\u201cWe\u2019re taking small steps to make City Hall the people\u2019s house and just making folks know that we can pass good policy together,\u201d Salinas says.<\/p>\n
In many ways, advocacy is her blood. Her great-grandfather immigrated from Mexico to the US, working as a janitor at a meatpacking plant, sweeping the corrals, before buying that same plant and growing it into a business that employed more than 500 people across South Texas. \u201cIt was one of the first Latino businesses of its kind at that time,\u201d Salinas says. Later, he built schools in Salinas\u2019s hometown of Laredo\u2014to her family, it was the epitome of the American dream. \u201cHe came from nothing and built this really remarkable thing,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
That legacy stuck with her. In high school, she organized a walkout in protest of a bill that would have made it a felony to aid or provide shelter to an undocumented immigrant. \u201cGrowing up on the border, that\u2019s basically everybody, all the time,\u00a0 everywhere,\u201d she says. So, when she learned students across the country were protesting, she\u2014a self-described \u201cnerdy debate kid\u201d\u2014joined them, convincing the jocks and cheerleaders to cut class for the cause. \u201cThat whole process\u2014it just turned on a light bulb in me, helping people find their voice and fight for themselves,\u201d Salinas says. \u201cThere\u2019s nothing like it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Her father, a lawyer, encouraged that growing love of advocacy. While attending the University of Texas at Austin, she became national president of the College Democrats, helping organize for President Barack Obama\u2019s presidential campaign. And, in 2012, she gave a speech that would also become her coming-out story.<\/p>\n
Up until that moment, only her parents and close friends knew she was gay, but with marriage equality dominating national debates, Salinas decided to speak her truth on the convention floor<\/a>. \u201cIt felt like an important platform to maybe make other people feel more comfortable in their own skin,\u201d she says. She identified as an \u201cLGBT Latina,\u201d deliberately using the acronym, guessing that some of her relatives who didn\u2019t speak English might not grasp the term. Headlines followed, with Texas newspapers referring to her as \u201cyoung, gay, and Latina,\u201d she says\u2014\u201ceverything President Obama would want in a surrogate.\u201d Then came the phone calls: \u201cMijita, the paper says you\u2019re gay. What does this mean?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n The overwhelming support outweighed the discomfort. As she left the arena, kids approached her: \u201cI can\u2019t believe you said it,\u201d she remembers them telling her. \u201cI\u2019m gonna tell my mom tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n Originally from Laredo, Alejandra Salinas is adamant about advocating for Houstonians.<\/p>\n She\u2019s seen that visibility about her sexuality and ethnicity as an LGBTQ Latina as both an honor and a responsibility. \u201cWhen I walk down the street holding my wife\u2019s hand, somebody might see that and might feel a little bit better about themselves\u2014maybe they\u2019ll find their identity, and that\u2019s a superpower,\u201d she says. \u201cIf I can make these communities feel a bit more seen\u2014know that this is also their house and they deserve to be here\u2014that\u2019s beautiful.\u201d<\/p>\n Wanting to be versatile and better understand the working world, she graduated from law school at Boston College, then clerked for a Ninth Circuit judge in Montana in 2016. That\u2019s when she got a call asking for her help. \u201cMost lawyers, after they clerk, they take a bar trip. \u2026They relax,\u201d Salinas says, but instead, she joined Hillary Clinton\u2019s campaign in Tampa, leading LGBTQ outreach across Florida and serving as regional field director in Kissimmee.<\/p>\n Heartbroken after Clinton\u2019s loss, she left for Houston, where she joined her current firm, Susman Godfrey<\/a>. There, she became the second Latina ever to make partner. That\u2019s also where she met her wife, Elizabeth. The two married five years ago and are expecting their first child in November.<\/p>\n Though law remains a passion (Salinas is currently working on a major case defending authors, including George R.R. Martin, against OpenAI), after President Donald Trump\u2019s reelection, she and Elizabeth decided it was time to do more. \u201cI think he won because people didn\u2019t believe in government. \u2026 I thought the best way to combat that is by making local government\u2014the government you interact with most\u2014work for people and for people to see that,\u201d she says. City Council felt like the best place to do it, but she didn\u2019t have many expectations. \u201cI just wanted from day one to be making an impact, because this is a special election,\u201d says Salinas. She won the December 2025 runoff with 59.3 percent of the vote<\/a>, beating opponent Dwight A. Boykins. \u201cWe have two years to prove our worth and show that we\u2019re making a difference.