2020 El Paso, Texas, elections

On November 3, 2020 El Paso County elected the mayor of El Paso, Texas, four members of city council (districts 2, 3, 4, and 7), two county commissioners, county sheriff, state senator, and five state representatives. El Pasoans voted for members of the House of Representatives of the United States from the 16th and 23rd districts of Texas, district attorney (which also represents Hudspeth and Culberson counties), United States senator, and president of the United States.

2020 El Paso, Texas, elections

← 2017 November 3, 2020 (2020-11-03) 2024 →

The city elections (for mayor and council) are non-partisan, and therefore have no primary election. However, if no candidate wins a majority there will be a run-off election.^[1]

Mayor

2020 El Paso mayoral election

← 2017 November 3, 2020 (2020-11-03) December 12, 2020 (2020-12-12) (runoff) 2024 →
Turnout	55.1% general 13.1% runoff
Candidate Oscar Leeser Dee Margo Party Nonpartisan Nonpartisan First round vote 92,700 53,606 First round percentage 42.62% 24.65% Runoff vote 42,895 11,034 Runoff percentage 79.54% 20.46%   Candidate Veronica Carbajal Carlos Gallinar Party Nonpartisan Nonpartisan First round vote 47,299 16,197 First round percentage 21.75% 7.45%
Mayor before election Dee Margo Republican Elected mayor Oscar Leeser Democratic

Candidates

• Veronica Carbajal, attorney with Texas RioGrande Legal Aid^[2]
• Carlos Gallinar, former El Paso city government and former EPISD official^[2] (Party preference: Democratic)^[3]
• Oscar Leeser, former mayor^[4] (Party preference: Democratic)
• Dee Margo, incumbent mayor and former member of the Texas House of Representatives^[4] (Party preference: Republican)
• Dean Martinez, United States military veteran^[5]
• Calvin Zielsdorf, paramedic and high school swimming coach^[6]

First round results

2020 El Paso mayoral election^[7]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Nonpartisan	Oscar Leeser	92,700	42.62%
	Nonpartisan	Dee Margo (incumbent)	53,606	24.65%
	Nonpartisan	Veronica Carbajal	47,299	21.75%
	Nonpartisan	Carlos Gallinar	16,197	7.45%
	Nonpartisan	Dean Martinez	4,233	1.95%
	Nonpartisan	Calvin Zielsdorf	3,449	1.59%
Total votes			217,484	100.00%

Runoff results

2020 El Paso mayoral runoff election^[8]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Nonpartisan	Oscar Leeser	42,895	79.54%
	Nonpartisan	Dee Margo (incumbent)	6,301	20.46%
Total votes			53,929	100.00%

City council elections

District 2

District 2 incumbent Alexsandra Annello won re-election for a second term in the December runoff election.

First round results

2020 El Paso City Council District 2

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Nonpartisan	Judy Gutierrez	8,416	47.1
	Nonpartisan	Alexsandra Annello (incumbent)	6,618	37.0
	Nonpartisan	James Campos	2,844	15.9
Total votes			17,878	100.0

Runoff results

2020 El Paso City Council District 2

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Nonpartisan	Alexsandra Annello (incumbent)	2,901	51.9
	Nonpartisan	Judy Gutierrez	2,692	48.1
Total votes			5,593	100.0

District 3

District 3 incumbent Cassandra Hernandez-Brown was re-elected to a second term.

2020 El Paso City Council District 3

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Nonpartisan	Cassandra Hernandez-Brown (incumbent)	13,192	54.0
	Nonpartisan	Jose L. Rodriguez	7,483	30.6
	Nonpartisan	William Veliz	3,741	15.3
Total votes			24,416	100.0

District 4

District 4 incumbent Sam Morgan lost re-election in a December runoff to Joe Molinar.

2020 El Paso City Council District 4

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Nonpartisan	Sam Morgan (Incumbent)	8,365	32.2
	Nonpartisan	Joe Molinar	7,345	28.3
	Nonpartisan	Dorothy Byrd	6,108	23.5
	Nonpartisan	Wesley Lawrence	2,727	10.5
	Nonpartisan	Shawn Nixon	1,401	5.4
Total votes			25,946	100.0

Runoff results

2020 El Paso City Council District 4

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Nonpartisan	Joe Molinar	3,853	53.9
	Nonpartisan	Sam Morgan (Incumbent)	3,295	46.1
Total votes			7,148	100.0

District 7

District 7 incumbent Henry Rivera was re-elected to a second term.

2020 El Paso City Council District 3

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Nonpartisan	Henry Rivera (incumbent)	13,325	56.9
	Nonpartisan	Aaron Montes	10,076	43.1
Total votes			23,401	100.0

County sheriff

The incumbent Sheriff, Richard Wiles, won the Democratic primary. Because no other candidate challenged him, he was automatically re-elected.

Democratic

2020 El Paso City Council District 3

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Democratic	Richard Wiles (incumbent)	37,606	57.7
	Democratic	Carlos Carrillo	15,974	24.5
	Democratic	Raul Mendiola	6,933	10.6
	Democratic	Ron Martin	4,642	7.1
Total votes			65,155	100.0

County Commission elections

Precinct 1

The incumbent, Carlos Leon, was unopposed in the primary and general election.

Democratic

2020 El Paso County Commission Precinct 1

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Democratic	Carlos Leon (incumbent)	15,670	100.0
Total votes			15,670	100.0

Precinct 3

The incumbent, Vincent Perez, was defeated in the primary by Illiana Holguin, who went on to win the general election.

