MEET STEPHEN O'TOOLE
FIGHTING FOR LIBERTY, DIGNITY AND OPPORTUNITY -
FOR EVERY TEXAN
Stephen O'Toole is a proud Fort Worth native and working-class American who knows what it means to struggle, to serve, and to stand up when it counts. Raised in the Wedgwood neighborhood by his Depression-era grandparents, Charles and Gladys, Stephen's earliest lessons weren’t learned in textbooks, they were taught through survival.
His grandfather became the man of the house at age six after his own father died. He picked cotton, worked construction, became an architect, and dedicated his life to building safer, stronger communities in Fort Worth. His grandmother kept the family together through poverty, illness, and grief. They were tough, honest, and dignified, and Stephen grew up determined to make them proud.
But life didn’t make it easy. When Stephen was in high school, his grandfather was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. The disease took everything: his memory, his independence, and the life savings he had worked more than six decades to build. Stephen stepped in to help care for him, learning, young, what it meant to navigate a healthcare system that leaves families to fend for themselves. It was his first true exposure to the way America fails its people when we need it most.
At 17, driven by duty and a desire to serve, Stephen enlisted in the United States Navy. He trained as a Cryptologic Technician, specializing in combat data and operational intelligence aboard naval warships. He was proud to serve... but an injury during training, a torn ACL, ended his service early. He was honorably discharged and came home to Fort Worth with a limp, a mission cut short, and no safety net.
He moved back in with his grandmother, now also facing declining health, and enrolled in community college. That’s where he met Becca, the love of his life. They built a life together from the ground up, not with privilege, but with persistence. Stephen worked restaurants, earned an IT certification, and started taking tech support calls in a contact center. He kept moving up, not because doors opened easily, but because he pushed through them.
Today, Stephen serves as a Director of Operations overseeing more than 1,500 employees. He manages complex outsourcing contracts for major clients, leads cross-functional teams, and negotiates solutions in high-pressure environments. He’s not a career politician, but he knows how to build systems that work, hold people accountable, and fight like hell to protect those who trust you.
Now he’s bringing that same energy to Congress. Because the truth is: this system doesn’t serve people like us. It protects the rich, the connected, and the already-powerful. It punishes transparency, ignores suffering, and rewards cruelty. Stephen’s seen it from both sides: as someone who needed help and didn’t get it, and as someone who learned how to lead when nobody else would step up.
He’s not running for Congress to make speeches. He’s running to raise hell on behalf of the people getting crushed and discarded by a system that forgot what it’s for. Working families. Veterans. Caregivers. Survivors. Small towns and big cities. People who tell the truth, even when it’s hard. That’s who Stephen’s fighting for.
And he's not here to ask permission.