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First gay Hispanic woman elected as Dallas sheriff
One-time migrant farm worker Lupe Valdez made history this week when she became the first woman and the first Hispanic elected Dallas County sheriff, not to mention the first Democrat to win the post since the mid-1970s.
She also is openly gay.
The Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund, a political action committee that endorsed Valdez and trained her on answering questions related to her sexual orientation, hailed her as the "first-ever Latina lesbian sheriff."
"I can imagine my mom crying for joy last night as this happened," Valdez said Wednesday, a day after defeating Republican Danny Chandler. In Valdez's vision, her deceased mother looked down from heaven and watched her girl go from picking beans in a field to leading a 1,900-employee law enforcement agency with a $90 million budget.
The road to the sheriff's office started years ago when Valdez's mother encouraged her to better herself through education. After working two or three jobs at a time to pay for college, Valdez became a federal agent. She worked undercover on drug, organized crime and fraud cases for U.S. Customs.
Now, she'll take over a department tainted by scandal.
Questionable business dealings by 21-year incumbent Sheriff Jim Bowles resulted in a grand-jury investigation and an indictment that was eventually thrown out. Chandler, a 29-year sheriff's department veteran, ousted Bowles in the Republican primary.
Chandler, 53, attacked his former boss during the campaign, hoping to distance himself from Bowles. But that strategy failed.
The election campaign was generally cordial until the end, when Chandler made an issue of Valdez's endorsement by the Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund, based in Washington. Chandler issued a statement Wednesday expressing his confidence in Valdez's ability to restore trust to the office and saying she "will have the privilege of leading the finest crime fighters in the country."
Margo Frasier, who heads the 1,350-employee Travis County Sheriff's Department in Austin, expressed her delight with Valdez's election but said a woman serving as sheriff faces hurdles.
"The reality of it is, when you make mistakes that anybody makes, they decide you made that mistake because you're a woman," Frasier said.
But once the "good ol' boys in Dallas County" realize Valdez is competent, Frasier said, she will earn their respect and her gender, race and sexual orientation won't matter.
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