More than half a million El Pasoans went to the polls in the midterm elections, setting a record for early voting. But when it comes to choosing the next City Council, voters still have unfinished business.
Three of the four El Paso City Council races failed to break the 50% mark to produce a winner, forcing runoffs scheduled for Dec. 14.
In Far East El Paso, District 5 incumbent city Rep. Ivan Niño pulled in 69% of votes to defeat Richard Genera outright. But city Reps. Alejandra “Ale” Chávez, Art Fierro and Chris Canales will have their races decided in the December election.
The next City Council will confront a range of economic development issues, including concerns about large-scale artificial intelligence data centers, the planned Fred Loya Family Deck Plaza over Interstate 10 in Downtown, livable wages and affordable housing.
Fewer voters are expected to cast ballots in the runoff election than in the recent midterm, making candidates’ efforts to get supporters to the polls even more important, said a local political consultant.
“Runoffs are always about who can get out the vote and get their supporters to the polls because it’s such a low turnout,” said Carlos Sierra, an El Paso political consultant who has worked on local, state and national campaigns for different political parties. “Everyone is already fed up with elections and campaigning, so a majority of people don’t even know these runoffs are going on.”
Runoff races in El Paso sometimes draw as few as 1,000, he said.
More than 40% of El Paso’s 540,641 registered voters cast ballots in the latest midterm election, with 221,709 votes tallied. That included 156,332 early in-person ballots, surpassing the previous record of about 130,000 early votes set during Beto O’Rourke’s unsuccessful U.S. Senate bid in 2018.
In District 1, which encompasses portions of the Westside and Upper Valley, incumbent city Rep. Alejandra ‘Ale’ Chávez faces challenger Sam Armijo. Chávez received 47.2% of the vote, and Armijo had 19.8%. That race had a crowded field, with “MJK” Matthew James Kozik receiving 19.6% of the votes and Daniela Garcia receiving 13.2%.
“Chávez almost won without a runoff. Maybe if she would have spent a few more dollars, she could have avoided that runoff,” Sierra said. “But that race will probably have the highest turnout because it’s the Westside.”
Chávez told El Paso Inc. she was pleased to see so many El Pasoans voting in the midterm and is looking forward to the next race.
“I was extremely happy with the high voter turnout in District 1 specifically,” she said. “It’s extremely important for people to make their voices heard and make the effort to go back to vote in December. They’ll have an opportunity to vote early as well."
Armijo said he’s working with a political consultant to lay out his strategy for the upcoming runoff campaign.
“I was hoping we could settle this in the initial election,” he said, adding he’s anticipating a strong runoff campaign. “We’ll nail it down.”
The race for District 6, which encompasses portions of the Eastside and Lower Valley, had a field of five candidates. Incumbent city Rep. Art Fierro won 34.3% of the vote, followed by Jesse Moreno with 27.1%. Claudia Contreras Siller received 22.2%, Pedro Fernandez Jr. received 8.5% and Hector Alba finished with 7.7%.
Fierro and Moreno will face each other in the runoff.
“The interesting one was Art Fierro, out of all of them, because he didn’t do that well,” Sierra said. “He received votes in the low 30s. For a former state representative, and him being an incumbent on City Council, it was surprising how poorly he did. He has probably the biggest chance out of all the incumbents to lose.”
Fierro’s low vote percentage in the recent election has given Moreno’s campaign a boost of optimism heading into the December race.
“I feel confident. There's 65% of the constituents who voted in the district against the incumbent,” Moreno said. “It shows that there's a clear need for change, a clear need for somebody who's proactive and more in tune with the community needs.”
Fierro did not return messages by the press deadline.
On the Westside and in Downtown, the District 8 race also had five candidates. Incumbent city Rep. Chris Canales received 34.3% of the vote, followed by Matthew Guzman with 25%. Laura Ochoa-Todd received 20.6%, Arturo Alluin had 12.1% and Johnny J. Gonzalez finished with 7.7%.
Canales and Guzman will face each other in the runoff.
“This one is going to be the fun one to watch because you have the money interests supporting Guzman. And then you have the anti-Deck Plaza, the anti-data center group supporting Canales. That’s an interesting dynamic. You have a lot of people split on that one,” Sierra said.
Canales receiving only 34% of the total vote puts him at a disadvantage heading into the runoff, Sierra said.
“An incumbent never wants to be in the 30s,” he said. “Any incumbent that doesn’t win outright is automatically in trouble because that means more than 50% of your own constituents voted against you.”
Neither Canales nor Guzman returned El Paso Inc.’s inquiries by press time.
The winners of the three City Council runoffs will begin their four-year terms in January 2027.
The next staggered election for city officials will take place in November 2028, when voters will choose the mayor and representatives for Districts 2, 3, 4 and 7.