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Michelle Vallejo
Michelle Vallejo (Democratic Party) ran for election to the U.S. House to represent Texas' 15th Congressional District. She lost in the general election on November 5, 2024.
Biography
Michelle Vallejo was born in Alton, Texas.[1] Vallejo studied political science and history at Columbia University. Vallejo was a business owner and co-founded two organizations focused on community leadership and minority women in business.[2]
Elections
2024
See also: Texas' 15th Congressional District election, 2024
Texas' 15th Congressional District election, 2024 (March 5 Republican primary)
Texas' 15th Congressional District election, 2024 (March 5 Democratic primary)
General election
General election for U.S. House Texas District 15
Incumbent Monica De La Cruz defeated Michelle Vallejo in the general election for U.S. House Texas District 15 on November 5, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
✔ | ![]() | Monica De La Cruz (R) | 57.1 | 127,804 |
![]() | Michelle Vallejo (D) | 42.9 | 95,965 |
Total votes: 223,769 | ||||
![]() | ||||
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Withdrawn or disqualified candidates
- Arthur DiBianca (L)
Democratic primary election
Democratic primary for U.S. House Texas District 15
Michelle Vallejo defeated John Villarreal Rigney in the Democratic primary for U.S. House Texas District 15 on March 5, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
✔ | ![]() | Michelle Vallejo | 74.7 | 21,456 |
![]() | John Villarreal Rigney | 25.3 | 7,268 |
Total votes: 28,724 | ||||
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Republican primary election
Republican primary for U.S. House Texas District 15
Incumbent Monica De La Cruz defeated Vangela Churchill in the Republican primary for U.S. House Texas District 15 on March 5, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
✔ | ![]() | Monica De La Cruz | 88.2 | 30,972 |
![]() | Vangela Churchill | 11.8 | 4,140 |
Total votes: 35,112 | ||||
![]() | ||||
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Libertarian convention
Libertarian convention for U.S. House Texas District 15
Arthur DiBianca advanced from the Libertarian convention for U.S. House Texas District 15 on March 23, 2024.
Candidate | ||
✔ | ![]() | Arthur DiBianca (L) |
![]() | ||||
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Endorsements
Vallejo received the following endorsements.
Pledges
Vallejo signed the following pledges.
2022
See also: Texas' 15th Congressional District election, 2022
General election
General election for U.S. House Texas District 15
Monica De La Cruz defeated Michelle Vallejo and Ross Lynn Leone in the general election for U.S. House Texas District 15 on November 8, 2022.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
✔ | ![]() | Monica De La Cruz (R) | 53.3 | 80,978 |
![]() | Michelle Vallejo (D) ![]() | 44.8 | 68,097 | |
Ross Lynn Leone (L) | 1.9 | 2,814 |
Total votes: 151,889 | ||||
![]() | ||||
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Democratic primary runoff election
Democratic primary runoff for U.S. House Texas District 15
Michelle Vallejo defeated Ruben Ramirez in the Democratic primary runoff for U.S. House Texas District 15 on May 24, 2022.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
✔ | ![]() | Michelle Vallejo ![]() | 50.1 | 6,079 |
![]() | Ruben Ramirez | 49.9 | 6,049 |
Total votes: 12,128 | ||||
![]() | ||||
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Democratic primary election
Democratic primary for U.S. House Texas District 15
The following candidates ran in the Democratic primary for U.S. House Texas District 15 on March 1, 2022.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
✔ | ![]() | Ruben Ramirez | 28.3 | 9,221 |
✔ | ![]() | Michelle Vallejo ![]() | 20.1 | 6,570 |
![]() | John Villarreal Rigney ![]() | 19.2 | 6,268 | |
![]() | Eliza Alvarado | 16.5 | 5,398 | |
![]() | Vanessa Tijerina | 10.6 | 3,470 | |
![]() | Julio Garza ![]() | 5.2 | 1,693 |
Total votes: 32,620 | ||||
![]() | ||||
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Withdrawn or disqualified candidates
- Roberto Haddad (D)
Republican primary election
Republican primary for U.S. House Texas District 15
The following candidates ran in the Republican primary for U.S. House Texas District 15 on March 1, 2022.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
✔ | ![]() | Monica De La Cruz | 56.5 | 16,835 |
![]() | Mauro Garza | 15.3 | 4,544 | |
![]() | Sara Canady ![]() | 9.2 | 2,741 | |
![]() | Ryan Krause | 9.2 | 2,728 | |
Steve Schmuker Jr. | 3.6 | 1,064 | ||
John Lerma | 2.2 | 658 | ||
Jose Aizar Cavazos | 1.7 | 504 | ||
Angela Juarez | 1.4 | 416 | ||
![]() | Vangela Churchill ![]() | 1.0 | 298 |
Total votes: 29,788 | ||||
![]() | ||||
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
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Libertarian convention
Libertarian convention for U.S. House Texas District 15
Ross Lynn Leone advanced from the Libertarian convention for U.S. House Texas District 15 on March 19, 2022.
