Democratic Women of Comal County
Texas
PROGRESSIVE * POWERFUL * PERSISTENT
Lupe Valdez
Democrat for
Governor
About Lupe Valdez
“As the state with the most diverse population and the second longest border in the country, we should be leading the way on how to both keep criminal elements out of our country while also treating our immigrant communities with dignity and respect.” --Lupe Valdez
Lupe Valdez was raised in San Antonio, the youngest of eight children of Mexican-American farm workers. She said a teacher told her she had the ability to go to college, and changed her life. After that conversation, Lupe began riding a city bus across San Antonio to attend a better school. When she got to school, she went into the bathroom to wash the dirt from the unpaved streets in her neighborhood from her shoes. She worked her way through college, earning a bachelor’s degree in business administration and a master’s degree in criminology. Valdez attained the rank of Captain in the U.S. National Guard, and then worked for more than 30 years in law enforcement, beginning as a jailer and then moving into investigative roles as an agent for the General Services Administration, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and for U.S. Customs Service, where she focused on fraud and drug cases in the United States and South America. She became a Senior Agent with the Department of Homeland Security in 2002 before retiring in 2004 to run for Dallas County Sheriff. She was elected to four terms in that office, being the first openly gay Hispanic sheriff in this country. Valdez again made history when she won a run-off election against Andrew White in 2018, becoming the first Latina and the first openly gay person to be nominated for governor by a major party in Texas.
Valdez supports protection of voting rights, ending partisan gerrymandering, equal pay for equal work for women, and paid sick leave. She celebrates diversity and defends LGBTQ rights. She is a strong defender of public schools and wants to fix Texas’s antiquated school finance system. She believes in the Second Amendment and supports common sense gun laws. In the area of health, Valdez wants Texas to accept the nine billion federal dollars that would come with Medicaid expansion, to improve healthcare for rural Texans and for veterans, and to ensure to women the resources they need to make decisions about their bodies and their health. She is a supporter of clean energy and would be proactive in protecting the environment and preparing for disasters. Valdez backs comprehensive immigration reform. She would fight to keep the criminal elements away from our borders while treating immigrants with humanity and respect.
The Governor of Texas is the chief executive of the State of Texas, the presiding officer over the executive branch of the Government of Texas, and the commander-in-chief of the Texas National Guard, the state's militia. The governor has the power to consider bills passed by the Texas Legislature, by signing them into law, or vetoing them, and in bills relating to appropriations, the power of a line-item veto. S/he may convene the legislature, and grant pardons and reprieves, except in cases of impeachment, and upon the permission of the legislature, in cases of treason.
Other members of the executive branch are elected independently from the governor; for example, the governor and the lieutenant governor are not elected on a single ticket as a same-party team. The Texas governor therefore shares power with other elected officials and has less power than governors in some other states.
About Lupe's opponent:
Valdez’ opponent, Republican incumbent Greg Abbott, is a champion of conservative causes and the religious right. During his tenure as Texas’s Attorney General, Abbott said, "I go into the office in the morning, I sue Barack Obama, and then I go home.” The Wall Street Journal reported that Abbott sued the Obama administration at least forty-four times during his time as Attorney General through his first term as Governor. His law suits included challenges to carbon-emission standards and other climate regulations, to health-care reform, and to transgender rights. Abbott supports calling a Convention of States to consider amendments to the Constitution in order to rein in the powers of the federal government. As Governor, he has signed open carry and campus carry gun laws, as well as a law banning sanctuary cities in Texas.
