Vol. 77/No. 1      January 14, 2013

The election was set by Texas Gov. Rick Perry after the incumbent, Mario Gallegos, died shortly before being elected in November.

Henderson is running against a field of four Democrats, two Republicans, one candidate with no party affiliation listed, and a Green Party candidate. The entire campaign will last five weeks, barring a run-off election if no candidate wins a majority of the vote on January 26.

Door-to-door campaigners have met up with scores of workers who have bought the Militant newspaper.

“For immigrants like me,” Patricio Minoso, a carpenter from Honduras, told campaign supporters, “these elections here didn’t help at all. I know almost a dozen people who were deported from Houston this year for nothing more than traffic tickets. That’s why I like to see a party talk about legalization.”

Campaign supporters have been canvassing new readers who signed up for the Militant in recent weeks to discuss the worsening conditions they face on the job and in society. They find that workers want to talk about what they can do to take on attacks from the bosses and the government.

“I am excited about Henderson’s campaign,” said Christy Mendoza, a member of the Revolutionary Socialist Alliance at University of Texas-Pan American in the Rio Grande Valley.

“It is refreshing to see a candidate who is a part of the struggles of working people and who stands alongside, fighting discrimination, low wages, and the overall exploitation of the working class.” Mendoza and other members of the RSA are planning to campaign with Henderson in Houston.

Supporters also took the campaign to workers at the port of Houston Dec. 29 and spoke with members of the International Longshoremen’s Association who are facing attacks from the shipping and stevedoring bosses. The day before, their fight for a new contract had been extended another 35 days.

“I’m concerned about a strike because we’re all in debt and, with the economy the way it is, there’s nowhere else to work,” longshoreman Felix Ramirez told campaign supporters at the ILA Local 24 hiring hall. “But we have to stand together. This fight is about keeping what we’ve fought for: guaranteed hours, pay from the container royalty, and safety. All the bosses care about is production; to them we’re a dime a dozen.”

Supporters are working to get the Militant into the hands of more and more people in Houston’s working-class neighborhoods to publicize the political demands Henderson supports.

The campaign is calling for workers to fight for a government-funded program to create millions of needed jobs. It demands legalization for all immigrants and supports struggles against all forms of discrimination and attacks against the rights and living standards of working people worldwide.

Out of these fights, Henderson says, workers will advance solidarity and transform themselves on the road to taking political power out of the hands of the propertied rulers and building a workers and farmers government.  
 
 
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