Courtesy of Bellaire Young Democrats

On Thursday, Oct. 31, State Representative Gene Wu of District 137 came to speak to the Young Democrats. He spoke about his life background and his entry into politics as a freshman representative in Austin. Senior Jillian Greene, a vice president of Young Democrats (YD), found many parts of Representative Wu’s speech interesting.

“He [Representative Wu] has one of the great stories of being in a family that migrated to America from China, started with a pretty low income, and luckily managed to gain more success,” Greene said.

Wu’s story was an epitome of the “American dream” of starting out poor and reaching the middle class. Representative Wu said that living in poverty helped influence his views, and believed standing for education is one of the best ways for children to succeed. In the state house, Representative Wu opposed a budget cutting $5.4 billion from public education and worked to return some of the cut funding back.

As a high school student, Greene was struck by his story.

“I really liked when he was talking about education, primarily the issues with education, because to me that’s the biggest problem in Texas and the US,” Greene said. “He said the poor education system is causing the huge income inequality and told us his ideal fix.”

In addition to his work in the state house, Representative Wu also offered advice to the Young Democrats on how to better serve and be successful. Greene took some of Rep. Wu’s advice to aid the club she helps run.

“Even at 17, I can register people to vote and try and organize times for them to vote,” Greene said. “I feel like that changes what I want to see from YD clubs everywhere, and thats how it influenced what my goal is as a YD member.”