{"id":81738,"date":"2025-12-09T14:32:24","date_gmt":"2025-12-09T14:32:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/81738\/"},"modified":"2025-12-09T14:32:24","modified_gmt":"2025-12-09T14:32:24","slug":"a-few-surprises-emerged-in-the-2026-primary-elections-yesterday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/81738\/","title":{"rendered":"A Few Surprises Emerged in the 2026 Primary Elections Yesterday"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" width=\"980\" height=\"551\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/eph_2-1-980x551.png\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"A picture of a generic list of candidates with a vote sticker and a read pen.\" decoding=\"async\"  \/>  <\/p>\n<p>EL PASO, Tx., December 9, 2025: Yesterday was the <a href=\"https:\/\/elpasoheraldpost.com\/2025\/12\/08\/filing-deadline-to-run-for-office-is-today-get-the-latest-candidate-list\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">last day<\/a> to file to run for office in the upcoming 2026 elections. In El Paso, historically, most of the elections are decided in the Democratic primary, which is scheduled for March 3, 2026.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/el-paso-news-llc.fundjournalism.org\/ephp\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"970\" height=\"250\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/fund_jurnlist_lgad_1.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-687\"  \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Although last year\u2019s elections suggested a <a href=\"https:\/\/elpasonews.org\/2024\/11\/20\/analysis-the-el-paso-democratic-party-proxy-war\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">surge<\/a> from the El Paso Republicans led by Irene Armendariz-Jackson closing the gap against Veronica Escobar to 35.3% from 63.6%, the Republicans continue to face an uphill struggle to win elections in El Paso. Escobar faces Arturo Andujo in the Democratic primary and a Republican candidate in November. There are six Republicans vying for the Republican nomination. The winner will challenge Escobar.<\/p>\n<p>Tony Gonzalez\u2019s, whose staffer, Regina Santos-Aviles <a href=\"https:\/\/elpasoheraldpost.com\/2025\/09\/30\/update-tony-gonzales-staffer-doused-herself-in-gasoline\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">committed suicide<\/a> earlier this year by immolation, faces three challengers in the Republican primary, and will face one Democrat out of five in the Democratic primary, in November.<\/p>\n<p>Only Joe Moody faces a challenger in the Texas House of Representatives for his district 78 seat in the Democratic primary. Not much information is available for Alexander Pacheco-Luquis but his Act Blue <a href=\"https:\/\/secure.actblue.com\/donate\/alexpd78\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">campaign contribution account<\/a> says that he \u201cbringing to the table,\u201d a \u201cvoice for Generation Z.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Two county commissioners, Sergio Coronado and David Stout, face challengers in the primary. Stout faces Miguel Teran, the son of former County Commissioner Miguel Teran. Annette Griego has filed to run against Coronado.<\/p>\n<p>The Surprises<\/p>\n<p>Brian Kennedy, who had filed a campaign treasurer designation earlier this year and who had been <a href=\"https:\/\/elpasonews.org\/2025\/07\/31\/analysis-is-brian-kennedy-running-against-ricardo-samaniego\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">rumored<\/a> to be considering running against Ricardo Samaniego, did not file yesterday for any office.<\/p>\n<p>Instead of Samaniego facing Kennedy, he faces two women Republicans in November: Guadalupe Giner and Minerva Torres Shelton. Samaniego has had a contentious time in office since being elected, including missing a county commissioners meeting because of an <a href=\"https:\/\/elpasonews.org\/2024\/09\/26\/exclusive-ricardo-samaniego-misses-el-paso-commissioners-meeting-due-to-altercation-with-girlfriend\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">altercation involving his girlfriend<\/a> that required law enforcement intervention.<\/p>\n<p>One interesting candidate has surfaced in the crowded Justice of the Peace No. 5 seat, Dora Oaxaca. Lucilla \u201cLucy\u201d Najera is fending off four challengers, including Oaxaca who was <a href=\"https:\/\/elpasonews.org\/2024\/02\/26\/breaking-news-city-council-issues-letter-of-reprimand-against-against-henry-rivera\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">implicated<\/a> in her husband\u2019s El Paso City Council censure last year. Oaxaca was named in the report released after then-City Council Representative Henry Rivera was issued a letter of reprimand for \u201callowing a non-city employee to supervise and direct the day-to-day duties of a city employee,\u201d by the city council. Oaxaca was alleged to have accessed confidential city computer files in a case that involved an alleged suicide attempt by a city employee who worked in Rivera\u2019s office.<\/p>\n<p>Use <a href=\"https:\/\/elpasoheraldpost.com\/el-paso-elections-resource-page\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">this link<\/a> to see a full list of candidates running for office in 2026.<\/p>\n<p>Like Us and Follow Us On Our Social Media!<\/p>\n<p>Visited 10 times, 10 visit(s) today<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EL PASO, Tx., December 9, 2025: Yesterday was the last day to file to run for office in&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":81739,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[36890,20747,2133,36894,138,19056,39156,140,139,3485,36898,39633,39634,36905,39635,36907,2424,36911,36915,2569],"class_list":{"0":"post-81738","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-el-paso","8":"tag-brian-kennedy","9":"tag-david-stout","10":"tag-democrats","11":"tag-dora-oaxaca-rivera","12":"tag-el-paso","13":"tag-el-paso-county-democratic-party","14":"tag-el-paso-county-republican-party","15":"tag-el-paso-headlines","16":"tag-el-paso-news","17":"tag-elections-2026","18":"tag-guadalupe-giner","19":"tag-henry-rivera","20":"tag-irene-armendariz-jackson","21":"tag-lucilla-lucy-najera","22":"tag-miguel-teran","23":"tag-minerva-torres-shelton","24":"tag-republicans","25":"tag-ricardo-samaniego","26":"tag-sergio-coronado","27":"tag-veronica-escobar"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81738","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=81738"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81738\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/81739"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81738"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81738"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81738"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}