User:Kenyazarate/Jessica Cisneros

= Jessica Cisneros = Jessica Cisneros is a Chicana activist and immigration attorney from Laredo, Texas. She ran against Representative Henry Cuellar in one of the most watched and expensive primary contest in the country. She out-raised Cuellar largely from small donors and through publicity she received via endorsements. However, Cuellar ended up with just 51.8 percent of the vote to Cisneros’s 48.2 percent.

Early Life
Jessica Cisneros was born in Laredo, Texas and is the daughter of Mexican immigrant farmworkers. At the age of 8, Cisneros was inspired by those around her to become an attorney. She earned an undergraduate degree from the University of Texas at Austin in 2015 and a graduate degree from the University of Texas at Austin School of Law in 2018. Cisneros worked as an intern in Henry Cuellar’s office in 2014. Cisneros' career experience includes working as an immigration attorney, an immigrant rights advocate, and as a clerk.

Early Career
Growing up in Laredo, Texas, Cisneros gravitated toward immigration law because she saw families who could crossed the Rio Grande, including her own family. During her educational career at the University of Texas at Austin, Cisneros worked as an intern in Henry Cuellar’s office in 2014. She also served as a Mithoff Pro Bono Scholar, focusing on immigration related projects, and participated in the Immigration Clinic and the Criminal Defense Clinic. She interned with the Equal Justice Center in Austin, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services in San Antonio, and the Legal Services Organization at Yale Law School. After graduating law school in 2018, she worked with Brooklyn Defender Services’ New York Immigrant Family Unity Project team funded by a Justice Center Fellowship in Public Interest Law. After the fellowship, she ran in the fall 2019 Democratic primary to represent Texas' 28th Congressional District, a district stretching north from the U.S-Mexico border to the outskirts of San Antonio, in the U.S. House of Representatives. Currently, Cisneros is an immigration attorney with Texas Rio Grande Legal Aid in Laredo.

Political Campaigns
The cost of health care in the United States and seeing how families in Laredo struggle to make ends meet is what motivated Cisneros to run for U.S. Congress. On July 13, 2019, Justice Democrats announced its support for Cisneros against Cuellar.

Cisneros was backed by Justice Democrats, the progressive group that helped Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to victory. Along with Justice Democrats, Cisneros was backed by Senator Elizabeth Warren, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the Working Families Party, EMILY’s List, and the Communications Workers of America District 6, J Street, MoveOn, National Association for the Repeal of Abortion Laws, and Planned Parenthood, Texas AFL-CIO, Representative Pramila Jayapal, SEIU, and Senator Bernie Sanders.

Cuellar defeated Cisneros 51.8% to 48.2% and was reelected in November.