Additional Information

First elected to the Texas Senate in 2024. Current term expires in 2029.

Cook won a special election in May 2024 to serve the remainder of the unexpired term of former Sen. John Whitmire (D), who held this seat for 40 years until his resignation in late 2023.

Ran unsuccessfully for the same Texas Senate District 15 seat in the 2022 Democratic primary election. 

• SENATE VOTE #1 - 2025: TEACHER COMPENSATION

  Voted yes on a bill that would have increased pay for some teachers based on district size and years of service.

  Senate Bill 26 by Sen. Brandon Creighton (R–Conroe), 89th Legislature, Regular Session. The bill created a Teacher Retention Allotment (TRA) with a tiered raise based on district size and teacher years of service. The $4.3 billion bill would also have expanded the Teacher Incentive Allotment (TIA) performance pay program while removing guarantees of future pay raises. The bill did not include raises for other educators, including counselors, school nurses, librarians, classroom aides, and other support staff. On February 26, 2025, the Senate voted to pass the bill on second reading. (View an official record of the vote in the Senate journal.) Read more about the bill here. The bill ultimately died in the House, but the Teacher Retention Allotment (TRA) was incorporated into HB 2, the omnibus school finance bill, which did pass.

• SENATE VOTE #2 - 2025: SCHOOL FUNDING/TEACHER PAY

  Voted yes on a bill that increased school funding and teacher pay. ATPE supported the bill.

  House Bill 2 by Rep. Brad Buckley (R–Salado) and sponsored by Sen. Brandon Creighton (R–Conroe), 89th Legislature, Regular Session. While it did not significantly increase the Basic Allotment, this omnibus school finance bill does direct significant funding to target programs, such as increased teacher pay; created the Support Staff Retention Allotment (SSRA); and expanded funding for teacher preparation and mentoring programs. It also made targeted increases to special education and small district allotments among other things. On May 23, 2025, the Senate voted to pass the bill on second reading. (View an official record of the vote in the Senate journal.)

• SENATE VOTE #3 - 2025: STUDENT DISCIPLINE

  Voted no on a bill provides teachers and administrators with more tools to handle student discipline. ATPE supported the bill.

  House Bill 6 by Rep. Jeff Leach (R–Plano) and sponsored by Sen. Charles Perry (R–Lubbock), 89th Legislature, Regular Session. The bill provides educators more authority to remove disruptive students, requires “return-to-class” plans, and expands telehealth access for mental health services. On Thursday, May 22, 2025, the Senate voted to pass the bill on second reading. (View an official record of the vote in the Senate journal.)

• SENATE VOTE #4 - 2025: CELL PHONES

  Voted yes on a bill that requires students to put away their cell phones from bell to bell during the school day. ATPE supported the bill.

  House Bill 1481 by Rep. Caroline Fairly (R–Amarillo) and sponsored by Sen. Brandon Creighton (R–Conroe), 89th Legislature, Regular Session. The bill requires districts to adopt a written policy prohibiting student use of cell phones, smartwatches, or other devices during the school day, with exceptions for students covered by IEPs or Section 504 plans. On May 25, 2025, the Senate voted to pass the bill on second reading. (View an official record of the vote in the Senate journal.)

• SENATE VOTE #5 - 2025: PRIVATE SCHOOL VOUCHERS

  Voted no on a bill that established an education savings account (ESA) program. ATPE opposed the bill.

  Senate Bill 2 by Sen. Brandon Creighton (R–Conroe), 89th Legislature, Regular Session. The bill would have established an education savings account (ESA) voucher program. On February 5, 2025, the Senate voted to pass the bill on second reading. (View an official record of the vote in the Senate journal).

• SENATE VOTE #6 - 2025: TEN COMMANDMENTS

  Voted no on a bill requiring the Ten Commandments to be displayed in every classroom. ATPE opposed the bill.

  Senate Bill 10 by Sen. Angela Paxton (R–McKinney), 88th Legislature, Regular Session. The bill requires the Ten Commandments to be displayed in every classroom. On March 18, 2025, the Senate voted to pass the bill on second reading. (View an official record of the vote in the Senate journal.)

