Meet the woman who could turn Texas purple [View all]
I met Leticia van de Putte at an event a couple of weeks ago. I think that she may have a better chance than Wendy Davis to win in November in large part because the likely GOP nominee for Lt Governor is a racist nut case. Here is a good CNN article on Leticia http://www.cnn.com/2014/04/22/politics/van-de-putte-texas/index.html?sr=sharebar_twitter
Her Republican opponent could be one of two people who are currently engaged in a runoff for the Republican nomination. One is current Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst. The other is state Sen. Dan Patrick.
While Dewhurst has the support of establishment Republicans, as he did in his unsuccessful primary against now-Sen. Ted Cruz in 2010, he is shifting his policies further to the right, trying to overtake Patrick, the front-runner. Patrick is running to the far right, making immigration and his self-described "illegal invasion" a central tenet of his campaign.
"As a Latino, we're over it," Ramiro Cavazos, president and CEO of the San Antonio Chamber of Commerce, said of the Republican candidates' platforms. "I think it's a very backward approach."
Van de Putte called Patrick's campaign "entertaining" and decried the use of immigration as a wedge issue to divide the Republican base and suppress Democratic, especially Latino, turnout.
At the event I attended, we had two or three Hispanic republicans attend. There are large number of Hispanic republicans who think that Dan Patrick is a racist and that should help Leticia.
On May 3, Leticia will be in my county for a Cinco de Mayo event. It should be a great event