Rodolfo “Rudy” Castillo will be the next McAllen city commissioner for District 4 after defeating opponent Pablo D. Garcia in the runoff election held Saturday.
After coming in second during the general election, Castillo came out on top Saturday with nearly 57% of the votes, or a total of 482 votes, according to unofficial results posted by the city.
Garcia fell behind with a total of 368 votes, 43% of the votes, in spite of the heavy support from other local officials from Hidalgo County Richard F. Cortez and state Rep. Sergio Muńoz Jr. He could not be reached for comment Saturday.
Shortly after his victory, Castillo admitted he was a bit surprised by the results but was happy nonetheless.
“We have to get to the city and start working,” he said.
In the general election held last month, Castillo was one of three candidates running for the open position on the city commission.
Castillo, a business owner, and Garcia, who is the board treasurer for the Camara de Comercio Internacional or the International Chamber of Commerce, also ran against Javier Salazar, a real estate agent.
In that first round of the election, Garcia received the most votes with 45% of the votes, or 247 total votes, while Castillo received 225 votes, or about 41% of all votes, according to the election returns which the city commission canvassed Jan. 27.
Salazar received 13% of the votes, or a total of 71 votes.
Since none of the three candidates received the 50% plus one vote needed to win outright, the race went into a runoff with the top two vote-getters.
When asked about his strategy going into the runoff, Castillo said he simply worked harder.
“Knock on more doors, shake more hands,” he said, adding that they tripled their efforts this time.
What also saw an increase was the overall voter turnout.
During the general election, there were only 543 voters which amounted to approximately 5% of the 10,542 registered voters in the district.
That slightly grew to 8% turnout during the runoff with a total of 850 voters.
“We really appreciate the people that came out and voted but we need more people to come out in future elections,” Castillo said.
As the next city commissioner, Castillo is replacing Commissioner Tania Ramirez who resigned from the commission to run for county judge, though she will continue to hold the seat until Castillo is sworn in.
Castillo will finish out Ramirez’s current term in office which ends in 2023, at which point he would have to run again if he wished to continue serving in the role, a decision he said he has not yet made.
“Like I told my people, if I feel that I didn’t get something done, I will not run again,” he said. “I’m going to show the people that we need to get things done. We are going to get them done and if I feel in my heart that I’ve done something, I will run, but if not, I won’t.”
For now, he said he wants to focus on projects that are already underway.
“Right now, we’re going to focus on the projects that were left by the outgoing commissioner and we’re going to start working on that, finish those projects, and start seeing what we can do because we actually have just a year and a half,” he said referring to the end of the term.
“We’re going to do our best in that year and a half,” he added. “We’re really going to work hard on our alleys and our streets and lighting and just go from there.”
The city commissioners are scheduled to canvas the votes, making them official, on March 8 at the McAllen Convention Center and Castillo is set to be sworn in on March 14.
