Lizzie Pannill Fletcher

Lizzie Pannill Fletcher was born and lives in Houston, Texas. She graduated from St. John's School. She earned a bachelor's degree in history from Kenyon College and a J.D. from William & Mary Law School. Fletcher’s career experience includes working as a lawyer. She co-founded Planned Parenthood Young Leaders in 2000. Fletcher serves as a board member of Writers in the Schools and Open Dance Project.[1]

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Campaign website

Fletcher's campaign website stated the following:

Moving Us Forward

We face real challenges at home and around the world. We want and need our elected leaders to work together to find solutions to our shared problems, but Washington is not working as it should. Partisanship has led to gridlock, politicians refuse to work across party lines, and we all pay the price. I launched this campaign because we need new leaders in Washington who will put people above politics and deliver results.

Houstonians are hardworking, welcoming, innovative, and caring. We are problem solvers. We are big thinkers. We are collaborators. And we are facing real challenges. We need everyone—Democrats and Republicans—to participate as we address our community’s challenges. While we may not always agree on exactly how to overcome each challenge, we can all agree that our elected representatives should work together to find solutions—and to care more about the people they represent than their political parties.

It is time for Texas’ 7th Congressional District to have a representative who knows who we are, understands our challenges, protects what we have worked for, ensures we stay healthy, and keeps us safe.

These principles guide my vision for the district and the policy priorities we will address in our campaign.

Understanding our challenges means making our city more resilient by bolstering infrastructure to keep us safe from increasing and more frequent weather events, and partnering with our local agencies to make smart investments in mass transit. It means encouraging federal revitalization programs that provide high-risk communities like ours with the resources we need to be prepared for, and reduce the costs of, the next storm; passing a federal infrastructure investment plan that puts money into infrastructure improvements while creating local jobs; and working with METRO to expand our transit system to keep our workforce—and our economy—moving forward.

Knowing who we are means knowing how our diverse, hard-working community functions and ensuring that its values are protected. This means understanding our economy and finding ways to remain global leaders. It means working with our institutions and companies to create and increase access to work training programs for our workforce; increasing access to capital and credit for Texans who want to start or expand their own businesses, so businesses of all sizes and in all sectors thrive; and passing equitable tax reform that encourages domestic job growth rather than incentives that promote the outsourcing of jobs and investments that should be kept in Houston.

Protecting what we have worked for means protecting Social Security and Medicare. As the deficit and the national debt continue to rise, Congressional actions put the future of our investments at risk. We must keep the promise to retired Americans by opposing consistent efforts to efforts to turn Social Security and Medicare into voucher programs or use them to pay for irresponsible tax cuts; addressing waste in these and all government programs to ensure only those eligible get the benefits in which they invested; and preserving the integrity of the programs for those who pay into them now.

Ensuring we stay healthy means knowing that our residents are rightly concerned about access to and affordability of health care. Congress is not helping. We stay healthy by reversing the impact of reckless partisanship and working with both parties to bring down the cost of health care by introducing common-sense, cost-saving measures like allowing Medicare to negotiate with drug companies to lower prescription drug prices; to defend women’s access to reproductive health care; and to fight any attempt to eliminate protections for people with pre-existing conditions like cancer, diabetes, or asthma.

Keeping us safe means making smart policy and enforcing it by working with and across our diverse community. It means strengthening our border security by making smart investments in Border Patrol and new technologies; by reforming our immigration laws to protect Dreamers and those who follow the law and contribute to our economy; by reducing gun violence; by making sure law enforcement, including ICE, can do its job to keep our communities safe; and by ensuring our justice system is efficient and fair. It means having leaders who engage in thoughtful foreign policy and diplomacy abroad to help keep us safe at home.

Civil Rights

In 2017, we saw the vision of a minority who want to return America to the Jim Crow era, where mobs and terror reigned, where discrimination on the basis of race, religion, sex, sexual orientation, and national origin was both practice and policy, and where the basic humanity of our fellow citizens was denied. We must not let this happen.

We must choose to reject hate, bigotry, and racism. We must work for equality, justice, and freedom for all Americans. We saw that, too, in 2017: clergy, students, and citizens standing up to racist mobs, rejecting their ideas, and denouncing hate. We must continue to do so.

And we must elect leaders who do it with us; who speak out forcefully against the hateful vision of America we have seen on display in Charlottesville and elsewhere.

