Governor Abbott owes Lupe Valdez a public apology. Let's make it happen!

By Faith Chatham - August 22, 2018

Governor Abbott blasted Sheriff Valdez, accusing her of "not securing her firearm." His campaign tweeted and produced an accusatory video when they learned that the Dallas Sheriff's Department had misplaced a firearm which was issued to her.

The gun was in the Dallas Sheriff Department Property Room. Common sense should have alerted the Governor and his campaign staff, but they barreled ahead full-steam in their attempts to distort the incident and smear a highly respected law enforcement officer. When an employee retires, they turn in the items issued by the department. Then it is the department's responsibility, not the retiree's, to property store and track those items. Instead of using reasonable forbearance, the Governor issued unsubstantiated accusatory tweets and PR releases attempting to smear former Sheriff Lupe Valdez.

Governor Abbott owes Lupe Valdez a public apology. Let's make it happen.
I contacted him on the official Governor's contact link today.

I wrote:

Dear Gov. Abbott,
You should apologize to former Dallas Sheriff Lupe Valdez for the video and tweets your campaign put out in your name accusing her of not securing the gun she had returned to the Dallas County Sheriff's Department. Your comments are beneath the office you hold. As a citizen of Texas, I am disappointed in you for this unmerited attack  on the very highly regarded former Sheriff of Dallas, Texas.
 Your apology should be as public and as widely disseminated as were your inappropriate comments accusing her of not securing the gun which was in the Dallas Sheriff Department Property Room.
 Sincerely,
Faith Chatham

Please join me. Contact him and demand that he apologize to Lupe Valdez for accusing her of not securing her firearm.  The Contact Link is: https://gov.texas.gov/contact

When tweeting about this please include #ValdezGun

https://www.dallasnews.com/news/2018-elections/2018/08/21/lupe-valdezs-missing-gun-found-dallas-county-sheriffs-department-property-room

https://www.nbcdfw.com/news/politics/Former-Sheriff-Lupe-Valdezs-Gun-Found-in-Sheriffs-Department-Property-Room-491370061.html

Valdez was born in San Antonio, Texas. She worked two and three jobs to pay her own way through college, earning her Bachelor Degree in Business. She entered the US Army and rose to the rank of Captain serving over a tank battalion. In Federal Service for almost two decades, Valdez served as an Investigator with the General Service Administration. When she left Federal Service she was a Senior Agent, having worked fraud and money laundering cases in the USA and undercover in Central America on drug interdiction cases.  Valdez was the first woman and the first person of color to be elected Sheriff in Dallas, Texas. Her performance, and diligence in bringing the department into compliance, and implementation of community law enforcement, giving pathways to promotion to women and minorities led to her being re-elected twice. Valdez retired from the Dallas County Sheriff Department in December 2017. She won the Democratic Party's nomination for Governor and will face incumbent Republican Greg Abbott in the November 2018 General Election.

For more information visit:  https://lupevaldez.com

To donate to her campaign: https://bit.ly/helpLupe