Dallas, TX – With just a few short days before Texas begins early voting in the midterm elections, today, immigrant youth members of United We Dream Action (UWDA) announced their endorsement of Julie Johnson to oust Texas House District 115 Rep. Matt Rinaldi. Rinaldi is a far-right extremist who called deportation agents on an entire House gallery of predominantly young people of color after he voted to pass one of the country’s most aggressive racial profiling bills, Texas Senate Bill 4 (SB 4).
“Texas is at a crossroads and immigrant youth are charged up to make sure that Texas is a place where our immigrant community can live and thrive without fear of deportation. Julie Johnson is committed to bringing our voices and experiences to our fight in Texas,” said Giovanni Torres, a DACA recipient, a member of UWDA’s endorsement committee and Mavericks United at University of Texas at Arlington.
United We Dream Action, the largest immigrant youth-led organization in the country, is endorsing candidates for the first time during this critical election year. UWDA is taking the fight directly to voters to urge them to elect new champions and punish those who stand in our way to win respect and dignity for all immigrants and communities of color. Aside from Texas, immigrant youth are contacting more than 500,000 voters in key targeted races in Florida, New Mexico, and California.
“Texas has been my home since I migrated here with my family at the age of 12, and we can not let Rinaldi continue to spread his racist agenda in our community any longer. He has shown us his true colors and we must vote him out,” said Julieta Garibay, co-founder and Texas State Director of United We Dream Action based in Austin. “November 6th will be the first time I cast a vote in the midterm elections since I became a U.S. Citizen this April. I am ready to vote out racist Rinaldi and elect a fighter like Julie Johnson who knows that immigrants and refugees are here to stay! We know that Julie Johnson, as the representative of Texas district 115, will be accountable to immigrants and communities of color.”
As a mother, Julie Johnson has defended the rights of her immigrant children and as an attorney, has defended the rights of workers. She is committed to the fight for equal opportunity for all, in her life and career, and as the next representative of Texas district 115.
Home to one of the largest Latino and immigrant populations in the country, Texas is also home to 115,700 DACA recipients, and at least 182,000 DACA-eligible young people. Within this large group, there are at least 436,000 U.S. citizens living in the same household, 99,000 of whom are of age and eligible to vote. This year, more than 400,000 new voters have registered to vote in Texas, more than one in four of whom are Latino.