Rep. Perez, Vincent
Biography
State Representative Vince Perez represents Texas House District 77 in El Paso, which sits at the heart of the El Paso–Ciudad Juárez region, one of the largest binational metro areas in the world. The district includes the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP), Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center El Paso, downtown El Paso, and natural landmarks such as Franklin Mountains State Park and the Wyler Aerial Tramway. Known as a data-driven reformer, Perez focuses on expanding access to healthcare and education, voting rights and fair representation, property tax reform, technology policy, and improving everyday quality of life for working families in the El Paso region. In the Texas House, he serves on key committees and in leadership roles, including as a Deputy Whip and member of the House Democratic Policy Steering Committee.
In his first session, he authored and passed major legislation reshaping workforce pipelines, higher education infrastructure, and regional economic development—work that helped earn him Freshman Legislator of the Year honors from the bipartisan Texas House Innovation & Technology Caucus.
Perez joint-authored HB 2038, the “DOCTOR Act,” which creates a pathway for highly qualified, foreign-trained physicians to obtain a provisional supervised license in Texas while maintaining strong safeguards. The law is designed to help address the state’s physician shortage—especially in border communities like El Paso—by leveraging experienced doctors who meet rigorous standards and are ready to serve patients in high-need areas.
Perez also championed legislation to create a public law school in El Paso, the largest community in the nation without an established law school. He also passed HB 2853, an infrastructure bill that empowers UTEP to plan and build a modern student union facility to serve more than 25,000 students at one of the nation’s leading Hispanic-Serving Institutions.
During the 2025 redistricting battle, Perez played a leading role in House Democratic efforts to highlight how proposed maps would affect representation for different communities. His work on voting rights and redistricting has been cited in state and national media, and he has been a frequent commentator on Texas democracy and representation.
Before his election to the Texas House, Perez served two terms as El Paso County Commissioner, where he oversaw approximately $1.4 billion in combined County and Hospital District budgets. He was elected by regional leaders to serve two terms as chairman of the El Paso MPO Transportation Policy Board (2014–15 and 2019–20), which programs more than $5 billion in critical transportation funding for West Texas and Southern New Mexico. He championed the County’s first $425 million regional mobility plan, ensuring every project was delivered on time and within budget during his tenure. Perez was also instrumental in securing a landmark $150 million public investment to construct four 50,000-square-foot primary care clinics, expanding health care access throughout the county.
Perez’s most far-reaching county work, however, came in criminal-justice reform. Disturbed by mounting jail costs and inconsistent reports about indigent defense, he led a months-long forensic review of appointment records and vouchers that revealed deep structural failures in El Paso County’s indigent defense system: a small group of private attorneys capturing a disproportionate share of ~20,000 annual indigent cases, systematic violations of state law on appointment timing, and defendants pleading guilty without ever seeing a lawyer. Perez brought in the Texas Indigent Defense Commission, whose review confirmed his findings and forced sweeping reforms.
To address these failures, Perez led the creation of the County’s first Pretrial Services Office, the implementation of 24/7 magistration in the county jail, the launch of a satellite booking facility, and the expansion of mental-health screenings and risk assessments. He put in place performance metrics to track outcomes and hold the judicial system accountable. The result was better representation, fewer unnecessary jail days, and a blueprint for data-driven criminal-justice reform that earned Perez recognition as “National County Leader of the Year” in 2016 from American City & County—the first Texas county commissioner to receive the honor.
Outside of elected office, Perez has worked as a strategic advisor on public-policy, communications, healthcare, and finance issues for a range of institutional clients. In that role, he supports organizations as they navigate complex state laws, regulatory processes, and high-stakes public decisions—often at the intersection of healthcare, local government, tax policy, and community impact.
Perez’s path into public life began in the U.S. House of Representatives, where he served as Communications Director and campaign spokesperson in the 16th Congressional District and the House Intelligence Committee Chairman. There he managed media strategy on national security, border, and economic issues, refining the skills he now uses to explain complex state policy to everyday Texans.
Perez holds both undergraduate and graduate degrees in Government from Georgetown University. A proud son of El Paso’s Mission Valley, he still calls the region home and lives there with his four rescue dogs, Chamaco, Lady, Manchas, and Whiskey. Across every role—county commissioner, strategist, and now state representative—his work follows the same through-line: use data to expose where systems are failing, build coalitions big enough to change them, and deliver concrete results for communities that are too often treated as an afterthought.