When Lauren Ashley Simmons discovered she was pregnant, she was in her freshman year at the University of Texas at Austin. This was not the future she (or her parents) had envisioned. This would also not be the only time she would be in a situation she hadn’t planned for—but one she would rise to meet anyway.

Simmons grew up in Houston’s Third Ward and admits she was something of a “bougie Jack and Jill kid” before leaving home for college. Still, finding out she was expecting at UT Austin forced her to adapt quickly, balancing classes with new motherhood. She recalls taking her baby to lessons with her when she had no help, going to bed with a hungry stomach because she could only afford to feed her child, and leaning on the support of older neighbors who became a makeshift family. That early lesson in resilience and understanding the needs of people trying to make ends meet formed the backbone of her community-focused advocacy and her dream of becoming a lawyer. Years later, it would also fuel her determination to run for public office.

In May 2024, Rep. Simmons got elected to represent District 146 in the Texas House of Representatives, beating five-term incumbent Shawn Thierry in a bruising primary runoff filled with heated rhetoric, then securing victory in the general.

“It was a very, very tough primary,” Rep. Simmons says. “It wasn’t fun. I don’t love talking about it a lot, because I hate that it became this big blow-up between two Black women.”

Running for office wasn’t an easy choice. She was raising two children, including a daughter with sickle cell disease, and still aspired to attend law school. Her background was in union organizing, not politicking. Yet, her frustration with votes she felt disregarded community values pushed her toward the capitol.

“I felt a need for our district to have better representation, and wasn’t happy as a constituent,” Rep. Simmons says. “I wanted to make sure people had an understanding that this is a democracy and people have the right to have their voices heard. You should represent your district by its values.”

That belief had guided her for years as a labor organizer, fighting for teachers, domestic workers, and public employees. But stepping into a candidate’s role was different. And it all began with a video.

In June 2023, the Houston Independent School District was taken over by the state, a move that she, as both a parent and a former teachers’ union organizer, had fought against. She spoke up at a community meeting, voicing the concerns of parents and educators who felt powerless against the takeover. Someone recorded her speech, and before she knew it, the video had gone viral, reaching millions of viewers.

“I know what public education does for our community and the opportunity it provides for people who look like me,” says Rep. Simmons, whose grandparents and mother were teachers. “I want the kids in Third Ward and Sunnyside, and Black and brown neighborhoods throughout this city, to have access to quality education. I knew the takeover was not the right way to address the issues a lot of us have been calling the alarm on for years.”

Soon after the meeting, a mentor challenged her to consider running for office instead of waiting for someone else to step up. She weighed her reasons not to do it—her daughter’s health, her son nearing high-school graduation, the looming LSAT she had long been studying for—and decided the future of her district mattered too much to stay in the background.

Her opponent, Shawn Thierry, had drawn criticism for supporting several anti-LGBTQ+ bills, including one that restricted certain medical treatments for transgender youth. Some constituents felt that placed vulnerable families at risk and ran counter to the progressive platform typically embraced by the district, which covers parts of south and southwest Houston. Simmons felt they needed a voice in Austin that wouldn’t align with the far-right agenda of Republicans in the legislature.

During the campaign, Simmons was hit with a barrage of ads and social media posts distorting her views or depicting her as an extreme threat to Black families. She worried about the toll on her loved ones and still feels uneasy talking about the campaign’s ugliest moments.

“We had people putting signs in the neighborhood saying I supported castrating Black boys and sterilizing Black girls,” Rep Simmons recalls. “This Black fathers group had a rally. They would call me like a lesbian. It was a lot. I think I wasn’t as bothered by it personally, but it was watching my family having to witness what I was going through and not be able to respond.”

After being elected last November, she jumped into the fray of the 89th Texas Legislature in January. She has introduced 15 bills to date, focusing on issues that felt personal and urgent. One measure aims to expand collective bargaining rights to public workers; another revives a bill promoting better care for Texans with sickle cell disease, an illness her daughter manages daily.

Her district office is currently concentrating on getting people reconnected with local resources—from parents worried about school staffing to families anxious about immigration raids. She plans to keep the momentum going all year, instead of vanishing until the next campaign season.

As for her dreams of becoming a lawyer, they might be on the back burner, but they’re not fading away. She’s still considering taking the LSAT once her legislative schedule eases, and exploring ways to practice labor law. She feels her frontline experience as an organizer could have a real impact in the courtroom. For now, she’s content forging a new path in the legislature, grounded in everything that makes her who she is—a “very regular” person unconcerned with the usual polish of politics.

“I want people to know you just can’t put me in a box,” Rep. Simmons says. “People see the tattoos…or they know I’m a super left progressive. But I also go to church and teach Vacation Bible School. I’m also a comic book and Harry Potter nerd, but I love me some Cardi B and Meg Thee Stallion. I’m all over the place but those different aspects of me give me a very unique perspective. And that’s what’s going to keep me grounded.”