Hair product tycoon plugs jobs during campaign stop

McALLEN — Democratic gubernatorial candidate Farouk Shami began with his personal history even though his television commercials meant he required no introduction.

Frequently referencing the business background he has plugged on his television commercials, the billionaire hair product tycoon told supporters here that jobs were the key to ending deep pockets of poverty in colonias, curbing illegal immigration and improving the state’s high school dropout rate.

Shami, a Palestinian-born immigrant with no political experience who is largely self-financing his campaign, said the state should be run like his business: with an eye on its bottom line and a goal to be richer than any other.

Saying the country is losing at war, the economy, education and health care, the 67-year-old argues the best way to cure its woes is to elect a self-made businessman rather than a politician.

“Before you decide to vote for anyone, let’s look at who has a record,” he said as he paced the ballroom floor at the Celestial Room in McAllen on Thursday night. “Their record sucks,” he said of the other contenders for governor. “My record is clean because I’m not a politician.”

Shami heads a business empire that manufactures hair products, including CHI flat irons, and employs more than 2,500 people.

With his pledge to spend “whatever it takes” of his own money in the campaign, Shami and former Houston mayor Bill White are the only serious candidates in a crowded Democratic primary.

But Shami is still largely viewed by mainstream Democrats as an outsider due to his lack of political experience.

In front of a small crowd on his first campaign stop in the Rio Grande Valley, Shami derided the border fence as a wall between the United States and Mexico when the two countries need a bridge.

He said working with Mexico to place good-paying jobs in that country would reduce illegal immigration into the United States.

In colonias, the poorest parts of this country, the state should put people to work building solar panels, he said. The panels should be placed on homes for free to reduce energy usage and save the environment.

When asked what to do about the Valley’s alarming high school dropout rate, he said many Hispanics drop out of school to help their families. By giving their parents high-paying jobs, he said, those students could attend free community colleges or universities with capped tuition, improving future incomes in this area.

And the state could cut property taxes if it first cuts spending on services like unemployment relief or food stamps by turning “negative employment into positive,” he said.

“You need the money,” he said of how he would fund his broad plans, in between poses for pictures. “Once we have jobs and everybody is paying taxes, we’ve got the money.”

Hasan Muhammed, a McAllen resident who is in real estate, said he supports the fellow businessman because of his plans for the state.

Shami came to the United States with almost nothing in his pockets but managed to build a billion-dollar business empire, Muhammed said. His business experience would fit better in the governor’s mansion than a politician’s experience.

Shami, for his part, seems to embrace the outsider role. He said White, the former Houston mayor, is the pick of establishment Democrats mainly because he is white.

But Shami said President Barack Obama proved that a minority can run a successful campaign.

“The president inspires me,” Shami said. “If we can have a black president, we can have a brown governor.”

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Jared Janes covers Hidalgo County government, Edinburg and general assignments for The Monitor. He can be reached at (956) 683-4424.