Hemp Crop ProposalI believe the hemp crop is important for soil conservation, crop rotation, and production of food and fiber. Hemp fiber is a basic input to many production and manufacturing processes. The hemp crop can be a valuable addition to the farmer repertoire. I also believe the hemp crop is a necessary addition to Texas agriculture as we try to adapt to global warming. This is because of the superior carbon sequestration and soil building characteristics of hemp.I believe the most important things the State of Texas can do for hemp farmers is to invest in processing facilities and adopt a “parity pricing” program to assure farmers a return and to stabilize the hemp market. The parity pricing program would objectively evaluate the production costs of a standardized hemp crop and provide the farmer with an option to sell their crop to the state for the parity production cost. The farmer could cancel the option at any time and sell to the market or the state would take delivery and later sell to the market.Rural InfrastructureI will also seek to increase the "County Road and Bridge Fund," perhaps by dedicating one cent of the twenty cent state fuel tax to this fund. This fund is used by the County Comissioners Court to fund maintenance of rural roads, which often need improvement. I will include an authorization for County Commissioners to also use these funds to construct bicycle paths, no less than four feet wide, joining rural towns, villages, and points of public use.We live in the environmentI keep in mind these words from former ExxonMobil CEO, Rex Tillerson:And as human beings as a — as a — as a species, that’s why we’re all still here. We have spent our entire existence adapting, OK? So we will adapt to this. Changes to weather patterns that move crop production areas around — we’ll adapt to that. It’s an engineering problem, and it has engineering solutions. And so I don’t — the fear factor that people want to throw out there to say we just have to stop this, I do not accept.Texas has a global warming problemSince 1975 the Texas annual average temperature has risen over 4 degrees Fahrenheit (about 2.3 degrees Celsius). Texas annual precipitation has also declined by about 2 inches per year. Rising temperature and declining rainfall mean that Texas is drying out. Water availability and quality will become an ever-present issue, creating conflict over water resources. The trend is clear. We can expect temperatures to continue rising and Texas, especially the western half, to become more hot and dry. (graph derived with data from NOAA. (download spreadsheet)) The water crisis in the Rio Grande Basin demonstrates that the global warming crisis is upon us and decisive, effective action is required.[U]rban and agricultural water conservation programs have thus far been unable to produce the reductions in water consumption required to stabilize—much less restore—the water sources within the RGB (Rio Grande Basin). Overconsumption Gravely Threatens Water Security in the Binational Rio Grande-Bravo basinIf the establishment parties want to address these problems, they have to get started. But the Republican and Democrat parties represent the banking cartel and Wall Street corporations. Their first priority is to protect corporate profits. Adapting to global warming is simply not profitable for Wall Street.How then are we going to adapt to global warming? What are the solutions? I could state the obvious — transition to renewable energy and regenerative agriculture — and run headlong into the financial and corporate establishment. To answer these questions, we must instead rely on the people of Texas. Global warming is far more than an engineering problem — it is a social problem, a knowledge problem, an agriculture problem, a transportation problem, a financial problem, and a survival of society problem. Rather than pursuing a grand systemic transformation, I believe it will bring greater progress if we enable the public to incorporate solutions into daily life. We must seek out successful strategies and pursue these strategies with resources that are adequate and appropriate. These solutions must be made available to the public and they must be practical. We also should understand that it is a step-wise process of gradual adoption, which is evaluated and refined by experience throughout the process.The rural investment program I propose would help to create a more resilient and sustainable agricultural sector and make progress in adapting to global warming while improving the quality of food and water in Texas.The more votes for Kevin McCormick for Lieutenant Governor in the 2026 election, the more likely it becomes that the Texas Legislature will take positive actions to advance resilient and sustainable agriculture for Texans.Election Code Reform ProposalElections and election rules are extremely interesting to some, but the rest of us find the rules to be dry and dull. Indeed, the Texas Election Code is a labyrinth of arcane procedures and requirements. The "horse-race" coverage — ignore the rules, ignore the policies, just talk about who is winning — is the corporate media approach. The rules can be nuanced and detailed, while the policies may have not-so-obvious effects. I have written my Election Code reform proposal in a statute-like form, to emphasize the details.I believe the three most important goals of Election Code reform are 1) create a more positive and productive voting experience for Texans; 2) allow a wider range of viewpoints into the electoral debate; and 3) reduce the divisiveness and polarization of election campaigns.To accomplish these goals, I propose these reforms:All persons of legal age and not disqualified from voting who receive a state issued identification shall also be registered to vote in the county of the person’s address given in the identification.The last day to register to vote in an election shall be the later of the last day of early voting in that election or the last Friday of the month preceding the election.There shall be a statewide general primary election in which the four parties with the most votes for statewide offices in the two preceding general elections that include the office of the President of the United States are specifically included and a fifth category of "Independent" is also included. Candidates in the Independent primary may state a party affiliation that is not one of the four party categories in the primary election, which shall be included in the determination of parties having a specific category in subsequent primary elections. Participating voters shall choose the category of primary election in which they wish to vote.All primary, general, and special elections shall be conducted by a ranked preference vote in which the voter ranks the candidates for each office in order of preference. It shall be the voter’s sole discretion whether to vote for any candidate or to rank candidates that are not the voter’s first preference. If only one candidate is selected by the voter, the rank for that candidate shall be first preference. The ranked preference shall be tallied so as to determine the candidate with the highest preference score. The candidate with the highest preference score shall be elected to the subject office, or be the independent or party’s nominee in the case of a primary election.Electronic voting machines shall be operated solely by published open-source software and shall record each voter selection electronically and shall generate two identical, clearly legible, paper print-outs of the voter’s selections when the voter completes their selections. One print-out shall be collected by the election polling place supervisor and the other print-out shall be retained by the voter. The voter shall have the right to permit a third party exit poll service to read the print-out and tally votes for the exit poll. Exit polls shall be conducted in a clearly marked location convenient to the polling place exit.In each polling district there shall be at least one voting machine for each one hundred eligible voters within the boundaries of the polling district.The last day for a candidate to apply for nomination by a political party or as an independent candidate shall be the last Friday of January in the election year. The candidate filing fee for statewide offices shall not exceed $500, and for other offices shall not exceed $100.Electoral district boundaries shall be rectangular in shape and the ratio of perimeter units to area units, using the same number base, shall not be less than 0.5 using the formula: 4π * area / perimeter^2. In the case where an irregular boundary line, such as a river or an existing municipal limit, makes a rectangular shape impractical, the ratio shall be calculated by using a line connecting the two endpoints of the irregular boundary as part of the perimeter. The populations of each district shall vary from the average by no more than 5%. The first district map drawn shall be a square centered on the capital building in Austin, Texas. Electoral districts shall be redrawn every ten years in the year following publication of the United States census.Texas consistently exhibits lower voter turnout rates compared to the national average across various election cycles. The reasons for low voter participation in Texas are reflected in the "cost of voting" index. Due to restrictive voting laws, Texas is third highest nationwide in terms of cost of voting.Under the Texas Election