A longtime activist and former vice chair of the Utah Democratic Party has become the third candidate to announce her candidacy for the at-large County Council seat vacated Tuesday by newly inaugurated Salt Lake County Mayor Jenny Wilson.
Josie Valdez told The Salt Lake Tribune on Friday that her decision to run came after the death last week of civil rights legend Robert “Archie” Archuleta, whom she called the “patriarch of our Latino community.”
“I began to think that he was the voice of the underserved — he was the voice of not only the Latino community but other underserved, underrepresented groups — and that we needed someone on the council who spoke for the people to ensure that programs, services, dollars were focused on people from the entire community,” she said.