Past
Metrocrest Meetings
Metrocrest
Meeting September 8th 2025, 7pm, via Zoom
ONLY
We WILL NOT be
meeting in person this month!
Our speaker is Former Illinois Congressman
Joe Walsh. He was a member of the U.S. House of
Representatives from Illinois's 8th district,
January 3, 2011 to January 3, 2013. He also was a
Tea Party member. After leaving office, Walsh
began hosting a talk radio show. He became
increasingly critical of President Donald Trump.
On August 25, 2019, he announced his presidential
campaign in opposition to Trump. Walsh is now a
member of the Democratic Party and is helping in
the fight against MAGA.
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Metrocrest
Meeting August 11th 2025, 7pm, at NewNew
Chinese Buffet
Next
meeting will be
Monday August 11th, 7pm,
in the private room at:
NewNew
Chinese Buffet, 3822 Belt Line Rd.
Addison,TX 75001
Our
speaker will be:
Former
Judge Bill Pedersen
Judge for Place 9 of
the Texas Fifth District Court of Appeals,
from Jan 1, 2019 to Dec 31, 2024. He will
discuss Governor Abbott's business courts
created by TX House Bill 19.
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Metrocrest
Meeting July 14th 2025, 7pm, at NewNew
Chinese Buffet
Next
meeting will be Monday July 14th, 7pm,
in the private room at:
NewNew Buffet, 3822 Belt Line Rd.
Addison,TX 75001
Our speaker will be:
Cassandra
Hernandez
Texas House of Representatives for the 115th
district.
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Metrocrest
Meeting June 9th 2025, 7pm, via Zoom ONLY
Next
meeting will be Monday June 9th 2025, 7pm, via
Zoom ONLY (Link is below) since our speaker
will be joining us from her home in
California.
We WILL NOT be
meeting in person this month!
Our speaker will be attorney, author, and
social media commentator Teri Kanefield. She is
the author of numerous books including 'A Firehose
of Falsehood: The Story of Disinformation' (2024)
and the upcoming 'Rebels, Robbers, and Radicals
The Story of the Bill of Rights'. She's a graduate
of the University of California Berkeley School of
Law. Her legal analyses have appeared in The
Washington Post, NBC News, CNN, and other major
media outlets. Teri Kanefield is an expert on the
US Constitution, specifically the Tenth Amendment.
(The Tenth
Amendment expresses the principle of federalism,
whereby the federal government and the
individual states share power, by mutual
agreement.)
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Metrocrest
Meeting May 19th 2025, 7pm, at NewNew
Chinese Buffet
Next
meeting will be
Monday May 19th, 7pm,
in the private room at:
NewNew
Buffet, 3822 Belt Line Rd.
Addison,TX 75001
Our speaker will be Gene Lantz President
of Dallas AFL-CIO.
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Metrocrest Democrats meeting, Monday
April 10th 2023
Paul Coggins Speaks About Current Trump
Legal Troubles on April 10, 2023
Our speaker Paul Coggins
Former US Attorney for the Northern District of
Texas, 1993-2001. He will discuss the
various charges against former president Trump in
his indictment in NYC.
Paul is the Co-Chair of the national White
Collar Criminal Defense and Internal
Investigations practice for Locke and Lord, LLP
and a nationally recognized criminal defense
attorney, whose clients have included high-ranking
politicians, Fortune 500 executives, professional
athletes, nonprofit organizations, and government
bodies.
During time at the US Attorney's Office, he twice
served on the US Attorney General's Advisory
Council and in 1998 became it's Vice-Chair
Metrocrest
Meeting March 13th, 2023
Guest speakers:
Jaime Rivas, Candidate for Farmers Branch
Mayor
Wes Nute, Candidate for Carrollton
Farmers Branch ISD
Mike Dooling, Candiddate for Carrollton
City Council Place 6
Adam Polter, Candidate for Carrollton Mayor
John Love, Candidate for the US
Senate against Cancun Cruz.
Metrocrest
Meeting January 16th, 2023
Our speaker will be
SMU Professor Matthew Wilson
Professor Wilson will talk about the last election
in Texas, and discuss why results were far less
positive than in many other states across the
country. He specializes in political
psychology, the voting behavior of different
groups, including young voters and religious
voters and is currently working on a book that
deals with how citizens decide whom to hold
accountable for social and political
outcomes. A commentator on political affairs
for local, national and international media
outlets and a regular contributor to the
Dallas Morning News `'Texas Faith" blog on
religion in public life, his most recent
works include Understanding American Politics and
Religion and Politics in American Life.
Metrocrest
Meeting September 9th, 2022
With speaker Dallas County District Attorney
John Creuzot
First elected as District Attorney in 2018, John
is currently running for reelection. We have
asked him to speak about the challenges to local
officials from state oversight, as in Florida,
where Governor DeSantis removed the County State
Attorney in Hillsborough County because he
had allegedly signed letters saying he would not
enforce laws prohibiting gender-affirming care for
minors or laws limiting abortion.
John Creuzot served more than 21 years as a Felony
District Court Judge, and his background also
includes seven years of service as a Dallas County
Assistant District Attorney and Chief Felony
Prosecutor as well as a criminal defense lawyer
while in private practice.
In addition to serving on both sides of the bench,
Creuzot has a national reputation for his
innovative work on drug courts, criminal justice
reform and evidence-based sentencing. At the
suggestion of Ann Richards he began the use of
diversion courts which provides an alternative to
incarceration for nonviolent drug
offenders. After retiring from the
judiciary, Dallas County recognized his
contribution by renaming its drug
treatment facility the Judge John C Creuzot
Treatment Center in May 2013.
