Edinburg voters elected a new mayor.
Former Edinburg City Manager Ramiro Garza Jr. will now take on the role of mayor for the city after he defeated current Mayor Richard Molina in the city’s runoff election on Tuesday.
Garza received a total of 4,898 votes, or 52% of the vote share, to Molina’s 4,431 votes, or 47%. The results are unofficial until certified by the Edinburg City Council.
As they stand, the results show that Garza defeated Molina by a total of 467 votes, a far greater difference than the 37 votes that separated the two candidates during the general election in November.
During that election, Garza received 3,499 votes while Molina received 3,462 votes.
The race was a tough one from the start for Molina who went into it hampered by allegations of voter fraud stemming from the November 2017 elections that elected him mayor.
After an investigation into the elections, Molina and his wife, Dalia Molina, were arrested. He was indicted on 11 counts of voter fraud and a count of engaging in organized election fraud while she was indicted on two counts of illegal voting and one count of engaging in organized election fraud.
Though a trial was scheduled for June 1, 2020, it was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Then, just a week before early voting began for this year’s general election, the Hidalgo County District Attorney’s Office asked for a new jury trial date to be set, keeping the case from falling out of the public consciousness.
In the leadup to the runoff, Garza also outspent Molina, spending $122,355 to Molina’s $69,808 from Oct. 24 through Dec. 4, according to campaign finance reports filed with the city.
Since January, Garza reported spending $288,797 while Molina reported spending $263,320.
Following the results, Garza said he was grateful for all the voters, whether they supported him or not.
“I’m going to work hard to represent everyone in the community and make our city better,” he said. “I think people are ready for a fresh start.”
But Garza will not be the only newest elected official to take office as two new council members were also elected in Tuesday’s runoff.
In the race for Place 1 council member, Dan Diaz defeated Ismael “Smiley” Martinez by a slim margin.
Diaz received 4,476 votes, or 50.3%, while Martinez received 4,420 votes, or 49.7%.
For Place 2 council member, Jason De Leon was elected with 4,719 votes, or 52.3%. His opponent, Ruben “Bubba” Palacios received 4,296 votes, or 47.6%.
Garza said one of the first things on his to-do list is to get together with the new council members.
“We’re in the middle of the budget year so I look forward to getting with city staff and understanding all the projects that are going on and doing an assessment of everything and start working on a 2040 vision plan, which is what my platform’s all about,” Garza said.
He added that among his goals was to bring the community together.
“We want to build trust so we want to adopt a code of ethics for us as elected officials so that we can bring back trust and start planning for the future of our city, and just make our city better,” Garza said. “That’s what we’re trying to do here.”
Molina said he was happy with the results of the election, if only because of the amount of time one has to dedicate to the job.
“It eats up about 50% of your day, being the mayor, and it’s a volunteer position,” Molina said. “At the end of the day, it’s God’s plan and I’m glad that I’m going to get some time now to spend with my family and get back to running my businesses and also having the opportunity to … being able to participate in some leisure time.”
The mayor gave credit to Garza for running a good campaign and thanked all his supporters for giving him the opportunity to serve for eight years, first as a city council member and then as mayor.
If Molina had been elected, the new term would have been his last as voters approved term limits for elected officials during a 2018 special election to amend the city charter. The approved amendment limits elected officials to two four-year terms.
“I kind of like that we were able to get that done and make sure that we have term limits with the city,” Molina said of the amendment.
Under those restrictions, Molina is eligible to run again as mayor, an option he appeared open to.
“After four years, we’ll see how things play out,” Molina said. “I may run in the future.”
