The top local stories this morning from KERA News:
Texas Democrats wrapped up their state party convention in Fort Worth this weekend. In speech after speech, Democratic leaders told thousands in the audience that this is their year to oust Republicans from office with messages of a diverse and inclusive Texas.
Former Dallas County Sheriff Lupe Valdez, who is running to unseat Gov. Greg Abbott, opened her speech with a story from her childhood.
Her parents – migrant farm workers – were driving across Texas to get home to San Antonio when they stopped for a meal at a roadside restaurant and a man refused to serve them.
In Texas, at that time, it was legal to deny service to Latinos. That story resonated for Valdez decades later.
“In 2004, as the underdog – Hispanic, female, lesbian democrat in a red county – I was elected sheriff in the same town that turned us away,” she said
This is the narrative Democrats drove home repeatedly at their convention: overcoming adversity and making Texas more inclusive. They slammed Republican policies, from immigration to health care and guns to civil rights.
Most of all, party leaders urged Democrats to get out and vote in November, but they’ll need to do that in unusually large numbers if they hope to make gains in a state that hasn’t sent a single Democrat to statewide office since 1994.
Other stories this morning:
- Doctors have long recommended that people start getting screened for colon cancer at the age of 50, But the American Cancer Society says that’s being changed to 45. Dr. Cecelia Brewington is a professor of radiology and chief of Community Radiology at UT Southwestern Medical Center. In today’s Vital Signs, she talked with KERA’s Sam Baker about the reason for the change.
You can listen to North Texas stories weekdays at 8:22 a.m. and 6:20 p.m. on KERA 90.1 FM.
