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UPDATED: Lupe Valdez, a Democratic candidate for governor, often notes migrant worker roots

By W. Gardner Selby
December 6, 2017

Democrat Lupe Valdez, who has resigned as Dallas County sheriff and declared her candidacy for governor of Texas, often underscores her family’s background as migrant farm workers.

Valdez told reporters in Austin Wednesday: “I was born the eighth child of migrant farm workers.” Similarly, Valdez told the Democratic National Convention in July 2016: “I am the youngest of eight children born to migrant workers.”

When we sought to corroborate such details, Kiefer Odell of her campaign emailed us the two photos–dating from 1950 or 1951, he said–that we have posted afresh with this updated story. In one photo, Odell said, the future sheriff appears next to her mother in a field that her family was working and in the other she’s between her mother and a brother.

Elaborating, Odell said Valdez was born in San Antonio. “Her family would migrate to fields up north to work during the spring and summer,” Odell said.

Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, who announced his intentions to seek a second term this summer, grew up in Duncanville; his father was a stockbroker and insurance agent, his mother a homemaker, Brian Sweany noted in a 2013 Texas Monthly story. Democrat Andrew White of Houston, whose late father, Mark, was an attorney who served as governor from 1983 through 1986, has indicated his intention to run for governor as well, though he has yet to file his candidacy.

See more about what’s previously been reported on Valdez’s background in the Austin American-Statesman story posted here.

What have you heard lately that might merit a fact-check?

UPDATE: At 9:55 a.m. Dec. 8, 2017, this story was updated to fold in and describe the photographs provided by Valdez’s campaign.

Our Sources

C-SPAN video of Lupe Valdez, Dallas County sheriff, addressing Democratic National Convention, July 28, 2016

Biographical commentary, Lupe Valdez, Texas Monthly, December 2005

News story, "An Improbable Victor Becomes a Texas Sheriff," The New York Times, Nov. 10, 2004

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