\u201d<\/p>\n Since taking office, Salinas says she\u2019s heard Houstonians raise concerns similar to residents everywhere\u2014trash collection, road conditions, infrastructure, ICE cooperation\u2014alongside bigger questions about climate change, affordability, and the city\u2019s dependence on oil and gas.<\/p>\n She\u2019s doing her due diligence to respond\u2014pushing for a worksite safety ordinance for city contractors, modeled on a similar Harris County law; a tenant-protections ordinance addressing eviction and housing standards; and new dumping rules requiring contractors to document their waste and pass a final inspection\u2014already standard in Austin, Dallas, Chicago, and Los Angeles. She feels like progress is being made\u2014even when there\u2019s pushback. \u201cWhen I came in, everyone told me you can\u2019t pass an immigration ordinance. \u2018You can\u2019t try to repair how HPD interacts with ICE,\u2019 and we passed it overwhelmingly with the mayor\u2019s support, all through community coalition building.\u201d<\/p>\n Even with its issues\u2014Houston has the highest poverty rate<\/a> of any major city\u2014Salinas still believes Houston is the greatest city in America, and its diversity is an asset. \u201cI think we\u2019re at the precipice of all the exciting opportunities and challenges that this country faces because of our diversity,\u201d Salinas says. \u201cWe have the opportunity to set the example for the rest of the country on how things should be done, and we have many benefits of being, in some ways, a more affordable city.\u201d<\/p>\n Salinas helped introduce an ordinance that allows people to sign up online for public comment meetings. She also hosts monthly office hours to meet with citizens one-on-one.<\/p>\n But progress and collaboration are hard when parties can\u2019t agree. Salinas says she’s cautiously optimistic heading into the midterms that that could change. With \u201cremarkable candidates\u201d on the ballot, a change in Austin leadership could unlock \u201csensible\u201d ordinances she says state Republicans have blocked, including one guaranteeing Houstonians the right to water breaks. She references Gov. Greg Abbott\u2019s threat to pull around\u00a0$150 million in funding<\/a> over a Houston ordinance protecting immigrants and Fourth Amendment rights and state Republicans stripping the city of control over its own electricity provider\u2014the city\u2019s only remaining power over its grid is approving rate increases, which CenterPoint can ultimately bypass by going straight to the state, she says.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s crazy that we are fighting with the governor of Texas about protecting the Fourth Amendment,\u201d she says. \u201cAnd that we have no power over the company that controls our power grid because Republicans don\u2019t like Democrats in Houston doing it. That\u2019s got to end. We\u2019ve got to change leadership in Austin.\u201d<\/p>\n Her answers to making noteworthy change in the city depend on two things: thoughtful collaboration and voting. Texas isn\u2019t reliably red in her view\u2014\u201cIt\u2019s a non-voting state,\u201d she says, pointing to her own election, when just 43,567 people voted out of the 1.2 million registered. That\u2019s less than 4 percent.<\/p>\n She reminds people that all issues that affect their lives typically show up on the ballot. \u201cWhen you step outside your door and drive on the street, that\u2019s politics. When you turn on your water faucet\u2014whether the water you drink is safe, whether there\u2019s enough of it\u2014that is all politics. If the school [your child is] going to treats them well, that is all politics,\u201d she says. \u201cWe cannot afford to say \u2018That is happening over there,\u2019 and remove ourselves from it.\u201d<\/p>\n Vote, she says, and things will change.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Houston\u2019s first gay Latina city councilmember has made history, but the attention she\u2019s getting goes far beyond identity.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":446169,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[56,58,57],"class_list":["post-446168","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-houston","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446168","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=446168"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446168\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/446169"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=446168"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=446168"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=446168"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/hou_02_NickiEvansPhoto_AlejandraSalinas_xuz8sq.jpg\"\/)
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