Cristina Tzintzún Ramirez, a longtime organizer of immigrant, worker, and Latinx communities, has pressured Texas politicians to enact progressive policies from the outside for years. Now, she’s looking to to enact change from within the system. On Monday morning, Tzintzún Ramirez announced that she’s joining the crowded Democratic primary to unseat U.S. Senator John Cornyn in 2020.
Tzintzún Ramirez has built a reputation as one of the foremost progressive organizers in the state of Texas. In 2003, she became the executive director of the Workers Defense Project, a labor advocacy organization that first made a name for itself by organizing immigrant workers in the Austin construction industry in winning a mandatory rest break ordinance. After Trump’s election in 2016, she founded and led Jolt, a political organizing group aimed at mobilizing young Latinx voters in Texas.
