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Incumbent Joe Molinar loses in City Council runoff; former city Rep. Lily Limón wins her race [1]
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Date: 2024-12-14
Incumbent Northeast city Rep. Joe Molinar was defeated by business owner Cynthia Boyar Trejo in Saturday’s runoff election.
In a low turnout runoff election scheduled between the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays, voters elected four newcomers to City Council and returned former city Rep. Lily Limón, who last served seven years ago.
In District 4, Trejo, 58, had 54% of the votes, with 46% going to Molinar, 64, a retired police lieutenant who was elected to City Council in 2020.
Trejo was making her first run for elected office, and had not voted before this year since at least 2010. She said her busy business schedule and the negativity of politics kept her from voting.
She did not respond to requests for comment from El Paso Matters on Election Night.
SEE ALSO: Renard Johnson elected El Paso mayor, easily defeating city Rep. Brian Kennedy
In District 7, Limón, 74, defeated Chris Hernandez, 40, a political consultant and community organizer. Limón had 58% of the vote to Hernandez’s 42%.
Limón worked for nearly 30 years as an educator and administrator with the Ysleta Independent School District. She was elected to City Council in 2013 but lost her re-election bid in 2017.
Limón said she was disappointed by the low turnout in the runoff but thanked her family, friends and supporters. She said she had clear priorities when taking office.
“You know that so many of the candidates, we all have pretty much the same kind of priorities – high taxes, the quality of our streets, public safety. I think it’ll be an excellent opportunity to bring those kinds of issues up right away and say, ‘What are we going to do about these issues?’” she said.
In District 1, former restaurant owner Alejandra “Ale” Chavez, 47, defeated Monica Reyes, 55, who is the executive director of student support services at Canutillo Independent School District.
Chavez had 63% of the vote to 37% for Reyes, who is the daughter of former U.S. Rep. Silvestre Reyes.
“I think it’s clear that this is a new era for El Paso and I am very excited, but mostly very grateful to the voters of district one for not only having come out to vote once, but twice. And I feel very blessed by their support,” Chavez said.
In District 3, Deanna Maldonado-Rocha, 41, a capacity analyst, defeated Realtor Jose Rodriguez, 78, who had led a five-candidate field Nov. 5 despite not spending any money on his campaign.
Maldonado-Rocha had 64% of the vote and Rodriguez 36%.
“There are two priorities that we need to really address right away. One is the streets and maintenance. We need to definitely look for secured funding for the streets and maintenance and the resurfacing of those,” Maldonado-Rocha said. “And then the loose animal situation that has been probably one of the biggest issues that I’ve come across door knocking.”
In District 5, Ivan Niño, 33, the chief of staff for outgoing city Rep. Isabel Salcido, defeated Amanda Cunningham, 40, a social services worker and consultant.
Niño had 63% support to Cunningham’s 37%.
“I think this is a perfect opportunity for the city and local government to re-engage with the community and really try to engage even further,” Niño said. “It was a low turnout, but I’m also very thankful that voters have come out and voted.”
The new City Council, which will be led by Mayor-elect Renard Johnson, will take office the first week of January. City representatives are paid about $63,000 a year.
The City Council adopts an annual budget, sets a tax rate and makes policy decisions that impact economic development, public safety, streets and transportation and quality of life services such as libraries, museums and parks and recreation. The council also appoints a city manager, city attorney and city auditor.
Four City Council seats are typically up for election every two years, but six were on the November ballot this year because two representatives resigned mid-term to run for mayor – Brian Kennedy in District 1 and Salcido in District 5.
The District 2 seat was decided on Nov. 5 with the reelection of Josh Acevedo. He first took office in January after a special election to serve out one year left in the term of former city Rep. Alexsandra Annello, who resigned to run for state representative.
City Reps. Art Fierro in District 5 and Chris Canales in District 8 are up for reelection in 2026, along with the winners of Saturday’s District 1 and District 5 races.
In Saturday’s tightest election, Samuel Flores defeated Lauren Ferris by 178 votes out of more than 31,000 cast to become judge for Municipal Court No. 4, one of six in the city, including a court of appeals. This is the only municipal judge race that went into a runoff.
Flores, 38, is an attorney who has been in private practice for about 10 years. Ferris, 37, is an attorney who has been twice appointed to serve as a municipal judge.
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https://elpasomatters.org/2024/12/14/el-paso-runoff-election-results-city-council-december-2024/
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