TX-LG: Steelworkers union leader emerges as sleeper in Texas' Democratic lieutenant governor primary
Steelworkers union leader Marcos Vélez has emerged as a dark horse candidate in the Democratic race for lieutenant governor, receiving the bulk of his financial support from a donor trail that leads back to the Texas Democratic Party’s top campaign partner, Texas Majority PAC.
Over the weekend, Vélez’s campaign received another major boost: a coveted endorsement from the Texas AFL-CIO Committee on Political Education, the political arm of the largest labor union federation in the state whose backing is among the biggest a Democratic candidate can land.
The mix of labor support and big money is presenting an opening for Vélez in his primary against four-term state Rep. Vikki Goodwin of Austin. Whoever earns the nomination will no less face an improbable battle to unseat Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, the powerful and popular presiding officer of the Texas Senate with nearly $40 million in his campaign coffers.
Less than 40 days from the March 3 primary election, Vélez has been raking in endorsements from labor and beyond, including one from the Houston LGBTQ+ Political Caucus, the oldest civil rights organization in the south dedicated to LGBTQ issues. In a statement Monday, Vélez said he was “honored to have the support of the Texas AFL-CIO and their hundreds of thousands of union brothers and sisters.”
https://www.texastribune.org/2026/01/26/marcos-velez-texas-lieutenant-governor-democratic-primary-vikki-goodwin/