Candidate | ||
✔ | Ross Lynn Leone (L) |
![]() | ||||
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Campaign themes
2024
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Michelle Vallejo did not complete Ballotpedia's 2024 Candidate Connection survey.
Campaign website
Vallejo’s campaign website stated the following:
“ |
AFFORDABLE, HIGH-QUALITY HEALTHCARE Michelle’s mother passed away at age 46 after battling MS for 15 years and had to travel to Mexico for health care because she couldn’t afford it here in Texas. Michelle knows these are the challenges many South Texas families face, so she will fight to ensure we have access to affordable, quality health care and expand rural hospitals. Michelle believes we should expand Medicare to cover dental, hearing, prescription drugs, mental health, substance abuse treatment, long-term, and disability care. And she supports expanding Medicaid, using the tax dollars that we’re already sending to Washington to provide life-saving care to thousands of South Texans. We need a healthcare system that also works for healthcare providers to do their life-saving work to the best of their abilities and limits the power and influence of insurance companies on our healthcare system. PROTECT & EXPAND SOCIAL SECURITY & MEDICARE Monica and republicans have jeopardized Social Security by raising the retirement age, reducing earnings, and privatizing the system. Social Security has provided our parents and grandparents a dignified retirement for generations, and we can’t risk gambling away their hard-earned benefits on Wall Street. Michelle will always protect the Social Security benefits you’ve earned through a lifetime of work. Michelle strongly supports allowing Medicare to negotiate lower prescription drug prices and expanding Medicare benefits to include dental, vision, and hearing services for our seniors who have earned these benefits. GOOD–PAYING JOBS & A THRIVING ECONOMY Hard-working South Texans deserve a raise. Michelle supports raising the minimum wage and tying it to inflation so wages never fall behind again. No American should have to work two or three jobs to support their family and make ends meet. Michelle will fight to bring funds to the district to help small businesses and expand economic development so that no one has to leave South Texas to make ends meet. Every year, billions of dollars of trade come across our ports of entry, making cross-border trade one of the most essential components of our local economy. Unfortunately, for far too long, South Texas has been exploited by Fortune 500 companies for cheap labor in the maquiladoras along the Texas-Mexico border. Unfair trade deals like the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) shifted good paying, union jobs south of the border for sweatshop wages, including South Texas and the McAllen Foreign Trade Zone. We will fight for trade deals that protect workers, the environment, and human rights while ensuring bad actors are held accountable when violating labor and environmental laws. We need to embrace the border as a place to fuse ideas and culture and encourage innovation to flourish. PROTECTING REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS Republicans are also threatening access to birth control and other reproductive health care. Women should have the right to make their own decisions with their families, faith, and doctors—and not be criminalized for those choices. ENERGY JOBS & INVESTING IN OUR FUTURE Michelle believes Texas should remain the leading energy producer in the country and the world. She supports an all of the above approach that keeps people working in oil and gas while investing significantly in clean and renewable energy to lower costs for Texas families and create thousands of new jobs that can’t be outsourced. We have incredible opportunities to grow Texas energy jobs. Texas is now the leading wind energy AND solar energy producer in America. And wind now provides the second largest share of our energy supply, passing coal last year. We must support the development of these critical energy sources to create jobs, make our grid more reliable and lower costs for Texas families. AFFORDABLE EDUCATION As someone still paying off her student loans, Michelle knows the burden student debt can place on Valley families. Students shouldn’t be crushed under the weight of unreasonable student loans just because they couldn’t afford it or didn’t come from a wealthy family. She supports making trade school and community college tuition-free so more South Texans can attain the skills they need for a good job. IMMIGRATION We must pass an earned pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants who have worked hard and contributed to their communities. We can fix our broken immigration system, treat immigrants seeking the American Dream with humanity, and provide hard-working families with a legal, permanent, and safe path to citizenship. Additionally, we must stop the political grandstanding with Dreamers who are actively participating and making a positive impact in our economic growth through DACA. It is time to legislate a permanent solution like the Dream Act to fully incorporate them into the American economy. MAKING THE WEALTHY PAY THEIR FAIR SHARE Michelle strongly opposes Republican budget cuts to our schools, veterans’ health care and Medicare and Social Security, and believes that we shouldn’t reduce the deficit on the backs of working families when the most privileged in our society aren’t pulling their weight. ENDING GUN VIOLENCE South Texans aren’t afraid of guns—we grew up shooting at gun ranges and hunting on family ranches. But we also know that common-sense gun safety measures can prevent gun violence in America and still respect the Second Amendment. Michelle strongly supports the bipartisan gun safety bill written by Texas Sen. John Cornyn that strengthened background checks and funded red flag laws that will help keep firearms out of the hands of people who are a danger to themselves or others. But Texans