Carlos Paz was a 20-something community organizer in his hometown of Houston when he took "a little detour" overseas that would shape his thinking and help steer him to Capitol Hill.

The project, called Operation Change, took Paz to more than a dozen countries in 18 months — places as diverse as Haiti, Tanzania, India and Papua New Guinea — as part of a film team documenting local development efforts. It would run as a 10-episode series on the Oprah Winfrey Network — and bolster his view of politics as a powerful way to improve lives in a frequently hostile world.

"It was incredible — changed my life to be able to see the........

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