• SENATE VOTE #7 - 2025: PARENTAL RIGHTS

  Voted no on an omnibus bill restating existing rights and/or creating new compliance and reporting regulations over various culturally divisive issues

  Senate Bill 12 by Sen. Brandon Creighton (R–Conroe) and sponsored in the House by Rep. Brad Buckley (R–Salado), 89th Legislature, Regular Session. The bill largely bans diversity, equity, and inclusion practices for public schools as well as transitioning assistance or student modifications (such as using a preferred name or pronoun), discussion of gender identification, and student clubs based on sex or gender; increases existing consent requirements for receiving physical and mental health care and switches consent for human sexuality curriculum from opt-out back to opt-in; adds new or enhanced state and local reporting requirements for facilities, ISD board members, library records, course syllabi and suspected criminal activity; restates existing parental rights; requires additional opportunities for parental engagement with school boards and teachers; and creates new grievance processes. On March 19, 2025, the Senate voted to pass the bill on second reading. (View an official record of the vote in the Senate journal.)

• SENATE VOTE #8 - 2025: LIBRARY MATERIALS

  Voted no on a bill that impacted the rights and requirements associated with school library materials, including those in classroom libraries.

  Senate Bill 13 by Sen. Angela Paxton (R–McKinney) and sponsored by Rep. Brad Buckley (R–Salado), 89th Legislature, Regular Session. The bill requires that teachers and librarians catalog the books in their libraries and post the lists online for parents to review and opt their child out of access to check out individual titles. It bans the inclusion of books in schools that include content which falls under updated definitions of harmful, indecent, or profane and requires districts to create a library materials review committee if at least 20% of parents and students request it or at the discretion of the school board. The bill provided no funding to accomplish the significant mandates it required. On March 19, 2025, the Senate voted to pass the bill on second reading. (View an official record of the vote in the Senate journal.)

• SENATE VOTE #9 - 2025: SPECIAL EDUCATION FUNDING

  Voted yes on a bill that increases funding for special education by transitioning to service-intensity-based funding, among other provisions. ATPE supported the bill.

  Senate Bill 568 by Sen. Paul Bettencourt (R–Houston), 89th Legislature, Regular Session. The bill transitions special education funding to eight service-intensity tiers beginning in 2026–27, increases extended school year funding, and requires annual school board discussions of special education performance. On April 7, 2025, the Senate voted to pass the bill on second reading. (View an official record of the vote in the Senate journal.)

• SENATE VOTE #10 - 2025: TESTING AND ACCOUNTABILITY

  Voted no on a bill that modifies and rebrands the STAAR test. ATPE was neutral and provided suggestions about improving the bill, including a pause on punitive aspects of the accountability system.

  House Bill 8 by Rep. Brad Buckley (R–Salado) and sponsored by Sen. Paul Bettencourt (R–Houston), 89th Legislature, Second Called Special Session. The bill creates a through-year testing framework and expands commissioner authority over the state’s accountability system, while also placing time restraints on the commissioner to notify districts about changes to the cut scores. On August 27, 2025, the Senate voted to pass the bill on second reading. (View an official record of the vote in the Senate journal.)

Candidate Survey Responses

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RESPONSES TO THE 2024 ATPE CANDIDATE SURVEY:

1. If elected, what are your top priorities for public education?

I am committed to bottom-up planning and co-governance. I will always take my lead and set my priorities based on the priorities of the affected communities. Based on what I have heard from teachers, students, and unions like the AFT chapters in SD 15, Community Voices for Public Education (CVPE), the Charles Butt Foundation, and others, the three highest priorities are:

Increase state funding for public schools

Increase wages and pensions

Stop the privatization of public schools (charter expansions, vouchers, etc.)

2. Voucher programs take many forms (tax credits, scholarships, education savings accounts, etc.) and are either universal or aimed at specific subpopulations (special education students, low-income students, students attending schools with poor A-F accountability ratings, etc.). Would you vote to create a voucher program of any type to pay for students to attend non-public K-12 schools, such as private or home schools?

No

3. In 2023, the Texas Legislature passed House Bill (HB) 3 requiring a number of new school safety measures. However, many believe the Legislature did not adequately increase funding to cover the cost of the mandates in HB 3 or other locally adopted school safety measures. How would you work to make schools safer and ensure such initiatives are properly funded?

School hardening measures are expensive, and experts suggest that they are largely ineffective. It is important to fund mental health services, keep nurses and licensed mental health professionals in schools, fund arts/sports programs that enrich the lives of children, and fund specialized education and programs that meet the needs of students who require additional support. I will advocate during budget season for increased funding to the programs supported by data that teachers, experts, and advocates deem as priorities. I will also use my platform to organize statewide and educate the Texas public about which measures work to keep kids and communities safe and which initiatives deserve investment.

4. Despite a record-breaking surplus of $38 billion during the 2023 legislative session, school funding formulas were not increased to keep pace with inflation since they were last adjusted in 2019. Do you believe Texas public schools should receive additional funding? If so, how should the state pay for it?

