Parents say ““The first thing she will do when she moves into the governor’s office is hang up the Constitution,”
It happens all the time: a customer walks into Parker Feed Store on the outskirts of Beeville and notices Debra Medina for Governor campaign stickers and brochures on the counter.
“Do you know anything about her,” they’ll ask E.H. or his wife, Charlene.
“I should,” E.H. replies. “I used to change her diapers.”
That their little girl is running for governor is no surprise to Charlene.
“She always had big ideas, big dreams; always ambitious,” Charlene recalls, staring out the window of the feed store on FM 351. “She’s always been successful in whatever she set her mind to do. She was good in school, good in 4-H and FFA — she has a reserve grand champion banner — and good in band.”
In a word, Charlene says, Debra has always been “determined.”
“She’s determined in everything she does, and right now she’s determined to become the next governor of Texas and she can do it,” Charlene says.
But the registered nurse and small business owner may need more than determination to get the Republican nomination on March 2. Polls have her in last place behind Gov. Rick Perry and former U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison.
That doesn’t dampen Charlene’s enthusiasm.
“Sure, she’s not as well known as Perry or Hutchison; that’s the best thing about her,” Charlene says. “She’s not a politician like Perry or Hutchison. Debra’s a plain old down-to-earth country girl. She’s just like you or me. I tell people that once they get to know her, read about her, hear her speak, they’ll realize she’s better than those other two.”
That’s not to say Debra is a total unknown in political circles. She’s served as chairman of the Republican Party in Wharton County, where she and her husband call home and where she runs a small medical billing company.
Charlene says people who know her daughter or hear her speak become fervent followers.
That’s because Debra believes in the Constitution, and is an ardent believer in the right to own guns and the sanctity of private property, Charlene says.
“The first thing she will do when she moves into the governor’s office is hang up the Constitution,” E.H. says.
Charlene says her daughter remains optimistic despite the polls.
“She believes she is going to win on Tuesday, and that’s that,” Charlene says. “She’s not giving up. She’s going to continue to work hard and campaign hard.”
Debra knows all about working hard, her parents say.
Growing up in the Orangedale community just northwest of Beeville, Debra was expected to pull her fair share of chores, including milking cows, slopping pigs and feeding the chickens and turkeys.
“She was always a hard worker,” Charlene recalls.
Debra may well have gotten that strong work ethic from her parents. Her mom, 70, runs the feed store six days a week, often toting 50-pound bags of feed to pickup trucks outside. Her dad helps out and works cattle.
And if she stubbornly clings to her beliefs, well, that may come from her parents, too.
“A friend of mine once told me I was the most hardheaded son of a b—- in Beeville,” E.H. recalls with a chuckle. “Well, he said he went to one of Debra’s campaign rallies in San Antonio and he said he could close his eyes and hear me talking.”
But E.H. is quick to say Debra’s jaunt into politics is her own doing.
“This is her thing,” he says, pointing to a Medina for Governor brochure on the counter top. “We’re not involved in it. She’s done all this on her own, and when she wins, it will be of her own doing.”
