Labor Champions Win Big in Gulf Coast Primary Elections

The 2022 primary elections were historic — for the first time ever, delegates of the 92 unions of the Texas Gulf Coast Area Labor Federation voted to approve early endorsements in key races, and we ran the largest joint labor primary GOTV program in Gulf Coast history!

During the last 6 weeks, canvassers from the Texas Gulf Coast AFL-CIO Working People PAC knocked nearly 10,000 doors in support of Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo, Commissioner Adrian Garcia, Representative Alma Allen, Lesley Briones, and Candis Houston.

In addition, union volunteers made over 3,000 Spanish-language phone calls to labor households, knocked over 1,500 labor doors, and we delivered over 19,000 pieces of mail to labor households in support of our labor slate in Harris County and Fort Bend County.

Election Results

Union delegates voted unanimous to give our first-ever early endorsement to Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo, who won a resounding victory in the Democratic primary, winning over 70% of the vote against five opponents.

Delegates also voted overwhelmingly to confer an early endorsement on Harris County Commissioner Adrian Garcia, who also won by a huge margin, with over 75% of the total vote.

In statehouse races, Early-endorsee Rep. Alma Allen and long-time labor champion won her primary on the strength of her proven record of standing up for our school, teachers, and students.

In Fort Bend County, voters in the Democratic primary supported County Judge KP George for re-election by a 40 point margin, as well as long-time County Commissioner Grady Prestage.

We also saw strong performances from our endorsed candidates in many other key races that went to runoffs, particularly from early-endorsee Lesley Briones, who received the largest share of votes in her race for Harris County Commissioner Precinct 4 and is strongly positioned to win in the May 24th primary runoff election.

Coretta Mallet-Fontenot, an HISD teacher and proud Houston Federation of Teachers member, also won the plurality of votes in the first round of her race for State Board of Education District 4. Coretta is the strong favorite for the runoff.

Special congratulations also to HFT member Sonia Lopez, who advanced to the runoff for Justice of the Peace 1–2 with nearly 42% of the vote in her first run for office.

Unfortunately, no all of our COPE endorsed candidates were successful on Tuesday night. We thank all of the elected officials and candidates for their service, and commitment to advancing the interests of working people in offices up and down the ballot.

Special shoutout to Aldine AFT President Candis Houston, who nearly beat a thirty year incumbent in her first run for elected office but fell short by 136 votes.

Union GOTV Gets Real Results

It was a successful primary election season for our COPE-endorsed candidates, further proof of the growing power of working people in the Gulf Coast.

Our electoral program helped to deliver big wins up and down the ballot, but this was only possible thank to the support of our union affiliates who contributed to the Working People PAC unified labor GOTV program and supported our outreach to union members.

Thanks to CWA District 6, AFSCME, SEIU Texas, Texas AFT, Southwest Laborers Council, Northeast Houston AFT, Houston Federation of Teachers, Pipefitters Local 211, Plumbers Local 68, Teamsters Local 988, Texas AFL-CIO, Aldine AFT, United Steelworkers, IUPAT DC 88, Lone Star AFT, and Fort Bend AFT for supporting the Working People PAC.

Thanks also to Texas AFT and IUOE Local 564 for supporting our member mail program, to Unite Here Local 23 volunteers for helping to get Spanish speaking members out to the polls, to Pipefitters Local 211 for hosting our canvass for Lina Hidalgo, and to NE Houston AFT for hosting our canvass for Candis Houston and Commissioner Adrian Garcia.

We’re also grateful to all of the members who came out to volunteer at our canvasses and phonebanks. In total, over 150 members from 21 local unions and constituency groups volunteered to get out the vote for labor champions.

Big shoutout to members from Pipefitters Local 211, Insulators Local 22, Houston Federation of Teachers, Plumbers Local 68, Seafarers International Union, Aldine AFT, NE Houston AFT, AFSCME/HOPE Local 123, Houston Educational Support Personnel, Texas AFT, OPEIU Local 129, APALA Texas, IUPAT DC 88, Texas State Employees Union, CWA Local 6222, Lone Star AFT, USW Local 13–1, LCLAA Gulf Coast, IBEW Local 716, IAFF Local 341, and Houston YALL for making this one of the most successful labor GOTV programs in our history!