Edinburg Mayor Richard Molina officially announced he is seeking reelection for mayor despite his indictment for illegal voting and election fraud.
Molina issued a news release Thursday morning announcing he is running again in the city’s November elections, for which two other candidates already announced they were seeking the mayorship.
In his announcement, Molina said he had kept the promises he made to voters when he first ran in 2017, stating that he focused on infrastructure, invested millions in road improvements, improved lighting, upgraded parks and built new, inclusive ones.
He added that the city is currently tackling drainage issues and “making sure our local businesses have the support they need to succeed.”
Molina reiterated those accomplishments and priorities when reached by phone Thursday afternoon as the reason behind his decision to seek another term.
“The city of Edinburg is the fastest growing city in the RGV; we’ve comprised a really good team of staff; we were able to do so much during emergency response during the pandemic, during the hurricane, during the freeze, and we really worked well together during very challenging times,” Molina said.
“We’ve been getting a lot of positive feedback from the community in how we dealt with that,” he added, “and we’ve also been able to do millions of dollars in street improvements, we’ve upgraded every city park, we have a new inclusive park, infrastructure improvement, new business and residential development, and we’re working on a bunch of drainage issues that have plagued the city for years, so taking all this into consideration and the progress, where the city’s headed, it’s made sense for me to run for reelection.”
Asked what he would hope to accomplish in another four years in office, he reiterated the work on drainage.
“I want to see them finished,” Molina said. “We’re going to start the project with the detention ponds throughout the entire city, we’re going to have the drainage project on East University (Drive) that we already secured state funding for, about $20 million, so I want to see that done.”
He added the city was working on converting the building of the old Sam Houston Elementary School into an arts and cultural center and building a parking garage to alleviate downtown traffic.
“So these are all things that we have on the table, I want to see them get done,” Molina said. “I think that we could at least start construction over the next four years and I think that after that, pass it over to somebody else.”
He noted that, if elected, it would be his final term as mayor because of a proposition approved by voters in 2018, which limited terms to two for elected officials with four years per term.
“I think we can get a lot of those issues that I discussed at least started and some of them even finished in the next four years,” he said.
A former Edinburg police officer who previously served in the U.S. Army, Molina was first elected to the city council and then elected mayor in 2017.
But less than midway into his term, Molina was arrested on accusations that he rigged the 2017 election. He was indicted on 11 counts of illegal voting, a second-degree felony, and one count of engaging in organized election fraud, a first-degree felony.
The court previously scheduled Molina’s jury trial for June 1, 2020, but the COVID-19 pandemic led to the more than year-long delay. There is currently no new date for the trial.
Molina said he’d been active in the community during his time as mayor and said residents he’d spoken to didn’t express concern over the allegations.
“The feedback that I’ve been getting from the public, honestly they haven’t even touched on it at all,” he said.
He pointed out that he frequently meets and speaks with residents through an event called “Coffee with the Mayor,” which he holds at local businesses.
“Never was that an issue that was brought up by the residents that came,” Molina said. “I just want to continue to serve and if the public allows me to serve four more years, then that’s exactly what we’ll do, but we have a lot of positive happening in the city.”
Molina will be running against former Edinburg Councilman Gilbert Enriquez and former Edinburg City Manager Ramiro Garza Jr. Both previously announced their respective bids for mayor earlier this year.
As for why voters should support him over the other candidates, Molina referred back to the city’s ongoing projects.
“I would want to see those projects done,” he said. “I’m not saying that anybody that’s running against me would stop those projects but why take a chance if we already have improved streets, drainage, parks, infrastructure, and quality of life and accessibility of the mayor?”
“I’ve made myself accessible week after week at coffee shops, restaurants, parks and people … they’ve really been touched by that in a positive way,” he said.
