Race for Hidalgo Co. Sheriff, in place for Super Tuesday

HIDALGO COUNTY, Texas (ValleyCentral) — In the race for Hidalgo County Sheriff’s Office, two men are vowing to protect the community while operating the jail the best way possible.

Both men shared what it takes to be Sheriff of the largest County in the Valley.

Also, both share how it is unfortunate that early voting numbers in the county show a low voter turnout.

“You know I encourage all, all the citizens to come out and exercise your right to vote it’s one of your fundamental rights. You know we have a lot of people out there fighting for these rights,” Sheriff J.E. “Eddie” Guerra said.

“I tell people all the time, people have sacrificed their lives, protected our freedom, and one of those freedoms is the right to vote and we should at least honor them, it’s a civic duty we should do and we tried to encourage as many people as we can to go out and vote we hope that we have reached as many people as we possibly can,” Frank Guerrero, who is also running for Hidalgo Co. Sheriff said.

Guerra says if re-elected, his main goals are to focus on the infrastructure of the county jail, which also includes tackling overcrowding and keeping the community safe.

Guerrero says he plans on bringing back jobs into Hidalgo County, focusing on paying county workers more and most importantly, crime.

“Some of the lowest paid are our detention officers, our secretaries, our mechanics amounts some of the lowest paid our dispatchers, so we need to put them on the forefront. Crime is happening. We have shootings happening, we have robberies, burglaries, thefts, auto thefts, and fraudulent crimes occurring. We need to make sure that we get in front of it,” Guerrero said.

“If you compare our crime statistics to counties that are the same size and even counties that are larger than U.S., our county here in Hidalgo County is one of the safest counties in the State of Texas, and yet we're here on the Texas Mexico border,” Guerra said

Both men say they are looking forward to Tuesday but the community must make their voices heard.

“My job is to make sure that the communities, the people that live here, work here, that travel here that they make sure they feel safe and they feel secure,” Guerra said.

“Again, it starts with me, personally I’ve said it very clear, I’m going to give this county which I love so very much, the best 8 years of my life and I believe in that because I want to have a beginning and an end so I want to start with a bang and end up with a bang as well,” Guerrero said.

The winner will face republican Ezekiel Jurado who is running unopposed on the republican ticket.