Texas State Senator

In 2006, Kirk announced his candidacy for State Senate in District 14, which covers most of Travis County. He won the Democratic primary unopposed, and no Republican challenged him in the general election.

Since taking office in 2007, Kirk has approached the Texas Legislature with many of the same goals and strategies he pursued throughout his career in public service – building new coalitions, working with all sides, and preparing for Texas’ future.

After just two legislative sessions, Kirk has been widely recognized for his idealism as well as his effectiveness. He was named to Texas Monthly’s list of the 10 Best Legislators, one session after being named the magazine’s Legislative Rookie of the Year.

In the 2009 session, Kirk fought to make health care more broadly available to Texans by filing a constitutional amendment requiring the state to insure children with any available monies. He also worked to add vital consumer protections into a bill focused on the Texas Department of Insurance. And he helped strengthen the state’s school accountability measures, while also working hard to fund programs that would help Texas parents send their children to college.

Kirk also authored the first statewide climate change legislation ever passed by the Texas legislature, which requires the state to research ways that reduce greenhouse gas emissions while also saving money over the long term. And he led efforts to develop Texas’ renewable power industry, make the state budget more open and honest, and preserve the ability of scientific researchers to work with cutting-edge methods and technologies. Also, serving as Vice Chair of the Senate Transportation and Homeland Security Committee, Kirk has pushed to reduce traffic, increase funding for improvements, and ensure transparency and accountability for transportation agencies.

These victories followed a successful turn as Chairman of the 2008 Texas Democratic Party Convention, as well as a 2007 legislative session in which Kirk passed legislation creating a statewide electronic waste recycling program and worked on the landmark effort to raise $3 billion for cancer research.

Senator Watson has been continuously involved with Central Texas. As chair of the region’s primary transportation planning group, he brought new transparency and accountability into long-discussed highway improvements. He assembled a broad coalition that overwhelmingly approved the forward-looking projects, and helped to create a stronger transit system in Austin and the surrounding region. Kirk also helped to create a community bank in Elgin, a rural town east of Austin, and still serves on its board of directors.

Senator Watson has always worked to make sure that Texas can offer following generations as much opportunity as it did to him.