There is no doubt that our history is complex; we are an imperfect people with an imperfect past. Examining our society, our history, our privileges, and our biases is not always an obvious or easy process. For some, the hate and bigotry on display in Charlottesville was a shock and a wake-up call. For others, it was a demonstration of something they have been saying for some time: racism, bigotry, and hatred remain powerful forces in American life.

We are called now to protect our fundamental American ideals—equality, liberty, justice, freedom, civil rights, and democracy—and to ensure that these ideals define our society. In Congress, I will work to protect the civil rights of every American.

Education

Quality education is essential to our democracy. Good schools are the foundation for an informed community, better jobs, and a strong economy.

All children—no matter where they live—deserve the opportunity to reach their full potential. We must invest in public education and work to ensure its success. Teachers need to be able to teach. We need programs designed to close the achievement gap. We need to end the school-to-prison pipeline. We need to make sure that all of our schools offer the Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) curriculum that helps build the skills our students will need for the jobs of the future and also a curriculum that encourages them to think, to create, and to find their own voices.

For the college-bound population, we must address the rising costs of tuition. For those who have graduated, we must find relief from crushing student debt. For-profit colleges must be held accountable for the false promises they made. Community colleges should be expanded, and access to technical and vocational programs should be encouraged.

Failures in our education system will affect every aspect of our community, from the strength of our economy to the strength of our democracy itself. Educating all of our citizens should always be our priority.

During the last legislative session, John Culberson got an “F” on the National Education Association’s legislative report card, reflecting his poor record of support for public education and educators.

Equality

Our nation’s laws are designed to protect against discrimination on the basis of race, color, and national origin. The Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Fair Housing Act, the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, and many laws regarding federal government employment provide remedies to protect vulnerable groups. These laws should be enforced and expanded to ensure that everyone is treated fairly.

I support a federal Equality Act that would amend the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and related statutes to ensure that discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity is prohibited. Gay and transgender people – and their families – should have the same rights and protections as others in the workplace, in housing, in healthcare decisions, and in our communities. This will not be an easy fight. State legislatures (including Texas) continue to debate legislation designed to deny equal rights to gay and transgender people even after the Supreme Court ruled in Obergefell v. Hodges that same-sex marriage is a fundamental right guaranteed by the Constitution. These discriminatory state laws—like the proposed bathroom bill in Texas—hurt all of us, and the best way to address them is to enact federal legislation that brings our laws in line with our values.

As a member of Congress, I will fight to end discrimination and to retain the rights that so many, including the LGBT community, have fought so hard to achieve.

Flooding & Houston's Future

Much of Houston’s future will be determined by how we manage the threat of flooding, including our recovery from Hurricane Harvey.

Our recovery will take years, and we need to start now and rebuild wisely. To succeed, we need to plan to strengthen existing systems while implementing new infrastructure projects and smart policies.

This plan would include:

Improving existing structures, including the Addicks and Barker reservoirs;

Facilitating the immediate completion of Project Brays;

Identifying additional detention areas;

Revising the floodplain maps;

Devising and installing a system for coastal surge protection;

Incentivizing public-private partnerships; and

Ensuring future federal projects are completed on time and on budget.

We have learned that the increased flooding we are experiencing was not just predictable—it was actually predicted.

In 1996, engineers for the Harris County Flood Control District issued a dire warning that our reservoir system was insufficient. The Army Corps of Engineers authorized five flood control projects between 1986 and 1990. Today—more than 20 years later—only one of them has been completed. In 2009, the Army Corps gave Addicks and Barker reservoirs the worst possible safety ratings and expressly designated them at an “extremely high risk of catastrophic failure.”

After Tropical Storm Allison’s rains flooded the city in 2001, we developed Project Brays to protect the Texas Medical Center and those living and working along Brays Bayou. Sixteen years later, that project is far from completion.

John Culberson has failed to provide the leadership we need in Congress to protect us from flooding. In 2018, we must hold him accountable for those failings. We can, and we must, finish the projects that will keep our families safe. To do this, we need an advocate in Congress, not a bystander. We need a partner in Congress who will help us secure the resources, the information, and the assistance we need to do so—one who will work with the city, the county, and all agencies and partners to make sure we do it right.

'Gun Safety

We don’t have to live this way; gun violence in America doesn’t have to be inevitable. We can fix this. But if we truly want to save lives and protect our children, we need leaders who aren’t afraid to take on the corporate gun lobby.

