Cameron County Judge Eddie Treviño Jr. successfully won his rematch with Carlos Casco late Tuesday night, pulling away to what eventually was a comfortable victory.
Final unofficial results show Treviño with 40,260 votes, or 53 percent, to Casco’s 36,036 votes, or 47 percent, with all 101 precincts reporting.
The contest this election was far closer than 2018, when Treviño took 59.6 percent of the vote to Cascos’ 40.4 percent with about 77,000 votes cast.
Cascos, a certified public accountant and former Cameron County commissioner, served as county judge from 2006 until 2015, when he was appointed Texas secretary of state by Gov. Greg Abbott, a position Cascos held until 2017.
Treviño, an attorney, served as Brownsville city commissioner from 2001-2003 and as mayor from 2003-2007.
Treviño campaigned on municipal projects completed during his time as judge, including the renovation of county parks, the Cameron County Amphitheater and Event Center at Isla Blanca Park and the opening of the South Texas Ecotourism Center in Laguna Vista.
But one project he did not succeed at prompted criticism from Cascos — the $100 million Cameron County Arena, which was rejected by voters twice.
Cascos said the financials of the project “didn’t make sense,” to which Trevino countered that Cascos also had supported a county arena during his tenure as judge.
Cascos also claimed Treviño “mishandled” the county’s COVID response with unnecessary mandates, curfews, closures and lockdowns.
Treviño said there was little precedent for how to respond to the pandemic, and that he “listened to the health professionals” in crafting the county’s response.
