Fellow Democrats,

Please join me in congratulating Crystal Viagrán, our Hispanic Outreach Director for the Coordinated Campaign. It’s hard to imagine that there are many of you who have not worked with Crystal in the past, since her experience in county and state Democratic politics runs deep.

But just in case, here is a quick rundown of her numerous activities on our behalf: Hispanic Outreach Director for the ’08 TCDP Coordinated Campaign, Hispanic Outreach Director for Lee Leffingwell’s mayoral campaign, volunteer for ’04 and ’06 TCDP Coordinated Campaigns, TCDP precinct chair, SDEC Committeewoman, delegate to Travis County and Texas Democratic Conventions and founding member and political director of Latinos for Texas.  Most importantly, I have seen her time and time again organize and carry out effective blockwalks.

The list of Crystal’s accomplishments goes on, but you get the picture. Her political activism has been growing strong since she was 14 and volunteered for Maria Berriozabal’s mayoral campaign in San Antonio. Her experience in local politics, grassroots campaigning and energizing Hispanic voters will be invaluable to our success in November. I have made it a priority of the Travis County Democratic Party to invest more resources in Hispanic turnout than ever before—we did it in 2008 with Crystal’s help, and we are doing even more in 2010. 

“We need a multi-faceted approach that includes community events, a vote-by-mail program, daily block-walks, a strong mail program and phone calls,” Crystal says. “We need our best Democrats to talk to their friends and families, and we need our Democratic candidates and elected officials to be out in the community and responsive to constituent needs, because that’s where the true buy-in takes place. Unless we show these voters that we are building their communities and improving their everyday lives, they are going to think we only come around at election time.”

As you can see, we are lucky to have Crystal on our team. We are also fortunate to have great candidates on our statewide ballot like Hector Uribe, who is running for Texas Land Commissioner. Read his take on the campaign in this week’s “On the Record with Diane Holloway.”

Hispanic voters have the potential to decide this election and elect Bill White governor. We are building a team that will help turn that potential into reality.  Tenemos menos de cuatro meses hasta las elecciones 2010.  No podemos hacerlo sin tu ayuda!

Sincerely,

Andy Brown
Travis County Democratic Party Chair