{"id":352413,"date":"2026-06-27T06:15:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-27T06:15:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/352413\/"},"modified":"2026-06-27T06:15:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-27T06:15:10","slug":"dolores-huerta-makes-surprise-show-at-texas-democratic-convention","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/352413\/","title":{"rendered":"Dolores Huerta makes surprise show at Texas Democratic Convention"},"content":{"rendered":"

Audio recording is automated for accessibility. Humans wrote and edited the story. See our AI policy<\/a>, and give us feedback<\/a>.<\/p>\n

CORPUS CHRISTI \u2014 Dolores Huerta, the iconic Latina labor and civil rights leader, addressed Texas Democrats in a surprise Q&A on stage at the state party\u2019s convention Friday, urging the crowd of rank-and-file activists to go all out in stirring up voter turnout this fall and calling for a massive local organizing push to turn Texas blue.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe eyes of the world are going to be on Texas \u2014 what happens in Texas is going to affect the United States of America,\u201d the 96-year-old Huerta said in conversation with Harris County Commissioner Lesley Briones. \u201cEvery single person has got to commit between now and Election Day in November that we\u2019re going to have to work very hard and just organize, organize, organize.\u201d <\/p>\n

Huerta is best known for co-founding what grew into the United Farm Workers of America union with Cesar Chavez, one of the nation\u2019s most prominent Latino civil rights leaders. She has advocated for years for higher wages, labor protections and women\u2019s rights.<\/p>\n

Huerta ended her time on stage Friday by leading an ebullient crowd in chants of \u201cs\u00ed, se puede,\u201d the United Farm Workers motto she once coined \u2014 Spanish for \u201cyes, you can\u201d \u2014 that has gained widespread use in labor and political causes.<\/p>\n

Her unannounced appearance at the convention in downtown Corpus Christi comes as Democrats in Texas and across the country are looking to reestablish themselves as the party of working people and win back Latino voters, particularly those in blue-collar jobs, who swung massively to the right in 2024. Ample polling has shown that many Latinos are returning to the Democratic fold amid discontent with Republicans for not delivering on pocketbook campaign promises.<\/p>\n

In March, The New York Times published an explosive investigation<\/a> in which Huerta and two other women alleged that Chavez, who died in 1993, had sexually abused them and promoted a culture of machismo that viewed women as \u201csex objects.\u201d<\/p>\n

Briones opened her Q&A with Huerta by asking how she navigated and stayed motivated while organizing in a male-dominated environment that subjected her to abuse.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we make our decisions, we think, how will this decision help what is the most important thing to me and the people I\u2019m trying to help?\u201d Huerta said. \u201cWe make the decisions in a selfless way, and always having faith in ourselves and the work that we\u2019re doing, and thinking, how is this going to affect everyone else?\u201d<\/p>\n

In a statement<\/a> after The New York Times\u2019 report, Huerta detailed Chavez\u2019 abuse and said, \u201cI carried this secret for as long as I did because building the movement and securing farmworker rights was my life\u2019s work. \u2026 The farmworker movement has always been bigger and far more important than any one individual. Cesar\u2019s actions do not diminish the permanent improvements achieved for farmworkers with the help of thousands of people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Huerta urged Texas Democrats on Friday to get out the vote by organizing in their local communities and hosting gatherings, such as jewelry-making and Tupperware parties, to commit people to voting. She spoke about voting as the means to solve injustices and fight back against the Trump administration\u2019s immigration and border security policy, and to pass the long-stalled Equal Rights Amendment.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll of the punishment that we have seen that has been spent on our community \u2014 I mean, if we\u2019re not angry at this point, we should be,\u201d she said. \u201cThe way you make change is by getting people together, taking direct action and making it political, getting people to vote. \u2026 It\u2019s that simple.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yet, any major surge in turnout will require a herculean lift in Texas, which has spent decades logging among the lowest voting rates of any state in the country \u2014 most recently coming fifth-to-last in 2024.<\/p>\n

As she prepared to leave the stage, Huerta led the crowd in a thunderous call and response that she said she wanted to reach the \u201chaters\u201d: \u201cWho\u2019s got the power?\u201d she asked. \u201cWe\u2019ve got the power!\u201d Texas Democrats responded. \u201cWhat kind of power?\u201d she asked. \u201cPeople power!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou are going to save democracy in Texas, you are going to save democracy in the United States of America,\u201d Huerta said. \u201cYou are going to make an impact on the entire world. All of you right here, you can make this happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Disclosure: New York Times has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune\u2019s journalism. Find a complete\u00a0list of them here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Audio recording is automated for accessibility. Humans wrote and edited the story. See our AI policy, and give…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":352414,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[2133,27,2963,29,28,2279],"class_list":["post-352413","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-democrats","tag-texas","tag-texas-democratic-party","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news","tag-voting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352413","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=352413"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352413\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/352414"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=352413"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=352413"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=352413"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}