The facility is coordinated with the Dallas
Community Supervision and Corrections Department
and the Dallas County Courts. The center works to
ensure successful substance abuse treatment and
reintegration into the community. It also offers
education and skills training and job search
assistance to probationers, and education and
counseling for family members. The facility
is coordinated with the Dallas Community
Supervision and Corrections Department
and the Dallas County Courts.
Metrocrest Meeting August 8th, 2022
Jason P. Steed, Counsel, discusses the 2022
SCOTUS session and what it means,
and a look towards next year. BA Brigham Young, M
FA, U of Idaho, PhD, U of Nevada, Las Vegas, JD
UT, with many honors; and has been recognized for
excellence by his peers....
"Jason Steed is an appellate attorney with
extensive experience in both state and federal
appellate courts across the nation, including the
Supreme Court of the United States, the Supreme
Court of Texas, the Supreme Court of California,
and the Supreme Court of Alaska. His two greatest
strengths are his creative legal thinking and his
incisive legal writing. Jason has represented
clients in a variety of practice areas, including
complex commercial litigation, class actions,
employment litigation, qui tam/FCA litigation,
product liability, and constitutional law.
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Metrocrest Meeting June 20th, 222 9th, 2022
Texas
State Democratic Party Chair Race, 2022
-- Hear from the Candidates
We invited candidates for the Chair of the Texas
Democratic Party, who will be chosen by delegates
to the Democratic Party State Convention.
They discuss their vision for the Party
going forward and answer questions.
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Metrocrest Meeting May 9th, 2022
Meet the Candidates
This meeting is devoted to candidates in the
Democratic Party Primary runoff,
including statewide seats, US House races,
and several county offices.
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Metrocrest Meeting April 18th, 2022
This meeting is devoted to candidates in the
May 7th joint election (municipal and
school board).
There are some Democrats running and it's
important to support them especially in an
election with traditionally very low
turnout. A few votes can make all the
difference.
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Metrocrest Meeting March 14th, 2022
Professor Cal Jilsson of SMU
speaks, one of the nations's foremost
political experts.
Cal regularly provides journalists
thoughtful insights on US and Texas politics,
and is a frequent commentator on various network
programs. He is also the author of Lone Star
Tarnished: A Critical Look at Texas Politics and
Public Policy. Professor Jilsson to speaks about
the prospects for Democrats post-Primary and to
discuss the role progressives in the Texas
Democratic Party will play.
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Meet the Midterm Candidates February 7th,
2022
Meet the Midterm Candidates in
contested primary races to attend our meeting
for our members and friends to meet them and ask
any questions they may have of the candidates
before voting in the primary.
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Metrocrest Democrats January 11th, 2022
Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins
speaks about the role government in large,
urban, largely Democratic counties will play
going forward in the face of Republican efforts
at the state level to limit the powers and
authority of local officials at all levels.
First elected in 2010 Judge Jenkins has
weathered many crises, including an outbreak of
West Nile Virus in 2012 when he declared a state
of emergency for the county and led efforts to
spray for mosquitoes. In 2014 during the child
migrant crisis, Jenkins offered refuge in Dallas
County to almost 2000 migrant children who
crossed the US border with Mexico. This
move led to a meeting between President Obama
and Governor Rick Perry regarding the issue.
When in 2014, Dallas County became the first
county in the US to have a confirmed Ebola virus
case, Jenkins led the local response. His
actions won national praise for destigmatizing
the disease by showing that it couldn't be
transmitted between asymptomatic persons by
entering the home of Thomas Eric Duncan, the
first victim of Ebola in the US, without
personal protective equipment in order to help
Duncan's family move into temporary housing
while their house was decontaminated.
During the current Covid-19 outbreak, Jenkins
was the first Texas official to declare a
stay-at-home order, a week before Governor
Abbott issued a similar statewide measure.
Jenkins' continuing cautious approach in the
face of a public health crisis has brought him
into direct conflict with Republican officials
at the state level and in particular with
Governor Abbott.
As Dallas and Texas have experienced huge
economic and population expansion in the last 12
years, In the current pandemic environment he
sees Covid as the most challenging issue going
forward economically and socially as well as
from an educational standpoint. Dealing
with it is his biggest priority as he supports
policies to make Dallas County more healthy,
equitable, affordable, and prosperous.
After Judge Jenkin's presentation, there were
opportunities for candidates for local office
and judiciary positions to introduce themselves.
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Metrocrest Democrats Meeting November
8th, 2021
Joe Jaworski candidate for Texas Attorney
General speaks. Joe Jaworski is a
third-generation Texas trial attorney and former
Mayor of Galveston, Texas. Joe’s term as mayor
was defined by his unwavering support for and
success in rebuilding Galveston’s
storm-devastated public housing; a political
choice that made a positive difference for
thousands of Island residents.
In 2021, he began his thirtieth year of
practice, a career that began as law clerk to
United States Court of Appeals Fifth Circuit
Judge John R. Brown, followed by a robust
Admiralty defense trial practice representing
Gulf Coast maritime interests and then, a
rewarding plaintiff’s trial practice
representing injured maritime workers. From
these various career experiences, he finally
found his niche.
Joe owns The Jaworski Law Firm, headquartered in
Galveston, and his practice is 100% mediation.
He specializes in mediating Defense Base Act
claims, mediating hundreds of claims annually
domestically and abroad; these are the claims
brought by military contractors for personal
injuries arising from the War on Terror.
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Metrocrest Democrats Meeting September
13th, 2021
Rene Martinez speaks about Critical Race
Theory. Rene is a major voice in the
Dallas area Latin American community. He
is an educational consultant,President of LULAC
Council 100 and the District Director of the
LULAC Northeast Texas Region.
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©
Copyright 2025,
Metrocrest Democrats
"Turning
Texas Blue!"
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