HOUSTON, TX – Greek-American Alex Triantaphyllis was running for Congress in Texas’ 7th District, but failed to advance in the primary election that took place on March 6. The top two Democratic vote-getters, Lizzie Pannill Fletcher and Laura Moser, will square off in a run-off election on May 22. James Cargas, another Greek-American Democrat running for the 7th District seat, also failed to advance. Triantaphyllis released the following statement to his supporters.
“Congratulations to Lizzie Pannill Fletcher and Laura Moser for advancing to the next stage in this race, and to Joshua Butler, James Cargas, Ivan Sanchez, and Jason Westin for dedicating their time and talents to make this a better, more dynamic race. Every one of you has done your part to engage more voters in this important race and in the political process.
I want to thank all of our supporters on our long and hard-fought journey. To my family, my friends, and to the many strangers who decided to join our campaign and who I’m now lucky to call friends, I appreciate everything you’ve done for this effort.
As voters, as volunteers, and as supporters, you helped to build this campaign. You became a part of this amazing team. There are so many of you whose commitment to this campaign is a humbling gift that Christina and I will never forget.
I want to thank all of our staff for their tireless effort and endlessly positive attitude over the past several months. To Allyson Marcus, Alonso Salas, Kirby Chandler, Lucius Miles, Alex Schroller, Analicia Martinez, Jacob Hamblin, Jared Lapidus, and Jose Monsivais: thank you for being such incredible teammates. You make me feel bad that only one name could be on the ballot.
We’re grateful for the work of so many great interns, most of whom are high school and college students who reminded us every day that younger people do in fact want to be involved in the political process and can and will lead the way in the important work of moving our country in a better direction.
Each and every one of you who supported our campaign from near and far inspired me to work even harder than the previous day, every single day of this campaign. Like all of our team and all of our supporters, I did everything I could to make this campaign successful. And I’m sorry we weren’t able to advance past this stage. I really am.
As for what’s next for me, I can tell you that one major silver lining is that I’ll get to spend much more time with my partner and best friend, Christina, and of course our daughter Mina. And I’m extremely grateful for that.
To Mina:
I want you to know that your dad is a fighter who will always work to make Houston and our country and our world a better place for everyone, no matter how many times he gets knocked down along the way.
I also want you to know that your mom is an even stronger and better fighter — that she’s been the best mom in the whole world since the first day of your life, and that she’s been fighting throughout her career and this campaign to do her part to make the world better.
I want you to know that both of your parents are dedicated to fighting for opportunity and justice for everyone and that we will always do the work to back up our good intentions.
Lastly, I want you to know that over the course of this campaign you gained about 100, if not 1,000, more aunts and uncles who love you very much and will always be part of the village that raises and looks after you.
To all of our supporters, here are a few things I hope you all will keep in mind:
I want you to know how grateful Christina and I are for everything you’ve done for this campaign and to support our family over the past 10 months.
I want you to remember the best parts of this campaign so that you will be inspired to continue your civic involvement, political or otherwise, in the days and years to come.
And I want you to think about how you would improve upon what we did in this campaign, because improvement is at the core of what it means to be a progressive, what it means to be a Democrat, and what it means to be an American.
Every day, win or lose, we have to continue to do the work of improving our community, our country, and our world. Win or lose, because the work is not about us.
To do that, whether as part of a campaign, a movement, or a community program, we need to ask ourselves what can we do better, and how can we be more unified while pushing each other to do better?
If we do that, we’ll build a stronger, fairer, and more dynamic society. We’ll improve our political process and our government so that our country can offer everyone a fair shot at a productive, healthy, and happy life.
Now, like I said, win or lose, we have to keep fighting for what’s right. And like I told my fellow Democratic candidates when we were just getting started on this journey, we all have the same goal: Send John Culberson into retirement so TX-07 can send a Member of Congress to Washington who will stand up for Houston’s values.
That fight continues, and we have to remain unified and focused until we win.
But I also hope you’ll spend just a little bit of time to look back on what we accomplished in this campaign:
More than 35,000 doors knocked, and over 120,000 voter contact attempts
An astounding amount of dollars raised, with a majority coming from contributions of $100 or less
Countless younger people engaged in and dedicated to this campaign
An arguably unprecedented effort for a congressional campaign in Harris County in terms of the resources and time spent reaching out to communities of color and other groups that have not been encouraged to be fully part of the political process
So many new donors and volunteers involved in a political campaign for the very first time
And a positive campaign where we respected and never said a negative thing about our fellow Democratic candidates from start to finish
I’m proud to have been a part of this campaign and to have worked with each and every one of you. With all my heart, I thank you, and I promise to keep fighting to build an even better Houston and an even better United States of America.”
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