In Congress, I will fight for common-sense gun safety measures, including:

Passing a ban on all military-style assault weapons;

Raising the age to buy all firearms to 21;

Requiring universal background checks on all gun sales;

Equipping law enforcement with the tools they need to keep guns out of the hands of individuals who are dangers to themselves and others;

Eliminating bump stocks, devices that convert semi-automatic weapons into fully automatic weapons;

Tightening regulations on high-capacity magazines;

Closing the “boyfriend loophole” and stopping domestic abusers from owning and buying guns;

Cracking down on illegal gun trafficking; and

Fully fund comprehensive research on gun violence and prevention.

Health Care

We are proud of Houston’s role in leading advances in medicine. From the first heart transplant to the cutting-edge research in the Texas Medical Center today, we have led the way for decades.

But even though we are a leader in health care research, and cutting edge advances, many people in our community and across the country do not have access to quality healthcare. We have an obligation to make sure they do. This takes many forms, from maintaining and improving the Affordable Care Act (ACA) to defending reproductive healthcare and woman’s right to choose.

The ACA was a strong first step toward making health care accessible, but we have work ahead of us to improve it.

Strengthening the ACA begins with stabilizing the market. Our community relies on the healthcare industry – not just for our own care, but also for our jobs. We have the largest medical center in the world, and instability in the healthcare market means instability in Houston’s economy.

Millions of Texans are enrolled under ACA. Millions more in the state lack health insurance entirely. To cripple effective and affordable health care for our citizens, the Trump Administration has held the cost-sharing reduction subsidies hostage, leading to premium increases and making healthcare less affordable. Prescription drug costs are skyrocketing. Patients are going without care. And insurance companies are raking in record profits.

John Culberson has been the Trump Administration’s eager accomplice in trying to take health care away from the people who need it most. Culberson voted to repeal or defund the Affordable Care Act more than 20 times knowing it would cause residents in the district with pre-existing conditions and many others to lose their healthcare coverage.

It is time to devote real and serious attention to addressing the pressing health care needs of Houstonians and all Americans, not recklessly dismantling the system with no alternative plan in place, as the Republican Congress has sought to do at every turn.

Immigration

Houston is a city of immigrants. It is at the core of our very identity, and an essential part of what makes it a great place to live.

There is no doubt that we need to fix our immigration system. It will not be easy to do. But instead of meaningfully addressing it, Congress has played politics for decades, using scare tactics to win elections instead of doing what’s best for our country.

We need comprehensive immigration reform with a pathway to citizenship. It should be thoughtful, practical, and fair. It should include strengthening our border security, cracking down on employers who break the law, and ensuring law enforcement, including immigration and customs enforcement, can do its job to keep our communities safe. It should not include building a wall between us and our state’s top trading partner.

In 2013, the Senate passed bipartisan bill to address this pressing issue—by a 2-to-1 margin—after negotiation and compromise. The House of Representatives has refused to consider the bill. The failure of the House even to debate this bill or propose other meaningful solutions is a stark example of the gridlock and dysfunction that has failed us for years.

Congress must work together to address immigration issues. We must keep the promises we made to Dreamers and pass the DREAM Act. And we must act immediately to stop the devastating separation of families at the border. It is time to send people to Washington who will do so.

Jobs & Economy

Houston is a hard-working city and a leader in cutting-edge invention and innovation.

We should embrace Houston’s role as the energy leader, while continuing to diversify our economy. This starts by leading the way in developing clean-energy technology. Many of the most talented and experienced energy professionals in the world work here. We need to take the best advantage of that fact. We cannot allow the next generation of energy jobs to be created elsewhere.

We are home to scientific, medical, and technological innovation. Baylor, Rice, and M.D. Anderson Cancer Center are just a few examples of world-class research institutions here making a real impact on our world. We should be fostering growth to attract more hi-tech and biotech research jobs to the area. This means everything from promoting investment in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) fields, to directing grants and subsidies toward the incredible work being done in the diverse industries throughout Harris County.

We must invest in our schools and encourage vocational training and re-training that helps people connect their interests and skills with good jobs.

National Security & Foreign Policy

We are facing serious threats both abroad and at home, and nothing is more important than keeping our country safe.

The Trump administration has dismantled the U.S. State Department, alienated our allies, and abandoned the leadership role the United States has historically played. This destructive behavior is about more than how we look to others—it is about the safety of American citizens.

Taunting volatile nations does nothing but place our national security in jeopardy. Targeting people based on race or religious affiliation violates our Constitution and distracts from real threats to our safety.

