There are how many people running for Mayor of San Antonio?!?
Mayor Ron Nirenberg
San Antonio is barreling toward the most bizarre mayoral election in recent memory.
A massive field of 27 candidates has no clear frontrunners. State and national PAC money is flowing into the race while local groups remain on the sidelines. Meanwhile, the rare opportunity to lead a blue city in a red state has both Republicans and Democrats salivating over the traditionally nonpartisan office.
Weeks from the start of early voting in the May 3 election, it’s the exact scenario some local political strategists say they’ve long worried about leading up to a pivotal race.
San Antonio hasn’t elected a new mayor since 2017 and whoever replaces term-limited Mayor Ron Nirenberg will immediately inherit a city at a crossroads. They’ll be responsible for the city’s approach to major economic development projects, as well as an increasingly precarious social safety net and fraying relationships with state and federal leaders.
Yet years of well-intentioned policy decisions aimed at making local elections more fair have backfired — creating a confusingly crowded race in which money is more critical than ever to break from the pack.
This year Rolando Pablos, who served as Texas Secretary of State under GOP Gov. Greg Abbott, became the face of the a multi-million dollar effort to build a bench of conservative allies in the state’s historically blue urban centers.
And Gina Ortiz Jones, who was Democrats’ nominee for two high-profile congressional races, has the backing of national Democrats who’ve become desperate to keep Texas from falling further from their party’s reach.
The long list of candidates also includes a number of local elected officials, business leaders and activists with pockets of supporters behind them — meaning it’s unlikely any of the candidates will take the 50% support required to avoid a June 7 runoff.
With few opportunities left to differentiate themselves through message alone, candidates are running out of time to make their cases.
“I think there’s seven candidates that have a shot,” said former mayor and Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff, one of the few local officials who has offered up an endorsement in the race, in reference to four sitting councilmembers, Pablos and Ortiz Jones, plus political newcomer Beto Altamirano, his pick.
“But as you come down to the election, it depends on how much money they’ve got at the end.”
Twenty-seven candidates? My God. And for an election that’s happening in four weeks. All due respect, but they wouldn’t have the time to make their cases if the election were being held next November. Maybe the runoff will bring some clarity. Godspeed, my San Antonio friends.
San Antonio has a heavy military presence, both active and retired. All non-GOPers should be heavily painting GOP candidates with the DOGE cutting veterans’ jobs brush, DOGE vandalizing the VA brush, Mango Mussolini going golfing rather than go to the Dignified Transfer ceremony brush. Anything less is political malpractice.