Closing the Gap - UMUC

Past UMUC Alumni Association
President Janice H. Reilly ’90, who
won the 2002 Edward A. Parnell
Outstanding Alumna Award, visited
another outstanding alumnus, Felix
Alvarado ’86, in Texas to support his
bid for a Congressional seat.
THE RACE TO WASHINGTON:
FELIX ALVARADO’S RUN FOR A
CONGRESSIONAL SEAT
By his own admission, UMUC alumnus Felix Alvarado ran an oldfashioned
“horse race” in his bid to unseat Republican incumbent
Joe Barton in Texas’ 6 th U.S. Congressional District. He didn’t win,
but he certainly made a strong showing at the finish, garnering
about 30 percent of the vote.
As a career military man turned high school teacher, Alvarado knew what it would
take to run a good race with honor, integrity, and determination. He began his
military career after dropping out of high school to join the Army in 1961. Upon
completing a six-year stint—and having risen to the rank of staff sergeant—he left
the Army to join the Air Force, retiring after 21 years as a chief master sergeant (the
highest noncommissioned rank), with a bachelor’s degree in business and management
from UMUC and a master’s degree in management. As Alvarado put it, “I call
myself a very rare person. It was pretty unusual for an enlisted man to have achieved
so much educationally. But for a Hispanic enlisted man in 1988 . . . well, let me
put it this way: back then we were still called Mexicans.”
After retiring from the military, Alvarado went into the insurance business for a
while, but decided he was far more interested in becoming a high school teacher. So
back to school he went, receiving both his teacher’s and principal’s certificates from the
University of Texas–Arlington in 1994, just as his GI Bill ran out. He now teaches
social studies—mostly world geography—to high school students.
Although Alvarado began his campaign for Congress as a virtual unknown, with no
“war chest” and no key endorsements, he made great strides in his race against what
he calls a “deeply entrenched opponent.” He attributed his growing popularity with
voters to careful planning and a grassroots approach.
“When I started the campaign, I had zero name recognition. The first priority was
to get my name out there and, because I had very little money for TV ads and
billboards, I walked a lot and I talked a lot,” Alvarado laughed. “I told people that
I wanted to be their voice in Congress, not the voice of special interests and big
business, like my opponent had become. And people started to listen. I think they
knew that I care about the same things they care about—things that really matter
to them at the end of the day, like the quality of the air they breathe and the future
of their Social Security and Medicare benefits.”
So even though he didn’t win a Congressional seat, Felix Alvarado came away a winner.
24 UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND UNIVERSITY COLLEGE www.umucalumni.org