Nine months ago, Cristina Tzintzún Ramirez was struggling to make a decision.

Progressive operatives — including former staffers for Beto O’Rourke — were begging her to run for U.S. Senate, but she had a young child, Santiago, and wasn’t sure if it was the right time.

So she made a phone call to a friend and confidant: Alec Baldwin.

“She’s one of a handful of people I’ve repeatedly told, ‘You’ve got to run. You have no choice,’” Baldwin told The Texas Tribune in a phone interview.

Like all 12 Democratic candidates vying for the chance to make a long-shot bid against U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, Tzintzún Ramirez, 38, is battling low name recognition in Texas. But supporters are hopeful that the campaign will get a boost — whether in money or excitement — from Baldwin, who is using his fame and resources to draw attention to the race.

In Baldwin, most recently known for his recurring portrayal of President Donald Trump on “Saturday Night Live,” she’s found a generous financial supporter and a trusted, while unlikely, informal campaign adviser.

Tzintzún Ramirez found Baldwin, a self-described “casual political watcher” who has few connections to Texas, surprisingly persuasive. Baldwin hasn’t been shy about his personal politics. He’s on the board of directors for People for the American Way Foundation, a progressive advocacy organization.

“I was making up my mind,” she said. “He really motivated me to believe this was the right thing to do.” She jokes that the movie star, who has deliberated his own political run, was living vicariously through her. “He told me that there would never be a right personal time and that he would do everything he could to help me.” Primary day is March 3; early voting begins Feb. 18.

Baldwin, 61, has been urging her to run for office — perhaps governor or U.S. Senate — since the two first met in 2013, she said. A New York Times article at the time spotlighted her work as then-executive director of the Workers Defense Project, an Austin-based group that fights for labor laws with the help of businesses, unions, churches and student activists. The piece impressed Baldwin, who called to say he wanted to meet her.

Tzintzún Ramirez was floored when the movie star first reached out. “Literally when I met him, my mom said, ‘Oh, señor Alec, he’s going to be someone very important in your life,” she raved.

The two hit it off, and he later invited her to be a guest on his short-lived MSNBC show. Since then, she’s visited him in New York and introduced him to her son.

On my way to meet Alec Baldwin and be interviewed for his new show on MSNBC — Cristina Tzintzún Ramirez (@cristinafortx) October 1, 2013

That was seven years ago. Now Baldwin says he’s all in on her senate campaign.

He’s maxed out in donations and given her feedback on her launch speech, not to mention touting her candidacy to his large social media following. Tzintzún Ramirez said the two talk weekly during the campaign. Baldwin once said that he wanted to be connected with a staffer whom he could check in with regularly to find out how the race was going, she said.

In December, Baldwin encouraged his 1 million Twitter followers to donate to her campaign. He also headlined a fundraiser on her behalf in New York.

Here is the future of Texas!



Please donate to the US Senate campaign of my friend, Cristina Tzintzun.@cristinafortx pic.twitter.com/Zff7VXR1cF — HABFoundation (@ABFalecbaldwin) December 29, 2019

“She’s exactly what we need in Washington right now,” Baldwin said. “She’s a woman of searing intelligence and commitment — and she’s tough.”

What drew Baldwin to Tzintzún Ramirez is the organizing work that’s become the main plank of her Senate campaign. The daughter of an immigrant mother, Tzintzún Ramirez was 24 when she co-founded Workers Defense Project in 2006.

In 2009, her group’s “Building Austin, Building Injustice” report highlighted the number of deaths and injuries in the construction industry, which led to a federal investigation and local reforms. She left the organization in 2015 and later formed Jolt, a progressive Latino youth group that focuses on civic engagement. Baldwin has financially supported both organizations. A spokesperson for Workers Defense said the organization doesn’t “disclose donor information or discuss donors in public,” but Tzintzún Ramirez estimates he’s given upwards of several tens of thousands of dollars to both organizations since meeting her.

Unlike most of her opponents, Tzintzún Ramirez’s background is that of a political rabble-rouser, not a politician.

“I think in this race that I may be underestimated, but you can ask any construction company or politician that has ever went up against me if they regret underestimating me and the people I represent,” Tzintzún Ramirez said.