Harlingen heating up for hotly contested election

HARLINGEN — A crowded field of candidates is turning the Nov. 5 election into the city’s most hotly contested match in years.

In the city’s first regular November election, eight candidates, including two former commissioners, are taking on incumbents in the District 3, District 4 and District 5 races.

Across town, election fever’s heating up in the city where many residents complained of apathy for decades.

“This is the first time since I’ve been here,” City Secretary Amanda Elizondo, who took office 13 years ago, said Wednesday, referring to the number of candidates on the ballot.

At City Hall, the candidate filing deadline closed Monday.

This year, the city’s extending its early voting hours to match Cameron County’s schedule, while the county’s running the election at a cost of about $70,000.

The city’s first regular November election is expected to drive higher voter turnout, Remi Garza, the county’s election’s administrator, said.

In 2020, the county’s voter turnout set a record, with 53% of registered voters going to the polls, he said.

This year, he’s expecting the county’s voters to set a new record, Garza said.

“November elections, generally speaking, have higher voter participation, especially presidential elections,” he said. “We see higher voter turnout.”

A county-wide increase in voter registration is also expected to drive voter turnout in the election, Garza said.

In Harlingen, 39,266 residents are registered to vote, he said.

“We’ve seen a steady increase in voter registration, so we expect higher turnout,” Garza said.

In 2022, Harlingen voters pushed the city’s May elections to November as part of the past commission’s plan to boost voter turnout.

Across the city’s five single-member voting districts, candidates’ campaign signs are popping up.

In District 3, Commissioner Michael Mezmar, a financial advisor who first won office in 2012, is facing Jennifer Vasquez Colten, who works as Texas State Technical College Foundation’s executive director of advancement operations; Frank Lozano, an attorney; and Steve Ritter, a pilot.

In the race for the District 4 seat, Commissioner Frank Morales, a semi-retired salesman bidding for a second term, is facing Dagoberto Pena, an investigator with the Cameron County District Attorney’s Office; Basilio “Chino” Sanchez, a retired newspaper production technician who served as a commissioner from 2012 to 2015; and P.T. Vargas, a business owner.

In District 5, Commissioner Rene Perez, a schoolteacher who serves as the city’s mayor pro tem, is bidding for a second term in the race in which he’s facing former Commissioner Ruben De La Rosa, a Texas Southmost College instructor who served as a commissioner from 2015 to 2021; and Nikki Alvarez Daniell.

The election’s early voting period will run from Oct. 21 to Nov. 1.

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