Washington, D.C. – Latino Victory Fund and End Citizens United today jointly endorsed former El Paso County Judge Veronica Escobar in her bid to represent Texas’ 16th Congressional district. If elected, Escobar would become the first Latina member of Congress from Texas.
“Veronica Escobar is a proven leader and champion of El Paso’s working families. As county judge, she improved access to health care, grew jobs, raised the minimum wage for hundreds of workers, and became a powerful voice for justice and equality,” said Cristóbal J. Alex, President of Latino Victory Fund and a native of El Paso. “With Texans’ rights and welfare under constant attack, Veronica has the necessary grit and experience to fight back against President Trump and Republicans’ dangerous agenda.”
“Veronica Escobar has built her career upholding the law and standing up to injustice,” said ECU President Tiffany Muller. “In Congress, she will bring that experience to a broken Washington as a strong voice for the interests of Texas families — not the greed of special interest donors. We’re excited to work with Veronica to clean up the system in Congress and make it work for all Texans, not just the wealthy few.”
A committed reformer, Escobar is an advocate for overturning Citizens United, the 2010 decision that unleashed unlimited, undisclosed money in our elections. She supports the DISCLOSE Act, which would require secret money groups to disclose their donors and spending when they engage in any political activity. Escobar opposes efforts to gut the Johnson Amendment, a decades-old law that prevents political groups from using churches to funnel unlimited, anonymous money into campaigns.
A native of El Paso, Veronica Escobar has dedicated her career to improving the lives of people in her community. In 2010, the residents of El Paso elected Escobar to serve as county judge; she had previously served one term as a county commissioner. As the chief administrator of the sixth largest county in Texas, Escobar reformed local government to improve efficiency and transparency, eliminate corruption, and ensure its responsiveness to residents’ needs. She played a key role in the establishment of the El Paso County Ethics Commission, the only county commission of its kind in the State of Texas.
Veronica Escobar has been a progressive voice on other fronts. She fought to improve access to health care for the county’s working- and middle-class families, helped increase the minimum wage, and extended domestic partner benefits to the families of LGBT county employees.
More recently, Escobar fought the discriminatory Texas law SB 4, which would require local law enforcement to cooperate with federal immigration authorities and inquire about the immigration status of individuals they detain. She also led county judges and mayors across the state in denouncing Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s threat to sue the federal government to end Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA).
In July, Latino Victory Fund launched “Run, Veronica, Run!” to recruit Veronica Escobar to run for Congress. The first-of-its-kind effort rallied elected officials, local leaders, cultural influencers, and residents of El Paso in support of Escobar.
End Citizens United will connect Escobar’s campaign with its 4,300 members in Texas’ 16th congressional district and activate its 380,000 small-dollar national donors to help ensure she has the resources to win. This cycle, ECU has raised almost $2 million in small-dollar, grassroots donations for its endorsed candidates.
# # #