WASHINGTON - Today, Thursday July 23, 2020, Voces de la Frontera Action announces our first round of candidate endorsements for the upcoming Wisconsin primaries on August 11th. We strongly support these four candidates. Here is why we think you should be as well: 

In Milwaukee County we are excited to announce our dual endorsement of JoAnna Bautch and Sylvia Ortiz-Valez for 8th District State Representative. 

Bautch has personal experience as a community organizer throughout the neighborhoods in Milwaukee’s 8th district. “I will never turn my back on our shared progressive agenda just because it might seem politically convenient,” she said. 

Bautch’s unwavering backing of progressive policies, such as strong support of immigrant rights and strengthening labor unions, proves her commitment to making Wisconsin a progressive bastion again.  

Ortiz-Valez was born and raised in Milwaukee’s South Side. Prior to her political career, she spent over ten years as a community organizer in the 8th district and also was a small business owner. “I will always fight for our neighborhood,” she said. 

Ortiz-Valez eventually got a degree in political science to educate herself on how to create policies to empower our communities on the South Side, and that is exactly what she plans to do if she is elected. 

We at Voces are proud to endorse both of these Latinx women of color for AD-8. We believe that either of them will champion immigrant and labor rights, especially during this global pandemic and amid the fight to undo structural racism in Wisconsin.

Also in Milwaukee County, we are proud to endorse incumbent Marisabel Cabrera for 9th District State Representative. Before her political career, Cabrera worked as an immigration attorney for over a decade, advocating for and defending immigrants. She has also authored ten bills in just her first term in office, including two pro-immigrant bills. 

“Immigration reform, to me, means more than piecemeal approaches to solving one of the greatest challenges we are facing as a country. We need a real comprehensive approach to reform at the federal level,” she says. 

Cabrera has collaborated with Voces many times in our shared goal of protecting immigrant rights and for this reason she is an easy endorsement. 

And finally, in Dane County, we are pleased to announce our endorsement of Nada Elmikashfi for 26th District State Senator. Elmikashfi is the only immigrant running in this race. As a black, Muslim, Sudanese woman, she intimately understands the issues that immigrants and people of color face in Wisconsin. 

“Growing up, I witnessed how the lack of affordable housing, racial and economic inequity, and our crumbling healthcare system burdened my family and other immigrant and marginalized communities. I understand that we need an elected official who will go beyond performative allyship,” she said.  

Voces strongly believes that, if elected, Elmikashfi will dedicate herself to instilling real, policy-based change that will improve the lives of immigrants and people of color in Wisconsin. For these reasons, she proudly has our vote.  

Voces de la Frontera Action is proud to endorse these four women of color in the upcoming Wisconsin Democratic primaries. We firmly believe that they will champion immigrant and labor rights if elected, based on their proven commitment to our communities.

Electing these women is especially important in this historic moment in our country, amid a global pandemic that is disproportionately affecting people of color and immigrants.

Furthermore, we cannot think of better women to support during our country’s reckoning with centuries of systemic and structural racism and gender inequality, and as we mobilize the vote to drive out white supremacists from the White House come November.

For more information, contact Communications Director Jacquelyn Kovarik: communications@vdlf.org and 414-436-9822