SAN BENITO — After two years as a leader of the San Benito school board’s majority, Janie Lopez made history, becoming the first Republican Hispanic woman to win a state House seat in South Texas.
Now, she takes the new District 37 House of Representatives seat, serving an area stretching from Harlingen and northern Cameron County to Willacy County.
In the Nov. 8 election, Lopez won 14,451 votes to defeat Harlingen businessman Luis Villarreal, who drew 13,685 votes.
“Moving forward, as your elected state representative, I will be fighting for better funding for our schools, cities and counties, Willacy and Cameron, and will continue to work with the school district on legislative issues,” Lopez, a counselor, stated as she was resigning her school board seat earlier this month.
In November 2020, Lopez entered politics with a victory in her run for the board’s Place 7 seat.
“It has been an honor to serve on the San Benito CISD school board as your vice president and chairwoman of the finance and administration committees,” Lopez stated earlier this month. “I am grateful for the trust from my community and unity with board trustees for the best interest of the students and employees. Together, we improved schools’ safety measures, hired policemen for elementary campuses, increased wages, reduced taxes, made schools equitable, improved infrastructure, enforced accountability measures of taxpayer money, increased enrollment and prioritized students’ academic and extracurricular activities.”
During her tenure, Lopez served as a leader of the board’s four-member majority, hiring Superintendent Theresa Servellon after Superintendent Nate Carman resigned in March.
Meanwhile, the board called for a $223,800 forensic audit that raised questions about a $40 million bond-funded project launched in 2019 to build the district’s first performing arts theater, aquatics center and indoor practice field while also finding “possible” Texas government code violations.
The audit focused on credit card expenditures, purchasing and procurement practices, federal funds and grants, payments to vendors and contractors for construction projects and facilities along with payments to consultants and professional services firms from Sept. 1, 2016 to Aug. 31, 2021.
In 2019, Lopez made headlines spearheading a push to remove then-school board President Michael Vargas from office after he was charged with driving while intoxicated.
In what was described as a precedent-setting case, a state District judge temporarily suspended Vargas on the grounds of intoxication nearly six months after his arrest.
The case stemmed from a petition Lopez and a group of residents filed citing Texas Government Code Chapter 87, a rarely applied law allowing citizens to petition the court to remove elected officials from office on such grounds as intoxication.
“When we elect officials, we have to hold them accountable,” Lopez said at the time. “We need to speak up. This is a person influencing the kids. This person was arrested and he was still there being a role model. This is a message to kids that breaking the law has consequences.”
