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Thursday, September 2, 2010

Linda Chavez-Thompson

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Enlarge photo by: Elise Hu

Democrat Linda Chavez-Thompson on January 4, 2010

Linda Chavez-Thompson (born 1944) is a San Antonio-based labor organizer, Democratic activist, and former national AFL-CIO executive vice president. Raised in Lubbock, Texas, she is a 2010 candidate for lieutenant governor and serves as a vice-chair of the Democratic National Committee.

Chavez-Thompson began her labor career in 1967 in Lubbock, where she worked for the local Laborers’ union. After that, she organized garbage haulers and municipal workers in San Antonio before moving on to lead the city’s American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees. She held her post at the AFL-CIO between 1995 and 2007, where she focused on immigration reform and the organization’s push for an increase in minimum wage. In 2008, she served as a superdelegate to the Democratic National Committee. Labor leaders also sought her help with a $20 million outreach program aimed at Latino voters for the Obama campaign.

The daughter of a sharecropper, Chavez-Thompson left school in 9th grade to work in the cotton fields of Lorenzo, Texas. Her husband Robert Thompson, who was president of the Amalgamated Transit Local 694 in San Antonio, died in 1993.

On Feb. 12, the San Antonio Express-News endorsed Chavez-Thompson in the Democratic primary for Lieutenant Governor.

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