Edinburg mayoral candidate running campaign on ‘working-class interests’

Jonathan Lee Salinas

A self-described community organizer on Thursday announced he has entered the Edinburg mayoral race.

Jonathan Lee Salinas said in a campaign announcement that he officially filed to be on the ballot on Aug. 18 with a platform based on advancing-working-class interests and bringing that perspective to City Hall.

“I am running for mayor because none of the candidates who had declared their candidacy were running to represent the working-class,” Salinas said in the announcement. “Working people are neither represented nationally or locally, and it’s time the Valley’s working-class rises up to organize itself, and begins to represent our interests during this widespread assault against our livelihoods by the local employer-class and their national and international allies.”

Salinas said his campaign will focus on abolishing property taxes, fighting for amnesty for immigrant workers and placing a moratorium on evictions.

He said he has lived in Edinburg since 2017 and has worked as a community organizer for La Union del Pueblo Entero, was on the Lower Rio Grande Valley Sierra Club’s executive committee and chaired the No Border Wall coalition.

Salinas said he is a graduate of the University of Texas Pan American, now UTRGV, in 2015 with a bachelor’s of science in psychology and a minor in philosophy.

He also said he served in the Student Government Association and several organizations.

Salinas also describes himself as a writer, activist, musician and industry worker.

“The campaign has already been reaching out to and receiving overly-enthusiastic support from working-class residents across Edinburg and the RGV, meeting them where they are,” the announcement states. “Salinas is committed to running a working-class campaign with the hope of inspiring other working people to rise up and realize that they, too, can run for office and be the new political class.”

He says his campaign slogan is “Working people can rule society” and that he is “the working-class option in this election.”

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