Democratic

2020 El Paso County Commission Precinct 3

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Democratic	Vincent Perez (incumbent)	6,226	41.8
	Democratic	Illiana Holguin	5,686	38.2
	Democratic	Elia Garcia	2,125	14.3
	Democratic	Eduardo Romero	856	5.7
Total votes			14,895	100.0

Runoff results

2020 El Paso County Commission Precinct 3

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Democratic	Illiana Holguin	4,455	52.5
	Democratic	Vincent Perez (incumbent)	4,024	47.5
Total votes			7,148	100.0

Republican

2020 El Paso County Commission Precinct 1

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Republican	Randy French	2,492	100.0
Total votes			2,492	100.0

General election

2020 El Paso County Commission Precinct 3

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Democratic	Illiana Holguin	46,342	72.9
	Republican	Randy French	17,216	27.1
Total votes			63,558	100.0

State senator (district 29)

Candidates

• Cesar Blanco, state representative (district 76)^[9]

Potential candidates

• Dori Fenenbock, former EPISD school board member ^[10]

Declined candidates

• José Rodríguez, incumbent senator^[11]

State representative (district 76)

Candidates

• Claudia Ordaz Perez, city council member^[12]
• Elisa Tamayo, former employee of state representative Cesar Blanco^[13]

Potential candidates

• Joe Pickett, former state representative (district 79)^[9]

Declined candidates

• Cesar Blanco, incumbent^[9]

State representative (district 77)

Candidates

• Lina Ortega, incumbent representative^[14]

State representative (district 78)

Candidates

• Joe Moody, incumbent representative^[15]

Potential candidates

• Dori Fenenbock, former EPISD school board member^[10]

State representative (district 79)

Candidates

• Art Fierro, incumbent representative^[16]

Potential candidates

• Joe Pickett, former representative^[16]

District Attorney

Candidates

Democratic

• James Montoya, prosecutor^[17]
• Yvonne Rosales, lawyer^[17]

Declined candidates

• Jaime Esparza, incumbent district attorney^[17]
• Joe Moody, state representative^[15]

U.S. Representative (TX-16)

Republican

Potential candidates

• Blanca Trout, Canutillo ISD school board trustee and El Paso County Republican Party vice chair^[18]

See also

• 2020 Texas elections

References

1. "Partisan vs. Nonpartisan Elections". National League of Cities. Retrieved May 1, 2017.
2. Montes, Aaron. "Verónica Carbajal, Carlos Gallinar join El Paso 2020 mayoral race". El Paso Times.
3. Gallinar, Carlos (August 9, 2020). "Why I'm running as a Democrat for mayor of El Paso".
4. Montes, Aaron. "El Paso Mayor Dee Margo announces 2020 re-election bid after Leeser joins race". El Paso Times.
5. "El Paso mayoral candidate profile: Dean 'Dino' Martinez". KVIA. October 21, 2020.
6. "Questionnaire: Calvin Zielsdorf, candidate for mayor". El Paso Times. October 12, 2020.
7. "Election Night Reporting". results.enr.clarityelections.com. November 17, 2020.
8. "Election Results: December runoff election" (PDF). December 12, 2020.^{[permanent dead link]}
9. Svitek, Cassandra Pollock and Patrick (September 13, 2019). "Sen. José Rodríguez, an El Paso Democrat, announces his retirement". The Texas Tribune.
10. Star, The Lion (July 17, 2019). "The Lion Star Blog by Jaime Abeytia: Bursting Bubbles".
11. "Sen. José Rodríguez will be retiring". KFOX. September 13, 2019.
12. Montes, Aaron. "Mission Valley city Rep. Claudia Ordaz Perez announces candidacy for Texas House". El Paso Times.
13. Montes, Aaron. "Elisa Tamayo announces candidacy for El Paso seat in Texas House of Representatives". El Paso Times.
14. Gonzalez, Maria Cortes. "El Paso Democratic state Rep. Lina Ortega seeks reelection to District 77 House seat". El Paso Times.
15. Abc-7, Kvia (July 26, 2019). "Texas State Rep. Joe Moody plans to run for re-election".{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
16. Dearman, Eleanor. "El Paso state representative Art Fierro seeking reelection". El Paso Times.
17. Star, The Lion (July 11, 2019). "The Lion Star Blog by Jaime Abeytia: Montoya Launches Bid for District Attorney".
18. Smith, Molly. "Canutillo ISD trustee Blanca Trout explores congressional run for Veronica Escobar's seat". El Paso Times.

External links

Official campaign websites for mayoral candidates

• Veronica Carbajal (I) for Mayor
• Carlos Gallinar (I) for Mayor Archived 2020-10-21 at the Wayback Machine
• Oscar Leeser (D) for Mayor
• Dee Margo (R) for Mayor Archived 2021-02-27 at the Wayback Machine

Official campaign websites for City Council District 2 candidates

• Alexsandra Annello (I) for City Council

Official campaign websites for City Council District 4 candidates

• Wesley Lawrence (I) for City Council
• Sam Morgan (I) for City Council

Official campaign websites for City Council District 7 candidates

• Aaron J. Montes (I) for City Council Archived 2020-10-18 at the Wayback Machine
• Henry Rivera (I) for City Council

Official campaign websites for County Commission Precinct 3 candidates

• Iliana Holguin (D) for County Commissioner Archived 2020-10-16 at the Wayback Machine

Official campaign websites for State Senate District 29 candidates

• Cesar Blanco (D) for State Senator

Official campaign websites for State Representative District 76 candidates

• Claudia Ordaz Perez (D) for State Representative Archived 2020-10-23 at the Wayback Machine

Official campaign websites for State Representative District 77 candidates

• Evelina Ortega (D) for State Representative