Congress must act to fill the policy and diplomatic vacuum the administration has created. Qualified individuals, without regard to partisan interest or affiliation, must fill critical roles, and we must restore funding to under-resourced outposts at home and abroad.

We must work to repair our reputation and secure our alliances. And we must maintain our focus on stopping terrorist and other threats around the globe, including providing law enforcement the resources and training needed to prevent terrorism.

We must prioritize support for our men and women who serve us in our military. Our troops put their lives on the line every day, and they deserve a government that honors them and the sacrifices they make for us all. This includes taking all necessary steps to protect them abroad and making sure that they are supported at home. We must ensure their access to quality healthcare, educational opportunities, claim resolution, and housing.

Social Security & Medicare

Social Security is a promise we made to seniors who have paid into these programs with every paycheck. Medicare is the promise of health care coverage for millions of seniors and people with disabilities.

We have an absolute obligation to keep these promises and protect Social Security and Medicare. I will oppose efforts to privatize Social Security and Medicare, and I will oppose efforts to cut benefits for seniors or the disabled.

To ensure the long-term viability of these programs we need to make government work more efficiently by cutting wasteful spending, fraud, and abuse, but not by cutting these programs.

Instead of protecting Social Security and Medicare programs, Culberson has voted to allow Congress to privatize them.

Transportation & Infrastructure

One of the many things that makes Houston great is its welcoming attitude. And it shows. Talented and productive people want to come here: The Houston area is one of the fastest-growing metropolitan areas in the country.

But our infrastructure has not kept up with our growth. From 2000 to 2010, the greater Houston area grew by more than 1.2 million people, and it is still growing. But our roads and transit system have not grown at the same pace, which makes it harder to transport goods, commute to work, and attract new businesses. Improving transportation in Houston is one of my top priorities.

We need to partner with cities, counties, and METRO to bring additional resources and improvements to our region. We need an advocate for policies that both maintain and expand our region’s mobility infrastructure. And we need to make sure that Houston receives its fair share of transportation funding to move our citizens across the region.

John Culberson has failed to be a partner in this effort. Even worse, his record shows that he has actively worked against expanding transportation options in Houston. It’s time for a change.

Voting Rights

All citizens have the constitutional right to vote. We should be enacting and enforcing laws that make it easier, not harder, for citizens to vote.

Instead, Republican-dominated state legislatures (including Texas) keep passing laws that restrict or suppress voting by traditional Democratic voters in hopes of stacking the deck for future elections. These laws are designed to appear as if they do not discriminate: requiring a photo I.D., denying access to translators, and making voter registration more difficult by closing DMV locations in certain districts. But they do discriminate, and our courts have struck down these laws as unconstitutional because they intentionally discriminate against voters on the basis of race or have the effect of doing so.

Partisan and racial gerrymandering have the same discriminatory effect. In practice, gerrymandering violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and it burdens our First Amendment rights of association and speech. Even still, it dominates our political system, disenfranchising voters and silencing their voices.

We must fight for a better system to determine our representation, eliminate partisan bias, and work for an equitable voting process. This means championing a full restoration of the Voting Rights Act, challenging discriminatory voter identification laws, legalizing same-day registration or implementing universal automatic registration, and expanding early voting and vote-by-mail options.

In Congress, I will be committed to protecting voting rights, not restricting them.

Women's Health

The health and safety of half of the population has been under relentless attack. Women must take a seat at the table to speak out for our needs.

Access to reproductive healthcare is essential to all Americans’ ability to control their lives. It is a matter of health. It is a matter of economics. It is a matter of justice. And it is not negotiable.

Protecting women’s access to safe and affordable health care is one of my top priorities. I have been an advocate for this issue for more than 25 years. When I was in high school, I stood outside a Houston Planned Parenthood clinic in the August heat to stop protestors who threatened to chain themselves to the doors and prevent women from entering the clinic. After college, I co-founded Planned Parenthood Young Leaders to build a new generation of supporters for this important community partner.

I will stand firmly against Donald Trump, John Culberson, and the Republicans in Congress who continue to attack Planned Parenthood. I will work to protect the Title X Family Planning Program and access to affordable reproductive health services. I will support policies to encourage access to contraception. And I will always stand up for the right to choose.[2]

—Elizabeth Pannill Fletcher for Congress[3]

Campaign advertisements

The following is an example of an ad from Fletcher's 2018 election campaign.

"Change That" - Fletcher campaign ad, released October 19, 2018