candidate profile: maría luisa alvarado

María Luisa Alvarado originally planned to serve Texas along with her brother. Felix Alvarado, however, was weeded out during the primary season when the check for his filing fee bounced and Chris Bell was selected as the Democratic nominee for Texas Governor. María Luisa continued to pursue the position of Lieutenant Governor despite her brother's exit from the gubernatorial race. After the primary, she was forced into a runoff with her nearest competitor, Benjamin Z. Grant. On April 11, she beat Grant by nearly twenty percentage points and secured her spot on the Democratic ticket for the November 7 election.

María Luisa was born and raised in San Antonio, Texas. She is one of twelve children in a family with a strong history of serving the country: all eight of her brothers have served in the military, with four serving in Vietnam and her youngest brother serving currently in Uzbekistan as a part of the Iraq conflict. Her younger sister served in the Texas Air National Guard. María Luisa is herself a veteran of the Texas Air National Guard and the United States Air Force.

María Luisa earned her bachelor's degree in sociology from the University of Texas at San Antonio in 1988. After graduation she began to work for the National Veterans Outreach Program until funding was cut and she resumed work in healthcare and social services, with special regard to substance abuse treatment and prevention. Because of her strong Texan roots and her outrage at the incumbent, María Luisa has decided to run for office.

It is due to her analyses and critical thinking about current issues affecting Texans and the lack of appropriate response by state leaders that has challenged her to run for elected office. María Luisa believes that all tax payers have a right to expect that their government work effectively and efficiently to serve all its citizens equally and fairly.

As Lieutenant Governor, Alvarado would promote better public education and safer schools, tax relief, protecting the environment, small businesses, safe communities, and "immigration reform without concrete fences." Alvarado also wants a better healthcare system that would extend to "children, elderly, indigent, underemployed, unemployed, [and] uninsured college students."

With your help, María Luisa can defeat the incumbent Republican Lieutenant Governor David Dewhurst in the November general election. Please visit her campaign website to learn more about her and her positions on the issues. Just as importantly, please take the time to contribute to her campaign. She faces an uphill battle, but with our support and our vote, we can elect a strong Democrat like María Luisa Alvarado to be the next Lieutenant Governor of Texas.