• Press Release

EMILYs List Congratulates Michelle Vallejo on Advancing to the General Election in Texas’ 15th Cong

June 17, 2022

For Immediate Release
June 17, 2022 

EMILYs List Congratulates Michelle Vallejo on Advancing to the General Election in Texas’ 15th Congressional District

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today EMILYs List, the nation’s largest resource for women in politics, congratulates Michelle Vallejo on advancing to the general election in Texas’ 15th Congressional District. Laphonza Butler, president of EMILYs List, released the following statement:

“EMILYs List is thrilled that Michelle Vallejo, ‘the people’s candidate,’ has won the Democratic primary runoff election to represent Texas’ 15th Congressional District. South Texans carried Vallejo to victory; we know that once again this community will throw their full support behind her in November. At a time when abortion rights have fallen under attack in Texas and across the country, Vallejo will fight tenaciously for our rights in Congress. Vallejo is a tireless advocate for working-class South Texans, and we’re eager to see how this distinguished leader continues advancing reproductive freedom, economic opportunity, and immigration justice.” 

Michelle Vallejo is a business and community leader from Alton, Texas. Vallejo, whose parents immigrated to the U.S. from Mexico as children, comes from a big family of farm workers and business owners. After she attended Columbia University to study political science and history, she returned to Alton to help her father run the flea market that her family has operated for almost 25 years. Seeing the importance of community and entrepreneurship, Vallejo co-founded Hustle+Socialize, an annual conference to support and empower minority women in business in South Texas. Vallejo was nominated to run for Congress by her community through a local initiative called LUPE Votes, which recognizes community leaders ready to fight for working class South Texans. “All along la frontera and throughout South Texas, we look out for each other because we know that no one else will,” she has said. When elected, she will give her community a powerful new voice in Congress.

EMILYs List, the nation’s largest resource for women in politics, has raised over $700 million to elect Democratic pro-choice women candidates. With a grassroots community of over five million members, EMILY's List helps Democratic women win competitive campaigns – across the country and up and down the ballot – by recruiting and training candidates, supporting and helping build strong campaigns, researching the issues that impact women and families, running nearly $50 million in independent expenditures in the last cycle alone, and turning out women voters and voters of color to the polls. Since our founding in 1985, we have helped elect the country's first woman as vice president, 159 women to the House, 26 to the Senate, 16 governors, and more than 1,300 women to state and local office. More than 40% of the candidates EMILYs List has helped elect to Congress have been women of color. After the 2016 election, more than 60,000 women reached out to EMILY's List about running for office laying the groundwork for the next decade of candidates for local, state, and national offices. In our effort to elect more women in offices across the country, we have created our Run to Win program, expanded our training program, including a Training Center online, and trained thousands of women.