Mike Siegel, Democratic candidate for Texas's 10th Congressional District, described himself as a "red-diaper baby" and likened his parents’ politics to those of Che Guevara and Fidel Castro in a recently resurfaced speech.
"If I had to describe my parents as political figures, I would borrow from the Cuban Revolution, and I would say in our family my mom’s the Che and my dad’s the Fidel," Siegel said in a 2014 speech for the left-wing National Lawyers Guild that the Austin News reported on earlier this week. "But, I want to say that I’m here as a proud red-diaper baby."
One of Siegel's paid staffers, Andrew Alemao, was arrested for assaulting a police officer at a protest in 2017. Payroll records indicate that Siegel hired Alemao in 2018 for field operations. Records from June show that Alemao remains on Siegel's staff for this election cycle.
Siegel supports the Green New Deal, which includes programs such as guaranteed green housing and universal health care, and as Siegel describes it, would address the "legacy of environmental racism." He also supports police reform, eliminating student debt, and strengthening labor groups.
Siegel won the Democratic primary on July 14 with key leftist endorsements from Bernie Sanders, the Progressive Democrats of America, Jewish Voice for Peace, and others. He will face Republican incumbent congressman Michael McCaul in November, whom he lost to by 4.3 percentage points in the 2018 midterm elections.