Gina Ortiz Jones — a two-time candidate for Congress, Iraq War veteran, Defense Intelligence Agency analyst, and an Under Secretary of the Air Force in the Biden administration — is running to be mayor of San Antonio.

Her campaign slogan: “There is no time to waste.”

That was evident as Jones, who came out to family and friends at 15 and served as an Air Force captain in Iraq under Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, provided rapid-fire responses packed with policy proposals, multi-point plans, and pledges of accountability in her interview with LGBTQ Nation, a legacy of years navigating the Washington and U.S. military bureaucracies.

“I learned a long time ago, transparency leads to accountability, and accountability leads to trust,” Jones said.

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For San Antonio voters interested in the candidate’s personal life, though, they’re out of luck. The 44-year-old went from talkative to terse when the conversation turned to her time off the clock.

Jones spoke from a coffee shop near her home in “Military City USA.”

LGBTQ Nation: I think if you asked anyone on the street what the two biggest cities in Texas are, they’d probably say Dallas and Houston.

Gina Ortiz Jones: Wrong!

I was surprised to learn they’re actually Houston and San Antonio. In fact, San Antonio is the seventh largest city…

That’s right, Greg. Make sure you put this in your article that more people live in San Antonio than in 10 states, right? One in 10 kids in this country calls Texas home. So we have an outsized impact on the direction of the country, which is why it’s so important that we win this race.

What part of your extensive resume would you draw on the most to manage a sprawling metropolis like San Antonio?

So there’s a couple, right? So, I most recently served as the Under Secretary of the Air Force, so the number two person of the Air Force and Space Force. And in that position, I managed a $173 billion budget, which is a multi-year budget, and led 600,000 people.  

That job came down to asking yourself two questions every single day, which is 1) Do my folks have what they need to be successful to do the nation’s work? And 2) Are we making smart investments? I think those are ultimately the questions that a mayor has to ask.

As important, though, is an experience I had as a young cadet. It was an Air Force ROTC scholarship that took me from John Jay High School in San Antonio to Boston University. And I’ll never forget, though, one of the very first things I had to do there, even before my very first class, was sign a piece of paper that said I would not engage in homosexual behavior, because Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell was the policy at the time, and I knew what that meant.

My opportunity to get an education, my opportunity to serve our country, my opportunity to die for our country, if need be, all that would go away just because at the time we didn’t have enough leaders with the courage to say that anybody ready and willing to serve their country should have the opportunity to do so. And so damn right, when I was the undersecretary, 20 some-odd years later, I challenged myself to be the leader that I wish I would have had when I was that 18-year-old kid, and that twentysomething young officer.

What’s the single biggest challenge facing San Antonians right now?

You know, it depends on who you ask. But I think what’s important as a leader is to understand kind of how do we move forward? And which is why I identified 14 things I would want to work on in my first 100 days. Because look, Greg, even if we had a different president, right? We would still have the fact that in our community, over half the kids are not reading at level. Their math skills are not at level. We would still have 95,000 families that are housing insecure every month, right?  

So we need to have a plan. You know, part of that is me just being a naturally impatient person, but also having led a big bureaucracy, but also understanding the data is very clear about where our challenges are. We don’t have any more time to admire the problem. We have to really tackle it. I think that requires leadership, which I look forward to bringing.  

You pledge to hold monthly town halls with your constituents if you’re elected mayor. Is there a memorable experience you’ve had in that setting as a constituent that you can point to, to say this is why they’re worthwhile?

Good question. Facebook Live is cool, but I think there’s nothing that matches the in-person experience. Frankly, being able to look at somebody in the eye and really get a sense of just how troubling this issue is for them that they’re raising, or, frankly, even how excited they are about the good work that’s being done in their communities. I look forward to doing that and rotating that among the city council districts in our community, as well as providing a qualitative and quantitative update to the progress of those initiatives that I’ve identified, right? People deserve that level of accountability.  

Sixty-five mayors in the largest 100 cities by population are affiliated with the Democratic Party, while 25 are affiliated with the Republican Party. What do you think accounts for the Democratic edge when it comes to electing big city mayors?

Well, I mean, I think it is illustrative of at least what I have presented, which is a platform and an idea of what I want to get done. And, you know, it’s not word salad. These are tangible things that have metrics, and I think these are consequential in people’s lives.

So, for example, I hear a lot about housing that is affordable. So what I said is, look, first 100 days, those projects that are 70% to 100% affordable, that co-locate child care, and that help us meet our transit-oriented objectives, let’s go faster on those things, right? City staff, help me understand how we can go faster.  

You don’t have to be a doggone educational specialist to know this, but lots of studies point at the highest rate of return in investing in people is always early and often, right? You don’t go from reduced lunch to Under Secretary of the Air Force by chance, right? That is investment by community and country, and that’s what I’m gonna be fighting for.

