In Feb. 2024, state Rep. Mano DeAyala was knocking on doors in West Houston during his re-election campaign when a voter in his 60s interrupted his introduction.

“Are you honest? I’ve heard you are,” the man asked. “Can I trust you?”

DeAyala looked him in the eye and said yes. The voter told him he had his support and could get on with his day knowing DeAyala would look out for him and his family.

The conversation lasted only a couple of minutes, but DeAyala vividly recalls what the man was asking of him. Voters have jobs, children and businesses to care for. They depend on their representative to study legislation, exercise good judgment and protect their interests in Austin. The man wanted to look DeAyala in the eye to know whether he would honor that trust.

“He wanted to trust me to do right so he and his family can do well,” DeAyala said in an interview with Katy Christian Magazine.

With early voting now underway, the Republican state representative is seeking another term serving House District 133 in West Houston. His record includes helping secure funding for Houston police vehicles and a major water infrastructure project, along with support for public education and school property tax reductions. His motivation for doing the work circles back to the family and community who raised him.

DeAyala is the youngest of five sons of Cuban immigrants. His parents and older brothers fled Fidel Castro’s communist Cuba, looking for freedom and a chance to build a life. They found that opportunity in Texas.

“America, Texas, and West Houston welcomed our family and gave my parents the opportunity to build a life, educate their children, and pursue the American Dream,” he said.

All five sons attended public schools and earned college degrees. Three went on to earn postgraduate degrees. DeAyala grew up understanding what his parents had left behind and what their children had been given.

He connects that experience to his commitment to individual liberty, limited government, secure property rights, free markets and equality under the law.

“They are the principles that gave my family and so many others a future,” he said.

The community he represents in West Houston is deeply precious to DeAyala. He and his wife, Melissa, grew up in the area and raised their three sons there. To many community members, he is a familiar face in the line at the grocery store, sitting in church and dining at a local restaurant for dinner. 

“In some ways we resemble a small town within a big city,” he said.

On the House Appropriations Committee, DeAyala helped secure funding for 200 Houston police vehicles and $100 million to rebuild Lynchburg Pump Station, a critical part of the region’s water supply. He credits his colleagues with helping get both investments across the finish line. 

The projects are among the accomplishments he is proudest of. Using surplus funds for those one-time investments, he said, allows the state to address substantial public safety and infrastructure needs with benefits that last.

“Being in a position to get things like this done is rewarding and has a long-term impact for our region,” he said.

Public education carries its own family connection. DeAyala, his wife and their three sons are products of Spring Branch ISD. His priorities include giving parents greater choice in their children’s education, supporting teachers and helping students prepare for the opportunities ahead of them.

He voted for more than $8 billion in additional public education funding to increase teacher compensation, strengthen special education, expand career and technical education, and improve school safety. 

He also wants the state to shoulder more of the cost of public education, easing the burden on local property taxpayers while supporting schools.

Using Spring Branch ISD as an example, DeAyala pointed to a reduction in its maintenance and operations tax rate from approximately $1.09 to 72 cents per $100 of taxable value. At a fixed taxable value of $500,000, that difference represents approximately $1,850 a year in school operating taxes.

He wants families to keep more of those savings. In the next session, he plans to address the effect of rising appraisals and local tax decisions on homeowners’ bills, which can erode reductions delivered by the state.

“Texas families deserve excellent public schools, responsible government spending, and meaningful, lasting property tax relief,” he said.

Some of the work he values most happens through individual calls and emails to his office.

His staff works with the attorney general’s office on child support issues and helps residents resolve driver’s license problems with the Department of Public Safety or obtain answers and refunds from the comptroller’s office. When a matter falls outside the state’s jurisdiction, they coordinate with their federal counterparts.

DeAyala takes those requests seriously because of what they mean for the people making them. A government problem can interfere with someone’s ability to work, pay bills or provide for their children. Helping a family get it resolved is among the most rewarding parts of the job.

“And to me, that is every bit as important as passing legislation,” he said.

His Christian faith and his family shape the way he approaches those responsibilities. He thinks about his children and their future children when weighing decisions about schools, water and the electric grid. The same convictions inform his concern about the pressures children face online and his support for legislation to protect them.

Asked about faith, he was especially candid about learning to extend grace. Since first seeking office four years ago, he has come to appreciate how much patience that requires. Public criticism and disagreements can be difficult to absorb, particularly when he believes someone has misrepresented him.

“My natural instinct is not always to respond graciously,” he said. “But when I remind myself of the undeserved grace God has extended to each of us, it becomes easier to extend grace to others, even those who bear false witness against me.”

“I don’t always succeed, but I continue to try,” he added.

Looking toward another term, DeAyala wants to keep working on school funding and student outcomes, lasting property tax relief and a reliable power grid. Flood control is a particular concern in a district whose families have experienced the damage major storms can leave behind.

West Houston’s experience is part of a long history of destructive flooding across Texas. For DeAyala, improving drainage and flood infrastructure means protecting homes, businesses and neighbors he knows.

“My district takes some pretty hard hits when major storms come through, and I’ve seen firsthand what that does to families, homes, and businesses,” he said. “We have to keep making improvements to our drainage and flood infrastructure so our communities are better protected.”

He wants the next generation to have the chance his parents found here: a place to build a career, raise children and make a future.

Serving West Houston, he said, is his way of protecting that opportunity and “saying thank you to the community and country that gave us so much.”

Early voting is underway and continues through Oct. 30. Election Day is Nov. 3. Readers can consult Katy Christian Magazine’s 2026 general-election voter guides or download printable guides for Harris County and Fort Bend County.