Lupe Valdez is a woman, a Hispanic, a Democrat and a lesbian — and, come Jan. 1, she’s entering the ranks of Texas good ol’ boys. Valdez is becoming Sheriff Lupe.
Any one description — female, Latina, Democrat and openly gay — would have qualified Valdez’s election as Dallas County sheriff for the local history books. But all four?
…“It has not that much to do with me,” Valdez, 57, a retired federal law enforcement officer, said as she sat in her modest campaign office in Dallas’s largely Hispanic Oak Cliff neighborhood. The former migrant farm worker, who picked green beans and beets as a child and went on to a career in the military and federal government, and who recently earned a master’s degree in criminology, lives in the neighborhood, with its multitude of bungalows, taquerias and Latino-owned auto body shops.
“It speaks very well of Dallas County, for them to be comfortable in looking at my credentials and feeling comfortable that I could do the job,” she said. “What does female, what does Hispanic, what does any of this have to do with this? What is important is your experience, your ability and your willingness to do the job.”
— Story from The Washington Post