Candace Valenzuela is one of the most inspiring candidates in the current election cycle. She won her primary in Texas on Tuesday.
Please watch her campaign commercial, in which she describes her difficult childhood, when she was homeless. What saved her was that she always had a “home” at school, where her teachers encouraged her. She went on to finish high school and college, to run for and win a seat on the local school board, and is now likely to become the first Afro-Latina in Congress if she wins in November.
If she makes it, she and Jamaal Bowman will be powerful and well-informed voices for public schools in Congress.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Valenzuela sounds like an excellent representative for Texas. It about time that the voices of minority women are heard. It is time to end the reign of the “good ole’ boys’ club in the South. It is also about time that Latinos flexed their considerable voting power in Texas. These young newcomers have the opportunity to move the state into the 21st Century and out of the Dark Ages. Valenzuela said in the clip that poverty is not the result of an unfortunate mistake, but a systemic way to keep certain groups of people down. I applaud her for her willingness to step up with two very young children. I can see why her message is resonating with working people in Texas.
Wow. Tears watching this!
Congratulations, Ms. Valenzuela!!!
The best video is the shortest one further down the page. It’s about 2 minutes long and powerful enough to moisten your eyes.
It brought back memories of when I was 7 or 8, the time my dad was gone on one of his drinking marathons for months. My sister and brother were in their early 20s and had already moved out and were on their own.
My mother and I became homeless for a few months when we lost the house because she was recovering from surgery (had one of her kidneys removed) and my dad wasn’t around to help. I do not know why my mother did not ask my brother and sister for help.
We didn’t end up sleeping on the streets like so many do. We ended up living in old motel rooms along Route 66. I was too young and too out of it to understand what was going on. To this day, I do not know how my mother kept a roof over our heads and kept us fed.
Elizabeth Warren endorsed her. Her stance on education seems to be about making public schools more inclusive and getting more resources to students who need more help. She pushed for coding, STEM, and college entrance test prep, but while most of us here have problems with taking the focus off the humanities to focus on tech and tests, it’s still easy to see that she supports disadvantaged people especially disadvantaged public school students, and that’s what matters. I am not sure she’s in the same league as AOC and Jamaal Bowman, but then, Texas is not New York. She’s not running in the Bronx. She will be a great improvement to Congress if she wins.
Is she running in the 13th CD, where the Republican nominee is WHit’s former physicain,
Dr. Ronny Jackson?
Hope so–sounds like she can trounce him.
no.