Power Players features state lawmakers rising through the ranks or making a notable mark on the 87th Texas legislative session. Each week, Capital Tonight will feature an elected official to give you a chance to get to know the person behind the powerful position.  

AUSTIN, Texas — Rep. Mary González wears many hats. Besides serving as a state lawmaker and vice chair of the powerful appropriations committee, she's a professor with a Ph.D in education and works full-time for a nonprofit.  

But her favorite role takes her back to her roots.   

"On the weekends I'm hauling hay, cleaning out troughs, tending to horses, vaccinating goats," she said. 

González is the daughter of a farmer and grew up on a goat dairy farm in Clint, Texas,  population 982. She was raised by a single father and credits him for every success she's had, including the political bug.  

"I told him dad, I just want to change the world and he said, 'okay mija, you need to get involved in politics,'" she said.

Her dad is a tried and true Republican. González is a progressive Democrat. But she says it's what sets her apart in a place where partisan politics can often get the best of people.  

"I come into this space where the person I love most in the world is politically opposite of me," she said. "So I work to find the space of connection. And I don't have to agree with somebody. And I won't always agree with somebody. But I feel like I can express it in a way that honors my relationship with my father."  

Gonzalez says the best thing about her District 75 is her dad, but a few other landmarks top her list.  

"San Elizario, which is in my district next to Clint, is the birthplace of the American southwest...the second thing is we have a state park called Hueco Tanks, which is an indigenous sacred site, but also just beautiful dessert," she said. "And the third is how ag my district is. We produce 50% of all the pecans in the state of Texas and we're also the only county that produces pima cotton, which is a high-end fiber cotton."  

Two years ago, El Paso also witnessed what's been described as the worst attack on Latinos in modern American history when a gunman walked into a Walmart and killed 23 people. An investigation showed the shooter was active in online spaces that traffic in hate speech and promote conspiracies.  

González says this legislative session will be a success if her bill aimed at teaching students to think critically about what they see on the internet passes.  

"We have to do something to honor the lives that we lost...We can talk about gun control and other things, mental health issues, but what happened was this young person fell down the rabbit hole of hate and violence and misinformation," she said.  

While she works to create new laws, González says she doesn't like change.  

"I'm a grouchy old cowboy in a middle aged Latina body," she said.  

But she's constantly pushing herself and her peers to find common ground to produce the best possible outcomes for Texans.  

"And if we let politics overcome the policy for the realities that people are facing then that would be a real failure," González said.