EL PASO, Tx., January 19, 2026: The latest campaign finance reports were due last Thursday. Election Day is March 3 to select candidates in the Democratic and Republican primaries. In today’s report we will be looking at the campaign finance reports filed by the candidates running for county judge in the March elections.
The incumbent, Ricardo Samaniego is running unopposed in the Democratic primary. He will face the winner of the Republican primary on November 3. There are two candidates running in the Republican primary. They are Guadalupe Giner and Minerva Torres Shelton. Torres-Shelton ran for sheriff on the November 5, 2024, ballot. She lost to Oscar Ugarte with 41% of the vote to 60%.
Giner previously ran against Samaniego in 2022, losing 32% to 69% of the vote.
Samaniego, who does not have an opponent in the democratic primary, reported receiving $28,619.04 in campaign contributions. He reported spending $42,806.05. Samaniego’s notable contributors were Gonzalo Diaz with $3,750 in contributions, and Douglas Schwartz, James R. Rey, Galopoly LLC and Noe Valle for $2,500 each.
Samaniego’s large campaign expenditures so early in the election have raised questions because he does not have an opponent until November.
In the Republican ticket, Giner reported raising $2,637 and spending $8,251. She reported having $607 left in campaign funds, and a $5,350 loan for her campaign. Her largest campaign contributor was Mary Davis for $1,200.
We could not find a campaign report for Torres-Shelton suggesting that she did not raise campaign funds and did not spend money on her campaign. Her final report for her sheriff’s campaign showed that she had no campaign funds left. We reached out to Torres-Shelton about her campaign finance report but did not hear back from her campaign in time for this report.
The winner between Giner and Torres-Shelton will go on to face Samaniego in the November ballot.
Visit this page for a full list of candidates running for office. Election Day is March 3.
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