Yes. A surplus provides an opportunity to fund one-time capital investments that are badly needed as well as setting up long-term funding for ongoing needs to maintain school infrastructure, provide raises and cost of living adjustments for defined benefit programs, and increase community access to broadband and educational programs. The state should be paying for a larger share of public school funding in order to satisfy the constitutional requirement and reduce reliance on local property taxes.

5. Texas has faced growing teacher shortages in recent years, with many schools hiring uncertified teachers to fill the gaps. How would you work to ensure Texas public schools have an adequate number of trained and certified teachers?

Teaching needs to be a desirable and celebrated profession. To attract and retain qualified educators, I support:

Repealing HB 1842 that allowed for a state takeover

Enrollment based funding

Keeping nurses in schools so that teachers are not asked to act outside their scope

Direct raises

Raising the basic allotment and indexing it to inflation

Stopping the censorship of educators

Bolstering defined benefit plans

Reducing the reliance on high stakes testing and disassociating teacher pay from high stakes testing scores

Opposing charter school expansion in order to prioritize and fully fund public education

6. Inadequate compensation hampers the recruitment and retention of high-quality educators. Do you support a state-funded across-the-board pay raise for all Texas educators?

Yes!

7. The high cost of health insurance available to educators is a significant factor decreasing their take-home pay. How would you address the challenge of rising health care costs facing Texas educators and ensure access to affordable health care?

As a nurse, this is extremely important to me. I purchase my own healthcare coverage from the marketplace, and I know firsthand how unreasonably expensive and administratively burdensome coverage is. On a state level, expanding Medicaid is a pillar of my platform. I support a single-payer system nationwide as well. While working and once retired, teachers need access to affordable, high quality healthcare, and I am committed to woking toward that goal alongside educators and working class people in Texas.

8. What do you feel is the proper role of standardized testing in the Texas public education system? For instance, should student test scores be used as a metric in determining teacher pay, school accountability ratings, evaluating teachers, measuring student progress, etc.?

Standardized testing is historically racially and economically biased to favor whiter wealthier kids. Testing can be used to evaluate the needs of students and the needs of classrooms and districts, but it should never determine school funding alone or be used to determine compensation for educators. Texas needs to take a holistic view of student progress and school performance to measure needs and assets, and higher need schools deserve more support to improve the outcomes for students.

9. In your opinion, what is the proper balance between accommodating an individual parent’s or student’s wishes and the taxpaying community’s interest in directing and maintaining an optimal educational environment for the student population as a whole?

I am a nurse with a Master’s in Public Health, so I take a public health approach to policy. There is an ethical balance between individual autonomy and utilitarian community success. That balance needs to be determined in collaboration between affected community members, students, teachers, school staff, experts, and advocates. Individual autonomy cannot come at the expense of community health and safety. Ultimately, a higher emphasis must be placed on maintaining an optimal educational environment for the student population as a whole.

10. Do you believe the Teacher Retirement System (TRS) should be maintained as a traditional defined-benefit pension plan for all future, current, and retired educators, or do you support converting TRS to a defined-contribution structure that is more like a 401(k) plan, in which future benefits are not guaranteed?

Yes. As a nurse, I wish I were working toward a defined benefit plan eve. Moving away from defined benefit plans is a direct attack on the middle class and a direct attack on public health and community wellness. I will fight to protect defined benefit plans for teachers and work to make them the default again for other workers as well.

The TRS should be maintained as a traditional defined-benefit pension plan for all future, current, and retired educators.

11. State law allows educators and other public employees to voluntarily choose to join professional associations such as ATPE and have membership dues deducted from their paychecks at no cost to taxpayers. Do you support or oppose letting all public employees continue to exercise this right?

Support

Additional Comments from Candidate on Survey

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I recently learned the term co-governing: “a process where movements and community members aren’t only asked for their input, but are at the decision-making table, side by side, with decision-makers shaping legislation and policy.” I was grateful to gain verbiage for what I already felt in my heart is the style of leadership that is most effective and authentic to me. As an organizer, I often bemoan the separation between lawmakers and the unelected community leaders who are educating and organizing the public.

I know my own strength as an unelected, unpaid advocate, and I want to serve in coalition with the advocates, labor unions, organizers, and communities in SD 15 and across this great state. I want to uplift and promote grassroots organizing as a critical component of any change we want to see in Texas. It is not enough to vote the right way and pick up the phone when community leaders call. We need to strategize, prioritize, and fight together–to win. We all deserve co-governance.

Nurses are the most trusted profession year after year for a reason. Nursing is about trust and advocacy. I am proud to be a nurse, and I want to serve with the strength, compassion, and honesty that are central to my identity.