HARLINGEN — Marine Military Academy official Ford Kinsley pulled more than 55 percent of the vote Tuesday to topple two-term City Commissioner Richard Uribe to win the commission’s District 1 seat while attorney Daniel Lopez trounced retired Border Patrol agent Ernesto Cisneros to clinch the District 2 spot in a runoff election that shifted the board’s balance of power.
Kinsley, a retired Marine Corps sergeant major working as the Marine Military Academy’s alumni relations director, won 600 votes to defeat Uribe, who drew 472 votes.
“I’m very grateful and very appreciative of the folks in District 1 who exercised their most important right,” Kinsley said at about 9:55 p.m. “I think people recognized my 29 years of service with the Marine Corps — I’ve served on two city boards. Maybe they just recognized service is nothing new to me. I hope I can make some kind of good impact.”
To get out the vote, Kinsley said he focused on “traditional” campaigning.
“I did all the traditional things,” he said. “I did block-walking, mail-outs. I was standing on sidewalks. I think a lot of people got to see me. It got my name out there.”
In one of the most heavily funded runoffs in years, Kinsley amassed the biggest war chest, stockpiling a $24,574 cache while Uribe raised $15,366 in his bid for a third term.
A native of Dushore, Penn., Kinsley served 29 years of active duty with the Marines, including work on support groups in Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm.
After retiring in 2000, he moved to Harlingen, where he took a job at the Marine Military Academy, serving as the academy’s sergeant major and assistant cadet commandant before becoming cadet commandant.
In Harlingen, he has served as past president of the Harlingen Veterans Advisory Board and past president of Keep Harlingen Beautiful.
Kinsley currently serves as president of CASA of Cameron and Willacy Counties’ board of directors and secretary of the FBI’s San Antonio Citizens Academy Alumni Association.
During his first two terms, Uribe, a restaurant owner, tended to vote along with members of the past city commission while winning their supporters’ backing in elections.
After the 2019 election, Uribe began working closely with then-newly elected Commissioner Frank Puente, often voting against the commission’s majority.
Then in 2021, after a landmark election led to a shift in the board’s power, the new commission appointed him mayor pro tem, leading him to take on the role of its leader.
District 2
In the race for the commission’s District 2 seat following Puente’s defeat in the May 7 election, Lopez, an attorney who serves as the Cameron County Commissioners Court’s litigation counsel, won 438 votes to defeat Cisneros, who drew 283 votes.
“The voters have clearly stated they want to be made a priority,” Lopez said at about 8:50 p.m. “To a certain extent, they’ve been overlooked. I believe they want their issues addressed and need someone to zealously advocate for them.”
Lopez said his family, including his parents Nemecio Lopez, an attorney, and Migdalia Lopez, a former longtime Cameron County state District judge, helped strategize his campaign.
“It was the people,” he said. “Block walking was the big thing. Introducing ourselves — just being honest, heart-felt and being respective to my opponents. My platform evolved from the needs of District 2. As I block-walked and met with them, I listened to them. As they told me more and more, that developed my platform. That’s my leadership style — I like to listen.”
During his campaign, Lopez raised $8,647 while taking out three loans totalling $25,221 in the contest in which Cisneros raised $6,719.
Before taking the job as the commissioners court’s litigation counsel, Lopez served as an assistant district attorney and prosecutor under Cameron County District Attorney Luis Saenz, also serving as liaison to the Cameron County Sheriff’s Office’s Harlingen division, Precinct 5’s constable’s office and the Harlingen Police Department.
Lopez currently serves as chairman of the Harlingen Community Development Advisory Board.
