CWA Statement on Texas’s 18th Congressional District Primary

The following statement is from CWA President Claude Cummings Jr.:

Texas’s 18th Congressional District has long held a special role in the fight for civil rights. It is the seat of power that launched the careers of champions from Barbara Jordan to Sheila Jackson Lee to Sylvester Turner. Now, the torch of the 18th has been passed to Representative Christian Menefee, a leader who has already shown himself to be a fighter for working people as the first Black Harris County Attorney.

I also want to express my gratitude for a true champion for working people, Congressman Al Green, who was steadfast in his support of the labor movement through his decades of public service and fought for our civil rights. In fact, he's often been ahead of his time. Everyone is seeing the attack on voting rights and civil rights today. Well back in 2008, when Texas officials tried to make it harder for Prairie View A&M students to vote, Congressman Green led the entire Congressional Black Caucus to demand that the Department of Justice step in and protect equal opportunity to the ballot box.

While I count both candidates as true friends of working people, this election also marked a great loss for the people of Houston. This election was shaped and deformed by a Supreme Court that ruled to unwind decades of voter gains and remove all voting power for Black and brown communities. Houston’s voting maps were redrawn because the Voting Rights Act was gutted.

Now that the election is over, it is time for us to unite against the real threat to democracy. Working people across this country are watching what happened in Houston, in Louisiana, in Alabama, in Florida, in Mississippi, and in Tennessee. When politicians grow so bold as to think that it is they who pick the voters, we must exercise the power of our ballots to show that power rests always with the people. Now is the time to put aside the politics of the primary season and focus on electing leaders who will defend our democracy against the bullies and the billionaires.

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About CWA: The Communications Workers of America represents working people in telecommunications, customer service, media, airlines, health care, public service and education, manufacturing, tech, and other fields.

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