Editor’s note: This is a guest post by Lisa Andrews Alpe, a volunteer for the Chris Earnest campaign.

Today is the last day of early voting, and Spring Branch Independent School District candidate for Board of Trustees, Chris Earnest, has spent the last week dispelling the myth that Texas unions are powerless organizations that merely offer a “source of insurance” for members.

That tall tale has been plastered all over social media by his union-endorsed opponent and her school-board-supported campaign.

What began as a feeble attempt to explain away her union endorsements to those who would normally vote against union involvement in school board elections, has turned into a full-blown attempt to dissuade conservative voters from Chris Earnest.

Her supporters would like to hide the fact that Texas unions have morphed into the political arms of the Democrat Party.

So let’s settle this right now.

If Texas unions truly were the docile, insurance-offering entities they would have you believe, Mayor Sylvester Turner wouldn’t be engaged in a years-long battle with the Houston firefighters.

Texas unions are quite powerful. More powerful than Texas lobbies. And unions want to hand-pick Spring Branch ISD’s school board so that they can begin to strong-arm their way into the schools and curriculum of one of the last conservative holdouts in Harris County.

The Houston and Spring Branch chapters of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) have endorsed Chris Earnest’s opponent, as has the Gulf Coast AFL-CIO.

AFT is a member of the AFL-CIO. The AFL is the American Federation of Labor and the CIO is the Congress of Industrial Organizations. They combined in 1953. The AFL was skilled trades and the CIO was the factory, or unskilled, labor. The AFL-CIO is an organization that allows unions from different trades to come together.

Union backing of Chris Earnest’s opponent is very coordinated and interconnected. They really have their sights set on Spring Branch ISD. They know that the conservative vote is strong in Spring Branch and they want to silence it once and for all.

And they might.

A vote against Chris Earnest is a vote for unions. No vote at all is a vote for unions.

“This is a nonpartisan race. But those who do not want union involvement in our school district need to vote today, this last day of early voting. The school board has been allowed to operate without much dissension in the ranks, but this past year opened my eyes and the eyes of thousands of other parents in the district. Today is crucial because the last several election cycles have shown us that races are won in early voting,” Earnest said in a statement.

Vote Chris Earnest for Spring Branch ISD Board of Trustees.