Chavez-Thompson has been a lifelong Democrat. In 1988, she was elected a delegate from San Antonio pledged to Dukakis. In 1992 and 1996, she was elected as a Democratic delegate pledged to Bill Clinton, and in 1996 was named an honorary co-chair of his re-election campaign. In January 1997, she was elected a vice chair of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and appointed a vice chair of the 52nd Presidential Inaugural Committee. The same year, she was also appointed a member of Advisory Board to President Clinton's One America Initiative. Chavez-Thompson has been re-elected a vice chair of the DNC since her original election in 1997, and was last re-elected in 2005 for a four-year term. On September 11, 2007, Chavez-Thompson announced she would retire from her post as AFL-CIO executive vice-president on September 21, 2007. President Sweeney nominated Arlene Holt Baker, an African American and Chavez-Thompson's long-time aide, to be the federation's next executive vice-president. On January 4, 2010, Chavez-Thompson announced she was running for the Democratic nomination for Lieutenant Governor of Texas, and on March 2 she won her party's nomination. She was defeated in the general election by the incumbent Republican David Dewhurst in November.