New Chair elected

Matagorda County voters elected Dr. Ericka Ann Lawson as the new Matagorda County Democratic Party Chair In March 2024. 

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Lawson earned a Bachelors degree in Chemistry from Texas Wesleyan. Her Masters degree was in Biochemistry and Doctorate in Microbiology and Immunology from Saint Louis University School of Medicine. Finally, she trained further with post doctoral training at both Baylor College of Medicine and Texas A&M.

Early on, Lawson found that her passion was teaching. She has taught in both public and private schools from eighth to twelfth grade. She has also taught many years at the collegiate level. She presently teaches part- time for Brazosport College.

In the 90’s Lawson began falling in love with Matagorda County. She and her husband bought land in Sargent in 2002. They completed their retirement home in 2012.  After a stint teaching for a medical school in the Caribbean, she has retired to live full-time in Sargent since 2021.

Lawson's passion since retirement is to serve her community. She joined and remains an active member of the Sargent Area Lions Club. She is active in three book clubs and a Mahjongg group. But, as she settled into Sargent and Matagorda County, she realized the needs beyond herself and her neighbors. Having always been somewhat politically active for voter registration and get-out- the-vote drives, she saw little of that in Matagorda County. She began trying to find the Democratic Party for the county to volunteer and initially only found an inactive group. As the Party became organized again for the 2022 election she began to try to push the party toward more action and visibility. 

Her goals as the Matagorda County Chair will be to increase the visibility of the Democratic Party in Matagorda County so that the community knows and recognizes the Democrats as a good choice in elections. 

“I dream that we get to a point that Matagorda County is proudly Democratic once again. Exposure to the citizens and building trust in non-election years will be essential to those goals. We need to be proud of our political views and use our knowledge and community awareness to teach our county that we need democracy at every level of government. We need to overcome the flashy nonsense that is eroding our civil liberties and social justice.”