overwhelmingly support doing more, like creating universal background checks for all gun sales and stopping permitless concealed carry. EXPANDING VOTING RIGHTS All Americans have a constitutional right to fair and equal access to the ballot, and it’s time to pass electoral reforms that would end gerrymandering of congressional districts and allow early voting, mail-in voting, and campaign finance transparency. CARING FOR OUR VETERANS Unfortunately, our current representative, Monica De La Cruz, has voted to slash benefits for veterans by up to $29.7 Billion. That means an estimated 23% cut for the VA in 2024 compared to 2023. That could translate to 13 million fewer health care appointments for veterans and deep cuts to the agency according to media reports. The current VA healthcare system is failing our veterans as it is. We must raise pay and upgrade our facilities so that we can recruit the best nurses, doctors, and mental health professionals. Additionally, we must fight for a VA hospital in the Rio Grande Valley and increase veterans' access to healthcare resources as close as possible to their homes. Veterans who selflessly fought for our country shouldn't have to drive hours for care. Michelle will also fight to provide housing for homeless veterans and access to mental health services to stop the public health crisis of veteran suicide. We must always stand up for and honor our veterans and their families. LOWERING COSTS FOR FAMILIES The most significant cost facing many families continues to be rising health care and prescription drug costs. Michelle will take on the drug and insurance companies to lower prices and make health care affordable for every South Texas family. Michelle's mother battled multiple sclerosis for 15 long years and had no option but to go to Mexico to afford treatment and medications. No American should be forced across the border for the care they need in the richest country on earth. In addition, Michelle knows we need to strengthen our supply chain by bringing manufacturing jobs back to America. We can lower costs and put Americans to work by keeping those jobs here instead of in other countries. Wages must also keep up with inflation. Therefore, Michelle supports raising the minimum wage and tying it to inflation so Americans' incomes aren't slashed by inflation. Michelle also supports investing in Texas' wind and solar energy production, which can help stabilize our grid and lower electricity costs for South Texas families. Finally, Michelle will also fight to strengthen the region's small businesses and economic development so entrepreneurial families can lift themselves up and provide a better life for their children. LGBTQ EQUALITY & JUSTICE |
” |
—Michelle Vallejo’s campaign website (2024)[4] |
2022
Michelle Vallejo completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2022. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Vallejo's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
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|In 2010, during my sophomore year at Columbia University in New York City, my life would change forever. After years of fighting multiple sclerosis, my mother took her last breath at just 46 years old. It was this moment that would mark a new chapter in my life, one in which I realized that the best way to honor her legacy is to fight for a better future for my family and for all of us.
So I returned to the Rio Grande Valley and got to work. I stepped up to help my dad run our family-owned Pulga Los Portales. I co-founded two organizations to support community leaders and minority women in business. I’ve volunteered with immigrants’ rights organizations. And now, I was nominated to run for Congress by LUPE Votes.
I want us to build stronger and healthier neighborhoods. I have a plan to make this happen, and it starts with fighting for medicare for all and raising the minimum wage to $15.
We’re at a critical moment for the future of our district. I’m ready to fight our pueblo in Congress.
- Affordable Healthcare
- A living wage
- Access to higher education
We need to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour because $7.25 is not enough to pay rent and bills in South Texas (or anywhere in the country). Even though South Texas has one of the lowest unemployment rates, our region has one of the highest poverty rates. It’s time to raise the unlivable low wages that hurt the vast majority of us and only benefit greedy corporations.
We need free public college and trade school, and we need to forgive all student debt once and for all. Sky-rocketing tuition costs have made college and trade school inaccessible for many South Texans. For those who graduate, student debt crushes opportunities, especially for low-income, first-generation, people of color.
Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.
Campaign website
Vallejo's campaign website stated the following:
“ |
MICHELLE'S PRIORITIES
|
” |
—Michelle Vallejo's campaign website (2022)[5] |
Campaign finance summary
Note: The finance data shown here comes from the disclosures required of candidates and parties. Depending on the election or state, this may represent only a portion of all the funds spent on their behalf. Satellite spending groups may or may not have expended funds related to the candidate or politician on whose page you are reading this disclaimer. Campaign finance data from elections may be incomplete. For elections to federal offices, complete data can be found at the FEC website. Click here for more on federal campaign finance law and here for more on state campaign finance law.
See also
2024 Elections
External links
Candidate U.S. House Texas District 15 |
Personal |
Footnotes
- ↑ Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on January 25, 2022.
- ↑ Michelle Vallejo for Congress, "Meet Michelle," accessed February 8, 2022
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ Michelle Vallejo for Congress, “Issues,” accessed January 19, 2024
- ↑ Michelle Vallejo for Congress, “Platform,” accessed February 10, 2022