Dolores Huerta, the legendary labor organizer who co-founded the United Farm Workers with Cesar Chavez, has endorsed Board of Supervisors’ president Aaron Peskin in San Francisco’s mayoral race. In late September, Huerta endorsed Mayor London Breed for re-election, making this a co-endorsement.
When Huerta endorsed Breed, she specifically cited her leadership during the COVID-19 pandemic. Huerta’s support of Peskin is more focused on labor rights and housing affordability. “Aaron Peskin is a fighter for workers and families — he has proven that over and over,” wrote Huerta, in a statement. “I encourage everyone to vote for Aaron Peskin for mayor if you want an effective, healthy, and affordable city that supports its families, renters, and workers fighting for a better future! Si se puede!”
“I grew up in a household where, as a young kid, we didn’t eat table grapes because of the UFW,” said Peskin today. “Cesar Chavez and the United Farm Workers movement and Dolores Huerta were part of my early childhood kitchen table learning.” Peskin and Huerta have met several times over the years, in passing, says Peskin.
Recently, the National Union of Healthcare Workers, which represents workers at Mission Neighborhood Health Center and other healthcare facilities across the city, reached out to Huerta and introduced the two more formally. “She and I traded calls and text messages, and then she announced to me, day before yesterday, that she was honored to endorse me,” Peskin said. “I am honored and delighted, and it’s one of the biggest endorsements I’ve ever gotten. I’m very proud.”
The introduction to Huerta was just the latest move by the National Union of Healthcare Workers bolstering Peskin’s campaign: They gave a pro-Peskin PAC $75,000 on Oct. 11, and recently rescinded their No. 2 endorsement of Peskin’s opponent, Ahsha Safaí, because Safaí made an alliance with Mark Farrell. Peskin, the union said, was “the best candidate by far when it comes to delivering for San Francisco workers.”
In the Mission in particular, Huerta is a prized endorsement. When the Breed campaign announced Huerta’s endorsement, Tracy Gallardo, a founder of the Latino Task Force, described it to Mission Local as an ace in the hole. “I’ve worked on other campaigns where the minute [Huerta] dropped an endorsement, every Latino caller, that is what we used. Oh Dolores Huerta? Si, cómo que claro que si. Who do you want me to vote for? Okay.’ You say Dolores Huerta, you slap that on a flier and you put that out, you got the vote.”
(Huerta has also weighed in against Breed’s pick for district attorney: She has endorsed Ryan Khohasteh, a former prosecutor under District Attorney Brooke Jenkins’ predecessor, Chesa Boudin, who is running against Jenkins on a platform of reform.)
Michael Rouppet, the co-president of the San Francisco Latinx Democratic Club, criticized Huerta’s endorsement of Breed (though not Huerta) on the grounds that Breed has refused to meet with the group — the only Latino Democratic club in San Francisco — or hear its concerns about policing, the chaotic street-vending situation along Mission Street, and displacement. Rouppet said that he was delighted to hear of Huerta’s endorsement of Peskin, who the club has endorsed for mayor. “Dolores Huerta is an icon in our community,” Rouppet continued. “This endorsement supports tenants. It supports our most vulnerable populations in San Francisco, it supports our efforts to organize at the community level for the voices who aren’t at the discussion table.”