In November 2016, you joined the executive office of the president under President Obama to serve as a director in the Office of the United States Trade Representative, and continued serving into Trump’s first term. But you left in 2017, telling HuffPost, “The type of people that were brought in to be public servants were interested in neither the public nor service.” It’s a great quote.

It’s the truth.

What about your new colleagues’ conduct led you to leave?

Well, I mean, you could just see very clearly that they didn’t have an understanding and appreciation for the importance, primarily, of American leadership, right? And they didn’t have a good understanding of the ways in which the tools that we had were very powerful but could be used in ways that were counterproductive.

National security is not something to be fumbled or to be politicized, as we are seeing, frankly, today, by the ways that these people have haphazardly used these unclassified texting apps. It’s just ridiculous to me that anybody in national security would be in a group chat, one, and two, not understand who else is in the group chat. I mean, it’s just ludicrous.

I’m not the only one to have read your characterization of your colleagues back then at the Trade Office, who were Trump appointees. Do you worry that as a candidate or as mayor, you could be the object of a retribution campaign by the president, who has a long memory?

You know, look, I’m not going to be scared or intimidated into not serving my community, right? I have taken the oath many times to support and defend the Constitution. I will continue doing what I have been honored and privileged to do, which is to serve my community and serve my country.

You describe yourself as being “a little bit of a knucklehead” and getting in trouble at school in your middle school days, which earned you six months’ probation for an altercation.

You did some research, Greg. Alright.

What was the incident, what did you take away from it, and is a certain amount of “fight” in a public servant’s character actually a good thing?

I mean, look, if you’re fighting for the right thing, it’s always a good thing, right? I think that experience showed me the importance, frankly, of our public educators. My student council advisor at John Jay High School took me under his wing and saw that I was more than this kid who had made a mistake, and that was somebody that was willing to learn and willing to lead and willing to serve, and I’m very thankful that he did that.

Texas has produced some of the country’s most outspoken public servants, like Gov. Ann Richards and Congresswoman Barbara Jordan. What example do you take from their time in office?

Well, Barbara Jordan said it best, right? What the American people want is simple: it’s a country as good as its promise, right? So if we dork it up, we don’t just dork it up for ourselves. We dork it up for the country, which is why I’m so passionate and committed to make sure my community of 1.5 million is well-served, and I look forward to doing that on May 3.

I want to make sure you said “dork.”

Dork. A very scientific word.

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, who you mentioned earlier, has said that openly LGBTQ+ service members are part of “a Marxist agenda to prioritize social justice over combat readiness,” and that their inclusion in the military, along with women, for that matter, “erodes standards.” What did you see in your time in the service that rebuts Hegseth’s argument?

Did he say that when he was sober?

(Laughing)

Look, I don’t think anything that he said is rooted in experience. You’ve got some of the best and brightest that are serving, and I think we should all be thankful that anybody ready and willing to raise their right hand to support and defend the Constitution, they should have the opportunity to do so.  

Would you support national mandatory service for young people in the military, or some other form of public service of their choosing, like the Peace Corps or Teach for America?

Mandatory? No. I think everybody should serve. I mean, frankly, I think everybody should also be a waiter or a waitress, right (laughing)? I mean, there’s lots of experiences that our young people need. There is something to be said about having experiences that are, quote, working class, right? That helps you understand the experience of the vast majority of people, and to me, that’s really important.

What’s the single most important thing the world should do to address the climate crisis?

That’s a good one. Climate crisis. We should double down on energy sources such as wind and solar. I’m biased, given the fact that 25% of the country’s wind comes from Texas. Expediting our transition away from fossil fuels is important, not only in the context of the environment, but also in the context of public health.

How did you meet your partner, Ana Isabel Martinez Chamorro? Are you married, and who proposed to whom?

That’s not my partner.

That’s not your partner?

Nope.

I apologize. My research has failed me.

That’s okay.

Do you have a partner?

Um, I prefer not to talk about my personal life on here.

Okay, that’s your choice. San Antonio has a list of mayors that reaches back to 1731. What do you look forward to most if you’re elected as the latest?

Look, making sure my city is well-led, right? We’ve got great opportunities, but we’ve got significant challenges. As mentioned, over half the kids in our community are not reading at level. Math skills are not at level.

And it’s important to understand that in the context of our identity as “Military City USA,” right? We pride ourselves on hosting a large military presence. But the number one indicator of whether somebody will serve in the military is that they know somebody who has served. 85% of the folks that serve in the military come from one of 30 counties, so it’s these concentrations of active and veteran communities that continue to produce that. When we are not producing enough healthy kids or academically prepared kids, it is, in fact, a national security issue because we contribute so much to the pipeline.

As much of a challenge, though, is that if they’re not healthy enough or academically prepared enough to serve and they stay in our community, they may not be academically prepared or healthy enough for the economic opportunities in our community, right? So I think it’s really important that we are looking at the data to make smart investments and addressing these long standing inequities. I look forward to doing that as mayor.

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