Why I’m Voting: A Texas Ice Cream Maker Wants Small Businesses to Thrive

“Ice cream. Ice cream. Hi how are you?” I was born in Monterrey, Mexico, and I moved here when I was 9 years old. “Chocolate cake mixed with the chocolate ice cream. “So you get like the coconut, the pecans and all that kind of stuff.” My late husband and I always knew we wanted to do something with food. And the first four years, everything seemed to be great. “Denise and Marshall, out here, the taste of McAllen.” We really thought the next step was going to be opening up a brick and mortar. But my husband passed away, and it’s just, it’s been rough. It’s been rough. Every time I make ice cream, I keep him alive. One of the biggest challenges right now is the cost of goods. Before pandemic, you could buy 60 eggs for, say, $6. Right now, you go to the store, 60 eggs just went up again to $14.78. A good day, pre-pandemic, I would probably bring home $500, $600. Right now, it’s half. So here I am, $81,000 in debt, and then I don’t have money for health care and I don’t have money to put away for my children for college. Well, I’m stuck. 2016, I voted for President Trump, and in 2020, I voted for President Trump again. And as a small business owner, we were doing really well. But I don’t want to be seen as like, “Oh, this lady is like so Trumper and conservative.” No, it’s not that, I’m not — I’m, you know, I’m flexible. On Tuesday, when we have primary, I will probably be voting President Trump. But it’s been a very challenging thing because it’s having to pick the better of the worse. Whether it’s a good choice or not, I would have to live with that the next four years until we have a better option.