Next Tuesday, March 3, is Super Tuesday in the U.S.—a day when the most number of states hold their political party primaries for the election that will take place in November of the same year. Both Democratic Party and Republican Party in Texas host elections on Super Tuesday, and this year they are calling for candidates in the running to represent the Lone Star State in the U.S. Senate.
Cristina Tzintzún Ramirez is one of twelve in the running to become the Democratic candidate who will then challenge incumbent U.S. Senator for Texas, John Cornyn. Every two years, a third of the U.S. Senate is up for reelection. In 2018, then-Congressman for Texas Beto O’Rourke ran a competitive campaign that received national attention against incumbent U.S. Senator for Texas Ted Cruz. Although he surpassed polling expectations with 48.3% of the votes, it was not enough to beat Senator Cruz. This time, Tzintzún Ramirez has a similar opportunity to beat Cornyn. First, she must clinch the Party nomination.
Tzintzún Ramirez was born in Ohio; she is the daughter of a Mexican mother from a farm-working family and an entrepreneur father of Irish descent from Ohio. While growing up, she traveled with her family between Mexico and Ohio due to the family fair-trade Mexican jewelry business. This experience taught her to value different cultures and recognize that we all want “our families to be safe, healthy, and treated with respect.”She attended high school in Ohio, where she helped out newly-arrived Mexican immigrants.
Cristina moved to Austin to attend the University of Texas. There, she felt comfortable around the Latino diversity that she missed while living in Ohio. Upon graduation, she co-founded the Workers Defense Project and “successfully took on some of the most powerful corporations in the state to ensure that hard-working families have good, safe jobs.”
In 2016, she launched Jolt—a nonprofit that encourages young Latinos to register and mobilize to vote, as well as become activists for the causes they are passionate about. Among the issues, Jolt has led campaigns to protect immigrant families and make college affordable for thousands of Texas students.
After years of organizing workers and young people of color to stand up for their rights and interests, Tzintzún Ramirez is running for public office for the first time. She is campaigning to create a government that actually represents its constituents and solves their problems. Among her priorities are: achieving high-quality healthcare for every Texan, creating millions of good jobs that positions Texas as the leader in our global transition towards a green future, protecting the rights of immigrant families and communities of color, and ensuring that every single Texan that wants to go to college can afford it and graduate debt-free.
“Over the coming months,” her website states, “we’re going to build a historic, grassroots campaign to remake Texas, where these ideas are not privileges for a few – but the rights of everyone.”
Latino Victory, U.S. Representative for Texas Joaquín Castro, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Courage to Change PAC have endorsed Cristina.
On March 3, if none of the twelve candidates receives at least 50% of the vote during the Democratic primary, the top two finishers will advance to a runoff on May 26.