Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris is working hard to appeal to Latino voters, particularly in swing states where their vote is extra important. Fortunately for her, she has the help of an experienced campaign manager who also happens to have Latino roots.

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Julie Chávez Rodriguez is the granddaughter of American labor leader César Chávez and American labor activist Helen Fabela Chávez. César Chávez, who has Mexican roots and grew up in Arizona, was a champion of California’s farmworkers in the 1950s and 60s, fighting for better pay and conditions through unions.

Now, in 2024, his granddaughter is the highest-ranking Latina in the White House and working as Kamala Harris' campaign manager.

Who is Julie Chávez Rodriguez

Chávez Rodriguez grew up in Tehachapi, California doing outreach projects with her family for the United Farm Workers of America (UFWA).

“I spent my childhood in meetings, at rallies, walking picket lines, and handing out leaflets in front of supermarkets,” she wrote back in 2014. “I knew the names of the top five most harmful pesticides at the age of 12 and could recite some of my grandfather’s most widely known quotes.”

Chávez Rodriguez later earned her degree in Latin American Studies from the University of California, Berkeley. From 2008 to 2016, she served in the Obama administration, first as the deputy director of the Office of Public Engagement and later as the Special Assistant to the President. In 2016, Kamala Harris, appointed Chávez Rodriguez as her state director when she was Senator of California and served on her 2020 presidential campaign.

In 2020, during Joe Biden’s presidential campaign, Chávez Rodriguez served as a senior advisor for Latino outreach. When he was elected to the presidency, she was appointed to be the director of his White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs. In 2022, she was appointed as his senior advisor, and in 2023, his campaign manager.

When Biden dropped out of the 2024 race and Harris took over as the Democratic Party nominee, Chávez Rodriguez took over as her campaign manager instead and has been working hard to let Latinos know that Harris is fighting for them.

“I’ve seen who [Harris is] fighting for when she’s in the halls of power,” Chávez Rodriguez said. “She fights for families like ours.”